First Year on the Thames Goldfield & other stories

Friday, 2 August 2019

Welcome to the First Year on the Thames Goldfield, a Thames 150th Anniversary project, written during 2017 - 2018.

150th blog click here

Other Thames stories -

NZ's worst civil disaster & its tragic link to Thames

The curious story of the real author of the Thames Miner's Guide

The Miracle

The man who was not what he seemed

An extraordinary feat

The resurrection of John Gallagher

Thames Ghost Stories

Coming soon

To continue to the 150th blog click here

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Books by Meghan Hawkes click here

Please acknowledge and credit this blog with a source link if using any material from it. Thank you.

Glossary

Adit: A horizontal passage leading into a mine for the purposes of access or drainage.

Alluvial: Gold deposited by floods, found in river beds or flood plain.

Amalgam: A mix of mercury with another metal. Gold-mercury amalgam is used in the extraction of gold from ore.

Assay: The testing of a metal or ore to determine its ingredients and quality.

Auriferous: Gold bearing

Berdan: An inclined, revolving cast-iron basin containing a heavy iron block.

Bottom/Bottomed: Bedrock.

Colour/the colours: Gold specks visible in a gold diggers pan, or in samples of quartz.

Duffer: No gold to find.

Jump a claim: Take possession of someone else's claim by force or dishonesty.

Lead: Well defined bed of gold bearing gravel or sand.

Long Tom: A device shaped like a long trough used in the alluvial mining of gold.

Mica: Mica is a name given to a group of minerals that are physically and chemically similar. They are all silicate minerals.The word mica is derived from the Latin word mica meaning a crumb, and probably influenced by micare, to glitter.

Payable ground: Ground containing ore (gold) in sufficient quantity to be profitable.

Prospects: An apparent indication of ore/metal.

Quartz Reef: In at least the shallow, oxidized zones of quartz reef deposits, gold occurs in its metallic state, and is easily recovered with simple equipment.

Reef/lode: A mineral vein in rock.

Rush: A rapid movement of people to a newly discovered gold find.

Shaft: A vertical excavation.

Shotty gold: Small granular pieces of gold resembling shot.

Sluice Box: Long sloping trough with grooves on bottom into which water is directed to separate gold from gravel or sand.

Storekeeper's Rush: A gold rush started by a false rumour.

Tucker: Food

First Year on the Thames Goldfield & other stories

Friday, 2 August 2019

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