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By George W. Maynard

IN the course of an examination of some of the California hydraulie mines in November last, I visited the property of the Gold Run Ditch and Mining Company, near Dutch Flat, Placer County. This is one of the most important and extensively worked mines in the district. The gold occurs in the characteristic blue gravel, which averages 175 feet in thickness, the lower 40-60 feet being made tip of cement gravel, which resists the action of water, and can only be loosened by blasting. The specimen which I have the pleasure of laying before the members was presented to me by Mr. I. L. Gould, the intelligent superintendent of the mines, who informs me that he found it in the old river channel, about twelve feet above the bedrock. The flattened water-worn nugget of gold, about the size of a kidney-bean, is imbedded in blue cement gravel, around which quartz has crystallized. When found the projecting portion of the nugget was enveloped in quartz, the core of gravel and gold having only been discovered after breaking the lump of quartz. On the quartz there is a shell of cement. The specimen is a remarkable confirmation of the theory of the deposition of quartz from solution. DISCUSSION. DR. T. STERRY HUNT, in commenting upon this occurrence, remarked that it is in accordance with what we already know of the recency of some of the quartz of this region, and cited the microscopic

Jan 1, 1880

By Alden Greninger

METALLURGISTS have long believed that martensite in steel forms as plates along the octahedral {111} planes of austenite. Much has been written about mechanisms whereby units of the austenite lattice are pictured as transforming to martensite by shearing movements initiated along the octahedral planes of austenite, supposedly resulting in plates of martensite lying parallel to these planes of shear. A critical inspection of two or three photomicrographs of quenched hypereutectoid steel led us to the conclusion that the orientation habit of martensite, at least in hypereutectoid austenite, could not possibly be octahedral. Inasmuch as recent studies30,31 of the martensite-type reaction in nonferrous alloy systems have established the irrational orientation habit as characteristic of this type of lattice transformation, the need for a thorough restudy of the crystallography of martensite formation in steel was evident. The present paper reports the results of such a study, extended to include both cementite and some of the products of constant-temperature decomposition of austenite. Also reported are a few of the results obtained from a microscopic and X-ray study of the austempering process in very high-carbon steel.

Jan 1, 1940

By Samuel Thomas

The specimen of anthracite coal which I hold in my hand, insignificant as it may appear to the casual observer, speaks volumes to me and to the initiated, as it suggests and represents the entire evolution of the use of anthracite coal in the manufacture of pig-iron, the growth and development of which it is my purpose to review here to-day. During our recent visit to the Mountain Copper Co.'s works at Keswiek, I picked up this piece of coal from a pile of anthracite lying in the yard, asked Mr. Edwards, the manager, a countryman of mine, where it came from, and, to my surprise and delight, discovered that it had been brought all the way from Wales, and had come out of the identical vein which my father opened near Yniscedwin, about eighty years ago. I had no idea, before this incident, of contributing to the already full and complete programme of the day; but, being requested by our distinguished President and Secretary to do so, I consented to relate here the story which this remarkable find naturally brought back to my mind.

Jan 1, 1900

Under date of Sept. 30, the following open letter was addressed to the Members of the Colorado Section of the American Institute of Min-ing and Metallurgical Engineers by a Colorado Committee: At a meeting of the Colorado Section of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, held on Friday, Sept. 19, a reso-lution was unanimously passed condemning the Engineers' Licensing Bill passed at the last session of the State Legislature, and requesting the Chairman to appoint a Committee to act in conjunction with the other National Engineering Societies and the Colorado Metal Mining Associa-tion, with a view to securing its repeal at the extra session of the Legis-lature which the Governor has expressed his intention of calling. It may be within your knowledge that the bill in question was passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor without the knowledge of any of the National Societies, and of few if any of their members. Under its provisions residents of other states cannot even come into this to examine a mine without securing a license, and aliens (among whom are many honored members of, the profession in Colorado) cannot obtain such a license at all. The mining industry in this state needs the coopera-tion of outside engineers, and we should welcome any assistance from them that will tend to develop our resources. To attempt to discourage the activity of visiting engineers will inevitably react on us, and brand the state as being hostile to brains and capital from outside. The difficulty of securing a license will prove a serious handicap to young engineers starting out in the independent practice of their profession. Moreover, a license issued to au engineer qualified in one branch will entitle him to practice in any other: so that the license is apt to mislead the public.

Jan 11, 1919

The entire War Minerals Relief Commission heard the case of the Chas. T. Pyrites & Chemical Company of Georgia on April 15 and 16. The Commission insisted on great detail with regard to the entire enterprise, although the main questions seemed to be of the amount involved. It is considered by the Commission that this claim comes unquestionably under the Act, it is one of the best examples that has been brought to the attention of the Government thus far. Testimony showed that operations were done on the property late in 1916 without request from the Government. Preparations were made to work the pyrites deposit on a comparatively small scale but , following a visit from a representative of the Secretary of Interior and a personal interview of the principal owner of the property and Secretary Lane, operations on a much larger scale were begun. The amounts expended prior to this interview were carefully separated from the expenditures thereafter. Testimony showed that it was the intention of the owners to transport their product by motor truck to the railroad-13 mi. away. This limited shipments to about 50 tons daily. Under the enlarged plan taken against the better business judgment of the owners, a railroad spur at a cost f nearly $200,000 was built to the mine. The operation included a concentrating mill with a capacity f 600 tons daily and an expensive dam to make possible the use of waterpower. With these improvements, the company was just beginning, operation under its enlarged program when the armistice was signed. This resulted in a greatly decreased demand and consequently lower prices, with all prospects indicating that the property could not operate profitably when Spanish pyrites begin to move.

Jan 6, 1919

By C. W. Purington, H. B. C. Nitze

The Kotchkar mining-district, known as the Kotchkar System, is situated in the Orenburg government, in Eastern Russia, in the great plateau- or steppe-country immediately adjacent to the eastern slopes of the Ural mountains. Its longer dimension is north and south about 27 miles, while in the widest (northern) portion the distance across is 22 miles. The district lies 40 miles southwest of Miass, a station of the Trans-Siberian railway, and half-way between this village and that of Troitsk. It contains also the not inconsiderable settlements of Kotchkar and Eosobrodskoit., the last a Kossak town. So far as explored, the district is known to contain from 300 to 400 auriferous veins. ? Although the topography is generally of an exceedingly flat character, the country is traversed by several small rivulets running from west to east, and flowing into the Sanarka and Kamenka rivers. Since 1844 placers have been worked in the district, but it was not until 1867 that veins were discovered, and these have been worked only since the impoverishment of the alluvial deposits. The deposit with which this paper especially deals is known as the Ouspensky mine, one of twelve owned by MM. de Zelenkoff & Cie., five of which are situated in the Kotchkar System. An opportunity of visiting this mine was afforded the writers, in eonnection with an excursion of the VII. session of the International Geological Congress; held in Russia during the summer of 1897. The mine is reached by a 40-mile '(troika" journey from the railway station of Bichkil, itself

Jan 1, 1899

By J. F. Blandy

IN October last, I was call upon to examine a copper deposit in the South Mountain, near the Pennsylvania and Maryland boundary. The specimens shown me contained oxides and carbonates with native copper, and were similar to some that had been described to me some years ago as existing at the Luray Gap in Virginia. An examination of Rogers's Report on the Geology of Pennsylvania, led me to expect to see his so-called "Primal Formation," such as exists throughout the southeastern district of the State. I was therefore much surprised on arriving at the summit of the Western Maryland Railroad to find myself on familiar ground. Instead of the "Primal" as I had known it in Southeastern Pennsylvania, I soon decided that the rocks were identical with the "Lake Superior Copper Formation." My visit was unfortunately a short one, part of two days, and in that time I had to pass over a good many miles, but I saw sufficient to convince me that instead of the Lake Superior Copper Formation being a local geological feature, it would have to be considered as a widely extended series of rocks. I was unable to even approximately estimate the thickness either of the trap zone or other members, schists and slates, of the series. In an article on the Copper Range of Michigan, prepared by C. P. Williams and myself in 1862, and published, in vol. xxxiv of the American Journal of Arts and Sciences, we endeavored to divide that range into zones, according to the character of the traps. The limited nature of the explorations at that time made this work very imperfect. Subsequent explorations have confirmed my notes then

Jan 1, 1879

By J. F. Blandy

In October last, I was call upon to examine a copper deposit in the South Mountain, near the Pennsylvania and Maryland boundary. The specimens shown me contained oxides and carbonates with native copper, and were similar to some that had been described to me some years ago as existing at the Luray Gap in Virginia. An examination of Rogers's Report on the Geology of Pennsylvania, led me to expect to see his so-called "Primal Formation," such as exists throughout the southeastern district of the State. I was therefore much surprised on arriving at the summit of the Western Maryland Railroad to find myself on familiar ground. Instead of the "Primal" as I had known it in Southeastern Pennsylvania, I soon decided that the rocks were identical with the ('Lake Superior Copper Formation." My visit was unfortunately a short one, —part of two days, and in that time I had to pass over a good many miles,—but I saw sufficient to convince me that instead of the Lake Superior Copper Formation being a local geological feature, it would have to be considered as a widely extended series of rocks. I was unable to even approximately estimate the thickness either of the trap zone or other members, schists and slates, of the series. In an article on the Copper 'Range of Michigan, prepared by C. P. Williams and myself in 1862, and published. in vol. xxxiv of the American Journal of Arts and Sciences, we endeavored to divide that range into zones, according to the character of the traps. The limited nature of the explorations at that time made this work very imperfect. Subsequent explorations have confirmed my notes then

Jan 1, 1879

By T. Egleston

THE works of the Ore Knob Copper Company are situated in the county of Ashe in the northwestern part of the State of North Carolina, about ten miles from the Virginia line, at an elevation of 4600 feet above the sea. The nearest railroad station is at Marion, Smythe County, Virginia, about forty-five miles distant. The roads from the railroad to the works have been constructed by the company for the transportation of their material, and are very hilly, and in certain seasons of the year in bad repair. Transportation is therefore always limited and never easy, although it is done by contract at a very low price. The main difficulty with the transportation is not so much its cost as the fact that it puts a limit to the production of the works. These unfavorable conditions make it necessary for the owners of the mine to smelt their ores and to send to market nothing except the metal, which alone will bear the cost of transportation. The mine was opened previous to 1860, but has only been worked systematically during the last five or six years. The vein is a fissure vein from ten to twenty feet in thickness in the gneiss of the

Jan 1, 1882

By T. Egleston

The works of the Ore Knob Copper Company are situated in the county of Ashe in the northwestern part of the State of North Carolina, about ten miles from the Virginia line, at an elevation of 4600 feet above the sea. The nearest railroad station is at Marion, Smythe County, Virginia, about forty-five miles distant. The roads from the railroad to the works have been constructed by the company for the transportation of their material, and are very hilly, and in certain seasons of the year in bad repair. Transportation is therefore always limited and never easy, although it is done by contract at a very low price. The main difficulty with the transportation is not so much its cost as the fact that it puts a limit to the production of the works. These unfavorable conditions make it necessary for the owners of the mine to smelt their ores and to send to market nothing except the metal, which alone will bear the cost of transportation. The mine was opened previous to 1860, but has only been worked systematically during the last five or six years. The vein is a fissure vein from ten to twenty feet in thickness in the gneiss of the

Jan 1, 1882

Horace F. Lunt, York, Montana* :—Two years ago I visited the region described by Mr. Jennings and assisted in the examination of a somewhat similar group of deposits in the White Mesa sandstone on the Navajo Indian Reservation, 125 miles north of Flagstaff and 50 miles east of the Kaibab plateau. There, the Triassic red sandstone is less than 200 ft. thick, and is overlain by a stratum from 200 to 250 ft. thick of white sandstone, which gives the name of " White Mesa" to that locality. The white sandstone shows all phases of crossbedding in great complexity, and evidently marks a period of oscillation and subsidence of the water, or an elevation of the land, at the close of a geological epoch. The prevailing color is white or gray, but occasionally it is red. In structure, it is composed of well-worn grains of quartzsand, from which most of the cementing material has been leached out, leaving it soft and friable. Possibly the cement was ferruginous, as is indicated by occasional traces of red color. The copper-deposits consist of a replacement of the cement of one particular cross-bedded stratum of the sandstone by chrysocolla, having also at times various quantities of tenorite in grains or masses. Some specimens of the ore contain as much as 32 per cent. of copper. Generally the copper-deposits are a few hundred cubic feet in size, and no strict line of demarcation is shown between them and the surrounding sandstone, the bluish-green color of the chrysocolla gradually fading into the white of the sandstone. The ore is apparently associated with small vertical crevices or fissures. Some of the deposits show a distinct vein-structure, while others do not. The origin of the ore is not very clear. Undoubtedly the solutions, coursing through the crevices noted above, played a prominent part in its deposition, as possibly

Jan 1, 1904

Briefly, an open stope is one in which the ore is taken out and no filling is put in; the only support for the walls may be posts or pillars of ore. Such a method is limited to orebodies with strong walls and ore strong enough to stand unsupported over the back of the stope. Details vary and depend on the dip of the vein, mode of breaking ground, method of handling broken ore, and so forth. The examples given are the Beat-son, Birmingham district, Mineville district, and Cornucopia.

Jan 1, 1925

By Henry G. Granger

DURING upwards of three thonsand miles of canoc-travel in South America, including several mishaps, the writer has unfortunately lost his book of notes taken during the year 1894 in Dutch Guyana, or Surinam. But a year spent in a foreign country, visiting its principal mining properties, is necessarily productive of indelible memories and impressions, and some of these may be of interest to the Institute. The Guyanas include British, or Demerara, Dutch, or Surinam, French, or Cayenne, and the Disputed Territory, or that portion of Brazil on the northeast coast of South America. After passing the picturesque mountainous coasts of Colombia and Venezuela, one reaches a low, flat mud-bank which extends far out into the sea, so that from the steamer, over a couple of leagues of turbid, shallow water, one call just see the dismal outline of the pestilential "bush" that fronts the Caribbean sea, clear around to the mouth of the Amazon. Here, iii the order mentioned above, are the Guyanas. So much has been said about this out-of-the-way section during the late excitement over the Venezuela boundary question, that the historical part of the subject may be advantageously condensed. Gold-mining in the Guyanas is altogether placer-mining, and is of the same general nature throughout; hence by describing the methods in use in Surinam and the results there achieved, ail idea will be given of the work throughout the field. The product of this section is about three to four millions of dollars annually, mostly from Demerara, not because of superior richness of its placers, but as a result of its very much larger population, which exceeds twice the aggregate census returns of both Surinam and Cayenne. Mining ill all this section is of comparatively recent date, and is indirectly due to the decline of the sugar-industry. After the introduction of beet-sugar scores

Jan 1, 1897

By John L. Lamont, Walter Crafts

SECONDARY hardening in tempering has long been recognized as a typical characteristic of steels containing large amounts of carbide-forming alloys. These steels, when quenched and tempered, tend to soften somewhat after tempering at low temperatures, and to reharden at intermediate tempering temperatures before finally softening to low hardness. This behavior in tempering has been studied by many investigators, chiefly with respect to the secondary hardening of high-speed steels. The initial softening has usually been ascribed to decomposition of martensite and growth of iron carbide particles. The secondary hardening has been explained by formation of fresh martensite from residual austenite, formation of very fine alloy carbide particles and by precipitation hardening of metallic compounds in the ferritic matrix. However, factors derived for the calculation of tempered hardness in low-alloy steels1 indicated only a tendency toward retarded softening rather than a discontinuous rehardening. A study was, therefore, made to determine whether fresh martensite from residual austenite and precipitation hardening are essential to rehardening and the degree to which tempered martensite could be rehardened by precipitation of alloy carbides. The mechanism of carbide rehardening was also investigated to determine the nature of the process. The causes of secondary hardening in high-speed steel have received serious consideration for about thirty years. Among the earlier workers Bain and Jeffries2 in 1923 recognized residual austenite as a significant factor, but in addition, emphasized the effect of the formation of alloy carbide particles of "critical" size. They conceived that freshly quenched martensite forms low-alloy iron carbide at low tempering temperatures; with further tempering the iron carbide is then modified by alloying elements that can diffuse most readily at intermediate temperatures (850°F); and that the iron carbides grow in size by coalescence so that the steel tends to lose hardness. At higher tempering temperatures carbide stability rather than alloy availability becomes the controlling influence and in high-speed steel "iron-tungsten carbide is the most stable one and forms to the elimination of the earlier formed carbides. . . . The iron-tungsten carbide particles reach approximately the size for critical dispersion after a short reheat at 1100°F." This concept, the formation of alloy carbide nuclei, redissolving of the iron carbide, and diffusion of carbon to the alloy carbide, was restated for vanadium steel in 1932 by Houdremont, Bennek, and Schrader.3 Subsequent studies have confirmed that iron carbide changes to alloy carbide at 1000 to 1100°F, but the mechanism of the process has received little consideration .

Jan 1, 1948

By Henry M. Howe

The death of Sir Lowthian Bell removes almost the last of the group of heroic leaders who made their age and ours the Age of Steel—a group which his luster and the luster of his peers, Bessemer, Siemens and Tunner, made one of the most brilliant, perhaps even the most brilliant, in the annals of induetry. Born on February 15th, 1816, in Newcastle-on-Tyne, he was the eldest son of Thomas Bell, an alderman of Newcastle, and of his wife Catherine Lowthian of Newbiggin, near Carlisle, in Cumberland, and was christened Isaac Lowthian, the name of his maternal grandfather. His father was born about 1788, and came in 1808 from Newbiggin to Newcastle, where he entered the office of the Cumbrian firm of Losh & Company, manufacturers of alkali and wrought-iron, at the Walker Iron and Alkali Works, at Walker, near Newcastle. Young Isaac Lowthian Bell was educated at Dr. Bruce's school in Newcastle, whence he went to Germany and Denmark, learning there German and Danish. On his return he studied at Edinburgh University, and then at the Sorbonne in Paris. As a student he already showed the remarkable character and application which later gained him such distinction. After studying the manufacture of alkali near Marseilles, he returned, and when about twenty years old (A.D. 1836) was employed in his father's firm, then called Losh, Wilson, & Bell. After spending a year in their Newcastle offices, and after visiting the important iron-making districts of France, Germany, Poland, and Austria, he took charge of their rolling-mills at. Walker, and profited so well by his opportunities, and especially by the teachings of his father and of Mr. John Vaughan (later one of the founders of the great firm of Bolckow, Vaughan & Co.), that he was made manager of the Walker works in or about

Jan 1, 1906

By Robert T. Ault

The nature of fracture in unnotched tensile and notched tensile sheet and round specimens and V -notched and precracked Charpy-type sheet specimens of both wrought stress -relieved and re-crystallized molybdenum was investigated over the temperature range of -78° to 300°C. The sharp rise in fracture stress, for unnotched tensile samples, as the temperature is increased above the brittleness transition temperature (Tb), is found to be a result of an increase in flow stress due to plastic constraint and an increased strain rate which results from the onset of necking at Tb . Quasi-brittle fracture in notched tensile samples is found to occur when the tensile stress at the elastic-plastic interface, beneath the root of the notch, reaches a maximum critical value, which is independent of test temperature over the range from —78° to 25°C, but dependent on microstructure. In the temperature range between 150° and 300°C, unnotched tensile and notched tensile samples alike are found to fracture by a ductile fibrous tearing process which is discontinuous in nature, as a result of the competition between the processes of tearing, through continued plastic flow, and local work hardening. Results from the V-notched and fatigue-cracked Charpy-type impact tests demonstrate that crack initiation is the governing factor in the low-temperature (-78° to 25°C) fracture process for molybdenum. In recent years, there has been considerable interest, and a commensurate number of investigations, concerning the duc tile-to-brittle transition in refractory metals. There has not developed, however, a satisfactory explanation for the uniaxial tensile fracture-stress transition which accompanies the well-known ductility transition. This matter therefore warranted investigation. In a similar manner, the increased importance of notched tensile strength values in evaluating materials and in design criteria requires a better understanding of the factors which control the fracture behavior of notched tensile samples. In a previous investigation1 of the nature of initial yielding and fracture in notched sheet molybdenum at room temperature, it was suggested that plastic constraint was the controlling factor in governing the fracture behavior of notched samples. The final portion of this investigation was concerned with the fracture toughness of molybdenum. Of particular interest was the comparison of effective surface energies for fracture in V-notched samples with fatigue-cracked, Charpy-type samples in order to ascertain the relative importance of the initiation and propagation phases of the fracture process. MATERIALS AND TEST PROCEDURE Sheet tensile, notched tensile, and V-notched Charpy specimens were prepared from 50-mil, stress-relieved molybdenum sheet.* Half of these specimens were vacuum-annealed for 1 hr at 1200°C and 7.5 x l0-5 Torr and furnace-cooled to produce a relatively uniform grain size of 0.30 mm diameter. Round notched and unnotched tensile specimens were prepared from warm-rolled and swaged 5/8-in.-diam bar.* These specimens were vacuum-annealed for 1 hr at 1350°C and 5 x lom5 Torr and furnace-cooled to produce a grain diameter of 0.11 mm. Material analyses in ppm were: C N O H Sheet 290 10 4 1 Bar 50 30 30 2 The unnotched tensile sheet specimens had a 1/4-in. gage width and a 1-in. gage length. The unnotched tensile round specimens had a 9/32-in. gage diameter and a 1-1/4-in. gage length. The sheet and round notch tensile specimens are shown in Fig. 1. All of the notched tensile specimens tested were tandem-notched in order to study the location and mode of fracture initiation. The tandem-notched specimens were carefully machined so that the largest variation in notch depth on a single specimen was 0.001 in. Thus, when fracture occurs, the extent of plastic deformation that exists in the un-fractured notch section is that which exists just prior to fracture. All of the tandem-notched sheet specimens were electrolytic ally polished and chemically etched prior to testing. The V-notched Charpy-type specimens machined from the 50-mil sheet material had the standard dimensions of 2.125 in. long, 0.394 in. deep, and a 0.010-in. root radius. The unnotched tensile and notched tensile tests were conducted over the temperature range of -78° to 300°C, in a 10,000-lb Instron Universal Testing Machine, at a constant crosshead speed of 0.020 in. per min. The V-notched Charpy-type

Jan 1, 1964

Edward Halse, Puerto Berrio, Colombia, So. Amer. (communication to the Secretary*): The Taviche mining-district is generally known as " Taviches," being named from the two villages called respectively San Pedro Taviche and San Jero-nimo Taviche. It is so called by Jose G. Aguilera, in his paper on the Geographical and Geological Distribution of the Mineral Deposits of Mexico;' and in published reports by the late N. W. Rudston Read ;2 and by Juan de Dios Villarello3 The region is a large one, measuring about 24 miles long and 7 miles wide. Dr. Chance, in his interesting paper, tells us very little about the nature of the ores, and, with regard to the geology of the district, contents himself with observing that " the country, as a rule, consists of eruptive rocks; and no evidences of sedimentary strata appear near the mines." The latter part of the above statement is hardly correct. The formation is mainly

Jan 1, 1906

By C. M. Weld

In the course of my professional work in China during the fall of 1907, I had an opportunity to visit the iron-ore mines at Ta-yeh in Hu-pei province (long. 114O 50t E., lat. 30' 20t N.). It occurs to me that a rescript and discussion of my notes taken at that time should be of interest, particularly as supplementing the exceedingly interesting recent paper of Thomas T. Read on The Mineral Production and Resources of China.' Ta-yeh is situated near the right bank of the Yangtze river. The mines are at an average distance of about 16 miles from the river-port Shi-hui-yao, which in turn is some 70 miles SE. of Hankom. The ores are shipped to the works of the Han-Yeh-P'ing Iron & Coal Co. at Hanyang, as also very largely to the Japanese government iron- and steel-works at Wakamatsu, Japan. Smaller qnantities have been exported to the Pacific coast of the United States. These ore-deposits have been briefly noticed in a number of publications, but, so far as I know, Mr. Read's description, in his chapter or1 the iron-ores of the Chinese Empire,2 contains the first attempt to define their geological character. In his more recent paper Mr. Read follows very closely the text of his earlier description. To quote briefly from the recent paper, he says : " The iron-ores at Ta-yeh .... lie along the contact between a marble and an intrusive body of a dark-gray syenitic rock." He refers to a figure which exhibits in plan, but not in section, the relative positions of the syenite, ore-bodies, and limestone. The contact is seen to trend approximately E-W., with the syenite on the north and the limestone on the south. " The syenite lies to the north of the marble, and a few miles farther north the marble again appears, iron-ore again being present along the contact." No litho-

Jan 1, 1913

By R. W. Armstrong, D. H. Feisel

Self-diffusion in pure crystalline solids has been described through extension of the Cohen and Tum-hull volume -fluctuation model originally proposed for diffusion in simple liquids. It is shown, for a number of crystalline solids, that the self-diffusion coefficient, D, obeys the relationship where a is the lattice spacing, v the Debye frequency, Z' the lattice-volume fluctuation per atom required for a diffusion jump, and (?V/Vo) the relative increase in the lattice volume resulting from thermal expansion between O°K and the temperature under consideration. The calculated value of Z' is dependent upon the difiusion mechanism and the lattice geometry. ThE need for an increased understanding of mass-transport processes in crystalline solids has resulted in much research to determine rates of self-diffusion.' For several metals (e.g., copper, silver, and iron), the experimental values of the self-diffusion coefficient, D, have been determined over a large interval of temperature and the accuracy of D has been investigated through repeated experiments. Also, a number of empirical and theoretical diffusion studies have established a rational basis for understanding the D values for the different elements.2"6 The empirical diffusion analysis by Sherby and simnad6 supplied the main stimulus for the present study. Sherby and Simnad, reviewing the self-diffusion data for a substantial number of pure crystalline solids, suggested that sufficient data were available to establish with some certainty the apparent intrinsic material properties which influence D. Without explicit regard for any mechanism of diffusion, these investigators obtained an empirical relationship for D which correlated the self- diffusion coefficient for each element with the melting temperature, crystal structure, and valence of the particular element. Their analysis is only unsatisfactory in that the effect on D of crystal structure is not very clear and the valence to be assigned to an element is not always straightforward. The present study is an attempt, from a very different viewpoint from that of Sherby and Simnad, to establish a basis for understanding the self-diffusion coefficients for crystalline solids. This analysis was undertaken for the purpose of developing a general expression for D which would explicitly depend on the mechanism of diffusion. The main result of the study is that diffusion in crystalline solids may be described in terms of a volume-fluctuation model which was originally proposed by Cohen and Turnbull7 to describe diffusion in simple liquids. The model appears to be useful for predicting self-diffusion coefficients in crystals. The following sections describe the volume-fluctuation model for diffusion, the application of this model to crystals, and the resultant agreement with experimental data. 1) THE VOLUME-FLUCTUATION MODEL FOR DIFFUSION Cohen and Turnbull7'8 developed their model for liquid self-diffusivity for the purpose of describing certain properties of liquids, glasses, and the liquid-glass transition. A hard-sphere model for the liquid structure is used. In this model, the size of a spherical molecule or atom is fixed for all temperatures by the interatomic spacing at the absolute zero of temperature. At any temperature above O°K, the atom is viewed as being contained within a larger spherical cage defined by the interatomic spacing of the atoms at that temperature. A random distribution of varying cage sizes is assumed to exist in the liquid. An individual diffusion jump occurs when the free volume of an atom (the volume of the cage containing the atom minus the volume of the atom) is large enough for the atom to jump out of its cage. With this physical picture of diffusion in liquids, Cohen and Turnbull derive the following equation for self-diffusivity: D=Doe-yv*/vf [1] where Do is the product of three factors which are the diffusion-path geometry, the diffusion-jump distance, and the velocity of the diffusing atom, v*

Jan 1, 1964

By Carle Hayward

SULPHUR has long been one of the banes of the steel manufacturer and often no effort and expense have been spared in order to reduce it to a small per cent. in the finished product. This condition is clue to a general conviction that in many cases where steels have failed in service, sulphur has been the cause. But there has been a growing feeling in recent years that the verdict against sulphur has been unnecessarily severe. In cases of segregation it was present in augmented amounts along with other impurities, but it had not caused the segregation. High sulphur in pig iron is caused by poor furnace conditions and the sulphur is merely one indication of an iron that has not been properly reduced. No amount of subsequent treatment under oxidizing conditions in the open-hearth furnace can remedy the defects, although the per cent. of sulphur may be considerably reduced. In other words, the causes of bad steel can frequently be traced back to bad pig iron, and sulphur is merely one indication that the pig iron is bad. The writer recently visited a steel plant where a mass of evidence had been accumulated which substantiated this fact, and the superintendent was .emphatic in stating that high sulphur was not harmful provided the steel was not otherwise poor due to insufficient reduction in the blast furnace. The presence of a moderate amount of sulphur is desirable from the standpoint of the man who machines the steel. The low-sulphur material drags and the production of a smooth surface is very difficult. A slight increase in sulphur enables the machinist to produce a smooth surface without difficulty. Since, therefore, such large quantities of steel are subjected to machining, it becomes highly important that the sulphur controversy should be settled, and if its presence is proved to be harmless the ban on it should be lifted.

Jan 10, 1916