Morning journal and courier., 1891-05-06

monitor that gives the pressure. With from. three hundred to four hundred and fifty feet fall the execution done is tre- mendous. At the monitor the water is conducted into a still smaller pipe with nozzle about one-third the size of the supply pipe, the compression giving it still greater force. The monitor is con- structed something like the ordinary hose nozzle, but has a ball joint that permits it to swing in any direction. It is balanced with weights, and by means of an ingen- ious device known as defieCtor the tre- mendous stream can be turned in any di- rection by the slightest force. Almost the weight of finger will suffice to direct the movement.
 Easily as it is managed, however, the monitor sometimes becomes uncontrolls- ble, and when this happens & scene of de- struction and even death ensues. The pipe sways to and fro at its own volition, | and the stream flies first in one direction and then in another. If the miners are not warned in time to get out of range | they may be moved down as if by the dis | charge of a volley of grape. Sometimes | the runaway monitor seems as if manipu- | lated by some bloodthirsty monster, and | appears-to be deliberately turned upon the fleeing men, following them as they fly in
 every direction and overtaking them be- | fore they can reach place of safety. In one case, a sluice tender, hearing an unu-
 sual noise, raised himself above the edge | of the cut in which the sluices ran just in
 time to receive the full stream square in | his face and chest. He was knocked | down, thrown into the sluice and washed
 away. When found his body had not a
 stitch of clothes upon it, and apparently
 every bone in it was broken.
 When monitor gets away from control in this manner there are two things that can be done. The water may be shut of | at the head gate, process involving much | delay and perhaps loss, or some brave | man may rush in and get to the monitor
 without being struck by the stream, To do this requires agility and pluck. The
 stream is liable to box the compass inside | of minute, and its course must be
 watched and the probable direction noted. | Then over the rough surface the man must
 hasten, careful not to make a misstep, and
 at the same time ready to flee should the cratic stream betray tendency to change | it's course so as to endanger life. There | have been many hair-breadth escapes and
 some thrilling exhibition of bravery under | such circumstances as this, and it has
 been only by the exercise of the greatest
 coolness and bravery that great loss of | property and life has been prevented.
 l A. J. Bowie, of this city, in his work on | hydraulic mining, states that the stream
 from a six-inch nozzle, with four hundred | and fifty feet vertical pressure, delivers 8
 blow equal to 5SS, 135 foot pounds per sec | ond, equivalent to 1,010 horse power
 When one comprehends this fact he will
 be abundantly prepared to believe almost
 anything that could be said about the power exerted by such a stream.
 l With force such as that exerted by the
 stream from a monitor, it is apparent that | tremendous amount of material can be | washed away in n very short time. The | quantity removed depends, of course, upon
 its nature, whether loose soil, ordinary | gravel or cement gravel. In some places, | under favorable circumstances, as high as | thirty-six cubic yards to each inch of wa ter have been removed in twenty-four hours. With flow of five hundred inch.
 es the bulk removed each day is thus seen
 to be enormous. In cement gravel the
 amount handled daily is as little as three
 cubic yards per inch. The quantity han
 dled daily is, however, almost entirely de
 pendent upon the grade of the sluices
 in the case of the highest amount just
 mentioned the stream had a fall or head
 of three hundred and fifty feet, the bank;
 were one hundred feet high, and th; | sluices had grade of one inch to the foot | while one thousand inches of water wer'
 used. Under such conditions and witt
 such results it must be apparent that tn | removal of mou,- tains is only question of time-snd not very long time either ! Some idea of the immense amount O
 earth and gravel moved by the hydrauli mines of this state can be gathered fror
 some recently published statistics upol r this point. During the height of the hy
 draulic industry there were in use iron the Feather, Yuba, Bear and Americsl ! rivers Butte creek and the two Dry creeks I l total of 10, $50, ,505 miners inches of wa ' ter each twenty-four hours. At an aver , age of three and one-half cubic yards O , | gravel to the inch there was thus washe s away daily thirty eight million six hun f dred thousand yards of material. This | a low estimate. As an actual fact muc 8 more was carried away. But the amour
 stated represents a mass of earth five huT
 dred yards long, three hundred and eighty
 six yards wide and two hundred yard
 high. With such tremendous qusntit e washed away every twenty four hours,
 can readily be understood that no grea
 length of time need elapse literally to IL n move mountains and cast them into th
 I