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By William P. Blake

THE phenomena of concentric arrangement of minerals in rock-masses, generally known as "orbicular structure," have of late received much attention from investigators. Lawson, of the University of California, has described the orbicular gabbro at Dehesa, San Diego county, Cal. Kessler and Hamilton, of Stanford University, working independently upon the same subject, published their descriptions,2 giving also a list of many other localities in Europe and America where orbicular rocks are found, adding copious references to the literature of the subject. The orbicular diorite of the type locality in Corsica., familiar to mineralogists and petrologists under the name "Napoleonite," was described by Vogelslang in 1862.3 Chrustschoff, of St. Petersburg, has also given much atten¬tion to the subject, and is the author of a classification of the various known forms of orbicular structure.4 No complete and satisfactory explanation of the origin of or¬bicular aggregations in rocks has yet been offered. The patent fact is generally recognized that the constituent minerals have crystallized from a more or less molten or plastic magma, but why these minerals should be arranged in concentric spheres or crusts has not been clearly shown. Vogelslang, for example,

Jul 1, 1905

By C. H. Mathewson

EXCEPTING the joint sessions on gases in metals held during the day on Tuesday, the Institute of .Metals opened its activities with a division dinner at the Commodore on Tuesday evening, with Sam Tour, retiring chairman, presiding. W. M. Corse, secretary-treasurer, outlined the financial status of the division and stated the investment fund is becoming large enough so that in the near future it will be possible to pay all expenses of a foreign lecturer once in two years and not rely on an extended speaking tour to cover expenses. W. B. Price reported on his attendance at the Zurich, Switzerland, meeting of the International Society of Testing Materials and gave a graphic account of his visit to the Grand Salon, his meeting with Mussolini, and his audience with the Pope. Buffalo was announced as the place of the fall meeting, to be held during the week of Oct. 3.

Jan 1, 1932

Note by the Secretary.-—In the preceding communication of Mr. Rickard, in the present discussion, as printed in Trans., xxiii., the loss of quicksilver at Pestarena, reported on p. 569, as 230 and 234 grammes per metric ton, is stated as equivalent to about 74 pounds per short ton avoirdupois—an obvious error, which escaped correction in my reading of the proofs, and was not discovered until after Vol. XXIII. had left the press. The true equivalent is 0.46 pound or about 7 1/2 ounces (instead of pounds) per short ton.— R. w. R. Philip Argall, Denver, Colo. (communication to the Secretary) : Mr. Rickard's last contribution to this discussion* calls for some reply from me, if only by way of defending myself against the charge (p. 569) that my criticisms of his paper were "unnecessarily hypercritical and occasionally unfair." At the same time I am fully aware that our Transactions are not the place for mere personal controversy, and that the sole object of discussion is to define differences of opinion, and defend opposing views as a means of eliciting the truth. Mr. Rickard disclaims the statement, which he says I attributed to him, that in the slow-crushing Gilpin county mills the pyrites remain longer in the mortar than the other portions of the ore. My understanding of his statement was based on the following passages in his paper: " Particles of ore, which have heen pulverized to a fineness which would permit of their exit through the screen, are enabled to settle towards the bottom of the mortar. It would he expected that the heavy metallic minerals occurring in the ore would, because of their greater specific gravity, be most affected by this feature of the treatment. In practice this is found to be so. The fine slimes contain a large proportion of metallic sulphides, generally valuable on account of their close association with the precious metals, while the coarsest particles to be found in the tailings usually consist of quartz and other minerals forming the less heavy gangue (Trans., xxiii., 139).

Jan 1, 1895

By E. V. Crane

A TREMENDOUS volume of the metal rolled annually into sheets, strips and coil stock finds its way to a host of stamping and manufacturing plants which are the quantity production units of the country. Considerable in volume, too, are the rolled and extruded rods which go into forging and manufacturing plants for conversion into the same general line: those widely sold metallic necessities and luxuries of the household, the office, transportation, farming and building construction. Yet, in spite of its age and its importance, the stamping trade has been doing its "engineering" largely by trial and error. Its distinctive method is shearing out and plastically working metal to finished shape in a few quick strokes with high loads and expensive tools which are warranted only by large quantities to be produced. The principal operations have many features in common with rolling and wire-drawing methods. Combinations of stresses are different, however, and details of operations are infinite in variety. An engineering study of the subject begins with stress analysis, but must go back to metallurgy for its foundation. A grouping of pressed-metal working operations according to whether the metal is (1) sheared, (2) bent, (3) drawn or (4) squeezed has proved useful. All of these groups include instances of both hot and cold operations. For discussions of metal working properties, the division between hot and cold working is taken as the recrystallization range of temperature. This, of course, brings tin, lead and often zinc into the hot-work range at or near room temperature. The outstanding hot-working press field is in forging: particularly of brass; all of which is included in the squeezing group.

Jan 1, 1931

ON Oct. 5, 1926, the day before the general ses-sions of the fall meeting of the American Insti-tute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers at Pittsburgh, a round table conference on the combus-tibility and testing of coke was held at the Bureau of Mines Experiment Station. There were about fifty present, with A. C. Fieldner, chief chemist of the Bureau of Mines, as chairman. The following organi-zations were represented: American Institute of Min-ing and Metallurgical Engineers, American Society for Testing Materials, American Gas Association, Eastern States Blast Furnace and Coke Oven Association, Gas and Fuel Division of, American Chemical Society, and Southern Ohio Pig Iron and Coke Association. In opening the proceedings, Mr. Fieldner explained that the meeting had been called at the suggestion of several members of the Institute and members of other organizations. The subject is of interest to the pro-ducer and the user of coke whether it be in a blast furnace, cupola furnace, house-heating furnace, open grate, gas producer, or in a water-gas generator. There has been much confusion on this subject largely because there is no common definition of combustibility. Does the blast-furnace superintendent, the coke-oven operator, and the fuel engineer have the same under-standing of the term "combustibility"? If a common understanding can be reached, many differences of opinion will disappear. COMBUSTIBILITY OF COKE R. H. Sweetser of Columbus, Ohio, disagreed with the statement of P. H. Royster, T. L. Joseph, and S. P. Kinney in Reports of Investigations, Serial No. 2524, of the Bureau of Mines, in which it was stated that the coke-oven op-erator cannot change coke combustibility by modifying oven practice. Mr. Sweetser held that the coke-oven man can change the combustibility of coke. Blast-furnace men know that coke that will burn easily with low pressure and will. come down in the regular way in the furnace can be pro-duced from a given mixture of coal. His idea of the combustibility of coke is the rate of flow through the com-bustion zone of the blast furnace. If the coke does not pass through in normal manner it is highly incombustible. H. J. Rose of the Koppers Co., Pittsburgh, objected to being pinned down so closely on this phase of the com-bustibility and incombustibility of coke. Coke-oven men are frequently obliged to change oven conditions to make a coke which gives blast-furnace men what they want. The size of the coke and the screening have an important bear-ing on combustibility, and there are many cases on record where by simply changing the different sizes of the coke, everything worked smoothly, and that is a much more combustible coke.

Jan 1, 1927

By H. C. Johnson, J. K. Elliott

One of the primary requirements for successful operation of an enriched gas-drive project is to control the composition of injection gas. This can become a serious and difficult problem, particularly in cases where the enrichment material is being furnished from a number of field -produced gas streams. It is possible to effect control of the injection gas composition through frequent or continuous sampling; however, this can be extremely costly and, in many cases, impractical due to laboratory requirements of time. Another alternative would be to provide a calculation technique which would be flexible and sufficiently accurate to predict composition of the liquid and gas streams of interest at any point in the system. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a technique that was used successfully on an operating enriched gas-drive project for developing information which could be used for controlling composition of the injected gas. FIELD OPERATIONS The particular field (hereafter called Example field) in the example operation being discussed is composed of four oil reservoirs (A. B, C and E) and one gas condensate reservoir (D). Casinghead gas from the oil reservoirs and gas from the gas condensate reservoir are gathered through a field gathering system as shown in Fig. I for injection into Reservoir C. The gas mixture which is recovered from the five reservoirs for injection purposes is composed of gases liberated in 19 individual separators, each operating at a separate temperature and pressure. PROPOSED CALCULATION TECHNIQUE It is well known that vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations in general use throughout the petroleum industry can be used to predict reliably the phase behavior of hydrocarbon mixtures, particularly at pressures less than 1,000 psig. It is then a simple matter to account for the material on a ComPonent basis by m''ing flash and material balance calculations at each separation point in a hydrocarbon system. Accordingly, it was proposed to use vapor-liquid equilibrium and material balance cal- culations with a medium-sized electronic digital computer as a basis for developing a control procedure for use in controlling injection gas composition in the enriched gas-drive project. Although the approach is a simple one, the numerous vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations involved make the problem laborious; in this particular case, it would have been impractical to make sutficiently complete analysis without the aid of digital computing equipment. SAMPLING AND VERIFICATION OF CALCULATION PROCEDURE To obtain representative gas and liquid stream samples and to provide a quantitative measure of overall system Performance for comDarative purpLses, a thorough test of the field and plant system was conducted in the summer of 1957. Oil production at each battery was sta-

By A. S. Nowick, E. S. Machlin

ONE of the main criteria used to rate the heat-resisting properties of alloys is stress rupture.1 During a stress-rupture test a tensile specimen is held under a constant load at a constant temperature until it fractures. The chief measurement made during this test is the time required for rupture at the specific test stress and temperature. It was found empirically from a series of stress-rupture tests at a constant temperature that when the logarithm of the time for rupture is plotted against the logarithm of stress a straight line is obtained within experimental error.2~3 This method of showing stress-rupture data has been adopted by many investigators and the KACA.4 By interpolation and extrapolation from these plots, values of the stresses required to rupture the specimens (the rupture strengths) in 10, 100, and 1000 hr are obtained for specific temperatures. Alloys are then rated for a particular application on the basis of their rupture strengths at the rupture life that most nearly represents the application. Inasmuch as stress rupture is an important criterion in rating heat-resisting alloys, it would be advantageous to know the quantitative dependence of the time for rupture on stress, temperature, com- position, and structure. In order to obtain this information, an investigation was made at the KACA Cleveland laboratory during the spring of 1945. The theory of rate processes was used because it has been found to apply to certain processes such as chemical reactions, viscous flow, and creep that occur at a definite rate for given conditions. It was thought that stress rupture was such a process. An equation was derived that gives, for a given com- position and structure, the dependence of the time for rupture on stress and temperature. The investigation is part of a general program to provide information that will lead ultimately to the development of better alloys in order that the efficiency and power output of gas turbines used in aircraft propulsion can be increased. THEORY The theory of rate processes will first be discussed as a general theory. It will then be shown that if stress rupture of heat-resisting alloys can be treated as a rate process, certain equations must be satisfied. Later sections will then show that these equations are satisfied. General Theory of Rate Processes The theory of rate processes5 eveloped by Eyring and others has been applied to chemical reactions as well as to other processes such as viscosity of liquids and diffusion. In every case in which rate- process theory can be applied, there is a small subdivision, so that the macroscopic process is the net effect of all the small processes. This smallest subdivision is called the "unit process.'' For example, in a chemical reaction the unit process is

Jan 1, 1947

By M. G. Corson

The iron-silicon alloy series has always been one of the most puzzling among the binary alloys. Examining the well-known mechanical properties of the iron-rich alloys only we meet the following situation: The ultimate strength and yield point of alloys worked and annealed under the usual conditions represent nearly a straight line function of the silicon content up to 1.5 per cent. silicon (Fig. I). Starting at the ultimate strength of 35,000 lb. and at a yield point of 16,000 lb. for pure electrolytic iron, one reaches a maximurn strength of 93,000 lb. and a maximum yield point of 74,000 lb. at 4.5 per cent. silicon. This corresponds to an increase in ultimate strength by 13,000 lb, per each per cent. of silicon added and nearly the same rate applies to the yield point. The data mentioned are taken from the investigation by T. D. Yensen,1 and while they do not exactly corroborate the results obtained by earlier investigators, they seem to be the most correct. Plastic properties of the alloys are controlled by a much more complicated relationship. Up to 2..5 per cent. Si, the elongation stays close to 50 per cent. (in 2 in.) and the area reduction amounts to 85 per cent., a situation that forms the usual feature of all alloys representing strictly solid solutions. The plasticity of the latter is always nearly equal to that of their base metal. Beyond 2.5 per cent. silicon, the situation becomes much more complicated. Yensen observed an enormous drop in elongation and area reduction at about 2.65 per cent. silicon, where the first hardly reaches 10 per cent. and the second is still lower; he found, however, a considerable recovery in plasticity at about 2.8 per cent. Si and up to 1.5 per cent. Si it is represented by 20 per cent. for the elongation and 30 per cent. for area reduction. Yensen's graphs, as shown in Fig. 1, indicate also a considerable drop in strength and yield point at the same point of 2.65 per cent. Si,

By A. W. Hahn

USE of gold leaf goes back to biblical and even to prehistoric times. Both gold and silver, as well as other metals, were employed in illustrating or illuminating manuscripts. The medieval monks also used bronze powders. Metals were subdivided as finely as possible by mechanical methods, or by granulation and then were pounded into finely divided flakes. Substances such as honey have also been employed, since early times to keep the flakes of metal apart during grinding. Stearic acid is a more modern agent used in flaking aluminum and other metals. Finely divided "blue powder" is a by-product in retorting zinc ores, and contains from 78 to 90 per cent of zinc metal. This has been used as a precipitant for precious metals in the cyanide process and for chemical reduction processes. The making of zinc dust by atomizing is a step well known in electrolytic zinc plants. The Thermit process of Goldschmidt also requires the use of finely divided aluminum.

Jan 1, 1937

By D. W. Fuerstenau

MEASUREMENT of zeta potentials is a useful tool to study the surface chemistry of minerals under flotation conditions.1,2 Because there is continued interest in this approach, the apparatus for obtaining zeta potentials of nonconducting solids by the streaming potential method is outlined here. Fig. 1 illustrates the streaming potential apparatus." The streaming potential cell or plug consists of two 24/40 standard ground joints (4) joined with a piece of pyrex tubing 60 mm long and 12 mm in diam (5). The electrodes are made of bright platinum disks 19 mm in diam and 1 mm thick through which 0.5-mm holes have been drilled (6). To the surface of each is welded a piece of 80-mesh platinum gauze. Each electrode is permanently mounted on the ends of the inner parts of the two standard joints by means of a platinum wire (7) which connects it to the tungsten seal at the end of the cell (8). For ease in cleaning and handling the apparatus, the streaming cell is fastened to the 500-ml reservoir flasks (1) by means of two 18/9 ball and socket joints (2). This particular arrangement permits passage of the solution in either direction through the plug of particles. Flow of solution can be stopped by a stopcock (3). One of the reservoir flasks has a large opening to permit insertion of either a thermometer or a pair of electrodes for measuring pH of solutions within the system. In making the experiments, the plug is filled with 48 to 65-mesh particles, but a layer of 28 to 35-mesh particles is placed at each electrode to prevent any of the finer particles from passing through holes in the electrodes. The assembled apparatus is shown schematically in Fig. 2. To eliminate CO2 from the solutions, all experiments are conducted in a nitrogen atmosphere. Nitrogen, used to drive solutions through the plug, is passed through a bottle of concentrated KOH solution to remove CO2 (9). A 9-liter ballast reservoir (10) is used to maintain a more nearly uniform pressure. A series of stopcocks controls the direction of flow nitrogen to the flasks (11). Tubes of as-carite prevent backflow of CO2 into the system (12). Driving pressure, which can be set at any desired value, is measured with either a water manometer (13) or a mercury manometer (14). Reservoir flasks have side arms for making pressure corrections for the difference in water levels in the flasks. Streaming potentials are measured by the circuit illustrated in Fig. 2. The electrodes from the plug are connected through mercury wells (15) to a reversing switch (16), which reverses the polarity of the electrodes depending on the direction of flow of solution through the plug. The streaming potential is measured with a Leeds and Northrup type K2 potentiometer (17). Proper choice of null instrument is important because Eq. 1 assumes that the current which escapes through the measuring instruments is negligible. An ordinary galvanometer cannot be used to determine the null point because

Jan 1, 1957

By G. W. Healy, N. R. Griffing

The activity coefficient of sulfur in Cr-Fe-S melts was determined by measuring the values of Ph3Rh,in equilibrium with such melts. The results showed that chromium has a pronounced negative effect on the activity coefficient of sulfur, which up to about 20 pct Cr may be represented by the equation: log f; = - 0.019 pct Cr It was also found that the influence of chromium was not altered by the presence of appreciable amounts of carbon or silicon. The influence of alloying elements on the activity of sulfur in molten iron has been the subject of many investigations; however the effect of one important alloying element, chromium, has not been reported, and the object of the present investigation was to determine its effect on the activity coefficient of sulfur in liquid Fe-Cr-S alloys both in the absence and in the presence of carbon and/or silicon. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The general method employed consisted of passing mixtures of hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide over the sulfur-containing melt of interest and analyzing the outgoing gas to determine the equilibrium value of which resulted from the reaction shown in Eq. 111. H, (gas) + S (dissolved in melt) = H,S (gas) 111 The activity coefficient of sulfur, fs, was then calculated with Eq. [2] in which K, is the known equilibrium constant of Eq. [I] for dilute solutions of sulfur in iron. Raw materials used in the preparation of the charges included commercial grades of electrolytic iron and chromium and carbon-reduced, acid-treated silicon of 99.9 pct purity. Oxygen in the former presented no problem since it was removed by hydrogen in the normal course of an experiment. Carbon was added in the form of premelted iron-carbon and chromium-carbon master alloys. Sulfur was charged as iron sulfide prepared by first heating powdered iron and sulfur in air in an alumina dish until reaction occurred, and then deoxidizing by melting in a hydrogen atmosphere. Commercially bottled hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide were used after being passed through purification systems containing palladium, "Drierite," and magnesium perchlorate in the case of hydrogen, and "Drierite" alone in the case of hydrogen sulfide. Lamp-grade cylinder argon served as a flushing agent without further purification. Charges weighing from 300 to 500 g were placed in a high-purity alumina crucible of 0250-ml capacity and heated in an argon atmosphere in the induction-heated carbon-tube furnace illustrated in Fig. 1. During heating, a dry hydrogen atmosphere was substituted for argon in order that deoxidation of the charge and flushing out of argon would be accomplished sooner. After the charge melted, a Pt-Pt 10 pct Rh thermocouple contained in an alumina protection tube was immersed in the melt, and the desired melt temperature (usually 1600°C) was established. Higher temperatures up to 1760°C were required for some chromium-rich alloys because of their higher melting points, and in these cases a Pt 6 pct Rh-Pt 30 pct Rh thermocouple was used. The thermocouple output was fed to an automatic controller which provided straight line temperature

Jan 1, 1961

By F. Habashi

Conclusive evidence is given showing that the dissolution of gold in cyanide solution follows mainly the over-all equation A similar equation can also be written for the dissolution of silver. Theoretical derivation of the velocity equation for this reaction has been obtained, which describes quantitatively the experimental facts. The equation is as follows: where [CN-] and [O2] = the concentrations (in moles/ml) of cyanide and dissolved oxygen, respectively. DcN- and Do2 = the diffusion coefficients of cyanide and dissolved oxygen; 1.83 x 10-5 and 2.76 x 10-5 cm2 sec-1, respectively. A = the surface area of the metal in contact with the aqueous phase, in cm S = the thickness of the boundary layer; varies between 2 and 9 x 10-3 cm, depending on the speed and method of agitation. Rate being expressed in g. equiv. sec-1. INTRODUCTION During recent years a number of papers have been published on the kinetics of dissolution of gold and silver in cyanide solution.1,6 The authors agree that the rate of dissolution is diffusion-controlled, but disagree regarding the mechanism of the reaction. Some authors'-3 support the Bodlander equations: The apparently conflicting results, when critically reviewed, are concordant and lead to the conclusion that the proper equation for the dissolution reaction should be only Eq. 1. This conclusion is based on the following facts: 1) For every 2.2 equivalents of metal dissolved one mole O2 was consumed. 2) For every 1 equivalent of metal dissolved, 2 moles of cyanide were consumed.' 3) Hydrogen peroxide is formed during the dissolution of gold or silver, and for every 2.2 equivalents of metal dissolved, one mole H2O2 was produced.1,2 The fact that Kudryk and Kellogg4 did not detect H2O2 during the dissolution of gold should not throw doubt on the many affirmative reports of other investigators. Lund2 has shown that depending on the crystalline nature of the silver surface, (e.g. method of etching the sample) H2O2 may undergo catalytic decomposition heterogeneously according to: Further Kudryk and Kellogg4 carried out their experiments in the presence of 0.5% KC1 to achieve a greater electrolytic conductivity, and Matsudaira7 has shown that H2O2 is catalytically decomposed (homogeneously) in the presence of C1- ion in alkaline solution. 4) Experiments carried out by Boonstra8 and Lund2 showed that the dissolution of gold and silver respectively in KCN + H2O2 in the absence of oxygen was a slow process. Thus the reaction takes place to a minor extent only. Further kinetic studies showed that: 1) The rate of dissolution depends on the surface area of the metal in contact with the liquid phase, thus indicating that the process of dissolution is a heterogeneous process. 2) The rate of dissolution depends on the speed of stirring,5,6 thus indicating that the process is controlled by a physical phenomenon.

Jan 1, 1967

By R. D. Russell, R. M. Farquhar

ISOTOPIC tracers have become an important aid in following the progress of chemical processes in the laboratory. It has recently been found possible to utilize a system of naturally existing isotopic tracers to obtain information about the geo- logical history of lead ores. Common lead, such as is found in lead deposits, is a mixture of four stable isotopes having atomic weights 204, 206, 207, and 208. Of these, the last three are identical with the lead isotopes produced as stable end products of the radioactive decays of uranium and thorium: the first, lead-204, is not known to be produced on the surface of the earth by any process. Since uranium and thorium occur in the surface regions of the earth in amounts comparable with lead, and since the half-lives of uranium and thorium isotopes are of the same order as the age of the earth, they produce the radiogenic lead isotopes in amounts com- parable to the amount of nonradiogenic lead present. Every significant exposure of a sample of lead to uranium and thorium will therefore lead to the permanent alteration of the lead isotope ratios in that sample.

Jan 5, 1957

By B. W. Frazier

At a recent meeting of the North of England Institute of Min ing and Mechanical Engineers, during a discussion upon the com pression of air, attention was called to an apparent anomaly in the phenomena attending the compression. At a subsequent meeting this apparent anomaly was explained by Prof. Herschel, and all the facts observed shown to be strictly in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics. Upon reading the report of the discussion in the published transactions of the society, it occurred to me that an attempt to determine mathematically the amounts of energy (whether in the form of heat or of work) expended and absorbed in compressing air, and causing it to perform work by expansion, might prove of use to some who have not access to any treatise upon the application of the laws of thermodynamics to the compression of air, and who have not the time or the inclination to make such application for themselves. The apparent anomaly noticed was this: If air be compressed, and at the same time, by the sufficient application of a cooling medium, kept at a constant temperature, the indicator diagrams in the

By Henry Knox

AMIDST the tumult and the shouting of the times, there are perceptible certain tendencies, quiet though serious, to take stock of the situation with a view to putting our house in order, and of these none is more encouraging than the awakening, interest in the higher education, and especially in technical education. Various committees of the professional organizations have cast much light on the matter and have pointed the way to progress and reform, but their scope is necessarily restricted by the requirements of precision and any excursion beyond these bounds must be undertaken by the unfettered individual who is free to rush in where responsible committees fear to tread. A discussion of the bearing of the higher education on character scarcely lends itself to objective treatment and yet, fraught as it is with imponderables and abstractions, the theme cannot be escaped in any com-prehensive scheme of education. The question is being pressed with growing insist-ence, why these United States, relatively to Europe, are deficient in intellectual output, and the ready reply, "Because America is a new country and Americans are too intent on developing their natural resources," is too facile and too false to carry conviction.

Jan 12, 1922

By Paul D. Merica

DURING the Dark Ages, when metallurgy was practiced by the alchemists, any unusual or disturbing variation in metallurgical operations was ascribed to the, presence, in the metals or ores, of an evil spirit, and it was necessary to exorcise and drive it out "by suitable incantations. In this day of science and of engineering, things still incomprehensibly go wrong in the metallurgist's work shop. The metallurgist is even now not unwilling to lay the blame for many such experiences at the door of something which intellectually- much resembles an evil spirit, "gas in the metal." The presence of gases in his metal, he knows, occasions him many very definite troubles which he can clearly distinguish and diagnose-why may it not be also responsible for those which he cannot so well understand?

Jan 1, 1931

By Clyde Williams

IN this war as in no former one, the use of metals has been the major factor governing success. For building new plants, new transport facilities whether by land, sea, or air, for our mechanized army, and for nearly all weapons, iron and steel has provided the basic material. Being the world leader in iron and steel production in peacetime, we soon adapted plants to production for war. Starting with a production of 66,000,000 tons of steel ingots in 1940 from a rated capacity of 80,000,000 tons which only could be reached by straining every productive device available, our industry expanded to 86,000,000 tons in 1942, and ultimately to 96,000,000 tons. To do so required expansion of every unit operation including mining, rail and water transportation, blast-furnace and steelmaking facilities, and rolling mills. New plants not only had to be built in record time but more output for each operation was essential. This performance required skillful operation and engineering techniques and also a better understanding of the physics and chemistry underlying such complex operations as the working of a big blast furnace. A vastly increased pig iron production made possible the great output of steel by an industry that had depended on scrap for its basic raw material even though sufficient scrap was unavailable. This was done by conversion of pig iron in the Bessemer either into steel or into a low-carbon product that was subsequently used in place of scrap in the open¬hearth steel furnace. Furthermore, by duplexing from the open-hearth to the electric furnace, and the construction of many new electric furnaces, our output of electric-furnace alloy steel was greatly increased. Moreover, techniques were developed by which alloy steel could be made in the open hearth with the result that our production of alloy steel reached the fantastic figure of 15,000,000 tons a year.

Jan 1, 1945

By B. J. Harlan

THE trying times experienced by the steel industry during the past four years have emphasized the necessity of producing pig iron at the lowest possible cost. The trend in both design and operation of blast furnaces has been toward this end rather than securing maximum production from a unit or group of units. In the following discussion the trend in design of stacks and auxiliary equipment will be taken up before operation is considered. Although few furnaces have been constructed in the past few years, the trend is definitely toward larger furnaces with a hearth diameter of 24 or 25 ft. Such a furnace is very flexible, being able to produce efficiently any desired daily tonnage between 500 and 1000 or more. The detail of the design of furnace stacks, with the exception of the top, has changed little in recent years.

Jan 1, 1934

Planning for a surface coal mine includes selecting the best means and equipment for uncovering the coal, loading it, and transporting it to the preparation plant. The machines and methods that will ensure optimum production will depend upon the location and characteristics of the seam to be mined. Stripping Techniques The choice of stripping units is influenced primarily by the system of mining, such as contour or out-crop mining as contrasted to mining in a region of rolling terrain with relatively flat upland surfaces. Factors such as the life of the mining operations production requirements, types of overburden, local and regional dip of coal, and land reclamation are other important considerations.

Jan 10, 1967

By G. Cartaud, F. Osmond

WE have already devoted two previous memoirs to this question. In the first we collated and discussed the existing literature on the subject; in the second, we described the crystalline forms obtained by the reduction, at different temperatures, of ferrous chloride by hydrogen or by zinc-vapor. The conclusion from these researches was that the three allotropic states of iron-a, stable below A2; 19, stable between A2 and A3; and 7, stable above A3-all crystallize in the cubic system. The differences observed were such as are customarily encountered in the crystallographic records of many minerals of which allotropic varieties or isomerides are not known, but did not conform to the ordinary definition of polymorphism. It is, however, improbable that allotropic transformations, which are placed beyond doubt by a series of positive facts, do not involve some changes in the intimate structure. As a matter of fact, the crystals we did obtain were too small to allow of a precise examination, and this might introduce an element of uncertainty in the firm establishment of our conclusions. Professor H. Le Chatelier was even led to think from some of our results that iron could very well be a rhombohedron simulating a cube, and not a true cube, and it will be remembered that the crystalline form of bismuth was for a long time incorrectly regarded as cubic. Allotropy does not, however, necessarily involve such a deduction. Without departing from the cubic system at all, a whole

Nov 1, 1906