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By Samuel M. Cassidy, John A. Garcia

In some districts of the bituminous coal field the problem of constructing bulkheads to seal off water under pressure is becoming increasingly important. Recently this matter has been brought very much to the front by the loss of a large Illinois mine due to failure of a bulkhead that separated it from several old, flooded mines. As this great misfortune has provoked much inquiry about proper bulkhead design, it is felt that a description of the successful and extensive water-sealing practice at three mines that have different natural conditions will be of considerable interest to those connected with properties having a present or future water problem and to engineers that may have to design safe bulkheads of economical construction. These three mines are the Saxton and Dresser, near Terre Haute, Ind., and the Hegeler, near Danville, Ill. All three have water conditions that make it necessary to regularly seal off all worked-out sections of the mine, and there are considerably over a hundred bulkheads in each. AS far as the writers know, these three mines are the only ones in the bituminous coal fields of the United States with anything like so large a number of water seals and experience, although a number of other mines are known to have a few bulkheads. More detail will be included herein on the Saxton mine than on the others, as the writers are more familiar with it. General Mining System All three of the mines use the same general panel room-and-pillar system, which consists of rooms turned both ways off room entries and a solid block of coal left on all sides of the completed panel except on the cross-entry side, where a heavier pillar is pierced by two entries for haulage and air. On completion of the panel the two entries arc sealed and the panel is then isolated from the rest of the mine. Owing to water conditions, no pillars are pulled; recovery inside the panel barrier pillars is approximately 65 per cent.

Jan 1, 1938

By John Van N. Dorr

Introduction.................... 212 The DoRR Classifier.........212 History................ 212 Description................... 215 Regulation of Products............. 216 Cost of Operation.............216 Power...........216 Capacity..............216 Uses.................217 The Dorr Thickener.............219 History...........292 Description.............. 221 Speed............ 222 Power......,....223 Repairs.............,... 223 Labor................. 224 Capacity................ 224 Density of Underflow............... 224 Uses.........,.......226 Continuous Counter-Current Decantation....... 227 Concentration..............227 Industrial Uses................228 Acid-Proof Thickeners.......... 228 The Dorr Tray Thickener........... 229 Description.................. 229 Capacity................. 231 The Dorr Agitator................. 232 History................... 232 Description................... 233 Speed.................... 234 Power.................... 234 Renewals................... 235 Efficiency................... 236 Selective Agitation................ 236 Conclusion................... 237

Jan 1, 1915

By H. A. Wheeler

History ILLINOIS has so recently attained the third place in the oil production of the United States that few realize its great importance, or are aware of its highly profitable character. Since 1907 Illinois has furnished about 15 per cent. of the United States output and about 10 per cent. of the world's production. The value of the output in 1913 is estimated at $30,000,000, of which about $20,000,000 is profit. The present prosperity dates from 1905, but efforts have been made since 1865 to develop production and geologists have been very sanguine as to its future for over 25 years. Had the oil operators been as confident as the geologists, the field would have been opened at least 30 years earlier. For the rich Eastern Illinois oil field is located along the La Salle anticline, that was mapped 46 years ago by Professor Worthen in the

Jan 5, 1914

By M. C. Flemings, T. Z. Kattamis

Dendrite morphology and grain size were studied in bulk samples of iron and nickel base alloys under-cooled up to 300°C. In the alloys studied, dendrite morphology gradually changes with increasing undercooling from the usual dendritic structure to a structure composed of cylindrical dendrite arms. At a critical undercooling of approximately 170°C in these alloys there is an abrupt transition to a fine-grained structure of spherical morphology. Final dendrite-arnz spacing of melts nucleated at less than the critical undercooling decreases with increasing undercooling and with decreasing distance from a chilled surface. Grain size of melts nucleated at greater than the critical undercooling decreases similarly with these factors. It is concluded that structure coarsening, with reduction of surface area as driving force, is the principal mechanism determining final dendrite-arm spacing in melts nucleated at small undercoolings and grain site in melts nucleated at large undercoolings. IN solidification of highly undercooled melts, nuclea-tion and growth of the solid is accompanied by a rapid release of latent heat of fusion. The heat release is sufficiently rapid in bulk specimens that it takes place essentially adiabatically with respect to the surroundings; hence the specimen heats up ("recalesces") to some maximum recalescence temperature. For bulk liquid metals and alloys, a simple thermal balance shows the undercoolings obtainable in bulk samples are not sufficient to lower the maximum recalescence temperature below the equilibrium solidus temperature. Hence, some liquid always remains at the end of recalescence; this liquid must solidify by rejection of heat to the surroundings. Metals, including iron and nickel base alloys, normally freeze with only a few degrees of undercooling. In general, nucleation begins on impurity particles present in the metal, at a "heterogeneous nucleation temperature" that is quite close to the equilibrium liquidus temperature. Very small droplets of metal can be undercooled considerably before nucleation occurs,1-4 presumably because subdivision of the liquid reduces the probability of solid impurity in a given droplet. Following early work on metal droplets,' a series of studies has shown that it is possible, without great difficulty, to undercool bulk samples of many metals and alloys. Undercoolings obtainable are approximately two tenths of the melting point for nickel, iron, copper, and other metals and alloys.5-9 Specimen sizes have generally been in the range of 50 to 500 g. Studies on undercooling to date have been concerned primarily with techniques of undercooling and with nucleation and growth kinetics. Only limited consideration has been given to dendrite morphology in under- cooled alloys. One such study, in bulk Cu-Ni alloy,8 showed that at small undercoolings a typical dendritic structure was obtained. At undercoolings the order of 175°C the structure of a Cu-40 pct Ni alloy became "ray or starlike", and a dense network of subbound-aries appeared. At still larger degrees of undercooling, of the order of 250°C, the structure became more random and included an ensemble of globular forms. Comparable results were obtained by walker10 on Cu-Ni alloys, and by Kamenetskaya et al.11 in research on Cu-Ni, Sb-Bi, Fe-Ni, and Fe-Cr alloys. In this work, study was made of the processing parameters influencing dendrite morphology and grain size in undercooled alloy melts. Experiments were specifically designed to show the effects of coarsening ("ripening") during solidification on final casting morphology. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Apparatus used was patterned after that of Walker,10 Fig. l(a). Melting was by induction under reduced pressure of helium. Two different types of crucible materials were used; there was no difficulty in obtaining substantial undercooling in both types of materials. Alumina crucibles were used for the bulk of the runs made, with a glass coating separating the metal from the crucible walls. Other runs were made using fused silica crucibles with or without slag coating. A graphite susceptor was employed around the crucible to aid in melting and to reduce melt stirring. The major portion of the experimental work was on

Jan 1, 1967

By COURTNEY DE KALB

IRON ore is the cause of the present trouble in Morocco. At least three nations are interested in the outcome and private syndicates have been active. The iron deposits are found in that mountainous northern coast line known as the Rif. This is an uplift that has been cut through, by the northward drainage, representing an ancient land surface. Erosion has produced .a fiordlike coast, which circum- stance has aided contraband' traffic to the tribes dominated by Abd-el-Krim, the chief of the clan of the Beni Urriaguel, near the center of 'the north coast, opposite Alhucemas. The iron deposits are extensive in the territory of the Beni Urriaguel. They were "located," if such a term is permissible, many years ago. The first arrangements, through direct contracts with the tribal chieftains, have been reinforced by compliance with the subsequent code under the Spanish protectorate in 1914. Under those terms, the location had to be made through the Arbitral Commission sitting in Paris. These locations, or "denouncements," were made by the I-louse of Mannesmann, of Hamburg.

Jan 1, 1925

OF THE many categories into which scientific knowledge has been arbitrarily divided, the one which has proved most applicable in our attempts to gain an insight into the details of steelmaking processes is physical chemistry. To the young metallurgist who has only recently survived a college course in this subject, the application of its principles to reactions in liquid steel should not be difficult. To one who has had no such course or whose auld acquaintance with the subject has all but been forgot, such application is all too often thwarted by the abstruse presentations of the subject found in many of the available textbooks. AS a tool for the control of a complex process involving many chemical reactions, physical chemistry can become very valuable. The specialist who is using this tool for many purposes and perhaps contributing to its development will want to know a great deal more about it than can be included in this book. He will be interested in its history, its accomplishments and limitations, and its applications to many and varied problems. To the steelmaker or metallurgist, however, it is only one of a number of tools that he must use. He is willing to forego the detailed study of its inner workings in order to concentrate upon the development of skill in its application. It is the purpose of this chapter to present a simplified view of physical chemistry as a tool of great potential usefulness. This purpose and the desire for brevity have required the elimination of many of the gadgets with which the tool is usually adorned. It is hoped that this simplification will be conducive to clear understanding. The beginner is urged not to overlook the more extended treatments of the standard textbooks.* He is assured at the same time that the basic tool is sound and serviceable and is guaranteed to give satisfaction if regularly lubricated with common sense. Certain parts of physical chemistry require rather formidable mathematics for their complete development, but in the main those applications in which we are here interested can be expressed in fairly

Jan 1, 1944

By M. L. Fuller

DURING the last several years many papers have appeared dealing with the structure of highly polished metal surfaces. The awakening of interest in this subject is due to the applicability of the electron diffrac-tion technique to the study of surfaces. The original theory of Beilby1 considered the surface of polished metals as of the nature of a super-cooled liquid or a vitreous, amorphous solid. The electron diffraction effects from polished metals have been interpreted by many to be a direct experimental proof of the correctness of the Beilby theory. This inter-pretation has been strongly opposed by others, so that at the present time the subject is in an uncertain and controversial state. In the present paper new, and hitherto unpublished, electron diffrac-tion effects from polished zinc are described. These observations indicate that the polished surface of zinc is crystalline.

Jan 1, 1938

By R. D. Irving

THE object of the present paper is to give an outline account of the mineral resources of the State of Wisconsin, so far as they are now known, including both metallic ores and non-metallic useful mineral substances. The only previous publication making any attempt at such an account is one of a popular nature, prepared by the writer for Snyder and Van Vechten's Historical Atlas of Wisconsin, which was published at Milwaukee in 1878. The data upon which the statements of the following pages are based are chiefly from the

Jan 1, 1880

By Sarat C. Rubra

Geographically, British India includes India or Hindustan proper, Burma, and a part of Beluchistan. In ancient times India occupied a very important position anlong the producers of minerals and metals; in fact, as late as the middle of the seventeenth century, it contributed a very considerable quota of the mineral and metal supplies of the world. The branches of the industry worthy of special note are gold, silver, lead, antimony, copper, iron, diamonds and other precious stones. The famous " Damascus steel" was originally manufactured in India, Damascus being only a mart; and it is interesting to note that even at the present time this product is still made in India. Prior to the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in 1728, India was the sole producer of this important mineral; and while no diamond-mines are now systematically worked, fine specimens are occasionally reported to be found in river-beds and in alluvial diggings. For ages, nearly all of the minerals of present commercial value have been produced and worked in India, and many of the deposits may still play an important part in the world's mining and mineral history. Despite the patient work of the ancient Indians, the limited knowledge they possessed of pumping and ventilation precluded the possibility of attaining any great depth in mining. Under special conditions, shafts have been sunk to 600 ft., but the average depth was much less. As a result of this limitation, the ancient miners confinecl their work to the available ores in sight, leaving large bodies of ore intact, which can be profitably worked with modern methods of mining. As an evidence of this statement may be mentioned the mines of the Kolar gold-fields in Mysore, which have reached in some shafts a. depth exceeding 2,400 ft. Traces of ancient work in these

Jan 1, 1904

By J. E. Spurr

The region here discussed is that part of Western Nevada in which. during the last few years. discoveries of rich gold- and

Jan 1, 1906

By P. W. George

This paper presents geological data regarding deposits of over 7,500,000 tons of fine-grained sulphide ore in barite gangue. A series of pyroclastics and arkoses was intruded by sills of quartz porphyry in connection with batholithic intrusions of granite 3 miles from Buchans. Gentle folding, with fracturing and shearing of tuff beds and intruded quartz porphyry, accompanied and followed the intrusion of granite and porphyry. The sulphide-barite mineralization is localized primarily in fractured and sheared tuff beds, but also in the sheared quartz porphyry. Two structures have proved particularly favorable for mineralization—one, the center of an anticline; the other, a series of weak, incompetent tuff beds intruded by thin sills of quartz porphyry and located between strong beds of arkose. During the folding the weak tuff with intruded quartz porphyry was intensely sheared and contorted and subsequently mineralized by sulphides and barite. Introduction Buchans is 5 miles north of Red Indian Lake, in Central Newfoundland, at an elevation of 900 ft. above sea level and 400 ft. above Red Indian Lake, and is reached by a 37-mile private railway from Miller-town Junction. The first ore body found at Buchans was discovered some 30 years ago in the bed of Buchans River, by Matty Mitchell, an Indian woodsman employed by the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co. Ltd. In the years following the discovery the ore was developed by shaft-sinking and drifting, with results indicating a lenticular ore body in a shear zone, containing about 100,000 tons of extremely fine-grained sulphide ore in barite gangue averaging about 0.05 oz. Au, 4 oz. Ag, 1.5 per cent Cu, 10 per cent Pb, 18 per cent Zn. Because a profitable metallurgical treatment for the ore was not found, the mine was closed down in 1911. In 1915, Mr. H. A. Guess, Vice President of the American Smelting & Refining Co., learned of the Buchans River ore body, and after metallurgical tests had been carried on from time to time in his company's testing plant a satisfactory separation of the sulphides by selective flotation was finally effected in 1925. Prospecting for additional ore bodies was begun in 1926, utilizing geophysical methods under the direction of Hans Lund-

Jan 1, 1937

By Robert Keeney

Before the outbreak of the war in 1914, the only electric-furnace smelting plant operating on a commercial basis west of the Mississippi River was an electric pig-iron plant in California; rare metal ores were not smelted, concentrates of molybdenum, tungsten, uranium, and vanadium ores being shipped east for reduction. Practically no- chrome ore was being mined, and only comparatively small amounts of manganese ore. Today there are two electric smelting plants in California, one in Washington, one in Iowa, and four in Colorado; two plants are under construction in California, and one in Montana. Ores of manganese, chromium, molybdenum and tungsten are now smelted in the West, and although uranium and vanadium concentrates are still shipped to the East, they will probably be treated in western plants in a short time. The four electric-furnace plants in Colorado are listed in Table 1. TABLE 1.-Electric Smelting Plants in Colorado Capacity, Company, Location Kilowatts Products . Tungsten Products Co Boulder 800 Ferrotungsten, ferromolybdentun. Boulder Tungsten Production Co. . Boulder 400 Ferrotungsten. Ferro Alloy Co Utah Junction 1200 Ferrochrome, ferrotung-sten. Iron Mountain Alloy Co Utah Junction 3000 Ferromanganese. Power for all of these plants is supplied by the Colorado Power Co.

Jan 8, 1918

By R. L. Stegman, M. R. Achter

Nickel, fatigued in vacuum, shows intragranular crack initiation and growth at low temperatures. An increase in temperature initially prolongs fatigue life due to a more homogeneous distribution of slip. With a further temperature increase, the mode of failure undergoes a transitiotz to intergranular crack initiation with concurrent recrystallization which results in a shorter life. The transition temperature varies with bending strain and specimen purity. UNTIL recently, very little work has been done on the effect of temperature on the mechanism of fatigue and the resultant variation in fatigue life. Except for mild steel, where strain aging raises the strength at moderate temperature, fatigue lives had been shown to decrease with an increase in temperature. In their review article, Allen and Forrest' summarized the work of McCammon and Rosenberg and of Forrest and Mann on the fatigue of copper from -269" to 325°C. The fatigue life vs stress curves remained roughly parallel over this temperature range, the fatigue strength decreasing progressively with increasing temperature. When testing was done in vacuum, the present authors' found the results for nickel were different from those quoted above. Initially, the fatigue lives increased with temperature and then decreased as a grain boundary mode of failure was observed. The initial increase was attributed to a more homogeneous distribution of slip, a condition which was not as conducive to crack initiation as the bunching of slip lines observed at 20°C. Ronay, Reimann, and wood3 observed a similar change of slip line distribution in brass, tested in air, with rising temperature. Our previous observations were based on preliminary work with relatively few specimens, fatigued at comparatively low strains. To learn more about the mechanisms, the present investigation was undertaken for the purpose of studying systematically this effect over a wider range of strains and as a function of purity of the nickel. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES The testing equipment, procedures, and specimen geometry have been described elsewhere.' An optical technique to measure bending strains was used as de-

Jan 1, 1968

By Charles E. Reed

With the increasing importance of clay in drilling operations which demand more precise and exacting control over its behavior, there has come the realization that most of our present methods of control over many of its important properties still represent more of an art than a science. Such a situation with respect to a material of such industrial significance is unfortunate, and naturally many investigations have been conducted to improve our knowledge. In general, these investigations have revealed the complex nature of clay behavior and while sometimes they may not have seemed to contribute directly to a solution of the field operator's problems they have been of inestimable importance in bringing to light the broad fundamental scientific principles upon which must be based any effective working theory correlating the known facts of clay behavior and predicting profitable new lines of attack for its improvement. Major Facts Concerning Behavior of Clays In the study of clays, as in that of most other colloidal materials, it has been impossible to make progress by the study of isolated facts. On the other hand, analysis of large groups of facts, many of which seem at first completely unrelated, can lead to a deeper insight into the structure of clays and the mechanism of their behavior. It will be well to list the major facts on which the analysis here presented is based, starting with those that have emerged repeatedly from past investigations and which thereby constitute an impregnable foundation upon which must rest any comprehensive theory of clay behavior: 1. Clays consist of hydrated aluminosilicates of extremely fine and variable particle size. 2. Suspended in water, clays exhibit variable degrees of swelling, depending upon their origin and upon the chemical and colloidal nature of any other substances present. The magnitude of the swelling is a direct indication of the extent to which the clay has become dispersed.

Jan 1, 1938

NEW MEMBERS The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the period Jan. 1, 1917 to Feb. 10, 1917. ALLEN, ROBERT SEXTON, Chief Chemist at Concentrator, Inspiration Cons. Copper Co. Globe, Ariz. ALTIO, KARL FREDRIK, Min. Engr., The Sissert Mining District Co., Ltd., Polefskoy Zavod, Perm Government, Russia. ARGALL, PHILIP HENRY, Mgr., Ozark Smelt. & Min. Co., Magdalena, New Mexico. BAILEY, MARC Supt., Wolverine & Arizona Min. Co., Bisbee, Ariz. BAKER, DAVID FRANKLIN, Asst. Supt. of Blast Furnaces, Alan Wood, Iron and Steel Co., Swedeland, Pa. BATES, BENNETT R, Min. Engr 1025 Peoples Gas Bldg., Chicago, Ill. BECK, HOWARD A Shift Foreman, Aurora Cons. Mines Co. Aurora, Nev. BELL, LEO RICHARD Casilla 270, La Paz, Bolivia, South America. BENJAMIN, FLOYD SHAW, District Mgr., Aetna Explosives Co., Inc., 800 Torrey Bldg., Duluth, Minn.

Jan 3, 1917

By Granville S. Borden

TAXES in general are onerous and are not a pleas- ant subject for discourse. There are, however, some very cogent reasons why we should dedicate a part of our thoughts and services to the solution of our taxation problems: The happiness of every individual in the United States depends on the maintenance of a stable government. The collection of taxes is an indispensable function of a stable government, and the power to collect taxes depends in part on the question whether taxes are fair and equitable. As representatives of the mining industry it is our duty to .protect it from tax burdens that are discriminatory or- unjust, As citizens we find that taxation is incessantly endeavouring to unravel the knots in our purse-strings. Many members of the Institute may be consulted .by clients on taxation problems, especially the phases which re- late to depletion and valuation. It is the hope of the writer that the discussion of some of the current depletion and valuation problems will stimulate interest in the problems, and as a consequence of this new interest facts will be ventilated, opinions rendered and services performed, which will be a means of solving the problems to the satisfaction of all parties interested.

Jan 1, 1929

By Richard P. Rothwell

In January last I published in the Engineering and Mining Journal a table giving, with a considerable degree of accuracy, the production of anthracite coal for the year 1874. At that time it mas impossible to give any correct estimate of the production of bituminous coal, for the returns I had been able to secure from such distant and scattered districts were not always forwarded punctually, and the work of .obtaining anything like a true estimate of the coal mined in districts from which I was unable to obtain official returns was both laborious and tedious. As will be seen from the detailed reports furnished herewith, I have succeeded in obtaining tolerably accurate returns of 20,093,704 tons; and upon careful revision by numerous well-informed local authorities, my first estimate of the amount of coal not officially returned to me has grown very considerably; indeed, as I get more information on the subject I find that our bituminous coal production greatly exceeds the amount we have been accustomed to hear it placed at, aggregating as it does, 26,465,704 tons. Mr. Andrew Roy, State Inspector of Mines for Ohio, has reported the production of Ohio at 4,168,445 tons, while his first estimates were but 3,820,000 tons; and similarly, in other cases, the more full the returns direct from the mines the more incorrect do I find all previous reports. I am able now to furnish, not an accurate statement, indeed, but by far the most full and reliable one that has yet been published of our coal production. The amount of labor involved in obtaining this admittedly imperfect report has been simply enormous. In the following tabular statement it will be perceived that Pennsylvania produces nearly one-half of all the bituminous coal mined

By E. S. Wheeler, M. W. Murphy

A LARGE part of the molybdenum produced in Colorado is converted and consumed in the Eastern States. As the raw materials and the power needed for the conversion of the Colorado concentrate are also accessible in the Eastern States, the conversion plant has been installed some 1500 miles east of where the ore is mined and milled. When concentrate was first produced at Climax in 1918, a custom smelter converted the product into ferromolybdenum. By 1924, the Company had decided to produce calcium molybdate and rented a building and installed equipment for that purpose at Langeloth, near Burgettstown, Pa., about thirty miles west of Pittsburgh. For the first few years the plant was a simple one of small capacity. A small hand-rabbled roaster was used, the product of which was made iota calcium molybdate by a conventional method; then an eight hearth mechanically rabbled roaster was installed to increase and speed up production. The output was considerably less than a million pounds of contained molybdenum annually until 1928, when a small part of the produc-

Jan 1, 1946

By O. U. Bradley

The methods of handling the oil output of the Mid-Continent fields are not unlike those practised in other oil fields of the United States, and it is not expected that this paper will present any entirely novel ideas. Some features of the practice of handling this oil may be of interest, however. Wooden Gaging Tanks Practically all of the oil sold to pipe line? and other purchasing agencies throughout the Mid-Continent field is gaged from wooden tanks. Steel gaging tanks are slowly coming into use, and are preferable in many ways—leakage and evaporation are reduced, and the strapping and recalculation of capacities are unnecessary. The wooden tanks are slightly coned to facilitate tightening the hoops. The sizes in common use are 250, 500, 800 and 1600 bbl. The number and the capacity of the gaging tanks upon any producing oil property depend upon its production, and the facilities for disposing of the output. The 1600-bbl. size was the most common in the Cushing field, particularly during the period of flush production. The tanks are distributed over the leased premises in groups of two, three, and four tanks each, and these are filled from flow tanks, or through direct pipe connections with the heads of the wells. Flow tanks are merely temporary reservoirs to facilitate the transfer of oil from the wells to the gaging tanks. They diminish fire risk, and are considered indispensable on small producing properties where water is pumped with the oil, as they permit the refuse and water to 'settle out before the production is run to the gaging tanks. strapping and Calculations After a gaging tank has been strapped (measured) and its contents computed, a deduction of 3 per cent. is made from its computed volume. The strapping of a tank requires four steps: (1) The outer circumferences

Jan 1, 1920