Search Documents

By M. F. Hawkes, R. F. Mehl

The rate of isothermal transformation of austenite to pearlite depends upon the rate of nucleation, N, and the rate of growth, G, of pearlite in austenite. Values of N are given in terms of the number of nuclei forming in unit time per unit grain boundary area of unreacted austenite; values of C are given in terms of the linear rate of radial growth. Variations in the isothermal rate with temperature result from variation of N and G with temperature. Depth of hardening of a steel depends fundamentally upon values of N and G; changes in carbon and alloy content effect changes in N and G and thus affect depth of hardening. Quantitative studies are available on N and G for the formation of pearlite in plain carbon eutectoid steels.3 Systematic studies in this field are necessary if the phenomena are to be well enough known to furnish a proper basis for full rationalization and for theory. Accordingly, the studies are continuing, both with respect to the effect of alloying elements upon the values of N and G in the formation of pearlite and to the values of N and G for the formation of ferrite in hypoeutectoid steels. The present paper is the first relating to the effect of alloying elements upon the values of N and G for pearlite. It offers special interest since cobalt is known to have an anomalous effect upon the rate of formation of pearlite, accelerating it, whereas all other elements retard it.4 It will be shown that cobalt increases both N and G for pearlite and that this effect is inherent in the Fe-Co-C system and not dependent upon factors relating to austenite heterogeneity nor upon any recognizable adventitious factor. Inasmuch as the rate of diffusion of carbon in austenite and the interlamellar spacing of pearlite are variables related to G and possibly to N (in a manner not yet certain), measurements of the effect of cobalt upon them are also reported here. In the course of the work, measurements were made on the effect of cobalt upon the marten-site temperature and these are given. COBALT AS AN ALLOYING ELEMENT IN STEEL Properties of Cobalt Cobalt resembles iron more closely than does any other chemical element. Its atomic number is 27, hence it is the element immediately following iron in the periodic system. The two differ in atomic structure only in the fact that cobalt contains seven electrons instead of six in the third, or transition, level of .the third shell. The next shell, which is the

Jan 1, 1948

[ ] John M. Davis has left Western Machinery Co. to take a job as project engineer with Baroid Sales Div., National Lead Co., and is now located at Houston, Texas. C. W. Allen, general manager of the mining dept. of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co., visited the firm's iron mines on the Mesabi iron range of Minnesota recently. Thomas P. Anderson, mining engineer and geologist, has resigned from the Raw Materials Div. of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission where he was assistant chief of the Denver Exploration Branch. He will enter private practice in Golden, Colo. James E. Atkinson, consulting mining engineer and geologist, left New York for Colombia, S. A., as general manager for Cia Minera Choco-Pacifico, S. A., operating five dredges in gold and platinum on the Pacific coast of Colombia. Russell H. Bennett has been elected a director of Placer Development, Ltd. with head office in Vancouver, B. C., and is also a director of its subsidiary, Canadian Exploration, Ltd., which mines and mills lead, zinc, and tungsten ores at a property near Salmo, B. C.

Jan 1, 1952

By T. C. Russell

The Conda phosphate mine, eight miles north of Soda Springs in Caribou County, Idaho, was opened up by the Anaconda Copper Mining CO. in 1920. Except for brief periods, during the 20's and early 30's, the mine has maintained a continuous production, and 2,100,000 short tons of phosphate rock have been shipped to the company's phosphate fertilizer manufacturing plant at Anaconda, Mont., or to independent processing plants on the Pacific Coast; a small tonnage of the rock has been shipped to the Hawaiian Islands. The Phosphoria formation on the Conda property consists of two, commercial-grade phosphate beds separated by 147 ft of black to brownish colored phosphatic calcareous shales interbedded with softer mudstones, clays, and occasional narrow seams of oolitic phosphate. The main lower phosphate bed in the series averaging 7.1 ft in thickness, is called the "foot-wall bed," which lies coriformably on the Wells limestone formation, the 1atter often containing irregular bands of chert. The upper or " hanging-wall bed" of phosphate rock averaging 7.2 ft in thickness, is overlaid by thick quartzite beds, locally called the " Rex chert" member in the upper portion of the Phosphoria formation. (Fig 1.) There are two anticlines on the property with axis striking approximately parallel to the mountain range beneath which extensive development on phosphate rock has been conducted in the past, and is now in progress. The phosphate beds have been eroded to a large extent from the tops of these anticlines, leaving at least three well-pronounced outcrops of the phosphate beds exposed within the boundaries of the Anaconda Copper Mining Cornpany's properties. At present, mining operations in the Conda No. 3 mine are confined to the two phosphate beds along the east flank of the easternmost anticline, where the dips on the beds vary from 50° to 60° east, thereby affording favorable conditions for the sublevel mining system now in use. Mining operations formerly were confined to the footwall or lower oolitic phosphate bed because of its higher phosphate and vanadium contents (32 pct P²O5 and 0.29 pct V2 O 5); this bed averages 7.1 ft in thickness. The oolitic portions of the upper bed were of satisfactory grade, but the shale and clay partings (Fig 2) diluted the mined rock and could not he separated economically by selective mining or by sorting. Experiments in beneficiating this rock were carried on for a number of years. Recently, a simple washing process was adopted, which gave a satisfactory grade of concentrates and a high recovery of P² O5. In 1947 it was decided to expand Anaconda's production of treble superphosphate and phosphoric acid by approximately 90 pct. This rock will be obtained from the footwall and hanging-wall beds, and the rock from the hanging-wall bed will be benefici-ated at -Anaconda.l In order to take advantage of the previous development on the 500 secondary haulage level, short crosscuts will be driven at approximately 950 ft intervals from the existing lateral drifts through the hanging-wall shale beds. From the inner end of each crosscut, short lateral drifts will he driven in both directions, so that four working raises can he put up on the dip of the phosphate bed at proper intervals along each of the lateral drifts. The mining operation on the footwall bed at Conda

Jan 1, 1950

Oct. 8-13, 1917 COMMITTEE ON ARRANGEMENTS H. A. BUEHLER, Chairman, W. E. McCOURT, Secretary, C. J. ADAMI, Southeastern, J. A. CASELTON, Entertainment, F. W. DEWOLF, Book, , E. F. GOLTRA, Finance, L. L. HUTCHISON, Tulsa, E. McAULIFFE, Transportation, P. N. MOORS, Reception, MRS. P. N. MOORE, Ladies, J. D. ROBERTSON, Publicity, VICTOR RAKOWSKI, Joplin., H. A. WHEELER, Excursions, A. THACHER.

Jan 7, 1917

We have seen that the first coal development in Pennsylvania was in the Pittsburgh bed in the southwestern corner of the state. The next mining, in point of time, was done in Clearfield County along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, but the amount of mining done was quite small for a number of years and was soon exceeded by that from the area north of the Susquehanna River in Tioga, Bradford and Lycoming Counties, which will be considered now. It is claimed that coal was first noticed in Tioga County, in 1792, by Robert and Benjamin Patterson who were leading a party of settlers from Williamsport to southern New York, and while clearing a road near the site of Blossburg, found coal, which was said to be good. About 1815 David Clemons made an arrangement with Aaron Bloss, owner of the land, to work some of the coal and hauled the first load down the river to Painted Post, N. Y., as there were no available markets in his own state. Smiths found it an excellent fuel and apparently he found a ready market for the small amount he could transport by wagons and sleighs. As wood began to become scarce around the towns in New York State, the knowledge of the coal deposits in the mountains at the head of the Tioga River attracted attention to the field and the necessity, for means of transportation from it. Some coal had been floated down the river, but navigation was uncertain and dangerous. In 1827 an iron plant was built, and to ship its product and coal, it was proposed to build a canal along the river to reach Corning, N. Y. A company had been chartered in 1826 in Pennsylvania to "make a navigable canal or slack-water navigation" to the state line and coal was shipped on rafts of logs, both being sold, during highwater. In 1828 the company was authorized to build a railroad instead of a canal, and in September 1840, the railroad was completed from Corning to Blossburg.1 That some coal from Pennsylvania had been reaching southern New York towns prior to the improved means of transport is shown by the report of a committee to the New York Assembly: "the bituminous coal has been brought to us either from Great Britain or from that part of our own country which borders on, and lies west and south of the Susquehan-

Jan 1, 1942

By C. F. Tolman

Discussion of the paper of C. F. TOLMAN, JR., presented at the New York meeting, February, 1916, and printed in Bulletin No. 110, February, 1916, pp. 401 to 433. Louis C. GRATON, Cambridge, Mass.-Of particular interest at this time is any paper that deals with chalcocite, the characteristic product of secondary enrichment and the copper mineral of greatest commercial importance, and that seeks to aid in the distinction between primary and secondary chalcocite-a distinction of much scientific and practical importance but one which thus far it has proved difficult to draw. The present paper on this subject by Professor Tolman, like the ,many preceding it which he and his colleagues at Stanford have published in the last couple of years, contains much of interest and suggestiveness. Without endeavoring at this time to review or comment upon Professor Tolman's conclusions in detail, I may say that many of them are in accord with the findings that my associates and I have been accumulating in the course of studying secondary enrichment in many of the copper deposits of the country. On the other hand, it goes without saying that in this comparatively new field of research or, at least, a field in which

Jan 5, 1916

By Robert D. Gunn, John E. Boysen, Dennis D. Fischer

The second underground coal gasification experiment conducted by ERDA's Laramie Energy Research Center at a site near Hanna, Wyo., was completed on Jul. 30, 1976. During the experiment production reached 0.32 blm3/d (12 M cu ft/d) of 6.9 w/m3 gas (175 Btu per cu ft). Approximately 6100 tonnes (6700 tons) of coal were gasified during the experiment. Energy return ratios of 4.5 to 5.3, coal gas thermal efficiencies of 76 to 89%, and overall process efficiencies of 65 to 74% were achieved during the second Hanna experiment. This paper describes the experiment and the results obtained with emphasis given to the determination of the energy recovered relative to energy consumed in conducting the test. Data from this determination are compared with previously published data from the first test conducted at Hanna during 1973-74.

Jan 1, 1978

By John W. Lane, Richard A. Ronzio, Frederick N. Bender

Climax Molybdenum Co. operated a hydrometallurgical plant at Climax, Colo., from August 1966 to August 1968 to recover molybdenum from an oxidized ore. The feed, tailings from sulfide flotation, was first upgraded by cycloning. The concentration plant handled 6000 tpd of feed and produced 2000 tpd of slime concentrate. The concentrate was leached by a sulfuric-sulfurous acid solution at 65°C. The molybdenum was solubilized in the form of "molybdenum blue." Activated charcoal was added to the leach tailings in a resin-in-pulp type circuit. Molybdenum was adsorbed on the charcoal. The charcoal was screened from the pulp and washed. The washed charcoal was pumped to columns where it was ammoniated and air-blown. The oxidized molybdate then was washed from the charcoal. The eluate was evaporated until ammonium dimolybdate crystallized out. The ammonium dimolybdate was calcined to molybdenum trioxide.

Jan 1, 1973

By H. J. Levinstein, H. J. Guggenheim

RbFeF3 is a transparent ferromagnet with a large faraday rotation which permits the direct observation of magnetic domain structures in bulk crystals. If the position of dislocations within the crystal were known a study of domain wall dislocation interactions would be possible. In this paper an etch pitting solution is described which gives a one-one correspondent between the etch pits and the dislocations intersecting the (100) surfaces of RbFeF3 crystals. In addition, RbFeF3 is shown to have sufficient plasticity so that known arrays of dislocaticms can be put into the crystal. It is concluded that RbFeF, is an ideal material for the investigation of domain wall dislocation interactions. THE influence of lattice defects on the motion of domain walls in ferromagnetic materials has been studied extensively both theoretically and experimentally.4 The experimental data obtained has been qualitative in nature due to the lack either of a quantitative knowledge of the magnetic domain array in the material or of the nature of the dislocation configuration in the material. At room temperature RbFeFJ has the cubic perovskite structure. It is ferromagnetic below 86°K.5,6 It is also transparent and has a large faraday rotation in the magnetic state.7 The domain structure of this material is observable in three dimensions in crystals which are millimeters in thickness.' Since RbFeF3 satisfies the requirements of having an easily visible three-dimensional magnetic domain structure, it was of interest to determine if the dislocation structure of the material could be determined and if the material was sufficiently plastic so that dislocations could be introduced into the as grown crystals. This is a report of the results of that investigation. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The crystals of RbFeFs used in this experiment were grown by a technique described elsewhere.5 In order to obtain flat strain-free surfaces, the samples were first cut to the crystal orientation desired and the surfaces were polished by employing standard metallographic techniques. The samples were then immersed in a solution of 1 to 3 g of KOH in 100 ml of water. This solution removes the damaged surface layers uniformly leaving a film on the surface of the sample. Etch pits are obtained by immersing the sample in an approximately 50-50 solution of 30 pct peroxide and concentrated acetic acid. The film formed during the KOH treatment turns deep red in color in the etching solution and flakes off the sample. The etching time required depends upon the pit size desired and

Jan 1, 1970

By H. E. Rorschach

Activity in Oklahoma fields declined in 1938 from the banner year of 1937. During the year, 1768 wells were completed as compared to 2632 completed during the year 1937. The following tabulation sets out details regarding the wells completed during the year: These computations do not take into account the wells drilled for repres-sure and salt-water disposal, and other nonexploratory wells. Purchasers' reports filed with the Corporation Commission of the State of Oklahoma show a total of 168,789,229 bbl. of oil purchased from Oklahoma leases in 1938, or a daily average of 462,436, a decrease of about 25 per cent from the year 1937. The outstanding operation of the year was the further development of the Ramsey pool, in western Payne County, the producing horizon being classified as the Wilcox. This pool was discovered on the last day in the year 1937, by the Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation drilling on a unitized block in see. 18, T. 18 N., R. 2 E. The map in Fig. 1 shows the development at the end of the year 1938. An important discovery of the year was the Champlin Refining Company's No. 1 Boehm, in Garfield County, sec. 4-24N-8W., the producing horizon being the second Wilcox found at a depth of approximately 6700 ft. This pool was assigned the name of Hillsdale. Some of the offsets to this discovery well had not come up to expectations at the end of the year, but the discovery seems to be important as indicating that the Wilcox sand is productive in the Anadarko Basin area, providing that the right structural conditions are present.

Jan 1, 1939

By H. E. Rorschach

Activity in Oklahoma fields declined in 1938 from the banner year of 1937. During the year, 1768 wells were completed as compared to 2632 completed during the year 1937. The following tabulation sets out details regarding the wells completed during the year: These computations do not take into account the wells drilled for repres-sure and salt-water disposal, and other nonexploratory wells. Purchasers' reports filed with the Corporation Commission of the State of Oklahoma show a total of 168,789,229 bbl. of oil purchased from Oklahoma leases in 1938, or a daily average of 462,436, a decrease of about 25 per cent from the year 1937. The outstanding operation of the year was the further development of the Ramsey pool, in western Payne County, the producing horizon being classified as the Wilcox. This pool was discovered on the last day in the year 1937, by the Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation drilling on a unitized block in see. 18, T. 18 N., R. 2 E. The map in Fig. 1 shows the development at the end of the year 1938. An important discovery of the year was the Champlin Refining Company's No. 1 Boehm, in Garfield County, sec. 4-24N-8W., the producing horizon being the second Wilcox found at a depth of approximately 6700 ft. This pool was assigned the name of Hillsdale. Some of the offsets to this discovery well had not come up to expectations at the end of the year, but the discovery seems to be important as indicating that the Wilcox sand is productive in the Anadarko Basin area, providing that the right structural conditions are present.

Jan 1, 1939

By Robert Henderson

SEVERAL very interesting articles have been written on the caving system of mining, but most of these papers have dealt separately with the slusher system or the chute and grizzly system. In this paper, a comparison will be made of the two methods, both of which are being used at the Climax mine. The mine is on the Continental Divide, in central Colorado, at an altitude of approximately 11,500 ft. above sea level. The long, cold winters, characteristic of the high Rockies, create a number of operating problems not usually found in other mining areas. THE ORE BODY The Climax ore body is just east of the Mosquito fault. This structural deformation has brought the granite on the east against the sedimentary rocks on the west. The ore occurs in an intensely altered granite and schist around a silicified granite core. The ore is in a highly fractured zone of moderate silicification. The principal mineral, molybdenite, is found in these fractures. Barren dikes of granite porphyry cut through the ore body and core with no apparent regularity. The grade of the ore is fairly uniform and gradually decreases toward the footwall core and also into the hanging-wall granite. The footwall and hanging wall are determined entirely by assays. The ore body is roughly dome-shaped, with the apex truncated at the surface. It is covered to varying depths with talus. A horizontal section of the ore body on the Phillipson level appears as an annular ellipse surrounding the footwall core. The ring of ore varies in width from 300 ft. to as much as 800 ft. The north-south axis of the core is about 1200 ft. and the east-west axis is about 1800 ft. In the ore zone, the rock is sufficiently strong to maintain reasonably large openings, and openings larger than haulage drifts usually have to be supported. The ore is cut by a great many fractures and shears and breaks into rather large blocks when caved, necessitating considerable secondary blasting. The waste that overlies the ore body breaks relatively fine in comparison with the size of the blocks of the caved ore and tends to run through the broken ore in the cave, causing dilution unless the draw is carefully controlled. MINING SYSTEMS For several years the ore was mined by the chute and grizzly system, a system that differs from that used in other caving mines only in the size of openings and equipment. In the chute and grizzly system, main haulage laterals were driven along the footwall core and also along the

Jan 1, 1944

By Albert Ledoux

SEVERAL years ago my firm was representing the Mt. Lyell Co. of Australia, which was shipping its blister copper to a refining works in the United States. After the contract had been running for many months, the superintendent of these works discovered that if water was poured upon the surface of the bars much of it would disappear into the interior through blow holes. -Some experiments made by him showed that this could be a considerable amount, so that copper which had been rained on before it was weighed, although the surface appeared dry, nevertheless would contain water. It had frequently occurred in our experience-as samp-lers that the drillings from a lot taken by boring would come out quite wet, and in some cases, indeed, water would drip into the sample pan placed below the bars, due to the fact that the drill had penetrated a cavity or cavities containing water, which presumably got into the cavities at the time the copper was water-cooled after casting, there being, perhaps, no outlet to the surface. So far as I know, until this discovery at the refining works, no. one had thought that rain could penetrate into the interior of blister copper; at least in any quantity sufficient to be considered.

Jan 10, 1922

By A. E. Bellis

ROBERT J. ANDERSON, Cleveland, Ohio (communication to the Secretary *).-The paper by Messrs. Bellis and Hardy was interesting to me and has led me to make a few remarks concerning some of the points brought out. The question of employing correct hardening temperatures is one that is sadly neglected, particularly in many large plants that forge and treat their machine tools for private use. As is most aptly remarked in this paper, "The custom of using one, high-speed temperature for all tools is very poor practice;" still, such practice is more common than otherwise. An instance came to my attention some time ago, in connection with some work with the standardization of high-speed steels for machine tools, where there were no less than six different brands of alloy steels being used for machine tools such as lathe, shaper, planer, boring mill and cutters of like nature. All of these different steels received identical heat and forging treatment-or at least that was the aim of the tool hardener. That the results were highly unsatisfactory goes without saying. That the hardening department of many plants is conducted on a rule-of-thumb fashion is the reason for a great deal of the trouble and disappointment which seems to be the lot of many tool-steel users. Exceedingly crude execution is the rule rather than the exception, and it is no small wonder that the results are as good as they sometimes happen to be. It would seem that at the present price of alloy steels the subject should receive a closer scrutiny by purchasers than it does. One not familiar with the workings of souse plants that disdain to lend an ear to scientific heat treatment would scarcely give credence to some of the methods employed, not only in the treatment of the steel but also in its selection and purchase. Heating for hardening should be conducted under close pyrometric control only after the correct hardening temperature has been determined.

Jan 3, 1917

Jan 1, 1933

By J. Charles Miller

NATURAL carbon dioxide has recently been exploited in the United States in consequence of oil and gas developments in the Western States and the growing demand by transcontinental and transoceanic shippers for solid carbon dioxide. The discovery by drilling of commercial deposits resulted in consideration of its geographic and geologic distribution and occurrence. Its wide distribution in nature is evidenced by its occurrence in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. The question of origin of carbon dioxide involves consideration of theories similar to those concerning natural hydrocarbons, although available evidence favors an inor-ganic rather than an organic source. Areas favorable to development of commercial production appear to be those in proximity to igneous rocks or in the vicinity of decadent volcanic activity, where, it has long been known, the gas is evolved either free or dissolved in the waters of furnaroles, geysers or mud pots. Structure contour maps are presented showing the Wagon Mound anticline in New Mexico and the Farnham anticline, Utah. A well drilled on the latter supplies gas to a 20-ton plant manufacturing solid carbon dioxide at Wellington, Utah, on the Denver and Rio Grande R.R., whence it is shipped to surrounding territory and to the West Coast. Before funds are invested in a plant for the manufacture of liquid or solid carbon dioxide, whether supplied by wells or springs, an effort to ascertain the volume of gas available is advisable. The use of present methods of estimation of gas reserves with modifications to account for the quantity absorbed by any water present in the produc-ing formation is recommended. The Farnham anticline is used as an example and computations are made of the probable volume of gas originally present in the struc-ture. No attempt was made to compute reserves in the Niland area, California, for the reason that in such areas it is believed the volume is indeterminate.

Jan 1, 1937

By James P. Kimball

Sulphur is always present in mineral coal of every variety. In the oxidized state it may exist as sulphuric acid in combination with a base. In the unoxidized state it exists in combination with iron as bisulphide of iron. It is also supposed by some chemists to exist in unknown combinations with the organic elements of the coal. This supposition requires the demonstration as a fact that certain coals yield more sulphur than what may exist in a free state, or what belongs to recognized combinations, not only with the accompanying iron but with other inorganic bases abundantly occurring in coals, but which unfortunately are very rarely estimated. This practically as well as theoretically important question it is at present impossible to decide, simply for want of available thorough ultimate coal analyses including the ash. Such analyses, at the best imperfect, are luborious and intricate, and therefore seldom made, the much simpler proximate analyses, so-called, being resorted to by most chemists for technical purposes, and commonly substituted for more scientific work even in the laboratories of government surveys. And it is unfortunate enough that few ultimate analyses are extended to the composition of the ash, much less to its relation to the original constitution of the coal. Sulphur chiefly occurs in most coals in the form of yellow pyrites (pyrite) and white pyrites (marcasite), both minerals, characterized by differences in crystalline form and in physical properties as well as in color, but having the same chemical composition (FeS2). No coal is entirely free from one or both of these dimorphous forms of bisulphide of iron. It may be disseminated through the mass so as to be invisible, in plates or scales between the laminæ of the coal, or in conspicuous segregations or nodules, sometimes of considerable dimensions. Coals greatly differ as to the proportion of sulphur which they contain. They also differ as to the relative proportion in which its several forms of combination occur. Such qualitative and qnantitative disparities arc scarcely, if at all, more marked in separate coal seams of a uniform type than in different parts of one and the same coal seam, whether it be considered locally as constituted of several

Jan 1, 1880

"The reduction works of the Boston & Montana Reduction department, near the north end of this dam is one of the reduction plants belonging to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, the other being at Anaconda. These works employ about 1,100 men and have a capacity of about 3,800 tons of crude ore per day. This plant is now being remodeled to embody results of experiments and investigations which have been made with a view to more economic.al treatment of ores. A brief description of the plant as it will be after the remodelling is as follows:Concentrator Department: Consists of six units or sections, each section treating from 550 to 600 tons of crude ore per day. This department is not being. remodelled at the present time. A concentrating process, however, has been developed and partially installed in the old mill, and an experimental section embodying this concentration process has also been installed at the concentrator at Anaconda."

Jan 1, 1913

By J. Parke Channing

These days of great industrial and social problems in America produce many suggested solutions and great changes. The practical engineer and employer of labor views these problems differently from the labor leader or the social reformer, but as never before he is sincerely interested in solving them in a way that will be just to all. The inevitable tendency of the day is toward "industrial betterment," " safety," '(industrial education," " efficiency," and the many other things which have become so familiar to progressive employers. There is no longer any question that these things are worth while from both the human and economic standpoints. They "pay" in dollars and cents. The very center of final success in improving conditions and increasing the efficiency of workingmen must be the spirit of fairness and a knowledge on the part of the employer of how to deal sympathetically and intelligently with his employees. Every progressive employer knows how greatly he desires foremen, superintendents, managers and others who possess these qualities. On the other hand, we are all familiar with serious mistakes made by young graduates of engineering schools who have had no opportunity to develop these qualities, and who have no real appreciation of the worth of the workers. Indeed, one wonders whether much ill-feeling, labor difficulties, and many strikes could not be avoided if such men had the right attitude. Is there any way of remedying this condition? If this particular difficulty can be solved, if these young engineers, many of whom are our coming leaders of industry, can be given the right perspective and the right understanding of these other problems in addition to fair, sympathetic methods of handling men, many of our other problems will be solved—not at once, but gradually and permanently, as these men make good and become influential in paths of industrial righteousness and industrial peace. Many progressive employers of to-day have enlarged their own perspective and realize the great importance of enlarging the perspective of those who shall follow them. How can it be done? For seven years a movement has been making

Jan 1, 1915

By W. H. Moore, E. T. Powell

IN the early days of mining in the Anthracite field, only the thicker and better seams of coal were mined, because of the limited mining and coal-cleaning facilities, therefore many of the thinner and less productive seams were permitted to remain unmined. With improvements in mining methods, the introduction of modem preparation plants, and the increased market demand for small-size coal, the thinner and more laminated seams have now become assets. In many instances these seams overlie the mined-out beds of the thicker and better seams, from which all recoverable coal was removed by the conventional breast-and-pillar method of mining. Some collieries in certain sections of the Anthracite field are now relying on these thinner and laminated seams. For the purpose of illustration, a large area in the Hickory Swamp-Ridge Basin of the western middle coal field has been selected, where as early as 1898 the No. 4, or Little Buck Mountain, seam was mined and pillars removed. The No. 5, or Buck Mountain, seam lying on a comparatively light pitch and with intervening strata of but 55 ft. of rock was not mined until 1935. Farther east, in the same basin the Nos. 8 and 9 seams, which are two splits of the Mammoth seam, have been mined and robbed and the workings have been abandoned since 1896. The overlying No. 9 ¾ seam, or the upper split of the Mammoth, and the No. 9 ¾ or 4-ft. seam remained virgin, with only an interval of 50 ft. of rock separating them, and with 40 to 50 ft. of rock strata separating the No. 9 ½ seam from the completely mined area of the Nos. 8 and 9 seams. These seams lie on a pitch of 45° on the south side of the basin and on 75° on the north side of the basin. Mining has been carried on in the 9 ½ and 9 ¾ seams for 3 years on both dips of the basin, for a distance of 3500 ft. In some sections the overlying strata of the thicker seams previously mined have settled without any apparent breaks in the upper strata, as indications have shown in the top split of the Mammoth; while in other areas the roof and bottom of this top split of the Mammoth have settled unevenly, thereby causing the bottom and roof to break into blocks. In attempting to mine over a large area of the No. 5 or Buck Mountain seam, a similar settlement has been encountered; the roof of the seam has been broken and a considerable amount of timbering has been necessary in order to make the mining of the seam possible. The conventional breast-and-pillar method, using shaker conveyors, has been used in the No. 5 seam, and a slant-breast method in the mining of Nos. 9 ½ and 9 ¾ seams. MINING OF LIGHT-PITCH SEAMS The No. 4 seam was mined and robbed by the conventional breast-and-pillar system. In this area the seam pitched from 5° to 25° on the north dip, averaged 8 ft. in thickness and had a slate bottom and a

Jan 1, 1941