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By Walter McDermott

THIS machine is an improvement on the well-known endless traveling belt used for dressing slimes in many mills ; the chief point of difference, and constituting the essential advantage of the present over the old form, is the application to the machine of a secondary agitating or shaking motion, in addition to the ordinary progressive motion of-the belt. In the machine as heretofore made, the inclined belt or apron moved slowly up against a thin stream of water and ore, depositing the concentrations carried over in a tank placed below, through which the belt travelled, of course, in a reversed position. By reference to the accompanying drawings, it will be seen that in this main principle the new modification does not differ materially; but the means by which it is carried out are essentially different. The machine consists of a substantial frame of mood, F, Figs. 41, 42, and 43, within which hang the shaking frame and rollers, B B, A, Endless apron ; B, Apron frame and rollers ; C, Driving drum ; D, pulleys; El Shaft and connecting rods; F, Wooden frame; G, Shaft of regulating Pulley ; H, Yokes. supporting the upper half of the travelling apron, A, which passes below around the driving drum, C, in the water-tank, J. On leaving the water-tank, the belt passes over the guiding and tightener pulley, G. The ends of the shaking-frame, B, are provided with iron yokes, H H, bored to admit the shafts of the end rollers, and carrying a lug, by which attachment is made to the connecting rods,

Jan 1, 1875

By V. Rajaram, I. P. Nielsen, H. D. Raymond

The Parachute Creek member of the Green River formation in the Piceance Basin, Colorado, contains vast reserves of oil shale, nahcolite, dawsonite, and other accessory minerals. The dry alkali process of sulfur dioxide removal using nahcolite (naturally occurring sodium bicarbonate) has great potential A room and pillar mining scheme has been designed to extract a nahcolite zone occurring at a depth of 472 m, from the lease application area of the Yankee Gulch joint venture. Geotechnical parameters affecting mine design will be discussed. A preliminary development plan for mining at the rate of 1000 t/d will be described in detail.

Jan 1, 1980

By L. L. Newman

PUBLIC UTILITY GAS PRODUCTION IN 1802, William Murdock first used retort coal gas to light his house and the Boulton and Watt plant where he was employed. For the next three quarters of a century coal served as the principal raw material for the manufacture of city gas for general distribution. Coal continued to hold its predominant position for another half century after Prof. Thaddeus C. Lowe developed the first practical method of enriching water gas with cracked-oil vapors in an integrated operation. This position, however, was no longer maintained through the medium of direct carbonization of coal in retorts but as a result of using anthracite or coke as the generator fuel in carburretted water-gas machines. The early water-gas machines were extremely crude and the consumption of both oil and generator fuel was very high. However, the cost of installation was considerably lower than for any coal-gas system having the equivalent gas-making capacity, the labor involved was small, and the water-gas machine could be started up and shut down quickly. It thus proved very useful as standby equipment and in taking peak loads from the coal-gas plants. The flexibility of the water-gas machine, furthermore, made it possible to change the candlepower of the gas readily to suit the required conditions. Later, when calorific value replaced candlepower as the standard of gas quality, the water-gas machine was found to be equally flexible in keeping the city gas under complete and convenient control. No basic improvements were made in the Lowe carburetted water-gas process until 1898, when means were added to provide for regular reversals of the flow of steam through the fuel bed. By judicious proportioning of the quantities of up-run and down-run steam, it became possible for the operator to control the hardness and position of the clinker to a degree that previously had been unattainable. Also in 1898, the first by-product coke plant in America to supply city gas was built at Everett, Massachusetts. Later many other by-product plants, of greatly improved design and capacity, were built, but not primarily for city-gas production, chiefly because of the relatively high investment cost per unit of gas made. Cheaper plant construction has been the subject of serious study, and some progress is expected, but other factors, such as plant life,

Jan 1, 1953

By N. A. Zeigler

The present publication is a continuation of the work on gas analysis described in a paper presented before the Institute of Metals Division year ago.' While that paper was largely descriptive in character dealing with the various parts of the apparatus and method of operations the present one gives numerical data obtained as a result of a series c experiments with iron-carbon alloys. The apparatus and the method applied are essentially the same as previously described, changes bein only in minor details. Attention should be called to the fact that in the present work we ar dealing with the gaseous mixtures obtained as a result of vacuum meltin of various ferrous alloys. It should be understood that when the term "degasified sample" and "products of degasification" are used, the refer to the sample remaining after the vacuum fusion of the alloy an the gaseous products removed therefrom, respectively. The write does not wish to create the impression that the metallic products of thj process are absolutely free from any gaseous elements, nor that the gase obtained are present as such in the original sample. These two point are not yet definitely known and are subjects for future investigatior The point, however, which has been established beyond doubt, i that all the gases dealt with come from the metallic charge and ar present either in the charge as such, or are produced as a result of chemic: reactions going on within the charge. The suggestion that the gases an due to the reactions between the metallic charge and the refractor materials has no valid basis. General Procedure A series of iron-carbon alloys was prepared in a magnesia-line graphite crucible placed in a high frequency laboratory furnace open t the atmosphere. The materials used were Westinghouse electrolyti iron and Acheson graphite. Each alloy, after it was completely molter was kept in the liquid state for 10 min., cast into a small iron mold, an

Jan 1, 1929

By T. H. Aldrich

There are two conditions generally prevailing upon the earth—those within atmospheric influence, tending towards oxidation, and those away from atmospheric influence, tending towards reduction. Practically all mineral substances from mines of any depth a.re in a reducing condition. Since the cyanide process, in order to dissolve silver or gold, requires that the prevailing conditions under which it operates shall be oxidizing, and the materials usually acted upon bei~lg of a reducing character, it becomes necessary to supply oxygen to the solution carrying the cyanide. This oxygen is usually supplied through the medium of dissolved air in the solation, or through the medium of various chemical compounds, which upon combining vith the solution or the ore give off a part of their oxygen. Strange as it may seem, practically all mineral substa~~ccs are partly soluble in water, especially water carrying alkali or cyanide. The greater the surface exposed and the finer the material is ground, the greater mrill be the rate of dissolving of the reducing-agents from the ore into the cyanide solution. In most cases, if the solution carrying the ore particles is agitated with air, the air will dissolve into the solution faster than will the reducing-agents; but in some cases the reducing-agents will dissolve more rapidly on account of easy solubility or greater surface exposed. It is a dissolving race between the oxygen from the air and the reducing-agents from the ore, and if the reducing-azents predominate, cyanide will not dissolve the gold from the ore. In many cases it will dissolve some of the gold, because in a mass of irregular shape some of the gold particles might be exposed upon the outside surface of a particle of rock; but if the solution had to penetrate through cracks, the side-walls of which were lined with reducing-agent-

Jan 1, 1912

By James T. Curry

FACED with processing an increasing volume of raw material through its existing plant, early in 1955 Calaveras Cement Co. of California considered incorporating liquid cyclones in its raw mill grinding circuits. One of many problems was the prospect of handling larger volumes of finished slurry through existing pipelines. Fixed capacities of the mechanical classifiers also placed limits on plant expansion.

Jan 10, 1957

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Jan 1, 1938

By C. E. Lawall

ONE of the most important developments in the coal industry during 1940 was the continued uptrend in the production of bituminous coal. Estimated production for the year is 450,000,000 tons, with an additional production of anthracite of 50,000,000 tons making a total of approximately 500,000,000 tons. This is an increase of 12.5 per cent over 1939. Despite an estimated decrease of about 3.5 per cent in anthracite production, all of the major coal-producing states had increases in production for 9140. The national defense program, with the consequent increase in industrial activity, undoubtedly had an important effect on the increased demand for coal.

Jan 1, 1941

By R. A. Walker, R. G. Bradburn, B. C. Flintoff

The events which led to computer control of the grinding circuit at Brenda Mines are described, beginning with mill operating philosophy. High production rates are encouraged so that, despite severe upstream disturbances, a manual control method to meet this philosophy had developed. Unfortunately, due to the time interval between manual control adjustments, losses in production resulted. An analog control method was devised and, although superior to manual control in some situations, was found to suffer from several practical limitations. The data logging capabilities of a control computer seemed warranted. Circuit testwork combined with an analysis of operating data showed that (1) metallurgical personnel at times could increase production rates by as much as 10% over that achieved by grinding operators; (2) the chosen data base required an increase of 2% or more to be statistically significant; and (3) for a 2% increase there would be a significant rate of return of investment in computer installation. Consequently one grinding circuit was fully instrumented, and a rented computer was installed by Brenda personnel. Prior to installation, Brenda metallurgical and instrumentation personnel were trained in the use of the computer. An experimental program was devised with short and long-term objectives. The short-term objective was to develop a practical control strategy which would yield immediate production improvement. This goal has been successfully met as described in this paper. Statistically significant increases in excess of 2% have been established. Work is being completed for the permanent installation of computer control on all four grinding circuits at the present time. Long-term objectives are (1) off-line analysis of the circuit using mathematical models of process units; (2) on-line experiments to study alternative control tactics; and (3) possible expansion of computer facilities to the crushing plant.

Jan 1, 1978

By T. S. Govindan

The first step in energy conservation in any industrial plant involves implementing many of the day-to-day "housekeeping" items, such as fixing leaks, turning out lights, etc. When this step has been accomplished, additional opportunities require a detailed analysis of the energy systems, evaluation of risks and costs, and assignment of priorities. Examples of conservation schemes drawn from the experience of Du Pont's Energy Management Consulting Services will be discussed. The utility of heat balances for kilns and dryers in minerals processing will be outlined. The input needed from management for the success of conservation efforts will be discussed.

Jan 1, 1981

By C. J. Delisio

The basic concept of tunnel boring has not changed since the late 1800's. R. Stanley of Great Britain obtained a Canadian patent as early as December 1891. Mr. Stanley's machine was a device that consisted of a rotating wheel equipped with drag-type teeth; it had a means of thrusting the cutterhead against the face or heading; it had a means of clamping or gripping the machine in its bore; it had a means of collecting and depositing the cuttings into a screw-type conveyor located near the invert of the tunnel. It even had a means of varying the speed of the forward motion of the machine to suit different hardnesses of rock encountered. This description essentially fits the latest tunnel-boring machines being built today. In short, there has been no significant advance in the basic concept in 70 to 80 years. It may well be that no significant change can be expected for some time into the future. Today's machines, while still basic in concept, offer many advances aimed at faster tunneling. Among these are 1 ) improved cutters, 2) guidance and steering devices, 3) dust-control devices, and 4) mechanisms to aid in installing tunnel supports. CUTTERS The most important part of a hard-rock tunnel borer is the cutter. If the cutter can cut the rock, it is a boring machine. If the cutter cannot cut the rock, no other part of the machine can. When Jarva, Inc. decided to build a machine, the first problem was to find a good cutter. In our search, we looked at most of the cutters on the market. We selected Reed Drilling Tools' cutter because the design of their cutter was aimed at hard-rock tunneling. We feel that they build the best cutter available and provide the best possible service to their customers. As tunnel-boring machine design advanced, the transition from drag bits to roller bits was natural because harder formations required a roller bit, and it is the goal of all mole users to bore harder formations. Roller bits

Jan 1, 1970

When Ponce de León landed in Florida in 1573 he was told of an Indian chief that possessed much gold. In 1576 Diego Meruelo obtained some of it from the Indians, and in 1579 Álvarez de Pineda reported that the natives wore ornaments of gold, which they obtained from the rivers. These statements all refer to the southern Appalachian region. The name is recorded in 1527; when Pamphilo Narváez landed at Tampa he heard that there was much gold to be obtained in a region named Apalache. * In 1564 René Laudonnière describes the methods used by the natives to win gold in the Apalatcy mountains.† However, no serious mining operations were undertaken until long afterward; the mining of gold in the Southern States may be said to have had its beginning when a nugget was found at the Reed mine, in North Carolina, in 1799. This nugget, which was of "the size of a small smoothing iron", was kept for several years before the finder learned what it was, but later more lumps, one weighing 28 pounds, were found in the same locality, and eager digging ensued. ‡ Thomas Jefferson, in his `Notes on Virginia', mentions the finding of a quartz specimen, not a nugget as is generally stated, that contained 17 pennyweights of gold; this was found on the Rappahannock river in 1782. §

Jan 1, 1932

By C. E. Birchenall, H. M. Schadel

Vapor pressure of silver over silver-gold alloys has been measured over a range of temperatures for four compositions. Orifice effusion has been compared with electromotive force measurement as a means for determining thermodynamic activities in these solid metallic alloys. Correlated activity coefficients are given for silver-gold alloys for the temperature range 200' to 1000°C. SOUND development of a technique for the measurement of some property of matter requires a comparison with other recognized procedures which have been used to measure the same property. Such a check is especially useful if the assumptions on which the applications stand are basically different for the two methods. Agreement in the results tends to confirm both sets of assumptions. The electromotive force method for determining thermodynamic activities depends upon the reversibility of the electrode processes and a knowledge of the valence states involved. The orifice effusion technique of determining vapor pressures requires that certain mean free path conditions be met, that the state of association of the vapor be known, and that efficient collection of vapors be maintained. Thus the requirements are quite different in nature. Although procedures often exist by which the fulfillment of these conditions may be tested internally, agreement of thermodynamic activities for a single system obtained by both methods constitutes a more severe test of the assumptions. The binary alloy system silver-gold is excellent for this purpose for several series of emf measure-

Jan 1, 1954

HOW the Engineers' Memorial clock and carillon at Louvain has impressed the people of that city is indicated by the following letter sent by the Secretary of the University of Louvain to the Secretary of the United Engineering Society. We are still full of the memories of that splendid July 4, when we came into such .delightful contact with our American friends and more specially with the representation of the engineering societies of the United States. It was a great joy for all the members of the University to see those, American friends who have given to us such a splendid memorial in honor of- the brave men who fell in the Great War.

Jan 1, 1928

The 27th Regiment of Engineers was organized in the Army not long ago for special mining service at the front (or, we might even say, in advance of the front). In military engineering in warfare, the "sappers and miners" are one of the ancient branches of the corps of engineers; but in modern warfare the importance of this service has been greatly magnified. The 27th Engineers is a. special mining regiment, which is being recruited from mining engineers and miners from all districts of the country, already containing representatives from all the mining states between Arizona and Montana and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast. Those of us who cannot go to the front should not-be content to tell the young fellows to go, and then forget them. We want the men of the 27th Engineers to know that they represent our industry and their industry; and that the industry is going to think about them and back them up. Expressing the above views, the Engineering and. Mining Journal instituted a fund for the aid of the 27th Engineers. It has already raised a considerable sum of money, and contributions are coming in fast; but there is no limit to what is wanted. This money is being spent in providing the regiment with athletic equipment, both outdoor and indoor; with games for the barracks; with cigarettes and smoking tobacco; with contributions to the funds of the several companies that the men raise among themselves. It is contemplated, moreover, that there will be need to extend aid and comfort to some of the families whom the men have left behind. Contributions of books, sweaters and other knitted articles are also being received.

Jan 3, 1918

Grad, the abbreviation for Graduate Resume Accumulation and Distribution, is a computerized information retrieval system operated on behalf of college placement officers around the country by the non- profit College Placement Council, Inc. Grad is free to all engineering candidates (regardless of the number of years of experience) and is a means of getting together college alumni who are seeking new employment and prospective employers. Who is Qualified? Candidates must have at least a bachelor's degree from a four-year college or university, or. in lieu of this, be accredited by a professional institute such as AIME as a full Member.

Jan 1, 1970

AN extremely successful meeting, under the joint auspices of the Ohio Section and the Iron and Steel Committee, was held at Cleveland on April 19 and 20, about one-half of those in attendance being from the Cleveland district and the other half from a distance. The morning session on April 19, C. K. Leith presiding, was opened by the presentation of the ad-dress of which an excerpt is printed on the opposite page. In the subsequent discussion R. A. Allen pointed out that the meeting had not been called "to blow the lid off the tariff" since that is only one of the many problems connected with the wisest utilization of man-ganese, and it was the purpose of this meeting to con-sider all those interdependent problems. The purpose of the tariff was to develop an adequate domestic sup-ply, and that result had not been accomplished. An-other important problem, linked with the tariff, is the need for assuring, while we are at peace, an adequate war supply of manganese, and at present this country has no such policy. D. F. Hewett said that his 3-months' trip in Europe last summer had impressed him with the fact that England had once been in the position United States now is in, of being the principal world's producer of all the more important minerals and with a declining reserve had gone on a free-trade basis. No one pointed out that, with the exception of tin, the present relative position of England is due more to an increase in pro-duction in other countries, rather than to a decrease of domestic production. J. Sharshall Grasty referred to recent development work-in Virginia where of 30 per cent easily concen-trated manganese ore about 300,000 tons has been blocked out and possible and probable ore amounting to 700,000 tons more is indicated.

Jan 5, 1927

By C. L. Magee, H. W. Paxton

The effects of testing temperature, frorn 77" to 420" K, and volume fraction of martensite on the micro-plastic response of unaged Fe-31Ni martensite-austenite aggregates have been determined. The kinetics of the aging phenomena which lead to a decrease in the microplastic response were also characterized. These determinations, supplemented by other experimental results, show that at least two mechanisms of plastic deformation give rise to the apparent softness of the quenched structures. Only one of these mechanisms is fully discussed in this paper The transformation of retained austenite to martensite during the application of stress leads, in specified conditions, to large microplastic strains. This deformation behavior cannot be described by normal transformation plasticity theory but is shown to result from the fact that stress-assisted formation of martensite is a possible deformation mode. The present results and further considerations of previous work lead to the conclusion that it is unnecessary to postulate a special work-hardening mechanism to explain the mechanical properties of unaged martensite. It is now generally accepted that dislocation motion can occur in many solids at stresses very much below the L'macroscpic" yield stress, e.g., 0.1 pct offset. This phenomenon has been investigated by a variety of techniques including measurements of elastic limit,' effective static elastic modulus,~ and irreversible deformation following stressing at low levels.3"5 Of particular interest to the work to be described are exper -iments conducted on the deformation of martensite in attempts to decide whether freshly quenched ferrous martensites are "hard" or "soft".6 Muir, Averbach, and cohenl and McEvily, Ku, and ~ohnston' have shown that as-quenched ferrous rnartensites can be plastically deformed at relatively low stresses. A difference between these two sets of experiments exists in that some diffusion of carbon would take place before testing in the experiments of Muir et a1. because the plain Fe-C alloys which they have tested transform to martensite well above room temperature. McEvily et a1. examined Fe-Ni-C alloys with Ms of about -30"~ and tested the alloys directly after quenching to — 195" ~ —a technique which obviates any appreciable carbon diffusion. Unfortunately, a characteristic of the alloys which transform below room temperature is that they do not transform entirely to martensite. The results discussed below will show that, because the transformation of this retained austenite under stress leads to plastic deformation, one cannot investigate the properties of martensite by such experiments. The existence of a second deformation phenomenon, which is not caused by retained austenite, is also established in the present work. In line with a previous suggestion,' it is believed that the second microdefor-mation mode is principally due to the internal stresses generated by the formation of martensite. To avoid confusion in the present report, the evidence we have found for this interpretation will be discussed separately in a brief note.7 EXPERIMENTAL Materials. The alloys were induction-melted and cast under vacuum; the resulting compositions are given in Table I. The ingots were hot-swaged to 2-in.-diam bar and further cold-swaged and/or cold-rolled prior to specimen preparation. The standard tensile specimens were machined from sheet. The gage section was 0.05 by 0.2 by 5 in.; 0.75-in.-wide ends had 0.2 5-in. centered holes for pinloading. The three-point bend samples were 0.075-in. thick and 0.6 in. bide. The distance between the outer loading points was 5.5 in. In order to establish a standard starting condition, all specimens were quenched to 77°K prior to annealing in vacuo for austenitizing. The temperature of the austenitizing anneal was controlled to + 5"~. The testing and aging temperatures were maintained by various liquid baths (nitrogen, 77"~; freon, 130° to 200°K; acetone, 200 to 300°K; silicone oil, 300' to 450°K) to better than il°K. Strain Measurement. The results herein were derived from both uniaxial tension and three-point bending experiments. For bending tests, the stresses and strains reported are those corresponding to the maximum fiber values. Normally, because of the small strains involved, very sensitive strain measurements are necessary to make microplastic measurements. However, because of the magnitude of the dilatation and shear involved in the martensitic transformation, the requirements in the present experiments proved to be less rigorous. In most experiments the plastic strain was evaluated by measuring stress relaxation and modulus defects. In this method, specimens are loaded rapidly to some predetermined load on an In-

Jan 1, 1969

By N. M. Langdon

Spokane Meeting, September, 1909.) THE following corrections to the paper of Mr. Langdon (Bulletin No. 34, October, 1909, pp. 919 to 940), received after the publication of the paper in the Bulletin, will be incorporated in the paper as finally published in the forthcoming Vol. XL. of the Transactions, but are here presented for the information of members:' Page. 921. Table I., furnace M2, item 11. For " 8801 " read "0.8801." 922. Table II., furnace C, item 2, under gas. For " 0.011 C " read " 0.011 0." Furnace G, item 13, under gas. For " 5.074 air " read " 3.074 air." Item 15, 114.269 " should be " 4.289." Furnace H, item 2, under iron. For " 0.04 " read ".0.01." 923. Table II., furnace J, item 1, under iron. For " 0.95 " read " 0.93." Furnace N2, item 6, under gas. For " 0.66 CO," read 0.066 C02." 924. Table III., furnace C, item 17. For " 379 " read " 397." 927. Table IV., furnace C, item 4. For " 0.0124 " read 0.0424." Furnace G, item 15.. For " 4,060 " read " 4,066." 928. Line 2. Items 19 and 20 of heat-supply, should be items 20 and 21. 930. Line 3. Expunge remainder of paragraph after the word " supplied," and substitute the following : "As compared with the fusion-zone, the loss by radiation n C was 25.5 per cent. of the total (2,278 units) supplied to that zone, while in D it was 22.5 per cent. of the total heat (1,824 units) supplied to that zone. Finally, as compared with the reduction-zone, C lost by radiation 36.8. per cent. of the 1,580 units supplied to that zone,

May 1, 1910

On Wednesday evening, Jan. 27, 1915, were held in the auditorium of the Engineering Societies Building the inaugural exercises of The Engineering Foundation, established by the United Engineering Society. The initial gift to the Foundation of $200,000, made by Ambrose Swasey, Past President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, was formally accepted at this time. So far as known this is the first instance of a foundation devoted to engineering purposes. This meeting con-stituted also an appropriate tribute to the generous gift made to the Foundation and gave opportunity for expression of the satisfaction and approval which are felt by engineers everywhere at the establishment of a means of promoting the good of mankind through the work of the engineer along the broadest lines. Gano Dunn, President of the United Engineering Society and Past President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, acted as presiding officer, and on the platform were seated representatives of the three societies constituting the United Engineering Society, and of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Members of the four societies and many other friends interested in the profession composed the audience.

Jan 3, 1915