Show liel im 1011 M im is M 12 i iii I 1 gold dredging m in the klondike fegion 0 i owl 1 lei lei lei 1 I lei lei Is 1011 the western engineering construction company of san francisco is about to install in the territory south of the yukon district a power transmission plant for the oVe operation ration of a gold dredge which will be erected at atlin B C two miles distant from the power plant this is a new development in the methods of mining in this region which is a very important placer district and much gold that would otherwise be lost will be saved by the use of electrically operated dredges the work to be done here is similar to that carried on at Oi oroville ovIle cal although the gold is coarser in the atlin district being found in nuggets from the size of a pinhead to that of an ostrich egg the electrical eq equipment for this plant consists of the following apparatus recent ly purchased from the westinghouse electrical manufacturing company two on another steamer to be taken across this lake and then freighted to atlin although all of this work has to be done in a very short season owing to the severity of the climate it is expected that the machinery will be jn in operation in july of this year and enough gold recovered during the season to pay the entire cost of the installation stal lation which including the hydraulic machinery amounts to over A gold dredge costs from to depending upon its capacity and consists of the dredging machine proper and the pumping apparatus which supplies the necessary water for washing and sluicing cg the dredge machinery comprises a chain of electrically driven buckets which pick up the material a steel hopper into which the material is emptied a revolving screen designed to receive and wash the excavated material an appliance for carrying off all J N f oll kilowatt belted alternators which are to be driven by water wheels two type F varia ble speed induction motors with controllers two standard type 0 induction motors for driving the pump one of 20 horsepower and the other of 50 horsepower and a 15 horse power type C motor for operating screens it is interesting to follow the route over which this machinery will pass before reaching its destination at atlin from the kasi east pittsburg works of the westinghouse company the apparatus will be shipped directly across the continent to vancouver B C from which city it will be re shipped by steamer to skagway Sk agway it will then be conveyed over the chilkoot chilkott Chil koot pass to caribou by way of the white horse railway carried by teams to tagish lake where it will be reloaded on a small lake steamer and taken to a landing on the other side of the lake then transported on a narrow gauge road about six miles to another lake reloaded loaded re x the coarse tailings and stones that are rejected by the screens a sluice box in which the water and fine material containing the gold are disposed of and in which the gold is saved the stone chute is of a sufficient height and inclination to aci discharge the material clear of one side of the boat so that no obstruction can take place on account of the accumulation of tailings from the under side of the screen all the fine material including the gold is discharged with a considerable quantity of water all of which is carrio carried d off and over the stem of the dredge through a sluice box containing a series of riffles fiffles in which the gold is caught and of a length sufficient to carry the tailings clear of the dredge and to save all the gold when the gold is of too fine a character to be efficiently collected in the ordinary sluice box a finer screen and gold saving tables are employed formerly the dredging apparatus and pumps were operated by steam engines and this practice is still largely continued electric power however horev er is preferable since it admits of the operation of dredges where fuel is difficult to obtain the lighting of the dredge by electricity and if necessary the carrying on of the work at night an electrically tri cally operated dredge is illustrated in this article showing at the left groups of incandescent lamps mounted in reflectors |