488 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. 1, 1898. 
shares and 80,000 of the ordinary shares are now 
offered for public subscription. This company has 
been formed to trade in and manufacture gutta- 
percha, and to acquire and work a patent process 
“ to obtain gutta-percha from the leaves and twigs 
of gutta-percha trees by an efficient an deconomical 
method.” The prospectus goes on to show that there 
is room for a considerably increased supply of gutta- 
percha, which has advanced in price during the last 
few years, mainly owing to the wasteful method by 
which it is obtained — viz., by cutting down the trees. 
At the same time, to pay £150,000 for a patent 
which may possibly be very good, but which, so far 
as we can gather from the prospectus, has not yet 
been worked on a commercial scale, is, we think, 
too much, and it makes the company a very specu- 
lative venture. We think the patent should have 
been worked by a syndicate, and its merits fully 
ascertained, before being sold to a company at such 
a high price. 
AUTOMATIC GEM AND GOLD- 
SEPARATOE. 
Altliougli sapphires, rubies, spinels, cat’s-eyes 
and other precious stones command good prices 
and a ready market, it has hitherto been an 
impossibility for companies formed to promote 
this particular branch of mining to become really 
successful, owing, principally, to the fact that 
they were unable to prevent theft during the 
process of washing and picking the gems from the 
gravel. This obstacle has now been surmounted 
by Mr. William S. Lockhart, M. Inst. C.E., M. 
Inst. M.E.. the inventor of the Automatic Gem 
and Gold -Separator, and our representative had 
the pleasure of insjrecting a complete plant, which 
has been specially manufactured for the Ceylon 
Prospecting Syndicate, Limited, the other day at 
the works of Messrs. Clayton, Hewlett and Co., 
Woodfield Road, Westbourne Park, W. The 
mines where the Separator ’will be erected are 
situated near Rakwana, Ceylon, and consist ot 
deposits of alluvial gravel, containing sapphires, 
rubies, spinels, cat’s-eyes, zircons, topaz, and 
alluvial gold. In order to give our readers an 
idea as to how the plant performs its duty, we 
may say that the gravel can be trucked or 
sluiced to the head of the plant at the rate of 
about 8 tons an hour, or, say, 60 tons a day 
of eight hours. The gravel is shot promiscuously 
into a large revolving Grizzley, which arrests 
and throws out anythins that will not pass bet- 
ween bars 1 in. apart. By this means the clay 
is broken up and passes with the gravel and 
line sand on to a puddling machine, which reduces 
the clay, washing it and the sand out together. 
A bucket-elevator immediately carries the 
washed gravel to a classifier, which screens 
it into sizes, ranging from J in. to fin.; and 
each size is then conveyed by a band elevator 
into a special separator, which, by the aid of 
a current of water, automatically selects the gems 
and gold, their specific gravity being slightly higher 
than that of worthless gravel, and discharges 
the fatter into the taillings shoot, which car- 
ries it away to the dump. The gems and gold 
are deposited in locked receptacles, from which 
they may be removed by an authorised person 
hoh'ling the key.s. The above operations are auto- 
matically accomplished and it would be im- 
possible for anyone to appropriate a particle of 
the valuable product during its transmission 
through the plant. The machinery is suitable 
for diamonds, and also deals successfully with 
alluvial and pyritic gold, free-milling, refractory 
and telluride ores. Some modifications, of corn s 
are necessary to treat crushings from rolls o 
stamp-batteries ; for instance, the Grizzley and 
puddling machine, mentioned previously, are dis- 
pensed with. The weight of the plant is stated 
to be about 20 tons, and it is erected 
on a steel gantry, possessing the advan- 
tage of being made in small parts, 
and therefore, can be easily transported. The 
machinery at Westbourne Park is driven by a 
small 6-h.-p. engine, and is working with only 
about 1,000 gallons of water, pumped round and 
round by a small auxiliary engine. The separa- 
tor is especially applicable to Western Australia 
and other countries, where water is scarce, as 
the same supply can do duty over and over 
again. We may mention that Rakwana is one 
of the best gemming centres of the Ratnapura 
district of Ceylon, so that with the aid of the 
Automatic Gem and Gold-Separator, the Ceylon 
Prospecting Syndicate may look|forward to a pros- 
perous career and to the inauguration of a pro- 
fitable industry , — The Mining World and Engineer- 
ing Becord. 
CLUB ECHOES AND TEA LEAVES. 
I do not know whether the idea may not have 
already been ventilated in Ceylon, but it occured 
to my mind the other day in glancing ever one 
of the Reports of the United States Department 
of Agriculture to wonder it 
CAMPHOR 
had ever been tried as a bye-product in your 
island. From the report mention it appears to 
be|a tree, which grows well under widely different 
conditions. It grows in Egypt, Madagascar, 
Buenos Ayres, the San Joacliim Valey in Cali- 
fornia, the Canary Islands, and the South East 
of France as well as in its native Japan. In 
Tokio the trees are subject to a winter of from 
70 to 80 nights of frost, but the conditions of 
really of successful cultivation seem chiefly a tem- 
perature never below 20 degrees F. in winter, 
plenty rain, in the growing season, and a nitro- 
genous soil. The camphor is distilled from the 
wood of the trunks, roots and larger branches, 
and the work is all done by hand. The wood 
is felled, cut into chips and placed in a tub 
something like a churn, size about 40 inches and 
narrower at the top than the base. A tight 
fitting cover is then put on. A bamboo tube 
from the tub connects with a condenser in which 
the oil is separated from the camphor crystals. 
Twelve hours is required for the distillation of 
a tubful. Twenty to forty pounds of chips go 
to each pound of crude camphor; and from Lp" ■ 
and Peat’s last fortnightly price list I see !h ■ 
Chinese camphor sells in London at 92s 6d a i \. . 
and Japan at 100s. 
« 
THE AMSTERDAM CINCHONA MARKET. 
The 8,916 bales and 627 cases of Java cinchona- 
bark offered by auction at Amsterdam on Decem- 
ber 9 weighed 753,859 kilos. According to ana- 
lysis, they contain the equivalent of 40,793 kilos, of 
sulphate of quinine, or an average of 5'64 per cent. 
The tone of the market remains extremely firm. On 
Tuesday, Decembej: 7, 42 tons of cocoa-butter will be 
offered for sale at Amsterdam. These include 10 tons 
of “Hammer" brand (Dutch), 10 tons of “Helm" 
brand (Dutch), nearly 5 tons of “ Holland ” brand 
9 tons of Suchard’s (Swiss), and7J tons of “Mignon ’ 
brand . — Chemist and Druggist, 
