The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-04-03
POWERFUL WATER JEre.

The Enormous Force Of Streams with
No Other Power Than That Of GRAY.
lty
In some parts Of the west there are
great banks Of pebbles and boulders IN
which gold Is to be found. Il Is not
there as nuggets, or even as ore. but as
fine particles that have been washed
down into the depth OF the hills by the
long-contnued action of natural forces.
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 scat
tered 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 It's 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 their
waters down to a reservoir which Is
built somewhere within 800 or 400
yards Of the cliff that is to be worked
and 100 to $50 feet above It. The re-
servoir having been built, an iron pipe
varying in diameter from six to twenty
inches, according to the work that Is
to be done, is laid from 1t to what is
called the working level; that is to say,
to the point from which the workmen
will direct the stream thus conveyed to
them.
At this point piece Of machinery 10
built, which weighs from one to three
tons, and the frame on which 1t rests
is not only securely anchored to the
! ground, but is weighted down with ten
or fifteen tons of rock And yet 1t is
merely a nozzle jointed to the iron
pipe that brings the water from the
reservoir. Why 1t is so heavily weighted
down will soon be seen.
The nozzle, heavy as 1t is, is so
constructed that it may be directed at
any part of the cliff by the hands Of
one man; and yet if 1t should by any
unfortunate accident, get out Of the
mans control, and the water be not
! instantly turned off at the reservoir, it
! becomes as unmanageable as 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 dia-
meter Of about eight inches.
The pipeman turns the stream on the
cliff, and pebbles and Founders, some
of the latter weighing more than ton,
are knocked down and scattered about
like corks in the fury Of hgrrico
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 a roar that may be
heard for more than a 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
1t is like solid ice. Try to stick a knife
hlade into it and the knife will be
jerked from the handle. Try to thrust
a crowbar into it-and a strong man
may succeed in getting the point half
an inch in, but the bar will be wrench
ed violently from his hands Nor could
the strongest man that lives drive en-
axe into the stream further than half
an inch
Sometimes a nozzle will tear itself
loose from its fastenings, and when
that happens the stream deals destruc-
ton and death all around it until some
one shuts off the water, up at the reser.
voir. Philadelphia Record.
ri