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By R. V. Ramani, Christopher J. Bise, Robert Stefanko

Over 200 billion tons of coal reserves lie locked up in deposits west of the Mississippi River-and of this, well over 100 billion tons are recoverable only by underground mining methods. Yet, because of the associated problems of unfavorable economics and inadequate technology, western underground mines contribute less than 2% to the annual US coal production. In order to reach the billion-ton coal production level called for by President Carter, it a pears the majority of new coal development will come from the West. But for this to be possible, new mining methods and equipment must be designed to match the unique thick seam conditions.

Jan 10, 1977

By E. F. Reed

CONSIDERABLE deep hole prospect drilling has been done in the last few years in the Globe-Miami mining district about 70 miles east of Phoenix, Arizona, and in the San Manuel-Tiger area about 50 miles south of the Globe-Miami region. More than 205,000 ft of churn drilling have been completed by the San Manuel Copper Corp. at their property in the Old Hat Mining District in southern Pinal County. The deepest hole on this property is 2850 ft; there are 49 holes deeper than 2000 ft. At the adjoining Houghton property of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co., where only one hole reached 2000-ft depth, there were 27,472 ft of churn drilling and 3436 ft of diamond drilling. Three churn drill holes were deepened by diamond drilling methods. Near Miami in the Globe-Miami district the Amico Mining Corp. drilled four holes by combined churn and rotary drilling methods, the total amounting to 13,879 ft, of which 2256 ft were drilled with a portable rotary rig. In the same district, besides doing a large amount of shallow prospect drilling, the Miami Copper Co. drilled two holes of 2560 and 3787 ft, respectively, which were completed by churn drilling methods. The rocks encountered in drilling at San Manuel and Tiger are described by Steele and Rubly in their paper on the San Manuel Prospect' and by Chapman in a report on the San Manuel Copper Deposit? The rocks are well-consolidated Gila conglomerate, quartz , monzonite, and monzonite porphyry. In some places these formations stand very well while being drilled, and three holes were drilled without casing, the deepest of which was 2200 ft. In other holes faulted and fractured ground made drilling difficult. In the Globe-Miami district the deep drilling was done in the down-faulted block of Gila conglomerate east of the Miami fault and in the underlying Pinal schist. The geology of this area is described by Ransome.3 In the Amico holes the conglomerate varied from material consisting entirely of granite boulders and fragments to a rock made up of schist fragments in a sandy matrix; in the Miami Copper Co. holes there were more granite boulders and the material was poorly consolidated. Drilling was much more difficult and expensive in the Miami area than in the San Manuel district, mainly because of the depth of the holes and the formations drilled. All the deep hole prospecting described in this paper was done with portable rigs. The churn drill rigs were of several types, of which the Bucyrus-Erie were the most popular. Bucyrus-Erie 28L, 29W, and 36L rigs were used on some of the deeper holes on the San Manuel property. A few Fort Worth spudder types were tried, and the deepest hole at San Manuel was drilled with a Fort Worth Jumbo H. The spudder type is considerably larger than most other rigs used on this work and required a larger location site. The spudders were belt-driven machines with separate power units, and time required for setting up and moving was much longer than with the more portable drills. All the churn drilling was done by contractors or with machinery leased from them. A few of the contractors had complete equipment, including most of the necessary fishing tools. Unusual and special, fishing tools were obtainable from the supply companies in the oil fields of New Mexico or in the Los Angeles area. Most of the contractors used equipment with standard API tool joints, so that much of it was interchangeable. Failure of tool joints is one of the principal causes of fishing jobs. It can be minimized if the joints are kept to the API specifications and the proper sized joints are used in the various holes. The minimum sizes that should be used with various bits are as follows: 12-in. and larger bits, 4x5-in. tool joints; 10-in. bits, 3 1/4x4 1/4-in. tool joints; 8-in. bits, 2 3/4x 3 3/4-in. tool joints; 6-in. bits, 2 1/4 x3 l/4 -in. tool joints; 4-in. bits, 1 5/8 x2 5/8-in. tool joints. Two rotary drill rigs were tried at San Manuel on the same hole, and a portable rotary drill rig was used on the Amico drilling for test coring the formation and for drilling in holes 3 and 4. Rotary drilling differs from churn drilling or cable tool drilling in that the bit is revolved by a string of drill pipe and the cuttings are removed from the hole by a thin solution of mud pumped through the drill pipe. The principal parts of a rotary rig are the power unit, a rotating table to revolve the drill pipe, hoists to raise and lower the pipe and to handle casing, and a pumping system to circulate the drilling liquid. The rig used on the Amico property at Miami was mounted on a truck. The larger rig used on the San Manuel property was hauled by several trucks and had separate turntable and pumping units. Diamond drill coring equipment was used successfully with the rotary rig in the holes on the Amico property, To allow for 2 3/8-in. drill pipe with tool joints, 3 1/2-in. core barrels and bits were used. With the standard 3 1/2-in. core barrel there was considerable difficulty in maintaining circulation with mud, so a barrel was designed with a smaller inner tube and a broad-faced bit. This allowed coarser material to circulate between the barrels. Rock bits of 5 5/8 to 3 7/8 in. were used with the rotary rig for drilling between core runs. Diamond drill equipment is much lighter than churn drill tools, so that fishing tools can usually be obtained from supply houses by air express when needed. Three churn drill holes on the Houghton property at Tiger were deepened by diamond drilling with Longyear UG Straitline gasoline-driven-machines. The open churn drill hole was cased with 2 1/2-in. black pipe. In deep hole churn drilling, casing is one of the most important items, especially in drilling in unconsolidated material like the formations drilled by

Jan 1, 1952

By John K. Berry

The handling and disposal of mine water is a much larger problem than is apparent at first glance. Many more tons of water are removed from underground coal mines in the United States each year than tons of coal. In the old anthracite region of Pennsylvania the average was around 36 tons of water for each ton of coal produced, while bituminous mines average about 5 or 6 tons. Water encountered in the mines may come from several different sources. In mines with light cover and without a firm solid roof, rain may seep directly into the workings. This is also true of deeper mines where pillar falls have broken the roof to the surface. The top under creek beds is generally faulty and broken and water comes through the roof at this point. Deeper mines are frequently overlain by water-bearing strata and pillar breaks and faulty top can admit water, while places running to the dip often accumulate water which comes up through the bottom. In all cases, except where passing under a year-round stream, the amount of water made is usually pretty closely connected with the weather-more water during the rainy season, less in the dry, although the deeper a mine is, the longer it is before changes in rainfall are felt. Another source of water, not connected with seasonal changes, is old water, accumulated over a period of time in abandoned workings of the mine, or from flooded adjacent mines. Here the water filters through the coal, the parting, or comes up through cracks in the bottom. Similarly, core holes, drilled to prospect the property, can be a source of unexpected water and modern safety requirements for dust-allaying water at the working faces can turn a pleasant working area into a soggy mess over the weekend if the system is not properly maintained and operated. Why water must be disposed is obvious. If allowed to accumulate, sooner or later the mine will fill up, or at least it will become "roofed" in low places, blocking ventilation and traffic. But it must also be controlled long before it reaches this stage. Water standing in the working faces is unpleasant for the men who have to work there and also cuts down on the amount of work they can do, as they must watch where they step all the time. It is especially unpleasant in low coal.

Jan 1, 1973

By C. H. Li, R. J. Stokes, T. L. Johnston

Dislocation half-loops, artificially introduced by sprinkling with carborundum, were subjected to stress using three-point loading. The different stages of loop expansion and multiplication were then correlated with the macroscopic stress-deflection curve. Loop expansion started at approximately one-third of the "yield stress," defined here as the motivation stress. Above one-half of the "yield stress" simple multiplication commenced while about two-thirds of the yield stress gross multiplication developed short slip-line segments. These values were not affected by the age of surfaces exposed to both dry and wet air. Slip was not detected on unsprinkled crystals below two-thirds of the "yield stress." Thus the stress to activate intrinsic sources, defined here as the activation stress, was approximately twice the motivation stress. This relationship was independent of the strain rate used. It is concluded that lattice resistance takes the form of a viscous drag rather than a static type of force. THE importance of surface condition and environment as one of the more significant factors controlling the mechanical properties of ionic solids has recently received renewed attention.1-4 In some materials, notably the alkali halides, exposing freshly cleaved specimens to the atmosphere results in a progressive hardening and embrittlement of the crystals. This has been attributed to the surface layer becoming "aged," thereby restricting the motion of dislocations in such a way that pileup and eventually fracture results. It is necessary therefore in studying the mechanical properties of ionic crystals to inquire first into the density and distribution of dislocations in the normal cleaved surface and to understand the role these dislocations play in the onset of plastic flow. Knowledge of the effect of environment on this behavior will then assist in understanding the mechanism of embrittlement on aging. In the work reported here a method is described for studying the initiation of plastic flow from dislocation sources in the surface of magnesium oxide crystals. Preliminary results are described of the influence of surface age on this behavior. EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES The magnesium oxide used in this investigation was obtained from the Norton Co. and had a nominal purity of 99.5.pct. Single-crystal specimens, having dimensions typically 1/4 by 1/8 in. cross section and 1 in. in length, were prepared by cleavage over (100) planes from the parent crystal. They were deformed under three-point loading with 3/4 in. spacing between the two end supports and a constant rate of deflection at the center of 0.001 in. per min. The maximum strain rate therefore was 1.5 X 10-5 sec-1. Reasons for choosing this particular form of loading will become apparent in a later section. In addition, a number of confirmatory type tests have been performed at higher loading rates where the maximum strain rate was increased to 1 x 10-3 sec -1. Following deformation the crystals were etched to reveal the dislocation distribution. In a previous paper5 we described a satisfactory etching solution consisting of 5 parts of saturated ammonium chloride, one part of sulfuric acid, and one part distilled water. Immersion of the crystals for 1/4 hr at room temperature developed reproducible conical etch pits at the points where dislocations emerged through the surface. It should be mentioned that dislocations freshly introduced by room temperature deformation gave sharply pointed etch pits which generally distinguished them from the almost flat-bottomed pits obtained on "grown-in" dislocations. The distinction is obvious in the photomicrograph included in Fig. 5(b). Annealing crystals at 1000°C for 12 hr on the other hand gave sharper etch pits on the grown-in dislocations and the distinction was no lower -possible; a similar observation has been reported for lithium fluoride. We have succeeded furthermore in chemically polishing magnesium-oxide crystals. Boiling in fresh 85 pct ortho-phosphoric acid for only 1 min resulted in a microscopically smooth surface which could again be etched to reexamine the dislocation distribution. This boiling time was sufficient to remove the surface damage introduced by cleavage (see next section). SURFACE DISLOCATION SOURCES There are a number of ways by which dislocations may be introduced into cleaved surfaces to act later

Jan 1, 1960

By D. M. Bondurant

AT the present time, the coal industry is greatly interested in any method or machine that will cut the cost of producing a ton of coal, while at the same time producing a product of quality and grade suitable to the customer. Comparatively new and, as yet, little known, auger mining is proving a profitable method of coal recovery. It may be used for the production of low-cost, high-quality coal with equal success from both the hard-to-mine seams, those with banded impurities and bad roof conditions, and the more easily mined seams as classified according to conventional mining methods. A number of units are now in operation and production information is available that should be of particular interest to coal operators and of general interest to anyone associated with the coal-mining industry. Auger mining refers to coal extraction with large size augers capable of drilling to great depths and having a high capacity. Consideration of the equipment and methods used in drilling an ordinary shot-hole will give a picture of auger mining on a smaller scale. At present, auger mining is used largely for recovery of coal from the highwall after strip mining becomes uneconomical because of the type and the thickness of the overburden which must be moved. Coal augers have many of the advantages of present continuous mining machines, along with many more. The four distinct operations of conventional mining-—cutting, drilling, shooting, and loading— are eliminated and replaced by the combined operation of boring and conveying of the coal. The coal recovery auger is an adaptation of the horizontal rock drill used for drilling shot-holes to shatter and loosen overburden in strip mining operations. During the war the Becker County Sand and Gravel Co. of Summersville, W. Va., experimented with drilling coal with 6 and 9-in. rock augers. The results led to the successive development of the 20, 24, 30 and the 36-in. machines, the latter having appeared in the coal fields within the past six months. Because of the great success of the smaller size

Jan 1, 1952

By G. W. Toop

In a recent publication,31 Darken has derived an equation to describe thermodynamic behavior in ternary metallic solutions with compositions near pure component 1: Eq. [I] is understood to be a general equation, consistent with the ternary Gibbs-Duhem equation, which is proposed as a logical formalism in view of observed behavior in some binary metallic solutions31'32 rich In Eq. and am are constants obtainable from the 1-2 and 1-3 binaries. The parameter 023 may be determined from measurements on the ternary The purpose of this discussion is to compare Eq. [I) or [3] with other ternary formulations involving binary terms, within the regions of validity of Eqs. [I], [2], and [3]. First, the ternary point is considered to be at the intersection of two composition paths, one with constant N1 and another with constant N2/N3 as shown in Fig. 10. The terms in Eq. [3] may be related to the binary points shown by multiplying the first term on the right-hand side of Eq. [3] by N2 (1) /l -N1, the second term by the third term by and the fourth term by each multiplier being unity: It should be noted here that no suggestion has been made that either the binary or the ternary systems form regular solutions. However, Eq. [5] and hence Eq. [3] shows that the contribution made to the ternary excess free energy from the 1-2 and 1-3 binaries has the same form as for a regular ternary system.1 Before considering the term a23 for the above case, a second geometrical relationship is examined with the ternary point at the intersect ion of three composition paths with constant N1/N2, N2/N3, and Nl/N3, respectively, as shown in Fig. 11. For this geometry, ternary values of NZ and N3 in terms of the binary values shown may be substituted into Eq. [I]. Then by making use of identities of the form Eq. [6] contains terms that are similar to those in a ternary regular solution formulation34 based on the geometry shown in Fig. 11. Although at finite concentrations, unless the 1-2 and 1-3 binaries form

Jan 1, 1968

Henry Louis, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England (communication to the Secretary): I think very highly of the novel and ingenious device of Prof. Richards for analyzing the movement of the various elements of the jig; it is a method that certainly seems to promise valuable results, if we could only make certain that these various indicator-appliances have no effect upon the action of the jig. I would like, however, to suggest that in future experiments the connection between the plunger indicator-rod and the pencil should be made by means of parallel motions, so as better to reproduce the rectilinear motion of the piston. I should expect, if this were done, that the " curve " of the plunger in the Harz jig, at any rate, would be represented either by straight lines or else by quite regular curves, according to the method by which the plunger is set in motion; the apparent combinatioil of straight line and curve seems difficult to explain. With respect to the water-curve, I am afraid I am completely at fault, but no doubt Prof. Richards can explain my difficulty. In Fig. 2, the areas of the screen-side and the plunger-side of the jig are equal. If the piston be a fair fit and the bottom of

Jan 1, 1897

By Frank E. Hauser, Philip R. Landon, John E. Dorn

The flow and fracture strengths of polycrystalline aggregates of high purity magnesium and a solid solution of aluminum in magnesium were determined as functions of temperature and grain size. Magnesium was found to obey two distinct fracture laws. Over the high temperature range, the fracture stress decreased with increasing test temperatures in a manner that closely paralleled the flow stress-temperature relationship. However, over the low temperature range, the fracture stress was independent of the test temperature though highly dependent on grain size, following the trend that is typical for the low temperature brittle fracturing of polycrystalline aggregates of body-centered-cubic and close-packed-hexagonal metals. Even at 78°K, however, plastic strains of 1 to 7 pet were obtained preceding onset of brittle fracturing. Over the brittle fracture range of temperatures, the fracture stress increased linearly with the reciprocal of the square root of the mean grain diameter, while over the entire range of temperatures investigated, the flow strength was observed to increase linearly with the reciprocal of the square root of the mean grain diameter. PREVIOUS investigations', 'have shown that deformation of coarse grained aggregates of high purity magnesium is interrupted by fracturing at very small strains. Such tendency toward brittle fracturing increased with increasing grain size and decreasing test temperature. In several respects, however, low temperature fracturing of magnesium appeared to differ from the truly brittle type exhibited by zinc, molybdenum, tungsten, and iron, so often characterized as a cleavage mode of fracturing. The absence of a well-defined cleavage mechanism for fracturing and the fact that some plastic deformation precedes fracturing might suggest that magnesium does not exhibit the same kind of brittle fracturing that is common to body-centered-cubic metals and to other close-packed-hexagonal metals. But, as will be shown, the low temperature fracture laws for magnesium are analogous to those that apply to iron, molybdenum, tungsten, and zinc in spite of differences in mechanisms and in plastic strains to fracture. In view of these observations. the low temperature fracturing of magnesium will also be called brittle fracturing. This, of course, does not imply that the brittle fracturing of metals is synonymous with the brittle fracturing of glass or other nonmetallics. Whereas the brittle fracturing of glass probably obeys Griffith's law, the low temperature brittle fracturing of metals arises from stresses induced by a series of dislocations piled up at an opaque grain boundary. Experimental Results All tests were made on tensile bars having gage sections that were 2 in. long and 0.375 or 0.25 in. wide. In order to develop a series of grain sizes, the

Jan 1, 1957

By A. S. Malicsi, I. Iwasaki

Differential flotation of bulk sulfide concentrates from Duluth gabbro into copper and nickel concentrates could be implemented by first destroying the hydrophobic coating with ozone and then by recovering the copper concentrate with a copper-selective collector. A number of parameters involved in the use of ozone, such as the sequence and the conditioning time of ozone treatment, the pulp pH, and the level of xanthate addition, were investigated.

Jan 1, 1986

Jan 1, 1957

By C. D. Michaelson

Bridging the gap between have and have-not nations is one of the necessities of the present era. The responsibility for accomplishing this must be assumed by the affluent industrial societies of the world, both through their governments and through private enterprise. Despite a discouraging number of instances where companies established in underdeveloped countries have been expropriated, U.S. industry must not abandon such ventures. Instead, it should tailor them to the needs and aspirations of the host nations. One way in which industry can minimize the danger of expropnation is to enter into partnership with the government of the host nation. Kennecott Copper has recently done this in Chile, becoming 49% owner of a company formed to expand and operate the El Teniente mine. So far, the partnership has produced marked benefits not only for Chile, but also for Kennecott. The memory of D.C. Jackling serves chiefly to remind us how much we owe to the pioneers of our industry. Jackling was one of the giants. Orphaned at the age of two, he made his way through sheer persistence and plain hard work. His brilliance gave rise to a vision, and his tenacity made his vision a reality. Foreseeing that economies of scale would make the handling of low-grade ore profitable, he introduced the revolutionary concept of open-pit copper mining. During World War I, the defense effort of the United States was irnrneasurably strengthened by the tremendous supplies of copper from the western mines that Jackling had made possible. Again in World War 11, the demands for copper were supplied, and the nation once more had profound reason to be grateful to this rugged, stubborn man who had long ago ventured into the mountains and unlocked their wealth. We are now embarked upon another great era of change, and we must devise new concepts to meet it. The task is not only to create new techniques of mining, but to forge better ties between men and institutions which will let us work in harmony with the techniques we have. We might recall that while Jackling was a man of towering pride and formidable will, he was also adept at getting others to share his vision and join his purpose. Today our reach for cooperative endeavor must go far beyond our own shores as we seek to develop the buried riches of distant lands. And we would do well to remember that Jackling's remarkable insight would have come to nothing had not British investors been willing to provide much of the initial capital. As was true of so many early enterprises in America, European capital was absolutely essential. CORPORATIONS ABROAD - AN EXPANDING ROLE Today the situation is quite different. The United States is now a capital-surpIus nation and looks abroad for opportunities to employ its capital profitably. On the other hand, we have become dependent on foreign sources for supplies of vital raw materials, while we seek

Jan 1, 1970

By Robert L. Akre

When Marco Polo visited China in the 13th century, no one knew what black powder was except the Chinese; they knew enough to make dazzling fireworks with it. But the realization that black powder could also do useful work came much later and, like all important discoveries, it altered the course of history. It was in the 14th century that black powder was first used to break rock in a very crude way; there were no drills and the powder was simply poured into cracks and exploded by setting it afire. Because its energy value was pretty low, the need for something more powerful was felt when the industrial revolution began. In the 1850s, miners began experimenting with liquid nitroglycerine on a limited scale. This was a very sensitive and dangerous explosive. Fortunately in the 1860s, Alfred Nobel succeeded in stabilizing nitroglycerine by absorbing it in kieselguhr-and a new product, dynamite, was born. With it, miners were able to unleash the great energy of nitroglycerine for blasting purposes. But dynamite was still a very sensitive explosive. In subsequent years, other explosives of various strengths and characteristics were developed, such as blasting gelatin, gelatin dynamite, ammonia dynamites, (all containing some nitroglycerine or nitrostarch), and liquid oxygen explosives. These products and their variations supplied the blasting trade for many years. A grained ammonium nitrate product containing some carbonaceous material entered the market in the 1930s. This explosive had below-zero sensitivity-meaning: a No. 6 blasting cap imbedded in it would not detonate it. A more sensitive initiator, called a primer, was needed to detonate this mixture. From Rags to Primacord to Solid-State The first initiator for an explosive charge was probably a rag slowly burning its way to the charge; this method was quite unreliable. Then came the burning fuse, which was an improvement. Next was the nonelectric blasting cap initiated by a fuse. With these initiators, a miner needed quick reflexes and good legs; upon lighting the fuse, he had to run immediately for cover. Development of the electric blasting cap that allowed for accurate timing eliminated this hazard; the electric cap, however, introduced other safety problems because of its susceptibility to extraneous electricity, e.g., ground currents, lightning, and static electricity. These caps also became available in millisecond delays. Development in the mid-1930s of Primacord, a detonating fuse insensitive to electrical currents or impact, further reduced blasting hazards, and is generally acknowledged as the safest known means of initiation. Eventually, Primacord millisecond connectors also became available for delay patterns in blasting. In the mid-1960s, the Primadet delay was introduced; it is a practical nonelectric detonator system that offers the precise timing of electric blasting caps-and is immune to the hazards or effects of extraneous electricity. Recently, Research Energy of Ohio, Inc. introduced a new type of solid-state blasting machine that combines a sequential timer and delay caps. It enables the efficient breakage of rock with a minimum amount of shock, ground vibration, and noise. Improvements in Blast-Hole Drilling World War II created an enormous demand for coal and other minerals in the U.S. and elsewhere. Great efforts and large amounts of capital were spent to find new mineral deposits and develop better mining methods. But while mechanization in mining proceeded at a rapid pace particularly in open-cut work, there was a definite lag in developing new or improved machines for drilling blast holes. The industry continued to depend largely on horizontal, churn, and pneumatic drills. No better machine was available for large scale production. The need for improvement in this phase of mining became more acute in the post-war years. Despite efforts toward further mechanization, mining costs rose rapidly because of mounting inflation and increasingly high wages. In most operations, drilling and blasting the overburden became the principal item of cost. Therefore, whatever size holes were being drilled, the holes had to be spaced so that any foot of the bore hole could be loaded with the maximum load required for the number of cubic yards of material that each foot of the hole was carrying. With the smaller holes that were being drilled, the proportion of drilling cost to the total drilling and shooting cost was much higher than it would have been with larger holes (because of the closer spacing required by smal-

Jan 1, 1977

By W. B. Phillips

The earliest mention of the sulphur deposits in what is now Culberson County, Texas, seems to be contained in " Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, United States War Department, 1853-54." Captain John Pope (he was not commissioned Captain until 1856) had charge of one of the divisions of the Survey. In his report on the geology of the route, William P. Blake noted the analysis of a greenish earthy powder from the bed of Delaware Creek, at the springs, which contained 18.28 per cent. of free sulphur. The report states: "From the chemical examination of the waters of the spring, by Dr. Booth, it appears that chloride of sodium is the principal solid ingredient, but considerable quantities of sulphide of sodium are present. ***** The waters from the springs examined by Dr. Booth were alkaline, but it is possible that some of the springs are acid; and in this case the precipitation of sulphur would ensue on the mixture of the acid waters with those charged with alkaline sulphurets and the origin of the deposits of sulphur would be thus explained." This is the first reference to the existence of sulphur in that region, the first mention of the character of the water found there and the first suggestion as to the origin of the deposits. The possibility of the existence of acid waters was confirmed by E. M. Skeats, nearly 50 years later.' In this publication, Skeats says that the water from the sulphur deposits in Section 11, Block 114, Township 6, contains 79.08 grains of free sillphuric acid per gallon. This locality is about 13 miles (21 km.) south . of Delaware Creek and about 35 miles (56 km.) east of the Delaware Springs. The next published reference to the existence of sulphur in Trans-Pecos. Texas is in the Pirst Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas, 1889, page 226, where W. H. von Streeruwitz mentions that sulphur is found in that region, but gives no further information. In the

Jan 1, 1918

By Stuart M. Buck, J. H. Bramwell, Edward H. Williams

The Southwest Virginia Improvement Company began operations in the Bluestone Flat-Top coal-field, situated in Tazewell County, Virginia, in the fall of 1881. In May, 1883, the company had built 200 coke-ovens, and by March, 188-1, had 9000 feet of entries, exclusive of air-ways, in the Nelson or Rig coal-bed of this district (which here averages eleven feet in thickness), and had extracted 200,000 tons of coal, representing an area of about twenty acres. About this opening has grown the recently incorporated city of Pocahontas, and the completion of the New River branch of the Norfolk and Western Railroad to this point enabled the company to make large contracts for supplying coal and coke, so that it was deemed necessary, on account of the limited area developed, to work the mine day and night to fill orders. At 1.30 Thursday morning, March 13th, the inhabitants of Pocahontas were awakened by a violent shock, and within a few minutes all knew that the East mine had been the scene of an explosion of so general a nature that, of the 114 men at work, not one had escaped. The daily papers gave more or less distorted accounts of the number of victims, the scenes in and about, the mine, and the probable cause of the disaster. At the request of the company, the President of the American Institute of Mining Engineers appointed the undersigned a committee of three to investigate the matter, and the committee thus constituted presents the following report, accompanied by a copy of the testimony taken daring the investigation, for preservation in the archives of the Institute. Pocahontas was reached on Thursday, April 24th, and left on Friday, May 2d. During this interval the committee made repeated visits to the mine, especially to the points, of most importance, examining it carefully in every part; and summoned a number of witnesses, twenty-six of whom appeared and testified. The mine had been left in the same state as when the bodies were

Jan 1, 1885

By F. N. Lewis

HOPPERS may be divided into three classes accord-ing ing to type, namely; round, suspension, and square or rectangular. The round hopper is the most simple of the three and is the most easily understood by laymen. The bursting pressure in these hoppers is resisted by the shell as a round tank resists the pressure of water. They are perfectly stable as long as they retain their cylindrical shape. In holding water or other liquids the pressure on the sides is always the same, but with ore this is seldom true. These round hoppers for ore are usually filled from one side and frequently drawn off from the opposite side. A considerable amount of fine material is deposited on the side of filling, while the coarse particles run over to the far side. This con-dition of filling causes the ore to flow out unevenly, sometimes drawing out completely on one side. After a time the remaining ore breaks down and the shock of this falling ore, sometimes many tons, is very severe and has a tendency to distort the hopper from its true shape; consequently a round hopper holding ore should be stiffened to resist such shocks as this. For these reasons round hoppers have never been popular with engineers for holding ore. They also have a trait of welling. up worse than the square hoppers. I have known of round hoppers holding fine ore, 25 ft. diam-eter, that had a tendency to well up until there was ,only a round hole about 6 ft. diameter leading to the gate. The suspension or catenary type of hopper is well adapted to conditions requiring only small capacities. The selection of this type of hopper should be done with considerable care. The theory of the design is that the loads are carried entirely in tension in the bottom plate, just as a hammock carries a load, and it must be remembered that the bottoms of these hoppers are con-stantly changing form with the changing loads. Take a hammock, for example, if a person stands up in it, the bottom goes down and the sides approach a straight line; if the person lies down then the bottom comes up and the sides go down. It is this constant changing of the form that has a tendency to break the connections.

Jan 7, 1928

By Shiro Ban-ya, John Chipman

Equilibrium in the reaction was investigated at temperatures of 1500°, 1550°, and 1600°C for sulfur concentrations up to 7.2 wt pct. Multisample crucibles contained the liquid alloys in a resistance-heated furnace using a technique especially designed for the study of more complex alloys to be reported separately. Modern free-energy data are used to correct the H2S:H2 ratio for dissociation of H2S and calculalion of the partial pressure of S2. Published data on the equilibrium are similarly corrected. Thermodynanzic treatment of the data employs the composition variable zs = nS/(nFe — nS) and the activity coefficient Gs = as/zs The data at 1500" and 1550°C are fitted by the equation log s = —2.30zs. Within the limits of experimental error the same coefficient is applicable to the data at higher temperatures. Equations are given for the free-energy change in Reaction [I] as well as for the solution of S, gas in the metal. The heat of solution of 1/2 s2 is -32.28 i2.5 kcal. Uncertainty in the free energy is very much smaller. For dilute solutions of interest in steelmaking, the activity coefficient of sulfur is unchanged from that listed in Basic Open Hearth Steel-making. DETERMINATIONS of the thermodynamic properties of sulfur in liquid iron by Morris and williams1 and by Sherman, Elvander, and chipman' provided a basis for control of sulfur in steelmaking processes. From the standpoint of understanding the chemistry of metal plus nonmetal in liquid solution they left several questions unanswered. The activity of sulfur in dilute solution at about 1600°C was well-established but temperature coefficients were uncertain, due at least in part to the use of the optical pyrometer and uncertainty regarding the effect of sulfur on emissivity. It appeared that deviation from Henry's law increased with increasing temperature, a most unusual behavior requiring either confirmation or disproof. These studies were based on experimental determination of equilibrium in the reaction: At high temperatures H2S is partially dissociated so that the gas mixture contains HS, S2, and S in addition to HS. At the time of the earlier studies the free energies of these constituents were unknown and it was therefore impossible to make adequate correction for dissociation. Observations on the effects of alloying elements by Morris and coworkers1, 3 and by Sherman and Chip-man4 enable us to assess the effects of alloying elements on the activity and to make corrections for incidental impurities in the binary liquid. These studies as well as a number of more recent investigations will be reviewed in detail after out own experimental results have been presented. It was our purpose in planning this study to avoid uncertainties regarding the emissivity of alloys and the errors of thermal diffusion which plagued some of the early attempts,5 by using a resistance furnace and thermocouple in preference to induction heating and optical pyrometer. Modern data on free energies of the gaseous species are to be applied to our data and to those of other investigators to obtain corrected values of K1 and of the activity coefficient and ultimately to relate the sulfur content of the bath to the equilibrium partial pressure of S,. Extension of the study to include ternary and complex solutions will be described in a later section. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD a) Preparation and Calibration of H2-H2s Gas Mixture. The source of hydrogen sulfide was a preparer mixture of 43 pct H2S, balance hydrogen, contained in a large aluminum cylinder. This was passed through anhydrone and through a microflowmeter. Hydrogen was passed through platinized asbestos, ascar-ite, and anhydrone, and through a capillary flowmeter. Argon was passed through copper wool at 500°C, then through ascarite, anhydrone, and a flowmeter. The flow rate of hydrogen was kept constant at 200 ml per min, to which an arbitrary amount of the hydrogen-hydrogen sulfide mixture was constantly added and then the prepared gas mixture was introduced into the reaction tube through a gas mixer. In certain experiments 200 ml per min of argon was added to the hydrogen-hydrogen sulfide gas mixture to increase the total flow rate of gas. The ratio of hydrogen-hydrogen sulfide in the inlet gas was checked for each run by chemical analysis. A sample of the gas taken from a bypass was bubbled through zinc and cadmium acetate solution (4 pct zinc acetate, 1 pct cadmium acetate, and 1 pct acetic acid) to remove hydrogen sulfide from the gas mixture, and the flow rate of the remaining hydrogen was measured by a soap bubble method to determine the volume of hydrogen. The amount of hydrogen sulfide absorbed in solution was determined by titration with iodine against sodium thiosulfate, with starch used as the indicator. The ratio of hydrogen sulfide to hydrogen in the inlet gas could be kept within ±2 pct in the range from 10-2 to 5 x 10"4 which corresponds to from 0.2 to 7.0 wt pct sulfur in liquid iron. b) Furnace Arrangement. Fig. 1 shows the furnace arrangement and the shape of the alumina crucible used in this experiment. A vertical-tube silicon carbide electric resistance furnace contained the reaction tube which consisted of two parts, the gas-tight

Jan 1, 1969

By Linn Bradley

F. H. WILLCOX, Pittsburgh, Pa. (communication to the Secretary*). -We must keep in mind, in balancing the savings-to be anticipated by the most efficient combustion of gas, the best heat absorption by stoves or boilers, and by heat conservation of the thermal equivalent carried in. blast-furnace gas-against the cost in operation, maintenance, depreciation and interest charges of the equipment required to realize the savings, that in boilers and hot-blast stoves we are basing our economies upon two different, combustion phenomena. In a boiler, evaporating water at a heat efficiency of 70 per cent., approximately 47,550 B.t.u. is consumed per boiler horsepower. Taking the blast, furnace gas cited in the above paper, we are using about 38 ¾ lb. of cold-washed gas per boiler horsepower. Using the hot-cleaned gas, the same equivalent heat is furnished by 34 1b. of the gas , This leaves of the 38 ¾ lb. required in the case of cold-washed gas, 4 ¾ lb. or 6,650 B.t.u. available for raising more steam when dry-hot gas is used, which means that an equivalent amount of coal firing can be dispensed with. Per ton of iron, this figure 2/3 X 12,000/38.75 X 4.75 = 980 lb. gas or 1,372,000 B.t.u. or 100 lb. coal. At $1.50 per ton of coal, the net saving per ton of pig iron produced by the use of dry-hot over wet-cold cleaning will, therefore, be about $0.06 2/3. At a stove heating 8,500 lb. of air per toil iron from 150° F., one-quarter of the dry-hot cleaned gas, or 3,000 lb., would heat the air to 1,450° F. 3,000 X 1,400 X 0.70 = (8,500 X 0.255) = 1,300. The cold-wet gas would heat the same amount of air to 1,280° F. 3,000 X 1,225 X 0.70 = (8,500 X.0.255) = 1,130.

Jan 4, 1917

By R. D. Carnahan, J. E. White

ThE use of strain gages in the measurement of microplastic behavior of materials is well-known.'-3 Recently it has been suggested that similar techniques might be useful for determining stress relaation. It is the purpose of this report to comment on the use of strain gages in the measurement of strains in the vicinity of 10"6. We will also discuss observations of an anomalous anelastic behavior apparently associated with small temperature changes, which accompanies the unload portion of a load-unload microstrain test. The key to successful strain determinations at levels below 1 pin. per in. is a good gage-mounting technique and either precise ambient temperature control or a set of matched temperature-compensated gages. The importance of good mounting cannot be overemphasized, for example, as in the use of Eastman 910 contact cement. If the cement layer is not sufficiently thin and properly hardened, it is possible to observe anomalous negative stresses when small loads are removed, which relax back to zero in an orderly way with time. Such anomalous behavior, thought to be due to gage bonding, has been reported in microstrain experiments by Thomas and verbach' who observed a negative strain of -3 X lo-' upon unloading. This kind of behavior severely limits the over-all strain sensitivity which can be achieved in such tests. The relaxation of a small positive strain subsequent to unloading in a load-unload experiment is quite normal, however, and is to be expected. The occurrence of an apparent negative strain is also encountered in those instances where the elasticity of the bonding cement is exceeded—for example 0.5 pct or 5000 pin. for cured Eastman 910. An elastic strain of this magnitude can be encountered during load-unload type testing particularly in higher-strength materials (-150,000 yield strength). During the course of microplasticity studies on pure nickel and nickel alloys,' the authors have made the following observation. In a four-point bending test, two active gages are mounted one on each side of the beam as arms R1 and R z of a conventional strain-gage bridge circuit shown in Fig. l(a). This technique provides two advantages: the sensitivity is doubled because R1 and Rz experience opposite strains and temperature compensation is provided automatically because any ambient temperature change would cause both gages to see a strain of like sign whose signals would cancel in the circuit.

Jan 1, 1964

By R. E. Carter, F. D. Richardson

Self-diffusion coefficients have been measured for iron in wustite (700° to 1000°C) and for cobalt in cobaltous oxide (800&apos; to 1350°C) by means of radio-isotopes. Both sectioning and decrease of surface-activity methods have been used and a particular shortcoming of the latter method has been disclosed for wustite. The effects of oxygen pressure on the composition of cobaltous oxide and on the diffusion coefficient of cobalt in the oxide have been established. The effect of the preparation conditions of the cobalt-oxide specimens on the diffusion measurements has been determined. It has been concluded that diffusion of cobalt occurs via vacant cation sites and that a cobaltous-oxide disk reaches equilibrium with its environment in a time which is very short compared with that needed for diffusion of the radio-isotope. THE availability of radioactive isotopes in recent years has permitted the measurement of many self-diffusion coefficients which were hitherto impossible to determine. With the advent of radioactivity, the method of measuring diffusion coefficients has also changed. The earlier sectioning method by which the concentration profile of the diffusing species was determined in the diffusion specimen has often been rejected in favor of the decrease of surface-activity method first developed by Von Hevesy,&apos; and extended by Steigman, Shockley, and Nix,&apos; and Raynor, Thomassen, and Rouse." With the experimental arrangement where an infinitely thin deposit of tracer is diffused into a semi-infinite cylinder, the decrease in activity of the active face due to diffusion of the tracer into the specimen is measured by counting the active face before and after diffusion. Under these conditions, the appropriate solution of the diffusion equation is R = e*(l-<K/Z) [1] where R is the ratio of the counting rates after-to-before diffusion, $& is the Gaussian error integral of \/Z, and Z is defined as Z = p2Dt, p being the linear-absorption coefficient of the detected radiation in the diffusion specimen, D the self-diffusion coefficient, and t the diffusion time. In the older sectioning method the concentration distribution of the tracer is found after diffusion by analysing thin parallel sections cut from the active face of the diffusion specimen. As seen from the solution of Fick&apos;s second law for the distribution of an infinitely thin source after diffusion into a semi-infinite cylinder the log of the concentration plotted against x&apos; will be a straight line of slope log e/4 Dt. The diffusion coefficient thus can be calculated directly. The units of the tracer concentration are completely arbitrary, since any change in units does not change the slope of the log c vs x2 lot. Although both of the above methods have been widely used, a thorough experimental comparison does not appear to have been made. Birchenall and Mehl,&apos; during an investigation of the self-diffusion rate of a and r iron by the surface method using Fe" tracer, diffused and sectioned one welded couple. The diffusion coefficient from this run agreed with those by the surface method. Buffington, Bakalar, and Cohen," during an investigation on a and y iron

Jan 1, 1955

By P. Breidt, E. S. Greiner

THIS note reports a determination of the melting point of germanium, and the liquidus of the Ge-Ga alloys; lattice constants of the a phase are given. The alloys were prepared by melting germanium (>20 ohm-cm resistivity) and gallium (99.6 pct) in evacuated silica tubes. The materials (50 to 70 g) were heated at 1000°C, held in the liquid state for about ¾ hr, and then cooled rapidly in the tubes. Points on the liquidus were obtained by thermal analysis which consisted of obtaining time-temperature data during heating and cooling the materials in high purity graphite crucibles and a helium at- mosphere. Temperatures were determined with a Pt—Pt-Rh thermocouple protected by a silica sheath. The couple was calibrated against a National Bureau of Standards calibrated couple and also against the freezing points of copper, silver, aluminum, and the 28.1 wt pct Cu, 71.9 wt pct Ag alloy eutectic. The samples for X-ray analysis were prepared by heating small pieces of the ingots in evacuated glass or quartz tubes at temperatures between 600" and 900°C for periods ranging from 2 hr to 22 days, periods deemed sufficient for equilibrium to be attained, followed by quenching in water. The heat-treated samples were ground to powder for X-ray analysis. The lattice constants of the germanium-rich phase (a) were determined with a baok-reflection focusing camera. The X-ray reflections (331 and 422 Cr Ka, 422 and 333 Cr KB) were corrected

Jan 1, 1956