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By William R. Webster

At the Richmond mecting in February, 1901, I presented for discussion the proposed rail-specifications of Committee No. 1 of the American Section of the International Association for Testing Materials, with a review of their work, and other matters relating to the heat-treatment and chemical composition of steel (Trans., xxxi., 455). In order to bring out the views of our members on the important points referred to, I offered for discussion the following questions and comments (trans., xxxi., 972): " 1. The advantages to be gained by using more metal in the flanges and web of the heavier sections of rails.

Jan 1, 1903

By Robert Henry Bradford

This investigation was undertaken at the suggestion of Prof. Henry M. Howe, of the Department of Metallurgy, Columbia University, who, in a letter to the author, dated October 23, 1900, wrote as follows, suggesting the subject of this dissertation : "The extraction of silver from copper mattes by either the Ziervogel or the Augustin process depends upon converting the silver into silver sulphate by means of the sulphuric anhydride evolved from the decomposition of ferrous sulphate and cupric sulphate, which are formed during the roasting operation itself from the iron and copper sulphides present. "It occurred to me, some time prior to the autumn of 1897, that these processes might be made much easier by adding to them, at the proper stage, ferrous or cupric sulphate, or both, in the form of green or blue vitriol. That is, instead of having to rely solely on our ability to generate these sulphates in this very delicate roasting operation, my idea was that we could add a small quantity of already-prepared sulphate at the proper state of roasting, viz., at or before the period when the solphatizing of the silver occurs. The comprehensive audit of the accounts of a mining company is extremely important in its relations to the legal situation and obligations of the corporation, the personal liability of the directors, and the interests of the investing public. A consideration of the subject as affecting the professional duties and fixing the responsibility of a mining engineer engaged in the expert examination of a mine or in charge of mining operations, is equally important, though this phase of the question is not often presented systematically.

Jan 1, 1903

By John A. Church

Jan 1, 1903

By Henry A. Mather

While this device is not new in its inception, its peculiar advantages failed to be of practical utility until furnace-builders instituted the mechanical reform of supporting the upper and lower water-jackets by hanging them from an I-beam frame, independently upheld by iron columns, instead of resting the entire weight of structure on the bottom, as practice formerly prescribed. The Colorado Iron Works were among the first to build copper-furnaces of this description, and the device, illustrated herewith, has been installed by them in three recent plants,—two furnaces for the Westinghouse interests near Ely, Vermont, and one for the Grand Prize Copper Company, of Gila county, Arizona. The jack-screw supports (Figs. 1 and 2) and the familiar iron bottom of former practice are retained as integral parts of this new furnace-bottom. And, instead of resting inert on the tapfloor of the furnace-room, the jack-screws are supported on and bolted to two I-beams the length of the furnace, placed immediately beneath, and parallel to, its sides. These I-beams are bolted to, and supported by, three steel axles equipped with small flanged wheels, the whole constituting a carriage, which runs freely on a track. The entire apparatus is movable or rigid at will, for the wheels are easily braced, if the tension of the tightened jack-screws does not serve to hold the whole in position. The advantages of this design will be at once apparent to those who have had practical experience in barring furnaces provided with stationary iron bottoms. It is a well-known fact that the larger part of the time occupied in cleaning and preparing a frozen furnace for active service is necessitated by working in a confined place where the temperature is uncomfortable, and that in such case the débris must be removed from

Jan 1, 1903

Jan 1, 1896

Jan 1, 1880

THE Institute assembled in the rooms of the Geographical Society at the Cooper Union, Tuesday evening at 8 P.M. President Raymond called the meeting to order, and introduced Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, who welcomed the Institute to New York. President Raymond, in behalf of the Institute, replied. The President then read the following report of the Council for the past year. The Council respectfully report that the American Institute of Mining Engineers has held four meetings-at Wilkes-Barre, Bethlehem, Troy, and Philadelphia, respectively-all of which have been well attended, and socially and professionally most successful. The proceedings of these meetings having been published in the Engineering and Mining Journal, and sent to all members and associates, are sufficiently well known. Forty-Bur papers, by twenty-six authors, have been read. These papers embrace a wide range of subjects, and prove the practical character of the proceedings of the Institute. The finances are in a satisfactory condition. By the report of the Treasurer it appears that $1290.10 have been received, $519.90 expended, and that $770.20 now remains in the treasury exclusive of fees for 1872. This fund, it is hoped, will be so increased by voluntary subscriptions as to enable us before long to issue a volume of our most important transactions in a permanent form. The Council has made a favorable arrangement with the Scientific Publishing Company, publishing the Engineering and Mining Journal, by which that journal became the organ of the Institute for the first publication of the proceedings, papers, and notices to members. This arrangement it is proposed to continue through the present year unless the Institute shall otherwise direct. I t is not intended to supersede the publication of an annual or occasional volume, but to maintain an interest in the Institute, and to serve the convenience of members while our funds do not permit a more ambitious publication.

By L. G. Laureau

This paper is presented to call the attention of steel-manufacturers to the need of further reform in the manner of casting and handling ingots. The problem of making the work usually performed in and around the casting-pit less dangerous to the men and less costly to the management is one which has occupied the minds

Jan 1, 1885

By John C. Long

The advantages of firebrick regenerative hot-blast ovens being thoroughly appreciated by those engaged in modern blast-furnace practice, the important question now is to obtain the best and most efficient apparatus. The apparatus invented by the writer, and described in this

Jan 1, 1885

By D. W. Brunton

The erection of large metallurgical establishments for the treatment of gold, silver, copper, and lead-ores, at railroad arid topographical centers, where fuel and fluxes, together with proper oremixtures, can be cheaply and constantly obtained at all seasons of the year, has led to the very general introduction of a system of ore-handling known as "public sampling." By this system the ore, instead of being shipped direct to the mill or smelter, is sent to a public sampler, where it is crushed and sampled. Guaranteed samples are sent to the different metallurgical establishments, and the ore is then sold to the highest bidder. Though differing in many respects from the English system of "ticketing," the underlying principle is nearly the same, while the greater rapidity with which a lot of ore can be disposed of renders

Jan 1, 1885

By R. Gatewood

The solution here offered is at once simple and important in its direct and indirect bearings. According to the principles of surface-tension, which will be found sufficiently enlarged upon for present purposes in Clerk Maxwell's excellent little treatise on The Theory of Heat, a mechanical mixture of liquids will frequently of itself divide into groups, consisting of liquids mixing among themselves but withdrawing from the other liquids. The following simple and familiar illustration will suffice: " If we mix water with alcohol, the liquids diffuse into each other. If we now attempt to mix oil with the alcohol and water, the two liquids separate from each other of themselves, and in the act of separation sufficient force is brought into play to set in motion considerable masses of the fluids." Maxwell goes on to show that this relative energy is one of arrangement, depending on the nature of the fluids and the area of the surface of contact, the act of separation tending to reduce this surface to a minimum consistent with equilibrium; that this surface-tension exists between a solid and touching fluid, either liquid or gaseous, being of one sign or the other, in the case of a liquid, according as it tends to draw itself up into a drop on its surface or to spread and wet the solid. After considering various cases, lie states that which particularly interests us, thus : " When a solid body is in contact with two fluids, then, if the

Jan 1, 1885

By N. Lilienberg

The success of European experiments in melting iron and steel with gases resulting from the decomposition of steam by incandescent coal, has encouraged me to design, with the valuable assistance of Mr. George S. Dwight, a plan for producing and burning these gases in a manner economical and efficient for metallurgical purposes. That this direction is the right one, is demonstrated by the repeated efforts made in practice, to introduce as much steam as possible with the blast in ordinary producers, thus displacing a certain amount of nitrogen. Such attempts, however, must always be limited by the cooling influence of the steam. The accompanying drawings represent the producers and the steel-melting furnace, arranged according to our first ideas which may be susceptible of improvement in details when put into practical

Jan 1, 1885

By Sterry Hunt

The American Institute of Mining Engineers, and American science in general, have sustained a great loss in the death of Prof Benjamin Silliman, deceased at New Haven, Connecticut, on the 14th of January, 1885, at the age of sixty-eight. But a month has passed since, as one of the pall-bearers, I paid the last tribute to the remains of my old friend and honored master.

Jan 1, 1885

By George W. Maynard

In the Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute for the year 1878, in the account of the proceedings of the annual meeting in March of that year, when Mr. Bell read his paper On the Separation of Phosphorus from Pig-Iron, occurs the following statement, as part of the reported discussion of that paper: " Mr. Sidney Thomas stated that he had succeeded in effecting the almost complete removal of phosphorus in the Bessemer process. Experiments had been carried on at Blaenavon, with the co-operation of Mr. Martin, on quantities varying between 6 lbs. and 10 cwt., and some hundred analyses made by Mr. Gilchrist (who had the conduct of the experiments from the first) showing the removal of from 20 per cent. to 99.9 per cent. of phosphorus in the converter. He believed the practical difficulties in the way had been overcome, and that Cleveland pig might be made into good steel without any intermediate process. He hoped on a future occasion to lay full details before the Institute." I was present at that meeting, and I doubt if any one in the hall knew, either by sight or name, the young man who had dared to rise in that august body and claim that he had accomplished that after which the great metallurgists of Europe had been unsuccessfully striving ever since Mr. Bessemer's great discovery. I remember distinctly the pitying smile of derision and the stony stare

Jan 1, 1885

By Richard Pearce

In the treatment of auriferous copper containing bismuth, I have recently observed a small quantity of a grayish-white alloy, which on examination, proved to be Bi containing in solution, as it were, a crystalline alloy of Bi and Au. This compound makes its appearance on the surface of the auriferous Cu in small globules as the latter cools. These globules are rapidly attacked by nitric acid, and fine needleshaped crystals of Bi and Au separate out. They arc insoluble even in strong nitric acid. On examination, the crystals mere found to contain : Gold, 69.94 per cent.; silver, 0.63 per cent. ; bismuth, 29.43 per cent. (No. I).* The residue is very fusible, and at a temperature considerably below its melting-point it oxidizes rapidly, changing from its original gray color to a greenish-yellow (No. 2). On melting in a crucible under flux, a bronze-colored alloy is formed that has the specific gravity 15.47—somewhat higher than the calculated specific gravity of a simple mixture of the two metals in the proportions named. Alloys of Gold and Silver.—In following out my investigations by repeated examinations of this alloy formed at different times, I found that, in dissolving a miscellaneous lot of the alloy in nitric acid, some gold-yellow crystals were formed, which I succeeded in separating from the BiAu alloy by washing. These yellow crystals, under the microscope, showed distinct, regular, octahedral faces, and on examination they were found to be a crystalline alloy of Au and

Jan 1, 1885

By W. McDermott

It is well known that many so-called free-milling silver arcs are so classed more from their value necessitating a cheap process than from a real adaptability to raw amalgamation. Such low--grade ores, carrying more or less sulphurets, are more profitably treated by a cheap rapid process than by the more effective but costly process of roasting arid amalgamation. The tailings are sometimes crudely concentrated, or, after lying and becoming partially oxidized, are again worked in pans. Of late years, by the use of improved methods of concentration, many old low-grade tailings-piles have been reworked to a good profit; and in some improved mills arrangements are made to concentrate before or after amalgamation, thus making a single treatment in mill suffice. It is self-evident that on a low-grade ore a small increase in percentage saved is of no commercial advantage if accompanied by a material increase in cost, and therefore a cheap and continuous system of work is the real necessity, if a fair saving be effected. As an illustration of the possibilities of combined concentration and amalgamation on some ores, the following results of a working test at the New York Ore-Milling and Testing Works will be of some interest. The ore treated was a hard white quartz from Mexico, carrying a very small percentage of finely divided sulphurets, chiefly iron

Jan 1, 1885

By P. Barnes

It cannot be said that this whole subject is a new one in respect to its presentation to the Institute, but the minute discussion of it has been looked upon as lying more strictly within the field of study of the societies which have to do chiefly with the construction and management of machinery as such. It must be true that the importance of close limits in steam-economy is as fully recognized among the members of this Institute as by any body of men who have to do with steam-machinery. In all directions, nevertheless, among manufacturers as well as among metallurgists, there may still be found those who do not give the same attention to exact methods in fuel-consumption as devoted to steam, as to other technical uses which, to say the least, are not more important. The study of the most efficient methods of use of fuel in operations which are more strictly metallurgical has been long-continued, and in some directions nearly or quite exhaustive. This has led to a rather close bringing-up, in those particulars, all along the line of technical work, of the establishments (and their managers) which had lagged behind. Yet, in the steam-departments of those works, there are too many reasons for believing that the name may still be legion of those whose methods and results are far from the best. If there be room in any given case to suspect any imperfect working or waste of fuel in the steam-supply, the search for the evil, the clear fixing of its cause, and the application of the remedy are, or certainly ought to be, too obvious in their pressure for attention upon a manager to call for even so scanty a mention of them as can be accorded in this paper. It is natural that men should be incredulous as to imperfections which may be noted as existing in their machinery or methods. Still more are they likely to be altogether disinclined to admit that there may be thus an actual and palpable leakage in the compartment of their money-drawer devoted to coalsupplies. But the laws which govern the combustion of fuel, the

Jan 1, 1885

By Alfred F. Brainerd

Some fifty years ago, iron-ore was discovered near the town of Sheldon, Franklin County, Vermont, in a vein out-cropping on a knoll near Black Creek, which empties into the Missisquoi River a couple of miles away. A short time after this discovery, the owners, Mr. TV. 0. Gadcomb and Hon. Lawrence Brainerd, both of St. Albans, commenced mining (mostly by open cut), and also erected a Catalan forge, from which iron blooms were produced, most of which were worked into bar-iron and used in the neighborhood of the forge, while some were shipped by Lake Champlain to Troy, Albany and New York. But by reason of the lack of any railroad connections, and an insufficient demand for the blooms, this forge was subsequently abandoned, and the material used in its construction removed to other places. Mr. Keith, of Sheldon, used for many years a mixture of this ore with bog-ore from Swanton, in a charcoal blast-furnace, the product of which he consumed partly in his own foundry, shipping, however, a considerable amount to Troy and New York. Accurate data as to this enterprise are not at hand. The same vein has since been traced for some 20 miles, and some prospecting has been done 011 its outcrops at Berkshire, Enosburg and a few miles east of St. Albans; but the vein being small, only a few car-loads of ore were taken out from these places. The commencement of the St. Albans Iron and Steel Works in 1872, and the erection in 1877 of a ten-ton Siemens open-hearth furnace for the manufacture of steel rails, opened a new use for this ore. The furnace-charge consisted of pig-iron, old mils, steel scrap, and magnetic iron ore, added towards the close of the heat. The ore

Jan 1, 1885

By A. D. Hodges

In 1874 my attention was called to what seemed to me an interesting and new nickel and cobalt combination found in Ludwig and Carter's copper mine, near Mason Valley, Esmeralda County, Nevada. With the assistance of Mr. A. Hebberling I made several partial analyses of the mineral or minerals. I also communicated with my friend, Professor H. B. Cornwall, of the John C. Green School of Science, College of New Jersey, who analyzed a couple of specimens which I forwarded to him. The copper ore occurs in the mine principally as carbonate and to a certain extent as silicate, the latter generally in connection with clay seams or bands. In some places, together with the copper silicate and clay, generally interstratified with them, there occurred a compact shining black mineral (a) containing nickel and cobalt. Occasionally, in cavities, in connection with (a) was found a black substance (b), either massive and in this case very similar to (a) but with driller lustre, or forming an incrustation with rough and botryoidal surface and radial-fibrous structure, or granular and earthy. A few specimens were found having on the surface very fragile black needles (c) sometimes 1/2-inch long, interspersed with needles of malachite. The mineral (a) seemed, according to the analyses, to be of nearly constant composition, and was considered by Professor Cornwall to be a chrysocolla containing nickel and cobalt—a new occurrence to

Jan 1, 1885

By James W. Neill

The occurrence of minerals of nickel and cobalt at Mine La Motte is probably known to every mineralogist. I will not attempt to describe these minerals, but, before entering on my subject, will briefly mention the ores, etc., which call for metallurgical treatment and enter into the composition of our mattes. Our staple lead-ore, the dressed galena, is the chief source of nickel and cobalt. It carries but a small percentage of these metals, viz.: 0.2 to 0.3 percent. usually, though when much copper pyrites is contained in the gangue, the amount of nickel and cobalt may be as great as 1.0 to 1.5 per cent. Next in importance is the ((middle product" of the dressingworks, consisting of the sulphides of iron (and copper) with gangue and galena. This usually carries 20 to 23 per cent. of lead, 0.5 to 1.0 per cent. of copper and 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. of nickel and cobalt. A larger percentage of copper always carries with it an increase of nickel and cobalt. In some few cases 12 to 15 per cent. of copper gives 6.5 to 8.0 per cent of these metals. Resides these products of the dressing-works, there is a small quantity of true nickel-cobalt-ore

Jan 1, 1885