An Atmospheric Quartz-Crusher.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 291, 9 June 1875, Page 7

An Atmospheric Quartz-Crusher.

The New Zealand Herald says:—The latest novelty In the quartz-mining world of Australia is a patent atmospheric stamp and quartz-crusher which was recently exhibited to the miners of Ballarat. This machine has in less than a week, in consequence of its performances, commanded almost universal attention. It is a battery of two stamps, and weighs just one ton, and it does the work of seven or eight stamps of the latest Victorian fashion. The main difference between it and the stampers now in use is, that while each of the latter, weighing TOOlbs, and falling by its weight at seventy blows a minute, strikes exactly at its own weight, the former weighs 751bs, and is made to strike with the force of lOOOlbs, striking at the rate of 300 blows a minute. The difference of the result is the following:—The old stamper strikes with a force of 98,0001bs per minute, while the new one strikes with a force of 400,0001b5. This convenient machine must be of immense benefit to prospectors as a crusher for everyday work. It may be described thus : —Each piston and stamp-head, which rotate in the usual way, is raised by a double cam on the main shaft, thus alternating the blows, and making it equivalent to a balance wheel. The piston is raised into an atmospheric chamber, thereby creating vacuum underneath the same, which gives immense momentum to the ■tamp when relieved from the upward motion J of the cams, so as to produce the results