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By Burnham E. Field

TAE chemical industry is constantly looking for new materials which either are more resistant to corrosion than those now available or have improved physical properties to meet the requirements of higher temperatures and greater pressures. Attack by acids is-one of the more important forms of corrosion-and in the last few years the development of acid-resistant alloys has been quite rapid. Perhaps the most notable example is that of nitric acid, 'the problem of which has largely been solved by the chromium-iron and chromium-iron-nickel alloys. Sulfuric acid may be handled in lead, iron, or the iron-silicon alloys, depending on conditions. As to hydrochloric acid, no metal or alloy can be called entirely satisfactory for handling. this acid under plant conditions.1 The results of our investigations on the resistance of the nickel-molybdenum alloys to hydrochloric acid have been confirmed by those of Guertler, Rohn, Schulz, Jenge, and others,' but thus far only one such alloy has approached commercial production in Germany; this contains approximately 15 per cent. chromium and 7 per cent. molybdenum with the remainder chiefly nickel. Dr. S. W. Parr, as far back as 1914, developed a complex alloy known as "illium," with a nickel base and containing some molybdenum.3 Dr. Parr was primarily interested in an alloy for lining bomb calorimeters, and while illium does show good resistance to acid it is too expensive for general use. Two United States

Jan 1, 1929

By E. Brunner, E. S. Mardock

A method of measuring oil saturations in cores or sand packs by neutron scattering is described. This method permits local SatUrations to be measured in a core enclosed in a steel pressure vessel without interrupting the flow. calibration data and a saturation distribution measurement obtained with the apparatus are included by way of illustration. Introduction In laboratory flow experiments designed to study the mechanism of oil production it is frequently necessary to measure the oil saturation in a core or sand pack containing Oil, gas, and perhaps brine. It is sometimes desirable that the saturation measurement refer to a relatively small portion of the core, so as to eliminate end effects; that it be made without interrupting the flow, and that it be applicable to a core enclosed in a steel Pressure vessel capable Of withstanding the Pressures encountered in petroleum reservoirs. None of the usual methods of measuring saturation meets all Of these requirements. To measure the gas saturation by observing the apparent compressibility of the gaseous Phase1 would require the interruption of the flow and would give an average saturation for the whole core. An electrical conductivity method is available for measuring brine saturations,2,3 but it is not applicable to oil. A radioactive tracer might be used if a suitable substance could be found that would dissolve in the oil, emit gamma radiation, and not be adsorbed on the sand, the steel core holder, or in an aqueous- phase. The large gamma-ray background from the mass of radioactive oil in other parts of the apparatus might, however, be undesirable. There remain for the saturation measurement methods involving the absorption or scattering of some penetrating radiation produced outside the apparatus. It might be possible to use X-rays or gamma rays; but these radiations would be so much less strongly absorbed and scattered by the oil than by the steel walls of the core holder and by the sand that it seems doubtful that much precision could be attained. In a beam of neutrons, however, there is a radiation that is very penetrating and, moreover, its scattering by substances containing hydrogen, such as oil, is qualitatively different from that occasioned by other materials. It would seem possible, and has proved to be quite practicable, to measure oil saturations accurately under the required conditions by means of neutron scattering. The first, to our knowledge, to suggest neutron scattering as a means of measuring oil saturation were F. Brans and ,. A. Bottema,4 of the Amsterdam laboratories of the Bataafache Petroleum Maatschappij, who made a few preliminary experiments to test the method while they were engaged in exploring the possibilities of neutrons for well-logging purposes. A comprehensive account of neutrons and their behavior will be found, together

Jan 1, 1946

By E. S. Mardock, E. Brunner

A method of measuring oil saturations in cores or sand packs by neutron scattering is described. This method permits local SatUrations to be measured in a core enclosed in a steel pressure vessel without interrupting the flow. calibration data and a saturation distribution measurement obtained with the apparatus are included by way of illustration. Introduction In laboratory flow experiments designed to study the mechanism of oil production it is frequently necessary to measure the oil saturation in a core or sand pack containing Oil, gas, and perhaps brine. It is sometimes desirable that the saturation measurement refer to a relatively small portion of the core, so as to eliminate end effects; that it be made without interrupting the flow, and that it be applicable to a core enclosed in a steel Pressure vessel capable Of withstanding the Pressures encountered in petroleum reservoirs. None of the usual methods of measuring saturation meets all Of these requirements. To measure the gas saturation by observing the apparent compressibility of the gaseous Phase1 would require the interruption of the flow and would give an average saturation for the whole core. An electrical conductivity method is available for measuring brine saturations,2,3 but it is not applicable to oil. A radioactive tracer might be used if a suitable substance could be found that would dissolve in the oil, emit gamma radiation, and not be adsorbed on the sand, the steel core holder, or in an aqueous- phase. The large gamma-ray background from the mass of radioactive oil in other parts of the apparatus might, however, be undesirable. There remain for the saturation measurement methods involving the absorption or scattering of some penetrating radiation produced outside the apparatus. It might be possible to use X-rays or gamma rays; but these radiations would be so much less strongly absorbed and scattered by the oil than by the steel walls of the core holder and by the sand that it seems doubtful that much precision could be attained. In a beam of neutrons, however, there is a radiation that is very penetrating and, moreover, its scattering by substances containing hydrogen, such as oil, is qualitatively different from that occasioned by other materials. It would seem possible, and has proved to be quite practicable, to measure oil saturations accurately under the required conditions by means of neutron scattering. The first, to our knowledge, to suggest neutron scattering as a means of measuring oil saturation were F. Brans and ,. A. Bottema,4 of the Amsterdam laboratories of the Bataafache Petroleum Maatschappij, who made a few preliminary experiments to test the method while they were engaged in exploring the possibilities of neutrons for well-logging purposes. A comprehensive account of neutrons and their behavior will be found, together

Jan 1, 1946

By J. Ruzicka

In creep testing, material is subjected to a constant load, preferably at a constant temperature, and its rate of deformation is measured. The method of loading can be of various types but in this paper only creep testing under tensile load will be considered. The ordinary tensile test is essentially a comparison test in conditions that frequently hear little or no relation to those under which the test material is to be used in service. The purpose of creep tests is to measure the strength of the test material at slow rates of deformation that more nearly approach the rates realized in service. One purpose of this paper is to illustrate that the creep test, in addition to its value as a service test, is superior to the ordinary tensile test as a sensitive tool for the comparison of certain metals in investigative testing. The other purpose is to describe equipment having distinctive features of design that make it especially suitable for such tests. Representative data obtained with this equipment on a group of rolled zinc-base materials are given. These data are compared with those from practical comparison tests of the creep type on weatherstrip fabricated from the same group of materials. The comparison illustrates the value of the fast creep test and of the equipment. The Equipment The creep equipment consists essentially of a tank containing a constant-temperature oil bath in which the creep of 14 specimens, loaded by means of levers, is measured by means of one movable extensometer. Figs. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate its general construction and appearance. Constant-temperalure Oil Balh.—A common constant-temperature bath requiring only one temperature-controlling equipment for a number of specimens was chosen as the best means of fulfilling the requirements of low cost and compactness. In addition, this allows the testing of a group of specimens under identical temperature conditions.

Jan 1, 1937

By G. E. Johnson

E. D. HYMAN*—How much sorting of scrap is done ? G. E. JOHNSON (author's reply)—We do practically no sorting. We charge "run of mine" scrap to the furnace. The unmeltables, mostly iron, are in such demand today that there is no difficulty in disposing of them. It may soon be desirable to sort out from the unmeltables as much of the brass as possible. J. J. BRUGMAN†—We have somewhat similar problems in the secondary aluminum business. What is your method of removing the unmelted material from the furnaces? Why have you such an apparently small space in which to charge your materials? Do you find that you have to seal that opening, or can you have it open and continuously charge at one end and pull out the other ? G. E. JOHNSON—Our means of melting scrap is efficient only to the extent that we use the waste heat from the vaporizing chamber to do the job. It is a batch process. We open the charge door and place the scrap on the hearth by hand shoveling. The door is then closed during the melting down period. After the melting is complete, the opposite door is opened and the unmeltables are raked out. The doors are approximately 3½ X 4½ ft and are not sealed during the process only closed. They are nominally tight. Some metal is oxidized in the process. We have visualized a means of conveying the materials through this melting unit with the metals that are melted trickling out during its travel. T. H. WELDON‡—Mr. Johnson, in line with the last question, is it necessary to seal the furnace between the melting down and the vaporizing unit, or have you got an inverted syphon in the bottom of the chamber? G. E. JOHNSON—That was one of the first things we encountered. We had to have a sealed opening, and it is a molten metal seal. You have indirectly asked me another question, which was: "Do you have to seal up the melting unit?" I would say we should exclude as much air as possible, although we are not too efficient in doing that. We allow the melting unit doors to be open when we charge and when we remove unmeltables. You can readily see that that would lead to the idea of having a controlled atmosphere in the melting unit, and I think this would do a more efficient job of melting the scrap. T. H. WELDON—How often do you charge the furnace? G. E. JOHNSON—We charge the melting unit, and rake out the unmeltables, about every hour. H. R. HANLEY*—Are any provisions made for controlling the rate of oxidation for the production of various size particles for certain characteristics of the zinc oxide product? G. E. JOHNSON—Yes, there are many. You are getting pretty much into the fine points of zinc oxide manufacture. Some of us still think we have something to learn about that. In general, this muffle furnace as I have described it to you produces a rounded particle of zinc oxide which is generally formed by a rapid oxidation of the zinc vapor, followed by rapid cooling. We have gone to the other extreme in some of our experiments. We have changed the furnace to produce a type of zinc oxide, such as we thought was peculiar to American process zinc oxide, by controlling the temperature at the point of oxidation and maintaining that temperature for a much longer period of time than we do when we make the rounded shape. There are other relationships that this furnace readily provides. One of the important factors is the ratio of air to zinc vapors. We can vary that by varying the air supply to the baghouse, or vary the rate at which we are vaporizing the zinc by the simple expedient of regulating the temperature over the carborundum arch. We have a number of variables that permit us to produce all of the grades of French process zinc oxide from lead-free up through the highest grades of seal oxides. There are many controls that we can apply to the operation. What I have said is but a brief condensation. K. MORGAN*—Can Mr. Johnson give us some idea of the fuel consumption of the furnace ? How much oil does he use per ton of zinc distilled? I am also interested to know what sort of heat transmission he gets through the arch? What is the thickness of the tiles used to construct the arch? Some time ago we built a small furnace for a different purpose, using a carborundum arch, and we found that the reflectivity of the molten zinc surface was so great we had to use a very high arch temperature. We found we made an improvement by having a layer of carbon on the surface of the zinc. Has Mr. Johnson had any experience on these points ? Does he make any sort of insolu-bles which he leaves in the furnace which he cannot tap out ? G. E. JOHNSON—I believe your first question was the fuel consumption. If I recall, somewhere in this paper there is a test that I quote. I believe we used 800 gal in a given period of time. Offhand I cannot translate that into tons of metal. I might also state that we have this understanding; that the carborundum arch, as the temperature becomes higher, becomes more efficient in heat transmission. As a matter of fact, I believe it is at about 2600°F or higher that the highest efficiency of heat transmission becomes available. We have calculations that I cannot quote from memory which indicate that the carborundum arch does a really very fine job for this type of furnace. Another point that we had considered was the fact that this furnace could be readily constructed so as to furnish an ideal source of heat for waste heat boilers. If a carborundum arch was used over the melting unit, we would have no zinc vapors in the gases at all— just clean combustion gases from which we would have removed some of the heat. L. P. DAVIDSON†— The insolubles

Jan 1, 1950

By J. F. Evers, S. Sadiq, F. W. Preston, G. W. Swift

Proper scaling of unsteady-state flow in laboratory gas reservoir models can be achieved if the permeability/fractional porosity ratio is less than 0.5 md. Porous media meeting this specification can be obtained from mixtures of sand and Portland cement provided (1) the water/cement ratio is in the range of 0.35 to 0.40, (2) the sand/cement ratio is in the range of 1/1 to 2/1, (3) the sand grain size is in the range of 48-100 to 18-28 mesh, (4) the mortar curing time is 7 days or more and (5) the cured mortar is dried under vacuum to reduce the temperature level employed during the drying process. The areal homogeneity of the mortars tested is reasonably good, although significant trends in vertical permeability were noted. The Klinkenberg and non-Darcy coefficients of mortar are such that proper scaling of these effects in the laboratory model could be expected. INTRODUCTION A long term deliverability prediction for a gas well is generally based on data determined from flow tests that are of short duration relative to the producing life of the well. These data, together with an estimate of gas reserves in place, form the basis for establishing the parameters of the mathematical model used to predict performance at future times. Results obtained from a mathematical model represent only an interpretation of the physical process being modeled. Experimental verification of the production process from discovery to abandonment is needed where production occurs under carefully controlled conditions. Ideally, one might consider such an experiment to be conducted in the field. Even if the cost of such an experiment could be justified, the time required would make it impractical to consider. However, if the time scaling problem could be handled properly, an experimental model of the gas reservoir production process could provide the necessary data to study the mechanisms of the production process in a reasonable time period. An experimental model has been designed and constructed using the data of this study as a basis. The model reservoir system consists of one producing well located at the center of a right-circular cylinder of porous material. Ten to 15 observation wells are located at strategic offset positions from the producing well. These wells, and the producing well, are fitted with pressure transducers so that the pressure-time history can be recorded at various radial and azimuthal positions in the drainage area during the entire production life of the system. Time is scaled in the model so that the time required to produce gas from discovery pressure to abandonment pressure is about 2 hours. This compares with a 20-year producing life in the model's field counterpart and gives a time scale factor of approximately 1:100,000. DESIGN CRITERIA To establish design criteria for the experimental model, the reservoir is considered to be a finite right-circular cylinder of radius rr, and height h with a producing well of radius rw located at the center and completed through the producing formation. This reservoir consists of a porous medium which has a uniform permeability k and gas porosity and the gas contained in the reservoir has density p, viscosity µ and molecular weight M. Initially, the pressure at all points within the reservoir is uniform at po. and the reservoir temperature is T. Since the reservoir production process has been demonstrated to occur in two distinct transient modes for either Darcy or non-Darcy flow,l it is

By SME

"Comparison of Secondary Fe-Mn Oxides in Fracture Coating and Heavy-Mineral Concentrates as Sampling Media, Silver City Mining Region, New Mexico," a technical paper, appeared in the Aug. 1983 issue of the magazine. In Table 1, page 1182, the correct sequence of the first five metals in column 1 (Elements) should read: Zn, Pb, Cu, Fe, and Mn under "Central District" and Zn, Fe, Pb, Cu, and Mn under "Pinos Altos District." The published table shows the sequences transposed under the opposite districts. All other columns and sequences read correctly.

Jan 1, 1984

By William P. Shinn

MR. GAYLEY'S admirable paper on the " Development of American Blast-Furnaces" has set forth very fully the history of the development of the Edgar Thomson furnaces since the construction of Furnaces A and B ; but it throws no light on the genesis of these furnaces. That earlier history it is the purpose of the present paper to record. Mr. Gayley truly says: "A new era in the manufacture of pigiron began in 1880 with the putting in blast of the Edgar Thomson furnaces." That era had its beginning with the construction of

Jan 1, 1891

By Alan T. Gorton, T. L. Joseph, Gust Bitsianes

High-temperature X-ray diffraction techniques were used to determine thermal expansion coefficients of iron and its oxides. Lattice parameters of a and iron, wiistite, magnetite, hematite, and goethite were determined and plotted as a function of temperature. From these results, the true and mean linear thermal expansion coefficients were calculated. In the case of noncubic crystals, the expansion coefficients were determined along each of the crystallographic axes. The effect of the magnetic transformation on lattice parameter was measured for a iron and magnetite at their respective curie temperatures. COEFFICIENTS of expansion for iron and its oxides were determined from the temperature dependence of their lattice parameters. From these data, the true linear coefficients were derived by means of the formula: at =[(l/ao )(dao/dt)] [1] where at is the true linear coefficient of expansion, a, is the lattice parameter in angstrom units, and all variables are referred to the temperature, t, in OC. Thus the true expansion coefficient represents the instantaneous change in lattice parameter on a unit basis and at a particular temperature. A second expansion coefficient is also often used. It is termed the mean linear coefficient and is defined in the following way: am = [ao(t) - ao(O)]/ao(0) l [21 This coefficient represents the average change in lattice parameter on a unit basis but at a specified parameter length, ao at O°C, and over a specified temperature range,1 to 0°C. Generally the true co-

Jan 1, 1965

By F. A. Forward, V. N. Mackiw

The paper relates to the laboratory and pilot plant studies that have been carried out by Sherritt Gordon Mines Ltd., Metallurgical Research Div., in developing the ammonia pressure leach process for extracting copper, nickel, cobalt, and sulphur from high grade nickel concentrate produced from Lynn Lake ores, and describes in some detail the chemistry of the process. IT is well known'.' 2 that copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, ferrous iron, and a number of other metals combine with ammonia in aqueous solution to form complex ions of the form [Me(NH,)x]"+. The stability and solubility of these ions depend on the concentration of the metal ion in solution, on the amount of NH, present, and on the amount and type of anions present, e.g., OH-, C0;-, NO,, C1-, SO;-. If ammonia is partially or completely removed from such solutions, for example by boiling, the soluble ammines tend to decompose and the metals precipitate as basic salts. These properties of metal ammines have found practical application in the commercial recovery of copper, nickel, and cobalt from a variety of ores. In an operation formerly conducted at Kennecott"" the mill tailing containing 0.80 pct Cu as copper carbonate was leached by percolation with an ammonia-ammonium carbonate solution to dissolve the copper as the ammine. At Calumet and Hecla0-" With a mill tailing containing about 0.4 pct Cu as metallic copper, it has been found necessary to aerate the ammonia-ammonium carbonate leach solutions between stages to oxidize the solubilized copper. At Nicarol"-" where nickel and cobalt occur as oxides and silicates which are not soluble in ammonia, the ore is heated to decompose silicates and to selectively reduce the nickel and cobalt to metal, leaving the iron as Fe,O,, and is then leached with ammonia-ammonium carbonate solution accompanied by aeration to dissolve nickel and cobalt as ammines. In each of these leaching operations, the anion present is CO, and the metals can be precipitated from the leach solution as oxide (copper) or hydroxide and carbonate (nickel and cobalt) by boil- ing off NH, and C02 both of which are recycled to treat a subsequent ore charge. The products-—oxide, hydroxide, or carbonate—can be treated by conventional smelting, calcining, or electrolytic methods to convert them to refined metals. Thus the procedures mentioned utilize the properties of the ammines to extract copper, nickel, and cobalt from nonsulphide ores and separate them from the leach solutions. These processes have the advantage that they can be carried out in closed vessels at atmospheric pressure, that the leaching solutions are specific for the desired metals, that the metals can be recovered as relatively pure compounds by the boiling operation, and that the NH, and CO, can be recycled. Also, as the leach solutions after boiling and filtration are substantially free of metals, NH,, and CO,, they can be discarded, thus facilitating the control of the water balance in the leaching circuit. When, as is the case with Sherritt Gordon concentrates, sulphides are treated with ammonia solution in the presence of oxygen, the leach solution contains SO,--, and an entirely different set of conditions is encountered. The ammine sulphates (of nickel, for example) are more soluble than the carbonates and can be only partially decomposed by boiling. The SO, and NH, in the solutions can not be recovered by boiling. Thus, despite the more favorable leaching conditions resulting from high solubility of the ammine sulphates, the recovery of metals, NH,, and SO, from the solutions must be effected by other means. Sherritt Gordon Nickel Concentrate Treatment The Ni-Cu-Co flotation concentrate produced at Lynn Lake'" contains 12 to 16 pct Ni, 1 to 2 pct Cu, 0.2 to 0.5 pct Co, 33 to 40 pct Fe, 28 to 34 pct S, 8 to 20 pct insoluble, and less than 0.02 oz per ton precious metals. The nickel is present chiefly as pentlandite, the copper as chalcopyrite, and the iron as pyrrhotite and pyrite. Most of the cobalt is thought to be present in pentlandite, although it is known that a small amount occurs as Co-Ni-pyrite.

Jan 1, 1956

By W. R. Toeplitz

H. N. Ghenn.*—It has been established that the accuracy obtainable from any precision machine is a function of the wear resistance, maintenance and closeness of fit of the bearings, hence I would like to ask Mr. Toeplitz how these oil-less bearings compare with cast iron or babbitt or similar materials when used on precision machinery. Could these bearings be used, for example, on a grinding machine in which work must be held to a tolerance of plus or minus 0.000025 inch? W. R. TOEPLITZ.—The metal-powder bearings can be held to very close tolerances and are used in place of cast iron and babbitt on precision machinery.

Jan 1, 1945

By Richard H. Terhune

The use of water-cooled breast-jackets or cinder-tap blocks is a great convenience in lead-smelting, even when siliceous slags are made. If the charges are at all basic it is almost imperative. Jackets of riveted wrought-iron or steel are expensive; those of cast-iron are liable to crack; those of bronze are costly and not durable, being easily penetrated by tapping-bars or destroyed by streams of matte impinging against them. To overcome these objections I introduced at the Hanauer works, in April, 1886, castjackets of steel, which have been in constant use since that time and are to-day as good as new. These jackets were made for us by the Chester Steel Castings Company, of Chester, Pa., at a cost of ten cents a pound at the works of that company. The metal is 5/8-inch thick, and the jackets were cored and tapped for l1/2-inch bushings, affording two large holes for the removal of dirt and incrustations. The same holes are used for feed- and discharge-water through 3/4-inch pipe. I hope the successful introduction here of cast-jackets of steel will lead to their more extended use in all branches of metallurgy where water-cooled surfaces are severely taxed, and where the size and thickness of the castings are not unfavorable to the production of a sound article, impervious to water and of high tensile strength.

Jan 1, 1889

News has just been received that Flight Commander William T. Hall, a Junior Member of-the Institute, was killed in action on Saturday, May 19, 1917. According to the' Toronto Star, Commander Hall was 24 years of age, a native of Toronto, and a grandson of the late William Kersteman. During the four years of his course in mining at the School of Practical Science, Toronto University, he passed every examination with honors. When war was first declared Commander Hall endeavored to join the artillery as an officer, and for that purpose secured a provisional lieu- tenancy with a Hamilton battery, but he did not receive an overseas appointment, and on being graduated as a mining engineer in 1915, he was offered a position in Chile, which he accepted. He left Toronto on May 27, 1915, and was engaged in Chile as a mining engineer for nearly a year. In the latter part of April, 1916, he decided to offer himself again for service at the front. He crossed the Andes and sailed for Liverpool, where he landed on May 13, 1916. On May 27, 1916, Capt. Hall was given a commission as lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps. He went to the front on Sept. 1, 1916, and remained there continuously. On April 4, 1917, he was promoted from lieutenant to the rank of flight commander. No details of how Commander Hall came by his death have as yet been received.

Jan 1, 1918

Man is born on Mother Earth without knowledge or skills. Soon he finds physical needs for food, clothing, shelter, exercise, and relaxation. His personal needs are self-expression, new experiences, and amusements, while his social needs have been classified as work, status, security, friendship, companionship, and love. He finds himself infinitesimal in comparison to the whole. Often- times when he feels smug, he is actually riding for a fall. And nothing is much worse than frustrated man. The postwar world does not provide the Utopia of peace and prosperity of which man had dreamed. In fact, it seems that the sacrifices and waste of that great struggle are being lost in the morass of stupidity, selfishness, and cupidity which unfortunately are still the most conspicuous traits of the human race. Perhaps it is too soon to expect the blessiilgs which are supposed to appear in a peaceful world, and man's thought is clouded with a pessimism engendered by the conflict itself, in which all activities tend to enhance his pessimistic nature. Must man submit that it is a law of nature for nations to go to war? The war has demonstrated that when faced with a common danger, peoples differing in antecedents, language, forms of government, and resources can unite for a time, pool their skills and abilities, and emerge victorious from a contest unparalleled in magnitude, ruthlessness, carnage, waste, and cost. This has been accomplished by great individual and national sacrifices, the

Jan 1, 1950

By Frederick Laist

F. N. FLYNN, Clifton, Ariz.-I would like to ask Mr. Mathewson what percentage of his leaching liquor is wasted at this time? It has a bearing on the question in connection with the New Cornelia, and I think it is a very important question. E. P. MATHEWSON, Anaconda, Mont.-I am not sure what the percentage is now, but we don't discard the strong liquors. Something like 25 per cent. of the wash water taken out each day is sent over a special set of scrap iron tanks, and the copper recovered there. We had a little trouble at first. We did not proceed to use the sponge iron for the reason that the plant we originally contemplated was abandoned for flotation. Our original idea was to use a leaching process on all the tailings of the mill, but we found it would take a great deal of time to build a plant; and the cost of operating the plant we estimated to be about the same and the recovery the same. It was a question of time with us, and we decided to adopt flotation. That changed our plans. We now have the leaching plant, treating the tailings of the old dump, and the flotation applied to the current tailings. The sponge iron was figured for the large plant. We can get all the scrap iron necessary for the small plant-plenty from the scrap produced in the main plant of the smelter.

Jan 12, 1916

Mine Transitman.-Engineer, about 30 years of age, experienced in coal mine underground surveys. Must be good draftsman and possess sufficient personality to get results from the men. Location, Illinois. No. R 419. Coal Mining Engineer: Coal mining engineer of proved ability for position of manager f high-grade bituminous coal property. Location, Canada. No. R 427. Chemist or Metallurgical Engineer.-Chemist or metallurgical engineer for special library work. Man with scientific training with the ability and education -of a young instructor in a university. Duties would consist of working out a new method of indexing scientific information, more particularly in obtaining information for use of a Committee on the Heat Treatment f Steel. Location, Washington, D. C. No. R 470. Topographical Draftsman.-Civil engineering training and topographical and surveying experience. Unmarried man, under 40 years of age. Knowledge of Spanish not necessary. Discharged army or navy man preferred. Location, oil fields, Mexico. Salary, $5 per day, living and traveling expenses. No. R 483. Mechanical Draftsman.-Engineering training, familiarity with drawings of pumps, piping, etc., need not necessarily be a designer. Unmarried man, under 40 years of age. Discharged army or navy man preferred. Location, Mexico. Salary $5 per day with living and traveling expenses. No. R 484. Engineer Translator.-Engineer of Portuguese nationality who has received his technical training abroad, and has been filling engineering positions in this country, to translate material for catalogs of an engineering character. No. R 486.

Jan 5, 1919

By Sergio G. Jarpa

A mining project is, at one and the same time, capital intensive and highly risky. Besides, because of its usual long projected life, the operating cost is more difficult to predict and offtentimes exceed, during the life of the project, the first investment manifold. The objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of cost-capacity relationships as used in the chemical industry to mining operations and, when necessary, to develop new ones. With the aid of a computer library program available at the Computation Center of the Pennsylvania State University, the total investment in mining equipment was determined to vary exponentially with production capacity, and the scaling exponents for each class of equipment, i.e., drills, shovels, trucks and earth moving equipment, as well as for the total operation were calculated. Since the scaling exponent for the whole mining operation happened to be equal to 0.94, it was concluded that more significant economies of scale are achievable in processing plants than in mining operations. From the operating cost point of view, unit material cost was found to decrease more rapidly than unit labor for the same increases in production capacity. The analysis of cost centers revealed that drilling and blasting, which are materials-intensive operational stages, were the most favorable in achieving significant economies of scale. Hauling unit cost, on the other hand, decreased only slightly when production capacity increased.

Jan 1, 1977

By John L. Baum

GEOLOGISTS and engineers working around a diamond drill rig have often had the opportunity to observe the magnetic attraction of drill rods pulled out of the hole for core removal. This is sometimes an amusing pastime, but this same magnetic force inadvertently applied to a compass needle can cause it to lose its polarity entirely or to become reverse polarized when placed in the immediate vicinity of stacked rods. The first recommendation, of course, would be to avoid the rods, but in surveying an operating drillhole this is not always possible; therefore steps must be taken to neutralize the magnetic effect of the drill rods. Early in the summer of 1949 the geological department of the New Jersey Zinc Co. undertook at Franklin, N. J., an extensive program of surveying the course of deep diamond drillholes. The majority of the holes were surveyed while in the process of being drilled, and considerable difficulty was encountered. A pattern for the deviation of drillholes had been established for the district from surveys in holes from which the drill rig had been removed. It was observed that a certain operating deep drill- hole being surveyed did not fit this pattern. In the resulting confusion of repeated surveys and cementing a plug for wedging operations, the lower 1800 ft of the hole was lost. Because of this incident studies were initiated to determine the source of the difficulties and to develop safeguards against recurrence of faulty surveys.

Jan 12, 1954

By R. J. Mechin

IN the early part of 1934, the St. Joseph Lead Co. purchased from the Kadco Corporation three dust-removal units, two suitable for raise work, and the other for drifting operations. The equipment was installed at the Balmat mine, in St. Lawrence County, New York. The Kadco dust-control system can be briefly described as one in which hoods, through which the drill steel is drawn, control the dust at the drill hole, the dust is conveyed through rubber hose or pipe to a collector, where it is removed from the air stream, and the air is then available for recircula-tion in the working place. As during the last few years a number of studies had been completed for the purpose of determining whether or not the dust was effectively removed by the Kadco system, and as the dust counts taken in these tests apparently indicate that it was, the St. Joseph Lead Co. was only inter-ested in obtaining data to show the efficiency of drilling, expressed in terms of minutes per foot drilled, when -using Kadco equipment, in comparison with the former method of drilling dry in a raise and drilling wet in a drift. Comparative dust counts were taken at Balmat, however, by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. to show the difference in the dust content of the air in which the operators worked when drilling dry, wet, or with the Kadco equipment.

Jan 1, 1935

By D. R. Walker, M. C. Shaw

THE laws of comminution of Kick and Rittinger have been debated for many years. Certain data obtained from ball mill and drop tests are found to be in approximate agreement with Rittinger's law while other data would seem to support Kick's law. In all these tests the energy required to produce a wide variety of particle sizes has been studied. Surface area has also been measured with considerable difficulty, at first because it was thought that the energy associated with crushing was that required to create new surface, later because of precedent and because a more fundamental variable was unknown. Tests made with the machine shop type of grinding process show that normally brittle materials that are usually crushed can behave like the more ductile metals. Brittleness is then a relative property largely dependent on specimen size and stress state. The machine grinding operation offers a convenient means for studying the comminution of materials in which the important size variable retains its identity. The energy required to grind a certain volume of material is shown to be strongly de- pendent on size. Kick's law is found to hold very well for particles below 1 micron in size, while Rittinger's law holds approximately in the comminution of larger particles. While a physical origin of Kick's law is established in terms of the theoretical strength of materials having a perfect lattice structure, there is found to be no physical basis for Rittinger's law.

Jan 3, 1954