Original Dry Washer?

[HardPack]

Does anyone have any information on the date of original development and use of the dry washer? 

[Gold Seeker]

1 hour ago, HardPack said:

Does anyone have any information on the date of original development and use of the dry washer? 

I have never seen a date reference on when dry washers were first used, but at the link below is says such methods have been in use since the earliest days of gold discovery, it talks about dry washing about halfway down the page, lots of other info on the history of gold mining as well.

"4.1. The Dry Washers

Dry washers (Figure 15) are among the most widely used gold recovery devices that operate without a water supply. Gold dry washing for gold goes back to the earliest days of gold discovery and is generally utilized in arid and desert environments where water is scarce."

Link...

https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6489/3/4/34

[HardPack]

Found this on Nevada Outback:

“Winnowing was the original dry placer method. This process involves screening out all the coarse gravel, placing the fines in a blanket and tossing them in the air, preferably in a good wind. The lighter particles are blown away by the wind and the heavier, usually more valuable minerals fall back onto the blanket. The weave of the blanket tends to hold fine gold. Winnowing is a very primitive method and is not used today. Basically, all it really does is remove the light clay dust particles from the mix.

Dry panning is a similar winnowing process, and is only slightly better than blanket winnowing. Shaking the pan while gently winnowing allows the gold to settle in an action similar to a jig. A far better and more successful method is dry washing, also called dry blowing in Australia. The dry washer allows for the processing of gravels at a much higher rate than possible by winnowing or dry panning.”

So far 1900 is the earliest date for use of the puffer type bellows dry washer found online.