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By Frank Foote, E. R. Jette

In recent years the constitution of the high-silver aluminum-silver alloys has been extensively investigated. Hansenl has reviewed the literature to 1935. More recently, Obinata and Hagiya,2 Hofmann and Volk,3 Taziri4 and Tishchenko5 have confirmed the general features of the phase diagram in the region around 25 atomic per cent aluminum. In this paper we present the results of high-precision measurements of lattice constants of the silver-rich alpha solid solution in the homogeneous range and the neighboring two-phase regions. These results are used to establish the nature of the solid solution, the identity of directly measured densities with those calculated from lattice constants and the homogeneity limits of the alpha solid solution with respect to three different neighboring phases. A study of the earlier investigations indicated that the last two subjects in particular required new and accurate data. Experimental Procedure Preparation of the Alloys.—The alloys were made from high-purity silver and aluminum. The silver was "Proof Silver," 99.999 per cent pure, supplied by the U. S. Metals Refining Co. The aluminum was 99.97 per cent pure (contained Si, 0.009 per cent; Fe, 0.0016 per cent; Cu, 0.004 per cent) and was supplied by the Aluminum Company of America. The lattice constants of these two materials have been reported by Jette and Foote.6 Weighed amounts of the two metals were placed in alundum crucibles and melted in vacuo in a high-frequency induction furnace. The melts were allowed to cool in the crucible, the ingots thus obtained weighed about 10 grams. These ingots were then filed clean, hamered, again cleaned and given a homogenizing anneal in vacuo of from 6 to 15 days at temperatures ranging from 500" to 695°C. The ingots were air-cooled from the annealing temperature. Lattice-constant Measurements.—Carefully prepared filings for X-ray analysis were sealed into evacuated quartz or Pyrex tubes and annealed for various periods of time at suitable temperatures. The furnaces used were vertical, rapid-quenching furnaces, the samples being quenched by crushing the sample tube under water by means of a heavy plunger. The general X-ray technique has been previously described6 The cameras were of the symmetrical, back-reflection, focussing type. Ka, radiation from a cobait-nickel alloy target was used. The wave-length values were taken from the second edition of Siegbaum's book.7 A correction for the index of refraction was applied and the lattice constants were calculated by the method of Cohen.8, 6 The lattice constants were calculated to a common temperature of 25°C., using the value of the linear expansion coefficient of pure silver as 18.9 X 10-6. Presumably the expansion coefficient for

Jan 1, 1941

By E. H. Rose

IN these days of the spectacular in research and technological accomplishment, it is easy and natural to overlook some of the applications to everyday life of recent developments of a more pedestrian kind, or to fail to realize that sometimes two or three of the latter may be combined to serve a novel purpose in fields other than those in which they grew. The present remarks are to point out three such developments which might be combined to apply to an everyday function of the A.I.M.E. as an organization. By its Constitution, the A.I.M.E. is organized "to promote the arts and sciences connected with . . . minerals and metals, and the welfare of those employed in these industries . . .; to hold meetings for social intercourse and the reading and discussion of professional papers, and to circulate . . . among its members the information thus obtained . . .; and to . . . maintain . . . a library." By these words of Article I the profession of mining and metallurgy is recognized to involve many arts and sciences, of which the art and science of exchanging information is a leading one. As to methods of preparing or securing papers, the Constitution is silent.

Jan 1, 1944

By Bernard MacDonald

Introduction. OF the treatment of the slime-pulp of gold- and silver-ores by cyanidation, agitation is an essential part. When prepared for treatment, this pulp, consisting of ore reduced to such fineness that approximately 80 per cent. of it will pass through a 200-mesh screen, is mixed with a certain proportion of water, carrying in solution the quantity of cyanide (KCN) and other chemicals required. The water-constituent of the pulp thus prepared usually ranges from 1 to 2 parts by weight to 1 of the dry ore. Thus constituted', the pulp is charged into treatment-tanks, the shape and capacity of which vary, according to the quantity of pulp to be treated daily and the method of agitation to be employed. Tanks have no other function in a cyanide-plant than that of being economical and convenient containers or receptacles for holding the pulp, solution, or water used in the operations. It is by agitation that the solids in the pulp charged into the tanks are kept in suspension in, and mixed with, the solution in the proper proportions required for the treatment. If the proper mixture of solution to solids be determined to be 2 to 1 by weight (which is, approximately, 5 to 1 by volume), this proportion should be maintained in every part of the charge ; -that is, each solid particle of the pulp, whether it be of 180- or 400-mesh size, should, be surrounded by five times its own volume of solution throughout the whole period of treatment. The reason is, that the amount of chemicals ascertained to be necessary for dissolving the gold and silver contained in the solids, is held in uniform solution in the water-constituent of the pulp, and, therefore, the determined proportions of solution and solids must be maintained at all times during treat-

Apr 1, 1912

By B. M. Burchfiel

CALIFORNIA possesses such an abundance of ceramic materials other than clays, that she is quite independent of other states and foreign countries so far as these materials are concerned. Certain users import some feldspar, silica, and allied minerals, but they do so from choice and not necessity. Production is largely for home consumption, so the total volume of ceramic materials produced is comparatively small. Many small deposits of the materials here under discussion are worked by individuals, and their output sold to individual grinding companies or users. The data given here shall be confined to the larger deposits and developments because they give a truer picture of typical deposits, operations, and materials.

Jan 1, 1936

THE third annual Joint Western Mining Convention, held at Los Angeles, Sept. 10 to 13 inclusive, was a notable success both as to attendance and interest. Registration the first day amounted to 201, and the total crept up to 347 before the close. The American Institute of Mining Engineers was well represented, approximately 80% of those registered and most of the speakers being members. This illustrates largely the amount of interlocking membership and the reason for holding at one time and place meetings of the several related organizations. The plan has proved so successful that it is probable that Spokane will extend an invitation for next year that seems likely to be accepted. It is proposed that the convention be timed so as to permit visitors from the East to stop there Oct. 3 to 5, en route to the American Institute of Mining Engineers meeting at San Francisco, Oct. 7 to 9. Simultaneously, it is expected that the Petroleum Division will hold its fall session at Los Angeles, the two streams of travel meeting in San Francisco, just before departure of the party of engineers traveling to Japan to attend the World's Engineering Congress. The Los Angeles meeting opened Monday morning with a general session under the auspices of the Western Division of the American Mining Congress with Philip Wiseman in the chair. After a series of short responses to the welcome extended, Charles W. Merrill discussed the needs of the western mining industry. A complimentary luncheon to members and delegates followed.

Jan 1, 1928

J. Lainson Wills, Ottawa, Can. (Communication to the Secretary) : The localities of the Quebec and Ontario apatite deposits, and the nature of their occurrence haye been often described in the Transactions and in other publications that are readily available, and I do not, therefore, intend to discuss the many details advanced in Mr. Small's paper beyond the following two points:

Jan 1, 1893

By B. R. Banerjee

MATERIAL used throughout this investigation was high-purity aluminum (99.998 pct). The 1/2-in. cubes were cut out of a cold-rolled slab and annealed at 550°C for 1 hr before deformation. The single crystal specimen was 1 in. in diam x 0.33 in. thick, cut from a cylindrical crystal produced by cooling at about 55°C per hr in a furnace which had a convenient gradient of about 10°C in every 4.5 in. vertical crucible length. Specific data on the ten specimens studied are summarized in table I. Three types of deformation were employed: (I) compression in a hand-operated hydraulic press; (2) impact with a 7-lb sledge hammer; and (3) rolling, using a wedge-shaped specimen' to obtain a gradient of deformations varying from 0 to 50 pct along the length of the wedge. Specimens were either deformed at room temperature, or first cooled in a freezing mixture of dry ice and ether at a temperature of —72°C and then deformed between steel blocks cooled with dry ice. The specimens deformed at the low temperature were ground and polished through 000 emery paper and wheels impregnated with alundum and alumina No. 1. During this entire procedure the specimens were dipped frequently in the freezing mixture of dry ice and ether in order to maintain constantly a frosty surface as insurance against overheating. All specimens were given a final electrolytic polish, using two different electrolytes* to insure that the surface effects observed were not char- acteristic of the polishing technique. With both electrolytes, the annealed specimens gave even surfaces with good polish. Several standard etchants were tried without success. The best results were obtained with an immersion etchant, developed in this connection, containing: hydrofluoric acid, 4 parts; nitric acid, 1 part; glycerine, 3 parts. Discussion of Results Typical strain markings have been observed within deformation bands, as shown in figs. 1, 2, and 4. By stereographic plotting of metallographic measurements, the strain markings within a deformation band in a single crystal of aluminum deformed by compression were found to be traces of (111) planes within a maximum scatter of 6". The edges of the deformation band were found to be traces of the (100) planes also within the maximum scatter of 6" (in agreement with previous workers). At 30 pct deformation, this scatter was considered quite normal because of the fragmentation and rotation of the crystal. This solution, based on the traces on one plane of observation is not unique, but as the planes were observed to be those normally and logically to be expected, further work in this regard was not felt to be necessary. The study of strain markings in a wedge-shaped specimen, rolled to obtain a gradient of deformation from 0 to 50 pct, revealed prominent strain markings at 25 pct reduction in thickness (fig.5). Faint and weak strain markings were visually observable up to a minimum reduction in thickness of about 12 pct. Since strain markings have been observed in other face-centered cubic metals after much smaller deformations;1, 2 and since the rate of recovery in aluminum is high, it is believed that, at lower deformations, self-recovery removes the localized strains at the slip interfaces, thus removing the source of the etching effects that give rise to strain markings. At high magnifications, strain markings sometimes seem to appear as very thin, light-banded re-gions bounded by a pair of dark edges. This so-

Jan 1, 1951

By W. L., Yerkes

AN interesting study of the application of air-, conditioning to the problem of mine ventilation and cooling can be found on the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Here there are a large number of deep mines in a relatively small area. Due to the nature of the reef, many mines are working at a depth of 6000 ft. and some have gone down to 8000 and 9000 ft. below the surface. At such depths, even in a country geologically as old as Africa, the virgin rock temperature approaches 110°F. The flow of heat from the- rock to the ventilation air is tremendous though the shaft or drift may have been open to ventilation for some years. In addition, there is the heat produced by machinery, lights, and men at work and the heat of adiabatic compression of air introduced into the mine. The difference in atmosphere pressure between the collar of a shaft and a level 6000 ft. below is nearly 3lb. per sq. in., resulting in an increase in heat content of nearly four B.T.U. per pound of air delivered to the mine at surface. Further the exclusive use of wet mining to reduce the incidence of miner?s phthisis increases the latent- heat content of the air.

Jan 1, 1941

By Roland Kammel

For electrolytic recovery of silver from dilute aqueous solutions improved mass transfer is necessary to achieve favourable current efficiencies and high space-time yields. The many cell designs proposed for this application can be divided into two different groups: cells from which the silver must be redissolved and cells from which the deposit can be reclaimed as a metal. Introduction Electrolytic silver recovery methods have proven advantageous under technical and economic aspects for the treatment of rinse water, still rinses and spent silver solutions in the electroplating and surface finishing industry, of exhausted fixing baths from photographic processing, bleed electrolytes from silver refining processes and leach liquors. Examples of the compositions of typical dilute silver solutions are listed in Table I.

Jan 1, 1984

By Harold B. Fell

MANY oil producers are in disagreement with the idea held by some that an increase in the price of crude oil would be unlikely to stimulate much production and that we will be obliged to draw upon foreign sources of petroleum to supplement our domestic production as the years go by. Supporting our con trary opinion are numerous facts and figures. The most recent official estimate of the maximum efficient rate of production from the oil wells of the United States is 5,271,000 bbl per day. The Economics Advisory Committee of the Interstate Oil Compact Commission estimates, assuming certain supplies from imports and from natural gasoline and benzol, that crude oil require-

Jan 1, 1947

By T. Sterry Hunt

Jan 1, 1884

By Donald H. McLaughlin, John H. Moses

IN the latitude of Lima, the broad uplifted block that forms the Andes is made up of a complex sequence of folded and faulted sediments and volcanics, broken by large and small bodies of granitic rocks and porphyries with which the principal mineral deposits are closely associated in both time and space. The intrusives are a final episode in the geologic history as revealed by the consolidated rocks, for after their emplacement and after the formation of the primary ore deposits in and about them the record is simply one of long continued erosion and uplift.

Jan 1, 1945

By C. Feng, I. R. Kramer

A study was conducted to determine the influence of the surface on the yield point of fcc metals and high-purity iron. For the high-purity fcc metals, the yield Point produced by restraining a specimen may be eliminated by removing a sufficient amount of the layer. A yield point similar to that in fcc metals was found when iron specimens were pre-strained after a prior deformation. This yield point is not due to an aging effect but is associated with the surface layer. The yield points in age-hardenable aluminum alloy and those connected with "work softening" are not affected by a surface-removal treatment and are, therefore, caused by bulk-type dislocation reactions. The yield point which appears in previously strained fcc metals has been the subject of numerous studies. Several theories have been advanced to explain this "unloading-reloading" yield point. Cottrell and stokes,' from their study on the effect of temperature on plastic properties of high-purity aluminum, considered that it was the result of an avalanche "breakdown" of Lomer-Cottrell sessile dislocations. Haasen and Kelly2 extended this concept of dislocation-dislocation interaction to account for the yield point when unloading and reloading was carried out at the same temperature. On the other hand, strain aging was found to be responsible for the yield point in A1-Mg alloy by Westwood and Broom,3 and in aluminum alloys containing various amounts of alloying elements by Smallman, Williamson, and Ardley.4 In these cases, the yield point is considered to be associated with the locking of dislocations by impurity atoms. Birn-baum and filer5,6 and Takamura and muira7 reported that, when a high-purity copper specimen was prestrained, then held at a lower stress, and finally reloaded at the prestrain temperature, a larger yield point was observed. Such an increase was attributed to the locking of dislocations by point defects. In addition, Bolling8 suggested that both mechanisms, i.e., dislocation-dislocation interaction and strain aging, are responsible for the yield phenomenon, at least in a brass. Thus, there appears to be experimental evidence for both the strain aging and dislocation-dislocation interaction theories to explain the yield point in the fcc metals and alloys. In a previous article,9 one of the authors observed that, if sufficient amounts of metal were electrolti-cally removed after deformation of a high-purity aluminum single crystal, the yield point did not appear upon reloading. Continued pursuit in this area revealed that the effect of the surface on the yield-point phenomenon is not limited to one metal but affects a variety of metals of different lattice structures. Nor is the effect limited to the yield points produced by simple unloading-reloading at constant temperature; the surface exerts an important role on the yield point even when the temperature is changed at some stage during the test. It is the intent of the present article to give additional information regarding the effect of the surface on the yield-point phenomenon and to show the association between the yield point in both fcc and bcc metals and the existence of a heavy concentration of dislocation in the region near the surface of a deformed specimen.10 EXPERIMENTAL Materials. The single crystals used in this study had a nominal cross section of 0.125 by 0.125 in. and a 3-in. gage length and were prepared by a modified Bridgman technique. The initial purity for the metals was 99.997, 99.999, and 99.999 pct for aluminum, copper, and gold, respectively. Bar stock of these same materials was used in the preparation of the polycrystalline specimens of aluminum and copper. The iron specimens were machined from rods of "ferrovac", reported to have a purity of 99.98 pct. In addition, a precipitation-hardening aluminum alloy, containing 1.5 pct Cu, 2.5 pct Mg, and 5.5 pct Zn, was used. The polycrystalline specimens of iron, copper, and the aluminum alloy had a diameter of 0.17 in. and a gage length of 2 in. while the high-purity aluminum specimen had a nominal rec-

Jan 1, 1965

By Sydney H. Ball

A QUARTER of a century ago, a pessimistic Belgian financier in conversation with the founder of the Belgian Congo, that great ruler, Leopold II, emphasized the danger to the colony should the synthesis of rubber be discovered. The king replied, "I do not worry. The Congo has had its ivory period; it now has its rubber period. Tomorrow it will have that of its mineral wealth; eventually that of agricultural products." That "tomorrow" arrived some twenty years ago. Through her mines the Belgian Congo has survived the present depression, and her mines for the next decade will safeguard her. The Congo, in turn. is the surest foundation industrially and financially of Belgium itself. In few, if any, political units is mining as dominant as in the Belgian Congo. In 1930, 1931 and 1932 mineral products represented respectively 67.9 per cent. 70.5 per cent and 59.3 per cent, of the total exports. In 1933 for each white person in the colony, there was produced about $1,675 worth of gold, diamonds, copper, tin ore and minor mineral products and in 1930 the per capita production, notwithstanding the larger population, was almost $2,000.

Jan 1, 1934

By Paul L. Hunter

Nearly 2000 people are employed at Kennecott's Chino Mines Division, which recently completed its 50th year as a leading copper producer. Chino operates an open pit mine at Santa Rita, N.M., and a reduction plant, including mill, power plant, and smelter, at Hurley, N.M. The property mines 66,000 tons of copper ore and materials per day. There have been safety and industrial health programs at Chino for a number of years, but in 1955 these procedures were reorganized on a more active basis. The following discussion evaluates the progress made during the 1955-1958 period.

Jan 6, 1960

Edward A. UehlinG, New York City (communication to the Secretary*):—Mr. Baker's paper is one that brings up a subject of great importance, and if full statistics could be collectecl of the number of furnace-linings ruined by reason of bad distribution by skip-hoists, it would be found an astonishing array. Unfortunately a universal remedy has not yet been found. The fact that Mr. Baker has apparently succeeded in overcoming the trouble at Sydney, is no guarantee that the same remedy applied at another plant, where very different or even slightly different conditions prevail, mould cure the trouble. That it requires but a slight continuous difference of penetrability in the column of the descending stock of one section, over another, to produce channeling, is clearly demonstrated by Mr. Baker's experiments, by which he reversed the channeling from front to rear instead of remedying the trouble. Every change in the physical make-up of the charge necessarily requires a specific adjustment; even supposing this feasible, the regular working of the furnace is by no means assured, because with the high pressures now customary, the tendency of the ascending gases to plow their way through in a direct course, prevails, and having once opened up a passage, they will persist and cause trouble. Homogeneous filling-, hard driving and regularity of working are incompatible. The higher the furnace, the greater the

Jan 1, 1905

By J. W. Stewart

THE aim of this paper is to point out the various ways in which design is taught in standard four-year mining engineering curricula in American colleges and universities; to discuss the reasons apparently justifying the great diversity of procedure that exists along this line; and to indicate possible solutions to the difficulties now attending the teaching of design. A study was made of typical four-year mining engineering curricula in 15 colleges and universities of the United States (Table I). Great diversity in content of the various design courses, if taught as described, became apparent immediately. It appeared that it might be both interesting and instructive if the cause for this colorful variety could be found. Was the cause local mining conditions, departmental individuality, or actual necessity? Study of the school catalogues revealed that the various design courses could be classified into two fairly distinct types; namely, (I) those dealing with mine equipment or structures, and (2) those dealing with underground layout of mine workings. It seemed reasonable to label the first type of course "mining design" and the second type "mine design." Some such distinction must have been in the minds of mining educators, for we find both names (i.e., mine design and mining design) used to designate the design courses included in the various mining curricula. Unhappily, the name and the apparent content of such courses do not, in all instances, conform to the classification made here, although in most instances such conformation does obtain (Table I), It is possible that in the exceptional case the method of teaching a design course, and consequently the content of it, may have been changed at some time without change in the name of the course. Apparently only 3 of the I5 schools made an effort to cover both types of design in their curricula (Table I). Two other schools did not list or describe any course of study that could with certainty be taken as a design course. Of the remaining 10 schools, 9 gave a mining-design type of course and one gave a strictly mine-design type. Obviously, the preponderance of design courses afforded are of the mining-design type. Why? To answer this question, it is necessary to make a study of the prerequisites for the two types of design courses taught. In all schools the design courses were taught in the senior year; in eight, design was taught throughout both semesters; in two, it was taught during the first semester only; and in three it was taught during the second semester only. Consequently, excepting the last three cases noted, it is obvious that all prerequisites for a design course should be completed by the end of the junior year. PREREQUISITES What are the probable prerequisites for the different kinds of design courses as they appear to be taught? Let us take first the case of the mine-design type of course, having to do with layout of underground workings. Here it would seem that logical

Jan 1, 1941

The State Mining Experiment Station, Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla, Mo Charles H. Fulton, Director of the School of Mines Martin H. Thornberry, Director of the Mining Experiment Station. From the State Mining Experiment Station are issued all the general and technical bulletins of the School of Mines The latest bulletin containing a complete list of publications will be sent upon application to the Director of the Station Residents of the state may obtain bulletins as issued without charge, or may ask to be placed on the mailing list. Nonresidents should write to the Director for further information concerning specific bulletins. From the long list of bulletins the following have been care¬fully selected as being most likely to interest the geologist and the mining engineer. Vol 8, No. 1 (1916), Bibliography of concentrating ores by flotation, by J Cunningham, vol 1, No 3 (1912), Some apparatus and methods for demonstrating rock drilling and the loading of drill holes in tunneling, by L E Young, vol 2, No 1 (1915), Comparative tests of piston drill bits, by C R Forbes and L M Cummings; vol 2, No 3 (1916), Cupellation losses in assaying, by H. T Mann and C. Y Clayton; vol 4, No 1 (1917), The hydrometallurgy and electrolytic precipitation of zinc, by F D. James; vol 4, No 2 (1917), The effect of additional agents in flotation, pt 1, by M. H. Thornberry and H T. Mann, vol 5, No 1 (1919), The carbonization of Missouri cannel coals, by H L. Dunlap, K. K. Kershner and V. X Smiley. Vol 5, No. 4 (1921), Coal mining methods in Missouri, by W W Weigel, vol 6, No 1 (1921), The problem of the St Peter sand¬stone, by C L Dake, 50 cents, vol 6, No. 2 (1922), Bibliography on the electrothermic metallurgy of zinc, by B M. O'Harra, vol 6, No. 4 (1923), Experiments on the distillation of zinc from complex zinc-lead-silver ores, by B M. O'Harra and E S. Wheeler, vol 7, No 3 (1924), Underground loading devices, by C. E. van Barneveld, 81; vol 7, No. 4 (1924), Briquetting of zinc ores, by B. M. O'Harra; vol. 8, No 2 (1925), A treatise of Missouri clays, by M. H. Thornberry.

Jan 1, 1933

By John D. Roach

DURING an investigation of the yttrium-hydrogen system aimed at producing solid yttrium hydride specimens containing various amounts of hydrogen, it was observed that yttrium containing approximately 2 wt pct H exhibited a tendency to crack and crumble to a powder on standing in air at room temperature. It was also observed that longer hydriding times, at a given temperature, increased this susceptibility to powdering without an increase in hydrogen content, also that moisture in the air is necessary for the observed effects to occur. Even if cracking did not occur, there was a continual formation of a light gray powder on the as-treated surface of the hydrided yttrium and this reaction continues until the entire hydrided piece has been reduced to a powder. Storing the hydrided specimens in the absence of air or removing the surface either by machining or grinding were effective means of preventing this disintegration of hydrided yttrium. In an attempt to determine the reason for this powdering phenomenon, the surfaces of a number of as-hydrided yttrium specimens were examined by X-ray techniques. In all cases the X-ray pattern obtained showed the major phase to be yttrium hydride (YH2) as would be expected since the specimens contained 2 to 2.2 wt pct H. In some cases a trace of yttrium oxide was observed. There was also a third phase present on the surface of these hydrided specimens which could not immediately be identified. This unknown phase was a face-centered cubic material, NaC1-type structure, with a lattice parameter of 4.855 and a calculated density of 5.914 g per cc. Very slight hand polishing of the surface of the hydrided yttrium specimens completely removed both the unknown phase and the traces of oxide so that only the yttrium hydride pattern remained. Based on the X-ray patterns the quantity of the unknown phase on the surface of the hydrided yttrium appeared to be directly related to the susceptibility of the material to powdering. Work at the Denver Research Institute on the yttrium-nitrogen binary system showed that yttrium nitride (YN) is a face-centered cubic material with a lattice parameter of 4.878A and a density of 5.890 g per cc. They also noted that this compound rapidly disintegrated to a powder on standing in air. The unknown pattern observed in the above specimens corresponds very closely to that of the nitride—fcc structure, 4.885 parameter, and density of 5.914 g per cc. The presence of this thin film of nitride on the surface of the hydrided specimens probably accounts for the observed powder formation and crumbling. The nitride reacts with the water vapor in the air (verified by private communication from Dr. C. Huffine, General Electric Co.) to yield yttrium oxide and ammonia. Ammonia is readily detected when hydrided yttrium specimens were allowed to stand in bottled moist air. The powder formed on the surface of the hydrided specimens was shown by X-ray analysis to be yttrium oxide. This reaction appears to occur primarily at the grain boundaries since discrete particles of yttrium hydride separate from the specimens during this powdering process. The reaction of yttrium nitride with water vapor is believed to be as follows: 2YN + 3H2O - Y203 + 2NH3. Despite the fact that this nitride is present only as an extremely thin surface film, if the above reaction is not prevented by removing this film from the surface either by machining or grinding, the reaction continues until the entire hydrided piece has been reduced to a powder. To account for this continuation of the reaction, it is believed that the following reactionalsooccurs: 2YH2 + 2NH3 -2YN + 5H2. The nitride produced by the latter reaction reacts in turn with water vapor. The reaction therefore becomes autocatalytic and continues until the hydride has been consumed and the entire piece reduced to oxide powder. The amount of nitride required to initiate this reaction is quite small and this nitrogen contamination can occur from a number of sources—hydrogen gas employed, minute leak in the hydriding apparatus or even from degassing of the reaction vessel itself. Longer hydriding times increase the possibility of nitrogen contamination and this is especially true when a dynamic gas system is employed in the hydriding process. The production of stable, solid hydrided yttrium is dependent on the complete absence of nitrogen contamination during processing. If such contamination does occur, powdering of the hydrided product can be prevented by removing the nitride from the surface e.g. grinding or by preventing access of air to the pieces e.g. sealing in wax or plastic. The author wishes to express his appreciation to General Electric Co. for sponsoring this research and for permission to publish the results of work under Subcontract AT-93.

Jan 1, 1962

By W. Bonfield

The microstrain characteristics of a polycrystal-line Cu 1.9 wt pet Be precipitation-hardening alloy have been determined for various conditions of aging. The friction stress remained constant for all the conditions investigated, whereas the microscopic yield stress (the stress to produce a plastic strain of 2 x 10-8 in. per in.) and the three-stage stress-strain curve in the microstrain region were sensitive to changes in dislocation and precipitate distribution. Correlations between the measurements of microplasticity and electron-nzicroscope observations of substructure are considered. ALTHOUGH the macroscopic mechanical properties of Cu 1.5 to 2.0 wt pet Be precipitation-harden ing alloys were established' in some detail, there has been no previous investigation of the nature of microyield-ing in these alloys. This paper describes a high-sensitivity extensometer determination of microplasticity in polycrystalline Cu 1.9 wt pet Be, in which the friction stress, the microscopic yield stress (the stress to produce a plastic strain of 2 x 10-6 in. per in.), and the rate of strain hardening in the micro-strain region were measured for various conditions of precipitation. The structural changes accompanying aging in this alloy were examined using transmission electron microscopy, a study which differed from previous investigations as, in order to minimize grain boundary precipitation effects,' the solution-treated alloy was cold-rolled to 40 pet reduction prior to aging. Hence the extent of recovery and recrystalliza-tion, as well as the variation of precipitate morphology and distribution, were assessed. From these results possible correlations between the microstrain characteristics and the observed precipitate and dislocation structure are considered. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The material investigated was a commercial copper beryllium alloy (Berylco 25), which had a com- position of 1.9 wt pet Be and 0.2 wt pet Co. The alloy was solution-treated at 800°C, quenched in water, and then cold-rolled to 40 pct reduction. Tensile specimens of gage length 1 in. and rectangular cross section of 0.18 by 0.06 in. were prepared from the solution-treated, cold-rolled material and aged for 15 min, 2, 24, and 100 hr at 315°C and 24 hr at 425°C to produce a range of precipitate structure. The hardness values associated with these conditions are listed in Table I. It can be seen that a maximum value is obtained after 2 hr at 315oC, which decreases with continued time at temperature to a minimum after 24 hr at 425°C. For comparison some as-solution-treated specimens were also aged for 2 hr at 315°C. The specimens heat-treated to a given condition were examined in two ways. First, the nature and distribution of the precipitate and dislocation structure was characterized using transmission electron microscopy. Thin foils were obtained from the specimens by electrolytic polishing in a 30 pet nitric acid-alcohol solution at -20oC, and were examined in an RCA EMU 3 electron microscope. Second, the mi-croplastic behavior of the specimens was measured with a Tuckerman strain gage, using the load-unload technique previously described2, 3 to determine the friction stress, the microscopic yield stress, and the variation of plastic microstrain with stress. RESULTS 1) Structural Changes During Aging. a) Annealing Processes. The solution-treated, cold-rolled Cu 1.9 wt pet Be had an irregular dislocation-cell structure,

Jan 1, 1968