Story from John Vonderlin
Email John ([email protected])
Hi June,
SAN MATEO GOLD.
The Black Sand Said to Yield In Paylng
Quantities.
That San Mateo County should come for –
ward at this late day as an exporter of gold
is something astonishing, yet that is what
has now come to pass Calvin Sweet seems
to be solving the problem of how to get a
fortune out of black sand, which, in this red –
wood and cheese country, is astonishing.
That black sand should be found here in such
quantities is somewhat surprising; that a
process for its successful treatment, which
his eluded the vigilance of the best experts
of the mining camps lor years, should be
inaugurated among us Is equally so; that a
man who has spent nearly the whole of a
long life in the carpentry business should
prove the lucky inventor of a successful
process is more so. The black sand re –
ferred to is found at the mouth of Bean
Hollow, three miles from the Swanton
House, Pescadero, and within a stone’s
throw of the surf. Yon can dig it up by the
shovelful. Not a hundred yards away Mr.
Sweet’s little girl was picking wild straw –
berries from among the daisies as the Times-
Gazette man quizzed the boys working the
machine and watched their father retort a
clean-up showing pretty gold worth $18 the
ounce.
A canvas hose from a reservoir of pure
spring water delivers a gentle stream into a
trough, Into which the sand is shoveled, and
which empties it onto a series of board sur –
faces, one foot by two, set out from a center
post as the threads of a screw, aud inclined
inwardly a very little. Below them is a
round table constructed about the central
post, six feet in diameter and beveled a little
outwardly. These surfaces are covered with
Brussels carpet. The post is four feet high,
six inches square, and is mounted on two
metal wheels free to move, as the casters
of a bedpost. A pin in the center of
the post is inserted in the middle of a steel
plate, whose surface is corrugated. On this
surface the wheels travel and the corruga –
tions give a gentle vertical oscillation to the
post and its attached platforms wben in
motion. Motion is by hand-power and av –
erages thirty revolutions per minute, the
boy who runs it being six feet away. The
centrifugal force of the revolving post
throws most of the black sand off the edge
of tbe circular platform. What remains
caught in the carpet surface is washed out
The gold is then separated in the usual min –
ing method oy means of a miner’s horn,
it is then amalgamated, retorted aud cleanedolO
with acetic acid.—Times-Gazette.
