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By J. R. Long, T. R. Graham

THIS report is concerned with part of a series of investigations carried on by the Federal Bureau of Mines on alloys, particularly nonferrous alloys, made with electrolytic manganese. A broad general program instituted after commercial quantities of electrolytic manganese became available was necessary in order to compare the effects of electrolytic manganese with those of the ordinary commercial grades. Representative analyses of these two materials show the commercial manganese metal to contain up to 2 per cent iron, a maximum of I per cent silicon and 0.06 per cent carbon, while the electrolytic manganese rarely exceeds 0.01 iron, 0.02 sulphur, with no silicon or aluminum. In the literature, the emphasis has been largely on high-strength casting alloys containing up to 5 per cent manganese, and few data are available on wrought manganese alloys. These factors, coupled with the strategic position of copper and zinc, have given impetus to the Bureau's War Research Program for the development of alloys containing nonstrategic manganese for the purpose of supplementing or providing alternates for the more strategic metals. The alloy reported here was studied, along with several other ferrous and nonferrous alloys, as possible cartridge-case material, and was chosen after a review of the properties of the ternary alloys of copper-manganese-zinc. PRELIMINARY WORK In a cursory survey of this system, alloys ranging from 60 to 95 per cent copper, 0 to 50 per cent manganese, and 5 to 40 per cent zinc were investigated. The alloys containing 60 per cent copper were found to fall into the two-phase alpha plus beta region of the system, and since those containing 70 per cent would not permit a saving, only alloys containing 65 per cent copper were considered. The tensile properties of these 65 per cent alloys are plotted in Fig. I as a function of manganese content for annealed material and for four conditions of cold-work In the annealed condition the increases in strength and decreases in elongation are minor up to 15 per cent manganese; beyond this, the changes become more significant. In the cold-worked condition, the first 5 to 10 per cent of manganese appears to have the greatest strengthening, effect, the rate of increase dropping off as the manganese increases beyond this amount. These effects are more pronounced with moderate than with severe cold reduction. It is also interesting to note that while the elongation of annealed material drops regularly with increasing manganese, the elongation in the cold-worked state is relatively little affected by increasing manganese content, particu-

Jan 1, 1944

By M. Safiuddin

Within the mining industry, open-pit mining has progressed to a point where a 200-yard walking dragline is as conceivable today as a 35-yard dragline was just a few years ago. This is possible due to the technological advances and efforts of the excavator manufacturers, and the manufacturers of electrical equipment have always stayed abreast with them in meeting their requirements and in making available their experience with the latest control techniques and hardware from various fields for application in the mining industry. An electrician in the coal mines of Pennsylvania who had not heard the word "thyristor" a few years ago now wonders how the old excavators with Rototrols® and magamps could ever work. The thyristors, transistors and operational amplifiers which were considered too fragile and delicate for a rugged and severe application like the mining industry, today constitute the brain of an excavator control taking commands from the operator and giving signals to the muscles of the excavator to move the bucket within a few seconds. A giant 200-yd bucket filled with overburden moves within seconds of the operator's command. Digging cycles for these excavators range from 40 to 60 sec depending on the swing angle. With these tremendous production capabilities of the excavators, the equipment failures and downtime become very expensive, and the loss of return on large capital investment for such machines becomes intolerable. Even though these failures and downtimes cannot be avoided completely, a good preventive maintenance program can help reduce them, thus increasing the machine availability. As we shall see below, the causes for breakdowns and failures of electrical equipment can be analyzed and a good preventive maintenance program can be drawn up to eliminate most of these failures.

Jan 9, 1967

By HENRY JULLUM

THE ARGONAUT' mill stands at the crest and spreads down the western slope' of a hill, which incidentally covers the' outcrop of the Argonaut vein' at this point. The collar of the main shaft of the mine is situated on the eastern slope of the same hill 120 ft. below the highest ?point. The present mill, built in 1916, was designed to treat 250 tons per 24-hr. day. This capacity has not been attained recently owing to the inability of the mine to produce enough ore while extensive development and underground construction were under way. At present, however, the mine is more than able to take care of the mill requirements.

Jan 1, 1932

By Geo. W. Bain

PRODUCERS of building stone have had to seek new and attractive uses for their output to supplement the diminished orders for standard products. Lunar is the direct result of the need of new outlets for marble and is. probably the most ingenious and attractive type to reach the market in a quarter of a century. It is a highly translucent stone which retains the same glistening sparkle in transmitted light that marble exhibits by incident rays. This sparkle sets it apart entirely from translucencies made of glass or even onyx, alabaster, and the distinctive exceedingly fine textured calcite marbles produced in Alabama and quarried formerly in northern Vermont and Quebec.

Jan 1, 1936

By Hugo L. Johnson, Robert Wallace

THE Midvale plant of the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company consists of a flotation mill for concentrating sulphide ores of lead and zinc by differential flotation to produce three separate concentrates, one of lead, one of zinc, and one of iron pyrite; and a lead smelter for smelting ores and concentrates to produce base lead bullion, The plant, including its shops, laboratories, office, railroad yards which serve both mill and smelter, and areas reserved for tailing ponds and slag dumps, covers 646 acres on the right bank of the Jordan River at Midvale, Utah. It is twelve miles south of Salt Lake City and sixteen miles east of the West Mountain mining district at Bingham Canyon from which is drawn a large part of its ore supply. Custom ores are treated as well as the product of Company mines.

Jan 1, 1948

By JOHN R. SUMAN

I WOULD like to spend a few minutes describing to you the present condition which exists in the oil industry and then point out some aspects of this deplorable situation in which I think petroleum engineers can be helpful. As you know, the oil business at this time is in a very critical condition, .due to the tremendous potential production in excess of current demand. This is a world-wide condition as well as a national problem, as it is estimated that the surplus production available for the market in foreign countries is of about the same proportion as that existing in the United States. Due to the inability within the United States to hold production within the bounds of demand prices have been slumping for the last four years and at this time have reached the point where the sales value of the average barrel of crude oil in the United States, is far below the cost, of production. In addition to the large amount of potential production available for the market in excess of demand we have in storage in the United States about six hundred fifty millions of barrels 'of oil. Unless something can be done to limit the amount of oil coming onto the market to a point well below the demand, which point will permit the reduction of stocks, it looks as though the 'oil business is facing demoralization.

Jan 1, 1931

By Vincent P. Gianella

THE most intense earthquake on the Pacific coast in the last several years, and probably the second most intense shock to occur in Nevada since it was settled, was felt in many Western States shortly after 10 p.m. on Dec. 20, 1932. Be- cause the rifted area contered about the northern end of Cedar Mountain it is referred to as the Cedar Mountain, Nevada, earthquake. An idea of the intensity of the shock may be gathered from the distance at which it was felt: in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Washing- ton, Oregon, California and Arizona. It is the strongest quake centering in Nevada since the Pleasant Valley earthquake on Oct. 2, 1915. Despite the strength of the vibrations and the large area over which they were felt, relatively little damage was done. The extent of the damage consisted of a few old stone buildings demolished as shown in Fig. 1, much cracked and fallen plaster, many chimneys shaken down and considerable cracking of brick walls. There were no deaths and four people were but slightly injured. The small amount of damage was due, largely, to the scarcity of structures within the area of strong vibrations, but an important factor was the aridity of the region (see Fig. 2) and the shallowness of soil cover so that there was but little water-saturated loose material in which strong secondary vibrations could be formed. Had this earthquake occurred in a region of heavy precipitation and dense population the damage to property and loss of life would undoubtedly have been large, with consequently much more newspaper publicity.

Jan 1, 1933

By F. X. Meyer

THE United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company maintains an ore-purchasing department for procurement of custom tonnages of milling and smelting ores and concentrates for treatment at its Midvale plant. Arrangements with other companies provide for treatment of Company and custom zinc concentrates. Location of the Midvale plant in the heart of the Western mining country makes it possible to serve shippers from these nine producing states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Shipments from most of these states travel over main-line railroads, delivery being made at Midvale within a short time after billing of the shipment. Shipments varying in size from a few sacks to carloads can be handled at

Jan 1, 1948

By R. A. Perry

DURING 1943, supplies of lead, like those of most base metals, moved from a position of scarcity to one of ample supply for all possible war requirements. The principal worry in the market, as 1944 began, was that surplus stocks might increase too rapidly to maintain price stability. The problem of postwar stockpiling had definitely entered the picture. The end of the year finds the lead industry having met all use demands, but not without depleting stocks to a critical low in spite of heavy importations. The principal reason for this dangerously reduced stock position is lack of adequate man power, which, without question, has become the lead industry's number one problem. This condition became obvious about the middle of the year, after Selective Service placed in effect orders that no deferments would be given employees under 26 years of age, and to a complacent attitude toward the industry assumed by the War Manpower Commission. It has become progressively worse since then. The WPB continued its policy, started during 1943, of easing restrictions on materials to be used for maintenance, repairs, and operating supplies. The policy of premium payments established by the Metals Reserve Co. was continued and, in spite of expressions to the contrary, has proved quite satisfactory. In short, the Government continued its program of stimulating the lead industry in practically all

Jan 1, 1945

By H. M. FRENCH

ARC welding can be defined as a process whereby two A pieces of metal are brought together, heated to a molten state by the heat of an electric arc, and fused into one piece. There are several kinds of arc welding: the metallic arc, the carbon arc, the atomic hydrogen arc and the shielded arc methods. A short description of each, together with its major applications, will serve to distinguish between them. Metallic arc welding involves an arc drawn between a metal electrode and the material to be welded, called the work or the "parent metal." It may be further subdivided into hand and automatic welding, depending on whether the electrode is fed to the arc by hand or by motor drive. This form of arc welding can be applied to most welding operations. Exceptions to its use consist of applications where very thin metals are to be welded; where it is desired to join the work with- out adding metal; or where extreme ductility may be required:

Jan 1, 1930

By AIME AIME

ELECTRICAL methods of geophysical exploration attracted major attention at the three sessions devoted to geophysics on Monday and Tuesday. At the opening' meeting Monday morning Hans Lundberg gave the paper by himself and Folke Kihlstedt; he described the use of the Racom, discussed last year, and the method whereby it is possible to eliminate all but subsurface, effects in electrical exploration. In the discussion Theodor Zuschlag pointed out some of the theoretical considerations behind the field procedure. Karl Sundberg's paper on the effect of impregnating waters was presented by title only, and S. F. Kelly then gave an abstract of a paper on the electrical properties of ores, by J. J. Jakosky, R. N. Anderson and Clyde H. Wilson. , This dealt with an exhaustive series of laboratory tests on the variation of -conductivity of ore specimens with the frequency of the energizing current, and of the effect of moisture content in typical clays and gouges on their conductivities at various frequencies. Considerable discussion was provoked during which the authors came in for some-criticism on their measuring circuits and for their assumption that a solid conductor could be compared with linear ones. They were praised, however, for making a start toward a compilation of resistivities for ores and rocks. Dr. Slichter disagreed with them that the conductivity of an orebody was primarily capacitive. He also called attention to the fact that it was high time geophysicists adopted the standard physical expression of ohm-,centimeters or ohm-meters to express resistivities. This same point was the burden of the next paper,. "Uniform Expression for Resistivity," by Sherwin F. Kelly, presented by title only.

Jan 1, 1932

By J. A. SINGMASTERN

THE New Jersey Zinc Co.'s vertical retort plants are believed to have been in continuous operation through the whole year. At Palmerton metal purer than that made from the same ore in the old plant has been produced and has been able to compete successfully with very pure electrolytic metal in die castings and other special uses where extreme purity is worth money. A new plant using this process was put in production by the Grasselli Chemical Co. at Meadowbrook, W. Va., early in the summer. It is said to be working very satisfactorily. It is understood that this plant will not produce high-grade metal. Two patents issued to Bunce and Mahler (Nos. 1,749,126 and 1,749,127) describe a method of operating the vertical retort so that practically lead-free metal can be obtained from ores containing consider- able lead. The zinc vapors and other gases leaving the reaction zone are filtered through a column of material maintained at a temperature high enough to prevent much zinc from condensing. The filtering medium is either periodically or continuously changed.

Jan 1, 1931

By R. W. Diamond

Low-grade ores can be designated by two main classifications: (1) simple low-grade ores, and (2) complex low-grade ores. As a rule the first type has a relatively small metal content, although low- grade iron ores contain a rather high percentage of metal. As the simple type is the one that is ordinarily in mind when the term "low-grade ore" is used, the paper will be devoted mainly to ores in this general category. Cheap treatment is the prime requirement in utilizing low-grade ores of the simple type, although in some cases the value of nonmetallic by-products, such as limestone for fer- tilizer and silica for flux, allows a little more lati- tude than in the usual situation. When the costs are divided under the three headings-mining, milling, and smelting-it is apparent that the last group will not constitute an important factor as a rule because the high concentrating ratio makes the smelting cost per ton of ore fairly low.

Jan 1, 1949

By HAROLD E. WHITE

LONG before the Stone Age, when man first sought shelter where there-were no natural shelters, such as caves and clefts in the rock, he uprooted trees and planted them upside down so that the roots formed the roof. By selecting trees whose roots grew out in a horizontal direction and; by planting these trees close enough - together, a crude shelter was formed. He then took mud, formed a plaster and covered over the' roots. Later the walls were made by using sticks and twigs and plastering between them. It is natural then, that he wiped his muddy hands on- his own hairy body and soon found that the mud was difficult to remove when, dry. It is due, to this discovery that we mix animal hair in 'our modern plaster to increase its strength. The use of fibrous asbestos in some refractory cements has followed this same principle.

Jan 1, 1929

Jan 1, 1936

Jan 1, 1936

By R. S. Shoemaker, F. W. McQuiston

Mineral Occurrence Treatment Method Table Page

Jan 1, 1975

By John W. Cahn

IT is well established that the pearlite reaction is a nucleation and growth reaction, and that pearlite nucleates on grain boundaries or intersections of grain boundaries. It is also known that while the

Jan 1, 1958

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Jan 1, 1938

H. W. NICHOLS, Secretary-Treasurer, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Ill. , R. S. BONSIB, H. B. PULSIFER, . HORACE H. CLARK, H. T. WALSH. Seventy-four members of' the two organizations attended a three-day joint field meeting of the Chicago Section and the Illinois Mining Institute at La Salle, Ill., on May 17, 18 and 19. The meeting began with a technical session in the rooms of the Illinois

Jan 7, 1917