Search Documents

By M. C. LAKE

THE industrial development of the United States has been stimulated by the presence of high-grade iron ore in the Lake Superior district. These great deposits have been susceptible to economical extraction and are conveniently located for cheap lake vessel transportation to the great consuming centers. The district furnishes from 80 to 85 per cent of the iron ore annually consumed in the United States, and a full understanding of the available supply of this great commodity is so important that it is well to consider whether or not the industrial supremacy and national independence attained as a result of the abundance of cheap ore are permanent. The enormous deposits of high-grade ore available in the Lake Superior district have been the foundation upon which the vast industrial structure of the steel and allied industries has been built. It is extremely important to the country as a whole, and especially to those States and communities now dependent on Lake Superior ore for their prosperity, that their industries shall retain the particular advantages with which they are now endowed, and that a generous supply of high-grade raw material be available for their consumption at a satisfactory cost. The steel industry is so basic and fundamental that any fluctuation in the cost of its finished products as determined by the supply and cost of the raw materials involved in its manufacture will necessarily affect the business of a wide variety of industries which are dependent on it.

Jan 1, 1926

By H. C. Fowler, G. B. Shea

MODERN industry's incessant demands for increased operating efficiency and lower costs require that hazards attending all occupations be reduced to a minimum. Reduction of the inevitable losses that result from accidents and injury to the worker is one of the important economic problems confronting industry today and is the basis for the widespread safety movement. Dr. Charles E. Munroe, chief explosive chemist of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, is father of the statement, "The existence of a nuisance is evidence of an economic waste." This pointed expression of the internationally recognized scholar and explosives engineer has a direct relation to the prevention of accidents. Every injury and death in industry is a waste in human endeavor and a lessening of productive gain. Dr. Munroe has aptly paraphrased his previous summation with reference to wastes as follows: "A lost-time accident is evidence of an economic waste." That the economic waste entailed by occupational accidents is chargeable to industry is well substantiated by the fact that all but four states (Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida and Arkansas) now have workingmen's liability and compensation laws.

Jan 1, 1933

ASHBEL WELCH, LAMBERTVILLE, N. J.: Dr. Dudley has given the wear of steel rails under four different conditions. He arrives at the conclusion that the softer rails, or those that from their composition ought to be softer, wear better than the harder. But there is another condition which has an important bearing on the subject, and, should not be overlooked,-the weight on a wheel. With the lighter weights of the past, the softer rails may have worn best; with the heavier weights of the future, the harder may wear best. Weights will probably be increased up to the capacity of steel to bear; then doubtless the harder steel will wear best. A leaden rail with ten pounds on a wheel might carry millions of tons, but with one hundred pounds on a wheel, it would be destroyed by a few thousand tons. So in the days of iron rails, my experience was that the softer rails under light machinery stood better than some of the harder; but under heavy machinery the softer were much the most rapidly destroyed. His doubtless the same with steel. The pounding motion of the wheels loosens or spreads the particles of a thin film of steel; the pull lengthwise on the rail de- * Metallurgical Review, vol. i, page 1. † The remarks as here given, as in the previous discussion on steel rails, have all been written out or revised by the participants in the discussion, and represent, therefore, their mature views. It has been thought that this plan, when it can be carried out without doing any of the speakers injustice in debate, is much to be preferred to a strictly verbatim report. The remarks of Mr. Chanute were sent to the secretary after the. meeting, and although they did not form a part of the actual discussion, there can be no doubt of the desirability of including them in this report. The papers under discussion were “Rail Specifications and Rail Inspection in Europe,” by C. P. Sandberg ; " The Wearing Capacity of Steel Rails in Relation to the Chemical Composition and Physical Properties," by C. B. Dudley, and a Rail Patterns," by A. L. Holley. T. M. D., Secretary.

Jan 1, 1881

By S. H. Penn

One of the more challenging aspects of the unfolding age of space travel centers about the opportunity for man to use the natural resources of other worlds. The first of the extraterrestrial worlds to be exploited will be the moon. After only a scant few thousand years of scratching the earth's crust, man will embark upon a venture that for centuries has excited the imagination of many (while staggering that of most) and may become a reality within the next decade. There has never been a time when so much money and effort will have been expended to exploit an area about which so little is known. Paradoxically, this effort combines much of the detached objectivity so typical of our analytical time with the proverbial optimism of the indefatigable prospector. As the earliest manned lunar missions will be brief and exploratory in nature, astronauts will not be expected to attempt to exploit any of the possible lunar natural resources. In later missions, with a more extended period of time available for the astronauts to stay on the moon, it may be desirable or even necessary to "live off the land". The resulting exploitation of lunar resources will be intended primarily to reduce the dependence of manned missions upon terrestrial logistic support and to reduce the cost of maintaining lunar bases.

Jan 3, 1966

By LESTER W. STRAUSS

OUR early knowledge of history and geography attracted most of us to the mineral resources of South America. The romantic tales of the Spanish activities, which were curiously alluring, and Prescott's exceptional bi-Conquest histories-Mexico and Peru-no doubt fired our minds with the .then metallic wealth of the Spanish colonies. Later developments, intensified within the past eighty years, have, however, changed its fame which now rests on such metallics as copper and tin, and among the non-metallics on nitrate of soda and petroleum. South America proper, excluding Panama, is made up of thirteen countries, a coincident parity with our original thirteen States. Its area is given as 7,231,300 square miles, or slightly less than North America (8,037,000 square miles), is made up as follows:

Jan 1, 1930

Organization Place Date 1919 American Chemical Society :.... Philadelphia, Pa. Sept. 2-6 National Assn. of Stationary Engineers Huntington, W. Va. Sept. 8 American Peat Society Minneapolis, Minn. Sept. 22-24 American Iron, Steel Electrical Engineers St. Louis, Mo. Sept. 22-26 American Institute of Min. and Met. Engineers. Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 American Steel Treaters' Society, First Annual Convention Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 National Exposition of Chemical Industries.... Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 National Safety Council Cleveland, 0. Sept. 29-Oct. 2

Jan 7, 1919

Organization Place Date 1919 American Chemical Society Philadelphia, Pa. Sept. 2-6 National Assn. of Stationary Engineers Huntington, W. Va. Sept. 8 American Peat Society Minneapolis, Minn. Sept. 22-24 American Iron, Steel Electrical Engineers St. Louis, Mo. Sept. 22-26 American Institute of Min. and Met. Engineers. Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 American Steel Treaters' Society, First Annual Convention Chicago Ill. Sept. 22-27 National Exposition of Chemical Industries.... Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 National Safety Council Cleveland, O. Sept. 29-Oct. 2

Jan 8, 1919

By AIME AIME

THE American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers will hold its annual meeting in New York City, Feb. 9-12. The technical sessions, excepting the Sunday afternoon and evening sessions of the Mineral Industry Education Division (see the M.I.E.D. program) will be held in the Engineering Societies Building. The "All-Institute" luncheon on Monday will be at the Commodore Hotel; the Annual Banquet and President's Reception, the Smoker, and the Informal Dance will be at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The dinners of the Petroleum Division and the Institute of Metals Division will be at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Jan 1, 1942

By H. P. Greenwald

THE Committee on Rock-Dusting was formed after the fall meeting of the Coal Division in Chicago in 1938. Its primary task was to study the recommended American practice for rock- dusting coal mines to prevent coal-dust explosions as approved by the American Engineering Standards Committee. After approximately two years' work he committee concluded that although certain portions of the recommended practice could well be revised, information needed for a logical revision was not at hand, and it was inadvisable, therefore, to make revisions

Jan 1, 1943

Industrial minerals enjoyed a fairly successful year in 1978, despite the sluggish economy, inflation, and environmental restrictions. A glance at US Bureau of Mines statistics shows that, in general, production of industrial minerals increased from + 1% (salt) to as much as 26% (sulfur, other than Frasch or recovered). A few industrial minerals showed a decline; fluorspar production, for example, registered a 23% decrease in 1978 from 1977 due to the closing of three domestic mines. Bromine, natural sodium sulfate, Frasch sulfur, and vermiculite also had production decreases of 2-6% in 1978.

Jan 5, 1979

By John B. Hastings

THE occurrence of such a large amount of gold in the Hartsel granite, even though the surmised existence of similar areas is not new, brings freshly to mind the pegmatite type of magmatic differentiation lately brought again to attention by occurrences at Silver Peak, Nev., described by Spurr; and in Alaska, described by both Spurr and Brooks. In both localities graunitic rocks or dikes are thought to pass into metalliferous quartz-veins. An interesting association in this connection is the occurrence of diamonds in residual pegmatitic clay of San Juao de Chapado, Brazil, described by Derby :1 (P. 142) "Bodies of pegmatite are quite common in the older rocks of Brazil, both in the. diamond regions and elsewhere, occurring not only in the gneiss and granite, but in the schistose series as well. Those that have been examined are dike-like in their mode of occurrence and granitic in composition." (P. 143) "The question of the eruptive or secretionary origin of pegmatites has long been a subject of discussion among geologists. . . . The recent studies . . . seem to have clearly established that most if not all of them are essentially eruptive masses, though possibly modified in some way by aqueous agencies. Even before becoming acquainted with the literature of the subject this view had seemed to me to be the only acceptable one as regards the typical pegmatites of Brazil." What is pegmatite ? J. F. Kemp says ". . . veins or dikes-it is an open question which is the more correct term-are met formed of very coarsely crystalline aggregates of the same minerals that constitute granite. These are called pegmatite and in them is the home of graphic granite, the curious intergrowth of quartz and feldspar, such that a cross fracture of the blades of quartz suggests cuneiform characters. . . . In regard to the larger veins or dikes it seems improbable that true igneous fusion could have afforded such coarsely crystalline aggregates, and so we are forced to assume such abundance of steam and other vapors, i.e, mineralizers, as to almost, if not quite, imply solution."

Jan 5, 1908

By MARSHALL D. DRAPER

THERE are said to be about 150 operating companies in Kotchiu, most of these being small, corresponding in degree to lessees in western mines in the United States. Of the total number there are probably forty large companies having their own smelting plants equipped with one or two furnaces, slag crushing plant and other accessory equipment. A few plants, not more than ten, do custom smelting. There are in all about fifty smelting plants in Kotchiu. With little variation, the equipment and methods are the same. The plant usually consists of two furnaces, one being in operation while the other is being relined 01- re- paired. An adjoining house contains one or more of the large buffalo-drawn Chilean mills for crushing slag. A few houses for the working coolies, with more pretentious ones for the owners, complete the establishment, the whole being surrounded by a compound wall 8 ft. high.

Jan 1, 1931

Jan 1, 1985

By Jack Green

Within three major tectonic time frames of earth history: Microplate (±3.8 - ±2.6 billion years), intraplate (±2.6 - ±1.3 b.y.), and macroplate (=1.3 b.y. - present), precious - metal deposits are confined to specific structural, depositional and physico-chemical environments. Precambrian primary gold deposits are localized in two microplate greenstone episodes (±3.7 and ±2.7 b.y.); secondary gold in Witwatersrand placers (±2.6 b.y.). Precambrian primary platinum group metals are in anorthositic facies of layered mafic intrusions (±2.8, ±1.8 and ±1.0 b.y.). Most radioisotope mineral dates cluster - at these times and are coincident with inflections on polar wandering curves. These coincidences may reflect episodicity in lunar tidal disruptions and global deceleration effects in crust and outer core during micro- and intra- plate phases. Macroplate tectonics and an oxygenated atmosphere created favorable conditions for strata-hosted and plate suture gold and silver deposits. "Black smokers" at constructive plate margins and calc-alkalic calderas at destructive plate margins are loci for hydrothermal gold and silver.

Jan 1, 1984

By ALEC CROWELL

This brief summary of oil and gas developments in Alabama, Florida and Georgia has been made possible through the courtesy of Stewart J. Lloyd, Assistant State Geologist of Alabama; Herman Gunter, Director, Florida Geological Survey, and Garland Peyton, Director, Georgia Department of Mines, Mining and Geology.

Jan 1, 1946

By H. Rush Spedden

When Robert H. Richards wrote Ore Dressing, the famous four-volume work published in the first decade of this century, the ore dresser was still largely concerned, with the mechanical treatment of ores. Since then, however, economics have transformed him into a mineral processing engineer who must increasingly deal with closely integrated facilities designed to produce a commodity for manufacturing. Moreover, this change will grow marked as the complex low- grade ores of the future make it ever more necessary for him not only to use the best combination of pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical and physical separation processes, but also to integrate these processes at the mine site. Nor are economic pressures the only ones propelling the processing engineer into a new era. The ecology drive has thrown him into a new situation in which his economic base is radically altered, and it could well precipitate as drastic a revolution in his technology as that which took place when flotation was developed.

Jan 1, 1971

By Alfred H. Bell

IN 1945, Illinois produced 75,210,000 bid. of oil, or 4.4 percent of the total for the United States, and ranked sixth in the nation in oil production for the third consecutive year. Production decreased about 3 per cent from that of 1944, when the total Illinois production was 77,413,000 bbl. This is the smallest percentage of decrease in production in the state for any year since a peak was reached in 1940. Daily average production for 1945 was approximately 206,000 bbl. Daily averages by months were as follows:

Jan 1, 1946

By H. O. Hofman

(Canal Zone Meeting, November, 19]0.) THE sudden decease, April 1, 1910, in Chicago, of Dr. Franklin R. Carpenter was a shock to his- many friends. He died in his sixty-second year, of heart paralysis. To most fellow-members of the Institute who have followed the progress of the. last twenty-five years in the mining and treatment of non-ferrous ores, the work of Dr. Carpenter in that line is familiar ; but very few, even of those who knew him well in the later years, are acquainted with his earlier struggles to satisfy an inborn hunger for knowledge. The story of his life resembles that of the pioneer who opens up new country; overcoming hardships with indomitable courage, meeting doubts and difficulties with an alert and open mind, and exercising in the face of reverses an unconquerable perseverance. It seems appropriate to place on record in the Transactions a brief outline of the life and work of this eminent engineer. During the past 15 years of his life Dr. Carpenter was much interested in genealogy. In the pursuit of this study as an avocation, he traced his own ancestry to the time when ?Hugh," called "le Charpentier" on account of the dexterity with which he had swung his battle-axe as a crusader, settled in Sussex on lands received from William the Conqueror. The Carpenters came to this country with William Penn. A prominent member of the family was Joshua Carpenter, the founder of Christ Church, Philadelphia. Dr. Carpenter's branch of -the family moved from Pennsylvania into that part of Virginia which is now West Virginia, where his grandfather settled in Harrison county, while the grand-uncle went further west, and built the first iron-furnace at Hanging Rock, Lawrence county, Ohio. In fact, since early times, the Carpenters appear to have been iron-masters. Franklin R.. Carpenter was born, Nov. 5, 1848, in Parkers-

Aug 1, 1910

By William B. Millar

IN ONTARIO development of the gold mines is being rapidly pushed, while the intensity of the search for new mines has probably not been equaled at any time in the past. Even to outline the results of recent prospecting activity in Ontario would be a big undertaking, but it would be timely and, I hope, interesting to Institute members to review some generalities regarding the work of the prospector and then to discuss in some detail the growth of Ontario's most promising prospect area, the Swayze district, where serious mining operations are already under way. Probably no one writing about prospectors and pros¬pecting can resist hoping that his article will not reach the eyes of a certain portion of the uninformed general public and cause a further influx of "prospective prospectors" into any given area. It is somewhat mystifying how so many people reach the conclusion that prospecting is in

Jan 1, 1933

By GUY B. HUNNER

THOSE magnetite ore bodies comprising the Clifton Mines are situated in the south central part of St. Lawrence County, New York, on the western slope of the Adirondack Mountains. The topography is made up of gently rolling hills densely wooded with second-growth maple, birch, and hemlock. Drainage is north and west to the St. Lawrence River.

Jan 1, 1943