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BOSTON SECTION ALFRED C. LANE, Chairman, GEORGE A. PACKARD, Vice-chairman, E. E. BUGBEE, Sec'y-Treas., Mass. Inst. of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. R. L. AGASSIZ, FRED W. DENTON. Forty-sixth Meeting The forty-sixth meeting of the Boston section was held at the University Club on Monday evening, Jan. 28, 1918. Thirty-six members and guests were present, which is a record for this Section. After a good dinner, President Philip N. Moore, of the Institute, was introduced, and spoke of the many problems of the Institute. The topics covered were the progress and growth of the Institute during the administrative year, the efforts to stimulate the local sections and to bring them more in touch with the policies and problems of the parent body and, last but not least, of the constructive results and patriotic work of the Institute in the national service of the war. The other guest of the Section, Mr. Thomas Nelson Perkins, Counsel for the Priority Board, spoke most entertainingly of recent experiences in Russia, England and France. After considerable discussion during which Mr. Perkins most obligingly answered innumerable questions, the meeting adjourned at about 10 p. m.

Jan 7, 1918

Kaiser Sees Bright Future for Jamaica Kaiser Aluminum Co. has a big stake in the British West Indies, the Island of Jamaica in particular. There, Kaiser is busy developing one of the most promising bauxite finds in recent years. The $12 million operation was officially opened in February. Facilities have a rating of an annual capacity of 2 million tons and will supply Kaiser plants with ore for years. The ore comes across the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi to stockpiles at Baton Rouge. The stockpile at Baton Rouge would throw many an old river boat skipper for a loss. Where no mountain once existed now stands a man-made bluff of bauxite, known as Bauxite Peak.

Jan 6, 1953

By J. S. Fulton

Those who live in steel-mill towns are so accustomed to the sight of flames spouting from the mouth of a Bessemer vessel that they seldom pause to think of the amazing process behind it. Actually cold air is being blown through a hot liquid and, instead of cooling it, raises the temperature of the liquid. When coffee is too hot to drink, we know that blowing on it will cool it, so it was no wonder that when Henry Bessemer (or William Kelly, as your patriotism chooses) first proposed this cycle of steel production, he was considered mad. When Bessemer and Kelly started their investigations around 1852, there was not much practical knowledge of metallurgy and, in consequence, there was wide variation in the product made by their process. It was appreciated that the silicon, carbon and iron were all potential fuels, but not until Mushet discovered the beneficial effects of having manganese in the pig iron did the process really become commercial. Bessemer's patent of 1855 covered a crucibleful of liquid iron into which a refractory tuyere was lowered and the blow started. Since that time virtually every conceivable form of vessel, bottom arrangemerit, tuyere size and location have been suggested or tried. There have been stationary vessels with fixed bottoms, that were side, top or bottom blown; tilting vessels with two sets of side tuyeres at different elevations; vessels like a three-compartmerit septic tank; vessels of a cylindrical form supported on the long axis with tuyeres along the side submerged by a partial rotation of the vessel (this type continues in copper refineries); portable vessels to make the blow in a ladle over a mold in a foundry; a combination of a cupola and converter in one shell, and various other arrangements. But in all these experiments, compressed air for the blast was presupposed and there was little discussion of the quantity or quality of the air delivered to the tuyeres. At one time or another various practices that now are forgotten have been tried or suggested: for instance, the use of inert gas at the end of the blow; the addition of fuel to the blast; the use of hot-blast stoves; the drying of the air to a minimum moisture in the blast. Except in the last-named method little attention was paid to the quality or quantity of the air blown. Phases Of the many Papers published On various phases of the Bessemer process, nearly '7' according to one bibliography, Over go per 'ent were concerned with the metallurgical phase and less than '0 per cent discussed various sections of the pneumatic phase. Since the two phases are coincidental, apparently nine times as much thought has been given to the result as has been given to One of the causes of the Bessemer process. IS it not possible that if more attention had been paid to the pneumatics so many papers would not have had to be written on the troubles in the metallurgical phase? A study of published papers and conversation

Jan 1, 1941

By J. S. Fulton

Those who live in steel-mill towns are so accustomed to the sight of flames spouting from the mouth of a Bessemer vessel that they seldom pause to think of the amazing process behind it. Actually cold air is being blown through a hot liquid and, instead of cooling it, raises the temperature of the liquid. When coffee is too hot to drink, we know that blowing on it will cool it, so it was no wonder that when Henry Bessemer (or William Kelly, as your patriotism chooses) first proposed this cycle of steel production, he was considered mad. When Bessemer and Kelly started their investigations around 1852, there was not much practical knowledge of metallurgy and, in consequence, there was wide variation in the product made by their process. It was appreciated that the silicon, carbon and iron were all potential fuels, but not until Mushet discovered the beneficial effects of having manganese in the pig iron did the process really become commercial. Bessemer's patent of 1855 covered a crucibleful of liquid iron into which a refractory tuyere was lowered and the blow started. Since that time virtually every conceivable form of vessel, bottom arrangemerit, tuyere size and location have been suggested or tried. There have been stationary vessels with fixed bottoms, that were side, top or bottom blown; tilting vessels with two sets of side tuyeres at different elevations; vessels like a three-compartmerit septic tank; vessels of a cylindrical form supported on the long axis with tuyeres along the side submerged by a partial rotation of the vessel (this type continues in copper refineries); portable vessels to make the blow in a ladle over a mold in a foundry; a combination of a cupola and converter in one shell, and various other arrangements. But in all these experiments, compressed air for the blast was presupposed and there was little discussion of the quantity or quality of the air delivered to the tuyeres. At one time or another various practices that now are forgotten have been tried or suggested: for instance, the use of inert gas at the end of the blow; the addition of fuel to the blast; the use of hot-blast stoves; the drying of the air to a minimum moisture in the blast. Except in the last-named method little attention was paid to the quality or quantity of the air blown. Phases Of the many Papers published On various phases of the Bessemer process, nearly '7' according to one bibliography, Over go per 'ent were concerned with the metallurgical phase and less than '0 per cent discussed various sections of the pneumatic phase. Since the two phases are coincidental, apparently nine times as much thought has been given to the result as has been given to One of the causes of the Bessemer process. IS it not possible that if more attention had been paid to the pneumatics so many papers would not have had to be written on the troubles in the metallurgical phase? A study of published papers and conversation

Jan 1, 1941

By William D. Manly, John Towers, Paul A. Beck

RECENT work on grain growth in high purity aluminum and in a solid solution type alloy of aluminum and magnesium' showed that the isothermal increase of the average grain diameter D with time follows the equation [D = K(to + A)-Eq I] Here [to] is that portion of the total annealing time [t], which is available for grain growth, i.e. the annealing time less the time necessary for complete recrystallization. The parameters A and n depend only on the temperature. A has the dimension of time, and is usually of the same order of magnitude as the time for recrystallization: R. In some instances R may be substituted for A in Eq I. This is the case for example at long periods of annealing or at high temperatures, where both A and R become small in comparison with t. In such instances Eq I is simplified to [D-K-tnEq2] For high purity aluminum the exponent n increases in the ratio of about 1 to 5 in the temperature range of 350° to 600°C. 70-30 brass has been long known to exhibit grain growth of the continuous type, such as occurs in pure metals. For this reason, it was of interest to determine whether grain growth in brass also follows Eq I and 2 as it does in aluminum. Isothermal grain growth data for 70-30 brass were published in recent years by R. S. French2 and by H. L. Walker3 Fig I shows a log D vs. log t plot of French's data, together with the 500, 600 and 100°C data by Walker for 42.8 pct reduction by rolling. In such a log D vs. log t plot Eq 2 corresponds to a straight line with a slope of n. As seen in Fig I, the data of French and the 600°C data of Walker can be represented by straight lines. However, the 500 and 700°C data of Walker give curved lines and the average slope of his 500°C line is very different from the slope of the line representing French's data for the same temperature. Furthermore the curvature of the 700°C line suggests a tendency for grain growth to stop after 8 hr. If confirmed, this would constitute a definite deviation from Eq 2, not explainable on the basis of the specimen thickness effect found in high purity aluminum.1 Walker's specimens were 0.125 in., i.e. 3.18 mm thick, while the deviation occurs at a grain size of approximately 0.4 mm. A further point of divergence arose recently, when J. E. Burke suggested4 on the basis of Walker's data, that, instead of Eq 2, grain growth in 70-30 brass follows the equation [D-D. =K• t,Eq3] Here D, is the grain size as recrystallized at the temperature in question. Although it was possible to show5 that, for pure aluminum, for which isothermal grain growth has been carefully investigated, Eq 3 is incompatible with the experimental facts, the situation remained somewhat obscure with respect to 70-30 brass. In view of the discrepancies between the

Jan 1, 1948

By D. E. Hawk, R. F. Burdyn, F. D. Patchen

Earlier work on a mud separator for barite recovery is extended to the design and construct ion of a rugged field unit. Problems associated with scale-up for field use include the me of dilution water and its effect on capacity, power requirements and pressures developed. Equations for these quantities are derived and applied in maximizing the beneficial effects of dilution and minimizing the power required. Tests on the full-size rotor show that its performance can be predicted by theory. The completed unit is compact and lighter than current decanting types. Its capacity is from 10 to 22 gal/min with corresponding barite recovery efficiencies of 92 to 86 per cent. INTRODUC'TION In an earlier publication a new type of centrifugal device was described for solid-liquid separations.l In that paper an operating equation was derived, and its validity demonstrated in laboratory scale experimentation. Some of the features apparent in this new device seem particularly well suited to the conservation of barite in field drilling-mud systems, hence the development was extended to the design and construction of a field unit. In the present paper the design problems associated with scale-up are considered. A full-scale, rugged self-contained field unit is described, and test results discussed which verify that the performance of the large field unit can be described by a simple operating equation. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION OF SEPARATOR In principle, the new device is simply a perforated cylinder rotating within a body of fluid which is contained within a stationary case, as in Fig. 1. The frictional drag generated by the rotating cylinder causes part of the fluid to rotate. At the surface of the cylinder, assuming no slip occurs, the angular velocity of fluid and of the cylinder are identical. If there are suspended particles present of greater density than the fluid, the centrifugal force acting on these particles causes them to move radially away from the cylinder at some velocity vp . Where the Stokes settling equation holds, this velocity may be expressed as:2 d2 ?p rw2 If the case is provided with openings at both ends, a suspension can be pumped in at one end at a fixed rate. Part of the suspension can then be removed at a fixed rate at the other end of the case as underflow, and the remainder forced through the perforations and hollow shaft of the rotor to appear as effluent, also at a fixed rate. The radial component of the flow velocity of this stream as it reaches the rotor surface, is simply effluent flow rate divided by cylindrical surface area: Because up is a function of particle size, for some particular particle size, the velocities vp and v, will be equal in magnitude. This is defined as the critical particle size and represents the size above which all particles appear in the underflow and below which all particles appear in the effluent. For this equilibrium condition at the rotor surface, Eqs. 1 and 2 combined give

Jan 1, 1966

Committee of Arrangement E. P. MATHEWSON, Chairman. FRANK M. SMITH, Vice- Chairman D. C. BARD, Secretary, Montana State School of Mines, Butte, Mont. OSCAR ROHN, JAMES L. BRUCE. On Aug. 20, 1913, the following 30 members of the Institute residing in Montana made written application to the Board of Directors of the Institute for authority to establish a local section of the Institute to be called the Montana Section, with headquarters at Butte, and having such territory as may, later be determined on. This petition was granted by the Board at its meeting in Butte, Mont., Aug. 20, 1913. The committee named at the head of this paragraph was appointed to' arrange for permanent organization of this section.

Jan 9, 1913

By Carle R. Hayward

This work was first undertaken in the metallurgical laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1907 by L. A. Dickinson, E. Phelps, and V. S. Rood, under the author's direction. They attempted to determine the diagram for the system Cu2S-MiS, but several inexplicable results were obtained. The following year, P. H. Mayer with Mr. Dickinson carried on some experiments with nickel sulphide and found that the molten material slowly lost sulphur until it reached a composition corresponding to the compound Ni3S2, established by Bornemann.l At this point the composition remained stable. The freezing points of the mixtures gradually fell off with the loss of sulphur. Since the above facts seemed to explain the erratic results obtained in the first experiments, Mr. Mayer with F. Jaeger attempted in 1910 to establish a correct equilibrium diagram for the Cu2S-Ni3S2 series. They prepared pure Cu2S and Ni3S2 and determined the cooling curves for various mixtures. The fusions were made in a platinum resistance furnace and the temperatures were measured with a platinum-iridium thermocouple connected with a Sullivan galvanometer. The curve was established for mixtures containing more than 40 per cent. Cu2S, but they were unable to determine certainly the direction of the curve beyond that point. Nothing further was attempted with this series until the present year, when the work was carried to a successful conclusion with the assistance of A. Butts, Jr., and E. H. Weil. The results of this work are given in the following pages. Preparation of Cu2S.—A piece of cathode' copper from the Buffalo plant of the Calumet & Hecla Co. was cut into shavings by a shaper and converted into sulphide by heating in boiling sulphur. A porcelain casserole was used for the purpose, the heat being furnished by a Bunsen burner. It was found that after boiling in the sulphur for an hour the copper shavings were completely converted into sulphide. The liquid sulphur was then poured off, leaving the solid sulphide in the casserole in

Jan 1, 1915

The thirty-ninth meeting of the Boston Section was held at the Engi- neers? Club on Monday evening, Dec. 4, 1916. Thirty-three members and guests sat down to dinner; There were present as section guests; Dr. L. D. Ricketts, and Prof. Bradley Stoughton, President and Secretary of the parent society, and each was called upon to speak. Mr. Stoughton spoke of the growth of the Institute during the past year and described the very numerous and important activities, of which the junction of the American Society of Civil Engineers with the other three societies is perhaps the most important. Dr. Ricketts, the advertised speaker of the evening, spoke on Recent Progress in Mining and Metallurgy of Copper Ores. In discussing the improvements in mining, he traced the mining methods from square- set mining to the modified Ohio System now so successfully used at Inspiration: In metallurgy, he described the growth of reverberatory-smelting ant1 allied problems such as the utilization of the waste heat for generating steam. He laid stress on the importance of sampling and bedding of

Jan 6, 1917

By G. R. Hodgson, M. P. Lebourg

The introduction in the field of a new type well completion called for the setting of tubing open-ended in the well before perforating the casing. This paper describes a new perforating tool of the shaped charge expendable type, small enough to pass through tubing and powerful enough to perforate the casing. The perforations are produced at an angle and are large enough for optimum production. Performance of this tool in targets and under various well conditions is described. Very often no lifting equipment will be available at the well. In some cases, pressure will exist in the well at the time of the perforating operation (workover wells or multiple trip perforation) ; therefore, new equipment and new technique for the perforating operation were devised. This paper describes this equipment and technique, particularly casing collar recording, sheave support, and cable pull-down device. this last item being necessary for wells under pressure. Results obtained with this tool in the field are given. INTRODUCTION One of the key requirements for the introduction in the field of a new method of permanent well completion was the development of a new perforating method involving the use of a perforating gun small enough to go through tubing and with enough penetrating power to perforate the casing satisfactorily. The equipment described in this paper was basically designed to go through open-ended two-in. tubing and to perforate 5 1/2 in. casing. The equipment is illustrated in accompanying figures. NEW COMPLETION METHOD With the new permanent type well completion, the production string of casing is run and cemented through the potential producing zone. Open-ended tubing is -then run into the well and used to replace the drilling fluid with oil or water. The amount of the oil or water "cushion" can be varied according to the expected bottom hole pressure. Thus, if desired, the hydrostatic head can be greater, equal to, or less than the expected pressure within the zone to be perforated. Mud having been displaced, the tubing is -then positioned so that the end is above the zone to be perforated. The Christmas tree and flow lines are installed and tested. The drilling rig can now be removed from the well since it is not necessary for the perforating operation, thus resulting in a saving in rig tme. The perforating equipment is then moved to the well and the gun lowered through the tubing. After the gun passes out of the open end of the tubing, the depth measurements are correlated with casing collars and the gun placed opposite the zone to be perforated. Upon firing, the gun body is shattered and falls to the bottom of the well. Since the lubricator has been closed before firing, it is possible to withdraw the casing collar locator and head and then open the well immediately to the tanks. DESCRIPTION OF GUN An investigation of two basic types of Perforators, namely a bullet perforator and a shaped charge gun, was undertaken towards the development of a gun to meet the aforementioned requirements. Preliminary tests on various bullet perforator designs within the diameter limitations did not give results encouraging enough to warrant further study. Somewhat better results were obtained by using conventional shaped charges; but, as in the case of the bullet types, the necessarily small overall diameter proved to be a severe limitation and resulted in insufficient penetration. A shaped charge employing a new design was developed which gave excellent penetration. These shaped charges were designed to produce a large hole directed upward at a 45" angle. In order to obtain the maximum space possible for these charges, it was decided to use an expendable carrier made of drillable material, usually aluminum, which would shatter at the time of firing, leaving only harmless fragments at the bottom of the hole. The fixed spacing is five shots per ft. wit11

Jan 1, 1952

By James T. Kemp

AN historical society of particular interest to mining engineers all over the world was born in Cornwall in 1935. A hundred-year-old winding engine then finished its long labors at the Levant mine on the cliffs near Lands End, England. The engine was to be dismantled and scrapped. A few men living near-by, appreciating that this event was one of the final acts in closing a long century of extraordinary mining and engineering evolution. armed a committee to prevent the destruction of the old mine hoist and succeeded in purchasing the engine. They restored the engine house and in time arranged with the Manor of Trewellard, owners of the land, for a 99-year ground lease on a peppercorn rental.

Jan 1, 1947

By C. L. Sainsbury

Lode and placer tin deposits of the western Seward Peninsula, Alaska, have produced more than 2200 tons of metallic tin and constitute the only known domestic deposits of economic grade and size. The lode deposits consist of quartz-topaz greisens containing cassiterite and wolframite as well as numerous base-metal sulfide minerals, and most are in or near altered biotite-granite that forms isolated stocks or in rhyolitic dikes near granite. Within the main lode-producing area in the central York Mountains, nonpegmatite beryllium deposits, consisting principally of fluorite, chrysoberyl, diaspore, tourmaline, and white mica, with minor euclase, bertrandite, phenakite, hematite, and todorokite, are distributed zonally around the tin deposits and locally are transitional with them. All the known beryllium deposits are replacement lodes in carbonate rocks. In the area discussed, both tin and beryllium deposits are localized in a structural belt striking N70° to N85°E across the central York Mountains. The belt is characterized by numerous normal faults, which cut extensive thrust sheets, and by dikes of rhyolite, rhyolite porphyry, and lamprophyre that were injected along the faults. Ore deposits are localized where the dikes intrude brecciated rocks beneath thrusts and, although complex in detail, form tabular lodes that tend to lie along the thrusts. The granites contain abnormal amounts of tin, beryllium, lithium, and boron, and the tin and beryllium lodes are believed to be genetically associated with these enriched granites

Jan 1, 1968

Expect Labrador Iron Ore Shipments by 1954 Iron ore shipments from the Quebec-Labrador area are a "definite expectation" by late summer, 1954, according to William H. Durrell, general manager of the Iron Ore Company of Canada. About $120 million have been invested in the project, with a total of $200 million expected to be reached before a ton of ore is shipped, Mr. Durrell said. According to the general manager approximately 418 million tons of open pit highgrade ore have been proven in the project. Deposits lie several hundred miles north of the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in territory which was without transportation of any kind. Construction of a railroad from Seven Islands to Knob Lake, about 360 miles, is an important part of the development plan. The railroad will be the first to adopt complete roller bearing applications. Construction is on schedule with 215 miles of the route graded. Completion involves two tunnels through rock, one of almost half mile length, a 700-ft bridge and several smaller spans.

Jan 3, 1953

BOSTON SECTION ALFRED C. LANE, Chairman, GEORGE A. PACKARD, Vice-chairman, H. M. BOYLSTON, Secretary-Treasurer, R. L. AGASSIZ, FRED W. DENTON. The forty-ninth meeting of the Boston Section was held at the Boston City Club on Monday evening, Dec. 23, 1918. The meeting was preceded by an informal dinner at which 29 members and guests were present; three or four others came in later. The reading of the minutes of the previous meeting was dispensed with by consent.

Jan 2, 1919

BOSTON LOCAL SECTION Executive Committee HENRY L. SMYTH, Chairman ALFRED C. LANE, Vice-Chairman AUGUSTUS H. EUSTIS, Secretary-Treasurer, 131 State St., Boston, Mass. ROBERT H. RICHARDS ALBERT SAUVEUR Meets on the first Monday evening of each winter month, Twenty-third Meeting The Twenty-third Meeting of the Boston Local Section was held at the Engineers' Club, 2 Commonwealth Ave., on Monday evening, Nov. 30,- 1914. Prof. R. A. Daly addressed the meeting on The Iron Ores of Küruna; Sweden. AUGUSTUS H. EUSTIS Secretary.

Jan 1, 1915

THE third annual Joint Western Mining Convention, held at Los Angeles, Sept. 10 to 13 inclusive, was a notable success both as to attendance and interest. Registration the first day amounted to 201, and the total crept up to 347 before the close. The American Institute of Mining Engineers was well represented, approximately 80% of those registered and most of the speakers being members. This illustrates largely the amount of interlocking membership and the reason for holding at one time and place meetings of the several related organizations. The plan has proved so successful that it is probable that Spokane will extend an invitation for next year that seems likely to be accepted. It is proposed that the convention be timed so as to permit visitors from the East to stop there Oct. 3 to 5, en route to the American Institute of Mining Engineers meeting at San Francisco, Oct. 7 to 9. Simultaneously, it is expected that the Petroleum Division will hold its fall session at Los Angeles, the two streams of travel meeting in San Francisco, just before departure of the party of engineers traveling to Japan to attend the World's Engineering Congress. The Los Angeles meeting opened Monday morning with a general session under the auspices of the Western Division of the American Mining Congress with Philip Wiseman in the chair. After a series of short responses to the welcome extended, Charles W. Merrill discussed the needs of the western mining industry. A complimentary luncheon to members and delegates followed.

Jan 1, 1928

By H. R. Shidel

This paper summarizes the results obtained from the preliminary cementing of wells in an effort to cut off the bottom water. The object of this work was two-fold: (1) To prevent the oil sand from becoming flooded. (2) To plug off bottom water, thereby preserving the individual well and reclaiming production. Valuable suggestions and help have been given by the following named: Messrs. Kyle and La Velle, of the U. 8. Bureau of Mines; Magnolia Petroleum -Co.; Freed Oil and Gas Co. The cementing work was carried out under the personal supervision of L. J. Snyder. In an unpublished paper on the "Water Problem in the Augusta Field," 5. K. Clark reaches the following conclusions: (1) That the great amount of water present is bottom water, occurring in the Varner sand, the main producing or the 2500-ft. horizon, (2) That the only striking connection between structure and water is in .the area of the marked fault on the Ralston, E. C. Varner, and F. Varner leases in sections 8, 9, 16 and 17. (3) That the oil occurs in porous streaks, generally separated by finegrained, well cemented sand, which is barren. Possibly two or three such pay streaks may be found. That under a pay, fine-grained sand occurs, which is presumably barren at the time of drilling, but soon reveals water. The writer takes partial exception to the last point, because well defined shale, slate, lime, or hard sand breaks have been encountered in a great many cases, separating the pay streaks under which water is often found. This is not an invariable occurrence, as cases have been noted when the oil has been followed immediately by water in the same stratum. In an effort to overcome the water menace, the following methods of plugging were tried: (1) Plugging with wood, lead, and limit plugs. (2) Plugging with sand pumpings.

Jan 1, 1920

By HOMER L. WILLIAMS

WHILE some of the mining companies have been pumping a small amount of water for some time, it is only in recent years that large quantities of water have been encountered in the Tonopah district. The water appears to be in different zones or belts so that the draining of one property does not necessarily affect the one adjoining. Consequently, each company has its own pumping plant and its own conditions. The companies panes handling the largest amount of water are the Tonopah Extension Mining Co., Halifax Tonopah Mining Co., West Tonopah Consolidated Mining Co., and Great Western Consolidated Mining Co. The Halifax shaft is on the eastern end of the district and the other three properties on the western. The ore-bearing formation occurs at greater depth on -the eastern and western ends, hence the water problem in these properties.

Jan 1, 1921

By Robert Glass Cleland

BECAUSE of the country's vast mineral resources, Alexander Von Humboldt, the great German scientist who visited Mexico, or the Kingdom of New Spain, a hundred and fifty years ago, very aptly called that country the "Treasure Chest of the World." During the three centuries of Spanish rule, mining was the principal industry of the kingdom, the largest contributor to the country's prosperity, the chief common denominator in Mexican economic life. Public revenues and private fortunes, employment and markets, agriculture and trade, charities and churches, the incentive for frontier settlement and exploration, and the funds for outfitting the expedition of colonizer and conquistador-all were dependent upon the streams of precious metals that flowed century after century from the mines of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Real del Monte, San Luis Potosi, and scores of other minería that lay scattered everywhere throughout the land. Sonora, one of the oldest and most renowned of the frontier provinces of New Spain, had been the scene of a hundred rich strikes, sudden stampedes, and widely heralded bonanzas long before the famous and frenzied Gold Rush

Jan 1, 1952

By M. J. Blackburn

The phasal equilibria in TI':Al alloys has been studied Ry transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and X-ray diffraction. It is shown that three-phase fields exist below the transformation, viz.: a disordered hexagonal solid solution a; an ordered hexagonal phase based on Ti3Al, aa; and a two-phase region. (a + (YZ) , occurring between the single-plzuse fields. The size. disiribution, and morphology of- the a, phase in the two-phase region is shown to be dependent upon the alloy composition and heat treatement. The ordering process in the a, phase leads to the formation of anliphase domain boundary networks; the contrast and stability of these networks is shown to be dependent on alloy composition. A new and relatively simple phase diagralil for the systemm is constructed. The phasal equilibrium at the titanium-rich end of the Ti:Al system has long been the subject of considerable controversy. crossleyl has recently reviewed the phase diagrams that have been advanced for the system and in his turn proposed yet another one. There would seem to be general agreement that a phase exists at a composition at or near Ti& with an ordered hexagonal DO,,-type structure. However, several other phases have been proposed; for instance, Ence and ~ar~olin's' diagram includes two phases, Ti2A1 and Ti3A1, in the region up to 25 at. pct Al. The position of the proposed phase boundaries varies over a considerable compositional and temperature range, a point graphically illustrated in Fig. 1 of Crossley's paper.' It is perhaps germane to briefly examine the techniques used by other workers in the establishment of the phase structure. These fall into three categories: 1) X-ray diffraction, the only limitation of which is the rather low intensity of superlattice reflections in this system.3 Thus, superlattice reflections become increasingly difficult to detect in the more dilute aluminum alloys. 2) A considerable amount of optical microscopy has been performed"2'4 and it will be shown in a later section that many of the obscure mi-crostructures that have been observed can be attributed to hydrogen contamination. It is concluded, therefore, that such observations should be interpreted with considerable care. 3) The variation of some physical property with aluminum content has been measured.5"7 These methods are a useful indication of the existence of a transformation, but are usually insufficient in themselves to identify the transformation. The results using these techniques will be considered in more detail in the discussion. In this paper, the phase structure of alloys containing up to 25 at. pct A1 has been studied by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray techniques, and the results are used to generate a new and relatively simple diagram for the titanium-rich end of the Ti:Al system. EXPERIMENTAL A series of alloys containing 5.05, 10.16, 13.39, 13.99, 14.40, 20.83, and 25.05 at. pct A1 were obtained in the form of hot-rolled sheet 0.02 in. thick. These alloys contained 0.10 to 0.15 pct 0. Thirty-gram arc-melted buttons were prepared from iodide titanium and 99.99 A1 which contained 16.1, 16.9, 18.2, 19.0, 21.6, 22.2, 23.0, and 23.9 at. pct A1 and had an average oxygen content of 0.03 pct 0. The differences in oxygen content did not appear to influence the nature of the phase transformations which were found. Oxygen content may affect the temperature of these transformations, but insufficient samples of the high-purity alloys were examined to answer this question. The heat treatment of alloys was performed in dynamic atmosphere and vacuum furnaces or in helium -filled silica capsules. A special vacuum furnace was constructed to provide a high quenching rate in which rates of 4000°C per sec were obtained using water as the quenching medium. As pointed out by Crossley,' it is important to avoid heat treatment in the a - [} phase field as the resultant segregation of the alloy into the two phases containing different amounts of aluminum can persist through subsequent treatments leading to ambiguous results. It will be demonstrated later that step cooling of specimens from the a phase region can also lead to anomalous effects. Thus, all solution treatments were carried out in either the a or 3 phase fields followed by water quenching and subsequent isothermal annealing at various temperatures. X-ray analyses were performed on a diffractometer on fine-grained bulk specimens. The value of long-range order parameter, S, wa_s calculated from the integrated intensity of the (1211) reflection. In general, the intensity of the (1011) superlattice reflection was compared with that of the (2021) fundamental reflection to correct for experimental differences between measurements. Thin foils for electron microscopical examination were produced by electropolishing using the technique described in an earlier paper.8 Dark-field techniques were employed to a large degree in this investigation using the gun-tilt method. Finally it should be noted that the lattice parameters of the D01,-type superlattice are approximately related to the disordered hexagonal phase parameters by Crf - c, and 2ad - a, where the subscripts s and d refer to the ordered and disordered unit cells, respectively.

Jan 1, 1968