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By Frank C. Roberts

Progress in the facilities for handling mining products has been largely superinduced by the necessities of commercial economy ren dered requisite in order to meet the demand of competition. So rapid has been the depreciation in the value of mineral products, primarily due to the disproportionate increase of output over con sumption, that it may be justly claimed that mining, when considered as a commercial success, depends largely upon the ease and cheap ness by which the products are brought to the surface of the ground. In all methods of performing this operation, wire rope enters as an important factor; and the object of the present sketch will be to explain, as fully as is consistent with the space allotted, the various • adaptations of wire rope employed in placing coal and ores within the reach of our overground systems of transportation. These adaptations will be considered in the following order: I. Hoists. II. Inclined planes. a. Engine planes. b. Gravity planes. c. Aerial planes. III. Haulage. a. Tail-rope system. b. Counter-rope system. c. Endless-rope system. IV. Hoists. The term " hoist" is applied to the system whereby the mine product is elevated from the mine-level to the surface through ver-

Jan 1, 1888

By E. B. Phillips, A. E. Miller

The title assigned to this paper permits a discussion of one of the most interesting chapters in the history of the American petroleum industry. Nature was kind to man when she prepared crude oil for him in commercial quantities in the hills of Northwestern Pennsylvania. Most of the refining operations we are now accustomed to apply were either not needed or had been carried out by earth processes ages ago. Such technology as was applied dealt with the physical separation of the valuable components in the crude oil and intermediate products and did not need more than mild refining treatments to bring them to marketable quality. • The pioneer refiners were concerned principally with distilling, dewax-ing and decolorizing operations. The products produced were limited in number and the uses to which they could be put were few. Natural products from the very high grade crudes, then plentiful, supplied the domestic demand and no other markets were open. As time passed, other producing fields were discovered and crude oils of lower natural quality were made available. To refine these grades to a quality expected by buyers, refinery practice had to be changed and new methods found. At the same time the accidental discovery that crude residues could be cracked by dry distillation at atmospheric pressure to produce a much larger amount of lamp oil than had been customary, opened a new vista for the industry. Export kerosene soon became the leading revenue product for all refiners and considerable new technic was added to refinery practice. High sulfur crude oils from Ohio next made their appearance, causing the development of the first commercial desulfurizing process, the sodium plumbite treating method for "sour" lamp oil stocks and the application of fine earth for the removal of "flock." Some improvements in methods of handling lubricating oils and cylinder stock fractions of crude were worked out, but in general, it can be said that the closing decade of the last century found the industry in a stabilized condition. Typical refinery operations of 1900 were simple and were conducted with the single purpose of producing as much export kerosene as possible Light naphthas and fuel oils were a drug on the market and every means

Jan 1, 1928

By William E. Ford, Edward Salisbury Dana

I. Oxides of Silicon. 11. Oxides of the Semi-Metals : Tellurium, Arsenic, Antimony, Bismuth ; also Molybdenum, Tungsten. III. Oxides of the Metals. The Fifth Class, that of the OXIDES, is subdivided into three sections, according to the positive element present. The oxides of the non-metal silicon are placed by themselves, but it will be noted that the compounds of the related element titanium are included with those of the metals proper. This last is made necessary by the fact that in one of its forms TiOz is isomorphous with MnOp and PbOz. A series of oxygen compounds which are properly to be viewed as salts, e.g., the species of the Spinel Group and a few others, are for convenience also included in this class.

Jan 1, 1922

By T. G. Madgwick, A. Beeby Thompson

FoR more than 2500 years, natural gas issues in the Surakhany district of the Apsheron peninsula were the object of pilgrimages by fire worshippere and Hindoos from Burma and India. Even as late as 1890, Hindoo priests conducted ceremonies in a temple at Surakhany, which probably replaced a more ancient one; but later, the visits of the pilgrims were prohibited in order to check the spread of Asiatic diseases in that region. For centuries, limited supplies of oil have been abstracted from shallow excavations in the Caspian oil belt and dispatched into the interior of Asia and elsewhere for medicinal and industrial purposes. Statistics show a yield of 37,400 bbl. in 1863, but only since 1869 has there been serious development; in that year the yield was 203,000 bbl. At that time, hand digging was supplanted by drilling, and the enormous wells that resulted from tapping sources hitherto beyond the reach of operators completely demoralized the industry for a time, owing to inadequate outlets for the products. The early activities in this area were greatly hindered by annoying taxation, monopolies, imperial land grants, etc., but when these were revoked or adjusted, in 1877, the industry sprang into prominence and, between 1898 and 1901, the Baku fields produced practically one-half of the world's supply of oil. Within a few miles of Baku lie the two richest oil fields in the world; viz., the Balakhany-Saboontchy-Romany and the Bibi-Eibat, the latter constituting almost a suburb of the city. For many years the gasoline obtained in the refineries of the Baku area was burned in pits, being considered an undesirable product, and until 1870 the residue also was destroyed, its value as a fuel not being recognized. Kerosene was the main product sought by the refiners. It was shipped across the Caspian Sea and up the Volga to the industrial centers of Russia. Only on the completion of the Baku-Batoum railway did the Baku oil fields secure important commercial communication with the outside world through the medium of the Black Sea. The first tank steamer was successfully launched on the Caspian in 1879, by Messrs. Nobels, for transporting oil in bulk instead of in barrels. In 1905, an 8-in. pipe line to Batoum was completed; this was capable of transporting to seaboard 8,000,000 bbl. of kerosene per annum.

Jan 1, 1921

By D. D. Dunkin

Sandstone has been prepared for glassmaking purposes, and marketed from the White River Valley in Arkansas at Guion, Izard County, since about 1910—soon after the completion of the White River Branch of the Missouri Pacific R. R. Co. Until 1921, operations were somewhat spasmodic and ended in many failures. In that year a plant was built by the Silica Products Co., Inc., and since that time the operation has been continuous and steady. The land is held under leases, covering about 30 square miles of the best sandstone adjacent to the railroad. Most of the product is shipped to glassmakers. Geology The St. Peter sandstone is rather widely distributed in north central Arkansas and is exposed most prominently in outcrops along the slopes of the White River Valley and its tributarirs that form the division between the Boston Mountains to the south and the Salem Plateau of the Ozarks to the north. It is of Ordovician age and is generally underlaid by Cotter dolomite and capped by Plattin limestone, except in the vicinity of Bellefonte and Everton. At those places, it is a massive cross-bedded, laminated, saccharoidal sandstone; underlying it is the Everton limestone and overlying it, the Joachim magnesium limestone The sandstone at Everton contains numerous phosphatic pebbles and inclusions of sandy limestone. The irregularity of cross-section, the evidence of sorting action and the phosphatic pebbles appear to be indications of secondary deposition The St. Peter sandstone occurs as a massive formation in the picturesque bluffs along the White River Valley from near the eastern escarprnent of the uplift northwestmard into the Ozarks. The exposure shows a series of gentle anticlinal and synclinal folds. The greatest thickness is at the southeastern end, where it is over 100 ft. in many places. It thins out to the north and west and then to isolated and scattered deposits which cap the ridges and mountains of the Ozarks.

Jan 1, 1928

By I. N. Knapp

I Herewith present some notes on the use of Portland cement to cement in the casing, and for plugging, to exclude water from oil and gas wells, and the methods employed. I have used my best efforts to. make each step of the operation of cementing wells perfectly clear. The information is the result of actual experience and observation. The illustrations are from original drawings made especially for this paper. Portland Cement It is not necessary to discuss here the manufacture of cement. Any established brand of the slower setting Portland cements may be purchased with the confidence that it will harden, if properly used, and exclude water from and plug wells efficiently. Setting.—By the setting of cement is meant its initial change from a soft or plastic mortar to a friable solid. After the cement has become thoroughly set it is still very weak and can be readily pulverized in the fingers. Setting is thought to be effected by the crystallizing out of the silicate and the aluminate of lime, which are soluble in water in their anhydrous form. After dissolving in the water they pass to the hydrated state, in which they are insoluble, and hence are precipitated in a crystalline form. Ordinarily neat Portland cement mortar remains perfectly plastic for from 1 to 1 1/2 hr. after mixing with water at about 70" F. A higher temperature accelerates and a lower retards setting.. Hardening.—This is due to a continual crystallization of salts from solution, and to further chemical and physical changes which develop slowly, but which continue for long periods of time. Testing.—It is no more necessary for an operator to go into the scientific testing of cement to be used in a well than to so test the pipe used. He must depend for the quality of each on the tests and reliability of the manufacturer. Cement or pipe may be damaged in shipment so

Jan 1, 1915

By P. V. Martin

Shortly after the middle of the nineteenth century, the invention of the regenerative open-hearth furnace and the development of the Bessemer process stimulated a rate of steel production whose magnitude created an unprecedented demand for pig iron. Revolutionary improvements in furnace design, auxiliary equipment, and operating technique enabled the blast furnace to keep abreast of the constantly increasing requirements of the steel mill. The development of improved blowing equipment, more adequate facilities for material handling, and particularly the general use of anthracitc and coke to replace the physically weaker charcoal, led to a rapid expansion in both the height and volume of furnaces. Beyond a doubt, however, the greatest single factor in blast-furnace improvement at this time was the use of the higher blast temperatures made available by the replacement of the recuperative iron pipe stoves by the regenerative Cowper brick stove. The increased blast temperature not only resulted in greater output but also reduced fuel consumption . far more than could be explained by the additional heat content of the blast. The progress of iron manufacturing was thus largely mechanical and thermal. Little attention was given the chemistry of the process until the publication of the investigations of Sir Lowthian Bell.1 Bell's painstaking experiments and investigations gave to the blast-furnace man his first real scientific conception of blast-furnace chemistry. Bell's recognition of the dual function of the carbon, the technical importance of reversible reactions and chemical equilibria, and his conception of the degree of oxidation of the carbon as shown by the analysis of the outgoing gases as a criterion of furnace efficiency, laid the foundation upon which has since been erected the structure of blast-furnace theory. Prominent among those availing themselves of Bell's data as .a basis of further study was M. L. Gruner,2 professor of the French School of Mines. His "Blast Furnace Phenomena," published in 1870, presented

Jan 1, 1940

By C. E. Lesher

THE Disco* process for the production of low temperature coke and its immediate predecessor, the Wisner or Carbocite process have been described in the voluminous literature of low temperature carbonization.1 This paper will describe the development of the process from the first attempt at commercial operation by the American Gas and Electric Co. at Philo, Ohio, Yn the 1920's to the successful operation in 1949 by the Disco Co., a division of the Pittsburgh Consolidation Coal Co., of the 1000-ton per day Disco plant near Pittsburgh, see Figs. 1-2. In the 1924 coal industry depression following the hectic post World War I expansion, the northern Appalachian, unionized bituminous coal fields were affected first and foremost, and Western Pennsylvania as hard as any. Competitive market pressure was heaviest on the lower grades of steam coals, notably the from the Panhandle district where ash and sulphur are inherently higher than in the same Pittsburgh coal bed to the east along the rivers. The firm structure of Panhandle coal while favoring the prepared sizes, depressed the usefulness and value of the finer sizes. Panhandle slack and nut slack were marketed with difficulty at consistent, and at times considerable, loss. Many solutions were suggested, and the Pittsburgh Coal Co. investigated all. Lower delivered prices through lower mine costs and more advantageous freight rates were obvious goals, but equally obvious were the difficulties of self attainment of either in any substantial measure. Selling Btu's in pipes was abandoned as an idea after a thorough study of the economics of distribution of what was then, and is even now, the only developed continuous process of complete gasification of bituminous coal-producer gas. Although the coal company purchased huge blocks of electric power, it sold not a car of coal to the central power stations. Public utilities controlled the markets for electric current, and it was found that no matter at how low a cost current might be put on the bus bars by the coal company, distribution to its widely scattered coal mines made such an enterprise practically impossible. Consolidation of underground operations and a huge modernization program of mining operations in the 1920's were but preparation for the introduction of mechanical cleaning of the coal for market, particularly the smaller sizes of steam, gas, and by-

Jan 1, 1953

By H. J. R. Way

The work to be described was undertaken at various periods from 1937 to 1939 on the Busia gold field, in the eastern province of Uganda. It was decided to examine the possibility of reef prospection by the resistivity method, for it was not known how far the usually disintegrated nature of most reefs in the ubiquitous laterite near the surface would obscure indications obtained by resistivity traverses. The work at the commencement was therefore largely experimental, but the results obtained thereby were satisfactory, and a survey was started at the Government closed area at Amonikakine. With the limited time and resources at the writer's disposal, it was not possible to complete the survey to his satisfaction or to follow up exhaustively all the geophysical indications, but some of the results of the experimental work and the survey were of sufficient interest to be worth recording; in particular the relation between the width of reef, electrode separation and shape of the curve, and the interference effect of constant separation curves over zones of float are significant and useful. Three new veins were located, but only one contained sufficient gold to warrant detailed prospection. This was called the Geophysical reef, and was uncovered over a strike distance of 1140 ft., and there are indications that it extends over a distance of 1990 ft. These results and the recom- mendations consequent therefrom were embodied in a special report to the Uganda Geological Survey. History OF the Field The Busia field is in the southeastern corner of Uganda near the Kenya-Uganda border, and is about 17 miles north of the northeastern corner of Lake Victoria. Gold was first discovered in the area in the stream beds by Davies1,2 in 1932. Subsequently numerous small alluvial claims were worked by prospectors and the area was prospected for reef by a company for periods varying from three to nine months, but was finally abandoned, as the results were considered unfavorable. Further prospecting by the Geological Survey in 1935-1936 under Davies8 and later under the writer4 uncovered three reefs with sufficient gold values to be of economic interest. These were finally taken over by a company known as Borderland Syndicate, which still owns the area, and from September 1937 to the end of 1941 about 13,000 oz. of gold was extracted from reefs of the area proved by the Geological Survey. Opencast mining operations are still proceeding (February 1943). The Amonikakine area lies to the immediate north of that of Borderland Syndicate. A certain amount of prospecting had been done when the writer started work there. As a result of his report, this area was taken over by another syndicate, but little further work was accomplished before it ceased operating because of difficulties of wartime working.

Jan 1, 1946

By R. R. Byran, M. H. Kuryla

The Compania de Real del Monte y Pachuca started a 10-ton pilot plant in March, 1906. The distinctive features of the first cyanide installations at Pachuca were: grinding in cyanide solution, all-sliming and filtration of ore in which silver constituted the major value. Loreto started with a 300-ton " all-sliming" plant, using jaw crushers, grinding in stamps, Chilean mills and pebble mills in cyanide solution, concentrating with Wilfley tables and Johnson vanners, classification by cones and Dorr classifiers, intermittent thickening by decantation, mechanical agitation in flat tanks by stirrers and centrifugal pumps, filtration in Butters filters and precipitation by zinc shavings. The "San Francisco" mill No, 1 was contemporaneous, using a rather similar flow sheet. We shall trace the main developlnents in the three large mills of the district to their present practice. Developments in Large Mills of District Crushing and Grinding.—The trend of development in this part of the work has been the same as throughout the milling world; via., all increase in the degree of comminution of the ore in dry-crushing machines, the advance from pebble mill to rock mill and then to ball mill and the elimination of the stamp battery through the encroachment upon its field on the one side by finer dry crushing and on the other by more efficient wet grinding. The single-stage crushing in jaw type crushers, used at the start, has been replaced by two stages; at first, both stages by gyratory type and later the present practice, which is the same in all three mills, consisting of gyratory as primary followed by cone as secondary and delivering a product that may be rated at 56 to 1 inch. Primary wet grinding, at first performed by stamps and Chilean mills, is now by hall and/or rod mills; present practice differing widely in the three mills. Santa Gertrudis uses a 7 by 15 ft. rod mill, San Rafael

Jan 1, 1935

By E. E. Wahlstrom

The Harold D. Roberts tunnel, in Summit and Park Counties, Colorado, is a concrete-lined pressure tunnel finished to a circular cross section of 10.25 ft diam. The tunnel is 23.3 miles long and is designed to transport water for domestic use by the City and County of Denver from reservoir storage at Dillon to a tributary of the South Platte River at Grant. The tunnel passes beneath the Continental Divide at the crest of the Front Range and intersects rocks of diverse types and origins and geologic structures of extreme complexity. Geologic investigations preceded and were continued during construction and contributed materially to the safe and economical advance of the tunnel headings. Geological data obtained and evaluated during construction include plans and sections on a scale of 1 in. to 50 ft, rock temperatures at 2000-ft intervals, records of progress related to geology, records of ground-water conditions, summaries of the use of steel and timber supports, and summaries of grouting operations. Adverse conditions required use of steel and timber supports for 71.74% of the total length of the tunnel. Most supported sections reached a condition of equilibrium within a few hours to a few months after being excavated, and the concrete lining serves chiefly to provide an additional safety factor and to provide necessary hydraulic characteristics to the tunnel. Efforts to attain a maximum rate of advance of the tunnel headings necessitated use of more steel and timber supports than would have been required in a less accelerated tunneling operation. This report summarizes geologic investigations prior to and during construction of the Harold D. Roberts tunnel in Summit and Park Counties, Colorado (Fig. 1) and analyzes the tunneling operation as it is related to the various kinds of geologic conditions encountered in the tunnel. The tunnel is concrete lined to a circular cross section of 10.25 ft and is designed to transport 788 sec ft from reservoir storage at Dillon 23.3 miles along a dog-leg course passing under the Continental Divide to outlet and control works at Grant, Colo. The primary purpose of the tunnel is to augment the domestic water supply of the City and County of Denver, but plans include provisions for power generation at the outlet portal at a future date. Location of the tunnel was made after extensive preliminary geologic and engineering investigations by the Board of Water Commissioners of the City and County of Denver, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. In 1946 the Board of Water Commissioners started tunnel driving on a limited scale from the east (outlet) portal and by 1955 had completed 9986 ft of tunnel. An urgent need for additional sources of water supply required acceleration of the tunneling operation, and, in 1955, Tipton and Kalmbach Inc. of Denver were assigned the responsibility of reviewing the project and preparing plans and specifications for the tunnel and appurtenant features. Additional geologic studies were made, and the geology of several possible alternate tunnel lines were compared before determining that the tunnel should be driven along the course previously adopted by the Board of Water Commissioners. On July 12, 1956, a contract for construction was awarded to Blue River Constructors Inc., a combine

Jan 1, 1962

By Edwards Wichers

The purpose of this paper is to set forth the matters of principal interest in connection with work done in the past few years on the purification of the metals of the platinum group, including the study and modification of methods already in the literature and the development of new procedures. For the most part, the results will be given in summary form, reserving the publication of detailed data and directions for a forthcorning paper to be issued by the Bureau of Standards. In recent years increasing interest has been shown in the preparation of the pure platinum metals, both by those concerned with the manufacture of the metals and their alloys for scientific and industrial purposes and those who are engaged in the study of the chemical or physical properties of the elements. The purification of the metals usually has been regarded as a matter so involved and difficult as to require the attention of specialists. It is hoped that this paper will show that any of the metals can be prepared in any desired degree of purity by relatively simple straightforward chemical methods. For the most part, it is thought that the methods given are suitable for small-scale refineries as well as for the laboratory; also, that they will bring the time required for the purification of any of the metals within reasonable limits. The new procedure suggested for purifying platinum should prove to be much shorter than any methods described in the literature. Treatment of Platinum Ore As is well known, the principal source of the platinum metals is a mixture of several native alloys of the metals, found chiefly in naturally concentrated deposits in stream beds or alluvial material. Without attempting to enumerate all of the minerals present, it may be said that the concentrated ore from such sources contains all of the six platinum

Jan 1, 1928

By W. A. Wood, W. H. Reimann, K. R. Sargant

A study is made of the microstructural changes produced in armco and pure iron subjected to alternating torsion at amplitudes above and below the knee of the S/N curve. The aim was to identify the basic mechanisms of fatigue and to find why they should give rise to a sharp S/N knee in contrast to the type of S/N curve shown by fcc metals. It is found that the basic structural change above the knee in the iron is a pronounced cell formation in the grains, which determines irregular micro-cracks, and below the knee a dispersion of fine slip that determines a dispersed pore formation in the grains. Comparison of these changes with those in fcc metals similarly tested shows that they do not include an intermediate structural change, a concentrating of slip in narrow bands with associated slip-band cracking, that characterizes the fcc metals and accounts for their different type of S/N curve. RECENT conferences on basic mechanisms of fatigue emphasize that fatigue damage takes many forms: for example, cracking in slip bands (Thompson1), at grain boundaries and inclusions (Hempel'), at precipitation zones in alloys (Han-stock, Forsythe), or at surface notch-peak effects, both hypothetical (Mott, cottrel16) and observed (Wood). Evidently it is not easy to see in this diversity a basic mechanism. At the same time the contributions suggest that some reconciliation may be possible if distinctions are drawn between three phases of the fatigue process: initiation of damage at nuclei, distribution of these nuclei, and the final macroscopic crack system. In initiation, the relevant features appear to be that nuclei may appear early, at least by 1/100th to 1/1000th of the life of a test specimen; that they may do so at many independent centers, appearing according to some observationsa as pores or voids; and that they are not necessarily self-propagating, damage spreading rather by their multiplication. In distribution, the relevant feature appears to be that they form preferentially in zones where the microstructure becomes abnormally strained (as defined more closely below). Now in these two phases the basic fatigue process should be systematic. But, at the same time, the "abnormal strains" in particular set the stage for considerable diversity in the final phase of macroscopic cracking, for where zones of abnormal strain develop will depend on what kind of fatigue deformation is applied and what kind of prior processing the test material has had. On this view it seems desirable to know what in

Jan 1, 1964

By Herbert Clark Hoover, Lou Henry Hoover

THE third book has explained the various and manifold varieties of veins and stringers. This fourth book will deal with mining areas and the method of delimiting them, and will then pass on to the officials who are connected with mining affairs'. Now the miner, if the vein he has uncovered is to his liking, first of all goes to the Bergmeister to request to be granted a right to mine, this official's special function and office being to adjudicate in respect of the mines. And so to the first man who has discovered the vein the Bergmeister awards the head meer, and to others the remaining meers, in the order in which each makes his application. The size of a meer is measured by fathoms, which for miners are reckoned at six feet each. The length, in fact, is that of a man's extended arms and hands measured across his chest ; but different peoples assign to it different lengths,

Jan 1, 1950

By Herbert R. Mosley, Paul M. Tyler

STRATEGICALLY situated in almost the heart of the leading fertilizer- consuming area of the United States, Tennessee long has ranked second only to Florida as a phosphate-producing state. Since 1932 its share of the national output of phosphate rock has increased steadily, and in 1937 its production mounted to an all-time record. More significant even than the increase in tonnage are the forward strides in technology. The Tennessee Valley Authority's research program has led to quasicommercial operations using hydroelectric power to manufacture concentrated phosphatic fertilizer that is used to further the farmer education program designed to streamline the fertilizer business and halt the appalling waste of farm land by soil erosion. Even more stimulating to chemically minded imaginations is the production of elemental phosphorus by a private company that not only has succeeded in extracting it from the phosphate rock in electric furnaces but actually has contrived to capture it and to transport it safely in tank cars. New values have been created for low-grade phosphate deposits, and the economic life of reserves has been lengthened while the waste of former years goes back into the mills for recovery of its values by modernized methods. Tennessee's phosphate-mining industry dates from the discovery of blue rock in-lewis County in December 1893. Its known reserves are of the order of 101,500,000 tons, which compares with the production of 825,099 tons in 1937; that is, 21 per cent of the phosphate-rock output of the whole nation. The total output reported from 1894 until July 1, 1938, was approximately 19,000,000 tons. Official estimates of reserves are overly conservative and evidence submitted before a joint Congressional committee in November 1938 places "probable" reserves at more than 6,000,000,000 tons.

Jan 1, 1939

By S. F. Emmons

IT was said by many who discussed Professor Posepny's admirable paper on the " Genesis of Ore-Deposits," read at the Chicago meeting of the Institute, in 1893, that its most valuable feature was the clear distinction which it drew between the influence upon ore-deposits of the "vadose " circulation of waters descending directly from the surface, and that of the deep underground circulation of waters generally coming from the depths, and assumed by the author to be ascending through more or less open spaces under the influence of heat. A little later the effect of the oxidizing action of the vadose circulation upon ore-deposits was ably and exhaustively treated by Prof. R. A. F. Penrose, in a paper on " The Superficial Alteration of Ore-Deposits "f-the only one, so far as I know, which has been exclusively devoted to this important subject. My own first detailed study of ore-deposits was made at Leadville, in 1880, at a time when almost the only minerals visible in those deposits were in oxidized forms. That this form was the result of the alteration of earlier sulphides by surface-waters had to be proved at the time by induction or analogy, the general correctness of which was, however, abundantly confirmed by subsequent developments. Thus I was early impressed with the importance of distinguishing, in the study of an ore-deposit, the alteration-products, resulting from the action of oxidizing waters descending from the present surface, from the earlier-formed sulphides; and, assuming that the latter were primary or original, I called the former secondary. I also went so far as to say$ with regard to oxidized ores passing into sulphides in depth "So generally is this accepted as a rule in ore-deposits that it would require special demonstration to prove beyond a doubt that the native metals or their

Jan 1, 1902

By W. W. Gorr, R. Smith, E. H. Wyche

THE combination of high strength and corrosion resistance of cold-worked 18 Cr, 8 Ni steel has been advantageously utilized for some time, particularly in aircraft and rail car structures. There are, however, certain limitations on the use of such materials because the high strengths can be obtained only by cold-working, limiting the available products to sheets, strip, wire and tubes. The authors sought to overcome these limitations by resorting to precipitation-hardening, which has been used so successfully in nonferrous metallurgy but only to a limited extent in iron-base alloys. Accomplishment of this objective not only overcame the limitations, but also effected certain improvements in mechanical and other properties. This paper is an account of the development by Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation of a precipitation-hardening 18-8 stainless steel (called Stainless W? and tentatively identified as type 322). A description is given of its composition and metallurgical characteristics, heat-treatment, physical and mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW STEEL For a considerable length of time the authors were unable to determine the mechanism of the precipitation-hardening process that had been noted by Ffield 18,19 in 18-8 Ti or 18-8 Cb after cold-working and reheating to moderately elevated temperatures. All known variables were exhaustively studied, but with little success. However, results began to indicate that chemical composition was the most important variable, particularly the ratio of austenite-forming to ferrite-forming elements. The investigators 'then focused their attention upon the composition, and, in particular, upon the element titanium and its mode of alloying in the presence of other elements. A heat was obtained that could not be brought to the softness level of annealed 18-8. The response to cold-straining and aging* was very marked by previous standards, and, more important, cold-straining was found to be entirely unnecessary to produce the precipitation-hardening effect. The chemical composition of this heat was: C, 0.06 per cent; Mn, 0.54; P, 0.016; S, 0.016; Si, o.58; Ni, 7.28; Cr, 17.6o; Ti, 0.90; Al, 0.17. For some time the development work, particularly on composition, was carried

Jan 1, 1946

By J. Ellzey Hayden

THE Cliffs Shaft mine of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co., located in the city of Ishpeming, Mich., is the largest producer of hard hematite ore on the Marquette iron range. The two shafts, A and B, lying 820 ft. (250 m.) apart on the east-west trend of the ore formation, were sunk in the early eighties, and, except for four years, have been steady producers of iron ore. Their location, on a hill overlooking the general offices of the company on the one side and the city of Ishpeming on the other, has made the shaft houses landmarks. In the spring of 1919, as the old wooden shaft houses had become shaky and out of line, and would soon be unsafe, it was necessary to replace them with the least possible delay. Three plans of construction were, therefore, considered: To replace the old shaft houses by somewhat similar structures made of wood; to use steel and radically change the design; or to build reinforced-concrete shaft houses outside of the wooden structures, completely enclosing them. The first plan was disapproved, because it is anticipated that the mine will have a long life and the proximity of other buildings makes the danger from fire rather great. Delay in receiving material, and the necessity for closing the shafts during erection, were other factors in the situation. The second plan was disapproved on account of the high cost of steel, slow delivery, and interference with hoisting during the period of erection. The presence near one of the shafts of a large bed of hard gravel suitable for concrete made, the cost of the third plan considerably less than the second, and little, if any, delay in hoisting was expected. Our expectations in this regard' were fully realized. Furthermore, the work could be done by unskilled labor, which was plentiful, and the erection could be quickly started. When the proposition was submitted to Mr. W. G. Mather, president of the company, he recommended that, on account of the prominence of the buildings due to their location, an effort should be made to combine in the design as far as practicable something of architectural beauty. Following his recommendation, the original plans were submitted to the

Jan 8, 1920

By C. H. G. Bushell, James E. Lawver, William Barbarowicz

Proper use of automatic controls in the process industries is a combination of art and science. Although many phases of automatic control theory can be expressed by precise mathematical relationships, the final control arrangement usually requires considerable effort by trial and error before the optimum control circuit is found. The failure of flotation operators to recognize that control circuits require study and plant experimentation before satisfactory operation occurs has led to a popular misconception that flotation plants simply do not lend themselves to automation. This widespread belief has been overcome to some degree in recent years by the numerous installations of automatic controls that have paid their way by increasing profits in terms of increased recoveries, lowered costs, or higher grade concentrates. WHY CONTROL ? Any form of automation must be justified in terms of ultimate return on in- vestment by improving quality, by increasing plant throughput, or by reducing the total operating costs. Generally speaking, automatic controls rarely re- place a mill operator. They assist the operator in holding important variables within predetermined limits. Large tonnage operations usually can justify a great deal of automation because an increase in one or two units of recovery results in enormous savings compared to the capital and operating costs of controls. DETERMINATION OF CONTROL The first questions in considering plant automation are: 1) What variables must be controlled? 2) What are the optimum levels of the variables? The optimum operating conditions for any process are those which maximize profits. Many of the variables active in flotation processing can be determined by experimentation in the laboratory or pilot plant 10. Although laboratory experiments can pinpoint variables, the true optimum conditions existing at plant level usually must be determined by plant scale experiments. In recent years, the concepts of detailed experimental designs in the laboratory, followed by plant experiments, have reached the stage of maturity where

Jan 1, 1962

By O. Cuscoleca

The Austrian plants at Donawitz and Linz were the first to blow steel with high purity oxygen. The paper shows how the process was developed and gives a survey of the results achieved to date. Compared with open hearth steel of equal quality, the obvious advantages of oxygen steel are the low investment and conversion costs. The nitrogen content of oxygen steel is not higher than that of good open hearth steel. Rimmed and killed steel products made by the oxygen process are superior to rimmed and killed steel products made by the best open hearth process. TWO new steel plants using the principle of making steel with high purity oxygen went into operation in Austria, one at Linz (Vereinigte oster-reichische Stahlwerke) in November 1952 and the other at Donawitz (dsterreichisch-Alpine Montan-gesellschaft) in May 1953. An estimated 330,000 metric tons were produced by the two plants in 1953, the first year of operation. In 1954 production by Austrian plants- using the high purity oxygen approach will be raised to 450,000 metric tons. This will be in addition to facilities in Huckingen (Man-nesmann A. G., Düsseldorf, Germany), those planned and under construction at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (Dominion Foundries and Steel, Ltd.), and elsewhere. It is expected that by 1955 a total capacity of one million tons of high purity oxygen steel will be available. At the close of the last century, because of increasing availability of scrap, open hearth steel production forged ahead at an ever increasing pace. This caused world steel production to rise faster than pig iron production and finally to overtake it. In 1911 65 million tons of steel were produced against 64 million tons of pig iron. World steel production was 209 million tons in 1951, while pig iron output was only 147 million tons. The 1951 breakdown for steel shows 118 million tons made from pig iron, while the balance, 91 million tons or 44 pct of the total tonnage of steel produced, was made from scrap. This increase in crude steel production on a basis of high scrap consumption led to the world market scrap shortage and soaring scrap prices. In the United States and other nations, production of converter steel has fallen far behind that of open hearth steel. The surplus of processing scrap, un-absorbable by converting mills and thus a welcome source for open hearth and electric melting shops in the past, together with regular scrap purchases, no longer can meet requirements of both open hearth and electric steel production in Europe. In addition, recent modification of the basic bessemer process, blowing with oxygenated blast, substantially raised the scrap capacity of these plants. Any further expansion of world steel production will necessitate utilization of self-containing processes in regard to scrap because of the shortage.

Jan 1, 1955