Excerpt from Report Upon the Blasting Operations at Lime Point, California, in 1868 and 1869 There were three sets of mines exploded: the first, that of May, 1868, containing three charges, in gross pounds of powder; the second, of October, 1868, in a series containing pounds; the third in April, 1869, of pounds in three mines.
At the time these explosions were made, this method Of excavation was new in America. It had, however, been applied in Great Britain at Holyhead to Obtain material for the construction of a breakwater; near Dover in making a road-bed along the Chalk Cliffs, and at Furnace Scotland, in quarrying.
Since the dates Of the Lime Point explosions, even larger charges have been fired for the purpose of breaking up the cemented auriferous gravel banks in California, into sizes capable of being handled by the processes of hydraulic mining.
It is hoped that a history of the operations at Lime Point and an ao count of the impressions which they created upon the minds of those best acquainted with the circumstances, may have some value to those who may at any future time be called upon to conduct similar operations. It is in this hope that a revision of the subject is undertaken.
The details of the Operations of preparing the mines for explosion, as hereafter to be described, were substantially the same in all of the cases. Successive Operations suggested no improvement of any importance in the preliminary process. In the later blasts, however, the charges were proportioned more liberally.
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