I am asking for help from my fantastic reader’s knowledge base.
What type of mill is this?
I have never seen one like it. I have twenty projects going on, but not knowing drives me crazy!
Daney Mill only has only one reference I have found online, Nevada Expeditions, which took me to this little treasure. He found the mine dated to 1859, and milling started in 1862. The primary commodity was gold.
Work supposedly ended in 1890. The mill is stamped with the name Brinkley, I can’t find it right now, but I think the company didn’t exist until the early 1900s.
Danny Lovato says
Im probably wrong, but to me, it looks like a smaller version of what was used at the Chemung mine. .
Tami says
Thanks for the thoughts. I will be at Cheung this weekend and take a closer look.
Danny Lovato says
Hi Miss Tami,
I did some digging. Its a Drum Amalgamator of some kind. I researched all the patents available to me from 1800 to 1930. I found a lot of similar machines, all designed for separating precious metal from ore via the amalgam process, but there was not one quite like your discovery.
I am sorry I could not be of more help on this
Tami says
I appreciate all your research!
I have been doing some research on the mill itself and have found conflicting information. I think there may be another Daney Mill in the area. My next step is to contact some of the historical foundations around Virginia City and see if they have more info. Knowing it is Amalgamator is a huge step!