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By Arthur F. Wendt

Within the last few years the production of iron, and of the metals generally, by a given furnace-plant, has been largely increased, in many instances trebled. Iron-furnaces exceeding one hundred tons' capacity per diem are now the rule in new constructions. Copper and lead-furnaces smelting from 60 to 100 tons of ore per day are common. With this greatly augmented product, the life of furnace-linings has been diminished, and recourse has been had to various cooling devices for prolonging the life of such liuings. The object of this paper is to call the attention of the profession to an arrangement recently patented by the writer. The common course of projecting water against the exterior of the brickwork of a furnace has been in a large measure abandoned by our most progressive managers. All have recognized the danger of this proceeding, especially when applied to the crucible of a furnace below the line of the tuyeres. Cast-iron water-jackets, with wroughtiron pipes for circulating the cooling-water, have replaced the cruder methods. In iron-smelting the use of such jackets has been confined to the crucible and the space around the tuyeres; and it has been the custom to support the jackets on the brickwork of the furnace. But the erosion of the brickwork below tuyere-jackets allows them to sag, and often displaces the alignment of the tuyeres and leads to other annoyances. The principle of construction adopted by the writer to remedy this and other evils, is to use a thin fire-brick lining (not over nine inches) from the tuyeres up to the bosh, to back this lining with wrought-iron or steel water-jackets, hung from the mantel-ring, and thus to carry the whole weight of the furnace and its filling upon the supporting pillars. The crucible proper is lined with three or four thicknesses of fire-brick on the sides, and not less than forty-eight inches in the bottom. It is supported on independent pillars, and is practically an independent structure. It could even be placed on wheels and made removable, were there any adequate advantage to be gained by such an arrangement.

Jan 1, 1885

By W. F. Durfee

The apparatus described in this paper was designed by the writer, in the year 1869, for use in the laboratory of the " American Silver Steel Works," at Bridgeport, Conn., where only the vacuum-pump was erected ; but on two subsequent occasions I have had the combined vacuum-pump and table-blowpipe constructed as represented in the drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a general elevation of the apparatus, the air-chamber being sectioned vertically; Fig. 2, a plan of the air-chamber; Fig. 3, a vertical sectiotnal elevation of the vacuum-pump, the section being on line C L), of Fig. 4, which is a horizontal section on line A B, of Fig. 3. The vacuum-pump is constructed of copper, and consists of a vacuum-chamber, E, supported upon the upper expanded end of a vertical pipe, Q. The vacuum-chamber is provided with four nozzles, C, F, I, D (Fig. 4), two of which are shown in section at A, B (Fig. 3). Passing vertically through the centre of the vacuum-chamber E, is seen the water-supply pipe P, whose lower extremity incloses an internal pipe p, which is supported, and placed in communication with the vacuum-chamber E, by means of the two elliptical nozzles n, n. The upper part of the pipe p is closed by a conical cap, and its lower end is in the same plane with the extremity of the watersupply pipe P, within which it is placed. The relative sizes of the pipes P and p are such that an annular adjutage, one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, is formed between their lower extremities, through which the water from the supplypipe P passes into the pipe &, drawing any air that may be in the

Jan 1, 1885

By Walter Lee Brown

One of the characteristic steps in the march of modern scientific progress is the substitution of improved time-saving and labor-saving appliances for the antiquated and, in most cases, inconvenient forms of chemical and physical apparatus used by the earlier experimenters. This fact is strongly impressed upon us when we consider the question of the employment of illuminating-gas as a source of light, heat and power. Concerning its value as a light-producer, let the record of the past three-quarters of a century speak for itself. As a factor for power, we have evidence of its efficiency in the shape of the gas-engine. But its adaptability as a medium of heat, is the feature to which I wish to call attention, and in a special direction, viz., the assaying of ores. Gas assay-furnaces have been known and used for some years, but not to any very great extent, in this country at least. Therefore no apology on my part is required for the description I now give of a complete gas assaying-plant. The illustration accompanying this paper is a faithful representation of the group, as it was designed by, and arranged for myself, and appears in actual running order in my laboratory to-day. Its duty is to do roasting, crucible-fusion, scorification and cupellation. The furnace at the left is for roasting sulphurets or other ores for experimentation or actual work. It is what is known as a Fletcher No. 163, and consists of a fire-clay body strapped with sheet-iron bands, and a burner (No. 16, Fletcher). The opening at the top

Jan 1, 1885

By W. Lawrence Austin

At the Troy meeting of the Institute, in October, 1883, I presented a paper entitled "Smelting Notes from Chihuahua, Mexico,"" in which was briefly described a cupellation-hearth, commonly met with in the northern part of Mexico, called in the vernacular un vaso. Since writing the paper I have had occasion to construct a hearth of this description for myself, using it, in conjunction with a waterjacket, for the reduction of a very refractory ore in the form of concentrates ; and I now avail myself of this opportunity to qualify some of the statements made in the paper referred to. At the same time I wish to present some sketches which will enable anyone to run up a similar furnace within three days, should occasion demand

Jan 1, 1885

By James E. Mills

In the work of exploring certain gold-bearing gravels in the American Valley, Plumas Co., California, entrusted to my charge by Prof. A. Agassiz, of Cambridge, and Q. A. Shaw, Esq., of Boston, it became necessary to sink a shaft through loose materials containing in some layers large quantities of water, and I have been compelled to devise a new method which has proved successful and may be of service elsewhere.

Jan 1, 1885

By A. C. Rand

The invention to be described in this paper is the work of Frederic A. Halsey, Engineer for the Rand Drill Company, of New York, and its use mill abridge the notable wastefulness of power of the striking rock-drill, and, at the same time, increase its capacity for work. That the older type of rock-drill is wasteful in power, is generally admitted; the cause being the use of steam* without expansion, arid the "cushion" of the blow, by the incoming steam upon the lower † end of the piston before the cutting tool strikes the rock.

Jan 1, 1885

William Kent, New York City: I regret that I have not had the time since the Cincinnati meeting to make as complete a study of Mr. Salom's paper as I wished. I regard it as one of the most important papers that have been presented on this subject, and worthy of complete study. I started out, on the limited time I had, on a system of study which I would recommend to any one else who has leisure to complete the investigation. I took the original report presented at the Cincinnati meeting, and selected from it' such tests as had the analyses reported along with the physical tests, giving the amounts of carbon, phosphorus, manganese, etc., taking only those in which all these elements are given.

Jan 1, 1885

By Joseph D. Weeks

Manganese has, until recently, been most highly esteemed as a good thing to keep out of steel. Its value in the process of mannfacture has been fully recognized, but after it has played its part in the crucible or the converter, then the less of it the better. It is true that the mission of this metal and its influence upon the character of steel has been a source of much controversy. Our own Holley, in one of his special reports on ferromanganese: I, states that ''it has been suspected by some, and believed by a few, while it is still denied by many, that manganese as an ingredient in steel has not only a body-giving and toughening influence, but a positive neutralizing influence upon any excess of hardening or cold-shortening substances, as phosphorus." In another paper on the same subject he states that " it should appear from such facts as we have that manganese toughens" the structural steels, "increases their soundness and prevents red-shortness." Notwithstanding these rather guarded assertions as to its value, the general belief, it will be found, is with Dr. Siemens, that manganese is " merely a cloak to hide impurities," and its presence in steel has been endured, not welcomed. But whatever may have been the difference in opinion as to the

Jan 1, 1885

By H. J. Seaman

The cost of keeping platinum ware in repair becomes such an important item in laboratories where much fusion-work is done, that a method of saving in this direction may not prove unacceptable to at least some of the members of the Institute. Some two years since I had the misfortune to puncture an almost new Bishop crucible. As an experiment I endeavored to patch it, and with such success that it is still in constant use. This may be accomplished in the following manner : The crucible and patch, which should be of stout foil, are rubbed bright with silica, or rotten-stone; a light platinum wire, welded to a corner of the patch, and the whole treated for several hours with hot concentrated hydrochloric acid; after which they are thoroughly washed with distilled water and dried. The head of an ordinary iron rivet, 4 inches by $ inches, is rounded off by hammering to somewhat the shape of the crucible. This is sunk 2 inches in a block of hard wood, and firmly wedged in place. This serves for an anvil. The hammer is an ordinary cast-iron toy, 11/2 inches long, and # inches in face, mounted on a 4 inch iron rod, 10 inches long. A gas-blowpipe is fixed in a horizontal position, and the strongest heat obtainable with it directed upon the rivet head; this soon at-

Jan 1, 1885

By Charles A. Schffer

Several months ago, some specimens of the minerals occurring at the Etta tin mine, Dakota, were received at the laboratory of the Cornell University. On examining the heavy brownish-black portion, which I presumed was the tin-stone, I was surprised to find only a faint indication of tin. Further investigation showed the mineral to be tantalite. On searching carefully all the fragments received, a considerable quantity of that mineral was found, and only a single streak of cassiterite, which was attached to a mass of spodumene. Another lot of specimens, from the same locality, consisted of

Jan 1, 1885

By E. S. Hutchinson

The subject of the influence of coal-dust in mine-explosions has received considerable attention both in England and on the continent of Europe, but until the recent disaster at Pocahontas, Va., it seems not to have been of special interest to engineers in this country. The reason, perhaps, is that most of our bituminous mines are worked by short shafts, slopes and drifts; few have been specially dry; and the explosions that have occurred could readily be traced to fire-damp with 110 complicated circumstances. The object of the present paper is to bring together, for the convenience of members of the Institute, the principal English opinions upon this important subject. Messrs. Lyell and Faraday, in their report to the Home Secretary," in England, on the Haswell Colliery explosion in 1844, seem to have been the first to point out that dust fed the flame originating in a

Jan 1, 1885

By Frederick H. McDowell

Notwithstanding the rapidly increasing use of copper, due to the extension of its applications within the last few years, the fact of its continued steady decline in price stands prominently forward. Nor have we far to look for the cause. The opening up of the vast copper-deposits of our Western States and territories is the metallurgical event of the last five years. We must not forget, in looking at the new field, the changed conditions under which the metallurgist must work, as compared with the previous history of copper-smelting. Until quite recently, the copper-plants of the country were few in number; and the concentration of industry implied in this circumstance, allowed many practices which must be considered as inapplicable to the conditions offered at the many mines which have of late become such important factors in our copper-production. Thus the old style of smelting the ore for matte in brick furnaces, involving great expense and time in their construction, while deservedly losing repute even in its old strongholds, in comparison with water-jacketed smelters, is still in some cases adhered to. But to put up such furnaces at Western mines would be out of the question. The large and continual need of brick for relining and repairs acts as an effectual bar, when such furnaces come into competition with the light, portable, and easily managed water-jacketed smelters of improved types. It is owing to the present unusual activity, manifested in the opening up of new copper-properties and the erection of plants for working them, that any improvement in furnace-construction is of especial interest and importance. The method in which processes are copied without variation in the rapid growth of metallurgical interests, has already been strikingly exemplified in the history of

Jan 1, 1885

By John Gjers

Being on a visit to your great and prosperous country, and having been favored with an invitation to attend this meeting of your Institute, the author has been requested by your Secretary to give a short account of his invention of the " soaking-pit," which he has great pleasure in doing. The object of the soaking-pit is the rolling of steel ingots with their own initial heat, that is, to supply the missing link in that chain of metallurgical operations which Sir Henry Bessemer began in 1857, when he proved how it was possible to produce malleable iron or steel direct from the fluid cast-iron out of the blast-furnace, without any further direct use of fuel. The great Bessemer invention has revolutionized iron and steelmaking throughout the world; but it stopped short at producing the ingot, which, it was found, had afterwards to be heated in a furnace to enable it to be rolled or hammered; and it is only lately, twenty-five years after Mr. Bessemer's announcement, that the author of this paper has been able to show that furnacing can be dispensed with, and that it is practicable to roll a steel ingot into say a bloom, a rail, or a billet, with its own initial heat. It has no doubt suggested itself to many that there ought to be heat enough in the ingot just cast, for the purpose of rolling; and from time to time attempts have been made to utilize this heat; but such attempts always ending in failure, it became a settled opinion in the trade that it could not be done—an opinion which the author is aware that your late lamented countryman, Mr. Holley, than whom there was none more conversant with Bessemer steel-making, also entertained. But settled opinions sometimes prove to be great fallacies. As an instance, it is not many years since the opinion prevailed in the trade that steel ingots could not be rolled successfully, that is, so as to make good rails, unless they were first allowed to get quite cold, and afterwards heated. No greater boon was ever conferred on the

Jan 1, 1885

By C. A. Stetefeldt

FoR the convenience of those who do not care to enter into the details of this long essay, I begin with a summary of the most important results it presents. The extraction of silver by the lixiviation-process from ores which have been subjected to a chloridizing-roasting, is based upon the fact that silver chloride is easily soluble in solutions of sodium or calcium hyposulphite, and that silver is precipitated from such solutions by an alkaline sulphide, with regeneration of the hyposulphite salts. In case the ore contains lead a large portion of the latter is and dissolved, lead sulphate being soluble in hyposulphite solutions. If, at the same time, copper is present, the sulphides precipitated from the solution, contain silver, copper, and lead, a combination of metals not desirable for subsequent treatment. Mr. E. H. Russell, of Park City, Utah, is the inventor and the patentee in the United States and several foreign countries of a new lixiviation-process, based upon the chemical facts discussed in this paper. Mr. Russell has discovered that lead can be completely separated from a sodium hyposulphite solution, as lead carbonate, by sodium carbonate or purified soda-ash, without precipitating any copper or silver. After decanting the solution from the lead carbonate, silver and copper are obtained from it in the usual way. This method of separating lead prohibits the use of calcium poly-sulphide as a precipitant for the sulphides, because any calcium entering the regenerated lixiviationsolution would also be precipitated as a carbonate with the lead by soda-ash. Hence, a sodium sulphide must be employed. A full investigation has demonstrated that this is by no means detrimental. Sodium sulphide and hyposulphite are more advantageously used in the lixiviation-process than the corresponding calcium-salts. Another defect in the lixiviation-process consisted in the necessity of a very perfect chlorination of the silver in the ore, because silver in

Jan 1, 1885

By Theodore A. Blake

More than a quarter of a century has passed since the introduction of the machine known as the Blake crusher, the invention of Eli W. Blake, of New Haven, Conn. Although originally designed for breaking stone for road-metal, its importance for crushing ores of the precious metals, and those of iron, copper, and zinc, as well as emery, phosphates, plaster, etc., mas soon recognized, and for many years its use has been world-wide, and its construction so well known that no special description of it is deemed necessary. Following its introduction, many different machines for the same purpose, containing the same essential features of upright convergent jaws, one of which is movable with respect to the other, hut having some slight modification of such movement (generally a rubbing motion) or of the non-essential method of imparting motion to one or both of the jaws, have been offered to the public for sale and use, but have, as a rule, in time disappeared from the market. If we seek for the reason of the success of the Blake crusher, aside from its simplicity of construction, we shall find it in the adherence to the principle of crushing by simple pressure and careful avoidance of attrition. In this lies the economy of power and of wearingsurfaces. To reduce any hard and brittle material to a fine powder by many different methods—by attrition, impact, or percussion—is a comparatively easy matter; but to accomplish this by the employment of either of the above-mentioned principles involves such a consumption of wearing-surface? (generally iron) or of power, that the numerous devices that have hitherto been presented to the public as solutions of the problem of fine crushing have proved utter and complete failures when tested with reference to the power employed and the wear of iron in doing their work.. Aside from the use of crushers with the harder ores, the only two methods of fine crushing in general use, and, in the writer's opinion, worthy of consideration, are by means of stamps and rolls; the former doing their work by percussion, the latter by pressure, provided

Jan 1, 1885

By John Hays Hammond

The following notes are descriptive of a country as yet in its infancy as regards the advancement made in mining operations. Its inaccessibility and other militating circumstances have retarded progress in that direction. With the completion of the railroad, now under construction, having the city of Cali as its objective point, with the concomitant civilizing and developing consequences, it is certain that the slopes of the Cordilleras will prove to be a South American Eldorado. Deposits of coal, copper, and minerals other than those of the precious metals are known to exist in quantities which, under more favorable conditions of accessibility, etc., could be profitably mined. The Government of the United States of Colombia, I think, is disposed to encourage and foster mining enterprises. Articles designed for mining are admitted free of duty; the permanency of the government is, at least, as well assured as that of Mexico (which is not noted for its immutability), and a more sincerely friendly sentitment towards Americans prevails in the United States of Colombia than in Mexico. This paper is confined to a description of the property of the Cauca company's mines, and is intended rather as a preliminary notice than as an exhaustive report. The Cauca mining district is reached by the following route: New York to Aspinwall; to Panama; to Buenaventura, a port on the west coast of the United States of Colombia, distant thirty-six hours from Panama by steamer; to Cali in the State of Cauca. The State of Cauca is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the northwest by the State of Panama, on the northeast by the States of Bolivar and Antioquia, on the east by Brazil and Venzuela, on the south by the Republic of Ecuador, and on the west by the Pacific. Ocean. It has a territory of 41,443 square miles, which is about one-tenth of the entire territory of the United States of Colombia. Its population, including the 50,000 savage Indians of the Caqueta (some of whom are cannibals), is nearly 450,000 souls, or about one-sixth of the population of the Colombian republic. Of these, one-fifth are whites (Spanish' South Amer-

Jan 1, 1885

By John Birkinbine

Among the notable deposits of iron-ore, the Iron Mountain at Durango, Mexico, is prominent. But, although it has been noticed in records of travel and official reports for three centuries, the statements made concerning it have been so largely alloyed with improbabilities that general credence has not been given to data relating to the Cerro & Mercado, that being the name by which this remarkable mountain of ore is known. Location. Geographically, the mountain is centrally located, being situated immediately at the City of Durango, which is distant in direct lines (as the crow flies) as follows: From the Rio Grande River at El Paso, Texas, in the north, 510 miles; from the same stream at Laredo, Texas, in the northeast, 410 miles; from Tampico, in the east, 475 miles; from the City of Mexico in the southeast, 520 miles; from Mazatlan in the west, 110 miles. At El Paso, the standard-gauge Mexican Central Railroad, and at Laredo, the narrow-gauge Mexican National Railroad, enter Mexico. Tampico is a prominent Mexican port on the Gulf of Mexico, and Mazatlan occupies a similar position on the Gulf of California. To reach Durango from Laredo or Tampico, spurs of the Sierra Madre Mountains must be crossed, and between Mazatlan

Jan 1, 1885

By Arthur F. Wendt

In the manufacture of charcoal-blooms, washing or cleansing of the ore from adhering gangue has been practiced for many years. A sluice-box is even to-day used for that purpose in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. For the Lake Champlain bloomaries hard magnetic ores are crushed with stamps and then sluiced or jigged in hand-jigs. The stamps used in the Lake Champlain region are of the most primitive kind. They consist of a trip-hammer, dropping on a perforated cast-iron plate, through which the crushed ore escapes. Only friable rock can thus be successfully treated. To render the raw ore friable, a calcining or burning in piles on a bed of cordwood is resorted to. An expense of 35 cents per ton of crude rock treated is thus incurred. The crushed ore is shovelled or otherwise fed into jigs without previous sizing, except such as is incidental to crushing through the perforated bottom of the stamping-machine. In jigging this ore, it is allowed to pass through the bedding into the "hutch." The tailings are scraped off and wasted. They contain a large percentage of fine ore. In many instances, this is regained by subsequent sluicing. Such was the condition of the industry, when the writer's attention was first called to it in 1882. No attempt had been made to introduce into thiS branch of ore-dressing the notable improvements adopted in concentrating the ores of other metals. The result of the writer's investigations was the building in 1882 of the "Crown Point Separator." At the Crown Point Mines, N. Y., lean ore unfit for the blastfurnace (containing less than 331/3 per cent. of iron), was concentrated and used in the bloomary connected with the mines. The ore was burned here as elsewhere, and treated as described. The plant designed by the writer for Crown Point, is nearly a counterpart of that since erected by Messrs. Copeland and Bacon, contractors, for the Theal mine, Putnam County, New York, which is illustrated by the accompanying plate. The only difference is in

Jan 1, 1885

By Byron W. Cheever

While engaged in experimenting with the usual methods for estimating phosphorus in iron and steel, it occurred to me that potassium chlorate might be used to oxidize the carbon, and thus avoid the tedious and vexatious evaporations necessary for successfully carrying out the usual methods. After many trials, the following plan was adopted : Take, for analysis, of Bessemer or other low-carbon steels, from 3 to 5 grammes; of crucible steel, 10 grammes; of pig-iron, 1 to 5 grammes, according to the percentage of phosphorus supposed to be present. Of iron, high in phosphorus (1 per cent.), take 1 gramme. Place in a No. 4 evaporating dish the amount of iron or steel decided upon, cover with a funnel which will just fit inside the dish, and then add gradually HNO3, (1.20 specific gravity), using 12 C.C. of acid for each gramme of steel or iron taken. (A larger quantity of acid will be required for small samples.) When the full amount of acid has been added, and the violent action has ceased, place the evaporating dish on a sand-bath, add 10 C.C. HNO3, (1.40 specific gravity), and boil till the bulk of the solution is reduced about onehalf. Then add 10 C.C. HNO3, (1.40 specific gravity), continue the boiling, and add from time to time, during the next 15 minutes, small portions of pulverized KCIO3, till about 2 grammes have been added. (If the solution shows signs of going dry, more strong acid must be added.) This will precipitate the manganese, with some iron. Sometimes it happens that the manganese does not come down readily, and more KCIO3, or further concentration, or both, will be required. The process is not complete till the manganese is precipitated, which may be known by the appearance of a dark, mirror-like deposit on the dish, at the edge of the solution. Boil the solution 5 minutes after the last addition of KCIO3, and then add cautiously (to prevent sudden explosions) 5 C.C. strong HCl. This will dissolve the precipitated manganese and iron. Continue the boiling till the chlorine is all expelled, adding from

Jan 1, 1885

By Henry C. Freeman

During the early period of the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, about 1838, in excavating for the canal, where the present town of Utica stands, hydraulic limestone was discovered, and its value was recognized. A kiln for calcining and a mill for grinding were erected, and the cement was used in the construction of the locks of the canal. This property was subsequently bought by the present owner, Mr. James Clark, and the work has been continued to the present time in much the same primitive manner as it was begun. The bed is exposed in the Illinois River valley by stripping off a few feet of the covering rock. It is from 4 feet to 6 feet 9 inches thick, and nearly level, dipping gently to the northeast. The Utica Cement Company's establishment, which is two miles west of Utica and two miles east of La Salle, was an outgrowth of the Illinois geological survey. The writer was in charge of the district which included La Salle county, and, in working out the details of the geology of that county, discovered, below the Utica bed, another workable hydraulic limestone, which makes its appearance in the northern bluff of the Illinois River valley, rising above the water level at the point where the company's works are established. This cement group, of which there are several thin beds, lies just below the St. Peter's sandstone, with a few feet intermediate of transition-rock, which appears to represent the Calciferous, and is exhibited in place, in concretionary form, at the top of the bluff. The hydraulic beds are very regular, and the one worked by the company is 10 feet thick; or, speaking more definitely, there are two beds, separated by 18 inches of sandstone, lying about two feet above the bottom, and the two beds are worked as one, the sandstone being first cut out and removed, to prevent mixture. In 1869 I was invited to join with a company, and to take charge

Jan 1, 1885