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Show 4 INTER-MOUNTAI- N Power from Mountain Streams. There is a growing tendency among the miners and exploiters of mines in the western part of the United States to utilize as motive power streams which not so very long ago would have been considered unworthy of consideration as sources of power Men are beginning to learn that head counts as well as volume, and that a tiny stream with several hundred feet head may be as valuable a source of power as the more imposing fall of much lower head. Then, too, the little stream needs no expensive dam or head works to confine it, but can be trapped and guided at comparatively small expense, and instead of being allowed to fall freely, it can be led into a pipe which impounds it all, and thus it can be confined and led perhaps 500 to 1000 feet down the mountain, accumulating pressure as it descends until it shoots out with full force against the buckets of the Pelton wheel, or quietly exerts its statical pressure in the chambers of a direct air compressor. Not so very long ago the writer saw a plant being installed over 8000 feet up the Rocky mountains, and the primg itive establishment was Rather than incur very interesting. the expense of hauling the wrought pipe, a small pair of bending rolls had been procured, and these, with a portable forge, constituted the equipment. Under a frame shed by the mountain side three men were turning out length after length of riveted sheet-iro- n pipe, right at the place where it was to be was being conused, and the pipe-lin- e structed 500 feet up the canyon, bringing down over 200 horse power to the spot where is was to be utilized. The operations seemed somewhat primitive at first sight, but the expense account of the establishment was a minimum, and when the cost of burro train and the railway freight, and the profits of several middlemen were taken into account, the miners were probably ahead in the long run. From Cassiers Magazine for September. pipe-makin- MINING REVIEW. ous and fissured limestone at approximately 6,000,000 cubic feet. Scientific accounts of this phenomenon are extremely rare, and no satisfactory explanation has been offered of the essential question, what becomes of this vast body of It cannot sea-wat- An Eastern writer says: Under this title Messrs. F. W. and W. O. Crosby publish, in the Technological Quarterly of March, 1896, an article of extraordinary interest. The facts on which it is based may be briefly stated as follows: Near Argostoli, on the coast of the Greek island of Cephalonia (the Samos of the Odyssey) there are currents of water, coming from the sea, and disappearing in the land, without visible return, which are so strong and constant that they were long used for driving the undershot wheels of flouring mills. This use has been discontinued in recent years, by reason of the erection in the region of large modem mills, which have rendered unprofitable not only s, the small and rude but also ci Plant. tidal action, for this De Lamar Nugget: Mons Bifil i3 part of the Mediterranean is practically now engaged with a force of worktideless, and, moreover, the currents under consideration are not at all peri- men, removing the large brick tank odical. Prof. D. T. Ansted, who pub- placed in the annex of the De Lamar lished in 1863 a book on the Ionian isl- mill by the owners of the Palatin-Clerielectric process, and will reands, says the water must be evaporated in subterranean caverns, but this place the tank and appliances with hypothesis lacks proof or probability. small wood tanks of two tons capacity According to his estimate, the evapora- each, constructed upon quite a simple tion would yield annually more than plan. These tanks will be nine feet 1800 cubic yards of salt; there are on interior diameter by four feet in height, d the islands no indications of such vast and will contain a simple subterranean accumulations of salt; sweep with plates of boiler iron bethe notion of a rapid underground neath each arm to serve as anodes for evaporation is not plausible; and the the electric current. The cyanide soluexistence of caverns or fissures suff- tion will be charged into the pulp in the icient to receive this product for a cen- tanks, which will have copper-line- d tury without choking is - more than bottoms, upon which will be a bed of be connected with ci four-arme- doubtful. The idea that the water may drain away to some surface basin below sea level, where it can evaporate rapidly, is negatived by the absence of any such known basin nearer than the Dead sea, which is a thousand miles away. The authors suggest as the explanation of this phenomenon the effect of subterranean heat in promoting a water circulation, and support this theory in a very clear and ingenious way. It seems to me that they have established for it a high degree of probability. According to their view, the water disappearing at the surface returns to the surface again through fissures, in which it has been heated so as to render the asoending limb of the circulation specifically lighter than the other. In this particular instance they think it probable that the water of the is returned through the sea bottom. But the most interesting part of their discussion is not so much the explanation of the seamills as the bearing of this explanation upon the general theory of underground circulation and its connection with the formation of ls In this view the of Cephalonia become a striking illustration of the theory expounded by Posep-n- y and powerfully support the ascension school. I recommend to mining geologists the careful study of this paper. sea-mil- ls ts. sea-mil- Following are the financial views of Ingalls of Kansas, or, rather, they were his views less than a year ago: France has seven hundred millions of full legal tender silver, and is the mst prosperous nation in Europe. England has no bank note less than $25 and transacts the bulk of her immense retail business in silver at her own ratio. None of the great powers have asked our permission, nor the consent of each other, to establish whatever money system they though best for the numerous windmills of the island. their own interest. What we need in But the sea currents still continue to this country is the revival of a distinct, flow with unabated force and volume. robust, aggressive Americanism, the The authors estimate the daily amount spirit of the heroes of 76 and 61. We of water thus disappearing in the por are the richest, the most populous and sea-mill- Palatin-CIeri- er. ore-deposi- Se a Mills of Cephalonia. powerful of Christian nations. Xo other people have asked us what they might do with their finances, and we are strong enough to establish ours without asking them. ex-Sena- tor quicksilver whidh will constitute the cathode of the current. The pulp and solution, when its value has been exhausted, will be drawn off through a plug hole in the side of the tank. The quicksilver will remain upon the bottom until a number of charges have been made, when it will be drawn off through the bottom as often as a cleanup is made. Each tank will contain a twTo-to- n charge every twelve hours, or four tons a day. Only two tanks will be put in at the present time, but if they prove satisfectory, twelve more will be added, that number covering the foundation provided for the brick tank nowT being removed. A plant with two tanks, constructed on the same principle, is now in successful operation in Boulder county, Colorado, and another at the Old Faithful mine in Montana. Cyanide in Arizona. J. F. Johnstone, a cyanide expert in Arizona, contributes the following concerning the use of this process in that region: But a few years since not one cyanide plant was in operation in Arizona, owing to the general distrust of its successful working, but now that the system has demonstrated beyond doubt that it has passed the experimental stage and proved an established fact and a boon to the mining world, the Arizona field is being rapidly covered, and already some fifteen are in operation and many more in contemplation. At Harqua Hala a capacity system is working the largest in the Territory. One plant at Fools Gulch of 100 tons capacity ranks next; Congress one of 80 tons; at Wickenbug two plants of 60 tons each are working; at Seymour one of 40 tons; at Tombstone four plants of 10 to 30 tons each, and numerous other plants throughout the Territory on a small scale, from 5 to 15 tons capacity. At El Rio a large plant is now being built and also one at Golden; the one at the latter place being erected by W. C. Davis of Tucson. In reference to the treatment of refractory ores, Mr. Johnston states that every difficulty has been surmounted, and the most refractory dumps can and are now being successfully operated with profit. As evidence of the wonderful possibilities of the system, he cites instances where ore is now being treated at the astonishingly low figure of 82 cents per ton. 160-to- ns |