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By Henry G. Granger

I. INTRODUCTION. REPEATED failures in attempts to work gold-bearing gravels by means of suction-dredges have created the impression that this method is impracticable. The suction-dredges have failed from three special causes excessive wear and frequent breakage of pump-shell, runners and liners; inability to dredge compact gravel which would ,not. readily move towards the intake; and, most important of all, closing. of the suction-pipe by stones too large to enter it. In my opinion, all three causes of trouble may be remedied: the first, by making stronger the parts most liable to wear and breakage; the second, by means for loosening the gravel at the intake; and the third, by sufficiently... Increasing.. the diameter of the suction-pipe. In suction gold-dredges, this diameter has not usually exceeded 10 or 12 in.; whereas there are few profitable gold-fields which can bee considered dredgeable, in which stones more than' 12 in. in diameter, are-.not frequently encountered. II. AN EFFECTIVE SUCTION-DREDGE. In harbor-operations, much larger stones are handled by suction-dredges.., The large dredge of the Henry Steers Contracting Co. worked for nearly four years at League Island, Philadelphia, where it sucked up, passed through the pump, and forced through 3,700 ft. of discharge-pipe; gravel containing boulders up to 200 lb. in weight. This was done with no bad breaks and few shut-downs. The cutter; and liners were the only parts liable to damage, and these were easily replaced with brief interruption of work. The chrome-steel liners are said to have lasted from six to nine months. I am informed that this dredge worked continously for nine

Apr 1, 1909

By AIME AIME

R. A. Hadfield, W. H. Bleckly, The Rt. Hon. Sir James Kitson, Bart., M. P.', E. Windsor Richards, E. P. Martin, Andrew Carnegie, Sir Hugh Bell, Bart., Bennett H. Brough. Patrons. Adamson, Joseph, & Co., Hyde; Aird, John, & Co., London ; .Akrill, C., & Co., Ltd., West Bromwich ; Anderson Foundry Co., Ltd.,. Port Clarence, Middlesbrough ;. Armstrong, Sir W. G., Whitworth & Co., Ltd., Newcastle-on Tyne ; As¬sociated Portland Cement Manufacturers (1900), Ltd., London; Babcock & Wilcox, Ltd., London; Baird, William, & Co., Ltd., Glasgow ; Baldwin's, Ltd., Stourport; Barclay, Andrew, Sons & Co., Ltd., Kilmarnock; Barrow Hematite Steel Co., Ltd., Barrow-in-Furness; Bayliss, Jones & Bayliss, Ltd., Wolverhampton ; Beardshaw, J., & Son, Ltd., Sheffield ; Bell Brothers, Ltd., Middlesbrough ; Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd., Middlesbrough ; Booth, Joseph, & Bros., Ltd., Leeds ; Briton Ferry Works, Ltd., Briton Ferry; Butlin, Thomas, & Co., Ltd., Wellingborough ; Butterley Co., Ltd., Alfreton ; Byrne, James, & Co., Middlesbrough; Cargo Fleet Iron Co., Ltd., Middlesbrough.;. Carnforth Hematite Iron Co., Ltd., Carnforth ; Cochrane & Co., Ltd., Middlesbrough ; Coltness Iron Co., Ltd., Glasgow ; Colville, David, & Sons, Ltd., Motherwell ; Consett Iron Co., Ltd., Consett ; Cooke, William, & Co., Ltd., Tinsley ; Craggs, R., & Sons, Ltd., Middlesbrough ; Darwen & Mostyn Iron Co., Ltd., Mostyn ; Dorman, Long & Co., Middlesbrough ; Dunlop, J., & Co., Ltd., Glasgow ; Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron & Coal Co., Ltd., Ebbw Vale ; Engineer, The, The Proprietors. of, Lon¬don ; Engineering, The Proprietors of, London ; Etna Iron & Steel Co., Mother¬well ; Farnley Iron Co., Ltd., Leeds ; Firth, Thomas, & Sons, Ltd., Sheffield ; Rather, W. T., Ltd., Sheffield ; Fraser & Chalmers, Ltd., Erith ; Frodingham Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., Doncaster; Gjers, Mills & Co., Ltd., Middlesbrough ; Glenboig Union Fire-Clay Co., Ltd., Glasgow ; Glengarnock Iron & Steel Co.; Ltd., Glengarnock ; Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds, Ltd., Birmingham ; Hadfield's Steel Foundry Co., Ltd., Sheffield ; Hall, J. & E., Ltd., Dartford ; Harkness, W.; & Sons; Ltd., Middlesbrough ; Harrison & Co., Ltd., Lincoln ; Head, Wrightson & Co., Ltd., Stockton-on-Tees ; Hill, John, & Co., Middlesbrough ; Hingley, N., & Sons, Ltd., Dudley ; Hopper, John I., Ltd., Thornaby-on-Tees; Hull Forge Iron &-Steel Co., Ltd., Hull; Iron and Coal Trades Review, The Proprietors of, London ; Ironmonger, The, The Proprietors of, London ; Jackman, Joseph, & Co., Ltd., Sheffield ; Jessop & Appleby Bros., Ltd., Leicester and London ; Jes-

Nov 1, 1906

By HILAND BATCHELLER

COMMENT on the economic significance of the special alloy steels seems inevitably to reduce itself to an attempt to peer into the future of the industry in which we are interested. We are all familiar with the historical development of iron and with the almost complete replacement of iron by steel. Those who have been connected with the industry since its .early days have had the satisfaction of witnessing the greatest industrial development the world has seen. As the cartoonists of the muck-raking decade liked to picture steel as an ogre armed with a spiked club, his hands reeking with blood and with golden coins dripping from his pocket, fiercely seeking for more widows and orphans to devour, I choose to call on my imagination to create a gigantic but beneficent robot of such marvellous mechanical skill. that it quickly transforms millions of tons of otherwise worthless material into the infinite variety of useful products which are so largely responsible for our present civilization.

Jan 1, 1931

By R. W. Raymond

On the Manchuria. SOMEWHAT fatigued with excess of enjoyment and strenuous continuity of movement on the trip to and through California, the members and guests of the Institute party embarked Tuesday, Oct. 17, on the Pacific Mail S. S. Manchuria for a further journey to and through Japan. The good ship displayed the flag of the Institute (blue cross-hammers on a white ground), together with the Stars and Stripes and the ensign of the company. Uninterrupted fair weather and smooth water attended the passage to Honolulu. The Manchuria proved herself most commodious, comfortable and clean ("A sweeter steamship never sailed," quoth President Hunt) ; Captain Dixon and his officers were most agreeable, as well as most efficient; the passenger list comprised many congenial people besides ourselves-among them a score of missionary folk, and also Mr. M. H. de Young, Vice-President of the Panama

Jan 1, 1912

By A. J. WADHAMS

THE relative importance of things is a fascinating subject for thought. As we look about us we realize the Creator of all things has provided the metals for our use, each in the quantity needed-iron in vast quantities gold in small quantities. Had gold been given us in the quantities of iron, the mechanical age mould Eave been very different. You may find some pleasure in running over in your mind this question of the quantity available of an element and man's need of it in the scheme of things. Nickel in this sense is a middle group element. It was not essential to man's early development. Its usefulness dates back only about one hundred years. The quantity available to man has increased as his needs in- creased. On two occasions more nickel became available than was needed and on both of these occasions the ex- cess was soon absorbed by new and useful developments.

Jan 1, 1929

By Thomas T. Read

I. INTRODUCTION. WHEN so much has been written upon a subject on which so little definite information is available as upon this, some reason must needs be assigned for adding to the volume of literature. A sufficient reason is found in the probable great future importance of China as a producer of mineral wealth. The present undeveloped state of mining in the Empire is due to many causes, among which the most important are the relatively simple needs of the population, the lack of transportation-facilities, the inelastic regulations governing the industry, and the superstitious reluctance of the people to make excavations which might disturb the spirits of the earth and air, or of ancestors. Iron is the metal most in demand, yet the needs of the population, until recently, only made necessary a production of approximately 0.5 lb. of iron per capita per year. The present annual production of iron for domestic consumption, in the United States, is nearly 600 lb. per capita. The curious state of development of transportation in this interesting country has been a greater handicap upon the mining industry than upon any other. The point upon which it hinges is the absence of a road-system. Except for a few military roads, now almost impassable, there are no roads in China; that is to say, there is no land which is set aside as a right of way, belonging to the commonwealth. Throughout the agricultural districts, generally speaking, the entire area is in private ownership, and the lines of travel are between fields. There is a constant struggle for existence between the owners of the land and the traveling public, with the natural result that the so-called roads usually

Mar 1, 1912

By Andrew Meyer

As a producer of gold and platinum, Colombia is most emphatically an important country. Last year it produced 656,000 oz. of gold-twice as much as any other country in South America, in fact accounting for a third of the production of that continent. In platinum, world data for 1941 are not available, but in 1939 Colombia exported 39,000 oz., apparently ranking fourth among the world's producing countries, being exceeded only by Canada, Russia, and the Union of South Africa. Colombia was always a mining country. Centuries before the Conquest, Indians mined gold, copper, silver, salt, and emeralds. The Spaniards simply intensified mining. The Bank of the Republic states that from 1493 to 1940 52,177,427 oz. of gold was produced by Colombia, and official Chocó statistics show that about $60,000,000 worth of platinum was mined between 1908 and 1941. These figures are impressive indeed considering that only rich pockets and surface showings were mined by the ancients.

Jan 1, 1942

It is probably safe to say that, as the economic well-being of the mining industry goes, so goes the fortunes of mineral explorationists. And in 1977 the industry was not well at all. The year-long depression of the copper industry, marked by layoffs, temporary shutdowns, and mine closures, provided an appropriate background for the collapse of the nickel market, passage of a surface mining law that will affect the hard-rock industry in ways that are yet unclear, and the threat of operating under a new set of rules brought on by reform of the Mining Law of 1872.

Jan 5, 1978

By Donald M. Liddell

ALTHOUGH the midday lunches of business associations have been re-echoing the phrases that re- search would lead us out of the depression and that the last place to economize is on research, nevertheless most executives apparently concluded that it was their neighbor who ought not to economize in research, and that in their own plants what had been discovered in 1929-30 was sufficient to lead them out of the wilderness. At any rate, I have discovered much less that seems worth noting, and compared with 1931, the report volume of the committee members is off about 40 per cent, and compared with 1929, about 80 per cent. Evidently there is some hookup with the +tee1 industry as to output, and the Report Reading Committee should investigate this and the relative use of commas and periods.

Jan 1, 1933

By AIME AIME

A PERIOD of business depression and falling prices always raises questions as to the possible responsibility of the monetary or banking system. This is natural enough, for it is agreed that the supply of money or credit is a very important factor in modern business and in prices. However, it is far from being the only important factor. One of the chief merits of the gold standard is that under its workings the supply of currency and credit is regulated automatically to the masimun extent, in- stead of by the control of any arbitrary authority. The supply of new gold comes from the mines, and mining is free. It is distributed among the countries by the currents of trade and the play of economic forces, with the general result that the distribution tends to be in accordance with the economic development of the countries and their ability to use it or command it. Inasmuch as the accumulated stock of monetary gold is very large in comparison with the annual additions, the total avail- able supply changes but little from year to year, and it may be assumed that price-changes that are properly chargeable to gold will take place gradually rather than suddenly.

Jan 1, 1930

By Herbert Hoover

DURING the year, the' Institute has made the most remarkable growth in its history. Our actual increase in membership was 1816 and therefore was 80 per cent. larger than any previous year. Even without expectation of any abnormal growth, we should pass in the year 1921 the 10;000 mark. The causes of this increased growth are not far to seek.. They lie in the widening vision of the Institute's work, not only in its relation to' the profession but as an avenue of service to the nation as a whole. The Institute is today in the first rank of influence among public institutions in the country. During this year we have, for the first time in many years, had a ?deficit of some $3000 in our finances. The sum is not important, but it- does indicate the tendency of the times, and that is the high cost of living:' The increase in our expenses lay, to the largest degree, on the publishing side of the Institute's work. If we compare the year 1918, as a fairly repre¬sentative year, with that of 1920, we find that the costs of issuing the' Institute's publications, after deducting the income received from these publications, shows a .net increase of about $33,000. for the year. This has been to some degree due to the enlarged membership but to a large degree due to the cost of the paper and printing.

Jan 1, 1921

By Hal M. Lewers

IN the past few years and especially since the beginning of World War No. 2, gold has attained a new, important. and critical place in the international scene, and in world affairs. In the past, as far back as history records, most wars have been waged for the purpose of acquiring it from someone else by conquest. But now, the most titanic struggle of all time is being waged with the avowed purpose of not only destroying it, but of destroying all that it stands for and represents. A tradition dating back to ancient Rome, affirms that battles are fought by men with weapons, but wars arc eventually won by gold. The validity of that tradition is now being subjected to its major test. Hitler has proclaimed that in his new world order, the work dollar or reichsmark, a beautifully engraved paper currency representing only a theory of value, based on unit of work and production, will become the supreme medium of world exchange, and that gold eventually will he valueless and obsolete.

Jan 1, 1942

By Pat McCarran

WHEN this Government was founded, the framers of the Constitution wrote into that instrument a provision that Congress should "coin money and fix the value thereof;" and the Constitution prohibits making anything but "gold and silver" lawful money. So silver is written into our basic law. Shortly after President Washington took office in 1789 the Congress passed the first Mint Act, setting up the U. S. Mint. In that Act, signed by President Washington on April 2, 1792, the weight of the American dollar was fixed, and it was provided how much silver should be contained in a silver dollar and how much gold should be contained in a gold dollar. It was decided that 371 1/4 grains of pure silver was to be the standard dollar of America. That standard with respect to the pure silver content of the dollar has never changed.

Jan 1, 1947

Discussion of the paper of R. J. COLONY, presented at the New York Meeting, February, 1921, and issued With MINING AND METALLURGY No. 169, January, 1921. R. J. COLONY (author's reply to discussion).-The work of Sosman and Merwin on the system lime-ferric oxide, mentioned by Mr. Rankin, was not overlooked. When studying portland cements and portland-cement clinkers petrographically, however, the lime-iron compound was difficult to correlate with the very definite dicalcium ferrite described by those investigators, which possesses such well-defined optical properties. In portland cements, the calcium ferrite (or ferrate?) is an indefinite, fuzzy, and generally amorphous, or apparently amorphous substance that is distributed interstitially with respect to the other grains, from which it was very difficult to derive any satisfactory results. For this reason, the writer, tentatively, chose to regard it as related to the aluminate, and assigned to it the composition 3CaO.Fe203, which may be incorrect, however, as Mr. Rankin suggests.

Jan 8, 1921

By AIME AIME

TRANSFER to the Bureau of Mines of the responsibility for conservation and production of helium, and announcement that a proposal has been made to the President for commercial operation of the Los Angeles has attracted new attention to the helium program of the Government. The matter is one in which mining engineers, and the mining industry in general, have a peculiar interest. Helium is a byproduct of the petroleum and natural gas industry. It is found in certain of the natural gases which have themselves been discovered, in the main, in the search for oil. If it is to be produced on a large scale, the conservation and development of the fields will necessarily be done by the men of the oil and gas industry. There is no known or expected source of supply of quantities of commercial importance save in the natural gas fields. Not all gas wells supply helium and none of them supply it in important percentages. If it were necessary to prospect a field, develop it, lay pipe lines and build production plants for the helium alone, the cost would be prohibitive. On that basis helium would necessarily be restricted to essential war uses, where cost is subordinate to need. As a byproduct of the natural gas in certain, at least, of the fields in the United States there is distinct reason for anticipating that it may be produced in amounts and at a cost that will permit its regular use in commercial airships.

Jan 1, 1925

By H. Foster Bain

I. INTRODUCTION. By H. FOSTER BAIN.+ THE recently aroused public interest in the conservation of our natural resources has peculiar importance to mining-men, since they deal with resources which are stored products. Within certain limits, the fertility of a worn-out soil may be restored, deforested areas can be replanted, one year's wasted water-supply is followed by another; but coal and ores, once taken out, cannot be mined again, and should therefore be conserved with especial care. This means, however, not that mining should be restricted, but that it should be done most economically and with the minimum of waste.

Nov 1, 1908

By Zay Jeffries

AN acute current shortage of copper, with the prospect that conditions may become worse, indicated by Office of Production Management information. Present estimates of copper requirement for defense indicate that nearly all the available metal will be required in the future for this purpose. Severe dislocations are, expected, but the objective is to distribute the copper available for civilian use in such a manner as to minimize these dislocations. The advisory committee on metals and minerals has been asked for a suggestions which may be helpful in meeting this situation.\

Jan 1, 1941

By Charles D. Walcott

Jan 1, 1901

By J. S. UNGER

A LARGE proportion of the coke used is made in the by-product oven from the high-volatile coals mined in the adjacent district. At the beginning it was feared good by-product blast-furnace coke could not be made with our coals. By experimenting with various mixtures of coals, coking time, oven design, and coking temperatures, much has already been accomplished. The results show that a hard, dense coke, not easily broken by handling, can be produced. In its present state it is not all that could be desired, but it is being constantly improved. Such coke has been used alone as the fuel on several of the blast furnaces producing the highest daily production in the Pittsburgh district. Many of the coals in the Pittsburgh district when coked in the by-product oven yield a gas which contains a high percentage of sulfur, which is objection- able for many metallurgical operations. As this fuel is gradually replacing the ideal fuel, natural gas, which is becoming less plentiful, studies are being made of the best methods for purification. Some metallurgists believe sulfur to be a very injurious element in steel. Recent investigations by Government bureaus, scientific bodies and private firms, seem to indicate that a reasonable amount of sulfur may exist in steel without detriment. Without wishing to provoke any metallurgical controversy on the subject of sulfur, the fact remains that the daily purification

Jan 1, 1926

By R. W. Raymond

EDWARD COOPER, was born in New York City, October 26, 1824. His father, Peter Cooper, to say nothing of manifold reasons for fame as an inventor and philanthropist, deserves to be remembered as a pioneer in the establishment of public schools; and it is not surprising that he sent his son to one of the democratic institutions in which he was himself so ardently interested. From the public school Edward Cooper went to Columbia. College, where he made the acquaintance of Abram S. Hewitt, who was first his tutor, afterwards his traveling companion, brother-in-law, business partner and life-long friend.* For twenty years I was the consulting engineer of the firm of Cooper & Hewitt, and also connected with the work of the Cooper Union, in which they were both deeply interested and faithfully active. On the basis of the intimate knowledge thus gained, I venture an estimate of Edward Cooper's character and career which, if not fully comprehensive, may facilitate a juster estimate than would be reached by the strident of those data which the modesty of the man permitted to be placed upon public record. Edward Cooper's mind was one of the most active, accurate and subtle with which I have ever come into contact: He had inherited from his father a sunny, benevolent temperament, and' the irresistible impulse to attack all new problems which challenged his attention. His thorough education had 'indeed made him wiser than his father, both in philanthropy and in technical inventions. He could condemn and reject a proposition which Peter Cooper would have embraced, in a splendid, though ignorant, faith that nothing was impossible to an. American, and that the word ? impossible " was simply a label,

Jul 1, 1906