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EVENING CHRONICLE
VIRGINIA CITY, NEV.

FRIDAY JANUARY 10, 1890

A SUCCESSFUL TEST.

Nevada Mill Electric Motor Plant Accepted.

It is the Largest in the World --
The Power Generated Transmitted 2,300 Feet.

A final test of the Brush electric motor plant that operates the Nevada mill, was made last Sunday in the presence of Evan Williams, Superintendent of the Nevada Mill and Mining Company, and engineers Messrs. Petit and Ross, the latter taking copious notes of every detail of the working of the plant. The result of their observations were submitted in writing and the plant was formally accepted yesterday.

The plant is the largest in the world and the cost is $100,000. It consists of six dynamos of 100 horse power each, placed on the Sutro tunnel level of the Chollar incline, 1,630 feet below the surface. These dynamos are operated by Pelton wheels placed on the same level, the wheels being driven by a volume of 187 inches of water contained in an iron pipe ten inches in diameter, leading from the surface tank to the point of discharge 1,630 feet below.

The electric power generated by the dynamos is transmitted on copper wires to the surface motor room, 2,300 feet distant from the dynamo chamber. The test proved that sixty-three and a half per cent of the power generated in the dynamo chamber is landed on the surface motors -- which is three and a half per cent, more than the contract between the Brush Electric Company and Nevada Mill & Mining Company specifies.

A total of 450 horse-power is required to operate the mill, which is equipped with sixty stamps, sixteen pans, ten settlers, two agitators and three sulphuret pans. Of the 450 horse-power required to operate the entire mill, the Brush electric plant furnishes 380 horse-power, the surface Pelton wheel on which the volume of water
required to operate the Sutro tunnel dynamos is discharged prior to passing down the incline, furnishes the auxiliary power of 70 per cent. The mill has been in constant operation, propelled by the electric motors, for above three months, during which it has moved with the precision of the finest clock-work.

A short time prior to the starting of the Nevada mill last November the Brush Company sent from its principal place of business in Cleveland, Ohio, Horatio S. Conner, one of its most skillful electricians, to ascertain if there were any defects in the electric plant that caused its failure to fill the contract with the mill company. Mr.
Conner proceeded to thoroughly overhaul the entire plant, from the dynamo chamber to the surface motors, and after a test was satisfied that the reason the plant did not fulfill the specifications of the contract with the Nevada Mill Company was due solely to the incompetency of the electricians who had charge of it during the first test.