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Post by annedw on Jun 25, 2008 20:27:25 GMT
cgi.ebay.co.uk/PLATE-RECORD-VANNER-SLIMER-WREXHAM-made-in-England_W0QQitemZ270248276152QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item270248276152&_trkparms=72%3A12|39% There is a metal plate for sale on Ebay, the guy seems to think it is something to do with railways. I googled it and found this interesting information. It`s for records held at Denbs Records office. Papers of G F Wynne relating to Minera Mining Company, United Minera Mining Company, Record Vanner and Slimer Company and Minera Mines Gravel and Concrete Company. 1855 1956 DRO DD/WN/1-122 And this on A2A Record Vanner & Slimer Co, ore separation and dressing machinery manufacturers NRA catalogue reference NRA 21864 Wynne Other reference see HMC Records of British business and industry 1760-1914 metal processing and engineering, 1994
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Post by keithj on Jun 25, 2008 22:02:59 GMT
You're right, Annette, that the company must have made mineral-processing machinery. When an ore is mined, you have both the valuable fraction and the host rock combined. As you crush it, the waste rock can be broken away from the ore mineral, a process called liberation. Crushing is far from a precise process and you get a wide range of particle sizes. The larger the particle the easier it is to handle. Once you get below a certain size the particles become very difficult to extract from the process water and the mining name for this is slimes. A vanner is a slow-moving continuous belt onto which the slimes are poured against the direction of belt movement. The ore is heavier than the waste rock (gangue) so it tends to settle onto the belt and move upwards. The waste material moves with the water downwards. A slimer was a machine that did a similar job to a vanner but used a cloth on a shaking frame to separate the particles.
I know this isn't genealogy as such but I hope it's of interest, given the local aspect of this plate.
Keith
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Post by annedw on Jun 26, 2008 6:18:07 GMT
Well - I found that interesting, I would have carried on thinking that Vanner and Slimer were personal names.
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Post by keithj on Jun 26, 2008 7:44:21 GMT
Messrs Record, Vanner & Slimer Ltd! My word, you wouldn't want to be saddled with those surnames, would you? Both types of machine are long obsolete, although a type of vibrating separation was used at Geevor tin mine in Cornwall right up to closure in 1990. You could be pretty certain that the local lead mines would have been using vanners and slimers, though. The coal mines wouldn't. They needed large coal and any fines - and quite a bit of small coal - would have ended up on the tip as worthless. That's why so many obsolete coal tips were mined and disappeared a few years ago. That waste from donkey's years ago could go straight to the power stations. Keith
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Post by eluned on Jun 26, 2008 13:16:57 GMT
Sorry folks but couldn't resist putting in my two penneth... I was thinking about Hugh Slimer... Sorry, sad woman with very bad sense of humour!!!
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Post by Hen Locsin on Jun 29, 2008 14:20:10 GMT
Lynne, ;D Nothing wrong with your sense of humour, I also thought I was reading about a firm of Solicitors. Locsin
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