That IS a very curious piece of equipment, and a lot of work obviously went into the construction of it!
I have seen a lot of mining equipment and machinery. There is even a lot of it on the property where I live. But, I have never seen anything like that.
Not exactly equipment per se but definitely used in the mining process. All of these photos except one were used back in the 1800's and are at (or near) the mine where I currently work. Your guesses as to what they are and what they were used for will probably be better than mine.
"The End Of The Tracks" - Narrow Gauge Ore Car tracks now leading to nowhere
Modern day equipment that we currently use at the mine. That's me standing next the loader.
Jim Hatt wrote:I think I've brought this up before Greg, but I thought I would give it one more try.
I sure would like to borrow your Loader for a weekend!
Jim
Are you aware, Jim how much it costs to run that loader for one hour? And then of course there would be the costs to get it from Northern Nevada to Arizona. How are your retirement funds holding out?
Another piece of equipment used in mining is the steam locomotive below. This engine used to pull ore cars back in the early 1900's, (It was built in 1910). It's sister, (engine #93), is a working Locomotive pulling tourists in passenger cars at the Northern Nevada Railway Museum in Ely Nevada. I used to work there, that's how I got the Photo and many others of old railroad cars and equipment.
Gosh that wheel - at first I was going to say oh heck yes, it is an old undershot water wheel, which would have been connected to other machines by pulleys but I don't see any sluice or water gate etc. With the angle of the paddles, it could even be a giant squirrel cage blower, for separating ore like a drywasher but I really don't know!
Roy
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