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The new Ceramic Engineering Building of the University of Illinois is to be formally dedicated on Nov. 20 and 21. The occasion will be made one of great interest to the clay-workers of the country. It is expected that the exercises will be attended by many representatives of the architectural, structural, mining, geological, chemical, and manufacturing interests. In connection with the dedication exercises, an industrial conference will be -held, in which a number of topics of current interest to the ceramic engineer, the clay-worker and the manufacturer will be discussed by well-known experts. : The number of students registered in the College of Engineering of the University of Illinois eleven days after the beginning of registration - for the new year, is as follows: Architecture, 116; Architectural Engineering, 167; Ceramic Engineering, 46; Civil Engineering, 190; Electrical Engineering, 266; Mechanical Engineering, 273; Mining Engineering, 25; Municipal and Sanitary Engineering, 26; Railway Engineering, 34; total, 1,143. The enrollment of students in the whole University, not including the College of Medicine, the College of Dentistry and the School of Pharmacy, which are located in Chicago, is 5,21.4.

Jan 10, 1916

By G. B. Gould

FROM the very inception of the price-control experiment in the bituminous-coal industry, the problem of price differentials was of major importance. In fact, assuming that there will be no legal or Govern- mental obstacles to price control, the successful maintenance of the present or any other method designed to control bituminous-coal prices will depend upon the discovery of some satisfactory way to determine these differentials in price, among: individual mines and groups of mines. Being of organic origin, bituminous coal is a commodity that presents an almost infinite variety of qualities. It is inevitable, therefore, that a work- able price-control system must attempt

Jan 1, 1935

By H. I. Aaronson, W. L. Winterbottom, G. M. Pound

On the basis of a statistical thermodynamic treatment of the data of smithz2 on the activity of carbon in austenite, a Darken and smith23 deduced that the interaction energy, wy, between carbon atoms occupying nearest-neighboring interstitial sites is repulsive. Aaronson, Domian, and pound 24 (ADP) have applied two different statistical thermodynamic analyses to the same data. One analysis, a composite of the treatments of Darken and Smith,23 Speiser and Spret-nak," and Kaufman, Radcliffe, and Cohen,26 primarily takes account of the positional entropic effects of wy in dilute solutions. The other, due to Lacher 27 and Fowler and Guggenheim," is also applicable to more concentrated solid solutions. The equations which both analyses produce for a,, can be rearranged so that, when In a,, is plotted against the appropriate function of the carbon content of the austenite, the plot will have a slope of unity when the correct value of wy is employed. Since no other constant need be simultaneously evaluated in order to make this determination, ascertaining the most probable value of wy from Smith's data on the bases of these analyses was an elementary problem in least-squares statistics. ADP demonstrated that the wy's obtained from both analyses vary with temperature in a statistically significant manner. McLellan, Gerrard, Horowitz, and sprague 29 (MGHS), on the other hand, have recently made a new statistical thermodynamic study of a,, and have concluded from this study that wy is independent of temperature. The equation which they derived for a,, is: where 0 = ratio of the mole fraction of carbon atoms to that of iron atoms, z = number of sites from which occupancy is excluded by the presence of a carbon atom and the repulsive character of its interaction with nearest-neighboring carbon atoms (z = zb in Ref. 24), and x = a geometric parameter taking account of overlapping of the exclusion shells of nearby carbon atoms. z is 1 when wy = 0 and 13 when wy = Q. For a given value of z there is a definite value of X . In the absence of an equation connecting z and X, MGHS computed geometrically the value of x at several integral values of z; x increases from 0.47 to 8.67 as z is increased from 2 to 5. MGHS fitted Eq. [I] to the a,, data of Ellis, Davidson, and Bodsworth30 at 925° and 1050°C and to the data of smithz2 at 1000°C. Confining z to integral values in the range 4 to 6, and also somewhat restricting AG, the values of z, X, and AG were sought which would minimize the average root mean square percent deviation, D, of the calculated a,, values from those obtained experimentally. Finding that D was almost always smallest when z = 5, they concluded that z is independent of temperature. Since:23, 26 where R = gas constant and T = absolute temperature, and w,, was considered to be similarly invariant, this statement cannot be strictly true. The temperature range employed, however, was small and the interval between the values of z tested was sufficiently large so that the results could still be consistent with a constant The statistical treatment of the a,, data applied by MGHS is clearly quite approximate. Since more than three values of a,, are available at each temperature, z, and X, and AG have actually been over deter mined, rather than underdetermined as their treatment implies. In order to make more complete and exact use of the a,, data, we shall employ the Legendre Method of Least Squares, as described by Whittaker and Robinson. This technique permits conversion of the overdetermined system of equations produced by the substitution into Eq. [I] of the available pairs of a,, and 0 data at a given temperature into an even determined system. Solution of the latter system yields the most probable value of each of the three constants. This procedure will allow a statistically rigorous test to be made of the conclusion drawn by MGHS in respect of the temperature dependence of In order to obtain linear iiequations of conditions" from Eq. [I], the exact values of the three unknown constants are replaced by G/RT = =/RT + y, where z, i, and aG are estimated values of the constants. This allows the conditional equations to be written in the form:'l where fi -f6, i, =/RT) = the right-hand side of Eq. [I] for a given pair of ayi and values. When applied to Eq. [I], these relationships become: The i equations of condition are reduced to three "normal equations" in the manner discussed by Whittaker and Robinson. The normal equations are then solved for a, ß, and y. Both of these operations are most conveniently performed by means of the computer technique of Winterbottom and Gjostein.32 This technique was used iteratively until the value of 0 (the most sensitive of the three correction factors) became 10.01. (Until they became small, a, 8, and y

Jan 1, 1969

By Walter Stern

The self-potential or spontaneous polarization method is one of the oldest in the field of electrical exploration. When applied in prospecting for ore bodies, it is one of the most rapid and inexpensive means of locating indications of ore bodies at shallow depth. Usually, the procedure is to survey the equipotential lines of the electrical field that is generated by the electrochemical activity of the ore near the ground-water level, and to localize the so-called negative centers or points of greatest negative anomaly. Another field procedure involves the measurement of potential differences along potential profiles, generally laid out at right angles to the assumed strike. Again, in such survey, the basis for establishing the presence of ore is the location of negative potential anomalies. The earlier writers on the subject, notably Schlumbergerl and R. C. Wells,2 did much to clarify the fundamental electrochemical phenomena involved. Interpretation of the field data, however, remained largely qualitative. In 1925, A. Petrovsky3 analyzed the relation between the shape of the potential anomaly curve and size and depth of an Ore body by assuming the subsurface body to be a polarized sphere.' Along similar lines of approach, Edge and Laby5 considered the ore body a dipping sheet with limited extent in the direction of strike, while Poldini6 based the theory on the assumption of a dipping bar. The following study endeavors to enlarge upon these earlier investigations and attempts, on the basis of the potential distribution of a polarized bar, to indicate certain characteristics of the anomaly curve that make possible the determination of depth, size and dip of a subsurface body. The Spontaneous Polarization Field Set Up by an Ore Body If a sulphide ore body is subjected to oxidation varying in degree in its upper and lower parts according to the difference in the concentration of oxygen within the surrounding medium, an electrical potential field is set up. The form and distribution of this field will be investigated herein with special reference to its components on the earth,s surface. Under the simplifying assumption that the ore body may be considered as a dipole with the point sources Q1 and Q2 situated at its upper and lower ends (Fig. I), the potential of the spontaneous polarization at point P is given by the following equation:

Jan 1, 1946

By Walter Stern

The self-potential or spontaneous polarization method is one of the oldest in the field of electrical exploration. When applied in prospecting for ore bodies, it is one of the most rapid and inexpensive means of locating indications of ore bodies at shallow depth. Usually, the procedure is to survey the equipotential lines of the electrical field that is generated by the electrochemical activity of the ore near the ground-water level, and to localize the so-called negative centers or points of greatest negative anomaly. Another field procedure involves the measurement of potential differences along potential profiles, generally laid out at right angles to the assumed strike. Again, in such survey, the basis for establishing the presence of ore is the location of negative potential anomalies. The earlier writers on the subject, notably Schlumbergerl and R. C. Wells,2 did much to clarify the fundamental electrochemical phenomena involved. Interpretation of the field data, however, remained largely qualitative. In 1925, A. Petrovsky3 analyzed the relation between the shape of the potential anomaly curve and size and depth of an Ore body by assuming the subsurface body to be a polarized sphere.' Along similar lines of approach, Edge and Laby5 considered the ore body a dipping sheet with limited extent in the direction of strike, while Poldini6 based the theory on the assumption of a dipping bar. The following study endeavors to enlarge upon these earlier investigations and attempts, on the basis of the potential distribution of a polarized bar, to indicate certain characteristics of the anomaly curve that make possible the determination of depth, size and dip of a subsurface body. The Spontaneous Polarization Field Set Up by an Ore Body If a sulphide ore body is subjected to oxidation varying in degree in its upper and lower parts according to the difference in the concentration of oxygen within the surrounding medium, an electrical potential field is set up. The form and distribution of this field will be investigated herein with special reference to its components on the earth,s surface. Under the simplifying assumption that the ore body may be considered as a dipole with the point sources Q1 and Q2 situated at its upper and lower ends (Fig. I), the potential of the spontaneous polarization at point P is given by the following equation:

Jan 1, 1946

By R. I. Jaffee, E. S. Bartlett, D. N. Williams

The oxidation resistance and fabricability of molybdenum powder-metallurgy alloys containing up to 20 wt pct nickel in the form of a fine dispersion were studied. The effects of dispersion distribution and of amount and type (pure nickel or nickel compounds) of additive were considered. A definite improvement in oxidation resistance was observed, but the amount of improvement fell far short of requirements for an oxidation-resistant alloy. Fabricability by hot-rolling was limited. INVESTIGATIONS at Ohio State university1 and Battelle Memorial institute2 have indicated that the attainment of a truly oxidation-resistant molybdenum-base alloy for high-temperature service, with the coincident retention of high-temperature strength and toughness, will be a difficult, if not impossible, feat. Among the most promising alloy systems studied was the molybdenum-nickel system shown in Fig. 1. Alloys in this system show good oxidation resistance at temperatures well above the normal melting point of molybdenum trioxide because of the regenerative formation of protective nickel-molyb-date (NiMoO4) on the surface of the alloy during exposure at high temperatures. Unfortunately, the required alloy content to obtain oxidation resistant molybdenum-nickel alloys far exceeds the limits of the narrow terminal solid-solution boundary, and closely approaches the peri-tectic composition involving the brittle intermetal-lic compound, MoNi. Because of the peritectic reaction, fusion alloys are characteristically brittle, since the MoNi phase, being the last to form, tends to occur as a continuous grain-boundary network around each molybdenum grain. An added problem with this system is that the protective nickel-molybdate layer formed at high temperatures is unstable, undergoing one or more allotropic modifications upon cooling. The volume changes associated with this modification during cooling are such as to cause violent expulsion of the protective molybdate coating from the surface of the piece. This is, of course, quite detrimental in material exposed to cyclic temperature during service. The research reported here resulted from an attempt to overcome the aforementioned problems associated with the molybdenum-nickel alloys primarily by controlling the amount, size, and location of the MoNi phase. By using powder-metallurgy techniques of alloy preparation and sintering the blended molybdenum-nickel powder mixtures at a temperature below the peritectic reaction temperature, molybdenum-nickel alloys with a randomly dispersed MoNi phase were produced. MATERIALS The molybdenum powder used in the preparation of alloys for this study was commercial hydrogen reduced, minus 325-mesh (Tyler) material. Master alloys, by which nickel was added, consisted of elemental carbonyl nickel powder (12 average particle size), an alloy of 50 wt pct Ni-50 wt pct Cr, and compounds of MoNi, Ni,Si, and Ni2B. The nickel-chromium powder was prepared by filing a vacuum-arc-melted ingot, separating impurities magnetically, and screening to minus 200-mesh. The MoNi powder was prepared by pulverizing a hydrogen-sintered powder-metallurgy compact to minus 325-mesh material. Further sizing of this powder for study of effects of dispersion distribution was accomplished by air classification of the minus 325-mesh powder. The Ni2Si and Ni2B powders were prepared by crushing vacuum-sintered powder-metallurgy compacts to minus 200-mesh material. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Specimen Preparation—The general procedure followed in the preparation of alloys for testing is described as follows: 1) Blending. Either hand-blending of the powders in a ceramic mortar and pestle for X 1/2 or mechanical blending was used. Hand-blending seemed preferable for optimum homogeneity. 2) Compacting. Most of the blended powders were pressed to green compacts at pressures of 15 tons per sq in. in a single-action die, although some were pressed at 80 tons per sq in. A 1 X 11/4 X 1/4-in. green compact was the standard size for oxidation test material, and 7 X 1/2 X 1/4-in. compacts were used for fabricability test specimens. 3) Sintering. All green compacts were sinteredat

Jan 1, 1959

By C. P. Williams

THE lead-bearing area of Missouri has been subdivided, geographically, into the Southeastern, the Central, and the Southwestern

Jan 1, 1877

By Walter Fuchs

IT is now generally conceded that coal is the product of deposition and transformation of debris of forests and swamps.29 Ample data are available to illustrate the metamorphosis of biochemical substances through biological action; other data show the progressive regional metamorphism existing in coal beds ;25 and numerous examples of change effected by intrusion of igneous dikes into coal deposits have been established.23 However, often the relative importance of the biological and the geological factor in determining the character of the various natural coals is a debatable question. Since both biological and geological factors are ever present in nature, the problem, at first glance, would appear to resemble certain probability problems: specifically the simultaneous toss of two coins, with the biological factor as heads and the geological as tails. The probability is 2 : I for the combined effect of both factors, as compared to the exclusive effect of either one, if the a priori probability is the same for each factor. This condition can be analyzed by a thermodynamic treatment of data, which may be obtained from a consideration of pertinent biological, chemical, geophysical and geological facts. SYNOPSIS OF BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL FACTS The biosphere is not sterile; i.e., microorganisms are always present. Microorganisms have been established in the ocean deep, under the ice of the polar regions, in the sand of the deserts, and in swamps far below the surface. The various biological media may be acid, neutral, or alkaline, and they may or may not be readily accessible to air. Microorganisms are encountered almost everywhere, except where the temperature is not within the range tolerable by microbial life. Of course, with changing conditions, the type of microorganisms will change. All chemical products of life-proteins, fats, carbohydrates, lignins, waxes, resins may serve as a habitat of microorganisms. In the decomposition of a medium. some microorganisms macerate organic matter mechanically and remove certain constituents for their own nutrition; others decompose a large part of the organic matter but may leave certain constituents undecomposed. Some attack only certain specific ingredients of the organic matter. All of them build up cell substance. The nitrogen content of the medium largely determines the degree of decomposition. Below 1.7 per cent nitrogen, growth of microorganisms and hence decomposition of organic material is retarded; consequently organic material will accumulate.17, 32 Such accumulations of organic material may give coal eventually. Coals differ in type and rank. The nature of the original vegetation and the conditions attending the transformation of the accumulated debris determine the type of coal such as bright, splint, cannel, and algal or boghead coals. Chemical analysis of representative samples of a given type of

Jan 1, 1941

By Fred W. Stiefel

To open the Fisher Hill mine of the Republic Steel Corporation, it was necessary to sink an inclined shaft into the rock and excavate stations, drifts, and ore pockets. This inclined shaft, or slope, q ft. 8 in. high by 28 ft. 2 in. wide, has compartments for two 5-ft. gauge ore-skip tracks of 120-lb. rail, one 5-ft. gauge man-skip track of 60-lb. rail, a concrete stairway, and service pipes consisting of a 12-in. compressed-air line, an 8-in. pump-discharge line, and a 4-in. water-supply line. When we were requested to investigate the work, the progress being made (by another organization) amounted to only 2 ½ ft. advance in 24 hr. We reported that progress of at least 6 ft. per day could be made. As a result, the Defense Plant Corporation, through the Republic Steel [ ] Corporation, entered into a contract with us to sink the shaft. The contract contained a penalty and bonus clause predicated upon an advance of 150 ft. per month. The average advance was 7.8 ft. per day; that in the best six-day week was 60 ft. and that in the best month, 215.5 ft. in 25 working days. The drilling was performed by 3 ½ -in. wet drifter drills mounted on five 8-ft. columns (see accompanying illustration). Even though a full-face drilling and mucking operation is customarily desirable, the steep slope, with the accumulation of water and fine debris at the face, made a modified heading and bench operation preferable. The heading and bench were of equal height. The five columns, instead

Jan 1, 1945

By John W. Cahn, David A. Karlyn, Morris Cohen

The massive B(bcc) — am (fcc) transformation in Cu-Zn alloys has been studied isothermally by pulse-heating the retained ß phase from room temperature to the reaction temperatures. The transformation is found to occur only in the single-phase a region of the equilibrium diagram. The massive growth rate is of the order of 1 cm per sec and is constant at each temperature, usually after a delay time of some milliseconds. The delay time depends on the reaction temperature in C-curve fashion, while the growth rate increases monotonically with temperature over the single-phase range. The absence of isothermal massive transformation in the two-phase region does not arise from slow growth rates at such temperatures, but because the reaction cannot get started there. It is proposed that the massive transjormation initiates at small preexisting a particles which have rejected zinc into the surrounding 0 matrix. Only within the single-phase region can these particles consume the excess zinc during diffusion-controlled growth and thereby accelerate to the steady-state massive growth rate. The onset of massive growth marks the end of the delay time, and the growth rate then becomes interface-controlled. These isothermal transformation characteristics explain why the usual composition range for massive-kinetic studies by quenching is so limited. The same principles can be extended to more complex alloy systems by recognizing that the single-phase region in which the massive transformation can occur may not be stable with respect to phases not participating in the reaction. MASSWE transformations are now recognized as a regular class of solid-state reactions involving no compositional change (like martensitic transformations) and no shear displacements (unlike martensitic transformations). The name was first coined by Greninger1 in 1939 to describe the coarse grains of fcc a solid solution generated via a fast reaction from the parent bcc 0 solid solution in Cu-A1 alloys. However, some 9 years earlier, phillips2 had already described a similar transformation in the Cu-Zn system. The fact that the massive a formed as a single phase during drastic quenching from the 0 region of the equilibrium diagram signified that compositional changes were precluded. and the reaction was presumed to take place as in a one-component polymorphic transition by nucleation and growth. Phillips also observed that the occurrence of the massive transformation in the Cu-Zn system was extremely sensitive to alloy composition. For example. in a Cu-37.3 at. pct Zn alloy. the ß — am (am = massive transformation product) reaction was found to predominate and was not suppressed by iced-brine quenching from the 0 region. whereas at compositions greater than 38.3 at. pct Zn the massive reaction did not appear at all. Knowledge concerning massive transformations has bee11 substantially enhanced over the years by Massalski and his coworkers; an excellent summary of his papers and the current understanding of this type of reaction has been published recently by Barrett and ~assalski." he massive transformation product grows in roughly nodular form. often with irregular boundaries but sometimes with almost planar interfaces. The latter may have simple crys-tallographic indices relative to the 0 matrix. or the indices may be complex just as in the case of mar-tensites.'1 Little is known about the existence of orientation relationships between the massive and parent phases. A striking feature of massive transformations is that the massive units start almost exclusively at grain boundaries of the parent phase and frequently propagate on a broad front across matrix grains and grain boundaries of various orientations. Because of the rapid growth rate, it is thought that the interface motion is controlled. not by long-range diffusion. but by thermally activated atom jumps across the transformation boundary.

Jan 1, 1970

By Walter E. Hopper

(Wilkes-Barre Meeting, June, 1911.) I. LOCATION AND EXTENT. THE Caddo oil-field, shown in Fig. 1, is located in Caddo parish, northwestern Louisiana. The known producing territory of oil is covered by townships 19 N, 20 N, 21 N, 22 N, and ranges 15 and 16 W., shown in Fig. 2. The center of the field may be taken as Oil City, 24 miles north of Shreveport, on the Kansas City Southern railway. Shreveport is the second largest city in the State, and is the connecting point of five rail-road-lines. Drilling at the present time, however, is going on all over northern Louisiana, especially in Caddo and the neighboring parishes. II. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT. Natural gas escaping at the surface is found at numerous places in northwestern Louisiana. At Shreveport, the plant of the Shreveport Ice & Refrigerating Co. has been lighted by natural gas for 20 years. The well was drilled for water, but was abandoned on account of the gas. A test well, put down in 1905 near the western limits of Shreveport, was driven to 1,650 ft., and encountered indications of gas and oil at various depths, but did not succeed in finding enough to be profitable. Attention was first attracted to the Caddo field in 1895 by indications in water-wells from 40 to 60 ft. deep, in which the pressure of natural gas was noticeable. This indication of gas in a shallow well led to the drilling of the first well in the Caddo field, the old Savage Brothers & Morricell, or the Caddo Lake Oil and Pipe Line No. 1. The rig for this well was erected in May, 1904, and drilling began in June, 1904. The well was bailed Mar. 23, 1905, with a small amount of oil. It was deepened July, 1905, and converted into a "gasser " Jan. 3, 1906. It was abandoned January, 1907. In consequence of the finding of oil in the Savage well, drilling-operations were pushed with energy; and in April, 1905, four wells were drilling. Great trouble was experienced with

Apr 1, 1911

By E. R. Brownscombe, Francis Collins

The pressure distribution in a reservoir producing an incompressible fluid by radial flow in a horizontal structure is a simple logarithmic function' used daily by reservoir engineers. The assumption of an incompressible liquid is equivalent to assuming that pressure is maintained constant at the well radius and at some external "radius of drainage," or, in other words, that the entire flow into the well passes across the external radius. In most cases a well is surrounded by other wells draining adjoining areas so that the "radius of drainage" is not a line of constant pressure with flow equal to the flow into the well but rather a contour of zero pressure gradient across which no flow occurs, production being due to the expansion of the liquid within the area. The radial flow steady state pressure distribution for this case does not seem to be extensively used despite the fact that the mathematical analysis has been given in detail' and the results are simple and generally applicable. 'The object of this discussion is to develop this result from a physical rather than a mathematical viewpoint, thereby aiding intuition in judging circumstances to which it may be applicable. If the production rate at a well in an unsaturated reservoir is maintained constant while no flow occurs across the outer radius a steady state will soon be reached in which the flow rate or pressure gradient is constant with time at all points in the reservoir. To preserve such a condition it is necessary that the pressure decline at the same rate at all points in the reservoir, that is, the curves of pressure versus radial distance at successive times are all parallel. Then each unit volume of oil is expanding at the same rate and contributing an equal share to the production. The rate of flow q across any circle r is thus proportional to the volume of the reservoir between r and the external radius re, or q = qw (I-r2/r2e) ......(1) where q, is the production from the well and it is assumed that rw is very small compared with re. This equation can be combined with the differential form of Darcy's law for radial flow, 2phkr dp q =—— ........(2) aµß dr ( where q is not a constant as in the incompressible flow case but is a function of r given by Equation (1). If Equation (1) is substituted in Equation (2) the variables p and r can be separated and the result integrated to obtain the pressure distribution p = pw +--------In------------- 2pkh[ rw 2re2] ......(3) This equation differs from the incompressible case only in the addition of the term proportional to the square of the radius

Jan 1, 1950

By Dick Whittington, W. R. Taylor

GENERAL In mid-1974, a representative of ARCO Petroleum Company walked into our Austin offices and asked for a permit for ARCO's first Clay West Mine site. This was the first in situ uranium mining permit issued in the United States. That initial permit, issued in January 1975, was for three acres. The four years since have been characterized by growth and change. Today there are 16 permits approved for approximately 1,540 production acres issued to five companies at eight sites in four counties. There are approximately seven additional permit applications being processed or on the verge of being submitted for an estimated 2,000 additional acres of production. As a rough gauge of the financial scope of this activity, at the typical 40 production wells per acre and an estimated $2,000/well, operators hale installed or committed $122 million for production wells. This does not account for the exploration and development wells installed to delineate the ore or the cost of processing facilities for extracting the uranium. HISTORY OF URANIUM MINING IN TEXAS Information I have concerning early in situ uranium mining activities is "sketchy" but the apparent first on-site test of in situ uranium mining was conducted between 1967 and 1971 at the Dueterstat site, north of Yorktown in Gonzales County, by City Service. Others ran tests at the Bruni site in Webb County and the Burns and Clay West sites in Live Oak County in the mid-70's. During this period, Texas Water Quality Board personnel in the central and district offices maintained a general surveillance of these various test activities. Regulation of in situ uranium mining was formalized with the issuance of a permit in January 1975 with the advent of ARCO's initial production scale (3 acre) effort in the Clay West area at the Moser mine site. Since 1975, the accelerating rate of mining and exploration activity is noticeable. There were 16 exploratory rigs operating early in 1977. This year, the rig count is averaging 46--a 287% increase. HISTORY OF LEGISLATION Paralleling this mining activity was state and federal legislation which subjected in situ mining to environmental regulation. The following is a brief chronology of the legislation that is directly or indirectly related to uranium mining. As most of you know, disposal wells are an integral part of most in situ uranium mines operating in Texas. They are used both during production and during aquifer restoration following production. The wells are regulated by the Texas Injection Well Act, enacted in 1961 by the Texas Legislature. In 1967, the Water Quality Act established the Texas Water Quality Board, and provided for the regulation of water quality by the so-called permit system. In 1969, the Solid Waste Act was enacted by the Texas Legislature. The legislation provides for control of wastes from manufacturing, mining, and agriculture. This Act regulated uranium surface mining activities until 1975 when the Texas Surface and Mining Reclamation Act placed responsibility with the Railroad Commission for uranium open-pit mining and surface mining of coal and lignite. In 1972, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Public Law 92-500) was passed. This legislation forms the legal base for the NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) and the subsequent point source effluent guidelines and standards. The November 6, 1975 issue of the Federal Register published interim final rules for Best Practical Treatment levels for effluent discharges from ore mining and dressing operations. Litigation was immediately initiated by eleven companies against these proposed rules, and they are currently being reconsidered for reissuance in 1979. In 1974, the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act (Public Law 93-523) was enacted. A part of this legislation is the Underground Injection Congrol Program. The regulations implementing this program have undergone various public hearings and it is expected that they will be published in the Federal Register before the end of 1978. In 1975, the Texas Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (Senate Bill 55), providing for the Railroad Commission's authority to require reclamation of surface mines, was passed. In 1977, an amendment to Senate Bill 55 was introduced that proposed to place regulation of in situ mining of coal, lignite, and

Jan 1, 1979

By A. C. Veatch

Jan 1, 1921

By Walter Fuchs

IT is now generally conceded that coal is the product of deposition and transformation of debris of forests and swamps.29 Ample data are available to illustrate the metamorphosis of biochemical substances through biological action; other data show the progressive regional metamorphism existing in coal beds;25 and numerous examples of change effected by intrusion of igneous dikes into coal deposits have been established .R3 However, often the relative importance of the biological and the geological factor in determining the character of the various natural coals is a debatable question. Since both biological and geological factors are ever present in nature, the problem, at first glance, would appear to resemble certain probability problems: specifically the simultaneous toss of two coins, with the biological factor as heads and the geological as tails. The probability is 2:I for the combined effect of both factors, as compared to the exclusive effect of either one, if the a priori probability is the same for each factor. This condition can be analyzed by a thermodynamic treatment of data, which may be obtained from a consideration of pertinent biological, chemical, geophysical and geological facts. SYNOPSIS OF BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL FACTS The biosphere is not sterile; i.e., microorganisms are always present. Microorganisms have been established in the ocean deep, under the ice of the polar regions, in the sand of the deserts, and in swamps far below the surface. The various biological media may be acid, neutral, or alkaline, and they may or may not be readily accessible to air. Microorganisms are encountered almost everywhere, except where the temperature is not within the range tolerable by microbial life. Of course, with changing conditions, the type of microorganisms will change. All chemical products of life-proteins, fats, carbohydrates, lignins, waxes, resinsmay serve as a habitat of microorganisms. In the decomposition of a medium, some microorganisms macerate organic matter mechanically and remove certain constituents for their own nutrition; others decompose a large part of the organic matter but may leave certain constituents undecomposed. Some attack only certain specific ingredients of the organic matter. All of them build up cell substance. The nitrogen content of the medium largely determines the degree of decomposition. Below 1.7 per cent nitrogen, growth of microorganisms and hence decomposition of organic material is retarded; consequently organic material will accumulate.17,32 Such accumulations of organic material may give coal eventually. Coals differ in type and rank. The nature of the original vegetation and the conditions attending the transformation of the accumulated debris determine the type of coal such as bright, splint, cannel, and algal or boghead coals. Chemical analysis of representative samples of a given type of

Jan 1, 1941

By AIME AIME

The following abstract of the minutes of the final Adjourned Annual Business Meeting, held Nov. 12, 1912, in the office of the Institute, 29 West 39th Street, New York City, is here presented for the information of the membership at large. On the announcement by the Secretary that there was a quorum present, President James F. Kemp called the meeting to order. The minutes of the Adjourned Annual Business Meeting of Oct. 7, 1912, were read and approved. (Sec p. xi,Bulletin No. 71, November). Prof. Jos. W. Richards, in behalf of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors and the Council (Messrs. Richards, Kirchhoff, and Rand), withdrew the two proposed amendments to the Constitution offered by the said Committee at the Adjourned Annual Business Meeting of Oct. 7, 1912. (See Bulletin. No. 70, October, 1912, p. vi., and Circular Announcement No. 8, Oct. 15, 1912, p. 15.) Professor Richards presented a syllabus of the proposed amendments to the Constitution and By-Laws prepared by the Special Committee. Several members present discussed various sections of the proposed Constitution, and the Committee advised that the suggestions would he duly considered before submitting the final document, which would be duly presented and sent to the membership at large at least 30 days before the next Annual Business Meeting, Feb. 18, 1913. Professor Richards presented a resolution, seconded by Mr. Kirchhoff, making a change in the present Certificate of Incorporation, so that it would conform to the proposed changes in the Constitution and By-Laws; said resolution was unanimously adopted. Professor Richards presented another amendment to the Constitution, which had been purposely omitted from the printed list, but had been requested by many members, namely, the creation of a " Class of Fellows." This question was freely discussed at the Cleveland meeting (see Bulletin No. 71, November, 1912, p. 1348), and in view of the diversity of opinion it was-decided to present it in separate form for separate action of the membership at large at the Annual Business Meeting, Feb. 18, 1913. In answer to question, the President announced that the proposed amendments to the Constitution and By-Laws presented by Messrs. Corning and Stone at the Adjourned Annual Business Meeting, Oct. 7, 1912, and published in Circular Announcement No. 8, Oct. 15, 1912, were still on record. Professor Richards presented a syllabus of the proposed amendments to the By-Laws, and several sections were discused by members present, but no action of record was taken. Mr. Charles F. Rand read a letter from Mr. L. K. Armstrong, Sec-retary of the Spokane Local Section of the Institute, referring to the proposed amendments to the Constitution, and he announced that many of Mr. Armstrong's suggestions were, in one form or another, already incorporated in the proposed amendments submitted by the Special Committee. A special vote of thanks was passed to Dr. Albert R. Ledoux for the valuable assistance rendered by him to the Special Committee in the preparation of the proposed amendments to the Constitution and By-Laws.

Dec 1, 1912

[JAMES A. BARR Consulting Engineer Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee Washington, D.C. BEHRE DOLBEAR & COMPANY Consulting Mining Engineers and Geologists 11 Broadway New York 4, N. Y. BLANDFORD C. BURGESS Registered Professional Engineer Mining Consultant Montieello, Georgia GLENVILLE A. COLLINS Mining Engineer Uranium examinations Cable "Coins" 210 La Arcada Bldg. Santa Barbara, Calif.]

Jan 1, 1952

Jan 1, 1970

By Harry C. Gatos, Frank J. Bachner, Mario D. Banus

The portion of the Nb-Sn phase diagram between 75 and 79 at. pct Nb at temperatures near the liquidus has been investigated by melting alloys of known composition and examining the microstmc-tzlres resulting when these melts were quenched. The Nb-Sn samples were contained in magnesia sleeves, and were mounted in a high-pressure apparatus. It was shown that Nb3Sn me1ts by a peri-tectic decomposition and that the composition of the compound Nb3Sn at the peritectic horizontal lies between 77 and 78 at. pct Nb. Analysis of the phases present in the samples was accomplished by anodic staining techniques and an electron-microbeam analyzer. DURING the past several years a great deal of work has been devoted to the Nb-Sn system, and the bulk of this work has been primarily concerned with the intermetallic phase Nb3Sn. However, the melting characteristics of Nb3Sn have not been investigated because of the difficulty in maintaining known compositions due to tin losses by vaporization, and the added difficulty of containing Nb-Sn alloys without sample-container reaction at the high temperatures involved. This paper reports on the development of a technique for containing Nb-Sn alloys under pressure high enough to prevent tin losses at temperatures in excess of the liquidus. Using this technique, melts of known composition were made and a phase diagram near the liquidus is proposed based on the microstructures resulting when these melts were quenched. EXPERIMENTAL The Nb-Sn alloys weighing 0.7 g each were prepared in the form of cylinders. Niobium powder, -200, +325 mesh, and tin shavings with a minute amount of tin powder for a binder were mixed in the desired proportions and cold-pressed at 50,000 psi in a 0.150-in. die. This cylinder was then enclosed as shown in Fig. 1, and the entire arrangement mounted in a 2.6-in. pyrophyllite tetrahedron.' The desired temperatures (-2500°C) presented several problems in high-pressure container materials. Boron nitride, the usual sample holder, was found to react with niobium to form the nitride. However, MgO cans and plugs machined from refractory rods did not melt nor react with the sample. Thick tantalum contact disks were used to carry the large currents (~450 amps) to the graphite heater, since tantalum did not melt and had enough strength to prevent extrusion of the sample. It was further observed that the graphite heater and tantalum disks could not be in direct contact with the pyrophyllite because it melts and decomposes at these temperatures to kyanite and coesite (SiO2),2 the former reacting with graphite and the latter with tantalum to form the silicide. The use of a MgO outer sleeve

Jan 1, 1965

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