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By F. R. Archibald, C. F. Jackson

THE prospect of winning aluminum from clay was recorded almost a century ago at a time when the metal was no more than a curiosity.? As the industry developed, and it has probably developed faster than that of any other metal, the expanding need for raw materials was adequately met by the ample supplies of bauxite ore. As with the other metals older in industry, however, lower grade ores have gradually entered the raw-material field through improvements in ore dressing, insufficienoy of high-grade ore supplies, favorable geographic location, or national necessity for domestic supply. So with aluminum, or alumina, which has been established as the requisite intermediate, the time may have come when a satisfactory process, with favorable location and suitable raw materials, can hold a sound place both in metallurgy and economics. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the Ancor process and its proposed application in treatment of clay in a plant now under construction at Harleyville, South Carolina, by the Defense Plant Corporation. DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANCOR PROCESS The Ancor process has developed through successive stages of laboratory investigation, pilot-plant demonstration using nepheline syenite and pilot-plant demonstration using kaolin-type day from South Carolina, and is now in preparation for unit trial on an operating plant basis using the latter material. The laboratory studies were carried out over a number of years in the laboratory of the American Nepheline Corporation in Rochester, N. Y., and for the same company in the ore-dressing laboratory of Beattie Gold Mines, Que. Ltd. at Duparquet, Quebec. Both companies are associated with Ventures Ltd., Toronto, and its associated American companies. The work was originally undertaken with a view to recovery of alumina and alkalies from nepheline syenite as an adjunct to the American Nepheline Company's established business in the glass and ceramic trades, but as a process developed the possibility of application to clay and other aluminous raw materials become apparent and the laboratory studies were broadened to include these as well. Under the more pressing impetus of wartime needs and possibilities, pilot-plant operations were undertaken at the Canadian Bureau of Mines Ore Dressing Laboratories in Ottawa, and for purposes of demonstration under joint sponsorship of the Canadian Bureau of Mines, The American Nepheline Corporation, and The Aluminum Company of Canada Ltd.

Jan 1, 1944

By E. D. Cockrell, E. P. Hayes

The figures herein presented show that during the year 1938 drilling in the Texas Gulf Coast continued at a slightly lower rate than during 1937. In 1938 there were 21 new oil fields added to the Texas Gulf Coast; also numerous extensions and new sands in old fields. This report for 1938 cannot be compared with the report for 1937 in Volume 127 of the Transactions, because the area covered by this report is less than that covered last year. The cross-hatched area on Fig. 1 shows the limits of this report. Of the new fields, Cordele, in Jackson County, Eureka Heights and Fairbanks, in Harris County, Francitas, in Jackson County, LaRosa, in Refugio County, and League City, in Galveston County, have the greatest promise of prolific production. The 1938 production for the Gulf Coast area was 92,530,467 bbl. as compared to 94,019,355 bbl. for the same area in 1937. This shows a decrease of 1,488,888 bbl. during 1938, regardless of the increase due to the 21 new oil fields. This decrease was caused mainly by the Saturday and Sunday shutdowns (68 days during 1938) and by cut in allowables. The 68 shut-down days amount to approximately 18.6 per cent of the 365 days possible for production. The decrease in the 1938 production amounted to approximately 1.58 per cent. Therefore there was actually a potential increase in the year's production. During the past year, 1637 wells were completed as oil wells, 68 as gas wells and approximately 461 dry holes, as compared to 1672 oil wells, 83 gas wells and 448 dry holes in 1937 on the Texas Gulf Coast. Total wells drilled were 2166 in 1938 and 2203 in 1937. Condensate. sands in old fields and new fields are continuing to increase in importance from the standpoint of retrograde condensation and pressure maintenance. The following fields had major extensions during the year 1938 from the standpoint of increased areas of old sands and new deeper sands:

Jan 1, 1939

By Sunder S. Saluja

Man had to learn to break rocks as early as the Stone Age, when they formed his main source of raw material. He started with chipping and over the years has reached a stage where he can employ atomic blasts and break, with one blast, millions of tons of rock. In between these two extremes there have been several stages of development including firesetting, use of the expansion of water on freezing in chipped cracks in cold climates, the use of low or deflagrating explosive black powder in about the 17th century, the use of high explosives with the discovery of nitroglycerine in 1846 by Sobrero, followed by the monumental discoveries of the great Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The attempts to develop a stronger and still stronger explosive force were accompanied by investigations to understand the mechanism of failure of rock so that the force could be used to the best advantage; the latter, of course, have lagged far behind the former. This is mainly due to the fact that the chemical reactions involving high explosives as well as the processes resulting in the breakage of rock take place at too great a rate to be studied with the equipment that has been only recently available. Moreover, the development of stronger explosive forces was prompted by military necessities in the past and competition, at present, among highly developed nations. With the development, however, of the new techniques such as micro- second photography, microsecond flash radiography, extremely high-speed movies, strain gage assemblies, electronic chronographs and other improved electronic techniques, the investigator has in the last decade or

Jan 1, 1968

By A. M. Tweedy, Felix A. Vogel

Since the publication of Prof. J. W. Richards's paper on The Schumacher Briquetting Process,' this process has been in operation on a practical scale in two plants in the United States, and a few notes on the results obtained may be of interest. An experimental plant, consisting of a toggle press and a hydraulic press, was installed at Johnstown, Pa., together with the necessary bins and other equipment, and an attempt was made to briquette a mixture of Mahoning fines and blast-furnace flue dust, in a ratio of 7 parts of ore to 3 parts of dust. The results were unsatisfactory, in that the briquettes made were not hard enough to stand the severe handling to which they were subjected in the various transferences necessary between the press and the furnace. The trouble was due to several causes: First, the mechanical arrangement of the plant, which did not lend itself to a proper hardening and loading of the briquettes into the cars. Second, the irrrgular composition of the flue dust, as to both its lime and its fine coke contents. Third, the variability of the moisture content of the ore, and its viscosity when wet. Fourth, the ratio of fine ore to flue dust; that is, it was attempted to bind in too large a quantity of fine ore for the small amount of flue dust used. The first trouble could be overcome, and has been improved upon in the plant as it stands to-day. The second trouble was important, because of the small amount of dust used as a binder, and might have been easily removed by mixing the flue dust of the different furnaces, which, however, was never done. The third difficulty was more serious, but could have been partly solved, had it been possible to meet this along with the fourth difficulty, by decreasing the percentage of ore in the briquettes. It was proposed to do this, but it seems that the problem at the works in question is, primarily, to prepare Mahoning fines for reduction in the blast furnace, and only secondarily to use up the flue dust, and a solution along this line did not seem to be interesting.

Jan 1, 1914

By M. J. Sinnott, W. R. Kiessel

The creep characteristics of commercially pure titanium sheet in the annealed state, cold-worked state, and cold-worked and recovered state in the temperature range from 75' to 750°F have been determined. Titanium has been found to exhibit strain aging characteristics. The effect of strain aging on creep has been determined. A possible explanation for the poor creep properties of titanium is proposed. THE metal titanium exhibits many desirable properties but results on its creep properties have been somewhat disappointing. The creep strength is low even though the material has a very high melting point.' The present work was undertaken to determine the creep strength of titanium in various conditions; annealed, cold-worked, and cold-worked and recovered and to determine why titanium shows such relatively poor creep properties. The general procedure followed in this research consisted in obtaining the usual mechanical prop- erties such as creep strength, short time tensile strengths, and hardness on materials treated to a controlled degree of internal strain, as determined by X-ray diffraction measurements, and their subsequent interpretation in terms of this internal strain. The material used in this work was sheet stock taken from one heat of commercially pure titanium. As-received, this sheet was 0.060 in. thick. The analysis was given as 0.037 pet C, 0.023 pet Si, 0.50 pct W, 0.063 pct Ni, 0.08 pct Fe, and the remainder titanium. The oxygen and nitrogen were unreported but generally are about 0.2 pct in commercial heats. In order to put the material in a state of minimum internal strain all the sheet was given an anneal in a static argon atmosphere for 1 hr at 1600°F prior to processing and testing. The microstructure of the material after this treatment was essentially a single-phase solid solution of uniform equiaxed grains. For the studies on the cold-worked sheet, the material was reduced by rolling in a two high, 5 in. mill. Rolling was done at room temperature in passes

Jan 1, 1954

By I. N. Zavarine

The observations presented in this paper were recorded during a study of the spheroidizing process. Spheroidization of cementite in steel is either brought about to develop a set of desirable mechanical properties or is an incidental result of mechanical and heat-treating manipulations. Physical properties of steel are materially influenced by the state of the cementite. Conversion of cementite from the lamellar to the spheroidal state is usually accompanied by a decrease of hardness and of strength and by an increase in ductility. The spheroidized structure is usually considered as an ultimate step in the process of the softening of steel. The unorthodox hardening of a 3.5 per cent Ni steel (SAE No. 2330) after a heat-treatment that previously proved entirely suitable for a complete spheroidization of cementite in carbon steels led to the observations that constitute the subject of the present paper. Experimental Procedure The steels used for the experiments described were bought on the market. All were in the form of 3/4-in. round bars. Their chemical compositions are given in Table 1. The spheroidization of cementite in steels can be obtained in several ways. The method used in the present work is, perhaps, the least known. It consists of cyclic heating and cooling of steel, the temperature being

Jan 1, 1939

By F. Cadena, Fred C. Bond, Walter L. Maxon

Grinding is one of the major problems in present-day milling practice, and in many cases, it represents one of the main items of expense. It becomes necessary from time to time, to compare grinding practice in one plant with that in another plant, and in making such comparisons, it would be very desirable were there available accepted standards of grinding resistance for the materials involved. Such a set of grinding constants would also be of considerable value in planning new grinding installations. There have been some tests published, notably those of Lennox,' which have been generally cited as a basis for such comparisons. Most of the tests made have been based upon open-circuit grinding, in which a weighed sample of the ore was crushed to pass a certain mesh, and was then ground under certain conditions, either wet or dry. Grinding was continued until a certain desired fineness was attained, and the comparisons based on the grinding time, or the samples were all ground for a certain specified length of time and comparison based upon the screen analysis of the products. Such methods have been acceptable where the ore was to be ground in open circuit. However, in modern milling practice, many grinding problems involve closed circuits wherein the oversize returns to the mill and a large circulating load builds up. A method of testing that does not take the circulating load into consideration might yield results quite different from those to be expected in practice, because the minerals in the ore that offer maximum resistance to grinding will accumulate in the circulating load up to an equilibrium value. Thus the nature of the ore charge in the mill at any instant may differ greatly from that of the new feed, with a consequent error in the rate of grinding determined by such a method. For example, let it be assumed that an ore to be tested consists of equal parts of difficult grinding mineral and easy grinding mineral. This is to be compared with an ore used as a standard, and consisting of minerals which are all of about the same grindability. If a comparison

Jan 1, 1935

By M. A. Orehoski, J. M. Hodge

It is now generally conceded that if a steel is to develop optimum physical properties in the conventionally quenched and tempered condition, the microstruc- ture after quenching should consist wholly of martensite; and that transformation of austenite to intermediate-temperature products during quenching will have a deleterious effect upon the physical properties, particularly the toughness, of the tempered material. This implies that, in order to obtain the optimum physical properties from a given steel, its "harden-ability " should be high enough to suppress all transformation except that to martensite under the heating and quenching conditions to which it will be subjected, and this premise is probably the most important reason for hardenability control. However, the criterion of hardenability that at present is most widely accepted and used is based on a microstructure of 50 per cent martensite. This criterion, which was suggested by Grossmann,' does have considerable justification. It may be readily measured by a fracture or etch test and, since it represents the point at which the hardness is changing most rapidly with variations in cooling rate, it may be determined empirically from a hardness-depth curve by determining the point of steepest slope (the inflection point). Furthermore, in plain carbon steels or in steels of low hardenability, the difference in hardenability expressed in

Jan 1, 1947

ALTHOUGH the open-hearth charge contributes CO, C02, H2, A and water vapor to the combustion gases and absorbs oxygen from them, in the main the thermal effects in the melting charge and molten bath can be considered independently of those in fuel combustion; the latter then is regarded simply as the source of the net heat required to finish a heat of steel. First of all, it should be remembered that a large percentage of the heat supplied to the bath is furnished by oxidation of the various elements in the charge itself. If this charge consisted of 80 to 100 per cent of hot metal and the oxidation were accomplished by blowing in air or oxygen, as in the bessemer converter, the net heat absorption would be negative; that is, the bath would contribute part of the heat required to keep the melting chamber hot, in addition to that contained in the finished steel and slag. In actual open-hearth practices, probably the nearest approach to this is in the duplex furnace, charged with bessemer-blown metal and some hot metal, where very little heat is required to complete the refining and nearly all the heat energy from fuel combustion is used to keep the roof and walls of the melting chamber up to around 2900 to 3000 F (1600 to 1650 C), so that the bath will not cool off during the refining. The other extreme is with all-cold charges containing around 80 per cent steel scrap and 20 per cent cast iron or cold pig iron, in which case a very large proportion of the heat in the bath at tap is supplied from the fuel combustion. THERMAL EFFECTS IN MELTING In a typical heat, the fuel furnishes about four million British thermal units per ton of steel produced. The heat required, for the metallurgical processes is not easily defined in useful manner but it ranges downward from about one million Btu, depending not only on the charge but on the manner of calculation. In, any event, this requirement appears. small in comparison with the

Jan 1, 1964

By John Rear Admiral Edwards

Introductory.-There are many interesting and important events connected with the petroleum problem. The remarkable men who conceived the thought of transporting petroleum by pipe line, conserving the by-products of the commodity, and conducting extended investigation and research whereby the flash point of the oil was raised, its cost reduced and its Supply assured, are deserving of the gratitude of this nation. It was primarily the success attained by Captain Lucas, after his comprehensive search for oil in Texas and Louisiana, that was the impelling cause. which 'prompted the Navy Department to conduct the extensive series of liquid fuel-oil tests that were made from 1901 to 1903. The sensational discovery of oil at Spindle Top made a deep impression upon Rear Admiral George W. Melville, then Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy, and the discovery of the vast oil field in Texas convinced him that, within a generation, if not within a decade, crude petroleum was going to play a very important part in warfare, and that the commodity might possibly develop into a necessary munition of war. The United States' Commanding Position as a Petroleum Producer.¬ In the study of the various problems relating to the world's production of crude petroleum, the position of the United States is one of commanding importance, whether viewed from the industrial or the military aspect. The present yield of this country is practically double that of the rest of the world, and, in view of the productive and prospective fields possessed by various countries, together with the comprehensive and exhaustive search that has been made throughout the world for petroleum, it is extremely probable that this lead will be maintained for the next decade. As regards the character of the crude-oil yield of different countries, America possesses the greater part of the supply that contains a paraffine base, and therefore a considerable portion at least of the American product produces the best illuminant. Of all the crude-oil distillates, kerosene is in many respects the most important, and the Appalachian product for this purpose is favored, particularly in the Far East, above that of any other petroleum yield of the world.

Jan 9, 1914

By Stanley C. Herold

Only two years ago there appeared in our technical magazines articles wherein it was shown that the application of back-pressure increased the ultimate production of a well, that edge water can be stopped in its encroachment by the injection of gas into the productive formation, with the consequent conservation of energy within the pool, that gas is the source of all energy involved in oil production, and that each pool has a definite minimum-valued gas-oil ratio to be attained for the most economical operation of wells. Today we are not so certain of these matters. Probably in some fields, under special circumstances, these ideas are correct, but certainly they must not be correct in all fields, under any and all circumstances. The nature of the productive structure, the location of particular properties on the structure, the existence of adjoining neighbors, whether these are higher or lower on the structure, and the methods of production followed by all operators on the structure, sand for sand on depth, make these subjects worthy of full consideration. Our difficulties in analyzing and comparing the performance of reservoirs in various parts of the world do not rest solely upon structural features and property lines. We do not complete the list of causes for these difficulties if we add lithologic features and correlation of strata encountered by the drill, with the magnitude of pressures exerted by fluids within any of these strata. A further cause, one which the author believes will complete the list, is one involving the theoretical mechanics of fluids within porous formations—porous in the nature of interstices in sandstones and some limestones, networks of fractures in shales, and cavities in otherwise compact limestones. The confusion of ideas concerning reservoir mechanics still with us today seems largely due to our failure to recognize among all wells three great divisions of theoretical mechanics, three great systems which are distinct in themselves, and according to which each well, or better, each group of wells, must be analyzed separately. These systems have been named by the writer Hydraulic Control, Volumetric Control and Capillary Control, respectively.' Wells in these controls behave dif-

Jan 1, 1930

By Joseph L. Patrick

Geologic exploration, which has experienced an upward trend in the United States since 1962, continued with increasing activity through 1965. New, spectacular discoveries of recent years and continued questionable economic and political climates in many areas of the world have continued to focus the exploration attention of an increasing number of companies on the United States. Traditional geologic field methods are being bolstered by development of new methods, techniques and geophysical instruments. Reports from the states emphasize that successful exploration is dependent upon the combined effort of geochemistry, geophysics and geology, with high quality laboratory support of the field effort becoming increasingly necessary. PROGRAMS NOW UNDERWAY IN WEST During 1965 mineral exploration reached an all- time high in Nevada. Although examinations are being carried on throughout the State, much of the work is limited to two areas. The first area to attract recent exploration interest, initiated by discovery of the Carlin gold mine by Newmont Mining Corp., is an area of windows near the leading edge of the Roberts Mountains thrust fault in northeastern Nevada. Included in this area are the old camps of Mountain City, Battle Mountain, Cortez, Mineral Hill and Eureka. Major mining companies are using a combination of surface mapping, geochemistry, geophysics (largely induced potential surveys), following up with drilling. The second area of exploration is along the Walker Lane, a wide shear zone that parallels the Nevada-California boundary from Virginia City to Las Vegas. Activity has been intense in the Tonopah-Yerington area. Discovery of a large copper-iron deposit following an airborne magnetometer survey first focused recent attention on Walker Lane. Sixteen major companies are involved in exploration in the State.

Jan 2, 1966

By Russell Salter, Edwin J. King

SINCE 1950, when perhaps two or three cyclones were being tested in Arizona, the number in use has grown to about 100. Most of these have come into operation within the last two or three years, and according to information supplied by various mining companies, the number will continue to grow for several years more. In mills that have been recently constructed, cyclones dominate the fine classification field, removing grit from lime slurries, producing smelter flux, reducing concentrate thickener overloads, classifying molybdenite in grinding circuits, and conditioning flotation feed. Four major copper companies are now testing cyclones in primary grinding circuits, and one concentrator soon to begin operation will classify entirely with cyclones. In at least two instances these versatile machines have been given a vital role in the construction of tailings disposal systems.

Jan 8, 1957

By L. G. Westgate

PART I.-AREAL GEOLOGY§ PIOCHE lies 240 mi. southwest of Salt Lake City, in southeastern Nevada, 19 in. west of the Nevada-Utah line. It is at the end of a branch line (33 m.), which connects at Caliente with the Los Angeles and Salt Lake division of the Union Pacific System. Its commercial relations are with Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, chiefly with the former. The surrounding area is part of the Great Basin, an arid region of alternating mountain range and intermont plain, the latter floored with outwash from the mountains. About Pioche the plain varies between 4700 and 6000 ft. above sea level. The town lies in a valley at the east base of a low northwest-southeast range (the Pioche Hills) 12 miles in length, which rises about 1000 ft. above the adjacent flat. West of the. Pioche Hills is a higher north-south range consisting of two parts: to the south the Highland Range, between Bennett Pass and Stampede Gap; to the north the Bristol Range, from Stampede Gap to Bristol Pass. This double range reaches altitudes of 8000 to 9000 ft., or more, (the highest point, Highland Peak, is 9395 ft.) and rises some 2500 ft. above the surrounding plain. It is continued in lower hills to north and south. Smaller ranges rise from the flat west of the Highland and Bristol ranges. The area studied and shown on the map (Fig. 1) is covered by 3 one inch to the-mile topographic sheets: the Highland Range, the. Bristol Range, and the Panaca, the latter mapped in part only. The sedimentary rocks of the district include Paleozoic limestones, sandstones and shales, Pliocene tuffs, and modern wash. Igneous rocks are represented by intrusive dikes and stocks and by extensive lava flows of mid-Tertiary time.

Jan 1, 1927

By H. C. Miller

The gas-lift method of flowing oil from wells is the outstanding feature of petroleum technology today. Its forerunner, the air-lift, was used successfully first, in the Baku fields of Russia, in 1899, and later in the Gulf Coast fields of Texas and Louisiana and the Kern River field of California. It is still used to a limited extent in certain oil fields. The use of compressed natural gas for lifting oil from wells has supplanted the air-lift method in a measure in those fields where a sufficient quantity of gas accompanies the oil to make the gas-lift possible, or where natural gas is plentiful and inexpensive. We find, therefore, in California, that natural gas is used at practically every well where a gaseous medium is employed to flow the oil. The use of natural gas has many advantages over that of air. It is possible to recover and save the gasoline from the gas that accompanies the oil to the surface. This gasoline would be wasted if air were used as the lifting medium. Also, certain proportions of air and gas form an explosive mixture that cannot be handled safely by compressors. Another advantage that gas has over air is that gas under pressure is more soluble in oil. Gas in solution in oil reduces the viscosity of the oil that is being produced and causes it to flow more readily through the tubing and flow lines. The gas-lift has made it possible to recover many thousands of barrels of oil from deep wells in California that could not have been produced otherwise. It would not have been economical, had it been mechanically possible, to produce such wells as the world's deepest producing oil well (Miley Athen's No. 6, Rosecrans field, California) by any other method of pumping known today. At this well, production is obtained from between 7305 and 7591 ft. and 11 months after completion of the well, production was being maintained on the gas-lift at approximately 2000 bbl. a month. The crookedness of the hole, or its diameter and depth will not prevent the successful application of gas-lift pumping when other conditions are favorable.

Jan 1, 1928

By William Price

DURING the past three or four years, the fabricators of silicon-bronze alloys have endeavored to induce risers of phosphor bronze to use instead the silicon-bronze alloys, claiming that the silicon bronzes are superior to the phosphor bronzes for switches and springs, or where high fatigue resistance is desired. This paper gives the results of tests comparing several phosphor bronzes with a 3 per cent silicon bronze and a copper-nickel-tin alloy (Adnic), all processed by the Scovill Manufacturing Co. So far as the authors are aware, sheet-metal fatigue tests have not been made on any of the alloys included in this report, except on one phosphor bronze, material C, Table 1, which was tested by Townsend and Greenall1.

Jan 1, 1937

The early Spanish adventurers found but little gold or silver on the American mainland, and the aborigines in the country that is now the United States were not as submissive as those of the West Indies, so the conquistadores obtained no foothold north of the Caribbean sea. Their later exploration north- ward had Mexico as a base-and wild yarns as a basis. The friar Marcos, a member of Estevanico's unfortunate expedition, brought the story of the Seven Cities of Cibola to Mexico City in 1539. Except as Indian hovels,* they existed only in a disordered imagination, but when Váquez de Coronado's expedition pricked the glittering bubble, there appeared an enticing mirage in the northern desert: the glorious land of Quivira, where even-the common pitchers and bowls were made of solid gold. Coronado proceeded northward and found only enormous herds of buffalo on the plains of Texas. It was a melancholy land. No gold or silver was to be seen among the poor Indians. Coronado reached the country of the Wichitas, in Kansas, before he abandoned his quest and turned home, which he reached, with only a third of his party, hungry and tattered, in 1542. So long as greed stimulates the imagination there will be no lack of tales such as those that repeatedly led the Spaniards to the rainbow's end. In 1860 an expedition was organized in San Francisco by Dr. Darwin French to explore the desert country near Owens lake on the news that the Indians in those parts shot golden bu1lets.t The fact that the savages were known to possess few guns did not discredit the tale, which

Jan 1, 1932

By L. D. Wooddy, Robert Moscrip

The simultaneous solution of the volumerric balance and the unsteady-state equation has been used for several years to make performance calculations for combination drive reservoirs. This method makes possible the calculation of volumetric changes of fluids in the gas cap, oil zone, and aquifer which occur as a result of withdrawals and reservoir pressure changes. It does not provide a means for the determination of reservoir fluid distribution changes corresponding to these vollrmetric changes. A knowledge of the fluid saturation distribution in the reservoir at various stages of depletion is important for the determination of the efficiency of gas and water as oil-displacement media and, therefore, for the reliable predicrion of ultimate oil recovery. To provide this knowledge, the displacement equations are solved simultaneously with the volumetric balance and unsteady-state equations. The described calculation procedure has been used satisfactorily to analyze the past performance and to predict the future behavior of combination drive reservoirs under both primary and pressure-maintenance operations. INTRODUCTION The three basic mechanisms by which oil is displaced from a reservoir are: (1) dissolved gas drive—the displacement of oil by the expansion of liberated solution gas, (2) water drive—the displacement of oil by water which enters the oil zone from the aquifer, and (3) gas cap drive—the displacement of oil by gas which ex- pands into the oil zone from the gas cap. The action of gravitational forces may be effective in increasing the efficiency of the basic drive mechanisms. Gravitational forces favor the segregation both of gas and oil and of oil and water, thus tending to shorten the transition zone between oil and displacing fluids. Most reservoirs produce under the influence of a combination of these drives and are designated "combination drive reservoirs". Fig. 1 is a cross section of a typical combination drive reservoir. A calculation procedure for analyzing the performance of combination drive reservoirs has been developed by combining the displacement equations' with the volumetric balance equation' and the unsteady-state equations. The pressure-production performance and the positions of the gas-oil and oil-water contacts are calculated for several stages of reservoir depletion by solving these equations simultaneously, thus affording a basis for: 1. Determining instantaneous and ultimate oil, gas, and water production under various operating conditions. 2. 'Establishing a maximum efficient rate of production, 3. Determining the advantages of pressure maintenance and unitization, and 4. Designing surface installations necessary for primarv and pressure-maintenance operations. DEFINITIONS The calculation procedure for combination drive res-

Jan 1, 1957

By Howard Eavenson

THE mines of the United States Coal & Coke Co. are located in the Pocahontas coal field, in McDowell County, West Virginia. Twelve plants have been opened and equipped, of which, by reason of the present business depression, only nine are now in operation. These twelve plants serve eighteen mines; some of the plants having several openings, in either the same seam or in different seams, tributary to the same tipple. Only nine of these mines are now being worked at the plants in operation. Construction work was begun in 1902, and coal from the first three plants started was shipped in December of that year. An additional plant was opened in 1903, two in 1904, two in 1905, two in 1907 and the last two in 1908. On Jan. 1, 1915, the plants have been in operation an average period of 8.8 years. The rules of the company, which have been in operation since work was first begun, are similar to those in use by the H. C. Frick Coke Co. at its mines in Pennsylvania, in which "Safety First" was incorporated as early as 1907; and it has always been the policy of both companies to look carefully after the safety of their employees. Although the field is an extension of the old Pocahontas field, the mines, located upon a new branch railroad, are away by themselves, and, as is usual in such cases, the class of labor attracted at first was temporary in character. The rapid development of the mines required the employment of many new men and officials each year; and, while the accident record from 1904 to 1909 was as good as the average of the field, it was felt to be not as good as it could be made, and a determined campaign was inaugurated for preventing accidents of all kinds. Fig. .1 shows the tonnage of coal produced per fatality, both total and for inside accidents only, at our mines; the tonnage per fatality of all West Virginia mines, and of those in the Pocahontas field.

Jan 2, 1915

By W. D. Robertson, H. H. Uhlig

The intermetallic compounds MgzSn and Mg2Pb are two of the important series of stoichiometric compounds which magnesium forms with elements of the fourth group of the periodic system. Since there is a complete series of compounds, all possessing the same comparatively simple structure, a unique opportunity is presented to study their properties with respect to increasing atomic number of the anion as it varies from silicon and germanium, through tin and lead. The present work deals with the two lower members of this group, and it is hoped eventually that additional data regarding the silicide and germanide will be obtained. The results of such a complete study provide part of the essential basis for the empirical correlation and theoretical treatment which, in other systems, has contributed to an understanding of inter-metallic compounds and the metallic'state in general. Some experimental data are already available in the literature. However, they are fragmentary and limited in significance owing to the methods of preparation employed and the impure materials available at the time. It was our objective, therefore, using pure metals and improved metallurgical methods of preparation, to produce stoichiometric compounds of high purity for the study of their electrical and chemical properties. We felt that a detailed investigation of chemical properties, about which relatively little is known, combined with electrical properties, would be a significant contribution to the understanding of these compounds and in particular to the mechanism of corrosion associated with types of bonding in alloy systems. The chemical studies are reported elsewhere. Previous Investigations Previous work concerning the electrical properties of these compounds was undertaken in connection with the establishment of the two phase diagrams which are available in Hansenl and Beck. The first comprehensive investigation of the electrical conductivity of magnesium-tin and magnesium-lead alloys was made by Kurnakov and Stepanov.3 This was followed by Grube and Voss-kiihler4 who studied electrical conductivity and thermal expansion over a wide range of temperature and who, unlike Stepanov, appreciated the significance of the large solid solubility of tin in magnesium and took some precautions to obtain an equilibrium state. However, at the time these investigations were made, neither pure magnesium nor

Jan 1, 1949