VARIOUS MECHANICAL APPLIANCES. 205
THE PUDDLING BOX.
The
puddling box is a wooden box, usually 6 feet square and 18 inches deep,
arranged with plugs for discharging the contents. The box is filled
with water and clayey dirt containing gold. By continuous stirring with
a rake the clay is dissolved in the water and run off. The concentrated
material collected in the bottom is washed subsequently in a pan or
rocker. The puddling box has been used to a very limited extent in
California, but in Australia, according to Forbes, no less than 3,950
of them, worked by horse-power, were in use in Victoria alone in i860.*
AMALGAM KETTLES.
The
amalgam and quicksilver kettles are ordinary sheet-iron buckets or
porcelain-lined iron kettles. In cleaning up they are especially used
as receptacles for floating the gold amalgam. The amalgam, previous to
straining and retorting, is floated in quicksilver in order to free it
of all foreign substances.
* J. R. Forbes, u Mining and Metallurgy of Gold and Silver.''
