Chapter XXIV.
METHODS OF GOLD-SAVING—BATTERIES AND COMPANIES.
GROUND Sluicing: In this primitive and earliest system of gold-saving where running water was available, the wash-dirt was thrown by hand labour into a stream running through a claim, whence it passed over catchment tables in the tail-race. The race that brings the water to the claim is termed “the head-race,” while the race that takes the water, etc., from the claim is the “tail-race.”
Hydraulic Sluicing: An improvement upon ground sluicing, consists of a powerful stream of water being forced against the “face” of auriferous earth and carrying the debris over the tables. Labour was saved and a greater quantity of dirt worked.
Hydraulic Elevator or Blow-up: This, as the name implies, is a method of sluicing in which the wash-dirt is forced, or “blown up,” from a low level to catchment tables on a higher level.
Messrs. Lavery & Butterworth established a two-man elevator close to Constant Bay. In January, 1897, Messrs. Powell & Co. started to establish a large elevator just south of the Totara River—an extensive and ambitious undertaking, with about six miles of water-races (from Croninville) two miles of heavy piping, and a highly expensive plant. The construction occupied fifteen months, the water (about 10 heads) being turned-on on 28th March, 1898, the cost having been £2,000, which was later increased to £7,300. The spread of tables was 102 feet, which required 816 square feet of copper plating. It worked about 300 acres on and adjoining the Nine--
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