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By E. T. Dumble

THE development in the Gulf Coastal Plain for the year 1923 was entirely devoid of any spectacular feature and was considerably less than that of 1922. No large fields were discovered and the principal advances lay in the extension of the old fields and the finding of a new dome and other possible producing structures, which, however, so far, have given only small wells. While the production of some fields, such as those at Hull and Orange, was materially increased at times by comparatively large wells, the output as a whole shows a marked decrease over that of the preceding year. TABLE 1.-Production by Fields in Gulf Coastal Plain in 1923 FIELD BARRELS FIELD BARRELS Anse La Butte 16,942 Jennings 212,376 Barber's Bill 172,660 Markham 39,290 Batson 391,857 North D ayton 74,983 Big Hill (Jefferson County) 13,853 Orange 5,311,995 Blue Ridge 332,445 Pierce Junction 332,565 Damon Mound 822,355 Richmond (Big Creek) 17,545 Edgerley 176,964 Saratoga 700,661 Goose Creek 6,251,761 Sour Lake 2,091,961 High Island 19,018 Spindletop 309,315 Hull 7,732,139 Vinton 2,134,430 Humble 2,449,744 West Columbia 6,598,589 36,203,448

Jan 3, 1924

By Courtenay de Kalb

THE Exposed Treasure gold-mine has, for the past four years, been one of the largest producing mines of Southern California, its annual output having constituted 1 per cent of the total gold and silver production of the entire State. At the present moment the property is idle, owing to the large quantity of water encountered oil the lower levels, which will require the installation of a powerful pumping-plant before operations can be recommenced. Moreover, a prompt change in the character of the ore has occurred at water-level, which makes imperative an extensive campaign of development in the region of the unoxidized ores before a plant adapted to their treatment can be definitely decided upon. The character of the changes encountered in these deeper ores makes the geology of this deposit a matter of importance, not only for the immediate district, but for the desert region of Southern California in general, where many mines exist having in the oxidized belt conditions that, in many respects, resemble those in the Exposed Treasure mine. The deposit is situated in an apparently isolated butte about 2.5 miles south from the town of Mojave, on the Mojave desert; The butte, though apparently isolated, is in fact geologically part of an extinct volcano, known as Soledad butte, which rises out of the plain 1,5 miles SW. of the mine, to an altitude of 4,650 ft. above sea-level. Other buttes also rise from the desert plain toward the south and east, and again to the westward, all being closely related geologically to Soledad butte,-the whole constituting a single system as to origin and time. Since the end of the period of active volcanism in this region, there has been extensive denudation, the ancient plateau having been dissected during an epoch of apparently exces-

Jan 1, 1907

By M. B. Kahle, A. D. Pernichele

Four types of slope failures in waste dumps are recognized debris flow, foundation failure, edge slump, and blowout. The first three types, although at times causing considerable damage to property and interfering with mine operations, are not usually dangerous to personnel because of their slow rate of movement. The fourth type, the blowout, is the most dangerous because of its explosive mode of failure and lack of forewarning. The December 1969 failure at Verona dump is presented as an example of a blowout. Data from piezometer holes indicate that the blowout was due to perched leach solutions near the face of the dump. The level of water in this zone is very closely related to the rate of leach water application on the dump. A detailed analysis of core samples indicates that the impounded water was perched on a zonal accumulation of jarosite which is associated with a buried dump surface. Drain holes proved successful in controlling perched leach solutions in the critical zone near the face of the dump. Monitoring of the water level in the perched zone is considered essential in preventing blowouts. The use of drain and piezometer holes has allowed an increase in the rate of water application on the dump while preventing additional failure.

Jan 1, 1972

By James Norman, E. W. Gieseke

SPODUMENE is a lithium-bearing pyroxene, and is an important source of lithium compounds. Because of its high alumina and lithia content. it might be a desirable constituent of glass batches. The use of spodumene in ceramics will undoubtedly increase, as it has been shown that a mixture of the proper proportions of this mineral with soda feldspar and potash feldspar has a much lower maturing temperature upon firing than has any one of the three components.1 The mineral spodumene seldom occurs as pure mineral, but ordinarily with feldspars, mica and quartz. All spodumene-bearing rocks tested contained these minerals as gangue. Small amounts of iron and manganese oxides also were present, usually as stains on the silicate grains. Mica associated with the spodumene carried a considerable amount of lithia. This was discovered in flotation tailings, which, although virtually free of spodumene grains when examined microscopically, showed 0.4 to 0.5 per cent Li20 on chemical analysis. The lithia content of micas picked from the North Carolina spodumene rock was variable. Some samples contained little lithia, others more than 3 per cent. In 1938, under the supervision of Oliver C. Ralston, [t] the Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the Tennessee Mineral Products Corporation, undertook to study the beneficiation of North Carolina spodumene by froth flotation. The Bureau had previously published investigations on the beneficiation of spodumene.2, 3 The methods described in the second publication3 did not give good results with badly weathered spodumene rock, so that more thorough investigation of the subject was warranted. STUDY OF METHOD OF FLOTATION SEPARATION Most of the work on concentration of spodumene was done with rock from near King's Mountain, North Carolina. Rock from two

Jan 1, 1940

By Y. C. Kim, S. L. Barua

M. Armstrong's paper is very interesting and can be regarded as a pioneering work of applying geostatistics on washed coal. The density levels used in her study are uniformly spaced, which facilitated curve fitting through a proper experimental design. Most of the existing coal washing plants in the US, however, gather washability data at non-uniform intervals which, in turn, affects the goodness of curve fitting. We would like to emphasize the importance of having a proper experimental design, if a similar geostatistical application is to be conducted on washed coal. We, at the University of Arizona, tried the variogram on recovery (Kim, Barua, and Baafi, 1982, SME preprint 82-143) which showed a similar pattern as Fig. 4 of Armstrong's paper. In both cases, the first experimental variogram value is invariably and inexplicably higher than the second variogram value. Although Armstrong ignores the first point because of "small number of sample points," we did not do so because there were 17 sample pairs. As a consequence, we concluded that the obtained experimental variogram was unsatisfactory and that further research is warranted. In other words, this disagreement in variogram interpretation between M. Armstrong and the University of Arizona begs the question whether the experimental variogram of Fig. 4 truly reflects the spatial correlation in washed coal, assuming there is such a correlation. Finally, we wish that Armstrong could have done a similar study on clean sulfur, which is a vital interest to the coal mines in the US. Her implied remark on sulfur in the concluding section of the paper may turn out to be incorrect because our experimental variograms on clean sulfur at different density levels were even less satisfactory than those on recovery. ?

Jan 1, 1986

A GREAT labor, surely, is that of the coppersmith, since his every work must be hewn from the mass of copper by force of the hammer. At the beginning, middle, and, end all his works are inconvenient pieces and unpleasant to handle. If the work is done on the forge with the fire, it is done in order to refine or compose it into masses again, for drawing these out while hot with the blows of some heavy hammer, or in order to put the works in a condition that allows them to be drawn out while cold and worked. In this he puts all his labor and industry. He who works at this art often makes use of large hammers, sometimes of small ones, and sometimes of those that have a long iron head and a short handle. With these he is obliged ever to proceed in one of these activities, either extending the work lengthwise, narrowing it, or widening it. This is achieved by the manner and direction of striking and therefore it is sometimes hammered on the inside, sometimes on the outside, sometimes with the peen, and sometimes with the flat head. For instance, when he wishes to close it up he strikes it on the outside with the peen, and if he wishes to widen it he strikes it on the inside with either the flat head or the peen. In this way he proceeds to shape it with constant patience, and to make all the vessels that he works graceful. This metal, as I have told you, is soft, flexible, and tenacious under the hammer. It yields with a certain toughness, provided, however, that it is fine and without admixture of a trace of tin or other metal. That craftsman is a good master of this art who best makes every desired work

Jan 1, 1942

By A. B. Parsons

PUBLICATION of this little volume is a luxury that the Institute itself could scarcely afford. In truth, no engineer nor geologist, no assayer nor metallurgist would be likely to enhance his knowledge, improve his technique, or cut his own operating costs by reading this excellent translation of two booklets first published circa A.D. 1520. It is doubtful if the present enterprise would, in a practical or tangible way, "promote the arts and sciences connected with the economic production of the useful minerals and metals." And such, is the prescribed purpose for which the funds of the Institute should be spent. Fortunately for the Institute, the Seeley W. Mudd Memorial Fund is not so circumscribed; and the Fund Committee enjoys, greater liberty of action. The sponsorship by the Mudd Fund in 1942 of the publication of The Pirotechnia of Vannoccio Biringuccio, as translated by Dr. Smith and Mrs. Gnudi, was an innovation-indeed something of an experiment. Not only was the content of the volume significant mainly for its "cultural" and "scholarly" attributes; -but the format, an outstanding example of the fascinating art of bookmaking, bore no resemblance to the ordinary technical book. The Committee, frankly, was surprised at the enthusiastic reception accorded the volume. When a second edition was required, the Committee became convinced that the publication of material of this type, particularly if printed and bound in attractive form, was an appropriate avenue for utilizing a moderate proportion of the monies available from the Fund. The Bergbüchlein and the Probierbüchlein antedate by some years the first publication of De la Pirotechnia and of De re Metallica; but Georgius Agricola, the author of the latter work, made good use of the material in the earlier volumes. As pointed out in the Introduction, both

Jan 1, 1949

By John Blatchford, William T. Hall

The product obtained by roasting stibnite is likely to contain some unoxidized antimony trisulphide and a mixture of antimony trioxide and antimony tetroxide. It was desired to determine, as accurately as possible, the condition of the antimony as well as the total quantity present. Attempts were made to separate the trisulphide and the two oxides by methods based upon their varying solubilities in different solvents, but no satisfactory results were obtained in this way. It was found, however, that by determining the total antimony content, the antimony present as trioxide, and the antimony present as trisulphide, a good idea of the chemical composition of the roasted product could be obtained. The total antimony was determined by dissolving the sample in concentrated hydrochloric acid, reducing the antimony entirely to the trivalent condition by means of hydriodic acid and eventually titrating the antimony back to the pentavalent condition by means of iodine in the presence of sodium bicarbonate1* The details of the procedure are as follows: Weigh out 0.25 gram of the roasted product into a trapped flask (Fig. I), add 4 grams of powdered tartaric acid, 2 grams of potassium iodide and 40 c.c. of concentrated hydrochloric acid. Boil the solution gently f;r 5 min. and then cool to room temperature by shaking the flask while holding it under running water. Then, very carefully discharge the iodine color by the cautious addition of 0.05-normal sodium thiosulphate solution, adding a little starch toward the last. Nearly neutralize the acid with ammonia solution, but leave the solution distinctly acid. Pour the slightly acid solution into 200 c. c. of water containing an excess of sodium bicarbonate and titrate to a permanent blue color with standard 0.1-normal iodine solution.

Jan 1, 1916

Data about production are very meager. In this county from the earliest days until after the Civil War, the amount of coal used locally greatly exceeded that shipped on account of the iron produced; for many years the furnaces used raw coal for melting the ore. In 1846 it was stated that in this county one ton of iron required three tons of iron ore and three tons of local coal used raw.1 In 1864, eleven furnaces in Pennsylvania using 102,230 tons of raw coal produced 44,671 tons of iron, or 2.3 tons raw coal per ton of pig iron .2 This was probably as good a record as was made, as nearly all furnaces changed to coke some years later. Neither of these figures include the coal used for steam and other purposes around an iron plant. The Beaver and Erie Canal was opened in 1845 and the shipments shown from then to 1865, inclusive, are of coal received by the canal at Erie, and do not include any used at local points along the canal. From the completion of the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad in 1864 the tonnage shipped by canal decreased. rapidly, and, while the canal shipments after 1864 are supposed to be those received at Erie by canal only, they may include some rail tonnages. Tonnages on Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad may, and probably do, include some used locally; those on the Jamestown & Franklin Railroad do not. It is likely that both canal and Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad figures include some coal originating in Lawrence County, and possibly a little from Beaver County. These tonnages are not duplicated in the data for either of the other counties. Not all of the railroad reports can be found now.

Jan 1, 1942

THE second award of the Saunders Gold Medal for "distinguished achievement in mining," of which the first was awarded last year to the late D. W. Brunton, has been made to Herbert Hoover. The main events of Mr. Hoover's life are so familiar to all through the numerous journal articles about him and his work, and the interesting biography written by Vernon Kellogg, that no attempt will be made here to touch on anything other than his achievements as a professional mining engineer, for which the award was made. He graduated in mining from Leland Stanford, Jr., University in 1895, but had served as an assistant to Dr. Branner on the Arkansas Geological Survey in 1893 and had also worked two sum-mers as an assistant to H. W. Turner and Waldemar Lind-gren on U. S. Geological Sur-vey work in the Sierra Nevada around Lake Tahoe, and on the American River. Immediately after graduation he got "a job" underground at Grass Valley, and soon rose to be night shift-boss. He then secured employment with the late Louis Janin and made such a good record as office and field assistant that he was soon placed in charge of a small mine at Carlisle, N. M. In 1897, Mr. Janin recom-mended him to Bewick, More-ing & Co., who were looking for an examining engineer for their staff in Australia. Two years were spent in hard work there which was done so creditably that his princi-pals held him and his judg-ment in the highest regard, and he came to the head of their local organization. Among the properties which he acquired for them was the Sons of Gwalia.

Jan 2, 1928

Discussion of the paper of C. A. HEBERLEIN, presented at the New York meeting. February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 98, February, 1915, pp. 497 to 504. H. D. PALLISTER, State College, Pa. (communication to the Secretary).-Mr. Heberlein gives some valuable information concerning a branch of mining and metallurgy which has been neglected during the last few years. His results with fine grinding and Deister tables suggest the possibility of the mining and concentration of a number of low-grade cinnabar deposits. Can Mr. Heberlein give us some idea as to the loss of quicksilver during this concentration? The advances in the metallurgy of quicksilver have been few and far between in recent years. Most miners prefer to go on in the old way with the Scott furnace and the large brick condensers. The large brick condensers are expensive to build and to keep in repair, and on account of the thick walls are extremely slow in cooling the gases; and further, the joints between the bricks offer passages for the quicksilver vapors unless great care is used in building the condensers.. The escape of vapor at the top of the furnace is another source of loss and I see the people at the Oceanic mine have overcome this in a very ingenious way. I recently returned from the Terlingua quicksilver district of Texas, where the only operating company, the Chisos Mining Co., is operating a 20-ton furnace of the Scott type. They had considerable difficulty with getting a good extraction, clue to too high heating in the furnace with its .resulting diffIculties. Recently they have been running with ashpit and fire doors closed and have been able to keep the heat lower, thus getting much better results and practically verifying the results obtained at the Oceanic mine.

Jan 5, 1915

By G. T. Brookman, P. B. Katz, D. K. Martin, J. A. Ripp

With the increasing emphasis on using American fossil fuel resources, more facilities are evaluating coal conversion. In addition, those facilities now using coal are considering better coal storage procedures to minimize negative environmental impacts. For example, rainfall and snowmelt on a coal pile produce a drainage stream high in acidity, suspended and dissolved solids, iron, sulfate, and trace metals. Usually, the characteristics of the runoff stream do not allow for direct discharge to streams and lakes. Detention in a holding pond and pH adjustment are traditional methods of treating coal pile runoff before discharge. Historically, this treatment methodology has been performed inefficiently without a good data base to assess how much runoff treatment is needed to meet effluent guidelines. A model was developed to simulate runoff volume and pollutant loadings under different rainfall conditions. This model will be used to size and design treatment works for coal pile drainage. The Ohio State University (OSU) version of the Stanford watershed model was selected as the base model. The OSU model simulates overland runoff in a rural area. It includes factors such as soil moisture, depression storage, infiltration, and flow to a ground water reservoir. TRC also used the OSU co-model for acid production in coal refuse piles as the basis for qualitative modeling work. A number of modifications were made to the OSU models to make them applicable to coal storage piles. The physical/chemical reactions included in the models are described in more detail in the project report. In addition, the models were altered so that a standard NOAA magnetic tape of historical meteorological data can be used as data input instead of requiring the user to create a data file. The resulting TRC coal pile drainage model is actually two models - a quantitative model, termed H2OTRC, and a qualitative model, TRCCOAL.

Jan 1, 1984

By H. E. Lee, P. C. Feddersen

Blast-fuRnace operation at the Bunker Hill smelter deviates somewhat from common practice. Under existing conditions it is economical to operate the furnaces at "forced" capacity. The furnace feed consists chiefly of sinter and averages close to 50 per cent lead. Experience in smelting such material favors a low charge column attended by smaller proportions of coke and a low blast pressure. Under such conditions the gain in furnace tonnage greatly overbalances the somewhat higher slag losses and increased percentage of material fumed Furnace Charge The ingredients for the blast-furnace feed are stored in a group of 24 charge bins (3600 cu. ft. capacity). Each bin has two discharge chutes. Beneath each chute is a steel weighing hopper, suspended from a Fairbanks scale. The several hoppers are kept filled with the exact amount of material required to complete a furnace charge. The weighed material is discharged into a standard-gauge, bottom-dump charge car containing two compartments, each of which holds a complete charge (approximately 1½ tons). It is hauled to the blast furnace by a 44011 electric trolley locomotive. The proportionate parts of the various constituents of a representative blast-furnace charge are shown in Table 1. Table 1.—Representative Blast-furnace Charge at Bunker Hill Smelter Material Pounds Sinter.................................................. 2500 Limerock............................................... 0- 50 Coke................................................. 250-300 Scrap iron.............................................. 0-25 Settler skulls.......................................... 75 Undried zinc-plant residue................................ 0-200 Siliceous ore............................................ 25 Baghouse dust.......................................... 0-50 By-product slag......................................... 100 A variable stock tonnage of zinc-plant residue and return by-products results in fluctuations in the percentages of these materials in the blastfurnace feed. Accompanying such variations are corresponding increases or decreases in the amounts of coke, limerock and scrap iron necessary to obtain good furnace operation and adequate reduction.

Jan 1, 1937

By William Kranz

THE increased service demands on some of the products of the National Malleable Castings Co. prompted it about eight years ago to investigate the electric furnace, both in America and in Europe. The process bad' already been sufficiently developed in Europe to lead us to believe that the electric furnace would most nearly meet our requirements. After further investigation and consultation with the highest authorities on the subject, we decided upon the Heroult type as the simplest and most practicable. In 1910, we built a furnace of this type, of 300 lb. capacity, for experimental purposes, and although it was crudely constructed the quality of the material we were able to make justified the installation of a 6-ton Heroult furnace in 1912. This furnace has three electrodes, 17 in. in diameter, uses three-phase, 60-cycle current, and is equipped with Thury regulators, which give us good regulation and a uniform load on the line even when cold melting. The power factor of the furnace is 94 per cent. Since July, 1912, the furnace has been in continuous operation, producing up to the present time, over 20,000 tons of both carbon and alloy steels of varying analyses and of exceptional quality. Both cold-and hot-metal charges have been used, with a power consumption of about 150 kw-hr. per ton in the case of hot-metal charges and from 500 to 600 kw-hr. per ton in the case of cold charges. The electric energy consumed varies according to the final analysis of the steel and the amount of refining required. Too much cannot be said about the refining possibilities of the electric furnace, for no other method of steel manufacture can compete with the electric in this respect.

Jan 5, 1915

By J. Th. Erb

Oil is found in commercial quantities in the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Tarakan and Ceram. The oil deposits of the Dutch East Indies and Sarawak are with one exception of Tertiary origin and as a rule are bound to anticlinal structures. The number of layers varies in most fields and in some of them asmuch as 14 oil-producing levels have been established. The crude oil varies rather much in composition. Some of it, particularly from North and South Sumatra, has a gasoline content up to 50 Per cent. Borneo produces mainly wax oil, while the Tarakan oil can be used directly as liquid fuel. In Java both wax and wax-free oil are produced. ' In all important fields installations have been erected to treat the wet gas. The lean gas is used for gas-lift purposes, Marietta process, and as fuel for boilers and motors, either in the fields or in the refineries. Formerly only percussion systems (Canadian, Californian and a drilling system devised especially for the purposes of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Concern) were applied in the Dutch East Indies, but in recent years the rotary system has been predominant and good results have been obtained with it. The deepest producer has recently been struck in South Sumatra at a depth of 1624 m. (5328 ft.), with a daily production of about 350 cu. m. crude oil. The crude is brought by an extensive system of trunk lines to the refineries, of which one is in North Sumatra (Pangkalan Brandan), two arc in South Sumatra near the town of Palembang, two in East ,Java (Tjepoe and Wonokromo), one in East Borneo (Balik Papan) and one in Sarawak (Miri). Production The principal producing concerns in the 'East Indies are: De Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, the producing subsidiary of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Concern; Sarawak Oilfields Ltd., one of the

Jan 1, 1929

By Stanislaus Skowronski

THE melting of cathode copper, usually containing 99.98+ per cent. Cu, would appear to be a simple matter. Owing to the well known affinity of copper for sulphur, however, so much sulphur is absorbed by the copper during the operation that a long and expensive refining process is required to remove it, and the final product is inferior in purity and lower in electrical conductivity than the original cathode copper. The furnace operation, as now conducted, includes the following stages: 1. Charging the cathodes into the furnace. 2. Melting the cathodes. 3. Oxidizing period-saturating the copper with cuprous sub-oxide and bringing the metal to the condition known as "set copper;" this is now done by blowing air into the molten bath of metal. 4. Reduction period, otherwise known as "poling," whereby the oxygen previously added is removed by covering the molten bath completely with coke or charcoal and introducing large poles of green wood; this reduces the cuprous sub-oxide, bringing the copper to the "tough pitch" stage ready for casting. 5. Casting Period. Many experiments have been made to obviate the long periods of oxidation and subsequent reduction, with no success. While the copper first, cast will be good, as indicated by the set surface of the bars, it is impossible to hold it to the "tough pitch" condition, and long before the whole charge has been poured the copper will become "overpoled," entailing numerous difficulties. Sulphur has always been blamed by the furnace men as the reason why this refining process is necessary, yet the literature on the subject does not sufficiently emphasize how small a proportion of sulphur will ruin copper for practical purposes.

Jan 3, 1918

By H. J. Rose

In a paper1 presented before this Institute in 1926,I briefly discussed the evaluation of coking coals by means of ultimate analysis. The paper contained several graphic studies in which coal analyses calculated free of moisture, ash, sulfur and nitrogen were plotted on triaxial diagrams in which carbon + hydrogen + oxygen = 100 per cent. From a study of such data for 600 coking coals of the United States, and 150 coking coals of Wales, France and Germany, it was concluded that it was usually possible to predict coking properties and by-product yields with fair success from ultimate analysis. The coals which have proved exceptions to the general rules were found to have physical peculiarities. Run-of-mine Coal It must not be forgotten that run-of-mine coal is a composite material consisting of many constituents differing in physical properties and chemical analysis. A coal sample usually contains: 1. Glossy black coal known as anthraxylon or vitrain. This constituent usually has the strongest coking properties, and the lowest ash content. 2. Dull black coal consisting of attritus containing thin layers of anthraxylon. It is also known as clarain. This constituent, in a coking coal, usually has good to excellent coking properties. 3. Mineral charcoal or fusain. This is a porous black material which is soft and crumbly (unless impregnated with mineral matter) and which has absolutely no coking properties. It is different in every respect from the other constituents in coal. The volatile matter content of mineral charcoal is less than 20 per cent. even when it is associated with high-volatile coals. As would be expected the hydrogen content is low, and the carbon content is high. 4. A coal sample may contain tough gray canneloid material which has a high-volatile matter and a high hydrogen content, but is poor in coking qualities.

Jan 1, 1930

By Andrew A. Blair

It is now well known that certain pig-irons give a considerably smaller percentage of sulphur when determined by evolution-methods than when determined by oxidation-methods. The most striking examplcs of such irons are those made either wholly or in large part from New Jersey magnetites containing more or less titanium. It is never safe to use an evolution-method on such iron; for it is quite common that the sulphur result by evolution is only one-half or even one-third as great as that obtained by oxidation. For this reason, evolution-methods should be discarded, except in the analysis of pig-irons known to contain the sulphur in a state of combination from which it is evolved as sulphuretted hydrogen on treatment with hydrochloric acid. A good example of an iron containing, in the residue, sulphur insoluble in hydrochloric acid having come to our attention, it was determined to try to isolate a suspected insoluble sulphide. A large piece of high-silicon gray-forge iron was accordingly selected as the most promising material to work on. This piece was dissolved slowly, through several months, in dilute hydrochloric acid, aided by the electric current, yielding a soft graphitic residue. The object of dissolving a mass of iron, instead of drillings, was to prevent the crushing, by the drill, of any insoluble crystalline compound that might be present. The first step in the preparation was to break up the graphitic material and put it through bolting-cloth of 157 meshes to the linear inch. This was done by crushing the mass under the fingers on the bolting-cloth fastened over the top of a beaker, while a stream of water from a wash-bottle washed the finer portions through the cloth. The suspended matter was allowed to settle. It was then transferred to a platinum

Jan 1, 1902

By Dr. Hans Von Höfer

APART from the hypothesis of a .cosmic origin (which failed of acceptance because it was not adequately supported by facts), the only important controversy concerning the origin of petroleum has been, for a long time, between the advocates of inorganic and of organic origin respectively. Each of these theories has had a long history of development, and is still being perfected, under the influence of two causes: (1) the increasingly extensive and thorough study of the oil-fields (of which new examples are periodically discovered and opened); and (2) the progress of synthetic experiments devoted to this question. Moreover, the advance in our physical and chemical knowledge of the properties of this peculiar natural product has necessarily modified all criticism of conflicting views. I. THE HYPOTHESIS OF INORGANIC ORIGIN That the notion of an inorganic origin of petroleum, first set forth by Berthelot in 1866, and afterward ingeniously developed and formulated by Mendelejeff, should thus have proceeded chiefly from chemists, is quite natural; for the question was one of possible chemical processes in the earth's interior, and of imagined chemical reactions to be, verified by experiment. Hypotheses of this kind were suggested by many chemists, of whom two, P. Sabatier and J. H. Senderens, may be specially named by reason of their highly interesting chemical experiments. Among geologists, Mendelejeff's hypothesis was received at first with much interest and favor; for it rested on the assumption of a central terrestrial mass of iron carbide, and the geologists had good reasons for adopting that assumption. Yet comparatively few of them attempted to furnish geological proofs of the hypothesis: the majority either silently believed in it, or for one or another reason rejected it altogether.

Jan 5, 1914

By AIME AIME

WAR undoubtedly accelerates metallurgical progress, although its most obvious effect is a tremendous waste of materials. The necessity for restrictions in normal uses of metals results in a search for substitutes or for enhanced properties that will make a limited supply last longer. An insatiable demand for more metal to be produced more quickly favors trial of new processes, new metallurgical tools, and new methods of fabrication. Greatest advance is made, of course, in practical physical and process metallurgy. Theoretical or fundamental research necessarily must take a secondary position, and is so regarded in this review. It is not that developments in theoretical physical metallurgy are lacking entirely, but, following the same trend noted in other countries as they entered war activities, attention in the U.S.A. has been shifted strongly to those developments having an immediate practical application.

Jan 1, 1943