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By T. Olrog

Dissemination of technical data on developments in rock-blasting techniques in Sweden initially takes place as personal contacts and contacts between companies. In addition to these informal contacts, contacts occur in Sweden in a somewhat more organized form. There exists an informal working group--the Rock Blasting Committee--which consists of a number of personal representatives from various companies that perform rock blasting on a large scale and from firms manufacturing the equipment that is used. This means that people from both mining and construction companies get together, plus the manufacturers of explosives, drill steel, drilling machines, and loading equipment. This working group has, so far, succeeded very well in ignoring the purely commercial interests of the companies concerned. Cooperation in this form was started in the 1940's when the tungsten-carbide drill steel was invented-the group originally concentrated entirely on the development of that product. Their activities have been broadened since that time and now a meeting is held every year, at which practical experiences are reported. Only in the past five years have subjects relating to blasting procedures to avoid rock damage been treated at such meetings. This, of course, does not mean that such techniques had been neglected previously. It does, however, reflect the fact that practice in this field is still under development. Why do we try to be careful about the rock surfaces? Obviously, it is a question of economic evaluation. An even rock surface provides, in certain cases, the conditions for more favorable maintainance costs later on, greater strength, and a diminished risk of slides. The economic connections in this field, however, are neither simple or clear. A well-controlled blasted rock surface limits the need for concrete when you later build the concrete constructions. In this respect, the connections are all the more clear. In certain situations, such as tunnels for hydroeletric power plants, a good rock surface that is not lined is hydraulically more favorable than a more coarsely blasted surface. This permits a gain in the height of fall, but the

Jan 1, 1970

By Fred A. Anderson, George B. Wallace, Edward J. Slebir

As the reservoir rises behind an arch dam, it presses the arch into the canyon walls and valley floor. To compute the stresses, deflections, and arch reactions, it is necessary to know how much the rock deforms under the combined loads of gravity, temperature, and water. Under sustained loading for a period of time, the rock continues to deform or "creep" slightly, causing changes in the stresses and shape of the arch. Under reduced loading, the elastic arch tends to resume its unstrained position and it is important to know that the rock will follow it and maintain tight contact along the abutment. It is, therefore, important to know the "set" characteristic of the rock. Past attempts to define load-deformation properties of rock, including creep and set, have largely l been limited to laboratory test of intact cores and in-situ jacking test utilizing bearing plates 2 to 3 ft in diam. In both cases, a uniaxial load has been applied to a volume of rock too small to fully reflect the influence of cracks, joint systems, foliation, and other inherent weaknesses within the rock mass. This chapter describes a large radial jacking test which more nearly duplicates the action of an arch dam by penetrating the load deep into the rock mass, bringing into play more of the factors which contribute to prototype deformation. Results obtained from the large radial test are compared with those from smaller uniaxial test. DESCRIPTION OF RADIAL TEST The radial jacking test described in this chapter was performed in an adit off of an exploratory tunnel driven into a proposed dam abutment

Jan 1, 1972

By C. H. Stein

THE Pennsylvania Legislature, on March 13, 1837, passed an act authorizing the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co. to construct a railway to connect the North Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal with the slack water navigation f the Lehigh River; the navigation company accepted this act on May 10, 1837. Edwin A. Douglas, chief engineer for the navigation company, located the route for this railway from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre, which was called the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad. The object was to transport coal from the Wyoming Valley, of Pennsylvania, to the Atlantic seaboard. This railway was considered a marvelous piece of engineering, as it included a tunnel nearly 13 mi. long, and a series of inclines, or planes, up which the cars laden with coal were raised from the vicinity of Ashley to the summit f the mountain near Solomon's Gap, whence they were taken to White Haven by rail. There the coal was transferred to canal boats. In June, 1862, floods almost completely destroyed the upper division of the canal, so on March 4, 1863, the Pennsylvania Legislature passed an act prohibiting its restoration, but granted a charter for the construction of a railway from White Haven to Mauch Chunk to connect with the line from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre, previously built. On March 16, 1864, a supplementary act was passed extending the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad to Easton, Pa. This completed a direct all-rail route from Wilkes-Barre to the New York harbor (by way of the Central Railroad of New Jersey). Up to this time, all freight and passenger traffic passed over the planes, but in 1866 and 1867 there was constructed what was known as the "back track" down the mountain side between Solomon's Gap and Ashley over which all the passenger traffic and empty cars thereafter passed; it is now known as part of the main line. For the handling of the heavy coal traffic, however, this would have involved a continuous climb from Ashley, 170.27 mi., from New York, to Solomon's Gap, 157.8 mi. from New York, or a distance of 12.47 mi., and a total ascent of 1,013.75

Jan 9, 1921

Homestake's Bulldog Mountain Operation near Creede, Colorado, in the San Juan Mountains at an elevation of nearly 2,750 m (9,000 ft), is subjected to short summers and long cold winters. Creede’s history dates back to 1889 when silver ore was discovered; and by 1892 production of over a million dollars per month was being shipped from mines located along the Amethyst Fault. The Bulldog Mountain Fault remained relatively untouched by the early prospectors. The United States Geological Survey recognized the potential of this fault in 1960, which led to the staking of many claims over the structure. Homestake leased properties in 1963 and in mid- 1964 a tunnel was started at the 2,956 m (9,700 ft) level with encouraging mineralization being encountered. In 1968 a decision was reached to build a flotation mill of 318 mtpd (350 stpd) capacity. The erection of the mill was completed in early 1969, six years after the first exploration was begun. Since initial start-up, extensive drifting has been done on several separate levels. Two underground hoist installations serve the various levels and many thousand feet of vertical mining operations. Due to the unconsolidated nature of the vein, a new unique underhand cut-and- fill mining method was developed. This procedure is the reverse of the normal cut-and-fill and proceeds from the top down under cemented sand fill, which, while expensive, has greatly reduced s toping hazards. Prior to 1977, a considerable quantity of silver was lost in the slime fraction of the ores processed because of oxidation and other inherent characteristics of individual minerals. Due to Homestakefs favorable experience in treating the slime fraction of the Lead, South Dakota gold ores, experiments with leach methods to recover silver from the slimes by Carbon -In -Pulp offered' the potential for additional silver recovery. Work was begun on the Carbon-In-Pulp plant in April 1976 and completed in December of that year at a cost slightly exceeding $2 million. The C. I. P. plant was designed for 136 mtpd (150 stpd) of current plant slimes plus 227 mtpd (250 stpd) of slimes dredged from the old tailings during the summer season. The sand fraction of the flotation

Jan 1, 1981

but, returning to South Africa, for the next two years he was assistant general manager of the Simmer Deep Gold Mining Co., at Johannesburg. In June, 1911, he returned to New Zealand as general manager and consulting engineer for the Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand, at Reefton, which position he held at the time of his admission to the 1nstitute in 1914. Early in September, 1915, he left New Zealand for active service in France. Corporal Sheppard B. Gordy Sheppard B. Gordy, born in Ansonia, Conn., in 1889, graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School in 1910 and with the degree of E. M. in 1912. He entered the employ of the Braden Copper Co. immediately on his graduation and remained with this company four years, working up through the various grades to assistant foreman and foreman to one of the individual mines. The last year he was in its employ, he acted as general mine foreman. He was for a short time with the Chile Exploration Co. and then went with the Andes Exploration Co. (Anaconda) and remained with the latter, doing mine exploration and development work, until he sailed for home in June, 1918, to give a more personal and active service to his country in her need. He declined a tender of induction into an officers' training camp, at the urgent request of Professor McClelland supplemented by Mr. Potter, because they demonstrated to his satisfaction that he could give more valuable service to his country in helping out with the aircraft production. Being within the draft age, in order to carry out this plan, it was necessary for him to be called by his Local Board and sent to camp. This call came Aug. 26. Two weeks before that time he had gone to Dayton, Ohio, to begin the study of aircraft production, and was sent by the Dayton Board to Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, where he died of pneumonia on Oct. 9. Lieutenant Thomas Clarence Gorman Thomas C. Gorman, a lieutenant in the Second Tunnelling Company of the Canadian Engineers, was killed in France on Mar. 18, 1918. He was resting in his sleeping hut and was in the act of writing a letter when a bursting shell killed him.

Jan 1, 1920

The State Mining Experiment Station, Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla, Mo Charles H. Fulton, Director of the School of Mines Martin H. Thornberry, Director of the Mining Experiment Station. From the State Mining Experiment Station are issued all the general and technical bulletins of the School of Mines The latest bulletin containing a complete list of publications will be sent upon application to the Director of the Station Residents of the state may obtain bulletins as issued without charge, or may ask to be placed on the mailing list. Nonresidents should write to the Director for further information concerning specific bulletins. From the long list of bulletins the following have been care¬fully selected as being most likely to interest the geologist and the mining engineer. Vol 8, No. 1 (1916), Bibliography of concentrating ores by flotation, by J Cunningham, vol 1, No 3 (1912), Some apparatus and methods for demonstrating rock drilling and the loading of drill holes in tunneling, by L E Young, vol 2, No 1 (1915), Comparative tests of piston drill bits, by C R Forbes and L M Cummings; vol 2, No 3 (1916), Cupellation losses in assaying, by H. T Mann and C. Y Clayton; vol 4, No 1 (1917), The hydrometallurgy and electrolytic precipitation of zinc, by F D. James; vol 4, No 2 (1917), The effect of additional agents in flotation, pt 1, by M. H. Thornberry and H T. Mann, vol 5, No 1 (1919), The carbonization of Missouri cannel coals, by H L. Dunlap, K. K. Kershner and V. X Smiley. Vol 5, No. 4 (1921), Coal mining methods in Missouri, by W W Weigel, vol 6, No 1 (1921), The problem of the St Peter sand¬stone, by C L Dake, 50 cents, vol 6, No. 2 (1922), Bibliography on the electrothermic metallurgy of zinc, by B M. O'Harra, vol 6, No. 4 (1923), Experiments on the distillation of zinc from complex zinc-lead-silver ores, by B M. O'Harra and E S. Wheeler, vol 7, No 3 (1924), Underground loading devices, by C. E. van Barneveld, 81; vol 7, No. 4 (1924), Briquetting of zinc ores, by B. M. O'Harra; vol. 8, No 2 (1925), A treatise of Missouri clays, by M. H. Thornberry.

Jan 1, 1933

By Tran K. Van, Francois E. Heuzé, Richard E. Goodman

Sound design of structures founded in or upon rock requires that the deformability of each rock member involved be characterized. This can be done by means of loading tests (plate bearing, flat jacks, borehole jacks, pressure chambers, etc.) or through convergence measurements (tunnel convergence, roof sag, etc.) in exploratory works. Analysis of data will be qualitative (degree of nonlinearity, creep behavior, scattering of results over a number of sites, etc.) and quantitative (modulus of elasticity or deformation). Some of these tests involve a very bulky apparatus and are expensive to perform. On the other hand, for the purpose of mapping and describing the various rock members which occur within a given site, many feet of diamond drill holes are frequently completed. Even with the optimum equipment and expert drillers, however, quantitative characterization of the rock units on the basis of tests on returned samples is apt to be misleading; the softer and weaker components of the rock tend to be lost and the fabric of the rock block- fracture system in situ is not sampled. Laboratory moduli of elasticity have proved to be consistently higher than in-situ values selected for engineering purposes. This led to the design of instruments which would operate in boreholes, combining the advantages of a reduced size and a deeper investigation, from the surface to several tens of feet. BOREHOLE DEFORMABILITY MEASURING INSTRUMENTS In the last 10 to 15 years, a number of testing devices have been con- structed which can be inserted into a borehole to apply a load and mea-

Jan 1, 1972

By S. Parker Gay

In 1967 Southern. Peru Copper Corp. was faced with the problem of developing a water supply for their new Cuajone open-pit copper mining and milling operation, at a time when the existing water system was inadequate for a proposed expansion of the producing Toquepala mine. The most probable source for additional water was considered to be the Pasto Grande basin lying 30 km north of the terminus of the pipeline. This source of supply could be developed only at substantial cost, after construction of a dam, tunnels, pumping plants, and several miles of canals. Investigation of other possible sources was undertaken, and one of these was the Huaitire alluvial fan which had been recognized on aerial photographs in 1961. Resistivity soundings on the fan provided isopach information for estimating the volume of fan sediments. In the course of carrying out these soundings, a high-resistivity layer at depth was indicated. The favored geological interpretation of this layer at the time was a tight impermeable volcanic formation, but an alternative explanation was a ground-water aquifer of high transmissibility. Geological studies just released by the Peruvian Geological Map Commission supported the latter interpretation. A diamond drill hole sunk to a depth of 725 ft on the Huaitire Pampa in June 1967 proved the absence of the expected volcanics, the presence of the sediments, and indicated that some sedimentary horizons carried artesian water. Subsequent well drilling and hydrological and geological studies show that the aquifer occurs principally in the Upper Tertiary Capillune formation, covers an extensive area on the Peruvian altiplano, discharges enormous quantities of water to a large number of canyons dissecting it, and will adequately supply most, if not all, water needs of the Cuajone operations.

Jan 1, 1973

By Oscar A. Glaeser

The purpose of this paper is to present specific applications of the fundamental principles of mine ventilation and the means that are at our disposal to accomplish the task of maintaining a healthful atmosphere in small mines and prospect openings. Need for Ventilation The range between the maximum oxygen content of normal air and the minimum safe content is extremely narrow, approximately 5 per cent. Furthermore, normal air must not be contaminated with irrespirable gases beyond definite limits, and mineral dusts are equally dangerous, although health impairment is slower. Tables 1 and 2 present the more common respiratory hazards encountered in mines. Adequate ventilation is the most effective means available to reduce or eliminate these hazards. Mechanical ventilation has reached varying stages of perfection in coal mines and in many large metal mines. The small mines and prospects rarely have a definite plan of ventilation. As a consequence underground workers are frequently exposed to health and accident hazards. The annual reports of fatalities in mines in the Western States record yearly many deaths due to asphyxiation and deaths caused by men falling down shafts and raises after being overcome by gas. At times mining operations are slowed up because there is no means of driving out the gas after blasting. For that reason only one shift is worked, or men wait from one to several hours for the "smoke" to clear out. Methane gas in varying quantities is widely distributed throughout California. It has been encountered in explosive concentrations in the coast range. It has been found on the Mother Lode and in quicksilver mines near the coast. Methane explosions have not been uncommon in underground operations and in tunneling jobs. These conditions and records indicate that there is room for improvement in mine-air conditions.

Jan 1, 1937

By H. E. Nold

THE raw materials of the ceramic industry are mostly clays. This raw material is ground, water is added and the mixture pugged into a moist, plastic, rather stiff mass. From this mass the desired units of manufacture are made (bricks, hollow building tile, sewer pipe, etc.). These units are dried; then placed in kilns and heated until the desired degree of vitrification is obtained.1 For firing ceramic ware, two distinct types of kilns are used; namely, periodic and continuous tunnel. PERIODIC KILNS Periodic kilns are those ordinarily seen in a brick plant. They are either round or rectangular. The raw, dried, formed ware is piled or set in the kilns to depths frequently exceeding 10 ft. The kiln is heated until the ware is matured, then gradually cooled sufficiently to allow men to remove the ware; then the cycle is repeated. The time duration of the cycle may be more than two weeks. In order that heat can be distributed uniformly throughout the pile or setting, the units are placed so as to leave open spaces or flues through-out the pile for the passage of the hot gases. Each kiln is provided with a number of fireboxes (usually 10 or 12) spaced equally in the outside wall. The fireboxes may be equipped with flat or inclined grate bars or they may have no grates at all (dead bottom). Down-draft kilns are most used. In these the hot gaseous products of combustion from the fireboxes are deflected upward by bag walls just inside the fire zone. From the top of the kiln the gases are drawn down through the setting, off through holes in the kiln bottom, and conducted to a stack or stacks. In up-draft kilns the fireboxes are usually set somewhat lower. The hot gases are drawn inward and upward through the ware and pass off from the top. Up-draft kilns find their greatest use in the firing of common brick. In either case the problem is to maintain, as nearly as possible,

Jan 1, 1933

but, returning to South Africa, for the next two years he was assistant general manager of the Simmer Deep Gold Mining Co., at Johannesburg. In June, 1911, he returned to New Zealand as general manager and consulting engineer for the Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand, at Reefton, which position he held at the time of his admission to the Institute in 1914. Early in September, 1915, he left New Zealand for active service in France. Corporal Sheppard B. Gordy Sheppard B. Gordy, born in Ansonia, Conn., in 1889, graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School in 1910 and with the degree of E. M. in 1912. He entered the employ of the Braden Copper Co. immediately on his graduation and remained with this company four years, working up through the various grades to assistant foreman and foreman to one of the individual mines. The last year he was in its employ, he acted as general mine foreman. He was for a short time with the Chile Exploration Co. and then went with the Andes Exploration Co. (Anaconda) and remained with the latter, doing mine exploration and development work, until he sailed for home in June, 1918, to give a more personal and active service to his country in her need. He declined a tender of induction into an officers' training camp, at the urgent request of Professor McClelland supplemented by Mr. Potter, because they demonstrated to his satisfaction that he could give more valuable service to his country in helping out with the aircraft production. Being within the draft age, in order to carry out this plan, it was necessary for him to be called by his Local Board and sent to camp. This call came Aug. 26. Two weeks before that time he had gone to Dayton, Ohio, to begin the study of aircraft production, and was sent by the Dayton Board to Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, where he died of pneumonia on Oct. 9. Lieutenant Thomas Clarence Gorman Thomas C. Gorman, a lieutenant in the Second Tunnelling Company of the Canadian Engineers, was killed in France on Mar. 18, 1918. He was resting in his sleeping hut and was in the act of writing a letter when a bursting shell killed him.

Jan 1, 1920

By Robert M. Betts

The Cornucopia district is situated in northeastern Oregon 25 miles from the Snake River branch of the Oregon Short Line R.R. and 75 miles northeast of Baker City, in the Wallowa Mountains. The formation is principally granodiorite, which has intruded much older rocks locally known as greenstone, and which are probably altered schists. In the upper horizons of the veins, greenstone is found as inclusions in the granitic mass. Both of these formations have been cut by numerous basalt, aplite, and porphyry dikes. Veins of the district are the result of faulting and the consequent crushing of the wall rock. The ore has been deposited irregularly along these faults and formed a lenticular type of vein. The ore varies in width from a few inches to 20 ft.; the average stoping width is about 5 ft. As the basaltic dikes are subsequent to the ore deposition, they are at times a hindrance in development and mining operations; on the other hand, a dike which has followed a vein as a line of least resistance often serves as a good mall in place of the crushed, rather loose granite. The veins generally strike northeast-southwest and dip about 35" to the west. Orebodies are from 100 to 300 ft. in length and about the same in height. The lenses are irregular; inclusions of wall rock are common in the ore and are a factor in reducing the grade. The ores are quartz, carrying some free gold near the surface, but the metals for the most part are in iron sulfides, sometimes associated with chalcopyrite. The gold and silver are in a mechanical combination with the iron, which requires find grinding to liberate them. The ratio of silver to gold is 5 to 1, by weight. Development The Cornucopia Mines Co. owns, and operated until 1920, two mines and two mills of 100 tons capacity each. The sustained high costs and labor shortage, however, necessitated the abandoning of the Union mine, the oldest in the district. Two crosscut tunnels were then started, first, to cut the Last Chance vein at a much lower horizon and, second, to prospect two parallel veins. The ore from the Last Chance vein will go to the old Union mill and the ore from the new veins to the Last Chance mill.

Jan 1, 1925

By Joseph S. Malesky

As essential as the discovery of coal was to our state of advancement, the discovery and development of explosives marks one of the most important findings in the history of civilization. For this reason explosives are rightfully referred to as the forerunner of progress. Without explosives our vast economic enterprise concerning the mining of coal, copper, iron, aluminum, and various other ores could not function. Explosives are used in all kinds of construction works, in the razing of old buildings, blasting of trenches, driving of tunnels, and in many other instances common to our everyday life. An explosive may be defined as a substance (usually a mixture) that, where flame or shock is applied, yields readily to rapid combustion or oxidation, accompanied by the formation of such relatively large quantities of gases as to produce much violence and pressure which, in turn, react against their surroundings and cause what is termed an explosion. By their very nature the action of explosives is destructive and disruptive of adjacent materials. Decomposition of explosives can occur through deflagration, which is rapid burning or combustion, as in the case of black powder, or through detonation, which is an almost instantaneous disruption, as in the case of dynamites and blasting agents. HISTORY OF BLASTING WITH EXPLOSIVES At one time workmen obtained stone blocks for building by grooving the rock with crude picks, driving wooden wedges into niches in the rock, and pouring water on the wedges; the swelling of the wood forced out the blocks. As late as the 17th century, fires were placed against the face of rock to crack it, and water was sometimes dashed on the heated rock to shatter it by sudden cooling. The progress of our country is synonymous with advancement of the improved manufacture and extended use of explosives. Coal had been

Jan 1, 1973

By David Baker

Our large modern blast-furnaces, equipped with ore-bins, larries and mechanical means for putting stock into storage, withdrawing it therefrom, and charging it at the tunnel-head, are indeed wonderful in capacity; yet, it is admitted that, with some notable exceptions, they have disappointed us in economy—that is, in the items of low fuel-consumption, uniformity of product, freedom from slips, and reduced cost of repairs and relining. The manager who estimated the cost of pig-iron to be made in a modern plant, by taking the costs of the hand-filled furnace and deducting the amount to be saved by the mechanical appliances, has been surprised, in many cases, to find that unfavorable results in these items of economy have greatly reduced his expected gains. Is there any reason why the fuel-consumption should be greater for a modern furnace than for an older stack using the same mixture ? Certainly the equipment is much more complete, and the trouble, therefore, must lie in the management or in the character of that equipment. Everybody knows that intelligent and vigilant management is a prime requisite: that any neglect of a detail, though it may not be felt that day or week, will surely sooner or later make its appearance as an increased item of cost. But to hold the furnace-maaager responsible for the relatively poor work of the modern blast-furnace would be, I am convinced, a great injustice. For its management has received much more study and care than was given to the older types. Many furnace-managers have lost their health through worrying over this problem, and some hare lost their positions, being held responsible for results made inevitable, as I believe, by the equipment provided for them.

Jan 1, 1905

By F. Cadena

Hiwassee Darn, now under construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority on the Hiwassee River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, will require aggregate for approximately 800,000 cu. yd. of concrete. Near the damsite deposits of natural sand or gravel are not available and graywacke, a rock that is found in abundance, suggested itself as a likely source of manufactured aggregate. Graywacke is a metamorphosed sandstone composed principally of a mixture of quartz (65 per cent), mica (25 per cent), and feldspar (10 per cent). Other minerals are present in negligible amounts. The rock varies in different parts of the quarry from very fine to a coarse grain containing particles of about ¼ in. maximum size, although the bulk of the deposit is medium grain. Extensive tests showed that graywacke would be suitable as a source of both coarse and fine aggregates. The aggregate plant available for use at Hiwassee Dam consisted of the coarse-aggregate and sand plant used on the Norris project. The coarse-aggregate plant had also been used at Chickamauga Dam. Although most of this plant equipment is now in use at Hiwassee, the present flowsheet is not only different from that at Norris and Chickamauga but is also unique as compared to the flowsheet of the average crushed-stone aggregate plant. It is hoped that this paper will show the importance of proper arrangement of equipment if the optimum in flexibility and capacity is to be attained. Flowsheet Rock is ioaded by 3-yd. electric shovels into 12-yd. dump trucks, which carry the rock to the primary crusher, a 42-in. Superior McCully gyratory unit set at 4¾ in. (Fig. 1). The primary crusher discharges directly onto a 42-in. inclined belt conveyor, which carries the product to a surge storage pile with a maximum live storage capacity of approximately 3000 tons. A concrete tunnel under this storage pile houses the feed end of a 36-in. belt conveyor (conveyor B) fed by a 36 by 66-in.

Jan 1, 1942

By F. Cadena

Hiwassee Darn, now under construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority on the Hiwassee River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, will require aggregate for approximately 800,000 cu. yd. of concrete. Near the damsite deposits of natural sand or gravel are not available and graywacke, a rock that is found in abundance, suggested itself as a likely source of manufactured aggregate. Graywacke is a metamorphosed sandstone composed principally of a mixture of quartz (65 per cent), mica (25 per cent), and feldspar (10 per cent). Other minerals are present in negligible amounts. The rock varies in different parts of the quarry from very fine to a coarse grain containing particles of about ¼ in. maximum size, although the bulk of the deposit is medium grain. Extensive tests showed that graywacke would be suitable as a source of both coarse and fine aggregates. The aggregate plant available for use at Hiwassee Dam consisted of the coarse-aggregate and sand plant used on the Norris project. The coarse-aggregate plant had also been used at Chickamauga Dam. Although most of this plant equipment is now in use at Hiwassee, the present flowsheet is not only different from that at Norris and Chickamauga but is also unique as compared to the flowsheet of the average crushed-stone aggregate plant. It is hoped that this paper will show the importance of proper arrangement of equipment if the optimum in flexibility and capacity is to be attained. Flowsheet Rock is ioaded by 3-yd. electric shovels into 12-yd. dump trucks, which carry the rock to the primary crusher, a 42-in. Superior McCully gyratory unit set at 4¾ in. (Fig. 1). The primary crusher discharges directly onto a 42-in. inclined belt conveyor, which carries the product to a surge storage pile with a maximum live storage capacity of approximately 3000 tons. A concrete tunnel under this storage pile houses the feed end of a 36-in. belt conveyor (conveyor B) fed by a 36 by 66-in.

Jan 1, 1942

By K. S. Lane

The problem of stability of slopes in reservoirs is one of real interest in civil engineering. The problem is whether the valley walls will remain stable or whether they are likely to slide as conditions are changed by storage of water in the reservoir. If major slides are indicated, as on the walls of relatively steep canyons, one must estimate whether they will be so located and of sufficient size as to interfere with operation of the reservoir-as by blocking the outlets, or by displacing sufficient water to over-top the dam in a huge wave. Some cases involve problems in soil mechanics for slides in earth or weaker rock; other locations need the assistance of rock mechanics for slides in harder rock. While this is not a new problem, attention has recently been focused on its importance by the hugh landslide into the Vaiont reservoir in 1963, which claimed the lives of over 2000 people and forced abandonment of the dam and powerhouse. VAIONT RESERVOIR SLIDE Fig. 1 shows Vaiont Dam in Italy which is a double curvature arch, 875 ft high, located on a tributary of the Piave River, north and west of Venice. When completed in 1960 it was the highest arch dam in the world. In 1960 a sizable landslide (some 700,000 cu yd) occurred on the left abutment a short distance above the dam. Following this, the reservoir was held down for construction of a by-pass tunnel through the right valley wall to insure connection with the upper end of the reservoir in event of further slides. In October 1963 a giant landslide occurred on the left valley wall, over a width of some 14 miles (see Fig. 2). Over 300 million cu yd slid into the reservoir, displacing the water and forming a hige wave 700 ft above the top of the dam as it hit the opposite, or right, wall of the valley. The wave then passed some 500 ft over top of the dam, followed down the tortuous winding canyon and debouched into the

Jan 1, 1967

J. M. HARTMAN, Philadelphia, Pa.: Mr. Fackenthal can remember some queer things that occurred at Durham, Pa., Aug. 3, 1876, while he was superintendent. The furnace was working stiff, i.e., blast-pressure 10 to 11 pounds, which was high pressure for those days. With this pressure there was some circulation through the stock. At 9 p.m., flushed cinder. After flushing, air was thrown off' for a moment to " bot up "; the keeper turned the lever and threw on air just as the scaffold dropped, which eased up the pressure to 4¼ pounds. The air-receiver is twice as large at Durham as at other places. The air from this receiver, added to the two seven-foot blowers, gave an extra large volume, which, rushing into the furnace, fired the finely-divided carbon, causing an explosion that threw part of the stock in the furnace out into the open air, threw up the bell-and-hopper with the tunnel-head plates, and gave off' a large volume of carbondust. The bell-and-hopper going up first, the stock followed, and, striking the bell-and-hopper, was deflected in a shower over the cast-house roof, breaking the slates. Sitting at the corner of the engine-house at the time, the stock pelted me, when I ran around the corner to get rid of it. Remembering there were two men at the furnace-top, I shut down the engines, and, running to the top, found them sitting in the hoist-house enjoying the fire-works. The explanation of this explosion is simple. There is in the blast-furnace a bed of fuel extending up, say, 16 to 18 feet above the tuyeres; in this bed of fuel some stray pieces of limestone are found, and a few pieces of unreduced ore; but, generally speaking, it is all fuel. On this bed of fuel is the zone of fusion. In this zone the descending stock is liquefied, except the fuel; the iron, melting, drops out of the ore, and the gangue unites with lime, forming cinder. The iron falls in the form of shot, and, with the cinder, trickles

Jan 1, 1899

By Theodore Hatch

The pneumatic rock drill operates essentially as a crusher. The rock is shattered into a powder that is removed from the drill hole by the air stream introduced through the hollow drill steel. Particles thus produced vary in size from 1/4 in. or larger down to diameters too small to be revealed by the ordinary microscope. The power consumed by the drill is proportional to the new surface area of the powdered material, therefore the greater the proportion of "dost" produced, the higher the power consumption and the lower the drilling speed. A considerable amount of material ejected from the hole settles on the rock and much of this falls back as the mound builds up to be crushed further before it is removed again. The cushion of dust at the bottom of the hole reduces the effectiveness of the blow of the bit and thus lowers the rate of drilling. The unfavorable working conditions created by the dust also reduce the drilling speed by lowering the efficiency of the operator. Thus, the dust produced by rock drills constitutes a serious drawback to economical performance on all drilling operations. To the economic objections, one must add the more important objection to the health hazard created when the dust contains free silica (quartz). The silicosis problem is a familiar one in many mines, tunnels, and other underground operations as well as in quarries and other types of open rock excavation. Dust is a necessary end product of all pneumatic drilling operations. Its production cannot be eliminated although the proportion of microscopic particles can be reduced by using improved drill steel, proper methods of sharpening, more efficient drills, etc.—improvements that increase the drilling speed largely by increasing the size of the cuttings. The absolute improvement secured in this way is not great, however, and the pneumatic drill must always remain a dust-producing machine. Definite benefits do result, on the other hand, from the use of dust-control equipment that captures the dust as it emerges from the hole and conveys it to a remote point of discharge. Dust production continues, but dust dispersion into the atmosphere is prevented. The dust is removed as rapidly as it is formed, with the following results: (I) The silicosis

Jan 1, 1937

By J. S. Miller

This paper describes the method of mining a steeply pitching anthracite seam on a heavy pitch in the Orchard vein in No. 1 Tunnel of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. The Orchard vein in the Neaquehoning district has a thickness of about 15 ft. on the level of the gangway, which is sufficient thickness for the gangway to be driven full width in coal. Above the gangway, the vein becomes thinner and near the surface is about 8 it. thick. The coal is of good hard quality and carries a fairly good roof. The pitch of the vein is between 65" and 70". Usually the breast-and-pillar method has been employed in the mining of the steeply pitching veins in this section. This method produced good results as far as the mining of the breast was concerned but the recovery of the pillar was difficult as to full extraction and expensive as regards costs. To recover these pillars after the breasts were driven, three methods were commonly employed; they were known as the pillar-breast method, pillar-skipping method, and pillar-chute method. The pillar-breast method consisted in putting a battery in one corner of the pillar (Fig. I), coupling the manways A and B of the two adjacent breasts for two or three lengths ahead of the working face of the pillar being cut, and working the pillar as a breast. This method was used by the more skilled miners of the earlier days but has practically been abandoned. A slight variation of this method is used to some extent. In this case, the pillars are left wider than ordinarily and of sufficient width for the full-width breast to be driven in and a small pillar left on each side of the pillar breast between it and the regular breasts. With the completion of the "pillar breast," the ribs are drilled full of holes, loaded, and fired. In the pillar-skipping method (Fig. 2), the middle breast of three is not driven through and is drawn empty while the outside and inside breasts are kept full. At the corners of the two pillars standing, batteries are put in and a skip of the two pillars started; the coal in the two pillars is blasted over into the empty breast. A small pillar is kept along the

Jan 1, 1925