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By AIME AIME

THE Seventh International Petroleum Exposition and Congress to be held in Tulsa, Okla., Oct. 4 to 11, inclusive, in true western spirit promises to be bigger and better than ever. The Exposition has become an established institution. It gives opportunity to petroleum engineers, technologists, and operators to see each year at one place what the tool makers and machinery manufacturers have to offer which is new or better. It has truly become a place "where men, methods and machinery meet." It is also a convenient focus for technical meetings of various kinds devoted to petroleum and natural gas problems. 'The Petroleum Division of the A. I. M. E. has for several years held its chief fall meeting at Tulsa just preceding the opening of the Es- position. This year our meeting will be on Oct. 2 and 3 and it will be held as usual at Hotel Mayo. The Mid- Continent Oil and Gas Association will, as usual, hold a meeting during the Exposition and this year the Petroleum Division of the A. S. M. E. will hold a three- day session, Oct. 6-8, in the auditorium on the Esposition grounds. In all, six technical sessions are planned by this Society, and aside from reports of committees some 20 technical papers are to be presented. Members of the Institute should attend its own meeting and stay over for as many days as possible for the other meeting at which they will hear and see much of helpful interest.

Jan 1, 1930

By K. A. Natarajan, I. Iwasaki

With a platinum electrode the Eh-pH response in aqueous systems follows an empirical relation [Eh = E- 0.059 pH](1) where E usually carries a value between 0.8 and 0.9 v. The same potential (E) is observed with a number of other noble metal electrodes in the absence of surface poisoning and of other well-defined redox couples. Many sulfide mineral electrodes also respond in a similar manner in solutions containing their respective ions over wide pH ranges, especially in the alkaline pH region. Such a parallelism between noble metal and sulfide mineral electrodes points to certain implications of their surface conditions, and the flotation and leaching behaviors of sulfide minerals under aerated conditions may be inferred with respect to the foregoing Eh-pH response. Comparison of Sulfide Mineral and Noble Metal Electrodes [Fig. 1] shows the Eh-pH response of pyrite, galena, chalcocite, and pyrrhotite electrodes, reported by Sato, and some experimental points obtained with a platinum electrode in distilled water. [Eq. 1] is seen to be followed by all these electrodes. It is interesting to note that the response of the pyrite electrode as shown is identical to

Jan 1, 1973

By Edward W. Parker, Marius R. Campbell

According to the estimates prepared by the U. S. Geological Survey, the area underlain by workable coal-beds in the United States is 496,776 sq. miles. Of this total area, 480 sq. miles contain the entire anthracite coal-fields of Pennsylvania. The bituminous coal-fields are estimated to be contained in areas, aggregating 250,051 sq. miles. The grade of coal between bituminous and lignite, and which is designated by the Geological Survey as " sub-bituminous," is estimated to be contained within areas aggregating 97,636 sq. miles, while the areas containing lignite aggregate 148,609 sq. miles. The coal-fields are divided, for the sake of convenience in classification, into six main provinces, as follows: 1. The Eastern. Province, containing the anthracite coal-fields of Pennsylvania and the bituminous coal-fields of the Appalachian region—namely, those of western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Ala bama, and small outlying areas in North Carolina. 2. The Interior Province, containing the bituminous coal-producing regions of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, western Kentucky, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. 3. The Gulf Province, containing the lignite-areas of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. 4. The Northern or Great Plains Province, containing the lignite and sub-bituminous areas of North and South Dakota, eastern Montana, and northeastern Wyoming. 5. The Rocky Mountain Province, containing the bituminous and sub-bituminous areas of western Montana and western Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. 6. The Pacific Coast Province, containing the areas of Washington, Oregon, and California.

Jan 1, 1910

I HAVE previously shown you in the Fifth Book the process of making guns and gun carriages, together with other preparations and methods of moving them. If I now failed to show you more about them, it would be as if I had pointed out only the useless shadow of a thing, for I did not show the kinds and arrangement of their supplies or how the effects for which they are made are achieved. For these reasons I now wish to tell you, in addition to what I have already said, how saltpeter is made and the methods of refining it well; what it is and how without it guns and many effects of violent and artificial fires would have been discovered in vain. After this, I also wish to tell you the methods of compounding the powders for large and small guns, and finally how these are loaded and discharged. I also wish to tell you how mines are made, and fire tubes, [149v] fire pots, squibs, fireballs, rockets, shells, grapeshot, and other similar devices for shooting fire in order to bum ships, supplies, bridges, and ramparts, or, in offense, for firing on batteries. I also wish to teach you to make certain bronze balls for shooting, which carry fire and break in many pieces when they hit. For surely, besides being terrifying to the sight, they would be harmful to armies lined up in battle when they are fighting. Likewise, I wish, to enlighten you as to how artificial fires are made that last long and are difficult to extinguish. Since these are fine and useful things in wars, every captain and soldier should give them consideration and know how to use them when necessary. You will be pleased to have this information if for no other reason than that you can teach it to those who take delight in celebrating holidays with festivities and with fires.

Jan 1, 1942

October 16th, 1872. THE Institute assembled on Wednesday evening at the Western University, and was called to order by President Raymond. Mr. James Park, Jr., of Pittsburgh, made the address of welcome, which was responded to by President Raymond. The Council reported the following names, with approval, for election Ashburner, William, - San Francisco, Cal. Asmus, George, - New York. Baillie, Nathaniel, - Uniontown, Pa. Bowie, A. J., Jr. - San Francisco, Cal. Brown, A. J., - Treasure City, Nev. Butler, J. G., Jr., - Youngstown, Ohio. Chamberlin, J. G., - Leetonia, Ohio. Clark, R. Neilson, - Canyon City, Colorado. Cornell, A. B., - Youngstown, Ohio. De Crano, E. G., - San Francisco, Cal. Engelmann, H., - Salt Lake City, Utah. Faber du Faur, A., - New York. Janin, Louis, Jr., - San Francisco, Cal. Johnson, George J., - Salt Lake City, Utah.. Kent, Joseph C., - Phillipsburgh, N. J. Kent, William St. G., - Phillipsburgh, N. J. Liebenau, Charles von, - Silver City, Idaho. McClintock, A. H., - Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Miller, Thomas N., - Pittsburgh, Pa. Millholland, James A., - Mount Savage, Md. Peters, Ed. D., Jr., - Dudley, Colorado. Reese, Jacob, - Pittsburgh; Pa. Schirmer, J. F. L., - Denver, Colorado. Smith, W. S., - Fairplay, Colorado. Stoelting, Hermann, - Georgetown, Colorado. Sweet, W. A., - Syracuse, N. Y. Tripple, Alexander, - New York. Van Arsdale, W. H., - Swansea, Cal. Willard, Dwight D., - Bordentown, N. J. The following resolution was then offered and passed Resolved, That gentlemen present, not members, be invited to take part in the discussions of the Institute at the various sessions of the present meeting.

Jan 1, 1873

February 18th, 1873. THE Institute assembled in the Hall of the Boston Natural History Society on Tuesday evening. Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, of the Boston Institute of Technology, after a brief address of welcome to the Institute, read an introductory paper on the Geognostical History of the Metals. President Raymond responded to the welcome of Dr. Hunt. The following names were then presented to the Institute, with the recommendation of the Council, for election Adams, J. M., - Silver City, Idaho. Daggett, Ellsworth, - Salt Lake City, Utah. Geist, Alfred W., - Boston, Mass. Hays, Dr. S. Dana, - Boston, Mass. Heinrich, Oswald J., - Midlothian, Va. Johnson, J., - Braidwood, Ill. Leckie, Robert G., - Actonvale, Canada. Lyman, Edward, - Troy, N. Y. Maltby, William, - Braidwood, Ill. Nichols, Lyman, Jr., - Boston, Mass. Ordway, Prof. J. M., - Boston, Mass. Rand, Theodore D., - Philadelphia, Pa. Richards, Prof. Robert H., - Boston, Mass. Rockwell, Prof. Alfred P., - Boston, Mass. Roepper, Charles W., - Bethlehem, Pa. Schulz, A. von, - Central City, Colorado. Singer, William F., - Pittsburgh, Pa. Spillsbury, E. G., - New York. Wells, Calvin, - Pittsburgh, Pa. The session concluded with the reading and discussion of a paper, by Henry Engelmann, On the Mines and Ores of the Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. The second session was held on Wednesday morning, when the following papers were presented; On the Midlothian Coal Mines, by Oswald J. Heinrich. On the Probable Existence of Microscopic Diamonds in California, by Prof. Benjamin Silliman.

Jan 1, 1873

By W. T. Turrall, D. Porter

THE crystal laboratory, Dept. of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was confronted with the problem of obtaining a supply of optical grade calcium fluoride (CaF2) for use in growing synthetic CaFe2 crystals. A search of the known fluorspar deposits did not indicate that any quantity of optical spar could be obtained. Even the best material had to be sorted by hand to remove impurities. The process for growing CaF2 crystals developed by Professor D. C. Stockbarger of the Dept. of Physics, M.I.T., necessitates very pure feed materials. Exclusion of impurities is required, even in amounts detectable only spectrographically. The impurities occurred as minute inclusions of SiO2, BaSO4, CaCO3, FeS2, water or air. Crystals up to 4 in. in diam and weighing several pounds are made by the Harshaw Chemical Co. in Cleveland. Since the time required to grow a 4-in. crystal is about one week, and since the cost of manufacture is high, removal of impurities by any concentration method appeared practical. The mineral engineering section of the Dept. of Metallurgy undertook to investigate the possibility of concentrating clear optical fluorspar, -4 mesh +10 mesh, from a feed containing over 99 pct CaF2. Various innovations of the known methods of concentration were considered, but in each case the minute amount of impurities associated with the crystal produced such extremely small differences

Jan 1, 1952

By L. W. McKeehan, W. C. Elmore

The magnetic powder method, long used for roughly mapping magnetic fields, has recently been refined1, "or investigating the microscopic variations in the surface magnetization of ferromagnetic crystals. Bitter2 first discovered regular powder patterns connected with the crystal structure of such specimens. Several other investigators:' have used Bitter's original technique, with slight modifications, to study the variation of the patterns with variations in the magnetizing field applied parallel to the surface, and their dependence upon the state of strain, of polish and of crystal cut. All of the explanations of these patterns on metallic ferromagnetics have been couched in general terms. In a preliminary report we have described an improvement ill the powder technique which led us to the discovery of a new effect throwing considerable light on the magnetic secondary structure of alpha iron4 and of nickel5 single crystals. We now report additional evidence confirming the existence and stability of a magnetic block secondary structure. Specimens The following list describes the specimens used in the present investigation. Designation Description A1 Silicon ferrite furnished to us by Dr. W. E. Ruder, of the General Electric Co., for which lie gave the following typical analysis: C, 0.05; P, 0.038; S, 0.026; Mn, 0.15; Si, 3.24. Disk, 0.60 cm. diameter, about 0.05 cm. thick. By X-ray analysis angles between disk normal and [100] 75o, [0101 76" [00l] 21o. A2 Same as A1 except: diameter 0.75 cm. A, Same as A1 except: diameter 0.68 cm.

Jan 1, 1936

By L. W. McKeehan, W. C. Elmore

The magnetic powder method, long used for roughly mapping magnetic fields, has recently been refined1, "or investigating the microscopic variations in the surface magnetization of ferromagnetic crystals. Bitter2 first discovered regular powder patterns connected with the crystal structure of such specimens. Several other investigators:' have used Bitter's original technique, with slight modifications, to study the variation of the patterns with variations in the magnetizing field applied parallel to the surface, and their dependence upon the state of strain, of polish and of crystal cut. All of the explanations of these patterns on metallic ferromagnetics have been couched in general terms. In a preliminary report we have described an improvement ill the powder technique which led us to the discovery of a new effect throwing considerable light on the magnetic secondary structure of alpha iron4 and of nickel5 single crystals. We now report additional evidence confirming the existence and stability of a magnetic block secondary structure. Specimens The following list describes the specimens used in the present investigation. Designation Description A1 Silicon ferrite furnished to us by Dr. W. E. Ruder, of the General Electric Co., for which lie gave the following typical analysis: C, 0.05; P, 0.038; S, 0.026; Mn, 0.15; Si, 3.24. Disk, 0.60 cm. diameter, about 0.05 cm. thick. By X-ray analysis angles between disk normal and [100] 75o, [0101 76" [00l] 21o. A2 Same as A1 except: diameter 0.75 cm. A, Same as A1 except: diameter 0.68 cm.

Jan 1, 1936

TEE Institute assembled on Wednesday evening at the Western University, and was called to order by President Raymond. Mr. James Park, Jr., of Pittsburgh, made the address of welcome, which was responded to by President Raymond. The Council reported the following names, with approval, for election : Ashburner, William, . . . . . San Francisco, Cal. Asmus, George, . . . . . . New York. Baillie, Nathaniel, . . . . . Uniontown, Pa. Bowie, A. J., Jr., . . . . . San Francisco, Gal. Brown, A. J., . . . . . . Treasure City, Nev. Butler, J. G., Jr., . . . . . Youngstown, Ohio. Chamberlin, J. G., . . . . . Leetonia, Ohio. Clark, R. Neileon, . . . . . Canyon City, Colorado. Cornell, A. B., . , . . . . Youngstown, Ohio. De Crano, E. C., . . . . . San Francisco, Cal. Engelmann, H., . . . . . . Salt Lake City, Utah. Faber du Faur, A., . , . . . New York. Janin, Louie, Jr., . . . . . San Francisco, Cal. Johnson, George J., . . . . . Salt Lake City, Utah., Kent, Joseph C., . . . . . Phillipsburgh, N. J. Kent, William St. G., . . . . Phillipsburgh, N. J. Liebenau, Charles von, . . . . Silver City, Idaho. McClintock, A. H., . . . . . Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Miller, Thomas N., . . . . . Pittsburgh, Pa. Millholland, James A., , . . . Mount Savage, Md. Peters, Ed. D., Jr., . . . . . Dudley, Colorado. Reese, Jacob, . . . . . . Pittsburgh, Pa. Schirmer, J. F. L., . . . . . Denver, Colorado. Smith, W. S., . . . . . . Fairplay, Colorado. Stoelting, Hermann, . . . . . Georgetown, Colorado. Sweet, W. A., . . . . . . Syracuse, N. Y. Tripple, Alexander, . . . . . New York. Van Arsdale, W. H., . . . . . Swansea, Cal. Willard, Dwight D., . . . . . Bordentown, N. J. The following resolution was then offered and passed : Resolved, That gentlemen present, not members, be invited to take part in the discussions of the Institute at the various sessions of the present meeting.

(Members are urged to send in for this. column any notes of interest concerning themselves or their fellow-members.) Members and guests who called at the Institute headquarters during the period Sept. 10, 1916 to Oct. 10, 1916. Arthur K. Adams, Chanaral, Chile. C. F. Moore, Salt Lake City, Utah. Hiram W. Belnap, Washington, D. C. L. D. Moore, Providence, R. I. E. A. Bridgman, Seattle, Wash. George A. Morrison, Chicago, Ill. D. W. Buckly, Wallace, Idaho. Pablo Ortega, Havana, Cuba. G. L. Carlisle, Jr., New York, N. Y. L. W. Paige, New York, N. Y. Ernest H. A. Cohen, Johannesburg, So. Africa. Charles Petzel, New York N. Y. A. Faison Dixon, Camp Rio de Oro, Venezuela. C. A. Pierce, Patagonia, Arizona. Charles E. Dutton, Goldfield, Nev. W. E. Pomeroy, El Paso, Texas. D.-F. Hewitt, Washington, D. C. George S. Rice, Washington, D. C. . James E. Howard, Washington, D. C. G. J. Schofield, Seattle, Wash. A. 0. Ihlseng, Joplin, Mo. Warren D. Thompson, New York, N. Y. I. Ishikawa, Niagara Falls, N. Y. M. M. Valerius, Tulsa; Okla. Montrose L. Lee, New York, N. Y. G. B. Waterhouse, Buffalo, N. Y. V. H. McNutt, Billings, Mont. Joel H. Watkins Washington, D. C. Benjamin L. Miller, So. Bethlehem, Pa. H. P. Wherry, Chicago, Ill. Arthur K. Adams has left for Chile, where he will act as geologist for the Andes Copper Co., a subsidiary of the Anaconda copper company.

Jan 10, 1916

By P. Breidt, E. S. Greiner

THIS note reports a determination of the melting point of germanium, and the liquidus of the Ge-Ga alloys; lattice constants of the a phase are given. The alloys were prepared by melting germanium (>20 ohm-cm resistivity) and gallium (99.6 pct) in evacuated silica tubes. The materials (50 to 70 g) were heated at 1000°C, held in the liquid state for about ¾ hr, and then cooled rapidly in the tubes. Points on the liquidus were obtained by thermal analysis which consisted of obtaining time-temperature data during heating and cooling the materials in high purity graphite crucibles and a helium at- mosphere. Temperatures were determined with a Pt—Pt-Rh thermocouple protected by a silica sheath. The couple was calibrated against a National Bureau of Standards calibrated couple and also against the freezing points of copper, silver, aluminum, and the 28.1 wt pct Cu, 71.9 wt pct Ag alloy eutectic. The samples for X-ray analysis were prepared by heating small pieces of the ingots in evacuated glass or quartz tubes at temperatures between 600" and 900°C for periods ranging from 2 hr to 22 days, periods deemed sufficient for equilibrium to be attained, followed by quenching in water. The heat-treated samples were ground to powder for X-ray analysis. The lattice constants of the germanium-rich phase (a) were determined with a baok-reflection focusing camera. The X-ray reflections (331 and 422 Cr Ka, 422 and 333 Cr KB) were corrected

Jan 1, 1956

(Under this heading will be published notes sent to the Secretary of the Institute by members or other persons introduced by members.) Experienced mining. engineer, Columbia School of Mines graduate, practical experience in drifting, shaft sinking and development work, also in mining, operating and equipping iron, copper, and zinc properties. Married, age 32, available at once. Open for position as superintendent or assistant. No. 462. Member, age 33, married, desires position as mining engineer or engineering executive.- Twelve years experience as mining engineer, geologist, and chief engineer of iron and copper properties. Experience in United States, Mexico and South America. Fluent Spanish. Technical graduate. Minimum salary $3000. No. 466. Member, technical, general superintendent and mill superintendent: Well experienced in latest methods of ore reduction, especially on copper and complex ores. Draft exempt. Not less than $250 per month considered. No. 469. Consulting mining geologist, member of Geological Society of America and A. I. M. E., Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, Lawrence College, desires temporary position during summer in mine surveying, mining methods, expert mine valuation or any exploration work or mine development. Applicant has had nearly three years' experience in gold mining in Mexico and many years professional mine examination work in all regions of Western U. S. Terms reasonable. No. 470. Member, mining engineer, age 46, desires engagement as manager of mining properties, coal or metal mines. Education and 25 years experience in all branches of mining. Have been successful with labor in the management of large properties. No. 471.

Jan 8, 1918

ASIDE from the John Fritz Medal, in which the Institute participates through its representation on the John Fritz Medal Board, the Institute itself has three major awards to make annually and one special prize for excellence in technical papers, as follows: The Robert W. Hunt Medal and- Prize, The J. E. Johnson, Jr., Award, the James Douglas Medal, and The Lewisohn Platinum Prize to senior members. ROBERT W. HUNT MEDAL AND PRIZE The partners of Robert. W. Hunt established a fund which was presented to the Institute at a fitting ceremony on May 27, 1920, to establish an annual medal and a sum of money to be awarded under the following rules: 1. The award shall consist of two prizes; first of a gold medal, second of a sum of money; a certificate to accompany each prize. The money prize shall not be awarded to a member over 40 years of age, but under unusual circumstances, both prizes may be allotted to one person provided that he is not over 40 years of age. In general it will be understood that the Committee shall award the money prize to the younger men, rather than the medal. 2. The awards shall be made not oftener than once a year to that person or persons contributing to the Institute the best on al paper or papers on iron and steel. The scope of the term "iron and steel" shall determined by the sub-committee considering the awards. In general, papers dealing with the practical side of the subject have preference over those dealing with the theoretical side in recognition of the fact that Captain Hunt's main contributions to the industry have been in the improvement of production and quality of material. 3. A sub-committee of three to five, including the Chairman of the Iron and Steel Committee, shall be appointed by the Iron and Steel Committee annually to adjudge the award subject to approval. 4. The awarding committee shall submit its report to the Iron and Steel Committee at its October Meeting, and the award be certified to the Secretary of the Institute in time to permit the presentation to be made at the Annual Meeting of the Institute. 5. The recipient of the award shall be designated "The Hunt Medallist." This prize is administered by the Iron and Steel Committee. J. E. JOHNSON, JR., AWARD This award is made from' the income of a. fund of $3000 donated by Mrs. Margaret Hilles Johnson in memory of her husband, J. E. Johnson, Jr., who was a prominent engineer, author of two valuable volumes on iron blast-furnace construction and practise, vice-chairman of the Institute's Iron and Steel Committee, and a frequent contributor of papers. to the Institute's Transactions. This prize is administered by the Iron and Steel Committee. The intent of the donor is to encourage young men in creative work in branches of the metallurgy or manufacture of pig iron with which the professional activities of Mr. Johnson were chiefly concerned. The control of the fund and distribution of the awards having been vested in the Board of Directors of the Institute, this Board has made the following regulations concerning it:

Jan 1, 1925

By R. C. Allen

ABOUT four years ago the writer proposed a revision of the correlation of the Huronian formations in Michigan, and noted the bearing of the question on the correlations of the Huronian rocks in Wisconsin and Minnesota.1 Dr. C. K. Leith opposed this revision and argued for the retention of the correlations of the United States Geological Survey, published in 1911,2 for which he and Dr. Van Hise were mainly responsible. As late as June, 1917, Harder and Johnson, following Leith, thought it "premature to change radically a correlation based on years of careful field work."3 The work of Wolff on the Mesabi and Cuyuna Ranges, of Hotchkiss on the Gogebic Range (unpublished), and of the writer and assistants on the Michigan ranges, together with data developed by exploratory and mining operations, has introduced so many pew facts not recognized in the scheme of the U. S. Geological Survey that the correlations of 1911 must be considered, in some important respects, obsolete. Indeed new data are accumulating so rapidly that any classification, which for the moment may seem best to explain the facts, is almost immediately modified or refined by further observations. The problem of Huronian correlations is difficult, but interesting and important. With the aid of fossils, stratigraphers of the post-Algonkian formations have been able to show that slight disconformities may separate strata of vastly different ages, and that within physically conformable strata may be concealed a hiatus of great magnitude. In the non-fossiliferous Huronian group, minor physical breaks in the strata are

Jan 9, 1919

By H. F. Yancey, O. L. Furse

Although usually coal is screened with punched plate screens having round-hole perforations, there has been an increasing use of wire-cloth screens with square apertures, especially at pneumatic coal-cleaning plants and at other plants that use vibrating screens. It is therefore desirable to establish a relationship between round-hole and square-hole screens for use not only in experimental investigations of coal-preparation problems, but also for use in commercial operations. This need is apparent whenever it is necessary to substitute wire cloth for punched plate and still retain the familiar trade-size product. Although similar work probably has been done by industrial organizations concerned with the screen sizing of coal, the only recorded study of the subject other than the one described herein of which the authors are aware is that of Roesler,1 who screen-sized two samples of limestone and two of zinc concentrates crushed to pass 1/2 in. with a set of square and round-hole screens and found the ratio to be 1:1.23. Procedure In the course of a study of various methods for determining the friability of coal,2 it was necessary to screen-size the products of a series of friability tests of three different coals with both round-hole and square-hole screens. The coals used were from the Roslyn No. 3 and the Bayne mines in Washington and the Rolapp mine in Utah. Twenty 25-lb. samples of each of these three coals at 3 to 2 1/2 in. round-hole size were dropped from a height of 10 ft. to a concrete floor, and then screened with

Jan 1, 1934

By James M. Townsend

INTRODUCTION The first stage in planning any mining venture is to determine whether the reserves are of sufficient quantity and quality to warrant commencement of mining activities. In addition to total reserve values a modern mining operation requires information on possible support problems, various pillar sizes, and an estimate on recoverable reserves. To achieve this goal in U. S. coal mines, up-to-date computer methods have been applied to existing ground control technology to provide the mining engineer with a reasonably accurate method of determining such figures. The purpose of this paper is to present a mine planning suite comprised of three computer programs, CONTUR, RESERV-COAL and RAMPLAN, created to accomplish this task. These programs were developed at VPI under the sponsorship of the Office of Coal Research (now Energy Research and Development Administration), and are currently available to the mining industry. A basic assumption in the construction of the CONTUR program is that a coal seam is variable in nature. The data available to the mining engineer comes from randomly spaced points, namely boreholes and sampling points, on outcrops or in adjacent mines. These randomly spaced data points are used in the CONTUR program to estimate numerical values at evenly spaced grid points and to provide approximate contour plans. Given the necessary gridded data, RESERV-COAL calculates raw and clean coal tonnages and then provides breakdown on the quantity of coal within specified ranges of ash, sulfur, BTU and reject. RAMPLAN (Rock Mechanics Applied to Mine Planning) also uses gridded data to calculate mining dimensions and estimate recoverable reserves, thereby

Jan 1, 1977

By Ernest Gayford

This is a nontechnical paper on flotation, subdivided under three general headings: (I) Definition of flotation; (2) what flotation is now doing in Utah; and (3) what is the future of flotation? Definition T. A. Rickard defines flotation' as "the act or state of floating," from the French flottaison, water-line and flotter, to float. The dictionary defines flotation as "the science of floating bodies." The flotation process is a method of concentrating ores by frothing. Weinig and Palmer,2 define flotation as follows: What is the flotation process? Briefly, it consists in the agitation of finely divided ore in water containing bubbles of air or gas, a small amount of oil and, usually, other reagents, soluble and insoluble; under these conditions the small particles of native metals, sulfides, arsenides, antimonides, selenides and tellurides show a tendency to attach themselves to the films of the bubbles, and are thus carried to the surface of the water. The oxidized gangue minerals, such as quartz, feldspar, limestone, hematite, etc., show much less affinity for the bubbles, are easily wetted by the water, and either remain in suspension in the water, or sink to the bottom of the vessel. If the bubbles are sufficiently stable they can be removed, carrying their load of sulfide-mineral particles with them. Thus there can be effected a separation of the two classes of minerals from each other, assuming that the grinding has been sufficient to unlock all of the particles of different composition. The separation does not depend upon differences in specific gravity of the various minerals; in fact, the sulfides are usually heavier than the oxides, and some of the heaviest sulfide minerals are the easiest to float. A particle of mineral may be so large, however, that its weight will counteract its affinity for the film of the bubble. In most cases the ore must be fine enough to pass a screen having at least 48 meshes to the linear inch. Taggart3 defines flotation as follows: Flotation is a method of wet concentration of ores in which separation of mineral from gangue is effected by causing the mineral to float at or above the surface of a body of liquid pulp while the gangue becomes or remains submerged. The method

Jan 1, 1928

Writing the Technical Report, third edition, by J. Raleigh Nelson. McGraw-Hill Book Co. $4.50, 356 pp., 1952.-The aim of the book is to inspire a greater interest in report writing. Basis for the increased interest is a development of a keener understanding of the writer's own mental processes and the practical procedures involved in writing a report. The book is concerned with basic principles and procedures, rather than incidentals. It emphasizes the importance of correct attitudes and suggests a method of approach and organization. In the first part of the book, design and composition are considered. Next, the text gives directions for setting up both the long and short term report. The third part of, the book gives a systematic procecure for critical examination of the report. The fourth section presents a 16 week course in report writing. The Rocks of the Sekondi Series of the Gold Coast, by A T. Crow. Gold Coast Geological Survey. 7s. 6d, 73 pp., 1952.-The book describes the results of careful and detailed mapping of the Sekondi Series. The Sekondi-Takoradi area is undergoing intensive development, including extensions to Takoradi Harbor and to the railways. Details are given on the nature, extent, and structure of the Series and many faults which cut into them. The book is aimed at those with a practical interest in the area. It is illustrated with geological maps and drawings of horizontal sections. In the back, the terrain of the series is illustrated in a group of plates.

Jan 1, 1952

By John Gross

THE deductions drawn in crushing and grinding operations have heretofore been based on a separation of the products into various sizes. A crushed product may be sized by sieving, by elutriation, and by aid of the microscope. To estimate the surface of each size the relation of the surface to the estimated average diameter must be assumed. Such a relation, owing to the irregularity of the particles, may involve two assumptions: First, a factor to convert average diameter to surface for one particular size; and second, a variation in the factor as the diameter of the particle changes. Obviously a surface measurement in which such assumptions and estimates are involved is questionable. In the first paper of this series1 a method has been given by which an accurate measure of surface of quartz can be obtained from its dissolution rate. By the use of this method, surface measurements have been made on a series of sieve sizes of crushed quartz, the results of which are given and discussed in this paper.

Jan 1, 1928