Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 72

the manual drilling of “single jacking” or “double jacking.”
However, most miners were unhappy with these labor-saving
devices, for they saved manual labor at the expense of the miners’
health. The new drills produced a fine dust that got caught in the
m iner’s lungs and produced an irritating condition termed, silico
sis. This was not only disabling but often life-threatening as well.
Aptly, the drills were named, “widow makers.”
As indicated earlier, ventilation in the mines was bad and
sanitation little better, for the mines usually were “90 by 90,” a
reference to prevailing heat and humidity. Everywhere was the
dank smell of rotting timbers and black powder smoke, combining
with the stench of urine and human excrement. Toilet cars were few
and far between as they didn’t bring in payloads of ore.(13)
Conditions were especially bad at the deep Comstock and a
German engineer named Adolf Sutro proposed to the owners that
a separate air and ore track tunnel be built providing drainage and
needed ventilation. The tunnel would be built on a gravity slant,
loaded ore cars could be run downhill. The proposal was for a five
m ile tunnel, the biggest such tunnel in the West. Mine owners
balked at the proposal, for from their point of view, they had no
need to make the miner’s life easier. But eventually Sutro won out
and the tunnel was started. However, the tunnel was taking so much
time that while it was yet being completed, the mine’s silver
resources were near to being exhausted. Realizing this himself,
Sutro sold his shares for a handsome profit and then completed the
tunnel. A thirteen-year project, it served only a declining business
Him self a millionaire by now, Sutro turned to politics, becoming
the M ayor of San Francisco.
After the riches of the Comstock ran out, other places in
Nevada yielded the precious gold and silver. Among these were
Tonapah, south of Carson City and, later, the big “Jumbo” mine at
Goldfield, now areas of secret military operations. But the time had

66