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By E. C. Carris

THE particular field of application of machines utilizing air cur¬rents as the primary separating medium is in the cleaning of the fine sizes of bituminous coal. Approximately 12,000,000 tons of bituminous coal were cleaned by air machines during 1940. They have not found any application for cleaning anthracite. Since the development and introduction of the first successful com¬mercial pneumatic oscillating machine for cleaning bituminous coal in 1916, by the Sutton, Steele and Steele Co., Dallas, Texas, and the Ameri¬can Coal Cleaning Corporation, formerly of Welch, W. Va., four other successful pneumatic coal-cleaning machines have been developed and introduced to the American coal-mining industry: 1. Peale Davis: "Pneumo-Gravity" machine, 1924. 2. Arms "Concentrator," oscillating table, 1924. 3. Heyl and Patterson oscillating table, 199.7. 4. "Stump Air-Flow," pulsating air jig, 19391. Out of these five developments only the Sutton, Steele and Steele, or American Oscillating, and the Stump Air-Flow Jig remain on the market. They are the predominating pneumatic coal-cleaning machines in use in the United States. HISTORY OF AMERICAN TYPE SEPARATOR The first successful American machine, the CJ table (Fig. 1) was developed by the Sutton, Steele and Steele Co. The SJ table was the first standard model designed specifically for the cleaning of coal. It was installed in the original Crane Creek plant, owned and operated by the American Coal Co. at McComas, West Virginia. This plant was designed by The Roberts and Schaefer Co., Chicago, Ill., working in cooperation with the American Coal Cleaning Corpora¬tion, which had taken over the patent rights and sale of the pneumatic separators. Eight machines were installed in this plant. They were known as the type SJ. They were 60 by 84 in., the short dimension being the width of

Jan 1, 1943

By H. W. Highriter

THE method developed and used in this laboratory for the production of metallic uranium of such purity that it is ductile and can be cold-worked to fine wire or thin sheet by rolling has already been described1. It consists, briefly, in the electrolysis of potassium uranous fluoride (KUF5) in a molten bath composed of equal parts of sodium and calcium chlorides. The bath is contained in a graphite crucible, electrically heated to about 775° C., the crucible serving as the anode for electrolysis. The uranium deposits in finely divided form mixed with salts upon a molybdenum cathode suspended axially in the crucible. Upon com-pletion of the electrolysis the cathode is removed and cooled, the deposit broken and leached to remove salts. The metal powder is washed with water and dilute acetic acid and dried in vacuo to reduce oxidation. Suitable amounts are then pressed into pellets and heated in vacuo by high-frequency induction, using a thoria crucible. The uranium melts and flows away from the pellet, leaving a shell, which is largely oxide. In general, this method produced a satisfactory metal, although at times the uranium was not ductile. The investigations recorded here were made to find the cause of this embrittlement. It was known that the metal generally contained carbon, derived from disintegration of the graphite crucible in which electrolysis is conducted, in amounts dependent upon the thoroughness of washing the metal powder. Accordingly, analyses of several samples, both ductile and brittle, were made by combustion and absorption of C02 in Ascarite, using air instead of oxygen to reduce the temperature and rate of oxida-tion. Several of these metals were made with special precautions to reduce carbon content. The results show no relationship between ductility and carbon content in the range investigated (Table 1).

Jan 1, 1935

By AIME AIME

AT bottom of this page is a photograph recently taken by a student-John E. Stewart-of the most northerly situated college in the world, the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. It is situated at College, near Fairbanks, Alaska, approximately on the 65th parallel of latitude, and therefore just south of the Arctic Circle. It is farther north than Hudson Bay, and in about the same latitude as southern Greenland.

Jan 1, 1932

By Harry Klemic

Zirconium and hafnium minerals are used industrially both as minerals valuable for their chemical and physical characteristics and as ores of zirconium and hafnium. The principal zirconium-hafnium-bearing minerals, their composition, and their ranges in content of zirconium and hafnium dioxides are listed in Table 1. The supply of zirconium and hafnium is based almost entirely upon the supply of the minerals zircon and baddeleyite. Eudialyte may eventually also be of importance as a source of these elements. Zircon, which generally contains nearly 49% zirconium and between 0.4 and 1.5% hafnium, is the principal industrial mineral of this group. Baddeleyite, a commercially important but less abundant mineral, contains as much as 73% zirconium and 0.4 to 1.7% hafnium. Eudialyte has a wide range in content of these elements, but analyses of material from several localities indicate values of 6 to 11 % zirconium and 0.07 to 0.4% hafnium. Zircon is a mineral consisting principally of zirconium, silicon, and oxygen that crystallizes from magmas during the formation of igneous rocks. Zircon also occurs in veins and in metamorphic rocks. It is in the tetragonal crystal system. It commonly forms as small well-developed prisms having pyramidal terminations but also occurs as irregular-shaped grains. Zircon has a hardness of 7.5 on the Mohs' scale. Its specific gravity is commonly between 4.68 and 4.70 (Dana, 1932), but the specific gravity varies somewhat depending upon com- position and state of alteration. Zircon has no good cleavage directions and is brittle, breaking with a conchoidal fracture. Zircon of the composition ZrSiO, would contain 67.2% Zr02 and 32.8% SiO2. However, in addition to about 1 % of hafnium, minor amounts of thorium, uranium, rare earth elements, yttrium, calcium, magnesium, iron, aluminum, phosphorus, and hydrogen, and trace amounts of other elements are commonly present in the mineral (Frondel, 1957). Radiogenic lead and other daughter products from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium also accrue in the mineral. Radiation damage to the structure of zircons that contain appreciable amounts of uranium and thorium may alter the internal structure of the crystals to

Jan 1, 1975

By George A. Hill

WE of the oil industry, devoted to freedom of initiative, free competitive enter- prise, and free American institutions, applaud, with one voice, affirmation by the President of the national will and purpose to preserve and to protect, against all aggressors, "our American way of life with our individual and national freedom." We subscribe utterly and completely to this guiding declaration and seek its further definition as applied to the oil industry. Fortunately for all, the policy of the Government, after adequate study and deliberation, has been given precise definition. The National Defense Advisory Commission, with its patriotic, highly qualified, and distinguished personnel, has unanimously agreed to and adopted twelve general principles governing national defense contracts and also fair labor standard requirements. The President of the

Jan 1, 1940

By Lawrence F. Rooney

One of Edgar Allan Poe's stories that haunts my subconscious is the Masque of the Red Death. These days, whenever I join a group like this, especially during the cocktail parties, I see myself and others as those mythical swingers seemingly isolated from the plague. The world, but this country especially, has had a ball plundering, spending, and wasting its natural resources for 100 years. And, as in days of yore, it is fitting that we end this ball with spectacular fireworks: trips to the moon, so that our grandchildren, huddled in their caves along the Ohio, will better understand how it all began.

Jan 1, 1970

By Keats, J. L.

IN THE literature on the elimination of metalloids in basic open-hearth practice, there are a great many heats recorded in which excellent data on changes in slag and metal composition during refining are given, but in almost all of these heats either temperature data or weights and analysis of charge are unrecorded and observations on the physical charac- teristics of the slag are almost always lacking. With these points in mind, a test heat was made in which as complete as data possible on all the factors that affect the elimination of metalloids were obtained.

Jan 1, 1957

By John F. Elliott, Martin Weinstein

The solubility of hydrogen in liquid Pure iron and in a number of liquid binary iron alloys has been measured in a Sieverts'-type apparatus. Sieverts' law is obeyed in all alloys studied UP to 1 atm Pressure H2. The alloying elements, Al, B, C, Co, Cu, Ge, P, S, and Sn, decrease the solubility while Cb, Cr, Mn, and Ni increase it. ALTHOUGH the importance of hydrogen in steel-making has long been recognized, there has been, until recently, very little information in the literature on the effect of alloying elements on the solubility of hydrogen in iron. There is also disagreement on the solubility of the gas in liquid pure iron. Because of the earlier work in this laboratory,1,2 with the Sieverts method to determine the solubility of nitrogen in liquid iron alloys, it was decided to apply the equipment and procedure to hydrogen. The literature that is pertinent to this study (Ftefs. 1 through 15) will be discussed later when the results of this investigation are considered rather than at this point to avoid repetition. The reaction under study is:

Jan 1, 1963

By AIME AIME

A CORPORATION would go into bankruptcy if its affairs were conducted as are those of the state of New York, according to the Committee on New York State Government Reorganization of the American Engineering Council of the Federated American Engineering Societies, in a report to the chairman, of the Joint Judiciary Committees of the Senate and Assembly. The report, just made public, was signed by the three members of the committee who were appointed by Herbert Hoover. They were H. de-B. Parsons, chair- man, Paul G. Brown and Lewis B. Stillwell. Although the American Engineering Council is a national organization, it decided to aid in governmental reorganization in New York State because of the magnitude of the task. The Council's committee in its report urged the passage of three state reorganization amendments for consolidation of departments, an executive budget system, and a four-year term for the higher state officials. In the words of the report :

Jan 1, 1921

The Institute maintains a dual relationship with students: (1) an individual relationship with a Student Associate; and (2) a relationship with local organizations of students, known as Affiliated Student Societies or Student Chapters. 1. The conditions of Student Associateship are set forth in Section 8, .Article 1 of the By-laws of the Institute (see p. 45 and following pages) During 1934, sundry amendments were made for the purpose of improving the student relationship. Post-graduate students are now eligible; and the associateship can be maintained, with the payment of the regular dues of $2 per gear, for 18 months following graduation in June. A Student Associate is given a subscription to MINING A ND METALLURGY: he is accorded the privilege of getting special publications such as "The Porphyry Coppers" and "Ore Deposits of the Western States" at the reduced prices applicable to Members; he has the privileges of the Engineering Societies Employment Service and the Engineering Societies Library; and he is not only invited but urged to attend all meetings of the Institute, its Divisions and its Local Sections. The Institute wants to extend the hand of professional fellowship to students following mineral industries curricula.

Jan 1, 1936

By Mark R. Lamb

THE various methods of treating pulp in air-agitation tanks offer problems for experiment and study which are fascinating as well as practical. The usual method heretofore has been to fill each tank in turn, agitate the mixture the required period and then discharge the treated pulp into a storage-tank, from which it. is drawn to the filter as required. A later method is to run the pulp from the tube-mill, classifier, thickener, or settler into the first of a set of tanks, and thence continuously or in series through the remaining tanks, finally drawing off the pulp to a continuous filter, or to a pulp-storage tank if the filter is of the intermittent type. It is this method which I propose to discuss here in a preliminary way, with the idea of going exhaustively into the examination of the results of a series of experiments in a later paper. It may be of interest to note that the design of a cyanide-plant has recently been completed in which the estimated cost of the agitation-tanks, storage-tanks, and pumps was 30 per cent higher for the charge-agitation arrangement than for the series plan. The first question in studying the series method is, "What is the actual period of treatment undergone by the pulp?? One first supposes that by chance some of the pulp may get through with little or no treatment, while other portions may stay in the tanks a needlessly long period. The former is not probable or even possible, and the latter is, practically, true to only a limited extent. The greater the number of tanks the greater is the percentage of chance that all the pulp will be treated equally. Without going into the mathematical analysis of the problem (which is of little value, since it is based on problematical premises), its important terms may be clearly grasped by thinking of, or " visualizing," the conditions when,

Jan 1, 1910

By G. Hileman

At present there are three fields in commercial exploitation in the Argentine. In order of production they are: (1) Comodoro Rivadavia, (2) Salta, (3) Plaza Huincul. Comodoro Rivadavia.—This field is on the coast of the Territory of Chubut in the southern part of the republic. It is being developed and exploited by Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales, the government oil entity, and five private companies. The immediate coastal portion of the field, which embraces the original discovery area, is almost completely developed. This is especially true of the original government reserve and one private property. The Y.P.F. has extended its explorations and developments westward to Escalante, 27 km. distant on the state railway. This extension has been the most active and prolific section of the field for the past three years. The government has also continued its exploration drilling in the region lying south of Colonia Sarmiento and east of the Rio Senguer. Private companies have not been able to extend their operations beyond the claims they had in process of acquisition in 1924, when the government reserve areas were established. The Y.P.F. is the major producer of the field and employs modern methods and appliances. Practically all its drilling and pumping operations are electrically operated, from a central power plant. In view of t'he scarcity of water supplies, this facilitates operations and is an economic factor of considerable importance.

Jan 1, 1934

By Herbert Hoover

THE time has arrived in our national development when we must have- a definite national- program in the development of our great engineering problems. Our rail and water transport, our water supplies for irrigation, our reclamation, the provision of future' fuel resources, the development and distribution of electrical power, all 'cry out for some broad-visioned national guidance. We must create a national engineering sense of provision for the nation as a whole. If we are to develop this national sense of engineering wand its relations to our great human problems, it must receive the advocacy of such institutions as this. We, together with our sister engineering societies, represent the engineers of the United States. It is our duty as citizens to give voice to those critical matters of national policy which our daily contact with this, the fundamentally constructive profession, illuminates to us. Just as our medical associations voice the necessity of -safeguards to national health; as the bar associations of safeguards to our judiciary, so the engineers should exert themselves in our national engineering policies. We have none; but we need some, or the next generation will face a lower instead of a higher standard of living than ours.

Jan 1, 1920

By J. V. W. REYNDERS

NOT only is your toastmaster silver-tongued in his references 'to myself, but he is also quite in the habit of "saying it in silver." I have analyzed with some care his statistics of the world's silver production, which have been distributed here along with the menu, although frankly from the point of view of most of us, the distribution rather than the production of silver is of immediate concern. Unlike the performers by whom we have been entertained between courses, the rest of us on the program will have to do without costume or musical accompaniment, which as my friend Rains can testify puts an artist under severe strain. I am entitled by right of office and of precedent to receive your attention for ten minutes. The Governor, who appears on the program as a speaker; however, has asked me for five minutes of my time, and Senator Thomas has insinuated that he would appreciate one-half of the remainder, wherefore, I must ask your close attention to the very brief remarks that I am able to make under such restricted circumstances. To begin with, I want you to believe that I am approaching the task set by your toastmaster with misgivings. In looking over the Institute records relating to the Salt Lake City meeting of 1914 for some precedent as to what I ought to say, I found but one reference-and that of the following indefinite char¬acter-" and Friday night there was a hilarious banquet to 350 members and guests."

Jan 1, 1925

By JAS. F. McCARTHY

THE present Hecla Co. is a Washington corporation; the Hecla Co. of Idaho was the old company. The older corporation owned two claims, the Hecla and the Katie May, and was incorporated for 500,000 shares of one dollar par value. The principal shareholders and officials of the older company were among the early mining men of the camp. Among the active officials were John A. Finch and A. B. Campbell. Among the directors and share- holders were Patrick Clark, J. R. Smith, Frank Upman, F. J, Kipp, Chas. Kipp, B. A. Kipp and Carl Landsee. F. J. Kipp and Carl Landsee are now directors of the Company. All of the others mentioned have died, but the surviving members of their families retain their ownership in the Company's shareholders. B. A. ,Kipp, who recently died, was the largest shareholder at the time of incorporation and Patrick Clark was the second largest shareholder. B. A. Kipp is a brother 'of F. J. Kipp, director of the Company.

Jan 1, 1924

By S. G., Lasky

IT seems to be in the nature of concepts that they have many meanings, and that the meaning best reflecting the primary interests of a person tends to be accepted by him as the normal meaning of the concept. The concept of ore reserves is no exception, for there is no unanimity of meaning among the several groups of us who are interested in ore reserves, nor even among the individuals of a single group. The groups most interested in ore reserves would seem to include at least the mining industry, perhaps State taxing agencies, and the Federal Government in all its diversified activities, and I would include also the citizenry at large or at least that part of it that consciously thinks about problems-of national welfare. To each of these, and to different individuals within them, the term reserves represents something different, and the farther away the individual or group gets from physical contact with the ore, the more abstract does his or its concept become. It is something different to the policy maker from what it is to the fact-finder or to the miner.

Jan 1, 1945

By Joseph E. Pogue

NEW economic forces are at work in the petroleum industry.. In order to visualize these forces and clearly see their bearing on the producer, refiner and marketer, it is necessary to see in perspective the economic evolution of the business. For several decades prior to 1913 the outstanding feature of the petroleum industry was a trend toward integration, culminating in a huge combine, the Standard Oil Co. An important aspect of this integrative trend, however, was its concentration on the combination aid control of refining and marketing, leaving crude oil production, for the most part, to the exigencies. of small-unit competition. It is a noteworthy coincidence that during this era the law of oil and gas was formulated and applied, whereby these substances had to be reduced to possession to establish ownership; and the forces of competition in crude oil production were thereby intensified. It was to the interest of an industry, safeguarded in its control of manufacturing and markets, to have supply stimulated by legal convention as well as by individual initiative in order that the growing demand could be met without interruption. And so over-production of crude oil during this era was no handicap, but rather an aid, to the progress of the industry.

Jan 1, 1929

By D. D. Pollock, D. I. Finch

PREVIOUS work' on a four-component system (Cu-Mn-Ni-Fe) resulted in the development of consistent relationships between the chemical composition and the electrical properties of these manganin-type alloys. The present study was undertaken to develop alloys with temperature coefficients of resistivity and thermoelectric properties more desirable than those of the manganin type, and to determine whether the relationships which had been found for the Cu-Mn-Ni-Fe alloys could be extended to five-and six-component alloy systems. PREPARATION OF ALLOYS The five- and six-component alloys were made from OFHC copper rod, ARMCO iron, electrolytic nickel, manganese cathode chip, and special high-purity aluminum and indium. A Cu-Mg master was used for deoxidation. The compositions of these materials are given in Table I. The alloys were melted and cast as indicated previously,' except that no cover was used and the melts were teemed. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The finished wire size of 0.0808 in. diam was again selected for the reason that the test specimens would be self-supporting, thus eliminating any extraneous effects which might have been introduced by winding smaller diameter wire on spools or forms. The following tests were performed on the finished wires: A) Chemical Analyses—All of the components of these alloys were determined by premium gravimetric methods. The principle residual impurity contained in these alloys is 0.008 pct Mg (by weight), maximum. Tables II and 111 present the mean analyses computed from at least four determinations of each constituent. B) Electrical Characteristics—The test procedures forthe determination of the thermal emf vs copper, resistivity, and the resistance-temperature relationship are given in detail in Ref. 1. It was also shown that the resistance-temperature relationship is of the form Pt = P,n + At -B/2, [1] where P, is the resistance at t C expressed in percent of a given standard resistance, P, is this per- 0 centage at 0°C, and A and B are constants for a given, properly treated, composition. The results of the electrical tests are also given in Tables II and 111. INTERPRETATION OF DATA The modified Linde2 formula, known to be valid for dilute binary solid solutions, was applied to the complex Cu-Mn-Ni-Fe type alloys. This relationship is of the form where Ap is the increase in resistivity. Zb the valence of the solute, Zn the valence of the solvent, and K and K are designations assigned by Robinson and Dorn3 to the constants for the periodic group to which solute element belongs. The units of K, are -cm per valence difference squared per at. pct; those of K2 are pa-cm per at. pct. For the sake of brevity, these units are not repeated in the following discussion. Calculations were made to determine if this formula was accurate for five-component systems. No experimental studies were made of the Cu-In and Cu-A1 binary systems. The effects of indium additions upon the resistivity of copper are given by Linde. These data, along with those of the effects of Mn and Fe, permitted the calculation of the effects of Al.

Jan 1, 1959

By K. D. Hester, A. W. Fletcher

A nickel-copper sulphide concentrate was treated in a pilot plant at Warren Spring Laboratory during 1961, by a hydrometallurgical roast-leach-solvent extraction process devised to cleanly separate the metal values and produce acid sulphate liquors containing the metals. It is shown that 86 pct of the nickel and 95 pct of the copper could be leached from the calcine, after a sulphatizing roast on finely ground flotation concentrate. Iron was removed from the leach liquor by limestone neutralization with a small loss of values. Copper and nickel were separated by solvent extraction with naphthenic acid in kerosene after partial neutralization of the iron-free liquors with ammonium hydroxide. Hydrogen sulphide and chlorine were used to remove zinc (and residual copper) and cobalt impurities respectively. The recovery of pure copper and pure nickel, by electrowinning, from the acidic solvent extract strip liquors finally produced, appears technically feasible. An economic analysis of production costs shows that small, geographically isolated, nickel-copper sulphide deposits cannot usually be worked profitably by established processes. The requirements for profitable operation on a comparatively small scale could possibly be met by a flotation-roast-leach process. Two difficulties, obtaining satisfactory extraction of nickel from a sulphide concentrate and separating the copper and nickel in solution, have prevented the previous use of this method. A solution to the first problem, dissolution of the nickel, was described in a recent paper by Thornhill.1 It was shown in this paper that copper and nickel in a flotation concentrate could be oxidized to water soluble sulphates by roasting in a fluidized bed with added salt cake. Workers at the Warren Spring Laboratory have shown that the separation of copper and nickel can be accomplished by solvent extraction using a relatively inexpensive carboxylic acid, naphthenic acid. Moreover, the mineral acid required to strip values from the loaded solvent could be produced, and the metals recovered, by electrowinning; thus the latter section of the process was regenerative. The removal of iron from the leach liquor and the elimination of impurities such as zinc and cobalt before nickel electrowinning would be necessary to complete the flowsheet. The process under investigation could therefore be summarized (Fig. 1) as follows: 1) Flotation to produce a bulk sulphide concentrate. 2) Fluidized bed roasting to sulphate the nickel and copper minerals. 3) Leaching of roaster calcine to extract soluble nickel and copper. 4) Precipitation of iron from the separated leach liquor by air oxidation after the adjustment of pH and temperature. 5) Recovery of copper from the iron-free Liquor by pH adjustment and liquid-liquid extraction. 6) Purification of the copper raffinate by removing zinc and residual copper as insoluble sulphides and cobalt as cobaltic hydroxide. 7) Recovery of nickel from the purified liquor by pH adjustment and liquid-liquid extraction. Laboratory and pilot plant studies detailed below, were carried out at the Warren Spring Laboratory, to test the feasibility of each one of the unit processes and to obtain preliminary plant design data. FLOTATION The ore was an altered basic rock containing concentrations of magmatic sulphides.

Jan 1, 1964

By C. T. Cox

The title of this short paper necessarily implies that friction articles comprise a distinct and unique field and are different from the other metal-powder articles, such as bearings, electrical contacts, and magnets. However, this distinction is rather hard to define in that it is really one of degree and not Of kind. It would appear that the main distinction is that friction are are articles of rather large pressing area. In other words, they are articles in which the area Of the mold in which the metal powder is pressed is relatively large. Other articles made from meta1 powders are generally of rather small area, usually a few square inches, while in friction articles the area ranges up to several hundred square inches. The satisfactory production of meta1-powder friction articles involves many production problems and a large number Of these are accentuated by the large area' Since it is impossible in the short space of this Paper to describe adequately all the problems involved, I have thought it best to merely mention some Of them and to place particular emphasis upon a problem that is common to all metal-powder articles, although it is of greater importance in the making of friction articles. This problem has to do with the effect On the properties of a friction article of small variations in the composition. However, before discussing the problems, it is probably appropriate that some mention be made of the limitations on the use of friction articles. Most engineers are familiar with the general field that can be characterized as constituted by clutch facings and brake linings, and undoubtedly have heard many stories of how metal-powder friction articles have had a service life 10 times as long as nonmetallic friction materials, and of instances where metal-powder friction articles have operated satisfactorily where no other material could be used. These instances should not be regarded as criteria for the assumption that metal-powder friction articles are capable of universal use in the friction field and will always outperform other materials. On the contrary, metal-powder friction articles are unsuitable for numerous applications, either on a performance or on a cost basis. Metal-powder friction articles will not replace wooden block brakes for wagon wheels nor cast-iron brake shoes for railway car wheels, to mention just two obvious examples. Metallic friction articles cannot be used where they must act as heat insulatorsl for they have a relatively high thermal conductivity as compared with asbestos. This is a detriment in some uses, as in certain airplane brakes having hydraulic actuators provided with rubber seals. The metallic friction material readily transfers the heat developed at the braking surface back through the material to the rubber seal and destroys it. Within its limited field, metal-powder friction material has proved satisfactory, but many problems are involved in the Selection of the proper material to use in an application and in the commercial pro-

Jan 1, 1945