EXPERIMENTAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 250, 3 April 1880, Page 3

EXPERIMENTAL.

Mr John Brown (writes tLt* TLu-i.-b correspondent ot the New Z »:and. , T Herald) has been engaged f*-r rohutime past experimenting' on fii - Knfauili Beach’with an apparatus for raising ta lings or crook wash; The apparatus : is really an-adaptation’ of an American mrchine, and the experiments were commenced with a view to;utilising tin machine at Grihrii-hs Gully by the B'ue Spur ''Tailings Company. The lifting ; power is water, am-?,I of course, the gXTater . tho pressure obtained the high, r can the stuff be raised. The apparatus with which the expcrii; eats have been made is only a very, sma'l one, n’ud consists of a three.-h'.h pipe about 12 or 15 foot long, into 010 er.d of -wlnyh* is in- ' serted a five-eigbths-iuch rozzle,'with a rcrew for attaching the hose. Immediately above ti:e nozzle a throat, con nected with a flume, runs into the pipe.; With this machine, placed at 45 degree? the. nozzle, of course, being at the lower end, and with a pressure ef about 50io : to the inch, sand, and even stones ot some weigl t, were thrown from 20 to 25 feet high. The &and or tailings are run into the pipe by being mixed wi h water in the flume. Small as this apparatus is, it was considered, by those who saw , it at work that it would keep one man Very busy shovelling the tailings into the flume. So far the experiments haw been considered very satisfactory, anil - it is proposed to construct machines of come size, and use them for raising tf e tailings at Gabriels Gully, instead ’vi the first proposal of lifting it by buckets. The company 1 1 ave an abuud ant supply o water, with afill of nearly 300 feet, so - there wilt he no difficulty whatever. The lifting power of the machine is very great, and it is almost impossible to e dimate the amount of stuff that can be v ra'sed la * single lay.