The Gould-Bazooka Dredge System
The Benefits to using a Sub-dredge
There are many benefits to using an underwater sub-dredge and I will try to explain the benefits in the following article.
Force required to Make a Dredge Operate
A conventional surface dredge requires a great amount of lift to raise the rock, sand and water from the bottom of the river to the surface of the water and then up to the actual dredge sluice box. The weight evolved is substantial when you consider the area of the dredge hose multiplied by the length of the hose. Once it reaches the sluice box it roars in like a waterfall overshooting the riffles.
The underwater dredge however does not have this problem; it only needs enough force to move the material through the system in a horizontal motion.
New Gould Engineering Vortex Generator
The new Vortex Generator uses an auxiliary jet to develop a spin on the incoming water on the Suction Nozzle.
The Jet is mounted aft of the main jet except it is 90 deg. or at right angle to the main jet and flow of water.
The new jet puts a spin on the incoming water and material and causes the gold and black sand to move to the outside which is contained by the inter wall of the nozzle and dredge hose.
Centrifuge Operation
The benefits to this rotating mixture of water, sand and gold has many advantages.
The spinning slows down the incoming flow of material so it won’t overshoot the Gravity Trap system, where the gold is slowed down, the lighter overburden material is moved to the center of the tube where the speed is much faster created by the vortex. The higher speed forces the overburden out the end of the Trap system.
New Concept Using a Dynamic Grizzly
The entire process is a built in grizzly system to sort the junk from the pay-dirt.
Imagine that the water and material are moving through the Trap System at 5 ft. per second. The gold need more time to drop out before it is washed away, but if we could slow it down to 1.0 ft. per second the gold would have more time to drop out.
Consider the time of one rotation calculating the circumference of a 4.0 dredge hose which is roughly 12 “ as compared to a 1.0 inch travel through the tube. In this example it would take 12 times longer if the rate was 1.0 “ per-second. If the velocity of the jet were high enough it might make 10 revolutions in 1.0 “ of travel which would be 12 “ x 10 rev. = 120 inches of travel moving 1.o” through the tube. The linear flow of water has been tricked to spin faster on its outer edges and slower in the middle of flow, cyclonic action. The heavier gold will be thrown to the outer edge of the circle which represents the dredge hose being slower and the center of the circle will be magnitudes faster where the trash rock will be swept away.
Now if Newton had only been experimenting with dredges he most certainly would have discovered this device.
Glacier & Flour Gold Recovery
Since we have been testing the Vortex Generator we have been recovering huge amounts of flour or micron gold. It is so fine it will stick to your finger like gold paint. This type of gold is very difficult to recover with conventional methods but the Vortex Generator has solved that problem.
Flour Gold Clean-Up
When I empty the Gould-Bazooka into a bucket, the flour gold wants to float on the surface of the water and could float over the side, so I put a few drops of Jet Dry into the bucket which causes the micron gold to settle to the bottom of the bucket. I try to avoid creating any air bubbles as the gold will attach themselves to the surface tension of the bubble and float to the top, alcohol may also break down the water’s surface tension. Do this procedure on land don’t pollute.
Function of Main Jet
The main jet is driving the flow of water down the middle of the tube which means the lighter material are going to be accelerated in the center of the vortex carrying off the unwanted material. The effect is a grizzly that is dynamic in operation separating the junk rock from the gold and washing away the waste material. The high speed of the water caused by the main jet also increases the speed of the Vortex Generator.
Who would have thought that such a simple device could accomplish so much with benefits beyond belief?
There is one small problem though after you go to separate the flour gold from the black sand you may lose a lot of flour gold.
I suggest using the charged mercury with salt water and power supply.
Large Rock Jam-Ups
Jam-ups are a problem with all dredges, a sharp edges rock seems to always find a spot in the dredge hose to hang-up. It only takes one rock to hang-up and it creates a logjam until the entre hose fills up with material. When this awful problem occurs you are left with the task of cleaning out the material jammed in the dredge hose. Usually the jams occur at the end of the dredge hose where it transitions to the input of the sluice box.
In my dredge the jams occur where the dredge hose enters the Collector of the Gould-Bazooka. This problem usually happens when I try to hog too much material into the system. For the system to work properly it needs a mixture of water and material.
You would think that rocks would be the biggest problem but I find that sand is the biggest problem, especially when it does not contain enough liquid to move it along.
A guess would be half sand to water ratio.
New Discoveries Vortex Generator
After I started testing the Vortex Generator, I noticed that I hardly ever got any jams.
At first I thought it might be my skill at dredging but I couldn’t think of anything I had done different. Then it dawned on me that it might be the new Vortex Generator.
I started studying the flow of material coming out of the suction nozzle and looking through the clear vinyl tubing of the dredge hose, I could see the material spinning at a fast rate.
Another Benefit From the Vortex Generator
The spinning material was changing the entire dynamics of the system. The spinning material was moving at an incredible rate of speed reducing the friction caused by the walls of the tubing. Most jams are caused by one rock or a plug of sand which impedes the flow causing other material to backup behind it.
Who would have thought such a simple device could yield so many functions?
In the past I noticed that whenever I bent the dredge hose in a sharp bend that a jam would occur. Now with the Vortex Generator it greatly reduces the problem.
As with all new inventions, they can end up yielding much more then the inventor had originally intended.
Nozzle Extender to Help the Back
My back has not improved with age so I find that leaning over while dredging can be very painful. Many dredgers have told me to come up with a handle that would attach to the dredge nozzle so they could stand while they dredged.
I usually sit in my folding chair in the water while dredging, I just don’t care what others think about that.
I’m working on something that easily attached to the nozzle and breaks down for portability.
Benefit of Nugget Trap
The Nugget Trap is both a collector of Nuggets but also used to recover fine and flour gold.
Nuggets are retrieved by a series of rolling deep riffles that catch the gold but cause few eddy currents that cause losses of gold.
The deep collectors retain the nugget size gold while allowing the waste rock to pass over and be discarded out the rear of the device.
The fine and flour gold are captured by the use of a magnet that is installed under the belly of the Nugget Trap. Even though the gold is not attracted by the magnet, the black sand is, which yields the same results.
Black-Sand the Friend & Curse of the Miner
I’m not sure of the exact proportion, as the size relationship of gold to black sand but the black sand seems to want to be larger than the grain of gold being attracted to it.
I will attempt to provide a rational for why black sand attracts gold. I discovered by using a magnet with my Nugget Trap I could attract much more gold than normal.
Most miners know that where gold is found they will usually find black sand. So why the attraction, I don’t have a clue but I know through experiments that the anomaly exists.
Think about what is black sand, it is magnetite or iron ore which can be attracted to a magnet since it is a Ferris material. Think about when the earth was forming and magnetite was being broken up into smaller pieces by the fast moving rivers and being ground down to size by harder rocks. As it is being washed downstream it is subjected to the earth’s magnetic field. If it is near the North Pole it will leave a magnetic North charge on the grain of black sand. As long as it remains near the North Pole it will be charged north.
Miners Compass or Spanish Dip Needle
Behold, the Miners Compass. It is attracted to bodies of black sand that have a magnetic charge on them. Assuming that gold likes to accompany magnetic charged black sand then why not take advantage of this anomaly. Well folks I indeed have taken advantage of what nature has provided. To insure I attract all the black sand with gold, I check the polarity of the face of the magnet using a compass, when I find the South side I mark it south with a felt marking pen. The south side of the magnet will then be pointed towards the Nugget Trap. Why do I want to do this? Simple answer is I want to trap the black sand and gold that has a magnetic north charge on it. Is it worth all the trouble to go to, you bet? Even flour gold is worth $1400 + per ounce. I’m even experimenting installing another magnet with the north side facing the dredge hose and installing it near the Suction Nozzle. What’s the second magnet for? It will add additional north charge to the incoming north charged black sand.
Don’t bother checking the Text Books it won’t be there.
The only unknown is if the second magnet will nullify the charge created by the Rotator Jet, further testing will determine this.
Life’s secrets are not unlocked by sitting on your butt waiting for someone else to solve them.
Dredge Discharge Problems
Conventional dredges operate on the surface of the water and their discharge is deposited on top of the water creating a plume of dirty water. The plume disappears in 100 or 200 feet behind the dredge but in the eyes of the environmentalists the muddy water would surely destroy all the fish.
We all know that there absolutely no truth to this but they don’t bother to look at facts they use emotional knee jerk reaction to the observation. Every December in Northern California we get large rain storms that cause the rivers to rise at full level and the water turns chocolate brown. You have to blame Mother Nature for the damage but our God is a wise god and he insures that all the fish will survive this ordeal.
There is a simple solution to the problem, if the output of the dredge were directed into a ninety degree closed chute several feet below the surface of the water, it would deposit the silt on the bottom of the river instead of the surface of it.
The Alternate Solution
The Gould Bazooka is a sub-dredge that rests on the bottom of the river and its discharge stays on the bottom of the river dissipating the silt along the bottom of the riverbed where it belongs.
Most people don’t think about a river having dynamic boundary layers but they do and these layers travel at various speeds according to the friction from the river banks or river bottom. The very top of the river has the least amount of friction and moves the fastest current. The bottom of the river of course has the most friction and the current moves the slowest. Half way from the bottom of the river and the top of the river would travel half the speed between the top and bottom of the river.
You Tube Video
If you would like to see the Gould-Bazooka in action go to You Tube under Caitlin Gould & see the device in action in complete harmony with the local fish.
Comments
Comments can be made to Author at gould@gouldeng.com
or go to his web site www.gouldeng.com.