An Amalgamist.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 213, 9 December 1873, Page 7

An Amalgamist.

BY, AN EXPERT. i An .amalgamist, as he is termed, when on shift, and in the absence of the- manager, is, or ought to he, with the exception of the engineer, in absolute-command of the whole plant—perhaps worth from two to twelve thousand pounds, and on his skill depends, in a great measure, whether the gold be saved or lost. ; Well, first of all you must accompany me into the engine-room. You naturally ask, what on earth has an amalgamist got to do with the engine ?. Very, little with the engine, but a great deal with the engineer. In the first place make a friend of him, and, if you can, always keep on chatty, friendly .terms with him ; if you know nothing about an engine, get him to shew you howto start her, ease her, stop her (an engine is always she) ; persuade him to shew you how the pumps work, how the feed gets into the boiler, the use of the water and steam guages and glasses, the safety valve, damper, how to fire up, and fifty other things, not absolutely necessary to you as an amalgamator, but things’ that you ought to know to become a first-class ail-round hand, learn of him, so that if you should be in a fix—as I .have been more than once—you would at sight know what to do. For instance, one night, on my shift, the driver was taken ill. I had been busy and had not been in the en-gine-room for some time ; when I went in I found the driver down, the water out of the guage-glass, and a full head of steam on : a few minutes more and we should have had a very unpleasant elevation. The engineer will soon show you what to do in such a case, and that yon must act at once ; no time for thinking when anything goes suddenly wrong with steam work and steam full up. Another thing, oftentimes the driver is working his engine to a given, perhaps contract, number of strokes per minute. Although this may bo his orders, there are times when you will want him to alter his speed, sometimes to suit the stuff going through the mill, and many other little important things. So much for the engine-room. Now for the feeding platform. A long way round to get at the tables is it. not ? Never mind, youngster, 1 begin at the beginning. There is no man on i the pay-sheet who works harder, and who' can if he likes, and is let to do so, cause a; battery more damage than a feeder. I have [ ’known, in a 40-head battery, a couple of feeders make a difference of from 8 to 10 tons of stuff crushed loss in 12 hours than j there ought to have been put through, I through bad and inattentive feeding. Whatever the drop of the stamp -may be, an inch or an inch and a half is sufficient feed to be between the stamp head and the false bottom, and it is little use guaging the drop of the

stamps if the feeders do not feed correctly : for instance, supppose you arc instructed to give your stamps a 9-inch fall, you really give them 10 inches, allowing an inch for stuff between the stamp head and false bottom ; now, if a feeder feeds high, ‘.or in other words, puts' ■ too much stuff in the box at once, he shortens the-drop of the stamp at id reduces its crushing'power. For instance, the stamps are set to a fall of 10 inches, and you have allowed an inch for stuff in the box ; and the man feeding, by putting too much quartz down, the feed hopper causes 4 inches to remain on the top of the bottoms, you lose neatly .half of the crushing power of the stampers, get ■ into a scrape with, the manager, annoy the mine manager, the engine will work li jerky,” and it is a hundred to one if the-, water over the tables is right. One of the most serious wrongs that can happen—feeding too low—is more dangerous to the machinery than to.the stuff. You soon hear when the feed is too scant by the ring of the- stamps,on the stamper beds ; and, unless soon stopped, a loss to your owners of £6O or £BO for a new box will occur. When you hear the stampers, ringing, go at once and see what the cause may possibly be. The feeder may bo tired, out through having very soft stuff to put through ; possibly he may have a lot of hard lumps that want spauling up, and he has not. had time to break them. If there is no occasion do not find fault, but just take the shovel or hammer and give him a spell, or send some one else for half an hour or so—you may rest assured that if you don’t know how to feed yourself you cannot teach others ; so that you | had better get conversant with that part of the work. In most batteries the feeders generally grease the cams and stamper rods, sometimes, when busy, it is forgotten ; your eye must check that, and remember the earn should never be bright, neither should the stamper rod where it works in the guide, unless they are working free ; your own sense will tell you that a rod of iron working up and down between two pieces of wood some, say, GO times a minute must soon get hot. A. long way from the retort yet ? You are indeed, yon have to learn how to wash a blanket first—l know it is boys’ work ; but yon must be able to teach the boys, the process is simple enough, it only wants knack. Just stand, at the bottom of the blanket-stvake, ! catch hold of the blanket at the right band 1 corner, give it a jerk, so that the two outside 1 edges may meet in tile middle of the blanket, then bible it up. We will say more on that head ■ presently. If you use a tub to wash your blanket in, get a piece of board G inches by 9 ; cut two notches in the tub to rest the board in ; rest it in a slanting position to the tub against your chest, and roll the blanket as you wash it. This is a cleaner, better, and •drier method than sousing it up and down like,a woman washing a sheet, and you don’t •get -lialf so wet.When your ’ blanket is washed and rolled, give it a half twist to take sonie of the water out of it—never wring a blanket, it utterly destroy the -Web. Although in no case should you roll a blanket coining off the strakes,’ it is quicker and better to have them-rolled to place them-on again. It is one moans to the great end in a quartz'crushing plant, to combine quickness with correct work. When your have to wash your blankets all through, commence at the' bottom one, when,you take off, and lay the j top one when you replace them. With onlij nary draper’s shop blankets it does not matter much which way you place them as to grain (if they have any), but with plush or Californian blankets it is quite different ; there is nap on only one side, and that must be placed upside ; there is also a right' and a wrong side of the nap—catch hold of a black belltopper, brush it the wrong way, you will see the effect—that effect is exactly what you want. You must lay the plush the wrong way of the nap against the water. A great deal about the blankets, I know that, but E have not quite done, because if you arc not told you won’t know why the blankets 'are' there at all. You must know that -on the Thames in particular, a large proportion of the gold, has not, in'passing Oyer the tables, had time-to amalgamate itself with the mercury thereon, or that the particles of gold are so thickly coated over with something that has no affinity to quicksilver; that’without some further treatment it would- he lost; The blankets are meant to catch such particles, and, if well attended to, they answer their purpose.— Thames Evcnhui Shir.