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MINING ENGINEERING.
In this course such adequate knowledge of mine surveying, road and
railway construction, and pure and applied mechanics and hydraulics,
as has been given by the earlier sections of the mining courses is presupposed,
and the student is carried forward to the immediate consideration
of those technical subjects which belong to the exclusive
domain of the mining engineer.
1. Exploitation of Mines.
The studies of the first term may be included under the general title
of the Exploitation of Mines. They begin with a general survey and
classification of ore deposits, especial reference being had to the
mineral wealth of the United States. The subject of prospecting is
next taken up and a full account is given of the methods of sinking
exploratory borings and the machinery used for that purpose. The
operations connected with shaft sinking are next studied, including
the methods of excavation, the use of timber for sustaining the walls,
the construction of permanent masonry linings, and the methods of
sinking shafts through highly aquiferous strata. The processes of
tunneling are then reviewed in the same manner and the location of
shafts and tunnels is explained. Finally the various methods of
extracting the ore and timbering the workings are discussed in full,
both for underground mines and for surface workings and placer
deposits.
2. Mining Machinery.
During the second term attention is directed to those mining operations
which involve the use of the various classes of mining machinery.
The question of transportation is first studied and the various
methods of hauling by chutes, carts, locomotives, stationary engines,
and cable conveyors are explained. Hoists and hoisting machinery are
then discussed, the mechanical principles involved are developed, and
rules for design are deduced. The problem of mine drainage is
next examined, the economic advantages of drainage tunnels are
weighed, and the construction of mine pumps and the general design
of pumping machinery are taught. Mine ventilation is next discussed,
the amounts of air to be moved being estimated, the resistance computed,
the power of the ventilating machines or furnaces determined
and the effects of natural ventilation explained; incidentally the subjects
of lighting the works and mine explosions are considered.
Finally, the principal types of prime movers employed for operating
the machinery of mines are discussed, the general lay-out of the
are developed, their economic advantages compared, and the methods
of power transmission are reviewed.
3. Ore Dressing.
The processes of ore dressing constitute the general topic for the
remainder of the course. The appliances used for washing the ore
are first discussed and their mode of action and utility are explained.
The various methods for drying the ores or roasting them, if desired,
are next considered and their effects are studied. Machinery for
crushing the ore is then taken up and the processes by which it is
brought to the requisite degree of fineness are examined. The appliances
used in picking, sorting and screening the ores are next
described. Lastly the methods of concentration and the devices
employed to effect it are explained and discussed. In each section of
the course illustrations as copious as possible are introduced, drawn
by preference from the practice of American engineers, and in concluding
the lectures a series of descriptions of complete ore-dressing
plants is given. These are arranged to cover the chief developments
of mining enterprise in the United States and to make clear to the
student the approved methods of coördinating the various operations
which have been already separately analyzed and described.
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