146

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

January 17, 1913.

York, U.S.A.).—This invention relates to a gate or valve
for use in the intake pipe of a centrifugal air-compressor in
connection with a governing mechanism for controlling its
driving motor. When such a compressor is employed to
supply air to a blastfurnace, it is preferably provided with
an automatic regulating mechanism which ensures the
delivery of a predetermined volume of air per unit of time,
the pressure varying with the conditions existing in the
furnace or other apparatus receiving said air. When the
machine is blowing into a capacity—that is, into large
reservoirs consisting of large pipes, stoves, &c., and
operating at such volumes that the discharge vanes under
the particular conditions of pressure and volume are not
adapted to give the best efficiency, as soon as the flow of
air is decreased to a certain critical point the discharge
vanes cease to perform their proper function and this causes
the pressure to automatically drop to the point which was
assumed at the beginning of the cycle. In other words, a
wave of pressure has passed through the machine, and the
conditions existing are the same as at the beginning of the
wave. Under these conditions the reservoir above mentioned,
or capacity, contains air at a pressure higher than that
which the machine is capable of generating, and, therefore,
there must be a flow of air from the reservoir through the
machine and out of the inlet. As soon as the pressure

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drops in said reservoir or capacity to a point below that
which the machine is capable of generating, the flow of air
is re-established through the machine and this flow of air
immediately becomes somewhat larger than the average
amount flowing. The object of the invention is to provide
a means for checking these abnormal occurrences, and to
this end there is located in the intake pipe of the compressor
a check valve which will stop the back flow of air referred
to, and thereby decrease the range of pressure pulsations
generated by the compressor. This valve also prevents the
back flow of air from affecting the governing mechanism
proper. In carrying out the invention a butterfly valve is
employed whose lower part is heavier than the upper, so
that the valve has a self-closing tendency. The effective
area of the lower part is made greater than that of the
upper part, so that under the influence of a current of air
entering the compressor said valve will be automatically
opened to admit said air and will assume an inclined
position in the intake pipe corresponding with the volume
of air passing. In case, however, any back blast occurs,
the valve will be shut both by its weight and the action of
the back current of air upon its rear surface. It sometimes
happens that it is desirable to utilise this butterfly valve
simply as a throttling device. For this purpose a lever can
be attached to the valve spindle and provided with a latch
that co-operates with a notched quadrant to enable it to be
locked in the desired position. The parts are so arranged
that by means of a single bolt the valve and lever can be
connected and disconnected. Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a
portion of the intake pipe of a centrifugal compressor provided
with the improved check valve; fig. 2 is a cross-section of
said pipe showing the valve and its operating parts; and
fig. 3 is a section of the pipe and valve at right angles to
fig. 2. (Five claims.)

9986 (1912). An Improvement in Furnaces for the Treatment
of Metalliferous Ores, Coking Coal and Treating other Bodies.
G. H. Benjamin, of Hamburg American Building, 45, Broad-
way, New York, U.S.A.—The object of the invention is the
construction of a furnace whereby the material to be acted
upon is subjected to varying degrees of temperature pro-
duced by the combustion of fuel, and at one point in the
furnace to a much higher degree of temperature, produced
by the passage of an electric current between electrodes, or
between electrodes and an interposed resistance medium
formed by the material acted upon. The improved furnace
is especially adaptable for the treatment of metalliferous
ores, coking coal, and treating other bodies which may be
subjected to gradually increasing temperatures, and, if
necessary, to a very high temperature at some time during
the period they are under treatment. Fig. 1 is a vertical
longitudinal section; fig. 2 is a longitudinal section on the
line II.—II. of fig. 1; fig. 3 is a vertical transverse section
on the line III.—III. of fig. 1; and fig. 4 is a vertical
transverse section on the line IV.—IV. of fig. 1. . Ore is
charged by one of the hoppers 25 into the chamber A, pushed
in by the pusher 27, and after a time, under the action of
he pusher, discharged through passage G into chamber B,

and so on progressively downward until finally discharged
from the furnace through suitable openings provided in the
walls; manifestly, instead of charging the ore into the
chamber A, it may be charged into any of the chambers,
depending upon the initial temperature to which it is
desired the ore shall be subjected, it being understood that
the temperature of the chambers A, B, C, D, E, F is normally
greater from the top to the bottom of the furnace. This,
however, may be altered by varying the gas flames through

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the burner 20. During the time that the ore is in the
treating chambers or in any one of the treating chambers,
; the exhaust pump 30 is preferably in operation. The action
i of the pump is to draw the evolved gases out of the chamber,
and thus remove any pressure from the ore, thereby
permitting free evolution of gas. If desired, the ore may be
subjected to any required temperature without exhausting
the gases, the process being an intermittent one—that is,
the ore may be subjected to a temperature without exhaus-
tion of the gases, and then to a different temperature with
exhaustion of the gases. (Five claims.)

28388 (1911). Improvements in Methods of, and Apparatus
'for, Mining Coal and other Minerals. J. H. Hoadley, 18,
' East Eighty-second Street, Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.,
and W. H. Knight, Portsmouth, Newport County, Rhode
Island, U.S.A.—By this invention a new method of mining
is obtained which consists of comminuting the coal, or other
mineral, as it is taken from the vein as by means of a
milling and comminuting machine, and thereupon, and
immediately following its segregation from the vein of
collecting and removing the same by a fluid conveyor to
any desired point. In a conveyor for carrying this part of

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the invention into effect, the movement ahd mechanical
rush of fluid is utilised, which, joining the segregated
mineral at the moment of its separation from its bed, seizes
it in a vortex and sweeps it, jointly with itself, into a tube
or conduit, provided for that purpose. For carrying this
part of the invention into effect either air or water may be
employed; also both air and water may be employed
together at the same stages of the work; or they may be
employed successively, as first the air and then the water,
or vice versd; or air may be used upon a part of the
products transit bringing in the water as a propulsive
medium accessory to the air, drawing the air off at a suitable
stage and finally trapping the water out, either partially or
altogether. The invention contemplates not only such
steps as will remove the product to the desired point, or
points, but also separating processes, whereby, if more than
one fluid is employed, they may be trapped, or segregated
the one from the other, and whereby also the coal can be
wholly or partially separated from the conveying fluid, or
fluids. Fig. 1 represents a plan view of a coalmine as it
would show developed under the method described herein.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section on the line II—II
fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section on the line III—III
fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a plan view, partly in section, of a machine
employed for carrying the method into effect; this view is
shown on the lines IV—IV fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a vertical longi-
tudinal section of the same machine on the line V—V fig. 4.
Successive operations take off successive sections of mineral
until the desired room, or area has been covered by the
machine and the comminuted mineral removed therefrom.
One point of novelty resides in the method of getting out
successive sections of the mineral by leading from the short
to the long reach of the tunnel 3, 5 and around the curve 8;
in this way and by this method it is possible, with a single-
ended machine, to cut off parallel and successive sections of

the'mineral by starting from the same point and position in
the shorter reach and workinggthe^saidjmachine around a
curve into the longer reach. The machine and apparatus
consists principally of three parts, of which the first part is
the milling and comminuting machine; this machine carries
on its frame the various means for operating the milling
tools, means for advancing, reversing and tilting it, together
with other parts; it is shown in operative and operating
position at 17 in fig. 1; in dotted lines, also in the same
figure it is shown at its initial point of operation
immediately after its introduction down the vertical shaft
into the preliminary horizontal reach; in this position it is
about to attack the left-hand wall of the coalmine at the
point 9. The cutting tools cut the mineral from the vein
as the wheels supporting them rotate in the direction of the
arrows, and they not only cut but they comminute the
mineral to a fineness resembling sand or sugar, some of the
product being in size smaller than ordinary sea sand and
some larger. The operator, who, for convenience of access
to this as well as to other adjusting and manipulating
handles, may be seated at 70, can by working the handle 66
elevate or lower that corner of the machine, which operation
will cause a corresponding raising or lowering of the
diagonally opposite corner—namely, at that point of the
machine where the cutting is taking place; by this means
the operator can quickly adjust the machine so that it will
follow the desired direction. If it happens that the thickness
of the vein changes, means are provided for contracting or
expanding the total cutting face of the machine as it
advances along the reach, which operation will accommodate
itself to the shrinkage or widening of the thickness of the vein.
When the operator perceives that the thickness of the
vein is decreasing he proceeds to effect a corresponding
contraction of the cutting machinery ; if on the other
hand the vertical thickness of the vein is widening he may
proceed to expand the said cutting machine to the extent
of its vertical capacity. If the handle 74, as shown in fig. 4,
is given an oscillating movement forcing the pawl
against the successive ratchet teeth, the nut 72 will be
turned and the vertical screw 85 will be fed down, causing

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a corresponding contraction in the frame, or casing carrying
the cutting tool wheels ; similarly the total height of the
cutting face can be increased by a reversal of the above
operation. As the mineral is cut and comminuted by the
rotating tools from the left wall of the tunnel, it is rushed,
together with the air, its propelling medium, toward the
portal forming the entrance of the conveying tube, and
constituting the collecting box. Leading from the sump,
or separating chamber, is an air exhaust, which creates and
maintains, in the operation of the method a continuously
flowing current of air beginning at the mouth of the mine,
proceeding with a general movement to a point where the
machine is located, sifting therethrough and around the
edges to the proximity of the cutting tools, translated
thence by a violent action into the contracted orifice of the
returning tube, discharging therefrom into the sump, or
separating chamber, and therefrom exhausting. It is to be
understood that the air column moves rapidly only over a
portion of its path, for the reason that before it arrives in
the proximity of the machine it has already traversed the
distance lying between said machine and the mouth of the
tunnel; this body of air, so moving into the mine, operates
as a means of ventilation without entailing any additional
expense, or any special apparatus. As the cutting tools 43
revolve, moving in the direction of the arrows, as shown in
fig. 5, they tear off the coal, the smaller particles being all
drawn directly by the air-currents to the collecting box and
the heavier particles precipitated by gravity to the floor of
the mine. The deposited coal occupies, fore and aft, that