Show U OF U SENIOR ENGINEERS ENGINEER STRIP TRIP JOLLY AND HIGHLY educational AFFAIR I 1 by dr R H bradford twenty seven happy and satisfied en engineers inders returned from the two weeks trip of inspection of the mines mills and smelters shelters sm elters of nevada and california just in time to don the cap and gown for the baccalaureate sermon on sunday the ath instant the tour was arranged as a finishing trip at the close of the senior year for the mining metallurgical and mechanical engineers all of whom must have their class work finished their theses prepared and all residence work completed two weeks before the close of instruction at the university the trip was carefully prearranged with all details of itinerary including side trips and the party organized so that each day had its duty and each man determined to meet it A private kitchen tourist pullman was secured and stocked with provisions and proper table service equipment so that with the crew of three colored boys the party of university fellows could be made comfortable to live in the car during the entire trip the railroad people in this case the western pacific with E R jennings passenger agent for this district were very careful that no detail of the movement and care of the party should be overlooked united comstock visited first the first an fn st visit was to the united comstock companas comp anys mines and milling plant at virginia city and gold hill nevada methods of mining 21 the old fillings 6 of early mining days when square set timbering was common when products of the minin mining 9 operations were not only ore but much wood from the heavy sets then used were rather novel and showed the boys some new ways of applying modern methods of mining top slicing and shrinkage methods are here applied under very difficult conditions dit ions yet quite successfully the haulage system many miles in length finally ends in trains of eight seven ton cars drawn by heavy storage battery electric locomotives which haul per day the 1500 tons of ore to the mill bins the automatic dumping device turns the cars completely over and the ore drops into the bins almost instantly cyanide treatment in a modern mill follows the difficulties that the excess fine rotten wood entails and the devices for overcoming these difficulties showed the students many wrinkles not mentioned in the text books the stay overnight in the historic virginia city camp gave time for contemplation of the vigorous early day life of the comstock country the camp though now active is but a faint reflection of what it once was trip to the walker mine enjoyed from virginia city by way of reno to portola calif the nearest station by good roads to the walker mine was but a matter of a few hours through the courtesy of the walker mine management the visiting engineers were taken by touring cars to the walker mine and mill a distance of five miles through beautiful timbered country the walker is essentially a utah institution though geographically located in california it is managed and manned in large part by men from salt lake city A copper mine of ore in a quartz vein with walls well defined and from twenty to fifty feet apart the methods of mining shrinkage is here highly perfected and certainly showed clearly what this method of mining is capable of the ore is broken down as the are extended upward and only enough is drawn from below to leave head room above the broken ore for the miners to work conveniently ore is mined mine dhere here at what appears the minimum cost per ton for underground work on a vein of this kind the mill is entirely flotation and a high extraction and high grade concentration indicate extreme efficiency in the mill as well as in thamine th the mine emine the dinner served the boys at the walker was a real banquet with the room decorated in university of utah crimson crimson and silver colors the whole affair flavoring of a real U of U reunion then on to marysville marksville Marys ville and grass valley following the full day at the walker the evening train took the kitchen pullman down the feather river to marys ville and from there by motor bus the party were driven to grass valley a distance of some seventy five miles over excellent paved roads mining methods on narrow quartz veins in granite and with the metal free gold often showing as display specimens were here shown mining methods here were quite different from any methods employed near salt lake so far as seen the stamp milling process preceding 6 was also a change from anything previously vio asly studied from marysville marksville Marys ville the trip led into san francisco from which point the selby smelting smelling Sm elting refining company plant was visited the journey to selby and including mare island nav navy y yard being b made by a motor bus quite comfortably filled by the party of twenty seven including the three U of U professors who accompanied the students especially were the refining methods of interest as the processes of mining milling and smelting smelling sm elting preliminary to the refining b had been carefully studied at visits to other plants to finish the process the mint takes the metal and coins it into money so the visit to the san francisco mint including the electrolytic refinery was a fitting climax to the inspection trip two days in oil fields then to sacramento however the journey homeward was yet some distance is away for the itinerary included a trip to the oil fields around los angeles two days were fully occupied in the oil country and the homeward journey led up the valley route to sacramento here the chamber of commerce of that live city provided special entertainment for the utah party members of the committee in real california style t met the special car at the depot and transported by splendid touring cars the party was driven aliven to the dredging fields where the largest gold dredge in the field was inspected and closely studied this trip to the dredging field led through beautiful groves of orange olive lemon and walnut trees the methods of reclaiming the dredged ground by classifying the gravels and keeping the fines for the top soil indicated the possibilities of again having fruitful fields after the gravels are freed from their gold truly the american river valley the valley of the discovery of gold in california is as it has been a wonderful gold district the mines and mining b committee had arranged a meeting in the sacramento high h agh school for the evening in W honor of the utah party at this meeting in addition to the customary introductions and responses dean frank H probert of the colle college collee b e of mines of the university of cal cala delivered a 1 learned earned address on the importance of the mineral wealth of the world next morning the party were quickly motored to the plymouth mine mine one of an important group of mines on the old mother lode alon along b th the e A american in eric an river river country der ground and surface plants p lants were studied and the journey homeward hom eward that afternoon was resumed with the most kindly feelings for the generous hosts who had made the stay in 1 sacramento of such such great profit and pleasure |