The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-01-21
FINE TUAHEL|NG RECORD
Record at Newhouse Bore Is
Eclipsed at Chipeta Tun-
mel, 0uray.

Manager G. II. Doolittle, Of the Bing-
ham-New Haven and Utah & Eastern
properties. has an old 'side-ldck2 over at
Ouray, Colo, of whom ne is justly proud.
his name is w. II. Bunce. He is running
a great mining and drainage bore for the
Cnlpeta Tunnel company, and since oct.
last, according to the Ouray Herald, he
has been smashing the records of the
great NewhOuse bore at Idaho Springs.
Manager Bunce tells the paper what was
being accomplished i'm his eight by eight
root bore for the sixty days ending Dec.
>. that being the time that machine drills
mad been in use at the tunnel. Six hum
dred and forty-one feet In two months,
with two shifts working and one shift
entirely lost. is Mr.. Bunce's record. The
paper tells how the work was and is be-
ing done, as follows:
"A good deal of delay was caused in
starting by the nOa-arriVal of the ma
chinery, so that on oct. 3. when drills
were started. the tunnel had been driven
by hand work distance of go feet. On
Nov. 9 the tape showed $50 feet, and on
Dec. showed 900 feet, run OF OIL rect
in the calendar interval of siXty-one days
As matter of fact one entire shift was
lost I'm October.
Work is carried on by two eight-hour
shifts each day. il being deemed ineXpedi-
ent to work three shifts. The tunnel is
driven eight by eight feet in the clear.
Two three and One-eighth-inch 1ngersoll
drills are run in the heading from a cross
bar. which is set above the muck for the
first setting and the reset after the muck
is hauled away by the muckers, for
drilling the filters. Sixteen holes TO a
round are required to break the tunnel.
The track is laid close as possible TO
one side Of the tunnel, allowing empty
cars to be thrown from the track when
necessary to pass loaded ones. the space
being ample for that purpose. No
switches or switch tracks are used with
i'm the tunnel. Cars are of twenty cubic
feet capacity, and weigh, empty, loco
pounds. Two men throw them off the
track, or return them.
"The entire width of the tunnel is COM
pletely floored with great care for a dis
tance of 20 feet back from the heading.
for the easy ShOVeling of the muck
well as for the easy handling of empty
cars when thrown from the track. Steel
sheets and two-inch plank make the floor
ing.
'The air pressure used is close to 100
pounds abundant compressor capacity
having been provided. Powder used is
forty per cent Extra Hercules. No venti-
lation system is used. the smoke being
blown back by the compressor.
The Chicago Mining World, in its is
sue of Oct. 20. referring to the New
house tunnel at Idaho Springs. stated that
an average of 30 feet per month Tor five
months had been maintained in that bore.
the best speed ever maintained in driv-
ing the Newhouse tunnel. Inasmuch as
the Newhouse tunnel has been considered
the very acme OF tunneling. the record
made by the Chipeta is the more note
worthy. Six hundred and forty-one feet
tunnel driven i'm hard rock, two eight
hour shifts per day. may not be record
achievement but we think il is.
Mr.. Bunce stated further that their
latest performance was 1872 feet in the
two weeks ending on the 9th inst"