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By J. Q. Ehrgott

INTRODUCTION The U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES), under sponsorship of the Defense Atomic Support Agency, has recently developed a unique dynamic high-pressure triaxial testing device (DHT). The device permits acquisition of both axial and lateral deformation data while undisturbed soil and/or rock specimens are subjected to various states of controlled impulsive-type stresses produced by varying both the axial stress and the radial stress rapidly with time. The device is used to develop controlled dynamic pressure pulses within the triaxial chamber fluid on soil or rock test specimens to 3 inches in diameter. Controlled dynamic axial pulse loads are delivered to the specimen by a piston driven by an existing pneumatic ram loader (SECO). The DHT consists of a triaxial cell and a pressure supply and decay system which permits the chamber pressure to be varied with time. Together the DHT and SECO operate in a testing program so as to provide time varying confining pressures and axial loads to test specimens at independently controlled but synchronized programmed rise, hold, and decay times. Rise time is defined as the time from zero load or pressure to peak load or pressure; hold time is the time of constant peak load or pressure; and the decay time is the time from peak load or pressure to zero load or pressure. The maximum dynamic confining pressure attainable is approximately 15,000 psi and the fastest rise and decay times are 3 millisecond (msec) and 20 msec, respectively. This paper presents a description of the DHT, the necessary support equipment, and details of the measurement system. Performance evaluation tests conducted on clay siltstone and a Cretaceous sandstone are presented since the results demonstrate some of the capabilities of the device and show some of its characteristics.

Jan 1, 1971

By C Gunther

A preceding paragraph treats of the irregular manner in which ore deposits occur and the complex factors that control their distribution; the occurrence of metals in oreshoots in individual deposits is equally irregular, and the factors that control such segregation are equally complex. While the dimen¬sions of oreshoots in individual deposits may not be foretold with any degree of accuracy, the occurrence of ore in shoots is not accidental, but is controlled by laws some of which are understood. Any one familiar with permutations and combina¬tions who stops to consider the variety of factors that control ore deposition, and their varying relative importance, will admit that the science of economic geology must advance greatly before the occurrence of oreshoots may be predicted accurately in advance of exploration. The segregation of minerals in any oreshoot must be referred to some condition, or combination of conditions, local to the oreshoot as compared with the remainder of the deposit of low¬grade or barren minerals. Among the localizing factors that have been recognized are, in filled fissures, the amount and distribution of open spaces available for ore deposition, and in replacement deposits, the degree of brecciation giving access to the replacing solutions; the intersection of veins with other veins, dikes, sheeted zones, or porous strata; the impounding of solutions by impervious strata; and the differing precipitative influences of enclosing rocks. A large proportion of important and well ¬defined oreshoots, especially in deposits of deep-seated origin, are not assignable to any of these factors. While a knowledge of the character of oreshoots in general is important, a knowledge of the behavior of the known oreshoots

Jan 1, 1932

By Paul H. Lu, Fred D. Wright

Numerous laboratory tests and field measurements conducted by different persons have indicated that most mine rocks behave viscoelastically rather than elastically. Hence, for an accurate and realistic design of underground structure, the time factor should be taken into account, and the theory of viscoelasticity can be used. By considering the time factor, the time-safe-strength may be used for economical design instead of liberal safety factors with design based on the elasticity theory. The deflection and moment distributions on an elastic roof slab resting on elastic pillars have already been studied.l In this chapter, the stress- strain analysis for a viscoelastic mine roof resting on pillars of the same material or on supports of different material is first considered theoretically. Viscoelastic solutions for deflections, moments, and shears are de- rived from the elastic plate theory on the basis of the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle. The Laplace transformation technique is employed as the operational method in the mathematical treatment. The roof slab materials are represented by four different rheological models and four different loading histories are considered. The method of finite difference equations is employed for solving the partial differential equations, using FORTRAN programs to calculate roof deflections, moments, and shears. Numerical examples are given for one of the four models under two of the four loading histories with regular and staggered pillar patterns. The results are discussed in terms of the variance with time of deflections, moments, and shears as well as their variation in space due to the dimensions and configuration of the structure system. A viscoelastic slab resting on viscoelastic pillars or on elastic supports

Jan 1, 1972

By W. T. Bishop

For many years pine oil has been used extensively as a frother for the flotation of minerals, particularly sulphides, yet the published information available to the average user on its composition, chemical and physical properties, has been rather meager. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss these points and their relationship to the frothing properties of pine oil used in flotation processes. Pine oil, as the name implies, is a liquid obtained from the processing of wood of the longleaf and other southern pines. It is a complex mixture of naturally occurring terpene derivatives, primarily alcohols, and a smaller amount of terpenes, which has found many uses in various industries. Its use as a frother in flotation processes was the first large-scale application in industry and today the mining industry still consumes large quantities of pine oil but the textile and disinfectant industries consume comparable volumes. Much is used in soap manufacture and laundry operations. The surface-active properties of pine oil are in a large degree responsible for this versatility. History The name "Naval Stores" goes back to the days when pine tar and pitch were used to caulk leaky ships and 'Oat their ropes and rigging. Today this term is still used to include not only the oleoresinous products of the pine tree—rosin and turpentine— but other products such as pine oil, pine tar, and the many terpene and resinous compounds obtained by extracting the pine wood or tapping the tree. That part of the industry known as "wood naval stores" dates from about the beginning of this century and today produces a large part of the country's rosin and turpentine by processing pine wood. In addition, all of our natural pine oil is supplied by the wood naval stores industry, as tapping of the live tree gives only rosin and turpentine. This latter phase is known as the "gum naval stores " industry. The first successful commercial operation of the steam and solvent process of the wood naval stores in industry was carried out by Yaryan at Cadillac, Mich., in 1909.1 This operation did not prove profitable, so Yaryan went south to utilize the longleaf pine, and built a plant at Gulfport, Miss.2 Soon after, another plant was built at Brunswick, Ga., which is still in operation, and in 1914 was reported to have processed about 500 tons of wood per day.' In 1921 Hercules Powder Co. acquired the Yaryan interests, at which time the production of pine oil was only 3 to 5 million pounds per year and flotation was the largest customer. As time went on, technological advances were made, other companies entered the field, and the production of pine oil increased many fold. The growth of the industry was especially marked during the past 10 years, and in

Jan 1, 1947

By T. W. Guy

DURING the past three years the Surface Preparation Committee of the American Mining Congress Coal Operators' Committees has been collecting data on dewatering and drying washed coal, and on screening coal in representative plants in the Eastern and Central bituminous fields. Because of wide variations in bed moisture, such data can be compared only after deducting the bed moisture. It was found that practically every company used a different routine for moisture sampling and determinations. Some reported the moistures as total moistures, others as surface moistures, cur-dried moistures, or oven-dried moistures. For most of the reports it was necessary to esti-mate, from a consideration of the bed moisture and other data available in a given case, corrections to be made in order to obtain surface-moisture figures as a common basis for comparison. At any plant, and regardless of bed moisture, the percentage of surface moisture remaining in a product when the dewatering, or a given stage of the dewatering, has been completed, is the real measure of what has been accomplished. The descriptions and data given with Fig. 1 show that surface-moisture figures show relationships that would not be shown by total moistures. Therefore bed moisture should be deducted, or, if more practicable, the surface moisture of the. products should be meas-ured direct. A preparation engineer finds one per cent, or even a part of one per cent, of surface moisture a very important consideration in the results of his efforts to find the most effective and economical methods of reducing and controlling the surface moisture in his products within the required limits. Therefore it is important for him to have accurate measurements of surface moisture with minimum uncertainty as to whether they some-times include less than the surface moisture and at others all of the surface moisture plus an unknown part of the bed moisture.

Jan 1, 1938

ALTHOUGH the open-hearth charge contributes CO, C02, H2, A and water vapor to the combustion gases and absorbs oxygen from them, in the main the thermal effects in the melting charge and molten bath can be considered independently of those in fuel combustion; the latter then is regarded simply as the source of the net heat required to finish a heat of steel. First of all, it should be remembered that a large percentage of the heat supplied to the bath is furnished by oxidation of the various elements in the charge itself. If this charge consisted of 80 to 100 per cent of hot metal and the oxidation were accomplished by blowing in air or oxygen, as in the bessemer converter, the net heat absorption would be negative; that is, the bath would contribute part of the heat required to keep the melting chamber hot, in addition to that contained in the finished steel and slag. In actual open-hearth practices, probably the nearest approach to this is in the duplex furnace, charged with bessemer-blown metal and some hot metal, where very little heat is required to complete the refining and nearly all the heat energy from fuel combustion is used to keep the roof and walls of the melting chamber up to around 2900 to 3000 F (1600 to 1650 C), so that the bath will not cool off during the refining. The other extreme is with all-cold charges containing around 80 per cent steel scrap and 20 per cent cast iron or cold pig iron, in which case a very large proportion of the heat in the bath at tap is supplied from the fuel combustion. THERMAL EFFECTS IN MELTING In a typical heat, the fuel furnishes about four million British thermal units per ton of steel produced. The heat required, for the metallurgical processes is not easily defined in useful manner but it ranges downward from about one million Btu, depending not only on the charge but on the manner of calculation. In, any event, this requirement appears. small in comparison with the

Jan 1, 1964

By H. M. Howe

(Read at. the Lake George Meeting, October, 1878.) MANY direct processes have been proposed for the treatment of oxidized ores of copper by reducing the copper oxide to the metallic state, and by separating it from its impurities by a subsequent fusion. The radical objection common to all the methods which have come to my notice, except those in which sulphur plays the prominent part, is that the very deoxidizing agent which effects the reduction of the copper oxide, inevitably reduces at the same time a very considerable part, if not the whole, of the iron which almost invariably accompanies copper in its ores. The result is that, when the ore is subsequently fused, a very great quantity of the already reduced iron separates from the slag along with the copper, alloying with it, and necessitating costly subsequent operations for its separation. Thus, at Perm, in the Urals,* the product of the fusion of ferruginous copper oxides is a mixture of one hundred and fifty-five parts of highly cupriferous pig iron with two hundred and five parts of very impure and ferruginous black copper, containing some 10 per cent. of carbon and iron, though free from sulphur, and of course very difficult to refine. If, in order to avoid this reduction of iron to the metallic state, the reducing action be made feebler, it inevitably results that a considerable part of the copper as well escapes deoxidation ; and, consequently, the slags are so rich that it becomes necessary to treat them subsequently in order to recover the copper which they contain. Thus, in treating native copper, at Lake Superior, where the reducing action is purposely made feeble in order to prevent the deoxidation of the iron, the slags from the first fusion of the ore carry so much copper as to render it imperative to treat them again, which is done in a cupola. And yet, in spite of so far weakening the reducing action as to cause a notable slagging of the copper, a very considerable reduction of iron actually takes place. These are the two dangers which threaten the smelter of oxidized copper ores. If he wishes to avoid slagging his copper, he must have so strong a deoxidizing action as to reduce a great deal of his * Rivot, Prineipes Généraux du Traitement des Minerais Métalliques, i, p. 79.

Jan 1, 1879

By J. A. Heskett

NEW ZEALAND is dependent on the outside world for its ferro goods, yet it can boast of at least two well-defined iron-ore deposits; namely, Para Para limonite, 3 Fe203 + 21120 also found as lower hydrated oxides, and Taranaki iron-sand, a combined magnetite and ilmenite, 2FeO + 2Fe203 + FeO + Ti02. The former is of massive variety and the FIG. 1.-VIEW OF WORKS SHOWING IRON-SAND DEPOSITS, ALSO WHARF AND BREAK¬WATER IN THE DISTANCE. latter granular and mixed with various proportions of fine shell and siliceous sand well water-worn. This latter deposit forms the greater portion of the beach sands of the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is so fine that the whole of a sample passed through a sieve of 40 meshes to the inch. The ilmenite cannot be detected by the microscope, as in the titaniferous ores of the Adirondacks, nor can it be magnetically separated, as in the titaniferous ore of Natashkwan, Canada. To all appearances it is a chemical compound of the double oxides of iron and titanium and not a mechanical mixture, as is the ore of the Adirondack deposits.

Jan 8, 1920

By George F. Comstock

It seems a common opinion among metallographists that all light-gray inclusions seen with the microscope in polished sections of steel are manganese sulphide. Examples of this belief are continually appearing, as for instance in the paper by Dr. Henry Fay on manganese sulphide as a source of danger in steel railsll and in Lieutenant-Commander Cook's paper on Metallography of Steel for U. S. Naval Ordnance.² Slate- colored inclusions are considered to be silicates, and dove-gray inclusions, manganese sulphide. To show the danger in the latter unqualified assumption, it should be sufficient to examine the edge of any piece of steel that is covered with a fairly thick scale, and that has been polished in such a way as to prevent the scale from breaking away entirely below the polished surface. This can be done by protecting the scaled edge of

Jan 1, 1917

By M. Gensamer

In applied mechanics and in metallurgy the transition from elastic to inelastic action is a matter of considerable interest and importance. Often the first inelastic deformation is apparently quite homogeneous; that is, uniformly distributed throughout the specimen. Sometimes this deformation is heterogeneous; that is, localized; inelastic deformation proceeds to some definite amount in restricted regions before adjacent regions of the specimen are inelastically deformed. In such cases the deformation does not become homogeneous until the whole specimen has been deformed the amount corresponding to that for each localized deformation. If the test is stopped before uniform extension sets in, the heterogeneous character of the deformation is apparent on the surface of the specimen through characteristic markings, which have been called "LÜders'" lines, "Hartmann's" lines, the "Piobert effect," or simply "flow figures." These markings are the source of considerable trouble in fabricating operations, particularly in the deep drawing of steel sheet. In many cases where the transition is of this nature, the stress developed at the upper limit of the elastic range is greater than the stress during the period of heterogeneous deformation, giving rise to the familiar "drop of the beam" effect in testing. The amount of the yield-point elongation, as well as the value of the stress at the lower yield point (the value to which the stress drops when yielding begins), are functions of the temperature and the testing speed. Lower temperatures and faster rates of testing increase both the yield-point elongation and the yield-point stress. These matters have been ably discussed in a recent paper by Winlock and Leiterl though, as brought out by the discussion of that paper, the phenomena are but little understood. The purpose of the present paper is to clarify the problem through the application of a simple principle, and to show that, through the application of this principle, a number of phenomena in the plastic deformation of metals become more readily understood. The principle is this: During homogeneous flow, the rate of work-hardening is greater than the rate of change of stress resulting from change

Jan 1, 1938

By P. C. Badgley

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of systematic analyses of weakness patterns. The term weakness here includes structural features such as fractures, foliation planes, lineaments and bedding. Many of these features are mapped by geologists in the field, but analysis of the field date is frequently overlooked. Examples are presented to show the value of such studies in petroleum and mineral exploration, in dam site selection, and in regional tectonic interpretations. Numerous theories have been presented to account for the mechanics and time of origin of fracturing. This is an extensive subject and cannot be reviewed in detail here. The reader may wish to refer to other papers.*"5 It is sufficient to say that most fracture patterns can be related to one or more of the following force mechanisms: compression, tension, torsion and fatigue (inheritance by upward propagation of pre-existing fractures). Fractures generally occur in sets in a district. The angular relationships and other characteristics of the individual sets frequently help in determining the force mechanism and movement history of the deformation. From a geometric point of view fractures are commonly referred to as longitudinal, cross, or diagonal (shear), depending upon their orientation relative to other major structural features such as anticlinal axes and so forth. These terms will be used from time to time and are illustrated schematically in Fig. 1. FIELD PROCEDURE AND TREATMENT OF DATA In fracture studies it is very important to collect adequate field data. Fig. 2 illustrates a notebook sheet for recording significant field observations in sedimentary rocks. Slight adaptations have to be made for igneous and metamorphic terrains. Fracture density and persistence are very important factors in petroleum exploration for fractured reservoirs and mineral exploration. The density for each joint set is recorded in terms of number of joints per linear yard. The total number of joints at any one

Jan 1, 1962

By Wheeler O. North

The United Eastern Mining Co.'s property is in the Oatman, Gold Roads mining district of Mohave County, Ariz. The mine and mill are 26 mi. (41.8 km.) southwest of Kingman, the nearest railway connection. The ore consists of a mixture of calcite and quartz with some andesite. The values, which are mainly gold, alloyed with approximately 34 per cent., by weight, of silver, are extremely fine so that fine grinding is a most important factor in extraction. The milling process, briefly, consists of single-stage, coarse-crushing, two-stage ball milling in cyanide solution, followed by combined mechanical and air agitation, and by straight counter-current decantation. The Merrill zinc-dust precipitation method is used to recover the values, and is preceded by the Crowe vacuum treatment of the solution. The most notable features of the plant are the absence of filters, and the use of short peb mills loaded with steel balls, for fine grinding. As originally designed, the capacity of the mill was to be 200 tons per day, although the grinding end was to be capable of handling double that amount. By adding extra agitators and thickeners and by some alterations to the grinding end, the daily capacity has been raised to 285 tons. This, it is hoped, may be increased to 300 tons during the warm months of the present year. Tonnage Milled per Day 1917 average....... 234; maximum month.... 272; minimum month..... 146 1918 average....... 253; maximum month,... 276; minimum month..... 217 As this article primarily deals with plant operations, those interested in the mechanical description are referred to the article by Mr. Otto Wartenweiler,1 the designing engineer, which gives the details and costs of design and construction. The following changes have been made since that article was published: Two special simplex Dorr classifiers have been substituted for the two duplex Callow screens and bucket elevator, which classified the Marcy discharge and returned the oversize for regrinding. Three Dorr

Jan 1, 1920

By L. K. Welch, C. W. MacGregor

The past 20 years has seen a revolutionary change in the testing of materials at elevated temperatures. This has largely been brought about by the practical importance of the creep problem in the design of equipment for operation at high temperatures. The short-time tension test carried out at elevated temperatures has consequently assumed in many cases only a secondary role compared with the longtime creep test. In many problems, however, a knowledge of the short-time high-temperature properties of a metal is essential. To mention a few cases in which this is so, we might include all hot-forming operations such as rolling, forging, etc., the welding problem if residual stresses are to be computed, the development of new alloys for high-temperature service where, in the initial stages, time does not permit of long duration creep tests, and others. Usually a knowledge of the short-time properties is desired, if only to serve as a background against which to compare creep behavior. In conducting short-time high-temperature tests, it has been almost the universal practice to determine stresses based on the original area and strains referred to the original gauge length which is usually chosen as 2 in. It has been pointed out1,2 that one of the reasons that the true significance of certain tensile properties is not understood, which perhaps curtails their usefulness, especially when the material is applied under conditions differing considerably from the test conditions, is that true physical stresses and strains are not determined. It is essential to have a knowledge of true stresses and strains in order to correlate the values present in the tension test with those existing, for example, in hot metal-forming operations and in the general problem of the yielding and failure of metals under combined stress conditions. Stress and strain values based on the original dimensions of the test piece do not exist physically except in the early stages of the test. Since at the present time there is very little information in the literature on true stress-strain relations in the short-time high-temperature tension test it is proposed in the following pages to describe a

Jan 1, 1943

By L. G. Westgate

PART I.-AREAL GEOLOGY§ PIOCHE lies 240 mi. southwest of Salt Lake City, in southeastern Nevada, 19 in. west of the Nevada-Utah line. It is at the end of a branch line (33 m.), which connects at Caliente with the Los Angeles and Salt Lake division of the Union Pacific System. Its commercial relations are with Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, chiefly with the former. The surrounding area is part of the Great Basin, an arid region of alternating mountain range and intermont plain, the latter floored with outwash from the mountains. About Pioche the plain varies between 4700 and 6000 ft. above sea level. The town lies in a valley at the east base of a low northwest-southeast range (the Pioche Hills) 12 miles in length, which rises about 1000 ft. above the adjacent flat. West of the. Pioche Hills is a higher north-south range consisting of two parts: to the south the Highland Range, between Bennett Pass and Stampede Gap; to the north the Bristol Range, from Stampede Gap to Bristol Pass. This double range reaches altitudes of 8000 to 9000 ft., or more, (the highest point, Highland Peak, is 9395 ft.) and rises some 2500 ft. above the surrounding plain. It is continued in lower hills to north and south. Smaller ranges rise from the flat west of the Highland and Bristol ranges. The area studied and shown on the map (Fig. 1) is covered by 3 one inch to the-mile topographic sheets: the Highland Range, the. Bristol Range, and the Panaca, the latter mapped in part only. The sedimentary rocks of the district include Paleozoic limestones, sandstones and shales, Pliocene tuffs, and modern wash. Igneous rocks are represented by intrusive dikes and stocks and by extensive lava flows of mid-Tertiary time.

Jan 1, 1927

By W. H. Adams

Virginia, a store-house of metals, is more and more a surprise to the present generation. With her enormous available mineral wealth, worked upon steadily for over a century, exploited SUEciently to demonstrate beyond question costs and values, reported upon by our most eminent scientists, written up by thoroughly earnest correspondents, we yet find her little understood by capitalists or practical men, and until very lately overlooked by the advanceguard of pioneers in metallurgy, whose restless energy conquered the wilderness of Northern Michigan years ago, and has written a new and startling history for almost impenetrable Western territories. The world is learning through the mouths of giant furnaces lately put in blast at Lowmoor, Goshen, and Roanoke, more of this wondcrful State. It is becoming plain that nearer home, amid all the surroundings of civilization, under an equable climate and with the advantage of a minimum cost for fuel and labor, there are stores of mineral, varied in character and deposited over a wide area, which exceed all ordinary calcnlations. Principal among these minerals, iron ores have been, and will probably continue to be, the leading product and the source of greatest revenue. My attention has been called during the past year to one particular section of the iron-belt, where for forty years charcoal-furnaces were successfully operated, the ores being mined in open pits, as can so frequently be seen from the Connecticut line southward into Georgia. There is, however, a significant peculiarity in the character of these deposits of Louisa county warranting special mention, as it is thought that nowhere on the earth's surface, within so moderate a distance of tidewater, can their like be fouad. Probably half a million tons of lump and wash-material have been taken from pits

Jan 1, 1884

By David R. Maneval, Jack M. Campbell

The regulatory process by which governmental authorities acknowledge and, in turn, permit the location, construction, and operation of large scale energy-related facilities has become extremely detailed in recent years. One example of the detail that is entailed in the regulatory process is the number of permits that must be acquired by operators prior to the construction and operation of energy-related facilities. It has been estimated, for example, that 75 permits are required prior to the opening of a new coal mine in Pennsylvania while 50 are required in Kentucky. From the perspective of facility owners and operators the regulatory process often appears overly complex and may be perceived as a constraint to the corporate decision making process. From the perspective of those responsible for administering regulations, the process is perceived as a means by which public desires-pursuant to social objectives such as environmental protection and occupational safety-can be achieved. As a result of conflicting organizational interests, the clash between energy facility owners and operators and their regulators appears to be inevitable. Furthermore, the resolution of this conflict lies in the trade-off between objectives and the costs of regulation. The balance of objectives and costs is a subject of the political process and not a topic of consideration in this paper. This paper is concerned with the actual administration of regulations, that is, the implementation of that which arises from the interplay of organizational interests. The paper assumes that environmental control laws will not likely be repealed, that regulations to implement the intent of these laws are here to stay and thus the paper seeks to assess how regulations are administered at various levels of government pursuant to objectives. The paper hypothesizes that the administration of objectives (or policy) has an impact on decision making which affects energy facility decision making. While recognizing the fact that regulatory policy cannot be totally divorced from administration, this paper proceeds under the assumption that elements of the regulatory process may be examined individually. The subject of this study is limited to the interplay between regulatory agencies and their clientele.

Jan 1, 1979

By William Price

DURING the past three or four years, the fabricators of silicon-bronze alloys have endeavored to induce risers of phosphor bronze to use instead the silicon-bronze alloys, claiming that the silicon bronzes are superior to the phosphor bronzes for switches and springs, or where high fatigue resistance is desired. This paper gives the results of tests comparing several phosphor bronzes with a 3 per cent silicon bronze and a copper-nickel-tin alloy (Adnic), all processed by the Scovill Manufacturing Co. So far as the authors are aware, sheet-metal fatigue tests have not been made on any of the alloys included in this report, except on one phosphor bronze, material C, Table 1, which was tested by Townsend and Greenall1.

Jan 1, 1937

By Joseph W. Richards

This method of briquetting flue-dust, or flue-dust mixed with fine ores, or, in a few exceptional cases, coke-dust, has come into large commercial use in Europe, and a small plant is already in operation in the United States. It promisea to become of such great importance to the iron industry of the United States that the following description will certainly interest the majority of our pig-iron producers. Discovered in 1908, the process Tests upon the observation of Dr. Schumacher that blast-furnace flue-dust, while possessing of itself no binding or cementing properties, acquires strong cementing properties if mixed with a very small amount of certain salt solutions, the amount of which is so small that the resulting cementation appears to be rather by catalytic action of the salts added than by the mass-action of such chemicals. To be more specific, fresh blast-furnace flue-dust mixed with from 5 to 10 per cent. of its weight of magnesium chloride or calcium chloride solution—that is to say, with from 0.25 to 2 per cent. of its weight of magnesium chloride or calcium chloride—acquires the property of setting within a short time, from 15 to 60 min., and forming a hard cemented briquette. Alkaline solutions appear to have no action such as described, and they even interfere, if present, with the action of the magnesium and calcium solutions. When treated in this way the flue-dust briquette sets very hard, apparently from pure excess of cementing- and setting-power. It is, therefore, possible to mix with the flue-dust a considerable proportion of inert ore or like material, which has no setting-power by this process, and thus to make a compound briquette containing large quantities of ore mixed with flue-dust, but in which the flue-dust may be regarded as the cement or binding-material. A particularly strongly cementing flue-

Jan 1, 1913

By Douglas Bunting

THE first presentation of this paper was before the Pennsylvania Anthracite Section of the Institute in May, 1914, after which a committee was selected to verify and add to the data contained in the original paper. The author is indebted to G. W. Engel, H. W. Montz, R. V. Norris, and H. H. Otto, of this committee, for additional information. I also wish to acknowledge the courtesies extended me by a number of the mining companies for information relative to accidents, systems of proving, and mining practice. The paper should bring forth additional criticism and recommendations, which will be of value in establishing future practice relative to this subject. Throughout the northern anthracite field of Pennsylvania glacial and alluvial deposits of sand, gravel, and clay exist in varying quantities. The extent and character of these deposits are described by N. H. Darton in Bulletin 45 of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, entitled, Sand Available for Filling Mine Workings in the Northern Anthracite Basin. It is estimated that the northern field contains 10,000,000,000 tons of these deposits, or a sufficient quantity to cover the 176 square miles of coal area to a depth of about 25 ft. These deposits of sand, etc., overlying the coal measures attain a maximum depth of more than 300 ft., and are usually saturated to such an extent as to render them semi-fluid. It is .this condition of fluidity that limits the mining of coal seams cropping in or in close proximity to these deposits, and it is in the interest of safer and more efficient mining methods under these conditions that the study of this -subject is here presented. The dangers incident to mining under deep deposits of sand have long been realized by operators in the northern anthracite field, and much has been done to prove the contour of the rock and vein croppings underlying these water-bearing deposits of sand and gravel.

Jan 1, 1915

By J. B. Austin

IN developing a consistent picture of the thermal expansion of the commercial chromium steels, which cover a range of carbon contents, it is desirable to know the expansion in the limiting case of the binary, carbon-free, iron-chromium alloys. We have, therefore, determined the thermal expansion of a series of five special alloys, ranging in chromium content from 3 to 10.5 per cent, with not more than 0.03 per cent carbon, over a temperature range extending beyond the transformation region; this low carbon content enables us to draw reasonably reliable conclusions as to the behavior of the carbon-free system. Moreover, the measure-ments serve to determine the beginning and the end of the alpha-gamma transformation; and they emphasize once more the fact that a transforma-tion temperature determined by any method in which the specimen is cooled at an appreciable rate is apt to be seriously in error, particularly if the metal contains a transformation-retarding element such as chro-mium or managanese. The lag, or undercooling, observed at the ? - a transformation is explained in terms of the influence of temperature on transformation velocity; the rather unusual shape of the ? loop is attributed to a change with temperature and with composition of the distribution of chromium between the alpha-iron and gamma-iron solid solutions. The exact composition of the alloys which were obtained through the courtesy of Dr. W. Rohn, of the Heraeus Vakuumschmelze A-G., is given in Table 1. Determinations of the linear thermal expansion and of transformation temperature were carried out in the vacuum dila-tometer previously described,1 using a rate of heating and of cooling of 3.0° to 3.5° per minute unless otherwise stated. Magnetic susceptibility, which was measured in studying the rate of transformation, was determined with a magnetic balance, which also has been described.2

Jan 1, 1935