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By R. W. Raymond

The death of Professor Blake removes the oldest of American economic geologists and mining engineers, and deprives this Institute of one of its earliest and most illustrious members. To many of us it brings a personal loss also, the loss of a friend. William Phipps Blake was born June 21, 1826, in New York City. His father, Elihu Blake, was a surgeon-dentist of eminence, a direct descendant of William -Blake, who settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1630. He was prs pared for college at private schools in New York, and entered the Sheffield School of Yale, where he was graduated as Ph.B. in the chemical course, class of 1852, the first graduating-class of the institution. In the same year he became chemist and mineralogist of the New Jersey Zinc Co., and chemist of chemical works at Baltimore, Md. In 1853, he started the Department of Mineralogy of the World's Fair at New York City. In 1854, 1855 and 1856, he was mineralogist and geologist of the United States Pacific Railroad Surveys of Willianlson, Pope, and Whipple, and for the War Department at

Jan 1, 1911

By John V. Beall

Runding the bottom corner of the West Africa11 hump, one hovers off the coast of the tiny Republic of Liberia. But not for long-as Portuguese navigators, Blackbirders, and Farrell Line captains have learned. The ponderous swell of the Atlantic is driven by an on-shore wind that never dies. As remorseless as the Atlantic chewing away at the unbroken shoreline, is the country beyond-West Africa, where white meets black, where desert blends to bush to impenetrable jungle, where elephants chomp the foliage of young trees. This is a land from which the tsetse fly has driven the cattle, and the root crops grow big and voluptuous above the ground and are shrunken and barren of nutrient below. This is the environment of Liberia which is elbowing an iron ore market for itself on crowded shelves. Liberia is an anomaly in Africa. It was the first republic on the continent in modern times, having been established in 1848. While most of Africa was benefiting from the investment of foreign capital under colonial regimes, Liberia was going it alone. To be sure, Liberia was aware of foreign activity as hunks of territory were lopped off by neighboring French and English colonies. Today the country is about 43,000 sq miles, the size of Tennessee, which, in the language of exploration men, is a workable size unit.

Jan 12, 1962

By M. P. Boss

Of the two methods of mechanical reduction—that of percussion and that of abrasion—it is not easy to say which was first employed by primeval man. The stone hammer and the flat or hollowed stone used for grinding are found together in the remains of prehistoric periods. But the use of the maray, or bucking-stone, developed from the hammer, was probably introduced later than that of crude millstones. Diodorus Siculus, the Roman historian of the first century B. c., mentions such millstones as used in the mines of Egypt to pulverize material which had been previously broken in a mortar. The invention of the arrastra for fine grinding is declared by some authorities to have been made by Bartolomeo de Medina, at Pachuca, Mexico, about A. D. 1557—which is quite probable. Being the first to amalgamate silver on anything like a business scale, he must have felt the necessity for oregrinding apparatus of greater capacity than the old primitive millstones; and the arrastra was thus the natural successor of the millstone. It is very unfortunate that the archives of Pachuca, which has made so much history in ore-treatment, were destroyed in some one of the many insurrections for which, also, the place is renowned. The first application of the stamp to the crushing of rock is asserted by some writers to have been the invention of a Saxon nobleman named Von Maltitz, about the year 1505. Better authenticated reference, however, is made to one Paul Gronstetter, a native of Schwarz, and called an ingenious worker, who, in the year 1519, established at Joachimsthal a process of wet stamping and sifting. Two years later, a larger plant was established at the came place. It is said that he had previously introduced the same device at Schneeberg. How much of the invention was due to Gronstetter is not certain;

Jan 1, 1902

By H. B. Fuqua, B. E. Thompson

For a very brief description of the North Texas area, and the general geological features with which it is associated, the reader is referred to the opening paragraph of last year's summary1. A more complete discussion of the structure of the area, together with other interesting data concerning it, has been published recently by the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas2. It has been impossible for the authors to isolate the statistics for production for each of the many small pools of this district, as such statistics are not kept by operators except by counties or arbitrary divisions of counties. The total number of wells drilled in Archer, Wichita and Clay counties also has been subject to some estimate, as many of the shallower holes are not reported. While both routine development in proven or semiproven areas and exploratory drilling during 1935 showed an increase over the year 1934, the discovery of new producing areas of importance did not show improvement over that period. Several extremely local productive spots within semiproven areas were found in Archer, Cooke and Wilbarger counties; and extensions to older producing areas were developed in Archer, Baylor, Cooke, Montague, Wichita and Wilbarger counties. In Archer County, the Grace and Woods No. 1 Archer County (Fee), 4 miles northwest of Archer City, in the Thomas Glass survey, encountered a sand from 2836 to 2845 ft. of Pennsylvanian (lower Canyon) age, which showed an initial yield of 75 bbl. daily. While its production is of negligible importance, it is given special mention in this review because of the fact that it is producing from a new and deeper horizon than has been previously exploited in the county. Little deep development occurred in the district during the year. The Walter Gant No. 2 C. M. Worsham in J. M. Swisher survey, about 14 miles east of Henrietta, in Clay County, was abandoned at 5127 ft. in

Jan 1, 1936

By Walter Weeks

LITTLE study has been made of the pressure changes and energy losses that take place when an air current is divided into splits which subse-quently unite. The discussion and the experiments that are described in this paper deal with the division of an air current into square splits of equal size, the area of each of the splits at the downstream junction being one-half the area of the main duct. APPARATUS AND SYMBOLS The duct system shown in Fig. 1 was built of Y4-in. redwood and made as smooth as possible.The section of the top over the splits and the zone of mixing was of plate glass to permit observation of the stream lines. FIG. 1-DUCT SYSTEM. Static pressures were measured by means of pinhole tubes and a precise inclined manometer. Measurements of rates of flow were .made by determining the drop in pressure through concentric square orifices in the splits. The air was supplied by a fan operated by a direct-current motor that received its current from a motor generator set. Delicate rheostats in the armature. of the motor. made possible the perfect control of the fan speed, which was indicated on an electrical tachometer. Vanes to straighten the. flow were placed at the head of the main duct.

Jan 1, 1933

By Augustus Locke, Edward H. Perry

In the exploration of a copper deposit by drilling, obvious advantages are to be gained from a distinction between primary and secondary ore.' Perhaps the chief of these is the aid which such a distinction renders in determining where a given hole should stop. The copper assay, often a sufficient guide, cannot always be exclusively relied upon. Primary ores may extend downward indefinitely and may fluctuate in value independently of depth: if primary ores are consistently lean for a considerable vertical distance, there is little reason to expect that, still deeper, they will increase to the commercial grade; on the other hand, rich primary ores may persist uninterruptedly downward or may come in again below a lean interval. Secondary ores, however, have a comparatively limited vertical extent; in a large way enrichment decreases with depth and finally gives out. It follows then, that when a hole descends from profitable ore into ore of less than the commercial minimum, the practical significance of the situation depends upon whether this decrease results from a decrease in secondary enrichment or is a variation in primary content: if the copper of the ore passed through has been chiefly secondary, little is gained in the average case by extending the hole much below the point at which the commercial limit is reached; but, when copper is chiefly primary, due weight must be given to the possibility that, still deeper, the ore may again improve. The distinction between primary and secondary ore may of course be effected through an examination of the drillings. It has been found, however, to be facilitated by curves made by plotting assays against

Jan 1, 1916

The Library of the above-named Societies is open from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. on all week-clays, except holidays, from September 1 to June 30, and from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. during July and August. The Library contains about 55,000 volumes, including sets of technical periodicals and the publications of scientific and technical societies. Members of the Institute, with few exceptions, are forced to spend a portion of their time in localities isolated from sources of information. To these the Library can render valuable service through correspondence; letters requesting information will receive special attention. The Library is prepared to furnish references and copies of articles on mining and metallurgical subjects; to determine the existence of mining-maps, and to furnish general information as to the geology and mineral resources of all countries. All communications should be made as definite as possible so that the information received may be what is desired and not include collateral matter which may not be of interest. The time spent in searching for such collateral matter will be saved, and the information will be sent more promptly and in more usable shape. The members of the Institute can be of service to the Library by forwarding copies of mining-reports, maps privately issued, and similar material, which will be classified, indexed, and made available to other members. Suggestions for additions to the Library, either by purchase or personal solicitation as gifts, will be welcomed. It is hoped that members while in the city will use the Library freely, and assurance is, given that most careful service will be rendered to them.

Jan 9, 1913

By F. L. Grammer

The analyses given in Table I. were made several years ago at my request at a plant using Lake ores. They are of two furnaces, one making basic, the other Bessemer pig— they gave 6 casts each in 24 hr., also two flushes of cinder between each cast. They are offered simply for the sake of reference as, so far as I know, it is unusual to find so frequent full analyses made and none are on record. The variations in manganese-content in the first and second flushes on the basic furnace are interesting, if no more than a freak—the first flush being invariably higher in manganese. The iron-content of the two slags from an average of 12 flushes shows: Basic. Bessemer. Per Cent. Per Cent. Total iron...................................... 2.85 1.70 Combined iron................................ 0.72 0.52 Free iron....................................... 2.13 1.18 The greater iron-loss in the basic slag, while known, has never heretofore been so clearly set forth. This may modify the arrangement for handling slag; heretofore usually determined by proximity of the dumping-heap. If a nearby heap is used on contiguous territory, in the past, tilting molten-slag pots were used. If the Pittsburg flood-records for 30 years are a fair criterion the government regulations were inadequate, and molten slag was dumped in such a manner as to throttle the Monongahela at the time of the spring thaws. At Pittsburg the slag, where it is carried to a distance, is frequently granulated in pits and then removed in cars to which it is conveyed by clam-shell buckets. This practice is also quite customary where the slag is intended for the manufacture of slag cement. The production of 500 tons of cast-iron daily means about 300 tons of- slag and at 2.113 per cent. equals 6.4 tons

Jan 1, 1914

All data about shipments from the present state of West Virginia, even when it was still a part of the "Old Dominion," are shown in Table 56 together with the source of information, and all other figures are estimated. While the earliest production was undoubtedly in the extreme northern part of the state, coal having been quite largely used in Pennsylvania before any is credited to West Virginia, the largest production in the early days of the industry was along the Kanawha River where the salt furnaces used tremendous quantities for years before shipments were made by river. When we take into consideration the economic conditions existing then, it is evident that the consumption of coal by the salt industry along the Kanawha and Kiskiminitas Rivers rivalled in importance that of any industry today. There were no canals built in this state, the shipments before railroads were built being by the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers, and production in the northern counties began after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was completed from Cumberland to Wheeling. For some years after this line was completed all locomotive fuel used on it was hauled from the Cumberland region. The movement of coal from Boone County by Coal River to the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers from 1857 to 1880 is rather unique in its size and the length of movement, nearly all the coal going at least as far as Cincinnati and much of it to New Orleans. Fayette County began shipping when the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad was completed and Mercer County, when the Norfolk & Western Railroad reached there in 1884; none of the other large producing counties in the southern part of the state began producing coal in the period under study.

Jan 1, 1942

By J. B. Dilworth

In estimating the investment-value of a mining-property or plant, the value of which decreases with operation, it is often necessary to know the sum which must be set aside periodically from earnings either to renew the plant at the end of its life, or to return the capital involved when the earningpower of the investment has ceased. In such cases it is manifestly incorrect simply to divide the total amount to be retired by the 'number of periods (usually years) during which the investment shall be active, as the sums periodically withdrawn have a certain interest-earning power varying with the length of time they are held and with the opportunities afforded for their investment. But though the interest may be considered to accumulate regularly year by year, yet the rules and tables for compouiid interest do not apply, owing to the addition of a fixed amount of new money to the total at the beginning of each period. Briefly stated, the problem of sinking-funds is, to find the amount of money which must be periodically set aside at a certain rate of interest, regularly compounded, to yield a certain sum in a given length of time. In most practical cases the interest is compounded and the fresh amount added at the same time—usually once a year—and on this basis the problem may be solved as follows : Let S = total amount to be retired, Let T = interest rate : R = 1 + r, Let n = life of tlie sinking-fund or the amortization-period, Let L = the sum set aside at the end of each year. Then the amouilt of the sinking-fund at the end of first year is 2, which at the end of n years will have illcreased by compound interest to IRn-l. Similarly, another amount, x, will be set aside at the end of second year, which will in turn increase

Jan 1, 1911

The Library of the above-named Societies is open from 9 A.M. to 10 P.M. on a11 week-days, except holidays, from Sept. 1 to June 30, and from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. during July and August. The Library contains about 55,000 volumes, including sets of technical periodicals and the publications of scientific and technical societies. Members of the Institute, with few exceptions, are forced to spend a portion of their time in localities isolated from sources of information. To these the Library can render valuable service through correspondence; letters requesting information will receive special attention. The Library is prepared to furnish references and copies of articles on mining and metallurgical subjects; to determine the existence of mining maps, and to furnish general information as to the geology and mineral resources of all countries. All communications should be made as definite as possible so that the information received may be what is desired and not include collateral matter which may not be of interest. The time spent in searching for such collateral matter will be saved, and the information will be sent more promptly and in more usable shape. The members of the Institute can be of service to the Library by for- warding copies of mining reports, maps privately issued, and similar material, which will be classified, indexed, and made available to other members. Suggestions for additions to the Library, either by purchase or personal solicitation as gifts, will be welcomed. It is hoped that members while in the city will use the Library freely, and assurance is given that most careful service will be rendered to them.

Jan 8, 1916

By C. R. Hocott

THE distribution and movement of fluids in oil reservoirs are influ-enced to a great extent by capillary forces, which depend upon the size and shape of the pores in the reservoir rock, the surface characteristics of the rock, and the interfacial tension between the fluid phases. This paper presents the results of an investigation of the interfacial tension between salt water and crude oil containing dissolved gas under reser-voir conditions. APPARATUS AND PROCEDURE In the preliminary phases of this investigation, it was found that a scum formed at the oil-water interface, which made measurement of interfacial tension by either the ring or capillary rise methods unreliable. Accordingly, the drop-weight method, in which a fresh interface is con-tinuously formed, was selected. In this method, a tip through which drops of one fluid can be expelled is immersed in a second fluid. At the instant that the drop becomes large enough to fall, the gravitational force tending to pull away the drop exactly balances the interfacial force tending to hold it. From the size of the drop, the dimensions of the tip, and the density of the two fluid phases, the interfacial tension may be calculated. The apparatus consists of a circulating pump for bringing the oil to equilibrium with gas at the desired pressure, a displacement pump for forming the drops, an interfacial tension cell in which the drops are formed, and a density cell to determine the density of the oil. The density of the water is determined separately in another apparatus. A flow diagram of the assembled equipment is shown in Fig. 1.

Jan 1, 1938

W. L. Saunders, New York, N. Y. (communication to the Secretary*):—The Laramie tunnel, though a small one, compares very favorably in the speed of driving with the great Alpine tunnels which have the record so far. I think it safe to say that, taking all things into consideration, the record made at Laramie is the best American record, though it still falls short of the long-tunnel records abroad. In discussing tunnel-records it must always be borne in mind that there are conditions peculiar to each individual tunnel job, so that no comparisons are complete, fair and conclusive. At Laramie there is one point which stands out prominently, and which distinguishes this from any of the recently-built Alpine tunnels, and that is that here we have great progress in an American driven tunnel without the use of a carriage for mounting the drills. At the Arlberg and Loetschberg tunnels, the carriage was an essential condition for progress. All the heading-drills were mounted upon a bar which rested upon a small carriage. This carriage was withdrawn after the drilling and run into the heading after the blast without much disturbance of the drills, and with very little adjustment except that required in jacking the horizontal bar across the tunnel. The carriage was so small in its track-area that it required little mucking to run it in to the face; and as the rock-drills used were heavy machines 38 in. in diameter, progress in setting up and drilling was very much accelerated by the use of the carriage. At the Laramie tunnel hammer-drills were used instead of piston-drills, and here we have an important distinction which

Jan 1, 1913

By Bernard Kopelman, C. C. Gregg

THE reduction of tungstic oxide to tungsten metal powder by hydrogen is a process by which one might expect the resultant metal powder to be porous. In- [ ] deed, sponge iron, prepared by reduction of the oxide in a reducing gas, is generally accepted as quite porous, with pores large enough to be seen readily under the optical microscope at relatively low magnifications. However, any pores that may exist in tungsten metal powder are not resolved by the optical microscope, and apparently, not even by the electron microscope. Fig I shows commercial tungsten powder magnified at 10,000X by the electron microscope,1 both etched and unetched. In an earlier paper by one of the authors,2 the existence of pores in tungsten powder [ ] was required to explain adequately the particle size changes occurring during the reduction of tungstic oxide. The inability to detect these pores under the electron microscope at 10,000 X implies that these pores are of a size of 100 A units or less. (This in itself is by no means proof that pores above 100 A would not exist, since polishing effects on the specimen might smear up holes of such small magnitude). If, then, these pores are less than 100 A, and of the order of molecular size, then the density of the metal powder should be

Jan 1, 1948

By B. L. Cusack, N. W. Stump

Selected technological developments applicable to lead and zinc mineral processing and changes in Australian concentration practices made since 1770 are reviewed. Laboratory and pilot plant studies of two new ores have been conducted since 1770. These have resulted in final flowsheet proposals which are described. New production capacity since IT0 has been based on plant expansion or the retreatment of oxidised tailings from plants operating pre-1940ts. Major developments in existing plants have come from the application of computer control to crushing, grinding and flotation and the installation of on-stream analysis systems. Flowsheet configurations have been altered in a number of plants. Selected research topics applicable to lead and zinc processing are also reviewed.

Jan 1, 1977

By J. G. McCullough

The paper is a general description of the U.S. lead and zinc industries as they are now compared to ten years ago and the effect of recent world-wide developments. Topics of interest concerning lead are the present and potential growth of the lead-acid battery business, the potential hazards of having one outlet for a major proportion of production, the expanding U.S. secondary lead production, the hardships of stringent hygiene and environmental regulations and the future supply and demand outlook. The present poor condition of the U.S. zinc industry caused by an oversupply of zinc metal - mostly in Europe - is discussed and also the shifting markets influenced by the automotive programs to reduce the weight of cars and the continuing high mine production due to the mixture of metals contained in the massive sulphide deposits which contain a major portion of the zinc metal reserves. This is all tempered by technical advances in die casting and the emphasis on the protecting of steel with zinc to prolong its useful life. New U.S. mine and smelter production facilities will be restrained due to lower cost foreign zinc from better grade ore deposits and the insistence by Governments for refining capacity to be constructed in the country that the ore is mined.

Jan 1, 1977

By E. D. Peters

The Sudbury ore-deposits possess a peculiar interest for a variety of reasons. In the first place, they are deep within the borders of the Huronian rocks, and are consequently amongst the oldest deposits that we know of, unless, indeed, the ores were deposited at a much later period than the country rock. Again, they carry nickel in unusual proportions, and lastly, they are unique in containing a small amount of platinum, although arsenic is not present. I shall not pretend to go into the geology of this region. The Huronian and Laurentian rocks are familiar to all American geologists, and these present only the usual series of gneiss, graywacke, quartzites, greenstones, clay-slates, etc., characteristic of this gigantic system of rocks, which has excited so much discussion of late years. As in all parts of Canada where it occurs, I believe, the rocks of this system are tilted to such an extraordinary degree that it may be said that the whole country is standing on edge at an angle of something like 70°. The general strike of these rocks is southwest

Jan 1, 1890

By C. M. Warner

In both the Flat River district of southeast Missouri and the Joplin district of southwest Missouri the lead concentrates are of very high grade, free of arsenic, antimony and bismuth, and contain no gold and very little silver. The general practice in both districts is to smelt the concentrates containing 70 to 85 per cent lead on Scotch hearths, to recover 70 to 85 per cent of the lead, and then smelt in a blast furnace the slag formed in the Scotch hearths to bring the total recovery of lead from lead concentrates to over 97.5 per cent. At the lead smelter of the St. Joseph Lead Co. at Herculaneum, Mo., no Scotch hearths are used. In the other smelters in the district the blast furnace plays a minor role to the Scotch hearth . The concentrates produced from the Flat River district are either table concentrates or flotation concentrates containing: Both types of concentrates are received at Herculaneum in box cars after being sampled. Great care is taken in weighing and sampling of cars of concentrates and in the determination of moisture and lead contents. The concentrates are unloaded into bins by an adaptation of scoop grain unloader. Four men unload and sweep a 40 to 45-ton box car of concentrates in 30 minutes. The same grade of concentrates is received each day and no metal-bearing fluxes are available. The problem is to get as high a recovery as possible as cheaply as possible from the high-grade lead concentrates produced by the company's concentrating mills. Sintering The bulk of the sulphur is removed from the concentrates and the fine concentrate particles are agglomerated by double roasting on typical Dwight and Lloyd sintering machines.

Jan 1, 1937

By W. Joseph Schlitt

The characteristics of successful heap and dump leach operations are first reviewed in a general sense. Then attention is focussed on solution management as the key operating parameter in leaching. The first part of this study includes a detailed conceptual analysis of fluid flow. This identifies the relationships between the flow parameters and the chemical and physical properties of the rock. Then these relationships are extended to practical systems in order to establish optimum application rates and solution distribution methods for heaps and dumps. The study shows that there is a maximum effective application rate, qmax, that can be used without causing solution short circuiting. This rate is a function of the minimum permeability in the heap or dump. The expression for qmax is qmax (gal/ft2/hr)[~]0.9 k (darcies). Here k is the appropriate permeability coefficient. Using this equation, qmax is found to be on the order of 1 gal/ft2/hr (4 cm/hr) for a typical heap or dump leach operation.

Jan 1, 1984

By D. Turnbull, A. M. Turkalo

It is well known that if copper that has been severely cold-worked by rolling (70-98 pct) is heated to high temperatures a small number of large grains are formed at the expense of the fine grained structure that appears upon primary recrystallization. Dahl and Pawlek,' Cook and Mac-Quarie,2 Ward,3 and Boas and Bowles4 have studied this phenomenon in copper. It has been reported as taking place with measurable velocities in the temperature range 700-1080". Boas and Bowles have reported that the time necessary for the transformation is of the order of days at 700°C. According to Ward3 the number of secondary grains which appear in OFHC copper decrease with increasing perfection of cubical alignment after primary recrystallization; also the perfection of cubical alignment increases with decreasing grain size prior to the final reduction. In this investigation two heats, A and B, of especially high purity copper (99.999 pct) supplied by the American Smelting and Refining Co., were used. The behavior of samples prepared from the two heats was qualitatively very similar providing that the grain sizes established prior to the final reduction were about the same. We observed that in specimens prepared from bars which were relatively coarse grained prior to final reduction secondary recrystallization took place at a rapid rate at temperatures as low as 500°C. This is about 200-300°C lower than the temperature necessary to obtain fairly rapid transformation in OFHC copper. A 0.22 in. thick rectangular bar of lot B was cold-reduced 60 pct by straight rolling and given a penultimate annealing treatment at 250°C. Following this it was cold-reduced 90 pct and heated to various temperatures in the range 450-1040°C. The specimens were about 8 mils thick

Jan 1, 1950