The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-06-08
YUKON DREDGE BREAKS
MASSIVE STEEL SPUD
CONSTRUCT NEW ONE WITH
LITTLE LOSS IN oPERAT-
ING TIME.

The big steel dredge of the Yukon
Gold company at Murray is out OF
commission for about two weeks, due
to the breaking of the massive steel
spud, the great post so feet in length
which holds the dredge IN position
against the severe strain as the chain
of monster steel buckets dig into the
solid bedrock and loosen the tightly
packed gravel which form the bed of
Prichard creek Prior to the opera
lions of the Yukon company this bed
rock was pronounced by a number of
engineers to be too hard for success
full dredging, but the success of the
Yukon company completely refuted
this opinion. The company has not
only successfully mined the Prichard
creek ground, but by strengthening
many parts of the big machine and
adopting new devices. has steadily
decreased the costs of operation To
fully appreciate what strengthening
the dredge means and the heavy task
it is performing on Prichard creek it
should be understood that in its orig
nal form it was strong enough to dig
the frozen gravel of the Klondike,
where it was used before being
brought to the Occur d'Alenes
Overcome Early Difficulties.
Owing to the hard bedrock and
tightly embedded bOulders of the
Prichard creek formation, the Yukon
experienced five failures of the steel
spud during the first Is months of
operation, which included two failures
of a specially designed and heavily
constructed spud In the spring of
1919 this spud was rebuilt on the
ground at Murray under the direction
of the present Yukon management
with the result that all lost time due
to spud failures was eliminated for
two years and over one hundred days
of operating time has been saved
However, at the end of two years of
terrific strain and hard service, the
steel in this massive post became
crystallized. and on March 26 the
spud gave way under the long con-
tinued heavy pressure this in spite
of the fact that it was five times the
strength of the ordinary steel spud.
To meet this emergency the manage
ment replaced the broken spud with
an old one discarded four years ago,
and at the same time ordered steel
and other material from the east to
reconstruct the spud at Murray. Thus
the dredge was kept in operation I'M
til last Saturday, June 3, when the
old spud went to pieces.
Delay Two Weeks.
The material for the new spud is
now overdue and upon it's arrival it
will require about two weeks to re-
build and replace the new member. d
II. Ferry, manager of the Yukon COM
pany, was in the city last Monday.
and in reply to inquiry regarding re-
sumption said he hoped to be in OPP
Grafton again in two weeks. He said
the company is well equipped for the
construction of the spud, having
machine shop provided with trans
formers motors, compressor and all
necessary tools and machines for
shaping steel plates and for drilling
the holes and placing the thousands
of rivets necessary to hold the big
post intact against hard and continu-
GUS usage. The steel plates were es-
pecially rolled in accordance with
specifications which will insure them
to be the best grade of structural steel
made Mr. Ferry added that the OPP
Grating time lost would not be wasted
as during the wait the dredge will be
given the annual overhauling and all
needed repairs will be made, placing
the big machine in first class condi-
ton when the new spud is in position.