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By Eugene McAuliffe

The mining press, as well as certain federal and state bulletins, refer from time to time to the relative hazards that attach to loading bituminous coal by hand when compared with the so-called "mechanical loading" process. Much of the coal coming under the head of hand-loaded coal is won in part by the use of machinery; the coal-cutting machine is in general use, the electric power drill employed to a lesser extent. Therefore it may be said that the principal difference in the process employed, mechanical loading versus hand loading, lies in the fact that some type of loading machine is employed in the mechanical loading process to lift the coal from the face of the room, place or entry, after it is mined, placing it in the pit cars for transport to the tipple. It is a common practice to compute accident records on the basis of tons mined per fatal and per nonfatal accident, disregarding the fact that it is possible to produce by the aid of coal-loading machines the same daily, monthly and annual tonnage with a much smaller force than is required where the coal is all shoveled by hand. Inasmuch as the men who are released by the substitution of machinery for hand labor must find employment elsewhere, suffering some measure of hazard in their new occupation, we are of the opinion that the true relative hazard that attaches to the processes of mechanical loading and hand loading can be determined only by using as the basis of comparison "man shifts worked" or "hours of exposure" experienced per accident. The Union Pacific Coal-Co., beginning with the year 1929, undertook to maintain a true record of man shifts worked per compensable accident, giving equal weight to fatal and nonfatal accidents. Accidents lacking sufficient severity to come under the compensable terms of the Workmen's Compensation Act were not included in the compilation, the Act providing that "no compensation, except the expense of medical attention, shall be allowed for the first seven (7) days of disability, unless the incapacity runs beyond the period of twenty-one (21) days, in which case the compensation shall run from the time of the injury." With the further thought that all accidents suffered by employees engaged in any service, in or about the place where the loading process

Jan 1, 1931

Secondary minerals are the result of a process of concentration and enrichment and are commonly richer than the primary minerals of the same deposit. Secondary ores that contain abundant sulphides are commonly distinguishable in the field from primary ores; this distinction is more difficult with ores that carry a small quantity only of sulphide minerals, and microscopical examination of the ore in thin section is advisable in all doubtful cases. It is frequently difficult, and in some cases impossible, to determine the primary or secondary character of quartzose gold ores. The safest guide is the presence or absence of gaseous or fluid inclusions in association with the ore minerals; such primary association coupled with a lack of traces of oxidation is indicative of primary origin. Any ore that carries traces of oxidation, such as iron stains, endritic oxides of manganese, kaolin and so forth must be considered to have been acted upon by surface agencies, and secondary enrichment must be suspected. Further examination, however, may indicate that the contained value is primary, and, therefore, persistent in its vertical distribution. The manner of occurrence of secondary minerals is frequently characteristic; secondary minerals, being due to the action of surface waters, are commonly found in cracks through earlier minerals, or as crusts lining vugs or surrounding nucleal masses, or in general, in some distribution later than and not conforming to the arrangement of the primary minerals. Secondary sulphides are often found as soft black pulverulent masses or coatings, although they frequently occur well crystallized or as

Jan 1, 1932

By J. E. Nelson, R. J. Bonnis

Recent completion of Cyprus Bagdad's $240-million modernization and expansion program has registered a 700% increase in ore production with only a 50% increase in labor. Elements of this remarkable achievement include the application of large-scale mining equipment as well as the selection of the latest in processing hardware. Most important, however, was the early recognition that Bagdad's labor personnel is its most important asset.

Jan 4, 1978

By Maurice Rey, Victor Formanek, Paul Chataignon

IT is found when floating oxidized lead ores by sulphidization, that the presence of calcium salts in the water is usually detrimental and lowers the recovery. This effect is particularly marked in dry countries such as North Africa, where the waters often carry large amounts of calcium sulphate and where the ore may even contain gypsum. This effect is particularly marked in dry countries such as North Africa, where the waters often carry large amounts of calcium sulphate and where the ore may even contain gypsum. The effect of calcium salts is readily visible. Whereas in their absence cerussite is quickly stained brown and then .black by sodium sulphide, in their presence the mineral remains very light in color. A similar- effect is produced when barium sulphide is used as a sulphidizing agent instead of sodium- sulphide. Magnesium salts have little or no effect and even tend to reduce the detrimental effect of calcium salts. A study of this phenomenon indicates that it is due to the precipitation of calcium or barium carbonate in contact ,with the mineral simultaneously with the formation of lead sulphide.

Jan 1, 1950

The Ural Mountains, which were formerly the dividing line between Asia and Siberia, area chain of low mountains, the highest peaks reaching only a little over 5000 ft. The country has been much eroded and the mountains now appear as rounded hills. In the central and northern parts turf swamps abound. The range is covered with forests except at the extreme southern end. The trees are mostly pine. Birch grows on cut-over areas, but never to large size. The rivers are small or the fall is slight, so no large water powers are available. A series of rivers with a north and south course, and which are navigable for long distances, furnish cheap transportation during the summer months. Railroad communications are very insufficient. The first active exploitation of the mineral wealth was initiated by Peter the Great, who sought iron and copper for use in his wars against the Swedes. He selected a blacksmith named Demidoff to supervise operations and gave him rights to most of the Ural and to the Altai. The Nijni Tagil Estates are still in the possession of the Demidoff family. The original large grant was subsequently subdivided through inheritance and marriage, but the Ural is still a country of very large estates, some of them held as leases only and some of them by actual ownership.

Jan 6, 1919

By E. D. Peters

It frequently occurs in the establishment of reduction works, in an entirely new and untried mining district, that the metallurgist in charge finds considerable difficulty in determining the process best adapted to the ores which he receives for treatment. At the first glance it would seem easy enough to decide what style of furnace is best adapted for beneficiating any one class of minerals. If the ore possessed a quartzose gangue and was comparatively free from base metals, while salt could be obtained at a reasonable price, one would naturally resort to a chloridizing roasting, and pan or barrel amalgamation for the extraction of its silver contents. If galena or carbonate of lead was the prevailing mineral, and charcoal could be obtained at moderate figures, the blast-furnace would beneficiate the ores most advantageously. But if, as is usually the case in Colorado, the ores consisted of an intimate mixture of galena, zinc-blende, copper-pyrites, and noble silver minerals, associated with an overwhelming mass of siliceous heavy spar, or limestone gangue, the common reverberatory furnace can be used to the greatest advantage ; and, although the product is only a copper matte, I do not hesitate to affirm that it can be treated, and the silver, gold, and copper produced at nearly the same price for which silver and lead can be separated. In Germany, blast-furnaces are frequently used for this same purpose, both for argentiferous and non-argeutiferous copper ores; but any one who will take the trouble to examine the statistics of smelting at Fahlun, the Oberharz, and other Continental works of this description, will see that the expenses are far too great, and the production much too small to think of employing this method in our mining districts, where only the softest and most miserable kind of charcoal is obtainable. I propose in this paper to give an accurate account of the expenses incurred at the Mount Lincoln Smelting Works in treating the same kind of ore, and producing the same end-product in both blast and reverberatory furnaces. I have taken for comparison a favorable campaign of the blast-furnace, and a good average month's running of the reverberatory. In the blast-furnace estimate I have included the calcining and concentration of the matte produced during that campaign, as I always, when possible, concentrated the regulus made

By Dan G. Cojocariu, E. Ene-Danalache, I. Huber-Panu

A general model which represents not only batch but also continuous flotation in multi-cell machines is presented. This model considers both the size distribution and the distribution of flotabilities in a size class for valuable mineral particles in the pulp. The general expression is shown to reduce to several previously reported models. In addition, a number of new models are found to arise for different specific assumptions concerning the flotability distribution and/or the size distribution of the particles undergoing flotation. Several of these new models are tested experimentally using laboratory-scale batch and pilot-scale continuous data. Model parameters are estimated from this data and a comparison of calculated recoveries and those experimentally determined are presented. Finally, the influence of the feed rate, aeration rate and valuable mineral content of the feed on the recovery is examined.

Jan 1, 1976

By L. W. Page

PREVIOUS to the introduction of the motor vehicle the broken stone or macadam road met the conditions of rural horse-drawn traffic better than any other type of road, but under fast motor traffic it has been proved to be quite unsatisfactory, and necessitates high maintenance charges. Such a road depends for its success upon the fact that the rock dust fills the voids between the stones and acts as a cement or binder. Under ideal conditions it should be constructed of rock so suited to the volume and character of horse traffic that only enough fine dust is worn from the stones of which the road is composed to take the place of that carried off by wind and rain; and when these conditions are met, the fine dust resulting from the wear. of traffic forms with the stone a smooth, impervious shell, shedding the surface water and protecting the foundation. With increase in the number and speed of motor vehicles, however, it was soon found that the cost of maintenance also increased, until at the present day highway engineers consider the old method of constructing and maintaining broken-stone roads increasingly inadequate, and are introducing every known type of binding material other than rock dust to cement the stone together. Among the most prominent types of products in use are those produced from our various petroleums. That the value of modern methods of road preservation was appre¬ciated in this country much earlier than we have been accustomed to believe is demonstrated by the recent revival of an old patent which was granted to one John Martineau, of Elbridge, N. Y., in 1834. Petroleum had, of course, not been discovered at that time, but he claims as his invention and improvement "The application of tar, turpentine, or any of that class of tenacious, cohesive substances, reduced before use to a fluid state, and that state used as a cement, to apply to, and combine with sand, gravel, pebbles, and pulverized stone, such as is used for a Mc-Adam road, or cobble stone, the interstices of coarser material being in all cases filled, as well as may be, with sand and gravel and cemented with tar or turpentine, to form the wearing face or surface of streets,

Jan 2, 1914

By N. A. Gokcen, John Chipman

D. C. Hilty (Union Carbide and Carbon Research Laboratories, Niagara Falls, N. Y.)—This paper is a very nicely detailed analysis of a difficult problem. I would like to point out that the results that Mr. Crafts and I published a few years ago had no reference to activity, or anything else of a similar nature; our results were strictly empirical. It is quite gratifying that we now have a case where results involving activity coefficients and results derived from direct observations on actual steel melts are practically identical. When two different laboratories, working from two entirely different approaches, come out with results in such good agreement in their major significance, that is an achievement. It is something that was not possible 15 or 20 years ago. There is one question I would like to ask Dr. Chip-man. It has to do with a very minor point of disagreement in these results. When we reported the kink in the Si-O solubility curve I think you may recall that it came at the different temperature levels at about the order of 0.015 to 0.03 pct 0 and 0.03 to 0.07 pct Si—we also pointed out that we had difficulty in obtaining data at that level, although we finally did get some. I note in going through the data for the present paper, that there are no samples in those particular silicon and oxygen ranges. I wonder if that was purely accidental or was there a reason for it. D. E. Babcock (Republic Steel Corp., Youngstown, Ohio)—Mr. Hilty, do you have any explanation for that discrepancy between Dr. Chipman's curve and your own Mr. Hilty—Our explanation for it at that time was that for some reason our system probably was not in true equilibrium with SiO, that is, in equilibrium with the silica crucible at that level. We did observe, however, that that was the level at which both the metal and the slag became saturated with SiO,. On the average, in studying inclusion formation in small ingots permitted to solidify normally from the molten state, we observed pure silica inclusions at silicon contents over about 0.05 pct and FeO type inclusions at silicon

Jan 1, 1953

By Sidney A. Swensrud

About a year ago, I attempted in a general way to trace the origin and development of some of the marketing problems of the petroleum industry, and to describe certain trends which it then seemed possible to foresee. To summarize briefly, it was pointed out that the consumption of gasoline, after increasing for more than a decade at an almost unbelievable rate, was slowing down, but that the two factors which determine the supply of gasoline —-namely, the production of crude oil and the percentage of gasoline derived therefrom—were tending steadily to mount. It was suggested that, while the increase in gasoline outlets began with and probably was justified at the start by the rapidly increasing demand, long after all reasonable requirements as to number of outlets had been met the number continued to increase—if anything, at a still more rapid rate—because by that time the overproduction of crude had begun to exert an impelling urge upon the owners of that crude to seek assured outlets for it in the form of gasoline. As more and more companies became integrated all the way from crude oil to marketing, there took place an ever-increasing competition among them, not only for the existing outlets but for new ones. The wide margin between wholesale cost and retail price, which is characteristic of the early stages of most new industries, persisted in the oil industry longer than in most industries, for various reasons. The existence of that wide margin provided in large measure the means of attracting new outlets, for as the gallonage per outlet declined with the increasing number of outlets, competing companies simply offered the dealers a larger part of the total margin. The very nature of competition suggests that such a process would continue until practically all of the available margin was thus given away, and such was clearly the tendency. It was a system that in turn produced increasing marketing expense per gallon on account of the diluted gallonage per outlet; this increased expense might seem to have provided a justification for continuing wide margins. Economics, like its parent, nature, however, progresses by mutations and so began to throw out new types of marketers, in the form of tank-car service stations, cut-price jobbers, and the like—heretics or

Jan 1, 1932

HAVING previously shown you how ores are found and mined, and also how they are prepared and disposed for smelting, and then how the blast furnaces and other furnaces are made for purging their earthiness, all this would be as nothing if I did not proceed to show you the method of smelting them. Therefore, in the present chapter I wish to show you how you must proceed in this very important operation, telling you all I have seen and also how much work with this kind of blast furnace I have done or directed. For this reason I tell you first to take by weight or measure the quantity of ore that you wish to smelt and, particularly if it is a kind that contains silver, break it into small pieces about the size of [52v] beans. If the ore had previously needed evaporation by fire or cleaning by washing, you will have had this done well and have had it properly prepared by a master sorter or others. A layer of this is arranged on a bed of planks, bricks, or flat stones in front of the blast furnace and its companion is placed on top, then a quarter part of galena or a third if you can obtain it. Then an equal part of crushed iron slag or slag from the same or different ore is added. These materials are spread in layers one above the other. When the blast furnace has been constructed as taught above, correct in all its parts, and is full of well-kindled burning charcoal, then fill it up with charcoal and admit water to the bellows machine. When you see that it is well kindled again from this wind and that the flames begin to come out forcefully on top, work it down with a little rake and fill it up again. Then the pannier is filled with new charcoal, the blast furnace heaped full, and another basketful of the said composition of ore is also put on top. Proceed in this way, continually adding charcoal and ore as long as you have any, or as long as you wish to keep up the work, maintaining the blast furnace always full, or continuing in this way until the bottom of the blast furnace is filled with melted materials. Decide this by judgment, or by seeing through the mouth of the tuyère where the wind of the bellows enters that they are level with this. Then with an iron tool open the hole that was left as an outlet in front of the blast furnace and allow all the metal with its slag to run out. These two things, flowing through the chan-

Jan 1, 1942

By John F. Walker

WITH an estimated production of over 936,000,000 for the first six months, the gross value of mine production for 1937 in British Columbia should exceed $70,- 000,000. This figure, if attained, will establish an all-time record for the Province. Great changes have taken place in the different divisions of the mining industry since 1929, the previous peak year of mineral production. A brief review of the earlier history of mining in the Province will also be given.

Jan 1, 1937

By John D. Weibmer

A strong step towards acknowledgement of mining as a skilled trade has been taken by the Tintic Division of Kennecott Copper Corp. In May 2 ceremonies, a pilot program was signed into force which, possibly for the first time in US history, recognizes mining as an apprentice trade and grants journeyman status to those who complete the prescribed training sequence. The apprenticeship standards, hammered out after months of consultation between management, labor, and government, are presently limited only to underground hard-rock mining and only within Kennecott's Tintic Division, but the architects of the program are confident that the concept will spread-first to other underground operations where miners desire documented evidence of their special skills, then to open-pit and soft-rock operations.

Jan 6, 1977

L. C. UREn,* BerkelEy, Cal. (written discussion).—I heartily concur with Rlr. .Fobs concerning the need for advanced courses on various phases of Petroleum Engineering. I think that his criticism is probably true of most of the engineering schools that are specializing at all in Petroleum Engineering, that is, that most of their so-called graduate courses are not of graduate caliber but are merely more specialized aspects of undergraduate subjects. It would undoubtedly be to the advantage of the petroleum profession if more advanced work could be offered in a few of the leading engineering institutions so that there would be something substantial to offer graduate students wishing to return after a period of undergraduate work, for additional training. There is no doubt but that a better trained engineer, more useful to the oil industry, could be secured from schools offering such advanced training. The problem of adpting our instruction to fit the needs of engineers trained along other lines who wish, after completion of their undergraduate work, to enter thc petroleum engineering field, is a more difficult one. It has been my experience that such men are usually sadly deficient along certain lines and that they are really not prepared for the more advanced work in Petroleum Production Engineering until they have gone back over the work which they have missed in their undergraduate training. I note that Mr. Fohs suggests that other eastern and western colleges not now stressing Petrolelim Engineering, should be encouraged to take up advanced work of this character. With this, however, I cannot agree unless the institutions arc also prepared to offer a full sequence of undergraduate work on which the more advanced courses may be superimposed. Whether or not there is a need for additional engi-ncering colleges entering the petroleum engineering field is an open qucstion. I believe that we arc turning out enough petroleum engineers at the present time and that none of the six institutions now specializing in this field arc overcrowded. Morc-ovcr, they are fairly well distributed over the country, though there may be room for an additional school in the field in the eastcrn section of the United States. F. W. Padgett, Norman, Okla. (written tliscussion).—Assuming that the stnclcnt has the proper fundamentals, that is, general science and a knowledge of the technology of the industry, then the problem is: What courses should be offered from the graduate standpoint? (a) Course Work.—His knowledge of the technology of the industry can be extended advantagcously by means of one and two-hour courses, which consist in a more detailed survey of the various branches of the industry. (b) Lilerdure.—This work may, or may not, be connected directly with his research problem. The student should become familiar with methods of locating articles in the 1iterature; should also become familiar with all the important original

Jan 1, 1928

By Howard Willey

Mining operations of the Charcas unit at present are limited to the Tiro General mine at Charcas, in the State of san Luis Potosi, Mexico. The Tiro General mine was first operated during the Spanish occupation of Mexico for rich silver ores in an oxidized zone along the outcrop of the principal vein. In depth the ore is a complex sulfide with widely varying proportions of sphalerite, argentiferous galena and chalcopyrite ; and until recent years, it was economically impossible to carry on mining otherwise than irregularly in sections of the veins richest in galena and chalcopyrite. The advent of selective flotation brought the orebody as a whole within the field of economic interest, and a flotation mill of 650 metric tons daily capacity was constructed in the year 1925. The mining of partly worked-out sections of the mine, as well as the very heavy ground in most of the stopes opened in virgin ore, presented an unusually difficult problem. This paper describes the so-called "filled top slice" stoping method finally adopted as the standard system. Physical and Geological Conditions The principal orebody of the mine is an oreshoot about 1400 ft ng in a fissure vein striking about east and west and with an average lip of 70" to the north. The footwall of the orebody is fairly cleancu and regular both longitudinally and vertically and generally shows a dell-marked post-mineral slip. The footwall rock varies from a fairly strong limestone to a broken, metamorphosed limestone which requires heavy timbering. In some sections it is an altered, crumbly porphyry, which swells badly and necessitates frequent renewal of drift and raise tirnber. The hanging wall is irregular and frequently an assay wall. The stopina width ranges from a few feet up to more than 90 ft.; it averages about 30 ft. For the most part the hanging-wall rock is a shattered and altered monzonite porphyry, nearly aways requiring heavy timbering. The orebody is greatly fractured by post-mineral movement, which usually followed the footwall and left it as a smooth surface frequently covered with a slippery clay gouge. Two well marked transverse faults

Jan 1, 1931

By M. M. Fine

Normally the U. S. produces less than 10 pct of its annual manganese requirement. About 95 pct of domestic consumption is used by the steel industry.' The strategic and critical nature of manganese has been recognized by its inclusion in the national stockpile and by intensified research directed toward cataloging and evaluating domestic manganiferous deposits. The USBM has participated in these activities for many years with field and laboratory studies to assess the extent and potential utilization of domestic manganese ores. One area of particular interest is in the vinicity of Batesville, Ark., where deposits have been mined since 1849 for both manganese and ferruginous manganese ores. Production is centered in Independence County, but deposits are also found in Sharp, Izard, and Stone counties in north-central Arkansas. Miser has described the geology and manganese mineralization in some detail.'. * "he rocks of the area are sedimentary, consisting of sandstone, limestone, shale, and chert. The two formations of greatest importance,' Fernvale limestone and Cason shale, are host rocks of the primary manganese mineralization. Through 1955 the district produced some 230,000 long tons of manganese ore (35 pct Mn or more) and 236,000 tons of ferruginous manganese (10 to 35 pct Mn).5 Most of the ore has been mined from deposits of manganese oxides in residual clays resulting from weathering of the two formations noted above. Concentration methods have been primitive, consisting for the most part of washing. hand picking, and jigging. A significant accomplishment in the district in recent years was the USBM recognition and investigation of the huge manganese potential represented by unaltered Fernvale limestone. systematic reconnaissance of manganiferous limestone and other occurrences has been in progress since 1953 to delineate the extent and tonnage of manganiferous materials. Results of that survey have appeared in two recent publications,1-5 which ascribe to the district an inferred reserve of 166 million long dry tons at a grade of 5 to 6 pct Mn. Most of this was mancaniferous limestone with an estimated content of 5 pct Mn. Specifications: Beneficiation was carried out on a group of manganiferous limestones to develop a way to recover commercial-grade concentrate from this extensive resource. The following chemical specifications were established by the GSA for metallurgical manganese ore acceptable for delivery to the national stockpile: Size specifications were not considered, as it was assumed that the concentrates could be pelletized or sintered. Manganiferous Limestones: Of the 11 samples tested to date, six were taken by cutting vertical channels across beds of limestone outcrops. Diamond drilling through overlying barren chert into unex-posed limestone provided four samples, and the last was a churn drill sample. In general, the samples were dlrk, fossiliferous limestone containing small amounts of braunite, hausmannite, rhodochrosite, massive and micaceous iron and manganese silicates, quartz, barite, and glauconite. The braunite and other manganese oxides partly to completely replaced some of the calcite and fossil material. The calcite was generously stained with mangenese and iron oxides. Phosphorus was present in all samples as collophanite grains, calcium phosphate fossil replacements. or an unidentified manganese-bearing carbonate. The difficulty in separating this complex array of minerals was further complicated by a very intimate association. Although some manganese grains as large as Ik in. were noted, grinding to subsieve sizes would have been necessary to liberate the components. Figs. 1 and 2 are micrographs, at X100, of typical polished sections in which white areas are manganese. gray is gangue, and black areas are surface depressions. By comparison with the 100 mesh opening, it is seen that some of the grains are coarse enough to respond, perhaps to tabling or flotation, but many are obviously beyond the scope of ohysical processing. Partial chemical analyses of the eight samples that were ultimately amenable to concentration are presented in Table 1. BENEFlClATlON RESEARCH Tabling: To take advantage of the presence of sand-size grains, both jigging and tabling were considered at the outset. Jigging was largely ineffective, but tabling achieved a partial recovery from most samples. As an example, the surface material from Baxter Hill was crushed to —28 mesh, hydraulically classified, and the coarsest spigot fraction was tabled to yield a concentrate, middling. and tailing. The latter two were reground to pass 48 mesh, combined with the primary fines, re-classified, and retabled. The middling and tailing were again ground, this time to pass 150 mesh, and deslimed at 20µ in a 3-in. hydraulic cyclone. The cyclone underflow was returned to the table to reclaim a small amount of high-grade manganese. An interesting facet of the gravity concentration developed on certain samples in which braunite was the principal manganese constituent. Since braunite has a Mohs hardness of 6 to 6.5, while the host rock, limestone. is only 3, a differential size reduction took place during crushing, and the

Jan 1, 1960

By P. G. Shewmon, H. E. Collins

A study has been made to determine the sites at which sulfur adsorption occurs on copper surfaces. measurements were made of the relative torques, Ys, at the intersection of twin boundaries with surfaces near the three low-index orientations, i.e., (100), @lo), and 011), over a range of H2S/H2 ratios. HZS concerztvations j'ro~n 3 to 1500pp)n between 830" and 1050°C were used. It is concluded that sulfur adsorption occurved preferentially though not exclusively at edge sites near the (100) and (110) surfaces in the HzS range — 700 Ppm giving rise to negative torques near these orientations. Beyond this HzS range, adsorption occurred at all sites. Near the (111) surface, 7/y little with HzS concentration up to approxiwzately 75pptn. Above this range, the results indicate adsorption is occurring OH both terrace and edge sites. SCIENTIFIC interest in surfaces and their interactions with a gaseous environment dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. The scientific luminaries of that period—Faraday, Maxwell, Rayleigh, Dewar, and Gibbs—were already concerned about such processes. However, it has only been within the past several decades that adsorption on metal surfaces has been actively studied. This increased interest in adsorption has been brought about by the advent of new and improved experimental techniques and apparatus, e.g., ultrahigh vacuum, and field-emission and ion microscopes. However, most of the work done using these techniques has been carried out at low temperatures. When adsorption studies have been made at either low or high temperatures, they usually gave no indication of the particular surface orientations or type of sites on which adsorption was occurring. In the last few years, there have been a series of studies in which the surface tension, y,, and/or its derivative with respect to orientation, 7, have been studied as a function of orientation and atmosphere.'-7 Nearly all of the work on the relative torque,* ~/y, silver annealed in hydrogen and air.6 Recently Winterbottom and Gjostein" have used a modified and more accurate Mykurian method to determine the y plot of gold in hydrogen The only work in which T/~, has been measured over a range of chemical potentials for a given solute, p2, is that of Robertson and shewmon7 on the Cu-0 system. They measured T/Y, vs Po, (10"" to 10- l3 atm) at 1000°C in various mixtures of Hz0 and HZ. From this work they estimated the value of p2 at which one half of the surface sites are occupied with oxygen, pg, as being in the range 10- l6 to 10- l5 atm of oxygen. They also found that increasing Pa increased the magnitude of ~/y, near the (111) and (100) orientations. This indicates that oxygen is not adsorbed preferentially at step edges, but uniformly over all surface sites. In addition, they did one experiment on sulfur adsorption on copper surfaces, which indicated that sulfur adsorption decreases ~/y, near the (100) orientation, while not affecting ~/y, near the (111). This could be interpreted as indicating that sulfur adsorbs preferentially at step edges near the (100). In this paper the primary objective of the work has been to carry out a study of sulfur adsorption on copper surfaces over a range of temperatures and p,. In conjunction with this work, thermal grooving at grain boundaries has been examined as a method of determining the effect of sulfur adsorption on y,. METHODS Ideally, one would like to have information on the quantity of solute adsorbed on a surface and the types of sites at which it is absorbed as a function of p2. The total quantity adsorbed or the surface excess is given by the thermodynamic equation Thus data on the variation of y, with pz indicates the value of p2 at which adsorption becomes appreciable and the quantity adsorbed. The type of adsorption site is more difficult to deduce but information on this can be obtained from the variation of rz with 8, the angular deviation of the surface orientation. This is obtained from the thermodynamic equationlg Data on t and ys as functions of p2 have been obtained by the following methods. 1) Twin Boundary Grooving—By determining the effect of adsorption on the torque, 7, where T is the variation of surface energy, y,, with orientation, it is possible to obtain some indication as to the preferred sites of adsorption. Experimentally, the torque value measured is the relative torque, 7/ys The twin boundary grooving technique suggested by Mykura'' was used in this study to determine near the three low-index orientations— (loo), (110), and (111). Mykura's equation relates 7 /yS to measurements of the di-

Jan 1, 1967

By John Griffen

DURING the past year, purchases of coal-preparation equipment and the discussions and plant-scale tests conducted indicate that much attention is being given to better recoveries of coal by preparation plants and improved quality of the finer sizes to widen their market. In the anthracite regions the new equipment was predominantly for the cleaning of the steam sizes, much of it for treating No. 4 and No. 5 buckwheat. The units installed were largely coal-washing tables, Hydrotators, and Menzies cone separators.

Jan 1, 1944

By S.S. Clarke

The sheet-ground deposits of the Tri-State district, because they are fairly uniform in thickness (7 to II ft.)—rather flat, with an easy dip to the west—and cover a large acreage, offered a problem of improved transportation. Heading advance in this kind of mine is very rapid and track haulage requires a larger crew of trackmen than do other mines, and a heavy investment in track. The use of some type of rubber-tired truck equipment for underground haulage was under consideration for some time by the Eagle-Picher Mining and Smelting Co. The nature of some ore bodies made them not adaptable to truck haulage and some mines that did offer possibilities were equipped with other types of haulage, and the expected savings by the use of trucks did not offset the loss of investment that would be incurred in discarding other equipment. The decision was made to sink a new shaft, designed for skip hoisting, on the Blue Goose ore body, and then develop truck equipment. Developing Tractors and Trailers A study was made of internal-combustion engines for power units in the tractors, but the extreme difficulty of controlling air circulation, and the heavy cost of drilling large churn drill holes for blower installations, led to the adoption of a tractor with a storage battery. The storage-battery tractor that was on the market for mine haulage was impossible to obtain because all were needed for defense work. Several standard electric-truck chassis were purchased and rebuilt in the Eagle-Picher shops. The steering wheel was shortened and set vertical, permitting the driver's seat to be moved forward, and the frame was shortened enough to take the battery box and the fifth wheel support that carried the gooseneck of the dump trailer. The fifth wheel, or turntable, is of the ball and socket type. Tig. I shows the ball fastened to the gooseneck. The socket is split to permit introduction of the ball and is held by through-bolts, and the socket is welded to a ½-in. plate, which in turn is attached to the tractor frame. Smaller wheels and tires were put on to reduce over-all height. If it had been necessary, the spring: could have been reversed, or taken off entirely, to gain additional clearance. The tractors are equipped with 48-cell, 23-plate, 400-A.H. batteries. With the initial tonnage and mileage, the batteries were about 50 per cent down at the end of a shift. Tractors have truck tires 7.50 by 20, 8-ply, front and rear, the rear being dud. After four months of use, the .tires are beginning to show signs of failure.* In

Jan 1, 1943

By M. van Swaay, C. E. Birchenall

Palladium has a large capacity for the dissolution or occlusion of hydrogen; the gas also diffuses very rapidly through the metal. Palladium thimbles are widely used in the laboratory for purification of hydrogen by diffusion. The use of palladium filters could be extended to several large-scale applications if greater stability of the permeation process could be attained. In this paper a number of aspects contributing toward this goal are discussed, and new data on solubility and diffusivity are given. Palladium sheets of 0.005, 0.010, or 0.020 in. thickness were prepared by three procedures: casting and rolling, sintering palladium powder, and sintering palladium powder to which 0.1 pct thorium oxide had been added. Half-inch diam circular specimens were cut and clamped in a stainless steel holder provided with knife edges to seal the palladium sheet with soft copper gaskets. The seals were tested for leaks at l0-5 mm Hg. No difficulties from this source were encountered even after many temperature cycles in the system. The holder was silver-soldered to Kovar-glass seals and attached to the system through glass ball joints. Each joint was sealed with Apiezon wax and was adjacent to a cold trap. In several experiments the holders were fused directly into the system, eliminating the ball joints, to show that the wax did not affect the filter. Three filter holders were supported in holes in a stainless steel cylinder, which also acted as a temperature equalizing block inside the resistance wound furnace. The measuring thermocouple was inserted in one of the holders. A potentiometric controller with control thermocouple on the furnace heater winding maintained ± 0.2oC. Electrolytic hydrogen was purified and stored as shown in the flow diagram, Fig. 1. It could be admitted to either or both sides of the palladium specimens. Only a mechanical pump was used, for even high pumping speeds would not bring the pressure on the off-gas side of the filter below 10 to 50p Hg owing to the rapid hydrogen flow through the filters. A series of steady-state permeability studies allowed identification of several conditions of permeability loss. A constant fore pressure was maintained while the low-pressure face was pumped. After enough time had elapsed for a steady flow to be established the pump was cut off, and the rate of pressure increase in a thermostated bulb was measured to determine the flow rate. The time delay method of Daynes1,9 was adopted since it offered the possibility of determining solubilities and diffusivities. For each measurement both sides of the filter were evacuated for 15 min, which gave about 10-4mm Hg residual pressure. Hydrogen was admitted to one side or the other of the filter at a fixed pressure. The pressure on the off-gas side was observed as a function of time. A

Jan 1, 1961