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By E. C. Dominguez, H. B. Scharf

The Sparrows Point plant of Bethlehem Steel Co., southeast of Baltimore, is the largest Bethlehem plant, with an annual rated capacity of 6.2 million ingot tons. There is considerable diversity of product, but a high percentage is sheet, tin plate, galvanized sheets, and rod and wire. The large amount of light-weight end product requires a number of pickling installations that necessarily consume large quantities of sulfuric acid. In the coking operations sulfuric acid is also consumed in recovery of ammonia as ammonium sulfate and in treatment of recovered light oil derivatives. Total sulfuric acid consumption in the plant is currently approaching 10,000 tons per month, of which 55 to 60 pct is required for pickling. In 1951 the acute sulfur shortage caused grave concern as to future sulfuric acid supply for the Sparrows Point plant. Raw materials for acid making were already at hand in the form of hydrogen sulfide and pyrites sufficient to produce nearly half the sulfuric acid required at that time. It was also known that the Bethlehem mining activities would produce additional pyrites in the future. Late in 1951 Bethlehem management decided to build a 250-ton sulfuric acid plant at Sparrows Point to utilize these raw materials. The plant was built and put in operation in May 1953. The steel plant has expanded considerably since 1951, and it is now necessary to operate the acid plant far over rated capacity in order to supply plant demand. Production of acid in 1954 amounted to 93,000 tons.

May 1, 1956

By George A. Packard

THE experiments here described were made under my supervision while temporarily acting as head of the Department of Metallurgy at the Missouri School of Mines, at Rolla. The work was done by Messrs. W. E. Brown, W. C. Richards, and F. L. L. Wilson, and the description of the results forms a portion of a thesis presented for the degree of Bachelor of Science. These results are submitted because I have seen no description of the application of pot roasting to the treatment of a copper-concentrate. This work followed that already described in the discussion of the ' Lime-Roasting of a Galena-Concentrate,"' and was similarly occasioned by the lack of a furnace of the reverberatory type in which the copper-concentrates could be smelted. The material for the tests was a mixture of three lots available. The first consisted of 8-mm. jig-concentrates and the second of 0.5 mm. table-concentrates, from the San Juan district, Colo. Both contained pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena. The third was a lot of copper-ore, found in the laboratory, which had been crushed through 8-mm. screen, and had at some previous time, before the laboratory roasting-furnace was torn down, received a partial roasting. The analyses of these ores are given in Table I. In order to determine the applicability of pot-roasting as to each lot of ore, and the effect of varying proportions of lime, six preliminary tests were made in a " size N " Battersea crucible, 9 in. high by 6 in. in diameter at top, with a 5/8 in. hole bored through the bottom. The crucible was set in the upturned elbow of a 2-in. pipe, the joint being luted with clay; and air was obtained from a receiver supplied by a compressor. The

Jan 1, 1908

By Edward Keller

(Canal Zone Meeting, November, 1910.) UNDER the title, Labor-Saving Appliances in the Works-Laboratory, I published a paper1 in which was described how multi-manipulations, in a works-laboratory, and in the furnace-room of an assay-laboratory, can be condensed into single manipulations by applying the proper mechanical devices. For example, I now deposit in, or withdraw from, a muffle a set of 48 cupels as one unit. The front row. (8) of these. are blanks or heaters; the other 40, when they have attained the proper temperature in the muffle, are charged simultaneously with the 40 lead-buttons. Three manipulations here accomplish an operation which by the generally customary method requires 136, and this number is only limited by the size of muffle and cupels. This operation is an enlargement of what I have already described in my former paper, and Fig. I shows the improved implements. In the paper referred to I described a gold-silver bead parting-bath, which is the last of the devices used in regular sequence in practice. This bath was designated as being convenient, but was not a labor-saver properly. Fig. 2 of the present paper shows a new device. Instead of the original tray, there are now sectional holders for the test-tubes, each having a wooden handle on either end, so that the holders may be removed from the boiling bath, and the acid or water poured off from each set of tubes (in this case, 7) without waiting to cool. The tubes, held in place by clutches, as shown in Fig. 3, rest in holes in the base-strip, having a smaller diameter than the tubes. Each holder is stamped at either end with a number, so that the bath becomes further useful by permitting several men to use it at the same time without interference. Apart from the handles, the holders are made of sheet-copper. ' Trans., xxxvi., 3 to 18 (1906).

Aug 1, 1910

By R. N. Hunt

GEOLOGICAL and exploration work of the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company are handled by the mines geological and the exploration divisions of a geological department under the direction of the chief geologist. The mines division at present includes, in Utah. a geologist in charge, resident at Bingham, assisted by a geologist stationed at each operation, and a small group of geologists resident at the Bayard unit, in New Mexico. The duties of the mines division include the mapping and delineation of the geology of the mines, direction of sampling and diamond drilling, and the periodic calculation of ore reserves. At Bingham an amount of underground drilling within the limestone and porphyry formations which are hosts to the ore bodies supplements and completes development by mine workings. At Bayard, five to seven drills are kept busy underground, and eight to twelve drills operate on the surface. The mines division men live at the mine and work in close co-operation with mine superintendents and foremen. Development work is discussed, initi-

Jan 1, 1948

By ALFREDO INTZAUGARAT, MIGUEL BERRO

During the years 1943 through 1945, there was a decrease in the total oil production in Argentina. In the fields of Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut Territory) and Mendoza and Salta Provinces, the production obtained was as shown in Table I. The only place where there was a small increase was Plaza Huincul, in the Neuquen Territory and Lunlunta, in the Mendoza Province.

Jan 1, 1946

By W. J. PRIESTLEY

WHEN during the war the Navy Department decided to build an armor-plate and gun-forging plant of its own at South Charleston, W. Va., one of the most important units of the equipment proposed was a 14,000 gross ton forging-press to be used for forging, bending, and rectifying battleship armor-plate and making hol¬low forgings for large caliber guns. A press suitable for doing this kind of work was put into operation in the fall of 1921 and was operated successfully on armor-plate and large forgings until the closing down of the ordnance plant following the Limitation of Armament Conference held in Washington, February, 1922. PURPOSE OF THE PRESS There are three methods by which armor-plate can be made, namely, hammering, forging, and rolling the ingot. Each method produces a different result in the mechanical working of the steel. The hammer was eliminated as impractical from an operating standpoint. The first armor-plate made in this country was worked under a hammer at the Bethlehem Steel Co., between the years 1891 and 1893, but was superseded by forging when the large press was completed in 1893. Harry T. Morris of the Bethlehem Steel Co. informs me that the 1.25-ton steam hammer began operations in 1891 and was in operation for about two years. The Carnegie Steel Co. and the Midvale Steel and Ordnance Steel Co. also forged armor-plate. Certain European manufacturers rolled the plates from large slab ingots, after removing the sink-head and giving the body of the ingot a light pass under a hydraulic press. While rolling accomplished more mechanical work on the surface of an armor plate, forging, on the other hand, resulted in a greater amount of work in the interior of the plate. Either type of equipment involved an enormous expendi¬ture, so it was deemed advisable to adopt the method which would make it possible to use the equipment for more than one purpose. Since g large rolling-mill could be used only for the single operation of rolling armor-plate, a press was decided on, for the reason that it might be designed so as to forge armor, as well as bend and rectify it, and also be used in the forging of ingots for large caliber guns, both in the form of hollow forgings and also solid shafts.

Jan 1, 1926

By G. W. Preckshot, N. G. DeLisle, C. E. Cottrell, D. L. Katz

MOST crude oils contain asphaltic substances that may be naturally or artificially precipitated. In the Greeley field, California, this asphaltic bitumen is precipitated during the flow of the oil from the reservoir to the stock tank. The mechanism of such precipitation is not well understood. This paper presents the progress that has been made by using the electron microscope as a new tool and by observing the effects of the streaming potential on the formation of bitumen particles. Crude oils at atmospheric pressure viewed in the electron microscope in very thin films under a vacuum showed no asphaltic particles. A technique of preparing slides of thin films by dilution of the oil with benzene and washing in petroleum ether was used at first, and these observations showed that the solvents caused the formation of the particles, varying from 0.01 to 0.2 micron in diameter. The electrical effects of fluids flowing through porous solid were studied, with emphasis on the formation of colloidal particles by the streaming potential. The streaming potential of crude oil flowing through sand was measured and was shown to be responsible for the formation of bitumen particles. These results bring out a new phenomenon, which may occur when crude oil flows through the porous oil reservoir.

Jan 1, 1942

By C. P. Watson

Economics has been defined as the useful application of wealth or material resources. The search of alchemists in the Middle Ages for s formula by which base metals might be transmuted into gold was no more intensive than has been the search by all branches of the oil industry for methods whereby the rnatcrial resources of West Texas in the nature of sulfur-bearing oil might be usefully applied. The purpose of this paper is to present in brief space developments that are conceded to possess economic significance. History The first discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the Permian Basin of West Texas was the Westbrook field in Mitchell County in 1920. Three years later the discovery well in the Big Lake field was cornpleted as a small pumper (70 bbl.) at a depth of 3028 ft. In 1925, discovery of the Powell or World pool in Crockett County stimulated activities in the Permian Basin, further establishing the importance of the Permian limestones as sources of production. The years 1925 and 1926 were marked by a period of extensive leasing and drilling activities. At the close of 1926 more than 7,000,000 acres had been leased and discovery wells completed in the Hurdle, Hendricksand Yates fields, definitely establishing the importance of the Permian Basin as a source of production from free-flowing wells. Review of Fields The producing fields in the Permian Basin are grouped on three distinct lines of folding. These may be separately identified as the Big Lake-Powell fold; the Yates, Hurdle, and Church-McElroy area and the Winkler County development. Production is derived from a porous limestone stratigraphically uniform, encountered at depths varying from 900 to 3100 ft. Lenticular sand bodies above the lime in Howard County have resulted in the

Jan 1, 1928

Organization Place Date 1918 National Society of Naval Architects New York, N. Y. Nov. 14-15 American Society of Mechanical Engineers New York, N. Y. Dec. 3-6 Geological Society of America Boston, Mass. Dec. 28-31 American Association for the Advancement of Science Boston, Mass. Dec. 27¬ Jan. 2. 1919 American Society of Civil Engineers New York, N. Y. Jan. 15-16 American Wood Preservers Association St. Louis, Mo. Jan. 28-30 American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engi¬ neers New York, N. Y. Jan. 28-30

Jan 11, 1918

By F. E. Bachman

Although it has been apparent to me for a long time that too great weight was currently given to the silicon-contents of foundry-iron, and that the theory of the control by silicon of the carbon-contents of cast-iron is unsound, or that, at best, the influence of silicon is too small to be of much practical value as a guide in foundry-work, it never seemed to me desirable to enter the lists against either the " silicon-fad " or the theory, for the reason that I had neither the time nor the facilities to prove my position, nor any better theory to offer. But since Mr. Summers has taken the step, it seems but right that I should give such facts as are at hand in support of his contention. At the same time I do not think these are enough to prove the case if the contrary proposition were not itself, as it seems to me, based on insufficient evidence. Both Keep's and Turner's conclusions seem to be drawn from irons carrying less than the normal amount of carbon; Turner's " base " being, moreover, a steel rather than a pig-iron, and both the white base and the ferro-silicon of Keep being so low in carbon that compounds of them would not give a material approaching the carbon-contents of a normal casting, and having, therefore, little value as showing the effects of silicon on foundry-irons, even if his samples were treated under the same conditions as those to which pig-metal is subjected in making castings.

Jan 1, 1899

By Michael H. Kuryla, Galen H. Clevenger

Some years after Nobel made his epoch-making contribution to the knowledge of high explosives, Sprengell described a new class of detonating explosives consisting of mixtures, made immediately before use, of an oxidizing agent and a combustible substance.2 The novel feature of the Sprengel explosives is that the constituents alone are non-explosive during manufacture, storage and transport. Despite this advantage, and although some of these have been used in important work, they are now little used, possibly on account of the greater inconvenience to the user, compared with explosives supplied by the manufacturer in final form. Liquid-oxygen explosives are a type of Sprengel explosive in that the oxidizing agent (liquid oxygen) and the combustible substance or substances (solid carbonaceous matter alone or in combination with liquid hydrocarbons or even metallic powders and, at times inert absorbents) are brought together immediately before use. The components separately are non-explosive. The possibility of using liquid oxygen as one of the components of an explosive was perhaps first suggested by Sprengel, who stated that the beau ideal of a detonating explosive was a mixture of eight parts of liquid oxygen with one part of liquid hydrogen. Although the liquefaction of air3 had been accomplished in the laboratory as early

Jan 1, 1923

By Michael H. Kuryla, Galen H. Clevenger

Some years after Nobel made his epoch-making contribution to the knowledge of high explosives, Sprengell described a new class of detonating explosives consisting of mixtures, made immediately before use, of an oxidizing agent and a combustible substance.2 The novel feature of the Sprengel explosives is that the constituents alone are non-explosive during manufacture, storage and transport. Despite this advantage, and although some of these have been used in important work, they are now little used, possibly on account of the greater inconvenience to the user, compared with explosives supplied by the manufacturer in final form. Liquid-oxygen explosives are a type of Sprengel explosive in that the oxidizing agent (liquid oxygen) and the combustible substance or substances (solid carbonaceous matter alone or in combination with liquid hydrocarbons or even metallic powders and, at times inert absorbents) are brought together immediately before use. The components separately are non-explosive. The possibility of using liquid oxygen as one of the components of an explosive was perhaps first suggested by Sprengel, who stated that the beau ideal of a detonating explosive was a mixture of eight parts of liquid oxygen with one part of liquid hydrogen. Although the liquefaction of air3 had been accomplished in the laboratory as early

Jan 1, 1923

By Franklyn Oatman

IN order that the conditions which obtain in an oil well may be readily understood, a brief description of a typical California well and. a number of the phenomena accompanying same will be given. That the necessity for the exclusion of water be realized, the effects of water intrusion, a description of methods of prevention, and a discussion of causes of failure will be presented, followed by a summary and recommendations. Fig. 1 shows a section of a typical well which illustrates the relation of oil sands to overlying strata. It indicates a deep water sand separated from the oil sand by shale, and the proper place for the final shutting off of water. In this well a comparatively thick stratum of compact shale protected the oil from overlying water so that the operation of landing the water string was a simple matter. In some wells the protecting stratum may be only from 3 to 5 ft. thick and very careful operation is necessary in order to land the water string of casing properly and not puncture through to the oil sand. The cases just cited are common, but occasionally, after excluding overlying water, productive oil sands are drilled through in the expectation of finding more productive underlying sand, and a water-bearing stratum is tapped. In this case the problem is the reverse of the normal; water must be prevented from ascending rather than descending. A discussion of well-drilling methods is not within the scope of this paper, except such operations as pertain to shutting off of water. A brief outline of the several conditions which may accompany drilling follows. Some or all may be present in any particular case. The direct relation of these to prevention of intrusion will he discussed in detail further on. In drilling, the hole. becomes more or less irregular in shape, and rough, and as the casing follows the bit into the well it does not fit snugly against the walls. As a result, water may descend between the casing and walls of the well. If a circulation pump is not used during drilling, the hole is simply punched through and the pulverized material removed from the well by means of a bailer. If circulation is maintained there is a continual flow of water down inside the casing and up around the outside between the pipe and the walls of hole. This keeps an open. space around the pipe.

Jan 3, 1914

By E. R. Parker, D. L. Martin

In a previous paper one of the authors observed that the rate of cooling from the anneal prior to testing greatly influenced the life of copper under sustained load at 200°C. Furnace-cooled bars of oxygen-free copper (with and without silver) had a life four to twenty-five times that of the water-quenched specimens. The addition of 0.054 per cent silver to the oxygen-free copper increased the life at a stress of 20,000 lb. per sq. in. from about 2 hr. to 50 hr. Fractures in these bars were intercrystalline. An explanation was advanced to account for the profound influence of cooling rate on the rupture properties at 200°C. The suggestion offered was that at the high annealing temperature the minor constituents are distributed at random. By water quenching, this condition is maintained at room temperature, whereas furnace cooling permits some segregation at the grain boundaries. The higher concentration of the minor constituents in the grain boundaries results in a. strengthening, so that a longer life at a given stress and .temperature results. Small amounts of cadmium or manganese have also been found to increase the life of copper at 200°C., and to a much greater extent than silver.2 The increase in the long-time strength of copper resulting from small additions of cadmium or silver appears to be related, indirectly at least, to the higher softening temperatures of such alloys. The elements, such as silver or cadmium, which greatly increase the rupture life of copper also cause large increases in the softening temperature. As little as 0.05 per cent of cadmium or silver is sufficient to raise the softening temperature more than 100°.3,4 The effects of cooling rate and of minor constituents on the rupture properties are of considerable fundamental as well as practical interest; therefore a more detailed study of their nature was conducted and is reported in this paper. Experimental Procedure Materials The materials studied in this investigation may conveniently be classified in two groups: one consisting of a wide variety of commercial coppers, and the other composed of special high-purity, laboratory-prepared coppers. The commercial materials were tested to determine whether or not the effect of cooling rate occurred with all coppers, whereas the high-purity coppers were investigated in order to establish a basis for evaluating the effect of minor constituents on the rupture properties. In Table I are given the analyses of the coppers tested. The samples I to 6 are commercial materials and were obtained for the most part from stock supplies.*

Jan 1, 1944

By D. L. Martin, E. R. Parker

In a previous paper one of the authors observed that the rate of cooling from the anneal prior to testing greatly influenced the life of copper under sustained load at 200°C. Furnace-cooled bars of oxygen-free copper (with and without silver) had a life four to twenty-five times that of the water-quenched specimens. The addition of 0.054 per cent silver to the oxygen-free copper increased the life at a stress of 20,000 lb. per sq. in. from about 2 hr. to 50 hr. Fractures in these bars were intercrystalline. An explanation was advanced to account for the profound influence of cooling rate on the rupture properties at 200°C. The suggestion offered was that at the high annealing temperature the minor constituents are distributed at random. By water quenching, this condition is maintained at room temperature, whereas furnace cooling permits some segregation at the grain boundaries. The higher concentration of the minor constituents in the grain boundaries results in a. strengthening, so that a longer life at a given stress and .temperature results. Small amounts of cadmium or manganese have also been found to increase the life of copper at 200°C., and to a much greater extent than silver.2 The increase in the long-time strength of copper resulting from small additions of cadmium or silver appears to be related, indirectly at least, to the higher softening temperatures of such alloys. The elements, such as silver or cadmium, which greatly increase the rupture life of copper also cause large increases in the softening temperature. As little as 0.05 per cent of cadmium or silver is sufficient to raise the softening temperature more than 100°.3,4 The effects of cooling rate and of minor constituents on the rupture properties are of considerable fundamental as well as practical interest; therefore a more detailed study of their nature was conducted and is reported in this paper. Experimental Procedure Materials The materials studied in this investigation may conveniently be classified in two groups: one consisting of a wide variety of commercial coppers, and the other composed of special high-purity, laboratory-prepared coppers. The commercial materials were tested to determine whether or not the effect of cooling rate occurred with all coppers, whereas the high-purity coppers were investigated in order to establish a basis for evaluating the effect of minor constituents on the rupture properties. In Table I are given the analyses of the coppers tested. The samples I to 6 are commercial materials and were obtained for the most part from stock supplies.*

Jan 1, 1944

By E. H. Jr. Dix

THE consideration of alloying elements for aluminum has led to a series of investigations of the equilibrium relations between aluminum and those alloying elements. Therefore, the aluminum end of the aluminum-antimony diagram has been studied. The general form of the aluminum-antimony equilibrium diagram has been worked out by Campbell and Mathews1 and by Tammann.2 Campbell and Mathews described principally the beginning of solidification. They found the curve of beginning of solidification to rise gradually from the melting point of pure aluminum to a maximum at about 67 per cent. aluminum. After a slight lowering of the curve at a little greater antimony concentration the curve again rises to a maximum at 18.4 per cent. aluminum, which corresponds to the compound AlSb. The curve then drops to the melting point of pure antimony. Tammann explained the maximum occurring at about 67 per cent. aluminum as the result of the slow formation of the single compound AlSb. The space lattice of the compound AlSb, according to Owen and Preston,3 is face-centered cubic, the antimony atoms being intermeshed with an identical aluminum lattice. Very little, if any, work has been done on aluminum alloys containing small amounts of antimony.

Jan 1, 1930

By L. C. Morganroth

Magnesite both Massive and Crystalline MAGNESITES are. of two general classes-massive and crystalline. Massive magnesite occurs in serpentine, being formed by the breaking down or decay of serpentine-making minerals or rocks as olivine, etc. (All the magnesia contained by the olivine is not liberated, as a portion goes to make up the serpentine; the breaking up of this serpentine later forms more magnesite.) Serpentine in various stages of transformation is found in the vicinity of magnesite deposits. Massive magnesite is very widely distributed. It is found in Greece, . California, Africa, India, Australia, Mexico, South America, and deposits of varying sizes occur in several of the European countries. Those on the Island of Euboea, Greece, are probable the most important deposits of this character of magnesite. They have been worked for a number of years, the principal quarries or mines being 3 miles in the interior from the village of St. George. (St. George is on the west coast of the island, between the towns of Limni and Khalkis.) (Figs. 1 and 2). -The magnesite occurs in veins or lenses in serpentine. Some of these lenses are very large; one worked several years ago was approximately, 50 ft. in thickness, 75 to 100 ft. high and 300 ft. or more in length. The magnesite is pure white and makes a very prominent feature of the landscape. While massive magnesite is widely scattered over the world, many of the deposits are in veins too thin to work. The usual mode of occurrence is in the form of stock work, the deposits in Venezuela, Mexico, and many of those in California, being of this form. The veins vary in thickness from the thinness of paper up to several inches, running in all directions, occasionally leading to a mass or nucleus of some,size. The spaces between the veins are filled with a disintegrated serpentine in the form of sand. Several of the deposits in California would probably be workable, if they were more favorably situated with reference to transportation, but by far the majority of the deposits are too poor to work. At one deposit,

Jan 9, 1914

By A. E. Brugger

SOME 2,000 years ago Pliny is supposed to have said, "Out of Africa always something new." It may perhaps even now be news to a great many that the Belgian Congo has in recent years been producing approximately a quarter of a ton of diamonds annually. For that is what the 1 1/4 million carats, the recovery from 40-odd operating mines, and about 20 or 25 per cent of the world's normal consumption, amounts to. In 1915, first exploitation operations produced less than 50,000 carats from two mines. The rapid expansion of operations following the Euro¬pean war meant a most rapid development of a virgin land. The interior is now reached by air in one day from the mouth of the Congo River, where steamers unload mail and passengers from Antwerp. This trip formerly consumed 4 to 6 weeks by a narrow-gage, wood-burning, railroad around the rapids of the lower Congo and Livingston Falls; by river boat to the heads of navigation, Djoko Punda on the Kasai or Luebo on the Lulua; and thence by caravan of native porters over narrow-trails to head¬quarters on the Tshikapa. Hundreds of miles of automobile roads have been constructed over veldt and through forest, bridging streams and ferrying rivers. The railway from Capetown to the Katanga copper district to the East, once two months away by trail is now reached in 2 or 3 days over fair automobile highway. Native "boys" who a few short years ago wore little more than a smile and a string of beads and to whom a wheelbarrow was a complicated piece of machinery, are today driving Fords, tending boilers and engines and operating electrical equipment, or are capable mine workmen, machinists and artisans, and dressed in all manner of cast-off white man's clothing. Even as late as 1920, due to difficulties of securing and transporting machinery during and just after the war, the crudest hand operations were the rule for the excavation, sizing, and concentration of the diamondiferous gravel. All washing and concentration is now mechanized, using steam or electric power, and where operations are sufficiently large to permit competition with native labor costs, excavation and transportation are also accomplished by machinery.

Jan 1, 1932

By Katherine Mather

This paper is an attempt to put together petrographic, physical, and chemical data about the large and varied group of rocks generally called limestones. Results of the properties of these rocks on their performance as concrete aggregates are discussed. CRUSHED stone classified as limestone comprises about 70 pct of the crushed concrete aggregate and roadstone produced in this country, and the product has amounted in the recent past to about 97 million tons per year, valued at more than $123,-000,000.' Therefore an evaluation of the properties of rocks classified in these statistics as limestones and an ability to predict their behavior as aggregate in portland cement concrete are matters of considerable economic consequence to producers and consumers of aggregate. This paper is an attempt to put together petrographic, physical, and chemical data about the large and varied group of rocks generally called limestones. It also points out certain results of the properties of these rocks on their performance as concrete aggregates. The problems encountered in efforts to explain the behavior of limestones, dolomites, and related rocks as concrete aggregate lie on the frontiers between the ignorance of the geologists and the ignorance of the engineers. The mineral composition and textures of the rocks have not been adequately explored and described, and the effects of mineral composition and texture on the performance of aggregates have been worked out in only a few cases. There are instances of unsatisfactory performance and some generalizations of those experiences. There are many more examples of satisfactory performance than of unsatisfactory, but there is practically no published information as to why a particular aggregate was satisfactory in a specific use. There are all too few investigations of undeteriorated concrete; more is known about the pathology of concrete than about its normal structure and aspect. As part of the investigation of aggregates, the classification of rocks is not an end in itself, but is a step toward recognition of properties expected to influence the behavior of aggregates in their intended use. Rock of any type may perform well or poorly as concrete aggregate, depending on the physical condition of the rock, its physical and chemical properties as compared to those of the matrix in which it is placed, and the circumstances under which the concrete is exposed. Some classification and descrip- tion of the limestones is necessary to distinguish subgroups whose members will probably behave in similar ways and to evaluate the group as a whole. The group name, limestone, includes and tends to conceal the identity of rocks that have a very great range in chemical and mineralogical composition, structure and texture, conditions of deposition, subsequent history, and suitability for use as concrete aggregate. All the rocks classified as limestones include one or both of the most abundant rock-form-ing carbonate minerals, calcite and dolomite, as major constituents. Carbonate rocks is a more descriptive and more accurate group name than limestone, which has generally been used to include dol-omitic or magnesian limestones and dolomites as well as calcitic limestones. Classification and Description of the Carbonate Rocks The question of names to be applied to the carbonate rocks may appear academic, but it is of practical importance as long as there are specifications for aggregate that result in acceptance or rejection of rocks by name and as long as failure to make distinctions among the carbonate rocks leads to misunderstandings of their properties and of what may be expected of them in performance. Materials included in production statistics as limestone and tested for concrete aggregate as limestone range in fact from calcareous shale and calcareous or dolomitic sandstone and argillaceous limestone and dolomite to calcitic limestone and pure dolomite and to rocks close to calcitic and dolomitic marble. To take a simple example: consider two manufactured coarse aggregates, both dense and unweathered, one composed principally of crystalline calcite and the other of crystalline dolomite, but both known as limestone. If each is used as coarse aggregate in a standardized concrete mixture with the same fine aggregate used in both cases, made into concrete specimens, and tested in accelerated freezing-and-thaw-ing, the test results will probably be quite different, because of the differences in internal bond and thermal properties between the two aggregates. As long as both aggregates are called limestone, the test results cannot be explained, or used except in a very limited way; if the aggregates are distinguished as limestone and dolomite and the consequent differences in texture and thermal properties are recognized, the results are reasonable. Classification of the carbonate rocks used as aggregate should be based on structure and on composi-

Jan 1, 1954

By J. S. Pascover, S. V. Radcliffe

The structures and transformation temperatures of high-purity Fe-Cr alloys have been investigated as functions of composition (0 to 10 wt pct Cr) and rate of quenching from the high-temperature Y phase field (up to 40,000°C sec-1). The structures were chmacterized by transmission electron microscopy. The transformation temperatures for each alloy exhibited the progressive decrease to a constant value with increasing cooling rate which has been shown to be characteristic of several iron binary systems. The corresponding structures were found to become increasingly finer in scale with increasing cooling rate and solute content, but to remain essentially equiaxed in character. In all the materials except the high-purity iron and one of the alloys, an additional and lower transformation temperature than the constant value for the equiaxed structures was observed. The structures of specimens which transformed at these lower temperatures (only single thermal wrests were observed in any given run) were martensitic and consisted of arrays of fine ferrite laths which varied in size and morphology with changing solute content. The factors controlling the nature of these transformations are discussed. The composition dependence of the martensitic transformation temperature, ME, in Fe-Cr alloys together with those reported for other iron binary systems indicate that MB for pure iron is some 700°c, rather than the values of 550° and 760°C reported previously. This conclusion is further supported by the results of a compmison of the thermodynamics of mmtensite formation in several systems. ThE extensive investigations of the structures formed on athermal transformation in iron and its alloys have led to the characterization of several forms of martensitic or "military"1,2 transformations and, in addition, a "civilian7' transformation to ferrite or "equiaxed a"* which occurs athermally and at a very high rate.374

Jan 1, 1969