The morning call., 1895-01-31
In THE COAST MINES.
Progress Of Development in
Lead and Ledge.
NEWS FROM MANY COUNTIES.
An Abundance Of Water for the Gravel
Claims.
QUARTZ MEN ARE HUNTING PUMPS,
The Majority Of Those Engaged in the
Industry PrOSpering and the Out.
look Encouraging.

The quartz miners with little pump
| want big one and those with big pump
want bigger one these days, for the
gravel is SO thoroughly soaked by the copi-
Gus rains that mines all over the State
have great quantities of surface water to
contend with as well as the usual supply
| from underground. Hundreds of quartz
mines have had to suspend all operations
but that of pumping of late, and are kept
| busy at that The seepage of surface wa
ter may seem a little thing in mining OPP
Grafton, but when rivulets and streams are
running in every direction as during
heavy rains the surface water which soaks
| down into the mine becomes considerable
in amount.
| However, the owners of gravel claims re-
| joice in the abundance of flowing water, es-
pecially those with small claims and no
licenses to mine from the California Debris
Commission. A good big stream falling
down along bank will wash away consid-
cradle material, especially if at all encour-
I'aged; and it does it without breaking any
law, too, if not led through a nozzle or
giant under pressure.
The heavy snowfall on the mountains
ensures very abundant supply of water
for next seasons operations in both
quartz and gravel mines. This is not so
important now as formerly, when all the
big hydraulic mines of the State were per-
mitted to work. AS it is only fifty or sixty
of them in the drainage basins of the
Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers have
permits to mine under the Caminetti law,
but most of these are large claims. Still
c+y~fof Tod hoi,.
cannot use as much water as formerly
owing to the legal necessity of impound-
| ing their debris.
But up in Siskiyou and Trinity coun-
| ties where the streams carry the debris
| into the Klamath Ga non-navigable stream)
| and go to the ocean, they will have good
| mining season this year. There arc
hundreds of gravel claims in these coun-
| ties being worked, and also an immense
area of undeveloped auriferous gravel
| region. And all along the Klamath and
its tributaries are surface, bar, river-bed
and bank diggings, where the miners will
want plenty of water next season.
| And up in Nevada, Calaveras, Amador,
| Placer, El Dorado, Tuolumne and the other
older mining counties, they use water
power for the mills, and the great banks of
snow in the mountains are storing 1T up
for the coming summer. Plenty of water
is good thing for the miner in his opera
tons. and he needs it as much as the
farmer does in his.
The Evolution of the Stamp Mill.
What is known as the California gold
mill, now in use all over the world where
there are gold mines, was, in it's complete
ness, invented by nobody. Like Topsy, sit
growed.' OF course, there was a basis in
the old modern stamp-stems and tappets
which were first put up in California, but
year after year improvements, born OF ex-
perience, were added, until it became the
complete and efficient stamp mill it now is.
Hundreds of inventions have been intro
duced to supersede it, but the stamp mill
is still the king of quartz reducers. From
Alaska to South Africa the music of the
stamps rejoices the heart of the sturdy and
hopeful miner, for as they drop he knows
the ore he has taken from the mine is
yielding up its riches.
AT this late day comes short chapter
on the history of the evolution of the Cal
ifornia mill, from the pen of John CONFESS,
now of Boston, Mass, but for many years
well-known resident of this State. In
writing to friend in Tuolumne County
he says: "Once in my California life
/ invested in one of the rich mines on
Amador Creek, where Hayward obtained
his first fortune. He was placer miner
III DOTdQO, near where lived. Az CldJ
time there was one stamp mill in place
and at work on Amador Creek. It was of
an English pattern. The shafts of the
stamps were square beams of wood, not
less than eight or ten inches square, and |
the cams ran into mortises in the shafts, |
by which the stamps were lifted. | was
one of the two appointed by our COM
pany to go to San Francisco and have |
a mill made to work our lode.
'tObserying the Anmdor mill work and |
noting its clumsiness, and afterward, on
the way down the Sacramento River on the |
steamer Confidence, observing what are
called the lifting-rods of the engine rise and
fall through metallic boxes smoothly and !
without friction, l adopted the plan of
having the shafts of the pestles made of |
iron, turned smoothly, and run in metallic |
boxes, like those on the steamer Confidence. |
A shoulder was keyed on the shaft or
Efting-rod so that the cam could lift |
readily but, as the shaft or rod was round, |
and SO that the lift might be done by a |
hold on both sides of the rod against the |
keyed shoulder, we had the cam made with !
two arms instead of one-iust like two of |
your fingers. The mill was erected and it |
worked beautifully.
''Now one of the difficulties of the Eng
lish pattern mill was that the stamp rose
and fell perfectly straight 1t worked be-
tween two heavy beams of wood, which
were horizontally placed to keep the rise
and fall of the pestle within its narrow
bounds. The result was that the ore or
rock would get into the angles of the
mortar and the faces of all the pestles
would become worn unevenly, and, hnally,
either side of pestle would look like
wedge and fall with thud, not doing its
work of pulverizing the ore. The pestles
were constantly being removed to be cast
over, and as often wearing uneVenly on
their faces
''Our mill being round and swinging
little to the right and left, and as you will
see, having no lateral beams keeping
square pestle rods rising and falling per-
pendicularly, was a great improvement on
the face wearing plan, which was seen at
once. But one day one of the cams lost
one of its forks or fingers, by breaking off
at the junction and at once this stamp,
while it raised with perfect ease, had an in
creased swing rotating from one side to
the other. and its face, having an equality
of wear, did its work beautifully. There