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The first meeting of the Naval Consulting Board was held at the office of the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C., on Oct. 6, 1915. The Board organized by electing Thomas A. Edison, Chairman, Peter Cooper Hewitt, First Vice-Chairman, William L. Saunders, Second Vice-Chairman, and Thomas. Robins, Secretary. All of these officers are members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. The other members of the Board are given below, and those who are members of the Institute are marked with an asterisk: *W. R. WHITNEY MATTHEW B. SELLERS. L. H. BAEKELAND. HUDSON MAXIM. FRANK JULIAN SPRAGUE. HOWARD T. COFFIN. BENJAMIN C. LAMME. ANDREW J. RIKER. R. S. WOODWARD. HENRY A. WISE WOOD ARTHUR GORDON WEBSTER. ELMER A. SPERRY. A. M. HUNT. *BENJAMIN B. THAYER. ALFRED CRAVEN. *J. W. RICHARDS. *SPENCER MILLER. *LAWRENCE ADDICKS. WILLIAM LE Roy EMMETT.

Jan 12, 1915

By H. O. Hofman

At the Lake Superior meeting, September, 1904, Messrs. A. Gibb and R. C. Philp presented a paper entitled " The Constitution of Mattes Produced in Copper-Smelting,"' in which they concluded that ferrous and cuprous sulphides formed the chemical compound, 5 Cu2S, FeS. They arrived at this inference from the observed fact that a matte containing Cu,S, 90.4, and FcS, 9.6 per cent. (or, in round figures, Cu2S, 90, and FeS, 10 per cent.), did not contain any metallic copper, while one with more than 10 per cent. of FeS readily dissolved copper, and with less than this amount retained copper in mechanical suspension. Although they determined the melting-points of five mattes containing from 32.6 to 80.1 per cent. of copper, they did not draw a freezing-point curve, as the necessary apparatus was not available. A microscopical examination of 11 polished samples gave them a grayish-black field of very uniform appearance, except that five of the specimens showed the presence of metallic copper. The object of the present investigation was to supplement the above paper by drawing the freezing-point curve of the ferrous sulphide-cuprous sulphide series, and to see how the constitution could be further revealed by microscopical work. The results obtained lead to conclusions very different from those of Gibb and Philp. While their paper bears the date 1904, it was published only in 1906.2 In the meantime, Bolles3 had presented his paper, " The Concentration of Gold and Silver in Iron-Bottoms." The raw material which formed the basis of the research was a matte containing Fe, 61.68, and Cu, 11.20

Jan 1, 1908

1876, PROF. RICHARD AKERMAN Stockholm, Sweden. 1913. DR. FRANK DAWSON ADAMS Montreal, Canada. 1909. PROP. RICHARD BECK Freiberg, Germany. 1905. ANDREW CARNEGIE New York, N. Y. 1906. DR. JAMES DOUGLAS New York, N. Y. 1888. PROF. HATON DE LA GOUPILLIERE Paris, France. 1966. SIR ROBERT A. HADFIELD London, England. 1888. PROF. HANS HOEFER Leoben, Austria. 1917. HERBERT C. HOOVER San Francisco, Cal. 1915.. JAMES FURMAN KEMP NEW York, N. Y. 1905. PROF. HENRI LOUIS LE CHATELIER Paris, France. 1913. EZEQUIEL ORDONEZ Mexico City, Mexico. 1909. ALEXANDRE POURCEL Paris, France. 1911. DR. ROSSITER W. RAYMOND New York, N. Y. 1911. PROF. ROBERT H. RICHARDS Boston, Mass. 1909. DR. ING. H. C. EMIL SCHROEDTER Dusseldorf, Germany., 1906. JOHN E. STEAD Middlesbrough, England. 1902. PROF. DIMITRY CONSTANTIN TSCHERNOFF Petrograd, Russia. 1910. PROF. TSUNASHIRO WADA Tokyo, Japan. 1907. CHARLES D. WALCOTT Washington, D. C.

Jan 1, 1917

By Kenneth Seaver

It is rather gratifying that in the field of the manufacture of refractories, in which, as a whole, foreign practice has surpassed us, the United States stands pre-eminent in the making of silica brick. In some instances European manufacturers have refused point-blank to credit the possibility of making to such specifications as are Common with us, until the actual completed shapes were shipped for inspection. But both the manufacturer and consumer in foreign lands are now frankly learning from us, and benefiting by our advanced practice in this field, as is evidenced by the orders placed here and the efforts put forth abroad to come up to the standard of American-made material. In no metallurgical operation has the employment of silica brick spread with such leaps and bounds as in the building of plants for the carbonization of coal, particularly in the byproduct coke oven. Today, in practically all types of oven, the structure above the floor level (except the facings) is of silica, while in the recuperative and in some regenerative types, its use is extended to that portion of the oven below the floor as well. By reason of the fact that there are a number of classes of refractories of higher silica content than the usual so-called fire-clay brick, there is sometimes a misunderstanding as to the class of material referred to as "silica" brick. We here refer only to a brick having a silica content of 94 per cent. or more and made usually from quartzite rock with a small percentage of lime as a binder. The term "silica" brick is sometimes rather loosely applied to brick from highly siliceous clays, or to a quartzite refractory of mingled fire-clay and quartz rock; but such products are not considered in this discussion. : Materials The rock from which practically all high-grade silica brick are made is a true quartzite or metamorphosed sandstone, variously known as

Jan 1, 1916

By Laurence Delisle, Arron Finger

The alloys formed by the addition of nickel to iron by conventional metallurgical procedures show physical properties that differ widely from those of the individual metals. The effect of alloying on the mechanical properties is most pronounced in alloys containing between 15 and 25 per cent nickel. The tensile strength of an alloy containing, for example, 20 per cent nickel and 80 per cent iron (with 0.06 per cent carbon), in an annealed condition, is above 150,000 lb. per sq. in.$ owing to a martensitic type of transformation, as compared with about 50,000 lb. per sq. in. for pure iron in the same condition. The object of this work was to determine whether the same beneficial alloying effect coulcl be obtained in alloys of iron and nickel prepared by powder metallurgy technique. Procedure Bars and pellets for tension and compression tests, respectively, were made. Two groups of specimens were prepared: (I) by cold-pressing the powders and sintering; (2) by cold-pressing the powders, sintering, repressing and resintering. Raw Materials Nickel powder supplied by Metals Disintegrating Co., marked MD-151, was used. A typical analysis of this powder was as follows: sulphur, 0.040 per cent; copper, 0.18; iron, 0.23; manganese, 0.002; magnesium, o.oo15; lead, 0.035; tin> 0.025; silicon, 0.08; chromium, 0.008. Electrolytic iron powder supplied by Plastic Metals Inc. was used. A repre-sentative chemical analysis for impurities other than gases, supplied by the vendor, gave the following results: carbon, 0.005 per cent; manganese, 0.002; silicon, 0.003; phosphorus, 0.001; sulphur, 0.004; nickel, 0.008. The fractions from these powders passing a 325-mesh sieve were reduced in hydrogen at 600°C. for one hour, to clean the sur-faces of the particles. The reduced pow-ders, slightly caked, were ground in a mortar and screened again through a 325-mesh sieve. Mixing The proper proportions of the powders were mixed overnight on rolls, in glass jars fitted with iron-wire baffles to break aggregates of particles that might form. Pressing All specimens were compacted on hy-draulic presses. The pellets were com-pacted in a cylindrical die, 34-in. diameter. The ratio of thickness to the diameter of the pellets was maintained as nearly as possible at 0.9, as specified for standard short compression pieces. The tensile bars were made by compacting 30 grams of powder. Their shape is shown in Fig. I. The compacting pressures for the pellets and the tensile bars were:

Jan 1, 1946

By Arron Finger, Laurence Delisle

The alloys formed by the addition of nickel to iron by conventional metallurgical procedures show physical properties that differ widely from those of the individual metals. The effect of alloying on the mechanical properties is most pronounced in alloys containing between 15 and 25 per cent nickel. The tensile strength of an alloy containing, for example, 20 per cent nickel and 80 per cent iron (with 0.06 per cent carbon), in an annealed condition, is above 150,000 lb. per sq. in.$ owing to a martensitic type of transformation, as compared with about 50,000 lb. per sq. in. for pure iron in the same condition. The object of this work was to determine whether the same beneficial alloying effect coulcl be obtained in alloys of iron and nickel prepared by powder metallurgy technique. Procedure Bars and pellets for tension and compression tests, respectively, were made. Two groups of specimens were prepared: (I) by cold-pressing the powders and sintering; (2) by cold-pressing the powders, sintering, repressing and resintering. Raw Materials Nickel powder supplied by Metals Disintegrating Co., marked MD-151, was used. A typical analysis of this powder was as follows: sulphur, 0.040 per cent; copper, 0.18; iron, 0.23; manganese, 0.002; magnesium, o.oo15; lead, 0.035; tin> 0.025; silicon, 0.08; chromium, 0.008. Electrolytic iron powder supplied by Plastic Metals Inc. was used. A repre-sentative chemical analysis for impurities other than gases, supplied by the vendor, gave the following results: carbon, 0.005 per cent; manganese, 0.002; silicon, 0.003; phosphorus, 0.001; sulphur, 0.004; nickel, 0.008. The fractions from these powders passing a 325-mesh sieve were reduced in hydrogen at 600°C. for one hour, to clean the sur-faces of the particles. The reduced pow-ders, slightly caked, were ground in a mortar and screened again through a 325-mesh sieve. Mixing The proper proportions of the powders were mixed overnight on rolls, in glass jars fitted with iron-wire baffles to break aggregates of particles that might form. Pressing All specimens were compacted on hy-draulic presses. The pellets were com-pacted in a cylindrical die, 34-in. diameter. The ratio of thickness to the diameter of the pellets was maintained as nearly as possible at 0.9, as specified for standard short compression pieces. The tensile bars were made by compacting 30 grams of powder. Their shape is shown in Fig. I. The compacting pressures for the pellets and the tensile bars were:

Jan 1, 1946

The personnel of the. Naval Advisory, Board on Inventions, of which Thomas A. Edison is to, be Chairmen, has- been announced. by' Secretary of the Navy Daniels, as follows: W. R. WHITNEY L: H. BAEKELAND American Chemical Society. FRANK JULIAN SPRAGUE, American Institute of Electrical Engineers. B. G. LAMME ROBERT SIMPSON WOODWARD ARTHUR GORDON WEBSTER American Mathematical Society. ANDREW MURRAY HUNT American Society of Civil -Engineers. ALFRED CRAVEN MATTHEW BACON SELLERS American Aeronautical Society. -HUDSON MAXIM PETER COOPER HEWITT Inventors' Guild. THOMAS ROBINS . HOWARD COFFIN ANDREW L. RIKER J American Society of Automobile Engineers. WILLIAM. LAWRENCE SAUNDERS American Institute of Mining BENJAMIN BOWDITCH THAYER Engineers. ? JOSEPH WILLIAM RICHARDS American Electrochemical Society. LAWRENCE ADDICKS WILLIAM LE. Roy EMMET American Society of Mechanical Engineers. SPENCER MILLER HENRY ALEXANDER WISE WOOD American Society of Aeronautic ¬ELMER AMBROSE SPERRY Engineers. ?

Jan 10, 1915

By C. H. Lieb

ONE astounding fact in the production of petroleum is the comparatively recent realization by producers that flowing production is the cheapest crude produced. About 1910 or even later, operators actually endeavored to get a producing well to pumping as quickly as possible after completion. A well was not really considered to be completed until it was operating on the pump. Remarkable progress has been made since then. It was not until about 1920 that producers began to take a serious interest in pressures and to think a little about proper methods of handling oil wells. Pressure gauges were installed, and records of pressures maintained, which was quite an innovation. Desultory experiments were made with tubing of different sizes, as well as experiments with placing the bottom of the tubing string at different levels in the well. Probably the first important departure from customary procedure was about 1926, during the Seminole development, when gas lift

Jan 1, 1936

By William Wraith

At the Washoe smelter, Anaconda, Mont., the blister-copper from the converters is transferred, by means of a crane, to a re-fining-furnace, in which it is brought to proper pitch by means of air and poles. From this furnace the refined copper, containing gold and silver, is poured into cast-iron molds placed on a platform-convejor, giving an anode 36.75 in. long, 35 in. wide, and 2 1/16 in. thick. By reason of a disagreement between the smelter and the refinery, in reference to the silver-content of the anodes, it becanle necessary to investigate the methods of sampling used. 11. SMelter Method of SampliNg. At the smelter the sampling is done by " shotting " into water a small portion of the molten stream of copper as it flows from the furnace, by " batting " the stream'with a wooden paddle. The first sample is taken 30 min. after the pouring i.: started, three other samples being taken at 1-hr. interrals, each sample Weighing from 4 to 6 oz. The samples are dried, esamined for particles of burnt wood, screened on a 10-mesh screen of NO. 8 wire to remove the fines, the oversize then screened on a 4-mesh screen of No. 20 wire to remore the coarse, the undersize of this screen being taken as the sample. The four portions thus obtained are thoroughly mixed and split in half by passing over a 16-slot splitting-device, slots being 0.5 in. wide. One-half of the sample is sent to the laboratory for analysis and one-half kept as a duplicate. 111. Refinery Method of Sampling. The method used at the refinery and also used in this in1-estiyation is the one developed by Dr. Edmarcl Keller, of

Jan 1, 1911

By Henry Newton

It may seem somewhat a work of supererogation to present to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, composed largely of gentlemen with whom the subject is so familiar, a paper on iron ores and their distribution. To many of them, however, it possibly will not be without interest, as there may be some, like myself, who hare nowhere found a connected account of the character of the deposits and the circumstances upon which are founded the great iron-producing centres of the world. This blank I have endeavored to fill,

By Henry Newton

IT may seem somewhat a work of supererogation to present to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, composed largely of gentle- men with whom the subject is so familiar, a paper on iron ores and their distribution. To many of them, however, it possibly will not be without interest, as there may be some, like myself, who hare nowhere found a connected account of the character of the deposits and the circumstances upon which are founded the great iron-producing centres of the world. This blank I have endeavored to fill,

Jan 1, 1875

By H. K. Work, H. B. Emerick

IN the past year the steel industry underwent an abrupt conversion from a war tempo to a highly competitive peacetime schedule. It is still too early to gain a comprehensive picture as to which of the measures in production metallurgy, that made the war effort so successful, will remain in the postwar production of steel, but many of them undoubtedly will fill an important place after the war. Considerable speculation has developed regarding the disposition of the war-born production facilities of the steel industry. These include new open-hearth and electric furnaces, as well as vast numbers of auxiliary, supplementary, and balancing units that increased and speeded up production beyond the normal capacities of existing melting furnaces and finishing mills. Although these facilities were installed primarily to help meet war requirements, consideration was also given, in planning, to their possible peacetime use. The new equipment is generally modern and efficient, and it seems reasonable to suppose that strategically located units will gradually be absorbed by various steel companies to supplement their own facilities, or to replace in kind, obsolete and inefficient equipment now ready to be scrapped. Some, however,

Jan 1, 1946

By E. A. Gulbransen, K. F. Andrew

Weight loss measurements were made using a sensitive microbalance operating in a high vacuum system. The Langmuir equation was used to Calculate the vapor pressures of the several metals and alloys. Aluminum lowered the vapor pressure of i9,on in a 5.4 Al-94.6 Fe alloy, and of iron and chromium in a 4.8 Al-21.5 Cr-73.7 Fe alloy. The influence of oxide films formed on the alloys on the effective vapor pressures of the alloys was also studied. These studies were used to aid in the inte9,pretation of the high temperature oxidation of alloys based on iron, chromium, and aluminum. RECENT studies on the oxidation of chromium1 and the heat resistant alloy 5 Al-22 Cr-73 Fe showed transitions in the rate of oxidation at 900o and 1050oC respectively. The transition for chromium occurred at a temperature where the rate of evaporation of chromium from oxide-free surfaces equalled the rate of chromium atoms reacting with oxygen. This paper presents new vapor pressure studies on iron, chromium, and the specially prepared alloys 5.4 Al-94.6 Fe, 21.9 Cr-78.1 Fe, and 4.8 Al-21.5 Cr-73.7 Fe. The ternary alloy is similar in basic composition to the patented heat-resistant commercial alloy known as Kanthal. The binary alloys were studied to show the individual effects of aluminum on the vapor pressure of iron and of iron on the vapor pressure of chromium. The purpose of the proposed studies was to test the influence of metal volatility on the oxidation behavior of heat-resistant alloys based on iron, chromium, and aluminum. Since oxide films formed on the metal may limit metal transfer to the surface, the influence of oxide films on metal volatility was also studied. LITERATURE A) Vapor Pressure. The vapor pressure of iron has been studied by Jones, Langmuir, and Mackay,' Dornte and Nrton. Edwards. Johnston. and Ditmar. and McCabe, Hudson, and Paton. Stull and SinkeT have calculated a heat of sublimation at 298° K of 99.83 kcalper g atom. The vapor pressure of chromium has been reported by Bauer and Brunner,' Speiser, Johnston, and Blakburn, Gulbransen and Andrew,'' Vintaikin,o McCabe, Hudson, and Paton, and Kubaschewski and Heymer.12 Good agreement was obtained except for the early work of Bauer and Brunner.' Stull and Sinke7 calculate a heat of sublimation at 298°K of 95.0 kcal per g atom. Vapor pressure measurements on aluminum have been made by Brewer and Searcy,13 Bauer and Brunner,aand Farkas.I4 Stull and Sinke,7 giving Brewer and Seary's' data the most weight, derive a heat of sublimation of 77.5 kcal per g atom at 298 oK. B) Method. Two methods15 are used for measuring the vapor pressure of metals: 1) The Langhuir free evaporation method, and 2) the Knudsen effusion method, In the Langmuir method, used in the present work, the vapor pressure of the metal P is given by the equation: Here M is the molecular weight of the vapor species. T is the absolute temperature. (dw/dt) is the rate of sublimation in g per sq cm per sec and a is the condensation coefficient. a is a measure of the efficiency of condensation of molecules striking the metal surface from the vapor. If condensation results from each collision a is unity. This coefficient has been found to be unity,a, le for metals. These results establish the general validity of the Langmuir free evaporation method as applied to metals. EXPERIMENTAL A) Vacuum Microbalance Method. A modification of the Langmuir free evaporation method was used. Strip specimens were suspended from a sensitive microbalance operating inside of a high vacuum system. For alloys, microbalance methods17 must be used on large area samples at relatively low temperatures to minimize composition changes. The

Jan 1, 1962

By R. H. Frazier, J. M. Hodge, F. W. Boulger

This paper reports the results of studies of the impact properties of quenched and tempered alloy-steel plates as a function of sulfur content. It was found that the impact energy levels decreased continuously as the sulfur content increased and that there was a straight-line relationship between impact energy and sulfur content when plotted on logarithmic coordinates. Cross rolling raised the level of these Lines for transverse tests and lowered the level for logitudinal tests proportionately to the amount of cross rolling. ALTHOUGH it has been generally recognized that, for applications in which notch toughness is critical, the sulfur content of the steels used should be held to a low value, quantitative information on the effect of sulfur on notch toughness has not been available. For such applications, it is a common practice to specify minimum impact values, and in order that these may be met consistently it is important that the steel producer know quantitatively the effect of sulfur on notch toughness so that realistic sulfur content limits can be applied to the steels they produce. In many instances, particularly in flat-rolled products, impact properties are specified in the direction transverse to the principal rolling direction, so that the factors affecting the anisotropy or directionality of impact properties are also of concern to the steel producer. For some applications, furthermore, it is a common practice to increase the sulfur content of steels in order to improve their machinability, and, in such instances, the effect of this practice on notch toughness may often be of concern. This paper reports on an investigation, carried out at Battelle Memorial Institute, designed to furnish this quantitative information on the effect of sulfur on notch toughness and also to furnish further information on the factors affecting the anisotropy of impact properties in wrought heat-treated alloy steels. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The experimental steels were of intended base analysis: 0.30 pct C, 0.80 pct Mn, 0.25 pct Si, 2.5 pct Ni, 0.80 pct Cr, and 0.45 pct Mo. Steels were made with sulfur contents varying from 0.005 to 0.179 pct. The steels were prepared from 600-lb induction-furnace melts. Steels containing 0.020 pct or more sulfur (at meltdown) were melted from a charge of ingot iron (except for one heat): lower-sulfur steels were made from electrolytic iron. The charge consisted of ingot or electrolytic iron, ferrosilicon to give 0.10 pct Si, and ferromanganese to give 0.05 pct Mn. At meltdown, electrolytic nickel, ferromolybdenum, iron phosphide, and pyrite were added followed in sequence by ferrochromium, sili-comanganese, ferrosilicon, and ferromanganese. The slag was then removed and graphite added to give the desired carbon content. Bath temperature was adjusted to 2850°F and, when no other additions were to follow, 2 lb per ton of aluminum was added, immediately before tapping. Compositions of the experimental steels appear in Table I. Analyses are from single determinations, except sulfur which was analyzed in duplicate. A test sample (3 in. in diam by 6 in. long) and a 575-1b ingot were poured from each heat. The test sample was poured in a sand mold; the cooling rates of the test sample and the large ingot were approximately the same. Chemical analysis chips and metal lographic specimens were taken from the test samples. The ingot was 8 in. sq at the base and 9 in. sq at the top. A 5 X 5 X 6-in. sand mold hot top was completely filled in teeming the ingot. After solidification, the mold was stripped from the ingot which cooled to room temperature. Ingots were reheated to 2250"F and rolled to 1.9-in. slabs on a commercial mill. The slabs were box-cooled to room temperature. Sections of the 1.9-in. slabs were heated to 2250°F and rolled on a Battelle laboratory mill according to one of three schedules: 1) rolled straightaway to 0.5-in. plate; 2) rolled straightaway to 1.3-in. thickness, then cross rolled to 0.5-in. plate (29 pct cross rolling); or 3) cross rolled from 1.9-in. to 0.5-in.-thick plate (46 pct cross rolling). The 0.5-in.-straight- or cross-rolled plates were normalized at 1700°F for 1 hr and then water quenched from 1600°F. Plates were then tempered 2 hr at 1240°, 1170°, 1080°, or 860°F to obtain Rockwell C hardness of 25, 30, 35, and 40, respectively. Tempering was followed by quenching to room temperature to avoid temper embrittlement. Slack-quenched plates were isothermally transformed for 26 min at 800°F, quenched, and tempered 2 hr at 1170°F. Pearlitic microstructures were obtained by holding 168 hr at 1200° F, followed by quenching. Charpy V-notch specimens were taken both transverse and longitudinal to the main rolling direction, notched perpendicular to the plate surface, and tested. Slabs and plates which were to be homogenized

Jan 1, 1960

Jan 1, 1952

By Arthur Notman

THE raw material men in all industries, and copper is no exception, are accustomed to think of them- selves as the whole show, and not without justice, for if there were no copper mines the world would have no copper. Nevertheless, many different things costing money and resulting in profits must be done to their product before it is ready for the world's use. In other words, they are making the frequent mistake of Chinking in terms of partial costs. Nobody really uses electrolytic copper. Possibly that is why nobody seems willing to pay anything for it. The manufacturers, being canny, do not buy any more electrolytic than they feel that they can work up and sell profitably, although they like to make the raw material men Chink that they will take all that can be produced. This is a state of affairs that has aroused my sympathy and curiosity, and has induced me to study the financial history of the copper wire and brass industry of the country or such portion of it as publishes any records readily available to the curious minded. About 60 per cent of the electrolytic copper used in this country is drawn into wire and consumed by the electrical industries. The remaining 40 per cent is

Jan 1, 1926

By Samuel H. Dolbear

NOT WITHSTANDING the extremely low ebb of business activity, the nonmetallic industries have fared somewhat better than some other branches of mining. The average price level in nonmetallics, although far from satisfactory, has resisted any cataclysmic fall such as has been suffered by copper and other metals. Stocks, also, though too abundant, represent no corresponding overhang of the market, which should result, in some branches, in a more rapid recovery. Research work has continued in some industries with interesting developments.

Jan 1, 1933

By C. H. Benedict

Largest and most important of the milling plants under construction during the year is the Morenci plant of the Phelps Dodge Corp., in Arizona, where plans are being rushed for production in 1942. Grate mills will be used for fine-grinding, and in the pilot plant, classifiers of the spiral type have the preference for the closed- circuit work. The flotation units will be chiefly of the pneumatic type, with some mechanical units as auxiliaries. The Fagergren, Pan American, and Agitair machines were left in the competition as the year closed. If the absence of European markets for finished products has dislocated the mining industry, fortunately the lack of raw materials required in the beneficiation of ores has not been serious. except possibly as to the inability to import flint grinding pebbles. Some of the less important gold mines still use pebbles for grinding as is also the practice in the comminution of nonmetallics used in various industries. T the Calumet & Hecla in the Lake A Superior copper district pebbles have been used exclusively in open- circuit grinding in the Hardinge mills treating the

Jan 1, 1941

By Bunting S. Crocker

EBBLE grinding at Lake Shore is not a temporary BlE wartime substitute. The tube milling plant, with a 1000 ton per day capacity, grinds a hard siliceous ore to 90 pct — 325 mesh. The plant, prior to using pebbles, was consuming 4.3 lb of 11/4-in. grinding balls per ton of ore, which amounted to 785 tons of balls per year. At September 1951 prices, $132.60 per ton, this steel cost amounted to $104,400 per year, or $0.285 per ton milled. By the Lake Shore method of substituting screened rock for this steel, all of this cost is saved. This is one of the major economies in Lake Shore mill practice. Regardless of the ultimate price of grinding balls, a change back to steel balls is not considered. The present pebble plant is more flexible than a steel ball plant and equally efficient. For example, if it is desired to change the size of grinding media, the pebble charge in any mill can be changed completely in 4 to 5 days, as against 76 days to change completely a 1-in. steel ball charge. To change pebble size it is necessary only to change two sets of screens and clean out the rock feed storage bin. This will take 8 to 10 days as against 3 to 4 months to clean out the customary supply of grinding balls kept on hand. Also it has not always been possible to purchase all desired sizes of balls at any price. In an analysis of savings effected by the use of the pebble mills, the flexibility of the Lake Shore grinding plant should be discussed, as it has a direct bearing on these savings. The plant has always used several units to handle tonnage rather than sending all the tonnage through a single unit. This principle may result in using small diameter mills, but no objection to that is seen. At no time has any advantage been found in cost per ton ground in large diameter mills. Both the capacity and the power of any mill varies as the diameter raised to the 2.6th power. Consequently large or small mills are equally efficient, and a plant, should be designed to use as many units or combination of units as is consistent with reasonable operating practice. Mills under 5 ft diam are harder to reline, etc. To define the case at Lake Shore, 2600 tons per day formerly were milled in seven 7x6-ft ball mills and twelve 5x16-ft (and two 6x16-ft) tube mills.* This gave an excellent test plant and an extremely efficient one. In this plant the ratio of ball mills to tube mills was 1:2. When the much cheaper pebble mills were substituted for the tube mills, this ratio was changed to one ball mill to four pebble mills to take the greatest possible advantage of the cheaper operating mill, i.e., the pebble mill. This flexibility without loss in efficiency has been an important item in the cost savings. It is interesting to note that the use of pebbles for fine grinding was proved first in the laboratory in a 12-in. ball mill. In fact, since 1934 all testing on — 8 mesh material has been done in this 12-in. mill. Scope of the Tests A paper on fine grinding at Lake Shore Mines was published in July 1940.' This paper covered 7 years of intensive research on fine grinding as well as sizing methods and equipment, plant scale grinding tests on 5x16-ft tube mills with and without grate discharges both with 1-in. and -in. balls, the use of laboratory mills to evaluate plant changes, and several reports on classifiers and classification. In the following July the addendum report2 was added in which the idea of series-circuit grinding was introduced, and the results of running five stages of tube mills and bowl classifiers were shown. Since 1940, the ball milling end of the plant has been altered extensively as a result of tests on the use of 3-in. rods in 7x6-ft mills and the use of the Tyler repulping screen with from 7 to 14 mesh screens. These tests are lengthy and may be covered in a separate report later. The scope of this report is confined to ore ground by rod milling and ball milling until it passed through an 8 mesh Tyler Ty-rod screen. The —8 mesh screen undersize then was pumped to a primary bowl classifier in open circuit and the sands from the bowl sent to the primary pebble mills, see Fig. 1. In the pebble mill circuit the ore is ground to 90 pct —325 mesh (24 pct + 28 microns). In studying the flowsheet, attention should be paid to the efficiency of the classification equipment used. The Tyler repulping screen is an efficient machine on the 8 to 10 mesh separation, and the bowl classifier is equally efficient at the 325 mesh separation. Efficient classification is a necessity for series-circuit stage grinding. The ore is hard siliceous porphyry, 60 pct SiO,, 80 pct insoluble. Its grindability at different meshes has been shown near the top of the list in F. C. Bond's grindability tests.' Lake Shore is not shown, but an adjacent mine with identical ore, Wright-Hargreaves, is. Reasons for the Changeover Since 1936 grinding balls have been rising steadily in price with no sign of stopping. For a mill that used 4.5 to 5.2 lb of grinding balls for every ton of ore ground this rise represented an alarming increase in grinding costs. In many cases the quality of the grinding balls fell off as the scrap steel became more difficult to obtain. The ratio of tube mills to ball mills increased with the use of the Tyler repulping screen in the ball mill circuit. Originally only 3.0 lb of balls per ton were used in the tube mills, and this

Jan 1, 1953

By Bunting S. Crocker

EBBLE grinding at Lake Shore is not a temporary BlE wartime substitute. The tube milling plant, with a 1000 ton per day capacity, grinds a hard siliceous ore to 90 pct — 325 mesh. The plant, prior to using pebbles, was consuming 4.3 lb of 11/4-in. grinding balls per ton of ore, which amounted to 785 tons of balls per year. At September 1951 prices, $132.60 per ton, this steel cost amounted to $104,400 per year, or $0.285 per ton milled. By the Lake Shore method of substituting screened rock for this steel, all of this cost is saved. This is one of the major economies in Lake Shore mill practice. Regardless of the ultimate price of grinding balls, a change back to steel balls is not considered. The present pebble plant is more flexible than a steel ball plant and equally efficient. For example, if it is desired to change the size of grinding media, the pebble charge in any mill can be changed completely in 4 to 5 days, as against 76 days to change completely a 1-in. steel ball charge. To change pebble size it is necessary only to change two sets of screens and clean out the rock feed storage bin. This will take 8 to 10 days as against 3 to 4 months to clean out the customary supply of grinding balls kept on hand. Also it has not always been possible to purchase all desired sizes of balls at any price. In an analysis of savings effected by the use of the pebble mills, the flexibility of the Lake Shore grinding plant should be discussed, as it has a direct bearing on these savings. The plant has always used several units to handle tonnage rather than sending all the tonnage through a single unit. This principle may result in using small diameter mills, but no objection to that is seen. At no time has any advantage been found in cost per ton ground in large diameter mills. Both the capacity and the power of any mill varies as the diameter raised to the 2.6th power. Consequently large or small mills are equally efficient, and a plant, should be designed to use as many units or combination of units as is consistent with reasonable operating practice. Mills under 5 ft diam are harder to reline, etc. To define the case at Lake Shore, 2600 tons per day formerly were milled in seven 7x6-ft ball mills and twelve 5x16-ft (and two 6x16-ft) tube mills.* This gave an excellent test plant and an extremely efficient one. In this plant the ratio of ball mills to tube mills was 1:2. When the much cheaper pebble mills were substituted for the tube mills, this ratio was changed to one ball mill to four pebble mills to take the greatest possible advantage of the cheaper operating mill, i.e., the pebble mill. This flexibility without loss in efficiency has been an important item in the cost savings. It is interesting to note that the use of pebbles for fine grinding was proved first in the laboratory in a 12-in. ball mill. In fact, since 1934 all testing on — 8 mesh material has been done in this 12-in. mill. Scope of the Tests A paper on fine grinding at Lake Shore Mines was published in July 1940.' This paper covered 7 years of intensive research on fine grinding as well as sizing methods and equipment, plant scale grinding tests on 5x16-ft tube mills with and without grate discharges both with 1-in. and -in. balls, the use of laboratory mills to evaluate plant changes, and several reports on classifiers and classification. In the following July the addendum report2 was added in which the idea of series-circuit grinding was introduced, and the results of running five stages of tube mills and bowl classifiers were shown. Since 1940, the ball milling end of the plant has been altered extensively as a result of tests on the use of 3-in. rods in 7x6-ft mills and the use of the Tyler repulping screen with from 7 to 14 mesh screens. These tests are lengthy and may be covered in a separate report later. The scope of this report is confined to ore ground by rod milling and ball milling until it passed through an 8 mesh Tyler Ty-rod screen. The —8 mesh screen undersize then was pumped to a primary bowl classifier in open circuit and the sands from the bowl sent to the primary pebble mills, see Fig. 1. In the pebble mill circuit the ore is ground to 90 pct —325 mesh (24 pct + 28 microns). In studying the flowsheet, attention should be paid to the efficiency of the classification equipment used. The Tyler repulping screen is an efficient machine on the 8 to 10 mesh separation, and the bowl classifier is equally efficient at the 325 mesh separation. Efficient classification is a necessity for series-circuit stage grinding. The ore is hard siliceous porphyry, 60 pct SiO,, 80 pct insoluble. Its grindability at different meshes has been shown near the top of the list in F. C. Bond's grindability tests.' Lake Shore is not shown, but an adjacent mine with identical ore, Wright-Hargreaves, is. Reasons for the Changeover Since 1936 grinding balls have been rising steadily in price with no sign of stopping. For a mill that used 4.5 to 5.2 lb of grinding balls for every ton of ore ground this rise represented an alarming increase in grinding costs. In many cases the quality of the grinding balls fell off as the scrap steel became more difficult to obtain. The ratio of tube mills to ball mills increased with the use of the Tyler repulping screen in the ball mill circuit. Originally only 3.0 lb of balls per ton were used in the tube mills, and this

Jan 1, 1953