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Flotation Process Theory
Time 2011-02-18 Author Website Manager Browse QQmessage 产品咨询 Tel:0086-371-55611696

Flotation Process Theory

 

An entirely unnecessary veil of mystery has been suffered to obscure the theoretical side of flotation processes. The forces involved, it is true, are not of such common cognizance as are those in the older methods of gravity concentration, but they are no more wonderful or mysterious in the one case than in the other. The forces utilized are finite in the range of their manifestations, but we have to appeal to molecular considerations for a complete exposition. The imagination of professional engineers is so well trained in these days that they should have no difficulty in grasping the significance of most of the observed facts, and there is, therefore, no reason why anybody engaged in metallurgical pursuits should not become as familiar with these methods of ore treatment as with any other.
 
A few analogies may be instanced in order to inspire confidence and allay the well established fear of the mysterious. For example, the amalgamation treatment of gold ores, wherein crushed ore, water, and quicksilver are mixed in proper proportions and in suitable devices, is so well known, and metallurgists have become so familiar with it, that the wonderful and obscure molecular reactions between the gold and the quicksilver are never given any thought. Again, the chemical reactions characterizing the cyanide treatment of gold ores, though we are in a measure able to quantify them by a familiar symbolism, require an undoubted exercise of the imagination by means of a written or mental picture of KCy -f Au = KAuCy. So in the case of flotation-concentration processes the physical laws are for the most part plain ; and where obscure, the obscurity is not a matter that need obstruct practical application. It is not my purpose to enter into a mathematical or physical discussion of the laws regulating these forces. James Clerk Maxwell, in his classical article on ' Capillary Action,' in the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, has laid the foundation for a mathematic demonstration of all the phenomena involved ; moreover H. Livingstone Sulman and Hugh F. K. Picard have in preparation a full dissertation on the observed facts of surface tension and oleaginous and gas-film adhesion, with special reference to their bearing upon concentration by flotation. Sulman & Picard's essay is a document of the highest scientific quality, and we have had a pleasant foretaste of its merit in Sulman's recent announcement of the hysteresis range of the contact angle.
 
My purpose is to give a description in plain and simple language of what takes place when a particle of mineral floats at the surface of a liquid, leaving the mathematical and molecular aspects of the subject to be discussed at some future time.
 
Unfortunately, the nomenclature hitherto adopted in discussing the laws and principles governing flotation processes has not been such that it carried any explanation with it, but it is the better part of wisdom not to attempt to introduce new terms. I must confess to an inexplicable dislike of the term, ' surface tension,' a dislike that dates from my undergraduate days in the physical laboratory.
 
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