MINING FOR GOLD

     Gold is found in tough clay. To dissolve the clay the miner fills a pan made of sheet-iron or tinned iron, with a flat bottom about a foot in diameter, and sides six inches high, inclining outwards at an angle of thirty or forty degrees. At a river bank, he squats down, puts his pan under water, and shakes it horizontally. Once the mass is thoroughly soaked, he picks out the larger stones, mashes up the largest and toughest lumps of clay, and again shakes his pan. When all the dirt appears to be dissolved, allowing the heavier gold to move to the bottom, he tilts up the pan a little to let the thin mud and light sand run out, until he has washed out all except the metal, which remains in the pan.
     The arrastra, a Mexican contrivance, rude, but effective, was used in the early days to pulverize the ore. Winnowing, or "drywashing" was also practiced by the Mexicans where the ore was found too far away from a sufficient supply of water to make any other practice possible. The wind bears away the dust and light particles of earth, and leaves the gold dust, which is heavier.

Rocker

     The rocker resembles a child's cradle. On the upper end is a riddle, made with a bottom of sheet-iron punched with holes. This is filled with pay dirt and rocked with one hand, while, with a dipper, the miner pours water into the riddle with the other. Being agitated, the liquid dissolves the clay and carries it down with the gold into the floor of the rocker, where the metal is caught by traverse riffles, or cleats. The mud, water, and sand run off at the lower end of the rocker, which is left open. The riddle can be removed, allowing the miner to throw out the larger stones mixed with the clay.
     The chief want of the placer miner was an abundant, convenient supply of water not always readily available. One resolution was an artificial channel about two miles long. After eight years, six thousand miles of mining canals supplied water to all the principal placer districts of Nevada and furnished the means for obtaining the greater portion of the gold yield.

Ten mile flume, Twin Springs, ID.

     Where the surface of the ground furnished the proper grade, a ditch was dug. Where it did not, flumes were built of wood, sustained in the air by framework that rose sometimes to a height of three hundred feet in crossing deep ravines, and extending for miles at an elevation of 100-200 feet. Aqueducts of wood, and pipes of iron, were suspended upon cables of wire, or sustained on bridges of wood; and inverted siphons carried water up the sides of one hill by the heavier pressure from the higher side of another.

     In Nevada, a total length of 6,000 miles of canals and flumes were created. The largest mine, the Eureka, had 205 miles of ditches, constructed at a cost of $900,000. As placers were gradually exhausted, the demand for water and the profits of ditch companies decreased. Flumes, blown down by severe storms, carried away by floods, or destroyed by the decay of the wood, were not repaired.

     The sluice was a broad trough from 100-1000 feet long, with transverse cleats at the lower end to catch the gold. With a descent of one foot in twenty, the water rushes through it like a torrent, bearing down large stones, and tearing the lumps of clay to pieces. The miners had little to do save throw in the dirt and take out the gold.

Hydraulic mining

     In Hydraulic mining a stream of water is directed under heavy pressure against a bank or hillside, tearing the earth down and carrying it into the sluice to be washed. The force of a stream of water rushing through a two-inch pipe, under a pressure of two hundred feet perpendicular caused hills to crumble as if piles of cloud blown away by a breath of wind. When dried by months of constant heat and drought, the clay becomes so hard, not even the hydraulic stream, with all its momentum, could steadily dissolve it. Often the miner would cut a tunnel into the heart of his claim, and blast the clay loose with powder, so that it yielded more readily to the action of water.
The erection of a long sluice, the cutting of drains (often necessary to carry off the tailings), and the purchase of water from the ditch company, required capital; and the manner of clearing up rendered it impossible for workers to steal much of the gold. Thus, the custom of hiring miners for wages became common in placer diggings.
     miniscule vial of gold flakes, but it was lost long ago.

Even today, men continue to search for gold and some manage to find enough to keep them going. Others give up and return home. I found gold once, at Knotts Berry Farm in California. I was eight years old. I wish I still had that

TOOTHBRUSH: 3000 B. C. EGYPT

A "chew stick," a pencil-size twig with one end frayed to a soft, fibrous condition, provided the first toothbursh. Chew sticks were initially rubbed against the teeth with no additional abrasive such as toothpaste, and have been found in Egyptian tombs dating to 3000 B.C.
     Chew sticks are still used in some areas of the world. Some African tribes fray twigs only from a certain tree, the Salvadore persica, or "toothbrush tree." The American Dental Associaton discovered that frayed sticks often serve as toothbrushes for people in remote areas of the United States; in the South, they're known as "twig brushes." Dentists reported on one elderly man near Shreveport, LA, who had used frayed white elm sticks all his life and had plaque-free teeth and healthy gums.

     The first bristle toothbrush, similar to today's, originated in China about 1498. The bristles, hand plucked from the backs of the necks of hogs living in the colder climates of Siberia and China (frigid weather causes hogs to grow firmer bristles), were fastened into handles of bamboo or bone. Traders to the Orient introduced the Chinese toothbrush to Europeans, who found hog bristles too irritatingly firm.
     At that time, Europeans who brushed their teeth (an uncommon practice) preferred softer horsehair toothbrushes. The father of modern dentistry, Dr. Pierre Fauchard, gives the first detailed account of the toothbrush in Europe. In a 1723 dental textbook, he is critical of the ineffectiveness of horsehair brushes for being too soft, and more crititcal of the large portion of the population who never, on only infrequently, practiced any kind of dental hygiene. Fauchard recommended daily vigorous rubbing of teeth and gums with a small piece of natural sponge.
     Toothbrushes made of other animal hair, such as badger, experienced brief popularity. Many people preferred to pick their teeth clean after a meal with a stiff quill (as the Romans did), or to use specially manufactured brass or silver toothpicks. These metal toothpicks were less hazardous than hard natural-hair toothbrushes. Once the 19th Century French bacteriologist Louis Pasteur posted his theory of germs, the dental profession realized all anamial-hair toothbrushes, which retain moisture, eventually accumulate microscopic bacterial and fungal growth and could cause mouth infections. Nylon-bristle toothbrushes did not arrive until 1938 in the U.S.

AMELIA C ADAMS NEW BOOK

Generations: Brody Hotel Book One by Amelia C. Adams

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Blurb: Andrew Brody, investment banker and self-made millionaire, has just lost his father, but gained an estate. Along with inheriting stocks, bonds, racehorses, and undeveloped land, he learns that he is now the owner of a hotel that has been in the family since 1875 and should probably just be torn down.

Marissa Clark needs a new challenge - staging homes to sell and rearranging pictures on walls isn't what she dreamed of doing when she became an interior designer. When she gets a call asking her to help renovate a historical building, she leaps at the change - what a great way to use both her love of texture and fabric and her love of history.

They believe they're just taking an old building and giving it a second chance at life . . . but they have no idea that they're getting a second chance too.

Amelia C. Adams, author of the bestselling historical Kansas Crossroads series, brings us this romantic spin-off featuring the same location, but 140 years later. You can learn more about Amelia at www.ameliacadams.com

ON THIS DAY:

ON THIS DATE:




1817 1st US gas co incorporated, Baltimore (coal gas for street lights)
1825 Hannah Lord Montague of NY creates 1st detachable shirt collar

1846 "Oregon Spectator" is 1st newspaper to be published on the West Coast
1850 Adding machine employing depressible keys patented, New Paltz, NY
1861 Louisiana delegation except Mr Bouligny withdraws from Congress (US Civil War)
1864 Federals occupy Jackson, Mississippi
1865 Battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia (Armstrong's Mill, Dabney's Mill)
1869 World's largest alluvial gold nugget, the Welcome Stranger, found by John Deason and Richard Oates (weighting 97.14kg) in Moliagul, Australia
1870 1st motion picture shown to a theater audience, Philadelphia
1879 Joseph Swan demonstrates light bulb using carbon glow
1881 Phoenix, Arizona incorporates
1887 Snow falls on San Francisco.

1897 1st showing of a motion picture in Hawaii at the Hawaiian Opera House
1900 The United States and the United Kingdom sign treaty for Panama Canal
1901 Loop-the-loop centrifugal RR (roller coaster) patented by Ed Prescott.
1922 Reader's Digest magazine 1st published