UTILISING THE WATERS OF THE MOLYNEUX.

Dunstan Times, Issue 578, 16 May 1873, Page 2

UTILISING THE WATERS OF THE MOLYNEUX.

(to the editor oy the duxstax - times.) Sir, It is surprising what opportunities people often allow to pass without heed. I beg to draw your attention to the following, as an instance. For years the Newcastle Coal Pit at Alexandra has been paying generally at the rate of 3f. per w r eek for a small driblet of water to drive an overshot wheel in connection with the Pit, but the supply of water has always been, and especially lately, very uncertain. Mr. Charnock, the proprietor of the Pit therefore tried to utilise the power which ho had close at hand, the Molyneux, and found that fora comparatively small outlay, he could save the item of loOf. per year altogether, besides not having to bog and pray of people, who do not appear to know their own in terests. \ fan, in the shape of a screw, set between two boats, works by means of connecting rods a pump, which lifts the water out of a shaft, forty feet deep, and although at the present low level |of the river the machinery works at a groat disadvantage, tho.boats being about twenty feet below the mouth of the pit, yet the machinery does its work better than when driven by an overshot wed as fonnerly--(no doubt in a great many instances, the same plan could be advantageously applied for mining purposes) and Air. Charnock is enabled by these means to supply a really first rate coal at all times, whereas formerly he was often compelled to suspend work on account of shortness of water caused by frost or drought. Your’s, Ac., MINER Alexandra, May 14, 1873.