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By E. J. Krokroskia

Fletcher Mill is located in the southern part of the New Lead Belt in Southeastern Missouri, in the northwestern part of Reynolds County. Shaft sinking began in July, 1964. The mill went on stream in February, 1967, and reached the designed rate of 5,000 tons per day in July, 1968. The ore occurs approximately 1,000 feet below the surface as disseminated deposits of galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite. There is no oxidation within the ore body and dissemination is not fine enough to present liberation problems with a normal grind. Mining is by the room and pillar method with rubber-tired diesel- propelled drilling and loading equipment. The ore is dumped through a 27-inch square grizzly into a 5,000-ton pocket. The underground primary crusher is automatically fed by a vibrating feeder and discharges directly into skip measuring bins. Hoisting is automatic, in balance, with 8. 5-ton skips dumping into a 1,000-ton mill bin. MILL The concentrator is a 5, 000 tons-per-day single section plant equipped to produce lead, zinc and copper concentrates. Contained under 35, 347 square feet of roof, without fine ore storage or remote crushing, and with sufficient automation to be operated by one man, the plant is compact, unique, and efficient in operation. The design

Jan 1, 1970

By Yves Dardel

THE literature concerning the remelting of aluminum and its alloys is very rich. Unfortunately the greater part of the papers about this subject have no scientific value, for the theories or explanations are too often in opposition to the laws of physical chemistry. Furthermore only a few of the methods of purification1,2 are considered in the literature. Hence it has seemed necessary to the author to sketch a general theory of the purification of secondary aluminum. The purpose of the purification is to eliminate the impurities that the charges and the atmosphere of the furnaces bring into the bath during the successive remeltings. Indeed scrap as well as metal can be used when soiled with oil, greases, water, .. , if it has been sufficiently dried and contains oxides. At the melting point of the metal, the oils and greases are decomposed into their constituent elements H2, 02, H2O, C02, CO, CH4, and others. These gases are added to the corresponding gases in the atmosphere of the furnace. The impurities introduced into the metal during the remelting will accordingly be the products resulting from the action of these gases on the liquid bath. The quantity of hydrogen that is soluble in aluminum and its alloys is given by the relation of Sieverts3 as a function of its partial pressure PH2 in the atmosphere [m = K _%/PH, [I]] where K is a constant, which depends only upon the temperature and increases with it. The experiments of Röntgen and Braun4, Röntgen and Möller5, Bircumshaw6 and Winterhager7 have rendered it possible to determine the value of K, when the temperature is inferior to 1.000°K. One obtains: [log K = - 4,702.5 + 0.238 [2]] Besides its usual signification, the term PH2 represents also the internal pressure of dissolved hydrogen, since in the equilibrium, that is, when no gas exchange occurs between the two phases, the pressures of hydrogen in the metal and in the atmosphere must be equal. Eq I shows that when the partial pressure of H2 increases the amount of dissolved hydrogen in equilibrium increases, and that, if the contrary occurs, the quantity of H2 should diminish. However, if for any reason the diffusion of hydrogen is hindered and the total amount of dissolved gas remains constant while the temperature lowers, the internal pressure of H2 increases until it reaches the value of the hydrostatic pressure. At this point, bubbles of hydrogen appear in the bath and escape out of it. The amount of hydrogen in the metal is then limited by a maximum depending on the hydrostatic pressure, which is practically equal to one atmosphere. Indeed hydrogen does not accumulate in the form of a hydride appearing as a separate solid phase. However, even the mechanism of the solubility is not yet elucidated. One does not know exactly as yet, whether the

Jan 1, 1947

By E. W. Greig

This paper is an account of exploration for bauxite in the Amazon Basin, Brazil, and particularly of the discovery, exploration and development of the Trombetas deposits by Alcan. A general report of the Trombetas Project has already been published in E/MJ(Anon. 1975) to which the reader is referred for details on ownership, infrastructure and construction as well as the proposal for mining and treating the bauxite. A regional account of bauxite in and around the Guyana Shield and the northern part of the Brazilian Shield is included to help explain the geology of the Trombetas deposits and their relation to other bauxites in northern South America. It is suggested that all these deposits formed during Tertiary time under similar geologic conditions.

Jan 1, 1979

By Eugene F. Poncelet

GLASS squares compressed on edge by steel jaws in poor contact with them developed jagged "partial-contact" cracks caused by the formation of local tensile stresses. Compressed by steel jaws in perfect contact, they developed smooth "release cracks" during release of the pressure, caused by the formation of local tensile stresses during the release of the pressure. All these cracks were parallel to the pressure. A Microflash photograph of a disintegrating specimen under sufficient pressure reveals a network of fractures roughly normal to each other, also "release cracks" and a disintegration cloud. The Griffith theory is amended to account for the formation of a first crack. A new theory, based on the theory of thermal agitation and wave propagation, is proposed to account for the progress, velocity and forking of cracks. The network of fractures is shown to have been caused by reflection at a free boundary of pressure pulses emanating from a first crack. Postulating equal distribution of energy in the pulses emitted on either side by a crack in particles, the smaller fragments are shown to continue fracturing preferentially while some of the coarser fragments remain as residual pieces. As comminution of the smaller fragments proceeds, the solid is reduced to a collection of residual particles of smaller and smaller sizes, accounting for the disintegration cloud. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Apparatus A crushing device was built, consisting of a steel frame and two polished, hardened steel jaws to crush plate-glass samples. This device was placed between the plates of a hydraulic press (Fig. I). For centering the pressure, the upper jaw was guided vertically and provided with a rounded top. Later it was replaced by a steel jaw ground out of a 2 1/2-in. steel ball, the lower surface being ground to an optical flat (Fig. 2). Four rollers were used to eliminate side thrust. Screws and centering blocks served to center the specimen in the crushing device. Hard steel shims placed under the shoulder of the upper jaw limited the "follow through" of the jaw after failure of the specimen. Stress distribution was first examined with a polariscope mounted on an optical bench, using monochromatic light. It was found convenient to mount polaroid, quarter wave and monochromatic plates directly on the device itself. A Microflash unit* was used as light source for the photographs. A gold-paint pattern was fused on the plate-glass specimens and connected into the spark-

Jan 1, 1944

By Gary E. Melickian

Last year's review was characterized as a year of politics and began an era of legislation. The 1972 review can be similarly characterized, with even more rigid health and safety regulations and environmental legislation. The mining industry should be aware of what's happening in the nuclear power and other fields as a result of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, where the environmental impact of most major construction activities are already under close scrutiny. Section 102 of NEPA requires that all federal agencies include a detailed statement on specified environmental conditions as part of every report on proposed actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. All such environmental reports must consider the same general conditions: • The environmental impact of the proposed action. • Any adverse environmental effects which cannot be avoided should the proposal be implemented. • Alternatives to the proposed action. • The relationship between local short-term uses of man's environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity. • Any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved in the proposed action should it be implemented.

Jan 2, 1973

By John E. Udd

Introduction During the very long period in which man has mined minerals from the crust of the earth, falls of ground and collapes of under- ground workings have been the causes of a significant part of those accidents which have resulted in either death or in injury. At present, because of improvements in the approaches to the design of underground structures, in equipment, and in attitudes towards accident prevention, the proportion of accidents due to instability of rock is probably far less than it was historically. Nonetheless, in spite of the many advances which have been made, instabilities still account for about one-quarter of all fatalities, and one-tenth of all of the injuries, in the minerals industry. The means must be found whereby both the numbers of accidents and the accident rates due to falls of ground can be reduced to the lowest levels possible. At the outset it should be stated that, short of suspension of all mining activity, it will probably never be possible for us to eliminate accidents completely. Most human enterprise involves unknowns and risks, and mining is no exception. A certain number of accidents, then, must be viewed as the inevitable consequence of our attempting to work with unknowns and to make decisions that involve uncertainties. However, in retrospect, many instabilities can be attributed to factors which could have been within our control. The preventable accident must be eliminated. It should be our goal that we make every effort to direct our skills and technology to the creation of a safer working environment and should be constantly striving to

Jan 1, 1983

By C. E. Nelson

THE purpose of this discussion is to outline briefly the practices commonly followed in this country for the melting and refining of magnesium and its alloys. The processes used for the various forms of primary magnesium, as far as there are differences in the physical shape or behavior, will be discussed. The refining of general fine scrap or secondary magnesium was presented in an earlier paper.1 Inasmuch as the use of fluxes is an essential part of all the melting and refining processes, the principal aim of this paper will be to deal with these in sufficient detail to point out their unique characteristics, in order to make their use more effective. TYPES OF MELTING PRACTICE All melting and refining processes for magnesium and its alloys require the use of fluxes. These fluxes have a magnesium chloride base and other halide salts or oxides are added to give a density or behavior exactly suited to the particular melting practice. The successful handling of magnesium depends upon the proper use of the correct fluxes. There are four general methods of melting, summarized in the following paragraphs and treated in more detail in the section on Melting and Refining. Open-pot Method The open-pot method makes use of No. 230 flux.* The flux provides protection during melting and a molten pool of flux into which the solid magnesium melts. It is stirred through the molten metal bath and agglomerates oxide or similar foreign bodies; then on quiet standing separates away, leaving the refined metal ball floating in an encircling layer of molten flux. It forms only a thin fluid film over the surface of the molten metal, which may be parted for hand-ladling processes and tends to cover the metal again after the ladle is removed. A very light dusting of the pot surface with fresh flux immediately after the ladle is removed is usually desirable. The open-pot method is used generally in the following processes: (I) alloying and secondary smelting in the production of ingot, (2) in sand foundries for premelting and to a smaller extent for the production of small castings requiring hand ladling, (3) in permanent-mold founding for premelting and also direct ladling to castings, (4) for continuous methods of preparing metal in the production of billets or ingots from which wrought products are fabricated, (5) in general scrap recovery. Crucible Process The crucible process makes use of No. 310 flux, which has the property of being thinly fluid at the start, to provide protec-

Jan 1, 1944

By Allen Garrison

THE chemistry of clays and shales has been assuming increasing importance in the petroleum industry, and two factors have greatly influenced this trend. The first has been the growing evidence that the marine shales are source beds, and that the petroleum compounds have migrated to the sand reservoirs overlying or underlying these shales: the second has been the demand for drilling, fluids better adapted to penetrate these marine shales without difficulty and expense. ORIGIN AND GENERAL COMPOSITION OF CLAYS AND SHALES Clays, shales and surface soils are all closely related materials. They are mixtures of finely divided compounds formed during the weathering of the solid crust of the earth. Their nature is essentially colloidal; that is, their behavior is determined by the state of division of the materials and the surface reactions of the smallest grains. Many of their chemical changes affect only the exposed areas and do not involve the interior of the grains of matter. The extent of these reactions is more nearly proportional to the area of the substances than to their mass, therefore it is possible for a small. amount of a material in an extremely fine state of division to completely dominate the character of the mixture. More than 83 per cent of the crust of the earth is composed of three elements-oxygen, silicon and aluminum. Consequently, the corrosion products of the crust are predominantly aluminosilicates, or compounds of aluminum, silicon and oxygen. If we add the compounds of six elements-iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium and hydrogen-more than 98 per cent of the crust has been accounted for. These six elements, together with the first three, also appear in soils, clays and shales. But direct chemical analysis is of little value in describing the nature of such materials. Many chemical individuals may be present in variable amounts,. and the extreme subdivision of any one of the individuals may contribute qualities that dominate the mixture.

Jan 1, 1939

By M. R. Geer, H. F. Yancey

INTRODUCTION The maximum yield of washed coal and the required ash and sulfur contents are the only performance factors of direct, immediate interest to any operator. Yet since the turn of the century coal preparation engineers have repeatedly sought more sophisticated performance criteria that could be used to draw comparisons between different cleaning operations and to permit generalizations about types of cleaning equipment or kinds of coal. Proliferation of efficiency formulas resulted. Hardly a year goes by, and certainly not an International Coal Preparation Congress, without the introduction of some new formula or some new concept of an existing criterion. This is merely the usual quest for improvement, because the performance criteria available today, although highly useful, are imperfect. Moreover, they are not as widely understood as they might be. The First International Coal Preparation Conference, which was held in Paris in 1950, accomplished a great deal toward establishing uniformity in terminology and methods of expressing cleaning results; the proceedings of that conference provide a wealth of detailed information on the various performance criteria, their uses and their limitations. For ease of discussion, the various performance criteria can conveniently be classed according to the degree to which they are dependent on the density composition of the raw coal treated. Some are directly dependent, some are only indirectly dependent, and some are, under certain circum- stances, essentially independent. DEPENDENT CRITERIA The yield and ash content of a washed coal are directly dependent on the washability characteristics of the raw coal from which it is derived. Thus, they are manifestly unsuited to comparing the performance of different plants, because no two plant feeds are the same. In fact, yield and ash content, by themselves, are inadequate for even routine day-to-day control. The continuous variation that occurs in the amount of impurity in raw coal, and sometimes in the float ash, make it impossible to tell whether a reduction in yield or an increase in the ash content of the washed coal results from any malfunction or misadjustment of the cleaning equipment. Recovery Efficiency For many years the most popular performance criteria that are only indirectly dependent on the washability characteristics of the raw coal have been efficiency formulas. Of the many that have been proposed, the one advanced by Fraser and Yancey in 1923 has had the widest accept-

Jan 1, 1968

By Jacob Reese

I have discovered a new method by which steel and other metals may be burnished by the automatic action of the burnishing machine, and by which the cost is greatly diminished, and more perfect work produced. And in addition to the polishing and burnishing action of

Jan 1, 1881

By Louis L. Stott

It is well known that the oxide of beryllium was identified as a new "earth" in 17971 and the metal first isolated in 18272. The history of the many difficulties encountered by early investigators, the laboratory achievements of Lebeau3, Fichter4 and Oesterheld5, and the eventual development of methods for commercial production are well covered in the literature, particularly in the authoritative published work of Siemens and Halskes reviewing their comprehensive investigation of the element. Accordingly it has seemed desirable to restrict this paper to the properties and uses of beryllium and its alloys. PRopeRties of Beryllium A comprehensive summary of the available data on the properties of beryllium is given in " Gmelius Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie7." The metal is steel gray in color. A fractured surface exhibits a bright luster, which does not appear to change with long exposure to air, probably because of a thin, transparent protective oxide coating. The specific gravity is approximately 1.8. Although there is no recorded actual determination of Young's modulus of elasticity, it has been estimateds, according to Fessenden's law, to be 30,000 kg. per sq. mm., or about 30 per cent higher than steel. Beryllium appears to have an electrical conductivity approximately 1/12 that of copper. The physical constants as available in the literature are given in Table 1. One of the outstanding properties of beryllium is its great affinity for oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and carbon. One gram of beryllium takes up 1.774 grams of oxygen and will liberate approximately 15.23 kilogram-calories in the combination. The metal apparently reacts with all known oxides at high temperatures; in fact, beryllium will alloy with thorium and zirconium if melted in crucibles of their oxides. The true physical properties of beryllium are still somewhat in doubt, since very small amounts of impurities appear to cause a large variation

Jan 1, 1936

By S. C. Sun, D. R. Mitchell

Experiments show that ores such as tungsten and tin, which slime excessively, can be deslimed and upgraded by ultrasonics. The method proposed depends primarily upon the stratifying and peptizing action caused when high frequency sound waves are propagated upward through ore pulp in a cylinder tube. Stratifying and peptizing are somewhat hindered by the accumulating action, which embodies additional effects of reflection and refraction.

Jun 1, 1956

By A. T. Shurick

THE present economic crisis in bituminous coal is substantially the most insidious, and critical, in the modern history of the industry. The large consumption deficit that has gradually developed (almost unawares), has culminated in a situation that has forced home the urgent necessity for prompt and radical remedial measures, such as the various mergers now in course of negotiation. Conditions today are sufficiently comparable with those in the iron and steel industry, preceding the formation of the United States Steel Corpn., to suggest the possibility of a sweeping super-consolidation, that all but staggers the imagination. The important function of the banker in this, and lesser projects, is too well known to require comment, and it is important that we understand clearly just what these functions are. Certain features in banking practice came up for consideration in connection with a rather exhaustive economic study into the prospective future of the coal industry, upon which I was recently engaged for an Eastern bituminous interest. This survey was made for the purpose of effecting a decision on certain pressing questions of policy, involving considerable capital expenditures, that would be compatible with the flattening out in the curve of production in recent years. An examination of the TRANSACTIONS, and the coal literature generally, failed to disclose any pertinent, and authoritative data, on this subject. This was more or less characteristic of the whole survey, which had involved a large amount of original research, and measures were taken to procure the required information. The following notes have been compiled largely from the data thus collected, supplemented with material, suggestions and criticisms, by several of the larger banking houses active in coal, together with personal memoranda of my own.

Jan 1, 1928

By C. M. Marquardt

The minerals industry in general should bow in homage to the uranium milling industry. Those in the uranium milling industry have "spark- plugged" more progress in the application of instrumentation and control in the last 5 years than has been made in 50 years by the industry in general. Part of this real progress in the application of instrumentation and control has been born of necessity because milling processes are more complex. A lot of the impetus for instrumentation and control has come from the fact that the industry is new, the processes are new, and there are no hide-bound conventions to overcome. Part of it comes from the fact that much of processing is more chemical than metallurgical and the thinking of the process chemist has carried over into the plants. One need not elaborate on what instrumentation has done for the process chemical industries. Each new mill that is constructed, if of appreciable size, seems to employ more instrumentation than the previously completed plant. Plant A makes a break-through in the application of instrumentation to a particular part of the process and Plant B accepts this and goes one step farther, while Plant C, anticipating Plant B, makes two or three more steps before Plant B is entirely leveled out.

Jan 9, 1958

By Edward L. Clark

The year 1954 witnessed great activity in the field of geology as applied to mining. The search for in nearly all districts is becoming more and more intensified as established reserves are being depleted. Much geologic work has been directed to finding extensions of known orebodies, but prospecting in new areas has constituted a large part of the program of many operators. The acute need for additional reserves has brought into the search all the tools known to the geologic profession. This is reflected directly by frequent references to geophysical and geochemical methods in the regional reviews that follow. The lone prospector of the early days of metal mining has been eliminated almost completely by modern scientific methods involving surface and subsurface geology, exploratory drilling, geophysics, and geochemistry. Nearly all new exploration is based on long-range programs coupled with studies of regional geology to determine the structural environment of areas of mineralization. The success of this approach has encouraged new operators in the field of exploration to adopt similar policies. Only in the search for uranium ores is the individual prospector still active, but the familiar picture of the burro heavily loaded with grubstake, gold pan, and pick and shovel has been replaced by the Geiger counter and the scintillometer carried by hand, by truck, or by airplane.

Jan 3, 1955

By E. S. Wheeler

THE rapid increase in the use of monel metal and malleable nickel in the form of sheet, rod and tube has resulted in a similar increase in the demand for these metals in the form of castings. These castings range in size from small valves and pipe fittings weighing a few ounces to large centrifugal pumps, gate valves and marine propellers, some of the latter weighing as much as 24,000 lb. A group of such castings is shown in Fig. 1. A large nickel agitator is shown in Fig. 2. FIG. 1.-A GROUP OF MONEL METAL AND NICKEL CASTINGS. Monel metal castings are widely used in accessories for steam power plants and in a variety of chemical plant. equipment where the corrosion resistance, high strength and toughness characteristic of this metal render it particularly valuable. Nickel castings find extensive use in the construction of corrosion resistant apparatus, and are often used in conjunction with wrought nickel sheet and tube in the fabrication of equipment for handling a variety of chemical and food products, particularly dairy products. In response to this demand for castings, numerous foundries have undertaken the production of castings of these metals and have met with varying degrees of success.

Jan 1, 1930

James Douglas will long be remembered as a distinguished mining engineer and metallurgist, as a scientist with broad vision, as an executive whose understanding of practical problems coupled with his knowledge of men and affairs enabled him to weld together great mining interests and to their service build railroads and bring power. More, he will be recalled as a philosopher and a writer of charm, a historian of no mean order, and one whose catholic tastes and enthusiasms led him into the fields of education, medicine and theology. His aim was to possess that which he considered made life worth while—friends and effectiveness in whatever task he undertook. In this aim he was successful to a degree exceeded by few, as thousands of his friends and associates could and can testify. Dr. Douglas was born on November 4,1837, at Quebec, Canada. His father, James Douglas, Sr., was a prominent physician and the leading surgeon of Canada. He also established the first retreat for the insane in the Dominion, the Quebec Lunatic Asylum, to which he devoted his services for years; The son followed in the footsteps of his father and studied medicine, not only in Canada but also in Scotland and in Germany. He entered the University of Edinburgh in 1855 but after two years at that institution returned to Canada and was graduated from Queens university at Kingston, Ontario, .with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Later he went to Lava1 University, Quebec, and subsequently became professor of chemistry at Morrin College, Quebec. After he was graduated—at the time he considered his formal education completed—he traveled with his father in Europe and in the Orient; visiting Egypt, being especially interested in that country, several times. They gathered together an important archaeological collection which later was donated by them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the city of New York. James Douglas was also greatly interested in photography, a hobby in which he made use of his chemical knowledge. The writer can remember distinctly the descriptions he gave more than forty years ago in Arizona of the difficulties he encountered with the old wet photographic plates, especially while traveling in Egypt, when he prepared and used his own chemicals. In his humorous manner he told how he once discovered, in the nick of time, the nurse preparing to give the baby in the party a rub-down, using for that purpose the white, limpid

Jan 1, 1934

The object of crushing and grinding for leaching is obviously to permit contact of the solvent and mineral and subsequent removal of pregnant solution in a reasonable time. Heap leaching is the leaching of ores that have been mined and transported to prepared, relatively impervious pads for leaching by sprinkling or ponding, and percolation of the lixiviate through the ore. Dump leaching is the leaching of dumps or low-grade ore or overburden without the use of prepared pads under them. Run-of-mine material, e. g., low -grade ore from open pit stripping operations, may be leached without crushing, and a fairly high recovery made by heap leaching. An alternate method for better grade gold/silver ores is to crush to 9 to 13 mm (318 to112 in. ) size for pad heap leaching, as used by Smoky Valley Mining Company at Round Mountain, Nevada, on gold ore, and to 38 rnrn (1 -1 12 in.), which will be done by Candelaria Partners, at Candelaria, Nevada, on silver ore. Heap leaching of copper probably began at Rio Tinto, Spain, about the year 1752. This was done by the leaching of weathering piles of ore in the open air followed by iron cementation of the liquor that drained off the heaps. Its application to the low -grade southwestern United States copper ores was overlooked for many years, and low- grade ores from Sacramento Hill at Bisbee, Arizona, were the first to be heap leached in 1923. Site preparation used a half century ago is the same today. "The need for some form of waterproofing of the pad was evident. Before leaching ore was piled, the site was cleared of cactus and brush. After clearing a gentle sloping area, it was then covered with a blanket of rolled and tamped clay or slime tailing. When heaps are built, a layer of coarse fragments may be put down first to assist drainage. A second method of leaching without grinding, usually for higher grade ores, is by vat or tank leaching of material crushed to 9 to 13 mm (318 to 112 in.) size. Such a plant is considerably more expensive than a heap leaching installation but much less costly than grinding for agitation leaching, and a recovery higher than that obtained by heap leaching is to be expected. Vat leaching has been widely used by the copper industry on higher grade copper ores but has been used in only a few small operations on that size gold or silver ores. However, such a plant should be considered for a modest tonnage of a few million tons, 3 to 7 g per mt (0.10 to 0.20 oz per st), of Carlin-type leachable ores crushed to 9 mm (318 in.).

Jan 1, 1981

By E. A. Holbrook

AS A whole, engineering schools have not awakened A to the fact that the workmen compensation laws passed in most of our states between 1914 and 1917 effected a quiet but none the less real revolution in. the relations between labor and management; no longer are industrial accidents unfortunate or careless happenings over which we feel a humanitarian interest and sorrow, they are a cost of the process and the finished product, as vital as improved design and increased efficiency. Last year the writer and others made a committee report to. the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers on the cost of accidents in the coal industry of Pennsylvania. Comparatively the accident record in Pennsylvania coal industry is not high, yet the direct compensation cost plus the interference with operation cost of accidents was over 5 per cent. of the total cost of producing the coal. This stands out more vividly -if you realize that about 70 per cent. of the' cost of producing the coal is for payment of labor, wages that are fixed and over which engineering efficiency and management skill have little or no direct effect. This leaves 30 per cent. of the cost chargeable .to hoisting, haulage, overhead 'and other items subject to engineering control. One sixth of this is due to cost of accidents. Surely a direct place 'for an engineering attack.

Jan 1, 1925

By Jerome Alexander

THE object of this paper is to show that many of the important phenomena of metals and alloys are due to the facts that, at some stage, metals and alloys, or some of their constituents, are in a colloidal state and that a portion of the metal or alloy tends to remain in this state. The so-called amorphous phase in pure metals is an isocolloid, consisting of colloidal groups of metal molecules that may be dispersed in still more finely subdivided metal; these colloidal particles are not truly amorphous, but may consist, in part, if not entirely, of ultramicroscopic crystals; as a result the expressions amorphous phase and amorphous theory might be replaced by the expressions colloidal phase and colloidal theory. Any substance is in the colloidal state when the constituent particles consist of molecular or atomic groups, whose size varies approximately from about 100µµ down to about 5µµ, that is from just below the limit of microscopic resolvability to the dimensions commonly ascribed to the larger molecules. Colloidality involves no assumption as to the shape, internal structure, or orientation of the colloidal particles; size alone is the critical factor. A colloidal system may therefore contain crystalline groups, or amorphous groups (non-crystalline, random or haphazard clusters), or a mixture of the two. All colloids consist of at least two phases, the subdivided substance, or dispersed phase, and the substance into which this is subdivided, the dispersion medium. It is not necessary that there be any chemical difference between the dispersed phase and the dispersion medium. As molecular forces are extremely powerful, their application may produce marked changes in the physical properties of metals. It is doubtful whether metal in the interior, especially of large masses, possesses the same properties as that on or near the surface, which alone is open to, inspection.

Jan 10, 1920