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By James W. Malcomson

The Tigre Mining Co. of Mexico, owned by the Lucky Tiger Combination Gold Mining Co. of Kansas City, decided early in 1910 to enlarge its mill, which consisted of a concentrator milling 3,000 tons of ore per month. The enlarged plant was designed to crush and concentrate 6,000 of ore and to cyanide 7,500 tons per month. The extra tonnage cyanided was to be obtained from tailings which were stored below the old mill. Power was supplied to the old mill from four boilers; a 150-h-p. Corliss engine and two Weber 60-h-p. gas-engines using producer-gas made from charcoal. The total horse-power required, including 60 h-p. used for machine-drills in the mine, was approximately 275. Cord-wood cost $4.32 per cord, 8 by 4 by 3 ft., and charcoal $15 per ton. The fuel supply in the surrounding country was approaching exhaustion; more than 150 mules and 50 men were engaged in cutting and transporting this fuel, and the unsettled political conditions in Sonora were such that it would be practically impossible to keep an organization of this kind together. The price of fuel was steadily rising and at times it became almost impossible to get sufficient fuel to operate. It was estimated that the enlarged plant, together with the mine, would require 750 h-p., as follows: Horse-Power. Old mill, which was left unchanged,..............180 New concentrator,.......................90 Cyanide-plant,........................380 Mine and other requirements,................. 100 Total,........•..................750 In a study of the best manner to obtain power the following alternative propositions were considered:

Jan 1, 1914

By H. A. Baumann

Experimental data are presented showing the influence of size consist and firing rate upon the performance of bituminous coal-fired, single-retort, industrial underfeed stokers. Size segregation, degradation, and distributor data are also included. The conclusion is reached that size consist of the fuel as fired, is a critical factor in its performance on this class of equipment.

Jan 1, 1950

By Dorsey Hager

NORTH -CENTRAL Texas has recently become a center of interest for the oil men of America. The bringing in of the McClosky well at Ranger, Eastland County, and the shallow pool at Brownwood, Brown County, in 1917, has stimulated interest in this area to fever pitch. Oil men from all over the United States are now investing there. The area of present interest is shown by the accompanying map (Fig. 1). The money spent in leases runs into millions of dollars. It is no exaggeration to say that a strip of country 200 miles (321 km.) long and 125 miles (201 km.) wide, comprising some 15,000,000 acres (6,070,310 ha.)., has been leased practically solid at a cost for rentals and bonuses of at least $1 per acre. The test holes contracted for will certainly number 400, at a cost of at, east $5,000,000. From what has been done in the past six months, $20,000,000 at least will be spent. To pay, returns on this amount of money, new production to the extent of at least 12,000,000 bbl. must be obtained. At present, the production from new fields will not average over 5000 bbl. per (lay; three wells at Ranger are producing 3000 bbl.; 250 wells at Brownwood produce 1000 bbl.; and the Gray well, Coleman County, is as yet an unknown factor. However, at Ranger there is every indication of developing a good pool covering from 1500 to 2000 acres (607 to 809 ha;), more or less, but the wells are deep, 3400 to 3800 ft. (1036 to 1158 m.), and cost $35,000 to $40,000 to drill. Large wells are necessary to pay for such expensive holes. As new wells are drilled, the gas pressure will be lowered rapidly, and large production need not be expected. For those oil men who expect a second Cushing or an Eldorado, Ranger holds little of promise. At Brownwood, Brown County, there are some 250 shallow wells (depths from. 200 to 350 ft.) averaging 4 to 7 bbl. per day. There is a chance of an extensive producing area, for these shallow sands to the southwest, and the opening of several thousand acres of shallow oil territory, and also some promise of deeper oil horizons in the Ranger horizon, but probably all under 2500 ft.

Jan 6, 1918

By E. A. Calnan, B. E. Williams

IN the development of a new treatment for the prediction of deformation textures,'-' it was noted that for no metals are there experimentally determined tension textures with which the predictions may be compared. There is a considerable knowledge of drawing textures and previous workers have been content to consider these as equivalent to tension textures for the purposes of comparison. It is shown, however, in the new treatment that the tension and drawing textures are not necessarily identical, the radial compression exerted by the dies in the drawing operation producing some modification of the tension texture. In particular for the face-centered cubic metals it is predicted that for drawing the final texture should be [1ll] with a spread towards [211] (a more detailed derivation of this texture has been made by Calnan3). This has been amply confirmed by experiment, see Hibbard.6 For the pure tension case, however, the treatment predicts intermediate [1ll] and [loo] textures leading to a [211] end-point, while all previous treatments have predicted the final texture as [1ll] with in some cases an additional [loo] component. Thus evidence that the pure tension end-point is the [211], or at least that [1ll] and [l00] are not the final textures, should provide a valuable test of the new treatment. Accordingly some experiments were made on aluminum. Three aluminum specimens were examined in detail, one of cold-rolled high purity rod (99.99 pct), specimen A, and two of commercial extruded rod of purity 99.4 pct, specimens B and C. The initial annealing treatments were: A, 1½ hr at 400°C; B, 2 hr at 400°C; C, 1½ hr at 650°C. The principal difficulty is that of obtaining sufficient elongation before fracture occurs. This was overcome to some extent by giving a softening heat treatment, 1 hr at 300°C, after each 15 pct of extension. Vickers hardness measurements gave values before and after the softening treatment of about 30 and 28, respectively, in comparison with the initial value of about 19 corresponding to fully annealed material. From recent observations in this laboratory it is concluded that this small recovery corresponds to a polygonization process rather than recrystallization proper and consequently the preferred orientation is unaffected. At the higher extensions, however, some slight necking of the specimens took place and it was necessary to turn them down to a uniform cross-section before

Jan 1, 1953

By E. A. Anderson

THIS seems to be the year for superlatives in A.I.M.E. meetings. The programs of the various Divisions and Institute committees offered an abundance of interesting and valuable information in the form of technical papers, symposia. and lectures to large and interested audiences. The Institute of Metals Division may hold up its head with pride for its own program. With six technical sessions, three full-day symposia, and the annual I.M.D. dinner, four meeting days were not enough and many simultaneous sessions were required. The quantity and quality of the paper were equaled by the numbers and interest of those attending.

Jan 1, 1944

By H. J. Wogner

STORAGE of natural gas in underground reservoirs is one of the most important developments in the natural gas industry in recent years. However, it is only when we consider this development together with proved fuel reserves, the know-how of the fuel technologist, and the possibility of making manufactured gas available over large areas, that we begin to appreciate fully the impact that underground storage of gas may have on the future growth and development of large areas in the United States. During the past winter, shortages of natural gas in the industrial East were given wide publicity and domestic consumers were requested to reduce their requirements to a minimum, so that war plants might have sufficient gas to continue operations. Curtailments would have been more drastic except for the fact that large volumes of natural gas had previously been stored in underground reservoirs. Storage of natural gas in depleted or partly depleted gas or oil sands is not new, having originally been tried, as far as I know, about 1915. About five or ten years later an attempt was made to store manufactured gas in a depleted gas sand. This proved unsuccessful at first because the gas was not properly cleaned and the impurities plugged the pores in the sand.

Jan 1, 1945

NEW MEMBERS The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the period of Apr. 10, 1917, to May 10, 1917. ANDERSON, GEORGE K., JR., Supt., Iron Ore Mines, The Low Moor Iron Co. of Va., Longdale, Va. AVERY, DAVID, Met Collins House, Collins St., Melbourne, Vic., Australia. BATES WILLIAM T., Shift Foreman, American Zinc Co. of Tenn., Mascot, Tenn. BIRD, ELMER, Min. & Civil Engr P. O. Box 1483, Boise, Idaho. BLACKBURN, JOSEPH R., Vice-Pres. & Genl. Mgr., Austen Coal & Coke Co., Austen, Preston Co., W. Va. BOTSFORD, FRANK P., Asst. Genl. Supt., Eastern Mesaba, Pickands Mather & Co., Gilbert, St. Luis Co., Minn. BRADEN, SPRUILLE, Min. Engr., Andes Exploration Co. of Maine, Casilla 83-D, Santiago, Chile South America. BROWNE, DAVID G., Mill Designer, New Jersey Zinc Co., 55 Wall St., New York, N. Y. BRUDERLIN, EMIL J., Met. Engr., Ohio & Colorado Smelt. & Ref. Co., Salida, Colo. CAMPBELL, DONALD C., Min. Engr., Campbell Wells & Elmendorf, 114 James St., Seattle, Wash. CARRIGAN, J. J., Asst. Genl. Supt. of Mines, Anaconda Copper Min. Co., Butte, Mont.

Jan 6, 1917

By Spencer S. Shannon

This chapter is concerned with the uses, geology, exploration, evaluation, preparation for markets, and future of 90thorium and 39yttrium, along with 14 rare-earth elements. The rare-earth metals or lanthanides were divided into three categories by Berzelius. The cerium subgroup is comprised of 57lanthanum, 58cerium, 59praseodymium, 60neodymium, and 62samarium. 61Promethium does not occur naturally. The terbium subgroup includes 63europium, 64gadolinium, and 65terbium. The remaining lanthanides are placed in the yttrium subgroup. Strictly speaking, yttrium is not a rare earth. Because the properties of yttrium resemble those of heavy rare earths, its name has been used as a designating adjective. The yttrium subgroup includes 66dysprosium, 67holmium, 68erbium, 69thulium, 70ytterbium, and 67lutetium. Rare-earth elements, especially those of the same subgroup, tend to occur together rather than in discrete minerals.

Jan 1, 1975

By Chase Palmer, Edson S. Bastin

While the reducing action of organic matter, of ferrous sulphate, and of hydrogen sulphide has frequently been invoked to account for the deposition of native gold and silver from ore-forming solutions, the high efficiency in this respect of certain of the metallic minerals which form the ore itself has not been suffciently recognized. If a little finely powdered chalcocite is placed in a test-tube arid 2 or 3 cc. of a dilute solution of gold chloride are poured over it, two or three shakes of the tube suffice to remove all the gold from the solution. The color of the solution changes from yellow to pale green, showing that copper is dissolved simultaneously with the precipitation of metallic gold. If a piece of chalcocite is hung in a dilute aqueous solution of silver sulphate (1/40 normal), a coating of silver begins immediately to form on the mineral, and within a few moments a beautiful silver tree has developed, similar to that formed when metallic zinc is immersed in a similar solution. When similar experiments are conducted with other sulphides and with certain arsenides and sulph-arsenides, especially those known to be commonly associated with native silver in ore deposits, it is found that these minerals differ greatly in their efficiency as precipitants, especially in their effect on silver solutions. The tests made with most of the minerals were qualitatipe only, but the reactions of a silver sulphate solution on chalcocite and niccolite were submitted to quantitative study to determine the nature of the reactions involved. Quantitative studies of the reactions with other minerals are now in progress

Jan 1, 1914

F. AT. FARMER*, New York (written discussion?)- The paper presents many phases of the welding art concerning which there are very divergent views. In many cases, the wide differences of opinion are based on the results of mechanical tests, but an examination of the mechanical test data discloses a wide variation in character of the tests made and in the details of procedure, so that it is frequently not only difficult to analyze and check the basis of the conclusions but impossible to correlate various groups of test results. It would seem, therefore, that the technique of testing welds is one of the phases of the welding art that should be studied and standardized in order that the results of mechanical tests made by different people may be strictly comparable and have the same significance to all. The vital difference between testing a specimen of steel that includes a welded joint and testing an ordinary specimen is the non-homogeneity of the weld specimen. The weld specimen has at its center a section composed of material that usually has physical, chemical, and metallurgical characteristics distinctly different from the adjoining metal. Furthermore, the section of added metal is more or less irregular and the ratio of added metal to original metal in the section is quite variable. Consequently the details of procedure and of recording data should be more minutely prescribed than in the testing of ordinary specimens. A conspicuous example f a mechanical test that requires standardization is the cold bending test, a standard test for mild steel. With the usual method, the specimen is bent around. a pin of prescribed diameter and, as all specifications usually require bending to 180° without fracture, the manner of applying the load is immaterial because the specimen is ultimately completely wrapped around the pin. But a specimen containing a welded joint at the center will usually not withstand bending to 180° because of the much lower ductility of the deposited metal in the weld. It is therefore obvious that the farther apart the points of support are the greater will be the angle attained before cracking occurs, simply because most of the bending will take place in the original metal. It is therefore highly desirable that there be prescribed a standard test that fixes exactly the distance between the supports, the curvature of the surface of supports, and the relation between this curvature, that of the loading surface, and the thickness of the specimen.

Jan 5, 1919

By L. D. Jaffe, F. W. Cotter, E. Cordon

The hardenability of titanium-base alloys was studied by metallographic examination and hardness survey of Jominy specimens end-quenched from the B range. Analyses of the data led to the equation log J = -0.57 + 0.25 @ct Fe + pct Mn + pct Mo) + 0.19 @ct Cr) +0.16 @ct V) + 0.03 @ct Zr). Here J is the distance, in sixteenths of an inch, from the quenched end of a Jominy hardenability specimen in the position of peak hardness, for material quenched from the B range. This equation fitted the experimental data with a standard deviation of approximately 0.29. The effects of the elements Al, Sn, W, Cu, Ni, B, C, N, 0, and H, and of pain size, were not statistically significant or not practically significant. A check against hardenability measurements in the literature showed agreement within the stated standard deviation. The equation should be useful in estimating hardenability of new or modified titanium alloys. HARDENABILITY in a titanium-base alloy is the ability of the alloy to retain the B structure on quenching. An alloy with high hardenability will retain the /3 structure even when cooled relatively slowly from a temperature at which B or P plus a is stable. A low hardenability material will retain P only if quenched extremely rapidly from the range of p or 0-plus-a stability, or will not retain it at all, at room temperature. High hardenability is desirable in titanium alloys to be heat-treated to high-strength levels. Its value is by no means limited to large section sizes. With high hardenability, a material can be solution-treated and cooled at a variety of rates, either to give high strength directly or, more generally, to give a soft ductile condition from which high strength can be obtained by subsequent aging. With low hardenability, high strength can be obtained, if at all, only by very rapid quenching, and there will generally be little increase in hardness on subsequent aging; an alloy of this type is limited in its applicability. On the other hand, alloys of very low hardenability have some advantages in weldability; essentially, they are always in the annealed condition, after welding as well as before. For commercial alloys, hardenability data are usually available, in the form either of property data after cooling from the solution temperature at various rates, with or without subsequent aging, or of results of a standard hardenability test, such as that originally developed for steels by Jominy and Boegehold.' When modifications of an available alloy are considered, or preparation of new alloy compositions, it would be Very convenient to be able to estimate the hardenability of the new material without having to make and test it. A method of estimating hardenability of titanium alloys from their composition was suggested by one of the authors some time ago, on a preliminary basis, utilizing scattered data found in the literature.' It seemed worthwhile to carry out a systematic experimental study of the effect of composition upon hardenability. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Approximately fifty heats of various compositions, weighing 8 to 10 Ib apiece, were melted in a small inert-gas tungsten-arc furnace with water-cooled copper walls. The starting material was 110 Brine11 titanium sponge, with high-purity metals added for alloying. Each heat was bottom-poured under vacuum through a molybdenum burnout strip into a cold graphite mold, to form an ingot approximately 4-1/2 by 3-1/2 by 3 in.* From each ingot were cut *The material was melted and cast by Pitman-Dunn Laboratory, Frankford Arsenal, to whom the authors must express their thanks. two pieces 4-1/2 by 1-1/2 by 1-1/2 in. These were forged, at temperatures adjusted to the composition, into 1-1/4-in. rounds, from which standard 1-in.-diam hardenability specimens3 were machined. A number of small samples were also prepared from forged materials of each heat, annealed, quenched from various temperatures, and examined metallographically. The P-transus temperature was determined by observation of the degree of resolution of primary a in these pieces. samples for chemical analyses were also taken from the forgings. One hardenability specimen of each heat was solution-treated for 1 hr approximately 50°F above the measured transus temperature, and the other for 1 hr approximately 250°F above the transus. (An additional hour was allowed for the specimens to reach furnace temperature.) These are not necessarily the temperatures that would be selected for

Jan 1, 1964

By AIME AIME

A REGULAR meeting of the Executive Board 'of American Engineering Council was held in the Onondaga Hotel, Syracuse, N.. Y., Feb. 14, 1921, with the president, Herbert Hoover, presiding. Reports of committees were presented and acted upon as follows: ENGINEER ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION The second meeting of the Committee was. called because it was represented to the Committee' on Pro¬cedure that the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Association of Engineers, and the Ameri¬can Institute of Consulting Engineers were anxious to have President-elect Harding appoint an engineer to fill one of the vacancies on the Interstate Commerce Commission. The representative of The American Society of Civil Engineers agreed to endorse the recom¬mendations- of American Engineering Council, and the Committee on Procedure prepared and sent a letter to the President-elect, a - copy of this letter being sent to each member of the Board. No names were suggested. . The appointment of an engineer on the Interstate Commerce Commission was approved and the Board, after approving the action of the Committee 'on Procedure in writing the President-elect, voted that, if requested, the Committee on Procedure submit a list of not less than six names for the appointment of an engineer on the Interstate. Commerce Commission.

Jan 1, 1921

By H. B. FERNALD

THE first year to which the Revenue Act of 1936 has applied is now passed. It is appropriate to try to give some calm thought to the plan of Federal income taxation as now imposed and what it will mean to the business and industry of the country if this plan of taxation is continued unchanged. Whether or not we like to pay these taxes is beside the point. Taxes are high and may be expected to be high for many years. The important question is whether the taxes to be imposed will destroy or injure business enterprise and development, and, in so doing, lower the standards of employment, living, comfort, and welfare of our people. The power to tax is the power to destroy. That destruction may come suddenly as a cyclone, or slowly as dry rot. What, if any, features are there in the present plan of Federal income taxation that have these destructive tendencies? A few of the points follow that seem to call for consideration.

Jan 1, 1937

By Ronald C. Whiting

SINCE the advent of what has been aptly called "chemical flotation," about 1920, the number and complexity of the various chemicals used in practice have increased enormously. Over 300 patents have been issued dealing exclusively with flotation reagents, and many of these embrace from two or three up to a score or more of specific compounds. The exact number of compounds actually finding a practical use in flotation would be difficult to determine, though the U. S. Bureau of Mines gives an annual list by groups.

Jan 1, 1938

By L. Dudley Stamp

The years 1935 and 1936 have been momentous ones in the history of oil exploitation in Burma. While the possibilities of the discovery of an important new field in the country have become increasingly remote, there have been surprising and to some extent unexpected developments in and near the old established fields. Further, these developments have not only an important bearing on the future of the industry in Burma, but they point to conclusions of, world-wide significance in connection with the disposition of oil pools. BC'rma Independent of India According to the Government of India Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1935, Burma becomes independent of India, of which it was formerly a province. In future, therefore, statistics for Burma will be quoted separately from those of India. In 1934, 1935 and 1936 the oil production in India (including Burma) reached new high levels— though only a few per cent above the totals for 1919, 1920 or 1930. Part of the increase came from Assam, so that Burma's total is apparently below that of 1921. It must always be remembered, however, that Burma's largest potential producer—Singu—is used essentially by the Burmah Oil Co. as a reserve and its production is varied from year to year, and indeed from week to week, according to local market demand or the requirements of the Rangoon refinery. The figures of Table 1 must therefore be viewed in the light of these remarks.

Jan 1, 1937

Gus C. Henning, New York City: In taking up the discussion of these specifications it is necessary that I give definitions of what I understand under the term " Specifications." There may be three kinds, viz.: (1) Specifications in general; (2) Standard Specifications; (3) Standard International Specifications. 1. A Specification is a document used in commerce which should clearly define the qualities of material to be supplied by the producer, the tests which shall be applied for their determination, and the methods which shall be applied for the purpose of determining that the entire product shall possess such qualities, properties and finish as are desired. The terms used in such document must be applied in accordance with their strict technical definitions as used by those most conversant with them, and the language should be of such accuracy that there can be but a single interpretation of each and every clause. A specification is a part of a contract, and should be legally perfect and accurate. Inaccuracy of definition and dic-

Jan 1, 1903

By N. I. Fisher, J. Shepherd

Statistical studies have been carried out on structural geological data collected across a large zone of roof failure 600 m (1968 ft) wide and at least 800 m (2642 ft) long in the Greta coal seam at Aberdare East Colliery. Two swarms of hundreds of minor, normal faults with throws commonly between 3 and 300 mm in the room and pillar workings are broadly coincident with roof failure. The faults have been classified into dip slip and oblique and strike slip types. Roof conditions have been classified into good; troublesome with subclasses scaly, heavy, gutter falls and wide, flat-roofed falls; and severely failed with subclasses very heavy roof, gutter falls and dome falls. Troublesome conditions are defined as those in which the height of the fall is less than or equal to 0.3 m, and severely failed conditions as those in which the fall height is greater than 0.3 m. Comparison of faults, roof condition and mining rate on a shift basis indicates that faults and roof failure are much more important than machine breakdowns in reducing mining rate. The effect of faults on roof conditions has been quantified using a concept called the "zone of influence," a rectangular area around a fault in which the fault has potentially deleterious effects. The spatial comparison of fault "zones of influence" with areas of roof failure wing Spearman's rank correlation coefficient shows that, while normal dip slip faults do not appear to be associated with roof failure, oblique slip and strike slip faults appear to be associated with roof classed as severely failed. The "zone of influence" of an oblique slip fault may extend up to 3 m on each side of it in the headings and up to 1.14 m in the cut-throughs. The fault "zone of influence" has geomechanical implications for the design of mine openings and Possibly represents the maximum length of a cantilevered roof beam likely to fail during mining, owing to a fault. Roof conditions could Possibly be predicted in blocks of &gin coal if the type of fault could be identified in oriented drill cores.

Jan 1, 1979

By Pual M. Tyler

BLIZKRIEG tactics in the present war have consumed metals on such a profligate scale that some of the best-laid procurement plans for civilian and military needs of even a year ago seem in retrospect incredibly meager. Conservation of raw materials has reached an all-time climax in Germany, where metals are worth more than human life and throwing away an empty toothpaste tube may be legally punished by death. Even the United States and the British Empire, proud masters of nine tenths of the world?s known mineral reserves and processing plants, are being driven to metals and feverishly expanding production facilities that not long ago were deemed overbuilt. After the war is over and inevitable postwar readjustments are completed, it is reasonable to expect that purchasing power ? or at least the ability to procure the comforts and luxuries of life ? will be distributed among vastly larger population than ever before, accelerating the rising trend in demand for industrial raw materials in ever greater quantity and variety.

Jan 1, 1942

By W. G. Jewitt

YELLOWKNIFE, the most northerly Canadian gold mining district, is once more in the throes of a boom. Touched off by spectacular and well-publicized diamond-drilling results on the property of Giant Yellowknife Gold Mines, Ltd., mining companies and the general public are competing for mining claims and for the shares of companies owning mining claims in the area, with little regard for values. Such a stock-market boom has various unfortunate consequences but undoubtedly one beneficial result is that considerable amounts of money are made available for serious development. The Yellowknife mining area lies on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, at a latitude of approximately 62°30' north. The topography is a low-relief phase of that usual in the Canadian Laurentian shield. Roughly, one third of the surface is lake-covered, one third muskeg or overburden, and one third is bare

Jan 1, 1944

By Howard N. Eavenson

TWO months ago, just after the coal code hearing in Washington, one of our leading liberal weeklies printed a study of the coal industry made by an economist in the Administration, and on the outside cover bad it featured as "Coal-A Dying Industry." There are, of course, different opinions as to the accuracy of this characterization and I want to present some of the facts about the outlook for the bituminous industry for a short time ahead. In view of what has happened in the industry within the recent past it would be futile to attempt to make any prophecy about what is likely to occur in the future. We all know that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, but it is likely that anyone undertaking this role about this industry would soon find himself in no man's land. One can, with some slight degree of safety perhaps, outline present conditions and tendencies and draw some inferences as to what the future may hold.

Jan 1, 1933