We
publish on page 172 an engraving of another of the ingenious
machines by which the earth is being made to render up her gold—a
new gold-washer, patented by Mr. Nelson, of 206 William Street, New
York. Mr. Nelson says of it:
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"It is intended to do
a larger amount of work, and to save the fine gold, with less labor
and expense, than has heretofore been done by the sluicing process.
The object which I have designed to obtain is, to have a portable
machine, which the miner can take apart and move about and transport
with ease; and which can be moved from the earth or stone as it may
accumulate to obstruct the working of the machine, and to save the
expense and time of erecting long sluices. There is only required a
sluice of from 40 to 50 feet in length, which is sufficient to allow
the miners room to shovel the earth in. The sluice should discharge
the earth and stone to the centre of the machine. The end of the
sluice should be sloated, or perforated with holes, so as to allow a
sheet of water to be discharged on every part of the screen; so that
as the screen rotates the water comes in contact with every part of
the earth on it. The spring rakes, which are hinged above the
screen, as it rotates come in contact with the stone, clay, earth,
etc., and keep it uniformly distributed over the surface, forcing
the stones, as fast as they accumulate, over the edge—the water
and earth passing through the screen into the rim pans underneath,
which have stirrers back of each of the rims, to keep the earth
loosened up so that the jolting motion which is given to the pans by
the ball and eccentric, on the top of the machine, causes the fine
gold to be deposited back of the rims and in the bottom of the pans,
which without the stirrers and vertical motion would pass off with
the earth and water. The amount of work which the machine is capable
of doing, if rapidly worked, would be several thousand bushels per
day." |
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Mr. Nelson expects that
these machines, which only cost $200, will become very popular in
California.
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