Search Documents

By VlNTON H. CLARKE

Diamond-drill blasthole sloping has now been used for a long enough time to permit us to discuss fairly its problems from the ore-breaking angle and to attempt to peer into its future. To do this we have gathered information from many properties through questionnaires. The operators have indicated fairly well in their answers what they think of the method. The many variations of methods have by now been fairly well developed, and performance rates and. mining costs are well established at each property. All this can be laid down on paper with fair completeness. Now. knowing all this, what will the future of the method be? To attempt to look into the future of a mining method immediately brings to light many problems and variables. For instance: why were diamond drills used in the first place? What has the cost trend been? In what type of deposit has the method proved most advantageous? What will the future cost of diamonds be? What are the possible substitutes?

Jan 1, 1949

By G. L. Fisher, R. Maddin

The rate of self-diffusion in silver single crystals during torsional strain was measured over a wide range of tenperatures and strain rates. The torsional strain was applied in a cyclic manner by reversing the divection of twist aftev a certain fraction of the total strain was reached. Surface roughening was substantially reduced in cyclically strained specimens compared with those strained entirely in one direction. Diffusion coefficients were determined using a special sectioning technique whereby slices could be removed parallel to the surface of a strained torsion specimen. The accuracy of the technique was first determined using roughened specinzens statically diffused to various penetration depths. Simultaneous strain-diffusion experiments were then performed over the temperature range 550' to 800 using strain rates of lo-' to 2.2 x 10' sec-'. The increase in silver self-diffusivity during torsional plastic strain was small. In only one case was the enhancement greater than twice the static value of the diffusion coefficzent. The enhancements increased slightly with decreasing tenzperature and increased with increasing strain rate. A dislocation pipe mechanism of enhancement was found to explain the present results satisfactorily. The magnitude of the enhancements and the tenzperatures at which they were observed suggests that a steady-state dislocation density of 10' to 109 dislocations cm-2 existed during the high-tempevature deformation. The diffusion coefficient in an fcc metal can be increased by 1) an excess concentration of point defects and 2) the rapid movement of diffusing atoms along grain boundaries and dislocations. Plastic deformation may be responsible for enhancements by both of these mechanisms. The results of simultaneous strain-diffusion experiments have caused a controversy over the magnitude of the effect of strain upon diffusion. Experiments reporting large enhancements have been criticized for the manner in which the diffusion coefficient was measured. Several of these experiments have been contradicted by other results obtained in a similar manner. No enhancement was reported by two investigators''' who performed their experiments at high temperatures where strain is expected to have little effect upon diffusion. A recent theoretical analysis3 indicates that strain enhancement by a vacancy mechanism will be small and exist only at low temperatures and rapid strain rates. It is doubtful whether any experiment has yet proven that strain enhancements can occur by an excess vacancy mechanism. In the present research, experiments were performed at extremes of temperature and strain rate in an attempt to measure enhancement of diffusion by strain. Self-diffusion of silver during torsional deformation was chosen since two separate investigations4j5 indicate that at least a small enhancement exists under these conditions. An accurate method of determining the diffusion coefficient, mechanical sectioning, was employed after a technique was devised to apply it to the roughened surface of a strained torsion specimen. First, the accuracy of the technique was determined for different penetrations (2fi). Then diffusion experiments were performed at temperatures between 550" and 800°C at strain rates of 10"" to 10"" per sec. I) EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Preparation of Specimens. The experimental procedure detailing the growth of crystals, their treatment, and the annealing techniques during straining are contained in earlier publications.496 The dimensions and orientations of the torsion specimens are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. licatiin of Torsional Strain. The torsion procedure was changed from that used previously. The specimens were strained in cycles to reduce the gross distortion and surface roughening inherent in twisting to high strains in one direction. For all strains above 0.30, the total surface strain was obtained as follows: the specimen was twisted to 0.10 strain in a clockwise direction; the direction was reversed; the backlash in the torsion apparatus was taken up; and the specimen was twisted in a counterclockwise direction through the initial starting point to 0.20 surface shear strain in the opposite direction. The strain reversal took no more than 1 min to accomplish. The total accumulated surface shear strain was arbitrarily taken as the sum of the 0.10 strain in the clockwise direction plus 0.20 in the counterclockwise direction. Although cyclic torsional strain was beneficial, surface roughening and specimen distortion were not entirely eliminated. The variation in the diameter at various points on the specimen was often much greater than the depth of the diffusion zone. Since serious errors might result if specimens were sectioned in the usual manner, a technique of lathe sectioning was devised to allow sections to be taken parallel to planes of equal concentration.

Jan 1, 1967

Jan 1, 1944

Jan 1, 1944

By W. C. Lacy

This article is a progress report of a program designed to quantitatively evaluate geological parameters to predict stable slope angles. The author feels that, although there does not appear to be any one technique or characteristics that will suffice as an index to the determination of stable slope angles, a combination of seismic methods as outlined here, detailed geological mapping and logging of core, and a better understanding of the angle of internal friction in rock types will permit accurate estimation. A mining engineer friend once remarked, "If we don't have pit slope failures, the slopes are too flat." Since economic justification of an open pit project is based upon ultimate pit slopes, we cannot wait until the pit is developed and slopes established by trial and error. Some combination of geological and/or geophysical techniques must be developed to permit accurate prediction of stable slope angles and to suggest modification of pit outlines to result in slopes enabling maximum economic yield. This presentation is a progress report of a program designed to quantitatively evaluate geological parameters to predict stable slope angles. The principle of the weakest link applies to any slope stability evaluation and necessitates detailed geological examination and recording of observations. Physical failure will occur along any surface where shearing stress exceeds shearing resistance. Rock conditions are seldom uniform even within a single cut or pit face, so stability conditions will vary. Consequently, both plan outline and ultimate slope limits must be tailored to the specific situation. Economic advantages to be gained by slight increases in slope angles in deep pits are well recognized and stimulate efforts to obtain maximum permissible slope angles. MECHANICS OF SLOPE FAILURE Excellent reviews on the nature of slope failure have been presented+2,6,8,11 For the purpose of this study, the writer considers failure to take place by one or more of three processes: 1) ravelling, 2) translation or slope failure, and 3) rotation or base failure (Fig. 1). The effects of increased pore water pressure in soils were recognized in 1923 by Terzaghi in his development of the concept of effective stress, and he has applied the same principle to jointed rocks designating water pressure as cleft-water pressure.8 Cleft-water pressure in a rock slope reduces normal pressure on the plane of failure, thus reducing shearing resistance and resulting in slope failure. In the following discussion it is assumed that adequate drainage is supplied to prevent any build-up of water pressure. This is the first step in any program to establish maximum slopes. Ravelling: Ravelling occurs in rocks with low cohesion and entails the free movement of individual fragments ranging from single rock falls to running ground. Removal of lateral support wherever slope angle exceeds the angle of repose of the rock parti-

Jan 1, 1963

By J. F. Wilson

An experimental investigation has been made of gas-driven slug displacements in a system of high gas saturation to evaluate the process for use in a California reservoir. Fluid compositions, temperature, pressure and core permeability duplicated reservoir conditions as closely as possible. The temperature was above the critical of the slug materials. The slug composition required for 100 per cent oil recovery in the linear flow systems was found to agree with that determined from equilibrium phase studies. A qualitative theory for the slug displacement of two-phase systems is proposed and found to be in general agreement with the observed flow behavior. The theory predicts that the length of the reservoir fluid-slug transition Zone will increase with increased initial gas saturation and decrease with increased oil swelling accompanying the composition change from reservoir oil to the critical composition. The precipitation of small amounts of an asphaltic phase during the formation of the transition zone had no adverse effects on the flow behavior of otherwise miscible systems. INTRODUCTION Despite the large number of recent publications relating to oil recovery by miscible displacement, little information is available concerning the behavior of crude oil-natural gas systems at conditions likely to be encountered in field application. The laboratory data reported here were obtained during an investigation of the possibility of using a gas-driven LPG slug in a partially depleted California reservoir. Seven gas-driven slug displacements employing slugs of different compositions and sizes were made in 26- to 27-ft long sandstone cores. The equilibrium phase behavior of the systems was also determined. The features of primary interest in this study are the following. 1. Data were obtained on the displacement of reservoir fluids at reservoir conditions. 2. A high gas saturation existed in the long cores at the start of the displacements. 3. The temperature of the studies was above the critical of the slug materials. 4. A comparison between the flow behavior and equilibrium phase behavior, as illustrated by a pseudo-ternary phase diagram, is afforded for a system of considerable complexity. THEORY Phase Behavior The use of the pseudo-ternary phase diagram to illustrate the phase behavior in miscible displacements has been discussed by Clark, Schultz and Shearin. Sie-vert, Dew and Conley and Arnold, Stone and Luffel' have presented both phase equilibrium and flow data for true ternary systems. For the true ternary, the application of the theory is straight-forward; for a reservoir system represented as a ternary, the theory undoubtedly gives a qualitatively correct picture. One purpose of this investigation was to see if the pseudo-ternary phase diagram could be used to predict with reasonable accuracy the conditions necessary for miscible displacements with actual reservoir systems. MiscIBLE Displacement of Two-Phase System A large number of papers "I3 have treated the miscible displacement of a single-phase fluid from both an experimental and a theoretical viewpoint. However, the normal field application of the process will be in a partially depleted reservoir. Often the state of the system will be such that the mobility of the gas phase is greater

By K. G. Davis, P. Fryzuk

A study has been made of the effect of undercooling on the grain structure and solute distribution in small ingots of pure bismuth and of a 100 ppm Ag in bismuth alloy. Autoradiographic evidence shows that in undercooled melts a network of dendrites is formed throughout the melt immediately after nu-cleation. At large undercoolings the dendrites are very thin and closely spaced. The origin of the observed grain morphology can be explained on the basis of information about the mode of solidification revealed by the impurity substructure. WHILE a great number of studies of nucleation in undercooled molten metals have been made, comparatively little attention has been given to the mode of solidification from melts with large undercool- ings. Colligan and Bayles1 and Walker2 have measured the rate of advance of the solid-liquid interface in undercooled nickel melts, but the morphology of the solidifying material remained a matter of speculation. Fehling and Scheil3 have described the grain structure in ingots formed from undercooled melts of nickel, palladium, and copper, and a series of Ni-Cu and Ni-Pd alloys. At small undercoolings, equiaxed structures are observed, the grain diameter tending to increase as the temperature of nucleation is lowered. At greater undercoolings, a columnar structure is developed, while with still further undercooling there is a smaller grain size incorporating rather coarse subgrains. All-bright and Colligan4 examined the grain structure shown by ingots solidified from melts of nickel and of Ni-Ag alloy at an undercooling of 105°C, and concluded that considerable grain growth had taken place after solidification. The object of the present work is to correlate the mode of solidification from undercooled melts with both the grain structure and impurity segregation, using tracers to examine the latter.

Jan 1, 1965

By AIME AIME

THE Annual Meeting-numerically the 162d meeting-of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers will be held at the Pennsylvania Hotel, 7th Ave. and 33d St., New York, Feb. 18-22, with the exception of the following events: the Mineral Industry Education Division will meet Sunday afternoon and evening at the Columbia University Men's Faculty Club, 400 West 117th St.; and a meeting of the Section Delegates, the annual business meeting of the Institute, and an executive session of the Board of Directors will be held in that order Tuesday afternoon in the Engineering Societies Building, 29 West 39th St., where the Directors will meet in the evening following their annual dinner to the Section Delegates. The Pennsylvania--one of the Statler group of hotels-was selected as headquarters because it has the physical equipment and facilities-for registration, technical sessions of all sizes, luncheons, social events, etc.-as well as the prominence and location desirable for an Institute annual meeting. (A tip for Tuesday afternoon and evening: You can walk underground from the Pennsylvania to within half a block of the Engineering Societies Building,)

Jan 1, 1945

By William Greenawalt

The Greenawalt electrolytic copper extraction process is applicable to suitable oxide ores, sulfide ores and concentrates, and low-grade matte. The process is self-sustaining in acid on sulfide ores or concentrates, on mixed ores, on high-grade oxidized ores; and on low-grade oxidized ores the amount of acid to be purchased or manufactured is greatly reduced. The ferric iron is under easy control, and copper may be effectively deposited from solutions of any acid or iron content likely to be used in copper leaching. From 60 to 75 per cent. of the copper may be removed from the solution in passing through the electrolytic department, before returning the solution to the ore. The amount of copper requiring chemical precipitation, from the waste and foul solutions, is only about 5.0 per cent, of the total copper produced, and this 5.0 per cent. is converted into the electrolytic metal in the regular operation of the process. The entire process can be made practically automatic, and can be carried out mechanically. There is no uncertain departure of any kind in the application of the process; no unusual or unproved apparatus is used. EVER since electrolytic copper refining gave promise of success, about a half century ago, efforts have been made to apply the idea to the extraction of copper from its ores. The methods of attack have, usually, been to leach with a dilute acid and then to deposit electrolytically the copper from the resulting solution with the simultaneous regeneration of the solvent used in the process. Many efforts have been made, and many patents have been taken out, both in the United States and abroad, to give this idea practical application, but only within the past few years have the difficulties been surmounted. Leaching and electrolysis, as applied to copper ores, are among the most promising fields in modern metallurgy. New conditions are arising, which will bring the wet methods into prominence; while high freight rates and increasing cost of fuel will tend to limit smelting to highly favored localities. The possibilities offered by the installation of hydro-electric plants and the greatly enlarged range of power transmission will greatly widen the field of electrolytic methods.

Jan 1, 1924

By Amitava Gangulee, Michael B. Bever

The order-disorder transition in Ag-Mg alloys in the range 17 to 26 at. pct Mg was investigated and some thermodynamic, electrical and mechanical properties of ordered Ag-Mg alloys were measured. A modification of the phase diagram is proposed on the basis of measured transition temperatures. The stability of the ordered structure is analyzed in terms of the quasichemical theory. Kinetic aspects of the order-disorder transition were also investigated. The energies of ordering at 273°K of Ag-Mg alloys were measured by liquid metal solution calorimetry. The electrical resistivities and the tensile Properties of the ordered alloys were measured. The exothermic energy of ordering increased with magnesium concentration up to the composition Ag3Mg; it is discussed in terms of the quasichemical theory. Pronounced order hardening was observed and can be explained by several strengthening mechanisms, which are particularly effective because of a change in crystal structure associated with the ordering transition. IN silver-rich solid solutions containing approximately 17 to 26 at. pct Mg, long- range ordering may occur during appropriate therma1 treatments. Clare-brough and Nicholas1 first detected such long-range order in the solid solution of composition Ag3Mg and suggested that the unit cell of the superlattice contained 256 atoms. x-ray2 and electron diffraction3 investigations confirmed the occurrence of long-range order, but indicated a shifted Ll2-type structure. On the basis of recent X-ray measurements the crystal structure of ordered Ag3Mg has been confirmed as type D023.4 The present paper is concerned with the order-disorder transition in silver-rich Ag-Mg solid solutions and some thermodynamic, electrical, and mechanical properties of the ordered alloys. The effects of short-range order on the properties of silver-rich solid solutions containing up to 26 at. pct Mg are discussed in a concurrent paper.5 1) EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES 1.1) Preparation of Specimens. Specimens of Ag-Mg alloys containing from 18 to 26 at. pct Mg were prepared in the form of 1.0-mm-diam wires as described in Section 1.1 of Ref. 5. Disordered specimens were prepared by annealing at 773°K for 1 hr and quenching into iced brine. Ordered specimens were prepared by annealing at 773°K for 1 hr and slowly cooling to room temperature over a period of 15 days. The specimens were stored at 78°K. 1.2) Resistivity Measurements. Electrical resistivi- ties were measured by a potentiometric method.' Equilibrium values were obtained at several temperatures. The kinetics of ordering were investigated by following the time-dependent changes of the resistivity of initially disordered specimens during annealing. The specimens were enclosed in copper capsules and immersed in salt pots; the heating up was accelerated by injecting preheated helium into the capsules. 1.3) Calorimetry. The energies of ordering of the alloys were measured in a tin solution calorimeter as the difference between the heat effects of additions of completely ordered and disordered specimens of the same composition. The procedure and the method of calculation have been described.6 Magnesium was used for thermal compensation in most calorimetric runs in order to improve the accuracy.677 1.4) Mechanical Tests. Tensile tests were carried out with wire specimens at room temperature as described in Section 1.5 of Ref. 5. Microhardness measurements were also made.? 2) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The characteristics of the order-disorder transition of silver-rich Ag-Mg solid solutions will be discussed first. Some thermodynamic, electrical, and mechanical properties of the ordered alloys will then be considered and compared with the corresponding properties of dis-disordered alloys. 2.1) The Order-Disorder Transition. 2.1.1) Thermodynamic and Structural Aspects. The transition temperatures Tt were determined from discontinuities in the slope of the equilibrium resistivity vs temperature curves. Normalized curves for three compositions are shown in Fig. 1. The transition temperature increases with the magnesium concentration and reaches a maximum at the stoichiometric composition Ag3Mg. The transition temperature of the alloy Ag3Mg was measured as 665° ± 2°K and compares with published values of 660°,1 663°,8 and 66°k.3 In the slopes of the resistivity vs temperature curves of alloys containing 22.2 and 22.5 at. pct Mg, discontinuities were observed at two temperatures. Such upper and lower discontinuities indicate a two-phase field. A modified form of the published phase diagram9 is shown in Fig. 2. A two-phase field was found only on the low-magnesium side of the composition Ag3Mg. On the high-magnesium side, the existence of a two-phase field could not be established because of insufficient resolution, but such a field must be present. This part of the phase diagram can be made complete by a eutec-toid-type reaction a = (a' + ß). The existence of a boundary between the two-phase fields (a + ß) and (a' + ß) is also in accord with published lattice parameters.3 The crystal structure of ordered Ag3Mg (type Do23)

Jan 1, 1969

By A. N. Holden, W. E. Seymour

DURING the last several years, the U-Zr system has been studied at many laboratories as one of the research programs sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission. The equilibria in part of this system have been difficult to determine, although the phase diagram from 0 to 60 atomic pct Zr has been established with reasonable certainty. Existing diagrams of the system vary appreciably beyond 60 atomic pct Zr, particularly with regard to the existence of an intermediate phase. Most existing diagrams show a transformation or reaction horizontal near 600°C. In 1955, a collection of uranium phase diagrams' was prepared at the Battelle Memorial Institute and the U-Zr diagram in that collection contained a questionable region in the vicinity of 60 to 80 atomic pct Zr. Summer-Smith" has published a phase diagram of the system that shows no intermediate phase. Summer-Smith did his work with powders and found only the uranium and zirconium eutectoid mixture from X-ray patterns of material annealed below 600°C. Mueller3 at Argonne National Laboratory did similar work with filings, and he found that initially there was a pattern of an intermediate phase, but on long-time annealing

Jan 1, 1957

By AIME AIME

OVER-ALL operations of the oil industry, as measured by production of crude oil and consumption of products, are almost exactly of the same magnitude as a year ago. Does this mean that the great oil industry has been undisturbed by the war? Has this industry, so vital to the prosecution of the war and to the maintenance of our way of life, been unaffected in its operations? No indeed - changes within the industry are great. It has been called upon to revamp its trans¬portation methods so as to move about one fourth of the total amount of crude and refined products by railroad tank car instead of by ocean-going tankers. Its fundamental internal economy, based on maximum gasoline yield from a barrel of crude, has been relegated to memories of the past. Rationing of oil products, which has been forced upon us in face of an abundant supply, is not only disagreeable medicine but is in itself completely disruptive to the marketing end of the-business.-

Jan 1, 1942

By Herbert Hoover

YOUR committee asks that I speak today on the relations of the engineering profession to public affairs. That takes in a lot of ground. This being a cheerful occasion, I will assume that I should exclude the engineer's function as a taxpayer. This being a nonpartisan occasion, I will assume that I should not refer to his voting emotions in 1940. Perhaps what was in the minds of your committee was the application of engineering thought to the confusions of the times. That is also a lot of ground. I fear, however, its boundaries disappear in mirages and rainbows on all sides. Now any entry of the engineer into public affairs involves his breaking into the fields of the sociologists, the economists, and the politicians. However I don't know why, seeing the difficulties these professions are having, they should not welcome a little help.

Jan 1, 1939

By Richard W. Bayley

The Atlantic City district encompasses several districts and has been previously called by different names, e.g., Atlantic gold district, Atlantic City-South Pass mining district, and Sweetwater mining district. The district is located in a terrane of folded and faulted early Precambrian metamorphic rocks which lies near the south end of the Wind River Range in Fremont County, Wyoming, Historically it is a gold district of little production, but today is an iron district of considerable importance. Gold was discovered in placer deposits about 1842 and in quartz-arsenopyrite veins about 1867, after which there occurred a mining boom lasting a few years. Minor, intermittent gold production from placers and lodes has continued to date, but the total production has probably not exceeded a few millions of dollars. Past lode mining was generally shallow ( in the oxidized zone), the deepest about 3 60 feet. The deeper, less oxidized and sulfide ores on the same lodes have not been explored. They appear to hold the only hope for future gold mining. Sedimentary iron-formation, similar to the Lake Superior taconite, occurs in the northern part of the district. Locally, where the ironformation is thickened by folds and faults, sufficient tonnages are present to be minable, as at Iron Mountain, where the U.S. Steel Corporation produces about 1.3 million tons of iron-ore pellets annually. Exploration of the iron deposits began in 1954, and the first ironore pellets were shipped to Provo, Utah in August 1962. Indicated reserves of iron-formation (about 30 per cent Fe) are reported to be about 300 million tons.

Jan 1, 1968

By L. T. Stanley

A method is described whereby the behavior of the front is approximated when gas is injected into a thick reservoir having reasonably homogeneous properties. The method is applied to the Abqaiq field of Saudi Arabia. The producing member is the Arab-D, a high-permeability calcarenite which has no continuous betlding planes. Field performance indicates the injected gas to be partially miscible with the reservoir oil because gas volume factors experienced are lower than those predicted by the gas law. Eqlrilibril~m calculations confirnz ihis and also show that the volume factor may vary appreciably, depending on the relative quantities of oil and gas in contact in the reservoir; consequently, volutnetric balances are made for the purpose of determining the behavior of the gas volume factor during injection history. The effect of gravity segregation on position and shape of the gas front is approximated by dividing the producing section into three zones vertically and tracing the movement of the average interface in each zone, with counterflow of oil and gas taking place betweell zones behind the front. This results in a gas front that advances more rapidly along the top of [he formation than along the base, producing an "umbrella" effect in cross section that becomes more pronounced as the front progresses. The calculations cover the gas-injection period of Abqaiq field history through 1958, and the position of the gas front is plotted at one-year intervals. Finally, some comparisotls between the calcrlated fronial position and the gas-oil contact as Measured by neutron logs are made. INTRODUCTION Fig. 1 is a structure contour map of the Abqaiq field. For analytical purpcses, the field has been divided into two areas designated A and B, as shown on the map. Gas injection into Area A was begun in early 1954 into two wells located near the crest of the structure on the north-south axis of the anticline. During the period covered by this paper, the average injection rate has been 122 MMscf/D with a maximum sustained rate of 160 MMscf/D. The reservoir pressure has been maintained at 2,450 psig since start of gas injection. The reservoir originally was undersaturated but, prior to pressure maintenance, the pressure was drawn below the bubble point in most of the Area A section, creating an in-place free-gas saturation of 8 per cent at the crest of the structure. The average critical gas saturation is 13 per cent established by laboratcry core tests. That the entire reservoir remained below critical gas saturation prior to gas injection is borne out by the fact that none of the crestal wells have exhibited high gas-oil ratios during production history. The Area A reservoir is a carbonate section about 200-ft thick having average porosity and permeability of the order of 22 per cent and 500 md, respectively. The productive horizon is the Arab-D member of Jurassic age and is encountered at an average depth of

By Harvey S. Mudd

WHEN talking about Europe it is well to endeavor to keep politics and economics apart but they have become so intermingled in recent years that the discussion of one topic inevitably leads to the other. Economic influences formerly prevailed over politics but today national and international economies are governed by political forces. Commerce in raw materials, food, and manufactured products is now so restricted by governmental controls that the capacity of the world to produce and to consume, to exchange goods and to pay for them, cannot be gauged by the past or predicted by a multitude of experts. In prewar days there were some yardsticks but today there are none. Thus it is hazardous to make forecasts, for in all fields of human effort the world has been cast upon an uncharted sea.

Jan 1, 1947

By H. L. Miaw, A. M. Gaudin, D. W. Fuerstenau

A quantitative method for evaluating density of slime coatings has been developed and applied to formation of iron oxide slime coatings on quartz and on corundum. Slime coating density is related to flotation recovery and to properties of the electrical double layer at mineral surfaces. IN spite of considerable study, the nature of slime coatings in flotation is still not completely understood. However, phenomena that control floc-culation and dispersion of colloidal systems are now interpreted in terms of electrical double layers.",' Colloids will flocculate even though the particles carry the same charge, but when two dispersed colloids of opposite charge are mixed. flocculation ensues even more rapidly. Analogous phenomena seem responsible for slime coating on minerals in flotation systems. To shed new light on the issue it was considered desirable to devise a tool that would measure slime coatings. The usual method has been to examine photographs of presumably representative surfaces, after. an intervening washing in running water. But such an examination is non-quantitative, and the changes in chemical environment represented by the washing may have removed the slime coatings that existed during flotation. To provide the possibility for a correlation with electrical double layer phenomena, the experiments were made with quartz, corundum, and iron oxide, for which elec-trokinetic data are available.'-" Since the properties of the electrical double layers of these oxides depend on the pH of the solution, pH will be the most important variable. Furthermore, because the zero point of charge for silica, iron oxide, and alumina occurs at pH 3.7, 8, and 9.5, respectively, the relative charge on the slime and mineral can be changed over wide ranges. Because of its practical importance in quartz flotation, iron oxide powder was chosen as the slime. Also, its uniform composition, contrasting color, and ease of analysis make experimentation simple. In this investigation, correlation was sought between the effect on flotation recovery of slime addition and slime coating density. Materials and Methods Details are available in a thesis by Miaw." The quartz was selected from pure Brazilian crystalline quartz, crushed, sized (65/150 mesh) acid-cleaned, washed, and stored in conductivity water. The corundum (synthetic alumina of high purity prepared by Linde Co., Chicago) was crushed, sized (65/100 mesh) deslimed, boiled in nitric acid, washed, and stored in conductivity water. The iron oxide slime, reagent-grade ferric oxide (—400 mesh) from Allied Chemical & Dye Corp., was heated to 160°C, cooled, and stored in a vacuum desiccator. In the electron microscope the slime particles appeared to be about 0.3µ in size, but their large specific surface (87,900 cm per g, by gas-adsorption method, using krypton) suggests that the actual particles are smaller than 0.3r. Had they been perfect nonporous spheres, they would have had a diameter of 0.13µ.

Jan 1, 1959

By W. L. Saunders

WHEN work was begun in September, 1910, on the rock excavation for the foundation of the gigantic dam at Valhalla, N. Y., which is to convert Kensico lake into an important storage reservoir of the Catskill Aqueduct system, one of the first steps taken by the contractor, H. S. Kerbaugh, Inc., was the development of a quarry to supply the stone needed in the construction work.The importance of a bountiful supply of suitable rock in an accessible location is apparent when it is considered that nearly a million cubic yards of cyclopean masonry will be contained in the completed structure, not to mention dimension and facing stones, concrete blocks, and mass concrete. The dam structure will be over 1800 ft. long and about 170 ft. above the present river bed. However, for a distance of some 800 ft., it will be carried down to solid ledge rock, which will make the finished structure about 300 ft. in maximum height. It will be about 200 ft. thick at the base and directly beneath the coping it will be 28 ft. thick. This dam will raise the reservoir surface 110 ft. above old Kensico lake. The reservoir capacity will be 29,000,000,000 gal.-equal to New York's total needs for over two months. The contract price for this work is nearly $8,000,000 and is second only in amount to the cost, over $12,600,000, of the Ashokan Reservoir work. Fig. 1 is a view of the dam site.

Jan 2, 1914

By T. Sekimoto, T. Kokubo, M. Yamamoto, K. Masuda, T. Moro, H. Sakamoto

The choking-free cyclone was developed primarily to remove solid particles suspended in a slurry containing fibrous materials, such as municipal solid waste. This cyclone is characterized by a screw conveyor at the underflow side of the cyclone. The screw conveyor has a hollow rotational shaft for air supply and is driven by a variable speed motor for discharge control. Even if the underflow discharge is highly concentrated, this type of cyclone can be stably operated without nozzle choking. High classification efficiency similar to that of a conventional cyclone can be obtained as a result of air introduction through the hollow rotational shaft. The recovery of organic matter and the removal efficiency of inorganic matter were actually improved by the application of this cyclone to municipal solid waste. After applying this cyclone to the desliming of fine sand, sand product of low water content was recovered.

Jan 1, 1980