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By M. E. Lombardi

IN comparison with the mining industry the petroleum industry is new and inexperienced, and until now it might have been called the fortunate industry. Its great good fortune consisted in two things; a bountiful supply hidden by nature in the rocks of the earth, and a steady and large increase, during the past twenty-five years, in the demand for petroleum products. It is a remarkable fact that consumption of gasoline in the United States has shown an increase every year since automobiles first became important, and even in 1930 there was a four per cent increase, in spite of the universal depression; the estimated increase if the times had been normal, was ten per cent. This industry has, therefore, not passed

Jan 1, 1931

By Christopher Haycocks, Lawrence P. Johnson, George M. Neall, James M. Townsend

No method of roof control yet devised has proven to be universally acceptable for the wide range of strata conditions experienced in U. S. coal mines. However, a relatively new innovation, the roof truss, has proven itself capable of preventing roof failures which both conventional and resin bolting could not. Presently, the economics of roof trusses are not favorable when compared to bolting due primarily to drilling and installation procedures, but this is expected to change with improved truss and equipment designs. To realize the full potential of this new method of roof control, design criteria are needed which can optimize the effect of the truss for varying strata conditions. A review of the literature reveals that some work has been conducted on the roof truss. Cambrell and Haynes1 (1970) showed that the roof truss is superior to angled roofbolts installed through a header. Sheorey, Verma, and Singh2 (1973) used statics to prove that the optimum angle of inclination should be greater than 45°. However, to date, no systematic attempt has been made to establish design criteria. In this paper, the problem was approached in three ways. First, model studies were performed to determine general trends of truss support as a function of a number of variables. This provided a better understanding of the support mechanism involved. Secondly, beam theory was employed to calculate the actual support capacity of a truss, realizing the many simplifications, assumptions, and shortcomings of this approach to such a complicated problem. Last, field testing will be utilized to test the hypotheses previously developed and provide hard data to further synthesize roof truss design criteria. Field testing has recently commenced and should be complete before mid 1977.

Jan 1, 1979

By M. W. BERNEWITZ

IT is 27 years since I last visited Broken Hill, New South Wales, one of the world's greatest lead-silver-zinc districts. Then, the flota¬tion of ores was in its infancy. The Minerals Separation process had its birth as a practicability in the Central Mill, which is still operating and yielding high recoveries. The average Australian knows that Broken Hill is an important mining center in a "corner" of New South Wales, but he does not know what a factor it is in the lead, silver, and zinc production of the world. Nor does he realize that among the ramifications arising from metal production at Broken Hill are the great lead smelter at Port Pirie, South Australia, 254 miles southeast; the electrolytic zinc works at Risdon, and the limestone mine at Davenport, Tasmania; the acid works at Cockle Creek, New

Jan 1, 1935

Who's Who in Mineral Engineering - The 1978 Membership Directory of the Society of Mining Engineers of AIME

Jan 7, 1978

It has been suggested that it would be a desirable feature in connection with the Chicago meeting of the, Institute in September to arrange for a return trip for the fuel men through the coal fields of Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, stopping at various points and possibly touching also Kentucky. Perhaps the petroleum men would be interested in a similar trip and might join them stopping off at different points to visit these oil fields. If the members who would-be interested in such a trip will advise the Secretary before the first of June, indicating their desired stopping points, steps will be taken to perfect arrangements accordingly.

Jan 5, 1919

By W. L. Saunders

(Wilkes-Barre Meeting, June, 1911.) I. INTRODUCTION. IT is now generally admitted by experts that at least so far as rapid progress is concerned the Alpine system of tunnel-driving is superior to any other. This is perhaps natural in view of the record of experience in driving tunnels through the Alps. These great mountain-chains cannot be treated in the ordinary way by shaft-sinking and driving headings, thus multiplying the points of attack. The work must be done from the ends only, hence speed in driving is of the utmost importance; and, as necessity is the mother of invention, the concentration of effort to make progress has resulted in an organization and in mechanical appliances that have produced results so much in excess of the usual practice, even in America, that a discussion of the subject in detail should be of much value to the engineer and contractor. The first Alpine tunnel was the Mont Cenis, length 7.5 miles, driven with a progress that averaged about 7.75 ft. per day. Next came the Saint Gothard, 9.5 miles long, 18 ft. per day; Arlberg, 6.5 miles long, 27.25 ft. per day; Simplon, 12.25 miles long, 36 ft. per day. The figures represent progress when driving from two headings, so that by dividing them in two we get the daily single-heading progress. The latest of the Alpine tunnels is the Loetschberg, now being driven. In this work the world's record has been beaten by a single day's record in one heading of 36 ft. and by an average daily record in. one heading of 29.5 feet. The Alpine range forms a natural barrier between a large section of northern and southern Europe. This range extends from the southeast of France to the frontier of Hungary, between Italy and the plains of southern Germany. The contour

Jul 1, 1911

By AIME AIME

ON THE occasion of the eightieth birthday of Captain Robert W. Hunt, the Iron and Steel Committee of the Institute, desiring to commemorate the great contributions made to the steel industry by Captain Hunt during his long career, conceived the idea of a Hunt Medal to be awarded annually by the Institute for meritorious contributions to the art of making steel. The project was received enthusiastically by all to whom it was proposed, especially by Captain Hunt's partners and employees who considered it their right, and asked for the privilege of -. - raising the necessary funds within their own circle. This was agreed to, and the Institute has received from them $7500 as an endowment fund to provide an annual award, and $1000 for the expenses of providing of medal.

Jan 1, 1920

By C. P. Williams

THE lead-bearing area of Missouri has been subdivided, geographically, into the Southeastern, the Central, and the Southwestern

Jan 1, 1877

By A. B. Parsons

LECTURE, it appears, is a discourse that is supposed to be instructive. I am quite sure that you will derive no instruction from what I have to say. I will be satisfied if my remarks provoke thought along one or two mental paths that have not been traveled so fre¬quently as to be devoid of interest. I have no particular message apropos of professional engineers or professional engineering, and any conclusions that I may seem to reach will be purely tentative and incidental. Probably at times you have wondered, in a casual way at least, why so many people who are not, never have been, and never will be engineers, want to use the title. For example, I recently received a communication from a life insurance broker or salesman, whose chaste letterhead bore the legend "Estate Engineer." He was perfectly serious about it, as is also the expert accountant who assumes the imposing name of cost-analysis engineer. Dozens of equally amazing titles might be cited. Then there is that class of individuals who have been engineers, in the true sense of the word; who have gone into some other kind of occupation; but who cling tenaciously to the name engineer, usually prefixing some word or other which at once gives them away by telling what their work really is. For example, we have such pseudomorphs as the management engineer, and the sales engineer. It is quite evident that engineer is a word to conjure with. Evidently both the man who appro¬priates the designation without any justification and the ex-engineer who persists in calling himself an engineer even after he has abandoned engineer-

Jan 1, 1933

By Oliver Bololes

UNDER the able leadership of Samuel H. Dolbear, the Committee on Nonmetallic Minerals furnished a program of sixteen papers comprising three sessions. An outstanding accomplishment in technology presented at the first session by Benjamin L. Miller and C. H. Breerwood is the application of flotation to the purification of limestone used in cement manufacture. In place of selective quarrying to provide high-grade raw material, the quarry-run stone is pulverized and treated in froth flotation cells for removal of free silica and mica. Some advantages are cheaper quarrying, more complete utilization of quarry rock, avoidance of purchasing high calcium stone, lower fuel cost and improvement in the finished cement. Paul M. Tyler presented the general subject of milling methods as applied to nonmetal lies. He pointed out the importance of some of the more recent refinements in ore dressing, and urged the need of a wider appreciation of their possibilities. The gypsum industry of Canada was described by L. H. Cole. Crystal growth during the setting process was illustrated by moving pictures. The Coastal Plain and interior salt

Jan 1, 1935

By J. Armanet

THREE MINING colleges are maintained in France; the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines, of Paris; École Nationale Supérieure des Mines, of Saint Etienne; and the École Supérieure de la Metallurgie et des Mines at Nancy. Besides graduates of these schools, a few graduates of the École Centrale des Arts et MIanufactures and of the École Polytechnique are employed as ]nine managers or engineers; however, most of the latter have taken a graduate course at one of the mining schools.

Jan 1, 1939

Abbey, Robert Graham, District Mgr., The W. W. Sly Mfg. Co., 50 Church St., New York, N. Y. '21 Abbott, A. N Ave. Morelos 84, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico '23 Abbott, Argyle Campbell, Geol 42 Everett St., Arlington, Mass. '29 Abbott, Clarence E., V.P., Charge of Raw Materials, Tenn. Coal, Iron & R. R. Co., 1242 Brown-Marx Bldg., Birmingham, Ala. '04 Abbott, Louis Benjamin, Chief Engr., Consolidation Coal Co., Watson Bldg., Fairmont, W. Va. '15 Abeel, George H., Jr., Cons. Min. Engr 1281/2 S. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills, Cal. '18 Abel, Raymond L., Asst. Prof., Dept. of Pet. Refin., Univ. of Pittsburgh. .Pittsburgh, Pa. '28 Abel, Walter D., Cons. Engr 650 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, Cal. '82 Abele, Louis T., Min. & Met. Engr., Supt., Texas Hill Mine Coulterville, Cal. '31 Abell, Leo M. Millicent, S. Australia '31 Abernathy, George Elmer, Prof. of Geol. & Min., Kansas State Teachers College, Pittsburg, Kan. '20 Aborn, Robert H., Research Lab., U. S. Steel Corp. Lincoln Highway, Kearny, N. J. '19 Abozeid, Mahmood, Dept. of Mines & Quarries Cairo, Egypt '26

Jan 1, 1932

By AIME AIME

A LUSTY baby of the Institute, the Coal Division, showed that it had acquired a full set of teeth and was capable of man's work at the Division meeting at Fairmont, W. Va., on March 26 and 27. At this second of a series of field meetings, the first of which was held in Pittsburgh last fall, the industry in the East was represented from top to bottom and good humor and enthusiasm were the predominant notes. West Virginians are always good hosts and this meeting would have proved the statement to any inclined to doubt it. The spacious auditorium of the Fairmont Hotel was arranged for the technical sessions, the hotel being headquarters for the meeting. About a hundred and twenty-five representatives were registered and in attendance when Thomas G. Fear, chairman, opened the morning session at 10 o'clock Mr. Fear first introduced Howard Eavenson, vice-chairman of the morning program, who, as chairman of the Coal Division, had labored long and cheerfully to make the meeting successful. Mr. Eavenson talked briefly on what the organization was doing, pointing out that these field meetings were designed to bring the members into closer touch with the parent Institute and give the younger engineers in the field a better opportunity to participate in the work the Institute is doing. He congratulated the various committees for their work in promoting the meeting.

Jan 1, 1931

By H. K. VAN POOLLEEN, W. Hurst, H. C. Bixel

In an earlier publication* I showed the development of the instantaneous point source solution for a well producing at a constant rate at the center of a system of two radial, adjoining sands of different permeabilities. I also showed how a wellbore radius could be incorporated if this were the development required. For the purpose of that paper and the point I wished to make, this solution served. It yielded a simplifying solution of sands in series identified by Eqs. VI-26 and VI-27. (These equations are reproduced in part by Bixel and van Poollen as their Eq. 3, Page 302.) I am well aware that the simplified solutions are approximations. The facts that these Ei-functions satisfy the diffusivity equation and meet the boundary conditions both at the well and at the interface between sands, and that the earliest time considerations yield zero pressure drop, are evidence that the solutions are good approximations. This was the purpose for these formulas, which I interpret that where the permeabilities are of finite order of magnitudes in the respective media, the relations give satisfactory answers. However, from the authors' point of view there are reservations, which leads me to consider their entire generalization as illustrated in their Figs. 1 through 14. What I understand from their storage capacity, relationship Fs, which is the ratio of the product of porosity and compressibility of Sand II to Sand I, that is employed here by the authors as a correlative means of identifying one figure from another, there is nothing in the exact mathematics that supports such a term as a means of correlation. This is taken out of context, unsustained that this applies. Here the mathematics are known, where the true correlation is the diffusivity term of one sand to another. This entails permeability that refers back again to the term M in their paper for the transmis-sibility of fluid from one sand to the other that should have also been a part of this storage capacity. In Figs. 8 through 14, which purported to show the simplified equation following this correlation, there are apparent discontinuities for M equal to or less than 0.1000 that differ from the trends for greater values of M. In this connection there is no reference radius given for this cumulative pressure drop in the paper that would permit me to make these calculations. However, what is clear for M equal to 0.1000 or less we are treated to almost a closed barrier at the interface; a condition entered by the writers without qualification. This across-the-board treatment of these simplified formulas, whatever the motive of the authors, enters into a range of permeabilities that even I as the contributor would have reservations that such could apply. Under comparable conditions I would be looking at a closed reservoir or some facsimile for such. The extent to which the approximation or the exact equations pertain is not evident in the generality offered by Bixel and van Poollen in their paper. Only when they or other writers show the comparison of the pressure distributions within the formations can one be able to judge the rational limits to subscribe to the simplified formulas.

Jan 1, 1969

By A. C. Dorenfeld

CHANGES in circuits are often made in milling operations. At the same time that these changes are being evaluated the ores are changing. Even from the same mine, the ore is usually variable as to amount and type of mineral content, degree of association of valuable and gangue minerals, amount and types of soluble salts, hardness, etc. The question then arises whether any small differences in results, after changes have been made in the various circuits, are really due to these changes or whether the variability of the ore can account for those differences. Statistical evaluation provides one method of answering the question that arises so often in beneficiation studies: Did changed results come about because of changed process, or did ore variation cause the change? In this case, data were available for statistical analysis from an operating period of 42 months, representing treatment of approximately 1 million tons of ore. During this period there had been two flowsheet changes: 1) regrind of the zinc circuit middlings was introduced, and 2) alcohol- pine oil frother mixture was substituted for cresylic acid-pine oil frother mixture. Findings are in Table I.

Jan 10, 1954

By K. Leutwyler, H. L. Bigelow

Jan 1, 1966

Discussion, at the Virginia Beach Meeting, February, 1894, of the Paper of Prof. Posepny. (Trans., xxiii., 197, 587.) Including communications subsequently received. a T. A. Rickard, Denver, Colorado (communication to the Secretary) : The paper of Professor Posepny was printed so short a time

Jan 1, 1895

THE opening session was held on Tuesday evening, February 17th, in the house of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The President of the Institute, Mr. E. B. Coxe, after a few introductory remarks, congratulating the members on the general prosperity in all the branches of the professions and manufactures represented by the Institute, called on Mr. E. F. Loiseau, of Philadelphia, for the first paper, On the Successful Manufacture of Compressed Fuel at Port Richmond, Philadelphia. Professor Prime called attention to the fact that the work of the United States Testing Board had been left unfinished at a point when valuable results had just been reached, and offered the following resolutions: WHEREAS, The American Institute of Mining Engineers has seen with regret that the work of the United States Testing Board has been suspended through the lack of an appropriation by Congress, which appropriation dues not seem likely to be renewed, and WHEREAS, It seems most important to the vital interests of our iron and steel manufactures that the experiments commenced by the United States Testing Board should be carried to successful completion ; Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed, to act with a like, committee to he appointed by the American Society of Civil Engineers, to carry out to completion the work commenced by the United States Testing Board. Resolved, That the American Society of Civil Engineers be requested to cooperate with this society by the appointment of a like committee. Resolved, That the committee have authority to request, in the name of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, contributions to a fund to be devoted to the completion of the experiments aforesaid. Resolved, That the Council of this Institute be authorized, whenever requested by the committee so appointed, to petition Congress for the free use of the testing machine at the United States Arsenal at Watertown. Resolved, That a committee be appointed by the President, to select the afore-said committee of experts. Resolved, That the President of the Institute have authority to fill any vacancies which may occur in the committee. The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and President Coxe appointed the following committee in accordance with the resolutions : Messrs. A. L. Holley, James Park, Jr., and J. F. Holloway. The President also appointed Messrs. Heinrich, Mickley, and Spils-

Jan 1, 1880

By Eugene McAuliffe

THE last obtainable figures of the value of the coal mining investment are those contained in the U. S. Census Reports, from data gathered in 1919. The values shown therein and set forth below cover lands and equipment and do not include distribution and marketing facilities. The working capital necessary to meet pay rolls to purchase material and supplies and workmen's compensation insurance are likewise excluded.

Jan 1, 1926

By Linn M. Farish

SOVIET RUSSIA reserves must be stupendous. In 1937 I. M. Goubkin placed the reserves of all categories it approximately 48 billion barren which was about twenty billion horn Is in excel:, of all the oil produced in the world since 1857. It is not unlikely in fact it is probable, that these huge stores of petroleum may ultimately be proven to exist within the present boundaries of the U.S.S.R. The size of the country is almost beyond imagination it is 2.7 times as big as the United States. Great sedimentary basins exist in all its different geological provinces, much of which are entirely untested and barely prospected. Oil in commercial quantities is actually produced from formations in every period from the Devonian to the Pleistocene. In the Emba region alone, 300 salt domes are known with an estimate of 700 still to be found. Only 22 of the 300 have been drilled and all showed oil. Of the 22 domes drilled six are now producing. There are 400 mapped structures reported in Azerbaijan

Jan 1, 1940