The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 23, 1898, Page 8

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 23, 1898: HOW “GIA 7 08000000 0DO00000000 O 00000 0000000060000 00 00000000000000000 000000 000PDOOO0OOO0000000O0000 QD00 00000000 OO0 —— 00 0 DOV O30S AQOATO0V000ACCA0OCICTTOCCO00 COC OOOOOOGCOOOOGOOO% rock and hydraulic miner, and millions of dollars have been in- reservoir that made it cheaper to equip and maintain out. Usually a pair are kept soaking in hot wate mines in vested in the work. In the first place it is nece a pump than to cut the hill or carry the water to constantly and changed as often as they become stiff gl - the water right. This is often a difficult another point. with ic : ; here dozens of things to be consid: Generally speaking, t} the work of starting The above picture gives you a good idea of 2a ered before a spot can be selected. The first conside a hydraulic ne c s )ly in building a dam “giant” and the terr: stream that it throws. This Fached down i ation is that the water supply be higher than the place ac t above where the mine is to is the largest giant made. Tlu_- inlgl is cig}ucm_\ inches SRR i it is to be used so to give the required press be and ¢ t W to the monitors and the outlet, or nozzle, nine inches in diameter. B conveyed ¢ necessary. to move the heavy sand and gravel of firimes )t excesbie in fles wver They are each throwing 12,000 gallons, or about fifty g hecter, river bed. The supply must also be per i dozens of the hydraulic systems tons, of water every minute against the bank. The These mor imbersome affairs, but so next problem is to get the water to the all parts of the State, having been velocity of the water as it leaves the nozzle is about cted by one 1 and often necessitates the building of abandoned after the mines were worked out. 170 feet per second, a speed equal to two ‘miles per 1 of water from eight to bridges, dams, pumping plants, roads, It is dur ! most of the wor minute. ses t water i ci There are instances on record is done in the > There is no power of its kind on earth to equal it. T n flumes before it t water has been carried miles and 1 > season when there is an ample supply of water. and the fascination of standing at the lever of this ious metal nes into a reservoir and then pumped into the pt up, and cans of hot water are constantly machine, keeping it under perfect control, mowing : of water for this purpo flumes that carried it to the monitors. This was of near nd, where the woolen mittens worn by the down the gravel banks as a reaper mows the grain, | ems encountered by t course due to the pe formation of the land at the NTS” WASH DOWN THE SIDES OF MOUNTAINS AND SLUICE OUT THE GOLD e — 00 : 00 000000000 00000000000000000 00000000000000 0000 0000000000000 00000000000000C 200QC 000000000V 0O00000000000000000000000000000000C0000000000000000! 3 GROWTH OF HYDRAULIC MINING BY. FTER the discovery of gold in liforn in 1848, the number- population, which 1 the streams of 1 and Oregon, was mostly devoted to individual minin The pick, shovel and some light wash- ing tools, easy to pack along the rough trails of the early days’ diggings, we: forming the modest outfit of those pr pectors. They first invaded the richest and shallowest place and their large crowd estimated at mc than 50,000 mren, in September, 1850, had very soon exhausted the surface diggings. The miners tnen had to turn their ef- forts on the poorer and more extensive eds of auriferous gravel deposited in the ancient and inferior channels of the rivers—deposits on which the in- dividual laborer had a small chance of success and which required the union of a certain number of men. Tp to that period the prehistoric methods of working gold - bearing ground were the only ones known. The California miner could be n at that time using the ground sluicing about in the same way as did the old miners of the time of King slomon, who washed out the high placer mines on the southern coast of Spain. They di- verted the water from the mountain creeks, accumulating it sometimes in a reservoir, and mining with a big head of water the rich bed of some gulch, into which they also wheel or shoveled whatever concentra ‘was encountered on the rims. The inconvenience of that long and costly method brought to light in the ingenious and inventive mind of the California miners two ideas whichrev lutionized the gold mining proc The sluice appeared first—a wooden canal, paved with rocks, blocks or r fles, which, taking the place of the ir- regular bed of the ground cut, allowed them to save quicker and more com- pletely the gold of the gravel. But it was yet necessary, to bring the gravel to the sluice, by the tedious means of the shovel or wheelbarrow. At this juncture (1852) in the quick develop- ment of mining E. Matthison of Cone te gravel ass IN THAS STATE E. SALADIN, of the French Hyd lic Mining Company. necticut had the great 1aea of swee ing the gravel into the sluic of a jet of water under p ust the original proces or this purpose wate to the claim in rawhide hose and charged through a wooden nozzle against a bank. Torn by the water, rried into the sluic and shoveling was thus avoided. large saving in the cost of mining w: effected, amount of mater being was orter time. This was the first step in hyc alic mining. It is this remarkableinvention which, apidly improved and brought to its present state of perfection, put the California miner in position to work economically the imme deposits of auriferous gravel which have been since fifty years one of the greatest sources of prosperity in the Golden State. It is a wonderful tool for recovering gold, put to-day in the hands of the hydraulic miner by the genius, indus- try and practicalness of the present generation of mine: We are in- debted to the geniuses for that power- ful “Giant,” mana; ble as a well- trained horse, obeying to the lightest 1 ure of the hand, brings to the ex- act spot where it is wanted the tre- mendous power of the whole immense hydraulic fall scientifically managed to feed it. The improvement brought by this single tool is easily measured by com- i the old work, where one miner hoveling only fifteen to twenty cubic yards per twelve hours in his nall sluice. With the new hydraulic machinery one man working a giant discharging 1500 miners’ inches of water, can wash 2000 cubic yards or more in the same time. Such a giant, working under an effective pressure of 200. feet, distributes a force of 1000 horsepower. One understands ve. . easily that when a miner turns that 1000 horsepower broom against a bank of gravel it rips, tears and easily sweeps the gold bearing dirt smoothly to the sluice, where the gold is left. The management of such a machine needs an experience and a skill that can be credited without contest to the alifornia during th. the ir 1884 in cubic feet of water. were abl From the lows through di box of the wo; most noted ¢ or 2000 mi of $500,000. the water syste; Hydr cludes fourteen ditch with two tunnel of about syphon one mile of flume, t Francaise de Junc with ten verted feet depr one inverted crossing Trinity bridge, 36 i es miner. Water ted at a sufficient ks able to furnish water reser 1ging to the planks of precipitous means of inverted s famous throughcut the world; thence at a c ulic Gold Mining Company verville, Trinity County, which in- e rainy storage re in California 0,000,000 to s oirs the tches or flumes dug or water thence it crosses deep valleys yphons made of heet iron, which have made California it where it » the head- Some of the rful hydraulic orth Bioom carrying of long, st $466,70 3000 miners’ inch: South Yuba ( les at a cost of lley and Che ners’ inches, Among the most recent is m of the La Grange near and a half miles of inverted syphons, one 8400 feet, an inverted in length, 1000 feet de- on, 30 inches in diameter and 12 o the head of the sys- ater. Also s Hydrauliqu: Trinity ditch, one i feet long, s in diameter, feet long river on a suspension in diameter, carrying 3000 inches of water. It is easier to understand the magni- tude of such works when sidered that they have in it is most con- in- stances been constructed far from any railroads; that for the flumes had to be cut the lumber necessary on the mountains where the works were pro- gressing, and long roads had to be built for the transportation of the hun- dreds of tons of pipe required by the siphons. After having run through the “giant” and having disi: the water carries that gravel into ntegrated the gravel, the sluices where the gold is saved between the pieces of the pavement. Finally the water carries the tailings to the dump, where it quantities. Such, in a .t accumulates in large words, are the main ti of hydraulic mining. But, order to understand the econom) and the high practical character of t method, it is necessary to have seen it put into practice in the various conditions presented by the picturesque mountains of California. From the :d in the deep forest, tners work with a 7-inch pipe and a small stream of water, to the big works ranging five or six big gravel banks 200 to 300 eloping their pipes, sluices, g cuts on a half-mile working t. with their imposing ma- t of derricks, wire ropes, electric s and telephones, one finds always peculiar character to the You get the sensation of a tre- mendous amount of work being done with little or no labor. The immense pits look like deserts, And when, dur- ing the night, under the quiet illumina- tion of the arc lights, you see the tre- mendous ams of water thrown in long paraholic curves, imbroiling in a thundering war gravel and bowlders, and ramming the mountain that melts before them into caves, you cannot help feeling an overpowering emotion. It s that for a time some Satanic e is at work destroying the earth, that the work is more than human. But, after all, it is simply the focused brain efforts of those persevering, in- mitable pioneers who fifty vears ago opened the mountains of California to civilization and industry. The perfect adaptation of hydraulic mining to the special conditions of placers in California has produced enormous financial results. They would be yet more valuable had not hydraulic mining been partially .stopped by the anti-debris law. Most of the gold production of gravel deposits, figuring from official sta- tisti s due to hydraulic mining. The field open to hydraulic mining in Cali- fornia is very far from being ex- hausted. In the narthern part of the State there are a great many valuable deposits not subject to the anti-debris law. Those fields were neglected in the early mining days. Some of them are still difficult of access. Those fields are only waiting for the opening of the country to be put in competition with the famous old mines of the Sierra Ne- vadas. As for the old and well-known mines temporarily stopped by the anti- debris law, it would probably be un- safe to say that they will never be opened again. In the same way that the hydraulic method opened a Pre. tically unlimited field years as. = will the improvements in the v - munications, in the mining mater al every five minutes and thawed rolling over big bowlders as and in the working methods bring ut ways of working these old min that will satisfy the law and be an- other great boon to the growing Golden State. E. SALADIN. e — KLONDIKE NECESSITIES. I am amazed at the popular igno- rance concerning a proper outfit for the Klondike. I have before me sev- eral newspaper lists of articles neces- sary for the outfit. The longest only contains three hundred and forty-sev- en items. How ridiculously inadequate. Now, I flatter myself that I know something about the matter. I have been hunting for gold all.my life, al- though I have seldom obtained any- thing better than silvér and dirty bank bills. Moreover, I was a miner for a number of years. I can mention a number of things that should be added to these lists, and which are just as useful as half the articles now on them. In the first place, take along your full-dress suit. Gold hunting is adven- ture pure and simple, and almost every adventurer 1 have seen wears a full-dress suit. In fact, often he pos- sesses no other. Cigarettes should be added to go with the dress suit; also patent leathers and monocle. The lat- ter is aiso useful while actually look- ing for gold. . None of the lists mention whisky. Take lots of it. It is weary work wait- ing for the gold to turn up, and you want to pass away the time as happily as possible. There is no danger attend- ing its use, for as soon as-you find gold you can take the gold cure. Take along at least twenty pounds of axle grease to rub on the runners of your sled. It will make the sled slip over the snow easily. Moreover, you can eat it if your grub runs short. Every list I have seen contains a cooking-stove. Remember that you cannot cook over a camp fire. For the same reason you should take along a large base-burner heating-stove. A camp fire wouldn't keep you warm. Don’t forget your silk hat. Take alonz plenty of starch for your linen. -In the days of the argonauts men suffere” cenly because of a lack of clean<in® .uaterial. dest = "5:; One of the sad- ‘i the old days, at which ~=ed to weep, began as fol- 4-by, old standing collar, :¥iih all yor pride and starch. “)e Worn you from September Lill the seventeenth of March. ‘<o, don’t forget to take along a si. /1 sack of flour and a few pounds ~~ bacon.—The Yellow Book. were feathers that a child could blow agross the floor, is simply indescribable. The stream is so rigid as it leav s the nozzle that a knife-blade cannot be pressed into it any more than if it were a marble slab. To give a practical illustration of its mighty force it would be no exaggeration to state that with this machine, equipped as we see it here-and under sim- ilar pressure, stationed at the entrance of the Crocker building in this city, the Masonic Temple could he demolished in less than hali a day. There is no more beautiful sight in the world than casily as though they tiv 'AMONG THE WOMEN half a dozen monitors at work in the early morninz The soft rays of the sun catch the myriad drops of water and turn each into a flashing gem: rainbows ang over each stream and throw off a thousand MINERS OF RANDSBURG WENT to Randsburg the other day to see if there were not women miners there, and the first one 1 met was Mrs. Furgerson. She is a Kentucky woman, * who, although she was but girl then, made things o0 extremely liv in Rer vicin- ity during the war that it was neces- sary not only to imprison but to shackle her for six months. In addi- tion to being actually destitute when released, she was so crippled that she could not walk for months; but I don't think she blames the North for it, for she admits that nothing short of that could have kept her in the prison. She has’lived in Los Angeles for thirty-two ars, and is a brilliant example of what a woman whe has had no train- ing may accomplish in business if she ouly have intelligence and confidence. She said: “I really understand more about water systems and real estate transactions than mining, but I have become interested in these mines here and am convinced of their value, and 1 believe Randsburg will be a most im- portant mining centér as soon as we can get a good flow of water into the town, so I have left my other interests in competent hands and am devoting all my time to this place. I have a mine of my own and an interest in several others about nine miles from here. The ore is mostly silver and lead, and we are tunneling for it. I would have been back earlier, but I thought the boys would like a batch of light bread, and I stopped to make it. I have located a new mine at Pa- hute Rock, and am putting up a mill to crush my own ore and thus save the expense of hauling to the mill that 1 have to do here. Mrs. Sophie W. Knight, who is well known all over the country as a Chau- tauqua lecturer on cooking and its in- troduction into the public schools, is living in Randsburg and is part owner in a number of mines. The balance of the company are in San Francisco, and she manages all their affairs in andsburg. She 'said, laughingly: 'm very busily engaged in mining, but I'm not the sort of ‘material’ you want at all. T'll take you to see Mrs. Sutherland and Mrs. Garrison, who do the work themselves.” Mrs. Garrison had located a new claim, and was jubi- lant over the prospect. She was dressed irr a short skirt and waist of wool, thic hoes and leggins and a cap, all showing signs of heavy wear, and her face was much tanned by exposure. “Indeed, my clothes have had hard ge,” she said, “and a number of s before this. T was a student of geology and wildly interested in min- erals in my school days: but I mar- ried, and my duty to my family came first. 1 had to wait until my four children were grown and married be- fore I had a chance to go on with this work. For the last few years I have given all my time to it, and I hope never to liv n a city again. “I am completely happyein this life; the mountains are my friends. When I die I want to be buried in them, and until then I will live among them. 1 learned the business by taking an old prospector out with me and making him explain over and over again every foot of ground we covered. Then I be- gan to experiment myself, and I have had splendid success. I located alone fourteen mines in Inyo County, all of which turned out well. I lived five months in the canyons where those mines are, with one of my little grand- sons for company. “How do I prospect? Well, I take my miner’s pick, the long handle serv- ing for a cane, and travel over the hills until I find a place that I like the looks of. I pile up the rocks for my monu- ment, put in a piece of paper describ- ing my claim, return to town and have the duplicate recorded and ‘horn out’ the specimens I've brought in. If they show ‘color’ I load my dry washer on to my burro and lead him to the claim, and while my partner throws the dirt on I turn the crank to shake the screen. After about a dezen or fifteen shovelfuls have gone through we take out the riffleboard and blow the dust out of the riffles. What gold there is catches in the riffles and we gather it up, and then she turns the crank while I shovel. Some dirt is so rich it pays to work it over three or four times, but as a rule twice is enough. My claims here are so dry that I don’t need to work with the pick at all. We can lift it all out with the shovel. It's simply fascinating work. You're never happy at anything “else after you really get into it. T'm going to try this new washer now.” ADELINE SUMNER. =