Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-04-10
WATER IN MOTION.
Wonderful Statements of the Tremendous
Power of Water Jets


General Scofeld's house in Washington
Among the guests were President Harri-
son, Chief Justice Fuller, the late Sccre-
tary Window, Speaker Reed, Senator
Sherman and Senator Stafford and Justice
Stephen J. field.
During the dinner the conversation
turned upon mining operations IN Califor-
MIA. and Jddge Field, whose knowledge of
all matter relating to the Pacific coast Is
as extensive as his powers of narrativ? are
entertaining. astoniShed the distinguished
guests by some of his assertions in regard
to the force of the jets Of water employed in
notwithstanding. He described the wonder
full manner in which the streams from the
hose cut to pieces and tear down the hills
that hold the precious metal Judge Field
cited James G. Fair for his authority for
the statement that under a vertical pres
sure Of one or two hundred feet the force
OF the stream is sOmetI mes so great as to
hqrl away or hold powders weighing a
thousand pounds, and that it would be no
more possible to cut through such
stream with crUwbar or au AK, where it
issued from the nozzle, than to sever eight
inches of solid iron with penknife.
AS Judge Field afterwards informed
Senator Fair, in letter asking for ex.
pert testimony about the power of water
applied by hydraulic machinery, these
assertions were received b. some of Gen.
SCoheId'S guests with smiles of polite
incredulity. The eminent jurist felt that
his position. for the moment. was some
what like that of the Engiishmen who in
formed the king of Siam that in England
water often became so hard that people
could walk ou it. 1t Is not at all SurprlS-
ing that the facts grdyeiy alleged by JUS
Field should staEger even an i'm lginltion
like the chief Justices or strain the faith
OF so profound believer In dynamics as
Thomas B. Reed.
In consequence of this incident, and for
the vindication of his own reputation for
veracity, Judge Field has collected from
several of the highest authorities on prac-
tiCal hydraulics evidence AND opinions that
are of great interest. Elk Senator Fair
tell Justice Field that at the Spring Va.
ly gold mine in Cherokee, Cal, the water
used In the hydraulic mining operations
was brought IN pipes aad bitches from a
distance of nearly one hundred miles, and
| that the volume OF water used on every
working day in that mine amounted to
! ten times the number of gallons consumed
| daily by the entire city of San Francisco.
Louis Glass, for sixteen years the super
intendant of the Spring valley mine, as
sures Justice Field that ne has seen
an elght-inch stream. under 3ll feet of
vertical pressure, move in sluggish was
two-ton boulder at distance of twenty
feet from the nozzle; and that the same
stream striking rock of 500 pounds
would throw 1t as man would throw a
twenty-pound weight. No man that
hral - aAlC Glass Il
strike bar through one of these streams
within twenty feet of discharge, and a
.uman being struck by such a stream
would be klIled-p0undad into a shapeless
| mass.
Augustus J. Bowie, of San francisco,
the author of standard book on hydralic
mining. estimates that the stream from a
six-inch nozzle under 450 feet vertical
pressure, delivers a blow of 5SS. 735 foot
| pounds In every second. equivalent to
! | 40 horse power. 1t is absolutely I'M
possible, said Mr.. Bowie. Ito cut such Il
stream with an ak or TO make an impress.
sion on 1t with any other implement.
Mr.. Bowie adds that although never to
his knowledge has man been struck by
such a stream as it comes from the pipe
several accidents have occurred where
miners were killed by very much smaller
streams at distances of $50 or 200 feet from
the nozzle.
After an elaborate series of computa
tions Professor Samuel B. Christy of the
university of California, an eminent au-
thority on mining and metallurgy. re-
ports to Justice Field that if nozzle Of
from six to nine inches diameter were
| specially arranged to throw stream YER
tically upward against a spherical bOwlder
of quartz weighing 1000 pounds, the YER
teal head being anywhere from one hun
bred to FIVE hundred feet, the bowlder
would be forced up until the diminished We
iocity of the stream established an equilib-
rum of pressures. There would be points at
which the upward pressure of the stream
would exactly balance the gravity pressure
of the bowlder, holding it, the half-tOn
rock, there suspended. In practice, of
| course, the boider could not be balanced
accurately upon the axis of the stream, but
would fall &c one side or the other. But if
a large conlcal basket of iron bars we're ar
ranged about the nozzle so as to catch
the holder whenever it should be DETECTED
from the stream and return it to the
nozzle, the 900 pounds of quartz would
be kept in play like a ball IN a fountain.
As to cutting these streams. Prof. Christy
says that he had often tried to drive a
crowbar into one of them. The stream
| felt as solid as bar of iron. and, al
though he could feel the point of the crow
bar enter the water for perhaps half an
inch. the bar was thrown forward with
such force that 1t was almost impossible
to retain it in the grasp. An ak swung
by the most powerful man alive could not
penetrate the stream: yet it might cut
the finger of child if the child were seat
ed on a railway train moving parallel with
the stream in the same direction aud with
/ the same velocity. That velocity would be
considerably more than a mile a minute.
The statements here presented In sum
mary will not ast0nish engineering ex perts
or members OF the New York fire depart
ment. The average citizen, however, is
accu. toned to regard water as the least
destructive liquid than can be put in mo-
tIon, and he i familiar with no stronger
manifestation of its power than the velyety
touch OF the stream from the Croton