History of the big bonanza

by Dan De Quille

There is, of course, a vast deal of money paid out in the shape of assessments levied for the purpose of opening new mines, and sometimes on mines already opened, when they get into a “bad streak”—are in “borrasca”—but, taking all kinds of mines together, the dividends have far exceeded the assessments. From first to last, on all the mines the stock of which is bought and sold in the San Francisco Stock Board, there have been levied assessments amounting to $54,258,500; showing a balance of $28,256,708 in favor of the mines; there is also the present market value of the mines to be taken into consideration, which is a grand item.

The mines of the Comstock give life to the whole Pacific Coast, and are the main-spring, so to speak, of all kinds of trades and every kind of business. They furnish to the California mechanic that employment which gives him his bread.[bread.] The army of workmen of all kinds, who were employed in the building of the famous Palace Hotel, of San Francisco, the largest and most costly structure of the kind in the world, were all paid with money taken out of the mines of the Comstock. Washoe money also reared the Nevada Block, and scores more of the finest and most costly buildings in San Francisco—buildings which are the pride of the city.

All the foundries and machine-shops of San Francisco and other large towns on the Pacific Coast are running day and night to fill orders from Nevada for engines, boilers, pumps, and all manner of mining machinery; but for the Washoe silver-mines nearly all the workmen employed in these foundries and machine-shops would be obliged to migrate to some other land. The ranchmen and fruit-growers of California would find times very dull with them but for Nevada, as in the towns of the silver-mines, they always find a market for all their products at high prices in ready coin. Without the “big bonanza,” and the many other silver-mines of all classes in Nevada, times would be very different from what they now are in San Francisco, and, indeed, throughout California and over the whole Pacific Coast.

The influence of the Washoe silver-mines does not stop on the Pacific Coast, but extends throughout the United States and is also felt in Europe. Not only are manufacturing establishments in California running to fill orders for machinery for the mines of Nevada, but many establishments in the Atlantic States and a few in European countries are also at work on certain kinds of machinery required in the silver-mines; as steel-wire cables, air-compressure power-drills, and the like. Not alone to the deposit of ore in one or two mines, but to the whole Comstock lode should be given the name of the “Big Bonanza.”

CHAPTER LXVI.
CONCERNING VENTILATION.

Although something has already been said of the ventilation of mines and of subterranean water, I shall now devote a chapter or two to these matters, else they may not be thoroughly understood.

The proper ventilation of a mine is a matter of the first importance. Without ventilation no mine can be worked. Without ventilation the whole mine, even to the mouth of the shaft, would be filled with stagnant and foul air, in which men could not live for half a minute. No mine can be worked unless air from the surface of the earth is introduced into it. It is even impossible to sink a straight shaft to the depth of one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet—all the circumstances being the most favorable possible—without carrying fresh air down to the men working in its bottom. When mining was first begun on the Comstock, wind-sails were used to carry air down into the shafts. This is a contrivance of cotton-cloth, and is a cross between a sail and a bag. The mouth of the baggy sail is turned to the wind, and when it fills, air is forced down a tube that leads from its lower end. Sometimes air was forced into a shaft by means of a common blacksmith’s bellows—slow and hard work. When water and a proper amount of fall can be obtained, a water-blast is sometimes used. In this the water falling through a tube carries down with it and forces into the shaft or mine a certain amount of air.

At the present time, however, the only manner in which air is forced into mines is by means of rotary blowers or fans—precisely the same as those used at the foundries for furnishing a blast to the cupolas in which iron is melted. At all of the mines along the Comstock these blowers are seen in operation. The best, cheapest, and most thorough means of ventilation is by making connection with the shaft of an adjoining mine. The moment such connection is made, the air from the surface goes down one shaft and comes up the other. In passing to the shaft through which it again rises to the surface, the air, of course, takes the most direct route, yet a great volume of pure air is introduced into the two mines. By means of doors fitted to the connecting drifts between the two mines, the air thus introduced may be distributed pretty evenly through the principal levels, as it can be made to circulate at a considerable distance from what would be its direct and natural route.

In all mines, however, there are always drifts, cross-cuts, winzes, and upraises in remote places to which it is impossible to convey the air circulating in the body of the mine. To provide a supply of air at these points the blowers are used. They send a column of air down into the mine through a large iron pipe, and on the several levels are smaller pipes which convey it to where it is required. In many of the mines there are small blowers on the lower-levels that are run by engines driven by compressed air. These are very useful in furnishing a supply of air in out-of-the-way places.