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By W. S. Morris

THE East Texas oil field is the largest in the United States and perhaps the largest 'in the world ; likewise, it is one of the most interesting. The East Texas oil field is a water-drive field. Small amounts of salt water were produced from wells on the western side of the field from the bt-ginning of the development. By the end of 1933 (the field having been discovered in September 1930) water production had reached 9000 barrels per day. By the end of 1936, approximately 2000 wells were producing about 45,000 barrels of water per day, and the problem of salt water disposal attracted the serious attention of the operators. Salt water production in the field has steadily increased and today approximately 450,000 barrels of water per day is produced while the oil production averages about 375,000 barrels. The disposal of this salt water has therefore become one of the major operating problems. Various methods of salt water disposal have been tried in the East Texas field. Evaporation in open pits proved

Jan 1, 1944

By William J. Coulter

WITHIN the past thirty years the United States has been involved in two tragic, vicious, and costly world wars. To make the world safe for democracy was the reason given for our participation, but the confusion and misunderstanding that prevails all over the world today suggests that war is not the proper approach to the attainment of that utopia. These conflicts were conceived and prosecuted by nations far advanced in civilization and culture. Their best manhood was sacrificed, a staggering tax burden was saddled on their peoples, huge financial losses were incurred, destruction of property was appalling, and cultural and peaceful scientific advancement received a setback that may require centuries to retrieve. Therefore, some basis is established for the conclusion that progress in the past fifty years has been most outstanding in the development of instruments used for death and destruction, and that progress in this direction between the two World Wars would indicate that the next war will go far toward total destruction of world civilization.

Jan 1, 1946

By L. F. Mondolfo, F. A. Crossley

SURFACE effects in the brittle fracture of materials such as glass and in the plastic slip of zinc and cadmium crystals are well known.' Recently, another surface effect has been found for zinc monocrystals. It has been observed that certain normally ductile zinc monocrystals become ex- tremely brittle when their surface is coated with a layer of oxide or copper plate.

Jan 1, 1952

By William P. Blake

In southern Arizona and in Mexico the word caliche is in general use to denote a calcareous formation of considerable thickness and volume found a few inches, or a few feet, beneath the surface-soil, upon the broad, dry, gravelly plains and mesas. , In western South America the same name is applied to the beds of crude soda-niter (Chili saltpeter). While these deposits of South America and of Arizona are totally different in composition, and have nothing in common, except that both occur in

Jan 1, 1902

Mrs. W. Y. Westervelt, Director of the New York Section, reports an interesting meeting at her house- on May 12. Dr. Cecile Griel, special worker of the division for work among foreign-born women of the National Board of the Y. W. C. A., spoke. As the Americanization Committee under Mrs. Scobey is planning an energetic campaign, Dr. Griel's stirring appeal was timely and suggestive. While Dr. Griel cited the usual avenues of approach to our alien population through the school children, the needs of the baby, sewing classes, English classes, etc., her especial appeal was for correct psychology on the part of the workers. She deplored the condescension, implied or expressed, so often manifest in persons attempting Americanism, work and emphasized many times the importance of an understanding heart and mind. At the close Mrs. Scobey brought forward plans for practical work to be done by the New York women, of which I hope to give some details next month.

Jan 7, 1919

Since this paper was written, some changes have taken place, materially reducing the cost of iron-making as estimated in the text. These are chiefly reductions in the prices of ore and fuel. The charcoal used is now made in bee-hive ovens, and the price is con-

Jan 1, 1895

Jan 1, 1930

By T. Sterry Hunt

SINCE: the date of my previous paper on this subject, presented at the Cincinnati Meeting, February, 1881, and published in our Transactions, vol. xii., p. 459, I have had occasion to revisit the Canadian apatite region, and to collect further data concerning its geognosy, which I hope to describe at a future time. At present, I shall put on record a few brief observations concerning the more recent operations in apatite-mining in the Lievre district, to the north of the Ottawa River, where the mines are as yet confined to a small area in the townships of Buckingham, Portland, Templeton, and Darry; the earlier workings having been along the Rideau Canal, to the south of the Ottawa. The large mining operations lately undertaken in the Lièvre district show that the crystalline phosphate of lime or apatite belongs to lodes of great size, which traverse the ancient gneiss of the region. These lodes include a granitoid feldspathic rock, and a pyroxene rock, with large masses of quartz, of carbonate of lime, of pyrites, and of apatite. All of these often show a banded structure, riot unlike that of the gneiss, to which they- are evidently posterior, arid of which they

Jan 1, 1886

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Jan 1, 1942

HeRbert A. MeGRaw, San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato, Mex. (communication to the Secretary*) :—Although Mr. Bordeaux prefaces his paper with the statement-that it is a general outline of practice in the Republic, many of his statements seem to be made from the view-point of a particular case, which does not always agree with general practice. For the purpose of calling attention to some of these variations, I respectfully offer the following comments: The operation of crushing and grinding is performed by so many different methods and systems that it is useless to select any one as the standard. However, primary crushing in rock-breakers followed by stamps is thus far so general that it might be so classified. Whether or not it is the best way, is open to question. Regrinding may be performed by any of the various types of Chilean mills, Huntington mills, or similar machines, or the material may be taken directly from the stamps and delivered to the tube-mills. Mr. Bordeaux's statement that " the slimes can be treated only by decantation; the new Butters slime-filter, as used in Nevada, does not seem to be successful with silver-ores," is surely an error. All over Mexico many of the purely silver-ores are being successfully handled by the Butters or similar filters, such as the Moore and the Burt filters, and a letter to the manufacturers of these filters will undoubtedly bring a list of the silver-ores now being successfully treated in this way. The statement that crushing silver-ores in solution is impossible is equally erroneous. Most modern mills crush the ore in solution, in some cases containing as much as 0.12 per cent, of KCN. I cannot for the moment recall any modern mill in Mexico which does not follow this practice. There may be some reason for it in particular instances, but, generally speaking, the practice is to crush in solution. Care in installation avoids any mechanical loss of cyanide, and the chemical loss is so small as to be negligible.

Jan 1, 1910

ARTHUR KNAPP, Ardmore, Pa. (communication to the Secretary*). -The author has failed to consider the point which in my mind is the most convincing in advocating some sort of a bureau for the collection of well logs. I venture to say that 90 per cent. of the logs as taken today are absolutely worthless to any one but the one who has taken the log. This is largely due to the careless use of nomenclature. The author says on page 289, "He must ascertain which of the many factors might account for the dry hole in question and often only careful examination of well logs will convey this information." I believe that even a most careful examination of the average log reveals nothing. I have at hand a book on petroleum, by a well-known author. This book has a number of logs from fields all over the world, from which I shall illustrate. In a well log from Kansas I find "Soft gray shale" and in one from Humble I find "Hard blue shale." As a matter of fact the shale from Humble is softer than the shale from the Kansas well. The difference is that the drillers in Kansas, being used to limestone and

Jan 5, 1917

By M. D. Hassiaslis

THE nature of a collector-coated mineral surface has been the subject of some experimentation and much speculation. Various aspects of the problem have been isolated and studied; it is probable, however, that there exist aspects as yet unrecognized, which are needed for a complete description of the system. The recognized elements of the problem are: 1-The nature of the chemical units comprising the film and the nature of the forces holding these chemical units to the mineral surface; 2-The orientation of the chemical units at the surface; and 3-The disposition of the collector units at the mineral surface. This report touches upon all three aspects of the broad problem; it deals, however, with a new and heretofore unrecognized element-the mobility of the collector units in the two dimensions of the solid-liquid interface.

Jan 11, 1951

By Jack M. Swales

Kermac Potash Co., the newest American entry in a rapidly expanding industry, has come on the scene with notable variations in conventional shaft-sinking and mining techniques. Located in the famed potash producing district east of Carlsbad, N. Mex., Kermac started up its mine in November, 1965, to supply ore to the company's 500,000-tpy potash crystallization refinery. In so doing, the company (1) drilled the first large diameter mine shaft in the potash industry and (2) has employed new continuous miners especially adapted for use in thin potash beds. REACHING THE ORE ZONE In its initial mine planning, Kermac, a partnership owned jointly by Kerr-McGee Corp. and the National Farmers Union Development Corp., considered it imperative that the shafts be sunk and equipped as soon as possible and that the mine be developed sufficiently to insure a constant ore feed to the mill when the unit was placed on stream. After examining the alternative sinking techniques available to it, the company decided to accept a proposal by Big Hole Drillers, Inc., to drill the shaft from the surface through various formations of sandstones, siltstone, shales, anhydrite, limestones, dolomite and salts to the potash ore zone.

Jan 12, 1966

By Eckley B. Coxe

AT the first meeting of the Institute, a paper was read by Mr. Rothwell, calling attention to the importance of at once considering the great waste of anthracite coal under the present system of mining and preparing that fuel for market, and a committee was appointed to examine and report upon the method now in use. About the time the committee were selected, a general resumption of work, after the long strike, took place in the coal regions, and the members of the committee have not in consequence had as much leisure to devote to the study of the question as its importance de¬mands. In the present preliminary report we shall merely sketch out the plan which we propose to pursue in our investigations, so that when our fellow-members are called upon to assist us in our work by fur¬nishing statistics, etc., they may understand more clearly for what object our inquiries will be made. As one of the most practicable methods of obtaining the informa¬tion requisite for an intelligent consideration of our subject, we pro¬pose to send, from time to time, to members and others interested in the mining of anthracite coal, printed sets of questions relating to points under consideration. We would here impress upon our fellow¬-members the importance of filling up these papers as far as they can from their own knowledge. We would, of course, wish each ques¬tion to be answered as fully as possible, but we do not expect every one to answer them all. One question well answered would be of more use to us than the whole paper filled up with answers, many of

Jan 1, 1873

By Eckley B. Coxe

At the first meeting of the Institute, a paper was read by Mr. Rothwell, calling attention to the importance of at once considering the great waste of anthracite coal under the present system of mining and preparing that fuel for market, and a committee was appointed to examine and report upon the method now in use. About the time the committee were selected, a general resumption of work, after the long strike, took place in the coal regions, and the members of the committee have not in consequence had as much leisure to devote to the study of the question as its importance demands. In the present preliminary report we shall merely sketch out the . plan which we propose to pursue in our investigations, so that when our fellow-members are called upon to assist us in our work by furnishing statistics, etc., they may understand more clearly for what object our inquiries will be made. As one of the most practicable methods of obtaining the information requisite for an intelligent consideration of our subject, we propose to send, from time to time, to members and others interested in the mining of anthracite coal, printed sets of questions relating to points under consideration. We would here impress upon our fellow members the importance of filling up these papers as far as they can from their own knowledge. We would, of course, wish each question to be answered as fully as possible, but we do not expect every one to answer them all. One question well answered would be of more use to us than the whole paper filled up with answers, many of

By D. J. Carney, J. Chipman, N. J. Grant

G. A. Moore—The tin-fusion method has been a very favorable possibility for many years. The authors apparently have settled the question that delayed the method for a long time by showing that no hydrogen is absorbed in the tin. This, of course, is very important. I want to make a few remarks concerning the absolute accuracy of analysis, which must be the final basis for deciding among the various methods. From the figures in the paper, there seems to be some remaining slight discrepancy on the actual amount of hydrogen present in various samples which may be presumed essentially identical. (This is of the order of the precision of individual analyses but appears in averaged results.) From the analyst's viewpoint, the tally of hydrogen content can be regarded as occurring in three portions. First is a large portion which comes off easily and automatically during sample storage and later on heating in the apparatus. This is fairly easily analyzed. Second is an item which may be either positive or negative in the tally sheet. In warm or hot evolution, this is a portion which, in practice, can never be re-

Jan 1, 1951

By H. P. Leighly

WORNER1 briefly studied the embrittlement of titanium by mercury. He found that mercury will wet the titanium surface at 400°C in vacuo, if the specimen had been heated previously to 700°C to dissolve the oxide coating. Subsequent exposure to the atmosphere causes the mercury film to recede rapidly. Bending of the titanium specimen even after the mercury film has receded results in a brittle fracture. For the study of the embrittling effect of mercury on titanium, specimens 2 by 12 by 0.051 in. were cut from RC-130-A sheet, an alloy having a nominal 8 pct Mn content and a mixed a-ß structure. The specimens were stressed horizontally at a predetermined value after which a plastic ring having a cavity 1/2 in. diam by 1/2 in. deep was placed on the specimen. The cavity was filled with mercury and a hole was drilled in the specimen through the pool of mercury. If the stress level was high enough, fracture occurred instantaneously with the drilling. By repeating the test at different stress levels, the threshold stress can be determined. Mercury embrittlement causes a drastic reduction in the ultimate tensile strength of this alloy from 132,000 psi to about 15,700 psi. The drilling of the hole, in the absence of mercury, does not change the tensile properties. Fig. 1 shows the typical fractures observed as a result of the embrittlement of this alloy by mercury. The central portion of the fracture was brittle represented by the jagged region which appears to have occurred on the shear planes at about 45 deg to the stress axis. Ductile fracture, which is perpendicular to the stress axis, occurred near the specimen edges accompanied by a reduction of the specimen thickness. Examination of the fracture reveals that only in the brittle region does mercury wet the

Jan 1, 1962

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Jan 1, 1938

By Robert H. Chapman

During the past two years the writer has been traveling in the Lewis and Clarke timber reserve, locating the boundaries and reference-monuments for the Geological Survey. The Lewis and Clarke reserve lies in northwestern Montana. The region is very mouutainous, the main range of the Rocky mountains passing through it, dividing the waters of the Columbia and Missouri rivers. The mountains do not rise in one important and well-defined backbone, but in a series of parallel ridges, striking nearly northwest and southeast. Between these ridges, and, in general, parallel to them, are the drainage-systems. Beginning at the west, the rivers are the Swan, emptying into the Flathead lake, the South fork and the Middle fork of Flathead river, both emptying into the main Flathead river, which, in turn, empties into the lake of that name. The continental divide passes through the reserve from the southeast corner to the middle of the northern boundary, and the stream of most importance east of it is the Sun river, which heads well toward the north, and flows southeasterly and then eastward, and, emerging from the mountains, flows across the great plain of' the Missouri river. The southern boundary is drained by the Big Blackfoot river, flowing westward; the northern boundary, by the several branches of the Flathead river. The accompanying map (which is only a sketch, and does not represent the final work of the Geological Survey in this forest-reserve) shows clearly the parallel systems of drainage and ridges. The westernmost mountain range, the Mission, divides the great valley of the Flathead from the Swan river valley. The

Jan 1, 1900

By R. L. Sebastian

ALUMINUM'S war history is the record of a successful race to expand facilities fast enough to meet the multiple increases in military requirements, principally for aircraft. From the beginning of the war program in 1940 through 1942, requirements estimates were repeatedly lifted to new high levels, and plans for increasing capacity had to be constantly revised. In 1943, basic metal supply caught up with and exceeded requirements, and by 1944, the surplus of primary production was large enough to force reduction in output and plant closings. In the past two years, ingot capacity has been ample, though periodic critical shortages have been experienced for a few fabricated shapes as a result of sudden shifts in demand. And now with all controls lifted we are faced with surplus capacity, surplus stocks, and surplus scrap. In 1938 the Aluminum Co. of America was the only U. S. producer of primary

Jan 1, 1946