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By Gerald V. Jergensen

Does an idea have merit? What does it cost to implement? Can the concept be implemented successfully? The ultimate proof is to try, then see. However, when there are many millions of dollars at stake, blindly building and trying requires considerable courage. Owners and investors in retrospect might choose other less complimentary words. So we might ask, "How might we establish the feasibility of an idea or concept before committing large sums of money to the ultimate test?" From this basic and prudent question, has evolved the engineering concept of the feasibility study. A feasibility study is simply a systematic evaluation of an idea or concept to determine the prospects for success. In a literal sense, a feasibility study considers an idea in terms of its data base, "builds" the idea on paper, "operates" that idea, calculates the cost and benefits, then measures the probable success in terms of some economic, technical or financial standard. Feasibility studies can be quite modest in scope yet provide useful insights as to the viability of an idea. A study might be initiated only to examine the completeness or validity of the metallurgical data base. Another study could be a search for a workable idea or solution to an already-identified possibly troublesome problem. In this latter case, the question, "Will it work?" may be far more important than, "How much will it cost?" Feasibility studies are sometimes global in scope, involving several dozens of specialists and examining an entire "grass roots" mining complex. Other studies may be less ambitious but equally important in examining an expansion proposal or developing new operating techniques. Studies may be commissioned to remove plant bottle-necks, solve maintenance problems and so on. The terms study and feasibility study are used interchangeably in this chapter. They denote a systematic method to examine a proposed concept or idea. DATA BASE Typically, studies are initiated with a minimum amount of specific information and a maximum number of assumptions. As the work proceeds and the data base expands, assumptions are replaced

Jan 1, 1982

By R. S. Archibald

The subject of this paper is particularly appropriate, since Daniel C. Jackling was active in early exploitation of taconites on the Mesabi Range and contributed greatly to their later economic development. After his success in developing the low grade porphyries in the West he looked for more worlds to conquer, and so undertook the concentration of low grade taconites, from which he hoped to produce commercial ore. Mesabi Iron Co., organized in 1919, actually did produce merchantable sinter from taconites in 1922. The enterprise did not prove commercial at the time, as cost of production was high and the surplus of iron ore in the Lake Superior District already contributed to a low market price, but this same property has since been developed by Reserve Mining Co. The work done by Jackling had much to do with the success of this later venture. Iron ore was first discovered on the Marquette Range in Michigan in 1845. The first ore from this range came from the old Jackson mine in Negaunee in 1848. During these early years this property and others on the Marquette produced limited tonnages for transportation to Lower Lakes and for consumption by charcoal furnaces in the area, where a plentiful supply of hardwoods furnished the charcoal for iron smelting. The Marquette and other ranges tributary to Lake Superior did not produce much ore for transportation to Lower Lakes until the locks at Sault Ste. Marie were constructed, but from the time the first lock at the "Soo" was completed in 1855 these ores were transported through the locks to consumer centers in the East. The Marquette Range has a history of continuous production from 1848 to the present day.

Jan 5, 1959

By H. M. Roche

MAGNETITE is the important iron ore of New Jersey although bog ore, limonite and red hematite were mined in sizable quantity early in the state's min-ing history. The deposits of mag-netite are found in the Highland area in the northern part of the state. These ores outcrop a broad belt 20 miles wide, extending in a northeasterly direction from Phil-lipsburg, on the Delaware River, to Greenwood Lake, at the southern boundary of the state of New York, a distance of 60 miles. The area in which the magnetite is found (see map, Fig. 1) contains 1200 square miles and the center of the area is at Dover, 40 miles west of New York City. In the general area are found 18 parallel ranges or lines of ore deposits. These ranges may be re-garded as mineralized zones in which occur orebodies that are rich enough in magnetite to war-rant mining. Usually a number of the orebodies lie one above the other in the same plane, all dipping and pitching in the same direction. Within the ranges, there may be several parallel orebodies of work-able size. The average strike of the orebodies is N.41° 30' E., with an average dip of 55° southeast and an average pitch of 15 ° to the northeast. Orebodies suitable for mining range from 6 to 100 ft. wide, as measured from foot wall to hanging wall. Their heights, as measured on the dip and normal to the long axis of the orebody, vary from 200 to 3,000 ft. The length along the pitch has never been determined by mining, al-though several of the orebodies have been worked to lengths of 10,000 ft. The grade of the ore as mined today varies from 30 to 60 per cent iron, and the gangue min-erals are chiefly silica, alumina, magnesia, lime and phosphorus.

Jan 1, 1937

By W. A. Lang, K. C. Gilbart, E. Stansfield

It has long been known that coal is unstable and oxidizes in air, even at ordinary atmospheric temperatures; also, that such oxidation affects the analysis of coal. Nevertheless little or no precaution is taken to prevent oxidation in the ordinary methods of analysis, and the possibility of error due to oxidation is sometimes ignored even in researches on coal. Although the general nature of coal oxidation is well known, and many workers have made careful studies of the rate of oxidation of different types of coal exposed to oxygen at different temperatures, yet the amount of oxidation coals undergo in the ordinary process of analysis, and its influence on the determined analysis, is not well known, and the published data are widely scattered through the literature. This paper is a collection, from this laboratory, of data that bear on the subject, together with a brief summary of three methods employed here to evaluate the oxidizabil-ity of coal. The post-Carboniferous coals of Alberta range all the way from anthracite down to lignite. As some of them are notably susceptible to oxidation, the necessity for care was early forced upon our attention, and oxidation has been reduced either by the removal of air with a vacuum pump or by the displacement of air with natural gas (methane). The two routine analytical operations most liable to involve oxidation are the preliminary, partial drying of the crushed coal (called air-drying) and the determination of moisture. The first is a prolonged operation on coarse coal at ordinary temperatures, and the second a short treatment on powdered coal at higher temperatures. Oxidation also occurs in coal samples stored in ordinary sample bottles. In order to gain information for this study, determinations were recently carried out on the same samples in air, in natural gas, and in vacuo. Sixteen coals were tested; three would be classed in the United States as coking bituminous coals, two as noncoking, nonslacking, bituminous coals, and the rest as subbituminous. Table 1 gives typical analyses of these coals as mined.

Jan 1, 1934

By F. Julius Fohs

Centrally located with relation to the largest iron- and steel-producing districts of the United States, the fluorspar-deposits of Kentucky possess increasing interest and importance. As typical of the numerous fluorspar-mines of Kentucky and Illinois, I have selected for description the Memphis, because it and others of its immediate group exhibit the conditions characteristic of all. I. The Memphis MiNe. This mine lies 5 miles NW. of Marion, in Crittenden county, Kentucky, a station on the Chicago and Nashville division of .the Illinois Central R. R. For the first mile and a half out of Marion we see only Birdsville or Middle Chester sandstones of Mississippian age. Then we cross a fault of about 850 ft. displacement, and the Ste. Genevieve oolite sets in. Beyond the fault, oolite is the predominant rock, except that the hills to the north have a capping of Cypress or lowest Chester sandstone, 80 ft. below which is an outcrop of from 6 to 10 ft. of Ste. Genevieve (Rosiclare) sandstone. Occasional sink-holes are noticed, and as the mines are approached evidence of faulting is again seen. A line of .crude head-frames and open-cut dumps, extending for more than a quarter of a mile, marks the Klondike vein. The open-cuts are from 15 to 20 ft. deep, and in most of them, from the surface down, was found the reddish gravel which is really fluorspar—some of it white or purple and crystal-clear (if the red clay is washed off), and some carrying iron and silica, and stained by waters from the decaying limestone walls. In one of these cuts, at a depth of 20 ft., white and purplish honey-combed fluorspar was found, in which the larger cavities are due to the leaching of limestone and calcite, and the minute ones to the leaching of zinc-hlende.

Jan 1, 1910

By Joseph Hartshorne

The attention which this process has attracted, especially in Europe, has led me to believe that members of the Institute would be interested in a report of the progress which has been made in the year and a half that has elapsed since my paper on the subject was read at the Colorado Meeting of this Institute. As already described in that paper (Duns., xxvi., 380), this process is a modificatioii of the open-hearth steel manufacture, whether acid or basic, collsistillg essentially in the division of the charge between two furnaces, one of which is charged about two hours earlier than the other, and tapped into the other after the charge in the latter has become fluid, the slag of the first bath being removed from it during the transfer. This description still remains true as far as it goes, but further experience has demonstrated that circumstances will very materially modify the relation of the two furnaces to each other, and the character of the work done in each of them. The function of the primary furnace has become more clearly and entirely that of doing the rough work of desiliconiziug and dephosphorizing, while that of the second or finishing-furnace has become almost entirely that of decarburizing and finighing the heat. To indicate these developments and their results is the object of this paper. In order to avoid needless repetition, I shall try to accomplish part of this object by giving a short resume' of what has been published elsewhere on this subject since my former paper was read. This will at least enable those interested to study the matter for themselves from original sources. Since that time the following papers have been read and published: " The Bertrand-Thiel Process of Making Steel," by Percy C. Gilchrist (Cleveland Institution of Engineers, Session of 1896-

Jan 1, 1899

By Eugene A. Stephenson

Critical analyses of the work expended in producing oil by the utilization of gas energy have appeared in the publications of Shaw,' Pierce and LewisI2 and Herold,3 authors who have ably discussed the factors which must be taken into consideration in comparing energy consumed per barrel in various wells which are flowed by means of gas-lift. However, two distinct phases of oil production are concerned with the ratio of gas energy consumed to oil produced. One of these phases is the gas-lift, which utilizes the differential gas pressures for the purpose of flowing oil, whether these pressures be natural reservoir pressures or be induced by artificial compression of gas or air. The other phase has to do with prorating oil production in pools which are operated either as units, or are subject to such restrictions as those imposed at Oklahoma City by the Corporation Commission, or by similar controlling groups in other fields. An abundance of literature is available relative to the problems of flowing wells by gas-lift, but the first suggestion that the energy of the gas within the oil and gas pool might serve as a basis for proration, appeared in the timely article by Mc Williams.4 Much of the dissatisfaction with proration in certain fields arises because some operators feel that besides the hazard to the wells which accompanies the test, the method of allocating production on the basis of the " potential" gage is inequitable and gives some operators a distinct advantage over others.5 The most severe penalty may be exacted from the most progressive operators or those who attempt to produce their oil with a minimum quantity of reservoir gas. If no difficulties ever developed in drilling, shutting off water, or in well completion, it might

Jan 1, 1931

NEW YORK SECTION ALLEN H. ROGERS, Chairman, H. C. PARMELEE, Vice-chairman, FOREST RUTHERFORD, Vice-chairman, W. S. DICKSON, Secretary, 71 Broadway, New York, N. Y. J. E. JOHNSON, JR. . F. T. RUBIDGE, Treasurer, P. G. SPILSBURY. The annual meeting of the New York Section, for the election of officers and other business, was held at the Machinery Club on May 23,

Jan 8, 1918

By A. Adiassevich

PETROLEUM has been found in Russia in various localities from north to south, as may be seen from the list given below: (a) In the basin of the Petchora river, Northern Russia. (b) In the basin of the Volga river, in the governments of Samara and Saratoff. (c) In the government of Astrakhan and in the Uralsk territory, close to the northern and eastern coast of the Caspian sea. (d) At Grozny in Northeastern Caucasus. (e) In the Daghestan territory, Eastern Caucasus, on the Caspian sea. (f) On the Apsheron peninsula (Baku and other districts) close to the Caspian sea shore. (g) On the island of Tcheleken in the Caspian sea, also on the island of Sviatoi. (h) In the Transcaspian territory on the Neftianaia Gora (Oil hill) and on the surrounding hills. (i) In the Ferghana valley in Russian Central Asia. (j) On the Kertch and Taman peninsulas on the Black sea. (k) In Siberia it has been discovered in the Transbaikal territory and on the island of Sakhalin. In the above-mentioned districts petroleum has been found to exist under different geological conditions and to vary in its chemical and physical properties. At the present time petroleum is produced in Russia at Baku, Grozny, on the island of Tcheleken, in the Ferghana district, and in the Uralsk territory. The yearly production in 1912 throughout the Russian Empire amounted to 69,400,000 barrels, of which the Baku fields were responsible for 52,000,000 barrels. This shows that the Baku fields on the Apsheron peninsula are the chief oil-producing centers in Russia, being at the same time the oldest of all our oil fields.. In this paper I shall discuss the Baku fields only, leaving all the others until a later date.

Jan 5, 1914

By E. T. Dumbles

Prof. Edward Orton, in his Report on the Occurrence of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Asphalt Rock in Western Kentucky, thus clearly states his ideas of the universal dissemination and rare accumulations of the bitumens:I "We need to bear in mind that the various members 'of the bituminous series are abundantly and almost universally distributed among the unaltered sedimentary rocks of the earth's crust. The valuable accumulations of these substances are rare, it is true, but one can scarcely go amiss' of petroleum, asphalt or gas, at least in small quantities, among the stratified rocks that retain their original structure." Speaking of the Ohio valley, he adds: "A fifth of one per cent. of petroleum, if distributed through a thousand feet of rock, would make a total to the acre, or square mile far beyond any production that has ever been realized from the richest oil field, and -percentages of this amount are not only not rare to find, but are even hard to miss." Dr. F. W Clarke in his Data of Geochemistry (Bulletin No. 491, U. S. Geological Survey, 1911), discussing these views of Orton with similar views of T. Sterry Hunt and Szajnocha, says that they "lead to the conviction that the formation of bitumens is a general process and by no means exceptional. Wherever sediments are laid down, inclosing either animal or vegetable matter, there bitumens may be produced." The organic origin of the bitumens, including petroleum, Gas long been an accepted fact with nearly all geologists, but the method, place, and time of the transformation into petroleum or other bitumen is still under 'discussion. Dr. Orton says? "The statements now presented........bring before us two main views as to the origin of petroleum, viz.: " (1) Petroleum is produced by the primary decomposition of organic

Jan 1, 1915

By C. P. Parsons

To properly account for the various characteristics of drilling muds obtained in different areas and geological horizons, it is necessary to study the composition of the mud from a chemical and physical standpoint as determined by the proportions and activities of the various solid contituents that are present in various states of division. Briefly summarized, science teaches that there are three states of division into which these solid constituents or particles may be grouped: namely, the suspended state, the individual particles of which are known as suspensoids; the colloidal state, in which the individual particles are termed colloids; and the crystalloidal state, wherein the individual particles are held in true solution and are termed crystalloids. The suspended state is one wherein the particles are fairly large and are present as molecular complexes, having none of the properties of colloids or crystalloids. Since matter varies in physical character and in chemical activities with its state of division, these coarser suspensoids do not themselves materially affect the physical or chemical properties of the solution in which they are suspended. On the other hand, they are distinctly detrimental in drilling muds and it is desirable that they be removed. Under the general classification of suspensoids are included sand, gravel and cuttings which contribute nothing to the colloidal stability or other desirable properties of the drilling fluid. As the state of division approaches but does not reach a molecular simplification, the term "colloidal state" is used in describing this condition. The colloidal state arises when one form of matter is in a very fine state of division and is distributed through a second phase. The material in the finely divided state is called the dispersed phase, while the liquid in which it is dispersed is called the dispersive phase. These particles of matter are in a colloidal state and will not settle out from the dispersive phase so long as colloidal conditions are stable. Moreover, they exhibit the property of having an oscillating movement around a central position in solution (the Brownian movement). In the third state of division, the crystalloidal state, the individual particles are held in true solution and are usually present as single molecules or ions. In a drilling fluid the water content of the fluid contains

Jan 1, 1931

By Howard J. Smith

For several years this Institute has recorded in its Transactions the various discoveries of potash‡ in America, and the successive stages in the development of an independent domestic potash industry. This paper is intended primarily to continue the record through the year 1935. In retrospect it is not inappropriate to note that public interest aroused in 1910 resulted in the production of some 1090 tons of pure potash in 1915, as a small beginning in the domestic inorganic potash industry, and that the infant industry thus begun reaches its majority this year, following a record production in 1935 of about 600,000 tons of potash salts and exports to no less than 22 foreign countries, including six countries in Europe. This production, with an estimated 200,000 tons of pure potash, may be compared with a production in 1934 of 430,157 tons of salts with an equivalent of 144,342 tons of pure potash. Mine and Plant Improvement During 1935, the American Potash & Chemical Co., at Searles Lake, Calif., began to reap the benefits of its previously enlarged plant facilities, which increased its productive capacity to 180,000 tons of muriate annually. The United States Potash Co., at Carlsbad, N. Mex., improved its operations by installing trolley locomotives and other haulage facilities and is maintaining its development headings two years in advance of operations, with projected plans for orderly mining for years to come. The hoisting shaft at its mine is now equipped to hoist at the rate of 1,000,000 tons annually, and the refinery to produce 150,000 tons of muriate containing less than one per cent of impurities. The Potash Co. of America, at Carlsbad, N. Mex., completed the conversion of its plant from a prospecting to an operating basis late in 1935. The coarse-crushing plant, with a capacity of 150 tons an hour, formerly on the surface, was installed underground, with ore pockets

Jan 1, 1938

By J. J. Reed

The mines of southeast Missouri's Lead Belt have been in operation since 1864, almost 100 years. During this period about 10 pct of the total ore available has been left in place as pillars, and this now represents the best ore reserve left to the older mines. St. Joseph Lead Co. has been investigating various plans of pillar recovery for several years. The example to be described is only one possible approach under a specific set of conditions. Conditions vary greatly in the different areas within the Lead Belt, and the same approach would be entirely inadequate in certain other areas, but there are important sections where this system is clearly applicable. Horizon mining is practiced in the Lead Belt, and stopes may vary from 10 ft to well over 100 ft high. Fig. 1 is a plan view of 6100 stope, the area to be discussed. For these mines this is a small stope, only 10 to 12 ft high. Before any plans were drawn up for pillar recovery, three independent estimates of the pillar grades were made by the mine superintendent, the mine captain, and the mine geologist. After these results were averaged, pillars indicated to be of economic grade were marked for removal as shown. At this stage several alternatives were considered: 1) retreat with caving, 2) concrete replacement pillars, and 3) systematic bolting and retreat. A retreating system with caving was not chosen because the roof was known to be too bad even to permit loading a blasted pillar before caving would begin. Concrete replacement pillars would have been too costly and would have required a large crew, bulky materials, and unwieldy equipment. Systematic bolting was chosen as being most acceptable for the following reasons: 1) Limited area and spans were involved. 2) Only minor modifications to the jumbo would be required for bolting. 3) Only a two-man bolting crew would be needed. 4) Only compact bolting materials would be required. 5) The bolting plan could be modified to allow

Jan 1, 1960

By W. Klement

By quenching liquid alloys, single-phase solid solutions are obtained in the ranges 0 to 42.0 at. pct Co-Au and 0 to 15 and 75 to about 100 at. pet Co-Cu. Metastable solid solutions are also found in multiphase 42.0 to 49.0 and 69. 0 to about 100 at. pet Co-Au alloys. fie inability to achieve complete solid solubiliiies in Au-co and cu-co alloys is rationalized by a conszderation of the rate processes during cooling and solidification. Trends in lattice distortion and shifts in the compositions of the melting-point minima and critical points are discussed for the binary alloys of copper, silver, and gold with some of the transition metals of the first long period. By rapidly cooling alloys from the melt, a continuous series of metastable solid solutions can often be obtained for components of similar crystal structure which normally form eutectic systems.' The eutectic system Au-Co, Fig. 1, and the peritectic system Cu-Co, Fig. 2, were investigated in order to determine the extent of the metastable solid solutions attainable with the present technique.* EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES Most of the alloys were prepared by melting weighed quantities of the elements (purity greater than 99.9 pct) under hydrogen in alumina crucibles by means of induction heating. After reweighing, the alloys were cast under argon into 1 mm diam wires. However, it was not possible to prepare some of the Cu-Co alloys with the requisite homogeneity (over about 1 mm3) in this way. For these alloys, reduced powders (purity greater than 99.9 pct) were mixed for 12 to 48 hr, pressed into compacts that were sintered at 1000º to 1050°C for 6 to 48 hr under hydrogen, and then furnace-cooled. Alloy charges of a few mm3, cut from the cast wires or chipped from the sintered compacts, were heated to 1550º to 1600°C in 30 sec in an alumina insert held within a graphite support and then ejected by a pulse of helium onto a lightly polished copper strip on the inner periphery of a rotating wheel. The

Jan 1, 1963

By Cadwallader Evans

THE American Institute of Mining Engineers was organized in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania by men who were primarily interested in anthracite. Its first meeting, at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in the Northern Anthracite field, on May 16, 1871, resulted from a call sent out by three outstanding men of the anthracite .industry: Eckley B. Coxe, R. P. Rothwell, and Martin Coryell. The best known of these was Eckley B. Coxe, who was the manager of large hold¬ings operated by him and his family,. and who is remembered as the inventor of a special grate for burning very fine anthracite, known as the Coxe traveling grate, which is still very widely used. R. P. Rothwell was a well-known consulting engineer of the region, as was Martin Coryell, who was associated with another well-known anthracite family, the Pardees. There is no record of the discussions that resulted in this initial meeting, but it is safe to assume that the formation of the Institute was largely influenced, through appreciation by the founders, of the necessity for a free exchange of information covering the whole of the mining industry. One of the rules adopted at the first meeting was:

Jan 1, 1947

By B. E. Fernow

MINING interests in the Western mountains are very seriously affected by the danger to property and life from destructive snowslides and avalanches. This is a danger which the miner has largely brought upon himself by an improvident stripping of the timber from the mountain slopes, and, therefore, he might be expected to take an interest in the reforestation of the areas thus devastated. A canvass was lately undertaken by the writer to ascertain approximately the extent of the damage suffered from this source, but the difficulty of obtaining reliable data has proved too great to permit, as yet, even an approximation. So much, however, is certain : that the loss of life is considerable, and that much property is destroyed almost every winter. True, neither the number of avalanches, nor their destructiveness, nor the amount of loss compares with what Switzerland experiences. This is due not only to the greater precipitousness of the Alps and to different climatic conditions, but also to the fact that in Switzerland a larger number of settlements is exposed to these dangers. A very complete and interesting official report on the very numerous and destructive avalanches occurring in Switzerland during the season of 1887-1888 has just been published as a contribution to the inquiry, whether and how these dangers can be averted. Peculiar weather-conditions, in addition to heavy falls of snow, were the reasons for the frequency of the phenomenon during that winter. This report records 1094 avalauches, by which 850 houses were destroyed or severely damaged; 84 persons and 752 cattle were buried; traffic on railroads and on highways was greatly interrupted, and the damage to personal property alone was valued at over $100,000. One of these snow-masses covered about half an acre, with a cone 250 feet in height. During the same year in Tyrol the number of avalanches was 3647. Of these 1355 run over permanent beds; that is, they recur annually, so that they are

Jan 1, 1890

By Charles Catlett

Having had charge during the past year of the operations of the New River Coke Company, the second largest, if not the largest, coke-producer in this district, my attention was called particularly to the yield of coke from the coal as coked in a bank of beehive ovens, as the record showed that this yield, while believed to be well up with the practice of the district, was much lower than the analysis of the coal indicated it should be. The coal is well known to many members of the Institute, and the scope of this paper does not include a discussion of its occurrence and development. It suffices to say that the New River district comprises the mines working on the coals of No. XII. or the Conglomerate Series of the Rogers brothers, which are located on New river and its tributaries, and which find an outlet for their product east and west over the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. The New river through this section carries the drainage from an extensive peneplain in which it has formed a very striking and stupendous canon, probably the most striking east of the Mississippi river. The only practical access to this territory is by means of this canon and the Chesapeake and Ohio road, and the opportunities for development by other lines may be considered as nil. If it were not for the fact that this road, farther west, reaches and develops entirely different coals, which are found in other measures, the New River district might properly be spoken of (as is now done at times) as the " C and 0. field." For fuller information on the geology of the region, those interested are referred to the ery complete monograph on the subject by Mendenhall and Campbell of the United States Geological Survey. The rocks are the same as those which carry the more widely

Jan 1, 1900

Operating Characteristics of Centrifugal Fans and Use of Fan Performance Curve Discussion of paper by. Louis W. HUBER, presented at the New York Meeting, 1926, .and issued, as Pamphlet No. 1542-A, with MINING AND METALLURGY, February, 1926. G. BRIGHT, Pittsburgh, Pa.-Apparently from the pressure curves for a forward-curved-blade fan, in Mr. Huber's paper, practically all ventilation-might be stopped with increased resistance. In order, to discuss the characteristics of a fan we need, some better way to measure the characteristics of a mine. You all know that. the average anemometer is not very-reliable. Sometimes two anemometers, supposed to be recently calibrated, will differ 50 per cent. Either this or some other committee should standardize measuring methods. The characteristic curves of fans, given by Mr. Huber, would indicate that the forward-curved-blade fan would cause trouble in attempting parallel operation, because two machines will not parallel unless they have dropping pressure characteristics. On the other hand, it is indicated that with the backward-curved blade, they could easily be paralleled. But few mines use more than one fan. Mr. Huber said that if the resistance of the mine was considerably more than contemplated, the quantity of air might be such that the efficiency of the backward-curved fan would be seriously affected, dropping say from 70 to 55 or 50 per cent. In such event, could a difference of speed be selected for the fan that would give the quantity desired at a higher efficiency? L. W. HUBER, Pittsburgh, Pa.-The backward-curved-blade fan responds to change in speed the same as any other fan; if' the speed is doubled, the quantity of air is doubled, the pressure is increased four times and the horsepower eight times. One point not mentioned in the paper is that the backward-curved fan is more efficient than the forward-curved or any other type. If the latter were more efficient, it would pay to install that type and keep the resistance of the mine constant, which is hard to do but it can be done with care. But the total mechanical efficiency of a fan with backward-curved blades is from 10 to 20 per cent. higher.

Jan 1, 1927

By J. H. Wiggins

Granting that about 600,000,000 bbl. of light oil will be produced in the United States this year and taking the Bureau of Mines' statement that 71/2 per cent. of the total crude production will be lost before the finished gasoline is shipped from the refinery, the volumetric evaporation will be 45,000,000 bbl. of the cream of the gasoline. This is a ConseNative figure and is equivalent to 1,890,000,000 gal. The real value of this liquid is at least 150 per cent. of the value of an equal volume of motor fuel. At only 10 c. per gal., the value lost is $189,000,000; at 15 e. per gal. the loss is $283,000,000. If 750,000,000 bbl. of light and heavy oil are produced here this year and the average price per barrel is $1.333, the gross return to producers will be $1,000,000,000 and the net returns about $200,000,000, if the cost of production is only $1 per barrel. Thus, the evaporation bill is about 20 per cent. of the gross income and is equal to the net income of the crude-oil producers. Two other comparisons with popular phases of the petroleum industry will help give an adequate conception of the evaporation problem. These are: cost of preventing evaporation compared to cost of cracked gasoline and volume of gasoline evaporated compared to volume of gasoline manufactured from natural gas. When gasoline is manufactured from heavy oils by the cracking process, there are two important divisions of the total cost of the product: the manufacturing cost, such as plant cost, operation, maintenance, etc., and the cost of the barrel of heavy oil, from which the cracked gasoline is made. In preventing evaporation loss the cost first mentioned enters into the total cost, but the second cost is eliminated; that is, no charge is necessary for stock from which to manufacture the saving. A detailed analysis of these two costs on a large scale shows that the net income from a dollar spent in preventing evaporation loss from the lease through the refinery is twice the net income from a dollar spent in cracking. Of

Jan 1, 1924

By John Garcia

COAL MINING, as well as all the other major in-dustries of Russia, is controlled by the Soviet Gov-ernment by means of organizations in each dis-trict, known as "Trusts," such as the "Kisel Coal Trust" in the Urals, the "Donugol Trust" in the Ukraine, etc., and each Trust functions as a unit, reporting direct to the chief of the department of the government at Moscow. The responsible head of each Trust is usually a mem-ber of the Communist party and, filtered through his organization, one generally finds a fair proportion of Communists in "key" or important positions, such as purchasing agents and local managers or superinten-dents, but in the majority of places requiring technical or professional knowledge, or trained brains and ex-perience, little or no attention is paid to a man's political opinion provided, of course, he "behaves himself." These different Trusts were authorized or ordered by the Central Committee at Moscow to investigate the methods of mining and type of mines developed in all other coal producing, countries of the world, and after a period of several years of intensive investigation and study reported back to headquarters that the modern American mines were the most efficient, recommending that the program for the rehabilitation of the Russian coal mining industry should follow the lines of American practice. The Trusts were then authorized to negotiate with American engineering firms for technical service for mine designs, and invited Americans to send commis-sions to Russia to prepare and submit to the Technical Council one or more projects for a complete modern American-type operation adapted to the local conditions. A "project" is a preliminary set of designs on the entire mine, top and bottom, with specifications. cost estimates, production costs, schedule of operation, budget of expen-diture, etc., and is quite an elaborate and sizable under-taking-I might say, it took six of us working tooth and nail for over three months to finish our first project.

Jan 3, 1928