LOCATING MINERAL VEINS.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4582, 11 September 1883, Page 2

LOCATING MINERAL VEINS.

America comes to the front with a discovery which threatens to put in the shade all ordinary processes for discover ing minerals. The news comes from Colorado, the Breckenridge Daily Journal of which State contains the following : — Mr E. Beach, the inventor and owner of an instrument for locating mineral veins from the surface, came to Colorado from New York in the spring of 1880. Soon after his arrival he became interested in mining. Observing Urn vast Sums invested in sinking shafts and driving tunnels off the veins or deposits in the hope of finding mineral, the idea occurred to him that it ought to be in the range of possibilities to invent an instrument of a sufficiently sensitive nature to indicate the location of veins beneath the surface. The thought remained with him, and he succeeded so well that he returned to New York, and perfected the machine to such an extent that at any distance above large bodies of gold, silver, lead, copper, or he could locate their position with wonderful accuracy, while iron or water — running or at rest' —had no influence upon it. He returned and experimented over veins and lodes whoso locations were definitely known, and the accuracy of the instrument not only astonished those who already believed in its powers, but convinced many who were doubters. The instrument is sufficiently delicate to establish the width of the veins, locate spurs, size of pockets, etc. la several of his own workings, where he has relied upon the direction of the instrument, the results have been astonishingly accurate, his tunnels striking the vein at the exact point indicated, and his shafts coming square on the top of the veins or deposits. As time permitted, he has during last fall prospected various properties for friends—florae that had been worked before, and others that have since been opened aj the instrument has directed. His correctness in proclaiming barren workings and directing successful ones borders on the marvellous. Mr Beach does not claim to be able to indicate the depth at which mineral may be struck, but he does feel confident of locating the precise spot on the surface directly under which mineral will be found, and approximate the quantity, large or small. To st^rfc right is a great gain. Mr Beach has had the inventor's portion of ridicule and supercilious comments to combat and overcome, but with true courage he has attained what he sought, and to-day scores of men who two years ago ridiculed the idea as a chimera will uot put a pick in the ground unless Mr Beach's instrument ha<? been invoked, and in its quiet way says " dig here."