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By George Kunz

(Butte Meeting, August, 1913.) . THE manifold inconveniences resulting from the absence of a uniform standard of mass for determining the weight of precious stones have long been obvious. This lack has been keenly felt in commercial transactions, and those who have devoted time and research to the study of historic diamonds and precious stones have had frequent occasion to deplore the absence of such a standard in the past. In a paper read in Chicago in 1893, before the International Congress of Weights and Measures, held in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition, the writer suggested dividing the carat into 100 parts, and constituting a standard international carat of 200 mg. ; that is, 5 diamond carats or 20 pearl grains to a French gram, making 5,000 carats or 20,000 pearl grains to a kilogram. He also called attention to the fact. that while this would depreciate the present diamond carat or pearl grain only about 2.5 per cent., it-would abolish the troublesome discrepancies between the various carat-weights now in use, and could be easily explained and understood everywhere.1 The subject of the various diamond carats, their incongruity, and the resulting confusion as to the correct. weights of historic gems when definite records of them are searched for, has been fully treated by me in an extensive study of this subject in The Book of the Pearl.2 To the earnest and unremitting efforts of C. E. Guillaume, Director of the Bureau Internationale des Poids et Mesures at Sèvres, is largely due the eventual success of this eminently desirable reform, which he has constantly urged both by articles on the subject and by addresses delivered in Paris before the International Committee for Weights and Measures.2

Jan 7, 1913

By Gunnar Thaning, Borje Bjorkvall

At LKAB Central Division for Metallurgical Research at Malmberget, Sweden, fired pellets are examined in respect to mechanical and reduction properties. The paper deals with descriptions of the test methods. It also involves the rationale for the choice of these tests. Their correlation to the blast furnace operation will be examined. The mechanical tests used are the ISO-tumbler test and the cold compression strength test. Concerning the metallurgical properties, experiments have shown that some superbasic pellets in particular have different disintegration properties in different temperature ranges. Pellets which have favorable reduction properties when tested under isothermal reduction at high temperature may disintegrate to a large extent under low temperature reduction. This is also valid for some types of acid pellets. Consequently, it was found to be necessary to determine the reduction strength both at high and low temperatures. In the low temperature range, the disintegration is measured by tumbling the pellets in soft reducing conditions at 600°C in a modified Linder test equipment. The high temperature reduction strength is determined under load in the Burghardt-Grebe equipment. However, in order to get more information of the high temperature strength, LKAB intends to introduce a softening test. The tendency of high temperature disintegration will also turn up in the swelling test. The swelling properties are examined according to a procedure developed at LKAB. In this test the pellets are subjected to free swelling without mutual contact. The reducibility of the pellets is recorded in the swelling test.

Jan 1, 1974

By R. T. Walker

GROUND waters-hot or cold-containing small amounts of the more common earth acids, such as carbonic acid, silicic acid, hydrogen sulfide, sulfurous acid and sulfuric acid, have only a very limited "solvent effect on dominantly siliceous rocks, whether of igneous or sedimentary origin, but in limestone they often form extensive cavities; and such "limestone caves" are the only openings of considerable size and continuity in rock formations that do not owe their existence directly and almost wholly to dynamic action. Limestone caves such as are developing at the present time must have been formed in all past geological ages in which limestone beds existed and where suitable conditions for the development of such caves prevailed; hence it would seem a reasonable expectation that, in the course of geological history, a certain number of ancient limestone caves must have been utilized as channels for the passage of mineralizing solutions, during portions of their course, at least, and that, in consequence, orebodies must have been deposited in such caves. Such a conception is not novel; it was proposed many years ago, but its possibilities, as explaining certain types of ore deposits, have been rather lost sight of in the development of the theory of the metasomatic replacement of rocks by minerals. It is the purpose of this article to assemble evidence to show that many of the orebodies found in limestone beds have been deposited in pre-existing caves; to discuss the criteria whereby such orebodies can be distinguished from others which have been formed along fissures and fracture zones traversing limestone, by the more common method of metasomatic replacement, analogous to orebodies in other formations; and to describe certain orebodies-particularly the "ore channels" of the Tintic district, Utah-as illustrative of the principles discussed. Limestone caves may be divided into two classes: those formed by cold, descending surface waters, which emerge again at some lower elevation as cold springs; and those formed by hot, ascending waters of deep origin or circulation, which attain the surface as thermal springs. Although these two classes are similar in many respects, there are certain characteristic and inherent differences whereby they can usually be distinguished.

Jan 1, 1928

By C. L. Kinney

The rapid increase in the amount of steel produced by the basic open-hearth process is an index of its ability to produce high-grade steel from raw materials of the most, varied physical character and chemical analysis. This inherent adaptability of the process has resulted in a lack of care in the selection of raw materials, so that in far too many cases charges are used of a chemical and physical character not justified by local economic conditions. A practice, or series of practices, should be used that will result in the greatest economy for the plant as a whole; therefore, the operations of blast furnace and open hearth must be considered together. In this paper, an effort has been made to show those variations in both open-hearth practice and cost that follow changes in the analysis of the pig iron arid it may be said that the theoretical costs shown are worthy of careful study and consideration. Carbon, manganese, silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur constitute the principal metalloids in basic pig iron and play the leading role in the production of steel by the basic open-hearth process. The percentages of each of these metalloids, with the exception of carbon, is a variable that has its genesis in the economic relation of the blast-furnace plant to its ore and fuel supplies. As the amount of carbon in the iron is a saturation function of the temperature at which it is produced, the variation in the amount carried is, for any given locality and grade of iron, practically negligible and is so considered in the eight heats discussed in this paper. The melting and refining reactions in an open-hearth furnace, either acid or basic, are essentially oxidizing and vary greatly with the type and age of the furnace, as well as the character of the fuel employed. The outstanding characteristic of the basic process, and the one that explains its predominance over the acid, is its ability to form out of the lime charged and the phosphorus oxidized from the charge a stable

Jan 1, 1924

By A. A. Blow

The productive area of the Leadville mining district immediately adjoining the city of Leadville, which, by its wonderful richness, has attracted the attention of the mining world for the past twelve years, may, with a few exceptions, he considered as divided into seven local mining centers, separated one from another by the topographical features of the country, and designated by common consent as Fryer Hill, Yankee Hill, Breece Hill, Rock Mill, Printer-Boy Hill, Iron Hill, and Carbonate Hill. Of these seven distinot mining localities, or groups of mines, the central one, Iron Hill, is the one of greatest importance and interest. It was the scene of the earliest discovery of carbonates, as far back as 1875, and since that time has always maintained its position

Jan 1, 1890

Jan 1, 1953

By Hsun Hu, R. S. Cline

A detailed studj) of texture formation in 2 pet Al-Fe single crystals with initial orientations of approximately (111) [112], (112) [111], and (112) [111] was made by examining the textures developed on the surface and at various interior sections of the crystal after rolling to various amounts. Depending' upon the initial orientation of the crystal, the surface and interior textures may differ only in sharpness, or may differ essentially in orientation. The orientation of the (111) [112] crystal does not change upon rolling up to 70 pet, but after rolling more than 90 pet a distinct component of (001) (110] orientation is developed. The texture formed in the two (112) (1111 type crystals consists of (111) (1121 and (001) (1101 components. The latter, however, is largely confined to the surface layers. The textures formed on both sides of the crystal are identical, and the texture composition profile is approximately symmetrical with respect to the central section of the strip thickness. The formation of these texture components is analyzed. DURING the past seven or eight years, deformation and recrystallization textures in rolled Si-Fe single crystals have been extensively studied by various investigators.1-7 From these studies, much knowledge on texture formation in bee crystals of various initial orientations was obtained. However, these results also raised many questions, regarding particularly the correlation between deformation and recrystallization textures, as well as the deformation texture itself of some particular crystals. To take a (111) [112] type crystal as an example, it was shown by Dunn and Koh2, 3 that this orientation does not change during deformation by rolling. This finding is consistent with the conclusion reached by Barrett and Leven-son8 with respect to iron crystals that (111) [112] is one of the stable end orientations. However, different recrystallization textures were observed by Dunn and Koh3 in (111) [112] type crystals of different initial thickness, which widened differently during rolling even though their deformation textures were identical. Another interesting example, also from the results of Dunn and Koh2'3 is that of texture formation in a (112) [111] crystal. This crystal developed a two-component deformation texture of (111) [112] plus (001) [110]. Its recrystallization texture, however, was found to be predominantly (110) [001], which is related to the (111) [112] component by a simple [110] rotation. This crystal, therefore, behaved as if the other deformation texture component, (001) [110], were not present. There are also discrepancies among the results of different investigators, as well as numerous unexplained fine features of the deformation texture of crystals of various initial orientations. In order to have a better understanding of all of these points, a detailed study of deformation textures is greatly needed. One of the obvious things that has been completely overlooked in previous texture studies is the possible effect of surface texture. All past work on the texture of Si-Fe single crystals was conducted in a rather simple manner, i.e., the rolled crystals were etched to a very thin sheet; then their textures were examined by transmission X-ray techniques. For recrystallization texture studies, unless precautions are taken by etching off a sufficient amount of the surface layer before annealing, the texture developed in the interior may be affected by the surface layer, which may well have a different initial texture and which may have undergone recrystallization earlier than the interior of the specimen. Because of this effect, it is now planned to reexamine the texture of various rolled and annealed single crystals at the surface, and at various sections below the surface by using reflection techniques. In some cases, both surfaces of the rolled crystal will be examined. In one of Dunn's early papers,9 he noted that at an early stage of rolling the crystal seems to divide roughly through the middle to become a sample which in effect consists of two layers having some what different orientations. This effect has never been further explored. The investigation described in the present paper constitutes the beginning of a series of thorough investigations of texture formation in deformed bee single crystals designed to clear up some of the uncertainties which have been discussed. We have chosen a high-purity 2 pet Al-Fe alloy for this investigation. It is known that the allotropic transformation of iron is eliminated by alloying with approximately 1petAl. Such an alloy, being very similar to silicon ferrite, can be heated to the solidus temperature without phase transformation. One reason for choosing A1-Fe instead of Si-Fe for the present investigation is that we have been able to make single crystals of a vacuum-melted high-purity A1-Fe alloy by the strain-anneal method without much difficulty, but were not successful in doing so with a vacuum-melted high-purity Si-Fe alloy. For many research purposes,

Jan 1, 1962

By Paul Tyler

THE ferroalloying elements are connecting links between the steel industry and the nonferrous metal industries. Although ferroalloys are distinctly nonferrous themselves, they serve the steel industry either in the manufacturing process or in modifying the product-in some cases so that it may compete in the markets with nonferrous metals. Of the 92 elements generally accepted by chemists as constituting the primary building blocks of matter, all but the very rarest have been investigated with a view to employing them in steel manufacture. The surprising thing is that so few have been found commercially acceptable. Despite the relatively small number of elements involved, the employ-ment of alloys in steelmaking is one of the most complicated and probably one of the least well understood of modern industrial enterprises. A great deal has been written regarding the action of individual elements and a profuse and somewhat acrimonious literature covers pretty much the whole field of ferroalloy ore supplies. In the middle ground between the miner and the steelmaker developments are less carefully watched by most observers, and except for an occasional description of the technique of some conversion process or the tariff hearings in Congress, very little is said about them. The purpose of the present paper is to describe in relatively nontechnical terms this highly complex industry and to study its relations to our national progress.

Jan 1, 1933

By W. F. Stowasser

downdraft traveling grate process to agglomerate pelletized iron ore concentrates has been successfully demonstrated in a pilot plant at Carrollville, Wis. Work there followed several years of development in the Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co. laboratories, and the pilot plant phase was carried out in cooperation with Arthur G. McKee & Co., consultants and engineers to the iron and steel industry. End result of the process is conversion of iron ore concentrates into a form which can easily be transported and smelted in the blast furnace. Process Description The first of two process steps incorporates the art of balling and prepares the concentrates for burning. The second step consists of burning the green balls on the grate machine to the hardness required for shipping and handling purposes and for reduction in blast furnaces, see Fig. 1. Facilities are provided at the pilot plant to receive carload quantities of concentrate. The concentrates are loaded into a 50-ton bin direct from railroad cars. Because of the variable moisture content of the concentrates after shipment in an open railroad car it is necessary to repulp and refilter the concentrates to maintain a uniform and proper moisture content for the balling operation. Concentrates are conveyed to slurry tanks, and the slurry, at 50 to 60 pct solids, is pumped to a 4x4-ft drum filter. The filter provides feed of uniform moisture to the plant. Magnetite concentrates are normally filtered to produce a cake containing about 10 pct moisture, a necessary requirement for the following balling operation. The filtered concentrate is conveyed to a rotary bin table feeder which acts as a surge bin for the filter cake and delivers a steady flow of concentrates to the balling drum. It is often desirable to make additions to the concentrates as they are fed to the balling drum. These additives, such as bentonite, increase the strength of the finished green pellet and improve ballability of the concentrate. A vibrating feeder supplies additive to the feed belt, and the additive is mixed with the concentrate in the balling drum. The balling drum, shown in Fig. 3, is 8x3-ft diam. An oscillating cutting bar maintains the lining in the drum by trimming off the buildup of excess concentrate as it forms. The drum is operated in closed circuit with a lx4-ft rod-deck vibrating screen. Undersize pellets or seed pellets from the screen are returned to the balling drum until they grow to the desired size. Size of pellets is controlled by the opening in the screen deck. The formation of pellets in the balling drum is affected by many variables. Some of these are: the size distribution of the feed, the particle shape of the concentrate, the feed rate to the drum, the moisture in the concentrate, the speed of rotation of the drum, the slope of the drum, and the type of trimming obtained with the cutting bar. In this process, attempts are made to control the pellet size within the limits of % to 5/8 in. diam. The screened oversize pellets are conveyed under a coal feeder where sufficient powdered coal is added to the belt to produce desired results in the burning process. The top size of the coal successfully used has been 20 mesh, and anthracite was used in the test program. Fig. 4 illustrates the vibrating screen and the coal feeder. The pellets and free coal are conveyed together to the 5x3-ft diam- reroll drum that rolls the coal onto the surface of the pellets. This drum is also equipped with a cutting bar. The prepared pellets, containing bentonite, water, and surface coal, are elevated to the traveling grate, which consists of a continuous strand of 37 pallets. Each pallet, with a grate bar area 2 ft wide by 1 1/2 ft long, has 14-in. high side plates, Fig. 5. Feeding and distribution of the green balls to the grate is handled by a short conveyor which oscillates back and forth across the 2-ft width of the grate. An adjustable vertical plate located several inches in front of the head pulley of the oscillating conveyor controls the height of the bed and levels the moving bed of pellets. This method of feeding prevents segregation of various size pellets as well as fines and produces a uniform, permeable bed. The pallet train moves under the furnace and across four windboxes, located beneath the pallet frames, see Fig. 2. As the green pellets are deposited on the grate, partial drying of the pellets begins over a 2-ft long updraft windbox. The low temperature air reduces the moisture in the pellets in the lower level of the bed and this operation is essential to prevent sagging of the bed during later stages of the Process. The air used for this drying is recuperated from cooling the pellets on the grate, and supplemental heat, required for starting the Process, is obtained from an auxiliary burner. The pellets are then moved by the grate into the furnace and over an 8-ft windbox, designated as the downdraft waste windbox. Products of combustion are exhausted from this windbox to atmosphere. The furnace, shown in Fig. 6, is constructed with three chambers to provide downdraft drying, preheating, and ignition, respectively, to the pellet bed as it passes through. Overall length of the furnace is 5.57 ft; however, the exterior wall ends may be moved to reduce the length and also adjusted to Obtain the bed height desired, The drying, preheating, and ignition sections of the furnace are supplied with medium temperature

Jan 1, 1956

By J. R. Long, R. S. Dean, F. S. Wartman, E. T. Hayes

The production of titanium in I5-lb. lots and with a purity sufficient to be consolidated into ductile metal, as described in a previous paper,' has provided adequate material for a study of the physical properties of titanium and a more thorough examination of its working qualities. Data on the physical properties reported in that paper were obtained on metal fabricated by a fixed procedure, standardized for the purpose of control of the reduction, and are representative only of material fabricated under those conditions. There are many possible variables in the working schedule, which will have significant effects on the properties of the finished material; and since the previous working methods were not necessarily the best, an investigation of the fabrication of titanium by other methods was undertaken. In this work the consolidation of the powder by pressing and sintering was conducted essentially as outlined in the report cited' and all efforts were centered on fabrication methods for those powders and the proper- ties produced by them. Hardness, density, microstructure, and tensile properties were determined at various stages in the working and annealing; and resistivity measurements were made on a few bars and drawn wire. Consolidation of the PowdeR The screen analysis of the available titanium powder is given in Table I. No attempt was made to alter the size distribution from that noted because this powder, although coarse by normal powder-metallurgy standards, produced acceptable compacts suitable for the present work. Because of their large specific surface, finer powders are more contaminated by oxygen and produce harder compacts, which are difficult to work. The powder as produced is soft, compresses in a normal fashion, and exhibits very little tendency to adhere to the die surfaces. Unlike aluminum and magnesium powders, it can be readily pressed without the use of die lubricants. When compacted at 50 tons per

Jan 1, 1946

By J. R. Long, E. T. Hayes, R. S. Dean, F. S. Wartman

The production of titanium in I5-lb. lots and with a purity sufficient to be consolidated into ductile metal, as described in a previous paper,' has provided adequate material for a study of the physical properties of titanium and a more thorough examination of its working qualities. Data on the physical properties reported in that paper were obtained on metal fabricated by a fixed procedure, standardized for the purpose of control of the reduction, and are representative only of material fabricated under those conditions. There are many possible variables in the working schedule, which will have significant effects on the properties of the finished material; and since the previous working methods were not necessarily the best, an investigation of the fabrication of titanium by other methods was undertaken. In this work the consolidation of the powder by pressing and sintering was conducted essentially as outlined in the report cited' and all efforts were centered on fabrication methods for those powders and the proper- ties produced by them. Hardness, density, microstructure, and tensile properties were determined at various stages in the working and annealing; and resistivity measurements were made on a few bars and drawn wire. Consolidation of the PowdeR The screen analysis of the available titanium powder is given in Table I. No attempt was made to alter the size distribution from that noted because this powder, although coarse by normal powder-metallurgy standards, produced acceptable compacts suitable for the present work. Because of their large specific surface, finer powders are more contaminated by oxygen and produce harder compacts, which are difficult to work. The powder as produced is soft, compresses in a normal fashion, and exhibits very little tendency to adhere to the die surfaces. Unlike aluminum and magnesium powders, it can be readily pressed without the use of die lubricants. When compacted at 50 tons per

Jan 1, 1946

By Charles W. Dickson

CONTENTS. [ ] I.THE RELATION OF NICKEL TO PYRRHOTITE. Introduction. The Sudbury district is to-day one of the two great sources of nickel in the world. The peculiar geological relations of

Jan 1, 1913

By C. H. Jr. Herty

ALMOST every metallurgist who has given the Howe Memorial Lecture has had a personal contact with the distinguished gentleman to whose honor this hour is devoted. Unfortunately for me, such personal contacts were not possible. However, in the preparation of a thesis on the open-hearth process, one of my earliest tasks was to make a survey of the literature, and it was from Professor Howe's Metallurgy of Iron and Steel that I drew a number of references to previous work which formed the foundation for my reading. In his volume there is such a complete exposition of the then current thought on the subject of slags and on their role in the elimination of phosphorus from steel that I feel no hesitation in discussing in this Howe Lecture the subject of "Slag Control." In the present era of close specification, the drive for uniformity of product, and the close inspection of the product and of the cost sheet, the utmost efforts must be made to control the steelmaking variables to the best advantage of the steel producer. One of the major variables is the slag in the furnace and its effect upon the composition and quality of the metal. What advantages are to be gained from slag control? In the broad sense the advantages must be tremendous, because the very foundations of good steel melting are based on "shaping up" the slag to a point where, with proper temperature, the heat is ready for the final additions. Every melter works toward these ends through his experience with innumerable heats of steel. The elimination of undesirable constituents such as phosphorus and sulphur is entirely a matter of slag composition and physical nature, a point well known for over half a century. The role played by the slag in assisting in proper heat transfer from roof and flame to the steel has been equally well known. In more recent years there has come the problem of oxygen control in the more accurate gaug-ing of additions for making high-grade rimmed steel for the new strip mills, and in the deoxidizing additions for grain-size control and cleanli-ness of forging steels, both carbon and alloy. In this problem the oxidiz-ing characteristics of the slag are of prime importance.

Jan 1, 1940

By Charles B. Dudley

DEAR SIR: It is now nearly three years since my first report to you on the subject of steel rails was written. That report, as you will remember, dealt principally with the question of the relation between the chemical composition and physical properties of steel rails end their power to resist crushing and fracture in actual service. Other matters were referred to or touched upon in that report, but the main question was, Why do some rails crush or break in service while others do not? Yon will doubtless remember that the principal conclusion arrived at was, that the softer rails are less liable to Crush or break in service than the hard ones. Or, in other words, so far as conclusions could be drawn from the chemical analysis and physical test of 25 samples of steel rails which had actually been in service, these conclusions were that those rails which have the smaller amounts of carbon, phosphorus, silicon, and manganese are less liable to crush or break in service than those which have larger amounts of these elements. Or, again, looked at in the light

Jan 1, 1881

By Ashok K. Sinha

The quasi-binary systems "VFe3"—VCo,—VNi,— "VCu3"and "TiFe3"—TiCo3,—TiNi3-"TiCu3"have been studied by a combination of microscopic and X-ray methods. Of the Phases encountered, eleven had close-packed ordered layer structures. Within each system, there is an approximately linear variation of the degree of hexagonality of the stacking arrangement with electron concentration, e/a. A study of eighty -four known examples of AB3 structures in transition metal alloys indicates that at e/a = 8.65 the ordered structure of the close -packed layers changes from "triangular" (AuCu3 type) to "rectangular" (SbCu3 type). At e/a < 8.65, the slope of hexagonality us e/a line increases with the group number of the A component. An interesting series of close-packed ordered structures is known to exist at the composition AB3; however, their alloy chemistry has not yet been fully understood. Dwight and Beck1 observed a correlation between position of the components in the periodic table and the type of crystal structure of the binary AB2 structures formed by transition metals. No consistent effect due to atomic size was noted and they proposed that electron concentration* predominates in In the present paper, the AB3 structures are characterized by a symbol describing the stacking and a symbol specifying the ordered layer. The stacking symbol used was introduced by Zhdanov,7 and later used in the International Tables,8 and by Beck9 in his survey of possible layer stacking structures. Alternating positive and negative integers are used to represent the number of positive (e.g., in abcabc...) and negative (e.g., in cbacba...) stacking sequences. T denotes the triangular ordering found in close-packed planes of the AuCu3 structure and R the rectangular ordering found in close-packed planes of the SbCu3 structure, Figs. 3(a) and (b). The present structure symbols are listed in Table I alongside the prototypes, where known, and other structural characteristics of AB3 phases found in the present investigation. EXPERIMENTAL The starting materials were metals of 99.9+ purity. The alloys were prepared by arc melting under argon atmosphere using a nonconsumable tungsten electrode and water-cooled copper hearth. The total weight loss upon melting and subsequent annealing was always less than 0.5 pct and hence the alloys will be referred to by their intended (unanalyzed) compositions. The alloys were homogenized and annealed at suitable temperatures in the range 750" to 1200°C, the annealing periods varying from 3 days at 1200°C to 10 days at 750°C. The heat treatments were carried out in sealed silica capsules under argon atmosphere and with a molybdenum foil cover between the alloy and the walls of the capsule. The quenched alloys were microscopically examined and reduced to powder by crushing or filing. The powders were, whenever necessary, given a stress-relieving anneal at the original annealing temperature. X-ray powder patterns were obtained with an asymmetrical focusing camera, a Guinier-deWolff focusing camera, or a Debye-Scherrer camera. Cr, Co, or Cu radiations were used. In some cases, to ensure the minimum degree of contamination, the deeply etched specimens were mounted in the asymmetrical focusing camera to obtain an X-ray pattern. Internal silicon standards were employed for lattice parameter determinations. The intensity calculations were made by using a Fortran IV program

Jan 1, 1970

By Brahm Prakash, R. Schuhmann

Chemical conditions for flotation and nonflotation of quartz with oleic acid as collector and barium, calcium, aluminum, iron, and tin as activators were studied using a simple vacuum-flotation technique in glass-stoppered graduates. The detailed study of barium activation led to an interpretation based on ideal Langmuirian chemisorption.

Jan 5, 1950

By T. W. Bossert

MELTING is the initial step in the fabricating of all aluminum and aluminum-alloy products. Its function may be considered as threefold: to improve the metal quality, to adjust the composition, and to change the form to that required for subsequent fabrication. Because the melting operation is generally somewhat removed from the final product fabrication, its importance is frequently overlooked. Melting equipment and melting procedures can reflect materially on fabricating procedures as well as on quality and cost of final product. The selection of equipment and the establishment and control of melting procedures, therefore, should be given careful consideration. It is the purpose of this paper to present the various factors that should be considered in establishing melting procedures and in selecting melting equipment. Certain of these are the result of the inherent characteristics of aluminum and can be treated rather specifically. Others depend on the particular production requirements and hence will have to be considered more generally. This paper is intended to cover only the melting of solids, as differentiated from fines, such as borings, turnings, and sawdust. The melting of fines, in many respects, is a subject that should be treated by itself, and practices for melting fines are by no means as standardized as are those for melting solids. The melting of fines is today the subject of considerable developmental interest; hence practices discussed today may soon be replaced by new or improved ones. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE METAL THAT AFFECT MELTING Aluminum and aluminum alloys possess several inherent characteristics that affect the melting problem. Of the physical properties, density, heat content, thermal conductivity, emissivity, and melting temperatures are important because of their effect on equipment design. A list of such properties for commercially pure aluminum is given in Table r, compared with similar properties for iron and copper. The low density of aluminum as well as of the aluminum alloys is of material advantage in the design of melting equipment, in that such equipment can be considerably lighter than similar equipment for handling the heavier metals. The density, however, particularly of the molten metal, is not greatly different from that of the oxides and other nonmetallic materials that develop or become part of the melt during the melting process. Separation of such nonmetallics is not as rapid a process as with some of the other metals, and consideration of this must be made in establishing melting procedures. Sufficient holding time to permit such materials to separate out and, in some cases, fluxing treatments to aid the separation, are required. Since some of these nonmetallics settle to the bottom of the melt, provision should also be

Jan 1, 1946

By O. W. Ellis

The question of the influence of gases upon the properties of copper has received the attention of a number of investigators, among whom Sieverts,&apos; Iwase,2 Lobley and Jepson3 stand preeminent. Solubility of Gases in Copper Sieverts and Iwasé concerned themselves with the solubility of a variety of gases in the metal in the solid and liquid states. They determined the absorption coefficients of these gases and in all cases found a sharp change in solubility at the melting point of the metal. In this respect they disagree with Lobley and Jepson, who have based their opinions upon the appearance of small ingots of the metal which had been fused in an atmosphere of one or other of three gases and had then been rapidly cooled, while surrounded by gas, to the freezing point (rate—possibly 30" to 60" C. per sec.). The ingots that had been fused and cooled under nitrogen and carbon monoxide were free from blowholes and it was assumed that these gases were not absorbed in amounts much in excess of those which would dissolve in the solid metal; the ingots similarly treated under hydrogen were full of blowholes and it was assumed in this case that gas was ejected on solidification of the copper. The effect of varying the rate of freezing upon the character of the test ingots was not examined by these investigators; otherwise, it is felt, their views might have been subject to modification. Sieverts&apos; most important contribution is that the solubility of a gas in any metal is proportional to the square root of its pressure or concentration. Knowing then the absorption coefficients of the various gases in copper, it should be possible to determine the analysis of the

Jan 1, 1929

By O. W. Ellis

The question of the influence of gases upon the properties of copper has received the attention of a number of investigators, among whom Sieverts,&apos; Iwase,2 Lobley and Jepson3 stand preeminent. Solubility of Gases in Copper Sieverts and Iwasé concerned themselves with the solubility of a variety of gases in the metal in the solid and liquid states. They determined the absorption coefficients of these gases and in all cases found a sharp change in solubility at the melting point of the metal. In this respect they disagree with Lobley and Jepson, who have based their opinions upon the appearance of small ingots of the metal which had been fused in an atmosphere of one or other of three gases and had then been rapidly cooled, while surrounded by gas, to the freezing point (rate—possibly 30" to 60" C. per sec.). The ingots that had been fused and cooled under nitrogen and carbon monoxide were free from blowholes and it was assumed that these gases were not absorbed in amounts much in excess of those which would dissolve in the solid metal; the ingots similarly treated under hydrogen were full of blowholes and it was assumed in this case that gas was ejected on solidification of the copper. The effect of varying the rate of freezing upon the character of the test ingots was not examined by these investigators; otherwise, it is felt, their views might have been subject to modification. Sieverts&apos; most important contribution is that the solubility of a gas in any metal is proportional to the square root of its pressure or concentration. Knowing then the absorption coefficients of the various gases in copper, it should be possible to determine the analysis of the

Jan 1, 1929

By A. A. Scheil, S. I. Hoyt

In technological studies on steel considerable emphasis has been placed on the identification of the foreign inclusions, testimony of which is adequately given in the metallographic literature covering methods for their identification. The outstanding accomplishment in this field is the scheme devised by Campbell, Comstock and Wohrman for identifying various oxides, sulfides, silicates and other constituents by systematic etching tests and microscopic examination.&apos; The time involved in carrying out this procedure has led to attempts to secure quicker methods, or at least to shorten the time required to secure essential information. An example of this is the use of dark field illuminatin,2 but when this was tried out by the authors it was found that cavities and pits on the polished surface appeared bright on a dark field and could not be distinguished from small glassy inclusions. Still another means is the Leitz Ultropak, an instrument equipped with optical units for the illumination of the specimen by reflected light to secure an effect similar to dark field illumination. The structures are made visible in exceedingly sharp details by utilizing the inherent properties of the samples, such as refractive index, absorption coefficients and reflection powers. We have had no experience with the Ultropak, but a recent paper by Benedicks and Löfquist3 describes methods for determining the refractive index of (Fe, Mn) O and MnS by the use of this equipment. Presumably this method would be subject to about the same limitations as dark field illumination, though the, feature added by Benedicks and Löfquist appears to offer great promise in inclusion identification.

Jan 1, 1935