Ore Bed Research Articles

History of Dubuque's Water Plant

Overlooking a perfect landscape of the scenic Mississippi River, the city of Dubuque was founded in the year 1833. It was not incorporated, however, until eight years later. Mining was the chief industry for many years, and was carried on under great difficulties due to the powerful strata of water which covered the large beds of ore that were found. As the years progressed many different methods of excavating the ore were employed. Among them, a company headed by Silah Chamberlain and N. W. Kimball was organized for the purpose of blasting a tunnel under a large hill, between what is now known as Kaufman Ave. and West Dubuque, to drain that territory. Their plans were that by blasting this tunnel below the level of the standing water they could lower the water head, thus causing the water to flow through this tunnel into a ravine at a lower level. By this method they could excavate the lead without being hampered by the water that stood at a higher level. This was a mistaken idea, however, for in carrying out their plans, they not only failed to lower the water head, but they also tapped a water vein which flow approximately 400,000 gallons per day, thus forming an uncontrollable body of water. This waste of water continued for more than two years before this same company conceived the idea of converting this tremendous loss of water into a water works. They then petitioned the city council for a franchise, and on December 16, 1870, W. J. Knight, as mayor, signed an ordinance giving this company a franchise to operate a water works under the name of the Dubuque Water Company, reserving the right to purchase this plant at the expiration of twenty years. This franchise required them to furnish water by means of gravity pressure until an increase in consumption called for pumping equipment. In the year 1880 the demand for water supply increased to the hill districts which gravity pressure failed to reach. An arrangement

Geological Section of New Jersey

Previous articleNext article FreeGeological Section of New JerseyHenry B. KümmelHenry B. Kümmel Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Geology Volume 17, Number 4May - Jun., 1909 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/621621 Views: 110Total views on this site Copyright 1909 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Scientific Serials

American Journal of Science, May.—Photographs of the spectrum of the nebula in Orion, by H. Draper.—Mean annual rainfall for different countries of the globe, by A. Woeikoff.—Physiological optics, by W. L. Stevens.—Flood of the Connecticut River valley, from the quaternary glacier, by J. D. Dana.—Brazilian specimens of Martite, hy O. A. Derby.—Method of determining the flexure of a telescopic tube for all positions of the instrument, by J. M. Schseberle.—Dykes of micaceous diabase penetrating the bed of zinc ore at Franklin furnace, by B. K. Emerson.—Occurrence of smaltitein Colorado, by M. W. lies.—Conditions attending the geological descent of some freshwater gill-bearing molluscs, by C. A. White.—Measures of the rings of Saturn in the years 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1882, by E. S. Holden.—Interference-phenomena in a new form of refractometer, by A. A. Michelson.—New minerals, monatite andmonite, with a notice of pyroclasite, by C. U. Shepard.—Marine fauna of New England, by A. E. Verrill.

On the dikes of micaceous diabase penetrating the bed of zinc ore at Franklin Furnace, Sussex County, New Jersey

On the dikes of micaceous diabase penetrating the bed of zinc ore at Franklin Furnace, Sussex County, New Jersey

On Organic Remains from the Upper Permian Strata of Kargalinsk, in Eastern Russia

The cupriferous sandstones composing the Kargalinsk steppe, or steppe of Kargala, to the N. of Orenburg, lie out of the ordinary track of travellers, but offer an interesting field for research. The railway now takes us as far as the town of Orenburg, whence a drive of thirty or forty miles leads into the heart of the important mining district to which I now propose to invite your attention. The doubts thrown on the Permian age of these strata in the discussion upon my former paper induce me to submit a few remarks bearing upon the question. The country is a grassy, treeless, undulating steppe, covered superficially with the well-known black earth, or tchernozem, considered by Murchison to be of marine origin. The balance of evidence, however, is in favour of it being a vegetable mould. Sluggish meandering streams intersect the steppe. The exposures of the subsoil on the banks of streams and ravines show nothing beyond red marl or sandstone devoid of fossils. The mine-borings and shafts cut down through red, yellow, and grey sandstones, and red and white marls, fossiliferous wherever the beds of copper ore exist.

II.—Notes on the Physical Geography of East Yorkshire

The district of Cleveland, long known for the beauty and variety of its scenery, has during the past few years acquired great importance through the discovery of valuable beds of iron ore in the Middle Lias. So much has been written on this district, and in a lesser degree on East Yorkshire generally, that the geological structure of this country must be tolerably well known. My object then is not so much to describe the beds as to give some notes on the physical geography of the country, explaining the relation of its present surface outlines to its internal structure, and to enquire by what means those external features have been produced.

The “iron ridge” and ore beds of dodge counly, Wsconsin. Condensed from Dr. Owen's geological survey of Wisconsin, &c

The “iron ridge” and ore beds of dodge counly, Wsconsin. Condensed from Dr. Owen's geological survey of Wisconsin, &c

XXX. Notice concerning the Shropshire Witherite.

The Witherite or native carbonate of barytes, still continues to be one of the rarer productions of the mineral kingdom. The only thoroughly ascertained locality of this substance, according to Professor Jameson, (System of Mineralogy, I. 575,) is Anglesark in the county of Lancaster, where it was first discovered by Mr. James Watt. It is here found in veins traversing the independent coal formation, and accompanied by blende, galena, calamine and heavy-spar. To this locality however may be added, on the authority of Klaproth, (Analytical Essays, I. 389,) a mine near Neuberg in Upper Stiria, where this mineral occurs in a bed of spathose iron ore. The mine at Anglesark is, I understand, abandoned: it may therefore be a matter of some interest to the members of the Geological Society, to state that my researches during the last summer in pursuance of my mineralogical survey of Shropshire, have made me acquainted with a mine, within the bounds of that county, in which witherite occurs very abundantly. The most hilly district of Shropshire extends from the borders of Montgomeryshire to the town of Church Stretton, having the broad valley of the Severn for its northern boundary, and stretching as far south as the parallel of Bishopscastle. The general elevation of this tract” above the Severn varies from 800 to above 1500 feet. It is completely intersected by two strait and simple vallies, the direction of which is about north-east and south-west, and several smaller ones parallel to the larger descend from