The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1903-03-14
POWERFUL WATER JETS.
In Western Gold Mines ana
How Obtained.

In some parts of the west there are
great banks of pebbles and powders
in which gold is. to be found. 1t is
not there as nuggets, or even as ore,
but as fine particles that have been
washed down into the depths of the
hills by the long-continued action of
natural forces, says the Philadelphia
Record.
This gold cannot be obtained by the
usual methods of the miner; it would
not pay him to adopt them, because
the particles are so fine and are SO
scattered that the time consumed in
getting them out would be worth
more than the product.
To the successful working of these
great pebble cliffs the miner has
adapted a stream of water, which does
the work thoroughly unaided by any
force except its own.
In many directions, away up on the
surrounding hills, sluices and water
ways are constructed, so that the lit
tie streams and rills will send sheir
waters down to a reservoir which is
built somewhere within 300 or 400
yards of the cliff that is to be worked
and 10 Dor $50 feet above it. The res
ervoir having been built, an iron pipe,
varying in diameter from six to 20
inches, according to the work that is
to be done, is laid from it to what is
called the working level; that is to
say, to the point from which the work
Elen will direct the stream thus con-
yeyed to them.
At this point piece of machinery is
built, which weighs from one to three
tons, and the frame on which it rests
is not only securely anchored to the
ground, but is weighted down with ten
or Is tons of rock. And yet it is mere
ly nozzle jointed to the iron pipe
that brings the water from the reser-
voir. Why it is so heavily weighted
down will soon be seen.
The nozzle, heavy as it is, is so con-
structed that it may be directed at
any part of the cliff by the hands OF
one man; and yet if it should, by any
unfortunate accident, get out of tho
mans control, and the water be not
instantly turned off at the reservoir,
it becomes as manageable as a tor
nado.
When everything is ready the sluice
gate at the reservoir is opened and
the water begins to run with headlong
force down the iron pipe and out at
the nozzle, which generally has a
diameter of about eight inches
The pipeman turns the stream on
the cliff, and pebbles and powders,
some of the latter weighing more than
ton, are knocked down and scat
tered about like corks in the fury of
hurricane.
The force of this stream is almost
incredible. 1t has no power behind
it but its own gravity, and as it strikes
the cliff it makes roar that may be
heard for more than mile. 1t will
wash down more pay dirt" in one
day than 10000 men could handle with
the old-fashioned rockers"
As the water comes from the nozzle
it is like solid ice. Try to stick q knife
blade into it and the knife will be
jerked from the handle. Try to
thrust crowbar into it-and strong
man may succeed in getting the point
half an inch in, but the bar will be
wrenched violently from his hands.
Nor could the strongest man that
lives drive an ak into the stream fur
Their than half an inch.
Sometimes a nozzle will tear itself
loose from its fastenings, and when
that happens the stream deals de-
struction and death all around it un-
til some one shuts off the water up at
the reservoir.