The Ketchum keystone. (Ketchum, Idaho) 1881-1884, 1882-09-22
COLUMBIA \ BEAVER MILL.
Works Recently Completed and Non in
Operation ut Sawtooth.


The construction of the Columbia |
Il Beaver quartz mill situated one
halfm from Sawtooth city, was be-
gun little over one year ago under
the superintendent ofDr. Cortright,
bythej joint company fthe respective
owners Of the Columbia and Beaver
mines, located two and one-half miles
further up the Sawtooth gulch
Machinery rolled in in considerable
quantities last fall and in the spring,
and with q good management in the
hands Of ]. K Owens, well known
millwright of the Pacific coast, the
proprietors were enabled To com
plete their mill by the first of Au-
gust, soon after when it was run
ming to entire satisfaction on Column
bia Il Beaver second class ore, The
works occupy building 85xl22y85
feet, which is built against the hill
with benches in the same correspond
ing to each floor, there being five in
number, and with single slant roof
the angle of which very nearly coin
cides with that Of the hillside. BY
this plan of construction, the edifice
is rendered convenient and eommodi-
GUS with far less expenditure than
would necessarily attend the cree
ton asimilarly large structure up
on level ground, or with q double
roof as is theca with the Vienna
mill. A Wagon grade is made along
the hillside above the fifth story,
and here the ore is introduced to I'M
dergo successfully hefollowing pro-
cesses; chloridizing and crushing on
fifth floor; pulverizing, on fourth
floor, by means of q ten stamp bat
terry from which the dust is carried
through an archimedean screw to
a hopper which empties into the
dryer when in position; next, dry
ing, on third floor, by means of a ro-
tary draft dryer from which the
material is carried iii elevator cups
to the rooster; then roasting, on
same floor, where large rotary fur
mace with capacity for roasting %
tons per day, fnishes the ehlorid-
izing process; finally, leeohings on
second floor, where it is successfully
reduced to q chloride filtrate, and a
sulphide preeipitate, thro' chemical
action in two rows of large compact
watts at different elevations and sup
piled with filtering bottoms, The
preeipitate is remov'd from the low
er row of watts to q furnace on the
first floor, where the finishing pro-
cess consists in the disengagement
of the sulphur re-agent, andrunning
the pure silver into bars from large
graphite erueibles.
On the first floor is planteda beau
tiful piece Of machinery IN the way
of a 65-horse-power engine from the
Pacific Iron Works, which is the
propeIHng power Of the entire mill.
The several depsstfrtt fflesits of ehior-
idizing, leeehing, and engineering,
are respectively under the supervi-
sion of MrT Boyd, MI. Giles. and
Mr.. ]. Davis, all gentlemen Of exper-
fence, and well qualified for the re-
speetive duties in their trust, and
| the whole mill IN motion, presents
as uniform, compact and graceful a
piece of machinery as was ever seen
in operation. The machinery EN-
ployed is from the Pacific Iron
Works, Rankin Brayton 4 Co, OF
| San Francisco, and would certainly
be q credit to any foundry in
America.
The capacity ofmthe i'll is in reali-
| ty 20 stamps, but ten Of these how
ever are at present set up for use,
With this number the mill IS enabled
to consume fifteen tons per day, and
being selfregulating IN every re-
spect, requires for It's attendance
but ten men,
The works have 50 far run to en-
tire satisfaction, 4 silver brick
was turned out last week that
I watched 81 Der cent. Of the ASSAY