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By Edward Keller

(New York meeting, February, 1912.) IN a paper, entitled A Uniform Method for the Assay of Copper Material for Gold and Silver,1 A. R. Ledoux invited the assayers of this country to contribute to a symposium, in which the results of their assays of given samples of copper-matte and metallic copper would be made comparable. This symposium 2 appeared about one year thereafter; and through it and its discussion, first became generally known the fact that the ,gold-yield by the all-fire method of assaying is usually higher than by the so-called combination (wet and dry) method, in which nitric acid is employed as a solvent for the copper. In the publication alluded to, the supposed cause of gold-losses in the latter method was declared to be the solvent action of copper nitrate, or of the reduction-products of the nitric acid, upon the gold. Up to a very recent date, gold has been held to be insoluble in pure nitric acid. (The solvent action of any chlorine present in the nitric acid must here properly be disregarded as belonging in the realm of carelessness. Among later allusions to this topic, W. R. Tan Liew 3 ascribes the solution of the gold in the combination-assay entirely to the action of nitrous acid at the high reaction-temperature of copper and nitric acid ; F. B. Flinn 4 a believes the low result in gold to be due exclusively to mechanical losses-finely-divided gold penetrating through the filter-paper-but presents no experimental data confirmative of this belief; and 0. Pufahl 5 attributes the solubility of the gold in some coppers to the presence of selenium-a view which appears to be shared by many as- 1 Trans., xxiv., 575 (1894). 2 Trans., xxv., 250 (1895). 3 Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. lxix., No. 16, p. 469 (Apr. 21, 1900). 4 Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. lxxxvii., No.11, p. 569 (Mar. 13, 1909). 5 Lunge, Chemische Technische Untersuchungs Methoden, vol. ii., p. 229 (1900).

Jul 1, 1912

By Mara Kosovac, Sujan K. Kundu

The Iron Ore Co. of Canada (IOC) has developed a computerized plan analysis method for its open-pit iron mining operations which will eliminate much of the tedious manual drafting of pit design plans performed by engineers and geologists at its two major operational areas near Schefferville, Que., and Labrador City, Nfld. The new technique permits analysis of section or bench plans for a specific ore body, based on drillhole information; preparation of a three-dimensional unit profit matrix for pit design purposes, and storage of extensive ore-block information for other applications. Other advantages include enhanced design accuracy through reduction of human errors normally associated with preparation of large data masses, and by elimination of errors inherent in planimeter-prepared ore block diagrams.

Jan 7, 1978

By HAROLD VINTON COES

MANAGEMENT has been tersely defined as getting things done through the efforts of other people; but before we proceed further, let us distinguish between administration, management, and organization. Oliver Sheldon in his book, "The Philosophy of Management," offers the following definitions: Administration is the function in industry concerned in the determination of the corporate policy, the co-ordination of finance, production, and distribution, the settlement of the compass of the organization, and the ultimate control of the executive.

Jan 1, 1943

By M. E. Glicksman, G. S. Ansel

It has been shown by Walton and Chalmers,&apos; that the mechanism of the development of solidification textures in castings involves the preferential growth of dendrites along certain crystallographic directions as determined by the influence of prevailing heat-transfer conditions. Specifically, this growth is parallel to the direction of heat flow. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine the applicability of this mechanism to: 1) commercially pure aluminum (99.75 pct) solidified to coarse columnar crystals, 2) an aluminum-silicon casting alloy (5.25 Si, 0.38 Fe, 0.02 Cu, 0.10 Ti, 0.002 S) cast to a fine-grained structure under complex and reproducible heat transfer conditions. PROCEDURE AND RESULTS 1) Specimen Preparation—Using a technique similar to that employed by Northcott and Thomas,2 samples were melted in the directional solidification mold, Fig. 1, by heating the entire assembly to 670° C. The mold was then end cooled using a water jet. From considerations of harmonic analysis, the likely distribution of isotherm normals encountered by the growing crystals is shown in Fig. 1. 2) Orientation Analysis—The pure aluminum sample froze to large columnar crystals, nucleated close to the metal diaphragm, with the growth direction parallel to the mold axis. Using the back-reflection Laue technique, the growth direction of these crystals was determined to be a <100>, which coincided within 53 deg to the mold axis. Metallographic examination of the relatively fine-grained aluminum-silicon sample revealed a dendritic mode of growth having its primary dendrite arms along isotherm normals. Back-reflection Debye-Scherrer patterns, taken with the specimen rotating about its cylinder axis, yielded rings displaying symmetrical arcing, thus proving that the sample did, indeed, possess the solidification texture inferred from the preliminary metallographic examination. To determine the extent and orientation of the texture in the aluminum-silicon alloy, a density distribution of the (111) poles of the sample was plotted using the transmission Debge-Scherrer

Jan 1, 1960

By AIME AIME

MILLING called for four sessions and a luncheon and covered broad ranges from speculative theory to basic practice, and from coal to gold. An attractive and profitable feature was the "get-together" of "coal preparers" and "ore dressers" for mutual discussion of their common problems. The first event was the Milling Luncheon in the Engi¬neers&apos; Club on Monday. A concentrated group of high¬grade appeared and many matters were discussed, but only two called for official action: The meeting unanimously recommended the use of the Tyler standard sieve scale as against any new scale, and also the adoption of micron designation for fine particles in place of decimals of an inch or millimeter, or theoretical mesh size. The real sessions began on Monday afternoon with a menu of Mineral Physics for the ore dresser, metallurgist, geologist, physicist, et al. Four papers by the staff of the U. S. Bureau of Mines dealt with the chemical and physical aspects of mineral structure as revealed by the first two years of research to date. A fifth paper by Dr. M. J. Buerger correlated to the foregoing the knowledge of "The Lineage Structure of Crystals" and finally a sixth paper was a progress report of further developments of the last year in explosive shattering of minerals by the U. S. Bureau of Mines.

Jan 1, 1933

By Victor G. Hills

CONTRARY to what seems to be the general impression, the island of Cyprus was not named for the metal copper, but the reverse was the case. The origin of the name is entirely lost. The ancient city Kition, the birthplace of Zeno, is supposed to be the same as Kittim mentioned in Gen. x, 4; Jeremiah ii, 10 and Ezekiel xxvii, 6, and Josephus states that this name seems to have been applied to the city and also to the island itself. Cyprus is 50 miles off the coast of Asia Minor. The mountains on the mainland are plainly visible across the sea from where I write six miles from the shore of Morphou bay. It is 200 miles from Joppa the port of Jerusalem, and 250 from Port Said. The shape of the island is like a lizard, the tail pointing directly toward the old city of Antioch near the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean. The island was once heavily timbered. Among the great trees the cedars were said to even excel the famous cedars of Lebanon. The Odyssey refers to it as the "sweet smelling island" and makes other references. But the continual wars of every race and age completely stripped it of its timber, and for centuries it has been woefully barren. There are two ranges of mountains. One borders the north coast and runs out in a slim rocky ridge forming the "tail." The other occupies the southwestern part of the island, the highest point being Mt. Troodes 6600 ft. high, sometimes called Mt. Olympus. Whether or not it be the Mt. Olympus, anyway right around there the ancient gods and godesses frequently "started things." These peaks are in plain sight 10 miles south from where I live.

Jan 1, 1926

By Edgar C. Bain

A NUMBER probably a sizable group of person with a dominant interest in metals maintain contact with the developments in ferrous metallurgy by reading week by week, as time permits, some four or five periodical devoted in considerable part to this field. It seems possible that some of these, like ourself, find it difficult to see the net results of the development day by day in clear perspective, The impression sometimes seems blurred by the uninterrupted succession of so many accounts, or out of focus from the very impact of so many reports of new things enthusiastic, well written, and understandable though they usually are. It is at times almost as though one were trying to observe, from a fastmoving vehicle, objects all too near at hand. Or perhaps this impression is merely a manifestation of our individual hyperopia ; in which case we should content ourself with an observation that it would be more satisfactory on the whole to discuss in 1941 the metallurgical advances of 1930-35 than those of

Jan 1, 1941

By JAMES A. VEASEY

SINCE the World War, excepting for a few brief periods of relief, the American petroleum industry has been obliged to meet its important economic responsibility to this nation hampered by the maladjustment that inevitably follows a marked and unwholesome over-production of its raw material, crude oil. Despite the warnings of the Federal Oil Conservation Board and the endeavors of many of the leaders in the business to stem the flow of oil from the wells of the country, the evil ,not only persists but, at the moment, seems more malignant than ever before. Unless the local and temporary restraints on drilling and production now in effect in California, Wyoming, Texas, and Oklahoma are continued, and, indeed, unless stricter and more comprehensive measures of the same sort are imposed and adhered to by the industry in those States, over-production in the enterprise during the current year will be more pronounced than in any other period in history.

Jan 1, 1929

By Philip D. Wilson

FEAST and famine-or, chronologically, famine and feast-have characterized the aluminum supply program during 1943. Fortunately for the war effort the famine phase is over and aluminum production is now in the happy position of being abundantly able to supply all the requirements of the armed services plus a monthly surplus which is building up a substantial stock pile as a reserve against any contingencies. But the present condition of oversupply cannot be attributed to the super-efficiency of the aluminum production program which was designed to take care of the over-all requirements of the war with little or no margin of safety. The present more than comfortable situation is due primarily to the fact that the armed services generally have not consumed anything approaching the amount of aluminum which their requirement estimates indicated.

Jan 1, 1944

By W. S. Ayres

I. INTRODUCTION. THIS cavern was discovered Oct. 22, 1904, by Mr. Charles H. Deutschman, in company with whom I made, May 29 to June 3, 1905, at the request of Mr. Howard Douglas, Superintendent of the Canadian National Parks, the first exploration of it for the Canadian government. The results were stated in a paper, orally presented, with lantern-views from my photographs, at the British Columbia Meeting of the Institute, Victoria,, B. C., July 5, 1905.* The present paper embodies also the results of a second examination, made Oct. 25 to 29, 1905. The accompanying map, Fig. 1, will serve as a guide to the following description. II. LOCATION. The cavern is situated at snow-line, at the head-waters of Cougar creek, on the west slopes of the Selkirks, about 2 miles north from Ross Peak water-tank, and 5.5 miles west from Glacier House, on the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was then reached by an arduous climb from the water-tank, up the ravine of Cougar creek, for 8,000 ft. (2,000 ft. of altitude) over rock- and snow-slides, and through a thick tangle of alders. But an easy and very picturesque trail has, during the past summer, been opened by the government from Glacier House. Figs. 2, 3 and 4 represent views, not heretofore published, of the grand scenery of this region, so rapidly becoming the-object of attraction to thousands of tourists from all parts of the world. These views, as well as those shown in. Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8

Jan 1, 1907

By Basil B. Zavoico

ALTHOUGH the American petroleum industry was affected by the Second World War from its early beginning it was not until Dec. 7, 1941- that the industry was placed on full war footing. Even throughout most of 1942 the American overseas operations were limited and not until late in the year did expansion of military activities, more particularly the offensive in North Africa, affect the domestic supplies to such an extent that critical deficiencies developed locally in this country, particularly along the East Coast. The definite outlook for greatly expanded offensive operations by the United States on both Atlantic and Pacific fronts makes certain that during 1943 the domestic situation will. not be alleviated; rather it may become even more critical even though additional transportation facilities, now being built and planned. will be completed from the southwestern producing states to the East Coast.

Jan 1, 1943

By E. H. Sellards

ON Oct. 9, 1929, a sink formed in the Sour Lake salt dome oil field in Texas, and on Oct. 12 a second smaller sink formed at the north margin of the first. The purpose of this paper is to give such observations as it has been possible to make on the earth movement incident to this subsidence. Sour Lake salt dome is typical of the salt domes of the Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas. Structurally the dome is a plug of salt which rises to within 900 ft. or less of the surface. Above the salt is a cap rock consisting of anhydrite with more or less calcium carbonate. The salt plug, as contoured on the cap rock, is circular in outline with, however, some appreciable irregularities. Overlying the cap rock are relatively uncompacted sediments consisting of sand, clay and gumbo.. At the crest of the dome these deposits are no more than 700 or 800 ft. thick. However, the sides of the dome are steep, and the sediments thicken rapidly away from the crest. The sink formed about 1500 ft. northeast of the crest of the dome where the sediments overlying the cap rock are from 1000 to 1200 ft. thick. The cavity permitting the subsidence was quite certainly either in the cap rock or in the salt below the cap rock, so that the sink was formed by the caving of as much as 1000 or 1200 ft. of earth.

Jan 1, 1930

By RALPH HAYES SWEETSER

IRON ore and bituminous coal are the two basic raw materials for the whole iron and steel industry. The ore furnishes the iron and is absolutely necessary-all iron and steel products come directly or in- directly from the iron ores. The bituminous coal furnishes the carbon needed for the smelting of the ores and for the fuel used in all the processes of iron and steel manufacture. The necessary carbon could be furnished in some other form besides bituminous coal. In fact, it is only since the Civil War that bituminous coal has been the chief source of the carbon for metallurgical fuel. For many years only charcoal made from the forests furnished the carbon for smelting iron ores. About 90 years ago, anthracite coal was first used as blast-furnace fuel and for many years continued to be the chief blast furnace and steel making source for carbon. Even in my own blast-furnace experience, I have used charcoal in Canada and anthracite in Pennsylvania for smelting ores in an iron blast furnace. Bituminous coal, now almost exclusively the source for the carbon used in smelting iron ores, also furnishes most of the heat used in the steel-making processes. It is seldom used in blast furnaces in its natural condition, hut is first coked in beehive, or in by-product coke ovens; such bituminous coal is called "coking coal." Bituminous coal that is suitable for making the producer gas used in the open-hearth steel process is called gas coal. Any bituminous coals suitable for making blast-furnace coke or foundry coke, or that can be satisfactorily used for making producer gas, are classed as metallurgical coals and as such are to be considered in my proposed plan for the evaluation of metallurgical coals. According to Bureau of Mines Bulletin No. 449 these coals comprised 22 per cent of the bituminous coals mined in this country in 1923.

Jan 1, 1926

By L. W. WALLACE

IN an engineering fashion we have made an assay of the engineering profession, using as a. sample the engineers listed in "Who&apos;s Who in America" (1928-1929). We are aware that some will say it is an unfair sample; that it came from the best mine. This is readily admitted, with this qualification: that all engineers and architects by virtue of their training and experience have been freed of most of the dross to which mankind is heir. They are -a selected group to begin with, having all the potentialities those in the sample possess. We are also aware that some will say a part of those included in the sample are not engineers. Our answer to that criticism is this: An engineer is no less an engineer because for the time being he is president of a bank, a university, an opera company, or a hotel company. Moreover, he is no less an engineer because he is a governor of a commonwealth, a United States senator, a member of the Cabinet, or the President of the United States.

Jan 1, 1929

By E. P. Fleming

COMPARED to the situation abroad, the domestic industry continues to lag both as regards the production and consumption of newly mined lead. During 1938 we produced and consumed slightly over 20 per cent of the world output, whereas ten years ago the figure was nearly double this pro- portion. Labor difficulties and absence of demand were chiefly responsible for the general inactivity. In the foreign field, in spite of low metal prices, production and consumption of lead equaled or exceeded all previous records. Practically all the large companies, with the exception of those in Spain, increased operations, though it should be noted that the foreign lead mines have higher-grade ores than domestic mines. In view of the rapid expansion of the foreign industry, it is natural to expect greater progress abroad, particularly in process metallurgy.

Jan 1, 1939

By C. L. HUNTZINGER

THE mine here described is in the Witbank district, a coal area of the Transvaal, about 100 miles north- east of Johannesburg. and is owned by the Witbank Colliery, Ltd. The plant has a capacity of 4000 tons per eight hours, and prepares five sizes of coal. The coal seam lies at a depth of about 200 ft. below the surface, and is reached by an inclined shaft sunk at an angle of 18° with the horizontal. Although the thickness of the coal seam varies from 10 to 14 ft. or more, only about a 7-ft. bench is mined. Mining is by the hord and pillar system. Bords are driven 18 ft. wide, with pillars measuring 18 ft. square. The mine is laid out into four sections, each sewed by a main haulage way from the shaft. Arc-wall machines are used for cutting the coal. but all loading is done by hand. Native labor is employed under the supervision of white miners, who do the required blasting. The workings are practically free from gas and water, and very little timber is needed.

Jan 1, 1931

By Mitchell, Edmund I.

VARIOUS suggestions as to proper fees for engineering services have been put forth by individual practitioners and by the American Institute of Consulting Engineers, the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers, the Iowa Engineering Society and the Mahoning Valley (Ohio) Engineers, for the guidance of both the engineer and his client. The American Institute of Architects also has a schedule of minimum charges (revised 1908). So far as can be determined, however, the four national societies representing civil, mining, mechanical and electrical engineering have never given consideration to this question. An examination of technical periodicals published during the past decade shows that these schedules make provision for three methods of charging; i.e., (A) a percentage of the cost of the completed project; (B) a per diem rate; and (C) a fixed sum. Suggested minimum charges are as follows:

Jan 1, 1921

By AIME AIME

THE week, of April 5 will long be remembered by those that attended the Birmingham meetings of the Open-Hearth and Blast Furnace committees of the A.I.M.E. Iron and Steel Division. Birmingham iron and steel own received the 450 delegates with open arms; described and discussed their southern metallurgical practices and problems and compared experiences with their northern brother metallurgists in two days of technical sessions on Wednes-

Jan 1, 1937

By GUY C. RIDDELL

THE recent purchase by an American investment trust of a substantial block of shares in a British owned Venezuelan copper operation directs attention to mining activities that have been quietly gaining momentum in that country for a number of years. We hear so much of oil work in Venezuela that attention to its metal-mining activities is in most quarters casual. In gold and copper the country has made some interesting mining records, and two of the old districts are ,digging in for a come-back. Copper Copper production centers in the state of Yaracuy. The Aroa-Cumaragua mining region has had a long and eventful history. The Aroa mine itself, 50 miles from the coast in West-Central Venezuela, was discovered in 1605. First mined in 1632, owned at one time by Simon Bolivar, it has been reopened many times and is now , the basis of substantial operations by the South American Copper Syndicate, Ltd. of London. The latter has operated the property profitably, off and on, for a number of years, paying heavy dividends on a small investment-at times over 300 per cent annually.

Jan 1, 1929

By William B. Plank

ENROLMENT data given in this report of the seventh study of the schools by the Mineral Industry Education Division reveals the critical situation in the mineral engineering schools of the United States. Complete figures for the year 1942-43 show that at that time, about one year after Pearl Harbor, the enrollment of mineral engineers was 6385 or 30 per cent less than in 199441. By October 1943, however, enrollment had dropped to 2050, as reported in the Journal of Engineering Education of January 1944. This was a further reduction of 68 per cent in one year, or 77 per cent in three years. With accelerated programs in effect during the current year, with many graduations since last October, and with the military forces taking practically all the high school graduates, the present enrollment is, of course, much lower than the 2050 above given. There are no late data on the exact situation. In Canada, the same situation exists in the mineral engineering schools, only

Jan 1, 1944