The Mineral argus. [volume] (Maiden, Mont.) 1883-1886, 1883-11-15

Notwithstanding the great disadvan- |
tages and Inconvenience under which !
they were compelled to labor, have
finished the task, and will soon be
gladdened with silver bars that will
return capital invested and a fortune to
all the owners.
The effect of the showing of the
results of this mill will be great factor
in the future of this district, and its
camp-Maiden-and, although we can
give no statement as to the value of
the weekly cleanup, we feel safe in
asserting that it will astonish the most
sanguine.
We give a full description of the
situation and construction of the mill,
taken from one of our first issues, CIV
ing a complete description of all the
machinery in use, and the manner of
handling the ore as extracted from the
mine, until its rich contents is run into
silver bars.
SITUATION AND DESCRIPTION.
The mill is finely situated on the cast
slope of Crystal Mountain, Just above
Ford's creek, from which stream the
water supply is obtained through II
fume 200 feet long
M, l,,,l,I.,,o. Of "a hn
room 34x40; crushing and sampling
room 34x3G; boiler and engine room
32X3G; pan and settler room 32X02, and
retort and bullion furnace room 24X32.
The frames are of extra heavy timber,
framed and bolted together until one
would think nothing short Of an earth
quake would move it. \ truss roof
with corrugated iron, covers the whole
and completes the fine appearance of
the structure.
We will now proceed To give the
reader description Of the inner works,
commencing with the boiler and engine
room, where will be found the two
boilers which furnish the motive power,
each 81 inches in diameter and lG feet
/ long; these are fed by a No. 4 Knowles
steam pump. Also located in this room
| is a No. Knowles steam pump and
| hose for use i'm case Of fire.
Passing from the boiler room into the
engine room We find, as the centre of
attraction, magnificent Erase d Chal-
mer's Improved Corlcss engine of 100
horse power, which Is intended to drive
all the mill machinery and Is certainly
feapable of doing it
] Ernpn tho qttnIpp rnnnn NO mss IN tho
crushing and sampling room where
smelling ore is sampled and bought.
! Here will be found 4Xl0 Blake Crusher
/ from which the ore, after being crushed,
/ falls to a set Of l0X20 Cornish rolls,
where il is crushed still finer. Passing
| from the rolls it is discharged into u
revolving screen and the particles too
coarse to pass through this screen are
taken back tn the rolls again by an ele-
vator and again crushed. After leaving
the screen it is fed into a Collom auto
matte sampler, which takes an average
sample of the whole lot being run
through. From here the sample is
taken to n Colon patent ore grinder
where it is ground fine enough for
assaying. II is then assayed and set
Element is made upon the basis Of
what the sample contains.
70 the right Of the crushing and
sampling room is the battery room,
where the frce-milling ore is first re-
ceivcd. At Il height Of 3G feet above
the floor of this room the tramway
cars dump their loads upon screen, or
as it is called "grisley." Through this
screen the fine ore falls to the ore bins
below and the coarse humps run down
to gX15 Blake crusher, where they are
crushed and fall to the same place.
From the ore bins TullOck automatic
ore feeders takes the ore and allows a
regular amount of it to run to the bat
teries, which consist of four cast iron
double discharge mortars, each weigh
ing four and one-talf ton. Dropping
in each of these mOrtars are five stamps
each weighing $50 lbs. and falling at the
rate of 90 drops per minute. \ steady
stream of water is fed into the mortars
and the ore or pulp" as it Is then
called, when crushed 10y the stamps
sufficiently fine to pass through n a.
mesh screen, is discharged direct 10 the
pans. This method of discharging
direct to the pans is known as the Boss
process. and saves the labor and expense
of six men in a mill of this size.
Passing from the batteries To the pan
room the pulp is received in twelve
pans, each five feet in diameter Al
this point the salt used in amalgamat
, ing is introduced-the quantity varying
according to the nature Of the ore. Th'
pulp i'm the pans is kept i'm constan
motion by machinery until the salt AN,
Ichamicals have had annie time Ia Worl
and allow the quicksilver to pick up al