Wilkes-Barre Paper - Diagonal-Plane Concentrating-Table

Recent experiments indicate that the usual type of concen-trating-table is not only poorly adapted to produce the desired results, but also is based upon an incorrect principle, namely, the use of riffles to perform the work of stratifying the various minerals. We have heard a good deal about riffles for concentratiug-tables; exhaustive experiments have been made to discover the proper form of riffle, or to prove the superiority of this or that form; disputes and patent-litigation have arisen over the matter of riffles, and thus marly have been led to believe that the riffle is the saving-device upon which the process of concentration depends. In the present paper it is proposed to show that the riffle is greatly overrated as to the part it performs in the concentration of minerals, and that, in the near future, it may possibly be eliminated entirely from that process. The experiments in question have shown that the troublesome riffle can be considered of secondary importance at the most, and should be so classed in the construction of a concen-trating-table built upon the right lines. The action of any form of riffle on a concentrating-table is such as to upset and retard the process of settling and stratifying the various minerals on the table-deck. From the deck of a riffled table no concentrates can be delivered until the deck is " bedded," that is, until a suffcient amount of metallic values has been fed to the table to spread over a large portion of the deck, forming a substratum of the heavier minerals. This substratum must be maintained by the feed within quite narrow limits, and directly proportional to the rate of discharge from the table, in order that the bed shall not be lost. On the other hand, the riffles having a very limited carrying-capacity, considerable care must be taken not to overfeed a riffled table, in which case the table proceeds, in mill parlance, to rob itself. As soon as the space between the