NEW QUARTZ-CRUSHER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 112, 13 May 1870, Page 3

NEW QUARTZ-CRUSHER.

To tue Editor of im Nelsou Evening Mail. Sir Will you permit rae, through the medium of your paper, to call the attention ofall interested in quartz-mining operations to the accompanying account of a new, and

what I think bids fair to be a very valuable, invention in quartz-crushing machines. I am, &c, Henry Drew. Nelson, May 13, 1870. " The very latest novelty in the quartzmining world of Australia is a patent ' atmospheric stamp and quartz crusher,' just arrived from Eugland and exhibited to the cognoscenti at Ballarat, with results which have' in less than a week commanded nearly universal attention in that enterprising locality. It is, indeed, something more than a surprise to find a battery of two stamps, weighing just one ton, worked by the same machine power, and costing scarcely £100, doing the work of a battery of seven or eight stamps of the latest Victorian fashion. Yet such was the experience of about 100 gentlemen representing the leading men of Ballarat, who saw the thing at work yesterday at the Black-hill Company's works. Its history is this. When Mr. W. C. Smith visited England a few months since in order to push the interests of the Winter's Freehold Gold-mining Company, a certain manufacturer and ■ inventor of Norwich invited him to witness tbe operation of a new crushingmachine, which it was thought would answer in Australia. The invitation was •accepted, and the machine inspected as it was at work, crushing and pulverising bard flint stones. It was a drycrusher, and the debris was carried off by a fan, which did not act fast enough. Mr. 'W. C. Smith decided after examination, to -purchase the patent for the Australian ■colonies aud New Zealand, provided certain- changes were effected, 'and tbe machine altered to a wet-crusher, with ample 1 means to carry off the crushed material. i It will illustrate the nature of the sug- : gested alterations to mention that the inventor had cast the stamp and shank together, <wd that Mr. W. C. Smith required •that means should be provided to "shoe" the stamp, the want of which precaution would .assuredly have caused the machine to break up directly the worn stamp ceased to strike an even blow. The inventor accepted the engagement, made a satisfa&tor.y .model, and has now sent out the sample machine in question. The leading differences between it and the appa-rata-s in general use — the batteries at the .Black-hill works, for example — are that each of the stampers at the -latter weig3i**s 7-Oolb., and falling by its own weight at the rate of 70 blows per minute, causes so many percussions at just that strength, while in the former each stamper weighs 741 b., is made to give a stroke equal to 100.01 b, and at the rate of SOO blows per minute. When we saw the machine at work the average rate of blows was 200 per stamper per minute. The difference of results is, that the old stamper gives blows equal to 98,0001 b, per minute, the new. one 400,-GOOlb. per minute. The idea of having a wet instead of a dry crusher was suggested by the fact that much Victorian quartz is so mixed with clayey matter, that a fan could not be made to drive off all the pulverised matter. The machine is itself surprisingly small, and can be taken to pieces and' put together again with ease. It can moreover be carried in a cart or on pack-horses, be put up in a few hours, and, being worked by tbe horses that have served as the means of transport, begin (when there is sufficient water) to crush immediately. Such qualities must make it extraordinarily useful to prospectors, but there appears no reason why it should not answer equally as well as an every-day crusher. It may be described thus : — Each piston and stamphead, which rotate iv 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 a vacuum underneath the same, which gives such great momentum to the stamp when relieved from the upward motion of the cams as to produce the results above mentioned. This twostamp battery is stated to be capable of crushing from four to eight tons per day, according to the fineness of reduction required. Mr. W. C. Smith informs us that so great an impression has already beeu made upon those who have seeo the machine at work that he has orders for 25 of them already. We would suggest that public trials of the machine should be given at Melbourne and Sandhurst. Surely it will not be difficult to find at either place those willing to lend the horse-power for such an experiment." Melbourne Argus.