Search Documents

By J. M. Clark

(Wilkes-Barre Meeting, June, 1911.) For some years past, those interested in the development of the increasingly important mining industry of Canada, have urged the adoption by the Dominion Parliament of a federal mining-law, which would have the force and stability of statutory enactment. At present, placer-mining in the Yukon Territory, is governed by the Yukon Placer Mining Act. All other mining under federal jurisdiction is governed by 'Orders in Council and Ministerial Regulations. In the earlier stages of development, it is perhaps a matter of necessity that these important matters should be so dealt with; but it is now felt that the time has come when mining-rights in the extensive regions under federal control should be put on a permanent basis, -and that any changes required from time to time should be made only after full and open discussion in Parliament. A short sketch will suffice to indicate how vast and varied the interests affected really are. When the Dominion of Canada was constituted by the Imperial Statute known as the British North America Act of 1867 (which came into force by proclamation on July 1 of that year), it comprised only the present Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick; but provision was made for the inclusion of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Rupert's Land, and the North West Territories. Subsequently Rupert's Land and the North West Territories were acquired, the 'Crown Colonies of British Columbia and * SECRETARY'S NOTE.-Mr. Clark, an eminent Canadian lawyer, and joint author of the treatise on "The Law of Mines in Canada," has been requested by the Do¬minion Government to prepare a Federal mining-law, and presents this paper, by invitation of the Council, in order to obtain, if possible, useful suggestions from members of the Institute.-R. W. R.

Apr 1, 1911

By Robert J. McKay, F. P. Huston, WILLIAM G. HUMPTON

THE manufacture of nickel-clad steel plate and the fabrication of articles from it has progressed far enough to permit a general description of the working methods used. The manufacture of sheets made up of layers of nickel and steel is not new as a sheet of this character was patented in Germany in 1893. Present development differs mainly in the size and finish of the product. The earlier light-gage highly finished products have been limited in their application due to their similarity, in certain respects, to electro-plated and highly finished alloy sheets. The new product is a relatively heavy plate 1/4 or 3/s in. thick and heavier, with one side coated with nickel, the weight of nickel being of the order of 10 per cent of the whole. The finish is that of hot-rolled steel plate.

Jan 1, 1931

By M. N. Shetty

LARGE copper whiskers (-100 p) of 11111 orientation were tested in a floor-model Instron testing machine, at liquid nitrogen temperature. (Testing methods will appear elsewhere.) Whiskers deformed by twinning after some initial deformation. A load-elongation curve at the onset of twinning is reproduced in Fig. 1. Twinning was confirmed by taking a back-reflection Laue picture, using a slit colli-mator, which showed distinct splitting of reflections. The tensile stress reached just before twinning is about 1.4 x 107 g per sq cm (-7.0 x106 g per sq cm—resolved shear stress) which drops to 1.2 x107 g per sq cm (-6 x 106 g per sq cm—resolved). This twinning stress is about five to ten times larger than the value for bulk single crystals of copper deformed at 77°K (-106 g per sq cm—resolved). Twinning models based on Cottrell-Bilby's pole mechanism are discussed in detail by Venables.' In the present work a mechanism based on the idea of failure of a Lomer-Cottrell barrier by recombination will be proposed. An L-C barrier may fail either by recombination or by dissociation.3 Fig. 2 provides the necessary information. It shows that the stress necessary to break such a barrier is about 1.8 x 107 g per sq cm by recombination and 4 x 107 g per sq cm by dissociation at 77°K. The twinning stress reached by whiskers is comparable to the stress level required for failure of an L-C barrier by recombination. (Stroh himself points out that his calculations should not be taken too literally.) We consider a segment of the L-C dislocation which has recombined (AB in Fig. 3) over a length to form the total dislocation which then glides in the

Jan 1, 1965

By H. S. Price, J. C. Cavendish, R. S. Varga

A numerical formulation of bigh-order accuracy, based on variational methods, is proposed for the solution of multidimensional diffusion-convection-type equations. Accurate solutions are obtained without the difficulties that standard finite difference approximations present. In addition, tests show that accurate solutions of a one-dimensional problem can be obtained in the neighborhood of a sharp front without the need for a large number of calculations for the entire region of interest. Results using these variational methods are compared with several standard finite difference approximations and with a technique based on the method of characteristics. The variational methods are shown to yield higher accuracies in less computer time. Finally, it is indicated how one can use these attractive features of the variational methods for solving miscible displacement problems in two dimensions. INTRODUCTION The problem of finding suitable numerical approximations for equations describing the transport of heat or mass by diffusion and convection simultaneously has been of interest for some time. Equations of this type, which will be called diffusionconvection equations, arise in describing many diverse physical processes. Of particular interest here is the equation describing the process by which one miscible liquid displaces another liquid in a one-dimensional porous medium. The behavior of such a system is described by the following parabolic partial differential equation:

Jan 1, 1969

By J. Chipman, J. B. Gero, T. B. Winkler

D. C. Hilty—This paper is a useful and timely addition to our store of quantitative data relating to manganese distribution between slag and metal in steel-making processes. For some time, many of us have suspected that the values of Kmn derived by Körber and Oelsen might be too low, and this paper now appears to confirm that suspicion. Application of the new constant to openhearth data should prove interesting. The manganese deoxidation curves of fig. 4 agree fairly well with direct measurements of isothermal solubilities of oxygen in liquid iron containing manganese that have recently been made at the Union Carbide and Carbon Research Labs., Inc. According to the solubility data just mentioned, however, the curves for 1550" and 1600°C lie much closer to each other than the authors have indicated. In other words, the solubility measurements suggest that the logarithm of the oxygen solubility is not a linear function of the reciprocal of the absolute temperature, as the authors have assumed for their calculations. It seems possible that this discrepancy may be due in part to the authors' use of the distribution coefficient, L,,, obtained from Taylor and Chipman's curve for the solubility of oxygen in iron as shown in fig. 2. Taylor and Chipman gave the equation of this curve as —6320 Log % 0 - ---T + 2.734 Their data, however, can be fitted equally well by a curve having the equation: 13.23 x104 1.18x10" Log % O = 36.350 -13.23x10 Moreover, this curve also fits the authors' oxygen distribution data somewhat better than does the linear curve of Taylor and Chipman. Its use in the derivation of Lo for calculation of the deoxidation curves by the authors' eq 15 causes the effect of temperature on the calculated curves of fig. 4 to agree quite well with the temperature effect that has been observed. An experimental determination of the temperature coefficient of the manganese reaction appears to be desirable. J. E. Stukel—Because the authors have done such an excellent job, my comments will be confined to additional information. Very shortly Professor T. L. Joseph and I will publish the results of a study of the reaction between molten manganese and silica. It was found that electrolytic manganese, melted in silica crucibles, reacted with the silica to form a silico-manganese alloy containing 18 pct silicon (1500°C) and a silica saturated MnO-SiO, slag. Therefore, the presence of silicon and its oxides in the Fe-Mn-0 system will affect the equilibrium. Carbon is also an important factor. The higher the carbon content of the iron the less ability manganese has to reduce silica. As a matter of interest, recently a study of the manganese equilibrium in carbon saturated iron and blast furnace slags was completed at Carnegie Institute of Technology. As a comparison to the present study, 2 to 5 hr were required to reach equilibrium and temperature was a much more important factor than slag composition in determining the (Mn)/(MnO) ratio. These results will also be published in the near future. It can be seen, therefore, that the results of this paper cannot be applied directly to openhearth studies without a degree of flexibility. J. Chipman (authors' reply)—With regard to the effect of silicon on the manganese constant, this effect is, of course, known. Much more data is needed in order to establish it accurately, and I hope we can look forward to having some accurate data on that. Mr. Hilty suggests that a three-term expression for the Taylor-Chipman solubility of oxygen in liquid iron might fit a little better than the two-term equation. I think that it would be too great a compliment to the precision of the data to employ a three-term equation, and I would still recommend the simple, two-term expression.

Jan 1, 1951

By J. C. HEILMAN

THE Tri-State district, named from its situation in three States, lies in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, the southeast corner of Kansas and the adjacent part of Missouri east of the common corner of the above States. Production in the past eighty years has come from scattered mines within an area of some 35 miles east and west, by 25 miles north and south, although the actual area of the mined ground is but a small fraction of this territory. The land is leased from the individual land-owners, and the size of the tracts varies from 4.0 to 200 acres, the smaller sized tracts predominating. The leases usually call for a royalty of 7% to 15 per cent of the gross receipts of the concentrates, continuous operation during the life of the lease and specifically set out that no ores can be brought in from a foreign lease for custom milling nor can any ore be removed from the lease for milling. The ownership of the tailings remains with the land-owner.

Jan 1, 1931

By AIME AIME

HE State of Utah has an area of 84,990 sq. mi., and like other inland states in the West its population, although steadily increasing, is relatively small. The fact that it is a state possessing vast mineral resources is attested by a careful study of statistics which have been compiled by Federal and State investigators. Some idea of the extent of these resources and the degree of development of a particular state or region may be gained by such a study, but in the case of Utah statistics and other available information fail to portray completely the true extent and value of its existing metallic and non-metallic resources. The State is probably more widely known for its production of metallic ores which has placed it in an eminent position among the metal mining states of the Nation.

Jan 1, 1925

By R. M. Waterstrat

X-ray diffraction and metallographic examination of binary Mn-rich alloys with Ti revealed the presence of intermediate phases in this system. A binary R phase has been identified and also a phase having an a-Mn type structure. The X-ray pattern of the phase TiMn3 is presented and a tentative phase diagram for the Mn-rich portion of this binary system has been constndcted. MANGANESE-rich alloys with titanium have been subjected to thermal analysis at temperatures down to 1100°C by Hellawell and Hume-Rothery.1 Their results indicate the existence of an intermediate phase TiMn3 in this binary system. This phase appears to coexist with the Laves phase TiMn2, and with terminal solid solutions based on the allotropes of manganese, at least down to 1100°C. The above investigators did not attempt to determine the crystal structure of this phase, however. Since, by analogy to the binary systems Mn-V and Mn-Cr3 one might expect to find a phase in this region of the diagram, it seemed desirable to obtain X-ray diffraction patterns of alloys in the concentration range in question, in order to ascertain whether the sigma phase or related structures occur. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES Alloys were prepared by arc-melting electrolytic manganese and iodide titanium in a water-cooled copper crucible under a helium atmosphere. Excess manganese was added to each melt in order to allow for losses incurred during melting. The alloys were then wrapped in molybdenum foil and sealed in evacuated quartz tubes for annealing at various temperatures, as shown in Table I, followed by quenching in cold water. Although the inside of the tubes showed evidence for some loss of manganese from the specimen during annealing, there was no evidence of any reaction between the specimen and either the molybdenum foil or the quartz tube at these temperatures. It was later found that the manganese loss was considerably reduced by annealing these alloys in sealed quartz tubes containing one atmosphere of purified argon. As an added precaution the surface of each specimen was ground off before crushing the alloys to -270 mesh powder, using a hardened steel mortar and pestle. X-ray powder patterns were obtained using either FeKa or CrKa radiation in an asymmetrical focusing camera, which gave excellent dispersion of the closely spaced lines. Pictures were also obtained using a Debye camera of 5-cm radius which provided data in the angular region not covered by the focusing camera. The alloy specimens were polished and examined metallographically, using an etchant consisting of 60 pct glycerine, 20 pct nitric acid, and 20 pct hydrofluoric acid. The 10-g buttons were in each case broken in half and found to be well-melted and free of any gross segregation. One half of certain alloy buttons was submitted to chemical analysis in the "as-cast" condition. No appreciable change in composition seemed to occur during annealing . RESULTS The X-ray pattern of alloy Ti1.17Mn0.83 was found to agree well with that of the ternary R phase which was first found in the Mo-Cr-Co system,' and re-

Jan 1, 1962

By R. J. Stokes

S. Floreen (international Nickel Co.)— One fairly simple way to differentiate between em brittle me nt due to surface microcracks or due to a dislocation barrier effect might be to load a brittle rock salt crystal in tension to some stress just below the fracture stress and then immerse the loaded crystal in water. If a surface film is retarding plastic flow then one should observe some plastic deformation of the rock salt as

Jan 1, 1962

By Robert M. Funk, James E. Lawver

The development of a laboratory and pilot-scale high-tension electrostatic flowsheet for the production of iron-ore super concentrates having silica contents in the range of 0.1% is presented, A variety of hematite and magnetite ores were tested with this flowsheet, and the pertinent metallurgical data are given. The applications and limitations of this process are brought out in terms of both practical and theoretical considerations. There have been many new developments in the past few years that have required mineral beneficiation engineers to consider new techniques for iron-ore concentration. Developments in iron powder metallurgy, and particularly the making of sheet metal directly from high-purity iron-ore concentrates, and the concept of using metallized pellets as a substitute for scrap in electric-furnace steelmaking have created demands for what is commonly referred to as iron-ore superconcen-trates. In most cases, specifications for superconcentrates are that they contain less than 0.1% total gangue, with some applications requiring less than 0.05% gangue. To produce these concentrates, new and modified processes are being developed, and the three methods receiving attention as the primary concentrating methods are: 1) Magnetic separation in which dry rotor-type equipment is used for magnetite and the high-intensity magnets are used for hematite. 2) Amine flotation. 3) "High-tension" electrostatic separation (or, elec-trodynamic concentration). This paper examines the high-tension electrostatic process in terms of its limitations and abilities for the production of iron-ore superconcentrates. A technically effective and simple flowsheet was developed through laboratory and 5 and 100-ton pilot-plant studies for the production of concentrates containing from 0.02 to 0.20% SiO, with iron recoveries between 85 and 90%. The process is also shown to be economically feasible. Laboratory Test Program Separation Characteristics: The suitability of the electrostatic high-tension method for iron-ore supercon-centration stems from the fundamental mechanism governing the process, i.e., particles are separated on the basis of differences in electrical conductivities. This conductivity is a characteristic property of minerals, and if the difference between the conductivities of two min- erals is great enough, then their separation can be performed by a high-tension machine. As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the critical factor is the time necessary for the particle charge density, which is established by a corona discharge field, to decay to a level such that the centrifugal force acting on the particle exceeds its electrostatic, or image, force. At this point, the particle can leave the rotor at some trajectory and fall into an appropriate product receptacle. This decay time is directly proportional to electrical conductivity, and the process variables, such as feed rate, rotor speed, electrode configuration, and rotor composition, are selected to optimize the ability of the separator to resolve different conductivities. Table 1 lists the measured conductivities for some of the iron and gangue minerals used in developing the flowsheet. These results were obtained by using the conductivity cell described by Lawver and Wright.' The discharge curve of most minerals that lend themselves to super concentration by high-tension is so fast that the

Jan 1, 1971

By C. F. Weinaug, R. W. Farley, J. F. Wolfe

A rapid, accurate method for predicting the dew points of gas condensate systems and their subsequent normal and retrograde phase behavior with pressure decline has been developed. The method predicts dewpoint pressure, volume percent liquid, condensate content of produced gas, and the liquid and gas compositions at pressures below the dewpoint pressure. Use of a modified form of the BWR equation of state, which was established by regression calculations on experimental data from several gas condensates, provides depletion behavior predictions that are significantly improved over predictions using K-values based on convergence pressures and Standing's correlation for density. INTRODUCTION Prediction of complex hydrocarbon-mixture thermodynamics is fundamental to reservoir and gas process engineering. In particular, accurate descriptions of phase behavior are needed to plan production operations for gas-condensate reservoirs. Although analysis of reservoir behavior during producing and cycling operations can be made for simple reservoir models, extensions of these studies to more complex reservoir systems are still difficult, both with regard to numerical techniques and the phase behavior of the fluids. This report presents a mathematical method for handling the complex phase relationships encountered in retrograde condensates; it represents an advance in reservoir behavior technology in that it will aid the development of closed-form mathematical representations of total production systems. A typical phase diagram for a complex hydrocarbon mixture is shown in Fig. 1. When the reservoir temperature T, is higher than the critical temperature Tc, and lower than the critical-condensation temperature Tct' the mixture is a gas condensate. Decreasing the pressure on a condensate while maintaining nearly constant temperature will result in two phases forming at the dew point. Further decrease in pressure will cause additional liquids to be formed. This phenomenon is called retrograde condensation. As pressure continues to decrease, normal phase behavior regions are encountered (liquid vaporizes as the pressure decreases) until the low-pressure dew point is encountered. When a gas-condensate reservoir is produced, gas is withdrawn and the volume of fluids in the reservoir remains nearly constant as the pressure declines. Heavier components tend to accumulate in the liquid phase as a result of retrograde condensation, while lighter components tend to concentrate in the vapor phase. Thus, as the gas is produced the composition of the gas and the condensate

Jan 1, 1970

By Betty J. Laswell, Gerald W. Laswell

Rotary drilling in modern open-pit mining is usually considered the lead phase which not only establishes the production rates but frequently limits them. From this viewpoint alone, the drilling phase must be maximized. The drill phase is the step that permits all the other operational phases to function within their design limits. This means that, in most cases, the drill is literally run to destruction to ensure that the shovel will be able to smoothly and consistently load a manageably size muck, the haul trucks can carry a balanced load without having a boulder dropped through the bed, and the crusher can devour constant rock size.

Jan 8, 1978

By Charles E. Locke

DEPRESSION in all lines of the mineral industry except gold, which began in 1930 and continued, even worse, through 1931, had its effect on ore concentration. Construction was limited to the completion of plants already begun. Every possible economy was adopted. Changes and improvements involving expense were postponed. Research was largely abandoned. Operations became highly efficient and costs were cut down, although this did not necessarily mean a lower cost per ton because of the greatly reduced capacity at which mills were run. Lower metal prices caused the operators to seek the optimum ratio of concentration and grade of concentrates looking toward maximum economic recovery; that is, net profit. In the crushing field no marked changes occurred. The Symons cone crusher for intermediate work is in use almost everywhere. Its manufacturers claim that 900 machines have been installed in 21 countries, replacing two previous steps of crushing and yielding a product sufficiently fine to form a satisfactory feed for rod mills and ball mills. A new Telsmith crusher has appeared which has curved jaws something like the Symons cone and consequently the same advantage as the latter.

Jan 1, 1932

By AIME AIME

UNDER the auspices of the Institute's Committee on Industrial Preparedness, a symposium was arranged for the Annual Meeting on the subject "Ores, Metals, and the War," with many well-known Government men and industrialists participating. Wilfred Sykes, president of the Inland Steel Co., of Chicago, presided, with C. K. Leith and Clyde Williams as vice-chairmen, Mr. Williams presiding over the latter part of the meeting. On the Auditorium stage in the Engineering Societies Building was a formidable corps of "experts," with an audience of several hundred to hear what they had to say and to ask questions.

Jan 1, 1942

By O. E. Palasvirta

Several drum-type, low-intensity dry magnetic separators have recently been described 1,2,3,4 all of which share at least two generic similarities. The magnet consists of a multiplicity of poles of alternating polarity and, the speed of the drum shell, relatiw to the magnet, is such that the magnetics are agitated through rotation of the magnetic particles around their individual axes. The speed of the drum relative to the magnet (differential speed) determines the frequency of the field reversals. For effective agitation this frequency generally has to be above a specific value, which varies according to the mean particle size of the magnetics. With separators of small diameter, say less than 11/2 ft., a sufficient differential speed for treatment of fine magnetite can be attained only by rotating both the magnet and the drum separately; separators of large diameter may attain sufficiently high differential speeds with stationary magnets. Separators of large diameter thus have the advantage of simplicity of design. The capacity of a separator of this type is directly proportional to the speed of the shell. As the centrifugal force opposing the magnetic force increases at a slower rate than the peripheral speed of the shell when drum diameter is increased, large drums can be operated with higher peripheral speeds. Thus they have a higher capacity than smaller drums. Separation is also a statistical phenomenon, i.e. the grade of concentrate improves as the number of agitations or rotations of the magnetic particles per separation increases. As separators of large diameter have space for a large number of magnets they are best suited for production of optimum grade concentrate. The statements above are general clues For separator design. In the following an expression IS derived showing a more exact relationship between the pertinent separator variables. As both magnetic attraction and centrifugal forces are directly proportional to the volume of the affected bodies, complications in mathematical analysis, arising from variable particle size, are avoided by considering the force per unit volume of affected material. For the magnetic force per unit volume Runolinna (3) gives the following equation: V " 1 + N(ur, - 1) uo dr (1) where ur and uo stand for the relative permeability and the permeability of vacuum, respectively, N is the demagnetization factor, B the intensity of the magnetic field, and r the distance from the face of the magnetic pole. The permeability of a specific magnetite ore can generally be considered as a constant. For ground, liberated material N can also be treated as a constant, and the first simplification can be made by writing ur-1 1=k1. 1 + N(ur - 1) uD k1. Fig. 1 shows the field intensity curves for two U-magnets of different size, but of roughly similar geometry of cross-section as plotted against the distance from the plane of the pole faces. The curves

Jan 1, 1961

By Reno H. Sales

Our colleagues cannot in the future earn reputations and medals for achievements in milling and smelting ore and for successful management of mining companies, if some one doesn't keep finding and mining the ore to mill and smelt and to provide the basis for the good management. Good ore seems sometimes to be quite helpful to good management, and good ore is not as easy to find as it used to be. And there are still more reasons, why—when this honor had been decided upon and named for Mr. Daniel C. Jackling—it should be initially conferred on Reno H. Sales. . The terms of reference of the award are that it should be conferred upon an individual working in the fields of mining, geology, geophysics, who has made an outstanding contribution to the progress of technology in one or more of those fields. And in this initial year (the earlier years are the easiest) just that was done. I think I could get away with it amongst the old-timers of my generation if I say that this time they made the award to the individual, who made the outstanding contribution. But, as Al Smith used to say, "Let's look at the record." Really, the record is mixed up a little with extra-lateral litigation—the old-time "apex cases" under Section 2322 of the Revised Statutes. Reno Sales doesn't like such litigation, but there is little question that the urgency, generated by conflicting claims of intra-limital and extra-lateral rights, and consequent necessity for committing to records and maps the complications of Butte structure, did advance—and by several years—the first continuous, accurate, systematic, and scientific portrayal of the geological and mineralogical details of what is, after all, the most important and the most complicated copper district—at least in North America. Prior to Sales' time, some of the most eminent of geologists often waived details. One geologist took the judge to the window to show him the Rarus fault going through a notch in the Continental Divide. The entertaining testimony in the Bluebird litigation was as perfect in literary style as it was innocent of the criteria by which faulting and lack of continuity of vein structure are now recognized. At any rate, this need for an accurate record of structure was in the background—to whatever extent it was, or was not, the etiological agent—for formation of the Geological Department of the Amalgamated Copper Co. in and about the year 1900. Charles W. Goodale was at that time the head of the Boston & Montana, and John D. Ryan succeeded William Scallon as the president of Anaconda Copper Mining Co. in 1905. Horace V. Winchell, for years a specialist in extra-lateral litigation, was perhaps the man who at that date had the vision, the persuasive weight with the management, and the willingness to defend the idea of large current expenditures (as then viewed) for a complete and sys-

Jan 1, 1955

By ALFRED T. BARR

In certain areas of the New Cornelia pit, considerable secondary blasting is necessary to reduce oversized boulders, formed from primary blasting, to pieces which will pass the 41/2-cu yd dippers on the shovels. Some of the boulders are 'dobied, but when time permits they are blockholed and blasted. In most instances one hole drilled to a depth of 2 to 3 ft and blasted with 1/3 to 1/2 of a stick of powder will break a boulder satisfactorily. Blockholing is normally done by using a jackhammer of the 55-lb class, 1-in. round drill steel, and detachable steel bits, 2-in. gauge when new. A bit change is usually made after the completion of each hole. The use of light drilling equipment in blockholing is desirable, both from the standpoint of safety and ease of doing the work, and when it was seen there was a possibility of using a lighter jackhammer through the use of tungsten-carbide bits and at the same time get at least the same drilling efficiency as with the standard equipment, it was decided to test tungsten-carbide bits. The claims for long life of the bits and footage drilled before resharpening gave hopes of eliminating much of the delay time in changing bits which is unavoidable with the use of steel bits. and thus gain in actual drilling time.

Jan 1, 1949

James GayleY, New Pork City (communication to the Secretary*) :—The main thing that is sought after in this matter is that all purcliases shall be made by analysis. This is done already in special lines, as in the manufacture of various grades of steel in which phosphorus, silicon and sulphur are specified within narrow limits, and I quite agree with Mr. Cook that specifications, which are over-rigid in unessential particulars, should be avoided, as they defeat their own purpose because unreasonable requirements permitting no variation are practically not fulfilled, and it is impossible to specify grade

Jan 1, 1905

By Cloyd M. Smith

A FEW years ago, the Ventilation Committee established the practice of presenting one topic each year for discussion at the annual meeting. The practice has met good response on the part of committee members and I suggest that it be continued. The topic chosen for this year, "Underground Anemometry," is a topic which has bothered me for more than 20 years. It seems to me that the coal industry is content to rely on slipshod methods for measuring the rate of flow of air underground, so I prefaced my discussional charge to committee members with the statement that I regard air measurements made in the usual way, with hand held anemometer, as no good. Agreements and disagreements came in from more than a dozen engineers, some of whom are with operating companies, coal and metal; some with manufacturers; others with government agencies.

Jan 1, 1949

ONE DAY IN the mid-1880s, in a suburb 0f Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, there dismounted from a train the two foremost leaders of the day in the coal and steel industries-Andrew Carnegie and H. C. Frick. Their attention was drawn to a well-loaded car of coke, which their experienced eyes recognized as a superior product. "I'll bet you that coke is from the H. C. Frick Coke Company," Mr. Frick challenged. "I'll bet it was shipped by my company." In a spirit of fun Mr. Carnegie accepted the wager. Mr. Frick lost the bet: the coke had come from M0rewood, one of three sites being operated under the direction of a young entrepreneur, Erskine Ramsay. If Mr. Frick's confidence was somewhat dented by this occurrence, the responsibility was his own. He himself had opened the way for Erskine Ramsay to become the youngest of mine superintendents; and he had dispersed all dissension regarding his choice with the words : "I'm not interested in his years, I'm interested in his record. He makes more coke in an oven than any other superintendent. And I'll take 'em out 0f the cradle if they can make coke... Suppose he is only twenty years old? ... The d --- kid is a genius, I tell you." Erskine Ramsay was to follow in the tradition of Carnegie and Frick. Not only was he ambitious and a worker his background had prepared him for it. Coal mining was in the Ramsay blood. His father, Robert Ramsay, of whom the son once stated that he had no superior as coal mining and mechanical engineer in this country, once accounted in these words for the phenomenal accomplishments which had attached to the name "It does no harm to belong to a family of mining engineers who are just as good as any in America-if it is myself that says it." Anyone acquainted with Robert Ramsay's character realized that he was not given to overstatement. And the above-mentioned Mr. Carnegie encountered young Ramsay again, a few years later in his career, and wrote of him to young Erskine's father, that he was "going to be a credit `tae us a' " (a quotation from Robert Burns.) Nor have Mr. Ramsay's achievements been identified exclusively with the industrial field in which he early asserted himself. He has been an inventor whose techniques in mining engineering have received international recognition. As an investor of foresight, he has benefitted others immeasurably, as well as himself, being an influential factor in the upbuilding of several communities in his chosen and well-loved adopted home state of Alabama since 1887. He is a philanthropist whose benefactions have run into millions, the chief beneficiaries being educational and charitable institutions. Amidst his accomplishments the lighter side of life has not been neglected and he is known for his hospitality, his

Jan 1, 1953