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Jan 1, 1886

Jan 1, 1950

Jan 1, 1943

Jan 1, 1943

Jan 1, 1916

Jan 1, 1936

The Institute conducts jointly with the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and American Institute of Electrical Engineers, certain activities as listed below, and is joint owner with them of certain properties.

Jan 1, 1923

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 Miming 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 ex- pressed policy of the Institute to refrain from official participation or action in political and semi-political matters."

Jan 1, 1946

By Robert Glass Cleland

[Wylie Brown Responsible to a large extent for the incorporation of: British American Metals Company, Inc. 1918 American Copper Products Corporation 1920 British American Tube Company, Inc. 1922 National Electric Products Corporation 1927 Phelps Dodge Copper Products Corporation 1932 President 1932-1947 Chairman of Board1948-1950]

Jan 1, 1952

James DouGlas, New York, N. Y. (communication to the Secretary*):—In my paper on the Conservation of Natural Resources, I referred to the slow replacement of bee-hive ovens by the by-product ovens as a most notable instance of waste. And I quoted from Mr. Parker's report for 1906 an explanation given by him in accounting for the small production of by-product coke. It was that the market for the by-products of the coke-ovens was so limited that some of the ovens constructed were out of operation. His report on the manufacture of coke in 1908' does not record an improvement, and attributes the strange fact that we alone, of all the industrial peoples, delay the adoption of this cardinal improvement from the continuance of the same almost inexplicable cause. To quote again from his report, he says (p. 241): "The year 1908 was not marked by any notable gain in the construction of byproduct coking plants, though some new work was done. There was a net increase

Jan 1, 1910

William H. BLAUVELT, Anaconda, Mont.: Mr. Stetefeldt's comparison of the producer-plants at Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, is of special interest at this time, when the attention of all western metallurgists is so forcibly drawn to the necessity of reducing expenses and losses. The fact that wood was used at Park City before gas was introduced, for firing the Stetefeldt furnace and dryer, offered an excellent opportunity for showing the economies resulting from the adoption of gas in place of wood, as well as a comparison between the two gas-plants. Some time ago Mr. Stetefeldt contributed an article to one of the technical journals, in which the economy obtained by the substitution of gas for wood at this plant was shown quite in detail. I regret not being able to quote from his article at length, but, remember that the total saving effected would pay for the producer-plant in about one month. This is a striking instance of the advantages to be secured by the adoption of the best methods of using fuel in our metallurgical works. In comparing the figures from the Park City and Aspen plants, the difference of over 20 per cent. in the fuel used in the Stetefeldt furnaces, seems remarkable, even considering the larger amount of sulphur in the Aspen ore, and the greater rapidity with which it was roasted. It would be interesting to have Mr. Stetefeldt's, opinion as to the cause of so great a difference. The inferior economy of the revolving dryers at Park City might be overcome by lengthening them, or so arranging a second one above

Jan 1, 1894

By Alan Morris

IN a previous paper1 the results of cutting tests on free-cutting brass rod were reported. Investigation was made of the effects of variation in lead content, microstructure and cold drawing. The author's reply to the discussion of that paper includes a study of the directional cutting properties of drawn and annealed rod. The present paper records the results of tests made on series of samples in which the tin, iron and copper contents have been varied. The apparatus, used and method of testing are described in detail in the previous paper. The machine is of the pendulum-operated milling type used and described by Airey and Oxford.2 Angular readings of the height to which the pendulum rises after falling from a fixed position, both when a cut is made and when the pendulum swings freely, give the basis for calculation of the energy consumed in making a cut. Careful weighing of the sample before and after cutting gives a measure of the amount of metal removed. The results are expressed in foot-pounds per cubic inch of metal removed, and have been called "unit cutting energy." In the course of the discussion of the author's earlier paper, W. B. Price reported large-scale tests involving some 50,000 lb. of material. These tests indicated that the addition of as much as 0.6 per cent of iron and 0.25 per cent of tin had apparently no adverse effect on the high-speed cutting characteristics of the rod. The rod also contained a small amount of nickel. The test results reported here tend to confirm his observations.

Jan 1, 1933

EVERY English-speaking mining, engineer or geologist knows that some terms used by his profession are not rigid but vary regionally; for example: what is called a vein by some, is called a lode by others and is known as a reef to their Australian colleagues. There are parallels in, the German language. Since, in addition, the meaning of some words may change considerably in 450 years-and other words may disappear completely-and not only the terminology but the concepts of a science are subject to drastic changes over such a long period of time, translating the Bergbüchlein posed some interesting problems. Old German texts and glossaries such as C. T. Delius' Anleitung zu der Bergbaukunst (1773), Minerophilus' Neues and Curieuses Bergwercks-Lexicon (1730), and H. Veith's Deutsches Bergwörterbuch (1871) proved useful sources of information when defini¬tions of obscure terms were needed. The task of translating was made even more challenging by the author's personality. As Ulrich Rülein von Kalbe was primarily a physician, his information must have been mostly secondhand. Since the nomenclature of the miners of Saxony, where he gathered his material on silver ores, undoubtedly varied from that of the German miners in Hungary, for instance, who probably supplied him with data on gold ores, it is not astonishing that he is not consistent in his use of some expressions. To give an example: there is every indication that Flöz and schwebender Gang (see footnote p. 21) are used interchangeably in spite of his occasional disapproval of such usage. It is obvious that he was an educated man with a questing and active mind and, although he apologizes-not wholly sincerely, one might suspect-for the simple

Jan 1, 1949

Jan 1, 1916

"The building stone industry of Utah has developed slowly on account of the limited market offered. The state has large and varied deposits of granite, limestones, marble and onyx.Three cement companies manufacture Portland cement in the Salt Lake valley. Brick clay, fire clay and clay for sewer pipe is found in the vicinity of Salt Lake City and Ogden.Large deposits of gypsum have been found in several localities in Utah. The gypsum deposit near Nephi has been developed to be one of the most important plaster producers in the western country. This gypsum occurs in large quantities and is exceptionally pure.Oil and Oil ShaleVast deposits of rich oil shale occur in the Green River formation of the Tertiary rocks in the Uintah Basin, northeastern Utah. It is estimated by the United States Geological Survey that the basin contains at least 92,159,000,000 tons of shale which will yield as much as 15 gallons of oil to the ton when distilled. These shale deposits indicate that ultimately Utah will be one of the leading shale oil producing states of the country. Some development work and considerable experimental work has been done, but overproduction of petroleum and general low prices afforded little incentive to the oil-shale operator, consequently no commercial production has yet been established in Utah."

Jan 1, 1925

By AIME AIME

ONE test is worth a thousand expert opinions, say the engineers of the John A. Roebling's Sons Co. of Trenton, N. J. Confronted with the job of building the cables for the new Hudson River Bridge between Fort Lee and upper Manhattan, the Roebling organization, in spite of its long and varied experience in building cables for suspension bridges of various sizes, recognized that old yardsticks would be of little value in estimating safety factors for the immense span across the Hudson.

Jan 1, 1929

Frank Williams, Johnstown, Pa. (Communicatioll to the Secretary): As the manager of the company which manufactured the " American " magnesite and the silica-brick mentioned by Mr. Pennock, I beg to say that he was quite right in placing a mark of interrogation after " American " (page 268). While the users of magnesite in this country are at a disadvantage as to cost by reason of not having any large bodies of sufficiently pure material at hand, the manufacturing concern referred to has secured an advantage as to quality by a mixture of the different foreign magnesites, which vary considerably in their composition and physical structure. The American (?) magilesite tested was a sample of the next

Jan 1, 1897

Edward Halse, Puerto Berrio, Colombia, S. A. (communication to the Secretary): I have read with much pleasure the interesting and valuable paper by Mr. Kunz, and hope that the following brief notes, gathered a few years ago, while a resident in Mexico City, may help to elucidate the subjcct: Turquoise.—This was known to the Aztecs as Xihuitl. Santiago Ramirez states that they found it in the Cerro Xicohtzonc, close to Atzcapatzalco, a suburb of the City of Mexico (compare page 59). Opal.—This was known to the ancient Mexicans, for they named it mezcuitlatt (compare page 63). Jade.—Under this was iucluded a third mineral, prehnite, not mentioned by Mr. Kunz. According to James D. Dana, part of the "jade " of China is prehnite; and Humboldt informs us, in his work on New Spain, that the same species of jade is known in some parts of Mexico as mahagua (majagua ?). The same writer says, in his Views of the Cordilleras, that the Aztec name Tecpatl included flint, hornstone, and green jade; and finally, in his Travels in South America," he discusses the nature of the ancient amazon-stones, and declares them to have been made out of a jade resembling " compact feldspar," one of the constituents of the gabbro verde di Corsica. IIence those stones were probably composed of nephrite. According to Humboldt, the form given to them most frequently is that of the Babylomian cylinder, longitudinally perforated, and loaded with inscriptions and figures. They were also cut by the natives into very thin plates, perforated at the center, suspended by a thread, and worn as amulets. According to the historian Clavijero, the specific name given by the Aztecs to the nephritic stone (jadeite) was Quitzalitztli,

Jan 1, 1902

The 114th (New York) Meeting of the Institute will be held in the third week of February, 1917. The Committee on Papers and Publications has set Dec: 1, 1916; as the closing date for the receipt of manuscripts intended for this meeting. Manuscripts must be received by the Secretary on or before this date. If they are sent through members of the technical committee they must be sent to those committees enough in advance of the time to be forwarded and in the hands of the Secretary by the time specified. While Dec. 1, 1916, is the final closing date, it is a great advantage to get papers in as much before that time as possible as it enables them to be submitted in proof form to their authors. Papers received on or before Nov. 1, 1916, will, as far as possible, be published in the January Bulletin or earlier, thus giving good distribution among the members in advance of tile meeting. The Institute's records show that the discussion of papers is very rnuch better when they are distributed somewhat in advance of the meeting instead of in the Bulletin which goes out immediately preceding the meeting.

Jan 9, 1916

IN the western mines, the boss, engineer, geologist, or nipper in making rounds have a password which usually guarantees safe entrance to a working place from below the working miner. Most men won't climb a raise or enter a stope from below where a miner is working until they have shouted "nothin' down" and heard those words shouted back by the miners above. "Nothin' down" is a safety pledge as necessary and as binding as the truce flag to the soldier. It implies mutual confidence that work will be suspended until the person below has come abreast of the workers; and also confidence that the miner who replies "nothin' down" is reasonably sure the place is safe to enter. Like truce flags which are not infallible, so is this password subject to human errors or unexpected falls of rock, tools, or timber. Everyone knows these unavoidable hazards, but what is important to the exposed man is that in that precise moment of time when he has heard the reassurance of "nothin' down," he knows that safety is uppermost in the minds of the men above him. With such assurance we would go anywhere and so would most mining men. If that period of safety consciousness, procured by the utterance of two words, could be multiplied to equal the hours in the working day, there would not be any accidents but those by "the act of God." It is the aim of every safety program to make safety as natural as breathing. That is the reason for the posters, the conferences, instruction periods, safety engineers, and the inspections. But none of these are as effective as one accident, which keeps men on their toes for weeks to come. This is not the price we want to pay for safety consciousness. This Annual Review number of Mining Engineering is full of talk about production. Production for defense, production for profit. In this tremendous surge of industrial might . to make this nation and our very families safe S from the predatory forces abroad in the world today; let us not lose sight of the fact that the . safety of our manpower is more precious than any commodity. Production without safety is detrimental to the national interest, to that of the company, and to the individual. If the words "nothin' down" can give us the best human guarantee of safety, for however brief a time, let us adopt them at least in principle as our slogan in 1952. Production for preservation in '52 - but NOTHIN' DOWN!

Jan 1, 1952