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By R. W. Raymond

On the 27th day of March last, the day on which the Florida sessions of the last meeting of the Institute began in Ocala, occurred the death of one of its most distinguished honorary members, Bergrath Franz Posepny, of Vienna, formerly professor of the science of ore-deposits in the mining school at Przibram, Bohemia. Prof. Posepny had greatly increased his fame among American mining engineers, besides laying the Institute under special obligations of gratitude, by the elaborate, brilliant and suggestive treatise on " The Genesis of OreDeposits," which he contributed to the International meeting, held at Chicago, in 1893. This essay, constituting the first complete publication of the substance of his course of lectures at Przibram, enriched and perfected by the matured results of his investigation and reflection down to the date of its cornpletion, was a free gift of almost unprecedentecl value to the society which had distinguished him by honorary membership. In estimating the generosity of the author, it must be borne in mind that the copyright of such a work, the fruit of years of study and of practice as an instructor, is of no little value to a European professor, and constitutes one of the legitimate rewards of his (otherwise not highly-paid) labor. Moreover, Prof. Posepny performed under peculiar difficulties

Jan 1, 1896

By Kenneth L. Zonge

Recently, extensive field use has been made of a digital minicomputer incorporated into a modified geophysical prospecting method. This is a generalized induced polarization (IP) system called complex resistivity (CR) and has been successfully used in sulfide mineral exploration. The ease of use, portability and cost effectiveness of this computer-controlled method has provided a viable exploration tool based on a complex data acquisition system. Without the computer, this method would still be relegated to tedious laboratory measurements and theoretical studies.

Jan 1, 1976

By R. E. Lamborn

A summary of oil and gas development in Ohio for 1935 must necessarily be brief. As attention of the state government to the oil and gas industry has never included the collection and compilation of statistics on production, either by producing sands, by counties, by fields, or for the state as a whole, such information as requested in Table 1 of this symposium is impossible to secure for this state. In the absence of production data chief attention must be directed to drilling activity for the year. Information such as can be compiled from various sources, including weekly drilling reports to operating companies and trade journals, is given in the following paragraphs with the realization that the data may not be complete in all its details. Drilling Activity by Fields Drilling activity during 1935 was similar to the preceding year in , that the major operating companies were generally content to drill lease-requirement and offset wells and in that comparatively little effort was made to discover new pools. A compilation of completions recorded in weekly reports to drilling companies and in trade journals show 1022 tests completed for the year in 53 counties of the state. Of this total number, 653 wells were commercial producers and 369 were classed as dry holes. Production was secured in 40 counties from formations ranging in depth to 5700 ft. and ranging in age from Middle Ordovician to upper Pennsyl-vanian. From the standpoint of new production for the year, the most important sands are the Clinton of Silurian age, the Berea of Mississippian age and the Shallow sands of Mississippian above the Berea and of Pennsylvanian age. Trenton Sand Field Production in the field of Trenton sand, which originally included parts of 15 counties in northwestern Ohio, is now on the decline. Seventy-three completions were reported in this field during 1935, of which 33.8 per cent were dry holes. Activity centered in Allen County with 12 completions, two of which were dry holes; in Hardin County with 11 producers; and in Wyandot County with 12 producers and 2 dry holes.

Jan 1, 1936

By R. E. Lamborn

A summary of oil and gas development in Ohio for 1935 must necessarily be brief. As attention of the state government to the oil and gas industry has never included the collection and compilation of statistics on production, either by producing sands, by counties, by fields, or for the state as a whole, such information as requested in Table 1 of this symposium is impossible to secure for this state. In the absence of production data chief attention must be directed to drilling activity for the year. Information such as can be compiled from various sources, including weekly drilling reports to operating companies and trade journals, is given in the following paragraphs with the realization that the data may not be complete in all its details. Drilling Activity by Fields Drilling activity during 1935 was similar to the preceding year in , that the major operating companies were generally content to drill lease-requirement and offset wells and in that comparatively little effort was made to discover new pools. A compilation of completions recorded in weekly reports to drilling companies and in trade journals show 1022 tests completed for the year in 53 counties of the state. Of this total number, 653 wells were commercial producers and 369 were classed as dry holes. Production was secured in 40 counties from formations ranging in depth to 5700 ft. and ranging in age from Middle Ordovician to upper Pennsyl-vanian. From the standpoint of new production for the year, the most important sands are the Clinton of Silurian age, the Berea of Mississippian age and the Shallow sands of Mississippian above the Berea and of Pennsylvanian age. Trenton Sand Field Production in the field of Trenton sand, which originally included parts of 15 counties in northwestern Ohio, is now on the decline. Seventy-three completions were reported in this field during 1935, of which 33.8 per cent were dry holes. Activity centered in Allen County with 12 completions, two of which were dry holes; in Hardin County with 11 producers; and in Wyandot County with 12 producers and 2 dry holes.

Jan 1, 1936

By H. J. Stehli

The first sintering of zinc ores was done at the Bartlesville plant of the National Zinc Co., under the auspices of the late Otto Rissman. Mr. Rissman, who had had a long experience in the treatment of zinc ores, well realized all the difficulties of satisfactorily roasting zinc concentrates, which were becoming finer and dustier as each year went by—thus increasing the difficulties of roasting them in the existing forms of roasters, which were furnaces of the Ropp, Hegeler or similar types. Mr. Rissman's idea of the advantages of sinter was expressed in this way: in a zinc ore dead-roasted in a mechanical furnace there are many particles that are just like an egg; that is, they have a hard and impervious film of fused material on the outside, and in the retorting this completely cuts off access of the reducing gases to the center of the egg until a temperature has been reached at which this shell of the egg can be broken down through fusion. A particle of sintered zinc sulphide, on the contrary, is exactly like a piece of sponge. The moment the retort reaches the temperature at which the reactions can take place, they begin, because the reducing gases have ready access to the interior of the particles by means of the pores of the '" sponge." His faith in the advantages of sinter was amply borne out by the results obtained at the pioneer sintering plant for zinc ores installed by the National Zinc Company. Early Method of Sintering The method of procedure at Bartlesville was to roast the zinc concentrates down to somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 per cent residual sulphide sulphur; to cool these, then to wet them down to the proper moisture and mix them in the mixer of the sintering plant; then to sinter them by means of the heat available from the residual sulphides. The sulphur contents of the roast varied considerably, of course, as it was difficult with the furnaces in use to control the roasting exactly at any point short of dead roast. Hence at times the concentrates were roasted a little too low to sinter readily, and at such times the lack of sulphur was made up by the addition of raw concentrates to the sintering-machine charge in suitable amount.

Jan 1, 1937

By Richard P. Rothwell

REVOLING slime-tables with stationary sprays and oscillating brushes have for many years been a favorite apparatus used for working slimes in German dressing-works, often displacing Rittinger tables and the many variations of Cornish buddles. The difficulty of building these tables larger than 5 1/2 meters (17 feet) in diameter, increasing the cost and making them unwieldy, rendered it necessary also to concentrate the slimes in several operations, because the travel over so short a length of hearth would not suffice for close concentration. A preliminary sizing is effected in a system of spitzkasten. Herr C. Linkenbach, general manager of the Ems Lead and Silver Works, Germany, devised a buddle, in 1878, which has since worked well and found much favor in Germany, and has been in one instance copied here, at Colorado Springs, without any credit having been given to the original inventor. Linkenbach's plan has been to reverse the functions of the table and the washing apparatus of the old German revolving table. He makes the tables stationary and rotates the washing apparatus,, thus enabling him to save in power, and, within certain limits, to increase the dimensions of the table, without in any way affecting its durability or materially increasing its cost. In its earlier form, the buddle was single, and that type is still

Jan 1, 1883

By Albert Sauveur

SOME writers believe that when austenite transforms completely into pearlite on slow cooling through the thermal critical range, such transformation does not imply the formation of any of the so-called transition constituents: martensite, troostite and sorbite. Might it not be claimed with as much justification that when water freezes it does so suddenly, solid ice being obtained without passing through the intermediate stages of ice and water? Obviously, regardless of the speed of solidification, this would be erroneous. Before reaching the completed solid condition, this must of necessity pass through an unbroken series of stages when the system consists of mixtures of water and of ice, the former decreasing and the latter increasing in amount. Are not these "transition" stages in the freezing of water similar to the transition stages occurring in the transformation of austenite into pearlite? To clarify, let us consider in Fig. 1 the mechanism of the transformation of eutectoid steel from its austenitic to its pearlitic condition as it cools slowly through its thermal critical range. It is generally admitted that this transformation is the result of two distinct phenomena: (1) the allotropic change of gamma iron into alpha iron and (2) the crystallizing out of solution of the carbide Fe3C. Whether this crystallizing of Fe3C implies also its formation is immaterial for our purpose. In other words, whether it is the carbon in atomic dispersion which is present in gamma iron or molecules of Fe3C has no bearing upon the matter to be discussed. The transformation of gamma iron into alpha iron cannot take place suddenly. It must of necessity be progressive, regardless of the speed with which it may take place. At A, for instance, there would be present AB gamma iron and BC alpha iron. The distance MN does not refer to falling temperature, but to the passage of time. It may be assumed that the transformation takes place at a constant temperature (the Ar321 point). In a similar way, the crystallization of Fe3C out of the austenite solid solution must be progressive as depicted between M and N. At A there would be present AB gamma iron, BC alpha iron, CD carbon dissolved in gamma and in alpha iron and DE Fe3C. This condition may be described according to individual preference as martensite or troostite. To sum up, can the metal pass from condition

Jan 1, 1931

By Donald W. Scott

GENERALLY speaking, there is nothing very difficult about taking good micrographs of photogenic thin sections or grains with a petrographic micro-scopecamera setup. However, sometimes it is desired to show some detail that cannot be illustrated satisfactorily by the usual micrographs taken with parallel polarized light, with crossed nicols, or even with two micrographs. A simple procedure giving good results has been used at Battelle Memorial Institute for subjects falling into this classification, and it is believed to be of interest, especially to research people who must sell a point to executives through the medium of well-illustrated reports. The following problem illustrates a typical application: It is desired to photograph a thin section of an iron ore to illustrate the character and association of the iron oxides and the individual quartz crystals. A magnification of 75 dia. is acceptable. A micrograph of the field in question (Fig. I[a]) was taken with parallel polarized light. Due precaution was taken to provide critical illumination, correct exposure, a sharp focus, a good darkroom technique, and other essential conditions. It illustrates correctly the iron oxides, but it fails to show the individual quartz crystals. A micrograph of the identical field (Fig. I[b]) was taken under the same precise conditions, but with crossed nicols. It gives a better idea of the character of the individual quartz crystals but is likely to be misinterpreted unless accompanied by a lengthy descriptive note. This micrograph suggests that the centrally located, large black area is composed entirely of iron oxides. That this is an incorrect interpretation is evident by reexamining the micrograph of Fig. I[a]. The correct interpretation is that the dark area contains quartz crystals oriented with their optical directions parallel to, or nearly parallel to, the vibration directions of the polarizer and analyzer of the microscope. Thus, the executive, or anyone who had not done the work personally, would get no more than a fair interpretation, even if two micrographs were included; and in the interests of both brevity and clarity, one micrograph usually is more desirable. Exactly how many quartz crystals occur in this region cannot be told from the two micrographs, and a printing of the two negatives in register would likewise not show the detail desired. Thus, it is evident that some subjects cannot be satisfactorily illustrated by the usual procedures. In photographing Fig. is the light was subdued and, during the entire exposure of 75 sec., the analyzer nicol was rotated uniformly in its mounting from a crossed position to 45° uncrossed position to introduce the desired amount of contrast in the various individual quartz crystals. The true reproduction of the character and association of the iron oxides, and the additional structure and detail in the quartz areas, is apparent. It might be

Jan 1, 1946

By E. Maltby Shipp

WALLACE MCKEEHAN, Douglas, Ariz. (communication to the Secretary*).-In going over this report, which I have done very carefully, I find that the summary as composed deals with the various problems almost entirely from the employer's standpoint and that practically no consideration is given to the employee's point of view. An experience of 3 ½ years as safety inspector, and almost 30 years as workman-and official, has convinced me that any plan for the betterment of working conditions which will achieve any degree of success must give the workmen their share of responsibility and allow them full participation. The company may finance and direct the movement, but its ultimate success depends upon the support given by the workmen. The cooperation of the men doing the actual work is so essential that all writers insist that this must he secured, but they do not agree as to how this can best be done.

Jan 3, 1917

Jan 1, 1951

Jan 1, 1951

By Tell Ertl, Ernest E. Burgh

INTRODUCTION THE Bureau of Mines is operating an oil-shale mine 10 miles west of Rifle, Colo., as part of its Synthetic Liquid Fuels program. The purpose of operating this mine is twofold: First, to supply oil shale to an experimental processing plant; and second, to develop practices and select methods for mining oil shale on a commercial scale at the lowest practicable cost. The second purpose-that of finding out how to mine oil shale most cheaply-entails considerable mining research. Since the drilling of oil shale probably will be one of the major items of the mining cost, factors that influence drilling speeds were investigated. One phase of the drilling program was the development of a successful hard-surfaced rock-drill bit1 that can be used for drilling long holes in oil shale without changing bits. During that phase, drilling speeds were measured and drill cuttings were collected for assay and for screen sizing. When the cuttings from the individual tests were compared, a definite relationship was shown to exist between the drilling speed and the coarseness of the drill cuttings. PROCEDURE Measurement of Drilling Speeds All drilling in the tests was done with a Model UMB-D-99W Gardner-Denver wagon drill. Round-lugged drill steel, 1 ¼ in. in diameter was used in 6, 12, and 18 ft lengths with 2 1/8 -in. Timken H-type bits hard-faced with acetylene tube borium. The tests were made in the lower adit of the Bureau of Mines oil-shale mine; the grade of the oil shale drilled ranged from 18.6 to 42.7 gal per ton. During the experiments air pressure varied between 75 and 90 psi while water pressure remained fairly constant at 75 psi. All holes were drilled almost horizontally. Each drill hole was thoroughly cleaned of cuttings after being collared. The advance of the drill along the carriage was measured and recorded as the drilling speed in inches per minute. Method of Collecting Cuttings To facilitate the collection of cuttings, each drill hole was collared in a smooth, vertical portion of the oil-shale breast (Fig 1). A galvanized-steel sheet was fastened to the breast below the area in which the hole was to be drilled. The cuttings washed out of the drill hole by the drilling water were guided by the steel sheet into a wooden box. The cuttings that remained in the drill hole after the drill was withdrawn were scraped out and placed in the same box as the cuttings washed out of the hole. After the cuttings from a 1-min. drilling interval were collected, they were placed in flat metal pans. The fines were allowed to settle and the clear water was decanted. The cuttings then were dried in the sun.

Jan 1, 1947

By Helmar Schubert

The tensile strength of moist agglomerates consisting of granular materials is demonstrated with the aid of models. The applicability of these models is proved by experiments. An explanation of the different values of strength of imbibed and drained agglomerates is given and it is shown that the maximum tensile strength occurs at the so-called entry suction. The entry suction, which can be considered as the characteristic capillary pressure of the agglomerates, is described in terms of its parameters by a dimensional analysis. The influence of porosity is determined experimentally by means of regressional analysis and is compared with known model equations.

Jan 1, 1977

By Jasinder S. Jaspal, John A. Reeves, Bradley J. Bourquin

INTRODUCTION The United States has an abundance of coal reserves in thick seams. Most of these resources are in the West. Surface mining operations in thick seams are highly efficient, particularly in the West, but methods for mining thick seams underground are very limited. The percentage of resource recovery in deep mining of thick seams is often as low as 30 percent. It is estimated that there are 45 billion tons of coal reserves for underground mining in seams greater than 10-ft thick in the western states alone. With such a large available reserve base and low rates of recovery, the need to develop the technology to mine these thick reserves is quite evident. As the definition of a thick seam varies widely from country to country, a thick seam is defined here as any seam where the height is such that it is not minable in a single pass with available mining equipment.

Jan 1, 1981

By G. Richard Dreese, Harold L. Bryant

The coal mining industry has had a long history of successfully externalizing part of its costs. Thus the private or internal costs of coal mining have been minimized and the social or external costs have been ignored. The externalized costs have largely taken the form of water pollution from acid mine drainage and sedimentation of stream channels from eroding spoil banks and gob piles. The environmental problems created by strip mining are very conspicuous, so the public demand for legisla-

Jan 1, 1975

By F. Newton Parks

SOUND management organization is as essential to a mining operation as sound mining practices, exploration methods, concentration processes, or marketing methods. In fact, if a mining company is well organized, with the right people in the right management positions, it can be reasonably assured of the adequacy of its operating practices. Management problems in mining are unique, but certain principles of organization are universal. These principles should be used as ground rules in mining as they are in other industries.

Jan 5, 1958

By J. M. Armstrong

Jan 1, 1934

J. A. Mathews,* Syracuse, N. Y. (written discussion?).-It is interesting to note how frequently we hear of some process that is going to revolutionize the tool-steel business. I don't know why it is, but every one seems to have it in for us poor tool-steel men. About 15 years ago, a good-sized plant was built in Syracuse for the manufacture of cast tools of malleable iron. The promoter of the scheme claimed to have a secret, process that had been given to him by a tramp to whom he gave a lift along a dusty road. The widows and orphans invested liberally in the securities of the company without consulting the men established in the machine-tool business in Syracuse. About two years later, when the sheriff's sale occurred, the secret, which was carried on the books of the company as an asset valued at $2,000,000, brought $15 at auction. A little later another concern started on the theory of replacing scrap high-speed steel with new high-speed steel tools made therefrom. All the tool-steel companies have made a practice of purchasing high-speed

Jan 5, 1919

By E. Teghtsoonian, K. G. Davis

THE preparation of cobalt crystals offers problems: on cooling through 400°C a phase transformation takes place whereby the structure changes from face-centered cubic to the low temperature close-packed hexagonal form. There are a few references in the literature which describe the preparation of cobalt crystals for magnetic work1,&apos; where melt-solidification methods were used. Reasons will be given why such methods were found unsuitable for our purposes. The following techniques were tried: 1) Solid state methods. Any mechanical shaping of tensile specimens would lead to uncertainty with regard to residual strains. With this in mind, following Kaa, strain-anneal and grain growth techniques were extensively investigated. In no Case were useful single crystals obtained. The transformation boundaries, which are crystallographically similar to twin boundaries, are probably extremely stable and inhibit the grain growth. 2) Growth from the melt. Normal melt-solidification methods were tried, using recrystallised alumina crucibles, and also a osoft moldo technique in which cobalt rod was packed in alumina powder. Trouble was encountered with gas evolution on solidification of the melt, giving porosity. Some adhesion of cobalt to the alumina also took place. Only a small proportion of the runs gave single crystals. 3) Zone-refining. Much the best results have been obtained using an electron-beam floating zone refiner. The refiner, based on a design by Calverly et Al .5 had a single-turn tungsten filament. It was operated at 600 v with an emission current around 45 ma. Commercial cobalt rod 1/8 in. in diam was given one pass at a rate of zone travel normally 25 cm per hr, under a vacuum approximately 10-5mm of Hg. Over 50 pct of the runs gave long sections of single crystal. Crystals up to 2o Cm long with good uniformity of cross section and straightness have been grown in this way. Increase in the length of the molten zone resulted in higher single-crystal yields, but control of zone stability was reduced. Sub-boundaries in the zoned crystals were few, and Laue X-ray spots were sharp. The success of the method is believed to lie in two factors, namely i) the absence of crucible restraints during the transformation, and ii) extreme axiality of heat flow during cooling. The axes of the zoned crystals were clustered around the [ 1010] pole, the pole of the basal plane being at least 60 deg from the specimen axis. Crystals grown at lower rates of zone travel showed the same orientation range, Fig. 1. This orientation is similar to that for other hexagonal metals grown from the melt, which is a little surprising when the mode of formation of the hexagonal phase is considered. The preferred orientation is probably caused by anisotropy of heat conduction, i.e., that crystal which can most effectively conduct heat away from the transformation interface will be favored. Fig. 2 shows the area on a standard cubic stereo-gram in which there are no poles more than 60 deg from one of the four < 111> directions. This area

Jan 1, 1962

Charles Catlett, Staunton, Va. (communication to the Secretary*):—Mr. Chance&apos;s suggestions that the brown hematite-ores of the Potsdam formation are due to the alteration in place of iron sulphide, and that their extension may reasonably he expected to contain valuable deposits of unaltered sulphide, are interesting; hut the facts marshaled by him are too limited

Jan 1, 1909