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By M. H. Caron

THE most outstanding property of ammonia liquors, used in the ammonia leaching process is their very limited ability to dissolve all compounds present in reduced ore except nickel and cobalt. Although they do have such a high degree of purity, even the smallest amounts of impurities contaminate the precipitate of basic nickel carbonate that may be obtained from pregnant liquors by straight distillation. Figures have been given in a separate paper regarding the extent of such contamination. The product of straight distillation is likely to contain small amounts of Fe, Mn, MgO and SiO2 as well as some sulphate and sulphide. The sulphur can be readily eliminated by calcination of the product at the proper temperature and MgO and SiO2 by reduction and melting of the metal with a suitable flux. After such treatment the metal is relatively pure, and the iron and manganese content will be very small. The cobalt content, however, may vary considerably, depending upon the ore treated. The metal obtained from pure true garni-erite ores usually has only a small cobalt content of less than 1 pct. Metal obtained from medium grade iron-rich nickel ores may show cobalt values from 2 to 3 pct, and the alloy obtained from laterite is likely to contain as much as 10 pct cobalt. By proper treatment a good deal of cobalt may be recovered from lateritic nickeliferous iron ores, and cobalt will become the major constituent of the pregnant liquor if asbolan ores or similar products are treated. The pregnant liquor of "run of mine" nickel ores may have a pinkish shade, indicating the presence of cobalt. It is evident that from such liquors the metals should be recovered separately. Even if cobalt is present in only very small amounts, it would probably be economically justifiable to recover both metals as pure as possible if a suitable process could be devised. The author has made investigations along this line and has patented some processes adapted to the treatment of this type of solutions. Selective Dissolution of Nickel from Basic Nickel Carbonate Containing Some Cobalt: Basic nickel carbonate obtained from true garnierite ores by straight distillation of the pregnant liquors, always contains some cobalt as well as the normal impurities. In. order to improve the quality of the nickel product and to recover most of the cobalt, the following process has been devised. By using liquors with a low CO2 to NH3 ratio, nickel can be redis-solved preferentially to cobalt. It is not a sharp and clean separation but a selective one, for the bulk of the nickel may be redissolved with a small amount of cobalt, and a small residue may hold the bulk of the cobalt. The greatly increased cobalt content of the residue is indicated by a pronounced olive green color, in contrast with the light green color of pure basic nickel carbonate. The following example is given from Dutch patent No. 52788, Klasse 40a. 43 granted June 17, 1942: The original precipitate contained about 0.55 pct cobalt calculated on total nickel + cobalt. Eight hundred and fifty grams of the basic nickel carbonate were redissolved in leach liquor containing 7.12 pct NH3 and 2.12 pct CO2. The weight of the dry residue was about 3.5 pct of the original weight. By analysis it was found that the residue contained: Fe 1.93 pct, Co 6.01 pct, Ni 34.87 pct and also a certain amount of silica. The clear filtered blue liquor was distilled and the precipitate of basic nickel carbonate from this analyzed: Fe 0.008 pct, Co 0.0146 pct, Ni 42.37 pct. It is obvious that this product is considerably more pure, since calculation shows that about 94 pct of the original cobalt remained in the residue. Cobalt and nickel can be recovered by further

Jan 1, 1951

By Gerhard Derge

METALLURGISTS have used borax as a fluxing agent traditionally, but until recently elemental boron has played an insignificant role as an alloying element. Neither the metal nor its compounds have been regarded as important metallurgical materials and there is a surprising lack of knowledge concerning their metallurgical behavior. The new applications to steelmaking of both boron and borates, which arose in part from wartime incentives and restrictions, have been seriously handicapped by this lack of data. For example, rasorite, a naturally occurring sodium borate, has been shown to be an effective substitute for aluminum as a ladle deoxidizer in rimming steels.1 Likewise, the effectiveness of boron as an alloying agent has been demonstrated, 2,3 giving deep hardening when used in restricted amounts. The exploitation of both of these uses has been retarded by the difficulty of attaining suitable metallurgical control. Recognizing that the most important information required was a knowledge of the equilibrium between boron and oxygen dissolved in liquid iron, Gurry4 calculated this relation from the best thermal data available. However, estimates of the entropy of melting of boron, the activity coefficient of boron in liquid iron and the activity coefficient of B203 in slag were involved, and experimental work on this problem was obviously desirable. The experiments to be described were planned to establish the boron-oxygen relations in liquid iron and to demonstrate at the same time the ferroborate slag compositions in equilibrium with various amounts of oxygen in liquid iron. Accordingly, slags containing varying proportions of iron and boron oxides were held in contact with molten iron, and samples of both slag and metal were analyzed. The limitations upon the accuracy of the data will be considered, but in a practical sense the oxygen levels that can be attained in iron by iron borate slags, and the amounts of boron in iron at these oxygen levels were established. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE No entirely suitable refractory was found for the mixtures of iron oxide and boron oxide used as slags. Crucibles of silica, magnesia, Ramix, beryllia, and zirconia were all tried unsuccessfully. The most satisfactory method discovered for handling them was the rotating-crucible technique, which creates a parabolic crucible of liquid iron 5,6 Even this was not entirely successful, for at steelmaking temperatures (1600°C.) the slags had such a low surface tension that they crept up to the refractory and slowly dissolved it. These difficulties made it impossible to maintain a constant slag composition for an unlimited period of time. However, by using the rotating

Jan 1, 1946

Sulfuric Acid and Phosphate Industries at Anaconda Reduction Works. BY E L LARISON (Contribution 70-Preprint 4400 words) In 1915 a 135-ton chamber sulfuric acid plant was built at the Anaconda Reduction Works to supply acid for leaching sand tailing Sulfur dioxide was obtained by roasting copper table concentrate Soon after, the flotation process, using acid as a reagent, together with development of a leaching and electrolytic process for zinc recovery, necessitated building a second acid unit of 50 tons' per day capacity, completed in 1917 Within a few months the zinc process was so improved as to consume no added acid Mean¬while research work was in progress on production of phosphate fertilizers using sulfuric acid and Idaho phosphate rock In 1920 a pilot plant was put into operation which treated 50 tons per day of phosphate rock to produce treble superphosphate containing 45 per cent available P205 In 1922 the original plant and process for leaching of sand tailing were abandoned in favor of a combination leaching and flota¬tion process In 1923 the sand leaching plant was remodeled into a treble super¬phosphate plant designed to treat 160 tons per day of phosphate rock. In 1924 the copper flotation process was put on alkaline circuit and acid, has not since been used as a reagent Practically all the acid produced is now used for making phos¬phate products In 1931 the use of copper concentrate as a source of sulfur dioxide was abandoned and an iron concentrate, floated from the copper concentrator tail¬ing, substituted

Jan 1, 1935

By T. T. Chen, P. Pint

Based on the mineralogy, phase characteristics and compositions of the smelter feed, the smelter products and the smelter wastes, the sources and distributions of mercury and arsenic in the Afton copper smelter, Kamloops, British Columbia have been determined. Of the total mercury In the feed, approximately 33% is in solid solution in tennantite, 51% is in native copper and 16% occurs as mercurian silver. Arsenic in the feed occurs mainly as tennantite. Under current smelting conditions, 99.6% of the total mercury In the feeds enters the off-gas cleaning system. From this off-gas, about 1% of the total mercury, occurring as dust, is recirculated to the flotation concentrate; 4.6% of the total mercury is contained in SO2 scrubber sludge which is discharged to tailings. Approximately 78% of the total arsenic in the smelter reports in the copper products; 20% is incorporated in the dust and slag which are subsequently recirculated to the mill. Only 1.8% is rejected as scrubber sludge, and less than 0.2% 1s released to the mercury scrubber.

Jan 1, 1984

By Y. C. Liu, G. A. Alers

Using X-ray pole-figure information and the single-crystal elastic constants, the angular variation of an elastic modulus in a polycrystal can be calculated and compared to measured clalues. This procedure has been used in the past to provide supporting ecidence for a particular choice of ideal orientations in the description o the X-ray pole figure. Since it is well-known that the absolute value oj an elastic modlus oj a poly crystal cannot be acczrralely calculated from the single-crystal elastic constants, there exists a serious question about the reliability oj this modulus method in the study of textures. This paper deriz-es sez3eral simple fornzulae for the ntzgular lariatiion of Young's modulus in the plane o a rolled sheet sing the same ssuinptions which lead to the lack oj detinztion of the absolute c'alre OJ the elastic ,nodulus. The vesults show that, although the absolute isallre oj Young's modulus depends strongly on the assumptions made, the shape of the modulus vs angle curve is not very sensitive to the assumptions and thus can be used reliably in texture studies. Exatzples oj' using this criteriotz are illustrated in the text. NeARLY all poly crystalline materials have some preferred orientation in the arrangement of their grains and hence exhibit anisotropy in their properties. This preferred orientation is usually measured and studied by X-rays which yield detailed information on the statistical distribution of grain orientations in the form of pole figures. The usefulness of these pole figures in theories of texture formation and in predictions of properties has come to depend almost entirely on the characterization of the pole figure by one or more ideal orientations. Unfortunately, this characterization is not unique and different authors often present different ideal orientations to characterize a given pole figure. In order to distinguish between these different choices of ideal orientations, it is necessary to go beyond X-rays and consider other physical properties which reflect the texture' simply because any choice of ideal orientations must predict correctly the observed anisotropy in all physical properties. The most common example of this procedure has made use of the angular variation of Young's modulus with respect to the rolling direction in the plane of a rolled sheet.3 4 Here the anisotropy can be measured easily and it can also be calculated from the single-crystal elastic constants and the chosen ideal orientation. Unfortunately the methods used to calculate this anisotropy were chosen for their simplicity rather than for their mathematical rigor so that there exists a serious question as to the validity of conclusions reached by this modulus method. It is well-known5 that the absolute value of the Young's modulus of a polycrystalline aggregate cannot be calculated very accurately because different mathematical averages over the grains yield different results. It is one purpose of this paper to examine the effect of different averaging procedures on the calculated anisotropy of Young's modulus in the rolling plane of rolled sheets in order to see if this property can be used reliably in texture studies. This particular modulus and type of material were chosen because the modulus is easily measured and rolled sheet is technologically important. The results show that, although different averages yield different absolute values for Young's modulus, the shape of the modulus vs angle curve is not very sensitive to the averaging procedure and thus can be used as a criterion to check the various ideal orientations used to characterize the X-ray pole figure. Examples of this checking procedure are given in the final section. Another purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of using the anisotropy of Young's modulus as an indicator of texture without reference to pole figures or ideal orientations. Such a use would require that different textures yield quite different shapes for the modulus vs angle curve so that the distinction between textures would be quite clear. The experimental results presented in the final section indicate that there is easily enough variation in shapes to allow modulus measurements to be useful texture indicators, par-

Jan 1, 1967

By George W. Hezzelwood

THE Balatoc mine, one of the Haussermann group,† is on the Island of Luzon, the largest of the Philippine group, about 260 km north of Manila, and 12 km from the city of Baguio The Baguio district is the most important gold-mining area of the Philippines, with 14 producing mines in 1939, milling 2,358,804 tons of ore, yielding [P]40,881,048, approximately 55 per cent of the total Philippine production of [P]74,131,216 PRODUCTION HISTORY The Balatoc mine began production In January 1929 with a 150-ton cyanide mill Increases in mill capacity have taken place as follows March, 1932, to 330 tons June, 1933, to 470 tons December, 1933, to ;15 tons July, 1934, to 700 tons December, 1934, to loon tons May, 193, to 1200 tons October, 1938, to 1300 tolls April, 1939, to 2000 tons January, 1941, to 2T50 tons Production during the period of expansion has steadily increased in total value in spite of the fact that grade of ore milled has dropped-from $31 06 in 1929 to $5 78 in1940 Annual reports give production as shown in Table I, the average value, being based on gold at the old price of $20 67 per ounce [ ] GEOLOGY The ore occurs in quartz-calcite veins that vary in width from narrow stringers to mineralized zones 40 to 30 ft wide Wall rocks consist largely of diorites, with some andesite, and a fragmental breccia called locally the "Balatoc plug " Texture of the ore varies widely in the different vents-from a soft, highly altered, gouge material filled with quartz fragments through a soft, unaltered quartz-calcite to a hard, massive quartz ore Three major vein systems have been extensively developed, and smaller amounts of work have been done on several others These veins strike east-west to N 60°, clipping south from 50° to 90°, and are essentially tension breaks between a series of faults or shears striking N 30°E to N 30°E and clipping southeast from 50° to 90° The shear veins and tension veins probably formed more or less simultaneously,

Jan 1, 1942

By E. H. Sellards

PHOSPHATE rock like most other mineral substances is found in nature in varying degrees of purity. Of the impurities that are present some are constituents of the rock itself; others are inclusions of a foreign substance within the rock; while still others represent merely associated materials or minerals, either clinging to the rock or found in cavities and natural depressions, and hence largely removed in mining. Some of these impurities are distinctly deleterious to the processes of manufacture for which the phosphate is mined, while others, although neutral in action or nearly so, yet by their presence reduce the average grade of the rock and thus acid useless bulk to the shipment. It is the object of refined processes of mining to bring the product, as delivered from the mine, to the highest possible grade consistent with the market requirements and demands. This, however, is not accom-plished without actual loss in the form of discarded phosphate. It is evident, therefore, that the devising of methods for reducing this loss in mining, and yet maintaining the grade of the rock which the market requires, is one of the serious problems that the producers have to face.

Jan 9, 1914

By C. Wert, D. Keefer

The results of this study indicate that sudden increases in aging temperature lead to reversion phenmena in carbon in the a, iron system. These phenomena are thought to be associated with the dissolution of carbide precipitates. Reversion is studied with respect to three variables: 1) Specimen grain size, 2) the initial amount of carbon in solution, and 3) difference between initial and final aging temperature. It is found that of these variables the initial carbon concentration has the greatest effect on reversion. THE solid solution of carbon in n iron has been the subject of numerous investigations throughout the past few years. Despite the great amount of effort which has been put forth toward understanding this system, however, there persist a number of interesting aspects of the system which are open to further research' Studies Of the precipitate which forms as a result of aging a supersaturated solution of carbon in a, iron appear to be particularly interesting. The present work is an attempt to determine certain

Jan 1, 1960

By A. Matsubara

Jan 1, 1922

By A. Matsubara

Jan 1, 1922

By T. D. Lynch, N. B. Pilling

The development of a proper treatment for shells in conncction with war contracts has brought to our attention the fact that the temperature of the liquid bath in which steel is quenched has a decided influence on the speed of cooling in the case of some liquids and very little in the case of others. Widely different physical results have been obtained by the use of water spray, water immersion, and oil immersion and further experiment has shown that the quenching effect of water used as a spray or an immersion varies greatly with the temperature of the water. The present experiments were undertaken with the idea of obtaining information of a quantitative nature regarding the quenching properties of a number of liquids used commercially in hardening steel. The general features of such cooling media are common knowledge and in the literature may be found records of numerous attempts to evaluate the cooling power of a liquid when used as a quenching bath. Much, if not most, of the data given on this subject is in the form of a simple statement of the time required for a certain heated mass to cool between two arbitrary temperatures when immersed in the liquid, quite regardless of the path of the temperature change. Our own purpose has been somewhat different. We have attempted to isolate that property of these liquids having to do with their ability to absorb heat rapidly, as distinct from the behavior of a considerable mass when exposed to different thermal environments. More specifically, from the data obtained through autographically recorded cooling curves of a small standard mass quenched under various conditions, we have tried to analyze the mechanism of heat absorption by the several liquids, measure the changes in its rate as a function of the temperature of the surface of transference, and ascertain the influence of the temperature of the liquid itself upon both. Without attempting an exhaustive citation of the literature, mention may be made of some of the more important contributions, notably the pioneer work of Le Chatelier,' followed by the extensive investigations

Jan 1, 1920

By James P. Kimball

In a paper which I had the honor to present to the Institute at the Montreal meeting, September 1879,I took occasion to refer incidentally to certain practical difficulties in the sampling of coal-seams {Trans. Vol. VIII., p. 181-3). This reference was particularly to the unequal distribution of sulphur in the form of pyrite, and to the necessity of discriminating between the several members or " benches " of a coal seam as to their relative proportion of visible sulphur. What is a practically truthful estimation of the sulphur of a coal seam, is not necessarily the estimation of an average of sulphur in any given line of cross-section of the seam. Cornparatively speaking, the range of sulphur in quantity is generally so low that errors in its determination, arising from neglectful sampling or from slips in the laboratory, fall chiefly upon this single ingredient. Not so,

Jan 1, 1884

By John J. Egan, A. B. Kinzel, Walter Crafts

The demands of the petroleum and chemical industries for steels to be used in pressure vessels and similar structures at artificially low temperatures are continually increasing, and the writing of proper specifications with suitable tests becomes increasingly important. Likewise, the selection of suitable steels for such applications is of increasing concern to the metallurgist. It is generally recognized that highly alloyed steels of the austenitic stainless type retain their properties even at very low temperatures and represent the best technological solution of the low-temperature steel problem. However, in many instances less expensive carbon or low-alloy steels suitable for service within limited temperature ranges are available. The problem thus becomes one of defining the various factors involved in the production and fabrication of these less expensive steels and determining the temperature ranges in which their properties justify engineering application. Most of the applications involve welded structures, and the heat effect of welding as well as the nature of the weld metal are matters of prime concern. The first problem that the metallurgist faces is the determination of the type of test to be used as a criterion of the performance of the steel in low-temperature service. It has been generally recognized that the static properties of steel as determined in the ordinary tensile test undergo a gradual and relatively slight change as the temperature of test is lowered in the range of current interest; i.e., from room temperature to minus 120' C. It is further generally recognized that the behavior of steel under impact involving notch sensitivity is definitely affected at the lower temperatures. While the major subject of this paper is the effect of grain-refining deoxidizers, of low-alloy additions and of welding on the low-temperature notched-bar impact properties, an inquiry into the general behavior of steel under low-temperature impact testing is included. This is a pertinent portion of the investigation and the results thereof are

Jan 1, 1937

By Robert H. Richards, Richard W. Lodge

A great deal of speculation, as well as actual experiment, has been devoted to ascertaining the changes in the materials (luring their descent in an iron blast-furnace, affecting (1) the chemical constitution, (2) the mechanical condition, and (3) the arrangement of the materials. With a view to throw some light upon the third question, we constructed a model and tried experiments which are here described. Our model is a vertical section of a furnace, with the lines of the Edgar Thomson furnace D of 1885 for the use of which we arc indebted to Mr. Gayley. The model is 40 inches high, and made to scale (1/2 inch equals 1 foot), and the horizontal section of the space through which the charge falls at any point in the descent is 11/2 in. x d, d being the diameter of the furnace at that place. We are unable to say just where the idea of making this model came from ; perhaps, partly from The Principles of the Manufacture of Iron, and Steel, 1884, I. Lowthian Bell, p. 124 ; partly, also, from

Jan 1, 1888

By AIME AIME

THE world was not quite ready for Hal Marsh when he emerged from the California Institute of Technology in 1922 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, so, finding no promising job, he went back on a fellowship for another year. He wound up his responsibilities to it on a Saturday in June, 1923, went to work for the General Petroleum Corp. of California the next Monday morning, and has been there ever since. His present position is that of "production engineer." As such, his duties are miscellaneous and vague, but may mostly be described as investigation of equipment and methods pertaining to drilling and the production of oil, with occasionally a bit of design. He has written important papers for the A.I.M.E., American

Jan 1, 1936

By R. R. Sayers

VENTILATION may be defined as the process by which vitiated air of an inclosed or partly inclosed space is continuously replaced by fresh air. Fresh air has been defined as invigorating pure air. Pure dry air at sea level contains the following gases:1 Analysis of Air at Sea Level PER CENT. Oxygen 20.94 Nitrogen 78.09 Carbon dioxide 0.03 Argon 0.94 Helium, krypton, neon, xenon, hydrogen, hydrogen peroxid, ammonia, ozone traces CARBON DIOXIDE LIMIT For many years carbon dioxide was used as an index of the purity of the air vitiated by the metabolism of people. It was, however, well known that the untoward effects produced on those exposed to such air was not due to the concentration of the carbon dioxide. It has been found that the untoward effects on the comfort and efficiency of those so exposed are due to the increased temperature and humidity. It has been found that men can breathe air containing many times the amount of carbon dioxide found in our worst ventilated theaters and assembly halls, which, according to Rosenau, do not contain above 0.5 per cent. carbon dioxide.

Jan 7, 1926

By Paul Tyler

STRATEGICALLY situated in almost the heart of the leading fertilizer-consuming area of the United States, Tennessee long has ranked second only to Florida as a phosphate-producing state. Since 1932 its share of the national output of phosphate rock has increased steadily, and in 1937 its production mounted to an all-time record. More significant even than the increase in tonnage are the forward strides in technology. The Tennessee Valley Authority's research program has led to quasicommer-cial operations using hydroelectric power to manufacture concentrated phosphatic fertilizer that is used to further the farmer education program designed to streamline the fertilizer business and halt the appalling waste of farm land by soil erosion. Even more stimulating to chemically minded imaginations is the production of elemental phosphorus by a private company that not only has succeeded in extracting it from the phosphate rock in electric furnaces but actually has contrived to capture it and to transport it safely in tank cars. New values have been created for low-grade phosphate deposits, and the economic life of reserves has been lengthened while the waste of former years goes back into the mills for recovery of its values by modernized methods. Tennesse's phosphate-mining industry dates from the discovery of blue rock in Lewis County in December 1893. Its known reserves are of the order of 101,500,000 tons, which compares with the production of 825,099 tons in 1937; that is, 21 per cent of the phosphate-rock output of the whole nation. The total output reported from 1894 until July 1, 1938, was approximately 19,000,000 tons. Official estimates of reserves are overly conservative and evidence submitted before a joint Con-gressional committee in November 1938 places "probable" reserves at more than 6,000,000,000 tons.

Jan 1, 1939

By P. Breidt, E. S. Greiner

THIS note reports a determination of the melting point of germanium, and the liquidus of the Ge-Ga alloys; lattice constants of the a phase are given. The alloys were prepared by melting germanium (>20 ohm-cm resistivity) and gallium (99.6 pct) in evacuated silica tubes. The materials (50 to 70 g) were heated at 1000°C, held in the liquid state for about ¾ hr, and then cooled rapidly in the tubes. Points on the liquidus were obtained by thermal analysis which consisted of obtaining time-temperature data during heating and cooling the materials in high purity graphite crucibles and a helium at- mosphere. Temperatures were determined with a Pt—Pt-Rh thermocouple protected by a silica sheath. The couple was calibrated against a National Bureau of Standards calibrated couple and also against the freezing points of copper, silver, aluminum, and the 28.1 wt pct Cu, 71.9 wt pct Ag alloy eutectic. The samples for X-ray analysis were prepared by heating small pieces of the ingots in evacuated glass or quartz tubes at temperatures between 600" and 900°C for periods ranging from 2 hr to 22 days, periods deemed sufficient for equilibrium to be attained, followed by quenching in water. The heat-treated samples were ground to powder for X-ray analysis. The lattice constants of the germanium-rich phase (a) were determined with a baok-reflection focusing camera. The X-ray reflections (331 and 422 Cr Ka, 422 and 333 Cr KB) were corrected

Jan 1, 1956

By Charles Brush

THE general subject of accurate pyrometry, its great development in recent years, and the importance of its application in arts and manufactures is so ably treated in other papers that this paper will bee confined to a resume of some research work on certain temperature effects in carbon and other steels, some of which appear to, be new. The results of these researches are embodied in several papers presented to' various scientific societies during the last few years, most of them under the general title of Spontaneous Generation of Heat in Recently Hardened Steel.1 Several years ago, when studying the behavior, tinder certain conditions, of specimens of hardened tool steel, I observed that they all spontaneously generated a small quantity of heat, the rate of generation diminishing from day to day for several weeks before generation became imperceptible in the sensitive calorimeter used. In each case the steel had been hardened only a few days prior to its use. It seemed highly probable that the generation of heat was associated with some sort of "seasoning" or incipient annealing process, perhaps accompanied by slight changes of volume, and that it would be most rapid immediately after hardening. I subsequently investigated this curious phenomenon more fully. Twelve ½ in. round bars of tool steel, 5 in. long and with machined surfaces, were hardened by heating to high cherry red in a reducing atmosphere of a gas furnace and quenched in cold water. The bars then had a thin strongly adhering coating of black oxide. They were next stirred in a large quantity of water at room temperature, to acquire that temperature, wiped dry, and oiled with heavy, neutral mineral oil to prevent generation of heat by further surface oxidation, wiped free of excess of oil and placed in the copper cylinder of a heat-insulated box.

Jan 9, 1919

By George W. Bain

Some problems concomitant with commercial exploitalion of marble are presented as examples of interesting, useful and profitable fields for application of scientific knowledge. The marble industry is only one such field and is selected because its varying new aspects are familiar to the author. However, what is true for marble is equally so in principle for many industrial minerals. The problems of any stone industry are to maintain markets, create new outlets for stone already in demand, and develop varied uses for varieties that are not so popular. Here the geologist has a different role from most of his colleagues in metal mining. The producing branch may ask about the expectable variation in thickness or size of a deposit as development proceeds. The stock department may call for the available amount of a given type of stone before accepting a large order. The sales force requires data on the use for stone from certain parts of deposits in order to divert grades to the most suitable use. The service department wants defects rectified and the cause determined to avoid recurrence The mills want data on durability and cutting quality of abrasives. The geologist occupies no special department; he is on general call, as may be illustrated by a few types of problems that may be classified as: (1) dominantly geological in character, (2) dominantly chemical in character, (3) dominantly physical in character. Geological Problems The geological problems deal almost exclusively with the size of blocks. Size across the deposit is limited by thickness of individual beds. and along the strike by the space between crosscutting joints. Frequently the vertical depth of a block is reduced by exfoliation shells arising from spontaneous expansion. All these factors require consideration in developing a deposit to fill an order. Thickening of Marble Beds The limestone beds that became the marble deposits of the northern Appalachians and of the Yule locality in Colorado were seldom homo-

Jan 1, 1941