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Jan 1, 1939

By T. Sterry Hunt

THE essential principle of this new process, now in operation in Chili and in North Carolina, for the extraction of copper from its ores, is the dissolving of the oxides of copper by a hot solution of protochloride of iron and common salt. In the action which takes place, the protochloride of iron is converted into peroxide, while the oxides of copper are changed into protochloride and dichloride, the latter of which, though insoluble in water, is readily soluble in a hot strong brine. From the solution thus obtained, metallic iron throws down the copper in a metallic state, regenerating the protochloride of iron; which is then ready for the treatment of a fresh portion of oxidized copper ore. In the case of slimy ores, the contact of the bath with the ore is effected by agitation in tubs ; but when the ores are granular, lixiviation in large vats is equally efficient and simpler. The hot solutions, charged with chlorides of copper, are digested in tanks with scrap-iron, or better, are made to flow through covered channels containing the scrap-iron, and in their passage lose the whole of their copper; the reaction at the same time evolving so much heat as to keep up the temperature of the liquid. In order to prevent a certain loss of chlorine, which otherwise takes place from the production of some basic ferric chloride in the reaction between the ferrous chloride and the oxides of copper (both protoxide and dinoxide being generally present in calcined ores), a portion of sulphurous fumes from the roasting is made to pass through the regenerated bath before adding it to fresh ore. This has hitherto been effected by injection, with the aid of a jet of steam.

Jan 1, 1873

Jan 1, 1907

Jan 1, 1968

At its meeting on February 21, 1933, the Board of Directors passed the following resolution defining and expressing the policy of the Institute with respect to official participation or action in controversial matters: WHEREAS, the Board of Directors at its last meeting passed the following resolution: "The Board of Directors, having been appealed to by several Local Sections for advice concerning the attitude and policy of the Institute relating to the endorsement of candidates for public office, the following statement of policy is formulated: "Whereas, the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers is organized for purely professional and scientific purposes, and whereas diversity of opinion among its members on partisan or political questions is inevitable, it is the expressed policy of the Institute to refrain from official participation or action, in political and semi-political matters." AND WHEREAS, appeals for additional advice have been received: NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS RE¬SOLVED: (1) That the policy of the Institute is to refrain from official participation or action in controversial non-technical economic subjects; further (2) That if any Local Section is in doubt as to the application of this policy to any particular subject, it should communicate with the Secretary of the Institute for advice.

Jan 1, 1946

Jan 1, 1958

Jan 1, 1943

Jan 1, 1943

By C. W. Brown

In the author's experience and contact with engineering students the old form of recitations had grown into the lecture system in which the student was a passive receiver of digested material. Later, the tutorial system was developed because it was felt that the lecture system was breaking down. The student was too passive and was simply trying to absorb what was given him. The seminary method was then introduced and for the particular field the author believes that there is no better method, but that for 20 years he has been trying to change the attitude of the student in certain courses from a passive, almost noncommittal, to an active participation, to change him from a receiver to a doer. The student cannot look over the whole field. That must be presented by the instructor in charge. A topic such as structure or glaciation is taken up and from that standpoint are argued all the geologic problems that might confront the engineer. Problems relating to dams and foundations, and structures, tunnels and excavations, are particularly adaptable to the method. Usually, however, the problem comes to the engineer in more complicated form. By virtue of the character of the material the same topic cannot be assigned to the entire class. Different phases of the topic must be assigned. The greatest difficulty in after life comes in that the student cannot analyze the problem and has not the ability to see that there is a problem. He has had little or no training in the gathering of material and very little training in the arrangement of a report. Consequently, selecting different problems, putting them before small groups, and then starting the student on the way to make the knowledge of his particular topic an integral part of his own mentality, is something that will fix that part of the work firmly in his mind. Professor Brown has insisted on an introductory step in a great many classes, in that without the student knowning very much more than the general outline of the topic or problem, he is made in inductive fashion to take up the entire problem, look it over, and prepare an outline as far as he can; in other words, to expose the problem to his own mind. This preliminary outline is discussed with the student and if the arrangement or logic, with regard to the end in view, are faulty, he is shown where

Jan 1, 1929

By C. W. Goodale

As an appendix to the above-mentioned paper, a drawing of the vertical projection of the Knoxville mine workings is here given. In my paper it was stated that the ore-chimneys are found along a crack or plane of cleavage in the limestone ; and as this crack is not parallel with the strata, it is safe to assume that the manganese was not deposited where it is now found before the tilting-up of the strata, but rather that the crack was caused by the folding, and that tile formation of the ore was entirely subsequent to the change of position of the limestone. There are here four chimneys, which have produced, as far as explored, over 12,000 tons of ore, containing at least 7000 tons of manganese oxides, and it is very difficult to apply Prof. W. P. Blake's theory of segregation from the surrounding limestone in accounting for the origin of this ore, as cross-cuts and drifts in the countryrock, even at short distances from the ore-chimneys, have not shown manganese in appreciable quantities. It is easier to believe that, in the language of .Mr. S. F. Emmons, in speaking of Leadville ore-deposits, there was a metasomatic interchange between the minerals brought in in solution and the limestone, and not a deposition in already existing cavities. This in-

Jan 1, 1890

Jan 1, 1939

Jan 1, 1939

By James R. Cudworth

OUR colleges and universities have met many difficulties during the past year. From a period of small enrollments and depleted faculties, the educational institutions have passed quickly to a period of the largest enrollments in their history with inadequate facilities and staffs. The results of the shortsighted policy of the Selective Service system which drained the technical schools and universities of many of the students who were potential teachers are now being felt. The movement of faculty members into positions in industry during the war years has resulted in many of them forsaking permanently the educational field for the higher salaried positions they now occupy. Competition is keen between the educational institutions, and between the institutions and industry, for technically trained men. Dean Holbrook's statement in last year's annual review that he thought it would take three or four years to restore our engineering departments to their former level in quality of instructors is even more convincing today. Somehow, the institutions must not only reach their former level in quality of instruction but they must also increase the quantity of their staffs to meet the demands of the ex-service men and the high school graduates for engineering education. The enrollments in the mineral industry fields of mining, metallurgical, geological, petroleum, and ceramic engineering, although greatly increased, are not expanding as much as in the more widely known fields of electrical, mechanical, aeronautical, and civil engineering. In fact, many educators are tremendously worried about the segregation of so many young men in a relatively few fields while the needs of others will remain unanswered.

Jan 1, 1947

Jan 1, 1931

Meeting, Apr. 25, 1913.-President Rand recommended the appointment of the Nominating Committee (see p. i), and a Committee on the Use of Electricity in Mines (see p. xliv), which committees were duly approved and appointed. President Rand recommended the establishment of. a Committee on Mining Methods, and requested authority for the President to appoint the members of this Committee, both of which recommendations were approved. The name of the Committee on Economic Geology was, at its own request, changed to the Committee on Mining Geology. The request of the Iron and Steel Committee, that a meeting of the Institute, under the auspices of this Committee, be held in the latter part of October, the place of meeting to be decided later, was granted.

Jan 5, 1913

Iron and steel lire subjects that will receive the attention clue them at the meeting in. St. Louis. Within the past 2 years the smelting of iron ore on a large scale has been started in the St. Louis area, and the blast furnaces are in full operation. Ore is being received. from the Lake Superior region, in large barges .brought clown the Mississippi River. Firebrick, for the lining of the furnaces, is made in the. St. Louis district to a greater extent than elsewhere in the country. At this meeting, there will probably be a discussion of the possibilities of the increase of manganese production in this country, and of improved methods of using it in steel manufacture.

Jan 10, 1917

The U. S. Navy Department has perfected plans for the enrollment and training of considerable numbers of engineering officers. A school for this purpose, the U. S. Navy Steam Engineering School, has been established by the Department at Hoboken, N. J. The school is open to men between the ages of 21 and 40 who meet the physical requirements of the Navy, who are of thorough ability and officer-like character and who have completed the mechanical or electrical engineering course at certain recognized technical schools, or who possess an education and experience adjudged to be an equivalent thereof. Enrollment in the U. Naval Reserve Force of men properly qualified may be made at any Naval enrolling office, notation being made of the applicant's qualifications and desire to be detailed to this school. Applicants will be enrolled as Chief Machinist Mates, and during the course of instruction will draw the pay of this rating, $83 per month, plus $60 per month paid as subsistence. Upon graduation, men will be commissioned as Ensigns in the U. S. Naval Reserve, with a salary of $1700 per year. The duty to which a graduate of this school will be assigned will be that of an engineer officer in the auxiliary service of the Navy. Special provision has been made for the continuance of the school with proper material by a Navy regulation which permits undergraduates of the Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior Classes in recognized engineering schools to enroll in the Naval Reserve Force with the rating of Seaman 2d Class, and continue their courses at the institutions where they have matriculated. Such men will be called into active service after their graduation, and can at that time, if they are qualified to pass an officers' physical examination, apply for admission to the U. S. Navy Steam Engineering School. Men who are registered in the draft, either graduates or undergraduates, may enroll with the proper enrolling officer by securing from their draft board a letter of release, which in all probability can be obtained for this purpose. The aim of this school is not simply to produce engineers, but to produce naval engineering officers in the true sense of the word. The course of instruction covers a period of five months, arranged in four periods.

Jan 10, 1918

By R. M. Briney

A RETURN to nonwar conditions characterized the year 1946. The acquisition and forced use, under Government auspices, of low-grade and uneconomic ores, both foreign and domestic, ceased in 1945, but there was some carry-over into the early months of 1946. The world shipping situation delayed the procurement of some foreign ores, but conditions were improving by the end of the year. No actual shortage of any important alloy was experienced, hence the industry was able to make prompt shipment of orders placed. Price levels of ferroalloys, which had remained virtually constant through the war years, were forced upward, with increases on specific products as conditions necessitated. Standard ferroman-ganese and low-carbon ferrochrome were notable exceptions in that their price did not change. No new ferroalloy smelting plants were constructed. The Defense Plant Corp.. sold the works at Ashtabula, Ohio, to the Electro Metallurgical Co. A new type of ferroalloy furnace was described at the Birmingham meeting of the Electrochemical Society. Known as the "Elkem Rotary Furnace" it is distinguished by a rotating shell. The whole furnace, including shell, refrac-

Jan 1, 1947

By Antonio Marrano, Eda F. Quadros, Diogo Correa [Fo], Paulo T. Cruz

For many years the water pressure test has been used as a normal procedure to investigate the hydraulic characteristics of rock masses and discontinuities. Although the test has given evidence of problematic areas, the nature of flow and the so called equivalent permeability are seldom seriously affected by the testing tecnique. In order to improve the information on these points the Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas de São Paulo - IPT, has developed an extensive program at laboratory and field research on the hydraulics at rock fractures. This paper summarizes the main items related to this research. Is shows that with only small improvements on field tests and some support of laboratory conductivity tests on natural rock joints it is possible to obtain a better understanding of the nature of flow in fractures, improve flow predictions and estimate the opening and hydraulic conductivity, as well as the transmissivity of natural joints or rock discontinuities.

Jan 1, 1982

By Cornelius F. Kelley

EVERY man connected with the mining industry should take a significant pride in the fact that he belongs to an industry and to a profession that, from the beginning, has been constructive. The miner digs his ore and he gives the metal to art, to industry, and to commerce. The nature of our business is destructive only in that we deal with a wasting asset. That should be a source of great pride to those who belong to the profession. But unfortunately, the product of our mines, our smelters, and our re- fineries does not always go to constructive purposes. There are times when, in the administration of the affairs of men, our product chiefly goes to purposes which are destructive. When we look upon the panorama of horror that is being enacted throughout the world today, we wonder whether any effort toward the development of civilization and culture and education and well-being has been worthwhile. We are appalled to see the things that have been developed, through the application of science, toward progress and efficiency, now used for the catastrophic destruction of those things which are the most valuable that man has built. We must find hope that this is but an episodic thing; that it must, in the infinite wisdom of the Almighty, usher in a period of peace and progress, of civilization and development that will make man's existence upon earth worthwhile.

Jan 1, 1941