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By Elmer W. Pehrson

NINETEEN FORTY-SIX was an eventful year for the mineral industries. Perhaps the most significant development was the socialization of industry in Great Britain, initiated in 1945 but carried to fruition in the coal industry in 1946. On Jan. 1, 1947, management of the coal industry will be vested in a National Coal Board, responsible to the Ministry of Fuel and Power. A sum of £164,660,000 has been provided to compensate private owners for assets transferred to the Board. The British coal industry has been a problem for many years. Production has declined to a point where serious shortages of fuel for domestic needs have developed. Exports have dwindled to a small fraction of the previous trade. Costs have increased greatly, and quality has deteriorated. The industry's physical plant has not kept pace with the rapidly mounting wage scales in recent years. Some claim that the best and most accessible coal reserves of Britain are heavily depleted. The industry has been harassed by difficult labor problems, including bad morale among the workers and a shrinking labor force.

Jan 1, 1947

By C. A. Stetefeldt

FoR the convenience of those who do not care to enter into the details of this long essay, I begin with a summary of the most important results it presents. The extraction of silver by the lixiviation-process from ores which have been subjected to a chloridizing-roasting, is based upon the fact that silver chloride is easily soluble in solutions of sodium or calcium hyposulphite, and that silver is precipitated from such solutions by an alkaline sulphide, with regeneration of the hyposulphite salts. In case the ore contains lead a large portion of the latter is and dissolved, lead sulphate being soluble in hyposulphite solutions. If, at the same time, copper is present, the sulphides precipitated from the solution, contain silver, copper, and lead, a combination of metals not desirable for subsequent treatment. Mr. E. H. Russell, of Park City, Utah, is the inventor and the patentee in the United States and several foreign countries of a new lixiviation-process, based upon the chemical facts discussed in this paper. Mr. Russell has discovered that lead can be completely separated from a sodium hyposulphite solution, as lead carbonate, by sodium carbonate or purified soda-ash, without precipitating any copper or silver. After decanting the solution from the lead carbonate, silver and copper are obtained from it in the usual way. This method of separating lead prohibits the use of calcium poly-sulphide as a precipitant for the sulphides, because any calcium entering the regenerated lixiviationsolution would also be precipitated as a carbonate with the lead by soda-ash. Hence, a sodium sulphide must be employed. A full investigation has demonstrated that this is by no means detrimental. Sodium sulphide and hyposulphite are more advantageously used in the lixiviation-process than the corresponding calcium-salts. Another defect in the lixiviation-process consisted in the necessity of a very perfect chlorination of the silver in the ore, because silver in

Jan 1, 1885

By C. R. Wohrman

A MELT of pure electrolytic iron with about 0.4 per cent. sulfur and 7 per cent. manganese was prepared in connection with a study of inclusions in iron. The alloy darkened rapidly when etched with a 10 per cent. alcoholic solution of nitric acid, and microscopic examination revealed the presence of a semimartensitic, semi-Widmanstättian structure (Figs. 1 and 2) closely resembling the structures found by Benedicks in his artificially prepared "meteoric iron." 1 The structures found by Benedicks were readily explained by the presence in his alloy of the two well known iron-nickel solid solutions, taenite and kamacite, and of their eutectoid (?) aggregate, plessite. By analogy, one would infer the existence of similar phases in the iron-manganese alloy just described, such as inference being strengthened by the similarity displayed in many ways by nickel and manganese in their effects on iron. IRON-MANGANESE ALLOTS ARE REGARDED AS HOMOGENEOUS Heterogeneity of iron-manganese alloys has not been recognized heretofore, judging from the data of standard metallographic books and those of original papers. In fact, iron and manganese are quite generally regarded as completely miscible in the solid state. Dr. Rosenhain,2 for example, writes: Alloys of group (a), of which those of gold-silver, iron-manganese, and copper-nickel are examples, when allowed to crystallize sufficiently slowly to attain their condition of final equilibrium, present a microstructure exactly similar to that of a pure metal-the homogeneous character of the molten solution is in that case so completely maintained that the microscope cannot detect the presence of any second constituent.

Jan 1, 1927

[I-Institute of Metals Division PAUL D. MERICA, Chairman ZAY JEFFRIES, Vice-chairman W. M. CORSE, Secretary General Committee ROBERT J. ANDERSON H. C. JENNISON L. W. SPRING WILLIAN K. FRANK DAVID LEVINGER R. L. SUHL J. R. FREEMAN, JR. PAUL McKINNEY R. F. WOOD]

Jan 1, 1928

By C. O. Rison

HIGH explosives, particularly nitroglycerin, have been used in torpedoes for the purpose of shooting oil and gas wells for more than 60 years. The early history of the oil industry in Pennsylvania is not clear as to who actually torpedoed the first well, although in 1865 the Roberts Torpedo Co. procured a patent covering the process. Gunpowder was first used, although nitroglycerin was substituted shortly afterwards. Wells are shot for the purpose of increasing the flow of oil and gas A shot-hole in the producing horizon, with its contributory fissures and fractures, increases the area of and stimulates drainage into the hole. The shot-hole also acts as a collecting basin from which the oil is pumped. As a rule, hard or close-grained sands or limes are shot, other more or less porous and soft formations usually do not require shooting. and might be injured by blasting. Shooting is also resorted to in mechanical trouble such as straightening crooked holes, sidetracking pipe or tools, and for severing frozen strings of casing or drill pipe. Explosives arc also used sometimes to extinguish oil or gas-well fires although that work, which involves unusual conditions and methods, does not properly come within the classification of oil-well shooting. Some Factors to Be Considered in Shooting Wells Although nitroglycerin has been used extensively for more than half a century in shooting oil and gas wells, there is still a great deal of uncertainty as to the proper method of shooting or the amount of explosive required to produce best results in a particular formation. The possibility of shooting unproductive or cavey formations above or below the productive horizons, shooting into lower water, destroying casing seats, and the splitting or collapsing of casing strings, are factors that require consideration. The engineering departments of a number of the larger oil companies are making a study of methods of shooting, and the amounts of liquid nitroglycerin or other explosives required in shooting various productive

Jan 1, 1929

By Samuel H. Dolbear

NOT WITHSTANDING the extremely low ebb of business activity, the nonmetallic industries have fared somewhat better than some other branches of mining. The average price level in nonmetallics, although far from satisfactory, has resisted any cataclysmic fall such as has been suffered by copper and other metals. Stocks, also, though too abundant, represent no corresponding overhang of the market, which should result, in some branches, in a more rapid recovery. Research work has continued in some industries with interesting developments.

Jan 1, 1933

[†AARONSON, ALFRED E., Vice-Pres., Mid-Co. Petroleum Co., Mid-Co. Bldg., Tulsa Okla. '18 ABADIE, EMILE R., Min. Engr Box 927, Porterville, Cal. '76 ¦ABADILLA, QUIRICO A. Student, Colorado School Of Mines, Golden, Colo. '20 ABBOTT, CLARENCE E., Gen'l Supt. Iron Mines Div., Tenn. Coal, Iron & R. I. Co., 1405 Minnesota Ave., Bessemer, Ala. '04] [ ]

Jan 1, 1925

By AIME AIME

N EARLY 1300 members and guests crowded the halls of the Engineering Societies Building during the winter meeting of the Institute just closed, and more than 600 attended the banquet. In variety of program, quality of papers, interest in discussion, and brilliance of social features, the meeting maintained the high reputation of the past. Nothing elaborate in the way of excursions was attempted, experience having proved that February weather in New York is much too uncertain to warrant extensive field trips. A sight-seeing journey up the Hudson to the Bear Mountain bridge was, however, made despite the snows of the week before and the week after. The annual business meeting, while attended by a minority of the members in the building, was marked by the display of keen interest in the work and called out several interesting discussions. The excellent reports of the committees that had organized their work and directed it along definite lines, emphasized the need of funds with which to support assistants or Fellows who shall correlate and put to the highest use the facilities of the Institute in research along technical lines. This thought was developed at the banquet by the retiring president, J. V. W. Reynders, and it is expected that the Directors will take early steps to collect a fund for this purpose. The number of the individual sessions was too great and the papers and discussions too numerous to permit mention here of all the features of inter- est. A general review only follows. The papers and detailed discussions will be printed and sent to members as promptly as possible.

Jan 1, 1926

South Dakota State Geological and Natural History Survey, State University, Vermillion, S D. A list of publications will be sent upon request Many of the publications are out of print A series of Biennial Reports of the State Geologist will be sent upon receipt of three cents for postage on each, and are available as follows: 1918-20, 1920-22, 1922-24, 1924-26, 1926-28, 1928-30 Available Bulletins of greatest interest are: Bulletin 4, Pre¬liminary report of the geology of the Rosebud Reservation (1909), 10 cents; 10, Possibilities of oil in South Dakota (1922), 10 cents A series of Circulars (5 cents each) deals with the possibilities of oil and gas in various parts of the state, as follows¬ Circular 8, Eastern Pennington County (1921), 9, Western Dewey County (1922); 10, Northern Dewey County (1922), 12, Eastern Harding County (1923), 13, Northern Ziebach County (1923); 20, Western Ziebach County (1925), 23, Northeastern Meade County (1925); 27, Western Corson County Other Circulars (5 cents each) are: Circular 16, The natural resources of South Dakota (1924), 22, Structures ,in northern Haakon County (1925); 24, The Ragged Butte structure (1925), 25, The structure of western South Dakota (1925), 28, Structures in western Haakon and eastern Pennington counties (1926)

Jan 1, 1933

By Joseph T. Singwald

INTRODUCTION THE purpose of this chapter is to present the diagnostic features (geologic, mineralogic, chemical, and physical) of the principal types of hypogene ore deposits recognized in current genetic classifications, and to classify the ore deposits of the western United States into those types. The genetic divisions used and the criteria determining them are essentially those followed by Lindgren in his Mineral Deposits. Deviations from Lindgren represent either changed conceptions since 1928 (the date of the third edition of Mineral Deposits) due to advance in knowledge or the inevitable differences of opinion between experts in active fields of investigation. Though nineteen economic geologists have been given free hand in presenting their particular topics, there are no fundamental departures in the chapter from the principles set forth by Lindgren. It would be entirely beyond the capacity of a single chapter to give a comprehensive geologic description of all the ore deposits of the western United States. Descriptions of individual deposits have been restricted to those features that are of most diagnostic genetic value. All of the more important deposits receive that much attention. Deposits of lesser economic importance and those inadequately known geologically are treated more briefly or merely cited under what seems to be their proper genetic assignment. The geographic limits of the descriptive matter are the Black Hills and the United States between the Rocky Mountains and the pacific Coast. Capacity of the chapter has made it necessary to impose these geographic limits.

Jan 1, 1933

By AIME AIME

PURSUANT to a recommendation made by the Section delegates at their conference at the Annual Meeting of the A.I.M.E. last February, the Directors, at their meeting on March 15, 1944, appointed a committee charged with the duty of investigating the present status of licensing and registration of engineers, and to make a report on the whole subject for the information of the mining fraternity. The committee consisted of E. W. Ellis, chairman, H. D. Keiser, Henry T. Mudd, J. J. Croston, and Simon Strauss. Messrs. Keiser and Strauss were unable to assist in the work of the committee, and Mr. Mudd was forced to resign in July, his place being taken by A. F. Greaves-Walker. Able assistance was given the committee by T. Keith Legare, executive secretary of the National Council of State Boards of Engineering Examiners, and by Ed. ward Larson, executive secretary of the National Society of Professional Engineers. The accompanying somewhat condensed version of the report of Mr. Ellis's committee, dated Oct. 15, 1944, is confined to facts rather than to recommendations. The "Model Law" to which reference is made was first drafted by repre¬sentatives of six national engineering societies in 1911. It has since been amended many times, the latest version dated June 1943 is recommended to the State Licensing Boards as a pattern for formulating or amending state laws. A copy of the "Model Law" in pamphlet form will be sent to any member on request from A.I.M.E. headquarters while the supply lasts. The report:

Jan 1, 1945

By Rudolf Gahl

Page Tests Conducted in Small Test Mill................... 577 Demonstration Tests Conducted by Minerals Separation Co....... 577 Flotation Tcsts Conducted by Inspiration Co............. 577 Sampling of Orebody........................ 578 Other Results Obtained in Small Test Mill.............. 580 Tests Conducted in Large Test Mill................... 580 Flow Sheet............................. 580 Discussion of the Value of Preliminary Table Treatment......582 Callow Flotation Installation..................... 585 Flinn-Towne ~nstallation...................... 587 Cole-Bergman Installation...................... 588 Methods Followed in Competitive Tests................ 590 Advantage of Pneumatic Flotation Machines.............. 591 Pneumatic Machines of Minerals Separation Co............. 591 Float Skimming Device......................; 594 Experimental Inspiration Flotation Machine.............. 596 Arrangement of Callow Cells in Series ................ 598 Variations of Flow Sheet....................... 599 Coal Tar as Flotation Agent..................... 600 Experience with Primary Slime.................... 602 Influence of Iron on Flotation..................... 605 Influence of Chemicals on Primary Slime............... 607 Fineness of Crushing Desired.................... 607 Operation of Large Concentrator..................... 608 Flow Sheet of Callow Sections.................... 608 Flow Sheet of Inspiration Sections.................• 609 Inspiration Flotation Machine of Steel Construction.......... 610 Minerals Separation Section..................... 613 Filter Plant............................ 613 Results Obtained in Commercial Concentrator............... 616 Tonnage............................... 616 Air and Power Consumption...................... 616 Floor Space............................ 617 Water Consumption......................... 617 Recovery............................. 618 Oil Consumption.......................... 618 Operating Costs for Flotation..................... 620 Discussion of Results Obtained.................... 620 Prospects for Futurc Development of the Flotation Process......... 621 Porous-Bottom Experiments..................... 622 Raising the Grade of Concentrates.................. 624 Recovering Carbonates by Flotation................. 624 Recovery of Silicates by Flotation.................. 627 General Theory......................... 628 Conclusion............................... 630

Jan 1, 1917

By Verne C. Fryklund, S. Warren Hobbs

The Coeur d'Alene district in the panhandle of Idaho is one of the major lead-zinc-silver producing areas in the world. The value of recorded production to date has exceeded $2 billion. Country rock comprises six formations of the fine-grained, highly siliceous, and slightly metamorphosed Precambrian Belt Series. Small stocks of monzonitic rocks and several varieties of dikes intrude the sediments. The district is at the intersection of a north trending major anticlinal uplift and the west northwest-trending Lewis and Clark line of which the Osburn fault is the dominant feature. The district structure is complicated and comprises folds, some of which are overturned, and a complex of faults of diverse ages and directions of movement. Late Cretaceous stocks but are also probably Cretaceous in age. The productive veins are localized within a series of 12 subparallel, straight mineral belts that trend approximately N65°W and that appear to be controlled by deep fractures in the basement rocks. The mineral belts are in two groups, separated by 15 miles of post-mineralization movement on the Osburn fault. Veins and ore shoots are variously disposed within each mineral belt. Many crop out at the surface, but others apex several thousand feet beneath it. Local controls that influence the position of ore shoots within the mineral belts include the brittle character of host rock attitude of bedding relative to the mineralized fracture, and the amount and direction of movement on faults. Depth appears to have had little effect on the occurrence or type of ore. Ore occurs in a series of steeply dipping replacement veins of relatively simple mineralogy. Six periods of mineralization, ranging from Precambrian to Tertiary in age, are recognized. The productive galena sphalerite-bearing and tetrahedrite-bearing veins-of the main period of mineralization-are younger than the

Jan 1, 1968

F. G. SMITH, Waterbury, Conn.-I would like to ask whether small amounts of iron give the maximum resistance at a low temperature, and if the large amounts of iron raise the temperature at which the maximum resistance occurs? That is, with a small amount of iron, will a maximum be at, say, 10°? F. E. BASH.-With the small amount of iron, the maximum is at a lower temperature, and with the increase of iron, the maximum increases; it seems to come to a maximum and then decrease; that is, increasing the iron up to a certain value increases the temperature at which there is a maximum of resistance, and any increase of iron beyond that value will start decreasing this temperature. With 2 per cent. of iron, the maximum is lower than for 1.5 per cent. which was the value that we found to be satisfactory. F. L. DRIVER,* Jr., Harrison, N. J.-I would like to ask what chance there is of the instrument companies getting together and deciding on standards for both manganin and constantan? We make both of these alloys in this country and we find that each one of the instrument com-panies who buy these materials require different standards of specific electrical resistance and thermal e.m.f. For instance, some of our cus-tomers require an electrical resistance in manganin or therlo of 240 ohms per circular mil foot and others require it with a specific electrical resist-ance of 270 ohms per circular mil foot. They buy these alloys in relatively small quantities so that it means much extra melting and supervision when making up small quantities for each consumer. If something could be. clone to eliminate this, it would be a benefit to the instrument com-panies, who could secure their material more cheaply, and to the manu-facturers, who would not have to spend so much time and effort in special manufacturing.

Jan 12, 1919

By Horace R. Graham

CHEMICAL nitrogen and the "nitrates" of commercial significance are derived mainly from three basic sources: (1) the natural deposits in the form of nitrate-bearing earth and clay, which, being largely water-soluble, can exist only in the most arid portions of the earth; (2) coal, which yields not only nitrogen but also the additional by-product hydrogen required for the synthesis of ammonia and its compounds; (3) the atmospheric air, which contains 75.5 pct by weight of pure nitrogen gas. NATURAL NITRATE DEPOSITS Occurrence Although natural nitrate deposits consisting principally of the salts of sodium and potassium have been reported in Egypt, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and the USA, the only known natural nitrate resources of commercial importance are the vast deposits found in the Atacama, Tarapaca and Antofagasta regions of northern Chile, lying in a narrow strip 10 to 50 miles wide and roughly 450 miles long, between latitudes [19O] and [26OS]. In addition to yielding nitrates of sodium and potassium, these deposits are the source of the major portion of the world's supply of iodine. The nitrate-bearing ores known in Chile as caliche are variable in composition and may contain from 5 to 30 pct each of nitrate, chloride and sulphate. While the deposits are present chiefly in the form of the sodium salt, potassium, magnesium and calcium also occur in percent- ages from 0.1 to 5; usually as double salts with sulphate, which are but slightly soluble in nitrate leach solutions. These double salts are bloedite(Na2S04.MgS04.4H,0), glauberite (Na2S04.CaS04), polyhalite (K2SO4.- MgS04.2CaS04.2H20). Some deposits contain up to30 pct of their ni-

Jan 1, 1949

By C. A. Fisher

THE Salt Creek Oil Field of Wyoming occupies a unique position among the major oil fields of this country. Many years before the beginning of actual production in this area, in 1911, it had attracted country-wide attention as a district holding oil possi¬bilities. Even foreign capital, mainly French and Belgian, had sought out this district as having oil values and spent many thousands of dollars 'in an effort to acquire property rights' in this field which was very largely located on the public domain. Owing to inadequate laws governing the acquisition of oil lands on the Federal domain and a careless practice having grown up among oil land locators of that time, a complicated title situation quickly developed in Salt Creek. This condition of uncertain titles together with the isolation of the field from industrial centers were doubtless the two most potent factors in retarding its early development. After actual production began in 1911 governmental regulations, suits between the government, and the locator, disputed ownerships between locators and claim and counterclaim continued to retard the field's development. It is believed that the title situation in the Salt Creek Field, where potential values of such magnitudes were involved, was responsible more than any other factor for the ultimate passage of the government leasing act in 1920 affecting all oil lands on the Federal domain.

Jan 1, 1925

INSTITUTE OF METALS DIVISION Ferrous and Nonferrous Physical Metallurgy (By-laws in Transactions, Vol 156, 1944) Established as a Division April 26, 1918 Walter A Dean, Chairman R. M. Brick, Past-Chairman Morris Cohen, Senior Vice-Chairman J H Scaff, Vice-Chairman Ernest Kirkendall, Secretary-Treasurer

Jan 1, 1952

Ferrous and Nonferrous Physical Metallurgy Established as a Division April 26, 1918 T A Read, Chairman O T Marzke, Past Chairman J H Jackson, Senior Vice-Chairman David Swan, Vice-Chairman D C Johnston, Secretary-Treasurer AIME, 29 West 39th Street New York 18, New York

Jan 1, 1960

Established as a Society February 26, 1957 John S Bell, President Wayne E Glenn, President-elect Basil P Kantzer, Past President R E Howard, Vice, President M B Penn, Vice-President Everett G Trostel, Treasurer Joe B Alford, Executive Secretary 800 Fidelity Union Bldg Dallas 1, Texas

Jan 1, 1959

By Alfred E. Hunt

By the death of Joseph Dame Weeks, past-President of this Institute, which occurred December 26, 1896, the world has lost an earnest and unwearied philanthropist; the Christian church, a zealous, active and consistent representative; the United States and the State of Penusylvania, a patriotic, pub-

Jan 1, 1898