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By Alfred H. Bell

IN 1945, Illinois produced 75,210,000 bid. of oil, or 4.4 percent of the total for the United States, and ranked sixth in the nation in oil production for the third consecutive year. Production decreased about 3 per cent from that of 1944, when the total Illinois production was 77,413,000 bbl. This is the smallest percentage of decrease in production in the state for any year since a peak was reached in 1940. Daily average production for 1945 was approximately 206,000 bbl. Daily averages by months were as follows:

Jan 1, 1946

By AIME AIME

THE Engineering Education Committee of the Institute convened at the Engineering Societies Building on Feb. 18, .1929, with. E. A. Holbrook, dean of the Schools of Mines and Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, in the chair. STATISTICAL' STUDY OF STUDENTS IN MINING The first paper, a statistical study of the students enrolled in courses leading to a mining degree in 40 institutions, was presented by H. D. Keiser,, assistant editor of the Engineering and Mining Journal; who gave a brief outline of an article he was about to publish in ?that journal?. The complete article appears in the issue for March 30; 1929: To avoid repetition the results are summarized as follows: A request was sent to 42 institutions which give courses in mining' for the number of students enrolled as freshmen; sophomores; juniors, seniors and special students in mining for the years 1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1928-29. Two of these colleges replied that there were no students in mining. Students' enrolled in courses in metallurgy, geology and engineering, other than mining, were excluded from the statistics:. The statistics received were arranged in, four groups, according to the completeness of the information. One complete group of 25 institutions 'shows as follows:

Jan 1, 1929

By H. H. Campbell

MANY attempts have been made to write a formula by which to calculate the strength of steel from its chemical composition, but most of these endeavors have failed because there were too many disturbing conditions. It is idle to collect from the pages of trade-papers, books, or the proceedings of scientific societies, a multitude of observations. The combination of such results will simply show that steel of the same composition will vary in tensile strength through wide limits-a fact that has been known for generations. That cold-working, overheating, and many another form of heat-treatment alter fundamentally the strength of steel, is ancient history, although it is only recently that the microscope has pointed out the road to an explanation of the phenomena. It may be urged that the microscopic structure must be taken into consideration in any formula giving the ultimate strength, but from the standpoint of the present investigation this is unnecessary. We are trying to determine primarily, not what changes in ultimate strength may be made by variations in the condition of carbon, but what effect is produced by changes in the amount of carbon, when its condition remains constant. For such an inquiry, in order that the condition of the carbon should remain as nearly uniform as possible, it is essential that all test-pieces be made under the same conditions; and it is be¬lieved that the tests described in this paper satisfy that require¬ment. The investigations were made at the works of the Pennsylvania Steel Company,. Steelton, Pa.; the ingots from which the tests were made were 6 in. square in every case; they were heated in the same furnace and forged at the same ham

Jan 1, 1905

By AIME AIME

T HE 121st meeting of the Institute held in New York City, February 16 to 19, 1920, was a great success despite vicissitudes of weather of unusual severity. On account of tremendous snowstorms, only two members of the Canadian contingent arrived, and several of our members from the west arrived thirty hours late. Two weeks prior to the meeting, the heaviest snowstorm in 34 years wrecked the surface transportation in New York; and it was only by special dispensation that arrangements were effected, with the New York Street Cleaning Department to clear away 39th street in front of this building so that vehicles could reach the curb. The total registration of members and guests was 1138.

Jan 1, 1920

By N. H. Jensen

SINCE the sixties, Utah has been one of the leading metal mining states of the Union. During the last fifteen years its mines have supported the largest smelting center in the world. Its rank as a metal producing state is reflected by its 1924 production which had a value in excess of $65,000,000 making it the leading silver producing state, third in both copper and lead and sixth in gold production. During the past year, metallurgical developments for the recovery of zinc contained in lead ores has made rapid progress so that the future zinc output will be of substantial importance. The largest silver mines of the nation and the world's largest open cut copper mine are within its borders. Settlement of Utah started in 1847, with the advent of the "Mormons," and originally the area of the state was much greater than now. The first metal mining

Jan 1, 1925

By Clinton M. Young

(Pittsburg Meeting, March, 1910.) I. INTRODUCTION. THE experiments herein. described were carried on in 1908-9 . by the State Geological Survey of Kansas. Some months before taking up work on black powder the Survey had resumed work on an interrupted investigation of explosions in coal-mines, a subject which is engaging the attention. of numerous investigators. An unusual number of serious disasters has directed to. the subject a study which discloses the disquieting fact that, in the. United States, the ratio of lives lost per ton of coal mined has been on the increase. Methods of coal-mining have changed to some extent with the great increase of output, attained in, comparatively recent years. These changes involve the working of very extensive mines, with increased difficulty of ventilation, increased accumulation of coal-dust, and. a very great increase in the amount of explosive used.. . This last point assumes truly startling proportions when it is carefully observed. In the fields of the Middle. West it is not now uncommon for a miner to use six ,kegs (150 lb.) of black powder in a "pay" of two weeks, while within the memory. of men still active, one keg (25 .lb.) would last two men for a " pay." So. great has . the use of explosives become in some fields that the skilled coal-miner is hard to find, and the coal is not mined, but blasted. A preliminary study of the subject. of explosions in coal-mines has. led to the belief . that the use of, large -quantities of explosives, in some cases by slightly-trained men, had not been * Associate Professor- of Mining Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Ran.

Aug 1, 1910

By Stanley J. LeFond

Brazil is one of the most outstanding examples of economic development of our time. Its amazing growth record is substantiated by a GNP which has increased at an average rate of 92% for the period 1968-1970 and estimates for 1971 range from 11.7-12.5%. Hence, this growth, coupled with a more relaxed attitude of the Brazilian government towards foreign participation in business opportunities and the remittance of profits out of the country, has caused many exploration companies to reevaluate the potential of Brazil. Despite recent press notices and publicity, Brazil is still not a mining country in the tradition of Canada or Australia. It is still basically an agriculture and manufacturing country.

Jan 11, 1973

By Walter Renton, Ingalls

SEVERAL years ago I became interested in computing the historic lead production of the United States, and the mines, or mining districts whence derived. This led me subsequently to an examination of the recent records- of some of the American zinc-mining districts and of the great lead and zinc-mining districts in foreign countries. My present article thus will be to a large extent an addendum to my book, "World Survey of the Zinc Industry," which was published by the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America in 1931, and to which I shall refer hereinafter as Ingalls, op. cit. Throughout this article all expressions of tons mean the ton of 2000 lb. Where original data have been given in metric tons I have converted in many instances simply by multiplying by 1.1, and long tons by 1.12. I have not been fussy about digits and have rounded off many figures. These may explain differences between data herein and other data.

Jan 1, 1946

By Y. A. Topkaya

The placer gold occurrences at Sart Çayl, Manisa, Turkey, the legendary River Pactolus of King Croessus, were evaluated in this study to determine if this deposit contains sufficient recoverable value to justify development and exploitation. The gold occurs both in the upper Neogene conglomerates and the alluvium derived from these conglomerates. The total reserve in the whole region is estimated to be 500 million cubic metres. Samples were taken of the upper conglomerate and in the alluvium in an attempt to determine the amount and the physical nature of the gold. The gold in samples was recovered by screening out barren oversize followed by washing the sand and gravel through riffled sluices. The resulting sluice concentrate was later panned and amalgamated at site. Laboratory cyanidation testing of some samples for control purposes was also done. The average calculated free gold was found to be about 90-100mg/m3 and the size of gold flakes found was quite small. The field as well as laboratory testing of the samples of Sart Çay1 indicated that the potential reserves in this region could only be developed as a sand and gravel operation and the gold could be recovered together with the heavy minerals as a byproduct.

Jan 1, 1984

By W. G. Pfann

A simple method of obtaining multistage batch separations by crystallization was described recently. Known as zone-refining, it comprises passing short molten zones through a long solid charge. This technique can now be used on a continuous basis by means of the zone-void method described in this paper. Feed enters, at an intermediate point, a column down which molten zones travel, and waste and product leave at the ends. Materials move in the column through the agency of voids, which are introduced at the ends and travel toward the feed inlet. The voids and molten zones are moved by external heaters in a simple manner, and the principle of reflux is utilized. ANEW method of obtaining multistage separations by crystallization was described recently.' Named zone-refinina.,-, the method comwrises slowly passing a series of molten zones through a long solid charge. Solute becomes concentrated at one or the other end of the charge, depending on whether it raises or lowers the freezing point of the solvent. The separation increases with the number, P, of zone-passes, approaching a limit as P approaches infinity. Zone-refining has been highly effective in purifying germanium and other substances.2,3 and new applications are steadily increasing. Zone-refining is a batch method and as such it has certain limitations inherent in batch operation. If it could be made continuous, its scope and utility would be greatly broadened. This end has been achieved by the zone-void method described in this paper. In the zone-void method feed is introduced continuously at an intermediate point in a column down which molten zones travel, while impure waste and purified product leave at the ends. Both the flows of feed, waste and product, and also the travels of the zones, are actuated by external moving heaters in a simple manner; and the system utilizes the principle of reflux. The method provides, in the field of crystallization, the counterpart of the continuous fractiona-tion column in the field of distillation. The following will be discussed: apparatus and mode of operation, fundamental nature of the separation, design theory, and practical considerations. The method will be described in terms of a binary solute-solvent system in which the solute is an impurity to be removed and the solvent is the desired product. The distribution coefficient, k, defined as the ratio of solute concentration in the solid freezing out of a molten zone to that in the liquid in the zone, is assumed to be constant and less than one. The process is equally effective for k's greater than one and for ternary or higher order systems. Method and Apparatus The essential features of a continuous zone-refining process are represented in highly generalized form in Fig. 1. A series of molten zones, produced by moving heaters, travels slowly down the column or charge (to the left in Fig. 1). If there were no flows of feed, waste, or product, the process would simply be batch zone-refining, the action of the molten zones being to sweep solute down the column, solvent up the column. For the process to be con- tinuous, with stripping and enriching sections in the column, feed must enter, and waste and product must leave, as indicated. The zone-void process accomplishes both objectives, namely, the indicated movements of zones and the indicated flows of material. Zones are moved by moving heaters, just as in batch zone-refining. Materials are made to flow by creating voids at the waste and product exits and causing these voids to move to the feed inlet. Since there must be a net flow of material from the feed inlet to each of the outlets, the indicated movements of voids are in the desired directions, because movement of a void in a given direction corresponds to flow of material in an opposite direction. In order to produce the desired movements of voids, the column is folded into two vertical sections having the feed inlet in common at their upper ends. Voids are displaced upward by the liquids in the molten zones and their travel is actuated by the motions of the zones. Voids travel with the zones in the enriching section and move continuously. Voids travel opposite to the zones in the stripping section and move intermittently. Creation and travel of voids will now be examined in detail. The enriching section of a column in operation, with its void generator, is shown in Fig. 2. The column section is a vertical tube around which a series of closely fitting, regularly spaced heaters travel slowly upward. Each heater produces a molten region, the temperatures of the heaters and the cooling between heaters being controlled so as to maintain the molten zones approximately constant in size. A void is normally present atop the molten zone in each heater. As the heater rises, it continuously melts solid above it, which drips through the void into the molten zone and continuously freezes out solid below it, of concentration k times that of the liquid in the zone. When a molten zone and void reach the feed inlet, which is kept molten, the void is displaced by an equal volume of feed liquid. Generation of voids of controlled size in the enriching section is shown in Fig. 3. The void generator is a tube of small cross-section, provided with lateral heat-conducting fins which sense the position of the heater. Liquid can escape only when the entire outlet tube is within the heater. If any part of the outlet tube is outside the heater, liquid cannot escape,

Jan 1, 1956

By L. D. Jaffe, R. K. Pitler

IT would clearly be advantageous to produce molten titanium, suitable for alloying and casting, directly from the relatively inexpensive tetra-chloride, without using a metallic reducing agent. Accordingly, a preliminary investigation has been made of the production of titanium by hydrogen reduction of the tetrachloride in an electric arc furnace. For the reaction: TiCl4(g) + 2H2(g) ? Ti(s) + 4HCl(g), Lockhart and his colleagues' have calculated equilibrium constants at 800" to 1500°K, based on tables of Brewer.' Extrapolating these data on the assumption that the heat of reaction varies linearly with temperature, and using Brewer's value for the heat of fusion, there is obtained for the reaction: TiCl4(g) + 2H2(g) ? Ti(l) + 4HCl(g) an equilibrium constant at 2100°K (100" above the melting point) Kp = (PHCl)4/pTlcl4 (Ph2)2 = 0.167 atm. If this is correct, starting with hydrogen saturated with TiC14 at 25°C, where the vapor pressure of the latter3 is 12.6 mm, and maintaining the overall pressure at 1 atm, 99 1/4 pct of the TiC14 would be reduced to Ti at equilibrium. An arc furnace designed for the melting of titanium and lined with water-cooled copper was used for the preliminary experimental check. Its inside diameter was 2 7/16 in. and height 6 in. The water-cooled electrode was tipped with 3/4 in. diam tung-sten. In the one run carried out, the furnace was charged with a starting batch of 293.35 g of scrap titanium,' analyzing 99.24 pct Ti. After the system was twice pumped out and flushed with argon to remove air, the arc was struck in argon and kept at 400 amp dc, electrode negative, for 1 min to melt the starting batch. Commercial tank hydrogen, dried by passing over silica gel and bubbled through technical grade TiC14 at room temperature, was then admitted to the furnace. The inlet tube directed this gas downward toward the arc and melt; the gas outlet was at the top of the furnace. The quantity of gas passed through was not measured accurately but is estimated to be about 50 liters per min at a few mm of mercury above atmospheric pressure. The arc was held in the H2-TiC14 mixture at 400 amp with little difficulty. After 10 min the arc burned through the copper lining above the melt, admitting water and ending the run. (This had happened frequently in straight melting runs under argon, and is not thought due to the atmosphere used.) In the furnace were found an ingot, several small pieces, and a little metallic powder, evidently formed when water entered the hot furnace. Some titanium also clung to the electrode. The portions were weighed and separately analyzed for titanium. Their total weight was 321.76 g of 94.82 pct overall purity. Much of the impurity consisted of tungsten broken off when the titanium was removed from the electrode. No detailed impurity analysis was made because the starting materials were impure and flooding the furnace introduced further contamination. Thus, the metal recovered contained 305.08 g Ti, as compared to 291.12 g in the starting batch. Titanium could not have been carried over from previous melting runs in the furnace, as the interior was sandblasted and the electrode ground clean before the run. Evidently at least 13.96 g of Ti were produced from TiCl4. Since this would require complete reduction of 430 liters of TiCl, gas at 12.6 mm of Hg, the efficiency of the process must have been rather high. Experimental work is continuing. No reason is seen why the process could not be scaled up to the size of a 30-ton steel-melting arc furnace. In a large unit there would be a large molten pool from which liquid metal could be withdrawn for alloying and casting. The problems of electrodes and power supply are similar to those arising in arc furnaces for melting titanium. Unreacted TiC14 and the HC1 in the exhaust gases could be recovered; unreacted H2 could be dried and re-used. The melt would be saturated with hydrogen, whose solubility in liquid titanium is unknown. Small amounts of hydrogen seem to have little effect on the properties of titanium.5 If the amount introduced was so large as to impair properties or cause casting difficulties, it could be reduced by holding the melt under an inert gas or by pumping on it, prior to casting. Acknowledgment The authors would like to thank I. Preble and M. Goldman for their valuable aid in the experimental work and the thermodynamic calculations, respectively. References 1R. J. Lockhart, J. J. Ward, M. J. Hussey, and J. W. Clegg: In unpublished report, "U. S. Air Force Project Rand. Titanium and Titanium Base Alloys." Battelle Memorial Institute (1949) 37-44. 2 L. Brewer et al: Chemistry and Metallurgy of Miscellaneous Materials—Thermodynamics. Ed. by L. L. Quill. pp 13-39, 60-192. (1950). McGraw-Hill Book Co. 3 K. Arii: Scientific Reports. Tohoku Imp. Univ. (1933) 22, 182. 4 R. S. Dean, J. R. Long, F. S. Wartman, and E. L. Anderson: Transactions AIME (1946) 166, 369-381; Metals Technology (Feb. 1946) TP 1961E. * R. I. Jaffee and I. E. Campbell: Transactions AIME (1949) 185, 646-654; Journal of Metals (Sept. 1949) TP 26813.

Jan 1, 1951

By Mazany, M. S.

THE Caletones copper smelter of the Braden Copper Co. is in the " Teniente" mining district about SO km. (49.7 mi.) southeast of Santiago, Chile. From the seaports of San Antonio and Tralparaiso, the property is reached via the Chilean State Railway (66-in. gage) to Rancagua, whence the Braden railroad (30-in. gage) leads to the smelting plant at Caletones, 60 km. away at 5100 ft. elevation, and continues on to the mine and concentrator at Sewell, at 7000 ft. elevation, 12 km. farther into the Andes. The smelting plant was completed and put into commission in February, 1922. At the start, it smelted daily 750 tons of concentrates produced at Sewell from 10,000 tons of ore; later, its capacity was increased to 900 tons of concentrates from 12,000 tons of ore per day; and it is now being increased to 1100 tons of concentrates from 15,000 tons of ore per day. The smelting plant production is governed chiefly by the

Jan 1, 1925

By C. S. Harloff, Frank R. Corwin

THE Nichols Copper Co., associated with the Phelps Dodge Corp. and the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co., has constructed at El Paso, Tex., and is now operating a copper refinery with a yearly capacity of 100,000 tons of anodes. Transportation facilities were perhaps the most important of the considerations that led to the selection of this site. The rapid industrial development of the Middle and Far West has increased the consumption of copper there. The advantage of local refining as against shipping the copper to the Atlantic sea- board is apparent. Copper refined in the Southwest is equally competitive for export shipment, either from the Gulf or the Pacific Coast ports. The tonnage of copper produced in the Southwest not only justifies the construction of this plant, but may warrant considerable expansion in years to come.

Jan 1, 1930

By J. C. Boswell, J. D. Crawford

IN addition to its base-metal and coal mining operations, the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company has, for the past quarter century, been one of the few large American mining companies interested in dredging. Its activities in this field are confined to gold, and to Alaska, but it is the largest operator in that territory, with twelve huge dredges available to work during the summer on the frozen ancient beach sands at Nome and the gravels of Fairbanks. These operations will be described separately.

Jan 1, 1948

By Herty, C. H.

Iron oxide (FeO) plays an extremely important part in the manufacture of iron and steel. In the three major processes- blast-furnace, open-hearth, and Bessemer converter-iron oxide is the chemically predominant compound and controls to a large ex- tent the operation of the furnaces and the composition and quality of their respective products. In order to emphasize the importance of iron oxide in each process, they will be considered individually in some detail. THE OPEN-HEARTH FURNACE. Iron oxide is introduced into the open-hearth furnace in four ways : 1. The scrap charged into the open hearth is oxidized by the furnace gases, the amount of oxide formed depending primarily on the amount and type of scrap charged. It has been found' that with large scrap, 1.7 Ib. of FeO is formed per 100 Ib. of scrap charged, whereas with scrap of medium size about 5.3 Ib. of FeO is formed per 100 Ib. of scrap charged, when the period between the charging of the scrap and the addition of hot metal is 3 hours. 2. The decomposition of the limestone sets free CO, by the reaction

Jan 1, 1957

SME's Annual Membership Report - 1961 Membership Directory

Jan 7, 1961

By Henry M. Howe

PART I. § 1. Introduction. After giving certain definitions, this paper gives the reasons which led to Roozeboom's form of the diagram of the freezing-point curves and general equilibrium of the iron-carbon compounds, steel and cast-iron ; and then those which led to replacing it with the present or double diagram, in which graphite is at all temperatures held to be the more stable and cementite the less stable (metastable) form of carbon. Next in § 10 the evidence supporting this greater stability of graphite is examined, then in § 17 that which seems to oppose it, and in § 22 a summary of the evidence is presented. The second part of the paper considers the topography of the graphite-iron diagram, rejecting summarily the solubility-lines based on the data of Charpy and Grenet and of Mannes-mann, on the ground that the data even on their face do not really point toward these lines, and that they are wholly incompetent to determine any solubility-lines whatsoever, because they report together with the dissolved carbon also an indeterminate quantity of cement-carbon, and because even such carbon as is actually dissolved, only in part represents the solubility of graphite, and in another and indeterminate part represents the solubility of cementite, or at least of carbon in presence of cementite as distinguished from graphite. It might be thought that graphite is but slightly soluble in iron, because of the absence of any suggestions of eutectoid graphite, corresponding to the eutectoid cementite of pearlite in very many cases in which the cast-iron seems to consist of ferrite and massive graphite only, and because of the micrographs of Goerens and Gutowsky. In these the primary austenite of cast-iron quenched but little below the eutectic freezing-

Jan 7, 1908

By C. A. Stetefeldt

FoR the convenience of those who do not care to enter into the details of this long essay, I begin with a summary of the most important results it presents. The extraction of silver by the lixiviation-process from ores which have been subjected to a chloridizing-roasting, is based upon the fact that silver chloride is easily soluble in solutions of sodium or calcium hyposulphite, and that silver is precipitated from such solutions by an alkaline sulphide, with regeneration of the hyposulphite salts. In case the ore contains lead a large portion of the latter is and dissolved, lead sulphate being soluble in hyposulphite solutions. If, at the same time, copper is present, the sulphides precipitated from the solution, contain silver, copper, and lead, a combination of metals not desirable for subsequent treatment. Mr. E. H. Russell, of Park City, Utah, is the inventor and the patentee in the United States and several foreign countries of a new lixiviation-process, based upon the chemical facts discussed in this paper. Mr. Russell has discovered that lead can be completely separated from a sodium hyposulphite solution, as lead carbonate, by sodium carbonate or purified soda-ash, without precipitating any copper or silver. After decanting the solution from the lead carbonate, silver and copper are obtained from it in the usual way. This method of separating lead prohibits the use of calcium poly-sulphide as a precipitant for the sulphides, because any calcium entering the regenerated lixiviationsolution would also be precipitated as a carbonate with the lead by soda-ash. Hence, a sodium sulphide must be employed. A full investigation has demonstrated that this is by no means detrimental. Sodium sulphide and hyposulphite are more advantageously used in the lixiviation-process than the corresponding calcium-salts. Another defect in the lixiviation-process consisted in the necessity of a very perfect chlorination of the silver in the ore, because silver in

Jan 1, 1885

By A. A. Steel

(Spokane Meeting, September, 1909.) DURING. the summer of 1905 I was employed by the U. S. Geological Survey to investigate the geology, Mining, and preparation of barite in most. of the fields of the United States. The Eastern districts have been more or less completely described ; the Virginia field in detail by Thomas L. Watson, in his paper, Geology of the Virginia Barite-Deposits,' and other fields in abstract., including statistics of production and references to current literature, by various authors .2 There have also been published a few details of the occurrence of barite in the lead-mines of Washington county, Mo.3 The other accounts of this district are erroneous and meager, and since this field is the most important one in the United States at the present time, a detailed description of the local geology seems doubly desirable. Barite-deposits are scattered over nearly the whole of Washington and adjoining counties, but. the product, is all mined from the areas indicated upon the sketch-map, Fig. 1, and is shipped from the stations of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain &. Southern railway, between Blackwell and Potosi, from 45 to 60 miles SW. of St.. Louis. The topography is for the most part gently rolling, with slightly graded streams, usually less than 200 ft. below the higher hill-tops. Along Mineral fork and Indian creek are :some steep bluffs and cliffs, affording good exposures of the

Feb 1, 1910

By L. O. Howard

THERE are three active mines in the Chewelah-Colville district, the United Silver Copper near Chewelah, and the Old Dominion and the Chloride Queen near Colville. The Admiral near Valley is also doing development work. The Chewelah district is in the south central part of Stevens County in the Colville Valley. Chewelah, a thriving town of 1600 people, and the scene of operations of the Northwest Magnesite Co., is about the center of the district. It is situated in a farming community on the Spokane-Nelson branch of the Great Northern railway, about 65 miles north of Spokane. Only two or three of the mines in the district have been extensively developed, although many have been prospected. The general elevation of the valley, is about 1600 or 1700 ft., that of the mountain ranges on each side about 3000 to 4000 ft., with gentle slopes and rounded glaciated tops. Prospecting is often difficult because of much glacial debris.

Jan 1, 1925