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By M. W. Cox, V. F. Hollister

EXPLORATION for metallic mineral deposits is carried on by those special adaptations of methods which the explorer believes will yield most economically or satisfactorily the particular answer sought. In this project the usual methods of geologic observation, recording, and interpretation, when combined with magnetic geophysical methods and geochemical soil sampling, led to disclosures of appreciable zinc mineralization where none was visible in surface exposure. Since 1945 considerable work has been done with geochemical prospecting methods, chiefly in determining the presence and distribution of various elements existing in minor amounts in rocks, soil, vegetation or waters of mineralized areas. Such work, in which the U. S. Geological Survey has taken the lead, finds a ready place in the field repertoire of the exploration geologist as a supplement, not a substitute, for other methods. The Chollet project was carried out in 1951 by the American Smelting & Refining Co. near its Van Stone mine in northern Stevens County, Wash., in the area shown in Fig. 1. The Van Stone mine is located in the Onion Creek drainage of the Selkirk Mountains, midway between the towns of Colville and Northport, Wash., and some twenty airline miles west of the Metaline mining district. Its zinc-lead orebodies, currently yielding about 1000 tpd of ore, occur as bedding replacement deposits in the middle Cambrian Metaline formation near an intrusive granodiorite contact. The target of exploration at the Chollet prospect was a similar geologic environment along the intrusive contact about 5 miles west of the mine. Geographic Setting The Chollet ground covers a north-facing slope at 3000 to 4000-ft elevation. Second-growth jack pine and tamarack with some hemlock and yellow pine make a thick forest cover. A heavy under-forest of alder, willow, and lesser shrubs occupies the draws, see Fig. 2. Grassy slopes appear at higher elevations. The lower slopes are underlain by a thick blanket of glacial till and alluvium so that outcrops are scarce; however, perhaps 50 pct rock exposure prevails at higher elevations. This part of northern Washington annually receives about 25 in. of precipitation, which largely falls as snow in the winter months. Summers are dry with occasional rainy periods. General Geology The Van Stone mine and the Chollet prospect lie along the southern margin of a westerly extending lobe of the Kaniksu batholith, one of the series of granodioritic masses that are intrusive into Cretaceous and older rocks in northern Washington and southern British Columbia. The margin is composed of complexly deformed Paleozoic sediments ranging in age from the lower Cambrian Maitlen phyllite on the east, through middle Cambrian Metaline formation (limestone and dolomite), to Ordovician Ledbetter slate on the west. In general the formations strike N10 to 50E and dip steeply northwestward, although dip reversals and minor folding occur. This general rock distribution is shown on Fig. 3. In this area the Metaline formation, which is the host rock for mineralization, appears to be of about 4000-ft thickness that can be conveniently divided into the same three units defined by Park and Cannon' for the Metaline area. The basal part consists of 1000 ft of interbedded white limestone, argillaceous limestone, and gray silty argillite. The middle part, approximately 1500 ft thick, consists of fine-grained black, gray, and white dolomite. This unit also contains minor interbedded limestone. The upper part is a gray massive limestone about 1500 ft thick that grades upward into slaty limestone and slate capped locally by a thin black jas-peroidal dolomite which is either the uppermost member of the Metaline formation or the basal member of the overlying Ledbetter (Ordovician)

Jan 1, 1956

By Stewart Murray, Philip Klapwijk

INTRODUCTION Forecasting commodity markets is like predicting winners in a horse race: to get the answers right, one needs both luck and judgement. Commodity analysts bear some resemblance to racing tipsters as they try to convince interested parties that they have an inside track on which metal is going to win the great minerals race of the 1990s. Commodity analysts share some features with the gentlemen of the turf: • They influence other people in how to spend risk capital, • They don't put their own money at risk, and • If their tips consistently fail to deliver, then they end up looking elsewhere for employment. In order to find winners we need to know about the kind of race we are in and the strengths and weaknesses of all the runners. Miners are not interested in a five furlong sprint: their race is a long distance affair -- after all, the lead-times between discovery and start-up generally approach a decade for mines that will provide the staying power which leaders require in this industry. We need to look at the environment in which our commodities will be competing: in racing parlance, the going. Our equivalent is the economic background: just as some horses are at a relative advantage when the going is soft, so some commodities will do better than others if economic growth is sluggish. If we are going to pick the winners for the late 1990s, and as an industry, make the right investment decisions, nothing is more important than being able to forecast (with at least a semblance of accuracy) how and where the world's economy is going to develop in the next decade. In addressing the question of whether minerals are going to be leaders in the 1990s, this paper considers the idea that it will increasingly be the world outside the industrialised OECD that will provide the incremental growth in demand for mineral products. Economic growth in the Developing World is fundamentally different from that in the OECD, and the pattern of demand for materials in relation to economic output is much more favourable than in the OECD. If we are to forecast the future, we need to be able to understand the past, both in the boom times of the so called Golden Sixties and in the lean years that followed them. This should help us to decide whether the future is going to be like one or other of these extremes or, on the other hand, a return to normality. Having forecast the going, we can look at individual competitors. • Which are best placed to take advantage of the economic, social and industrial trends that we can now dimly foresee? • Which can resist the continued onslaught of the new materials and technologies? • Which of them will best weather the economic storms (assuming that recessions have not yet been abolished)? If we can provide answers to these questions, we will be well on our way to picking winners, i.e., the metals and minerals that will reward their owners with growing demand, steady (and high) prices leading to profits beyond the dreams of avarice.

Jan 1, 1990

By Nicholas J. Grant, Rolf Nordheim, Thomas B. King

Constant-load creep-rupture tests were conducted in an argon atmosphere at temperatures of 1600 to 2200°F on two heats of iron containing about 0.06 and 0.09 pct P in solid solution. The tests were conducted in the as-cast condition. Stresses were selected to give strain rates approaching those encountered in the hot working of steel, and within the limits of the creep-rupture test apparatus, namely. from about 0.001 to 50 pct per sec. FOR generations, rolling and forging practices have been developed largely by empirical methods, based on prior experience. While largely successful, difficulties are frequently encountered when new or different alloy compositions are tried for the first time. There is need to know the relationships which exist among temperature, strain rate, composition, and other variables on the deformation and fracture characteristics of steels. It has been shown for aluminum and several high-temperature alloys that the deformation and fracture characteristics follow rather well-defined laws and patterns which are closely related to the effects of strain rate, temperature, and composition.1"3 As the melting temperature of aluminum or its alloys was approached, it was possible to study the interplay of work-hardening factors and recovery or recrystal-lization, the latter resulting in improved ductility and increased resistance to intercrystalline fracture. In particular, the effects of composition are very poorly known. Within the meaning of "composition" should be included impurity elements, such as sulfur, phosphorous, lead, copper, and many others, as well as those elements which are added for alloying purposes in iron. The role of multiphase structures, in contrast to solid solutions, should also be studied in much greater detail. high strain rate creep-rupture tests would provide information regarding the deformation and fracture characteristics of metals at hot-working temperatures. It was also desired to establish the stresses which are necessary to accomplish the desired deformation, and to relate these to the strain rate and temperature. Secondly, it was the purpose of this particular study to determine the effects of phosphorus, within solid solution limits, on the deformation and fracture characteristics of iron at hot-working temperatures. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Two phosphorus levels were selected, one corresponding to the upper limit normally found for commercial steels, and one substantially higher than this, but within the region of solid solubility at the test temperatures chosen for this investigation. Twenty-pound heats were prepared by induction melting electrolytic iron in air in a magnesia lined furnace. After deoxidation with about 0.2 pct Al, ferro-phosphorus was added, and the heats were then poured into prefired silica molds. The purpose of using silica molds was to obtain a slow cooling rate during solidification to produce a relatively coarse grain size, producing a structure subject to some segregation and therefore more nearly characteristic of ingot structures. The major part of the casting assembly provided a large shrinkage head in order to produce sound castings and to promote slow cooling of the specimens. The primary austenitic grain size varied from ASTM No. 2 to No. 00. The composition of the heats, including a low phorphorus melt, used for comparison purposes, is shown in Table I. It will be noted that the oxygen content of the phosphorus containing heats is relatively high, in spite of the deoxidation practice, a condition which is difficult to control in small melts. Creep-rupture tests were nevertheless undertaken when it was noted that this quantity of oxygen did not appear to give results any different from those from a heat containing 0.01 pct 0, low phosphorus and comparable carbon Content;4 see Table 11.

Jan 1, 1961

S. Tandanand, Twin Cities Mining Research Center, U. S. Bureau of Mines As an addition to the fine reviews on drilling presented in the foregoing papers, we feel it would be appropriate to mention briefly some work in this area by the U. S. Bureau of Mines. The Bureau has had under way for several years at its Twin Cities Mining Research Center studies directed toward a better understanding of basic drilling mechanisms. The work includes drillability investigations with diamond rotary, and with percussive drilling systems, as well as fundamental studies of rock behavior under drill bit types of loading. Results of our work to date have contributed the following to the state of the art. MECHANISM OF ROCK FAILURE-Rock fragmentation through use of mechanical energy systems, including drilling systems, consists of two major components-machine and rock. The two components are related to each other by their functional behavior and their resultant motion which the components mutually influence. Forces in the systems are transmitted directly to the bit which in turn induces stresses in the rock. When the induced stresses exceed the strength of the rock, the rock fails resulting in penetration. Rock strength is a function of the forces applied to the rock. Stresses under a drill bit, regardless of bit configurations, are essentially compressive, resulting in a condition where the rock has the highest resistance to failure. The ratio of principal stresses induced under drill bits is an indication of the mode of failure in the rocks. Initially, compressive stresses under the drill bit cause rock to undergo inelastic deformation. The impression observed at the first stage of crater formation under the drill bit shows that rock is no longer elastic. Associated subsurface failure at this stage precedes total rupture which subsequently appears at the rock surface. Thus, explanation of crater formation, by applying theory of elasticity alone, is likely to be over-simplified. ENERGY VERSUS VOLUME OF ROCK REMOVED-Experimental results show that energy per unit volume of rock removed is constant for a particular rock and bit type. Rock offers a definite resistance to penetration, depending on the method of the energy application; this may be defined as the drilling strength of a rock. Energy consumption in a drilling system may be divided into two components: 1) Energy required to move the machine parts; and 2) energy consumption in breaking rock. Component 1 is dependent on the type of the machine. Component 2 is dependent on the strength properties of rock and the efficiency of the bit in rock cutting. The sum of the energy required in both components determines the total energy required in breaking rock. Our work in this area has included consideration of both diamond and percussive drilling systems. PENETRATION RATE-For a drilling rate expression to be useful in predicting field performance, it should include the operating characteristics of the drilling machine. Eq. 37, for example, is simply a statement of the fact that the drilling rate is determined by the power output of the machine (2pNT) and the power requirements to break the rock in the hole (AER). In order to predict the performance of a particular drill and the effect, for example, of the rotary speed, on the drilling rate, R, Eq. 37 must be modified to include the

Jan 1, 1967

By F. Weinberg

In developing a mechanism for the solidification of metals from the melt, it has been proposed that solidification proceeds by the growth of platelets parallel to close packed planes. The evidence for this is based primarily on observations of decanted interfaces of lead1,2 and tin on which platelets 1 to 10 µ thick4 were observed. In recent observations of decanted eutectic alloys, 5,6 it was found that the eutectic structure on the decanted surface was markedly different than that of the bulk material, with the surface structure extending approximately 10 µ behind the interface.' This suggested that, at least for these experiments, a residual liquid layer 10 µ thick had been left on the decanted interface, which solidified subsequent to decanting. If a similar thickness of residual liquid was left on the decanted surfaces in the lead and tin observations referred to above, then it is questionable to what extent the observed platelets can be related to the solid-liquid interface before decanting. The purpose of the present investigation was to measure the thickness of the residual liquid layer on a decanted surface of tin, using relatively standard decanting procedures. The technique used was to add approximately 200 ppm of Tl204 (PI) to the melted portion of a high purity (99.999 pet) bar of tin, which was being progressively melted from one end, and then decant during melting. Since only the melt contained the radioactive tracer, the activity emanating from the decanted surface could be used as a measure of the thickness of the residual liquid layer. Progressive melting was carried out in the same fashion as single crystal growth, namely, in a horizontal graphite boat, in an argon atmosphere, using a moving furnace. The decanting was done in two ways; 1) removing the furnace and suddenly dropping the melt end of the boat, and 2) suddenly jerking the solid away from the liquid by the action of a falling weight (estimated peak acceleration 3 x 105 cm per sq sec), using a split graphite container. In all cases the melt was vigorously agitated by bubbling argon through it. The activity of the decanted surface was measured through an aperture 1.5 cm by 0.5 cm in a lead shield with an Anton tube geiger counter. Assuming that the active layer on the surface had the same concentration of Tl204 as the decanted liquid, the thickness of the layer could be determined from the measured activity of the decanted material, and the relationship between activity and material thickness. The latter was determined by rolling some of the decanted material into foil and measuring the activity of multiple layers of the foil. The activity At of material of thickness t (in mm) was determined to be A, = Ao(1 - e-22.5t) where Ao is the activity of the bulk material. The results of the measurements of the thickness of the residual liquid layer for six decants are given in Table I. The variation in t is attributed to variations in the decanting procedure and the rate of melting, the latter being difficult to control because of the vigorous agitation of the liquid. The rate of melting was in the order of 2 cm per hr, estimated from the position of the solid-liquid interface during melting. The results indicate that a residual liquid layer of the order of 10 µ in thickness is left on the decanted interface in agreement with the observation on eutectic alloys referred to above. If the mixing of the liquid during melting is not complete, as was

Jan 1, 1962

By A. L. Marshall, F. J. Norton

The object of this investigation was to make a comprehensive study of the degassing of molybdenum in order to determine how rigorous a treatment was necessary to completely remove sorbed gases from molybdenum electrodes in vacuum tubes. Some work has also been done with tungsten, nickel, iron and carbon. As a logical development of this work it has been shown that the gas is present throughout the body of the metal and a study has been made of the solubility of nitrogen in molybdenum and tungsten and the rate, of diffusion of nitrogen through molybdenum has been calculated. Tests were made on molybdenum from all the commercial sources and no difference was discovered in the nature of the gases present, the amounts or the ease of removal. The reason for this was apparent when a study was made of the manner in which gases are absorbed by gas-free molybdenum. It is necessary to heat molybdenum to 1760°C. in a vacuum of the order of 0.001 micron for a time which varies lineally with the thickness, in order to obtain a condition in which no further gas is evolved by the sample. A sample so degassed can be handled and subsequently assembled in a tube and then degassed readily. The gases obtained from molybdenum are carbon monoxide and nitrogen, the nitrogen being the more difficult to remove. Apparatus and Technique The apparatus is shown in Figs. I and 2. It consisted of two units, a degassing system and an analytical system. Each had a bake-out oven, as shown surrounding the systems in the sketches. The system , will be traced, starting from the sample in the degassing system. A water-cooled quartz chamber surrounded the sample. The high-frequency coil, which heated the sample, extended only around this chamber and was cooled by an air blast. High-frequency power of 1800-meter wave length was obtained from a self-rectifying oscillator circuit with a maximum power input of 20 kw. A graded seal connected the quartz to the rest of the apparatus, which was of hard glass. The temperature of the molybdenum sample was observed by an optical pyrometer through an optical window about 40 cm. distant from the sample. Since the object viewed under these conditions was not a black body, true temperature was not observed, but the so-called "brightness temperature." The correction of this to true temperature is discussed in a later section. The apparatus was taken apart just above the graded seal; the quartz chamber was slipped off, washed with nitric acid, water and alcohol, and dried by an air stream. The old sample was removed by unscrewing the lower nut, and the new

Jan 1, 1944

By Morris Muskat, J. M. McDowell

In both production and refining operations of the oil industry many processes are controlled by the gas-liquid phase relationships of the hydrocarbon mixtures of interest. The quantitative behavior of fractionating or distillation columns and stills depends on the changes in the equilibrium distributions of the hydrocarbon components between the gas and liquid phases as the pressure or temperature conditions may vary along the length of the column or as the gross operating parameters and compositions are varied. In oil producing operations the nature and amount of gas phase developed within an underground reservoir as it is being depleted and its pressure declines also involve the basic equilibrium gas-liquid phase interactions. The influence of surface conditions of temperature and pressure and various separation procedures on the nature and amount of stock tank oil and natural gas recovered from a given well stream is likewise determined by the same basic phase equilibrium characteristics of the hydrocarbon systems. Such equilibrium separation of the gas and liquid phases in a well stream is of importance both in establishing optimum separator conditions for obtaining maximum stock tank oil yields and in the general problem of crude stabilization. The phenomena involved in these problems and their quantitative aspects can, of course, be established in each individual instance by appropriate laboratory experimentation. It has been found, however, that by associating with the individual hydrocarbon components functional characteristics de- scribing their individual gas - liquid phase equilibrium behavior, the phase properties of the composite mixtures can be predicted by mathematical computation. These characteristics have been termed "equilibrium constants", or "equilibrium ratios"," and are defined by the general equation: where K, is the equilibrium ratio for the jth component, y, is the rnol fraction of that component in the gas phase, and xj is the corresponding mol fraction in the coexisting liquid phase. Considering the Kj as representing available and measurable properties of the individual components of a mixture, and as defined by Eq. (l), it is readily shown that in a coexisting gas-liquid system the rnol fraction concentrations of the individual components in the gas phase, y,, and those in the liquid phase, x,, are given by the expressions: where the nj are the corresponding rnol fraction concentrations in the composite system, and ng is the mol fraction of the whole which is in the gas phase. The basic unknown in Eq. (2) is n,: which gives the gross separation between the gas and liquid phases. This may be determined in principle by imposing the requirement that the sums of the mol fractions in both the gas and liquid phases are unity, i.e. by the equations: The solution of the equivalent Eqs. (3) lying between 0 and 1, when inserted into Eqs. (2), provides a complete description of the compositions of the coexisting gas and liquid phases. While the Eqs. (3) are essentially equivalent to polynomial equations, such transformations are of little value when dealing with multicomponent sys-

Jan 1, 1949

By J. L. Brimhall, R. A. Huggins, M. J. Klein

IN a recent paper1 it was shown that small additions of magnesium, copper, and oxygen decrease the stacking fault probability in plastically deformed silver. Correlation of :X-ray data with measurements of the twinning frequency and metallographic observation of slip lines indicated that this effect may be due to an increase in the relative stacking fault energy. It is the purpose of the present note to report experiments on these alloys of known stacking fault probability that relate to the stacking fault contribution to electron scattering in silver. There has been a considerable amount of disagreement in the literature concerning the contribution of dislocations to electrical resistivity in metals. Calculations relating to the scattering of conduction electrons by the dislocation core, its strain fields, and related effects have been made by several authors.2-5 In addition, experimental work on Cu,3,6-10 Ni,11 and Ni-Co alloys1:! has shown that dislocations in those materials exert an anomalously large effect on resistivity, this effect being related to the presence of extended dislocations. The problem of the scattering due to the stacking fault region between partial dislocations has been treated theoretically using several different procedures.13-'0 The results of these calculations show a wide range of predicted values, from rather large to completely negligible, due to the models and the approximations involved. Almost all of this work has been applied to the specific problem of scattering in copper. The more complete theoretical treatments depend rather critically. on the shape of the Fermi surfaces and the effective mass parameters. The scattering from stacking faults might therefore be expected to vary significantly from one metal to another. Unfortunately, sufficiently accurate information is not available .which would allow one to have any confidence in a theoretical prediction of the scattering in the case of silver. Resistivity measurements were made on small wire specimens of vacuum melted high purity silver and several dilute alloys. These measurements were made at approximately 20°C, with great care being given to temperature measurement and corrections. At such temperatures phonon scattering is significantly greater than imperfection scattering. However, the experimental technique was such that measurements on similarly treated samples were reproducible to better than 2.4 X 10-9 ohm-cm, which was satisfactory for this work. Values of the stacking fault probability and the increase in resistivity after severe plastic deformation are given in Table I. The increases in resistivity resulting from plastic deformation agree quite well with previous work on silver.14,21-26 In addition, it has been previously found that interetitials and vacancies in silver anneal out well below room temperature, so that the residual imperfection scattering in these experiments could be expected to be primarily associated with dislocations;. It is seen from the data in Table I that large changes in stacking fault probability are accompanied by differences in resistivity due to imperfection scattering of only a few percent. If the scattering of conduction electrons by extended dislocations is primarily due to the area of the stacking fault region independent of the stacking fault energy, and not the core and strain fields associated with partial dislocations, the resistivity increase should be proportional to the product of the dislocation density and the stacking fault width, as is the stacking fault probability. Therefore, the imperfection scattering caused by plastic deformation of the alloys should be considerably smaller than that found in the pure silver. Since this was not observed, these results sugegest the possibility that stacking faults do not themselves contribute appreciably to the electrical resistivity of silver deformed at room temperature. An alternative explanation of these observations is that the scattering by the stacking fault is roughly proportional to the stacking fault energy, rather than being determined by the total area of such faults. Sufficient evidence is not yet available to separate these two possibilities. This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research.

Jan 1, 1962

By J. M. McDowell, Morris Muskat

In both production and refining operations of the oil industry many processes are controlled by the gas-liquid phase relationships of the hydrocarbon mixtures of interest. The quantitative behavior of fractionating or distillation columns and stills depends on the changes in the equilibrium distributions of the hydrocarbon components between the gas and liquid phases as the pressure or temperature conditions may vary along the length of the column or as the gross operating parameters and compositions are varied. In oil producing operations the nature and amount of gas phase developed within an underground reservoir as it is being depleted and its pressure declines also involve the basic equilibrium gas-liquid phase interactions. The influence of surface conditions of temperature and pressure and various separation procedures on the nature and amount of stock tank oil and natural gas recovered from a given well stream is likewise determined by the same basic phase equilibrium characteristics of the hydrocarbon systems. Such equilibrium separation of the gas and liquid phases in a well stream is of importance both in establishing optimum separator conditions for obtaining maximum stock tank oil yields and in the general problem of crude stabilization. The phenomena involved in these problems and their quantitative aspects can, of course, be established in each individual instance by appropriate laboratory experimentation. It has been found, however, that by associating with the individual hydrocarbon components functional characteristics de- scribing their individual gas - liquid phase equilibrium behavior, the phase properties of the composite mixtures can be predicted by mathematical computation. These characteristics have been termed "equilibrium constants", or "equilibrium ratios"," and are defined by the general equation: where K, is the equilibrium ratio for the jth component, y, is the rnol fraction of that component in the gas phase, and xj is the corresponding mol fraction in the coexisting liquid phase. Considering the Kj as representing available and measurable properties of the individual components of a mixture, and as defined by Eq. (l), it is readily shown that in a coexisting gas-liquid system the rnol fraction concentrations of the individual components in the gas phase, y,, and those in the liquid phase, x,, are given by the expressions: where the nj are the corresponding rnol fraction concentrations in the composite system, and ng is the mol fraction of the whole which is in the gas phase. The basic unknown in Eq. (2) is n,: which gives the gross separation between the gas and liquid phases. This may be determined in principle by imposing the requirement that the sums of the mol fractions in both the gas and liquid phases are unity, i.e. by the equations: The solution of the equivalent Eqs. (3) lying between 0 and 1, when inserted into Eqs. (2), provides a complete description of the compositions of the coexisting gas and liquid phases. While the Eqs. (3) are essentially equivalent to polynomial equations, such transformations are of little value when dealing with multicomponent sys-

Jan 1, 1949

By M. S. Burton, G. V. Smith, A. Rosen

The kinetics of re crystallization and the effect of recovery on recrystallization of pure iron were investigated within the temperature range of 517" to 632 OC. Grain growth and activation energies were also studied. Two stages can be distinguished during recrystallization; the first is gvowth-controlled and the second is nucleation-controlled. The extent to which the first stage succeeds before the second stage begins depends on both temperature of recrystallization and temperature of recovery. The softening of cold-worked metals and alloys due to transformation of the deformed crystals to strain-free equiaxed grains during annealing is well-known, and early inestiators established that recrystallization kinetics is strongly influenced by minute quantities of impurities. Generally, it is believed that impurities decrease the rate of recrystallization and the rate of grain growth. To understand the basic phenomena of recrystallization, investigations should be on pure materials. Most of the research on high-purity materials has been on metals having the fee Bcc materials, and especially high-purity iron, have been studied only in recent years. It is known that recovery may influence recrystalliation;" however, no general description of the influence, applicable to all materials, has been presented. This paper presents results of a study of the recrystallization kinetics of high-purity iron, after 60 pct cold deformation by drawing, with particular reference to the influence of recovery on the rates of recrystallization and grain growth. From observations of these rates, conclusions are drawn concerning nucleation. MATERIAL AND EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Preparation of Material. High-purity iron, prepared by zone refining of vacuum-melted electroiytic iron at Battelle Memorial Institute under sponsorship of the American Iron and Steel Institute, was used in this study. Table I gives the reported chemical analysis of the material, taken at a point near the last molten zone and thereby rep- resenting the maximum impurity level for the entire bar. Prismatic specimens, approximately 10 x 10 X 50 mm, were sawed from the 50-mm-diam bar, perpendicular to the zone-refining direction, and turned to cylindrical shape. These specimens were sealed in quartz capsules under vacuum, approximately 10"e mm Hg, austenitized at 930° C for 15 min, slowly cooled, removed from the capsules, and cold-worked in air by swaging to approximately 20-pct reduction of area. The encapsulating, austenitizing, and swaging operations were repeated two additional times, after which the samples were encapsulated, austenitized, and cold-drawn to 60-pct reduction of area. A further vacuum anneal at 630°C for 120 min and cold drawing to 60-pct reduction of area produced wire 2.8 mm in diameter. The drawn wire was electropolished to remove deformed material on the surface, after which it was sawed into 4-mm-long specimens for the recrystallization study. Microscopical examination before the final cold reduction revealed equiaxed grain structure with very fine grains in a thin layer near the surfaces of the specimen and nearly uniform ASTM 3-4 grain size in the center. Recrystallization Heat Treatment. a) Direct Recrystallization of Cold-Worked The 60 pct cold drawn iron specimens were recrystallized at five temperatures, 517, 556, 590°, 612, and 632C, in a lead bath covered with graphite (the temperature was controlled to 1°C). Specimens were treated for twelve different times at each temperature, and all were water-quenched after heat &eatment. b) Recrystallization Following Preliminary Recovery Heat Treatment. After cold working, specimens were sealed into quartz capsules under vacuum, 105 mm Hg, and recovery-annealed at 362", 400", and 440°C for 20 hr prior to recrystallization. No evidence of recrystallization was found

Jan 1, 1964

By H. E. Cline

A criterion for stability of a lamellar structure in two-phase alloys ulas derived froflr perturbation analysis of the steady-state solutions for eutectic growth. Both the mass and thermal diffusion were considered with boundary conditions for coupled lamellar growth. The concept of an effective liquidus slope was introduced. Excellent agreement was found with the experiments of Mollard and Flemings and the theory predicted a range of compositions on one side of the eulectic composition in which stable growth may occur with zero temperature gradient. The lamellar structure was found to be more stable than predicted by simple constitutional supercooling. The effect of impurity additions was also considered. DIRECTIONALLY solidified eutectic alloys may have a structure consisting of parallel plates or rods. It is important to know the range of composition and growth conditions that produce this ideal composite structure. Breakdown of the planar solid-liquid interface during growth may lead to a dendritic or cellular structure as in single-phase alloys. In the case of single-phase alloys, the concept of constitutional supercooling1 may explain breakdown, but in two-phase alloys the concept is no longer valid because the melting point is not given by the liquidus of one phase. Both phases must be considered in the mass and thermal diffusion problem. In the following theory a boundary condition at the solid-liquid interface was determined by using the steady-state equations of Jackson and ~unt' to relate the average temperature and composition of the liquid at the interface. Then a sinusoidal perturbation in the shape of the interface was introduced to test for stability as in the analysis of Mullins and ~ekerka.~ The wavelength of the important perturbation was assumed to be much larger than the lamellar spacing, h, and the perturbation was assumed not to change the lamellar spacing, A. Both the mass and thermal diffusion equation were used with averaged quantities at the boundary to determine whether the perturbation grows or shrinks in time. A stability criterion was determined by considering the case in which the perturbation remains stationary. An example of Pb-Sn alloys was used to illustrate the validity of this theory. I) THEORY A) Temperature at the Interface. The temperature of the interface in coupled two-phase growth is close to the eutectic temperature TE even for alloys off eutectic composition. It is assumed that the interface is in local equilibrium and one expects the temperature at the intersection of the liquid phase and the solid phases a and 0 to be near the eutectic temperature. The interface is undercooled because of curvature and the deviation of the composition in the liquid from the eutectic composition. The average interface temperature Ti for steady-state growth of a lamellar eutectic with a plane interface was determined by Jackson and Hunt' as given in their Eq. [17c]. Instead of using the ratio of the lamellar widths hp/h, as a parameter, the volume fraction of the 0 phase, +, will be used as it simplifies the algebra. The average interface temperature using this notation becomes: The average temperature of the interface depends on the volume fraction of the 0 phase, +, which may be related to the composition of the solid or the bulk composition of the liquid Co by: where C, and Cp are the average compositions of the solid phases. In steady-state growth, the composition of the solid is equal to the composition in the liquid far from the interface. The variation of the average interface temperature with composition is illustrated in Fig. 1 for the case of Pb-Sn alloys with a 10"4 cm lamellar spacing as calculated from Eqs. [I] and [2]. The interface temperature goes through a maximum at a composition near but not exactly at the eutectic composition. There is no reason why the composition corresponding to the maximum temperature should be equal to the eutectic

Jan 1, 1969

By Herbert W. Huse

Nitrogen, and its compounds, unique among the materials described in this volume, is absolutely essential to the existence of the human race. Almost all minerals are important and the absence of any one of them would be sorely felt; but nitrogen is an integral part of the cycle of life itself. Man cannot live without nitrogen which, as an inert gas, composes the major part of the air he breathes; as compounds, nourishes the vegetation which he eats; and, as protein, forms a part of his very flesh and blood. Nature originally provided man with a vast reserve of usable nitrogen compounds in the form of fertile soil. She constantly replenishes the supply by "fixing" nitrogen in the air at the estimated rate of 400,000,000 tons per year (an insignificant 6 lb per acre) during electrical storms. She has also placed certain microorganisms in the soil which are able to "fix" nitrogen and convert it into forms which plants can use. Legumes like cow peas, soy beans, clover, and alfalfa have extraordinary roots which serve as stimulating hosts to these bacteria which, in turn, nourish the plant. By plowing in all or part of such crops, their above-average nitrogen content can be returned to the soil for other more useful crops. The mechanism for this recycle is supplied by "denitrifying" bacteria which attack the dead plant tissue and liberate nitrogen and ammonia. However, since one crop of grain, sugar beets, potatoes, tomatoes, etc., takes out a major portion of the nitrogen which a plowed-in legume crop can supply, this method of fertilization is obviously inadequate. Drastic intervention by man has become necessary to support the ever-growing population of the world.9,15,20 Old civilizations with a high population density, such as the Chinese, were able to exist for centuries by carefully tilling the soil, rotating crops, and returning to the soil all the nitrogen in vegetable wastes plus human and animal excreta. But the lack of a means for augmenting their supply of nitrogen placed a ceiling on further development and kept the mass of the population in a chronic state of undernourishment, frequently punctuated by famine. Nitrogen plays another important role in the life of mankind. In the form of explosives, nitrogen helps to wrest from the earth many materials needed for our material well-being. Also, in the form of explosives and propellants, nitrogen increased the destructiveness of wars to a point only exceeded by the fantastic power of atomic energy. Man's first really effective efforts to improve his position with respect to nitrogen began in the 18th Century with the mining of sodium nitrate. By the late 1880's this had become a big industry serving a large part of the world. In the late 1890's nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, was being recovered from coke-oven operations. In 1900 nitrogen, in the form of nitric oxide, was being obtained from the air by an electric-arc process. About 1904 another "fixation" process based on the reaction of nitrogen with calcium carbide to form cyanamide was commercialized. By 1913 the Haber-Bosch process of "fixing" atmospheric nitrogen by reacting it with hydrogen to produce synthetic ammonia was successfully applied on a large scale, first in Germany and then throughout the industrial areas of the world.9 All the above methods of obtaining nitrogen compounds are still in use and, between them, they assure mankind of adequate supplies for all time. While this fortunate situation is not unique amongst industrial raw materials, all too few of man's needs are so well in hand.

Jan 1, 1960

By B. M. Larsen

AN increasing amount of attention is being paid to the possible influence of oxygen, in its several modes of occurrence in steel, upon some of the properties of the metal; but clearly investigations along this line are unlikely to yield significant results until reliable analytical methods for the determination of oxygen have been established. This paper presents some results of a study of an improved Ledebur method which aims to determine a definite portion of the oxygen; namely; that which presumably is present in diffusible form in the. solid steel. These more or less preliminary results lead us to believe that the oxygen so determined has some significance; their presentation at this time will, we hope, stimulate discussion of, and focus attention upon, certain rather neglected aspects of the problem. Considerable work has been done recently on methods of estimating inclusions and on the vacuum-fusion method for oxygen; with results which, however, are of somewhat questionable significance. It is commonly presumed that the oxygen in a bath of molten steel in a furnace is present partly as a separate phase consisting of suspended particles of oxides or silicates, partly in solution, the latter being probably the more important. Upon addition of a deoxidizer, it reacts with some portion of the dissolved oxygen and precipitates it as additional suspended particles; the oxygen not eliminated in this way, which remains in solution in the liquid steel, may be regarded indifferently either as dissolved oxygen or as dissolved FeO. When the steel is poured, some of the suspended particles rise towards the surface, others remain trapped in the finished steel, appearing as nonmetallic inclusions in amounts corresponding usually to about 0.01 to 0.03 per cent 02 in the steel. The dissolved oxygen may be partly eliminated as CO during freezing of the ingot, but some remains either in solution or in part precipitated as FeO. Finished steels may thus contain oxygen in several forms: (1) In non-metallic inclusions which are probably quite insoluble in the solid metal at all temperatures; (2) in solid solution which at lower temperatures may be supersaturated; (3) in FeO particles produced by relief of this

Jan 1, 1932

By D. J. Carney, J. Chipman, N. J. Grant

An absolute calibration has been achieved for sampling and analyzing liquid steel for hydrogen based on Sieverts' values of hydrogen solubility in iron. Further checks were made in nickel, iron-nickel, and 18-8 stainless melts. The sampling method was successfully applied to a large number of commercial steel melts in various types of furnaces. The concurrent problem of sample storage was also solved. THE problem of sampling of liquid steel for hydrogen is more difficult than the problem of analysis. Hydrogen has a greater mobility than any other element; it is the only element that will diffuse out of steel at room temperature. In accordance with the known relation between temperature and diffusivity, the diffusion of hydrogen is extremely rapid at the temperature of liquid steel. Consequently, in the past, attempts to quench molten steel to retain the dissolved hydrogen have not been as successful as similar attempts with nitrogen or oxygen. The retention of hydrogen is especially difficult since it will continue to escape at room temperature even if the molten metal has been rapidly quenched. The hydrogen sampling methods may be classified broadly as (1) the rapid quenching techniques which attempt to preserve super saturation and (2) those methods which attempt to collect the gases evolved as the metal freezes and cools to room temperature. With all methods of sampling but especially with the rapid quenching methods, there is also a concurrent problem of storing the sample until analysis is undertaken. The two problems are interrelated and must be considered together when discussing liquid steel sampling techniques. The major obstacle in liquid steel sampling has been that there was no way of evaluating properly the various sampling and storage techniques which have been developed. It has not been possible to compare the accuracy of the various methods. For evaluation of sampling methods some known standard is required; this may be found in the published work on the equilibrium solubility of hydrogen in liquid iron which has been determined in three separate investigations.1,2,3 The data are shown in table I. Sieverts' original method of obtaining gas solubilities involved measurement of the volume of gas required to saturate the liquid metal contained in an evacuated bulb of known volume. This procedure, improved by introduction of high frequency induction heating, has yielded reproducible results which appear to be entirely dependable. Using Sieverts' method, it has been proved for iron and other metals and alloys that the hydrogen solubility is proportional to the square root of the pressure of the hydrogen gas above the liquid, so that one may work with various partial pressures of hydrogen to put different amounts of hydrogen in solution. From Sieverts' law it is possible to know accurately what amount of hydrogen is dissolved in the liquid metal at the time of sampling. The accuracy of a sampling method may be gauged by reference to this known solubility. It was the purpose of this investigation to develop a method for sampling liquid steel and for storing the sample so that the analytical result would represent the actual hydrogen content of the metal bath. For this purpose an induction furnace was

Jan 1, 1951

By E. N. Mazza, H. S. Kalish

The effect of sintering types 302, 3028, and 430 stainless steel powder compacts in hydrogen and dissociated ammonia was investigated. It was found that sintering in dissociated ammonia resulted in as much as 0.5 wt pct increase in the nitrogen content of stainless steel even though the dissociation of the gas was complete. Sintering in hydrogen, on the other hand, reduced the nitrogen content of the stainless steel to less than 0.01 wt pct. In the case of the 302-type stainless steel, the low nitrogen content resulted in a material that was largely ferritic, whereas the high nitrogen content rendered the material fully austenitic. Sintering in dissociated ammonia resulted in lower density, generally lower tensile strength, less ductility, and higher hardness than sintering under equivalent conditions in hydrogen. The reduction of oxides on both stainless steel and iron particles was found to be effected by hydrogen partial pressure in the sintering atmosphere. Compacting pressure was found also to effect oxide reduction during sintering. DISSOCIATED ammonia often is used as a substitute'.' for hydrogen in sintering and in annealing, since economic advantages sometimes can be obtained by such a substitution. In addition, anhydrous ammonia contains very little impurity. Thus, dissociated ammonia gas is very dry whereas tank hydrogen often must be freed of oxygen and water vapor prior to use in many applications. The sintering of stainless steel powder compacts as well as bright annealing is well recognized as requiring a hydrogen atmosphere and for the foregoing reasons dissociated ammonia is frequently substituted. It has generally been overlooked, however, that the nitrogen in dissociated ammonia might have an important effect on the sintering process and on the properties of stainless steel compacts. Considered an inert gas in many applications, nitrogen, on the other hand, is very reactive with cer- tain metals. Dissociated ammonia could not be used for hydriding zirconium or titanium. Nitrogen reacts with columbium, tantalum, chromium, uranium, thorium, and many other active metals. Iron and iron-base alloys are, for the most part, inert in nitrogen but there are many borderline cases. It has been reported that stainless steel stabilized with columbium or titanium should not be sintered in dissociated ammonia.3 olybdenum has been reported as reacting with dissociated ammonia to a minor extent.' Although most of the reactions with iron-base alloys are attributed to the action of un-dissociated ammonia and the action of nascent nitrogen, Uhlig4 showed how readily pure molecular nitrogen reacts with and diffuses into 18-8 stainless steel at 1150°C. He also pointed out how readily nitrogen diffuses out of 18-8 stainless steel when heated in pure dry hydrogen, and these thorough investigations on the subject show that commercial stainless steels are nitrogen-bearing, since they are melted in air. The effects of nitrogen in stainless steel, particularly the 18-8 Cr-Ni type, previously have received considerable attention." In 1926, it was pointed out

Jan 1, 1956

By L. D. Jaffe, H. C. Mann, E. L. Reed

It has been generally believed that fracture originates at a point and, if the stress is suficient, propagates across the material from this point. Evidence to the contrary is given in Fig 1. This micrograph shows an area close to the fracture of a steel containing The material had been quenched from 1675°F and tempered at 1150°F as a round about 10 in, in diam, and had a static tensile strength of 132,000 psi and a static yield strength of 105,000 psi. The steel was broken in 3000 cycles of reversed bending at a nominal max. fiber stress of 110,000 psi at a speed of 10,000 rpm. It was in the form of a standard R.R. Moore specimen with 45" V-notch, 0.015 in. radius and 0.220 in. diam at base of notch. The fractured edge in Fig 1 is part of the central portion of the specimen which broke during the final sudden fracture. Attention is directed to the short cracks which appear as dark lines within the specimen. Similar cracks were found in another specimen of the material, broken in 1,798,000 cycles at a nominal stress of 40,000 psi. The cracks were found in several areas close to the path of the final sudden fracture. This final fracture appeared microscopically to be wholly brittle and transcrystalline. Closer to the surface of the specimens, near the path of progressive fracture, which presumably advanced gradually during many cycles, there was microscopic evidence of some local deformation, but no microcracks. Neither were microcracks observed in areas distant from the main fracture path. The following explanation is offered: In the sudden fracture of the specimen, a crack propagates along a crystallo-graphic plane, with little or no plastic deformation of the adjacent material, until it reaches a grain boundary or a particle of carbide or inclusion which stops its advance. (The particle or boundary may be outside the plane of polish and not visible in the micrograph.) A stress concentration occurs about the end of the stopped crack. One or more new cracks are likely to start in the zone of this stress concentration. They may lie in the same grain as the first crack or in an adjacent grain. New cracks may occasionally start in a nearby but not adjacent grain whose orientation with respect to the stress leads to more ready fracture than does that of the grain between. Once started, these cracks propagate along crystallographic planes in their grains and the process repeats. This leads to discontinuous, branching chains of microcracks. As the process continues, microcracks probably tend to link up by fracture of intermediate material under the influence of increasing stress concentration. Occasionally, too, there may be a series of nearby grains of similar orientation so that there is a certain continuity of fracture across them. In either case the effective size of a crack is increased, resulting in greater stress concentration at its ends and a greater likelihood of further increase of size of the continuously-fractured region. When one continuous crack crosses the entire specimen, macroscopic fracture has occurred. The fractured edge of the specimen in Fig 1 represents a series of microcracks which became continuous across the entire specimen. The short, dark-appearing cracks in the figure did not become continuous over a large area. The row of microscopic stress concentrations at their ends may link up with those of the "main crack" outside the plane of polish. The above explanation does not imply that microcracks develop at the same rate in all portions of the specimen. They will develop most rapidly where the macroscopic tensile stress and macroscopic stress concentration are greatest. Viewed on a scale large compared to the grains, the fracture would appear to progress continuously across the specimen. Although Fig 1 shows a specimen broken in a fatigue test, it is believed that the microcracks discussed do not depend on the repetitive nature of the stressing used, since they are in the region where "sudden" fracture occurred, presumably in a single stress cycle. The whole process of microcrack propagation outlined above is thought to have occurred during this single cycle. It is believed that discontinuous crack propagation may be universal in brittle transgranular fracture of crystalline solids. Further experiments are under way.

Jan 1, 1950

By Wilbur Jurden

THE writer's first experience with a nonferrous reduction plant of great magnitude was at the Washoe reduction works of Anaconda some 35 years ago. Here was a plant which had been planned with remarkable skill and foresight considering the time and the state of development of copper-plant practice in the year 1902. The designer utilized topography to fullest extent to provide proper sequence of operations and, what is most remarkable, to leave adequate space for future developments, most of which at that time were unknown. However, the practice then was to locate the various units of the reduction works at the most advantageous points of the existing terrain with little regard for tramming or other auxiliaries and then connect these various units by the essential trackage, conveyor systems, piping, etc., as the need developed. This occasionally led to undesirable track arrangements, sharp curves, and steep grades, especially when it became necessary to extend various portions of the plant. Conveyor systems also became rather complicated, running as they did at various angles, and such items as piping and electrical distribution were often found to be in the wrong place, entirely inadequate in size, or awkwardly arranged for any kind of extension. This condition was not peculiar to Anaconda, for all copper plants at that time were built in the same manner and it was the constant association with these difficulties which, in the year 1925, influenced the layout of the Andes Copper Mining Co. plant. In that plant all trackage was laid out straight and level, all conveyors at right angles to each other with minimum length and number of transfers. All buildings were placed parallel and the main structures were complete for all purposes so that auxiliary buildings and dog houses would not be added later. Piping and electrical work was provided for in the original layout and carefully designed to avoid additions and alterations, and careful study given to every movement of material throughout the entire plant so that it would be accomplished with the least possible effort. Naturally it was hardly expected to attain all these objectives perfectly but our efforts did succeed in creating a plant which was unique and outstanding for its time-1927. It was also most gratifying to find that these design principles contributed to considerable savings starting right in the drafting room, carrying through the construction and ultimately yielding savings in operations and manpower. Not only that, but such a plant gives the observer an impression of symmetry and order, is more attractive to the workmen, and unquestionably eliminates many accident hazards. However, the Andes plant buildings were fitted to the existing terrain instead of having terrain created to fit the buildings-an item which we found advantageous to correct on the next large plant. At Morenci in 1939, all of the desirable features of the Andes plant such as parallel buildings, etc., were incorporated; but we went one step further-power shovels were brought in to make the terrain fit the reduction works. The result at Morenci is well-known and needs no elaboration here, but the success achieved by the design methods used for this and previous plants naturally influenced and guided the layout of the Chuquicamata sulphide plant which is the largest yet conceived. Chuquicamata Plant Design At Chuquicamata several factors not encountered previously complicated the problem to a great extent. The most desirable location for the smelter would allow smelter gases to blow directly into the open-pit mine already producing 60,000 tons of oxide ore per day and employing 1550 men. This, of course, would be a serious condition and, therefore, we were forced to move the smelter to a less desirable location but followed our previous experience at Morenci and made the terrain fit the job. The most difficult problem, however, was the provision for receiving various types of ore both by rail and conveyor. These consisted of: 1-Sulphide-bearing residue from the stockpile from which oxide copper had previously been leached. 2-Sulphide-bearing residue coming direct from the leaching vats. 3-Sulphide ore crushed at the existing crushing plants and hauled to the concentrator in cars. 4-Sulphide ore from the new crushing plant adjacent to the concentrator. 5-Sulphide ore obtained

Jan 1, 1952

By H. T. Clark

NO previous determinations of the deformation or recrystallization textures of titanium or of titanium-base alloys have been reported in the literature. The room-temperature structure of titanium is hexagonal close-packed with a c/a ratio less than 1.633. It would be expected, therefore, to have a rolling texture similar to that of other hexagonal close-packed metals, namely (0001) [1010]. Burgers and Jacobs1 have shown that zirconium, a metal isomorphous with titanium in its structure and similar in many of its properties, has such a texture with a scatter of the basal plane toward the transverse direction. This scatter is in the opposite direction from that found in magnesium by Bakarian2 but similar to that reported by Smigelskas and Barrett3 or beryllium. The rolling and annealing textures reported here for high-purity iodide titanium are significantly different from the . textures of any other hexagonal close-packed metal. All titanium used during this investigation was prepared by the iodode process." The annealed hardness of this material varied from 73 (material used for sample No. 2) to 97 Vickers hardness number. An estimate of the chemical composition of this grade of titanium has been reported by Finlay and Snyder.5 With one exception, shown in table I, the as-deposited titanium was cast into 10 to 20 g ingots in an electric arc furnace in purified argon before being rolled to sheet. The cast ingots were forged and ground until their cross-section was approximately rectangular, annealed 1 hr at 700°C in vacuum and cold rolled. Rolling was carried out in a two-high, 4 in. diam mill, using reductions no greater than 10 pct per pass. The direction of rolling was reversed after each pass, and, in order to avoid temperature effects, the sheet was allowed to cool after each pass. Unless the rolled sheet was sufficiently thin for X-ray penetration (about 0.004 in.), it was reduced to this thickness by pickling. Because of the possibility of introducing twinning or other deformation during grinding, no attempt was made to maintain uniform thickness of the sample during pickling by intermediate grinding or sanding operations. Those samples to be used for determining the annealed texture were recrystallized by vacuum annealing the cold-rolled sheet for 1 hr at 500°C. These thin samples were held between thick titanium sheets during annealing to prevent distortion. Table I outlines the rolling and annealing schedule of those samples for which photograms or texture patterns are shown. X-ray Techniques The usual techniques for determining textures were employed during this work. Molybdenum radiation was used for the transmission exposures and copper radiation for the glancing angle ones. Since titanium fluoresces under these conditions, it is necessary to employ a filter between the sample and the film. The Kß radiation filters are very satisfactory for this purpose. Sufficient grains having favorable orientation were present in both the cold-worked and in the cold-worked—500°C annealed samples to provide satisfactory patterns with the samples stationary. Because of the difficulties of comparing intensities of transmission photograms with those obtained

Jan 1, 1951

By D. H. Davis

HAND picking was the earliest form of coal preparation, first practiced to improve the outward appearance of the coal being loaded and to remove any pieces that might appear objection- able to the buyer. It is still extensively practiced on the plus 1-in. sizes and particularly on the plus 4-in. and larger sizes. The percentage of ash reduction that can be obtained by hand picking depends entirely upon the amount of free impurity occurring in the coal. In a particularly dirty seam, where a considerable quantity of rock occurs with the coal as mined, hand picking produces sizable reductions in ash. If the coal is prepared clean at the working face hand picking is a final check; in some cases, on the smaller sizes, it is practiced only to show that an effort is being made to prepare a clean product. Because of the variety and different methods of handling coal, the early plants were not always adapted for efficient hand picking. At most mines an attempt is made to remove the visual impurities at one or more of the following places in the surface plant? (1) in the tipple during screening; (a) on picking band, belt, or shaking conveyors;*(3) during the loading of the coal as it goes into the railroad car. Whatever the physical arrangements of the plant may be, the usual practice is to run the coal over the screen, picking table or boom at such a rate that each piece of impurity is exposed to the view of the picker. Coal should be uniformly sized and spread out on the table so as not to exceed one particle in depth. The flow should be even in tonnage and the speed of travel should be from 30 to 60 ft. per minute and not exceed 80 ft. per minute. The dirtier the coal, the slower the speed required for a fixed number of pickers. Actually, picking capacity depends on the number of particles per minute that can be picked out and rejected. The percentage of impurity removed is determined by this and the average weight of piece rejected. Handling a mixture of sizes from nut to the largest lump over the same picking table or conveyor is not conducive to efficient separation by hand picking because the lump hides the smaller

Jan 1, 1943

By F. J. Haller

IN 1943, we found, in the new Mather operation, a very unusual and disappointing condition in the footwall rock where all of our main haulageways were to be located. With the exception of a few hundred feet out of the thousands then planned and since driven, all of the openings require support. In general, the ground is not particularly heavy, at least by our standards, but it must be supported and the back carefully covered. Also, our operations require rather wide plat openings (16 to 18 ft) and rather flat curves at the turn-outs, all of which adds to the problem. When this completely unforeseen condition was discovered, ordinary timbering was the only answer, because of the impossibility of obtaining adequate steel supplies in time due to war shortages. Then by the time steel supplies were obtained and a practice developed, we found ourselves with between four and five miles of main haulage drifts and plat openings of a permanent nature, all of which were supported by hardwood timber, some of which had already rotted to an unsafe degree. Also, our drifting program was adding some two miles per year to the above figure. F. J. HALLER, Member AIME, is Superintendent, Mather Mine, Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., Ishpeming, Mich. AIME Columbus Meeting, September 1949. TP 2840 A. Discussion (2 copies) may be sent to Transactions AIME before May 31, 1950. Manuscript received Aug. 22, 1949. Revision received Jan. 17, 1950. To give all of the details of our experiments, studies, and experiences would fill a large book, but we were satisfied that our organization had done an excellent job, starting from scratch. You can appreciate our surprise when we discovered that we had added very little to an existing record. Attention was called to a footnote in a copy of "Carnegie Pocket Companion" year 1923. The note read: "Full information as to uses of H-Beams is given in pamphlet entitled 'Steel Mine Timbers.' " A search of our Engineering Library brought to light a pamphlet printed in 1911 showing extensive use of steel for this purpose. Except for welding in place of riveting, we have added very little to the designs in that book. We have, however, developed an experience which proves, at least to our own satisfaction, that steel mine supports pay off under the proper conditions. We are now convinced, in spite of the relatively high initial cost of materials, that steel sets, because of comparatively low installation cost, are actually cheaper than either treated or untreated wood sets, if they are properly designed and adapted. Several Sections in Use: Convenience guided our first experiments in steel sets, since for a number of years, we had used the 4-in. WF, 10 lb per ft section in 10-ft lengths as safety forepoles along with wood forepoles. This section replaced the 40-lb rail which had formerly been used for the purpose. Having the 4-in. WF sections on hand, it was natural that our first experiments in steel sets involved their use. Later, the rolling of the 10-lb section was discontinued in favor of the much stronger 13-lb section, which is now standard for both legs and caps in areas of no particular weight, but which, none the less, require permanent support. Our experiments involved the use of the 10- and 13-lb sections as legs and 6- and 8-in. I beams, 16 and 23 lb per ft, respectively, as caps. Experience soon indicated that, if the ground were heavy enough, and the opening wide enough to require a cap stronger than 13-lb, the 8-in, 23-lb should be used, eliminating the 6-in. I beam. We now know that the 8-in. WF section of the same weight, which we propose to use in the future, is considerably stronger for the amount of money involved. Comparative Strengths: Tables I to IV giving strengths of several species of timbers as compared with the structural sections that we now use have been prepared in accordance with accepted practice. Experience indicates that failure due to compression perpendicular to the grain of the wood does not destroy the effectiveness of a wood set frequently enough to be a practical factor. Therefore, no table of these values is included.

Jan 1, 1951