The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-07-29
USING ELECTRIC POWER
DREDGING IN FAR NORTH
FIRST INSTALLATION BY YUKON
GOLD ALMOST WITHIN ARCTIC
CIRCLE.


are strange things done in the mid
night sun by the men who moil fol
gold After the first rush of the argo.
nauts to these fields, which have yield.
ed up over 300 millions in gold. came
the large operators who, having the
courage of their convictions. and I'M
deferred by the six months of ice and
snow, weather 70 degrees below, thirty
feet of everything frozen ground and
1000 miles of hazardous transporta-
ton, risked over twenty-five million
dollars in hydro electric and steam
turbine plants with miles of bitches
and powerful hydraulics to scrape the
klondike river from source to mouth
for its hidden wealth, writes Allen f..
Ransom of the Westinghouse company.
Among the first of these was the
Yukon Gold company. with o. B. Per-
ry, of New York, who installed. a few
miles above Dawson. a hydro electric
plant of 1875 XIV. operating under
65O-foot head. and consisting of three
54-inch Pelton water wheels each di-
rect connected to a 625-kw., 22OO-volt.
S-phase, 6O-cycle, $50 rpm A. c. gen
orator with 17-kw., 125-volt exciters.
and controlled by six panel switch
board with a voltage regulator all of
Westinghouse manufacture The cur
rent was stepped up from generator
voltage by nine transformers to $4,000
volts.
Miles of Transmission Lines.
With thirty-six miles of main line
transmission and eighteen miles of
branches, this company supplied
energy for nine electric dredges each
utilizing from 300 to 500 b. D. and
capable of handling from 5000 to T.
600 yards of thawed gravel per day
during the dredging season which ex-
tends from May Is to November 1
each year. With gravel running from
500 to $1.OO per yard and sometimes
richer, and only four men required on
a shift the short operating season |
yields rich returns.
One of the typical excavating ma
chimes is a Cucyrus dredge, with ~ |
foot buckets requiring 400 h. p. and |
having daily capacity of 5,O42 Gu /
bic yards. This dredge as were a |
number of the Others was equipped |
with Westinghouse induction motors.
ranging in capacity from 100 h. p. on
the main drive to the smaller sizes on
the pump motors. This plant of the
Yukon Gold company, installed in 1905,
has operated continuously and profit
ably ever since.
Following this development came
that of the Canadian Klondike com
pany with Joseph Boyle at its head
Having located water power on the
North Fork of the Klondyke river,
about twenty-six miles above Daw-
son and within ITS miles of he Arctic
circle, 10000 h. p. hydro electric
plant was installed in 19O6-OS The
electric equipment contract for which
was let to the Westinghouse company.
consisted of two 5000 ky-a. 230O-volt,
iO-cycle, phase, 514 rpm. A. c. gem
orators direct connected to 5000 h. D.
. p. Morris Francis reactionary tur-
)ine wheels; one IS XIV. EXETER direct
to a S6-inch water wheel
Ind one IS XIV. motor generator ex-
liter, together with six panel switch
BOARD and two banks of step-up
transformers from $4,000 to $4,000
otis each bank consisting of three $
$50 kv-a OIWC transformers.
Bear Creek Installation.
At Bear Creek a step-down station p
# $500 XIV was built to supply the p
'arious dredges in the district Later, r.
so XIV. steam turbine auxiliary was O
o connected through step-up trans h
ormers of equal capacity, that at least "
ne dredge could be operated by steam n
ower ahead of the others at the be- +
inning and end of the season. This q
liant being located further north than d
he Yukon Gold plant, the company @
Ound it necessary to install electric o
eaters at the intake and at intervals n
f about two miles in it's six-mile II
over ditch and also in the receiving II
hamber at the penstock heads to 8,
eep the anchor ice thawed out. q.
This company operated four dredges r,
hree of which were much larger than W
hose used by the Yukon Gold COM o,
any, having a capacity of 10000 to ST
1000 yards per day. al
At the Bear creek station a physical q,
was made with the system So
the Yukon Gold company and the o
wo systems operated in parallel, but V;
,r a number of years this plant car eli
ed both systems. ell
Difficulties of Transportation, Etc.
The 10000 h. p. plant of the North
estern Light Power and Coal COM
any, was a Westinghouse steam tur- d.
inc station. located at Coal Creek hi
bout forty-five miles down the Yu- U
on from Dawson. m
The equipment for this station was &c
tipped largely by the British West in
ghouse company, at a great expense dc
ON Manchester, England, across 90
exico to the Pacific and via the San al
water route to- Skagway AZ
nd St Michaels and then by the II
rhite Pass railroad, a thousand mile pc