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By AIME AIME

COAL preparation will be the main topic discussed at the first fall meeting of the Coal Division at Pittsburgh, Sept. 11, 12 and 13, though valuation, mergers, safety, stream pollution and other topics will not' be neglected. It is particularly appropriate that the great changes taking place in preparing coal for the market should be discussed at length where in the plants of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. and others the opportunity is afforded to see on a large scale just what is being accomplished. In wartime, the United States broke all records in coal production, but, as the late Franklin K. Lane pointed out, every fifth car shipped consisted of dirt. Obviously that constituted a big bur- den on industry and, in the remaking of the business which is now taking place both in the anthracite and bituminous fields, clean coal has properly enough be- come a watchward. Central coal-cleaning plants are being erected as a part answer to the puzzled inquiry of those familiar with metal mining as to why miners of coal have so long been content with what are relatively small units of production. Gradually big collieries comparable in tonnage output to the biggest copper mines are being built, and excellent examples are to be seen near Pittsburgh. Even the age-long tradition of the coal operator in favor of the single shift is

Jan 1, 1930

By AIME AIME

THE annual meeting of the Auxiliary to the A. I. M. E. was marked by the most delightful cordiality and warm spirit of welcome on the part of the members of the New York Section and an equally charming spirit of cooperation and appreciation on the part of the visitors. On Monday Mrs. Ernest H. Wolfes and Mrs. Charles A. Bohn had charge of registration and most efficiently .provided everyone with the necessary tickets and badges. The reception hall and regisfration booth were gay with beautiful flowers that reflected the welcoming spirit one found there. The smooth efficiency with which the whole program ran was due largely to the tireless efforts of Mrs. Donald M. Liddell and Mrs. Louis D. Huntoon, joint chairmen of the Ladies' Committee, and Miss Margaret Callow, chairman of the Junior Committee. After registering, the ladies proceeded to- the fifth floor, where they had luncheon with the members of the A. I. M. E. On that day Mrs. W. H. Bassett and Mrs. Lucius W. Mayer were the hostesses.

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

FELIX E. WORMSER was born in Santa Barbara on Oct. 31,1894, so is one of the youngest members of the Board, only H. D. Wilde t 39) and W. M. Peirce (43) being his juniors. After graduating from the Columbia School of Mines as an E.M. in 1912, he went West and worked for the Snake River Mines, the Baker Mines Co., and the Cornucopia Mines CO., all in Oregon. Then for a year or two he was the youngest U. S. Mineral Surveyor in Oregon. In 1918 he was in the Army from which he was honorably discharged as a Second Lieutenant. Early in 1919 he joined the staff of the Bureau of Mines, at Washington, assisting in compiling reports and in War Minerals Relief work. His acquaintance there with J. E. Spurr led to his joining the staff of the Engineering and Mining Journal as assistant editor in April, 1920. He specialized in market studies and assisted in the compilation of the Journal's metal quotations until June, 1925, when he resigned to engage in active mining examination and consulting' work in the Northwest for H. H. Armstead. Three years later he returned to New York at the time of the formation of the Lead Indus- tries Association, becoming its Secretary and Treasurer, a position that he has since held.

Jan 1, 1940

By AIME AIME

This volume, an octavo of 626 pages, is now ready for delivery. By its aid, any subject treated or alluded to in the Transactions can be instantly tracked. The names of persons, mines, works, towns, etc., have been included; and abundant cross-references and classified sub-headings have been added to facilitate rapid consultation. Thus, the student remembering the name but not the locality, or the locality but not the name, or neither the name nor the precise locality of a gold-mine, can find it under ?Gold-mines," or under either of the other heads. For a more extended statement of the nature and use of this Index, which is intended specially for the benefit of those who do not possess complete sets of the Transactions, and who consult the Library by correspondence, see the Bi-Monthly Bulletin for September, 1907. The price of the Index bound in cloth is $5, delivery charges prepaid. Half-morocco binding costs $1 extra. Buy at once a copy of this Index, and also as many back-volumes of the Transactions as you can afford. Every such purchase from the stock on hand is so much added to the income of the Institute. As far as possible, the money thus received will be devoted to maintaining and perfecting the Library, and making it useful to members in all parts of the world.

Jan 11, 1907

The first prize of the President's Prizes has been awarded to J. J. Beeson for his paper entitled "Disseminated Copper Ores of Bingham, Canyon." When this paper-was written, Mr. Beeson was a student at Stanford University, and was president of the Stanford Geological and Mining Society. The President's prizes were established in 1915, funds being provided, at that time for three prizes of $50, $30 and $20 respectively, for the best essays, or other papers submitted in competition by Junior Members and Members of Affiliated, Student Societies. The original intention was to award all three during the year 1915, but the committee has deemed it advisable to extend the time for the second and third prizes, and the Secretary of the Institute will be glad to hear from any member who wishes to compete for one of these prizes. A competitor for the President's Prizes must be, at the time of submitting his essay, either a Junior Member or a Member of an Affiliated Student Society of this Institute. The essays must be upon some subject related to Mining, Economic Geology, or Metallurgy. I11 malting the awards, special weight will be given to originality in investigation and treatment; and to 'literary merit. As a general rule, the essays should not be less than 3,000, nor

Jan 5, 1917

William M. Courtis, Detroit, Mich. (communication to the Secretary*):—I have a few items to add to the history of the Lake Valley mines. In December, 1879, I was sent to the Bassic mine of Colorado and then to Lone mountain, near Silver City, N. M., and to various copper-camps in Arizona. I staged from Glorietta, N. M., to Tucson, Ariz., stopping at Silver City to see the Cosette mine. This mine led to the opening of the Lake Valley mines, and is a deposit of similar formation. New Year's day, 1880, found me crossing the Rio Grande above the Jornado del Muerto. At Aleman, Victorio's band crossecl four hours ahead of us. We picked up four wounded soldiers to take to Fort Bayard, for during the day the colored troops under General Hatch had been driving the Indians back through the San Andreas mountains. The traveler of to-day little realizes the dangers of these trips, when over very rough roads we made about 100 miles in a day and a night. I subsequently made this trip six times, up to 1882, and each time I missed an Indian attack by from one to four days. The day I arrived at Silver City news had come of the massacre of 75 women and children at the San Francisco ranch. The fighting-men of' Silver City had gone to rescue others. I was the only passenger from Socorro, N. M., until we picked up the soldiers. The next day we came suddenly on 5 of Victorio's band, but we had picked up several miners, so our stage bristled with guns, and we mere let alone. At or near my stone quarry, 6 miles from Socorro, 9 men, were killed by the band that, a day or two after, killed George. Daly, Lieutenant White, and all their men. During this raid, our miners and women at the mine slept in the tunnel. At the Cosette mine I had 35 men at work. These Indian raids had

Jan 1, 1910

By Thomas T. Read

ONE of the major purposes of the Institute is to "maintain ... a library of books relating to subjects cognate to the sciences and arts of mining and metallurgy." In conformance with this purpose the Institute maintained its own library for a number of years until 1912 when it was merged with the libraries of the other Founder Societies. At that time the A.I.M.E.'s share of operating expenses was wholly covered by the income from a $100,000 gift from James Douglas. But interest on the Douglas Library Fund has declined from 51/2 per cent to 31/4 per cent; the library has grown from some 50,000 volumes in 1913 to more than 170,000 in 1945, with consequently increased costs; and its costs nave otherwise risen. The Institute today contributes to the library annually about 65c per member, of which about 25c is income from the Douglas Fund, or a net charge, from regular income, of 40c per member. The annual library budget runs about

Jan 1, 1946

By W. A. Clark, E. H. Dresser

ORE from the Minnesota iron ranges is transported from the mines to the loading docks on Lake Superior over four different railways: the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Soo Line, and Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range, with hauls varying from 60 to 110 miles. For this service a large amount of specialized equipment is used. The steel ore cars are of the hopper type, 24 ft. long, to dump into alternate pockets of the docks, these pockets being 12 ft. long to correspond with the 12 or 24-ft. spacing of the boat hatches. The more recently con-

Jan 1, 1941

By AIME AIME

THE difficult problem of visitors is being met by the Hudson Coal Co. at Scranton in an ingenious fashion. The Company had long made it a point to have dealers selling its coal visit the mines, whenever possible. "The excellent reaction obtained from these dealer visits brought up the question of whether it would not be possible to open one or more mines to the public, and give the consumer an opportunity of seeing for himself how anthracite is mined and prepared. Ac-

Jan 1, 1929

Taking advantage of the lessons in administrative organizations which were taught by the war, Director Van H. Manning has put into effect a new form of organization in the Bureau of Mines. The Bureau is divided into two branches, one the investigations branch and the other the operations branch. F. G. Cottrell, who has been chief metallurgist of the Bureau, has been promoted to the position of assistant director and will be in charge of the investigations branch. F. J. Bailey, who has been chief clerk of the Bureau, has been placed in charge of the operations branch with the title of, assistant to the director. All research and technical control will be exercised through the investigations branch, while the non-technical work, administrative duties, and dissemination of the results of the Bureau's activities will be handled by the operations branch. Under the investigations branch comes the division of mineral technology, in charge of Dr. C. E. Parsons; the division of fuels, under the chief mechanical engineer, 0. P. Hood; the division of mining, under the direction of George S. Rice, the chief mining engineer; the division of petroleum and natural gas, under the direction of J. 0. Lewis, the chief petroleum technologist; and the division of experiment stations, under the direction of D. A. Lyon.

Jan 9, 1919

By Eric S. Cheney

The often-heard question "How can we interest young geologists and engineers in AIME?" is virtually the same as "How can we interest young geologists and engineers in the glamorous mining industry?" Many persons would reply that AIME and industry should improve their image by various devices aimed at high school students and teachers, boy scouts, and even grade school children. For more immediate results, I suggest that we concentrate our efforts at the professional level on students already identified as geol¬ogists and engineers. Why does our glamorous profession appear distinctly unglamorous to most of the engineers and geologists currently in college and graduate school? The answers seem quite simple to me. First, the profession talks almost exclusively to itself, seldom to the engineering or geologic public, and almost never to the lay public. Second, the industry has been overly conservative in all aspects of recruiting during an especially competitive and affluent period. Consequently, mining has taken a terrific public drubbing from preservationists who still portray its leaders as robber barons. SME and AIME have, of course, various commendable programs for enticing student interest, including student membership, the low dues for this membership, the somewhat reduced prices at which students can attend AIME meetings and buy AIME volumes, and the large number of AIME Student chapters on campuses. Obviously, more active encouragements are needed.

Jan 1, 1971

By D. H. Newland

On the bulk basis New York's contribution to the production of oil is small, representing, as it does, a bare half of one per cent of the annual total for the United States. Yet it has more importance than is implied by such a statement. Petroleum includes a variety of organic compounds, some more and some less valuable. It would be a fairer estimate of the situation to say that New York in recent years has produced around 10 to 12 per cent on the average of all Pennsylvania grade oil, the supply of which is strictly limited and the demand steady even in times of overproduction of other grades. One may not infer from this that New York and other Appalachian states enjoy an independent position in the market with a price structure uninfluenced by that of the Mid-Continent, Gulf or California fields. On the other hand, the recent market demoralization in the South and West brought about by uncontrolled production caused prices to drop to a point where the life of the local industry was seriously threatened. The current cost of producing oil in New York under the methods of water-flooding, by which most of the output is now obtained, has been estimated by competent authority at not less than $2.50 a barrel. The

Jan 1, 1934

By Andrew Roy

The Mahoning Valley coal region lies on the extreme northern outcrop of the Ohio coal-field, and all the mines, with one exception, are opened on the lower coal of the series, No. 1 of the Ohio Geological Survey. The coal ranges from an inch to five, six, and sometimes seven feet thickness, the workable height being between two and a half and six feet. There are two varieties of coal, known in market as "Briar Hill coal " and " Mineral Ridge coal;" both varieties are drawn from the same seam. The Briar Hill coal is generally called block coal, and is the kind so largely used in a raw state in smelting iron. It possesses a laminated structure, easily splitting into horizontal sheets, but is very difficult to break in the opposite direction. The faces of the layers are often covered with a soft, dead, carbonaceous material, like charcoal, and the whole seam throughout is marked by alternate layers of dead and bright-looking coal. In the act of combustion the coal neither swells nor changes form, the masses retaining their shapes until they fall to ashes in the furnace. The Mineral Ridge variety is much softer, and is also shorter in the grain than the Briar Hill kind, and it contains a good deal of

By R. V. Lundquist

R. T. Hukki (Finland Institute of Technology, Helsinki, Finland)—Two schools of thought are developing concerning the order of the rate of flotation. The paper by Morris is intended to show experimental evidence in favor of the first order rate. Arbiter, on the other hand, has presented an earlier paper" to demonstrate the validity of the second order rate equation. Unfortunately his method of plotting is open to criticism, as pointed out by Morris." A more sensitive method of plotting has been described by the writer,= whereby the data presented by Arbiter demonstrate the superiority of the second order plot. The general rate equation may be written in the following forms for the integrated first and second order equations: (A) t =------In—-------- (first order) [4] 1 1 (B) — = — kc, + KC°²— (second order) [5] t R As a first approximation the value of C, may be taken as a unity, 100 pct or 1. Whether or not this is the case in all tests performed by Morris is impossible to judge, owing to the fact that the flotation times are extremely short, e.g. 150 sec in tests A. It would, indeed, be very interesting to know what the total recovery R would be after 1 hr of flotation, for example, instead of after 150 sec. Certainly there are circumstances when C, approaches unity within a very small

Jan 1, 1954

By G. H. Clevenger

Discussion of the paper of ALLAN J. CLARK presented at the San Francisco meeting, September 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 103, July, 1905, pp. 1381 to 1398. G. H. CLEVENGER, Palo Alto, Cal.-Since the precipitation of extremely dilute solutions as regards cyanide presents one of the greatest problems of zinc-dust precipitation, I should like to ask Mr. Clark the minimum concentration in cyanide of the solution from which it is possible to precipitate satisfactorily the gold with zinc dust in Homestake practice. A. J. CLARK.-For a day's work about 0.015 per cent. That is precipitating a very low-grade solution, very low in alkalinity. It requires probably 0.2 lb. of zinc dust to the ton. JOHN A. FULTON, Melones, Cal.-At the Melones mine, we have been working very low-grade rock for a number of years, the process being amalgamation and concentration up to the last year. The value of the ore increased so that we had to supplement the concentration with a sand and slime plant. Classification was a problem, since to install classifiers would mean tearing the mill all to pieces. We are therefore making use of a Wilfley table for this purpose. The amount of wash water is increased and a stream of fresh water is also run into the feed box at the

Jan 12, 1915

By Edward J. Way

+1KLEINFONTEIN GROUP CENTRAL ADMlNISTRATION, BENONI, TRANSVAAL, S. AFRICA. The cost and the speed of sinking a shaft are factors of so great importance in operating a mine, that the data given in Table I., herewith published, will be of interest and value to all engaged in practical mining; and for this reason the data are communicated for permanent and accessible record in our Transactions. The figures 'of cost cover the period from January 1, 1903, to May 31, 1903, during which time the total depth sunk was 858 ft. So far as I know, the cost of sinking per foot (£13,15s., 11.04d.) of a shaft of the dimensions 21 ft. by 6 ft. in hard rock, is the cheapest yet on record; and the speed of 213.5 ft. per month, which was attained during May, 1903, is also the best record for speed in sinking in rock so hard as that of this shaft. During the period from January 1 to May 31, 1903, there were 144 rounds worked, involving 4,032 holes, of a total depth of 28,963 ft. 2.4 in., which is equivalent to an average depth of 7 ft. 2.2 in. per hole bored. These data are of added interest from the fact that the work was done practically by native labor.

Jan 1, 1905

By C. W. Spencer, B. F. Addis, G. H. Bishop, C. A. Steidel

STUDIES of the inter granular attack of metals by liquids have generally been confined to polycrys-talline specimens. This note reports the results of preliminary studies of the penetration of bismuth-rich Ni-Bi liquids into oriented bicrystal specimens of nickel. It is found that isothermal penetration follows a parabolic rate law and shows a definite anisatropy with respect to direction on the grain boundary surface. Nickel bicrystals containing < 100> tilt boundaries were grown using the Czochralski method. Relative misorientation of the parent crystals was controlled to ± 1deg. The boundaries are straight in the growth direction, i.e., the common <100>, and generally straight in the transverse direction, as shown in Fig. 1. The starting material, Inco HPM grade nickel was contained in a recrystallized alumina crucible and maintained under argon. Bicrystals typically contain 30 ppm C, less than 10 ppm S, O, N, and 50 ppm residual metallics, principally iron and silicon. Specimens, as schematically illustrated in Fig. l(c),were cut from bicrystal ingots using a thin water-cooled abrasive wheel. To insure removal of all residual strain, which accelerates the penetration, specimens were round through 600 grit silicon-carbide, chemically polished, and annealed for 4 hr at 1375°C under argon. The procedure described by Cheney et al.1 for exposing specimens to

Jan 1, 1962

By C. S. Herzig

Some time ago, in Mexico, our signal-bells in a 700-foot shaft caused us considerable annoyance by continually getting out of order, each time so delaying our hoisting operations that we naturally desired to remedy this evil. There were two mays open: either to patch up the old bell, which was of the ordinary pattern, every time it failed to work, or else to devise some new arrangement.. On consultation with our foreman we designed a signal-device which, during the number of months I watched its operation, worked satisfactorily, without once getting out of order. We sought to produce a simple device, in which no greater pull on the lever would be necessary from one level than from another; to counterbalance independently the weight of the pendant bell-rope, so that there would be no direct weight on the working-parts of the bell itself, and likewise to arrange it so as to necessitate only a light pull on the lever in signaling; and, finally, to make some sort of trip-arrangement, so that whenever the signaling-lever underground passed through a certain arc the signal would be given in the engine-room. By this means we wished to obviate the ill effects of sudden heavy pulls and rough usage in general, such as all signaling

Jan 1, 1901

By Max Boehmer

After 30 rears of development and after an output of $350,000,000 in value of gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper, there has not been published a satisfactory explanation of the origin of the immense deposits of the Leadville district. The original examination and survey of Leadville by members of the U. S. Geological Survey was a &apos;most magnificent piece of work, but their attempt to explain the origin of the ores was based upon the then-accepted theory of lateral secretion, originated by Sandberger, which theory was afterwards disproved in many cases by further development in numerous districts. This theory contended that the ore in the veins had been leached by surface-waters from the eruptive rocks in the immediate vicinity, and it had its origin in the fact that the neighboring eruptive rocks all contained, to an appreciable degree, the several metals found in the ore-deposits. But the practical miner, reasoning in a simple manner from the condition of things as he found them underground, soon discovered the fallacy of this proposition. He reasoned that, in the case of the Leadville deposits, this theory could not be true, because, if the ores were leached from the overlying eruptive rocks by surface-waters, they would as a matter of necessity be controlled by the action of gravity, and the main bodies

Jan 1, 1911

THE British Industrial Fatigue Research Board has issued its annual report covering the year 1925, and a nine-page review of it, by George E. Shepard, was published in this country in the November, 1926, Bulletin of the Society of Industrial Engineers. The report gives results of three different investigations, all of which indicate that rest-pauses, where the spells .of work are 41/2 hr. long or more, not only increase the contentment of the workers, but often bring about an increase in output. A report on the physiology of ventilation is about to be published, and one on the theory of ventilation has been issued. These seem to add but little to the work being done in this country by the Bureau of Mines and the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers. Other studies made are on atmospheric conditions in cotton weaving, on lighting in composing rooms, on repetitive work, the teaching of muscular skill, the energy expenditure in heavy work, the metabolic processes involved in violent exercise, the relation between oxygen intake and lactic acid in the blood, and fatigue in localized groups of muscles. Most of this material is intended for advanced workers in these fields, but will be of interest to engineers who desire to keep up with cur-rent progress in the determination of the facts involved in fatigue resulting from industrial work.

Jan 2, 1927