Mining. Also strek, streke. [Of obscure origin.
Possibly the same word as STRAKE sb.1; cf. strake-shide (STRAKE sb.1 9) and side-strakes, used dial. for the two longitudinal timbers of a sawpit (W. Som. Wd.-bk.); it seems likely that the word was applied in the plural to the boards lining the washing pit, and then to the whole apparatus.]
a. A shallow pit for the purpose of washing ore. b. A wooden box without ends, used for the same purpose.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornwall, 203. In several pits made for that purpose called the strakes, it [the poorer sort of ore] is washed clean.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 226. At the higher end is a circular pit called the Strêk or Strep, large enough to contain four hand barrows full of slime. Ibid., 227. The rough grains lie at the bottom of the strêk. Ibid., 233. The strêke or strakes is made of two deal boards laid flat for a bottom fourteen inches in the ground.
1860. Mining Gloss., Cornw., 24. Strake, a launder, or box of wood without ends, in which the process of washing or tying is performed.
c. Gold-mining. An apparatus for concentrating the stamped ore.
1887. J. A. Phillips & Bauerman, Elem. Metall. (ed. 2), 789. The discharge from the screens … is … conducted over inclined strakes each 20 inches in width and 22 feet in length, which have a fall of 1 in 10. These strakes are made of well-seasoned 11/2 inch planks nailed to triangular frames.
d. attrib.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xv. 593. The stony part, from its great volume, accumulated at the lower end or tail of the strake-boards.
1887. J. A. Phillips & Bauerman, Elem. Metall. (ed. 2), 789. Each end of the strake-frame is supported [etc.].
