 In 1852 and 1853 he and Edward Matteson, while working at Buckeye Hill and American Hill respectively, devised the first hydraulic mining technology.It consisted of a wooden contraption held together by iron clamps that allowed miners to direct a fifty-foot column of water at a gravel bank using a canvas hose, which broke up the gravel and washed it into a series of sluices where the heavy gold flakes settled out of the lighter earth.Though it revolutionized gold mining, the technique also caused severe environmental damage.