{ Tales From the Hills I
PROGRESS BEGETS NEW PROBLEMS.
(By J. C.: Scolee, Assistant Professor of Mining Engineering, Alaska Ag
ricultural College and School of Mines.)
.
“What’s; the matter?” Jack came
upright*from his bunk with a startled
look or»,h.is face. He and Larry had
gone- o bed hours before. It must
have bs'Sirthe middle of the night, but
the catnhf was flooded with light. Rub
bing his eyes, he saw Larry at the
table, writing doggedly, the kerosene
lamp by "his elbow.
“I’ll tell you how it is, Jack,” said
Tarry; “I’Ve been awake most all
night tbrnking about money. Finally
I got so nervous that I couldn’t stay
abed any longer—I had' to get up and
figure out just where we stood. That
sight dcfrfP we got for the compressor
and outfit yesterday kind f worries
me. It was what I expected, of
course, but it’s a shock to pay out
$2,800 all in one lump. I’ve just been
wondering if we’ve got enough to keep
us going until spring.”
“Of course,” he continued, after a
pause, “Bill, down at "the trading
post, will see us thiough with grub
ami powder, especially as he knows
something of the strike we have made,
blit I don’t like to get in too far. Bills
always have to be paid. This strike
won’t do us any good unless we get a
mill bn it so we can get the gold out.”
Jack, shocked into full wakefulness,
rubbed his head reflectively. “Well,”
he drawled, “you sure woke me up. I
don't vsBspect that I can sleep again
tonight. What a shock! I thought
we were burning up. Go ahead with
your Iguring. I’ll listen, although it
seems to me there isn’t any need to
worry with that pay shoot going
strong, forty feet since we struck it,
and adder than ever. Anyway we’ve|
grub "enough in the cache to last
until warm weather.”
“Yes, I know that,” replied Larry,
“but ve’Ve got to pay the freight on
this compressor, Haul it up here, get
timber for skids to mount it on, and
gas to run it with. The outfit will
cost Cts over $2,000 cash before we get
it’ready to run. It will take a month
of our- time, too. After that we can
start giving this ore the dickens, but
we haven’t any mill t stamp it with.
We haven’t even planrredon what kind
of an outfit we will get, let alone
make any plans as to how we are
going to pay for it.
Jack stoked his pipe and then
reached for his breeches. He had
made up his mind that it was no use
grumbling, Larry was up for- the
night. Meanwhile Larry was figur
ing, his stub of a pencil scratching
noisily over the rough wrapping paper
he was using. Presently he continued':
“Bn you know we are just plain
fools? For the life of' me I don’t
know what the tunnel is costing us.!
Why haven’t we kept track?”
“Now, L'arry, we know that we have
been up here two winters and so much
of this one. Roughly, we know how
much money we’e spent. The tunnel
is abut 34» feet long. From that, I
guess we can figure how much it has
cost us per foot.”' j
“Yes,” responded Larry, “how much
of those two and one-half winters has
been spent in tunneling, how much
dragging up the wood or being out onr
prospecting trips, and how much just
plain lafing? I’ll bet we haven’t
spent more than one-half of our time
pounding the drill. How much, dyna
mite have we used?”"
it were quinine and looked around at
He spat the question- out as though
Jack as venomously as a rattlesnake.
Jack started to mumble, but Larry
cut him off with:
“Oh, I dor ’: blame you. Pm peeved:
at myself. That Prof at the College
talked auoB' this four years ago and,
showed us ’’ jw simple it was to keep’
track of ftriheost. I vowed to myself
thiat I warsrrVfbol enough to slip up
on a little thing like that, but here it
»s«t.I don’t know?,what .tunnel is cost- .
ing, or how fast we are driving- it;1
either. I can’t tell where we will Be
by April.”
“Costs,” he went on, “clin be divid
ed into two main classes—iabrir and
supplies. The first can be taken care
of by the time book, the second by
means of the bills or'invoices’ you get
from the store where yu buy your
goods. The secret consists of classi
fying your accounts so that you know
what is charged for each kind of
work. For instance, we could work
a classification something like this.":
Larry reached to the shelf above
him and dragged down a tablet. On
it he scribbled for a moment and as
he did so he read:
1. Tunneling.
a. Drilling and blasting
1. Labor
2. Supplies
bb Mucking
1.. Labor
2. Supplies
2. Camp work
a Firewood
1. Labor
2. Supplies
b Miscellaneous '•
1. Labor
2. Supplies
3. Loafing.
“We could make some more divi
sions if we wanted to, but for our pur- j
pose it is better to keep it as. simple j
as possible. I think that the two <
classes of work in the tunnel are
enough.”
“You haven’t provided for black
smithing,” said Jack. “That takes a
couple of houus each day.”
“That’s so,” said Larry, and he add
ed a new heading under tunneling:
c Blacksmithing
1. Labor
2. Supplies
“The thing that makos it so easy to
keep is those numbers. For instance,
l.a.2 means some supply used in
breaking rock, powder say; : I.b.1 is
labor- mucking out the. ore. Now we
could keep a tiftie book like- this:
TIME BOOK FOR OCTOBER, 1928.
Name Day of Month Total hours each mair
1 2.3 4 5 etc. for month.
Jack . 8 9 8 8 33
Larry . 9 9 8 8 35
Total hirsv. 17 18 16 16 ~67
Class of Work Hours to each class per day.. Total hours for each
class of work for month.
lal . 12 3 8 4 '. 27
lbl . 5 8 4 1> 25
lei __:. 4 2 6
2al .. 7 7
2bl .v.
Total hrs. 17 18 16 16 “ 67
Larry wrote a few minutes in si
lence and then passed the sheet over
Rr inspection. This was what Jack.
saw:
Jack*looked up after a few minutes.
“I can understand this. It is simple
to keep. Almost better than1 some of
those diaries."
“The supply account can be kept the
same way,” said Larry. “Of course,, it
will be dollars instead of hours. T-his
time must be converted into dollars at
the end of each month. Then all of
the amounts under each, class of work
are collated together and that gives
you the total cost of that class of
work per foot.. We can. do the same
thing after we start mining ore, with
the exception that, thte^unit wilt he
tons instead of feet advanced.”
Jack began to laugh. “You will get
a goshawful- cost this month if you
add in that compressor-bill.”'
Larry’s face went blank and' he
scratched his ear reflectively. “I
guess I missed something. Seems to
me the Prof, did say something about
the money spent for. equipment, hut 1
didn’t pay much attention. I wasn’t
interested. I thought that keeping
costs was something for the book
keeper. The shifter always growls
about the dope the office wants him to
get. 1 never thought that it would be
much good to me, so when the Prof,
started to talk I said to myself, ‘Just
some hot air.’ Later on it looked as
though it might be useful,.but. L didn’t,
get the first part.”
“Well, that’s all right,” said. Jack
“Let’s use our .common sense. When
we get that compressor in we can
charge up. the cost of running, it .to
each month’s work. If it costs $”,000
to put it in we can’t charge that out
all at once, but we can charge our
selves rent for it.” Jack was opening
his mouth to continue, hut his quick*
thinking partner beat him to it.
“That’s it... It will cost us $2,900
laid down at the trading post. It will
take another $100 cash to haul it up
here and set it up, that is not count
ing our time. If we put that in, it will
cost $400 more. Now, we’ve got to
get enough rent out of it to repay
that. $3,400 by; the time we art
through up here.”
“Well, you must not firget that we
can sell it for something when we get
through,” said Jack. “If we work up
here five years, that outfit out to be
worth one-half of its cost. Of course
we couldn’t include the cost of getting
it up the hill and setting it up, but I
mean one-half of its cost at the trad
ing postsay $1,450. It. cost 83,400,
less that will be $1,950. Dividing that
by five makes $390 a year, or $32.50
a month.”
“One thing you’ve left out, Jack. If
we have to borrow money it will cost
us 10 per cent interest. Three hun
dred and forty dollars a year is better
than $28 a month. Add that to your
$32.50 and it makes a rental charge
of $fi0 a month. That is providing we
use it five years and can sell it for
one-half of its cost, after we are
through with it.”
Jack yawned. “I’m going back to
bed. Tomorrow we will charge our
time up,to your item No. 3—loafing.”
Fooled Him.
“Did you notice that insolent bus
conductor looking at you as if you
hadn’t paid your fare?”
“Yes, and did you notice me looking
at him as if I hkd?”
TABLE OP DISTANCES BE
TWEEN NENANA AND FLAT
Miles
Nenana . 00
Tavern Roadhouse ..... 17Vs
Knight’s Roadhouse . llti
Nineteen-Mile Roadhouse . 58
Diamond Roadhouse. 76
Roosevelt . 80
Lake Minchumina. 115
Trappers’ Cabin . 132
Lone Star Roadhouse . 150
Telida Roadhouse . 169 Mr
Slow Fork Roadhouse . 187
East Fork Roadhouse .) 206
Berry’s Landing Roadhouse . 227 Vb:
Big River Roadhouse .241
McGrath . 263
Takotna . 280
Bill Goss’ Roadhouse . 291
Ophir. 300 ;
McCafferty . S06
Brown Creek shelter cabin . 318
Fritz shelter cabin . 3S55 j
First Chance shelter cabin . 346
Schermeyer R. H. . 860
Iditarod. 376
Flat . 384
Bonanzza sheler cabin. 12 miles
from Flat.
Crooked Creek shelter cabin, 19
miles from Bonanza.
Are you a subscriber to The Kusko
Times? .Why not?
i
!
.
I
i
Babeesch Moosehide Mitts and Boots
Furs Bought and Sold Clothing
All Kinds of Nice Fresh Groceries and Fruits
Canned Goods of All Kinds Beds and Bedding
A R. Eldridge - McGrath
TAKOTNA ROADHOUSE
Best of Meats and Rooms
Where Everything: Is Homelike end
Where You Are Cordially Welcomed
GOOD DOG HOUSES BATHS
Ivar Chilstrom - Prop.
Rough and Dressed Lum
ber of All Kinds
INNOKO LUMBER CO.
How About
Job
Printing
?
I
Try
Kusko
Times
i