Dear Anne, I don't recall that anyone around here (part of Virginia's gold-mining heritage 1830s and after) has an early-19th-century ball mill, but you might want to check with the gold museum at Monroe Park, Goldvein, Virginia <http://www.goldvein.com/>--I know they have a couple of "hornets"--large tanks shaped somewhat like cement-mixing trucks (and resembling hornets' nests in shape) which were used for processing ore-bearing materials (early 20th century?).  

(There used to be a gold-mining exhibit in a museum at Lake Anna, near here, but I haven't been able to find them.)  

Here in Fredericksburg we are recorded as producing gold-ore crushing machinery c1840 but I've never seen any remnant of such.

There are some items of gold-mining history referred to on the web site of the Virginia Historical Society <http://www.vahistorical.org>

John

John Pearce
James Monroe Museum/
Center for Historic Preservation
University of Mary Washington
540 654-2112

>>> [log in to unmask] 7/7/2006 3:30 PM >>>
Hello - I am trying to make some small improvements to the labeling and graphics in our exhibit about gold mining in the Charlotte, NC area. We have a few iron spheres, 1 ½-2" in diameter, that are said to have been used for crushing gold ore to make it easier to extract the gold. These would have been used in a ball mill. Does anybody have a ball mill that dates from the early 19th Century that you'd be willing to send us an image of? Or do you have a photograph of one you could scan for us? We need something that could have been used in a North Carolina mine prior to the California Gold Rush, which pretty much put paid to local mining. If you do have these items, please reply off list and let me know the terms of your reproduction policy.

Many thanks,

Anne

Anne T. Lane, Collections Manager

Charlotte Museum of History

3500 Shamrock Drive

Charlotte NC 28215

704-568-1774, ext 110

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