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By Thomas Egleston

The ores of mercury of North California are composed of metallic mercury and cinnabar. They are found in serpentine, and are very often associated with chalcedony, in masses more or less irregular, often concentrated enough, however, to furnish ores yielding from three to ten per cent., and sometimes richer. This deposit makes its appearance in Vallejo where it has been worked. North of here the mines are more developed. Most of the quicksilver mines, however, are situated in Sonoma and Napa Counties. On its outcrop the serpentine rocks have become decomposed, and have often been washed away to a considerable depth, so that in many cases in their neighborhood, what is apparently nothing but ordinary dirt, will frequently contain from two to three per cent. of metallic mercury, with but a trace of cinnabar, in which case, as at the Sonoma mine, it is made up into adobes and distilled. Such material does not require to be mixed with dirt to be made into adobes. Very often, also, the outcrop of the rock, where it is not decomposed, is filled with metallic mercury, so that by striking a pick into it, as at the Rattlesnake mine, a pound or more of mercury at a time will sometimes spurt out. Such rock as this is found in several localities in every stage of impregnation, and usually makes very rich ore. There is generally, however, very little of it, and it is found only in the first workings; the ore in depth is always cinnabar. At the Rattlesnake mine near Pine Flat, where large quantities of metallic mercury are found, the rock contains so much petroleum that it has been necessary to make special arrangements to burn the carbides of hydrogen, since the distillation of the petroleum causes an extra quantity of poor soot to be formed in the condensation-chambers. At the Geysers the ore is associated with large quantities of sulphur and gypsum, so that in a hand specimen there is often more sulphur than cinnabar, which is a serious impediment to working, especially for the modern style of furnace with iron condensers, and causes so much soot to be formed that it has been known to penetrate as far as the blower, and to so completely clog it as to prevent its revolution. The ore coming from the mine is more or less hand-picked. In one or two cases attempts have been made to treat the poorest, and especially the very fine ores, mechanically as at the California works.

By H. J. O’Donnell, B. C. Parks

IN 1930 the late Dr. Reinhardt Thiessen set up a method of microscopic analysis and type classification of coal that has since been followed as standard practice in the coal-petrography laboratory of the Bureau of Mines. Thiessen's terminology which designated the constituent parts of coal in terms of botanical origin was introduced in 1920.l The technique, however, of preparing a completely representative series of thin sections from a column sample of coal for use in making quantitative determinations of coal components with a microscope was developed about 10 years later by Thiessen and coworkers G. C. Sprunk and H. J. O'Donnell.2 Complete thin-section analyses subsequently have been made of 126 column samples of various ranks and types of American coals. The data and information were assembled from these thin-section studies and published in a large number of reports dealing chiefly with investigations of the coking and hydrogenation properties of certain American coals. In the years following adoption of Thiessen's method, a considerable amount of work was done in collecting column samples of many coals, making routine thin-section analyses of these, interpreting the results, and finding practical application for the information in other fields of coal research. The many reports and papers covering the work in coal petrography, however, offer very little discussion that can be considered as critical appraisal of the technique. Criticism outside the Bureau most often has voiced questioning opinions concerning the accuracy of the method used of measuring coal components microscopically and classifying the coal into arbitrary types on the basis of the quantitative determinations. The principal purpose of this paper is to discuss in some detail and present data showing the results of certain investigative work done in the petrography laboratory on the accuracy of the Bureau's method of microscopic measurement of components in coal thin sections. Data from microscopic analyses on file made by G. C. Sprunk and H. J. O'Donnell were freely used in the investigation, and a table of columnar analyses from an unpublished manuscript by Sprunk is included in this paper for reference. In the course of the experimental work a method was developed for measuring instrumentally with a planimeter the components shown in micrographs of selected thin sections. Measuring coal components with a planimeter furnished useful information for studying the accuracy of microscopically measuring the same components in thin sections. PETROGRAPHIC COMPONENTS AND TYPE CLASSIFICATION OF COAL Thiessen considered coal to be composed of two visibly different major components present in various types of coal in greatly varying proportions. He named

Jan 1, 1948

By L. A. Wilson, N. H. Harrison, R. R. Clay, R. L. Reed. D. W. Reed

Experiments have been performed in a linear near-adiabatic system for the purpose of extending data on reverse and forward combustion from atmospheric pressure to 1,000 psig. Results obtained from reverse combustion appear to conform qualitatively with the existing description of the process when reaction kinetics are suitably modified to account for the increase in pressure, i.e., increasing tbe pressure decreases the peak temperature and increases the combustion zone velocity. Forward combustion appears to be a fuel dominated process wherein peak temperature and combustion zone velocity are not very sensitive to changes in pressure. The moderate effects of pressure that do exist at low flux virtually disappear at high flux providing all oxygen is consumed. With this provision. increasing the pressure decreases the frontal velocity and increases the peak temperature. Results me shown graphicaIIy which demonstrate the effects of presswe on peak temperature, rate of advance, oil recovery, air/oil ratio, carbon oxides produced and temperature distributions. INTRODUCTION Numerous field tests of oil recovery using the technique of underground combustion are now in progress. Operating pressures used are always substantially in excess of atmospheric pressure. Nevertheless, the literature contains no laboratory data pertaining to the effects of pressure except for those of Martin, Alexander and Dew.1 Unfortunately, these data appear to reflect heat losses which may have obscured some of the effects of increased pressure. The underground combustion processes are exceedingly complex, and general concepts relating to them have necessarily been described in relatively simple terms. Particularly with regard to forward combustion, the interaction between multiphase fluid flow, heat transport and various rate mechanisms is so involved that to date a rigorous treatment is not available. In this paper a linear near-adiabatic system is described which was found capable of operating at pressures up to 1,000 psig and temperatures of at least 1,100 F. Using this equipment, experiments on both forward and reverse combustion were accomplished at elevated pressures and the data presented as a function of air flux or temperature. It will be assumed that the reader is familiar with the papers of Wilson, Wygal, Reed, Gergins and Henderson on forward combustion and that of Reed, Reed and Tracht3 on reverse combustion, so that it is not necessary to repeat the details of the two processes. EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURE It was decided to study the effects of pressure over the interval 0-1,000 psig using a near-adiabatic system. Since satisfactory operation of such a system requires very thin tubing walls, it proved necessary to insert the entire combustion tube and heater assembly into a high pressure jacket in such a way that the internal tube pressure could be counterbalanced by pressurizing the annulus. This meant that the numerous heater and thermocouple wires had to pass through gas-tight seals that required considerable effort to maintain effective. An unexpected difficulty arose in connection with the nature of the annulus pressuring gas. It turned out that the composition of this gas critically affected the functioning of the adiabatic control system. Operation of the equipment at elevated pressures was not particularly difficult. The problems that did arise were a direct consequence of the large numbers of connections and seals involved. EQUIPMENT The equipment consisted of the combustion tube which fitted within the pressure jacket. This jacket was in turn mounted on a wheeled carriage which facilitated movement and provided for rotation of the

By Frank S. McKenna, Myron A. Pugacz, Clarence E. Jackson

The notched-bar impact test has proved worth while in certain applications as a test for control of the quality or the heat-treatment of steel. In view of the serious thought that even so simple a test as the tensile test has evoked during the past years, it is not surprising that the notched-bar impact test should have inspired much experimental work. The correlation of the great number of data has not been successful, although steady progress has been made toward a better understanding of this test. Progress has been made, especially, in the isolation of the effects of the many variables that control the results. The stress system imposed on a specimen with a notch is so complicated and unpredictable that no simple evaluation of the test has been possible. Because of this uncertainty, many engineers hesitate to use the notched-bar impact test, and this attitude may well continue until a better understanding of the effects of the variables in the test are available. Without doubt, any additional data that may be presented should be accompanied by as complete a description of the - details of test as possible, so that it may be added to the general fund of information that is to serve as the basis for the theory of the notched-bar impact test. The many factors that may control the test results have been pointed out repeatedly. The importance of the effect of the type and dimensions of the specimen has been recognized. Most of the work reported by American investigators has been limited to small-size (Charpy) specimens tested as a simple beam; two types of notches (Fig. I) have been commonly used. Considerable data have also been presented by many investigators using a small specimen tested as a cantilever beam; this commonly being called the Izod test. Here, however, a shear component of stress makes the stress system even more complex than that present in the simple beam type of test, hence a critical analysis is difficult. Much work has also been reported by investigators using the tension type of specimen. A second variable that must be controlled is the testing temperature. An indication that the tests were performed at room temperature is not sufficient, since in many steels a variation of a few degrees in the actual testing temperature may be sufficient to give an entirely different range of results. Other factors, such as the composition and condition of the material being tested and the speed of test, should also be considered. Many investigators have contributed data and theoretical discussions on the problems encountered in notched-bar test-

Jan 1, 1944

By Robert I. Jaffee, Bruce W. Gonser

Recent work by the authors1 established the constitutional diagram of the gold-germanium system. Of particular interest in the simple euctectiferous system was the eutectic alloy at 12 per cent Ge, which melted at the very low temperature of 356°C and had an unusually fine eutectic structure. It was of interest to investigate the effect of third components on the melting point, microstructure, and strength of this alloy, and in this work the effect of copper is discussed rather completely, with less complete data on the effects of silver, platinum, nickel, and zinc. No reference in the literature has been found on ternary systems with gold-germanium. Materials and Alloying -4s in the work on the binary system, gold-germanium, the germanium used in this investigation was the cyanide-reduced, 99.9 per cent product, produced by the Eagle-Picher Co. Fine gold sheet from Handy and Harmon, pure platinum sheet from the American Platinum Works, copper magnet wire from Anaconda, nickel wire assaying 99.6 per cent Ni. and electrolytic zinc were used for alloying. To make the alloys, charges of the pure metals were put in a graphite crucible and melted in an atmosphere of pure hydrogen. The temperature was brought up to about I050 C, and the metal allowed to freeze in the crucible. Except with alloys containing zinc, melting losses were consistently less than a few milligrams. When zinc was a component, weight losses up to half the weight of the zinc present were incurred, and the alloy compositions were calculated by assuming the entire weight loss to be that of zinc. In all other cases the composition of the alloys could safely be taken as that of the charge. The ingots, as solidified, were segregated, the heavier primary phases being at the bottom and sides of the ingots and the lighter primary phases at the top, but by sectioning the entire ingot vertically for microscopic examination, this factor could be evaluated. Ingots for microscopic examination weighed one gram, and those for thermal analysis weighed three grams. Thermal Analysis In this work, the eutectic line composition and thermal arrests were desired, and, after microscopic exploration had established the position of the eutectic line at a given percentage of the third component, a thermal analysis was run at that composition. The method of thermal analysis used in the work on the binary Au-Ge system,' a method particularly well suited for a small quantity of material, was used in this work. Clearly defined arrests were obtained, although with some alloys containing platinum

Jan 1, 1946

By Carl A. Zapffe, M. Eleanor Haslem

The present investigation has three principal purposes: 1. To develop a method for measuring hydrogen embrittlement that avoids cer, tain errors complicating previously used methods. 2. To explore in a preliminary way some of the fundamental factors controlling embrittlement. 3. To apply the measurements specifically to stainless grades of steel, whose sensitivity or insensitivity to hydrogen embrittlement has never been clearly defined. Selecting a Test Method Hydrogen embrittlement is a condition of low ductility resulting from excessive absorption of hydrogen by the steel at some period in its history, and may be revealed by almost any test involving cold deformation. Tensile tests, impact tests, and bend tests are commonly used for detecting hydrogen embrittlement; although numerous other tests, such as cold-upsetting or extrusion, could be used. The simplicity of using a wire specimen for cathodic and acid pickling tests, and the especial adaptability of the bend test to wire specimens, led to selection of the bend test for the present research. Bend tests usually have been of three general types: (I) fatigue, (2) reversed bend, and (3) single bend. The first two types, though widely used, are inaccurate because their measurements are counteracted by an aging effect; and the third type has not been developed to its fullest utility. The effect of cold-working in removing hydrogen is well known. During a bend test hydrogen can be observed escaping from the convex side simply by coating the specimen with oil; and any technique employing flexing or reverse bending may therefore have its measurements masked because the mechanical action reduces the embrittlement during the test. This factor is so important that even elastic flexing of a hydrogen-charged wire specimen should be avoided before testing if accurate measurements are desired. Developing a Machine for Measuring Hydrogen Embrittlement As for the single-bend test, its theory is good, and recovery caused by mechanical work is kept to a minimum. With a given degree of hydrogen embrittlement, a specimen will break at a given angle if the bending is applied unidirectionally and uniformly. The radius of the bend must be kept constant; and the rate of bending should be a constant, slow enough to allow reading of the breaking angle, and yet rapid enough to prevent significant recovery from the escape of hydrogen during bending. A simple apparatus (Fig. I) was constructed using a type H Foxboro drive unit A, which is a synchronous motor with a gear-reduction ratio of 600 to I. A cord, fixed at one end to a wooden pulley B on the drive shaft of the motor, follows the pe-

Jan 1, 1947

By H. Hooykaas

A few years ago Marsal published a method of predicting oil recovery as a function of time for an edge-water-drive reservoir with several rows of wells.' The method is based solely on oil- and water-production data obtained during a short period for the first row of wells and the gross productions (past and future) of all wells. This paper presents a streamlined version of the original publication and experimental evidence showing the reliability of this version. For this purpose scaled experirnents were performed in a large model (750 X 500 X 23 cm, 24.4 ft X 16.2 ft X 8.9 in.) in which edge-water-drive reservoirs with three rows of production wells were simulated. From the results of the experiments it is concluded that the method gives a fairly accurate prediction of the future production behavior of the reservoir and enables us to select the most profitable production plan. Results obtained with the method were always slightly conservative. INTRODUCTION The calculation method developed by Marsal aims at forecasting future reservoir behavior.' It can be applied to floods in which a number of down-dip wells are rapidly going to water. Essentially it is a method for predicting the future behavior of the up-structure wells on the basis of the observed behavior of the down-structure wells. As such, the method is especially useful for predicting behavior of edge-water drives toward several rows of wells. The requirement to be met for justifying the approach is identity of production mechanism in all regions of the reservoir. The attraction of the method then lies in the fact that it applies even when we have no complete description of the prevailing production mechanism. The original publication was in the German language and for this reason, perhaps, did not attract widespread attention. In our opinion it deserves to do so because it does offer in a simple way results which are in fair agreement with observed data. The aim of the present paper is to bring the method to the attention of a wider audience. The method in its most simplified form is reviewed and experimental data in support of it are presented. PRINCIPLES To show Marsal's principle. we will first write the continuity equation for very simple conditions, linear flow (in the positive x-direction) in an incompressible porous body [cross-section A(x), porosity +(x)], saturated with incompressible fluids (oil saturation S). When the oil in this formation is displaced by water, injected at x = 0 (inlet face), we get where q(t) is the total gross displacement rate and f the fractional oil flow. The equation can be solved if we make the assumptions: (1 ) that the fractional oil flow (f) is a univalent function of saturation (S); and (2) that the function is the same throughout the porous medium. Then: f = f(S) Solving this equation with the method of characteristics, we obtain

Jan 1, 1966

By R. I. Jaffee, F. C. Holden, H. R. Ogden

The properties of quenched Ti-Fe alloys have been correlated with their microstruc-tures. For specimens quenched from equilibrium in the a-ß field, the dominant micro-structural variable is the a-ß ratio. A comparison of specimens having equiaxed a-ß structures with those having acicular a-ß structures shows that the equiaxed specimens have better tensile ductility, but lower impact resistance. There is evidence to show that specimens with acicular structures reach equilibrium in the a-ß field more rapidly than specimens with equiaxed structures. Both strength and ductility are lowered by heat treatments below 700°C. IN previous work,1, 2 certain principles of the physical metallurgy of a-ß titanium alloys have been evolved. Most of these principles have been based on data obtained on alloy systems which undergo no eutectoid reaction, or in which the eutec-toid reaction is so sluggish as to be inoperative. The alloy systems previously studied included the Ti-Mn alloys, with and without a-stabilizing additions, and the binary Ti-Mo alloys. The most important of these principles are: I) The compositional factors which affect mechanical properties are solid solution strengthening, the martensite transformation, and instability of

Jan 1, 1957

By Frederick C. Hull

THE grain size of a metal or alloy is one of the most important factors determining its properties. In steels, for example, grain size affects hardenability, toughness and machinability; in brasses, grain size is related to hardness and deep-drawing quality. In the field of heat-resistant alloys, grain size has a marked effect on ductility, creep and endurance strength. In order to determine these effects, as well as to control the properties of materials, many accurate and rapid measurements of grain size must be made. This paper presents a new and improved method for the estimation of grain size. USUAL METHODS of EVALUATING GRAIN SIZE A frequently used method of estimating grain size is that of comparing the image of a polished and etched specimen on the ground-glass screen of a metallographic microscope with standard grain-size charts. Several types of standards are available for use with different classes of microstructures. Geometric Grids.-The Metals Handbook1 has a series of hexagonal grids ranging in size from ASTM No. I to 8. Idealized Grain Networks.-Idealized grain-boundary networks for ASTM grain sizes I to 8 are included in the American Society for Testing Materials Tentative Standard E19-39T. Standard Micrographs.- The Metals Handbook and ASTM Tentative Standard EI9-39T contain micrographs of hypoeutectoid and hypereutectoid steels ranging in grain size from No. I to 8. The grain size of annealed brass (diam¬eter of the average grain in millimeters) is obtained by comparison with 10 micrographs of varying grain size in ASTM Tentative Standard Es-39T. A handicap to accurate evaluation of grain size by this method is the fact that it is difficult to compare photographs in a dimly lighted room with the image on the ground-glass screen, or, if the general illumination is increased so that the printed standards may be clearly seen, the contrast of the image of the unknown is decreased. It is easier to estimate grain size by comparing a micrograph of the unknown with the grain-size standards. However, photographing every specimen on which the grain size is desired is too costly in time and materials to be practicable. For hardened steels, the Shepherd or Jernkontoret fracture grain-size standards are very accurate and useful, but this method obviously cannot be applied to ductile alloys such as brass, stainless steels and austenitic heat-resistant alloys. Jeffries' method for grain-size measurements consists of counting the number

Jan 1, 1947

By B. L. Landrum, P. B. Crawford

Theoretical and potentiometric model studies have been made of the effect of non-uniform lateral permeabilities on pattern sweep efficiency and production capacity in waterflood and gas-cycling programs. It is shown that a diflerence in directional permeability by a factor of three may result in a sweep efficiency of only 43 per cent for a five-spot pattern or a sweep of either 79 or 38 per cent for a direct line-drive square pattern, depending on the direction of the line-drive flood. Changes in the pattern conductivity varied from about 0.8 to 1.34 over this same permeability variation, depending on the pattern used. It is suggested that measurements be made to determine the possible magnitude and extent of the directional permeability phenomenon early in the field developinent and certainly prior to the initiation of any fluid-injection progmm. INTRODUCTION Irregularities in reservoir sand properties long have been a major difficulty to anyone attempting to explicitly describe the field characteristics of oil production. In particular, it is well known that vertical and lateral permeabilities often differ appreciably; however, the existence of large regions with lateral permeabflity variation is not widely recognized. A number of years ago, extensive studies were conducted by the Secondary Recovery Research Labcratory of the Pennsylvania Grade Crude Oil Association, primarily on the Bradford field. Johnson and Hughes' reported a permeability trend in the northeast-southwest direction. They indicated that flow in the preferred direction may be 25 to 30 per cent greater in that direction than in the northwest-southeast direction. They also reported that similar effects may be found in other nearby fields. The origin of the permeability variation has been discussed by Griffith Hutchinson' described the results of labora- tory tests on limestone cores, pointing out that per-ferential directional permeabilities were significant in one-half of 10 formations studied and that the average permeability ratio was 16:1. Barfield, Jordan and Moore analyzed the fluid-injection displacement performance in the Spraberry and reported that the effective ratio of permeability parallel to the major axis to the permeability perpendicular to this axis was 144:l and that it inclined along an angle of about 30". To prevent the reduction of sweep efficiency which would normally result from flooding or cycling in such reservoirs, well spacing could be varied from the customary square to a diamond-shaped pattern. Johnson and Hughes' presented a method for determining the desired shape. Another method will be discussed in detail in the next section. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate quantitatively the effect of directional permeability upon the sweep efficiency and production capacity of the five-spot and line-drive well patterns. Information currently in the literature will be applied to this particular problem and augmented by a potentiometric model study. It is stressed that the effects herein discussed may or may not be of great importance because field data on this phenomenon are far too scant to form such an opinion. It is suggested that, if conditions similar to those found by Johnson and Hughes frequently exist (as may well be the case), more consideration cdrtainly should be given to this problem.

By Wilfrid R. Foster

The industrial importance of the sillimanite group of minerals depends upon the beneficial properties exhibited by porcelains and refractories in which substantial amounts of these minerals are utilized as raw materials. The presence of "sillimanite" (now known to be the closely related mineral, mullite) in conventional porcelains and refractories has been known since before the turn of the century. As early as 1906 German investigators observed a direct correlation between the "sillimanite" content of a porcelain and its electrical and mechanical properties. Acting upon this discovery, U. S. Bureau of Standards investigators during World War I developed improved pyrometer tubes and spark plug porcelains, by increasing substantially the amount of "sillimanite" at the expense of quartz. The success of these experiments, first reported in 1918, at once aroused a lively interest in the location of natural sources of sillimanite and its related minerals. As a result of diligent search, the large andalusite deposits in California were discovered in 1919. Within the next several years large deposits of kyanite and sillimanite in India and kyanite in the United States had been reported. The search for these minerals in quantity, by both private and governmental agencies, has continued unabated during the ensuing forty years. A number of domestic deposits of kyanite have been worked during the past 30 years. Of these, only the Virginian and South Carolinian deposits are currently in substantial production. The only commercial andalusite production in the United States has been in California and Nevada. A dumortierite deposit in Nevada, known since 1917 but ignored for want of a commercial use, began production in 1925. A topaz occurrence in South Carolina has yielded a small production since about 1940. Domestic production of andalusite, dumortierite and topaz had virtually ceased by 1950. There has never been any commercial development of domestic sillimanite deposits. Kyanite has been mined almost continuously in India since about 1922. The remoteness of the large deposits of Indian sillimanite had caused it to be neglected until 1949. In that year sillimanite production began, and it has continued to the present. South African andalusite has been marketed from the 1930's until the present time. From 1944 to 1955 Kenya, British East Africa, was an important producer of kyanite. Commercial deposits of kyanite in Ontario, Canada should soon be in production. The first production of kyanite in Europe began in Austria in 1953. No commercial deposits of mullite are known anywhere in the world. It is of interest to note that synthetic mullite, which as "sillimanite" first elicited interest in the A12O3-rich aluminosilicate refractories, has enjoyed a marked increase in production in recent years. This is a result of the gradual depletion of known deposits of high-quality kyanite and related minerals."' Composition The sillimanite group includes kyanite, andalusite, and sillimanite, all having the same chemical composition (A12O3•SiO2) but different physical properties. Two other minerals, dumortierite and topaz, are also included in

Jan 1, 1960

By Luiz C. Correa da Silva, Robert F. Mehl

An experimental study of the movement of markers in the systems Cu/a-brass, Cu/Sna-solid solution, Cu/Ala-solid solution, Cu/Ni, Cu/Au, Ag/Au, employing many types of markers and a variety of temperatures. Marker movement is confirmed and undoubtedly associated with the manner in which atoms move during diffusion. EVERAL years ago Smigelskas and Kirkendall' •S reported measurements on the interdiffusion of copper and a-brass and on the movement of inert markers placed at the original join. These markers were observed to move toward the a-brass side of the join, and from this it was inferred that zinc diffuses in a-brass more rapidly than copper. Similar results were reported a little earlier for the diffusion of solvents into high polymer solids.' This has attracted much attention, particularly from those interested in the mechanism and the theory of diffusion: Seitz3 has employed it in supporting the vacancy theory of diffusion; from the data Darken4 has calculated separate diffusion coefficients for copper and zinc, developing a "phenomenological" theory of diffusion; and Bardeen5 has employed it in constructing a general theory, including therein the work of Seitz and Darken, as has Le Claire. These matters have recently been reconsidered in a sympo~ium.7 Some reason has existed for questioning the work of Smigelskas and Kirkendall.' Their technique consisted in electroplating copper on a-brass, upon the surface of which Mo-wires had been secured, and then diffusing, measuring the extent of diffusion along the normal to the join, and measuring the marker displacement in the same direction by a comparator determination of the distance between Mo-wires on opposite sides of the electroplated brass sample. It has been suspected that the copper plate might have been porous, and that the original interface might have been an imperfect join, both contributing to the transfer of the volatile zinc by vapor transfer;' it has also been questioned whether the marker movement might not in a measure be a property of the marker itself; etc. These legitimate questions require experimental answers; the present paper offers such answers. Moreover, Smigelskas and Kirkendall studied the effect only in the Cu-Zn system and at one temperature; the attention which the work of Smigelskas and Kirkendall has commanded recommends similar

Jan 1, 1952

By Edward A. Capillon

The problem of scrap is probably of greater importance in the pro duction of gold, silver and other precious metal alloys than is the case for base metals and alloys. Remelting of gold and silver scrap in the shop is always a costly process because it involves losses by oxidation of thc base metals in the alloy with a consequent increase in the percentage of precious metal. This is most marked in the case of alloys containing the low-boiling and easily oxidized metals zinc and cadmium. Since it is not generally feasible to assay every shop remelt it follows that the possibilities of lost values arc large. So-called rolled gold and silver plate is made by soldering or welding the precious metal alloys onto base metal. Such plate when defective must be sent to the refinery to recover the gold and silver values, thereby involving additional expense in the form of refining charges. It is obvious therefore that gold and silver alloy scrap is an important item in manufacturing cost and must be reduced to a minimum. The amount of scrap resulting from poor metal will depend on a number of factors in the manufacturing operations, not least among which is the melting and casting practice. The notes which follow are a summary of experiments performed at various times to determine what variables in melting and casting are influential in the production of sound alloys. Metals Used in Alloying Pure gold, that is, gold of 24-kt. value is very much too soft for jewelry purposes and it is therefore always alloyed with other metals to increase its hardness and resistance to wear. For the same reason pure silver is seldom used alone but is alloyed with copper, the standard alloy being sterling silver which contains 92.5 per cent. silver and 7.5 per cent. copper. The metals commonly used for alloying gold are silver, coppcr, nickel and zinc. In addition to hardening the gold and producing alloys of different karat values the use of these metals makes possible the production of gold alloys of various colors such as yellow, red, green and white. The gold-silver-copper alloys vary in color from light greenish-white through green, yellow and red depending on the relative amounts of the three metals. Green or yellowish-green colored golds

Jan 1, 1930

By AIME AIME

WHEN a local man has attained high position in business and civic affairs at home, his fellow citizens feel elated if his attainments are given recognition in the form of election to office in an organization of national scope. Eugene Ainsworth White, a new Director of the Institute, is one of the must prominent citizens of Tacoma, where for the past thirteen years he has managed the Tacoma Smelter of the American Smelting and Refining Co. A list of the civic duties he has carried with distinction would be a long one; for recent years it would show that he has been chairman of the Community Chest, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce. and a member of the Pierce County Taxation Bureau.

Jan 1, 1945

By Cyril Stanley Smith, Earl W. Palmer

STRIP of any of the metals used for deep drawing operations occasionally yields cups that are defective because of a rim that varies in height around the cup in a wave-like manner. Some such defects are traceable to tools or other press factors, but when the protuberances formed (usually four in number on brass and other copper alloys) are symmetrically disposed with respect to the rolling direction of the strip, they are invariably attributable to the metal. The effect is known as "earing" and the protuberances are called "ears." Other terms frequently heard are "tips," "scallops," and "corners." It is recognized that the effect is most commonly a result of a directional crystal structure produced by rolling and annealing operations in the manufacture of the metal strip. 'Numerous papers dealing with various aspects of the earing effect have appeared in the literature, those listed in the references1 being especially interesting and valuable. An investigation of the factors influencing earing of brass cups has been in progress in the laboratories of the American Brass Co. for several years, and it was thought desirable to make some of the results generally available in summarized form. The present paper discusses many factors that do and do not contribute to ear formation. In addition, a section is devoted to methods of minimizing the earing tendency of brass sheet by proper selection of the cold-rolling and annealing schedule by which it is produced. In the space available, it is impossible to quote detailed experimental procedures and numerical results. However, the authors make no statement that they do not believe to be properly substantiated, either by experimental evidence obtained under laboratory conditions or by experience in the actual production of deep-drawing brass in the brass mill. MECHANISM OF EAR FORMATION It must be clearly understood that the formation on cups of symmetrical ears, four or more in number, is attributable solely to the strip metal, and results from the strip having different deformation characteristics in different directions. The tools used in the drawing process, or the type and completeness of lubrication of the strip, have nothing to do with the problem of ears, although they do, of course, greatly affect the "drawing quality" of the strip and the general appearance of the cup. A single tip may be drawn up on the rim of a cup because of misalignment of the tools, or because the gauge of metal varies from side to side of the strip. The two-ear form that sometimes appears is also traceable to gauge variations. However, the four-ear and six-ear symmetrical forms that we are concerned with here are caused by factors inherent in the structure of the metal itself.

Jan 1, 1942

By N. P. Goss

Asterism appearing in X-ray Laue diagrams is an extremely sensitive index of changes in the internal structures of individual grains of polycrystalline metals. It indicates the existence of various forms of subboundary structure or subdivision within the grain. The present viewpoint is that the grain is made up of lattice blocks having substantially the same size and shape.l-4 When these blocks all assume exactly the same orientation, the crystal is perfect and asterism is absent. Cleaves and Thompson5 observed that the hardness of iron is virtually constant over a range of grain sizes. It is quite possible that the subboundary structure caused this, and that the latter is just as important as grain size itself. While the experiments reported here are not conclusive, they do support this viewpoint. Metals can, under certain conditions, be prepared entirely free from asterism, but this preparation does not necessarily require long heating or slow cooling, as will be shown here. In this paper a distinction is made between mosaic and distorted grain structures but the difference is only a matter of degree. In a previous paper9 it was shown that the grains can become distorted even during heat-treatment. The block structure exists inherently, even in a perfect crystal; the size and shape of these crystallites, or lattice blocks, varies, depending upon a number of factors. Goetz, for example: has shown that a metal before crystallizing from the molten state must go through a paracrystalline phase with oriented groups of atoms about 10-l4 to 10-l5 c.c., or 10-15 cm. in size. These crystallites, or blocks, appear to survive the most drastic cold-working, for it has been shown, and more elaborately by Wood's recent work," that cold-working cannot reduce the size of these crystallites smaller than of the order 10-5 cm. The interesting correlation brought out by the experiments of Goetz and Wood is that the block size after severe cold-working is of the same order of magnitude as the groups that formed in the metal just before crystallizing from the molten state. The work of Ewald and Rennenger17 and the now classical experiments of Darwin and James12,13 all strongly suggest the existence of a periodic structure of crystal. lites smaller than the grain itself. Related to this effect is the appearance of veinlike markings in the microstructures. Ammer-man and Kornfeld,16 in their experiments, did not observe any evidence of veining in specimens of alpha iron annealed below A3 and believed that veining was not due to impurities in the iron, as Northcott16 suggested; veining was observed by them only in specimens annealed above A3. Hanemann,16 Schrader and Tangerding found that annealing in hydrogen did not diminish veining and so it could not be caused by oxides. They concluded that veining was due to a slight difference in the orientation of ferrite lattice blocks. This viewpoint is well supported by the evidence presented here.

Jan 1, 1941

By John C. Calhoun, R. C. Newman

A report is made of experimental work performed on the capillary retention of water within porous solid systems, the displacement being accomplished with air and various organic liquids. A portion of the experiments were designed to measure the lowering of vapor pressure of water within a porous solid with subsequent conversion of such vapor pressure data to capillary pressure values. The form of the capillary pressure curve at high capillary pressures has been elucidated from this data. Certain theoretical approaches are presented to indicate the correlation between work done by previous investigators. The present work is correlated also with theory. Surface area values are calculated for the various core systems studied. INTRODUCTION Leverettl in 1941 presented a paper which gave the essential concepts of capillary behavior in porous solids. His presentation included both theoretical and experimental aspects of the problem. He defined the term "capillary pressure" and applied it to an ideal porous system. His work included the definition of a dimensionless quantity which was a function of fluid saturation and which could be correlated with porosity and permeability for clean, unconsolidated sands. His experimental work was performed by the drainage of water from packed columns of unconsolidated sands. Subsequently, other authors have presented experimental techniques which permit the determination of capillary pressure data on small core samples. Data have been presented on porous systems other than unconsolidated sand and with the use of liquids other than water. Notable among these are the works of Hassler, Brunner and Deahl,2 Bruce and Welge,³ Amyx and Yuster, and Purcell. Others have indicated the applicability of such data to field problems without regard to the theoretical aspects of the capillary pressure saturation function. Within the recent published literature there have also been reported studies of the correlations between capillary pressure data and other fundamental properties of porous solids. It was the intent of the present reported work to investigate the behavior noted by water and various other liquids within porous systems in an attempt to amplify existing correlations between capillary properties, surface properties, and other fundamental characteristics of porous systems. The experimental work described here was performed as two different investigations but due to its nature it is reported as separate phases of the same general topic. CAPILLARY PRESSURE AND VAPOR PRESSURE LOWERING It has long been recognized that the vapor pressure above the curved surface of a liquid is a function of the curvature of the liquid surface." The capillary pressure is also a function of the curvature of the liquid surface. Both capillary pressure values and vapor pressure lowering are, therefore, functions of the liquid saturation of a porous solid. A quantitative relationship between the vapor pressure lowering and the capillary pressure can be simply developed by considering a porous solid system containing water in equilibrium with its vapor. The capillary pressure at any height within the system is defined as Pc= Pv -P1.......(1) where PI is the pressure in the vapor phase and PI is the pressure in the liquid phase. Consider that both the water and its vapor are continuous phases within the system and that at any point the two phases are in equilibrium. The gradients in the liquid and vapor columns within the porous system are: PI = plgdh dPv = pvgdh By integrating these gradients from the point where h = 0 to the height h, values of PI and PI at the point h are found. Let the point where h = 0 be that where Pc = 0. At this point also Pv is equal to Pve, the equilibrium vapor pressure of the liquid above a flat surface. From the first of these integrations since p is independent of height: P = p1gh + P, From the second, by substituting pv = PvM/RT, where M is the molecular RT weight: Pv M Pvo- RT gh By combining the two last equations to eliminate h, one obtains: P1 RT Pv Substituting, values for Pv and Pi in equation (1) gives PyRT RT Pv which is approximately Pc=RT/Mp1 In Pvo/Pv .......(2) This equation relates the vapor pressure above a curved surface with the capillary pressure across the curved surface in terms of measurable quantities. The equivalent of this equation is given by Freundlich."

Jan 1, 1949

By J. H. Richards, G. Derge, W. Peifer

A WIDE Variety of metallurgical defects in steel have commonly been attributed to the presence of excessive amounts of hydrogen. These defects include flakes in rails and forgings, cracks in welds, and blisters in enameled ware, They have been related to hydrogen largely by circumstantiat evidence because the proper sampling and analysis of steel for hydrogen has been known to be difficult and because no general agreement has existed with regard to the relative suitability and accuracy of available methods. The need for a direct approach to these problems has been widely recognized. This general situation has been well described in the publications of the British committee on the Heterogeneity of Steel Ingots,' and current approaches to the problem were reviewed in a recent symposium of the AIME.I2 The plans described by the present authors at that meeting have now matured satisfactorily and will form the basis of this paper. The principal object of this paper will be to describe the methods of sampling and analysis which have been developed and to illustrate the usefulness and limitations of these methods by citing their application to a specific problem, The first problem selected for investigation was the behavior of hydrogen in rail steel. This was chosen because the occurrence of shatter cracks in rails has received a great deal of study over a long period of time. The defect can be controlled by the expensive procedure of slow in However, it may be hoped that a better understanding of the factors influencing the hydrogen content of rails will lead to a more efficient control of this problem. Rails provide a good starting point for a more general study of hydrogen in steel because they provide a cross-section large enough to develop cracks, Yet small enough for convenient handling and sampling. Rails were also selected because they arc made from plain carbon steel and it was felt that the initial work should not be complicated by the effects introduced by alloying elements. The considerations which determined the original planning of this study should be reviewed. The inherently complex nature of most hydrogen problems requires that a large amount of data must be collected for any particular case. This in turn means that any analytical procedure should be as rapid and simple as possible. The same objective of speed is indicated by the fact that it may finally become desirable to use hydrogen analysis in process control. It is also known that hydrogen is highly fugitive and that any procedure which facilitat~s early analysis of the sample without prolonged or irregular storage has distinct advantages. The most important previously reported methods of analysis may be classified into three general groups: (I) Vacuum fusion, (2) Vacuum extraction (without melting), (3) Total combustion.

Jan 1, 1949

By G. H. Enzian

THE effects of phosphorus and nitrogen on the properties and behavior of low carbon steels are important considerations to both the manufacturer and the user of such material. For one thing, these two elements are the principal points of distinction between the chemical compositions of Bessemer and open-hearth grades. Further, open-hearth steels themselves may vary considerably in nitrogen content depending on the raw materials and ..practice used. In addition, appreciable amounts of rephosphorized open-hearth steels are being used at the present time in some low alloy, high strength grades and in certain other cases. For these and other reasons, it was felt desirable to obtain more complete knowledge of the effects of simultaneous small variations in phosphorus and nitrogen content on such properties of low carbon steel as tensile strength, impact toughness, sensitivity to cold work, and strain aging. A long range investigational program designed to furnish such information, was carried out, and the present paper summarizes some of the data currently obtained. General Discussion The strengthening effect of relatively small amounts of phosphorus in steel has been recognized, and to some extent utilized, for many years. A number of investigators have pointed out, from time to time, that under proper conditions of control, phosphorus can be a useful alloying element in low carbon steels.1-3 Nevertheless, in spite of the volume of data on the subject, the use of phosphorus for this purpose has always been handicapped by widespread feeling that its presence makes the steel brittle, difficult to cold work, and unreliable at low temperatures. This belief on the part of some steel users is not entirely justified in many cases, and often stems from early experience with acid Bessemer steels which have appreciably higher phosphorus (and nitrogen) contents than basic open-hearth grades. Nitrogen in steel, and its effect on properties, has also received considerable attention in the literature.4 In 1906, Braune5 ascribed the brittleness of Bessemer rails to the nitrogen content, and proposed a schedule of nitrogen limits for steels for various uses. This was one of the first papers to recommend directly the use of nitrogen content as a quality control measure, but it did not meet with much favor or support; as a matter of fact, the Jernkon-toret was rather sharply criticized for publishing the paper. In the intervening years a number of papers have been published on the subject of nitrogen in steel. As a result, it is now generally recognized that nitrogen can have an important effect on the properties and behavior of steel and that the presence of this element should be considered in any systematic study of factors affecting steel quality. In 1932, Graham6 introduced the concept that the quality of various steels could conveniently be evaluated and compared in terms of "sensitivity", which was defined as "the characteristic reaction rate of a piece of steel toward brittleness or hardness." This concept formed the basis for a broad research program into factors causing variations in the quality of commercial steels. At an early stage of this work, it became apparent that the observed effect of either phosphorus or nitrogen on the sensitivity of steel depended, in no small measure, on how much of the other of these two elements was also present. Indeed, the combined effect of phosphorus and nitrogen in steel may often be more important than the specific effect of either. With a few exceptions, it is not possible to predict accurately the effect on steel properties of a change in the amount of either phosphorus or nitrogen in the steel without also specifying the approximate amount of the other element. It seems desirable, at this point, to discuss briefly the distinction between strain-sensitivity and strain aging as used in this paper. In the early stages of its development, the work-brittleness test7 (which will be described in more detail later) was used

Jan 1, 1951

By R. N. Dokken, J. F. Elliott

A high-temperature solution calorimeter was used to measure directly the partial molar heat of mixing of nickel in the Cu-Ni system, 0 to 15 at. pct Ni and 1200°C; of silver in the Cu-Ag system, 0 to 50 at. pct Ag and 1100°C; and of cobalt in the Cu-Co system, 0 to 6 at. pct Co and 1200°C. The heats of fusion of copper and silver were also detervnined directly. The results of these investigations are as follows: Cu-Ni: HM = [2.64 + 0.25Xm JXNiXCy kcal/g-U~OI Cu-Ag: HM =[4.00 + 0.31XAglXAgXCu kcal/g-atom Cu-Co: HF~ = [8- 5X~,]X& kcal/g-atotn Cu, AH, = 3290 * 275 cal/g-atom Ag, AH, = 2890 * 250 cal/g-atom The performance of the calorimeter was enhanced by improving the operational and control procedures, particularly the temperature-wieasuren~ent method and the solute-addition practice. The interpretation of the experimental data was improved by developing machine computational techniques that increased the speed, flexibility, and accuracy of the treatment of the data. THIS paper reports further measurements of the heats of solution of liquid metals with the high-tem- perature solution ca1orimeter.l Measurements were made of the partial molar heats of mixing in the following liquid alloys: Cu-Ni, Cu-Ag, and Cu-Co. In addition the heats of fusion of copper and silver were also determined. The apparatus and the experimental procedure were essentially those of Benz and Elliott.2 Several modifications in the experimental method and the means for interpreting the data were incorporated in this study to improve the results. The operation of the calorimeter and its characteristics will be described only briefly here. The

Jan 1, 1965