Does "Gold Separator" work? Options

[gold_tutor]

Can't figure this out. The base where waterhose intake attaches, unscrews from the rest of the black holder that the clear tube is attached.

I don't think the small tube wadded up in it does anything at all. In fact, when it arrived the wadded up tube looked like it had oil in it and was just stuck in because the estate sale people thought they belonged together. I can't find a place to attach any tubing, so that doesn't help. And all prospectors know oil and gold don't mix, or bye-bye fine gold.

Will take more pictures of it disassembled from the bottom half black base if that helps anyone figure this out for me.

Thanks for all input or suggestions as to manufacturer or how to use or if something is missing beside the gold

Oh, and the label says: Clovis California and a Phone number. I've called and called and only get voice mail. Have left messages asking for whoever answers to call collect, but that hasn't happened either.

Thanks for looking.

Attached image(s)

 

[gold_tutor]

Dear All - maybe its a good idea to revive this sleepy thread...

I've been reading a few hundred US patents, made possible by the USPTO going on-line and Google having a special Patent Search engine too.

I found a patent a while back:
"Hydraulic Flow Distributor in Gold Separator Method"
Inventor: Daniel Osterberg of Fresno, California.
Patent filed for: 30th March 1982
Patent awarded: 29th May 1984 - US #4,451,359
Patent expired: 29th May 1991 due to non-payment of patent fees.

Having seen gold_tutor's posts I suddenly realised that the patent is for the "Quick Gold Separator". This is great news, as I have been wondering if the invention ever got into production (many never do). This device is important as it belongs to a little-studied class of fine gold recovery devices known as 'Elutriation Towers' or 'E-Tanks' for short. About the time the 'Quick Gold Separator' was patented, other forms of E-Tanks (eg by Arthur Lashley) were being tested, including tests by MIRL in Alaska. Anyway the tests showed that SOME types of E-towers in some conditions really can recover very fine gold - and that means a handful of microns!

As the patents of these devices are long expired and the devices largely forgotten I'm very interested in them as a means of recovering extremely fine gold and in doing so to compete head-on with mercury that is a terrible problem here in Mongolia and elsewhere with tons used by artisanal miners. The goal is to outcompete mercury by simple gravity methods.

You can download the patent via USPTO or Google Patents, and I've attached a copy of it anyway below as a small PDF file.

The PDF file will help you guys and gals to understand the device better and how its supposed to operate.

cheers

Steppe

Hi, Robin,

Sorry it has taken me so long to answer you, but THANK YOU for the August rough draft of your 96 page article in World Placer Journal where you tackled at least 75 ways to recover gold for us digging types out there loose in the world.

I've stumbled across another one and have lost your email addy, so I hope you see this and email me at goldtutor@aol.com

Thanks for the 2 nice mentions of me by name, and the very deserving mentions of ColoradoProspector forum in your article and credits. This is still a fabulous forum for us miners to come learn stuff. Your article just underlines that fact, in spades.
If your article hasn't published yet, or you are archiving it somewhere on a website, you might wish to emphasize the Equipment Sub-Forum for those who wish to follow-up your reference to this series of posts. I have found the "SEARCH" feature is disabled when I arrived here today to try to reach you, and that will make it difficult for those to whom you are recommending the Osterberg thread to find it easily. Just a thot...


Give me a shout, and Happy Holidays to everyone, especially SteppeGold over in Mongolia

Megan Rose (gold_tutor)