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Discussion of the paper of GEORGE K. BURGESS and SIR ROBERT A. HADFIELD, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 98, February, 1915, pp. 455 to 468. ALBERT SAUVEUR, Cambridge, Mass.-There is a definiteness and finality in the investigations that have been conducted by the Bureau of Standards and in the method of presenting the results that is most satisfactory and refreshing.. A year ago Dr. Burgess and his co-workers investigated the question of critical points in carbonless iron, and they settled the question once for all. No one can now claim that the thermal point A2 in carbonless iron does not exist. At the past meeting of this Institute in Pittsburgh, Dr. Burgess showed the worthlessness of the shrinkage clause. To my mind after his demonstration no one can again claim that the shrinkage clause renders any service. He also showed us that it was a practicable proposition to use pyrometers in steel work in order to ascertain the finishing temperatures of rails. No one can again come before this body and make the claim that it is not a practical proposition. And now Dr. Burgess shows us that steel ingots can be made in a commercial way, practically free from pipe, from segregation, aid from blow holes. It places again before us in a very clear manner the question of piped ingots and of segregation, a question which has been debated for 20 years or more. I know very well the attitude of the standpatters in the matter. They claim that most of the pipe is removed in the discard, and that if a little is left it is so thoroughly welded that it does no harm. I for one am not convinced of the soundness of the argument. I do not believe there is any one present who would claim that, given an ingot free from pipe, free from segregation, and free from blow holes, better rails will not be made out of that ingot than out of the ordinary piped or segregated metal which is used by almost all of our steel mills. In my opinion, if we give our sanction to the casting of steel in the shape of piped or segregated steel ingots, we are guilty. If we give our sanction to the rolling of rails from such metal, we are guilty. It is our duty as experts, as steel makers, and as steel consumers to make and to use the best steel obtainable on a commercial basis, for the manufacture of rails. Now, we have been shown that sound ingots can be produced from which superior rails can be made. If we do not insist upon these sound ingots, then we fail in our duty. I think that the art of casting steel ingots has advanced to such a point that the casting of steel ingots piped and segregated ought no longer to be tolerated.

Jan 5, 1915

By R. H. Hiltz, N. J. Grant

Solid-solution titanium-cerium alloys, cold-rolled to 0.010 in. thickness, and annealed, were internally oxidized to produce a fine dispersion of CeO2 in the titanium matrix. The oxidized alloys were cut into sheet stress-rupture specimens and tested for rupture life at 426°C, 538°C, and 648°C. There was noted an improvement in strength over that of pure titanium, the internally-oxidized alloys showing curves with a much flatter slope on the log stress—log rupture life plot, characteristic of the stable metal-metal oxide class of alloy. DURING the past 3 to 4-year period, considerable interest has been aroused by the potential offered by alloys based on the ultra fine dispersion of a hard insoluble phase in pure metals or solid-solution alloys for use at high temperatures. The impetus to the development and study of such alloys was provided by Irmann.1,2 through the success of the SAP alloy (pure aluminum containing about 12-14 volume pct of A12O3). Subsequent studies have thrown light on the true potential of this class of alloys in the remarkable stability of the structure after long-time exposure at high stresses and high temperatures.a-5 While success has been demonstrated in the special case of the A1-Al2O3 alloys, and more recently

Jan 1, 1959

By Reed W. Hyde

Some information has been published on the sulphur dioxide concentration of gases from D wight-Lloyd machines sintering lead ores but most of this relates to the customary practice in which the charge is relatively high in lead and is sintered in two passes Over the machine. It is thought, therefore, that the following observations on sintering in one pass a low-lead, low-sulphur charge may be of interest. The data were obtained in sintering lead sulphide notation concentrates mixed with minus 20.mesh oxide ore, the mixture carrying 16,8 per cent Pb and 5.3 per cent S. No returns were used because of the limited amount of sulphur available as fuel, but the mixture pelletized readily. to make a satisfactorily permeable bed on the sintering machine. As there was a possibility that the SO z might be utilized, a series of runs was made to determine the concentration ofSO2 in the gases at different points along the wind box, and the effect on this concentration of changes in the wind-box vacuum. Several runs each were made with vacuums (as measured in inches of water at the wind box) of (1 2 to 1 in., ('1 4 to 3% in. and (3) 6 to 5% in. The averages of the determinations from each series are platted On the graph (Fig, 1). The vertical scale shows the percentage by volume of SOz (as determined by the Reich method), and the horizontal scale shows the time e~pressed as percentage of the total sintering time. Sintering was considered to be complete when no SOz could be detected in the gases. In all cases the depth of bed was 4 1/2 in. and the weight of dry charge per square foot of hearth area was 45.2 lb. Other data are given in the table. The volume of gases corresponding to the several points along the wind box at which SO2 determinations were made could not be measured, but has been calculated from the SO2 Content and sulphur elimination on the assumption that the volume is uniform throughout the sintering period. This is not strictly true, as with a given vacuum the volume usually will drop slightly toward the middle of the period and increase toward the end. However, this made is a reasonable approximation. several interesting features are brought out by these data. In general, the published data on SO 2 concentration in sintering under ordinary conditions show a high SO2 concentration in the early stages followed by a rapid decrease in concentration and with relatively little SOz in the gases from the last half or third of the operation. In other words, the greater part of the sulphur elimination is obtained in the first third or half of the period. In these runs, the 6-in. vacuum, which approximates the usual operating condition, gives a curve that follows this customary pattern. Maximum SO2 concentration is obtained 234 min. after

Jan 1, 1944

By R. Schumann

THE expression "unit process " comes up with increasing frequency in discussions among metallurgists and mineral engineers, especially among those concerned with training the next generation. The unit process approach characterizes a significant advance along the road from metallurgy as an empirical art to metallurgy as a branch of engineering. The purposes of this paper are to define and list the unit processes in specific terms, to indicate the scientific and engineering principles basic to all the unit processes, and finally to show how these ideas have been applied to a reorganization of instruction in chemical metallurgy. UNIT OPERATIONS AND UNIT PROCESSES Metals are extracted from ores and other raw materials by stepwise procedures. In general, each metallic element is extracted by a different procedure. For many of the metals there is a choice of several flowsheets. However, the procedures all have steps in common. In fact, the many different flowsheets are all made up of a relatively small number of steps which are combined in different groups and sequences. For example, crushing, screening, roasting, sintering, melting, and gaseous reduction are steps which each appear in the flowsheets for extracting the majority of the metals. The individual steps or flowsheet units can be designated as unit operations or unit processes. These terms are well established in the field of chemical engineering, as the American Institute of Chemical Engineers' definition of chemical engineering shows: " Chemical engineering is that branch of engineering concerned with the development and application of manufacturing processes in which chemical or certain physical changes of materials are involved. These processes may usually be resolved into a coordinated series of unit physical operations and unit chemical processes. The work of the chemical engineer is concerned primarily with the design, construction, and operation of equipment and plants in which these unit operations and processes are applied. Chemistry, physics, and mathematics are the underlying sciences of chemical engineering, and economics its guide in practice."1a In this definition, the distinction between unit operations and unit processes is that the unit operations are physical while the unit processes are chemical. Table I gives a list of the principal unit operations and unit processes of chemical engineering, taken from Shreve. lb Table 2 lists the principal unit operations and unit processes used for metal extraction. The division between unit operations and unit processes is similar to the chemical engineers' distinction and also corresponds approximately to the division of labor between mineral dressing and chemical metallurgy which has been customary in the past. Furthermore, it will be noted that in the proposed classification the unit processes primarily involve chemical reactions and/or changes in state of aggregation; the unit operations, primarily do not involve either bulk

Jan 1, 1948

By G. H. Ruggles

POPULAR opinion, as it might be termed, has always been of the trend that a flotation reagent added to the ball mill during grinding would be more thoroughly mixed with the pulp and for that reason more effective in the production of low tailing. That there are other effects, inimical to good flotation, when using so-called chemical reagents, is brought out by the series of tests outlined in Table 2. It was defi-nitely proved that if either the T. T. mixture (20 per cent thiocarbanalid-80 per cent orthotoluidin) or po-tassium xanthate were added to the ball mill the result-ing flotation concentrate would be lower in copper and higher in insoluble than the concentrate produced by adding these same reagents without the ball mill cir-cuit. With the T. T. mixture four sets of tests were made. The screen analyses of the flotation feed show that there was very little difference in the original grind-ing. When the T. T. mixture was added to the head of the flotation machine the flotation concentrate had a little over 61 per cent solids -200 mesh. If the mix-ture was put into the ball mill the flotation concentrate had but 40.7 per cent of the solids -200 mesh for one set of tests, and 49.0 per cent for the other set. With the mixture at the head of flotation the total concen-trate was high in copper (34.715 and 36.525 per cent) and low in insoluble (13.20 and 11.61 per cent). The assay of the concentrate when the T. T. mixture was introduced into the ball mill was what might be termed low in copper (29.389 and 30.833 per cent). In one of these 'sets of tests (periods 8 to 11, third column) the insoluble was high, 16.81 per cent. The other run (peri-ods 12 to 15, fourth column) for some unknown reason shows a low insoluble, 12.72 per cent. With similar grinding the addition of potassium xan-thate to flotation produced a concentrate having 62.8 per cent -200 mesh, whereas with the potassium xanthate added to the ball mill the flotation concentrate was very coarse, only 36.4 per cent passing 200 mesh. The difference in the total assay of the concentrate is remarkable ; 35.847 per cent copper when the xanthate went to flotation and 30.44 per cent copper when the xanthate was added to the ball mill; insoluble, 10.94 per cent in the former instance, as 22.15 per cent in the latter.

Jan 8, 1927

By R. R. Hoffman

The name L'brush,l as applied to the parts to be briefly considered in this paper, is not clearly descriptive of the design and function of those parts when the usual definition of the word is applied. In a general way, the brushes to be considered here are the parts employed on certain types of electrical equipment to facilitate the transfer of electrical current between a rotating or moving element and a stationary element. These machines are generally motors and generators of both the slip-ring and commutator types, rotary converters, battery charges, etc. Parts that serve a similar purpose on relatively slow or intermittently moving devices such as rheostats, switches, controllers, etc., are generally referred to as contacts. A few special applications involve the use of current-carrying washers, rollers, bushings, etc. As may be inferred, therefore, the design of these brushes and allied parts is dictated by both electrical and mechanical considerations. In most cases these factors are closely interrelated, and unfortunately many of them are not subject to exact scientific or mathematical analysis. Special Advantages Since brushes operating on direct-current machines must carry the load current, resist destructive action from voltage induced in imperfectly compensated armature coils, and in addition act as a bearing material, maintaining intimate contact with the commutator at peripheral speed, which may be as high as 70 miles per hour it is difficult to obtain in one brush the ideal properties necessary for perfect functioning under all operating conditions. The engineer-designer, therefore, when selecting a brush for a specific application, must choose a grade that possesses the characteristics most adequate to meet the conditions involved. In many cases a characteristic that makes a specific grade of brush the ideal selection for one type of machine may be of secondary importance to some other property when the brush is applied on another machine. Frequently different grades of brushes must be applied to the same type of machines when they operate under different or unusual atmospheric conditions. Completely satisfactory brush operation depends on freedom from appreciable sparking, minimum electrical and mechanical losses, negligible commutator or slip-ring wear, uniform film over the commutator or slip ring, quiet operation and good brush life. The ability to produce special structures, and to combine in widely varying proportions materials that are incompatible, through conventional melting and alloying procedures has been the basic contribution of powder metallurgy to the solution of problems involving brushes and allied parts. This is especially true where current-carrying capacity is a major factor, owing to the limitations of all carbon or all graphite brushes in that respect. Metal-graphite Brushes With very few exceptions, friction between moving elements. across which

Jan 1, 1945

By O. J. C. Runnalls, L. M. Pidgeon

J. M. Blocher, Jr. and I. E. Campbell (Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio)—Since the de Boer-Van Arkel process for making titanium metal involves a number of steps in a fairly compact unit, it is difficult to determine simply which of the steps is rate controlling. In any statement as to which step constitutes the rate-controlling process, qualifications appear to be in order. It is possible to design a reaction bulb in which any one of a number of steps is made to be controlling. I—With the filament removed some distance from the crude, as in the case of the authors' experiments, the interdiffusion of iodine and iodide may be controlling. 2—If, as is usually done, the crude metal is placed in a perforated cylindrical basket, or as a briquetted mass, in close proximity to the filament, the rate of deposition is increased (we obtained rates of deposition 5 to 10 times those cited in the authors' paper), and another rate-limiting factor, such as the reactivity of the crude, may take over. In this regard, we have noticed radically different rates of deposition with different crudes, and with crudes in various stages of exhaustion. 3—With a very reactive crude metal and with optimum practical geometry, still another process may be controlling. It is felt that this is a diffusion process in the immediate vicinity of the filament involving the fundamentally adverse situation of a net flow of particles away from the filament. The separate experiments on the reactivity of iodine with titanium are interesting but somewhat inconclusive. Data is still needed on the partial pressure of iodine in an operating decomposition bulb. A knowledge of the gradient of iodine partial pressure from the crude to the filament would be particularly enlightening. Optical absorption may be a useful technique here. Accurate measurements of the total pressure within a decomposition bulb under various conditions would be quite revealing. Preliminary measurements have been made at Battelle in following this line of attack. It is interesting to note that the authors' data on the temperature dependence of deposition rate indicate that the overall rate is not controlled by the kinetics of the decomposition reaction at the filament: TiI1 ? Ti + 4I Any reasonable estimate of the activation energy of this reaction would, if its kinetics were controlling, dictate a much greater temperature dependence than is observed here. The authors apparently attribute the drop in deposition rate (eventually to zero) with increased TiI4 pressure solely to a decrease in diffusion rate. However, there is an equilibrium factor involved here that must not be overlooked. As the partial pressure of TiI4 is increased, a point is reached where, due to the competing reaction of the tetraiodide with titanium to form lower iodides, the equilibrium partial pressure of titanium is reduced to the point that it equals the vapor pressure of titanium at the filament temperature and the deposition rate falls to zero. This effect would

Jan 1, 1953

By John M. Sharp

John M. Sharp, Jr. (Assistant Professor of Geology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.)-Geothermal gradient and surface temperature data anomalies are potentially useful tools in mineral exploration, These data, however, may reflect a number of geologic and hydrologic processes as well as the thermophysical properties of the geologic materials. The author presents a relatively simple model which may be of value in mineral exploration. The lack of consideration of other processes, however, limits its usefulness. For instance, because of erosion or sediment deposition over geologic time the land surface must be considered a moving boundary in such a model. Evaluation of this effect coupled with annual surface temperature and thermal conductivity variations can result in temperature profiles such as shown in [Figs. 4 to 7]. These effects and others, such as ground-water movement," must be considered and filtered from the data before proper interpretation is possible. Another assumption which should have been discussed is, why were the observed mean surface temperatures not used for extrapolation of the gradients in [Figs. 4, 6, and 7?] Conductive heat transport responds to the actual boundary (land surface) temperature, not to theoretical temperatures in the absence of perturbations. Benfield presents a theoretical model for calculating perturbations in the geothermal gradient for erosion and sedimentation. The temperature (T) at any time (t) and any depth below the surface (x) is given by [ ] where T is the mean surface temperature, G, the geothermal gradient, v, the rate of erosion (or sedimentation),[ ], the long-term rate of change of T0, and k is the thermal diffusivity of the rock. Using the author's values and a rate of erosion of 1.54 cm per yr for a period of 10,000 yr, a thermal profile as shown in [Fig. 10] will be generated. A thermal diffusivity of 0.0164 sq cm per sec was used, corresponding to a thermal conductivity of 0.0082 cal per cm per sec per C. In [Fig. 11], a sediment deposition rate of 3.0 cm per yr for a period of 1000 yr was used to generate the subsurface temperature profile. A surface temperature of 24.3°C was used, as specified in [Fig. 9, 7], was set equal to zero for both cases. Superposition on the generated profiles in [Figs. 10 and 11] of the annual surface temperature variation perturbation (which may be calculated in a number of ways) will yield profiles similar to those in [Figs. 4 and 7]. Similar profiles can also be produced by regional ground-water flow. Models like the author's can be of value in mineral exploration. Other processes, however, which affect surface temperatures and gradients must first be considered, calculated, and filtered from the data if anything but the crudest qualitative interpretation is to be made. Robert C. Edmiston (Author's reply)-Professor Sharp has raised three objections to my interpretation of the subsurface temperature data I collected at Silver Bell. These are: 1) No correction was made for erosion or sedimentation,

Jan 1, 1977

By W. B. Mather

A SURVEY of the technical literature concerned with oil well drilling methods and particularly with rate of penetration by various cutting media on different types of rock provides a mass of conflicting data. This is especially true with respect to, (1) the relative efficiency of diamond, rotary and percussion drilling operations; (2) the costs of the various types of drilling; and (3) the hardness factor of various types of rock and cutting media. The latter is the particular phase of the subject discussed here. The cause of the confusion may be attributed partially to a lack of 'basic knowledge concerning the physical properties of the cutting media and of individual types of rock. It is also due in part to a general lack of uniform standards in the industry for evaluating the hardness versus drillability of rocks while possible errors in interpretation by the authors of the various papers pertaining to the subject may be an additional cause of misunderstanding. The hardness of a mineral is defined by Dana' as "the resistance which a smooth surface offers to abrasion." Webster' states that hardness is "the cohesion of the particles on the surface of a body (as a mineral) as determined by its capacity to scratch another or be itself scratched." Rock hardness, although not usually defined in publications describing rocks, is assumed to be the same as the minerals which compose the rock or the resistance of the rock to abrasion. Drillability of a rock may be defined arbitrarily as the rate at which rock is penetrated by a definite type of drilling tool with the assistance of a specific type of cutting surface or medium and under speci- fied conditions as to speed of rotation and applications of pressure. Eventually the term penetrability may have to be employed to include any method of making boreholes in rocks, since methods other than those using conventional cutting surfaces are already in operation. A case in point is the jet piercing methoda which employs an oxy-acetylene flame as a means of penetration. The word hardness as used by the drilling fraternity has a variety of meanings which depend upon the type of drilling method employed. For example, in diamond drilling, hardness is interpretated as resistance to abrasion. In percussion drilling the term implies resistance to impact or indentation, while in rotary drilling, hardness is considered anal-agous to compressive strength. The three types of hardness—abrasion, impact and compression—are conflicting variables for different types of rock. Nevertheless, the term hardness is applied indiscriminately by the industry for the resistance of rock to penetration by any type of drilling technique. Abrasion Hardness Since 1818, Moh's scale of hardness, although only relative in nature, has been accepted universally as the method of measuring mineral and therefore rock hardness. In 1933, Ridgway, Ballard and

Jan 1, 1952

By R. S. Busk

TWO groups of binary alloys were prepared. The first group consisted of those elements relatively soluble in magnesium: Li, Al, Zn, Ga, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Hg, T1, Pb, and Bi. These are predominately Group B elements. The second group consisted of most of the remaining metallic elements, all of which are relatively insoluble in magnesium: As, Au, Ba, Ca, Ce, Cu, Ir, La, Mn, Ni, Pd, Pt, Rh, Sb, Si, Te, Ti, W, and Zr. These are all Group A, transition, or rare earth elements. Alloys of the first group were prepared by melting sublimed magnesium and elements as pure as obtainable in a graphite crucible, using a standard flux1 for protection. The melts were poured into a small graphite mold to produce 3xY4 in. diam slugs. Spectroscopic analyses were made of each slug. In all cases, the total impurity content was less than 0.05 pct. The slugs were then heat treated 5°C below the eutectic temperature until complete solution, as judged metallographically, was obtained. Filings from the center of the slugs were compacted at room temperature into 1/2 in. long x 1/4 in. diam cylinders, sealed in pyrex under 1/2 atm of purified argon, annealed at the heat-treating temperature for 1 hr, and quenched in water. After the X-ray diffraction patterns were made, each compact was analyzed chemically for the solute. It was found that the Mg-Li alloys reacted during filing to reduce the Li in solid solution. For this series of alloys, the slug was cold worked, annealed in purified argon, the surface dissolved in dilute HC1 to a depth of about 0.005 in., and the X-ray exposure made on the fresh surface. This procedure resulted in sharp, continuous lines and in true values for the lattice parameters. The alloys in the second group were prepared in the same way except that about 1 wt pct of each solute was added. Since the solubility limit was exceeded, not all the solute dissolved. These alloys were analyzed spectroscopically only to confirm the presence of the solute. The diffraction patterns were of the back-reflec-tion type using the characteristic copper radiation* and a flat cassette. Both the film and the specimen were rotated. The specimen temperature was maintained at 25" ± 1°C. The films had sharp lines; their diameters were measured directly to 0.01 cm. The parameters were calculated from the line diameters using a modified version of Cohen's extrapolation method.2 his method effectively eliminates systematic errors such as film shrinkage, inaccurate alignment, and non-precise film-to-speci-men distance. The random errors were minimized

Jan 1, 1951

By E. W. Parker

PROBABLY everyone is well aware that from April 1 to September 11, 1922, anthracite production was completely suspended; during those 163 days not one ton of coal was produced in the anthracite region. The production loss was about 30 million tons, and although production is now at its peak, there is no possible way by. which, within any short space of time, that deficiency can be made up. During that time the miners sacrificed in wages something over 100 million dollars. The anthracite companies paid out in cash, keeping their mines in condition to operate when mining should be resumed, something like 30 million dollars without taking in one cent of revenue. The tonnage of domestic sizes included in that lost output was about 21 million tons. The anthracite operators figured that between September 11, 1922, and March 31, 1923, they would possibly be able to produce about 60 per cent. of the tonnage that was mined the preceding year, that is, from April 1, 1921, to March 31, 1922. The problem then arose as to how that tonnage could be distributed equitably throughout the United States and Canada. We had in our records in Phila-delphia the distribution by communities, about 20,000 of them, to which anthracite had been shipped during the last five years, so that we were well posted as to what each community should be entitled to receive. We allotted to each of those 20,000 communities 60 per cent. of the tonnage that it had received during the preceding coal year, and we have endeavored to see that whatever tonnage we have been able to produce should be equitably distributed on that basis. It was a matter simply of voluntary cooperation by the anthra-cite operators who placed the distribution of their tonnage practically in the hands of the Pennsylvania Fuel Commission; the anthracite companies have almost without exception acceded to every request that we have made of them. When communities were reported entirely out of coal, a telegram or letter to the directors obligated to that community has resulted in some anthracite being shipped there, so that we have thus far kept the distribution on a fairly equitable basis. Prior to the suspension of mining operations, pre-liminary negotiations were carried on for the renewal of the wage scale, the operators thinking that it could be adjusted satisfactorily, and that the same method of procedure would be followed as during the 20 years succeeding the strike of 1902. At every termination of the wage agreement since that date, until last year, an agreement had been reached early in the season that mining operations should be continued, with the under-standing that any new agreement should be retroactive to April 1. At the meeting of the committees of anthra-cite operators and miners, on March 21, 1922, the opera-tors were presented with an ultimatum by the miners to the effect that unless an agreement were reached within ten days, mining operations would cease. That was protested against by the committee of operators as being unfair, not only to the operators and the public but to the men themselves. In spite of this protest the suspension occurred and, as you know, continued until September 11.

Jan 4, 1923

By A. W. Gauger

For perhaps one hundred years scientists have been engaged in attempts at devising a satisfactory method of classification of coal. During this time many charts, tables and graphs have been proposed, some of which have had considerable merit, but no one system has been found to be applicable to all ranks of coal, nor has any one system received general acceptance. In many of the proposals, water eliminated between room temperature and 105" C. has been regarded as extraneous matter and calculations have been made to the air-dry or water-free basis. Such methods of calculation do not lend themselves to satisfactory grouping of the high-moisture coals.1, 2 A consideration not only of the properties of the high-moisture coals and their behavior on drying but of the generally accepted ideas of the coalification process and the role of water in this process indicates that water is an essential constituent of all coals and therefore should not be neglected. For example, in such low-rank coals as the lignites of the Northern Great Plains' deposits the inherent moisture of the lignite as mined plays a very important part in the physical properties thereof. Freshly mined lignite contains upwards of 30 per cent water and is extremely tough and resistant to shock. Upon exposure to the atmosphere, the lump loses part of its moisture and checks and splits, leaving a friable and broken up residue. So far as we have been able to determine, water is the only thing lost in this process and we are forced to the conclusion that moisture plays an extremely important part in the structural properties of the original lignite. With reference to the coalification process, Mack and Hulett3 pointed out in 1917 the important part that water played therein. They observed that water cannot be removed from peat or coal by pressure alone, but only as the result of chemical reaction, and suggested that peat in its early stages may be largely a hydrosol. Slow chemical changes occur over a long period of time until finally the mass becomes more largely a hydrogel. These views are substantiated to some extent by the experi-

Jan 1, 1932

By John McCoy, Edward Thimons, Kenneth Heller

As the working levels in domestic mines are developed to greater depths and work areas move further from the shafts, maintaining a safe and healthful working environment becomes more difficult. Increased temperature and humidity at greater depths becomes first a factor in productivity and then a threat to the miner's safety. Initially, a miner might develop listlessness leading to reduced productivity and reduced alertness. Continued overexertion can lead to heat stroke and possibly death. Mine ventilation engineers, therefore, must not only provide clean air to work areas, but also must provide cooled air. The following article describes the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) and Foster-Miller's successful development of a high performance, low maintenance direct water to air contact heat exchanger for mine cooling. While heat problems frequently do not develop until mining operations descend below sea level, problems will arise any time mining penetrates high temperature rock. Hot fissure water will increase the severity of the situation, causing increases in wet bulb temperature - the temperature to which perspiring miners reject metabolic body heat. All energy expended in mining adds to the heat load which must be absorbed by the ventilation air. Just when the cooling capacity of ventilation air is needed most, adiabatic compression (autocompression) of air descending the shaft raises air temperatures 1.3g°C (2.5'F) to 2.94"C (5.3OF)/305m (1000 ft) depending on humidity. Increased temperatures decrease the ability of the air to absorb heat from the mine, and work area temperatures rise. Once forced ventilation air can no longer maintain safe work area temperatures, refrigeration methods must be employed. Many mines now use cooling coils for this purpose. A cooling coil uses refrigerated mine water to cool the air by passing the air through banks of copper tubing filled with cold water. Heat from the air is transferred to the water through the pipe with the aid of fins. Conventional water to air heat exchangers prove troublesome for many mines be- cause of the high levels of dust that are encountered, causing these exchangers to operate at relatively low efficiencies. A more satisfactory approach to work- place cooling is desired - one that offers reduced maintenance and increased cooling efficiency.

Jan 1, 1982

By O. A. Cheadle, F. E. Lane

ThE computer program for arbitrary crystal systems reported by Camp and Clum' has been modified to make it more convenient for hexagonal crystals. The program' uses the Miller indexes (hkl) which can be confusing for hexagonal crystals while the modified program uses the Miller-Bravais indexes with four axes; e.g., the angles between the (110) planes, Fig. 1, are 0 and 90 deg but in the (hkil) system the angles between the (1150) planes are 0 and 60 deg. If a Laue photograph is taken of a crystal oriented with the prismatic planes nearly parallel to the film then the spots on the stereo graphic projection will be from high-index planes. The probable positions of the low-index planes, e.g., (0001) plane, can only be obtained from the intersection of zones and this is not accurate to 1 or 2 deg. The number of planes considered by the program (card 1)' has to be limited to the ones of low index or the program time is excessive but a solution will not be obtained if one of the spots has an index that is not being considered. To overcome this problem the program1 was modified so that if no fit was obtained at *1 deg (card 3) of the tabulated angles then ±2 or ±3 deg was tried. If still no solution was obtained either due to one of the angles not being measured correctly to ±3 deg or because one of the spots was from a high-index plane, then the last spot was discounted and a fit tried for the remaining spots at i1 deg, and so forth. The minimum number of spots that the program will try to fit is five. If the limit on any individual index is 4 (card 1) and (h + k + l + 1) is six then twenty-three planes are considered and there are over 1000 interplanar angles. Many pairs of planes have very similar interplanar angles and with the errors previously mentioned the program will often produce several alternative solutions to a group of spots particularly at ±2 or ±3 deg. However without the program the alternative solutions would probably not have been found. If a large number of spots are used the number of possible fits is reduced. In the example shown in Fig. 2, if only spots which are on the film are used (case 1) the program gives six possible solutions, Table I. However if points 7 and 8 are also used (case 2) the program gives only one fit which also agrees with a standard projection of the crystal. In addition to time-saving the program ensures that a correct solution is obtained since it is unlikely that all the alternatives would have been gound manually; the first would probably be assumed to be the correct solution. The program has been used for zirconium crystals but is equally suitable for other hexagonal materials.

Jan 1, 1969

By J. L. Sepulveda, R. F. Yap, R. Jauregui

INTRODUCTION The Third Theory of Comminution, oftentimes called the Bond Theory, was first published by Fred C. Bond in 1952. Since then, it has been widely used in the milling industry to size crushing and grinding equipment as well as to predict and evaluate their performance. Although two other comminution theories were advanced almost a century earlier, one by Rittinger, 1867, and the other by Kick, 1885, their use was limited because they did not agree with actual commercial comminution systems (Bond, 1961). According to Bond's Third Theory, the work input is proportional to the new crack tip length produced in particle breakage, and equals the work represented by the product minus that represented by the feed. For particles of similar shape, the crack tip length is equivalent to the square root of one-half the surface area, and the new crack length is proportional to [(1/vT - vF)]; where P and F are particles diameter of product and feed, respectively. For practical calculations, the particle diameter can be expressed in terms of the 80% passing sizes, P and F, respectively. Therefore, the work input is given by, [10 _ 10', W = Wi [7P_7F(1)] Where W = the energy input to the mill, (kwh/t) Wi = Work Index, (kwh/t) P = square sieve opening which 80% of the product passes, (microns) F = square sieve opening which 80% of the feed passes, (microns) Equation (1) is the mathematical statement of the Third Theory, or the Bond equation. Numerically, the work index is the energy required in kwh/t to reduce a given material from theoretically infinite feed size to 80% passing 100 microns. The work index of a particular material is determined in the laboratory by conducting the standard Bond grindability test. Bond developed separate tests for the rod mill and the ball mill. The simplified test method described in this paper, which is used at Anaconda Research Center to approximate the work index, is an alternative procedure to the ball mill

Jan 1, 1982

By A. A. Gustafson

In diamond or churn drilling for the prospecting of ore bodies, two products can be used for quantitative analyses; i.e., the core and the cuttings, or sludge. Some operators prefer an assay of core; others insist that the sludge be sent for analysis. Both must recover the sludge for check samples or for assays if there is no core recovery for any particular section of the diamond-drill hole. The Freeport Sulphur Co. found that numerous cumbersome sludge boxes or barrels were inconvenient and delayed drilling. The sludge settled slowly in the ordinary shallow, rectangular diamond-drill boxes and its total removal from the container was difficult, time-consuming and unsatisfactory; and sampling of deposits of which the metal contents are easily concentrated, as in ores containing cinnabar, gold and silver, is subject to error if the boxes are not thoroughly cleaned. Mr. Charles Ballard, dredge superintendent at Freeport's operation at Grande Ecaille, Louisiana, developed a portable cone while he was in charge of prospecting a mercury property near Tonopah, Nevada, in 1940. Ballard later improved the design while the settler was being used at a manganese property in New Mexico. The operation is based on the "free settling" of comminuted particles in a quiescent liquid. The ordinary sludge box discharges over a lip 8 to 12 in. wide and consequently the water has sufficient velocity so that the discharge water is never clear. The cone settler used by Free-port Sulphur Co. discharges over the entire circumference, which gives a discharge ltp of 9 ft. in the size of cone used at the cinnabar and manganese prospects. Consequently, the velocity of the discharge water is slow enough so that all fine material settles and the discharge water is clear. When the drilling of a sample interval is complete, the sludge can be drawn off by the time the driller is ready to cut another sample. Thus, only one cone is needed per drill. The cone has been used by Freeport successfully in churn-drilling a manganese deposit, in diamond-drilling a mercury deposit, and in diamond-drilling a deposit of ore containing tin, copper, gold and silver. The cone is greatly superior to the old methods of collecting sludge and is now used on all Freeport drilling campaigns in the western states, both for surface and underground drilling. Fig. I shows the important details of a cone designed for average operating conditions, 30 in. in diameter and 36 in. high. Abnormal conditions may require some revisions in design. Fig. 2 shows a working drawing. A hose or pipe larger than the one used to convey water from the pump to the swivel head of the string of rods is connected to the stuffing box at the collar of a diamond-drill hole, The usual T-connection is used. It is not necessary to use a stuffing box if the top of the cone can be placed lower than the collar of the hole. Then the return water and cuttings can be made to flow by gravity. This hose or pipe discharges the cuttings of the drill bit and the return

Jan 1, 1943

By Sidney Powers

Since the opening of the Wheeler oil and gas field in Carter County and the discovery of oil near Lawton, Comanche County, Okla., in 1904, interest has been aroused regarding the origin of the oil in the Permian "Red Bed" region which lies between the Wichita and Arbuckle Mountains on the north and the Red River on the south. The later development of the Healdton, Loco, Duncan, Fox, and Graham fields south and west of the Arbuckle Mountains has brought the region into prominence. Recent discoveries of Ordovician and of Pennsylvanian fossils in wells in the Healdton field and of Pennsylvanian fossils in the Fox and Graham fields are of such importance from a scientific and a commercial standpoint that the occurrences and the problems arising therefrom are here briefly described. Producing oil and gas sands in the southern Oklahoma fields, with the exception of those in the Cretaceous and underlying rocks in the vicinity of Madill, Marshall County, are associated with the Permian "Red Beds" or with the underlying Paleozoic strata. In the two fields farthest south of the Arbuckle Mountains, Healdton and Loco, production has been entirely confined to sands at depths of 700 to 1400 ft. (213 to 416 m.) and only recently has a producing sand as deep as 1860 ft. (567 m.)l been encountered. These sands are found near and below the base of the red rocks and were supposed by Wegemann and Heald2 to belong in large part to the basal Permian, Wichita formation, or to the immediately underlying formations. Fossils in the blue shales and in the limestones associated with the deeper sands now prove them to be Pennsylvanian and all the producing sands at Healdton are found to be of this age. In the fields nearest the Arbuckle Mountains, the Wheeler sands at a depth of about 700 ft. (213 m.) appear to be of Permian age,

Jan 1, 1918

By G. Kimmel, A. Bar-Or

The rate of nucleation and the rates of both lateral and longitudinal growth of martensite plates (needles) in b—a transformation were determined as a function of temperature, in various U-Cr alloys. The activation energies for nucleation and both modes of growth were calculated from the experimental results. The identical values for lateral and longitudinal growth clearly indicate that both are controlled by the WHITE,' Mott and Hines and Holdeen3 showed that characteristic martensite plates (needles) appear in U-Cr alloys during the transformation 8 —0 in the lower temperature range (up to -300°C). Holden pointed out that the rate of growth of the individual martensite plates under isothermal conditions is same mechanism. Lomer's suggestion that single-atom movement over subatomic distances controls the specially slow growth of martensite receives further support from the present kinetic study, which shows that the growth rate can be described quantitatively by known formulas for the growth rate in processes involving single-atom movement. very slow, and suggested that this is due to the slowness of the relief of the stresses engendered during the growth of the individual plates. lomer4 attributed the slow growth to the complexity of the atomic adjustment at the growing interface b/(u. In the present work the rates of nucleation and growth of martensite plates in U-Cr alloys were studied by direct observation, in order to elucidate the mechanism which controls their characteristic slow growth.

Jan 1, 1968

By W. T. Isbell, Carleton C. Long

Zinc recovery from lead blast-furnace slags has heretofore been an indirect process, involving, first, the fuming off and collecting of an impure zinc oxide, and second, the reduction of the zinc portion of this oxide to metal either by electrolytic or pyrolytic means. (In a variation of this process, blue powder is the intermediate product rather than zinc oxide fume.) In 1940, W. T. Isbell proposed that molten slag from the lead blast furnace or stock-pile slag melted down in a blast or cupola-type furnace be charged directly into an airtight container (i.e., furnace) provided with means to heat further the slag by passage of electric current and means to introduce the carbon (coke) necessary to reduce the ZnO constituent of the slag to zinc as a zinc vapor and CO. He also proposed that the zinc vapors so obtained be condensed in a Weaton-Najariant internal condenser directly connected to the proposed furnace. It was thought that the Weaton-Najarian condenser could liquefy zinc vapor from lean mixtures of vapor and noncondensable gases. Such condensers have been in commercial use! since 1936 at Josephtown smelter, where the source of zinc vapor is a column of coke and zinc-bearing sinter electrically heated (charge resistor). Condenser output when supplied with vapor-gas mixtures containing approximately 45 per cent zinc and 55 per cent noncondensable gases, varies from 18 to 30 tons of slab zinc per day per condenser, depending upon the heat-transfer area (length) of the condenser and the volume of vapor (furnace size) fed to it. Lead-smelting operations at the St. Joseph Lead Company's plant at Hercu-laneum, Mo., produce a slag containing 12 to 16 per cent zinc. For several years this slag has been stock-piled with the object of recovering the zinc values if and when a commercial method was invented. Evaluation of the possibilities of the proposed method was made by pilot-plant operation at Josephtown. The first plant, designed in 1940 and operated in early 1941, consisted of a single-phase, two-electrode furnace. The evolved vapors were burned. Electrical characteiistics of the molten slag, power requirements, coke requirements, and extent of zinc elimination indicated the feasibility of the proposed method. In the latter part of 1941 a second pilot furnace was constructed, to which "was attached a small (6 ft. long) Weaton-Najarian condenser in order to develop an over-all picture of zinc-in-slag to zinc-in-slabs. This furnace was operated in the early part of 1942 and yielded such promising results that a decision was made to design- and construct a commercial furnace. Feed for the pilot-plant furnaces was granulated slag. A suitable deduction (300 to 350 kw-hr. per ton slag) was calculated in estimating power require-

Jan 1, 1944

By R. B. G. Yeo

The effects of alloy additions on the M, and A, temperatures of an Fe-22.5 pct Ni alloy have been determined. Increasing amounts of titanium, colum-bium, vanadium, and silicon raise and then lower M,while raising A, cmtinuously. Cobalt raises both M, and A,. Aluminum has little effect on Ms but raises A,. Chromium md nickel lower M, and A,. It is proposed that elements raise M, in accordance with their effect on the Ae3 temperature of iron until the lattice becomes stiffened against the shear transformation so that M, is then lowered. An anomaly, first pointed out by Zener,1 arises in steels when the addition of elements, such as molybdenum and tungsten, which raise the Ae3 temperature, also lower the M, temperature.2'3 During the development of a series of martensitic precipitation-hardening (maraging) steels, the effect of several elements on the transformation of austenite to martensite was studied. The results show that under suitable conditions several elements which raise Ae3 also raise the M, and A, temperatures. PREPARATION OF MATERIALS STUDIED A series of alloys was made in which cobalt, titanium, columbium, vanadium, silicon, aluminum, molybdenum, chromium, and nickel were added to an iron base containing 22.5 pct Ni. The compositions of the alloys prepared are given in Table I. The residual manganese contents of the heats were in the range of 0.030 to 0.35 pct, silicon 0.05 to 0.1 pct, carbon 0.0008 to 0.009 pct, and nitrogen from 0 to 0.004 uct. The allois were made as 50-lb induction heats starting with electro-iron and electro-nickel, melted in air to oxidize impurities. Additions of silico-manganese and ferro-silicon were made after which the power was turned off to allow the products of deoxidation to rise and be skimmed from the surface of the melt. The furnace chamber was pumped down to a pressure of 5 p and the charge was heated to 2900°F for the addition of other alloying elements. The heats were poured into five 10-lb ingots, making successive alloy additions to each. The ingots were soaked for 2 hr at 2300°F and hot-worked to 3/4-in.-diam bars. This stock was heated to 1500°F for 1

Jan 1, 1963