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By E. N. Pennebaker

A PRESENT, a comprehensive account of the geology and ore deposits of the Robinson mining district, in eastern Nevada, is not warranted. Though several years' work has been done, the district is so large that it will be some time before the investigation nears completion. In this paper I purpose merely to discuss methods of study and the application of geologic data to the search for ore. In the first place, the purpose of a geological depart¬ment in a mining organization is to collect and correlate all geologic and engineering data likely to be useful. In an extensive and well developed mining camp this involves a detailed study of the structure and stratigraphy of the district as a whole, as well as careful analysis of the orebodies exposed. The problem then is to find continuations or similar ore environments in other parts of the district in which like phenomena have been active, and to explore these for new orebodies. Experience gained in other similar mining districts is useful but one must always remember that a great many mining districts are unique and that exploration rules and procedure applying to one cannot always be transferred to another of apparently similar character and be made to work. One also has to be careful in moving from one to another part of the same district. The geologist must first examine the region critically to determine its individual characteristics. .

Jan 1, 1932

By GERALD A. WARING

ALASKA'S coal consumption is now about 130,000 tons annually. About one-quarter of this amount is used in the southeastern part of the territory and in settlements on the western coast and comes from Seattle and from British Columbia mines. About 60,000 tons is sub-bituminous coal from the Healy River mine in central Alaska, and is used mainly at Fairbanks, sixty miles to the north, for heating and the development of electric energy, for the city and the gold-dredging operations of the Fairbanks Exploration Co. The remaining 40,000 or 50,000 tons is bituminous coal from Matanuska Valley, in the south-central part of the territory. These coal deposits extend intermittently for about forty miles along the valley, which trends eastward from the upper end of Cook Inlet.

Jan 1, 1934

By E. H. GRAFF

PREPARATION of mechanically loaded coal in mines where seams contain considerable impurities is a subject that requires careful consideration before machines are installed, unless provision is made at the tipple for its preparation. Conditions vary a great deal in the different seams, so much so that a mechanical loader may be unsuccessful in one seam and yet the same machine may make good in another where conditions are different. The effect of impurities in the coal seam on mechanical loading will also vary according to the thickness of the seam. In thin seams impurities will be more difficult to remove than from thick seams, as will appear later. For the past several years the New River Co. has done considerable experimenting with loading equipment and during this process has changed from one machine to another.

Jan 1, 1926

By JULIAN HINDS

Industrialization is raising the standard of living of people everywhere. The common man is demanding and getting more of everything. Perhaps more markedly than most other things, he is consuming more water. A hundred years ago water for domestic use, in all but a few large centers, was lugged from wells in buckets. This still is true in many rural areas, even in the enlightened United States of America. but pumps and pressure systems are rapidly replacing the "old oaken bucket," even on farms and in isolated country homes. Nevertheless, many still fail to see water as a ?commodity? in the same sense that coal, lumber, fertilizer, and bread are considered as commosities. Water is too frequently taken for granted.

Jan 1, 1949

By T. A. Rickard

The use of the verb in this mood is not as common as formerly: at the time, for' example, when the Bible was translated and the plays of Shakespeare were written. Nevertheless it is an essential part of literary English. In editing the `Mining and Scientific Press' I do not insist upon the use of the subjunctive in articles that are contributed from the outside, but it is deemed proper in all our editorial writing. To speak plainly, the subjunctive is I a mark of scholarship; it is ignored by those that are not particular in such matters, and unfortunately it is a source of perplexity to many that are entirely unfamiliar with the use of it. Therefore, as an editor, I think it well to allow the indicative mood to be used by contributors in sentences in which, to be strictly correct, the verbs .should be in the subjunctive mood. The fact that most subjunctives are indistinguishable in form from indicatives is another cause of trouble to the uninitiated.* For example, the verbs in such phrases as "Suffice it to say ", "So help me God ", and "God save the King" Fare in the subjunctive. One reason why the subjunctive is becoming uncommon is the growing habit of expressing the subjunctive meaning by aid of auxiliary verbs that are coupled with the infinitive; thus: "It will suffice' to say" and "May God save the King". The subjunctive is common in subordinate clauses, and that is how it obtained its name, `subjunctive', meaning * The student is referred to `A New English Grammar', by E. A. Sonnenschein, published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford. This textbook (see pp. 60-71 in Part III) discusses the subject luminously.

Jan 1, 1931

By R. S. MACPHERRAN

TRENDS in the manufacture and use of cast iron are decidedly toward specialization, alloy iron, and increased strength. Old handbooks list only one kind of cast iron, with a tensile strength of 15,000 lb. Recent A.S.T.M. specifications show that from 50,000 to 60,000 lb. per sq. in. can now regularly he guaranteed. The use of alloy iron, heat-treated iron, and even nitrided cast iron, is rapidly growing and all kinds are improving in quality. Iron for operation at high temperature and corrosion-resisting irons have also been developed. Only a few years ago cast iron was "cast iron," but now there are almost as many kinds of cast iron as there are foundries making it

Jan 1, 1936

By A. B. Young

THERE were produced in this country in 1923 probably in the neighborhood of 12,000 or 13,000 tons of refined and crude arsenic, by far the greater portion coming as a by product of smelting operations. Early this year copper smelters were producing arsenic at the rate of about 425 tons per month and lead smelters at the rate of 7;0 tons per month. During the entire eighteen years prior to 1919, there were produced in the United States only 47,000 tons of arsenic, which amounts to only 25 per cent. of the present output. The great increased demand has come about through the augmented use of arsenates as insecticides and arsenates as weed killers. In an extract from "Mineral Resources of the United States" on "Arsenic in 1922," Messrs. Heikes and Loughlin say, "The minimum possible demand for arsenic in 1923 was estimated at the end of 1922 to be about 13,000 tons, including 2000 tons for plate glass manufacturers, 3000 tons for lead arsenate, 3500 tons for calcium arsenate, 1500 tons for weed killers, 1200 tons for Paris green, 1000 tons for sheep dips and 750 tons for proprietary mixtures. More recent information, however, indicates twice as great a demand for calcium arsenate." The latter has found great use in the last three or four years as a weapon to combat the boll weevil pest of the southern cotton belt. ~t the present writing refined white arsenic is being quoted on the New York market at from 13)d c. to 1455 c. per Ib., while the average price during the eighteen-year period just mentioned was 4.8 c.

Jan 1, 1924

By William O. Hotchkiss

IN COMMON with every other good citizen I long for conditions that will make perpetual peace a reality throughout the world. I have studied the statements of our public men relating to what we must do to bring this about after this war is over. In most of these I find one common error. They always build their plans on the unstated, subconsciously accepted premise that there can be such a thing as an ideal nation whose citizens are possessed of infinite wisdom and actuated only by motives that are above reproach. This heavenly vision fails to correspond with the facts. We wish it could be true but we are forced sadly to admit that the human beings that will live here after this war is over are going to be much like the fallible race that has occupied our planet for the past centuries.

Jan 1, 1943

By E. Just

The mining industry is guaranteed an important future because its products are indispensable. However, this can be anything from a brilliant, efficient, profitable future to one of being a heavy-handed, dull-witted claimant for public handouts, according to the caliber and training of the young men who enter the industry. Many views have been expressed about the type of education needed for today's mining industry. Criticisms have been aired to the point that further controversy amongst ourselves could be detrimental to both mining education and the mining industry. It is time we get together and start going somewhere. To canvass the various attitudes of mining educators, a questionnaire was sent to a group of these dedicated, intelligent men, whose primary interest is to help the industry and the profession. The following is a summary of their views.

Jan 9, 1961

By Jay A. Carpenter

WAR?S impact on Nevada mining and rnetallugrcal operations has brought about a rapid rise in the gross value of the ores mined and milled for the atratezic metals, and a sharp decrease in that for the precious metals. The State?s total production over the present war years will averaged out 10 per cent above the good record of $39,000,000 in 1937. However. this annual production is low in contract to that of nearly $47,000,000 in 1877 in the days of the great bonanza on the Comstock, and that of nearly $49,000.000 in 1918 during the last World War..

Jan 1, 1944

By H. J. C. MAC DONALD

THE mining engineer must have a chest of books snug enough for a camelback or to be stowed away in a canoe; at the lowest possible cost, as he needs it the most in those early years when he earns the least; but at the same time one having an unusually wide range, for he may have to cut down a forest, put up a sawmill, build mine towns, construct dams, power houses, power lines, and railroads. In fact he may be called upon for many unexpected accomplishments and all in extension of the characteristically broad demands of his profession. Suppose that an average mining engineer with a thorough theoretical training and a specialized mining education has accumulated, during a cosmopolitan experience, a complete and up-to-date library, but, unfortunately, in accepting a long term assignment to a far country he is forced to discard the greater part of

Jan 1, 1925

By Blamey Stevens

(San Francisco Meeting, October, 1911.) IN this paper, which is a logical extension of my paper, The Laws of Intrusion, 1 the various pressures of emanation and their mechanical causes and effects on the large scale of nature are determined, .and a classification of emanations is deduced therefrom. The Subterranean Sea. The subterranean sea is here defined as the intercommunicating water contained in the trains of pores and fissures of the rocks down to great depths. Whether the actual amount of water constituting this subterranean sea be large or small, does not enter into the present argument, since the static pressure of this water at any particular depth is not a function of the quantity : it involves only the depth and the density of the water. Densities. The total pressure at depths down to 10 or 15 miles is made up of the rock-stresses investigated in my previous papers, and the pressure of the subterranean sea. The latter component must evidently be equal to the weight of a solid column of the overlying water of unit sectional area. As water expands with heat, it should really be necessary to sum the density at every level. A knowledge of the densities of water under a variety of conditions is therefore needed, but does not seem ever to have been ascertained for such combined pressures and temperatures as we have to consider. The specific gravity of water at 28° C. for various pressures up to 400 atmospheres, has been determined by Barus,2 who

Apr 1, 1912

By John Mills

THREE case histories from professions other than engineering will serve to introduce ideas basic to this discussion. Case (1) Date, about 1900. A young man, B. D. from a three-year graduate course in a prominent divinity school, was for two years a successful pastor of a small church; then friction over theological matters arose with a fundamentalist deacon of the "Bible belt" type. He resigned, returned to his university for a four-year medical course, interned for two more, and thereafter was successful and apparently happy as a physician. We may assume that he was converted in early adolescence and vowed himself to service as a minister. Acceptance of his announced career by parents, friends, and teachers plus his own determination confirmed his choice until illiberal criticism threatened his usefulness and he awoke to the fact that his inner needs were not along the direction in which inertia and his conscience had constrained him.

Jan 1, 1947

By L. S. Cates

THE war is now behind us. We in the mining industry feel a just pride in the part that our industry and our men and our products played in defeating the enemy on the fighting fronts around the world. In five years of mobilization and actual combat, our mines and oil wells produced over 3 billion tons of coal, a billion tons of petroleum, 500 million tons of iron ore, 21/4 million tons of lead, 31/2 million tons of zinc, 5 million tons of copper, 14 million tons of bauxite, 17 million tons of sulphur, 68 million tons of salt, and 3 million tons of potash. It was an unparalleled performance. But what of today? Why the present low production and high costs? Among the black clouds in the mining sky none are so black as that presented by the labor situation. We know it is the result of the legislation and the interpretation of that legislation in the past ten or fifteen years. Since the passage of the Norris-LaGuardia Act in 1932, we have had nothing but a succession of laws, regulations, and decisions that have intensified the strength of the unions and made the operators of the mines and the sources of their financing prartirally impotent

Jan 1, 1946

By T. A. Rickard

The function of a preposition is to show the relation of one thing to another; it is necessary therefore for the writer to select the preposition that indicates the particular relation, otherwise he will fail to express himself clearly. Is it against common sense' to suggest that a Government is justified, morally as well as constitutionally, in preventing the decay of an industry by insisting upon the amalgamation of the prosperous with the needy? All these seven prepositions are used correctly. With the first dredge introduced in Russia, of Werf Conrad, Haarlem, make, this method of alluvial dining became important. Here the prepositions "with", "in", and "of" are used wrongly. He means: "This method of a1lu;ial mining sprang into importance shortly after the first dredge, made at the Werf Conrad, Haarlem, was introduced into ;Russia." The statement itself ii not true, but for that I am not responsible. Once, while I was serving with him, we were frozen in out of sight of land in the Gulf of Pichili in the North of China. Admiral Fisher wrote thus. He has used nine prepositions in making this brief statement. The sequence of three prepositions "in out of" is particularly awkward.

Jan 1, 1931

By Paul Averitt

require both time and money. Any attempt to secure a quick answer will yield a figure that very likely cannot be substantiated, and certainly will not yield information in the detailed form now desired. It will be about 10 years before a completely new estimate can be prepared for the coal reserves of the United States at our present rate of progress, though of course, much information will be available in the interim. We would like to present such information as we obtain in the form most acceptable to the industry, and to that end we are working closely with coal resource committees of the AIME, the National Bituminous Coal Advisory Council, and the Bureau of Mines. DISCUSSION G. H. Cady*—Mr. Averitt's description of the nature of the coal resources investigations of the United States Geological Survey and the progress of this work is very timely in view of the general interest in the subject of coal resources. The Federal Survey is obviously taking the "long view" with respect to the appraisal of the coal resources as part of the preparation of the general geological map of the country and the attendant determination of the quantity of all mineral and fuel resources. It is apparently for regional surveys of the conventional type that the detailed procedures employed by the Federal Survey are applicable. Even if so it is somewhat unexpected to find the same criteria for evaluation will be applied to the country as a whole. The work on coal resources appraisal has been proceeding at various rates in a number of coal producing states for various periods. Undoubtedly since there has been no common practice in the method of appraisal the states each have worked independently and independently of the Federal Survey, and each has adopted certain practices to meet local conditions. I do not know how much consideration has been given by the U. S. Geological Survey to these practices. It seems probable that such consideration might result in important modifications of the standards which apparently have been set up by the Federal group in line with local requirements. It is the practice in some state surveys to present the facts in regard to the occurrence and distribution of coal beds and their variations in thickness down to thicknesses of 1 to 1 1/2 ft in relatively narrow stages up to maximum thickness. It is then possible for any one using such figures to compile quantitative estimates of workable coal at various minimum thickness limits. This is a desirable objective where surveys are detailed and information correspondingIy good. However, vast quantities of coal lie in beds that are relatively thin about which little information is available and the quantity of such coal might affect the final appraisal to the extent of several thousand million, depending upon the minimum limitation observed. Thus in the case of Illinois a difference of 1 ft in average thickness of coal in the coal field would make a difference of approximately 35 billion tons in the estimated quantity present. One is dealing with a very large area and small differences in thicknesses are very irnportant in the overall picture. The estimate of 10 years to accomplish the sort of detailed appraisal outlined by Mr. Averitt is viewed somewhat skeptically and certainly would require many more trained geologists than seem to be available. The requisite detailed mapping and study are very time consuming not only because of the geological field work required, which is difficult in certain seasons, but also in order to assemble data from company and personal files, and to study drill records and cores, and to sample and analyze the coal. Unless the staff of geologists could be increased in the order of several hundred per cent the prospects are that the appraisal of the type suggested will require many decades not just one. The permanent value of such appraisal, however, is not questioned and it should be expedited as rapidly as means allow. Satisfactory appraisal is not easily achieved and will vary from time to time. The main function of a geological survey is to collect and present the facts that will make possible appraisal in terms of existing conditions by individuals, particularly engineers, qualified by training and expcrience for making such estimates. Thickness and character of the coal bed, nature of the overlying and underlying strata, position, thickness, and character of "partings," relationship to other coal beds, and a variety of other factors must be assembled by the geologist in order to present a complete picture of the geological setting. The economic and engineering factors are in general outside the field of geological experience. The geologist should see to it that the pertinent geological facts are available; much more information than simply thickness and depth of the coal beds is essential to meet all the requirements of appraisal in the future as well as at present. With respect to the present demand by engineers and coal mine operators and others for a rapid re-appraisal of the available coal resources, in the light of existing practices and those in immediate prospect, the Federal procedure of systematic mapping and appraisal is scarcely in line. It will be necessary for those particularly interested in having such an estimate made to establish standards with respect to the various factors involved so that the scope of the geological work can be definitely restricted for the various coal fields. There is little use in setting up general standards since no such standards will be applicable to all fields. Thus it is folly to establish a standard minimum thickness to be generally applicable which is one-half to one-third the minimum minable thickness in some fields. The greatest difficulty in appraisal of the presently actually workable coal bed lies in the variation in the importance placed on roof, floor, structural conditions, bedded impurities. sulphur content and other factors that affect judgment relative to the value of a coal bed. It is doubtful whether any appraisal will have universal approval in view of the variable factors involved. For this reason if none other, the facts should be carefully and painstakingly assembled after the manner of a systematic geological survey such as that advocated by Mr. Averitt. Only upon the basis of sucb information can reliable estimates be made in line with selected conditions. Paul AveRitt (author's repty)— In this paper I discussed, but did not define as such, two major phases of our activities on coal, which are closely related, and which normally we in the U. S. Geological Survey see as an integrated whole. It is understandable, therefore, that Dr. Cady should assume that my remarks applied only to the current work on coal reserves with which I am directly concerned. In view of Dr. Cady's discussion, however, I think a brief summary of the two phases of U. S. Geological Survey activities on coal will be appropriate. The long-term function of the U. S. Geological Survey on coal investigations is to make detailed geologic studies, involving the preparation of detailed geologic maps showing the outcrops and correlations of coal beds, direction and dip of coal-bearing rocks, nature and thickness of overburden, location of faults and fold axes, and similar features. Such studies also yield many measured sections of coal and associated strata, which show variations in the thickness of the beds, and the intervals between coal beds. Taken as a whole, detailed geologic studies provide much useful information for mine operators and engineers. As Dr. Cady points out, this type of geologic work is arduous and time consuming, but it provides the basic data that are necessary both in the development of our coal fields, and also in the preparation of coal-reserve estimates, which are discussed in the next paragraph. The U. S.

Jan 1, 1950

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

By Robert H. Richards

Jan 1, 1883

By LE B. GRAY

ALL meeting of the Chemical Section, National Safety Council, in Rochester, N. Y., put his hand on at least ten salient points that apply to safety in nearly any laboratory ; these are as follows : 1. Impress your laboratory worker at the start that he is dealing with powerful and dangerous-forces and that every experimental set-up must be studied from the stand- point of its fiber, electrical, explosive, and health hazards.

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

AMONG the members of the Institute there are thirty-three who have been members for a half- century or-more Some time ago a professor of psychology made a careful study of a group of unusually brilliant children to determine whether there was any truth in the general belief that a brilliant mind is usually to be found in a physically sub-normal body. He definitely proved the exact opposite and it is now known that children who are above the average in mental capacity are also above the average in physical health and strength.

Jan 1, 1929