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By Charles A. Kumke

The ('slot" system of mining in use at the Golden Queen mine, Mojave, Calif., does not involve any new mining methods. It is, however, a new combination and adaptation of several stoping systems in common practice. The first plans for stoping operations at the Golden Queen mine called for ordinary shrinkage stopes. The hanging wall of the vein, where exposed, is a very hard felsite with a dip varying from 50° to 70°. The vein itself is quartz, shattered and fractured enough to make it easy to drill and blast to a clean hanging wall. There is no well defined footwall. The footwall limits had to be determined by assays as the metal content faded out into the felsite. Two shrinkage stopes, each approximately 200 ft. long, were laid out and started on the 200-ft. level. One of these stopes, varying in width from 8 to 18 ft., was carried on up to the top limits of the ore, approximately 120 ft., without a break in the operation. The shrinkage system proved entirely satisfactory and low costs resulted from this operation. In the final drawing of this stope, two timbermen followed down on the ore, scaling the hanging wall clean of small fragments and placing an occasional long stull from foot to hanging wall where it was deemed necessary. Few such stulls, however, were required. The hanging wall stood up very well until the stope was entirely emptied of ore. Waste fill was then put into the stope by the glory-hole method, through a waste raise that had previously been run to surface from the middle of the stope. The second shrinkage stope ran into difficulties about 35 ft. above the sill floor. Up to this point the maximum width of the ore had been about 15 ft. The ore suddenly widened into the footwall to a distance of 40 ft. in the north end of the stope. In extending the stoping operations over this, width, it was soon found that the vein material would not arch and support itself. Drilling in this end of the stope was then entirely too hazardous, and all operations were stopped. The ore was drawn through the chutes below as rapidly as possible and as soon as the stope was entirely

Jan 1, 1937

By Albert Sauveur

SOME writers believe that when austenite transforms completely into pearlite on slow cooling through the thermal critical range, such transformation does not imply the formation of any of the so-called transition constituents: martensite, troostite and sorbite. Might it not be claimed with as much justification that when water freezes it does so suddenly, solid ice being obtained without passing through the intermediate stages of ice and water? Obviously, regardless of the speed of solidification, this would be erroneous. Before reaching the completed solid condition, this must of necessity pass through an unbroken series of stages when the system consists of mixtures of water and of ice, the former decreasing and the latter increasing in amount. Are not these "transition" stages in the freezing of water similar to the transition stages occurring in the transformation of austenite into pearlite? To clarify, let us consider in Fig. 1 the mechanism of the transformation of eutectoid steel from its austenitic to its pearlitic condition as it cools slowly through its thermal critical range. It is generally admitted that this transformation is the result of two distinct phenomena: (1) the allotropic change of gamma iron into alpha iron and (2) the crystallizing out of solution of the carbide Fe3C. Whether this crystallizing of Fe3C implies also its formation is immaterial for our purpose. In other words, whether it is the carbon in atomic dispersion which is present in gamma iron or molecules of Fe3C has no bearing upon the matter to be discussed. The transformation of gamma iron into alpha iron cannot take place suddenly. It must of necessity be progressive, regardless of the speed with which it may take place. At A, for instance, there would be present AB gamma iron and BC alpha iron. The distance MN does not refer to falling temperature, but to the passage of time. It may be assumed that the transformation takes place at a constant temperature (the Ar321 point). In a similar way, the crystallization of Fe3C out of the austenite solid solution must be progressive as depicted between M and N. At A there would be present AB gamma iron, BC alpha iron, CD carbon dissolved in gamma and in alpha iron and DE Fe3C. This condition may be described according to individual preference as martensite or troostite. To sum up, can the metal pass from condition

Jan 1, 1931

By B. D. Cullity

Gold and beryllium form an intermediate phase composed of the two metals in equal atomic proportions and having the formula AuBe. According to Winkler,' this phase probably exists in two modifications: beta, stable below about 600°C, and alpha, stable between 600°C and the melting point, about 740°C. Only the low-temperature beta form will be considered in this paper. Experimental Procedure The gold used had a fineness of 999.75 to 999.85, balance mainly silver, and the beryllium purity was better than 99.8 pct. AuBe was prepared by melting the constituents in a beryllia crucible in an evacuated induction furnace. After melting and thorough mixing, the alloy was allowed to solidify in the crucible. No difficulty was encountered in obtaining a homogeneous ingot. Both chemical analysis and microscopic examination of the ingot showed that the alloy was essentially one phase, containing 50 at. pct gold. The alloy was quite brittle and powder samples could easily be prepared by grinding in an agate mortar. The X-ray diffraction patterns were made with CuK-alpha radiation in a Debye-Scherrer powder camera 57.3 mm in diameter. The film was placed unsym-metrically in the camera in order to afford a basis for film-shrinkage corrections. A sample homogenized at 500°C gave the same diffraction pattern as a sample taken from the as-melted ingot. General Results The diffraction pattern of AuBe was readily indexed on the basis of a simple cubic lattice with ao = 4.659 + 0.001kX. If the unit cell is assumed to contain four AuBe "molecules," the calculated X-ray density is 13.46 grams per cc as compared with the measured density of 13.55 gm per cc. The only missing reflections in the diffraction pattern are (100) and (220) (see Table I). Since these missing reflections are not those characteristic of body or face centering, the lattice of AuBe must be simple cubic. To locate the positions of the atoms within the unit cell, two possibilities had to be considered: I. The structure was disordered and there were eight positions to be filled by an LCaverage" gold-beryllium atom. That the structure was disordered seemed unlikely since the lattice parameter did not vary with composition in alloys containing sornewhat more and somewhat less than so at' pet gold, indicating a fixed composition for AuBe.

Jan 1, 1947

By Nathaniel Arbiter, A. F. Taggart

The chemical reaction occurring in collection of nonmetallic minerals with amine-type collectors was early postulated by students of flotation phenomena to be metathesis between the mineral and the collector, involving exchange between the amine-bearing (aminium) ion and the cation of the mineral, and formation at the mineral surface of an oriented film of the amine salt of the mineral anion. Qualitative evidence of exchange has been obtained on several occasions at Columbia. Thus 1000 C.C. of a solution containing 495 mg of laurylamine hydrochloride was shaken 17 min. with 100 grams of barite and ground in a porcelain mill to pass a 200-mesh screen; the mixture was then set aside for 48 hr. Filtrate therefrom analyzed 476 mg. per liter of laurylamine hydrochloride. There was no substantial loss of chloride ion (78.4 mg. per liter in the original; 74 in the filtrate). No successful analyses were concluded for barium ion. Earlier, confessedly rough work with scheelite indicated a solution gain in Ca++ equivalent to about one-half the aminium ion lost. Real quantitative roof of the exchange, in the form of an established stoichiometric balance, is unknown to the authors. The data of the present paper, however, obtained from experiments designed on the basis of the exchange hypothesis, constitute strong evidence of its truth, and at the same time point the way to economic utilization of the expensive nitrogen-bearing collectors in concentration of the low-priced nonmetallic minerals. The basic postulate underlying the experiments performed was that, if the collecting reaction is of the type R+ + Y- + MX = RX + M+ + Y- where R = aminium ion, Y = the anion of the amine salt, and M and X are, respectively, the cation and anion of the mineral, the reaction should obey qualitatively the implications of the mass-action and solubility-product laws. This is to say that coating and collection should be aided by the addition to the solution of either ion (R+ or X-) of the collector-coating compound, and hindered by the addition of either of the ions M+ or y-. Experimental work comprised determination of (,) the relative solubilities of the laurylammonium salts of a variety of nonmetallic-mineral anions; and (21 the contact angles' of various minerals in solutions containing different concentrations of the postulated controlling ions. Semiquantitative flotation tests were run With barite as checks on the diagnostic character of the contact angles. The amine

Jan 1, 1947

By G. H. Alvey, A. W. Foster

The measure of value of an oil property is approximated by the length of time it takes to "pay out;" viz., the time required for it to return the original investment. This time varies in different fields. In the Appalachian and Mid-Continent fields, a good investment pays out in about four years; in California, it requires a slightly longer time; and in the Gulf field about two years. The two principal methods for establishing these values are based on acreage, as in California, and on production, as in the Appalachian field. The method of establishing values based on production1 was worked out in the Appalachian fields and approximates the value remarkably well in some fields; but it is a rule of thumb and should be used intelligently. Briefly, the method is as follows: An arbitrary number of dollars (called the barrel-day price) multiplied by the number of barrels of settled daily production of the property gives the value. In its crudest application, the barrel-day price is determined by the "$10 to $0.01" rule, which means that the barrel-day price is one thousand times the prevailing price of oil. For instance, with oil at $3.50 per bbl. the barrel-day price would be $3500 per bbl. This rule, however, is not strictly applied, for the barrel price is varied according to whether or not the wells "hold up." But when a barrel price for a district has been fixed it is quite general to raise or lower the price with the fluctuation in the price of oil; here the"$10 to $0.0l"ruleisused extensively. However, the prospective purchaser takes into account tangible equipment upon the property, the extent to which the drilling program has been carried out, whether or not the wells are "shot" or natural, depth of wells, spacing of wells, paraffin trouble, etc. The basis of this method is settled production. As soon as production is considered settled, a flat barrel-day price is generally applied to all properties, no matter what their age. If it were possible to show that this flat rate was erroneous and that the value of the property depended on the point on the decline curve at which the wells happened to be (in other words, their age), and also on the operating costs, the future price

Jan 1, 1921

By Ralph H. Sweetser

AT the joint session of Blast Furnace and Open Hearth Committees, April 7, 1937, at Birmingham, the subject of the quality of basic open-hearth pig iron was so well presented and discussed from so many different viewpoints that it was the general opinion that progress had been made and that such meetings were conducive to the advancement of the art of making pig iron of the right quality for the open-hearth man to produce the most satisfactory quality of steel. It was agreed that there is a decided differentiation between the chemical analysis of pig iron and the "quality" of pig iron. Paul J. McKim said that open-hearth furnace operators frequently make reference to certain types of iron as "bad iron," "dirty iron," "cold metal," etc., claiming that when using these irons, although they are within specified chemical analysis, it is impossible to produce quality steel. Mr. McKim gave a list of the suggested causes of those "certain types" of bad irons that have a thoroughly respectable analysis but a thoroughly disreputable character. Another open-hearth man, P. A. MacIsaac, of Nova Scotia, said that The effects of iron that is below standard in analysis or in that mysterious property called quality, are well known to all open-hearth operators. It has been shown that iron of this type results in the production of steels on which the rejections of finished product run high. What is to be done about it? I would say that the burden of producing high-quality iron should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the blast furnace man, even as that of making good steel is shouldered by the open-hearth man. It is the purpose of this paper to bring out into the open this "mysterious property called quality"; that is, in those "certain types" of basic pig iron that make it impossible to produce quality steels; and at the same time to point the way for the blast-furnace man to be able to shoulder the burden that Mr. MacIsaac and all other open-hearth men and foundry-men have placed upon him. Silicon, sulphur, phosphorus and manganese are not the guilty elements because these are known, specified and usually kept within the

Jan 1, 1938

By J. Parke Channing

We are accustomed to think that we are efficient in the United States, particularly with respect to such things as mining and manufacturing. The conduct of the war has demanded in England and in France a complete readjustment of manufacturing methods and plans, and today England, is probably as efficient a country as there is in the world, not even excepting Germany. This is all the more remarkable because it has been notorious for years that England has been inefficient in her manufacturing and the country has been flooded with things "Made in Germany.'' Today England is almost a socialistic community and the State is doing almost everything. England is now in such a position that practically everyone in the country is engaged in industry necessary for the conduct of the war, and this has been accomplished by increasing the efficiency both of her tools and of her man power. In the United States we certainly have been efficient so far as machines and perhaps so far as methods have been concerned, but we have not been efficient in the utilization of our man power. Before the war, our labor was undoubtedly far more efficient than that of England, but it certainly was not so highly efficient as it should have been, and the problem that confronts us today, and will all the more confront us after the war, is to make our man power efficient. England has had a taste of what you may call State Socialism, and her laboring men are not going to be content to return to the old order of things. There is one feature of the labor problem in England which has permitted her to reach this condition of state socialism with comparative rapidity; this is that practically all of her laborers are English; she has little or no foreign population. While an Englishman may be a strong union man and ready to fight his employer tooth and nail, at heart he is still a British subject, and when his country was in danger he rose to the occasion. In the United States we have such an admixture of unassimilated foreigners that the problem is more difficult, and as yet we have not been brought to that point of stress which has arrived in England. But if

Jan 1, 1919

By Sherwin F. Kelly

The need for geophysicists to adopt a uniform mode of expressing the electrical resistivity of geological formations has been stressed by Dr. A. S. Eve.1 The present paper is to emphasize the point he raised, to bring the weight of disinterested authority to bear on the matter, and to urge the adoption henceforth, save in exceptional cases, of a standard expression for resistivity; all in the hope that the needed reform will thus actually be brought about. The general definition of the resistivity of a material is the resistance in ohms between two opposite faces of a unit cube of that material. No account need be taken here of the cases in which the unit volume is not a cube, and the units of length and cross-section are different, encountered principally when dealing with metallic conductors such as wires. The idea of the resistance of a unit volume of earth or rock has found expression in geophysical literature in a number of forms and with a variety of units. Fortunately, the metric system has been adhered to in most cases, so ordinarily the meter or the centimeter, usually the latter, has been the measure chosen. The resistivity is then the resistance of a cube of the given rock, or soil, one centimeter on an edge. This is far from always being the same thing, however, as the resistance of a cubic centimeter. A long thin wire could contain a cubic centimeter and have a high resistance, whereas the same volume formed into a flat plate would have an entirely different, and quite low, resistance between faces. Consequently, it is not proper to express resistivity in ohms per cubic centimeter, inch, etc., as has been done occasionally by some writers. In an effort to emphasize the idea of cubic volume, some geophysicists, the writer among them, have used the phrase, ohms per centimeter cubed. This is a graphic way of picturing the measure, but is not in favor among highly qualified authorities. In this connection, an appeal was made to the U. S. Bureau of Standards for advice, and the Director, George K. Burgess, kindly replied in detail as to the practice adopted by his Bureau: 'I.., such expressions as 'ohms per centimeter cubed' or any similar expressions are objectionable, because they certainly carry the implication that the resistivity is found by dividing ohms resistance by the volume in cubic centimeters." Actually, of course, resistivity is found

Jan 1, 1932

G. Sherburne Rogers (written discussion*).—Mr. Kennedy's discussion1 of Mr. Matteson's paper takes the form of a criticism of my own comments2 on this paper. Mr. Kennedy is a respected authority on matters pertaining to the salt-dome oil fields, and his characterization of my "elaborate figures" as "worthless" is sufficiently candid and comprehensive to warrant a brief reply. My 'voluminous figures" consisted simply of a rough estimate of the minimum quantity of salt in the Humble dome, and a, calculation of the volume of sea water and of the volume of saturated brine which this salt would represent. Mr. Kennedy apparently interprets my remarks as opposing the idea that so,large a volume of salt could have been deposited from sea water, for he cites the area and thickness of European salt beds; but nothing was further from my intention. Given an arm of the sea, an arid climate, and evaporation under a hot sun, it is easy to conceive the formation of almost any thickness of bedded salt. I cited the figures in connection with Harris' theory of the origin of salt domes, according to which the plugs were formed by the deposition of salt from ascending brine solutions, owing to the drop in temperature as they neared the surface. I pointed out the well known fact that the solubility of salt is only slightly affected by temperature, and that a drop of 80" C. would cause the deposition of less than one-tenth of the salt in solution; hence that more than ten times the volume of salt actually forming the plug must have been involved. If ten times the salt actually in sight be computed in terms of brine and multiplied by 50 or 60 to take into account all of the known salt domes, the resulting figure is so enormous that I am not at all so sure as Mr. Kennedy seems to be that the porous stratified rocks of eastern Texas and western Louisiana could contain or furnish so great a volume of migratory brine. Mr. Kennedy, however, does not dwell on drop in temperature as the cause of the precipitation, but contents himself with ascribing the whole process to lateral secretion. As I understand it, this implies that the connate waters and brines contained in the rocks migrated to the Gulf Coast region, and there deposited their salt at various loci of crystallization. Just what started the crystallization or what force caused the

Jan 1, 1918

By L. K. Welch, C.W. Macgregor

The past 20 years has seen a revolutionary change in the testing of materials at elevated temperatures. This has largely been brought about by the practical importance of the creep problem in the design of equipment for operation at high temperatures. The short-time tension test carried out at elevated temperatures has consequently assumed in many cases only a secondary role compared with the longtime creep test. In many problems, however, a knowledge of the short-time high-temperature properties of a metal is essential. To mention a few cases in which this is so, we might include all hot-forming operations such as rolling, forging, etc., the welding problem if residual stresses are to be computed, the development of new alloys for high-temperature service where, in the initial stages, time does not permit of long duration creep tests, and others. Usually a knowledge of the short-time properties is desired, if only to serve as a background against which to compare creep behavior. In conducting short-time high-temperature tests, it has been almost the universal practice to determine stresses based on the original area and strains referred to the original gauge length which is usually chosen as 2 in. It has been pointed out1,2 that one of the reasons that the true significance of certain tensile properties is not understood, which perhaps curtails their usefulness, especially when the material is applied under conditions differing considerably from the test conditions, is that true physical stresses and strains are not determined. It is essential to have a knowledge of true stresses and strains in order to correlate the values present in the tension test with those existing, for example, in hot metal-forming operations and in the general problem of the yielding and failure of metals under combined stress conditions. Stress and strain values based on the original dimensions of the test piece do not exist physically except in the early stages of the test. Since at the present time there is very little information in the literature on true stress-strain relations in the short-time high-temperature tension test it is proposed in the following pages to describe a

Jan 1, 1943

By L. K. Welch, C. W. MacGregor

The past 20 years has seen a revolutionary change in the testing of materials at elevated temperatures. This has largely been brought about by the practical importance of the creep problem in the design of equipment for operation at high temperatures. The short-time tension test carried out at elevated temperatures has consequently assumed in many cases only a secondary role compared with the longtime creep test. In many problems, however, a knowledge of the short-time high-temperature properties of a metal is essential. To mention a few cases in which this is so, we might include all hot-forming operations such as rolling, forging, etc., the welding problem if residual stresses are to be computed, the development of new alloys for high-temperature service where, in the initial stages, time does not permit of long duration creep tests, and others. Usually a knowledge of the short-time properties is desired, if only to serve as a background against which to compare creep behavior. In conducting short-time high-temperature tests, it has been almost the universal practice to determine stresses based on the original area and strains referred to the original gauge length which is usually chosen as 2 in. It has been pointed out1,2 that one of the reasons that the true significance of certain tensile properties is not understood, which perhaps curtails their usefulness, especially when the material is applied under conditions differing considerably from the test conditions, is that true physical stresses and strains are not determined. It is essential to have a knowledge of true stresses and strains in order to correlate the values present in the tension test with those existing, for example, in hot metal-forming operations and in the general problem of the yielding and failure of metals under combined stress conditions. Stress and strain values based on the original dimensions of the test piece do not exist physically except in the early stages of the test. Since at the present time there is very little information in the literature on true stress-strain relations in the short-time high-temperature tension test it is proposed in the following pages to describe a

Jan 1, 1943

The negative charges on diaphragms of quartz, tungstic oxides, stannic acid, acid dyestuffs, soaps, and glass have for a number of years been explained on the basis of chemical equilibria—a hydrogen ion or light metal ion passes into solution leaving the solid complex ion negatively charged. While there are a number of observations which indicate a proportionality between the ( potential and the streaming potential it should be recognized that all the experimental evidence thus far presented shows that if hydrogen ion concentration is kept at a constant value, electrokinetic phenomena are influenced by salts. The multivalent ions exert the greatest effect on the reduction of osmotic flow. In the interpretation of all electrokinetic data the assumption is made that the potential of the solid remains constant. That this is not true is evidenced by the values of [ potential for quartz in contact with conductivity water as reported by the several investigators and by the authors of this paper. It is apparent that the nonreproducibility of surfaces will always prevent the obtaining of exactly comparable data. At best the experimental technique described depends on a theory which is capable only of showing a trend—another quartz surface should exhibit similar but not identical potential curves. It seems entirely reasonable to assume that the negatively charged laurate ions should have little or no attraction for a negatively charged quartz surface. The weight of previous experience in selection of flotation activators points unerringly to the usefulness of the multivalent metallic ions. The primary reason why the divalent barium ion is not available to two negative charges on the quartz surface might easily be that of distance between such adjacent negative charges. Otherwise activation could not occur, and the quartz could not assume the remaining unit positive charge of the barium ion. For this case no electrical double layer theory seems necessary. Clearly this is, at the negatively charged quartz surface, a case of partial chemisorption of the cationically divalent barium ion followed by the anionic neutralization of the remaining cationic charge by the freely moving laurate ion. It is hoped that the authors will continue with this interesting technique and that their results will continue to indicate trendwise what is known about the

Jan 1, 1957

By Ralph H. Sweetser

At the joint session of Blast Furnace and Open Hearth Committees, April 7, 1937, at Birmingham, the subject of the quality of basic open-hearth pig iron was so well presented and discussed from so many different viewpoints that it was the general opinion that progress had been made and that such meetings were conducive to the advancement of the art of making pig iron of the right quality for the open-hearth man to produce the most satisfactory quality of steel. It was agreed that there is a decided differentiation between the chemical analysis of pig iron and the "quality" of pig iron. Paul J. McKim said that open-hearth furnace operators frequently make reference to certain types of iron as "bad iron," "dirty iron," "cold metal," etc., claiming that when using these irons, although they are within specified chemical analysis, it is impossible to produce quality steel. Mr. McKim gave a list of the suggested causes of those "certain types" of bad irons that have a thoroughly respectable analysis but a thoroughly disreputable character. Another open-hearth man, P. A. MacIsaac, of Nova Scotia, said that: The effects of iron that is below standard in analysis or in that mysterious property called quality, are well known to all open-hearth operators. It has been shown that iron of this type results in the production of steels on which the rcjections of finished product run high. What is to be done about it? I would say that the burden of producing high-quality iron should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the blastfurnace man, even as that of making good steel is shouldered by the open-hearth man. It is the purpose of this paper to bring out into the open this "mysterious property called quality"; that is, in those "certain types" of basic pig iron that make it impossible to produce quality steels; and at the same time to point the way for the blast-furnace man to be able to shoulder the burden that Mr. MacIsaac and all other open-hearth men and foundry-men have placed upon him. Silicon, sulphur, phosphorus and manganese are not the guilty elements because these are known, specified and usually kept within the

Jan 1, 1938

By Hugh Douglas

ANTIMONY Antimony (Sb) has been used since the early Egyptian dynasties. Prior to World War I, total demand amounted to only 6000 to 7000 tons per year (tpy). Wartime uses and rapid rise of industrialization in the Northern Hemisphere nations have pushed world antimony use to the 78,000-tpy level. An overwhelming supply of low-cost antimonial resources in the Sino-Russian bloc countries has and will continue to have a major impact on availability and price to users outside the bloc. Table 14.4.1 shows trends in world production, United States production and consumption, and prices. Demand Antimony is used principally as an alloy in lead-based metals and other alloys. Pure metallic antimony usage is small and is confined to such areas as laboratory and electronic applications. Lead-antimony alloys are used in automobile storage batteries, chemical pumps, and pipes, tank linings, roofing material, and cable sheaths. The metal increases the hardness of lead, and, for such uses as foundry printing type, reduces shrinkage for casting and lowers the melting point. Antimonial oxides are used for ceramic purposes, white paint pigments, glass forming, textile finishing, fire retardants in military clothing, matches, and solder. Wartime applications include use as hardener for bullets, an element for tracer bullets, and ingredient for producing dense white smoke for visual markers. A small but rapidly growing use for antimony is for metallic compounds in semiconductors and thermoelectric devices. In the United States demand for antimony is about evenly divided between metallic end-use markets and nonmetallic markets. In metallic end uses, antimonial lead accounts for 27% of total metallic and nonmetallic use; in nonmetallic areas major uses are flame retardants (15%) which is the fastest growing market, plastics (13 % ), and ceramics and glass (11%). While antimony has advantages in most of its applications, there are uses in which other materials can be substituted, including: mercury, titanium, lead, zinc, chromium, tin, and zirconium in paints and pigments; tin in sheathings; calcium in battery plates; and bismuth in type metal. Supply Antimony is produced from both antimony ores and as a byproduct of smelting other ores. The principal ore mineral is stibnite (Sb2S3), along with its oxidized antimonial minerals and derivatives which occur in small discontinuous replacement veins or fissure vein implacements. Stibnite occurs in quartz-gold veins and copper-lead-zinc

Jan 1, 1976

By Ralph H. Sweetser

At the joint session of Blast Furnace and Open Hearth Committees, April 7, 1937, at Birmingham, the subject of the quality of basic open-hearth pig iron was so well presented and discussed from so many different viewpoints that it was the general opinion that progress had been made and that such meetings were conducive to the advancement of the art of making pig iron of the right quality for the open-hearth man to produce the most satisfactory quality of steel. It was agreed that there is a decided differentiation between the chemical analysis of pig iron and the "quality" of pig iron. Paul J. McKim said that open-hearth furnace operators frequently make reference to certain types of iron as "bad iron," "dirty iron," "cold metal," etc., claiming that when using these irons, although they are within specified chemical analysis, it is impossible to produce quality steel. Mr. McKim gave a list of the suggested causes of those "certain types" of bad irons that have a thoroughly respectable analysis but a thoroughly disreputable character. Another open-hearth man, P. A. MacIsaac, of Nova Scotia, said that: The effects of iron that is below standard in analysis or in that mysterious property called quality, are well known to all open-hearth operators. It has been shown that iron of this type results in the production of steels on which the rcjections of finished product run high. What is to be done about it? I would say that the burden of producing high-quality iron should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the blastfurnace man, even as that of making good steel is shouldered by the open-hearth man. It is the purpose of this paper to bring out into the open this "mysterious property called quality"; that is, in those "certain types" of basic pig iron that make it impossible to produce quality steels; and at the same time to point the way for the blast-furnace man to be able to shoulder the burden that Mr. MacIsaac and all other open-hearth men and foundry-men have placed upon him. Silicon, sulphur, phosphorus and manganese are not the guilty elements because these are known, specified and usually kept within the

Jan 1, 1938

By W. F. Hergert, L. H. Banning

Experimental production of Al-Si alloys, containing from 33 to 55 pct Al, by direct reduction of aluminum silicates in a three-phase arc furnace is described. Advantages of a smelting technique utilizing hogged wood waste as part of the reductant and for temperature control are discussed. WORK on the problem of producing aluminum by smelting has been in progress since the middle of the eighteenth century. Early work met with little success and in 1782 Lavoisier, an eminent French chemist, expressed the belief that alumina could not be reduced by carbon. It was almost a century later when the Cowles brothers developed a process for the production of aluminum alloys by reducing alumina coincident with the reduction of other metal oxides. In practice, the other metal oxide was usually copper. In 1907 it was first shown that alumina alone could be reduced by carbon at a temperature of 2200°C. The metal produced was volatilized and lost or recombined with the oxides of carbon formed in the reaction.' For a number of years after the Cowles brothers abandoned production of Cu-A1 alloys because their product was not commercially competitive with the aluminum produced by the Hall process, there was little interest in thermal reduction processes. After World War I interest in such processes was renewed and a number of patents were issued on processes for the production of A1-Si alloys.' , "he function of the silicon in these processes was the same as the function of the copper in the Cowles brothers process, namely, to prevent the reduced aluminum from recombining with the oxides of carbon and to promote absorption of the aluminum vapors set free at the high temperature required for the reduction reaction. The advantage of using silicon in place of copper for this function is that silicon has a higher boiling point (2600"C) than copper (2310"C) and its oxides, combined with aluminum oxides, occur in nature in almost unlimited quantities. No A1-Si alloys have been produced commercially in the United States, as far as is known. However, considerable experimental smelting of aluminum silicate materials has been done by the TVA at Wilson Dam, Ala.' The most extensive development and commercialization of the electrothermal production of A1-Si alloys took place in Germany before and during World War II.V he furnaces used in the

Jan 1, 1956

By R. Dawson Hall

The stresses in the simplest structures are often those we find most difficult to analyze. The most complex condition in mine stresses is found in simple tunnels where the roof, the sides, and the floor are a monolith. The functions of the parts are like the parts themselves not distinct and spccialized, and the problems to be solved are like those in a metal structure with riveted joints or a redundancy of bars. This difficulty explains perhaps why the condition has not been treated. But just because it cannot be discussed in its entirety is no reason why it should be treated as an action of parts with spccialized functions as a roof beam with supports and a foundation. The problern cannot be ignored on the ground that it is not of sufficient importance to warrant careful consideration, because conditions of complete monolithism, of which the tunnel is the type, are found materially unchanged in room-and-pillar and in longwall work. This unity between roof, sides, and floor, which to the coal miner is a difficult conception, really deserves a scientific appellation, and perhaps holoid (from holos, whole, and eidos, form) will serve the purpose as well as any other. In a simple tunnel the roof, the sides, and the floor form integral parts of one and the same structure, and the distortion of one cannot be conceived without a consequent strain in the others. Thus when the roof of the tunnel droops by reason of its weight, the upper parts of the sides are drawn in becausc they are integrally connected with the roof and must approach each other whenever, by the sagging of the roof, the distance between any two points in it is diminished. (See Fig. 1.) Thc sides in their turn operate on the floor of the holoid structure, producing a tensile stress. The writer has always been impressed with the value of soap as a means of illustrating the action of mine stresses. With that idea in mind' a cake of naphtha soap measuring 43/8 by 2¼ by 19i in. was taken and a tunnel was made through it 13/4 in. long, 21/2 in. wide and 1¼ in. high. (See Fig. 2.) A load was then placed at the mid-span of the tunnel. Eventually, the upper bar, or "roof," broke at the

Jan 1, 1916

By O. C. Ralston

The use of copper sulfate for improving the flotation behavior of sphalerite is probably at least 15 years old. The original discovery of its activating influence is somewhat obscure. The story goes that in the mill at Mascot, Tenn., its favorable action was discovered by accident, early in 1914, as follows: The original laboratory test work on a sphalerite ore gave favorable flotation results, but after a mill had been built the flotation concentration of the ore was very unsatisfactory. In diagnosing the probable reasons, one fact pointed out was that the laboratory test machine had been constructed of bronze whereas the commercial machine allowed pulp to come in contact only with wood and iron. A plate of sheet copper was hung in the flotation machine and results immediately improved. At first fanciful explanations of electrolytic and electrostatic behavior were given credence, but when the copper plate was removed and a small amount of copper sulfate substituted in the pulp an even more favorable result was obtained. Toward the end of 1914 copper sulfate was also adopted in the acid flotation circuit of the Butte and Superior Copper Co. Just who is responsible for the original discovery the present writers do not know. It seems strange that in that era of flotation litigation this discovery was not patented. While for pragmatic purposes it [nay be sufficient to know that the mere addition of copper compounds to a flotation pulp is sufficient to activate the flotation of the sphalerite, for scientific purposes it is quite desirable to know more about how the action takes place. It is the purpose of this paper to present certain evidence dealing with the mechanism of the beneficial effect. The description of the effect as activation in contradistinction to depression is now common in both the English and German languages. It makes no assumptions as to whether the zinc sulfide surfaces have been filmed with copper compounds. In fact, the principal differences of opinion expressed in the literature deal with whether there is an actual formation of CuS (or even Cu2S) on the surface of the sphalerite. Activation of sphalerite takes place in alkaline, neutral or weakly acid solutions and whereas the present day flotation of sphalerite is usually in ah alkaline solution, the early use of copper sulfate was in a sulfate solution.

Jan 1, 1930

By W. H. Kantner

IN this paper, no attempt will be made to theorize on subsidence. Only known data and actual facts will be given, with a few exceptions noted where other factors and outside influences tend to change sub-sidence directly resulting from porphyry caving. The area under observation is known as the Southeast Extension of the East orebody. The orebody is irregular in outline and dips to the south and the east, extending in depth from about 425 ft. below the sur-face to 1050 ft. below the surface. In the upper horizon, the orebody is about 400 ft. long and 150 ft. wide. At 720 ft. below the surface, the ore outline is approximately 450 by 170 ft.; 70 ft. below this, it is 500 by 110 ft., with an extension at the north end to the east 270 by 120 ft. From this elevation to about 900 ft. below the surface, the ore spreads out to the east and south, being about 700 by 500 ft. between these vertical limits. Below this it pinches out and at 1060 ft. below the surface is only 100 by 100 ft. The nearest point of the orebody-which is on the northwest side-is 600 ft. southeast of the Sacramento shaft. The country rock is all porphyry. Fig. 1 is a vertical east-west section showing orebody and original surface. The surface over the orebody was fairly regular and in this area and adjacent to it were portions of the surface plant, roads, and the main plant railroad to the concentrator. Fig. 2 is a map of the surface over the porphyry area. Caving operations started in April, 1925, at the approximate top of the orebody. The first lift was on the 600-ft. level; the ore was extracted by means of the Morenci timbered slide method and was from 425 to 455 ft. below the surface over an area of about 22,000 sq. ft. This lift was finished in May, 1926. The second lift, on the 650-ft. level, was already in production by May, 1926, so extraction of ore was continuous. This lift was 48 ft. high and covered an area of about 30,000 sq. ft. The ore from this lift was extracted by means of a modified Morenci timbered slide method. This lift was finished in March, 1927. The direction

Jan 1, 1934

By J. B. Newsom

DURING July and August, 1931, the Bloomington Limestone Co.,. at Bloomington, Ind., ran a single wire saw on ledge No. 2 at Maple Hill quarry. The ledge was hard rock, much harder than the average Indiana limestone. It was opened at two ends for a depth of about 20 ft., leaving a 130-ft. section between. During the tests 21 cuts were made in this ledge, to an average depth of 10.42 ft., for a total effective cutting area 028,445 sq. ft. The actual area sawed was about 20 per cent higher, as we did not level down in the center, preferring to cut deeper on the ends. The various cuts were carefully, logged, and the results plotted. A study of these results is interesting, as it enables a forecast of probable future costs to be made, and also because it points out the limitations of wire saws, and the lines development should logically take. Some of the inferences to be drawn are discussed below. Best Length of Cut.-No. trouble was due to length of cut, except that we could not easily level down a long cut, and it is probable that longer cuts, say up to 200 f t., can be made. Obviously, longer cuts will result in a higher sawing rate, in square feet per hour if- they do not cause stoppages. Working Higher Ledges.-The cuts averaged 10.42 ft. high by 130 ft. long. A study of several logs indicated that during only about 15 per cent of the cutting time was the saw cutting to its full efficiency; that is, during about 85 per cent of the time the saw was bedding in at the ends and not cutting well in the center, or the ends were below the floor line and only part of the wire was doing effective cutting. This does not mean that the wire was cutting to only 15 per cent of its capacity, but it means that during about 85 per cent of the time part of the cutting was being wasted. If higher ledges had been worked, the wire would have cut to its full efficiency a large part of the time, as it would have had a greater distance; to saw after it had bedded in to the ledge before the ends went down below the floor level. The exact saving to be expected cannot be calcu-lated, but it would be large, if really high cuts were made.

Jan 1, 1932