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By John P. Bingham

GRACE mine and mill, owned by Bethlehem-Cuba Iron Mines Co. and operated by Bethlehem Cornwall Corp., are being developed to produce 9600 tons of 42 ½ pct Fe magnetite ore, to yield 5760 tons per day of agglomerated iron concentrates averaging 65 pct Fe. Located about 14 miles south of Reading, the property is ideally situated in relation to good highways and railroad. Three major steel plants, at Bethlehem, Steelton, and Sparrows Point, Md., are about equidistant from the mine. Discovery of the orebody resulted from an airborne magnetometer survey, completed in 1948, con¬sisting of 7000 lineal miles of flight lines spaced one-fourth of a mile apart and extending from the Delaware River on the east to Gettysburg, Pa., on the west. After examining the magnetic maps, Bethlehem's geologists made limited surface traverses over the Grace mine and Warwick area to check the location, and realtors were engaged to purchase the desired properties over and adjacent to the area showing favorable indication of ore.

Jan 1, 1957

By H. S. McQueen

THE insoluble residue method for the examination and correlation of limestones and dolomites, or other sedimentary rocks containing calcium and magnesium carbonates, originated and was developed in the laboratory of the Missouri Geological Survey. The numerous and ever-increasing problems in the field of applied geology, and the need for a tool or aid in the solution of them, led to experimental work with samples collected from deep wells, in the early part of 1924. The success attained, almost at the outset, with this method was so great that the method has now been developed from the state of the experimental to the realm of large-scale, every-day routine. In a previous paper the writer' described the procedure in detail and the characteristics of the residues obtained from certain Paleozoic forma-tions in Missouri. The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the economic application of the insoluble residue method.

Jan 1, 1936

By J. Washburn

Two simple types of dislocation distribution were introduced into zinc crystal specimens and the effect of each on the stress-strain curve was investigated. Quantitative results were obtained for simple edge dislocation arrays and for an array of screw dislocations lying in the slip plane. A CCORDING to present knowledge, the disloca-tions present in large annealed metal crystals can be divided into two somewhat arbitrary groups: 1—single dislocation lines distributed more or less at random or forming elements of a three-dimensional network in which the distance between adjacent dislocations is of the order of 10 2 to lo-' cm and 2— widely separated planar arrays of edge dislocations forming dislocation walls or small angle boundaries within which adjacent dislocation lines are spaced at much smaller distances (lo-' to 10- hm). The former can be considered as a dislocation interpretation of the mosaic crystal proposed by Darwin and Ewaldl, ' 40 years ago to account for anomalously high integrated intensities of X-ray diffraction maxima. Small angle boundaries, although now known to be present in most single crystals used for mechanical testing, were not generally recognized by the early workers. This was partly due to the fact that only recently have improved X-ray and metal-lographic techniques been available for checking the macroscopic perfection of crystals."" It has long been known that changes in growth conditions and in annealing procedure, which might logically be expected to cause variations in the structural details of both the dislocation network and of dislocation boundaries, produce marked variations in some mechanical properties such as yield strength." However, no quantitative experimental correlations between changes in dislocation distribution and changes in mechanical properties have yet been made. Such a correlation has been difficult to obtain because, even when great care is exercised to keep the histories of a number of single crystal specimens identical, it usually has not been possible to avoid considerable variation in macroscopic per- fection.' The number and orientation of dislocation boundaries vary from specimen to specimen. This has probably been an important contributing factor to the large scatter in the results of most mechanical measurements on pure single crystals. Some recent experiments"% ith single crystals of zinc have shown that the presence of dislocation boundaries in a specimen can increase its resistance to deformation by slip. With polycrystalline aluminum and nickel, there is also evidence that dislocation boundaries within the individual grains of the aggregate can increase the resistance of the material to plastic deformation, either as measured by tension tests at room temperature or by creep tests at higher temperatures.'" " Although the foregoing observations seem to have established the fact that substructure can have a strengthening effect, the test conditions were too complex to give much information concerning the mechanism. In the foregoing cases, a network of intersecting boundaries having various orientations and boundary angles were present. Before their apparent strengthening effect can be understood, it will be necessary to isolate and study separately the effect of a number of variables: 1—boundary angle, 2—boundary orientation with respect to the active slip direction, 3—number of boundaries, 4—intersections of boundaries, 5—detailed structure of the boundaries, and 6—interaction of impurity atoms with dislocations in boundaries. The object of the present work was to study the effect of dislocation boundaries on flow stress under the following simple experimental conditions: 1— substantially pure shear deformation and 2—boundaries of controlled angle, orientation, and number. In this way, it might be possible to distinguish the important variables from the relatively unimportant ones. Experimental Procedure Stress-strain curves of hexagonal metals are generally nearly linear even out to very large strains."

Jan 1, 1956

By N. O. Johnson

THE Hog Mountain mine is a pyritic-gold property in the north central part of Tallapoosa County, Alabama, at an elevation of 800 ft. in the southern Appalachian region. It is 13 miles by a good secondary road from Alexander City, a station on the Central of Georgia Railroad. Since its discovery in 1839, the mine has been worked intermittently. The records of past operations are few and are scattered over a long period of time; however, available information indicates a production of approxi-mately 12,000 oz. of gold prior to the present company's activities, which started in 1933. Additional 7844 oz. has been produced under the direc-tion of the present management. The ore from stopes has averaged 0.200 oz. gold per ton; the ore from development, 0.136 oz. gold per ton. Silver, copper, iron and sulphur are also present but to date are of minor importance. The grade of ore in comparatively narrow veins makes necessary extreme vigilance in the methods of mining.

Jan 1, 1937

By Donald Ingvoldstad, Harold E. Lee

At Bunker Hill the original charge storage and preparation system was installed in 1917 to accommodate lead-silver gravity mill products. Only minor tonnages of wet fines such as vanner and flotation concentrates were received. Charge flux and diluent requirements were provided by an ample supply of siderite middlings and coarse limerock. While oversize material was crushed through Y4-in., the use of roll crushers in series resulted in a more or less granular, free-running charge of adequate porosity. Under such conditions, receipts could be proportioned directly from receiving bins, and suitable blending was obtained by passing the resultant layered composite through a small Stedman disintegrator. This elementary system served well for production and smelting of an extremely lead-rich sinter, in the low column blast furnace. Here sinter physical quality is less critical, and appreciable quantities of raw flux and oxidized ore may be charged directly to the blast furnace without seriously impairing furnace capacity.

Oct 1, 1956

By H. M. Warrren

IN the past, steam engines were used in practically all cases for driving the machinery, in and about an anthracite breaker, and hence little or no accurate data were available as to the power requirements for starting and operating the individual machines, which make up the complete equipment. It was impossible to segregate the power necessary to drive each individual machine, first, because the equipment was driven in groups, and second, because it was impracticable to obtain graphic, integrated, or instantaneous records of the horsepower used. As a result of these conditions, it was found, when individual electric motors were applied to the various machines, that more accurate and complete data were needed in order to provide motors of the proper power and design for the particular services to be rendered. In order to obtain the desired information, the writers made and collected a number of tests, from time to time, on the individual motor drives in- electrically operated breakers, and as these tests have been of great value, it occurred to them that a paper giving the results might be of service to other engineers interested in similar installations. Table I shows the .results of these tests. All the motors tested were of the three-phase, 60-cycle, 440-volt, induction, squirrel-cage type, except a few, which, on account of size and starting conditions, were of the wound-rotor type. The instruments used in making these tests were: An integrating watt-hour meter, a graphic ammeter, and a graphic voltmeter. These instruments were connected in each motor circuit, and a record of a day's run of 9 hours was obtained from each machine. From these tests, the running light load, the average all-clay load, and the instantaneous peak readings in amperes, volts, and kilowatt input, were obtained. By means of the characteristic curves obtained from these motors at the factory, the power factor, the efficiency, and the horsepower output were calculated for each particular test. Starting tests were made by the brake-arm method, in which the torque in pounds was measured directly on a spring balance.

Jan 2, 1916

By James W. Neill

Bituminous coal has for many years been used for the smelting of iron-ores in the blast-furnace. In some districts in Scotland it is used alone, in others it is used mixed with coke. The similar use of certain bituminous coals in the United States has been repeatedly mentioned in the Transactions. (See, for instance, as to the Hocking Valley coal, the papers of Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, Trans., ii., 275, and vii., 313; and as to Indiana "block-coal," the paper of Mr. J. S. Alexander, Trans., i., 225.) Phillips (Elements of Metallurgy, p. 250) says: " Raw coal for blast-furnace use must be of a non-cokiog kind, and, when of suitable quality, is perhaps the most advantageous fuel." In the first

Jan 1, 1892

By D. L. Katz

The critical phenomena have been studied during the past century but our knowledge of the critical temperatures and pressures of complex hydrocarbon mixtures still is very limited. The critical temperatures and pressures of pure substances have been examined in large num-bers,20 and in great detail.11,17 No experimental determinations of the critical phenomena have been reported on such complex hydrocarbon systems as a reservoir fluid. The critical temperature is defined by Taylor18 as follows: "there is some temperature for each gas above which the gas cannot be liquefied. This temperature is called the critical temperature." The critical pres-sure of a pure substance is the vapor pressure at the critical temperature. It should be noted that these definitions refer to a given substance in the pure state and do not mean that the pure substance cannot be liquefied in the presence of a second constituent. The normal procedure for obtaining the critical temperature of a substance is to heat it in a glass tube 1,20 under pressure until the meniscus between the liquid and vapor phase disappears, although other methods, especially for mixtures, have been used. 11,14 However, when considering oil and gas reservoirs, it is more enlightening to consider a critical phe-nomenon that occurs when a mixture of oil and gas are compressed at a reservoir temperature until the meniscus disappears because the two phases become equal in composition. This conception, along with erroneous applications of the definition of the critical phenomena of a pure substance to that pure substance when it is part of a complex mixture, has caused confusion even among persons familiar with the classical theories.

Jan 1, 1938

By Raymond E. Zimmerman

The Batac jig is a newly-designed Baum-type jig for coal washing. Multiple air changes directly under the bed permit uniform distribution of air pulsations, giving greater capacity and more accurate separation than standard Baum jigs. It is equipped with a new concept of air valves, automatically and electrically controlled, permitting infinite variation in jigging pulsations. It can be used for either coarse or fine coal cleaning. Sharp separations and high organic efficiencies are obtained at separation densities above 1.45 specific gravities.

Jan 1, 1976

By J. P. Newell, R. W. Storey

AUGER mining is a form of continuous mining in that it completely replaces with a one-cycle operation the older conventional cut, drill, shoot, and load method of mining. Relatively new, having been utilized only within the last few years, it is even more continuous in its production of coal than some other forms of continuous mining being practiced in this country today. There are at present coal recovery .augers in operation working along strip-mined highwalls from the outside. This paper will deal with underground mining, specifically with an experiment which was carried out with a machine developed for this purpose. The location of this experiment was in Pike County in eastern Kentucky in the upper split of the No. 3 Elkhorn seam. Coal height was 32 in. and roof conditions were very bad, with 10 in. of soft draw slate coming down with every cut in conventional mining. The coal is high-grade bituminous, excellent for metallurgical coking. Underground auger mining fills a need for a method of recovering coal in thin seams, under bad roof conditions or in split seams. In many cases it might save money by eliminating the handling of excessive quantities of rock. In fact, if the coal can be recovered, as in the case of this experiment, without mixing with any impurities outside the seam, it may be possible to load or ship a satisfactory product with little or no preparation or cleaning expense. The need for some economical method for recovering coal from thin seams is becoming more pressing as the more profitably mined seams are exhausted. Basic Principles of Auger Mining The principles of the auger, or screw conveyor, have long been used in drilling small diameter holes for blasting and other purposes. These same fundamentals apply to large diameter drilling. However, considerably more attention was given to designing a cutting head that would not pulverize the coal and consequently would require a minimum of power to drive it. The head, as designed for this job, consists of a cylinder 25 in. in diam with steel bits set in 3 positions spaced around the forward rim. A conventional coal drill bit, at the head of a bursting cone in the center of the cylinder, trails the forward rim slightly, see Fig. 1. The bursting cone and auger connections are anchored to the cutter barrel by 3 arms spaced at 120 This head design proved to be very satis-

Jan 1, 1952

By Waldemar Lindgren

Discussion of the paper of WALDEMAR LINDGREN and CLYDE P. Ross, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1916, and printed in Bulletin No. 106, October, 1915, pp. 2171 to 2190. WALDEMAR LINDGREN, Boston, Mass.-I happened to go down to Cuba rather unexpectedly in the winter of 1914, and spent a few very interesting days at Daiquiri and Mayari. To C. F. Rand and his associates I am greatly indebted for permission to visit the mines and for many courtesies received. A few months after that, I met Professor Kemp who informed me that he had just returned from a geological study of Daiquiri. We talked over what to do in a case like that. We both liked to publish our opinions, and so finally agreed to write two papers entirely separately, I not knowing any of Professor Kemp's conclusions,1 and vice versa. We were rather interested in seeing what would happen. Of course, as might be expected, we disagreed on some points; not, of course, that we ordinarily disagree, but simply because when two men work in the same field and with different ideas, probably they are apt to vary slightly in their conclusions. Some years ago A. C. Spencer went down there for the military interim government and published the results of his study. His view of the origin of the deposit differed from that of Professor Kemp and from mine. So here are three different results obtained by three different geologists. Such differences in opinion on obscure subjects sometimes tend to bring geology into disrepute. It is perhaps not surprising that different opinions have been expressed, for this occurrence of iron ore is one of the most difficult to explain that I have ever seen. MAX ROESLER, Great Neck, L. I.-I had the opportunity this summer of spending about two months down at the Juragua deposits, and studied them with the idea of writing a paper on them, which I hope will come out later. The interpretation of the occurrence at Ocania Mine is the thing which particularly struck me, in the last paper. At the Ocania Mine we may have these large blocks of limestone which have been utterly and entirely altered, to a remarkable extent.

Jan 5, 1916

By E. H. Griswold, C. E. Beecher

DURING 1931 the petroleum industry has faced the most hazardous periods of its existence, caused by large potentials, overproduction, and demoralized markets. Two state governors actually resorted to the use of the militia in an effort to restore a semi-stabilized condition within the industry, to prevent waste of the states' natural resources, and to restore prices to a level that would yield the states a reasonable tax revenue. These conditions have made it necessary to put into effect most. stringent economies and have produced a spirit of cooperation between companies to an extent that never before existed. The necessity for unified action on such matters as proration and the advantages to be gained by unit operation are being realized by the oil industry as a whole. Fewer wells have been drilled and wildcat operations almost eliminated: development and operation costs have been greatly reduced and more attention is being paid to efficient recovery methods. The net work of oil pipe- lines has grown rapidly especially in the area of East Texas. The construction and operation of natural gas and gasoline pipelines into areas far distant from the source of supply has been one of the outstanding accomplishments. Refining efficiency has continued to increase and the public is being supplied with a better grade of gasoline at a lower price. The unreasonable tax which state politicians have succeeded in placing on gasoline has encouraged tax evasion and unfair competition by un- scrupulous dealers and has misled the public as to the true price of gasoline.

Jan 1, 1932

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Jan 1, 1938

By James L. Sweeney

The Project Independence Evaluation System (PIES) is a complex evaluation, forecasting, and analysis system which represents the U.S. energy production, conversion, transportation and consumption activities. The system includes various models: An econometrically estimated energy demand model, used to evaluate the final demand functions for energy commodities ; A collection of supply models, used to evaluate the cost curves or supply curves for domestic crude oil, natural gas, coal ; An integrating model used to describe energy conversion and transportation activities and to calculate prices which equate energy supply and demand in each market. PIES has been used to generate conditional forecasts of the 1980, 1985, and 1990 states of the energy system--forecasts conditional upon the world oil prices, the energy policy environment, and other uncertainties. Scenarios have been structured to separately examine conservation initiatives, domestic energy supply enhancements, an extensive electrification strategy, and oil and natural gas well -head price regulation. This paper presents the basic model, discusses its use for examining policy options, and describes several forecast results. The paper draws heavily upon work completed for the 1976 National Energy Outlook, published by the Federal Energy Administration.

Jan 1, 1977

By A. M. Gaudin

Of the various reagents employed in the flotation of zinc-bearing ores none have attained the wide popularity that is enjoyed at present by xanthates, copper sulfate and cyanides. This situation suggests the existence of an unusual dependence in the reactions of these chemicals and of sphalerite. A study of the flotative characteristics of sphalerite when using xanthates as collectors, as related to the chemical properties of copper salts and cyanides, has therefore been conducted at the University of Utah by the writer and his associates1 during the period of 1926 to 1929. In perusing the technical literature concerning the flotation of zinc ores and of zinc-bearing lead and copper ores, a striking and general lack of agreement as to the floatability of sphalerite was observed. The underlying cause for the erratic behavior of sphalerite has not been definitely ascertained but the presence in various proportions of iron sulfide in solid solution in the sphalerite has frequently been implicitly regarded as a major factor in this respect. Although the effect of iron sulfide in solid solution in sphalerite has not been investigated in relation to the behavior of sphalerite in flotation, it is likely that it is not as important a factor as was thought at one time. The variable float-ability of sphalerite has led to the use of fairly large amounts of cyanide to prevent its flotation in the case of certain ores, whereas mere fractions of that amount of cyanide, or even none at all, have been sufficient to achieve the same result for other ores2 Similarly, the amount of copper sulfate used to promote the flotation of sphalerite has been found to vary widely. Effect of Copper Salts in Distilled Water on Sphalerite In the work at the University of Utah, over a year was spent in futile attempts at duplicating experiments until it was discovered that the

Jan 1, 1930

By Herbert H. Uhlig

A STUDY of passivity in chromium-iron alloys holds considerable interest, both because of the present-day practical importance of the stainless steels, and because of the scientific importance attached to the mechanism of their corrosion resistance. Upon the discovery of the passive chromium-iron alloys in 1912, it seemed logical to attribute the observed phenomenal corrosion resistance to a thin, continuous, protective reaction product on the surface. The product was thought to be Cr2O3 or a similar oxide containing both chromium and iron. This mechanism seemed likely in view of Michael Faraday's conjecture that passive iron is not reactive in concentrated nitric acid because of an oxide on the metal surface.† Since 1912, data have accumulated that permit a further exploration into the nature of passivity and provide a new approach to the problem. A summary of the facts lends considerable weight to a mechanism based not on physical protection of an oxide or similar compound, although such compounds may be present on the surface, but to a change in tendency of surface metal atoms to react chemically. This change in reaction tendency is ascribed to chemisorbed films that effectively satisfy residual valence forces of the metal surface, but do not appreciably disturb the positions of metal atoms in the lattice. In other words, formation of a new lattice such as that of an oxide is not a necessary condition for this type of passivity. The decreased reaction tendency of the metal by reason of chemisorbed films can thereby account for low reaction rates of the stainless steels in many media, as well as a noble galvanic potential as is observed. Substances capable of adsorbing on the stainless steels, and hence accompanying the property of passivity, are typically oxygen, nitrites or chromates, but are not in any sense limited to these. Other elements and compounds can also chemisorb, and therefore may also play a major part in the mechanism of passivity in specific media. The mechanism of passivity based on chemisorption or activated adsorption begins with the interpretation Langmuir proposed for his experiments concerning adsorbed oxygen on tungsten.1 He found that adsorbed oxygen was tightly bound, remaining on the tungsten surface above temperatures at which WO3 rapidly volatilizes. The oxygen in such a state did not readily react with hydrogen even at

Jan 1, 1947

By Edward Steidle

IT has been said that "the command of nature has been put into the hands of man before he knows how to command himself," and what we see about us gives particular emphasis to this observation. If this condition be granted, the vaunted boast of school and college, of the institution that had the training of this generation, and of its fathers, and of its grandfathers, the boast that education is a "preparation for life," stands exposed as a hollow claim, or as a ghastly, cynical conception of life, or else education has fallen far short of its intentions. It has been evident for some time that education was not meeting the fullest expectations of society. In recent years there has been a deal of speculation indulged in by both laity and faculty in regard to American education and American civilization, and some few and sporadic changes have been effected. Today, however, there is no longer time for mere hypothetical considerations; we are faced with certain definite facts and confronted with obvious conditions that will not wait for fine-spun theories. If educators do not put their house in order, someone else will do it for them. The trends in mineral industries education must be in harmony with this general realignment that is today visible on the educational horizon, and only as these trends are in conformity with this movement can they be called sound. Two questions, then, confront mineral industries educators: (1) What are the trends in mineral industries education, and (2) how do these trends correlate with the major educational movements of the day?

Jan 1, 1933

By F. Cadena

Hiwassee Darn, now under construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority on the Hiwassee River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, will require aggregate for approximately 800,000 cu. yd. of concrete. Near the damsite deposits of natural sand or gravel are not available and graywacke, a rock that is found in abundance, suggested itself as a likely source of manufactured aggregate. Graywacke is a metamorphosed sandstone composed principally of a mixture of quartz (65 per cent), mica (25 per cent), and feldspar (10 per cent). Other minerals are present in negligible amounts. The rock varies in different parts of the quarry from very fine to a coarse grain containing particles of about ¼ in. maximum size, although the bulk of the deposit is medium grain. Extensive tests showed that graywacke would be suitable as a source of both coarse and fine aggregates. The aggregate plant available for use at Hiwassee Dam consisted of the coarse-aggregate and sand plant used on the Norris project. The coarse-aggregate plant had also been used at Chickamauga Dam. Although most of this plant equipment is now in use at Hiwassee, the present flowsheet is not only different from that at Norris and Chickamauga but is also unique as compared to the flowsheet of the average crushed-stone aggregate plant. It is hoped that this paper will show the importance of proper arrangement of equipment if the optimum in flexibility and capacity is to be attained. Flowsheet Rock is ioaded by 3-yd. electric shovels into 12-yd. dump trucks, which carry the rock to the primary crusher, a 42-in. Superior McCully gyratory unit set at 4¾ in. (Fig. 1). The primary crusher discharges directly onto a 42-in. inclined belt conveyor, which carries the product to a surge storage pile with a maximum live storage capacity of approximately 3000 tons. A concrete tunnel under this storage pile houses the feed end of a 36-in. belt conveyor (conveyor B) fed by a 36 by 66-in.

Jan 1, 1942

By F. Cadena

Hiwassee Darn, now under construction by the Tennessee Valley Authority on the Hiwassee River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, will require aggregate for approximately 800,000 cu. yd. of concrete. Near the damsite deposits of natural sand or gravel are not available and graywacke, a rock that is found in abundance, suggested itself as a likely source of manufactured aggregate. Graywacke is a metamorphosed sandstone composed principally of a mixture of quartz (65 per cent), mica (25 per cent), and feldspar (10 per cent). Other minerals are present in negligible amounts. The rock varies in different parts of the quarry from very fine to a coarse grain containing particles of about ¼ in. maximum size, although the bulk of the deposit is medium grain. Extensive tests showed that graywacke would be suitable as a source of both coarse and fine aggregates. The aggregate plant available for use at Hiwassee Dam consisted of the coarse-aggregate and sand plant used on the Norris project. The coarse-aggregate plant had also been used at Chickamauga Dam. Although most of this plant equipment is now in use at Hiwassee, the present flowsheet is not only different from that at Norris and Chickamauga but is also unique as compared to the flowsheet of the average crushed-stone aggregate plant. It is hoped that this paper will show the importance of proper arrangement of equipment if the optimum in flexibility and capacity is to be attained. Flowsheet Rock is ioaded by 3-yd. electric shovels into 12-yd. dump trucks, which carry the rock to the primary crusher, a 42-in. Superior McCully gyratory unit set at 4¾ in. (Fig. 1). The primary crusher discharges directly onto a 42-in. inclined belt conveyor, which carries the product to a surge storage pile with a maximum live storage capacity of approximately 3000 tons. A concrete tunnel under this storage pile houses the feed end of a 36-in. belt conveyor (conveyor B) fed by a 36 by 66-in.

Jan 1, 1942

By G. W. P. Rengstorff, R. B. Fischer

A study was made of the effect of impurities on the bend ductility of cast molybdenum. High purity molybdenum was repared by re-melting under high vacuum. The ductility of "transverse-grain" specimens indicated that intergranular brittleness decreased with an increase in purity of the metal. THE production of as-cast molybdenum with high ductility at room temperature would make working of the metal easier and increase the usefulness of the as-cast metal. Furthermore, a .knowledge of the factors that influence the ductility of as-cast molybdenum might be applied to the problem of making fusion weldments having satisfactory room-temperature ductility. Individual grains of commercial as-cast molybdenum are slightly ductile at room temperature. However, the presence of carbides at the grain boundaries may cause the metal to fracture in a brittle manner. This behavior has been discussed.' The amount and distribution of the impurities in as-cast molybdenum would be expected, from previous research on the metal, to have considerable influence on its ductility. Some effects of oxygen and carbon on the mechanical behavior of the metal were discussed by Parke and Ham,2 Woodside,3 and Zappfe. Landgraf, and Worden.4 Parke and Ham2 found that, if a sufficient number of molybdenum oxide particles were present at the grain boundaries, the intergranular cohesion was reduced to the extent that arc-melted molybdenum would rupture intergranularly during hot forging. They also found that if the oxygen content was less than 0.003 pct, the cast molybdenum was hot forgeable. It is suspected, however, that forgeable molybdenum may contain a small amount of oxide that could reduce the ductility of the as-cast metal at room temperature. Also, there is the possibility of the unfavorable distribution of other impurities having a detrimental effect on the ductility of cast molybdenum. The results of a study of the influence of purity on the room-temperature ductility of cast molybdenum are presented here. Vacuum Arc-Melting to Produce High Purity Mo One way of determining the effect of impurities on the ductility of molybdenum is to prepare and test metal as free of all impurities as possible. Accordingly, the present investigation was undertaken with this in view. Arc melting in high vacuum (less than 0.1 micron of mercury) was chosen as the method for reducing the impurities below the concentrations occurring in commercial molybdenum. Commercial arc melting of molybdenum is carried out at about 50 microns pressure. During the arc melting, carbon and oxygen in the metal react to form carbon monoxide. By virtue of the vacuum process, the partial pressure of carbon monoxide is maintained at such a low value that the reaction greatly lowers oxygen and carbon contents. An excess of at least 0.03 pct C is used in commercial arc melting to insure that the oxygen content will be below 0.003 pct. The excess carbon remaining after the deoxidation step forms carbides on freezing. Some of the carbides precipitate at the grain boundaries and, as will be shown, have an unfavorable effect on the room-temperature ductility. In the present work, only the small amount of carbon (0.003 pct) contained in the commercial powder-metallurgy molybdenum used for melting stock was present. Partial removal of oxygen from the melt probably occurred as the result of the volatilization of molybdenum oxides, or by distillation of oxygen at the high melting tem-

Jan 1, 1953