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By John D. Gill

THIS paper assumes the incontrovertible nature of the statement that the validity of competition in the nonnatural resource industries is established firmly on the rate and extent of the economic development of the United States. It then demonstrates the nonexistence of any condition within the petroleum industry that would invalidate the principle of competition as applied to it. It points to the benefits that competition has effected in the oil industry and the reasons why the practice of the competitive principle should continue to keep the industry virile and progressive in meeting the requirements of future generations for the kind of products natural to it. Finally, it pleads for a clearer view of the affairs of the oil industry by seeing them against a background of the whole economy. INTRODUCTION Even a few years ago there would have been only an academic reason for presenting before this Institute a paper on the validity of competition in the oil industry or any other natural resource industry; today there is no more practical subject for this body to consider. In social importance it transcends attempted solutions of perplexing technical problems; and even the numerous legal and economic problems that grow out of administration of state regulatory measures appear to be of secondary importance because they would cease to exist if competition were abolished. The aspiration of certain elements of the Federal Government to acquire control of the oil industry has long been suspected The vital need for petroleum in the national defense ... confirms my belief in the urgent need of Federal legislation to safeguard our petroleum supply through prevention of waste and by establishment and maintenance of sound economic conditions in the oil industry... . But also it may be dismissed with this mere mention of it because it predicates government control and the abandonment or broad reduction of competition on a war emergency. Clearly, the fight for a nation's life may justify a government's control over men and resources that would be abhorrent and economically enervating under conditions of national security. More pertinent to the present matter, because it appears expressive neither of a personal ambition nor of an emergency condition but rather of the long-range view of a certain school of conservationists, is the pronouncement of no less an authority than the Attorney General of the United States, who has been repeatedly quoted by the press as saying that the American Petroleum Industry constituted a case "where the principle of conservation of an exhaustible and irreplaceable resource should replace the principle of competitive exploitation." The significance of this statement in the light of the commonly accepted meanings of the " principle of conservation" and of the "principle of competitive ex-

Jan 1, 1941

By R. T. Gallagher, C. G. Brennecke

This paper is the result of a research program entered into cooperatively by the General Reinsurance Corporation and Lehigh University in January 1944. The research program was instituted to find a more positive method to determine the presence of hazardous roof conditions in mining operations. The co-authors, together with Mr. R. D. Currie, Engineer for the General Reinsurance Corporation, started working on the project in January 1944, first undertaking a library search; second, a preliminary study based on some existing equipment; third, the design of new and more suitable equipment; and finally, the field testing of equipment and methods. PURPOSE Any study of the accident statistics of mining operations will disclose the rather startling fact that approximately 50 to 60 per cent of all fatal underground accidents in the anthracite and bituminous mines are caused by falls of roof and coal, the metal and nonmetal mines showing only a slightly smaller percentage. Advancements in safety engineering have produced definite results in the decrease of accidents due to blasting, haulage, electricity, and explosions but no such decrease is shown in those caused by falls

Jan 1, 1946

GWILLIAM H. CLAMER* (Philadelphia, Pa.).-Sulphur is not so detrimental in its effect if oxygen is also present, so that in sulphur-carrying bronzes and brasses, it is advantageous to maintain a certain percentage of oxygen. As a matter of fact, it would be possible sometimes to correct difficulties by actually adding oxygen. If the cathodes were charged directly into an electric furnace in a neutral or reducing atmosphere, a very high grade of copper would result by a simple melting operation. This would very largely eliminate the loss occasioned by melting in a reverberatory furnace. In such a furnace a large amount of slag is produced during the oxidizing stage of refining. Notwithstanding the fact that melting in an electric furnace might be somewhat more expensive than melting in a fuel furnace, the ultimate result would be a saving and the production of a very high grade of copper.

Jan 1, 1919

By Henry M. Howe

Many direct processes have been proposed for the treatment of oxidized ores of copper by reducing the copper oxide to the metallic state, and by separating it from its impurities by a subsequent fusion. The radical objection common to all the methods which have come to my notice, except those in which sulphur plays the prominent part, is that the very deoxidizing agent which effects the reduction of the copper oxide, inevitably reduces at the same time a very considerable part, if not the whole, of the iron which almost invariably accompanies copper in its ores. The result is that, when the ore is subsequently fused, a very great quantity of the already reduced iron separates from the slag along with the copper, alloying with it, and necessitating costly subsequent operations for its separation. Thus, at Perm, in the Urals," the product of the fusion of ferrnginous copper oxides is a mixture of one hundred and fifty-tive parts of highly cupriferous pig iron with two hundred and fire parts of very impure and ferruginous black copper, containing Pome 10 per cent. of' carbon and iron, though free from sulphur, and of course very difficult to refine. If, in order to avoid this reduction of iron to the metallic state, the reducing action be made feebler, it inevitably results that a considerable part of the copper as well escapes deoxidation; and, consequently, the slags are so rich that it becomes necessary to treat them subsequently in order to recover the copper which they contain. Thus,. in treating native copper, at Lake Superior, where the reducing action is purposely made feeble in order to prevent the deoxidation of the iron, the slags from the first fusion of the ore carry so much copper as to render it imperative to treat them again, which is done in a cupola. And yet, in spite of so far weakening the reducing action as to cause a notable slagging of the copper, a very considerable reduction of iron actually takes place. These are the two dangers which threaten the smelter of oxidized copper ores. If he wishes to avoid slagging his copper, he must have so strong a deoxidizing action as to reduce a great deal of his

Jan 1, 1879

By John I. Yellott

SINCE the days of Newcomen and Watt, when men first sought to turn the energy of fuels to useful purposes, coal-generated steam has supplied most of the power needed for both stationary and mobile applications. The low efficiency and large water requirements of the nineteenth century steam-power plant caused many engineers to turn their thoughts toward more direct means of converting heat into power. As far back as 1791, John Barber secured an English patent on a combination' which he might well have called a "gas turbine." He proposed to generate procducer gas from coal or charcoal, to burn it under pressure in air obtained from a reciprocating compressor, and to drive a turbine wheel with the resultant hot combustion products. With the optimism characteristic of the inventor, he hoped that the turbine would not only operate his compressor but also perform useful work. There is no record that Barber ever built his machine, but if he had done so he would have learned that useful power can result from such a combination only when both turbine and compressor are highly efficient and when the temperature of the gas entering the turbine is not far below 1000°F. Hot-air prime movers continued to attract attention, and both Stirling in England and Ericsson in America2 built reciprocating engines that operated with some success upon coal-heated air. The internal-combustion engine, burning liquid fuels, supplanted the hot-air type, and, for the first time, challenged the supremacy of both the steam cycle and its familiar fuel, coal. LIQUID FUELS COMPETE WITH COAL As the increasing use of the automobile multiplied the demand for gasoline, the supply of residual fuel increased rapidly, and heavy oil declined in price to the point where it became competitive with coal. First in the marine field and later in stationary plants in areas adjacent to refineries, oil began to be widely used. Oil's greater convenience and higher heating value per pound of weight or per cubic foot of bunker space have caused it to take over much of the marine field. The introduction of the highly efficient diesel engine, capable of burning a fuel that is cheaper than gasoline, again threatened the position of coal, for the operating costs of the diesel became directly competitive with those of coal- burning equipment. In isolated power plants and smaller marine installations, the diesel provided the medium by which oil again successfully invaded fields formerly dominated by coal. The diesel engine, provided with an

Jan 1, 1946

By W. F. Tanner

A river delivers a given load of sand, and hence heavy materials, into the sea. The load is fixed by drainage basin characteristics and processes. Wave energy available for redistributing that load is fixed in an entirely different way. An equilibrium diagram of these two parameters (load vs energy) pennits a tentative prediction of what will happen to the heavy minerals. Alluvial rivers transport a mechanical load which consists essentially of wash load (finer than about 0.05 mm in particle diam), bed load (coarser than about 0.10 mm) and the transition sizes in between. A few rivers carry no appreciable mechanical load, and are excluded from this discussion. An example of the latter is the Suwannee River of Florida, which empties across an oyster bar into the Gulf of Mexico and does not build a delta despite the absence of significant waves or currents in that part of the Gulf. An alluvial river may deliver its load into a protected sediment trap (such as an estuary, sound or lagoon), onto a low-energy coast (where it builds a delta) or onto a high-energy coast (from which spot the river load is swept away). The nature and disposition of the load depends, obviously, on three sets of factors: 1) drainage basin characteristics and processes, which determine quantity and make-up of the load; 2) coastal structure and geomorphology, which determine the kind of river-sea coupling which

Jan 1, 1962

By F. M. F. Cazin

In my first paper, relating in general to the movement of solids in a medium, I stated a newly-discovered natural law, and explained its application to mechanical ore-concentration. This law, as applied primarily to the motion of ships in water, had been announced, demonstrated and defended by me in the Journal of the Franklin Institute for March, April and May, 1893, and has not been controverted since then. I therefore contented myself in my first paper with the simple statement of it; and in order to avoid unnecessary repetition, I refer the readers of this paper to that statement (ante, p. 81) and to the earlier publication already mentioned.*

Jan 1, 1895

By David J. Mack

THE structures and properties of the copper-aluminum alloys have been the subject of much study since the classic investigation of Carpenter and Edwards1 focused attention on the engineering utility of these alloys. It was recognized at an early date that the metallographic structures developed in the aluminum bronzes were similar to those developed in steels, both in the annealed and the rapidly cooled state. Most investigators have been concerned with the acicular, martensitic-like structure formed from the ß solid solution upon rapid quenching; the transformation of the ß under equilibrium cooling to a lamellar eutectoid having been relatively neglected. With the introduction in 1930 by Davenport and Bain2 of the isothermal transformation technique for studying eutectoidal decompositions, a new field was opened. Although an enormous amount of work has since been done on the isothermal transformation of steel, study of structurally analogous systems has been almost totally overlooked. The outstanding exception was the prize-winning paper† of Smith and Lindlief3 who investigated the decomposition of the ß phase in copper-aluminum alloys by isothermal methods. This was followed in 1934 by Wasserman's reviews of available information on analogous transformations in eutectoid alloys. Since that time no comprehensive study of isothermally transformed eutectoids analogous to steel has appeared, although many valuable contributions have been made to an understanding of the structures developed in such systems. Important papers have been published by Kurdjumow, Gridnew and co-workers, 5-17 Obinata,18,19 Greninger,20,21 and others .22.28 The work to be described in this paper was an out-growth of preliminary studies on the isothermal transformation of a eutectoid aluminum bronze, after it became apparent that the alloy under study was reacting somewhat differently than the similar alloy used by Smith and Lindlief. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS The material used in this study was a high purity aluminum bronze especially prepared by Ampco Metal, Inc. It analyzed: Copper-88.o7 pct, Aluminum-11.89 Oct, Iron-0.02 pct, Manganese-0.01 pct, Others-Balance. Although some disagreement exists on the exact composition of the eutectoid, this alloy was believed to be of essentially eutectoid composition even though some pro-eutectoid* delta particles existed in the microstructure of furnace cooled specimens. Specimens transformed isothermally at temperatures slightly below the eutectoid showed relatively large amounts of pre-eutectoid delta, but as will be shown later, this results

Jan 1, 1947

By George W. Maynard

IN the biographical notice of Thomas F. Witherbee, published in Bulletin No. 32, August, 1909 (p. xxv), it is said that ". he is believed to have been the first manager in America to use the chemical laboratory for the purpose of controlling the regular running of the blast-furnace." Since the year is not given, I cannot decide as. to Mr. Witherbee's priority; but the statement leads me to contribute a bit of history, showing an early departure from the "rule-of-thumb " blast-furnace work to the employment of a chemist. In the autumn of 1868 the department of mining and metallurgy was established at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In connection with the assay-department a laboratory was equipped for making general commercial analyses. In January, 1869, Alexander L. Holley, the manager and builder of the Bessemer plant at the Rensselaer Works of John A. Griswold & Co., the first plant erected in the United¬States under the Bessemer patents, began to send me samples of ore, pig-iron, and steel for analysis. Early in 1869 I was regularly retained as chemist for the Rensselaer Works; and while the laboratory was not located at the works, for all practical purposes it was the works-laboratory. The increase in work soon made it necessary for me to secure an assistant. I applied to Prof. Charles F. Chandler, who recommended Dr. August Wendel, who had been an assistant of Rammelsberg and had lately landed in New York. Dr. Wendel remained with me until 1873, when I left Troy. My leaving made necessary the erection of a laboratory at the Rensselaer Works, which, was done under my supervision, and Dr. Wendel was employed as chemist. During the period from 1868 to 1873 my work as consulting mining engineer frequently called me to the Lake Champlain

Nov 1, 1909

By Alden Greninger

THAT metallographic structures analogous to the martensite of steel may be found in certain copper-aluminum and copper-tin alloys has been known for many years; similar structures recently were found in certain copper-zinc alloys.1 In all three of these alloy systems the martensite structures result from transformation of the metastable ß phase when the speed of cooling from the ß range is sufficiently high to suppress decomposition into equilibrium phases. ? In the normal decomposition of solid solutions into equilibrium phases, diffusion is needed to bring about the necessary changes in concentration, and the rate of reaction falls almost to zero at temperatures slightly above room temperature. The rates of reaction for martensite processes, however, are not dependent upon temperature; the transformation does not require readjustments of concentration. For example, the marten-site transformation in 60:40 (ß) copper-zinc does not begin until the temperature has dropped to about minus 30° C., and then continues down to minus 130° C. and probably even at lower temperatures.1 Further-more, martensite processes apparently proceed only while the tempera-ture is falling, within the proper range, and cease completely while the temperature is held constant; ? and they cannot be suppressed by extremely rapid cooling although the rate of cooling for some alloys may be increased to over 10,000 times the critical cooling velocity. Isaitschew, Kaminsky and Kurdjumow2 account for these observed behaviors of martensite processes by postulating that the mechanism " . . . consists in a regular rearrangement of the lattice in such a way

Jan 1, 1939

By M. R. Geer, J. D. Davis, H. F. Yancey

ALTHOUGH the mechanical cleaning of coal is carried out at plants on the surface, preparation is actually begun at the face in the mine. Here the character of the coal and the amount, character, and distribution of the impurities within the bed may be seen. Blasting methods, dust-allaying procedures, location of mining cut with respect to bands of impurity, and the practice of discarding segregated impurities underground, all have an important bearing on the successful operation of surface cleaning units. The most important single characteristic of both coal and its asso¬ciated impurities from the standpoint of cleaning is specific gravity. Other characteristics related in one way or another to the preparation of coal are rank, petrographic composition, structure and hardness, and friability. These and still other coal properties are discussed in the first section of this chapter and impurity characteristics in the second. COAL CHARACTERISTICS RELATED TO PREPARATION Rank As a result of work done over a period of several years by committees of the American Society for Testing Materials and the American Standards Association, standard specifications are now available showing the classification of coals according to rank and quality of grade.' The term "rank" expresses the degree to which the original coal-forming material has been changed by metamorphism through successive stages from peat to anthracite. Table 1 shows the classification of coals according to rank as devised by the committees of the organizations mentioned. The basic scheme of classification for the higher-rank coals is according to

Jan 1, 1943

By L. H. Dushak

DURING the war period of quicksilver activity there were a number of departures from what may be termed the classical quicksilver metallurgy. Attempts were made to beneficiate low-grade ores by gravity concentration and flotation; mechanical furnaces began to replace the Scott furnace and the vertical coarse-ore furnaces, and condensers of sewer tile and redwood tanks were used in place of the older brick and stone condensing chambers. Other developments that have occurred during the current period of quicksilver activity are mainly in the nature of improvement and further refinement of those started during the war period. Each period of quicksilver activity has been accompanied by the proposal of various new processes, including wet methods for the treatment of quicksilver ores and innovations in furnaces, retorts and condenser equipment. As far as the author knows, nothing of economic significance in the way of "new processes" has been developed. There is in fact no real need for any essentially new process for the treatment of quicksilver ores; the direct furnace treatment is simple and inexpensive. Moreover, with rare exceptions, the quicksilver industry has no complex or refractory ore problems corresponding to those which are receiving more and more attention from metallurgists in other branches of the nonferrous field. Under these conditions improvements in quicksilver metallurgy must be looked for through the adaptation of current developments in engineering and metallurgy generally to the particular needs of quicksilver practice rather than through the invention of new processes.

Jan 1, 1930

By C. G. Rhodes, D. Kramer

The kinetics of precipitation of transient a phase during the transformation in U-16 wt pct Mo between 400° and 550°C were studied using quantitative metallography and electrica1 resistiuity measurements. The volume percent of a phase goes through a maximum in time, corresponding to a critical degree of progress of y' formation. prior to its re-solution after prolonged annealing. The fastest rate of a precipitation oc-cuvs at 500°C with a concomittant lowest peak of 9.5 vol pct a. At 450°C, 14 vol pct a, greatest fov any temperature, was observed after 24 hr witlz an associated slowest rate of formation. a precipitation at 400°C ceases after approximately 160 hr and the amount of a present remains unchanged after long times at temperature; no y' was observed metallographically at this temperature. IN the U-Mo system at 16 wt pct Mo, an ordering reaction takes place below 600°C, see Fig. 1, whereupon the random bcc solid solution, y, transforms to the ordered bct phase, y'."2 The new unit cell is constructed of three old unit cells somewhat distorted. While attempting to study the kinetics of this transformation it was observed that an unexpected phase was precipitating out early during the transformation anneal reaching appreciable amounts before disappearing after long times. The y' appeared in the presence of this new phase and after long times constituted the whole sample. Owing to the high optical activity of this unexpected phase under polarized light, it was suspected to be the a phase. Subsequent X-ray powder pictures confirmed this belief. The kinetics of a phase formation and disappearance is the subject of this paper. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE A) Alloy Preparation. Alloys for this study were prepared by vacuum induction melting normal reactor grade uranium and 99.5 wt pct Mo pellets in thoria crucibles. Two ingots were prepared, and sections of the top and bottom of each ingot were chemically analyzed for uranium and molybdenum content. The results of the analyses appear in Table I. B) Metallography. Samples of 16M were wrapped in tantalum foil, sealed in evacuated (5 X 10"6 mm of Hg) quartz capisules, and annealed at 1110"C prior to being transferred directly to the transformation temperature. They were examined metallographically after increasing times to determine the progress of the transformation at 400°, 450°, 500°, and 550°C. The samples were prepared for metallographic examination by mechanical polishing with diamond paste and electrolytic polishing with a solution of glacial acetic acid and chromic acid. Since the y' phase is tetragonal, its presence can be detected by viewing the sample in polarized light. To increase the contrast between y' plates, the samples were electro-etched in a 10 pct oxalic acid solution. To reveal a phase in bright field (it can be seen in polarized light in the "as-polished" state), the samples were electro-etched in a solution of citric acid and nitric acid. To determine the vol pct a phase, a variation of the one dimensional systematic point count method as described by Hilliard and cahn3 was used. The

Jan 1, 1962

By D. K. Das, P. A. Beck, S. P. Rideout

IN a previous publication1 1200°C isothermal phase diagram sections were given for the Cr-CO-Ni, Cr-Co-Fe, Cr-Co-Mo, and Cr-Ni-Mo ternary systems, in which the a phase formed narrow, elongated solid solution fields. The present investigation is concerned with the 1200°C isothermal sections of the Co-Ni-Mo, Co-Fe-Mo, and Ni-Fe-Mo ternary systems. A prominent feature of these systems is the presence of narrow, elongated µ phase fields. The crystal structure of the phase designated as µ both here and in the previous publication1 was determined by Arnfelt and Westgren.2 For the (CO, W)µ phase, named by them Co,W, (and also frequently designated as a), these authors found that the crystal system is hexagonal-rhombohedra1 and the space group is D53d — R3,. Westgren and Mag-neli3 later found that isomorphous phases exist in the Fe-W and the Fe-Mo systems (these phases are often referred to as < and E, respectively). Henglein and Kohsok4 stated that the phase described by them as Co7Mo,; (otherwise frequently designated as c) is also isomorphous with the above three. The Co-Fe-Mo system was investigated at 1300°C by Koester and Tonn,5 who found a continuous series of solid solutions between (Co, MO)µ and (Fe, MO)µ Koester6 also indicated similar uninterrupted solid solutions in the Ni-Fe-Mo system. However, since the Ni-Mo binary system does not have a phase isomorphous with F, Koester&apos;s diagram is expected to be erroneous. No data appear to be available in the literature concerning the Co-Ni-Mo system. The face-centered cubic (austenitic) solid solut,ions of iron, nickel, and cobalt, which are quite extensive in all three systems at 1200°C, are here designated as the a phase. The body-centered cubic (ferritic) solid solutions, based on iron, are designated in this report as the ? phase, in conformity with the nomenclature used previously.&apos; Experimental Procedure The alloys were prepared by vacuum induction melting in zirconia and alumina crucibles. The lot analyses for the metals used have been given.&apos; The number of alloys prepared was 46 for the Co-Ni-Mo system, 65 for the Co-Fe-Mo system, and 113 for the Ni-Fe-Mo system. The compositions of these alloys were selected with due regard to maximum usefulness in locating phase boundaries. The alloy specimens were annealed at 1200°C in an atmosphere of purified 92 pct helium and 8 pct hydrogen mixture. Alloys consisting almost entirely of the face-centered cubic austenitic a phase, or of the body-centered cubic ferritic c phase were double-forged with intermediate annealing. The double-forged specimens were then final annealed for 90 hr at 1200 °C and quenched in cold water. Alloys containing considerable amounts of any of the other phases could not be forged. Such specimens were annealed for 150 hr at 1200°C and quenched. Microscopic specimens of all alloys were prepared by mechanical polishing, in many cases followed by electrolytic polishing. Description of the polishing and etching procedures used and tabulation of the intended compositions of the alloys prepared are being published in two N.A.C.A. Technical Notes.7,8 , Many of the alloys were analyzed chemically and, in general, the results are in excellent agreement with the intended compositions. X-ray diffraction samples were prepared by filing or crushing homogenized alloy specimens and by reannealing the obtained powders in evacuated and sealed quartz tubes. After annealing for 30 min at 1200°C the tubes were quenched into cold water. X-ray diffraction patterns were made with unfiltered chromium radiation at 30 kv, using an asymmetrical focusing camera of high dispersion. X-ray diffraction and microscopic methods were used jointly to identify the phases present in each specimen. The amounts of the phases in each alloy were estimated microscopically. The phase boundaries were located by the disappearing phase method. The results were used to construct 1200°C isothermal sections for the three ternary phase diagrams. The accuracy of the location of the phase boundaries determined in this manner is estimated to approximately ±1 pct of each component. The portion of the three phase diagrams lying between the µ, P, and 6 phases on the one hand, and the molybdenum corner on the other, has not been investigated. Recently Metcalfe reported0 a high temperature allotropic form of cobalt on the basis of dilatometric results and of cooling curves. In the present work no attempt was made to search for the new phase in the cobalt corner of the Co-Fe-Mo and Co-Ni-Mo systems. No alloy was prepared with more than 80 pct Co; the alloys used were intended to locate the boundary of the a phase saturated with cL. The microstructures of the quenched a alloys near the cobalt COrner gave no suggestion of an in-suppressible transformation On quenching. The location of the boundaries of the a + ? two-phase fields in the Fe-Ni-Mo and Fe-CO-MO systems was determined entirely by the microscopic method. The face-centered cubic a alloys near the ? field transform partially or wholly into the body-centered cubic ? phase on quenching from 1200°C to room temperature. The ? formed in this manner has an

Jan 1, 1953

By O. W. Ellis

BEFORE entering upon a general discussion of the fascinating, but at present rather controversial, subject of gases in copper, the author feels that some attention should be directed to the work which has been carried out on the solubility of gases in metals. The outstanding contributions to our knowledge of this subject have been made by Sieverts and his collaborators(1) t and by Iwasé.(2) Both the German and the Japanese investigators employed apparatus of the same general design in their investigations. Full reference need only be made, therefore, to the German scheme, which is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 1. This, to use the words of Sieverts, which he employed in describing his Burette arrangement of apparatus at the 1928 meeting of der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Metallkunde(1g): shows a diagram of the usual mode of procedure. A quartz flask contains the metal (for high temperatures a highly refractory porcelain FIG. 1.-SIEVERTS&apos; APPARATUS FOR INVESTIGATING SOLUBILITY OF tube is used) and is connected with the rest of GASES IN METALS. the apparatus by means of a stopcock. The other parts consist of a burette divided into 1/10 c.c., a leveling tube, and art adjus-table mercury reservoir. The burette is connected on one side with the gas inlet and on the other side with the absorption flask; the connection can be interrupted by means of suitable taps. Another tap permits the connection of the flask and the Töpler pump. In an experiment the quartz flask is first exhausted and then a meas-ured quantity of gas is let in from the burette. In the first place the volume of the flask when empty is found by calibration with an inert gas. The pressure is read off on the level tube of the burette, and the temperature measured by means of a thermo-couple whose welded junction lies close to the outside of the quartz flask, which is heated in an electric furnace. In several experiments the quantity of absorbed gas was transferred to a burette by means of a pump and measured.

Jan 1, 1932

A tough Conservation Act has been in force in Pennsylvania since January, 1964. Known as the Bituminous Coal Open Pit Mining Conservation Act, it is now under study by other coal producing states, and seems likely to serve as the blueprint for similar legislation elsewhere. It provides for the conservation and improvement of areas of land affected by open pit mining to decrease soil erosion, prevent pollution of rivers and streams, prevent combustion of unmined coal and generally improve the use and enjoyment of such lands. The cost of backfilling may go to as much as 40[c] or more per recovered ton and is cutting deeply into already reduced profit margins brought on by rising labor and equipment costs, static coal prices and less accessible coal. As a result, operators will be forced to seek greater efficiency.

Jan 7, 1965

By Walter Crafts

KEYNOTE of the technical sessions of the Iron and Steel Division at the Annual Meeting was struck by Leo F. Reinartz in his Howe Memorial Lecture on "The Development of Research and Quality Control in a Modern Steel Mill." In describing recent developments in steel-producing practices at the American Rolling Mill Co. the co-ordination of practical observation and directed research with operations was stressed and was shown to have resulted in economical production of steels of uniformly high quality. Empirical methods based on inaccurate and incomplete experience resulted in the production of commercial products of variable quality and were recognized as inadequate; a research program was therefore initiated that has been justified by its fruits. To name a few outstanding achievements such as Armco iron, steel for electrical sheets, wide continuous strip of superior surface and quality, and non-aging steel is not sufficient to summarize the results of this increasing effort toward better steel products. In addition to the development of new products the faithful observation of operating procedures, the co-ordination of the resulting information, and the standardization of processes have made the steel of today much more uniform and thus more economical and useful to the nation.

Jan 1, 1943

By F. W. Lake

The ultimate production from a natural reservoir of petroleum is inversely proportional to the gas-oil ratios existing during the producing life of the reservoir whenever gas is the major expulsive force in the recovery. In other words, in the period during which gas is the major expulsive force the ultimate production will be increased if the gas-oil ratio is decreased, and vice versa. This condition prevails in the greater number of the present producing districts. While this relation is difficult to prove from actual operation, on account of the present paucity of detailed observations, it must be admitted after a study of the forces and conditions governing the recovery of petroleum from natural reservoirs. Where gas and oil exist under pressure in sand interstices and water movement is not freely possible, the force expended in moving the oil to the well is the expansion and movement of the gas through the pressure differential existing between the interior of the reservoir and the well. If pressure and solution conditions in the untapped reservoir are such that the relation between gas and oil volumes at atmospheric conditions is as 100:1; and if during the producing period, until the gas is exhausted, the relation between the gas and oil volumes produced is 300:1, it follows that only one-third of the oil has been produced and the remaining two-thirds cannot be recovered unless some extraneous force is introduced into the reservoir. This serves to illustrate the importance of gas-oil ratio control during normal producing operations. Gas-oil Ratio Control Eliminating natural conditions in a reservoir, which govern gas-oil ratios, such as the physical properties of the oil and gas, the physical characteristics of the reservoir strata and the original pressure and solution conditions in the reservoir, which cannot be controlled by operation practice; and also eliminating operating conditions that apply to the reservoir as a whole, such as well spacing, well locations, relative completion dates, various penetrations and drilling practice; there remains but one condition in each well that influences the gas-oil ratio and that is

Jan 1, 1928

By Herbert H. Kouns, Harlan W. Nelson, Bruce O. Buckland

GASIFICATION of coal under pressure produces a gas that may be used as the fuel in a gas turbine. The pressure produced by a gas-turbine compressor (5 to 9 atm) should allow the use of high firing rates without unreasonably high solid carry-over rates. Hot make-gas with the tars contained in it in the vapor form can be used in a gas turbine. Most of the ash can be removed through a grate, and only a small portion of the ash and any of the solid combustible material carried over by the make-gas requires separation. The gas stream from which separation is required is a small portion of the total flow of a gas-turbine plant and hence the separator size will be small. The gas stream is reducing and will not, therefore, allow separator fires to occur. The response of the producer to rapid load changes is satisfactory. Only the air rate must change substantially in synchronism with the load. The coal feed, the steam addition to the blast, and the ash-removal rate can follow the load changes with time lags in the order of minutes. The necessary control equipment is simplified by these producer characteristics. With these possibilities in mind, the Steam Turbine Division of the General Electric Co. made arrangements with Battelle Memorial Institute in January 1945 to investigate the problems of the gasification process. A number of tests were made during this investigation on an updraft producer with a grate area of 1 sq ft. The equipment used has been described and the results of the tests made between 1946 and 1950 have been reported.1 The testing with this small producer was recently completed. The concluding tests were run to determine the effectiveness of a clinker-grinding grate and the effect of the operating conditions on the amount and character of the solid carry-over. The present paper describes the producer as modified, and gives the results of the tests using three coals. Another method of using coal in gas turbines is to pulverize it and burn it directly in the combustion chambers. This plan is being tried by the Loco- motive Development Committee of the Bituminous Coal Research, Inc., whose investigation has reached the stage of tests of full-sized equipment.

Jan 1, 1953

By W. J. Sharwood

Discussion of the paper of W. J. SHARWOOD, presented at the San Francisco meeting, September, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 104, August, 1915, pp. 1671 to 1675. FREDERIC P. DEWEY, Washington, D. C. (communication to the Secretary*).-Even if the data given should be considered sufficient to support properly the empirical rule as stated, this rule would be of extremely limited application in miscellaneous assaying. Tile fixed conditions must include equality of gold and silver where mixed beads are concerned, owing to the wide variation in the specific gravity of gold and silver. Also, the fixed conditions must include the presence of the sane amounts of other base metals besides lead. Such an agreement is .often lacking even in the beads from two fusions of the salve ore. In practical work it is sufficiently general to be called universal that cupellation beads are not pure precious metal. An apparent loss in cupellation is an algebraic sum and in many cupellations the gains exceed the losses, especially with large beads where tile gains lie so completely in the judgment of the cupeller. For several years I have been engaged in an investigation into the conditions affecting the accuracy of gold-bullion assaying, and have just completed an examination of cupels which included the assaying of 10,000 used cupels. The grand result of the cupel work is an emphatic warning against drawing rigid conclusions regarding cupellation. It is so easy to say "If all other conditions remain the Same," but it is extremely difficult, and in practical work impossible, to maintain equal conditions. Cupel absorptions, which constitute such a large proportion of cupellation losses, and in many cases the only loss, may vary considerably in different parts of the same row of cupels, even in carefully regulated work.

Jan 12, 1915