Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-21

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MANHATTAN, New. June 20.-The
quartz and placer mines of Manhattan
are, to use a popular term, running
neck and neck with each other as
history makers for the camp. Every
week has each its page of good news
to record, and it would seem that the
real activity in the New Klondike"
is only beginning. Now that the big
high tension power line has reached
the camp and is in operation it will
cause renewed activity all along the
main gulch, in which are located the
rich placer fields, and also over the
hills in every direction, where the
quartz mines are busy sending out
their riches. The arrival of the power
will mean that a dozen more placer
properties, which have been waiting
for the current to be turned on, will
start work at once, as they have their
electric equipments all in place and
ready.
Friday was a lucky day for the
gulch, for, before the sun had set over
the distant hills, it had witnessed the
finding of the largest nugget yet re-
covered in the placer district. The
nugget in question weighs 56 penny
weight and measures three and one
half inches long, two and one-halt
inches wide and one-half inch thick.
The nugget was about two-thirds gold
and one-third of reddish brown
quartz and is valued at about $45. The
nugget was found on the Moore Chind-
gren lease, near the scene of the orig
inal placer discovery in the camp, to-
gether with a smaller one worth about
$s, the latter having in some manner
passed from the sluices to the failing
dump, where it was picked up. Fri
day was a good day all around for
the lucky leasers, and their cleanup
in the evening gave them eight ounces
and nine pennyweight of amalgam and
four ounces of nuggets, in addition to
the two nuggets before mentioned.
To Install Dredger
A big thing for the pIacers will be
the installation of a pneumatic dredger|
in the gulch. which will have a ca
pacity of from 500 to 1000 yards Of
gravel every twenty-four hours. The
machine will be installed by the Pneu
matte Dredger company of Sacramen-
to, and the owners state that from
twenty minutes to half an hour from
the time the power is turned on the
machine will have reached bedrock,
distance Of about sixty feet. The
dredger will arrive in the camp this
week ana Will De llSldueQ on the Try
wash Wilson lease on the September
claim. where it will be given a thor
ough test.
The device works somewhat on the
principle of a suction carpet cleaner.
1t consists of a twelve-inch casing,
shaped like stovepipe. Inside of it is
a small pipe carrying air to the end
in the ground the air having a pres
sure of twenty pounds TO the square
inch. The air forces everything that
is loose and not too large to come up
through the casing into sluice boxes.
About two miners inches of water are
required to loosen the material 1t is
practically a plan of excavating and
hosting dirt by air pressure. 1t cleans
the bedrock perfectly, better than
could be done with q broom, taking
every particle out of the crevices. The
boulders, which are not wanted, it
leaves, but it takes all the loose ma
terial from them, leaving them per-
fectly clean. It win sink fifty feet in
one hour, and many places in twenty
minutes. handling 800 tons of dirt a
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