j Tales From the Hills i
■_ __j_j
(By J. (’. Scoles, Assistant Professor of Mining: Engineering, Alaska Ag
ricultural College and School of Mines.)
“Doggone it, I’m tired,” said Jack,
as he put on his mackinaw prepara
tory to i limbing the hill to the cabin.
“That singlejack weighs every bit of
twenty pounds.”
“I bet it does,” rejoined his partner,
Larry. “I've got the edge on you be
cause f.i sharpen the steel, but that
doesn’t look any too bright to me,
either. L' haven’t been able to get a
temper that will stand this quartz.” j
“Don’t worry. You will get onto!
that and then it will be e soft snap j
to. sharpen the steel. For the drilling j
part { don’t see any chance of its get- j
t.iftg, easier.” Jack whippet] savagely
at a bush withe the small stick he
carried.' “I wonder,” he continued
after a pause, “if this new showing
isn’t good enough to to justify an air
compressor and drill. We could get. a
drill outfit laid down at the trading
post t'oV about SI,000; we could pack
it up h*re o nthe. snow and have it
all set up by spring.”
Thoyr paused ft r breath.
“I think we should, answered
Larry, after a hit. “This showing is
good, and the quicker we get it opened
up the quicker we can get a mill and
see our way clear to pay for it. By
using c impressed air we can get in a
round in about one-tenth of the time
it, is taking us now. I don’t believe,
however,, that we should buy an outfit
before wet get some information
about..what we want. Air compres
sion is a deep subject. I’d rather try
to build an automobile out of a scrap
heap than to assemble a compressing
plant without some advice. Of course,
prospectors talk about it as though
they knew a lot. Take, for instance,
that fellow that was on the boat last
spring. He had a catalogue.. Some
place ln.it he found where it said that
a jackhammer used 70 cubic, feet of
air pei*-'minute. Then some other
place be found a list of compressors
in which, a machine of 75 cubic feet,
capacity was listed at §600. He fig
ured that, he ecfuld run one drill with
that compressor. What he didn’t see
was a statement to the effect thatathe
compressor was rated at so many feet,
of free air at sea level and at 60tde
grees temperature. His mine is up i
there in the Broad Pass country and !
must be at least 3,000 feet. high. As!
I remember, it, a Compressor 'op.er.at-!
sor operating at ordinary gauge pres-\
sures of 80 to 100 pounds loses about j
one-thirtieth of its capacity for each I
1,000 feet altitude’ ithas.. That-means j
that his compressor will only deliver:
about 90 per cent of that 7.7 cubic I
feet, or 67 1-2. cubic feet- Then dur
ing the summer inontha rhe thermom
eter often gets up ;to' tfO and !)0 de
grees at his cabin. Each 10 degree
rise means a fuuther reduction of over
2 per cent in the capacity of his com
pressor. His compressor won’t be
big enough to run one-drill. And the
chances are he will have a lot of
! leaks in h:s air lines too.” By this
! time they had reached the cabin.
| Supper over, Jack started to wash
; the dishes, while Larry rummaged
| around in a box under the bunk.
I Pretty soon he emerged, dragging out
I some books, and resumed the conver-:
| sation where he haO broken off an
hour before.
“Now here is some dope I got on
air compressors while I was taking
the short course in mining at the'
Alaska College four years ago.” He
scanned the pages and read: •
“Data necessary to have when se-:
lecting an air compressor:.
1. Kind of power.
a. steam. |
b. electricity,,
c. water.
d. internal combusion engines.
1. Gasoline.
2. Kerosent.
3. Crude oil ori-diesels..
2. Volume of air required. Depends
upon
a. number of drills.
b. kind of drills.
c. other machinery to be run by
compressed air.
d. altitude of mine.
i
e. maximum summer tempera
ture.
f. gauge pressure desired at
drills.
g. distance from compressor to
working place.
“Well, I can answer the first ques
tion right now, easily enough” said
Larry. “We can’t use steam, for we
haven’t any wood or coal. It is 100
miles to the nearest electric plants
and we cannot use water power in the
winter.”
“No, we couldn’t use it in the win
ter, but we could, in the summer. That
little stream below the tunnel has
plenty of fall and I believe it carries
enough water to run a small com
pressor.”
“So we could,” agreed his partner.
“I’ve worked on irrigation in Califor
nia. If you get any dope in that hook
telling us how to calculate the horse
power I can figure out the amount of
water bowing.”
Larry thumbed a few pages. “Yes,
here it tells how to gauge a stream
Washington’s
Birthday
WILL BE APPROPRIATELY
CELEBRATED AT
Ophir, Alaska
February 22
A PLEASANT TIME ASSURED)
and how to calculate the water power.
But let’s don’t pet to that now. 1
think our first move is to get a gaso
line engine to drive the compressor.
That will give us good power and we
won’t have to worry over it until we
get this mine on its feet. Let’s get
standard stuff and not try any freaks
or makeshifts. We haven’t got the.
money to.monkey with anything that
may give us trouble. I’m aching to
get my hands on a little amalgam. *1
has been ten years since I got. my
hands on looney that Idug out of the
ground myself. It’s been wages,
wages,, wages! We’ll never, get rich
working tor wages.’:
Jack’s pipe had gone out. lie
knocked the ashes out and reached
for his pouch. It was empty. “True
enough,” he said; “f can’t eveu keep
in tobacco.”
Silence ensued, hut Jack finall;
broke it by remarking, “I suppose we
ought to figure on a machine large
enough to run two drills, a jackham
mer and a stoper. How much power
would that take, Larry?”
Larry reached for the book. After1
looking a while he replied, “It takes
about two-tenths of a horsepower per
'cubic feet of air compressed. Of
course, that is influenced by altitude,
etc., but it seems to be a safe figure
to take. Now, let’s see. One jack
hammer takes 70 cubic feet, and a
stoper takes 75 cubic feet. It is good'
business to provide about 25 per cent
excess capacity to provide for pipe
line leaks, etc. That means that we
will want a compressor of 180 cubic,
feet capacity. That will .take. 30 horse-,
power.” Turning a few pages fur
ther, he read, “Gasoline engines- in j
small units use an average of one-,
tenth gallon per horsepower per
hour.” After mental calculation he
continued, “It will take about. 3 1-2,
gallons to run such a plant one hour.:
At 50 cents a gallon that will be SI.75
per hour. Add 25 cents for oil, ecc.,
and this totals $2. Two machines will
drill 20 feet an hour, making the cost
10 cents per foot of hole drilled. Add
ing labor, it is safe to figure 20 cents*
a foot.”
“That saving listens good enough to
sleep on,” .lack yawned and com
menced to pull off his boots.
“Yep,” Larry replied, “it does. I’m
going to write to that machinery sup
ply house tomorrow, give them the
dope necessary, ond ask them to. ship,
us an^outfit right away."
The Usdressed Statue.
Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney’s
statue for the Daughters of the
American Revolution, being quite un
dressed, horrified the D. A. It. com
mittee the other day. The statue
therefore will be clothed.
“The way women dress nowadays,”
a New York sculptor said, “it aston
ishes me that Mrs. Whitney’s statue
should have shocked anybody.
“The bathing drtesses that I see in
Florida and California,” he want on,
“make me think that we should no
longer divide human kind into two
genders, masculine and feminine—we
should make it masculine and nuder.”
TABLE OF DISTANCES BE
TWEEN NENANA AND FLAT
Miles
Nenana ... .. . 00
Tavern Roadhouse . ... 17%
Knight's Roadhouse. . 11%
Nineteen-Mile Roadhouse 58
J Diamond Roadhouse.76
Roosevelt . .. . .. ... 80
Lake Minchumina ..115
Trappers’ Cabin ... 132
Lone Star Roadhouse. 150
Telida Roadhouse. 109%
' Slow Fork Roadhouse.187
Fast Fork Roadhouse _ ..) 200
j Berry’s Landing- Roadhouse . 227%
,, Big River Roadhouse. 241
McGrath ..... 203
Takotna .. 280
Bill Goss’ Roadhouse- ... 201
: Ophir .... 300 I
J McCalFerty . 300
Brown Creek shelter cabin . . 318
Fritz shelter cabin . 333
First Chance shelter cabin . 346 1
‘ Schermeyer R. H. 300
Iditarod _____376 j
Flat . . 384 l
Bonanzza sheler cabin, 12 miles
from Flat,
Crooked Creek shelter cabin. If*
miles from Bonanza.
?
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. Eldridgfc - McGrath
TAKOTNA ROADHOUSE
Best of Meals and Rooms
Where Everything Is Homelike and
AVhere You Are Cordially Welcomed
GOOD DOG HOUSES BATHS
Ivar Ghilstrom - Prop.
Rough and Dressed Lum
ber of All Kinds
INN9KQ LUMBER CO.