NEW BORING APPARATUS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 424, 9 December 1868, Page 3

NEW BORING APPARATUS.

An invention that is likely to be of great service in quartz mining, was publicly tested on the Hustler's Reef Company's mine, near Sandhurst, Victoria, on the sth November. The account of the trial was published in the Bendigo Advertiser of the 6th. The machine is for boring rock, and was invented by Mr R. Gr. Ford. The results are thus described—" The setting up of the machine took a comparatively short time, but the fixing of the borers was not done so quickly. The stone operated on was a metamorphic slate, and the regular sandstone. The first start was not successful owing to a piece of slate operated on 'being loose, and twenty minutes were 'occupied in setting for tho first hole. The first hole was then bored as follows :—loin., in 3-ginin. ; Ift. l&in., •li-tnin.; Ift. ll|in. in stnin. The hole was sloping. Fifteen minutes elapsed in fixing for the second hole, and in it Gin. were bored in Imin., but owing to the borer being crooked another had to be supplied, the supplying which took seven minutes. The hole was then bored 2ft. in 3min. losec, as follows : —Gin. Imin ;■ 12in., Imin. 15sec.; Gin., Imin. Tho third hole was bored nearly perpendicular, and was 2ft. lin. in depth, being done in 3min. 37see. The fourth hole was in quartz, and the/e was some difficulty at first in getting the borer to take, as the face it had to work on was chipped and irregular. Eventually, ; however, the borer took, and did its work in good style, making the fire fly in spite of the water which was poured on it; 6in. was bored in this hole in 1 |min. The whole time occupied in boring this hole in quarts cannot be accurately stated, owing to a mistake, but the time almost beyond a doubt was 4min. 40sec, for 2ft. 2in. The last hole put in was a perfect success. The machine was lowered, aud the stone operated on slate and sandstone, and the 2ft. 6in. were clone in smin. 45sec, the machine rattling through the work in fine style. The stone was of average hardness, it being reckoned that that it would cost £2 per foot to bore by hand. There can • be no doubt the trial of this machine , which took place showed that the machine is a practical invention, which must cause a revolution in quartzmining, by reducing the expense of boring to such a minimum that reefs 1 which could not' be worked now, or are so without any profit to shareholders, can be worked, and yield re- < munerative returns."