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wire ropeway

A ropeway using a wire cable or cables. Used for conveying ore and
supplies in rough mountainous districts; a wire tramway.
See also:aerial tramway

wire saw

A saw consisting of one- and three-strand wire cables up to 16,000 ft (4.9
km) long running over pulleys. When fed by a slurry of sand and water and
held against rock by tension, the saw cuts narrow, uniform channels by
abrasion. This saw is used for cutting granite, slate, marble, limestone,
or sandstone blocks. USBM, 7

wire-saw operator

See:wire sawyer

wire sawyer

In a stonework industry, a person who operates a wire saw to cut very
large blocks of granite, limestone, marble, slate, or sandstone into
smaller blocks that can be handled on gang or circular saws. Also called
wire saw operator. DOT

wire setter

Person who tends electrically powered unwinding machine that supplies wire
netting to be embedded in sheet glass. DOT

wire silver

Native silver in the form of wires or threads. AGI

wire strand

Several steel wires twisted together to form one strand of a wire rope or
cable. Long

wire-strand core

A core in which the number of wires shall not be less than the number of
wires in a main strand of the wire rope, and the individual wires shall be
of an appropriate grade of steel in accordance with the best practice and
design, either bright (uncoated), galvanized, or drawn galvanized wire.
See also:independent wire rope core

wiry

Occurring as thin wires, often twisted like the strands of a rope; e.g.,
native copper.

witching stick

See:divining rod

withamite

A red to yellow variety of epidote with a little manganese; in andesites
at Glencoe, Scotland. CF:piemontite

withdraw

To draw off; to take out supports. Mason

withdrawal

Segregation of particular lands from the operation of specified public
land laws, making those laws inapplicable to those lands. Lands may be
withdrawn from all or any part of the public land laws, including the
mineral location and mineral leasing laws. SME, 1

witherite

An orthorhombic mineral, BaCO3 ; aragonite group; colorless to
milky; in low-temperature hydrothermal veins. Syn:carbonate of barium

witness corner

A marker set on a property line leading to a corner; used where it would
be impracticable to maintain a monument at the corner itself.
Seelye, 2

witness mark

A mark or stake set to indicate the position (approximate or exact) of a
property corner, instrument station, or other survey point. A witness may
be a rock, tree, or other object; e.g., a blazed tree on the bank of a
river to indicate a corner at the intersection of some survey line with
the center line of the stream, which, therefore, cannot be marked
directly; a stake driven so as to stand out; and a stake marked with a
station number, driven flush with or below the surface of the ground.
Seelye, 2

witness post

Satellite beacon used to mark a claim when the correct boundary post is
inaccessible. Pryor, 3

wittichenite

An orthorhombic mineral, Cu3 BiS3 ; gray to tin-white; at
Wittichen, Baden, Germany. Also called wittichite.

wittite

A monoclinic mineral, Pb9 Bi12 (S,Se)27 ; lead-gray;
at Falun, Sweden.

Witton-Kramer magnet

A circular magnetic separator suspended over a conveyor head pulley to
extract small pieces of tramp iron. Nelson

Witwatersrand

The gold-mining district, now usually called the Rand, in South Africa.
Nelson