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By D. M. Thayer, P. B. Linkson

High intensity wet magnetic separation methods have received much attention in the search for alternative and effective methods to treat weakly magnetic minerals. This paper examines the incorporation of such techniques in the beneficiation of a non-sliming specular Michigan Hematite. The dependence of separation efficiency and beneficiation of specular hematite on various parameters controlling the operation of such a device is investigated experimentally. Particular attention is focused on particle size limitations imposed in these separations. In light of these data, metallurgical balances are presented and an attempt made to rationalize the various models suggested in the literature.

Jan 1, 1982

By J. C. Smock

The magnetic and polaric properties of magnetite, or magnetic iron ore: are fundamental facts in magnetism. The disturbing erect of this mineral upon the magnettic needle in land surveying must have been very early observed. The difficulties arising from this source are still almost insurmountable in making accurate surveys in districts where this ore occurs to any extent, either as a rock

By R. Schuhmann

Distribution of material in the fine sizes of a comminution product generally is well represented by the empirical equation [ ] in which y = cumulative percent finer, x = particle size, = distribution modulus, and k = size modulus. Charles found that the energy consumption in comminution is usefully expressed by another empirical relation, [ ] in which E = energy input per unit volume of material, A = a constant, k = size modulus based on Eq. 1, and n = a constant; ( 1-n) is the slope of a plot of log E vs log k. Holmes has presented energy equations similar to Eq. 2.

Jan 2, 1960

By Allan M. Hale

The paper discusses past trends in phosphate reclamation, indicating advantages and disadvantages of land and lakes, sand tailings capped with overburden, phosphate slimes capped with overburden, and overburden fill reclamation. In addition, new techniques of reclamation such a clay settling-pond disposal and wetland restoration are discussed.

Jan 1, 1983

By James T. Wood

STRATIGRAPHY structure and closure of the Paloma field are discussed, with some details regarding the present state of development. The Paloma anticline, a large dome modified by faults, is the largest single closed dome in the southern San Joaquin Valley without surface outcrop or topographic expression. It owes its discovery to geophysics. Of nine wells drilled to the Stevens sand, seven are productive. The ultimate productive area may approximate 3000 acres when the limits of the field are determined.

Jan 1, 1942

By Edgar Kidwell

To any one acquainted with the practical conditions surrounding the mining engineer and mine-manager, especially in this country, the presentation to the American Institute of Mining Engineers of a paper on the above subject will need no explanation. The members of this profession are continually called upon to design and erect, both above and underground, structures which involve the use of beams. Not to mention the various buildings connected with large mining operations, I need only refer, in support of this statement, to trestles, derricks, headworks, etc., on the surface, and to timbered stations and other spaces of large span in the mine-workings. Notwithstanding the rapidity with which iron and steel are replacing wood in the construction of large buildings, there will always be cases in which the use of metal will be unadvisable. Especially will this be true in districts remote from large cities. Works of temporary character will continue to use timber. High freight-charges, the liability of delays in delivering iron, and the temporary character of many of the structures, will for many years to come make it advantageous for the mines west of the Mississippi and on Lake Superior to construct their buildings almost exclusively of wood. The timber-resources of the country are decreasing so rapidly that already the engineer finds difficulty at times in obtaining beams of large size. This difficulty will steadily increase, and will force the constructor to resort more frequently to built-up beams, such as have long been used in Europe, owing to the difficulty of obtaining there such large sizes of timber as have

Jan 1, 1898

By M. Baeyertr

Since 1915 many papers and books have covered industrial applications of X-rays from various angles. Two of the more recent are a paper by Fink and Archer, which describes in detail the technique of radiography, and a paper by Clark2, which embraces the whole field of X-ray metallogmphy. This paper, therefore, is confined to work of the X-ray Laboratory of the Western Electric Co., which naturally divides into two categories: radiography and diffraction patterns of various types. Radiography Radiography is the field in which the application of X-rays has had most general appeal among the industries which produce or use metals and alloys. Equipment permitting the examination of heavy sections of metals less permeable than aluminum or other light alloys requires apparatus capable of generating hard X-rays over a considerable period of time. The equipment used in the work presented in this paper is practically identical with that described by Fink and Archer in their paper on radiography in industry and is easily capable of penetrating 1/8 in. of lead. Radiography is used in two major groups of problems: (1) in the development of cquipment and tools and (2) in studies of materials. So far there has been no instance in which the use of radiography for routine inspection is justified. This is partly due to the fact that the manufacture of telephone apparatus involves the production of many identical parts by standardized procedures and equipment that has had development and trial before being put on a regular production basis. It is during this stage of development of equipment and tools that radiography has been used to particular advantage.

Jan 1, 1931

By Paul A. Taylor

MUCH information concerning pegmatites which was thought to be true a few years ago has been proved false, and what is now actually known about some pegmatites is not true of many others. The erratic and seemingly unpredictable structure and variable composition of this class of mineral deposits has been widely emphasized. Even parts of the same pegmatite body exhibit marked differences in texture, mineral composition, width, and attitude. Constructive geological thinking in respect to pegmatites now aims to establish general laws rather than to stress the confusing diversity of features having no special economic significance. Substantial progress has been made in classifying different types of these deposits according to general features, internal structure, mineralogy, and origin. In some cases it has even been possible to block out tonnage reserves in advance of mining. It is still easy, however, to make highly erroneous predictions after a preliminary examination of a pegmatite prospect. Pegmatites are important to the economic well being of the country and to its military security. They furnish virtually all the feldspar, strategic mica, beryl, columbium, tantalum, and caesium utilized in the United States, as well as sundry other minerals and significant amounts of lithium and rare earth minerals and gems. With the exception of vermiculite, occasional ilmenite-rutile, and perhaps soda-lime feldspar and garnet deposits, basic pegmatites are of little economic importance. Consequently in this paper, as in common parlance, the term pegmatite generally relates to coarsegrained acidic rocks or what is aptly called giant granite. Available data indicating the size and importance of the production and trade in specified pegmatite minerals are summarized in Table I. Geological Features Much of the latest thinking on the economic geology of pegmatites is now available in a 115-page monograph' by a group of experts who participated with geologists of the Federal Geological Survey in the widespread wartime investigations. Doubtless the most significant feature of the monograph is indicated by the title, The Internal Structure of Pegmatites, but it also contains a vast amount of other new information and includes the assimilated concepts of many earlier writers, whose works are given in a comprehensive list of references. The shape, size, attitude, and continuity of many pegmatite bodies is controlled by the structure of the older rocks in which they occur. If the older rocks are easily penetrated, e.g., biotite schist, most of the pegmatites in a given district will be found outside the parent granite mass as exterior pegmatites. Marginal pegmatites are more prevalent if the older rocks are massive, unsheared, and sparingly jointed. Networks of pegmatites are abundant in highly-jointed rocks. In strongly foliated schists the bodies are usually lenticular, whereas in highly-folded areas they assume tear drop, pipe or pod-like, bow-shaped, or sinuous forms. Jahns2 recognizes five major shape classes: l—dikes, sills, pipes, and elongate pods; 2— dikes, sills, pipes, and pods with bends, protuberances, or other irregularities; 3-—trough-or scoop-shaped bodies with or without complicating branches; 4—bodies with the form of an inverted trough or scoop; and 5—other bodies, including combinations of the above and miscellaneous shapes. Many pegmatite deposits are scarcely big enough to be recognizable as such. Most of them, in fact, are small tabular deposits less than 4 in. wide and usually without economic concentrations of minerals. On the other hand, some pegmatites are more than a mile long and over 500 ft wide. The ratios of length to breadth range from 1 : 1 to 1 : 100. Although the vertical dimension bears no invariable relationship to strike length, tabular deposits or large lenses are often symmetrical enough to show nearly as much continuity down dip as in their horizontal extension, and some pipes or pods are amazingly persistent in the vertical plane. Small pegmatites often string along a fairly definite trend line; in a given district major bodies may lie roughly parallel, and where only a few of them do not, the erratically disposed bodies generally differ in composition from those conforming to the regular pattern. This does not apply, however, in all districts. Characteristically, pegmatite veins pinch and swell or split into branches. When they pinch out entirely it is often possible to find a new body by prospecting the extension of the strike or dip, but the chances of finding a hidden deposit are ordinarily too uncertain to justify much subsurface prospecting. Diamond drilling may yield valuable information as to the continuity of known deposits whose upper portions are well-exposed. Some deposits, in fact, can be proved up for hundreds of feet by surface trenching and then intersected by drill holes at various depths like any other vein-like deposit. Others twist and branch, apparently defying all efforts to explore them short of actual mining.

Jan 1, 1954

By Marlin J. Veesaert

Urban quarries offer one of the greatest opportunities for profit in nonmetallic mining with limited financial risk-if properly evaluated, planned and developed to meet market needs. Location, with respect to market, is the prime consideration. Geologic considerations and quality of rock are nearly as important. Cost factors and return on investment (ROI) are the principal financial considerations.

Jan 8, 1979

By Pradeep K. Rohatgi, Clyde M. Adams

An analysis of heal conduction in the freezing of a solution has been performed. The case considered is the semi-infinite mass of solution, bounded by a con-stant-temperature plane with one-dimensional heat flow, Numerical cooling rate and freezing rate distributions hare been calcutated for the particular case of unidirectional freezing of aqueous solutions against. a cold copper chill. The solution at each level parallel to the chill surface is subjected to a spectra of frcezing rates; the freezing rate is inilially lour., passes through a maximum, and then decreases until solidification is camplete. Arange and maximum freeeing rates are inversely proportional to the square of distance from the chill surface. The temperature of the chill surface in contact with the solution remains constant during solidification. Experimentally, it is observed that deudrite sparing increases linearly with distance from the chill surface; in the light of heat -flow analysis this means that the dendrile spacing is imersely proportional to the square root of the maximum freezing rate. SOLIDIFICATION of liquids is accompanied by rejection of latent heat at the solid-liquid interface. The over-all rate of liquid to solid transformation is governed by the rate of heat extraction. Analysis of the heat transfer in the liquid during freezing is important since it determines the freezing rate and resulting structure. A considerable amount of work has been done on metallic systems since solidification is frequently a major step in processing metals. Unidirectional freezing from heat sinks has been treated by several investigators.1-4 Much of the work has been limited to the simpler case of substances such as pure metals which freeze isothermally at a unique transformation temperature. In this case the thickness of the solid zone y, next to a chill surface. is a parabolic function of the time. 8. where a and b are constants. Eq. |1| is a close approximation giving the progress of solidification for the case in which there is a small but finite thermal contact resistance at the interface between the freezing liquid and the chill.' It has been used with some success in connection with large steel ingots4 when the therma1 contact resistance is negligibly small (as is the case when water is brought into contact with the metal chill). The constant, b. becomes zero and Eq. [l] is then exact. even when the thermal properties of the chill and the freezing liquid depend on temperature. Analysis of unidirectional solidification of solutions is more complicated since the latent heat is evolved over a range of temperatures. Next to the all-solid zone in contact with the chill surface there is a solid plus liquid zone in which solidification takes place. Although the equations presented are considered quite general the numerical and experimental results are for freezing of aqueous solutions from a copper chill. I) EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Solutions of potassium chloride, sodium chloride. and lithium chloride have been used. These solutions form a eutectic: a typical phase diagram is shown in Fig. 1. A solution at its liquid us temperature is poured into a tygon tube mounted on a relatively large copper chill. The chill is immersed in a freezing mixture of dry ice and acetone at -70°C. A thermocouple connected to a high-speed recorder was mounted near the top of the chill to measure the fluctuation in the temperature of chill surface in contact with the solution. In this system the progress of solidification can be visually observed through the tygon tube. After the specimens freeze to a desired height they are removed from the copper chill and stripped from the tygon tube. Longitudinal and transverse sections are cut from the specimen for micrographic examination. Specimens in the form of a thin slice are mounted on a transparent glass slide by freezing small drops of water around the periphery. They are then polished on a series of emery papers; the final finishing is done on a soft tissue paper. A Leitz Biological microscope was used for structural observations; photography was

Jan 1, 1968

By Dever C. Ashmead

FRom time to time metal-mine engineers have inquired why anthracitc mines and their preparators are rarely operated on the two or three-shift basis. The subject may be approached as affecting: labor, development, the underground workers, the preparator, the outside workers, capital, the supply account, power consumption, the storage of coal over various shifts, railroad car supply, and the market. Labor From the start, the adoption of a plan of three full-shift operations in a day would cause difficulty with the colliery employees, for they have never worked on that plan and would show their resentment by suspending work. Even if they could be induced to work according to this schedule they would not be as efficient, for they would be working more or less unwillingly at hours at which they are accustomed to rest. Operation on a three-shift basis would necessitate triple manning of each working place, and dissensions would arise between the men, for each shift would claim that the preceding shift had taken undue advantage and had not left as favorable conditions as it had found. To obviate these disputes it might be [necessary to let out the work to a contractor, who would hire his helpers to mine out the chamber, or breast. The state mining law requires that a miner be put in charge of each working place. To conform with this provision he would have to hire three helpers and two miners to mine the breast. The labor unions have been trying to abolish the subcontractor in mine work and any method of working that would cause his return, however innocent in purpose, would result in labor disturbances. It might be possible to form partnerships of three miners working a place together, but these men would be quite likely to have frequent dissensions as to the proportion of work performed by each shift. Only

Jan 1, 1923

By Adrian C. Dorenfeld

Laboratory data form the basis for the design of flotation circuits. These data, obtained from testing samples of the ore, should show the optimum con- ditions for concentrating the ore and the effects of change in process vari- ables. Among the more important variables commonly met in flotation practice are: Liberation Size-This is the particle size at which substantially all of the valuable minerals are detached from the gangue minerals. Reagent Additions- Experimental data will show the reagents used and their quantity, quality, and point of addition. Pulp Density-This is an important variable in the design of the flotation circuit because it is one of the factors determining the size and number of flotation cells. Flotation Time-The time necessary to make the separation into concentrate and tailing depends on such factors as particle size and reagents used and must be known for determination of the size and number of flotation cells in the plant. Temperature of Pulp-Temperature affects flotation reactions. Water at approximately room temperature is satisfactory for most flotation separations, but some minerals such as fluorspar are best floated in hot water. Type of Circuit-Many types of circuits can be designed, as discussed in detail later. The laboratory tests should provide data for design of the plant circuit best suited to the ore. Water-Knowledge of the quality of the future plant's raw water is important because water quality may drastically affect flotation results. If possible, flotation tests should be made using samples of the water to be used in the plant. Flotation results may vary with seasonal temperatures and with circulation of reclaimed water. Experimentation can show whether it will be necessary to provide for heating, cooling, treating, or reclaiming the water. Uniformity of Ore-The extent of variation of the ore in hardness, grind- ability, mineral content, and floatability should be investigated so that the designer can ascertain methods to overcome problems caused by ore variations. Settling and Filtration Data-To design the plant flotation circuits, settling and filtration rates and ultimate percentage solids of the various products must be determined. Corrosion and Erosion-Corrosion and erosion tests should be made on the flotation pulps, particularly if the pulps are acid or at an elevated temperature, so that suitable materials of construction can then be chosen.

Jan 1, 1962

By P. G. Winchell, R. J. Russell

The distribution of displacements of originally plane surfaces by an invariant-plane strain has been analyzed statistically. The displacement ratio (the magnitude of the displacement of a point originally a unit distance from the invariant plane) can be determined from an analysis either of tilts of random surfaces or of displacements of random scratches scribed on a randowz surface. In either case the mean of the tangent of the observed displacement angle is related to the displacement ratio, and the number of observations used in determining the mean is related to the confidence limits placed on the estimate of the displacement ratio. In estimating the effect of applied stress on a phase transformation whose displacement effects can be approximated as an invariant-plane strain,* the dis- placement ratio of the invariant-plane strain is of primary importance. Two procedures for determining such displacement ratios are considered here. In the tilt method the measured quantity is taken to be the angle through which a random polish plane is rotated by the invariant-plane strain. In the scratch method the measured quantity is taken to be the angle between the original direction of a random scratch in a random polish plane and the projection of its final direction in the polish plane. In order to obtain precise results from either of the methods, it is necessary to measure the relative volume change associated with the strain in a separate experiment. TILT METHOD A locally homogeneous invariant-plane strain, P, with displacement ratio, S, may be written&apos; where ; and < are unit vectors indicating the displacement direction and invariant-plane normal, respectively, as pictured in Fig. 1. Eq. [I] describes a uniaxial strain if the direction of displacement is parallel to the invariant-plane normal and a pure shear strain if the displacement direction is perpendicular to the invariant-plane normal. The original orientation of the random polish plane relative to the invariant plane and to the displacement direction is shown in Fig. 2. The angle 03 between < and u is related to the relative volume change, ?V/V, and to the displacement ratio by As a result of the invariant-plane strain, the polish plane is rotated about its intersection with the invariant plane by the angle y, which is always taken to be positive. The tangent of this angle in terms of the above parameters is

Jan 1, 1967

By M. T. Martinson, I. W. Nicholson, C. J. Chindgren, F. P. Williams, L. C. Bauerle, S. F. Ravitz

THE vanadiferous shales of southeastern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming constitute the largest known reserve of vanadium in the United States.1 These deposits have never been exploited except for the relatively small amounts of vanadium recovered by the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. in the treatment of phosphate rock from southeastern Idaho. The major domestic source of vanadium has been the sandstone ores of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. Early in World War II, it appeared that these ores could not meet the greatly increased demand for vanadium, so the investigation described in this report was undertaken to develop processes for the recovery of vanadium from the Idaho-Wyoming deposits. The utilization of these deposits became unnecessary, however, because of greatly expanded production from the Utah-Colorado sandstone ores and the continued availability of vanadium from other sources, chiefly Peru. The major use of vanadium is as an alloying agent in the manufacture of high-quality steels. Vanadium constructional steels usually contain 0.05 to 0.20 pct vanadium, which refines the grain and increases the strength, elastic limit, and resistance to shock and fatigue. Vanadium tool steels not used in high-speed work contain 0.10 to 0.60 pct whereas high-speed tool steels contain 1.0 to 4.0 pct. Vanadium compounds are used as catalysts (principally for the oxidation of SO2 to sulphuric acid and of naphthalene to phthalic acid) and in the paint, chemical, ceramic, dye, and printing industries. The selection of the particular ore deposit to be exploited would involve consideration of many factors besides the metallurgical results that might be obtained. Chief among these would be the reserves of ore available, the grade of the ore, and the mining costs. As very little was known about any of these factors, it was necessary to investigate methods of treatment of all the ores under consideration, working with samples obtained in the course of the exploration work, even though they were not positively representative of the whole deposit from which they were taken. Because of wartime conditions prevailing when this investigation was started, first consideration was given to processes that could be put into operation most quickly and would involve minimum use of strategic materials, even though these processes might not be the most economical.

Jan 1, 1947

By George A. Koenig

This new departure in assaying is the outcome of a long-felt desire to shorten the time required in muffle-assaying, as well as to do both crucible- and scarifi cation-work in one furnace. The first object in view was the gold-assay, which must always be a combination of the crucible- and muffle-work. The large lead buttons consume much time in their reduction by scorifying and cupelling. The Hoskins gasoline furnaces have been a great convenience, for years past, in that class of practice, where only one assay was required at a time. But even with them I found myself hampered, since the crucible-furnace only takes one crucible at a time, and my practice implies always duplicate assays. Another difficulty was to get the muffle up to the necessary heat and to maintain it at that heat. Whecever I had pumped myself into perspiration and out of breath, the question presented itself, " Is the muffle necessary to do this work properly ?" Hartmann and Plattner and all their blow-piping disciples have shown that very good results are obtainable by playing a direct flame upon the work-lead. Could this be done on the regular muffle-assay scale ? I placed a cupel upon a fire-brick, surrounded it with charcoal, and then played upon it with a Bunsen gas blow-pipe. The result was encouraging. With some care a 2.75-inch scorifier charged with 0.1 A. T. of a 100-ounce ore could be melted down and scorified without any apparent loss. I thought then of constructing a furnace with four blow-pipes in a row; but the combination of gas and charcoal seemed unpractical. Instead, I placed an F crucible, bottom up, in a Hoskins crucible-furnace. Upon this support I placed a charged scorifier. The rapidity with which a very refractory charge melted and scorified was simply amazing to me. Then a cupel was put in the place of the scorifier, the lid was moved sideways, and a blow-pipe was

Jan 1, 1899

By R. A. Vandermeer, Paul Gordon

On the basis of a unified concept, theoretical erPressions for grain boundary migration in recrys-tallization are derzved for impurity-controlled and impurity-independent migration. The expression in the former case is analogous to that Previously derived by Lucke and Detert, and in the latter is shown to be equivalent to that usually obtained on the basis of absolute reaction rate theory. The equations are tested with quantitative experimental data for boundary migration obtained for the recrystallization of poly crystalline zone-refined alumimnz and for binary "alloys" of this aluminum with 0.00021, 0.00043, 0.0017, 0.0034, 0.0068, 0.0124, and 0.0256 at. pct Cu, respectively. All the essential characteristics of the e@erimentally determined boundary migration rates check both qualitatively ard quantitatively with the predictions of the theoretical equations. THE rates of transformations are customarily analyzed phenomenologically in terms of the two component rates—N, the rate of nucleation and, G, the rate of growth of the nuclei. The scientific aim of both theory and experiment is to describe the fundamental atomic phemmena involved in these two component processes with the hope that parameters calculated from theoretical equations will check those found experimentally. In solid state transformations, the theoretical and experimental problems are both generally of almost prohibitive complexity, for in addition to changes in composition and in such properties as density which may accompany transformations in amorphous, nonrigid materials, transformations in crystalline substances also involve structural changes, crystal reorientations, and the development of stresses. In studying such transformations it thus becomes; highly desirable, if not essential, to focus on a transformation and a set of conditions which minimize the number of active variables. This principle has been applied with considerable success by Cohen and his associates&apos; in their evaluation of nucleation theories using the martensite transformation as the basis of study. A similar possibility exists for the evaluation of growth theories by the use of recrystallization after cold-deforming. If an unalloyed metal is employed as the subject of investigation, the recrystallization transformation involves basically only a change in strain-conditions and orientations. In spite of this possible simplilfication, however, until recently little quantitative success has attended attempts to correlate recrystal1ization parameters measured experimentally with those calculated theoretically. It seems highly probable that this lack of success may be attributed, both in the experimental and theoretical treatments, to one or more of the following factors: a) conditions have usually been studied under which apparently* both nucleation and growth are active;

Jan 1, 1962

By A. J. Opinsky, J. L. Orehotsky, L. L. Seigle

TUNGSTEN incandescent lamp filaments possess a typical structure of elongated crystals generated upon heating the silica-alumina doped wire rapidly to 2200°C or above.&apos; It is known that these very long grains exhibit a preferred orientation, but there is disagreement in the literature about the direction. Rosi,2 and later Rieck; reported that the <135> direction of the large grains in doped wire tends to be parallel to the wire axis, but other investigators have reported that <110> is the preferred direction. Some further investigation of the orientations of large grains in tungsten wire is reported in the following. In the first series of experiments, 6-in. lengths of wire were heated rapidly in a bell jar. Current was passed through the wires and within 15 sec the wires had reached the grain coarsening temperature. 2 min was the annealing time. Wires were heated in hydrogen, nitrogen, and vacuum. Later, wires were heated in an evacuated tube furnace in which the tube was brought from 1000°C to the operating temperature within 25 sec and held 5 min at temperature. Temperatures were measured with an optical pyrometer. After heating, the wires were electro polished and etched, and the orientations of the large grains determined by the Laue back-reflection technique. Most of the experiments were carried out on a single spool of 5-mil silica-alumina doped wire, but a few tests were made with 5-mil thoriated tungsten wire and 10-mil undoped wire. 5-mil silica-alumina doped wires were reduced to smaller diameters by electropolishing for one series of experiments. Orientations of the large grains in silica-alumina doped wire heated in various atmospheres are presented in Figs. 1 and 2 as plots of the direction of the wire axis relative to the cube axes of the crystals. For most of the conditions studied, the preferred orientation cannot be described as a single direction, but the points might be said to group themselves about the arc passing through <110> and <113>. This arc is the trace of the (211) planes and contains the <135> and <124 as well as <011> directions previously observed by other investigators. The preferred orientation of large crystals in silica-alumina doped tungsten wire might be most generally described, therefore, by stating that a (211 ) tends to be parallel to the wire axis. This is true also for wires reduced in diameter by etching and furnace heated, Fig. 2, i.e., the recrystallization texture is apparently unchanged upon removal of the outer layers and substantially independent of the temperature gradient within the wire.

Jan 1, 1962

By Samuel L. Hoyt

The present report represents that part of the work that has been done by the War Minerals Investigation, Manganese Section, of the Bureau of Mines, on the use of manganese alloys in open-hearth practice. The magnitude of the work and the number of people participating in one way or another make it difficult to acknowledge adequately the services of all who have contributed to the success of the work. It would be amiss, however, to pass to the body of the report without mentioning the hearty cooperation and willingness to assist of the various manufacturing interests. With such a sympathetic attitude toward this investigation, our work was assured of success. Inasmuch as the unhappy circumstances that rendered this investigation necessary have now passed, this report is made in the hope that the results may prove of some permanent value to the peace-time operation of our open-hearth industry. Broadly speaking, the purpose of the manganese investigation was to consider the most suitable means of utilizing our domestic supply of manganese and thus relieve, to the maximum extent possible, our shipping of the burden of importing manganese ores. It was not held that any decided shortage of manganese was imminent but rather that every legitimate means should be utilized for making our ship tonnage available to European service. While we have considerable metallic manganese in this country, it occurs largely as a low-grade mixture with iron or silica or with both. The open-hearth investigations, therefore, were carried on to determine the extent to which domestic or low-grade alloys could properly be substituted for high-grade alloys without materially impairing the steel production as to either quality or quantity. Also, it was held that such an investigation would yield valuable results to the steel industry as well as contribute, in no small way, toward directing future investigations in the same field. To the practical steel manufacturer, especially to him who felt no immediate concern about

Jan 1, 1920

By Dever C. Ashmead

FRom time to time metal-mine engineers have inquired why anthracitc mines and their preparators are rarely operated on the two or three-shift basis. The subject may be approached as affecting: labor, development, the underground workers, the preparator, the outside workers, capital, the supply account, power consumption, the storage of coal over various shifts, railroad car supply, and the market. Labor From the start, the adoption of a plan of three full-shift operations in a day would cause difficulty with the colliery employees, for they have never worked on that plan and would show their resentment by suspending work. Even if they could be induced to work according to this schedule they would not be as efficient, for they would be working more or less unwillingly at hours at which they are accustomed to rest. Operation on a three-shift basis would necessitate triple manning of each working place, and dissensions would arise between the men, for each shift would claim that the preceding shift had taken undue advantage and had not left as favorable conditions as it had found. To obviate these disputes it might be [necessary to let out the work to a contractor, who would hire his helpers to mine out the chamber, or breast. The state mining law requires that a miner be put in charge of each working place. To conform with this provision he would have to hire three helpers and two miners to mine the breast. The labor unions have been trying to abolish the subcontractor in mine work and any method of working that would cause his return, however innocent in purpose, would result in labor disturbances. It might be possible to form partnerships of three miners working a place together, but these men would be quite likely to have frequent dissensions as to the proportion of work performed by each shift. Only

Jan 1, 1923

By L. Wahl, M. Allard, B. Trentini

REMOVAL of sulfur in steelmaking is presently a problem of utmost importance as requirements on final sulfur contents in finished steels become increasingly strict. This is in spite of often increased sulfur contents in the fuels used during the different stages of steel processing. According to local conditions or current economic factors, sulfur can be removed during one or more of the processing operations; for instance, in a blast furnace operated under high temperatures and with a high slag basicity ratio and also by means of high inputs of manganese into the burden. These methods of proceeding are, however, expensive and in contradiction with the acid practice which is gradually being developed owing to the fact that it allows coke and lime savings and usually permits an increase of productivity. In the melting-shop, desulfurization can proceed in the open-hearth or electric furnace with one or several very basic slags, or with special prefused slags (Perrin process) mixed with steels poured from the open-hearth, electric furnace, or converter. Liquid pig iron has also been treated separately before being used in the melting shop, in order to reduce high sulfur contents. This external desul-furization has been developed in Europe for the basic Bessemer Thomas process, which is again in favor owing to the great flexibility of such installations and to the fact that the steel produced is not polluted by impurities coming from the scrap. Since the basic Bessemer process, as usually practiced, has a low desulfurizing power, external desulfurization is generally carried out in ladles by means of alkalies such as soda ash. This method, which has the advantage of being simple and costing little, has only a medium desulfurizing power, which implies the necessity for repeating the operation several times when a substantial amount of sulfur has to be removed or when very low sulfur contents are desired. Thermal losses are high and there is a considerable decrease in output. Moreover, the resulting fluid and corrosive slag, which is extremely difficult to eliminate, attacks the refractory linings of the mixers and steel furnaces. Therefore, it seems necessary to devise a simple method for external desulfurization which would not only remove substantial quantities of sulfur from the hot metal coming from an acid blast furnace, but which would also bring the sulfur contents down to the low level required in the making of high quality steel and iron. Principle of the Process In this paper a new method will be described for desulfurizing hot metal. It has been perfected by

Jan 1, 1958