expenses.

"It is certain that new machines and new processes are, and will be,
given attention by mining men in proportion to their probable merits;
but the proper place for experiments is in a mill already as successful
as under known processes it can be made. In a new enterprise, even when
the expense of an experiment is undertaken by the inventor, the loss to
the mine-owner in case of failure must be very great, both in time
and general running expenses. Directors should not believe that a
willingness to risk cash in proving an invention is necessarily any
proof of value of the same; it is only a measure of the faith of the
inventor, which is hardly a safe standard to risk shareholders' money
by.

"The variety of modifications in approved processes ought at least to
suggest the desirability of exhausting the known, before drawing on the
unknown and purely speculative. It should also be borne in mind that
what might appear at first sight to be new processes, and even new
machinery, are, in fact, often nothing but old contrivances and
plausible theories long ago exploded among practical men.

"Many mining companies have been ruined, without any reference to their
mines, through men deciding on the reasonableness of new process and
machinery who have no knowledge of the business in hand. It is assumed
often, that if an inventor or manufacturer of new machinery will agree
to guarantee success, or take no pay if not successful, the company
takes no risk. In actual fact a whole year is wasted in most cases,
failure spoils the reputation of the company, running expenses have
continued, and further working capital cannot be raised, because
all concerned have lost confidence by the failure to obtain returns
promised. All this in addition to the regular, unavoidable risks of
mining itself, which may, at any moment during the year lost, call
for increased expenses and increased faith in ultimate success. To the
mining man who makes money by the business, the natural risks of mining
is all he will take; it is sufficient; and when he invests more money in
machinery he takes good care that he takes no chances of either failure
or delay.

"The following are rules which no mining company or individual
mine-owner can afford to neglect.

"(1) The risk should be confined to mining. No body of directors is
justified in taking a shareholder's money and investing it in new
processes or machinery when the subscription was simply fo