RELATIONS OF MINING ENGINEERING 639 



engines for lifting hundreds of tons from thousands of feet in depth, 

 with great ore-breakers for crushing the rock, and fine concentrating 

 machinery for enriching the ore; furnished, also, with monster pumps 

 for removing the water from great depths and for furnishing the 

 concentrators and fans for taking out the powder smoke and other 

 dangerous gases, preserving the lives of hundreds of men ; furnishing 

 problems for the mechanical engineer in the handling of great masses 

 of material with rapidity and economy; with problems in surveying 

 the most difficult the civil engineer ever has to encounter, for example 

 to fix exact property boundaries or to unite subterranean galleries 

 thousands of feet below the surface, and in hydraulics for the hand- 

 ling of immense volumes of water to be made use of or to be got rid 

 of, and in electricity for the transmission of power many miles from 

 distant mountain streams to excavate, tram, hoist, pump, ventilate, 

 and light the mines, the construction of great buildings for housing 

 his machinery or his plants; adapting crushing and concentration 

 plants for the most successful concentration of the ore and of smelting 

 to extract the metal with the least cost and greatest efficiency and 

 purity; the wise selection of subordinates for efficiency and loyalty; 

 the handling of the men to get a day's work and keep them contented 

 and happy ; the financiering of the mine to get the money for opening 

 up and developing, to keep up the dividends and the repairs and 

 development work and sinking fund all at the same time so that the 

 owners may feel that they get interest on their investment and get 

 their money back after the mine is worked out. 



This completed picture seems to call for a combination of mineral- 

 ogist, geologist, of a mining, mechanical, civil, and electrical engineer, 

 of a chemist and metallurgist, of a builder, a manager, and a finan- 

 cier, a man with literary ability and personal magnetism. Such a 

 combination seems absurd at first glance, life is n't long enough to 

 accomplish it , and yet , with certain provisos, it is exactly what is done. 



Mining enterprises occur of all sizes from very small to very large. 

 It transpires, then, that in the small mining venture the mining man 

 must be able to handle all the departments specified; while on the 

 other hand in a large mine he has many departments with department 

 heads, mechanical, civil, and electrical engineers, builder, chemist, 

 and others, but he has to direct all, so that a good working know- 

 ledge along the various lines is quite as important if not more so 

 than in the case of the smaller mine. 



The question may now well arise, On what lines and how should 

 a man fit himself for this class of position ? How can he best master 

 this wide relationship of the mining engineer to the other fields? 



I will attempt to answer this question in some detail. The accom- 

 plishments he needs are comprised substantially in this list : 



English : He should speak, read, and write the English language 



