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By W. D. BRENNAN

AS a rule the thoughts of engineers are more often directed toward the mechanical and physical conditions of mining practice than they are toward the disposition and the marketing of the product. This, I think, has been true of the coal industry to the present time not only among the engineering force but also generally true of operators. There has been a tendency to place the sales department in a rather secondary position; for a great many years there was a greater demand for coal than the supply would meet, so it was only necessary to increase production: either by expansion of operating mines, or opening new mines of greater capacity. While the production of coal is still a highly important phase of the industry, its enormous development throughout the country, the great advance in fuel, efficiency and economy, and the discovery of new reserves of competitive fuels have combined to create a buyers' market and force the present-day attention upon merchandising in modern ways. A buyers' market has a natural tendency to develop the keenest competition, frequently unscrupulous and nearly always profit-wrecking. Under such conditions bad practices are bound to grow and to extend until the industry is wrecked, or until wiser heads get together to reduce or eliminate unfair methods of competition. This is not so recent a condition as one might believe.

Jan 1, 1931

By R. G. Green, R. L. Dowdell

LEAD POISONING as a result of eating lead pellets deposited in marsh areas is a cause of high mortality among ducks, geese, and other waterfowl ingested lead shot become trapped in the gizzard with gravel and are slowly ground away by the grit. Absorption of lead as it passes through the intestine in a finely divided state produces severe lead poisoning which is usually fatal. Ducks and geese with lead poisoning develop first a typical green diarrhea. Later, paralysis of the wing muscles prevents flight. As the poisoning continues with further grinding of the shot trapped in the gizzard, increasing paralysis reduces the bird to helpless-

Jan 1, 1937

By Earl Oliver

IN times like these, the A. I. M. E. and similar societies have their greatest usefulness. . . . Individuals and companies acting alone in the development of public opinion are merely voices crying in the wilderness. United and organized they make a great force that can and does influence public action. . . . What part, if any, then, shall the A. I. M. E. take in these great stabilization processes of civilization? Shall it help to give direction and force to scientific knowledge which comes within its field of activity or shall it merely develop more of it? . . . Is it the A. I. M. E.'s function to help bring system, order and direction out of this situation so that the world can again have forward economic movement, or should it rest on its oars until other agenciess develop that public understanding and direction so necessary for economic progress? As we understand the functions of the A. I. M. E. Petro¬leum Division, they are to discover and promote knowl¬edge for the benefit of society on the mining of oil and gas. To the individual member of the Petroleum Division, there are certain advantages of social and professional contacts, but the collective purpose is that described. And the individual is benefited by membership only as the Division measures up to the purposes of its existence. Consequently, the welfare of this Division and that of its members depends on the extent to which it keeps pace with the needs of society on matters relating to the mining of oil and gas.

Jan 1, 1932

By A. L. Moore

KAISER Bauxite Co., a subsidiary of Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., has been mining and shipping Jamaican bauxite for over a year. On Feb. 10, 1953 the first boat load of bauxite left Port Kaiser, Jamaica, for the company's alumina plant at Baton Rouge, La. To provide its own source of the aluminum ore, a Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. exploration party started initial reconnaissance in 1947. This work, and subsequent exploration, led to the acquisition of reserves sufficient to warrant a full-scale mining operation for several decades.

Jan 3, 1954

By Robert Laurich

Chuquicamata pit was opened in 1915 with steam shovels and steam locomotives brought down from the Panama Canal excavation project. With expansions in the early years, more steam locomo¬tives were brought into the mine. IMPROVED LOCOMOTIVES During the period 1927 to 1937, electric locomo¬tives were purchased and main line and bench tracks were electrified. Third rail was installed up to the working areas. At first, the locomotives were equipped with batteries for service at the shovels, but charge life was too short and they were con¬verted to use the third rail and a reel with 3000 ft of trailing cable for service in the loading area.

Jan 11, 1959

By R. A., Pallanch

SO many variations of lead-zinc ores occur in nature that it is impossible to state any rules that will apply to the concentration of ores of this type. Some have lead and zinc in approximately equal amounts; others may have pre- dominant amounts of one or the other metal. There are gradations from all sulfide to completely oxidized minerals. Some such ores carry little pyrite, others contain much more pyrite than they do lead and zinc combined. The behavior of ores in flotation is largely a function of their lead-zinc ratios. their content of pyrite or pyrhotite, the nature of existing soluble salt conditions, the character of the gangue constituents: and the speed with which the minerals float. For the purposes of this paper only those lead-zinc ores handled commonly in present-day flotation practice will be considered. These are practically all-sulfide ores with relatively minor degrees of sulphatization or oxidation.

Jan 1, 1936

By Paul M. Tyler

NOW that the dust of World War II has settled and we and our allies are faced with extravagant losses of men, money, and materials, virtually the only hope that the United States and Britain have in the way of reparations lies in the capture of industrial, technical, and scientific secrets. Even during the war American and British scientists and technicians gained access to German factories, questioned German personnel, studied German documents, and endeavored generally to keep pace with new discoveries in science, industrial technology, and process development. Under various agencies this work continued for two years after the war. Altogether at least 600 American scientists and industrialists have gone to Germany and brought back reports and several times as many British, Canadian, and. Australian investigators have been similarly engaged under co-operative arrangements designed to assure the maximum of coverage with a minimum duplication of effort. As a result of these investigations and document studies, about 500 or 600 reports have been prepared on metallurgical and allied subjects. Those by American authors or joint teams have been listed in the annotated Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports, issued by the Office of Technical Services in the U. S. Department of Commerce. Many of the British reports are also available in this country through the same office or through a British representative in New York. Since it was my duty to read most of these reports for

Jan 1, 1948

By F. R. Milliken

EXPERIMENTS, in what has come to be known as flash roasting began some ten years ago. The principle underlying the operation was not a new one, but the experimental work started at that time was the first that was carried through to a logical conclusion, followed by construction and operation of a pilot plant, and then full-scale production. For a short working definition, flash roasting may he considered the instantaneous and complete oxidation of finely ground sulphide particles, partially suspended in air or gas, the oxidation reaction evolving enough heat to make the reaction self-sustaining, or nearly so.

Jan 1, 1937

By AIME AIME

MESSRS. BURT and Shockley and others have been for three years urging upon the Institute the matter of simplified spelling. The Institute endeavors to be progressive in the matter of spelling and. is in cooperation with the national body which has this in hand and which has its principal office in New York. Our spellings are changed as fast as-good usage will permit (so it seems to the Board of Directors) and the national body, which is the real representative of the simplified spelling interests, deems that the Institute is making real progress, although not quite as fast as extremists would wish. In January, 1919, Mr. Shockley sent out letter ballots which created a misconception in the minds of many members, who received the impression that the communications came from the Institute instead of from a small group of members. As a result of this propaganda 163 proposal-ballots were sent in to the Institute divided as follows: Yes ?114 No ?20 Negative letters ?9 Split ballots ?20 Total ?163 The total membership at this time was about 7200. The disgusted members would not vote.

Jan 1, 1920

By WALTER CARROLL

Between cross currents of economic factors and international expediencies the iron and steel industry in 1948 made an outstanding contribution to the general economic picture. Were it not for an unfortunate episode during the month of April involving a temporary shortage of coal, 1948 would have been an all-time record year in output. Exceeded in no previous peacetime year, the production of iron and steel in 1948 totaled some 88,500,000 tons. That it was a worthwhile effort of no small magnitude is evidenced by the fact that in three and one half years following the war, this nation has produced as much steel as in the five years preceding the war. This figure of 88,500,000 tons is 68 per cent greater than that for 1939.

Jan 1, 1949

By C. K. Leith

CERTAIN ideas on iron and steel sanctions to follow originated in a series of conferences held under the joint auspices of the War Department and Brookings Institute in Washington last spring. The views presented may be regarded as those of substantial segments of the steel industry. In view of the fact that steelmaking capacity can be so quickly converted to the production of armament, any effective control must necessarily include the entire steel industry and not solely the parts devoted to the production of implements of war. It must also be exercised all the way from production and shipment of raw materials through their ultimate conversion into finished products and use. Control will be dis- cussed under two main headings: (I) control of raw materials at the source; (2) control of steel capacity within the Axis countries.

Jan 1, 1944

By JOHN R. SUMAN

TONIGHT I want to speak of the current problems and the postwar difficulties facing American industry. American industry has done an outstanding job in adjusting its operations to wartime necessity. The national income for 1942 was nearly $120,000,090,000 and of this outlay approximately $55,000,000,000 went for war material. The enormity of the expenditures for war material is indicated by the fact that the expenditures for war purposes alone were greater than the annual gross national income in the period 1931-34. This tremendous production job in turning out a record output of war products was accomplished by industry in spite of a large number of restraining and hampering influences, and I want to mention several of the more important problems.

Jan 1, 1943

By Franklin G. Pardee

IN 1920 the Minnesota Tax Commission estimated a reserve of 1,341,674,538 long tons of iron ore in Minnesota, the Michigan State Tax Commission report showed 199,092,855 long tons in reserve in that state, and the Wisconsin Geological Survey set the Wisconsin reserves at 21,500,000 long tons. The total reserve that year for the Lake Superior District amounted to 1,562,267,393 long tons. Ten years later the reserves of iron ore in these same districts were Minnesota 1,235,227,510, Michigan 168,349,823, and Wisconsin 23,000,000, or a total of 1,426,577,333 long tons. The decrease in ore reserves in this ten-year period was 135,690,060 long tons, but the shipments were 520,746,975 long tons. In other words, the ten-year depletion in reserves was only 8.68 per cent. If similar conditions carry into the future this calculation would indicate a life for the ore reserves of the Lake Superior region of over 100 years.

Jan 1, 1933

By George S. Rice

GROUND movement and subsidence is an important matter from several points of view and it is regrettable that more papers have not been written on this subject in the past year. Damage may be done to surface buildings or to the higher workings of a mine, and a study of the subject gives valuable in- formation on hanging-wall or roof control. The latter objective is strikingly shown in a recent paper presented by Jack Spaulding on Oct. 21, 1937, before the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, of Great Britain, entitled "Theory and Practice of Ground Control in the Kolar Gold Field, India." All may not agree with some of his theories that were deduced from studies of the many violent rock bursts at depths of 5000 to 7000 ft., but the data obtained are of great value. His theories of symmetrical ring stresses and symmetrical domes which are pictured as perfect are rather hard to understand as such uniformity is un- likely in view of the irregularities in the formation due to folds and fractures of various kinds. All will agree in principle with this idea of domal effects, which have been observed in many countries, but they are generally irregular.

Jan 1, 1938

By William L. Batt

FROM the time the Japs overran the Far East, the United Nations faced a serious military problem in the critical shortage of many raw materials desperately needed to prose¬cute the war on two fronts. For many months this critical shortage threatened substantially to limit the gigantic effort to get shooting equipment into the hands of the fighting men on the far-flung battle lines. Now this crisis has been met. Solvency in raw materials has been achieved. Simply stated, this job of producing solvency has been done by "cutting cloth to fit the garment." This does not mean that we have all the raw materials we need. Unfortunately, a few raw materials are still short, thereby limiting the total production of certain war goods, or making these goods less effective. Where the supply of raw materials is known to be limited, however, substitutions have been made or production schedules have been geared to the amounts available, and an over-all balance has been achieved between various parts of the war-production program.

Jan 1, 1943

By John V. Beall

Since the U. S. Metals Refining Co. works was established, around the turn of the century, near the town which is now called Carteret, N. J., it has grown to be a major producer of refined copper and the main source of that special brand known as "oxygen-free high-conductivity copper." Owing to the complex metallurgical problems arising from handling a variety of raw materials such as copper concentrate from Matahambre, Cuba, copper and brass scrap from the New York area, and domestic blister copper, the organization is geared from top management down through its 2000 employes to maintain a high degree of flexibility in plant operation. The Company is a subsidiary of The American Metal Co. Charges for the smelter furnaces, one reverberatory furnace and one blast furnace, are made up in. bedding bins so that they may be tailored to the production of a constant grade of blister copper. The reverberatory furnace smelts the .sulphide charge, which may be a blend of ten different materials but principally the Cuban concentrate, and the matte from the process is poured into a converter. This reverberatory is 80 by 20 ft, silica lined with a slag bottom, fired by pulverized coal, and continuously side-charged from the top by bottom-dump cars which keep the side walls covered. It produces a 40 to 50 per cent copper matte. The fuel-charge ratio is 4.35 tons of solid charge per ton of coal. The furnace has a capacity of 10,000 tons of charge per month and produces from 5000 to 6000 tons of slag per month which must be disposed of. About 5000 tons of converter slag is produced monthly and returned molten to the reverberatory furnace. The converter gases go through a spray chamber to a Cottrell precipitator and thence to the flue system. Smoke from the

Jan 1, 1948

By R. W. Raymond

FOUR portraits have recently been hung in the rooms of the Institute, in recognition of four illustrious men with whom we, as mining engineers and metallurgists, may claim fellowship. LUTHER. Martin Luther is often spoken of as a miner's son; but it is less generally known that John Luther, his father, was, in a small way, a metallurgist as well as a miner, and that Martin Luther himself, in his youth, worked in a forge or bloomary established by his father at Mansfeld, Saxony. Since this is the only manual occupation on his part of which we have any record, it is fair to assume that the great scholar and reformer derived from his work in this department the practical familiarity with the conditions of human labor so abundantly evinced in the homely illustrations which accompany even his serious arguments, and in the witty apothegms of his famous "table-talk." At the same time, I must confess that 1 have not been able to find in any of the works of Luther distinct allusions to mining or metallurgy. KÖRNER. Theodor Körner, a student at the Mining Academy of Freiberg, Saxony, threw himself into the German War of Freedom in the first decade of the 19th Century. He was a poet of no mean rank ; and his " Song of the Sword " is one of the great lyrics of literature. This poem was written but a few days before he died in battle. In many respects, Körner may be compared with our American hero Theodore Winthrop, who similarly met a glorious fate, and left behind him prophetic indications of genius, of which his premature death prevented the complete fulfillment. I am informed by a member of the Institute that Körner's admirable collection of minerals is still preserved at Dresden.

Nov 1, 1908

By Henry G. Morris

The use of compressed air for the transmission of power has reached so great a development that we find numerous large establishments devoted to the manufacture of machinery for its production and application, and special periodicals published for the dissemination of information on the subject. Moreover, its employment is so general in mining operations that no apology is needed for the presentation to the Institute of such a paper as the present. The admirable articles of Mr. E. A. Rix, published in Conzpressed Air, show a wide range in the mechanical efficiency of air-compressors, varying, under different conditions, from 15 to 60 per cent.; and it is evident that any

Jan 1, 1902

By Joseph C. Buchen

IN principle, production of salt from sea water is a simple operation. Sea water is trapped in ponds, the sun and wind cause evaporation of the water, and what is left is principally salt. Commercial production of solar salt, however, requires a careful consideration of many factors. Obviously, sufficient evaporation must take place throughout the making season to produce an economically adequate crop. Other factors are density of soil, contour of ground, height of ground above sea level, minimum dilution from fresh-water streams, and distance from market. Unfortunately, in the United States the localities of greatest evaporation, allowing for the other factors, are not the most suitable for the manufacture of sea salt by solar evaporation. The south end of San Francisco Bay most

Jan 1, 1937

E. E. Olcott, New York City: Prof. Kemp's valuable description of the Lancaster Gap mine is in line with many other able contributions on the origin of mineral deposits that the Institute has lately brought forward. The splendid contribution that Prof.

Jan 1, 1895