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By J. T. Ryan

POISONOUS, irritating, or explosive gases are found in almost every industry, and manufacturers of gas masks are called upon to provide gas mask protection for a great variety of conditions, such as operators in horseradish factories, fumigators of homes and ocean liners, and men engaged in the manufacture of tetra-ethyl-lead, the new motor fuel. The modern type of gas mask and respirator, to provide protection against all such industrial gases, is an outgrowth of the gas mask developed during the World War to protect the soldiers against the poisonous war gases. So far, it has been possible to develop ample mask protection from all known noxious gases and fumes present in atmospheres encountered in mines, metallurgical works, and chemical and other industries, so long as there is sufficient oxygen present to support the flame of an oil lamp. The most important development of the gas mask was in providing protection against carbon monoxide- which is the noxious gas that mining men are most concerned with and, in fact, is the noxious gas that man is most frequently exposed to. This paper will be con- fined largely to the discussion of masks for underground use in metal mines. Gases that contaminate the normal air in mines can be divided into two classes: those that are given off normally by the workings, and those that are produced in mine operation.

Jan 1, 1926

By RALPH HAYES SWEETSER

IRON ore and bituminous coal are the two basic raw materials for the whole iron and steel industry. The ore furnishes the iron and is absolutely necessary-all iron and steel products come directly or in- directly from the iron ores. The bituminous coal furnishes the carbon needed for the smelting of the ores and for the fuel used in all the processes of iron and steel manufacture. The necessary carbon could be furnished in some other form besides bituminous coal. In fact, it is only since the Civil War that bituminous coal has been the chief source of the carbon for metallurgical fuel. For many years only charcoal made from the forests furnished the carbon for smelting iron ores. About 90 years ago, anthracite coal was first used as blast-furnace fuel and for many years continued to be the chief blast furnace and steel making source for carbon. Even in my own blast-furnace experience, I have used charcoal in Canada and anthracite in Pennsylvania for smelting ores in an iron blast furnace. Bituminous coal, now almost exclusively the source for the carbon used in smelting iron ores, also furnishes most of the heat used in the steel-making processes. It is seldom used in blast furnaces in its natural condition, hut is first coked in beehive, or in by-product coke ovens; such bituminous coal is called "coking coal." Bituminous coal that is suitable for making the producer gas used in the open-hearth steel process is called gas coal. Any bituminous coals suitable for making blast-furnace coke or foundry coke, or that can be satisfactorily used for making producer gas, are classed as metallurgical coals and as such are to be considered in my proposed plan for the evaluation of metallurgical coals. According to Bureau of Mines Bulletin No. 449 these coals comprised 22 per cent of the bituminous coals mined in this country in 1923.

Jan 1, 1926

By William S. Springer

A NEW preparation plant has been put in - operation to treat coal from the recently opened Concord mine, located about 15 miles west of Birmingham, Ala., by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., a U. S. Steel subsidiary. The mine produces metallurgical grade coking coal from the American seam for use as coke in the company's blast furnaces at the Fairfield and Enseley works. The capacity of the operation is 1000 tons of run-of-mine per hr, approximately half of which is delivered to the by-product coke plant at Fairfield after beneficiation to metallurgical grade. The remaining portion of the mine run is rock and refuse removed during preparation. No boiler coal or other fuels are produced by this mine. Preparation of the coal is done both under- ground and on the surface. The underground primary crushing station removes some tramp iron, and screens and crushes the oversize, most of which is rock, to protect the main slope conveyor. The surface plant consists of a crushing and screening plant, large blending bins, a two- process washing plant, a water clarification and

Jan 1, 1950

By J. L. Perry

FOR many years, you and your fellow members of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers have devotedly and ably applied yourselves to the art of making iron and steel. having foremost in your minds the conservation of raw materials, suitable and efficient facilities, economical processes, and improved quality of product. For the past three strenuous years you have contributed wholeheartedly to meeting the problems of increased production. You have conducted scientific and technical investigations and research, recommended experiments. and gathered all the available and valuable information possible to gain the desired objectives. You have had many obstacles and difficulties to overcome. In the early days of your organization, there was some lack of co-operation from the industry itself-perhaps, for example, some failure to recognize the mutual advantages of free exchange of experiences and information. But regardless of any hindrances, you have made many and valuable contribution which have tended to make iron and steel manufacture leas of an art and more of a science.

Jan 1, 1944

By AIME AIME

THE annual meeting of the Woman's Auxiliary to the A.I. M.E. is always held in New York, in con- junction with the annual meeting of the Institute in February. Business sessions, teas, dances, a theater party, luncheons, excursions, and many other interesting activities filled the four days to overflowing. In all ,216 women were present, from all parts of the United ,/ mates, and there were several from Canada. On Mon- ' day not only the visitors, but the New York members also, gathered around the registration desks, where Mrs. E. N. Wolfes, Mrs. S. J. Jennings, and Miss Georgene Davis saw that everyone was properly registered and provided with tickets to whatever functions she desired to attend. Greetings were eagerly ex- changed as friends met at the luncheon on the fifth floor, where the hostesses of the day were Mrs. J. D. Handy, Mrs. T. T. Read, Mrs. Sidney Rolle and Mrs. H. J. Wolf. In the afternoon, there were visits to art galleries and other interesting exhibits, arranged by Mrs. Frederick Laist. Mrs. W. H. Bassett was the hostess at a very delightful Thé damant at the Italian Gardens of the Ambassador Hotel. Many of the men attended this function also. In the evening the visiting ladies were entertained at a theater party, with Mrs. Wilbur Judson as hostess. The play that was seen was Gorki's "At. the Bottom."

Jan 1, 1930

By Jerome Strauss

IN his review of developments in 1943, Gilbert Seil, Chairman of this Committee on Reduction of the Ferroalloy Ores, tabulated the consumption of the alloying metals in relation to the steel production of that year. In the year just closed the approximate tonnage was of the same order, differing only to a minor degree or suffering some correction with more precise figuses available, as indicated in the following estimates: Consumption Metals in Tons Steel 92,000,000* Manganese 700,000 Silicon 200,000 Chromium 200,000 Nickel 75,000 Molybdenum 20,000 Tungsten 8,000 Vanadium 1,700 Titanium 1.600 Boron 10 `Production figure. The technologic studies instituted during 1942 and carried forward with such great vigor during 1943 continued into 1944 although in some instances were brought to a close either by completion of the specific development

Jan 1, 1945

By Edward Keller

(New York meeting, February, 1912.) IN a paper, entitled A Uniform Method for the Assay of Copper Material for Gold and Silver,1 A. R. Ledoux invited the assayers of this country to contribute to a symposium, in which the results of their assays of given samples of copper-matte and metallic copper would be made comparable. This symposium 2 appeared about one year thereafter; and through it and its discussion, first became generally known the fact that the ,gold-yield by the all-fire method of assaying is usually higher than by the so-called combination (wet and dry) method, in which nitric acid is employed as a solvent for the copper. In the publication alluded to, the supposed cause of gold-losses in the latter method was declared to be the solvent action of copper nitrate, or of the reduction-products of the nitric acid, upon the gold. Up to a very recent date, gold has been held to be insoluble in pure nitric acid. (The solvent action of any chlorine present in the nitric acid must here properly be disregarded as belonging in the realm of carelessness. Among later allusions to this topic, W. R. Tan Liew 3 ascribes the solution of the gold in the combination-assay entirely to the action of nitrous acid at the high reaction-temperature of copper and nitric acid ; F. B. Flinn 4 a believes the low result in gold to be due exclusively to mechanical losses-finely-divided gold penetrating through the filter-paper-but presents no experimental data confirmative of this belief; and 0. Pufahl 5 attributes the solubility of the gold in some coppers to the presence of selenium-a view which appears to be shared by many as- 1 Trans., xxiv., 575 (1894). 2 Trans., xxv., 250 (1895). 3 Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. lxix., No. 16, p. 469 (Apr. 21, 1900). 4 Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. lxxxvii., No.11, p. 569 (Mar. 13, 1909). 5 Lunge, Chemische Technische Untersuchungs Methoden, vol. ii., p. 229 (1900).

Jul 1, 1912

By AIME AIME

THE 140th meeting of the Institute will be held in the Engineering societies Building, 'New York, Feb.: 16-19, and one of the most important features, one which cannot be reduced to text in the TRANSACTIONS, will be the opportunity to renew old friendships and make new friends, to talk things over -to orient one's self in these troublous .times. There will be daily get-together luncheons for all, luncheons and dinners for specialized groups, an informal dance, the annual reception and banquet, and a smoker. And such a smoker! It starts with dinner at .dinnertime, shows signs of cabaret, turns smoker, and then goes entertainment-all for the price of one. This year one can stay long after 11 o'clock-there will be time and opportunity to amble around and meet everyone present. The formal program is rapidly rounding into shape. The annual business meeting will -be held on Tuesday morning and the banquet will be at the Commodore. The four Divisions and the various, Technical Committees are arranging their sessions. and scheduling for these a long list of significant papers. A .feature of the meeting will be a number of round tables on timely subjects.

Jan 1, 1931

By AMY F. JENNINGS

TO give a concise history of the Woman's Auxiliary of the A. I. M. E. is a difficult task and much interesting information must needs be omitted. The organization has grown and evolved so much from its early simple beginning that it seems best to adopt the technique of some of our modern novelists and begin with the latest development. As the headquarters of the A. I. M. E. is in New York, it follows that the Woman's Auxiliary to the A. I. M. E. necessarily has also its central office and government there. The affairs of the organization are administered by a duly-elected president and five vice- presidents, a treasurer, recording secretary, and corresponding secretary and a board of directors, the personnel of which includes each chairman of a section or an elected or nominated representative who is able to attend the monthly meetings of the board and correspond with the section for which she acts, and the chairmen of the five standing national committees, i. e. Educational Fund, Library, Emergency, Membership and Hospitality. The chairmen of these committees are all responsible to the president and board of directors and their activities must be indorsed with their approval.

Jan 1, 1929

By Roman Y. Poderny, Vladimir V. Rjevskii

In the USSR, the Moscow Institute of Radio Electronics tronics and Mining Electro-Mechanics (MIRGEM) has started what it hopes will become a nationwide movement to educate mining students in the precise specialties that industry has come to require. Courses for mining engineers, the MIRGEM faculty proposes, should dovetail as exactly as possible with specific jobs available in the mining profession. Acting upon this thesis, MIRGEM revised its own curriculum in 1962 and has since presented an over-all plan for Soviet mining education before two mining school conferences as well as the Ministry of Higher Education and a number of major Soviet industrial ministries. The plan was universally approved with some suggested revisions. SOVIET MINING EDUCATION TODAY At present, mining education in the Soviet Union covers the exploitation of solid minerals and raw materials, including coal as well as ferrous and nonferrous metals. The extraction, storage, and refining of oil and gas is treated as a separate discipline. In all, there are 33 Soviet universities and institutes that train mining engineers for careers in the industrial, research and educational fields.

Jan 9, 1966

By W. E. D. Stokes

WHEN history is written, the year of the blitzkrieg will go down as giving aviation its greatest impetus. No perceptible drop in military business, even with cessation of hostilities abroad, seems likely. The combined air force of the U. S. Army and Navy on July 1 was approximately 5000 planes, as against 50,000 planes currently discussed as necessary. Observers at the fronts are giving designers and metallurgists back home some realistic ideas to shoot at. As conventional runways reveal the location of airports to enemy raiders, operating bases are now masked. Difficult, often muddy and rough landing strips, requiring strong landing gears and exacting take-off and maintenance characteristics, are the specifications of war. This is "old stuff" to numerous mining operators in mountainous jungle areas where gradients up to 8 per cent are in more or less common use in such mountain landing fields. Although airplane building is not readily adaptable to assembly-line methods, a trend towards mass productions is now in evidence. Incidentally, a U.S. Army "Curtiss P-40" requires about 10,000 man hours of work to complete and is tied together with 75,000 rivets. During the past year a number of aircraft factories adopted the "shot-

Jan 1, 1941

By R. E. Grant

THE Cerro de Pasco Railway Co., owned and operated by the Corporation, is a common carrier whose chief functions are transportation of ore and concentrates from the mines at Cerro de Pasco to the smelter in Oroya, and haulage of coal from the coal mines at Goyllarisquisga to the coal washery at Fundicion. Connecting with the Peruvian Central Railway at Oroya, the C. de P. Railway maintains joint, daily freight and passenger service from Lima and the port of Callao to Cerro de Pasco, terminal of the C. de P. main line and gateway to the Huanuco Valley. Extending from Oroya to Cerro de Pasco the main line is a standard-gauge roadbed of 70-lb. rail, 132 km. long with a maximum compensated grade of 2.25 per cent and a curvature of 16°, climbing from an elevation of 12,272 ft. above sea level at Oroya, lowest station on the line, to 14,208 ft. at Cerro de Pasco. The highest point reached by the C. de P. is on the coal branch at Alcacocha where the rails are 14,385 ft. above the sea.

Jan 1, 1945

By Paul Averitt

The U. S. Geological Survey has been actively engaged in work on coal for more than 50 years. During this long period we have released more than 300 publications containing information about coal and coal reserves, including details on the thickness, distribution, and quality of coal, and the structure and stratigraphy of the coal-bearing rocks. We have also cooperated with state surveys on many similar publications. For many areas these reports are the only reliable published data on our resources of coal. During the last several years we have substantially increased our activities above the wartime low. We now have field work in progress, or reports in preparation, on 13 detailed mapping projects distributed as follows: 1. Pennsylvania anthracite field 2. Casselrnan Basin, Md. 3. Leslie County, Ky. 4. Deep River field, N. C. 5. Coosa field, Ala. 6. Powder River field, Mont. 7. Spotted Horse field, Wyo. 8. Yampa field, Colo. 9. Paonia field, Colo. 10. Trinidad field, Colo. 11. Durango field, Colo.

Jan 1, 1949

By CHARLES SIMENSTAD

COAL preparation, or coal washing, is not a new subject to the Pacific Northwest. Most of the coals mined in this state smaller than lump, and nearly all such sizes mined on the Pacific slope of the Cascade mountains, require washing before marketing. A large proportion is being put through some washing process, but coal washing in this state, has not reached the efficiency it is practicable to obtain. In fields where the coal, as mined, contains less impurities, where working conditions make it practicable to eliminate some of these impurities under- ground, or where a large proportion of the run-of-mine coal is lump, coal preparation does not present the problem it does in our local field. Here the coal is associated with considerable impurities and the slack, or steam sizes, aggregate about 80 per cent. of the output. Therefore, approximately 80 per cent. of the coal mined must be washed to become a valuable fuel. Washing then becomes a major operation, as hand picking of the 20 per cent. of lump is a standard and comparatively simple operation. Some coal beds here are so interstratified with bone, of a more or less massive nature, that hand picking of lump is not economically efficient. In such cases the coal must be crushed fine enough for it to be freed from the bone, so that the two may be separated. Coal cleaning in this field, therefore, must receive skilled attention to purify this fuel and raise its stand- ard. Without greater efficiency in cleaning, the importation of coal from outside the state will be even greater than in the past.

Jan 1, 1926

By HAROLD VINTON COES

MANAGEMENT has been tersely defined as getting things done through the efforts of other people; but before we proceed further, let us distinguish between administration, management, and organization. Oliver Sheldon in his book, "The Philosophy of Management," offers the following definitions: Administration is the function in industry concerned in the determination of the corporate policy, the co-ordination of finance, production, and distribution, the settlement of the compass of the organization, and the ultimate control of the executive.

Jan 1, 1943

By Robert T. Chapman

The revolution in equipment for blasthole drilling, ore loading, and ore hauling has been so rapid over the last ten years that it has generated an important new profit potential in the mining industry. With the new high-capacity machinery now available, it is possible for a mining enterprise to earn a profit from larger and lower grade orebodies than ever before despite the ever-increasing burden of rising costs. Just what such equipment can accomplish when coupled with improved mining practice has been demonstrated with startling success at the No. 1 mine of Minerva Oil Co. near Cave-in-Rock in Hardin County, Ill. The No. 1 is an underground operation which has been producing fluorspar and zinc ores and concentrates continuously since 1944. A few years ago, when the mine neared the familiar cross-roads where rising costs, increasing tonnages, and relatively static product prices converge, company officials decided to bolster the operation with new mobile equipment. They chose three machines which proved so effective that output at the No. 1 doubled between 1963 and 1965,while costs dropped by about 40% in the same period.

Jan 11, 1966

By R. S. Dean

REQUIREMENTS for war materials have led to large scale experimentation upon metallurgical innovations. It is of interest to inquire what this may contribute of permanent value to our existing technology, as innovations adopted during war are apt to be discarded promptly at its end. This is because utilization of substandard ores usually requires a new technology for ore treatment, and a new use-pattern for employment of the products. Thus two very different problems are involved: first, devising a process; then, adopting its products by industry, with readjustments of the use-pattern if necessary. A new process may be as good or better than an old one, but the readjustments required for use of its products may prevent its general adoption if this implies scrapping existing plants and investing much additional capital. Metallurgical innovations are of three kinds: I. The use of substandard material in processes already established; 2. The grading-up of substandard material to render it more suitable for established processes; 3. The adjustment of technology and use-pattern to the raw materials that we have.

Jan 1, 1945

By George M. Fowler

DURING 1937 the subject of mining geology was probably given more attention and more mining geologists were usefully employed than at any previous time. Of the many contributing factors the most important were: (1) a higher degree of prosperity in many countries, (2) a. better understanding of geologic phenomena, and (3) the apparently diminishing reserves of several important minerals. Mining companies have come to look upon geology with a growing appreciation of its aid in the more effective exploration and exploitation of mineral deposits. Most of the larger and more active companies have one or more geologists permanently attached to their staffs and some have well organized and efficiently managed geological departments. Even the smaller companies, who feel they cannot afford to employ a geologist on a permanent basis, are seeking the advice of competent men in this field with increasing frequency. One of the most significant trends has been the growing tendency to base exploratory work on more thorough geologic studies instead of empirical "hunches,"on which so much off the work in the past has relied. Likewise, mining companies are apparently more willing to expend larger sums on the basis of geologic possibilities in a district.

Jan 1, 1938

By George A. Hill

WE of the oil industry, devoted to freedom of initiative, free competitive enter- prise, and free American institutions, applaud, with one voice, affirmation by the President of the national will and purpose to preserve and to protect, against all aggressors, "our American way of life with our individual and national freedom." We subscribe utterly and completely to this guiding declaration and seek its further definition as applied to the oil industry. Fortunately for all, the policy of the Government, after adequate study and deliberation, has been given precise definition. The National Defense Advisory Commission, with its patriotic, highly qualified, and distinguished personnel, has unanimously agreed to and adopted twelve general principles governing national defense contracts and also fair labor standard requirements. The President of the

Jan 1, 1940

By A. C. Rubel

WHAT does management expect of W and from an engineer? First and foremost, it expects that he should become, and therefore should fit himself in every way to be, a part of management so that he may assume as much and as many of the responsibilities of management as his ability and the opportunities of the job permit. Let me make clear at the start that the profession of pure, technical engineering offers but limited opportunities at the top levels because of the inherent organization of engineering work. The line of succession to top jobs may be likened to a cone with a broad base and an extremely sharp point. Consider any oil company, large or small, or any operating function of that company, and you will find few top engineering jobs in the organization. This is true by the nature of the work handled. There will be a few district engineers depending on the spread of operations, a chief petroleum and production engineer, perhaps a few research engineers, possibly some technical executive assistants, and that is usually all. The road to these jobs is a long one and the competition is tough. The larger the organization the greater the opportunity, but always the ratio of engineers to top engineering jobs is only a small one.

Jan 1, 1947