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By J. Parke Channing

ALTHOUGH the original thought of investigating waste in industry came from a mining engineer, Herbert Hoover, and although the chairman of that committee was a mining engineer (although the real work was done by the vice-chairman, L. W. Wallace), it is an interesting commentary that when the report first saw light, at St. Louis, on the first of June, 1921, some people most violently went up in the air when it was submitted by the representatives of the mining engineers. At the time they resented most markedly the report of the committee that 50 per cent. of the waste in industry, or as Mr. Ingalls in his paper has properly said, inefficiency in industry, was to be laid upon management. The reason for that seems to have been that, as a whole, the mining industry is pretty well organized and is superior to a large number of manufacturing industries including those studied by the Report. However, this very meeting shows that even the min-ing engineers have finally realized that there is waste or inefficiency in mining and that a large proportion of it can, with propriety, be assessed against management.

Jan 3, 1922

By Harry H. Power

INDUSTRY has the right to expect the petroleum engineering schools to supply more than the minimum technical qualifications necessary to obtain or discharge the responsibilities of a particular job. The basic training, social and economic orientation, should go far beyond these minimum requirements. Petroleum engineering students should also be well grounded in the history of the oil business so that they may understand the industry's progress since the advent of the Drake well. Furthermore, according to P. H. Bohart, the schools "have a definite duty to help the students form a workable philosophy of life, which includes an appreciation of the service of science to mankind, and a belief in the obligation of the individual who enters a profession to exalt himself by continuing his studies and growth so that he may never cease making contributions to the advancement of science and industry."

Jan 1, 1948

By AIME AIME

NEW YORKERS look forward to the third week of February as the time of the year when they can count on seeing their friends-from far and near gathered in the city for the four-day annual session of the Institute.., Indeed, the metropolitan district is so large that in engineer who lives in New, Jersey and has his office on the lower end of Manhattan island may easily pass a whole year without seeing an acquaintance who lives in Westchester and has an office near Forty-second Street. If the Institute served no other function than to provide a place where friendship may be renewed, ideas exchanged, and new acquaintances made it would still be worth while. But when about 30 technical sessions at which about 160 papers are read and discussed are compressed into four days the annual meeting is also entitled to high rank as an intensive course of post-graduate instruction in the newest development in mining and metallurgical technology. Last, but not least, it is the occasion of a good time for one and all, even if they do get more than a little behind on sleep before the end of the fourth day. Nine o'clock is the time set on Monday morning for the beginning of registration, but a half-hour before that a number have always 'put in an appearance, and this is fortunate, because by 10 o'clock four sessions had begun, those on mining methods, geophysics, a round table on the valuation of coal, and the session of the Local Section delegates. Three committees of the A. S. T. M. were also in simultaneous session, so the meeting may be fairly said to have started "in high."

Jan 1, 1931

By Francis Church Lincoln

I. SITUATION AND SURROUNDINGS. THE Promontorio mine is situated at the northern end of the Sierra San Francisco de Coneto, in the town of Promontorio, Partido of El Oro, State of Durango, Mexico. As shown in the sketch-map, Fig. 1, the nearest railroad station is Chinacates on the Mexican International Railroad, 82 miles north of the city of Durango. The mine is 16 miles north of the station by air-line. It is reached by means of a good wagon-road which first crosses the Guatimapé Plain, passing the ranches of San Antonio and San Julian, to Estacion-a distance of about 15.5 miles-and then entering the mountains crosses the Sierra to Promontorio-a further distance of 11.5 miles¬making in all a distance of 27 miles by road from railroad to mine. Promontorio is just beyond the summit of the range, at an elevation of about 8,000 ft. above sea-level, or 1,350 ft. above the Chinacates station. The Castillo de San Francisco, the highest peak in the Sierra, has an altitude of 10,000 ft., and the Promontorio road crosses the summit of the ridge at an elevation of 9,000 ft. by a pass just below this peak known as the Puerto del Almagre. The Promontorio mill is situated at Santa Ives, 2 miles by tram or 3 miles by wagon-road to the north of Promontorio and about 600 ft. lower. The Sierra San Francisco de Coneto decreases in height towards the north and west till it comes to an end at the Melchor Arroyo on the ranches of Melchor and Ramos. Beyond this arroyo another range, the Sierra de la Candela, begins. In the vicinity of the Promontorio mine the hills are very rugged and the surface is furrowed by ravines which contain running streams during the rainy season-July, August and

Jan 1, 1908

By T. A. Rickard

The dictionary defines 'jargon' as "barbarous or debased language". This description does not suffice. Quiller-Couch has said, it is "a kind of writing which, from a superficial likeness, commonly passes for prose in these days, and by lazy folk is commonly written for prose, yet actually is not prose at all ". The two main vices of jargon, he says, are "that it uses circumlocution rather than short straight speech", like the Babu who reported his mother's death by saying: "Regret to inform you, the hand that rocked the cradle has kicked the bucket ". Its other chief' vice is that "it habitually chooses vague woolly abstract nouns rather than concrete ones", like the newspaper statement; "He was conveyed to his place of residence in an intoxicated condition", instead of saying, "He was carried home drunk ". Jargon is "an infirmity of speech", it is not journalese, but akin to it. "Like respect- ability in Chicago, jargo4 stalks unchecked in our midst" and renders much technical writing ridiculous. It deals in periphrasis instead of going straight to the point, it loves the abstract rather than the concrete, it dabbles in words of sound rather than of meaning. Avoid it, despise it., if you purpose earnestly to write well. "III literature as in life he makes himself felt who not only calls 4 spade a spade but has the pluck to double spades and re-double." * Jargon is rampant in technical publications. Catalogues and other advertisements are conspicuous offenders, but with these the critic is not concerned, except in so far as such 'write-

Jan 1, 1931

By E. J. Eisenach, W. E. Jones

SAFETY and industrial hygiene have always been recognized as highly important in company policy, and the co-operative support of the company officials and entire plant personnel has contributed largely to the present success of the Company's program in this field. Growth has necessarily been slow, and dependent, at times, on trial and error but the program in its present form combines the regulations, working methods, and equipment that have proved their value under actual operating conditions. Every effort is made to keep the program on a practical basis. Continuous experimental work is carried on in conjunction with the health and safety program, with resultant periodic changes for improvement. As a proof of accomplishment, in 1945 the frequency and severity rates for accidents were the lowest in the history of the operation. A full-time safety engineer was employed in 1933 and an assistant safety engineer in 1936. During the following year a stenographer was employed in the office and a safety inspector was added for the mine. During the gradual expansion of operations that was climaxed by

Jan 1, 1946

By H. P. Wheeler

WHEN Germany invaded Poland in September, 1939, the only operating helium plant in the United States was that near Amarillo. Texas, supplied with helium-bearing natural gas from the near-by Cliffside gas field. Today the Bureau of Mines has five plants capable of producing more than 25 times the prewar helium output of the Amarillo plant. Two of the plants have received Army-Navy "E" flags for their part in the faraway "Battle of the Atlantic," where heliumfilled Navy blimps chased Adolf Hitler's submarines away from American shores. Meteorologists, watching balloons carried high into the stratosphere by helium, determined weather conditions that influenced the selection of D-day and dates for other military operation. Demand for helium doubled overnight when the Navy decided to expand its lighter-than-air activities; and as the blimp patrol proved effective, the helium demand became ever greater. A tribute to the success of the Bureau of Mines in meeting the demand for helium was paid by the late Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, in a letter to the Secretary of the Interior on April 10, 1944. Secretary Knox wrote, in part,

Jan 1, 1945

By A. H. Miller

TEMPERATURE considerations are of prime importance in the manufacture of steel products-front the time the metal is produced in the melting furnace, where the chemical reactions have a direct dependence on the temperatures of the bath, to the final machining of work on which the expansion due to the rise in temperature of the forgings during machining must be allowed for. Methods employed and difficulties encountered in some of the more important steps are here outlined. These methods are the result of years of experience, with many methods of temperature determination, and have been successful in routine works practice in the manufacture of high-quality steels. In the operations of melting, forging, and heat treatment, if the product is to be of the best quality each operation must be carefully followed through. A high-quality product cannot be obtained even with the best heat treatment if the steel is poorly melted, and, conversely, the best steel ever made may he spoiled by inefficient heat treatment. To perform the best work in any of these operations, temperatures must be accurately regulated.

Jan 8, 1919

By GLENVILTE A. COLLINS

(Presented at a Meeting of the Spokane Local Section of the Institute, Feb. 17, 1912, and accepted for publication in the Bulletin. ) WHILE I am not at the present time engaged in active mine-management, my duties permit of extensive study and examination of many mines, mills, and reduction-works in various places throughout the United States. Being much interested in efficiency-work in general, and an ardent reader of writings on this subject by Frederick W. Taylor and others, as applied to manufacturing-plants, and having served my apprenticeship from mucking to the engineering design of ore-dressing and underground plants, I hope that this paper will lead others to investigate the field more fully, to the improvement of general mine- and mill-operations, as well as the advancement, intellectually, physically, and financially, of the employee and his relations with the employer. If a man who is prepared to look closely and observe broadly starts in Canada and zig-zags from camp to camp to southern Mexico, taking time casually to inspect mines, mills, and smelters, he will be pitifully impressed by the great difference in customs, and the general waste of labor, time, and money throughout the country. He will so seldom observe a dollar's worth of results given in exchange for a dollar spent that he will form a poor opinion of operating-efficiency and management. This highly-scientific department, requiring an amount of skill and executive ability equaled in few, if any, of the professions, certainly falls short of the standard established in our greater manufacturing industries. It is easily said that this is due to the diversity of conditions in mining, milling, and smelting. But on second view it must be admitted that there is room for tremendous improvements in nearly every mining-organization. The proposal of such improvements is often met by the argument that any mine

Sep 1, 1912

By B. W. Vallat

(San Francisco Meeting, October, 1911.) THE Newport mine, located at Ironwood, Gogebic county, Mich., on the Gogebic iron-range, is owned and operated by the Newport Mining Co., for the mining of iron-ore. I. GEOLOGY. The general geology of the Gogebic range has been determined and recorded at different times by well-known geologists,) and their work will be referred to briefly in connection with the local conditions in the mine. The strike of the formation across this property is about 15° north of east. The, general dip is 68° to the north. At the base of the formation on the south lies the granite. Looking north, at right angles to the strike of the formation, we have the foot-wall of quartz-slates and quartzite about 400 ft. wide; the iron-formation about 800 ft. wide, and the hanging-wall of black slates. The iron-formation is composed of banded jasper and quartzite together with iron oxide and concentrations of iron-ore. In character the ore is a soft red hematite, with occasional masses of hard blue "steel ore." The formation is crossed in many places by diorite dikes, which cut through at various angles, the larger or main dikes dipping into the foot-wall in a SE. direction at angles varying from 15° to 30°, while numerous small dikes occur which strike through the formation in a vertical plane and at approximately right angles to the main dikes. There are various theories concerning these dikes, especially as to the time of their origin with relation to the ore-deposition. The commonly-accepted theory is that the dikes were there first, but there are some who contend that they were formed

Nov 1, 1911

By Ellsworth Daggett

THE system of pitwork used with the Cornish pumping engine, and which, for want of a better name, we may call the Cornish system of pitwork, consists essentially of a series of plunger-pumps, situated one below the other, in a shaft or incline, the plungers being operated by a rod called the pitman or pump-rod, which must, therefore, extend from the motor at the surface to the lowest pump. The subject will be best understood by reference to Fig. 1, in which k may be taken as typical of the ordinary plunger-pump, in which S is the suction pipe, u, the lower valve situated in the H piece T; v, the upper valve situated in the valve-box O; I, the mounting-pipe or column through which the water is carried to the surface; L, the plunger-barrel, and P, the plunger working through the stuffing-box, and actuated by the branch rod r, which is attached to the main pump-rod, R. The action of the pump is as follows : On the ascent of the plunger, acting now by suction, the water flows from the reservoir through the valve u, into the barrel, L. On the descent of the plunger, the water is forced up through the valve, v, which acts merely as a check valve, into the pipe, I, through which it is, at each successive down-stroke of the plunger, forced upward until it reaches the next reservoir, from which it is taken by another similar pump, and so on until it reaches the surface or drain-tunnel. The pump is obviously only single-acting, i. e., it acts only during one-half of its entire stroke. The weight of water raised during the up-stroke of the plunger is equal to the weight of a column of water whose base is the area of the plunger and whose height is the mean distance between the plunger-face and the surface of water in the lower reservoir, a distance not usually exceeding 12 or 15 feet, and which obviously cannot under the most favorable circumstances, exceed 25 or 30 feet. The water forced up during the down-stroke is equal to the weight of a column of water whose base equals the area of the plunger and whose height equals the length of the mounting column above the mean position of the plunger-face, say from 150 to 300 feet. Almost all of the useful work, therefore, is done on the de-

Jan 1, 1879

By AIME AIME

ON April 7 the twentieth national Open-hearth Conference of the A.I.M.E. will be held in Birming¬ham, Ala., in conjunction with a meeting of the Committee on Blast Furnaces and Raw Materials. At least 300 engineers and operators are expected to attend. Birmingham, the industrial city and iron, and steel center of the South, has been called the "Magic City." Men actively engaged in business in Birmingham today have seen practically every building in the business district erected, have witnessed the establishment of every existing industry, and have hunted birds cm the site now one of the busiest corners of the business district. Incorporated as a town in 1871, the city today has a population of more than 380,000 in its metropolitan area. It is

Jan 1, 1937

By Harlowe Hardinge

AN extensive recent trip throughout the mining districts of the Southwest, Central West, an Northwest,' reveals a numbes of interesting conditions that have influenced operators, in both large and small mills, to modify their flow sheets insofar as they pertain to crushing and grinding. The changes made and planned for the future should be of interest. It is interesting to note when traveling through the country, how ideas change and practice is modified, and it is rather amusing to see how milling methods seem to run, more or less, in cycles. New ideas and developments are brought about which run through the industry and are taken up by many of the best and most well informed operators. Some of them will change, sooner or later, back to their old practice; for, like everything .else, what will work well in one place will not necessarily be suited to another. On the other hand, it is often difficult to establish. other practices known to be of value, owing to the natural resistance to make a change, but on the whole, the western mill men seem to be more alive to possible benefits of various modifications than any other engineers with whom I have come in contact in all parts of the world. Mill men in other parts of the world always keep in con- tact with what is being done in the western part of the United States, but it does not necessarily follow that those in the western part of the United States are always right. Some of these changes that have been made and afterward abandoned will be referred to later.

Jan 1, 1929

By Dwain K. Butler

INTRODUCTION Characterization of a site for the prediction and simulation of dynamic events requires the determination of mechanical properties of the rock at stress/strain levels and rates and at a scale appropriate for the events and critical structures involved. The structures of interest can be on the surface, underground, or designed to impact and penetrate into the site (projectiles). Dynamic events of interest are equally diverse: seismic waves from distance earthquakes or explosions; close-in phenomena associated with earthquakes and explosions; vibrations associated with heavy equipment or machinery; and stress transients associated with impact and penetration. The complexity of site characterization depends on two factors not specifically related to the nature of the site itself: the stress levels generated by the dynamic event and the sophistication of the prediction and simulation techniques. For very high stress levels, such as occur near a nuclear detonation, and for low stress levels, such as occur during seismic wave propagation, site characterization is simplified, and often certain details of the site are not particularly important, such as shear strength variations in the case of very high stress levels. In the intermediate stress range, however, all descriptive relations are non- linear, a complete finite strain constitutive model is required, and all details of the site, such as lithology and fracture distribution, become important. The site characterization must be complete enough to support the most sophisticated prediction and simulation technique that will be applied to the analysis of the dynamic event. The procedures of site characterization are illustrated in this paper by a specific dynamic event, projectile impact and penetration, and a specific site, an outcrop of Dakota Sandstone near San Ysidro, New Mexico. The structure of interest was the projectile itself: nominally, 1.5 m in length, 0.165 m in diameter, 180 kg

Jan 1, 1984

By HARRISON W. CRAVER

LIBRARIES are universally recognized as essential to modern civilization. In a world that gets most of its learning through the printed word, storehouses of print are a vital necessity. In this regard engineering differs in no way from the other learned professions, but until recent times the library needs of engineers have received rather scant attention. When the engineering profession was more of an art and less of a science than it is today, when each problem was solved more through the results of experience than by applying scientific principles, literature was less helpful. The engineer of today, however, is aware that his activities rest upon a scientific foundation and consequently comprehensive books dealing with more limited fields are now being published. Another difficulty for the operating engineer in the past was that the published works on engineering were written chiefly for use as college texts. A third obstacle to the development of engineering libraries has been the lack of librarians with experience in engineering.

Jan 1, 1938

By THOMAS G. FEAR

THE COAL DIVISION started its share of the annual meeting Monday morning with a study of coal classi fication. A. C. Fieldner was in the chair. The report of the tellers of the ballot for division chairman, stating that Thomas G. Fear had been elected to that office, was read by M. D. Cooper. Mr. Fear acknowledged the honor in a few words. In reviewing the history of the Coal Classification Committee the chairman pointed out that this was its third symposium, the last previous one having been held at the 1930 Annual Meeting. Throughout its work the com¬mittee has had the active cooperation of the Canadian workers who are interested in the subject which should result in a uniform scheme of classification in Canada and the United States. F. E. Lathe, of the National Research Council, Ottawa, abstracted the first two papers of the session entitled "Determination of the Alkali-Soluble Ulmins in Coal," by Edgar Stansfield and K. C. Gilbart, and "Moisture Determination for Coal Classification," by the same authors. The third paper "Condition of Water in Coals of Various Ranks"' was presented by its author, A. W. Gauger. Written discussions of these papers were presented by H. C. Porter and Gilbert H. Cady. In the oral discussion which followed, W. T. Thom, Jr., brought out the advisability of considering age as a factor in classification. Mr. Fieldner favored retaining bed moisture as a partial classification basis, stating that a review of many coal analyses revealed a remarkable consistency in this item in samples from a given mine particularly where the moisture content was not high. Mr. Porter pointed out that the structure and porosity of coal often have much to do with its moisture content and that these vary in different parts of a seam, particularly in anthracite. Mr. Gauger expressed doubt as to whether the Stansfield method gives the true moisture content of coal, which is needed for classification purposes.

Jan 1, 1932

By AIME AIME

FEW mining schools possess an art gallery and certainly none can equal the collection of paintings depicting the mineral industries now hanging in the comparatively new building of the School of Mineral Industries at The Pennsylvania State College. Dean Steidle, who conceived the idea, early this spring boasted of 55 paintings in the collection, by 24 different artists, the gallery being appraised at $18,000. Since then, eleven additional paintings have been added. Opportunity will he presented for an inspection at the meeting of the Industrial Minerals Division, to be held at the College, Sept. 24-26.

Jan 1, 1936

Engineering Experiment Station, Kansas State College, Manhattan, Kansas. For publications or a list of publications, address the above Of the 29 Bulletins issued by the Engineering Experiment Station, a few on cement and road-building materials may well be listed here: Bulletin 12, Road materials of Kansas; 15, Tests of Kansas road materials, 17, Some strength characteristics of portland cement; 25, Volume change of concrete, 26, A study of fourteen brands of standard portland cement and four early-strength concretes, 28, The durability of concrete, 29, The effect of aggregate and other variables on the elastic properties of concrete

Jan 1, 1933

Organization Place - Date 1918 American Iron and Steel Institute New York, N. Y. May American Water Works Association :.. St. Paul, Minn. May 20-25 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Berlin, N. H.. June 19-22 American Concrete Institute Atlantic City, N. J. June 24-26 American Society for Testing Materials Atlantic City, N. J. June 25-28 New York Electrical Society New York, N. Y. June National Association of Stationary Engineers Cincinnati, 0. Sept. 9-13 National Exposition of Chemical Industries New York, N.Y.. Sept.23-28 American Chemical Society Cleveland, 0. Sept. National Petroleum Association Atlantic' City, N. J. Sept.

Jan 5, 1918

THE twelfth annual meeting of the American Asso-ciation of Petroleum Geologists will be held in Tulsa, Okla., on March 24 to 26, at the Mayo Hotel. The per-sonnel of the committee on arrangements for this meet-ing is as follows : Chairman, M. M. Valerius ; finance, J. H. Gardner; program, Sidney Powers,; publicity, Luther H. White; reception, L. G. Welsh; registration, Frank A. Herald; exhibits, Frank C. Greene; entertain¬ment, Harry H. Nowlan ; ladies' entertainment, T. E. Weirich; golf tournament, A. L. Beekly; hotels, G. C. Potter; transportation, A. W. Duston; banquet, R. Hughes; decoration, V. H. Hughes.

Jan 2, 1927