The record-union., 1898-01-22
THE MUIR DREOGER.
OFFER WHICH THE INVENTOR
HAS MADE THE STATE.
His Letter to the Auditing Board
to the Commissioner Of Pub
lie Works.

The following letter of VIM. Muir 10
the Record Union explains itself
Eds. Record Union: 1 have offered
gratis to the State of California, throusn
its Auditing Board, the privilege 10 con
struct control and own one OF my ureu-
gers Gor which l have Unlteo states
patenD, to be operated on the Sacfa-
mento and San Joaquin Rivers ana their
tributaries. After waiting Tor seVeral
months for action to be taken py the
Auditing Board, l submitted the 1oHoW-
ing request ~
Sacramento, Cal, Jan. =, 1898.
John Markley, Esq, Secretary OF
Auditing Board to Commissioners OF
Public Works, Sacramento, Cal.-Dear
Sir: / desire again to call the attention
of your board to the Muir Hy0raulc
Dredger' and respectfully ask full
investigation Of the merits of said sys-
tenn of dredging, at the hands of your
board, and would ask that your ChieT
Engineer be instructed to make a report
to your board as TO the merits Of said
machine.
have heretofore offered TO present to
the State, free OF all charge. the right
to construct and operate one of uese
machines, and desire to urge upon your
vantage Of my offer and giving a thor
ough trial to this new and economical
system of dredging.
l stand ready to present to your engi-
neer or committee, plans and specifca-
tions of my machine. 10 the perfection
CT which 1 have devoted seventeen years
of investigation and labor, and which is
admitted, by competent engineers who
have examined it, to be a wonderful i'm
provement over any other system OF
dredging now known.
My estimate of the capacity of this
machine can be demonstrated by the
application of we'll known mechanical
rules, and l respectfully submit that
your board cannot better serve the in
terests of the people than by investi-
eating and giving a fair trial TO this
system of dredging which promises to
be of SO much value to the State. Re-
spectfully submitted, WIN. MUIR.
Inventor of the Muir Hydraulic
Dredger.
1906 Ninth street, Sacramento.
On January T. 1898. the Board of
Supervisors of Placer County indorsed
my dredging system, and on January
18th l learned that a meeting of the
Auditing Board would be held on the
day following. and l attended; but at
such meeting no action was taken or
committee appointed to investigate the
merits of my dredger, nor was | allowed
to explain my system before said meet
irg.
Statements were permitted to be made
in reference to other dredgers, claiming
to be the only dredgers under the hy
draulic system having a United States
patent, which statements Were mislead-
ing. Mr.. Corcoran stated that il would
take $4,000 to purchase land suffi-
cient to deposit the dredged material on
from ten miles OF the river. If this is
the case, what would become of the ma
terial if the proposed securing process
was adopted? There are large quanti-
ties of low lands along the river which
would be greatly benefited by this ma
terial.
Major Heuer stated that the miners
estimated the cost Of depositing the ma
terial in the river at cents per cubic
yard and that it would cost the Gov
ernment more than that to remove it
from the river bed. l stated. in reply,
that I honestly believed that l could re-
move the material by my process at a
cost OF one-eighth of a cent per cubic
yard. During the last fifty years the
river has only filled a few feet, and, by
the securing process, the material that
is now in the river would be simply de-
posted farther down.
The capacity of the Muir dredger (es-
timated at less than S1500o0 would be
as follows: Boiler capacity 900 horse
power, allowing 2l2 pounds of coal per
horse power viii amount to 100
pounds per hour, equal to G0009 pounds,
or thirty tons, for day Of n hours;
engines cutting eff at = length of
stroke will develop 900 horsepower
when making 30 revolutions per minute,
and with steam at 10 pounds pressure
per square inch; the combined strokes
of pumps. making 10 strokes per minute.
Will develop II 600 cubic feet of water
against 300-foot head, equal to
I95 Clio horse power; allowing this to
be only 30 per cent. of the engine power
on account of friction, etc. the horse
power required is SO. Hydraulic Jets
use 6l@ cubic feet per minute; 5 jets
therefore use 32la cubic feet. which,
having 300 foot head, viii exert force
of GOO, eco feet pounds, 5000 cubic feet
of earth at 120 pounds per cubic foot.
which is equal to 6A lineal feet, 20 feet
deep and 20 feet wide per minute; each
al
300feet head per minute through Mur's
patent nozzle ejector. adjusted for that
pressure. viii raise to a hight of 10 feet
and eject to any distance within Loo
feet. and discharge 4. 400 cubic feet. of
which 10 will be water and % will
be earth. making a total for the five
electors of 30. 600 cubic feet discharged.
or Il. .112 OF water and ASS Of earth.
The chain buckets used for levee build
ing and clearing screen will help to the
amount of speed they are run. The re-
suit is los, ,622 G-21 cubic yards every ten
hours.
The regular mechanical rules applied
to injectors are applied in this case.
The Auditing Board in an informal
manner assured me that my machine
should have due consideration and the
preference, should a machine be re-
Quired. WM. MUIR
Forty Days.