288 



ENGINEERING. 



traveling sands. The south pier had been 

 completed by the end of March for 425 feet, 

 and 3 fathoms depth of water reached. ^ The 

 concrete, used in heavy molded blocks in the 

 walls, is composed partly of crushed shingle 

 and bowlders, and partly of crushed granite, 

 mixed in due proportions with sand and ce- 

 ment, and hardened in boxes into blocks of 14 

 by by 4i feet for the lower courses, weigh- 

 ing each 22 tons, and 27-ton blocks for the 

 three upper courses. The molds are two thirds 

 filled with lumps of stone before the mixture 

 is poured in. 



The great Sutro Tunnel made its first con- 

 nection with the series of mines which it is to 

 benefit within the past year. The idea of a 

 tunnel was first conceived of by Sutro in 1860, 

 on his first visit to the Comstock lode. Con- 

 vinced by an examination of the developments 

 that the Comstock was a true fissure-vein, he 

 advised the opening of a deep adit from the 

 foot-hills on the Carson River to the ore-body ; 

 but his project was then considered chimeri- 

 cal. Afterward engaging in a milling and 

 amalgamating establishment at Dayton, his 

 mind was diverted from the tunnel project, 

 until by the destruction of his works by fire 

 he was left without occupation and almost 

 without means. From this time he gave up 

 his mind to the realization of his great scheme. 

 On the 4th of February, 1865, the Legislature 

 of Nevada passed an act giving him a fran- 

 chise of the same order as those given for the 

 building of a toll-road, leaving the amount of 

 toll to be settled upon between Sutro and the 

 mining companies. After long negotiations 

 nearly all the companies agreed on a uniform 

 toll of $2 per ton of paying ore, to be paid 

 after the tunnel had reached and benefited 

 each several mine. This act was ratified by 

 the Sutro Tunnel Act passed by the United 

 States Congress on the 25th of July, 1866, 

 which gave him the right of way over the 

 public domain, the right to purchase land at 

 the mouth of the tunnel, the ownership of all 

 new mines which should be discovered for a 

 distance of 2,000 feet on each side of the tun- 

 nel, and a lien on the lands of the mining 

 companies for the payment of the toll agreed 

 upon. After securing such vested rights^ Mr. 

 Sutro proceeded to New York, where his pro- 

 ject was favorably entertained by capitalists ; 

 and he also visited Europe to enlist European 

 capital in the design, but with less success. 

 Capitalists on the Pacific coast showed them- 

 selves resolutely opposed to the scheme, and 

 it is to the machinations of a combination of 

 them, instigated by the Bank of California, 

 that Sutro attributes many of the difficulties 

 which he encountered in forming his company, 

 and particularly the numerous bills which 

 were presented before Congress whose covert 

 import would deprive him of the rights al- 

 ready granted by Congress, to combat which 

 required his frequent presence in Washington, 

 ihe originator and energetic prosecutor of 



this great mining enterprise, Adolph Heinrich 

 Joseph Sutro, was born at Aix-la-Chapelle, 

 Prussia, in 1830, and received a superior in- 

 dustrial education, his father, having been a 

 manufacturer, and he himself having been in- 

 trusted with the starting of a woolen mill at 

 the age of nineteen. In 1850 he emigrated to 

 California and engaged in mercantile pursuits, 

 also interesting himself in gold-mining. After 

 visiting the Comstock lode, as stated above, 

 he gave his attention to the treatment of its 

 ores, and established a mill to carry out a pro- 

 cess studied out by him and a German metal- 

 lurgist named Rahmdohr, which employment 

 he followed until he actively engaged in pro- 

 moting the scheme of the tunnel. 



The work on the tunnel was first com- 

 menced on the 19th of October, 1869 ; but 

 before the 1st of January, 1870, not over 460 

 feet had been tunneled. In the following 

 year 1,290 feet was made. In 1871 the works 

 were visited by a Congressional commission, 

 composed of Generals H. G. Wright and J. G. 

 Foster and Professor W. Newcomb ; they re- 

 ported that the tunnel was feasible, and could 

 be completed in three or four years, at a cost 

 of $4,500,000 ; that the Comstock was a true 

 fissure-vein, extending down indefinitely ; and 

 that there was an unlimited quantity of low- 

 grade ore in the lode which could not be 

 worked on account of the expense. In the 

 fall of 1871, better financial arrangements 

 having been made, a larger force of men was 

 employed, and machinery was procured. Four 

 vertical shafts were located, the first of which, 

 4,915 feet from the mouth of the tunnel, and 

 522 feet deep, was commenced in January, 

 1872, and sunk to the level of the tunnel by 

 July in the following year. Water was trou- 

 blesome in this shaft, and much pumping was 

 necessary, two of Allison & Bannan's double- 

 acting cataract pumps being employed, which 

 were very effective, raising the water 300 feet 

 from station to station, and discharging 3,000,- 

 000 gallons per month. The second shaft, 

 commenced at the same time with the other, 

 is located 9,065 feet from the tunnel's mouth, 

 and has a depth of 1,041 feet ; pumping was 

 necessary after the depth of 600 feet was at- 

 tained. The level of the tunnel was reached 

 in April, 1874. From the bottom of the first 

 of these shafts a bore was made east and west 

 until it met the tunnel-header. A bore was 

 commenced from the bottom of the second 

 shaft, but it had not been pushed over 170 

 feet in each direction before a large and un.- 

 expected volume of water was tapped in the 

 west drift, which poured in so suddenly that 

 the miners fled for their lives. In a few weeks 

 the water had filled the shaft to its very top. 

 The other two shafts, one situated 13,545 feet 

 and the other 17,695 feet from the mouth, had 

 likewise to be abandoned, when the first had 

 been sunk to the depth of 456 feet and the 

 other of 674 feet, on account of the unman- 

 ageable inflow of water. Another shaft, for 



