PORTABLE QTTARTZ-CRUSHIM BATTERY.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 717, 29 September 1870, Page 2

PORTABLE QTTARTZ-CRUSHIM BATTERY.

Mr G. Milner Stephen is reported by the Sydney papers to have invented a cheap and portable quartz-crushing battery, simple and ingenious in its details, but undoubtedly a very powerful machine. The battery occupies a space of sft by 4ft 6in, and has six hammers, and can thus be packed for transmission to the goldfields within the compass of an ordinary bullock dray. The price is so moderate that it will bring it within the range of miners of the most moderate means. The hammer handles are somewhat pot-hooked in shape, the bend being necessary to enable the hammer to reach the bottom of the stamper box without touching any other part of it than the bottom surface. The stamper box runs along the front of the machine, the bottom being a thick plate of wrought iron, standing firmly upon a block of 9 inch timber, which for purposes of convenience can be cut anywhere in the bush and placed underneath, thus saving a hundredweight or so in carriage. The hammers

e steel faced and are bell shaped. Ie hammers, when the machine is in otion, fall through a series of interices at the back of the stamper-box ith surprising force, crushing quartz to the finest powder ; a speed of 500 rokes per minute being ordinarily jtainable, with power of multiplicaon up to 1000, if required. Water ay be turned on by water-cock or 136 at either side of the stamping ough, which discharges both at the ont and back, taking the stuff into ie of the patent amalgamating cradles ' Jlr Stephen's invention, where the nest particles of gold must be inevitjly retained. The most important ierit claimed by the inventor is this -that each hammer has a direct fall f thirty-one inches, while the stampers rtely in use seldom have a fall of arty-one inches; thus losing, if the tone to be crushed should be three iches in thickness, about one-third of ieir power. In the new machine the irce of the hammer is accelerated in very ingenious manner. The butts f the hammers are connected by strong Mastic steel springs attached to the joffer part of the machine, which, at m moment of extreme tension, force Jhe head of the hammer upwards, when they come into contact with a set of fa two and a half inch india-rubber buffers, whence they rebound with iccelerated velocity, which adds largely jo the force of the blow, and to a very beat extent graduates the amount of force which is required to turn the Whine. The machines weigh about Eton each.

A Wellington correspondent writes -Have you seen a pamphlet containing two speeches made in March and April last in the House of Commons by Robert E. Torrens, on emigration and the Colonies ? Both subjects are handled ably. On the former subject lie says that the class at home which require relief are the agricultural, as their distress is chronic, caused by the supply being far in excess of the demand. The distress of the artizan class he considers merely temporary, laud therefore not calling for any perI manent scheme for relief. He sug--1 gests that the Imperial Government | shall supply free passages to the | Colonies to agriculturists— parents I and families—who may be inspected and passed before embarkation by agents appointed by the Colonies. His speech on the Colonies was an able address against the dismemberment of the Empire, a dismemberment which, in spite of the assurances of the Imperial Government, he affirms is being quietly brought about by the various Colonial Governors, acting under instructions from head quarters. He refers, in support of his assertions, to 'speeches and dispatches to and from i various Colonies, and particularly to I an address from Sir Phillip Wodehouse | to the Legislative Assembly of Cape I Town. Speaking as her Majesty's [ representative, Sir Phillip said: "In I North America we have unmistakable ! indications of the rapid establishment of a powerful independent State. In Australia, it is probable that its several settlements, with their great wealth and homogeneous population, will see their way to a similar coalition. In j Kew Zealand the severance is being accomplished under very painful circumstances." He argues the fatal mistake of this policy, he alludes eloquently to the patriotism now existing, and which has been nobly displayed by the Colonies towards our Queen and Mother Country, and he urges the necessity for an alteration in the present machinery of the Colonial office, and in the means of official communication between the Imperial Government and her Colonies.