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By Thomas T. Read

Readjustment of the industrial world to a peace basis after more than 4 years of war will involve many fundamental and far-reaching changes that cannot as yet be clearly foreseen or definitely provided for. Such problems may be subdivided, in the vocabulary of war, into those involving material and those centering about personnel. Of the two, the latter group is the more difficult and obscure, as the factors involved are less clearly understood and the methods to be followed are not yet tested and standardized. When it is said that the market is weak, stocks large, and demand light, every business man understands clearly what is meant and what course he should adopt to adjust himself, so far as possible, to such conditions. But when it is said that the rapid spread of Bolshevism in Europe is a danger to industrial organization in this country, it is difficult to have any assured sense that all that the statement may mean is clearly understood or that the means to be followed to meet such a situation are definitely known. Since Bolshevism is primarily a mental phenomenon and since the rupture it brings about in industrial organization should be prevented, if possible, it is my purpose to restrict this discussion of the activities of the Committee on Industrial Organization to some of its mental aspects, as the chairmen of the sub-committees, from their special knowledge of their own fields, can best set forth recent progress in the lines with which they are especially concerned. The first requisites of success in industrial organization, as in the biological organism of which it is the social counterpart, are unity of purpose and coordinated activity. Typical good and bad examples of this' are the relative parts that the United States and Russia have played in the great war. These two factors are primarily mental, and it is not difficult to view the mental aspects of all problems of industrial organization as the most important ones. Unless we can attain unity of purpose and coordinated activity in industry, the provision of comfortable homes at reasonable rent, the assurance of steady work at good wages, the elimination of industrial accidents, and provision against want in old age or in case of disability will have brought us no nearer to our real goal.

Jan 1, 1919

By Willard S. Morse

The purpose of this paper is to record the results obtained in the use of the Russell process at Aspen, Colo., covering a period of fourteen months, from November, 1891, to December, 1892, during which time over 30,000 tons of ore, purchased outright, on sample and assay, were treated. No explanation of results will be attempted, nor will the chemistry of the process be discussed. The plant was designed by C. A. Stetefeldt, of San Francisco, and built by the owners by day-labor. The entire plant is run by water-power, supplied by a flume 3600 feet long, and a pipe-line 2200 feet long, with a head of 170 feet. A Pelton water-wheel, 8 feet in diameter, is used, from which power is transmitted by wire-rope to the main counter-shaft in the mill, a distance of about 250 feet. From the mill to the samplingworks, about 150 feet, power is also transmitted by a wirerope. A Pelton water-wheel, 3 feet in diameter, supplies power to the dynamo for lighting the plant. The works are located adjoining the Santa Fe railroad tracks, and all ore and supplies are unloaded directly from the cars to the works. The sampling-works are provided with crushers and rolls, the latter being used only on samples, and not on the entire ore. The Cornish hand-quartering method is used in sampling ore for purchase. After crushing and sampling, the ore goes to the bedding-floor, where it is made up into mixtures suitable for the mill. The drying-plant consists of four Stetefeldt double shelfdryers, six shelves high, and is provided with dust-chambers and a stack 65 feet high for draft. These dryers are fired with gas

Jan 1, 1896

By S. B. Flagg

Advancement in the art of burning fuels for steam generation has been so marked and so rapid in the last 10 or 15 years that one may well hesitate to classify as unsuitable for stationary steam boiler firing any material having a fuel value. This statement should not be interpreted to mean that any existing boiler plant can successfully utilize any fuel with which it might be supplied. It does mean, however, that almost without exception it is possible to design and construct stationary boiler plants so that they can be operated with whatever coal is the economic supply therefor. In considering the subject of the use classification of coals, it must be recognized, first, that the suitability or unsuitability of a coal for certain uses or conditions may be largely a matter of opinion and, second, that as advancement in the art of burning fuels continues, fuels that may have been considered unsuitable may later be regarded as entirely suitable. This is well illustrated in the creation of a market for slack bituminous coal and for the finer sizes of anthracite that resulted from the development of mechanical stokers adapted thereto. Coke breeze is another fuel of which large tonnages were formerly wasted, that has now been found suitable for use in properly designed furnaces. Again, results that would have been thought quite impossible a generation ago are being obtained in steam boiler plants today with lignites of high moisture content and with coals of excessive ash content. It must, however, be admitted that oftentimes an existing boiler plant can be successfully operated with only a limited number of the coals that are available as possible supplies. We may briefly consider some of the more important factors that may affect the suitability of coals for such a plant. Insufficient or barely sufficient draft to meet peak steam demands is often a limiting factor, and the permissible frequency of fire-cleaning periods is another. In some cases, the action of the molten coal ash on refractory furnace linings prohibits or makes inadvisable the use of certain coals. Again, clinker conditions in the fuel bed or slag conditions on the boiler-heating surface may be much worse with some coals than with

Jan 1, 1930

By H. C. Vacher

THE limiting concentrations of carbon and oxygen which may co-exist at equilibrium in liquid iron are important in determining the degree to which liquid steel may be refined before it is deoxidized. Most refining processes depend upon the oxidation of a highly carburized iron which invariably results in contaminating the steel with oxygen. The oxygen .thus introduced presents many problems to the refiner, who in turn has attempted to rid the steel of this impurity by deoxidation with elements such as manganese, silicon and aluminum. The importance of the limiting concentrations of carbon and oxygen is accentuated in view of a number of recent researches which have indicated in many instances the existence of relations between oxide inclusions and dissolved oxygen and physical properties and chemical behavior of steel. The determination of the equilibrium concentrations of carbon and oxygen existing in iron under steelmaking conditions is obviously of fundamental importance. It has been generally assumed that the product of the equilibrium concentrations of carbon and oxygen in liquid iron is a constant and that this product is directly proportional to the carbon monoxide pressure in equilibrium with the liquid iron. Herty1,2 has computed values for this product based on open-hearth data which are all in the neighborhood of 0.01 to 0.03 (per cent. FeO X per cent. C) for temperatures in the vicinity of 1550° to 1600 C. and one atmosphere pressure. Kinzel and Egan3 have attempted to determine the value of this product by exposing liquid iron to carbon monoxide at one atmosphere pressure. The value reported by them was 0.0005 at 1550°. C. In. order to apply certain equations to the rate of carbon elimination in the open-hearth process, Feild4 found it necessary to assume. a value of 0.0102 at 1580° C. for this

Jan 1, 1931

By C. R. Woodcock, J. S. Mason

In almost any situation where particulate or granular bulk solids have to be conveyed, whether for a distance of a few metres or for many hundreds of metres, a pneumatic conveying system may be considered. Conveying by pipeline is convenient and clean, but running costs may be substantial because of the heavy air consumption and the trend has therefore been towards dense-phase transport in which the ratio of conveyed solids to conveying air is kept high. This paper concentrates on air-float conveying, which can be regarded as an extreme form of dense-phase conveying where the bulk solid is fluidised in a channel and then caused to flow, either by inclining the channel or creating a pressure gradient along 'it. Various designs of air-float conveyor for upward, horizontal and down- ward transport of powders are discussed, with special emphasis on the latter case. In situations where a continuous downward slope can be provided, the combination of air-fluidisation and gravity flow results in a conveying system that, for many kinds of bulk particulate solid, would be hard to better in terms of convenience, reliability and economy. The paper is concluded with a discussion of design features and performance of practical air-gravity conveyors, involving the handling of various bulk particulate solids, both in research and in full-scale industria1 applications.

Jan 1, 1980

By John J. Dran

The elaborate analytical techniques for risk analysis used by the large mining companies in conjunction with the valuation of mineral reserve sites are totally inappropriate for the small miner. The small miner does not possess the financial and technical resources which are available to the large companies for such risk analysis. Even if these resources were available to him, the relatively small size of his investment would not justify a huge expenditure for risk analysis. What is required by the small miner is an improvement over the single point estimates provided by the valuation techniques that he currently uses. Such improvement should provide an indication of the extent to which the true value (known only after the fact) might differ from his estimated value of the mineral reserve site. In addition, a rough indication of the chance of occurrence of various differences between the true and estimated values would be helpful to him. These improvements must be obtained at low cost to be useful to the small miner. Such improvements would have to be based on a simple system requiring very few additional estimates by the miner. The small miner is not accustomed to dealing with sophisticated risk analysis techniques. Hence, any complex, time-consuming approach would be doomed to disuse or possible misuse. A simple, uncomplicated approach requiring a minimum of additional estimates by the miner can be based on a system devised by Frederick S. Hillier Although Hillier's method can be applied to various mineral reserve valuation methods used by the small miner, this note is specifically oriented to the discounted cash flow model. The basic discounted cash flow (DCF) approach provides a single point estimate of value and introduces the concept of risk (i.e. the possibility that the annual cash flows may differ from their estimated values and thus lead to an incorrect investment value) through the use of a risk-adjusted discount rate. This approach simply lowers the present value estimate with increases in the discount rate (i.e. increases in the risk assessment). The single point estimate still remains. Although the lower value estimate makes it less likely that the risky investment will be deemed profitable and undertaken, it provides no indication of risk that is suitable for examination and analysis. In addition to the "best guess" estimate of annual net cash flows required in the DCF model, application of the Hillier risk analysis model requires that the miner

Jan 1, 1976

By C. Elbaum

If a thin layer of liquid gallium is spread on a surface of solid aluminum, the gallium penetrates high-angle grain boundaries at a very rapid rate and separation along these boundaries follows. An experiment was carried out to investigate this phenomenon. A well-annealed specimen of aluminum 99.994 pct pure, consisting of several large grains was used, Fig. 1. The dimensions of the sample were 25 mm wide by 2.5 mm thick and all the grain boundaries extended through the entire thickness of the plate. This sample was prepared by strain-annealing and, as can be seen in Fig. 1, contained one long, straight boundary. An examination of the crystal orientations showed this boundary to be a coherent twin boundary. The angular misorientations between the grains forming the other boundaries were all in excess of 20 deg. A thin layer of liquid gallium was spread on one side of the specimen at about 30°C (the melting point of gallium is 29.7"C). After the application of the liquid the temperature was lowered to about 27°C. The gallium remained liquid at this temperature and it can be seen from the A1-Ga phase diagram1 that the liquid was probably saturated with aluminum.

Jan 1, 1960

By J. T. Hayward

Studies of the forces and conditions governing the recovery of petroleum from natural reservoirs indicate that a low gas-oil ratio increases ultimate recovery, retards the encroachment of water and tends to reduce lifting costs. Methods for controlling and reducing gas-oil ratios in producing wells consequently have been given considerable attention during the past few years. However, during this same period, the production from wells in nearly all fields has been fixed by proration agreements and it is the opinion of the writer that where a well is required to produce steadily at a predetermined rate, less than its "potential" or maximum capacity, the gas-oil ratio will depend only upon the rate of production, and will be independent of the method of production and of the design of equipment in the well. If no change in the rate of production is contemplated, efforts directed to improving the gas-oil ratio by altering the diameter of the flow string, changing the position of the choke, assisting the flow with gas-lift or pump, etc., will be unsuccessful. This viewpoint is not new. It was presented by H. N. Marsh and B. H. Robinson in 1929,' but it has not been generally accepted. Although engineers believe that the rate of withdrawal and not the equip ment used governs the water-oil ratio, a similar opinion regarding the gas-oil ratio is not so commonly admitted. The rates of flow of oil and gas into the base of an oil well depend upon the following conditions: 1. The characterist-ics of the oil and gas. 2. The characteristics of the underground reservoir. 3. Temperature and pressure conditions in the reservoir. 4. The back-pressure held against the face of the sand. In operating a well, the only one of these conditions over which control may be exercised through operating procedure and the use of equipment above the sand is the back-pressure at the face of the sand. Strictly speaking, the back-pressure varies over the face of the sand, owing

Jan 1, 1932

By A. R. Matthews

This description of the organization of the Consolidation Coal CO. is intended to include only the portion that is charged with the responsibility of the actual operation of an individual mine, although it has seemed advisable to include several of the all-division personnel, who necessarily come in direct contact with the mine officials. The Consolidation Coal Co. has a staff and line organization and, while most of the contact between these two wings is made between officers ranking above those discussed in this paper, field representatives of several of the staff departments play such an important role in the control of certain phases of activity at the mines that a true picture of the mine organization cannot be had unless these men are included. The demands made upon the producer of large quantities of coal have certainly never been so exacting as they are today. Reductions in the number of accidents and in the cost of individual accidents has passed from the category of a desirable achievement to an unqualified necessity. Although the market price of coal today is lower than it has been in many years, consumers have never been so critical of quality. This market condition is especially severe on the producer to whom one bad shipment may mean the loss of a contract. And the battle to keep the reduction of production costs abreast with constantly dropping prices wages incessantly. For the legitimate producer this situation demands a mine-operating organization that is comprehensive, versatile, efficient and economical; and it is in an attempt to meet these conditions that our present system has been designed. To say that this line-up is incapable of being improved or that it is applicable to all conditions would be to assume a degree of presumption which certainly is not intended here, but our system does meet the conditions which we are called upon to face today with a smoothness and thoroughness which we consider reasonably satisfactory. Authority or Consultation On the chart of Fig. 1 an attempt is made to show as clearly as possible the authority and responsibility of each mine official, together with the

Jan 1, 1931

By Samuel M. Cassidy

The exact date of man's first use of coal is lost in antiquity. The discovery that certain black rock would burn was undoubtedly accidental and probably occurred independently and many times in the world over thousands of years. It is quite likely that these independent discoveries were made when primitive man chanced to build camp fires on exposed ledges of a black rock, then was amazed when it caught fire. The Chinese recorded the use of coal 1100 yearn before the Christian Era and from the Bible we learn that King Solomon was familiar with coal in what is now Syria. In Wales, there is evidence that the Bronze Age people used coal for funeral pyres, and it is known that the Romans used this fuel. There are other ancient references. So the knowledge that coal would burn, and even some uses of that knowledge, go back thousands of years. However, practical and consistent use of coal seems to date to England in the Middle Ages. COAL IN AMERICA In the Americas, there is evidence here and there of occasional use by the Indians. However, the first recorded discovery of coal, in what is now the US, was by French explorers, who reported an outcrop exposure on the Illinois River in 1679. Following this, other discoveries were made by French and British explorers, but the first recorded actual usage was in Virginia in 1702, where a French settler was granted permission to use coal for his forge. Earliest recorded commercial mining was in 1750, from the James River coaEeld near Richmond, VA, a deposit now abandoned. Besides local consumption from this field, shipments were made to Philadelphia, New Pork, and Boston. During the Revolution this coal was of impor- tance in the manufacture of shot and shell; so important, in fact, that the British sent an expedition in 1781 to destroy the iron works and

Jan 1, 1981

Freeman, the English historian, said that he had learned from Macaulay "never to be afraid of using the same word or name over and over again if by that means anything could be added to clearness or force. Macaulay never goes. on, like some writers, talking about ' the former ' and 'the latter ', 'he ', 'she ', 'it), and 'they’, through clause after clause, while his reader has to look back to see which of several persons it is that is so darkly referred to". He might have learned also from Macaulay that a preposition makes a feeble ending for a serious statement. How often do you hear 'the former' and 'the latter' in conversation? Good conversation is a guide not to be disdained. When you must use 'the latter ', do not confuse it with 'the last '. Cheap labor, cheap fuel, and cheap transport are essential, the latter [last] being particularly important in base-metal mining. The apparatus may be used to determine such gases as hydrogen sulphide, chlorine, oxides of nitrogen and some others, as well as sulphur dioxide. In the case of the latter two, etc. The two last mentioned are "sulphur dioxide" and "some others". He should have stated which two, and he should have avoided that wretched phrase "in the case of ". Pinning may be partly prevented by use of chalk, oil, or turpentine. The latter [last] is beat. "Partly prevented" is a poor phrase. 'Prevented' is a word that does not lend itself readily to modification. He means ' checked ' or 'corrected '. These steps are necessary to produce the gas, crude oil, and ammonia, the latter [last] of which is in solution in the water obtained along with the oil.

Jan 1, 1931

By Marcel Schlumberger

The electrical methods for surface-prospecting have been well developed in the last 20 years. The method involves, in the classic form, the sending of an electrical current into the soil, by means of two electrodes A and B, and studying the potential distribution at the surface, by measuring the difference of potential between pairs of points such as M and N. The points M and N are usually placed on a line between, and equidistant from, A and B. By increasing the distance AB, the current sent into the Earth, and likewise the distribution of surface-potentials, become influenced by regions of greater and greater depth below the surface. By varying the form and dimensions of the electrode-arrangements AMNB, called a "quadripole," one may make valuable deductions concerning the nature or thickness of beds, if one knows the electrical properties of these beds. On the other hand, if the form and dimensions of the electrodes AMNB remain fixed, the depth of penetration of currents in the Earth remains, so to speak, almost constant, although it tends to increase where the subsoil is more conductive, and conversely. Therefore, if one moves the constant-dimension quadripole over all the terrain to be Investigated, one achieves approximately a horizontal exploration. This permits a study of tilted beds or faulted horizon-tal beds. When the particular problem becomes deep, of the order of 2000 meters, or more, it is ne-cessary to Increase the distance between the current-sources AB to a length such that the work 'comes very troublesome, especially if the region is wooded. At the same time, the separation the points M and N must be likewise great (for example, one km) in order to obtain differences potential which are not too small; the measurement of potential differences across MN is then difficult because of the presence of parasitic potentials, due to a flow of telluric currents in fourth, and the order of greatness of these currents may exceed the quantities to be measured.

Jan 1, 1940

By Norman D. Fitzgerald

The growth of domestic requirements for motor fuel has been phenomenal, rising year after year in a fashion almost unique among commodities, resisting depressions and forging rapidly ahead in times of prosperity. Consumption advanced from 226 millions of barrels in 1925 to 522 millions of barrels in 1938; or 130 per cent. The economic influences generating and sustaining this demand are of vital concern to the petroleum industry. The general factors affecting utilization of motor fuel are well known but it is the purpose of this paper to employ the recently developed technique of economic dynamics to describe them mathematically. Such problems in economic analysis are complicated by the freedom of all the variables to fluctuate, their mutual interdependence, changing incidence upon one another, and the nonquantitative character of some of them. Economic quantities and relationships, unlike those of the physical world, are continuously changing and this dynamic characteristic is both a distinguishing and confusing feature in economic research. The complexities of the problems require application of the analytical devices of mathematical statistics to uncover the probable relationships between factors. The procedure employed is to formulate a logical relationship linking the dependent to the independent variables, and then simultaneously, rather than sequentially, determine their separate effects by multiple correlation. This transformation of common knowledge to quantitative terms makes it possible to measure the probable effects of changing conditions upon requirements, assisting in the sound interpretation of economic policies. The utility of the results of such dynamic analysis is in sharp contrast to the sterility of the trends and other simple empiricisms of descriptive statistics. It is not intended in this study to throw light on the reasons why any motor fuel at all is consumed; but to discover relationships explaining why more was consumed at one time than at another. Specifically the problem is confined to the measurement of the influences of statistically

Jan 1, 1940

By Harold Rose

THE peak of production from the Appalachian natural gas field was apparently reached about 10 years ago, and the annual production from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio has now dropped to about two-thirds of the amounts obtained in 1916 and 1917. This .falling off in production has occurred in spite of vigorous efforts and large expenditures by producing companies to maintain or increase their output. The greatly increased costs of development and handling are reflected in the present average value of natural gas at the point of consumption, which value in the three states referred to, has more than doubled in the past 10 years. While it is true that the natural gas production of the United States has increased during recent years, this increase has come from southwestern states, particularly from Oklahoma, California, Louisiana and Texas, which states are now leaders in the production of this valuable but fleeting resource. Pennsylvania, originally the leading state in natural gas production, occupies sixth place in the latest (1924) U. S. Bureau of Mines statistics. West Virginia, which held first place for 15 years, has dropped to third rank, and Ohio is the seventh state in the order of natural gas production. Domestic and industrial demands for gas are constantly increasing everywhere in the United States. These growing demands have accentuated the difficulties in the localities with depleted natural gas supplies, and serious shortages have already occurred during winter months in the Pittsburgh district. Some relief has been obtained by placing restrictions on the industrial use of natural gas, and by increasing the price (which tends to reduce consumption). Yet these are but temporary expedients for checking gas consumption, which fail to solve the problem of adequate future supplies of gas.

Jan 10, 1926

By Morgan Walker, C. D. Watson, Reid W. Bond, D. L. Trax

Common practice in the Mid-Continent until recently was to prolong the natural flow of oil wells as long as possible by agitation, and then swab for a short period until the well was put on the pump. Comparatively recently the gas-lift has superseded the swabbing and agitating period and in some cases encroached on the natural flowing life, particularly where it was evident that the potential oil capacity of the well was greater than the gas supply, or lifting medium. The majority of wells are finished with either 6¼, 65/8 or 8¼-in. casing and connected to a separator through a flow line which is usually 65/8 in. The flow line is generally designed to eliminate sharp turns and has reduced the gas-oil ratio and therefore increased the efficiency in a good many instances. Until recently all wells were allowed to flow without restriction against the possible trap pressure until it was deemed advisable to put them on gas-lift. This resulted in a fairly efficient flow during the early life of the well if the well was rather large but was usually inefficient in small wells and in the later flowing life of large wells, on account of the large area in the casing and therefore excessive slippage. Recently, considerable effort has been made to increase the efficiency of small flowing wells by running tubing to eliminate as much slippage as possible. With large wells there is a considerable trend toward back-pressuring, or beaning to find out whether it is possible to reduce the gas-oil ratios and increase the flowing life. The greater number of fields that have been back-pressured have been produced in that manner through necessity, either to restrict production for proration purposes or, in fields producing by hydraulic pressure, to reduce water encroaching. The recent Cromwell sand development in Little River is an example where both back-pressuring by means of high-pressure traps and beans and flowing through tubing were used to conserve gas, reduce the high gas-oil ratio and prolong the flowing life. It

Jan 1, 1930

HAVING previously described the metals to you, before I proceed any farther I do not wish to fail to tell you, as I promised to do in the first chapter on metals, what I have learned through experience concerning the semiminerals, although this may seem to you outside our proposed subject. Since these are not produced by Nature as all rock or all metal they are called semiminerals by speculative physicians. Many kinds of these are found; those that resemble rocks are earthy, very difficult to liquefy, and much more adapted for adorning paintings than for anything else. Those that liquefy with fire, like sulphur, antimony, marcasite, [22] calamine, zaffre, manganese, and others, resemble the metals almost like brothers. Some others are more watery so that they dissolve in water, although they are fairly dense, and are obtained and reduced to their, perfection by means of water. These are the salts, vitriol, rock alum, and saltpeter. To these, as a watery thing, belongs also quicksilver, as it is commonly called because of its motion. Although it appears. not only liquid, but very liquid, this is not at all similar in its effects to any of the above. Indeed, it retains its same being until its very form is consumed. Since the reasons for its effects are almost impossible to investigate, I do not intend to speak of them here or to enter now this maze of speculation, because I wish to make definitely clear to you what this quicksilver really is. Therefore, leaving aside opinions and disputes, I shall take only those of the said semiminerals that I know are useful. First we shall see the method by which the semiminerals can be found and then how they are to be extracted from their matrices. These, perhaps, have no less need of effort and industry than the metals since they are substances completely hidden in the rocks or in the earth. For this reason some of these that are sought are made use of by means of fusion after they have been mined from their mother mountains, and some others need to be disposed by a certain maturative corruption, now with moisture and coldness, now with dryness and heat, as with waters, rains, frosts, or long baking in the sun, with fire, or even with a strong reheating within themselves. Most of them can finally be brought to the desired end by means of solution with water and fire.

Jan 1, 1942

By J. R. Hoffert

ON Oct. 27, 1941, the Sanitary Water Board of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania called a meeting of the representatives of the coal operators in the Schuylkill River Basin, and frankly suggested to the operators that they "clean up their house" before someone else came in and did it for them; that they should not emulate the railroads with their "public be damned" policy and its fateful results. It had been four years since the passage of the antipollution law of 1937, a law which exempted silt from collieries until such time as a practical method existed for the removal of their water polluting properties. It had been fifteen long years since Sisler, Frazer and Ashmead concluded that 900 million tons of culm and silt had been deposited in Pennsylvania's streams in the process of preparing five and a half billion tons of anthracite for the world's consumers. Fine coal was being "mined" in the streams by "washeries" and river dredges downstream from the collieries, and silt banks no longer held back the endless black stream entering the Schuylkill at the rate of 350,000 tons per month. The coal operators were apparently working on the outmoded assumption that each ton of fine coal prepared displaced a ton of larger sized, more profitable coal. The meeting between the Sanitary Water Board and the coal operators signaled the beginning of the end of Pennsylvania's pollution problems. As a result a committee was formed at that meeting by the operators to find out what conditions were at each colliery. The Bureau assisted in the indication of methods of measurement and sampling and in the development of forms for reporting the needed data. One large producer had its chief engineer supervise the gathering of the information concerning the quantity of waste waters, the amount and sieve analyses of the waste solids, and the existing means for retaining

Jan 3, 1950

By Charles Bohdanowicz

Production of crude in 1937 decreased (Tables 1 and 5) by about 2 per cent, while gas production for that period increased by about 6 per cent after a slight decrease in 1936 (0.4 per cent).' As in preceding years, drilling operations were confined principally to extensions of old oil fields in the Jaslo district (fields 1 and 7) and to some extent to such extensions in the Stanislawbw district (field 27). Deepening of old wells to horizons reached more recently by new wells gave on the average better results per well than those attained by new wells (Table 3). Reserves of proved lands have increased some by new oil fields discovered, Targowiska (field 8) and Czarna (field 19) both of which, however, have only small production. The Daszawa gas field (field 25) has not been extended, but two new gas fields were located instead— Opary, distant 25 km. (151/2 miles) northwest of Daszawa, Balicze at 12 km. (7 1/4 miles) southeast of Daszawa, and Kalusz (TESP Company exploiting potassium salts) in the vicinity of the town of that name (field 33). Drilling upon the gas area near Tarnbw and Debica, while gas-bearing sandstone had been found at depths of from 300 to 512 meters (984 to 1680 ft.) (Zdziary No. 2) and at 220 m. (722 ft.) [pressure 11 atmospheres, flow 24 cu. m. per min. (847 cu. ft.)] (Przyborbw No. l), has not as yet ascertained horizons qualified for permanent exploitation. The exploring well near Kos6w remained for the last seven months at the depth of 1420 m. because of the collapse of rotary drilling pipe. Below the 300-m. level no gas sands have been encountered at this well. Gas Reserves In connection with the broad plan of developing industrially the sector of Poland lying between the Vistula and the San Rivers, and extending farther north as far as the city of Radom, there arose the necessity of a more accurate calculation of gas reserves for the fields of

Jan 1, 1938

By R. Steinitz, L. Seigle, R. Resnick

THE rates of growth of the carbide phases MC and M2C in the Ta-C and Cb-C systems have been measured at various temperatures and the results used to estimate the rate of carbon diffusion within the inter metallic phases. Sheets of high-purity tantalum (50 ppm Cb, <25 ppm Ti, 10 ppm Fe, 5 ppm Cr, <50 ppm Mo, W, and all other metals, 15-75 ppm O2, 10-30 ppm N2, and 10-30 ppm C) approximately 1/4 by 1/2 by 0.020 in. were heated to temperatures between 1800" and 2700°C in a carbon resistor furnace under an atmosphere of argon plus sufficient methane to maintain an excess of carbon at the sample surface. The thicknesses of the carbide layers, illustrated in Fig. 1, were measured with a filar micrometer and plotted logarithmically as a function of time. Fig. 2 is a typical plot for the TaC phase. The points may be represented within experimental error by lines with slope equal to 1/2; therefore the growth of the layers may be described by the usual expression X = kt1/2, where X is the layer thickness, t is the time, and k is a temperature-dependent constant. From these data and compositions at the phase boundaries, it is possible to estimate values for the diffusion coefficients of carbon in each phase, assuming that layer growth occurs by carbon diffusion alone, and that the dif-fusivity is not a function of composition within each

Jan 1, 1965

By Barnabas Bryan

During the boom period of 1928 and 1929, several oil companies took advantage of high security prices to sell stocks, thereby securing money for the company very cheaply. Few if any of those companies realized that the money received was not at all cheap in view of the fact that it was for investment in fixed assets at inflated prices. Suppose a company borrowed twenty millions of dollars to expand its marketing facilities during the boom. It diluted its capital and acquired fixed property which could not earn its interest requirements during the following deflation and therefore consumed income from other company activities. The company also had to stand the deflation in the capital value of all the property it bought. Since the mistaken expansion during the boom accelerated the decline in net income during deflation, the financial position of the company was harmed in proportion to the amount of that expansion. Thus the company was unable to get money to buy fixed assets in the depression when all property is cheap. The same condition holds for the company that sold common stock for the purpose of developing potential production in a newly discovered oil field. Regardless of what the ultimate value of the new field may be, potential production does not increase the net income of the company. The difficulty of meeting the enlarged dividend requirements due to the increased number of shares outstanding impairs the financial position of the company during deflation in some relation to the probability of decreased dividends. This company also is not in a position to expand during the depression when properties and companies can be bought for a fraction of their real value. Expansion of fixed assets during boom times has been the ruin of many otherwise good companies. Some of those which most extensively bought property during the post-war boom have not yet recovered. A number of cases could be cited in sugar, leather, fertilizer and wool. This does not seem to be governed by the quality of the property bought, for examination shows the assets to have been of individual high quality in many cases. When recovery is long deferred it is likely to be true, as in sugar or textiles, that the industry has a large "potential" capacity for overproduction.

Jan 1, 1931