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The problem of applying instrument control of variables associated with lead-zinc ore treatment has been under investigation for several years at The Zinc Corp. facilities in Broken Hill, Australia. In 1959 it was decided that there was sufficient knowledge of the problem to enable specifications to be drawn up for a system to automatically control at set conditions the roll crushing, ball milling, lead flotation and zinc flotation sections. In choosing between electrical and pneumatic control systems the broad principle was adopted that if the sensing system was pneumatic the transmission and control would also be pneumatic, whereas if electrical sensing was employed, electrical transmission and control would apply. In general. pneumatic systems were preferred owing to lack of experience with, and standardization of, the electrical systems offered at the time the specification was prepared.

Jan 12, 1964

By Royal B. Jackman, Carle R. Hayward

Two comprehensive papers have appeared regarding the forms of copper that occur in smelter slags, one by Frank E. Lathe1 and the other by C. G. Maier and G. D. Van Arsdale.2 These authors comment on other published results and draw conclusions from their own investigations. The development of X-ray examination of minerals and improvement in high-power microscopic methods make it possible today to get additional evidence by means that were not available to earlier investigators. The present work was confined to reverberatory slags obtained from five different plants. Some definite conclusions were reached regarding the forms of copper present in these slags. In most cases these agree with some of the findings of Maier and Van Arsdale but new methods of attack were used in the investigation. Conclusions of Previous Investigators Various important conclusions reached by previous investigators are summarized in the following paragraphs, arranged chronologically. William A. Heywood:3 Slag losses increase with grade of matte but with the same grade of matte losses decrease as the acidity of the slag increases. Lewis T. Wright:' Slag losses are only partly due to prills of matte. It is suggested that part of the copper is dissolved in the slag. J. Parke Channing9 A considerable part of the copper enters the slag as silicate or oxide and not as sulfide. C. A. Grabill:6 Slag losses are both physical and chemical. Physical losses, due to poor settling, gas flotation and slight differences in specific gravity, are small under normal conditions. Chemical losses may- be due to formation of oxides or to solution of metals and sulfides. The last is considered the most important. John W. James:' The copper in converter slag is largely the oxide and as such enters the reverberatory slag when converter slag is added to the charge.

Jan 1, 1934

By Heinrich Ries

The fusion-point of clay has usually been considered to be influenced chiefly by the quantity of fluxing impurities which the clay contained. Those clays which contain a high percentage of fluxes, such as ferric oxide, lirne, magnesia, and alkalies, fuse at a low temperature. Aside from the percentage of fluxing-impurities, the size of the grains exerts an important influence. Yet, while this fact has, no doubt, been recognized by many, practically no attempts have been made to prove it by actual experiment, although in the case of fire-clays, Prof. H. O. Hofman has rather disputed it. To illustrate the point more clearly, suppose a clay to be made up of a mixture of very refractory grains, such as kaolinite, and some fusible ones. If this clay be heated, the more easily fusible grains will melt first on the surface, and the softening under heat will gradually extend from the surface of the grain to its center. The larger, therefore, the size of the grain, the longer the time required for the heat to penetrate it. Now, if two samples of clay contain the same volume of flux, but of unequal size, the one containing the smaller-sized grains should fuse first, because the fluxing materials are more evenly and thoroughly distributed through the clay, so that they will more or less surround the refractory grains, which tend to act as a framework and hold up the clay-mass when heated. In order to demonstrate the effect of fineness of grain on the fusibility of clay, several mixtures were made up, consisting of white clay and other minerals. The white clay used was a very refractory type from Georgia, the fusion-point of which lay about cone 35 of the Seger series. The mixtures were formed into small bars 1* inches long, and set on a narrow surface, so that the ends were free to bend as soon as the mass softened. They were burned in a Seger gas-furnace.

Jan 1, 1904

By John D. Kalasky

Continuous mining has revolutionized the coal industry but intensified the problems of earlier mechanization. From the installation of the first miner, it was recognized that face ventilation would be one of these problems. To establish an efficient work cycle for the equipment being used, conventional mechanized mining provides four or more development faces. Continuous mining, relying on a single machine, requires only one face, although more than one can be driven alternately by the same machine. In gaseous areas mined by the older methods, the intermittent rate of exposure allows time for the face to bleed off or be cleared, and the width obtained with conventional units makes it possible to hang a brattice line almost to the face. Continuous mining increases the ventilation hazards; there is no margin of time, and very limited space.

Jan 9, 1959

A LARGE proportion of the steel that is melted and refined in the United States and poured into ingots is made in basic open- hearth furnaces. The capacity of these furnaces varies over a wide range with a large majority falling within limits of 50 to 200 tons (Fig. 1) The two general types of furnace design used are stationary [ ] and tilting furnaces, the former being much more common. The fuel burned in such furnaces is either one of several types of gas, or a liquid fuel such as oil or tar, or a combination of gas and liquid fuel. GENERAL FEATURES OF FURNACE CONSTRUCTION The design of a modern stationary furnace built to burn liquid fuel and with a capacity of 175 tons is shown in Figs. 2 to 4. The cross- section of the furnace at the tap hole is illustrated in Fig. 2, which shows the bottom construction, sloping back wall, and the rigid steel

Jan 1, 1944

By P. Barnes

THE sums given in the accompanying table are those actually paid for material and labor up to about August, 1875; but, as some parts of the machinery were not wholly completed at the starting of the works in September, 1875, the statement cannot be taken as an absolutely correct note of the total cost. A complete description, with engravings of the building and machinery, was given in Engineering, April 26th, 1878, in a paper by Messrs. A. L. Holley and Lenox Smith, to which convenient reference may be made. A detailed list of the construction accounts has been given in a paper, by the present writer, in vol. vi, Transactions of the Institute. A summary is given in the table of the items in each class which enter into the total cost, and also a note of the proportion which each of these items forms of the whole. A concise view may thus be obtained of the facts embodied in the statement, as a whole, even though it cannot lay claim to completeness in showing the entire or final cost. An urgent suggestion has reached the writer from a distant country that such statements of cost to be really most serviceable should give the details in days of labor, in weight of iron, and in number of brick, and to this an assent is most cordially yielded. It is true, however, that the mere labor of copying and compiling these details to such a degree of minuteness, would be very great, and, in any event, the probable difference between the plans of an existing establishment and one projected, would be so wide as to render even so complete a statement of cost of little more real service than the approximate notes given herewith.

Jan 1, 1879

By Immo H. Redeker

Through close cooperation with geophysical and geological test work by Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. in Beaufort County, the Asheville Minerals Research Laboratory assisted in the evaluation of North Carolina's most valuable mineral resource, the Pungo River phosphate deposit. After a core evaluation study, the flotation process for the concentration of North Carolina phosphate was demonstrated in a 500-lb per hr pilot plant in Asheville. Tonnage samples of phosphate concentrate were produced for customer evaluation in the United States, Europe, and the Far East. Plans for a larger pilot plant to be erected at the plant site at Lee Creek were prepared for TGS. The larger pilot plant was operated by TGS in conjunction with a test dredging operation which led to the adoption of a dragline dry mining method to move 90,000 tpd of material for the production of 10,000 tpd of phosphate concentrate in the all-flotation phosphate concentrator. Calcining, dry grinding, and byproduct studies complimented the construction of one of the world's largest and most modern fertilizer raw-feed complexes on the eastern North Carolina seaboard.

Jan 1, 1972

By Orville Lyons

CENTRIFUGAL force has been utilized for the dewatering of fine coal for over 50 years by means of machines commonly called centrifugal dryers. In any centrifuge the coal and water are subjected to a spinning action which usually increases in intensity as the coal progresses through the machine. This spinning action, or the centrifugal force that it induces, tears water away from coal particles and produces a dewatered coal. The effectiveness of the dewatering action for any particular machine is governed by the size-consist of the coal and the centrifugal force imparted to the water on the coal.

Jan 5, 1951

By I. R. Dunlap, R. F. Burdyn, F. D. Patchen

The composition and properties of a new type of cementing mixture are discussed. In these compositions, API Class A or C cements are added to n stable water-in-oil emulsion instead of the crsual water. The cement disperses in the oil phase and remains out of contact with the water under normal conditions of mixing and storage. At higher temperatcrres, such as those encountered down-hole during placement, the emulsion breaks and cement hydration can then proceed. An extremely low filtration rate is obtained; the major part of the filtrate is oil. Thickening times of the mixture may be increased to meet the 18,000-ft casing cementing schedule by varying the amount of emzilsifier. As in conventional Portland cement mixtures, high-temperature strength retrogression can be overcome by addition of silica flour. Results of several field app1ication.r show that mixing presents no diffculty if emulsion blenders are used and the emulsion is prepared beforehand. INTRODUCTION Water-in-oil emulsions., in which oil is the continuous or external phase and in which water exists as discrete droplets, have for some time been used successfully in drilling muds to reduce filtration loss.1,2 Applied to cement slurries, the same results are obtained; i. e., the fluid-loss is greatly reduced. In addition, thickening times may be extended, lower densities and strengths obtained, and water-base borehole fluids more easily displaced without contamination of the cement. A low filtration rate is often a desirable property in oil well cements since loss of fluid increases placement difficulties and may also cause damage to water-sensitive producing formations.' In the casing cementing operation where the cement slurry is pumped into the narrow annulus between open hole and casing, rapid loss of fluid to a porous formation can cause the slurry to thicken and plug the annulus before the desired fill is obtained. Where a casing or a liner is cemented against a productive formation and the well completed through perforations, the fluid lost between the time the cement first contacts the formation and the time a set is obtained may invade the zone past the depth of the perforations. If the sand contains a material which will swell upon contact with cement filtrate, permanent damage may result. Previous methods for reducing the fluid-loss of cements have employed bentonite4 as an additive, usually with a lignosulfonate as a dispersant, or a derivative of some naturally occurring polymeric material such as cellulose ether." Oil emulsion cements have also been proposedv or fluid-loss reduction, but these have been of the oil-in-water type. Bentonite cements have been used most widely and have been successful in reducing incidence of premature setting of cement attributable to loss of water by filtration. It is the purpose of this paper to describe preparation and properties of a water-in-oil emulsion cement and to relate procedures followed and results obtained in several field applications. DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM AND MECHANISMS A water-in-oil emulsion cement is prepared by adding an API Class A or C cement to a stable water-in-oil emulsion. Fig. 1 is a photomicrograph of this emulsion before addition of cement. Here the droplets are water and the surrounding medium is diesel oil. High emulsion stability is indicated by the small droplet size [1-5 microns], and by their uniformity.' To form a stable water-in-oil emulsion as illustrated, several conditions must be met. A predominantly hydrophobic emulsifier must be present in sufficient concentration to produce a strong interfacial film; initially, the phase volume ratio (the water-to-oil ratio) must be low;

By T. J. Woods

Tars paper deals with the origin, definition and prevention of scabs an semifinished rolled-steel product. Mold coatings, which are considered essential in scab prevention, were found to be effective only in relation to the ingot surface of semikilled and killed steels and not necessary for the rolled product. That is to say, the scabs on ingots caused by having been cast in uncoated molds are eliminated in the soaking and rolling operations, therefore are not present on the rolled product. This fact, which is contrary to the average opinion, was established after extensive and thorough experiments had proved the ordinary conception of the origin of scabs to be incorrect. This subject may be of little or no concern to steel plants producing small ingots for the manufacture of small billets and bars, except as it may be of interest in showing why their surface troubles with scabs do not exist on the product of heats with normal pouring practice. But to the producer of large ingots to be rolled into slabs for large plates used in shipbuilding, it is a very important subject. DEFINITION OF A SCAB The generally accepted opinion is that the individual scabs present on rolled products (as shown by Fig. I) are considered to have been individual splashes on the ingot surface. This opinion was found to be incorrect. Experiments showed that there were no individual scabs on the product that had appeared as individuals on the ingot surface. The single scabs seen are either pieces of a shell that is present near the bottom of all top-cast ingots, or a veneer that may be present on any part of an ingot improperly poured, as when the stream strikes the mold wall. This definition is based on a detailed study of scabs and their characteristics in which the following have been found true: Location.- On the product of heats poured without trouble, scabs, if present, are always on the product that corresponds to the bottom end of the ingot, and usually occur in clusters, This is true whether molds are coated or not. Shape.-There is no regularity as to shape, size or thickness. It is sometimes possible to separate a few pieces and place them together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, indicating that at one time they had been united as one piece. If individual splashes were the origin of scabs, the foregoing would not be true. Instead, the splashes, which occur throughout the pouring of the ingots, would be present uniformly over the entire product and there would be considerable similarity in the shape and thickness of the scabs. EXPERIMENTAL WORK Our experimental work was conducted on 200-ton heats of semikilled plate steel tapped into an oval ladle 15 ft. high. All ingots were top-cast direct into 24 by 54 by 82-in. molds, straight-sided, set on fat stools. Two separate studies were made about one year apart, each study extending

Jan 1, 1943

By Ernest Robinson

SINCE the early nineties, there has been a persistent belief in some minds that petroleum in commercial quantities exists in Montana. It is, however, only comparatively recently that commercial produc-tion has been secured. . The earliest deep boring in the plains region of Montana was made in what is now Blaine County, in 1890, by the town of Chinook in an effort to secure artesian water. The well reached a depth of 956 ft. without developing an adequate supply of fresh water, but the drillers reported shows of oil and gas. In 1892, the Quartermaster's Depart-ment of the U. S. Army drilled a hole at Fort Assini-boine, northwest of the Bearpaw Mountains, in essentially flat-lying sediments to secure water for the military establishment. This well reached a depth of 1500 ft. and shows of oil and gas were reported. In 1903 and 1904, two wells were drilled within what is now the Glacier National Park in an effort to develop oil production. Shows of oil and gas were encountered at several horizons but no commercial production was brought in. The extraordinary geological conditions in the area where these wells were drilled should be mentioned. The thrusts from the southwest which, in other places along the Rocky Mountain front, resulted in folding, here developed the great Lewis overthrust fault. It is in fact largely to this fault that the magnificent scenery of the Glacier Park is due. A great thickness of Algonkian strata belonging to the Belt series was thrust northeastward over the upper Cretaceous sediments. The derricks under which the wells referred to were drilled were in moun-tains composed of very old rocks but the holes were drilled through Cretaceous sediments.

Jan 7, 1923

By Robert Maddin

The application of electrolytic polishing of metals introduced a new technique for preparing surfaces, especially for single crystals. This procedure generallv has been assumed to eliminate the strain introduced by mechanical polishing and to result in a more truly representative surface, particularly in the case of soft metallic materials. However, apparently little information is available concerning specific characteristics of a surface prepared electrolytically. The conventional method of mechanical polishing is known to produce a layer of distorted metal which is usually removed by a suitable chemical etchant. To what depth the strain introduced by mechanical polishing penetrates into the lattice is still obscure. The present investigation illustrates the apparently anomalous appearances of glide ellipses on electrolytically polished surfaces of aluminum single crystals. Experimental Procedure and Results Aluminum single crystals, 99.975 pct pure, remaining from the investigation of Found,' were polished electrolytically using a solution of fluoboric acid and a low current density. Laue back-reflection technique, interpreted after the manner of Greninger,2 was used to determine the orientation and the specimen axis rotation of the crystals. Three flat surfaces about 4 mm wide parallel to the specimen axis, one perpendicular to the theoretical slip direction and the other two 120° apart, were polished mechanically and repolished electrolytically. A tensile load was applied using a Southwark-Emery tensile machine at a rate of about 40 lb per min. Elongation was measured by noting the initial and final gauge lengths. X ray diffraction was used to obtain the usual x and X values in order to calculate the elongation and shear by plotting stereographically the specimen axis rotation by means of the Schmid-Boas formula.³ In Table I may be found the value of the gauge diameter, measured elongation, calculated elongation and shear for the crystals investigated. Fig I shows the initial and final positions of the specimen axes of the crystals. At a low magnification the slip lines developed on specimen Al-I appeared straight and rather evenly spaced. However, at a high magnification, the slip lines were seen to be composed of small markings which were present throughout the length of the specimen (Fig 2). The distance between the markings was fairly constant and their directions all parallel to One another' Fig 3-57 photographed On different surfaces of the specimen, illustrate the interesting appearance of these lines. It may be noticed from Fig 4 that the markings, which present the appearance of

Jan 1, 1949

By Henry J. Welge

Laboortory apparatus has been devised which permits study of the displacement of oil from cores by water and by gas. The cores used contained interstitial brine as well as oil. Experiments were run to determine the comparative effect of varying the properties of the fluids used. No great effect was noted on the maximum displacement achieved. This observation made it unnecessary in initial work to use fluids in their exact reservoir conditions. Consequently, the displacements were run at near-atmospheric pressure in Pyrex glass equipment, using stripped crude oils. Introduction and Theory The chief object of this work has been to determine the efficiency of gas and water as primary agents for displacing oil from reservoir rock under laboratory conditions in which capillary phenomena were predominant. To this end the maximum displacement of oil from cores has been ascertained. This maximum displacement may not be equal to the maximum displacement from a reservoir; but it will be a close approxirnation to it sometimes, and other times the laboratory information will be useful in reservoir engineering predictions. It is] believed that the laboratory experimental maximum represents the upper limit for the reservoir recovery. The experiments were carried out by obtaining cores of interest from the reservoir, and filling the pores with interstitial brine and oil with the restored state tech- nique.1 Then the oil was displaced from the core as described later, either by brine from below, or by gas from above. The former type of displacement suggests analogy to production by water drive, but not to water flooding, for reasons discussed below. The latter type of displacement is believed to simulate production by gas cap displacement. The displacements were performed by what may be termed the capillary-pressure method. The cores are placed in capillary contact with an oil-wetted membrane which has very small pores (about I micron in diameter). Pores of this size will transmit oil but Prevent the Passage of gas or water, unless the Pressures used are higher than the capillary Pressures employed in this work. Accordingly, use of the membrane makes it possible to apply a capillary pressure differential between the displacing phase and the oil in the core. AS in the displacement of brine toward that condition of oil and water distribution existing originally in the reservoir,' it may not always be desirable to reduce the oil saturation in this experiment to an absolute minimum. With reservoirs having small productive closure, it is preferable to evaluate and use a displacing pressure no higher than the capillary pressure, Ap, which will ultimately become available for displacement in the reservoir. This pressure may be calculated from a knowledge of the density of the oil-in-place, do, the density of the displacing phase, dl, and Ah, the vertical distance between the section of the

Jan 1, 1949

By B. M. Larsen

AN increasing amount of attention is being paid to the possible influence of oxygen, in its several modes of occurrence in steel, upon some of the properties of the metal; but clearly investigations along this line are unlikely to yield significant results until reliable analytical methods for the determination of oxygen have been established. This paper presents some results of a study of an improved Ledebur method which aims to determine a definite portion of the oxygen; namely; that which presumably is present in diffusible form in the. solid steel. These more or less preliminary results lead us to believe that the oxygen so determined has some significance; their presentation at this time will, we hope, stimulate discussion of, and focus attention upon, certain rather neglected aspects of the problem. Considerable work has been done recently on methods of estimating inclusions and on the vacuum-fusion method for oxygen; with results which, however, are of somewhat questionable significance. It is commonly presumed that the oxygen in a bath of molten steel in a furnace is present partly as a separate phase consisting of suspended particles of oxides or silicates, partly in solution, the latter being probably the more important. Upon addition of a deoxidizer, it reacts with some portion of the dissolved oxygen and precipitates it as additional suspended particles; the oxygen not eliminated in this way, which remains in solution in the liquid steel, may be regarded indifferently either as dissolved oxygen or as dissolved FeO. When the steel is poured, some of the suspended particles rise towards the surface, others remain trapped in the finished steel, appearing as nonmetallic inclusions in amounts corresponding usually to about 0.01 to 0.03 per cent 02 in the steel. The dissolved oxygen may be partly eliminated as CO during freezing of the ingot, but some remains either in solution or in part precipitated as FeO. Finished steels may thus contain oxygen in several forms: (1) In non-metallic inclusions which are probably quite insoluble in the solid metal at all temperatures; (2) in solid solution which at lower temperatures may be supersaturated; (3) in FeO particles produced by relief of this

Jan 1, 1932

By T. E. Watkins, M. D. Nelson

A method of determining the lime content of drilling muds proposed by Battle and Chaney* has been examined both in the Field Research Laboratories of Magnolia Petroleum Co. and in field drilling operations. This proposed analytical method is condensed as follows: Titrate one ml of mud and one ml of mud filtrate, each with 0.02 N H2SO4, to the end point with phenolphthalein. The volume of acid in ml required for the mud titration is recorded as Pm and that of the mud filtrate titration as Pf Calculation of the lb lime/bbl mud is accomplished by use of the formula, lb lime/bbl mud = 0.6 (Pm - 1.3Pf) - 0.6 The analytical procedure outlined by Battle and Chaney was found to be quite satisfactory when reasonable precautions are used in mud sampling technique. Calculation of lime concentration by the method proposed in the above publication, however, has given values that varied as much as 100 per cent from the known lime content, for muds of either high or low solids concentration. By use of a formula, lb lime/bbl mud = 0.26 (Pm-F1.Pf), based on chemical equivalents of acid required for titration, both laboratory and field data have been satisfactorily correlated with the known amounts of lime present in the muds. In this formula a correction, F1, or volume fraction of liquid in the mud, is made for the solid content of the mud. Pm and Pf * Paper on "Lime Base Muds," presented by J. L. Battle (Humble Oil and Refining Co., Houston, Tex., and P. E. Chaney (Sun Oil Co., Beaumont Tex.), at the 1949 Spring Meeting of the Southwestern District API Division of Production, Dallas, Tex. The analytical procedure has also had wide distribution in a trade journal, Kembreak, published by the Accuracy Rig and Tool Co., Houston, Tex, †Derivation of equation lb/bbl — grams/350 ml 1 ml 0,02 N acid = 0.000741 grams of lime 1 ml 0.02 N acid/ml lime suspension = 0.26 lb of lime bbl lb of lime/bbl = 0.26 (Pm -F1, Pf ) have the same significance as in the Battle and Chaney equation. Table I shows typical data employing both formulas in calculating the lime content of various lime muds. This suggested procedure ignores lime which is in solution in the mud. The solubility of lime in water, normally about 0.5 lb per bbl, is greatly decreased by the addition of caustic soda, and, in a lime mud, it is probable that the concentration of dissolved lime is of the order of 0.1 lb per bbl. Such an amount of lime can be ignored, since it is within the range of accuracy of the method.

Jan 1, 1950

By C. R. Van Hise

PART I.-GENERAL PRINCIPLES. [ ]

Jan 1, 1902

By Campbell Osborn

From the viewpoint of practical economic engineering the main value in studies of demand and supply lies in the information they give concerning the next movement of price. The title of this discussion is too comprehensive for detailed analysis and it will, therefore, be narrowed to the question of price measurement. The oil operator is interested primarily in net profits. Prices, costs and production determine them. Production is here used in its broadest sense. It includes refining and marketing. It is an operating problem. Prices and costs are economic considerations. Though costs are an important element of prices and profits, the subject is too large to be treated in a brief paper of this sort. In the long run, costs govern prices, but for the purpose of gaging prices in the immediate future the relationship of current demand and supply are more significant. Operating, expansion, retrenchment, sales and storage policies of oil companies are largely influenced by the feeling of executives concerning this relationship. The stockholders of companies whose executives are wrong may suffer. Investors who err in their judgment may likewise lose. On the other hand, oil companies and investors who appraise these factors correctly and move accordingly will profit. It is an important subject worthy of careful consideration. The author has been asked to discuss the subject for 1928. From the beginning of the year until the first of June, as illustrated by Fig. 1, over-supply prevailed in the face of restricted production, but from June to September, with record consumption, demand slightly exceeded supply and oil came out of storage in the United States as a whole. One of the main problems of the oil man is to decide whether this condition will continue and what the next movement of prices will be. Before he can do so he must have an understanding of the underlying conditions and of the facts that led to the present situation. With these facts in mind he is in a position to measure the effect of the present relationship of demand and supply on price and is afforded a perspective that may enable him to look ahead for a short period of time. The practical

Jan 1, 1929

By R. W. Coughlin, W. U. Ault

Experiments in laboratory and mine have clearly demonstrated the usefulness of radioactivity detection for directly measuring the potassium content of potash ore as mined. This paper presents the results of these tests and documents the design of a system for automatically grading and sorting potash ore on the basis of radiation detection. It is shown how the experimental results in the subject mine lead directly to the design of this kind of an automatic control system. The system is capable of grading the ore with an accuracy of approximately ±2% K20 content or better. Due to the usual stratification of the ore body, mining potash seldom presents an extreme problem of gangue separation. Nevertheless, it is frequently necessary to transport within a potash mine and even hoist to the surface considerable quantities of halite and other valueless materials. Up to recent times it has been customary to recognize and route these materials by simple visual and manual techniques. However, the work reported here clearly demonstrates that it is now practical and economical to improve upon these techniques by continuous measurement1 of the naturally occurring radioactive isotope, potassium-40. It was the purpose of the work reported here to investigate this technique and assess its applicability. LOCALE OF EXPERIMENTS The work described here was carried out in a potash mine in Carlsbad, N.M. At the working face of this mine the potash ore is freed by blasting; it is then transported a short distance by shuttle car to a moving-belt system which conveys it to the main shaft where it is hoisted to the surface. Quantities of gangue which are also produced in the mining operation are disposed of in mined-out sections of the mine where possible. Otherwise, this material which contains only a small percentage of potassium (as K2O) must also be transported by the conveyor-belt system to the main shaft and then hoisted to the surface and discarded. With this situation, any measuring device for automatic control purposes must be capable of clearly distinguishing between gangue containing insignificant amounts of K2O and ore containing larger percentages of the same mineral. The conveyor-belt system transports the material from the mine face to a rotary crusher and then to temporary storage pits at the main shaft. This is shown in Fig. 1. Upon leaving the conveyor belt the material enters either one of the two storage pits according to the position of a manually operated gate. It was decided that all experiments should be carried out at the conveyor belt between the crusher and gate with a view to the possibility of providing a signal which could operate the gate automatically. THEORETICAL BASIS AND LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS In principle it is possible to grade potassium-bearing ore on the basis of radioactivity. Natural potassium contains 0.012% K40, which is radioactive with a half-life of 1.3 x 10' years. Although about 89% of the K40 disintegrates to Ca40 by beta decay, the other 11% changes to Ar40 by electron capture and the emission of gamma rays. Unlike the ß-rays which are readily absorbed in the first few millimeters of ore surrounding the disintegrating nucleus, the y-ray photons will escape from an ore sample several inches in size. A detector rigidly mounted under a conveyor belt loaded with potash ore will intercept some constant fraction of all the photons emitted from the ore within its field of view. Under these

Jan 1, 1968

By Leroy A. Palmer

All the domestic production of magnesite during 1925 came from two states, California and Washington. Of a total of 120,660 tons of crude ore, 64,600 tons, or 54 per cent., were produced in California.' Of this quantity California produced about 99 per cent. of the caustic calcined, but only 10 per cent. of the dead-burned. The largest producer was C. S. Maltby, of San Francisco, who operated the Red Mountain mine, in Santa Clara County, and the Sampson mine, in San Benito County, under lease. These two mines have been studied by the author, and offer interesting comparisons as to mining and treatment methods and final products. Geology The general geology of the magnesite deposits of California has been described by Hess,2 Bain3 and others4 and although a detailed discussion is not necessary here, a brief summary will assist in understanding mining conditions. California magnesite, when comparatively pure, is usually a white, fine-grained rock, with a conchoidal fracture, occurring in veins and lense-like masses in serpentine. The veins vary considerably in width, and usually occur in a series of more or less parallel veins intersected by other series or systems of veins, probably following original or secondary fissures in the enclosing serpentine. The most generally accepted theory of origin is that the magnesite was formed by the action of surface waters charged with CO2 percolating downward through fissures and changing the magnesium silicates of the serpentine into magnesium carbonate.

Jan 1, 1927

By C Gunther

The purpose of this book is to present the practical side of economic geology concisely and in convenient form; established facts and the applications of accepted views are emphasized; theoretical discussions and questions of genesis are avoided. Coal, iron, and placer deposits are omitted; they are subjects of specialized study that are fully and concisely treated in other works. The reader is assumed to possess a knowledge of mineralogy, petrography, and elementary geology. The arrangement adopted is based on Kemp's theory of magmatic waters, on Lindgren's conclusions on hydrothermal and secondary alterations, and on the theories of secondary enrichment enunciated by Emmons and Weed. No general classification of ore deposits is attempted, nor is any attempt made to fill by hypothesis the wide gaps, nor to explain the apparent contradictions that rank economic geology among the most inexact of sciences. The present knowledge of the subject is too incomplete to warrant such broad generalizations. The demand for good properties generally exceeds the supply. While mines of the first rank will undoubtedly be discovered from time to time, it is probably true that a great proportion of deposits having outcrops of commercial grade or of evident promise have been recognized and explored. A review of mining conditions over long periods shows that the rich discoveries belong to pioneer days, and that as time goes on the more important developments are the result of lower working costs, improved metallurgical processes, and an increasing knowledge of economic geology. As engineers in search of developed mines no longer expect to find properties having positive ore of greater net value than the price asked, so those in search of prospects should not expect to

Jan 1, 1932