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By Hoyt Gale

RECENT work on borate deposits near Kramer, in the extreme southeast corner of Kern County, California, is of special interest to those who are making a study of the mode of origin of the borate minerals colemanite and ulexite. A valuable clue to the mode of origin of colemanite in its present known deposits is given in a paper by W. F. Foshag1, of the United States National Museum. Colemanite is found in or near original deposits of ulexite, from which it is supposed to have been derived by a change in the rate of movement or the character of the ground water. Indications that an alteration of this sort had produced colemanite were first recognized by the writer' in specimens collected in the Kramer district in 1920, and sent to W. T. Schaller, at U. S. Geological Survey, for identification. The identity of the two borate minerals in these specimens was not at once determined, but the relations of the minerals as seen in the specimens afforded a manifest clue to the origin of the deposits. Similar specimens were obtained by the writer from deposits in death Valley soon after he had examined the deposits near Kramer. After studying the specimens submitted to him Dr. Schaller wrote as follows: "I have finally positively identified the boron minerals you sent me with your letter of Sept. 27. The `white fibrous mineral like ulexite' is ulexite; the harder nodules' in the clay are colemanite, apparently formed from the ulexite as a result of leaching, with recrystallization in place-a theory that Foshag is working on." The present paper is a report on the facts observed at. the deposits near Kramer, and some general observations on the geological relations noted, which, unfortunately, still form only a very incomplete record.

Jan 2, 1926

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 Alden B. Greninger

Many recent contributions in the field of theoretical metallography have been concerned with crystallographic definitions or descriptions of various phenomena. The lattice orientation of the crystal being studied must be known before such definitions can be made. Practically all the metallic crystals used do not have crystal faces—other than the unknown "plane of polish"; hence resort must be had to other means of determining orientations. Some use has been made of etch-figures, slip bands, optical properties, etc., for this purpose; but for accurate results, and because of the fewer restrictions to their use, the various X-ray methods have been the most satisfactory.' The methods that have been used may be divided into two general classes: (1) oscillation methods, and (2) transmission Laue methods.² The disadvantages of these methods are numerous, chief among them being the time required to determine a complete orientation. No method proposed so far is wholly satisfactory for determining the orientation of a small macrograin within a polycrystalline aggregate.

Jan 1, 1935

By Alden B. Greninger

Many recent contributions in the field of theoretical metallography have been concerned with crystallographic definitions or descriptions of various phenomena. The lattice orientation of the crystal being studied must be known before such definitions can be made. Practically all the metallic crystals used do not have crystal faces—other than the unknown "plane of polish"; hence resort must be had to other means of determining orientations. Some use has been made of etch-figures, slip bands, optical properties, etc., for this purpose; but for accurate results, and because of the fewer restrictions to their use, the various X-ray methods have been the most satisfactory.' The methods that have been used may be divided into two general classes: (1) oscillation methods, and (2) transmission Laue methods.² The disadvantages of these methods are numerous, chief among them being the time required to determine a complete orientation. No method proposed so far is wholly satisfactory for determining the orientation of a small macrograin within a polycrystalline aggregate.

Jan 1, 1935

By M. C. Leverett

THE dynamic behavior of a multiple fluid system is completely describable in terms of driving forces and resistances to flow. The latter are proportional to the vis-cosity of the fluid under consideration and inversely proportional to a property of the system termed the " effective permeability" to that fluid, a property therefore defined by this relation. Since three phases are usually present in oil reservoirs, it is essential to know the effective permeabilities to the several fluid phases, and the relationship between the composition of the fluid in the pore space and that of the flowing stream, in order to handle satisfactorily certain problems of oil production. In this regard, there are many unknown factors and parameters, and many that can be evaluated only indi-rectly. However, it is expected that work along lines similar to this present under-taking will help materially in solving these problems. Previous workers in this field have inves-tigated the two-phase systems, water-gas,1 water-oil2 in unconsolidated sands, and water-gas3 in consolidated sands. The ex-tension of the study of the flow of hetero-geneous fluid systems from two to three phases involved only slight changes in technique. The apparatus used in the present work, except for slight changes to be described, was that used by Leverett in his water-oil experiments.2 Correlation and interpretation of data were made by methods analogous to those used in two-phase work. The relative permeability to a phase-the effective permeability divided by the permeability of the system to a homogeneous fluid-was employed through-out in correlating the rate of flow of that phase with the composition of the pore space. Quantitative measurements of two inde-pendent physical properties of the system were required to determine the composition of the pore space. As in the two-phase work, the fraction of water was determined electrically. The gas fraction was deter-mined by measuring changes in volume accompanying measured pressure changes. Suitable account was taken of the solubility of the gas in the liquid phases, and of the vapor pressure of the water phase. Since this work was exploratory in nature, no attempt was made to obtain highly accu-rate numerical results. Reasonable precision and reproducibility were sought.

Jan 1, 1940

By E. T. Dumble

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) THE history of the several petroleum deposits of Texas and Mexico, or of the sediments in which they now occur, if the deposits are not indigenous to such sediments, is known in a general way only, but it nevertheless casts strong light on the conditions surrounding them and is of great importance in the search for and exploitation of then. The petroleum deposits of Texas are separable into two main divisions: 1. The deposits of northwestern Texas, which are directly connected with the Oklahoma fields to the north, and have no representatives at all in the Mexican area. 2. The deposits of the coastal area, which extend into Louisiana on the east and connect with those of the Mexican coast to the south. Early in the Pennsylvanian period a series of bituminous shales and limestones were laid crown over a broad area in Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. These are known as the Bend series in Texas, the Caney shales in Oklahoma, and the Fayetteville beds in Arkansas. Following their deposition an uplift occurred, forming the Lampasas geanticlinal, which runs northeastward from the old Paleozoic land area of the Llano region toward Red River. The Bend series is petroliferous in places and has furnished a few producing wells on each side of the Lampasas uplift. This uplift forms the barrier and. dividing line between the two divisions of the Texas petroleum deposits. To the west of it, in waters which were the southern extension of the interior continental seas, in connection with the sediments and coal beds of the Pennsylvanian and Permian, great quantities of petroleum were deposited either as oil or as "potential petroleum." These sediments have been subject to very slight disturbance, and only very gentle folds. are found, with no signs of volcanic action in any part of the area. The conditions, therefore, indicate that the greater part, if not all, of the oil in this area is indigenous to the beds in which it is found.

Jan 8, 1915

By Charles H. Fulton

The process of crushing ore in cyanide solution was first used at the Crown mine, New Zealand, in 1897, by Mr. F. R. W. Daw; and, two years later, Mr. John Hinton tried it experimentally at the old Dakota plant, Central City, South Dakota. To Mr. Hinton belongs the credit of introducing this important modification in the Black Hills, this being its first successful application in the U. S., and its results have been so satisfactory that it has become established as the proper manner in which to treat the dense oxidized siliceous ores of this district. Five mills are now crushing ore in cyanide solution, namely, the Horseshoe, 120 stamps (60 in operation); the Dakota, 30 stamps; the Maitland, 40 stamps; the Hidden Fortune, 60 stamps; the Lundberg, Dorr & Wilson, one 6-ft. Monadnock roller-mill; and several others intend to adopt this practice. The dry-crushing process still holds its place for the treatment of the more porous and open siliceous ores; and two mills continue to dry-crush dense siliceous ores. Character of the Ores. The occurrence of the ores of the Cambrian strata in the northern Black Hills has been frequently described.' In practice they are classified, according to their appearance, into " red " and " blue " ores, the former being oxidized and the latter unoxidized. At the present time, usually the red ores only are treated at the mills, although occasionally small quantities of blue ore, which have become intimately mixed with the red in mining, are included. Generally the extraction of values by the direct treatment of raw ore is from 70 to 75 per cent. for red ores, and from 25 to 50 per cent. for blue ores. The ores consist mainly of a siliceous matrix containing, as a +1SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES, RAPID CITY, SO. DAK.

Jan 1, 1905

By J. L. Gregg

A STUDY of copper and silver base alloys was made with the object of finding, if possible, useful alloys subject to dispersion hardening. These studies led to the discovery of several alloys showing considerable dispersion hardening, the most important of which, the alloys of copper with iron, nickel, cobalt and chromium silicides, have since been very ably reported by M. G. Corson.1 This paper is offered as a few notes covering alloys other than those described by Corson and some further data on the silicide alloys.

Jan 1, 1929

By Robert E. Green, P. W. Kingman

Application of a constant geometry compression test to single crystals of aluminum of selected diameters from 1/4 to 1/64 in. showed the presence of a diameter-dependmt size effect. The most pronounced effects were found in those crystals oriented for single slip, while for specimens possessing orientations in the comers of the standard stereographic triangle virtually no size effect was exhibited. The yield stress of the crystals oriented for single slip was found to increase with decrease in specimen diameter, while the strain-hardening rate was found to be lower for the smaller specimens. The experimental results are in general agreement with those of other investigators obtained from lensile tests on copper and aluminum crystals. THE earliest systematic investigation of a possible size effect on the plasticity of metals was that of no,' who in 1926 performed tensile tests on cylindrical aluminum single crystals with diameters of 3 to 8 mm. Ono concluded that the gross stress-strain curve did not show a diameter dependence, but that the resistance to slip for strains of 0.1 pet and less appeared higher for 3-mm-diam crystals than for larger sizes. Later studies of aluminum by Maddin et al2 tentatively concluded that a size effect exists, but the conclusions were again open to question because of inconsistencies in the experimental data. Wu and Smoluchowski3 had previously shown that the slip system activated in a single-crystal sheet specimen of aluminum is a function of the specimen cross section in the slip direction, but no stress-strain data were obtained. Subsequently Fleischer and Chalmers4 studied the effect of the length of the slip direction of the primary-slip system on the stress-strain curve by testing aluminum crystals with geometrically dissimilar cross sections. In the course of this investigation a size effect was indicated in rather large crystals; however, the number of these tests was small. Other investigators have indicated that a size effect in aluminum is appreciable only for diameters of 0.5 mm or less.5, 6 Size-effect studies have also been carried out on copper crystals, the most detailed being that of Suzuki et a1.7 who performed tensile tests on specimens of many diameters ranging from 2 to 0.12 mm. Suzuki found a strong size dependence in the easy-glide region, both the extent of the easy glide and the hardening rate in easy glide were size-dependent, and the size effect was found to be orientation-dependent. Suzuki's results are in agreement with the less extensive observations of Pater-sonB and those of Garstone et al.9 A size effect was found by Rebstock using tubular copper crystals.'0 Size effects have also been noted in a brass,6, 11 in cadmium,12'19 and in hexagonal crystals.14 All the previously cited works have been entirely concerned with the variation of specimen cross section. The effects of specimen length and the change of specimen geometry which results from using progressively thinner specimens while maintaining the same specimen length have been largely ignored. A theoretical discussion of the effects of specimen length and geometry has been given by Hauser and Jackson,15 who predict a grip effect on easy glide as a function of specimen geometry provided that the specimen dimensions are large compared with the spacing between the slip bands, and by Fleischer and Chalmers,18 whose analysis of grip effects resulting from lattice rotation predicts an increase in easy glide with an increase in specimen length. A study of size and geometry effects in aluminum crystals by Kitajima and shimba17 indicated increasing amounts of easy glide in specimens of increasing length and identical cross section, and nearly identical stress-strain curves for specimens of different sizes having constant length-to-diameter ratios. Since the present study is primarily concerned with diameter dependence, the following factors were taken into account: specimen material, specimen geometry, testing method, range of sizes to be tested, and possible influence of surface and volume effects. Aluminum was chosen because of the present lack of conclusive results and the seeming possibility of size effects at relatively large diameters, the

Jan 1, 1964

By L. C. Glenn

IN the preparation of this paper the writer has drawn freely upon the writings of Orton, Munn, Shaw, Mather, Miller, Hoeing, St. Clair, Jillson, and others, as well as upon his own personal knowledge of the fields of both states. It is to be regretted that certain data gathered by him and his assistants last fall are not available for publication. OIL IN TENNESSEE A few wells drilled for brine for salt making in Tennessee between 1820 and 1840 obtained oil, but no definite search was made for oil until just after the close of the Civil War. Active drilling was then begun in Overton and counties southwest of it on the eastern half of the Highland Rim. A number of strikes were made at shallow depths in the basal part of the Mississippian but the wells were soon exhausted and abandoned. Drilling was revived, about. 1892, when the Spurrier district in Pickett County was developed and was followed by the Riverton district in the same county in 1896. A pipe line was laid from the Wayne County, Ky., fields and about 60,000 bbl. of oil were run before a very heavy slump in the production, a failure to find an extension of the field, and excessive local taxation caused the removal of the pipe line in 1906. There was then no production in Tennessee until the discovery, in 1915, of oil near Oneida, Scott Co., at about 950 ft. (289 m.) in fissures in the Newman or St. Louis limestone. This field, however, soon failed and was abandoned. In 1916, oil was found at Glen Mary, Scott Co., in the Newman limestone at a depth of 1232 ft. (375 m.) A number of wells have since been drilled there, some of which were dry while others, close by, were producers. The largest one yielded, at first, about 340 bbl. per day and produced for several months, when it suddenly went dry. Several of the first wells began at 6 or 8 bbl. per day and are still maintaining that

Jan 1, 1920

By B. F. Oliver

Equilibrium and kinetic segregation coefficients for the dilute high-temperature system tantalum in iron have been experimentally determined in a levitating zone melter. The equilibrium segregation coefficient, ko, is 0.43 * 0.03. Planar interface solidification is possible up to a freezing velocity of 4 in. per hr but not at 6 in. per hr. Precise concentration control of the solid is possible over this range of freezing velocities. The momentum boundary layer thickness, and the diffusion boundary layer thickness, 6, are such that either 6, > 6 or ALTHOUGH considerable data exists in the literature concerning the stability of planar-solidification fronts, little data exists for high-temperature metallic systems. The study of fundamental aspects of solidification in high-temperature iron-base systems is complicated by the extensive solvent power of liquid iron. In order to minimize such effects a levitating zone melter was used to study the segregation of tantalum in iron.' The solute tantalum was selected because: 1) the ko value was, according to the literature, initially thought to be less than 0.1, thus increasing the precision of the method used;2,3 2) the vapor pressure and is a constant, fixed by induction stirring, 6, the diffusion boundary layer, is 5150 u. At 400 rpm and 6 in. per hr freezing velocity the cast structure exhibits circular macroporosity and banding concentric with the axis of the rotation of the interface. Electron-beam microprobe analyses indicate that the tantalum content is highest at the center of rotation (1.2/1) and decreases with increasing radius as the fine-grained bands become sharper. This entire structure exhibits microseg-regation of tantalum. of tantalum in 1 atm of H2 is small, assuring conservation of solute during redistribution; and 3) spec-troscopic analyses were available for the appropriate range of tantalum considered. Additional objectives were 1) to determine kinetic segregation coefficients for well-stirred zones with constant boundary conditions and thus quantitatively calibrate solute-segregation behavior in the levitating zone melter, and 2) to examine the range of freezing velocities over which smooth solid-liquid interfaces could be controlled in an iron-base alloy under the restrictions of the thermal gradients imposed while levitating a zone. The single-pass zone-melting method was used to calculate individual k values.'

Jan 1, 1964

THOSE MARKED THUS * ARE MEMBERS, MARKED THUS ?ARE ASSOCIATES. THESE SIGNS DOUBLED INDICATE LIFE MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES RESPECTIVELY. THE FIGURES AT THE END OF THE ADDRESS INDICATE THE YEAR OF ELECTION. HEAVY-FACED TYPE SIGNIFIES HONORARY MEMBERSHIP. *AARONS, J. BOYD, Vivian Gold Mining Co., Ltd., Harris, West. Australia. '05 *ABADIE, EMILE R., Cons. and Min. Engr., 214 Union Savings Bank Bldg., Oakland, Cal. '76 ?ABBÉ, MAX F., Prest., Abbé Engineering Co, 220 Broadway, New York, N.Y. '07 ? ABBÉ, PAULO., Secy.,Abbé Engineering Co., 220 Broadway, New York, N.Y. '07 *ABBOTT, AI ARTHUR Morococlia, Peru, So. America. '95 *ABBOTT, CLARENCE Chief EDgr., Iron Mines, Dic Tennessee Caol, Iron & R. R. Co., Bessemer, Ala. '04 *ABBOTT, JAMES W., Min. Engr: Ploche, Lincoln Co., Nev. '94 *ABE, MASAYOSHI, Prof. of Mining, Imperial University Kyoto, Japan. '05 ? ACKER, E. O'C., Supt., Treatment Dept., Bethlehem Steel Co., So. Bethlehem, Pa. '86

Jan 1, 1910

By D. Harrington

During the past few years, there has been a trend toward the use of rock-dusting, rather than relying on humidifying, or the use of water, to limit or prevent explosions in the coal mines of the United States. This is partly because British coal mines have adopted rock-dusting and, at least in a sense, have condemned the use of water. Moreover, during the past few years, particularly in the latter part of 1922 and in 1923 and 1924, several explosions with heavy loss of life occurred in coal mines of the United States that were known to have more or less extended sprinkling, or humidifying, systems. The sentiment created by these disasters quickly caused a distrust of explosion-prevention methods requiring use of water and simultaneously caused more or less of a stampede into rock-dusting. Much of the wholesale condemnation of watering methods was without adequate knowledge, or at least without adequate consideration, of local conditions in each case, and rock-dusting was adopted largely without sufficient knowledge of how to rock dust safely or correctly. However, mines that had been using watering methods and had suffered these recent serious disasters (notably Dolomite, Dawson, and Castle Gate) instead of abandoning the use of water when operations were resumed after the disaster, greatly extended their watering systems. At the same time they took other precautions as to electricity, ventilation, blasting, etc., and supplemented the watering system with rock-dusting where the latter was likely to be the more effective. The trend toward rock-dusting during the past year or two (succeeding the recent mine disasters) is very similar to the rapid movement toward watering, or humidifying, methods, about 1910 to 1912, after a series of disastrous mine explosions. The Phelps-Dodge Corpn., which operates a large property at Daw-son, N. M., after an explosion in its No. 1 mine in February, 1923, decided that it is dangerous to have all its "explosion-prevention eggs in one basket" and so adopted what may now be termed the Western coalmine explosion-prevention system, in which both rock-dusting and watering are used, supplemented by other up-to-date mining methods and practices; such as exclusive use of modern electric safety lamps, with magnetically locked flame safety lamps for testing purposes; use of

Jan 1, 1925

By H. H. Stoek

A study of Americarf coal-mine practice shows two of its distinctive features to be: A greater number of accidents per thousand employees than in any of the other leading coal-producing countries; a much greater percentage of the coal lost than in any of the other leading coal-producing countries. Although our subject is mainly concerned with the second feature, any consideration of mining methods should include safety, efficiency, and economy or costs. If the argument could be offered that our wasteful mining was necessary on account of safety, and that it is carried out with less loss of life than in other countries, the plea for conservation of coal could not he so strongly urged. But when we are wasteful of both life and property, the subject merits more: consideration than it has received. Some coal operators will doubtless say that the unit of accidents should be the number per million tons produced rather than per thousand employees, for by adopting this unit America probably stands in the lead rather than the lowest among the countries. However, vital statistics are not usually so expressed by other governments, by life and accident insurance companies, or in other industries, and it is merely begging the question and attempting to bolster up a bad condition to adopt a peculiar unit for the statement of our accidents. For many years the statement was made by various agencies, and was unchallenged, that "For every ton of bituminous coal mined in the United States a ton had been lost in the way of pillars left in the mines." This statement was undoubtedly true for many years, and although in the past decade some progress has been made toward obtaining a higher extraction, and in some districts very decided progress, the loss is still great; and, although no exact data can be given, it is probable that for the United States as a whole at least one ton is lost for every two mined.

Jan 1, 1923

By H. H. Stoek

A study of Americarf coal-mine practice shows two of its distinctive features to be: A greater number of accidents per thousand employees than in any of the other leading coal-producing countries; a much greater percentage of the coal lost than in any of the other leading coal-producing countries. Although our subject is mainly concerned with the second feature, any consideration of mining methods should include safety, efficiency, and economy or costs. If the argument could be offered that our wasteful mining was necessary on account of safety, and that it is carried out with less loss of life than in other countries, the plea for conservation of coal could not he so strongly urged. But when we are wasteful of both life and property, the subject merits more: consideration than it has received. Some coal operators will doubtless say that the unit of accidents should be the number per million tons produced rather than per thousand employees, for by adopting this unit America probably stands in the lead rather than the lowest among the countries. However, vital statistics are not usually so expressed by other governments, by life and accident insurance companies, or in other industries, and it is merely begging the question and attempting to bolster up a bad condition to adopt a peculiar unit for the statement of our accidents. For many years the statement was made by various agencies, and was unchallenged, that "For every ton of bituminous coal mined in the United States a ton had been lost in the way of pillars left in the mines." This statement was undoubtedly true for many years, and although in the past decade some progress has been made toward obtaining a higher extraction, and in some districts very decided progress, the loss is still great; and, although no exact data can be given, it is probable that for the United States as a whole at least one ton is lost for every two mined.

Jan 1, 1923

By E. B. Swanson

There is only one way to transport natural gas and that is by pipe lines. In the past few years, these lines have been extended rapidly into areas which previously had been served mainly by solid and liquid fuels. In the subject given me, this extension is referred to as an invasion, which implies a rather forceful entry. Whether or not such an implication may be applied to recent natural-gas developments is unimportant. It is the fact of the extension, not its definition, which is important. For centuries, natural gas has been utilized for various purposes in many parts of the world. It was the foundation of fire worship at Baku. The Chinese used it for the evaporation of brine in salt manufacture. In our country, its history seemingly dates back 110 years to the vicinity of Fredonia, N. Y., where seepage gas was assembled and used for lighting purposes. A few years later, a %inch pipe was laid to a lighthouse on Lake Erie, and the early records of the Lighthouse Service tell of the difficulties surrounding this use. With the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania, there followed further development; the town of Titusville was piped with natural gas and, some few years later, gas was made available for manufacturing plants adjacent to the oil fields. For more than a half century, the industry was concentrated in the

Jan 1, 1932

By James T. B. Ives

The map exhibited* as an example of my method of construct ing geological strata-maps is essentially an educational appliance. The method, however, is available for the production of maps of comparatively small areas, which, I am confident, will be found of great practical value to mining engineers. Before stating how the method may be so applied I will briefly describe the map exhibited, as the easiest way of making my meaning clear. Almost any region might be taken. This map represents the eastern half of the United States; and the geology is that of the map issued by the Geological Survey, and revised and extended subsequently by Professor Hitchcock for your Institute. I use ten cards, of the colors used in the geological map, each having the geog raphy of the area printed upon it; and I superimpose these in the order in which the colors occur in the index to the map. I next cut away a portion of each card, excepting the lowest, leaving only so much of each as represents the exposure of the formation of that color plus all those which overlie it. When that is done, the whole, looked at from a distance, appears to be an ordinary geological map. Looked at more closely, however, the formations are seen to overlie one another, as in nature. The cards are covered with glass in a frame, which, hinged at the bottom edge, can be let down. The cards are then found to be all hinged in the same manner, and they, too, may be lowered, one after the-other. I am told by teachers of geology of great experience and the highest reputation that by this appliance they will be assisted in im parting to students the first facts and principles of geological sci ence. Having let down the whole series of cards, until that repre senting the Archaean is seen underlying all the rest, the teacher will gradually rebuild it. The Cambrian will thus be laid down upon the Archaean before the eyes of the class, the Silurian upon that,

Jan 1, 1888

By J. Th. Erb

Oil is found in commercial quantities in the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Tarakan and Ceram. The oil deposits of the Dutch East Indies and Sarawak are with one exception of Tertiary origin and as a rule are bound to anticlinal structures. The number of layers varies in most fields and in some of them asmuch as 14 oil-producing levels have been established. The crude oil varies rather much in composition. Some of it, particularly from North and South Sumatra, has a gasoline content up to 50 Per cent. Borneo produces mainly wax oil, while the Tarakan oil can be used directly as liquid fuel. In Java both wax and wax-free oil are produced. ' In all important fields installations have been erected to treat the wet gas. The lean gas is used for gas-lift purposes, Marietta process, and as fuel for boilers and motors, either in the fields or in the refineries. Formerly only percussion systems (Canadian, Californian and a drilling system devised especially for the purposes of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Concern) were applied in the Dutch East Indies, but in recent years the rotary system has been predominant and good results have been obtained with it. The deepest producer has recently been struck in South Sumatra at a depth of 1624 m. (5328 ft.), with a daily production of about 350 cu. m. crude oil. The crude is brought by an extensive system of trunk lines to the refineries, of which one is in North Sumatra (Pangkalan Brandan), two arc in South Sumatra near the town of Palembang, two in East ,Java (Tjepoe and Wonokromo), one in East Borneo (Balik Papan) and one in Sarawak (Miri). Production The principal producing concerns in the 'East Indies are: De Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, the producing subsidiary of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Concern; Sarawak Oilfields Ltd., one of the

Jan 1, 1929

By Alfred H. Bell

Drilling activity in the eastern interior coal basin, which includes Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky, decreased greatly in 1931. Only 521 wells were drilled as compared with 1438 in 1930.' The decline in oil production (Fig. 1) was due partly to the failure of new production to make up for the natural decline of the old wells and partly to artificial curtailment of production to meet a decreased demand. During the year prices trended sharply downward until July, after which they made a partial recovery (Fig. 2). The average price of Illinois crude, which is the same as that for southwestern Indiana, was $0.852 per barrel in 1931 as compared with $1.616 in 1930, or slightly more than one-half. The cost of drilling has declined only slightly. The 25 per cent curtailment of production which was adopted by agreement of the southeastern Illinois operators on Sept. 1, 1930, ended on June 3, 1931. It was effective for five months in 1931 as compared with four months in 1930. The outlook for 1932 is for drilling activity in the whole area to continue at about the same rate or to decrease somewhat unless it is stimulated by a substantial rise in crude oil prices or by the discovery of extensive new productive territory. Discoveries of new productive areas and new sands during the year were few. A new gas area was discovered early in the year in Busseron township, Knox County, Indiana, in which the producing sand is in the Pennsylvanian at depths of 630 to 730 ft. The wells had a total initial open-flow capacity of 7 or 8 million cubic feet per day but are shut in for lack of marketing facilities. An exceptionally large gas well which was drilled in Gibson County between Oakland City and Francisco reached a total depth of 1490 ft. and produced from the Brown sand of Chester age. The initial open-flow capacity was reported as 13 million cubic feet per day. In western Kentucky a number of extensions to oil and gas-producing areas are reported. The most active drilling campaign was in Hart County, where 124 wells were drilled, most of them in the

Jan 1, 1932

By Richard Moldenke

So far as the quality of the product is concerned, the history of the production of pig iron for foundry purposes is one of constant retrogression. The steps in this deterioration began with cold-blast charcoal pig iron, then anthracite iron, coke iron; then gradually warm to hot-blast coke iron, with the charcoal furnaces also heating their blast to get greater tonnages, and finally the present-day hot-blast coke irons with scrap additions to the ordinary burden that, according to one European report, have gone as high as 65 per cent. Parallel with this quality retrogression is the enormous increase in furnace tonnages from about 15 to over 1000 tons per day in excep tional instances of modern practice. The key to this situation is economic pressure. The effect is a growing differentiation between furnace production for gray iron and malleable foundries and for the production of commercial steel. As the foundry is often compelled to draw upon the pig irons made for steel purposes, for economic reasons, whereas the steel industry does not draw upon foundry pig irons proper, the situation is resolving itself into one of grave consequence for the life of the gray-iron castings industry, and hence the intensive present-day feeling in foundry circles for rigid specifications to govern the quality of pig irons sold for foundry use. In the discussion of a paper on the use of scrap in the blast furnace held recently in the Institute, a very pertinent remark was made by one of the participating furnacemen, who confessed that "the things found wrong by the foundryman with his iron were beyond his depth." It may be added that those things are also beyond the depth of most foundrymen who, however, know from their results that they are getting poorer castings today with many pig irons than they did with those same brands in former years. Under the former fracture buying, the foundryman at least could select the strongest metal, as judged by the sledge, from various brands of similar fracture and pig section, and his results proved

Jan 1, 1927