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The first of a series of special war meetings of the New York Section of the American Institute of Mining Engineers held on the evening of July 20 at the Machinery Club, preceded by an informal dinner. The subject for discussion was the important general one of the manganese supplies of the steel industry of the United States. It had been intended to include chromium supplies but this matter was crowded out and left for a later meeting. The principal speaker of the evening was Donnel F. Hewett of the U. S. Geological Survey, who, as a result of his recent studies of the resources of the country, ably presented the question of the extent to which the United States can furnish manganese ore.

Jan 9, 1917

The second special war meeting of the New York Section was held on Thursday evening, Aug. 23,-preceded by is an informal dime The topic for discussion -was the supply of sulphur and pyrite, the raw materials for the manufacture of one of the most important of till war materials-sulphuric acid. The first speaker was William Young Westervelt, the Institute's representative on the War Minerals Committee. Before taking up the subject of the evening, Mr. Westervelt briefly described the organization and plan of operation of the War Minerals Committee.

Jan 10, 1917

The third special war meeting of the New York Section was held on Thursday evening, Sept. 27, in joint session with the New York Section of the American Electrochemical Society, in conjunction with the Third National Exposition -of-Chemical Industries, at the Grand Central Palace. The topic for discussion was ferro-alloys, and the supply' of raw materials for their manufacture. After a few introductory remarks by President Philip N. Moore, of the Institute, and President Colin G. Fink of the American Electrochemical Society, Mr. C. S. Newcomb presented his paper on "Chrome Mining and Concentration."

Jan 11, 1917

By James Morgan

The convenience of mechanical arrangements for handling ingots, blooms, billets, bars, beams, etc., and feeding them to the rolls, is so universally recognized as to require no demonstration. In the rolling of heavy beams, such as are now coming into general use, such arrangements are practically essential, by reason of the difficulty and expense of the manual handling of the large masses of metal treated. I submit herewith the drawings of a rolling-mill feed-table, designed and patented by myself, which I think will be found simple in construction and operation, not likely to get . out of order, and efficient in performing the work for which it is intended. Fig. 1 is a sectional plan, taken on the line I I of Figs. 2 and 3. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section on the line II II of Figs. 1 and 3. Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section on line III III of Figs. 1 and 2. As the details of the drawings are numbered throughout, and the same number always indicates the same part, I cannot more clearly describe the mechanism than by giving the following key to these numbers: Nos. 2 and 3 are the sets of rolls (here shown as three-high rolls, though that is not absolutely necessary). Nos. 4, 4 are the two feed-tables, one on each side of the rolls. The uide frames of the tables are made of parallel channel-bars. Nos. 6, 5 are the feed-rollers, journaled between the channel-bars and provided at their ends with beveled gear-wheels, 6, 6, which mesh with beveled pinions, 7, 7, on shafts, 8, 8, which latter are driven by elevated power-connections, to be mentioned presently. The tracks, 9, 9, on which the supporting-carriages are mounted,

Jan 1, 1891

By A. D. Hodges

In May, 1850, the first gold from the Comstock lode was discovered in the sands near the Carson river. It had been washed down by natural agencies, through Gold Caflon, from the decomposed rock of the ledge above. Within a few weeks, the precious metal was traced more than three miles in shallow deposits along the bed of the canon, from the river to the Devil's Gate-—a narrow, rocky cleft, notable to the teamsters of a later day chiefly as the place where " Uncle Jimmy Fair" collected high tolls, and could not reduce the rates, because " this was all he had for the education of his poor children." From 1850 to 1857, a fluctuating band of miners, whose number varied from twenty to two hundred, washed the Gold Canon placers with rockers and long-toms, making four to five dollars a day each until the last-named year, when the deposits were in great measure exhausted. The chief settlement of these miners was at Johntown. During only a third of the year was the water-supply sufficient for their work. The remainder of the time they utilized in desultory prospecting of the hills and in occasional forays for supplies among the Mormons in Carson valley. In 1857, the Grosch brothers discovered the Comstock lode at some point, now unknown, in Gold Hill, but their discovery perished with them. Early in 1858, the " Pioneer Quartz Company," having located several of the small surface-veins around Silver City (whose connection with the main lode has never been definitely shown), built an arrastra, and worked some of their ore; but the returns were so small that they soon abandoned this business. The following winter, James Finney and his partners found gold in place in

Jan 1, 1891

By Geo. W. Goetz

The following tables show the analyses of ores from nearly all of the mines which will produce over 10,000 tons of ore each during the season of 1890. There are many small mines now in the course of development, some of which may become large producers. Many of the mines produce several different grades of ore, but the analyses given in the tables are fair averages of ore such as the respective mines can deliver. Most of these analyses were obtained from the agents of the respective ores, and are averages of the season of 1889. One can state positively that over 75 per cent. of all the iron-ores of the Lake Superior district will average over 60 per cent. of metallic iron. During the past 34 years this region has produced about 48,137,421 tons of ore, the different districts contributing about as follows: Marquette District,. 29,754,057 Menominee " .10,415,859 Gogebic " . 6,622,194 Vermilion " . 2,342,991 Miscellaneous,. .. .. 2,320 In the year 1889, the product of all the districts was nearly '1,300,000 tons. The product of the entire region for the season of 1890 may exceed 9,000,000 tons. This large amount of ore is shipped to the lower lake ports, from Escanaba, Marquette, Two Harbors and Gladstone.

Jan 1, 1891

By Oberlin Smith

The use of cast-iron tools, with chilled cutting-edges, for lathes, planers, boring-mills, etc., is not, as Gar as I can learn, very extensive in the United States, or perhaps in England and other parts of Europe. I have, however, no data to guide me in regard to foreign

Jan 1, 1891

By H. C. Spaulding

The rapid increase, during the last few years, in the number and magnitude of applications of electric power-transmission to commer cial uses in this country, has been due principally to three causes: first, the ability and enterprise of those who have been identified with the progress of electrical industries, since electric illumination became an economic fact instead of a laboratory-experiment: sec ondly, the readiness of the American people to adopt new and ad vanced methods as soon as their superiority has been fairly demon strated; and thirdly, tile economy and flexibility of the apparatus employed, when properly designed and constructed, and installed under suitable conditions. Basing our judgment on the world's advance in scientific devel opments during the past century, we may reasonably conclude that in no other country would the pioneeis of electrical invention, whose names have now become household words, have received the prompt and plentiful financial support which has enabled them to inaugurate undertakings of exceptional magnitude, even in this era of tremendous monetary organizations. And, on the other hand, we have seen, in the numerous financial and engineering failures inseparable from such rapid development, the natural results of a too implicit faith in electrical omnipotence. It is not to be wondered at that conservative engineers have been slow to adopt this new and mighty agent in the solution of exten sive problems, and under circumstances where a single failure means not only a greater or less financial sacrifice, but the loss, in a greater or less degree, of professional reputation. Be mechanical engineer, while recognizing the fact that thousands of horse-power are to-day transmitted by electrical means, from sunning the lathe in a dentist's office to the operation of a fifty-ton travelling crane; from passing a cooling draught of air through a

Jan 1, 1891

By J. C. Bayles

THE most unsatisfactory occurrences in the experience of a manufacturer are those from which he suffers damage and learns nothing useful. That there are such incidents, and that they occur with annoying frequency, is unfortunately true. An accident which can be understood and explained always carries some consolation with it. However bad the copnsequencee, one finds comfort in reflecting that they might have been worse, and that the knowledge of how to avert a more disastrous calamity from the same cause is worth what it cost. But when an accident occurs, which remains unexplained after anxious days of investigation and sleepless nights of reflection, and which is as liable to occur twice or twenty times, as once, very little satisfaction of any kind can be extracted from it by the most philosophical victim. Three such incidents have come under my notice in one establishment. Fortunately none of them were attended with very serious consequences, as no one was hurt, and the damage to property was slight; but in each instance, loss of life and great destruction were escaped by so narrow a margin as to make them extremely disquieting. I have recorded them in the hope, that from the experience of others maybe gained what my own careful investigations have failed to reach-—satisfactory explanations. The first of these curious occurrences was the bunting of a 16-inch pipe carrying air under a compression of about 1 pound. The pipe was made of light galvanized iron with soldered seams. Into it a rotary fan-blower delivered air, and from it smaller pipes were carried to the furnaces. The blower was run continuously. Neither the main pipe nor its branches had any connection with the gas conduits. Both air- and gas-pipes delivered into the furnaces; but although the gas was under much higher compression than the air, there appeared to be no good reason why, having free escape in case of leakage, it should ever make its way back into the air-pipe. One warm afternoon in June the main air-pipe exploded with great vio-

Jan 1, 1891

By John B. Farish

This brief paper is designed to place on record some interesting occurrences, recently observed during an examination of the Golden Age Mine, in Boulder county, Colorado. Leaving the little village of Jamestown—or Jimtown, as it is more generally called—located in the canon of James creek, the road winds up a steep mountain composed of the coarse gray granite, with occasional belts of gneiss, common to all the mineral-bearing sections of Boulder county, to the summit of the front range of the Continental Divide. Here are located the mines known as the Golden Age and the Sentinel, the relative locations of which are shown in Fig. 1. The Golden Age location covers the outcrop of a quartz-porphyry dike, which cuts through the granite country-rock with a strike of about N. 70' E. This dike varies in width from a few feet, as at a point between the main shaft and the Hill shaft, to about 50 feet,

Jan 1, 1891

By A. S. Hewitt

After an interval of fourteen years, saddened for all of us by the death of David Thomas, the father of the anthracite iron-trade, first president of the Institute, and by the untimely loss of his successor, Alexander L. Holley, whose memory we are about to honor by loving services, the members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers have conferred upon me for the second time the office of president, under circumstances similar to those which led to the choice in 1876. Then the whole world was represented at the great exposition of industry which was held in Philadelphia to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of our declaration of political independence. In 1890 it is our privilege to receive as guests the members of the British Iron and Steel Institute, who, with singular and graceful felicity, have appointed a meeting in the United States in the year when we pass from the second to the first place in the international column of the production of iron, and thus celebrate our industrial independence. For the honor of being chosen to extend to our distinguished guests the right hand of fellowship and a hearty welcome I return to my associates the grateful acknowledgment of one whose chief claim to your favor is to be found in his love for the professional occupation in which we are all engaged, and in his efforts, public and private, to promote its advancement into new fields of usefulness. In order to indicate the full significance of the visit of our foreign guests at this time, it will be proper to explain briefly the origin, aims and work of the Iron and Steel Institute. It unquestionably owes its birth to the International Expositions held in London in 1851 and 1862, and in Paris in 1867. These expositions served to break down the jealousies of nationality and to diffuse a better knowledge of industrial processes. Trade-secrets, which had been carefully guarded, became common property; manufacturers who had previously regarded themselves as rivals formed bonds of union and ties of friendship, as the results of an intercourse which

Jan 1, 1891

By D. S. Jacobus

COMPRESSED-air motors are specially desirable, if economically practicable, for underground haulage, because they require no fuel, involve no danger of fire, and not only avoid heating and fouling the atmosphere with smoke and combastion-gases, but by the emission of expanding fresh air, cool and improve it and aid ventilation. The highest developments in the use of compressed-air motors for locomotion are to be found, in the opinion of the writer, in the principles of the Mekarski car-motor as applied to street tramways, and it is thought that notes taken regarding this system, during a recent trip to Europe, where two plants are in successful operation, at Nantes and Vincennes respectively, will be interesting to mining engineers. The plant at Nantes operates a street-line 5.2 miles long, requiring about twenty motors; the one at Vincennes about 7 miles of road. Each car at Nantes carries its own motor. At Vincennes, however, the motor-car is arranged to tow a second car containing no motor. The road at Nantes is the older, having been in successful operation for ten years, during which time neither the American consul, Mr. Shackelford, who has resided at Nantes for about five years, nor the vice-consul, Mr. Bennett, who has been at Nantes ever since the road started, has ever seen anything go wrong with the motors. DESCRIPTION OF THE RAILROA at Nantes. Motor-Car.—Two small engines are connected' so as to rotate the front axle of the car, a reversing lever being used to alter the cut-

Jan 1, 1891

By S. T. Wellman

The gradual change within the Iast few years from wrought-iron to steel for many purposes, notably for rails, plates, beams and other structural shapes, has brought the desirability and possibility of casting and rolling the steel in very large masses as compared with the

Jan 1, 1891

By John C. Fowle

Having had for many years the management of magnetite mines, and having noted the various admixtures, such as jasper, " green rock," actinolite, etc., that occur so frequently in the deposits and make the fine ore so difficult as well as expensive to sort by hand, I studied the different ways of mechanical sorting, but found none eatisfactory—the universal objections being the expense, the small quantity that could be handled per hour, and the low grade of ore produced after all. Feeling that some means would be discovered ultimately for concentrating the small ore, I began at the Michigamme mine, at Michigamme, Lake Superior, Michigan, to separate it from the larger and richer lumps, by placing in all the shaft-houses screens of round iron bars set 1/4-inch apart, on which the skips were dumped as they were hoisted; the coarse ore going into one stock-pile or into cars, and the small ore, from 2 or 3 inches diameter down to powder, going into a special stock-pile, to be treated as soon as some proper means was found to separate the ore from the rock and ether impurities. Careful investigations showed that neither dry nor wet concentration was the right process for us; and I finally studied the magnetic process. Not knowing of any magnetic separator in this country that would handle such large pieces of ore as I wished to treat, I looked abroad and found in Sweden the Wenstrom separator. One of these machines was brought to the United States and tested in New Jersey and other places. (See the papers of Messrs. Cook and Birkinbine, Trans., xvii., 599 and 728.) This original separator, having 15-inch face of drum, I brought to the Michigamme mines, and, no one having confidence in it, placed it in operation at my own expense. Finding that in this way large ore could be treated much better by magnetic separators than by hand, and with much greater enrichment of the product, I put up a small, crude mill with several series of screens, so as to size the material and

Jan 1, 1891

By R. Henry Norton

The State of Oregon, although admitted into the Union February 14, 1859, is to-day, so far as any practical knowledge of its mineral resources is concerned, almost terra incognita, as compared with the other Western States and Territories. This is partly to be accounted for by the class of emigrants who first settled in the country ; they seem to have been, as they still are, a pastoral community, to whom the terms " mines " 'and " mining " are synonymous with bankruptcy and disaster, and who discourage all attempts to develop the mineral resources of the State. This statement is emphasized by the fact that Oregon has no State Geolo-

Jan 1, 1891

By R. M. Daelen

In recent years many new appliances have been introduced into German steel-works and rolling-mills for the purpose of improving working-methods, and of creating and maintaining increased production, and satisfying the ever-growing demand for metal of closely specified hardness, strength and form. One result of the improvements has been to aid very effectively in demonstrating the real superiority of ingot- over wrought-iron for almost every possible purpose, and in dispelling the last vestiges of prejudice unfavorable to the new metal. If, nevertheless, no marked decrease in the number of puddlingfurnaces has yet been noticed, the cause of their survival must be attributed to the greatly increased consumption of all kinds of ironmanufactures. Several large new works for the production of ingotiron are now, however, in course of erection in the Rhenish-Westphalian district, and upon their completion a rapidly diminishing output of wrought-iron may be anticipated. The present aim of all large works manufacturing ingot-iron is to work the molten blast-furnace pig into a finished product without any further fuel-consumption than is required to furnish steam for the rolling-mill. Though practice has established the feasibility of this principle, no works can yet point to its complete adoption, partly because of the limitations imposed by existing conditions and plant, and partly, also, on account of the highly-diversified character of the finished products. The Bessemer-works were the first to feel the influence of the basic process; but of recent years a similar influence has affected the open-hearth, and the owners of works possessing both a converterand an open-hearth plant are now seeking to arrange them for combined working, in charging as well as in casting. In small works the basic-lined reverberatory furnace is constantly gaining ground over the old puddling-furnace. The small basic converter, on the

Jan 1, 1891

By Ellis Clark

Within the last ten years the progressive party of China, headed by Li Hung Chang, the Viceroy of Chi-Li, has been making great efforts to develop the mining resources of that country, and particularly those that are within reasonable distances of the sea-board. Attention was first paid to the coal-deposits, especially those at KaiPing, which have been placed on a profitable basis with an output of 1500 tons per day, under the energetic management of Mr. Claude Kinder, M.I.C.E., and the successful financiering of Tong King Sing. These coal-mines were described in a report by Kwong Yung Kwang, edited as a paper for the Institute (Duns., xvi., 95.) The attention of the leaders of the progressive party has for the past five years been turned also toward the development of the precious and related metals—gold, silver, copper and lead. De-

Jan 1, 1891

By John W. Cabot

In the manufacture by the Bessemer process of soft steel suitable for rolling into fine sheets, tubes and 60 forth, a difficulty is sometimes met with, in the tendency of this kind of metal to rise violently and boil in the moulds while being cast; this results in hollow-topped ingots, and consequently in an undue amount of scrap in the subsequent rolling. It has been noticed that this peculiarity does not pertain to all pig-irons, some grades producing a blown metal which pours quietly, while others, in whatever way the blow may have been conducted, give a metal which rises in the moulds, accompanied by the evolution of large quantities of hydrogen and carbonic oxide gases, and requiring a long time to solidify. This difference in behavior has been some-

Jan 1, 1891

By F. H. McDowell

The electro-magnetic separator of Mr. G. Conkling, Glens Falls, N. Y., described by Mr. Birkinbine* in a paper at the New York meeting of the Institute, in February, 1889, has been in successful operation at the Tilly Foster 'mine for a considerable period, under the disadvantages which seem to be the inevitable attendants of pioneer enterprises in new technical fields. The results of a run of several months, which the Superintendent, Mr. S. P. Tomkins, has taken pains to collate, are here presented by his courteous permission, and that of Mr. E. S. Moffat, the energetic and skilful General Manager of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, to whom our profession is already indebted for examples of bold and ingenious practice in mine-engineering. It is believed that these figures will assist those who are planning similar operations to decide intelligently what they may, and, more important still, what they may not, expect to accomplish. The local difficulties in the way of this experiment at the Tilly Foster mine were many and great. Only about two-thirds of the waste-dump, resulting from the assorting of previous years, is ore; and this varies in content of iron from 20 to 28 per cent. The remainder is rock, some (from horses in the vein) showing particles of adhering mineral, some (from the foot- and hanging-walls) entirely barren. The expense of overhauling the dump and removing this rock is by no means the least of the numerous items which must be charged against the concentration. Associated with the lean ore are hornblende and other minerals, carrying iron in the non-magnetic state, which must necessarily be washed away with the tailings. The waste-dump was originally located without reference to future treatment, and now can only be handled by means of a locomotive,

Jan 1, 1891

By H. A. Wheeler

The great depths attained by some of the older mines, and the milch greater depth at which they will have to he worked in the not distant future, strongly emphasize the imperfect and inadequate character of our present hoisting-practice. The depth of 3000 feet having been exceeded at several places, and 4000 feet almost reached

Jan 1, 1891