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Jan 1, 1966

By L. C. Graton

The federal taxes on incomes and excess profits are of course heavy. In 1917, the value of the mineral production of the United States was a little in excess of $5,000,000,000. The total of federal taxes for that year, for the mineral producing companies, as computed by themselves, amounts, according to tentative compilations, to about $207,000,000, and the total for the comprehensive group of mineral and metal industries to about $766,000,000, which figures represent respectively 9.5 per cent. and 35.1 per cent. of the total tax paid by all corporations. Because of greater complexities in applying the revenue laws to mineral properties than to most other industries, opportunity is afforded for wide differences of view. The taxes indicated above, therefore, are not final and may conceivably be very materially increased. For 1918, the taxes are expected to be still greater, but no compilations are yet available. Taxes at a high rate are to continue indefinitely. The subject is clearly of gravest import to the mining industry in particular. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who is charged by law with the administration and collection of the taxes, is determined that these functions shall be performed in a just and businesslike way. Fairness and finality are to be the chief objectives. In view of the peculiar conditions that attach to the tax program as applied to mines and other wasting industries, like oil, gas, and timber, the Commissioner has resorted to professional advice and assistance by manning a Sub-division of Natural Resources with competent engineers, brought in from the several industries, into whose hands he has placed for solution the technical questions involved. These engineers have a two-fold duty: (1) to devote to the solution of these problems their own knowledge and experience; (2) through their acquaintance with their respective industries, and with the men engaged in those industries, to focus upon these problems, by conferences and otherwise, the best opinion of the country. The principal object of this paper is to acquaint the mining profession with the attitude of the

Jan 1, 1923

By L. C. Graton

The federal taxes on incomes and excess profits are of course heavy. In 1917, the value of the mineral production of the United States was a little in excess of $5,000,000,000. The total of federal taxes for that year, for the mineral producing companies, as computed by themselves, amounts, according to tentative compilations, to about $207,000,000, and the total for the comprehensive group of mineral and metal industries to about $766,000,000, which figures represent respectively 9.5 per cent. and 35.1 per cent. of the total tax paid by all corporations. Because of greater complexities in applying the revenue laws to mineral properties than to most other industries, opportunity is afforded for wide differences of view. The taxes indicated above, therefore, are not final and may conceivably be very materially increased. For 1918, the taxes are expected to be still greater, but no compilations are yet available. Taxes at a high rate are to continue indefinitely. The subject is clearly of gravest import to the mining industry in particular. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who is charged by law with the administration and collection of the taxes, is determined that these functions shall be performed in a just and businesslike way. Fairness and finality are to be the chief objectives. In view of the peculiar conditions that attach to the tax program as applied to mines and other wasting industries, like oil, gas, and timber, the Commissioner has resorted to professional advice and assistance by manning a Sub-division of Natural Resources with competent engineers, brought in from the several industries, into whose hands he has placed for solution the technical questions involved. These engineers have a two-fold duty: (1) to devote to the solution of these problems their own knowledge and experience; (2) through their acquaintance with their respective industries, and with the men engaged in those industries, to focus upon these problems, by conferences and otherwise, the best opinion of the country. The principal object of this paper is to acquaint the mining profession with the attitude of the

Jan 1, 1923

William Kent, New York, N. Y.:—The Institute may congratulate itself on the opportunity of reading the splendid address of President Brunton. It is an admirable summary of the progress that has been made in the mining and metallurgical arts in recent years. The paper rightly gives the chief credit for this progress to the aid which has been rendered to these arts by the advances in mechanics, chemistry, and electricity. It is notable that most of the headings in Mr. Brunton's address refer to the work of the mechanical engineer, the electrical engineer, and the chemist, rather than to that of the specialist in mining-operations. It seems that the most successful mining engineer of the present day is the one who makes the most intelligent application of the inventions and designs of engineers and others who are not directly engaged in mining. A tabulation of the headings of the address, grouped as below, shows this most clearly. Work of the Mechanical Engineer—Rock-drills, hoisting-machinery, tramming, pumping, ventilation, dredging, Sampling, concentration, briquetting, fume-recovery. Work of the Electrical Engineer—Electric machinery for hoisting, pumping, tramming, lighting and signaling, electric transmission, electric smelting. Work of the Chemist and Metallurgist—Explosives, chlorina-tion, cyanidation, roasting, lead-smelting, and copper-smelting. Work of the Geologist—Economic geology. Work of the Mining Engineer—Mine-mapping, surface-mining, timbering, tunneling; and planning and supervision of the work in general. The mining engineer of the present day, who is in responsible charge of a large plant, finds his chief work not in doing those things he was trained to do as a specialist, but in making use of the knowledge of geologists, chemists, and electrical and

Jan 1, 1910

By Philip Bucky

THE term "longwall mining" is best known to coal men, although modifications of the method are continually being used in other fields. Longwall mining is of interest today because it makes for greater mecha-nization and better supervision at the working face, and therefore lower production costs and increased safety. It is an approach to the factory system of production, the high efficiency of which as compared to that in mines is well known. There is available an accumulation of experience regarding this work but coordination of experience is lacking and this series of experiments was undertaken to help serve this purpose. Model experiments were used for reasons of safety, cost and time, and because it has been previously shown1,2,3 that a scalar model built of the same material as the prototype will behave in a manner similar to that of the prototype, with time effects the same, if the effective weight of the model is increased in the same proportion as its linear dimensions are decreased. This is accomplished by substituting a centrifugal for the gravitational field; i.e., placing the model in a centrifuge and controlling the strength of the centrifugal field by varying the rate of rotation. Many factors affect the behavior of the geologic material overlying a bed, therefore results and conclusions contained in this paper apply only to the conditions presented herein.

Jan 1, 1938

By Hugh Roberts

During 1916 and 1917, the E. J. Longyear Co. of Minneapolis, Minn., carried out a campaign of exploration for nickel-copper ore in the Sudbury District of Ontario. The work was initiated by W. E. Smith, a resident of Sudbury, who called the attention of W. J. Mead, Chief geologist. The E. J. Longyear Co., to the fact that explorable lands in the Sudbury District were still available. Five diamond drills were employed, and holes were drilled in the townships of Levack, Trill, Denison, Blezard; Garson, Falconbridge and MacLennan. The general map of the District, Fig. 1, shows the distribution of the lands chosen. As a result of this exploration, a large body of nickel and copper ore has been found in the western part of the Township of Falconbridge. This property lies in the eastern part of the Sudbury District, east of the Garson mine.

Jan 2, 1918

By E. Miller, K. L. Komarek

Equatiorzs have been derived which related maximum solid solubilities in semicondcting compounds having retvograde solidus curves with 1iqllidus data. Liquidus curves in Lke Pb-Te, Pb-Se, ard PB-S systetris have been defermined by thertrzal aralyses. Fvotrz expevimental maximum solibilities ia CdTe, PbTe, uxd PbS vetvograde tetrperatures hale beep1 calculated. TIze resllts support the concept that under certaiz conditiots pronounced itjlections in the liquidis curves arc indzcatiz:e of retropade solidus curves and that the tenlperatltre of the lmaximum solid solubility will be close to the temperature of the point of inflection in the liquidus curve. The maximum solid solihility within a gvoup of homologous cottrpoods SeetlLs to increase with increasing flatness ol the liquidus curvres. The phenomenon of retrograde solubility in metals, i.e., maximum solubility in a solid terminal phase in equilibrium with a liquid phase, has been theoretically predicted by Van aar' in his calculations of hypothetical binary phase diagrams. It was not until 1926, however, that retrograde solubility was experimentally verified in the Zn-Cd system.' Since then many sys- tems with retrograde solubility have been found, so that at present approximately fifty binary diagrams with a retrograde solidus curve are known.3 Meijering4 has critically appraised the accumulated data and has presented calculations which alloy predictions as to whether or not a solidus line will be retrograde. Interest in retrograde solubility increased when it was found that the solidus curves of germanium and silicon alloyed with a great many doping elements are retrrade. The problem was treated thermody-namically by odkinson,% d all available data on solid solutions in germanium and silicon were summarized by Trumbore.7 Although it is to be expected that intermetallic compounds will also exhibit retrograde solubility, experimental evidence is much more limited. Until now retrograde solidus curves have been reported for the compounds de,' be, Ps:" ne," SnSe," and SnS.13 All these compounds are semiconductors, and the solidus curves were usually obtained by determining the carrier concentration at room temperature of samples equilibrated at elevated temperatures and then quenched. It has been hown,'' however, that it is not always possible to quench in the equilibrium compositions from above a certain temperature. Theoretical discussions have either explicitly excluded intermetallic compounds4 or not treated them with respect to retrograde slubilit.j In the following a thermodynamic treatment of retrograde solu-

Jan 1, 1967

By A. W. Hesse

The trend of American construction toward permanence and longevity is noticeable in the more recent coal plant installations; also, the policy of many coal operators has changed from seeking to obtain the desired tonnage from several plants of small capacities to designing a single installation to produce the whole amount. The mine openings and plant of the Nemacolin mine of The Buckeye Coal Co., are located on the Greene County side of the Monongahela River, 73 miles south of Pittsburgh. The map (Fig. 1) shows the general location, also the Lambert syncline. This syncline partly accounts for the selection of the site; the other reasons were the possibilities of rail and river shipments. Two shafts and a slope were sunk to the coal, work starting on all three in the second half of the year 1917. The air shaft was sunk to a depth of 243 ft. and completed in February, 1918; the slope was completed in November, and the skip shaft was stopped at a depth of 21 ft. below the coal, then the concrete lining was stopped 8 ft. above the coal August, 1918. Work on the skip shaft was resumed May, 1923, and sunk to a depth of 60 ft. below the coal by September, but it was not until May, 1924, that the lining was poured. Max. Min. WateR Water during after Sinking, Crouting, Depth or Cu. Yd. Cu. YD. Gal. per GaL. per Opening Size Length Excav. Conc. Min. Min. Air shaft..... 20 ft. diam. 251 ft. 8 in. 4788 1902 475 2 Slope........ 11 it. by 19 it. 1 in. 857 ft. 11500 5200 50 2 Skip shaft.... 32 ft. 8 in. by 12 it. 8 in. 296 ft. 6042 2293 300 3 Fig. 2 shows sections of these openings. The surface plan shows the relative positions of the openings. Coal was first hoisted from the air shaft May 7, 1918, and entry driving was continued; but the coal had to be stored, as the railroad had not been extended from Crucible to Nemacolin. As soon as the slope was driven to the coal and the linings concreted, the entries were driven along projected lines to connect with those advancing from the air shaft, and skip shaft. As soon as the underground connections had been made between the two shafts, the hoisting by buckets was inaugurated at the skip shaft and construction on the fan at the air shaft started.

Jan 1, 1927

The industrial might of the Bowen Basin is primarily the result of Utah Development Co.'s work- which has opened up the Blackwater, Goonyella, Peak Downs, and Saraji mines; built the Hay Point port; and is now developing the Norwich Park mine.

Jan 1, 1977

Jan 7, 1976

By E. H. Timmerman, A. F. van Everdingen, J. J. McMahon

The prevent paper contains a method which combines the material balance equation' with the water influx equation' to obtain reliable values for the active oil originally in place and a quantitative evaluation of the cumulative water influx. The method is illustrated by an application to a reservoir without original gas cap. In the absence of an original gas cap. results may be obtained using only field production and pressure data, PVT analyses. and a minimum of subsurface information. CHARACTERISTICS OF RESERVOIR AND RESERVOIR FLUIDS Production in the field under review is obtained from the top of the Wilcox formation of Eocene age, at a depth of approximately 8,100 ft subsea. The structural map, Fig. 1, shows that the accumulation, half elliptical in shape with the long axis in east-west direction, is trapped to the north and on the upthrown side of a normal fault. A number of east-west faults with additional minor faulting in random directions are found in the general area, and seismic information and production performance indicate in this particular case the existence of a second fault a short distance downdip, with a strike more or less parallel to the fault controlling the accumulation. It is estimated that 1,830 acres were originally underlain by oil and that the maximum thickness of the original oil column, about 37 ft, was only slightly greater than the maximum thickness of the oil-bearing sand. Maximum net sand thickness was estimated at approximately 26 ft. From logging and subsurface information the gross sand volume has been placed at 37.400 acre-ft. which reduces to about 27,500 acre-ft after probable non-productive intervals have been deducted. The following table presents laboratory analyse; data for the Wilcox sand cores. Average Average Samples Considered Permeability Porosity All Samples 236 md ..19.9percent Samples with k>l md 256 md 20.5 per cent Samples with k>8 md 275 md 20.9 per cent Interstitial water was estimated at 15 per cent. The initial gas-oil ratio was approximately 900 cu ft/bbl. and the initial shrinkage factor was determined by the laboratory to

Jan 1, 1953

By D. B. Hobbs, L. W. Kempf, R. S. Archer

SILICON is one of the most important elements in the metallurgy of aluminum. It is always present in small amounts in the ordinary grades of "pure" aluminum, and hence in all alloys made therefrom. Within the last few years binary alloys containing up to 13 per cent. of silicon have come into extensive use for castings. Silicon is also added, beyond the amount present as an impurity, in alloys containing one or more other elements such as copper, manganese, magnesium and nickel. The binary aluminum-silicon alloys are not yet heat treated to any extent in commercial practice, although, as will be shown, their properties are affected to a very considerable degree by heat treatment. There are other aluminum alloys that develop higher strength, but the special characteristics of the silicon alloys may well lead to the application of heat-treating processes on a commercial scale. The role of silicon in the heat treatment of aluminum alloys is more important than would be indicated by consideration of the binary alloys alone, because many of the alloys that are heat treated in regular commercial practice contain some silicon in addition to that derived from the aluminum ingot as an impurity. Among these may be mentioned the heat-treated 195 alloy castings, and the wrought alloys 25S, Special 17S and 51S of the Aluminum Co. of America, and the German wrought alloy, Lautal. It is the purpose of this paper to present the results of experimental work and the conclusions derived therefrom regarding the heat treatment of the binary aluminum-silicon alloys. The products heat treated included forgings, chill castings and both "normal" and "modified" sand castings. REVIEW OF LITERATURE The literature on the heat treatment of aluminum-silicon alloys is not very extensive. The following review gives the principal references of which the authors are aware, in which appreciable information may be found.

Jan 1, 1928

The Secretary : The work of Mr. A. E. Outerbridge, Jr., of Philadelphia, first made known in his paper on " The Mobility of Molecules of Cast-Iron," read at the Pittsburgh Meeting of the Institute, in February, 1896, has been reviewed by the Committee on Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute, whose report, dated May 5, 1897, is accompanied with a table of tests made by the Committee, and amply confirming the statements of Mr. Outerbridge. Concerning the originality and novelty of his investigation, the Committee says: " The fact that a certain molecular change takes place in cast-iron in the course of time has been known and recognized by many persons for a long time, and that this change tends to relieve the internal strains and render the casting tougher has often been noticed and acted on, although in a very crude way; but, so far as the sub-committee has been able to learn, Mr. Outerbridge has been the first to make a careful study of this, and to note that the change may be hastened by impact, and the whole effect produced in a short time, and also to make a scientific study of the phenomenon. We believe great credit is due him for the initial observation and the careful work dependent thereon. The results were first given to the public in a paper read before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, on February 20, 1896. This aroused a wide-spread interest and discussion among users of cast-iron, and so far as the sub-committee has been able to determine, it has not been shown that anyone, either in this country or abroad, has antedated Mr. Outerbridge in his work in this line. The Franklin Institute therefore recommends the award to him of the John Scott Legacy Premium and Medal." This report has not been published, hut I have had the opportunity to read it in manuscript. The table of testa accompanying it comprises 91 tests of " rumbled" and an equal number of " not rumbled" companion-bars of cast-iron, 26 by 2 by

Jan 1, 1898

By C. F. Willis

The problem of the curtailment of forces in large numbers does not often come to employment departments and is, therefore, a problem that many departments are not prepared to handle intelligently. Those companies that are able to measure the individual efficiency of each man would probably lay off men according to their individual ability, irrespective of dependents, citizenship, or other considerations. During the war when labor was scarce, the business of the employment manager in industry was hiring men and carefully placing them where they were best fitted to work. The careful selection of employees had developed to a considerable extent before the war, and was becoming a recognized science. In the last few months, however, the cancelation of copper contracts, the accumulation of large stocks, the necessary curtailment of production because the copper could not be sold, and the lack of any immediate prospects of' the copper market opening, have led to a universal reduction of forces, and the problem that industry now confronts is that of discharging rather than employing. The problem has been aggravated by the cancellation of contracts in many war industries with the consequent turning loose of hundreds of thousands of men, a great amount of unemployment, and the return of the soldiers and sailors. The problem has now become one of reduction of working force with the least hardship and the least injustice, and yet caring for the soldiers, sailors, and marines who have been in the service of the government for nearly 2 years, and are now returning to their pre-war positions. The Copper Queen Branch of the Phelps Dodge Corpn., operating at Bisbee, Arb., found it necessary, like all of the other copper companies of the country, to reduce its force materially. In making this reduction it was, after due consideration, decided to classify employees with respect to dependents, length of service, and citizenship. The question of individual efficiency or workmanship was not considered. Copper produced to sell at 26 c. a lb. has been selling at under 15 c., and very little copper is being sold at all. Practically every copper producer in the country has enormous stocks on hand, and it would be profitable,

Jan 1, 1920

By Carel Robinson

THE little coal mine at Otsego, in the Winding Gulf field of southern West Virginia was dying. In the history of coal mining thousands of mines have been successful at first, but usually a change occurred and profits ceased. Often be change was so gradual and extended over such a length of time that the fundamental causes did not stand out in sharp relief and their significance was not realized. Studies often reveal that the cause for failure was in the arteries that connect the producing places with the mine entrance. Profits continued so long as the working places were close to the tipple and while the thrill of newness aid ease of access resulted in effective supervision from day to day. The air- way and haulageway, the wire line and manway, may have been sufficient when the distance from the entrance was a few hundred feet, but were inadequate when this was extended for thousands of feet.

Jan 1, 1937

Jan 1, 1881

By James B. Cathcart

The potash mine of the International Minerals and Chemical Corp. is about 18 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in sec 1 and 12, T 22 S, R 29 E, N.M.P.M. Potash is produced from two zones in the Salado formation of late Permian age. The lower zone, consisting of a mixture of sylvite (KCI) and halite (NaCl), lies at a depth of about 900 ft, and the upper zone, in which the principal potassium mineral is langbeinite (K2SO4 2MgSO4), lies at a depth of about 800 ft. Because of the plastic nature of the material, fractures in the Salado formation are extremely rare and have been noted only on the 800 ft level of the International mine. The open fracture described below is almost unique. Only one other open fracture has been noted, and it was on a working face in the same general area as the one described, but was destroyed before the writer had a chance to examine it. According to J. E. Tong, foreman on the 800 level, this fracture was similar to, but smaller than, the one herein described. The saline strata are nearly flat-lying and comprise interbedded layers of halite, anhydrite (CaSO4), and poly-halite (2CaSO4.MgS04.K2SO4-2H2O), with halite predominating. The halite layers contain local concentrations of sylvite, carnallite (KC1.MgCl2.6H2O), and langbeinite. The principal marker in the potash mines area is a bed of anhydrite about 8 ft thick, and 70 ft below the 800 level. This bed contains varying amounts of polyhalite, and locally a few blebs of sylvite. Two principal marker beds are present over most of the 800 level. The lower is the "Middle Salt Marker," a bed of bright-orange halite, which ranges in thickness from a knife-edge to about 0.6 ft, and is usually bounded above and below by thin seams of green or reddish-brown clay. In langbeinite-rich areas, this marker usually contains abundant blebs of langbeinite. The upper of the two principal markers is a green clay seam, containing abundant halite, which ranges in thickness from 0.1 to about 0.5 ft. It is 2 to slightly more than 5 ft above the Middle Salt Marker. No langbeinite of minable grade is found above this clay, and it

Jan 1, 1950

By William H. Bassett, C. J. Snyder

Cable sheaths made from common lead have been used to protect underground cables since the beginning of the power-cable industry. Only within the last few years, however, has a systematic study of the production methods and of the causes of failures in cable sheathing been undertaken. Recent increases in the use and demands for service made upon power cables have emphasized the importance of high-quality cable sheaths. It was customary for the users to attribute the cause for their sheath failures to the lack of purity of the lead, but this contention has not been borne out by field and laboratory inspection of the sheaths. During the past two years the writers have had an opportunity to examine various types of sheaths that were removed from power cables after failure. These samples were obtained from various parts of the country and represent, it is supposed, the production of the principal cable manufacturers. Aside from corrosion, the common field difficulties can be classified either as mechanical or structural, as outlined below, and when structural irregularities are found they can all be attributed to manufacturing causes and in no way reflect the purity of the lead. Clasxification of Cable Sheath Failures Other Than Corrosive Mechanical Irregularities A. Splits caused by excessive internal pressure B. Injuries such as nail holes, cuts, tsars, etc. C. Intercrystalline cracks caused by vibration Structural Irregularities A. Splits C. Voids in wall of sheath a. Caused by imperfect welds a. Blisters 13. Holes through sheath b. Laminations a. Caused by yellow oxide inclu- D. Questionable structures sions in sheath wall a. Prominent flow lines b. Blowouts by entrapped gases b. Large areas filled with suboxide during manufacture c. Scattered yellow oxide or dirt C. Caused by inclusions of dirt and

Jan 1, 1933

By C. H. Green

. RECENTLY two papers on the structure of eutectics were read before the British Institute of Metals, one by F. L. Brady1 and the other by A. Portevin.2 In the preparation of photomicrographs of laboratory specimens as illustrations for student work, and in connection with various researches; the writer has been working along the same line for some, time and, therefore, was much interested in the results given, especially those of Portevin. He has correlated the information on the subject and has outlined a broad scientific basis for future work along this line. It is largely with the idea-of adding something by way of illustration to the work already done that this paper is written. The eutectic is generally understood to mean the alloy having the lowest melting point of any alloy of the system, and in which the melt becomes supersaturated with reference to the two or more phases which, separate out simultaneously (or alternately). From the surface pattern, the eutectic means; a structure with no primary crystals. It is not always easy to get the exact eutectic composition in making any alloy; in fact, a slight range in composition may be expected and some of the coarser particles may be richer in either of the composing metals. Even when chemical analysis shows the right composition, differences in density of the pure metals may cause segregation, or. supercooling resulting from different crystallizing properties may give a surface pattern the appearance of being on one side of the eutectic point. However, the alloys on either side of the eutectic composition, showing primary crystals of one of the phases and the effect of the pro-eutectic form on the surface pattern of the eutectic make a very interesting study, which is slightly touched upon in this paper. The phases, or microconstituents, of a eutectic may be pure metals (Pb-Sb, Tl-Au), solid solutions (Cd-Zn), a pure metal and a solid solution; (Ag-Sn), or a pure metal or solid solution with an intermetallic compound (Sb-Mg, Sb-Cu, As-Cu, Bi-Te, etc.).

Jan 2, 1925

By Walter Miller

With returning prosperous conditions in all industries, oil-refinery engineering has found opportunity for the more extensive application of improvements developed during the several years of depression. The year has brought out little of an entirely new nature, but much in wider application of previous worth-while developments. The greatest volume of work done has been in modernizing the distillation and cracking units of existing refineries, particularly by substitution of combination skimming and cracking units for older equipment, and the installation of cracking plants in smaller refineries where formerly only skimming was practiced. A number of entirely new refineries were installed during the year, two of the most important being the 20,000-bbl. refinery by the Atlantic Refining Co., at Atreco, Tex., and a 12,000-bbl. plant by the Wilshire Oil Co., at Norwalk, Calif., these two embodying some of the latest developments in cracking and treating. Total refining capacity for the United States is now reported as being something over 4,000,000 bbl. per day, but a movement is on foot looking to a complete revision of these figures, as experience has indicated not only some overstatement of capacity of equipment but that considerable equipment is included which because of obsolescence and location will probably never be run again. The 3,000,000-bbl. figure which the industry reached during the year's high consuming period required the operation of probably 95 per cent of the country's efficiently usable capacity. Cracking and Polymerization There were no new outstanding developments in the cracking field, progress being made largely in the further refinement of known principles. Improvements in furnace design and operation have been largely in permitting closer control of the heating curve through the cracking-tube system, assisting in more uniform yield and in the lessening of coke deposition, and permitting longer trouble-free operating time as well as reduction in furnace-maintenance cost. Actual operating polymerization capacity has been increased little during the year, but a number of projects have been started, some nearing completion, the production from which will be available during 1937.

Jan 1, 1937