The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-08-04

GLOWING RESULTS ALREADY
PREDICTED.
If Gold LIesln the. Bed of the River
=. 1t VIII Be Scooped Up In
- Short Order.

=. SEATTLE, WASH, Aug. 3-The most
stupendous Undertaking in connection
with the taxing of the virgin gold from
: the icy hills and bleak. water courses OF
Alaska and the Northwest Territory that
has yet been proposed, and beside which
all other attempts appear. puerile and in
significant, is that which has within the
past three days been taken up by group
of well-known Seattle capitalists, at the
head of which is Edward F. Sweeny.
The other mem bers Of what will be a
powerful company do rot for the present
wish to have their names made public
Anything in connection with operations
TO the North must now bear the stamp OF
originality of SIZE, and the matter which
is now made public eclipses anything that
has been proposed REGARDING mining OF
any kind at any time or in any part of
the world.
Saturday there arrived in this city Sam
Gel II. Saleno of San Francisco, the for
eign representative of Alphonseo B. Bow
iers, inventor and owner of the Bowers
dredging patents and of the Bowers sys-
tenn of hydraulic dredging to which the
patents are applied.
MI mas recently returned from
japan and 1t was on the trip back from
the Orient that he met Mr.. Sweeny and to
him communicated his plans for the ap.
plicatlon of the dredger to hydraulic min.
ing.
When the KIondyke fever struck the
country Mr.. Sweeny wired Mr.. Saleno to
come to Seattle. In the meantime the
interest of those who will make up the
balance of the company had been aroused,
but all suggestions of their intentions
. were kept profound secret.
The project has now taken definite
shape. The intention of the company is
to build one of the great earth and mud
eating machines that are converting the
tide lands of the upper bay end into the
blocks OF redeemed land that have m arked
one. of t. e, undertakings that will provide
Seattle with manu- ,acturing sites, and
send it TO the mouth of the Yukon River,
where it will be put together. One of the
differences. that will make the proposed
dredger so unique will be it's power for
propulsion. and its extremely light
draught. The power will be supplied to
stern-wheel, the same as to the light
'draught river steamers.
After the completion of building OF the
dredger at the mouth of the Yukon, she
will start on her tour of investigation up
herIyer, putting her long black beak in to
the sand and gravel OF the bottom and
doing some prospecting on. her own ac-
count. When rich streak is found, she
will churn away with her centrifugal pump
and toss the gravel and nuggets, as we'll
as dust and mud, up by the bushels.
When it is remembered that those who
q. have come down say that days work is
2000 pounds per man, the largeness of the
enterprise appears when these amounts
are multiplied four or five hundred times,
as is possible with the Bowers machine.
When asked what capacity the proposed
dredger would have Mr.. Saleno answered
that it would depend on the wishes and
intentions of the company. He urges that
the gold deposits of the rivers and creeks
are the results of the. washing down by
high waters and the carrying oown of Ice
foes. Upon this assumption the argu-
ment is made that In the deepest channel
the. gold has sunk lower, and as the
dredgere will work down to bedrock the
belief is that the result of pumping from
the bottom will be proportionately richer
1t has been demonstrated that the
Bowers dredger. can deliver at the end of
their conveyor pipes seventy and even a
higher percentage of solid matter. aid at
Mare Island, where work was at one time
being done for the Government. the GEN.
trifugal pump brought up cannon balls,
old tools and old anchor chains. At
Portland the dredger brought up loose
mercury that was lost from broken case.
If 1T. will do this the specific gravity of
gold offers no impeachment to the action
of the pump in bringing it 10 the surface
and delivering it at the dump.
There will be no encroachment upon
the claims of others, as the bottom of the
rivers and creeks is believed TO be the
place where the gold will be found. Mr..
Saleno also says that as the United States
courts have established the ownership OF
the Bowers patents the company will be
protected, and the application of the ideas
will not be granted to others. The con-
tract tor building the dredger will be let
and its cons struction carried on under the
supervision of the.Bowers people and from
their plans and specifications.
To show their entire confidence In the
scheme, Mr.. Saleno says that his people
would be willing to subscribe largely to
the common stock of the Seattle COM
pany, the organization oil which is not yet
public property.
Besides the application OF the dredger
to the yukon, Mr.. Saleno says that If sue
.essful it Will undoubtedly be put into i'm