Thirty grams of the fine earth are boiled rapidly with water until the
lumps are disintegrated and clayey portions separated from the sand. The
material is then successively washed through perforated metal sieves,
the holes of which are respectively 1, 0.5, and 0.25 millimeter in
diameter. The portions retained on the sieves are severally dried,
ignited and weighed, and the finest portion, or that passing through the
0.25 millimeter sieve, is then submitted to the following process of
separation:
The sediment and water passing through the 0.25 millimeter sieve are
placed in a glass cylinder fifty centimeters long and thirty-seven
millimeters in internal diameter. The cylinder is closed at the bottom
and is provided with a lateral tube inserted six centimeters above the
bottom. Three other lateral tubes are inserted at intervals of ten
centimeters above the first tube, and a ring is etched into the cylinder
ten centimeters above the uppermost tube. The lateral tubes are closed
with rubber tubes compressed by spring clips. The sediment being placed
in the cylinder, water is added to the mark or ring, the cylinder closed
with a rubber stopper, and vigorously shaken until the contents are
thoroughly mixed. It is then placed upright, the stopper removed, and
after standing undisturbed for five minutes the clip on the uppermost
tube is opened and the water allowed to flow into a beaker. After five
minutes further standing, the second clip is opened and the water drawn
off into the same beaker; in the same manner the water is drawn off from
the other tubes at intervals of five minutes until the level of the
lowest tube is reached. The cylinder is then refilled with water to the
mark, thoroughly shaken after inserting the stopper and the water again
drawn off at intervals of five minutes, as before; the operation being
repeated until the water drawn off is almost free from turbidity. The
sediment remaining in the cylinder from this process of washing by
subsidence is termed by Knop, fine sand, the material flowing off in
suspension in the wash waters, dust, and the process of separation by
Knop’s original method ends here.
In order to remedy the imperfect separation into definite particles
secured by the above method, Moore proposes the following device:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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