Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1903-02-19
EASTERN IDEA OF MINING
Philadelphia Papers Description
OF Hydraulic Mining.


The Philadelphia Record published
the following article descriptive of n
hydraulic mine which is valuable as
showing the accuracy of long distance
knowledge. To those who have some
knowledge of hydraulic mines, the
article is humorous in the highest de-
gree, A three ton giant; the weight
ing down of the same with 10 or IL
tons of rocks for 100 foot pressure
the novel manner of collecting the
water, dispensing with bitches; ton
bowlders jumping like corks; all
these are details to command the
humor of the hydraulic miner:
I'm some parts of the west there are
great banks of pebbles and boulders in
which gold is to be found. 1t is not
there as nuggets, or even rs ore, but as
fine particles that have been washed
down into the depths of the hills by
the long-continued action of natural
forces. This gold cannot be obtained
by the usual methods of the miner.
1t would not pay him to adopt them,
because the PARTICLES are so fine and
so scattered that the time consumed
in getting them out would be worth
more than the product. To the sue
cessful working of these great pebble
cliffs the miner has adapted a stream
of water, which does the work
thoroughly unaided by any force ex-
cept its own,
In many. directions away up on the
surrounding hills, sluices and water
ways are constructed so that the little
streams and rills will send their
waters down to n reservoir which is
built somewhere within 300 or 400
yards of the cliff that is to be worked
aud 100 or $50 feet above it. The
reservoir 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
workmen will direct the stream thus
conveyed to them.
At this point a 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 weighed down
with 10 or 10 tons of rock. And yet it
is merely a nozzle jointed to the iron
pipe that brings the water from the
reservoir, Why it is so heavily
weighted down will soon be seen.
The nozzle, heavy as it is, is so con.
structed that it may he directed at any
part of the cliff by the hands Of one
man, and yet if it should, by any un-
fortunate accident, get out of the
man control, and the water be not
instantly turned off at the reservoir,
it becomes as unmanageable 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 boulders, some of the
latter weighing more than a ton, are
knocked down and scattered about
like corks in the fury of hurricane.
The force Of this stream is almost in
credible. 1t has no power behind IL
but its own gravity, and as it strikes
the cliff it makes a 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 a
knife blade in 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
han an inch in, but the bar will b,
wrenched violently from his hands.
Nor could the strongest man that
lives drive an ax into the stream fur.
ther than half an inch. Sometimes
a nozzle will tear itself loose from its
fastenings and when that happens the
streams deals destruction and death all
around it until some one shuts of the
water up at the reservoir.