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By Van H. Manning

EXPLOSIVES RESEARCH. As the physical laboratories of the explosives section of the Pitts- burgh experiment station were equipped for testing the physical properties of explosives, both the Army and Navy Departments for many years had requested the Bureau of Mines to make such tests. Chemical control of the physical tests through analyses, heat tests, analyses of gaseous products of combustion, and sand tests was exer- cised through the explosives chemical laboratory. Often an investigation was cooperative between two laboratories. The explosives chemical laboratory also aided the work of the Ex- plosives Regulation both by chemical tests and investigation of acci- dents in explosives plants. COOPERATIVE WORK FOR ARMY AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS. The explosives chemical laboratory devised, at the request of the Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy, a more economical method of making hexanitrodiphenylamine. This problem was assigned to the Bureau of Mines by Dr. C. E. Munroe, chairman of the committee on explosives of the National Research Council, acting as the depart- ment of science and research of the Council of National Defense. Before the United States entered the war the following reports of investigations were submitted to the Army or the Navy: 1. Report of sensitiveness and relative efficiency of TNT and ammonium picrate, dated February 6, 1913, undertaken at the re- quest of the Chief of Ordnance. 2. Report of tests and examination of two samples of TNT and one of TNA for the Ordnance Department of the Army, dated August 5, 1915, was undertaken at the request of commanding officer, Frankford Arsenal. 3. Report of tests for sensitiveness to detonation of mercury ful- minate of 21 samples of TNT crystallized from various solvents, for the Bureau of Ordnance, Navy Department, dated June 17, 1916. 4. Report of tests of two samples of mercury fulminate for Frank- ford Arsenal, dated December 2, 1916, undertaken at the request of the commanding officer, Frankford Arsenal. After the United States entered the war the following reports of investigations were submitted: 5. Report of pendulum friction and large impact tests on two samples of "sodatol" and two samples of "amatol." The final report was dated July 20, 1918; and the preliminary report, May 15, 1918. This investigation was undertaken at the request of the Ordnance

Jan 1, 1919

By Frederick C. Trutt, Jeffery L. Kohler, Joseph Sottile

Twenty-five years ago, the former U.S. Bureau of Mines funded a research project aimed at developing the enabling technology for incipient failure prediction in electric power system components as a means of reducing the injuries and fatalities that sometimes occur when equipment malfunctions. Over the ensuing years, interest in this has waxed and waned, but recently interest has been growing for both civilian and military applications. This paper addresses the level of turn-to-turn insulation deterioration that can be resolved using an on-line monitoring technique. The detection of turn-to-turn defects is especially important because they are believed to represent the beginning stage of most motor winding failures.

By James P. Ulery

A Bureau of Mines geologic study of Pennsylvanian and Permian coalbeds in southwestern Pennsylvania was undertaken to determine the effects of coalbed geology and petrology on in situ coalbed gas contents. Data were obtained from 18 coreholes from parts of four 7.5 ' quadrangles in southwestern Washington and northwestern Greene Counties, and from a single corehole in Westmoreland County. A total of 88 samples from 24 coalbeds were collected for direct-method testing to determine gas content. The samples were also analyzed for petrographic composition, chemical composition, and vitrinite reflectance values. Corehole information was used to generate isopach maps and geologic cross sections useful in data interpretation. Results of the investigation show that coalbed gas content is related to vitrinite reflectance, but not to petrographic composition. Gas contents are also influenced by other geologic factors such as roof rock lithology and competency, and location with respect to local fold structure.

Jan 1, 1989

"INTRODUCTIONMany of the facilities and much of the equipment available to the Generic Mineral Technology Center for Respirable Dust are highly specialized and therefore, unique to the universities associated with the Center as illustrated in FIGURES 30 through 39.For example, a sample bank of 1300 U.S. coal specimens housed in the Coal Research Section, Deike Building of The Pennsylvania State University has been characterized for physical, elemental, mineralogical and maceral compositions. The results of this research have been used to initiate a study of the relationship between pneumoconioses and coal properties. Selected samples from this bank have been used in animal (primate) studies at the Milton S. Hershey (Penn State) and West Virginia University Medical Centers. These laboratory facilities for research in the medical and biological disciplines is state-of-the-art and includes a primate colony where dust research is currently underway. The Materials Research Laboratory and the Rock Mechanics Laboratory at PSU, and the Mechanical Systems Design and Control Laboratory, the Rock Mechanics Laboratory and the Mine Electronic System Laboratory at WVU are equipped for fundamental research on dust generation and characterization. While the majority of respirable dust research projects fall into these two categories, dust generation and characterization and interaction of dust and lung, there are other laboratory facilities available to the Center which are unparalleled in the type of equipment and expert personnel that they contribute to the program. The Mine Particle Laboratory located at the University of Minnesota and the Diesel Engine Laboratory at Michigan Technological University are examples. They house equipment and instrumentation that is unique to these facilities. much of it having been developed specifically for dust research by the research scientists there. The dust collection equipment and the fine particles measurement, characterization and analysis apparatus are essential to research in the areas of dust collection, particle characterization and diesel particulates. In addition to university laboratories, the research facilities of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are available to the Center through its relationship With West Virginia University."

Aug 31, 1989

By d&apos, Kathleen J. Amico

THIS SUMMARY is shown in volumes I and III of this series on mineral production in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), its island possessions, the Canal Zone, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and on the principal minerals imported into and exported from the United States. For further details on production, see the several commodity and area chapters. A summary table comparing world and U.S. mineral production also is included. [ ]

Jan 1, 1960

By d&apos, Kathleen J. Amico

THIS SUMMARY is shown in volumes I and III of this series on mineral production in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), its island possessions, the Canal Zone, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and on the principal minerals imported into and exported from the United States. For further details on production, see the several commodity and area chapters. A summary table comparing world and U.S. mineral production also is included. [ ]

Jan 1, 1960

Provide an environmentally compatible means of producing lead from galena concentrates that replaces the current high-temperature pyrometallurgical primary lead smelting process and supplies pure lead metal within present and proposed Environmental Protection Agency (FPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) lead emission standards. Approach The U.S. Bureau of Mines developed an energy efficient and pollution-free leach-electrowinning method for use in recovering pure lead metal and byproducts from lead sulfide concentrates.

Jan 1, 1989

By Wils L. Cooley, Herman W. Hill

'The electrical behavior of ground beds is often quite different from what would be expected based on experience with electric circuits. An explanation for this unique behavior is given, through means of an analogy, which should promote intuitive understanding of ground beds. The nonmathematical development of the text is complemented by an extensive appendix which describes the details of ground bed calculations. This work was supported by U.S. Bureau of Mines contract G0144138.

Jan 1, 1979

By Joseph N. Harstead

This Bureau of Mines report provides information on the first 49 water-flood projects (or units) in Nebraska. All injection was in the ?D? or "J" Cretaceous sands of western Nebraska. Specific data presented include location, map, discovery and development, water supply and injection, oil and water production, estimates of oil in place, primary and secondary recoveries. The 49 projects studied) including four dual-zone projects, should recover about 126.5 million barrels of oil. Eighty-six percent of the estimated oil had been recovered by the end of 1966. Abundant water was found near most projects.

Jan 1, 1967

By K. O. Bennington

Enthalpies of formation of three sodium titanates were determined by hydrofluoric acid solution calorimetry, The values obtained for formation from the elements at 298.15° K are -370.9±0.5 kcal/mole for Na2TiO3, -832.1±0.9 kcal/mole for Na2Ti307, and -1,510.9±1.7 kcal/mole for Na2Ti6013. Tables of enthalpies of formation and Gibbs energies of formation are given as a function of temperature both from the elements and from the component oxides for Na2Ti03 and Na2Ti307.

Jan 1, 1973

By C. M. Frost

Crude shale oil prepared by gas-combustion retorting of Colorado oil shale was hydrogenated over a cobalt molybdate catalyst at an operating pressure of 1,000 psig, temperatures of 781° and 761° F, and liquid hourly space velocities of 0.10 and 0.05 Vo/Vo/hr, respectively. The yields of total liquid products and the amounts of nitrogen and sulfur removed were comparable with those obtained at an operating pressure of 3,000 psig and a liquid hourly space velocity of 1.0 Vo/Vo/hr. Approximately 1.5 times as much gasoline was produced at the lower pressure and space velocities.

Jan 1, 1973

By W. H. Ode

Low-temperature distillation tests at 200°, 350°, and 500° C. were made on a subbituminous coal from Boulder County, Colo., and a subbituminous coal from Weld County, Colo., in connection with a survey of carbonizing properties of American coals4/ and. investigations of their chemical and physical properties.5/ The coal represented by the sample from weld County was reported to give off combustible volatile matter at unusually low temperatures when placed on a fuel bed. The yields of tar and oil and the composition of the gas from this coal, as obtained in the distillation tests, did not confirm this report. These yields and the gas composition of the Weld County coal differed but little from those obtained from the coal from Boulder County. Both coals yielded tar and gas in amounts considered to be normal for coals of their rank.

Jan 1, 1937

By Ralph B. Adair

The Bureau of Mines conducted laboratory and small-scale, continuous tests of weathered mica-pegmatite ores from Randolph County, Ala., to determine the feasibility of recovering commercial-grade mica concentrates by flotation. Two flotation methods were used in continuous tests for recovery of mica. One method utilized acid-cationic flotation for the recovery of coarse mica and alkaline-anionic-cationic flotation for recovering fine mica. This method yielded mica concentrates containing 98.6 percent mica with a recovery of 85.9 percent. The other method was based on the Bureau-developed alkaline-anionic-cationic method, and yielded concentrates containing 97.5 percent mica with a recovery of over 90 percent. In both methods, preconcentration of the ground ore on a Humphreys spiral was employed to reject over half of the feed in a product virtually free of mica.

Jan 1, 1968

"At the request of the Anthracite Institute, the United States Bureau of Mines during February, March, and April 1935, made a field survey of commercial anthracite shipped from collieries scattered throughout the Anthracite regions. In all, 268 samples were taken at 41 breakers from Carbondale at the northern end of the field to Pottsville at the south. These collieries ship approximately 50 percent of the industry’s total production. The geographical distribution of the breakers sampled was as nearly as practicable in proportion to the tonnage of the companies from each region cooperating in the plan.The following are the weighted average analyses, by sizes, of the samples taken in this survey;"

Jul 1, 1935

By M. J. Brnich

The purpose of this U.S. Bureau of Mines study was to assess the ability of trainees to don an unfamiliar self-contained self-rescuer (SCSR) after having become familiar with how to put on a different type of apparatus. Prepractice instruction was the same for all individuals learning to put on a device: a step-by-step, hands-on talk-through using the "3+3" method. Subjects were assigned to groups that had their initial donning instruction delivered on either the Draeger OXY-SR60B or the CSE SR-100. Trainees' performances were then evaluated using the other model. Donning trials were analyzed using a number of measures. It was found that SCSR design had a moderate influence upon how well the donning task transferred.

Jan 1, 2010

By R. R. Sayers

The terms "sanitation and }\Vgienen are often used interchangeably, but it is more "' usual to apply ttsani tat ion'' to th environment or surroundings, and nr.ygieneto the iiiividual, The subject,. h9wever, is so broad that only a few of the phases of sanitation will be di.acusae in ·this paper, vmile the various Fsea of hyg:tene will be deferred for later consideration. One of the bes.t .iaf ini tions of sanitation that I have hearci was given by ur. L. L • Lumsden, of the U, S. Public Heal th Service, who state.d that "'sanitation is t-he c.oir .. 'Don-sens$ application of the principles of cleanliness,

Aug 1, 1922

By H. H. Schrenk

[A calorimetric method3/ for the determination of benzene in amounts as low as 0.001 m has been developed recently at the U.S. Bureau of Mines Pittsburgh Experiment Station by the authors, with the assistance of chemical personnel from the Allegheny County (Pa.) Relief Works Division. The method is based on the direct nitration of either liquid or gas - phase benzene, followed by neutralization, extraction with butanone, and final treatment with sodium hydroxide which produces a violet color. The color is matched with color standards of known values. Although the method is adaptable to many conditions the primary objective was a procedure that would be suitable for hygienic investigations.]

Jan 1, 1935

By W. Bruce Montgomery

Manganese oxides occur, with some iron oxides, in small scattered lenses on property controlled by the Columbia Manganese Co. (1943) near Evington, Campbell County, Va. The company mined some manganese ore during 1917 and 1918. A preliminary examination in May 1942 indicated the possibility of finding additional ore. On August 21, 1942, the Bureau of Mines began prospecting to verify the continuity of the ore exposures. Work on this project continued until February 5, 1943. Prospecting and development work included shaft sinking, crosscutting, drifting, trenching, and test-pitting in six separate areas indicating two types of deposits. The most predominant type is a wide brecciated area in which occur lenses or pockets of nodular manganese oxides. The other type is characterized by more of a vein structure, including thin layers of manganese oxides.

Jan 1, 1949

By R. Larry Grayson, Douglas F. Scott

Data on health-related illnesses and disease in the mining industry are scarce, and information on rates and costs is not readily available. Substantial amounts of research are being directed to addressing these issues, including work at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) mining health and safety laboratories in Spokane and Pitts-burgh. This paper briefly discusses the current status of some miner health-related issues, including those involving coal dust, silica dust, diesel particulate matter, asbestos, noise, lead, welding fumes, and skin disorders, as well as research and other activities aimed at protecting miners from occupational illnesses and disease.

By Joseph C. Zelanko, Christopher Mark

During August, two eastern Kentucky coal miners died in a roof fall during retreat mining operations. They had just finished extracting one pillar block and were moving to the next one when the intersection they were standing in collapsed. Regrettably, this was not an isolated incident. Since the end of 2000, there have been 28 ground fall fatalities in U.S. coal mines. Of these, 10 occurred during pillar recovery operations. Although pillar recovery has been associated with about one third of recent ground fall fatalities, it accounts for only about 10% of U.S. underground coal production. Statistically, a coal miner engaged in pillar recovery is several times more likely to be killed in a ground fall than a miner on an advancing section of a longwall. Pillar recovery is dangerous because it creates an inherently unstable situation. Once the pillars are extracted, the roof is expected to cave. Safe pillar recovery does not mean preventing roof collapse, it means ensuring that it only occurs after the miners have completed their work and have left the area. Fortunately, there are a number of proven techniques that can greatty reduce the hazards of pillar recovery. These include better mine planning, improved roof support, and safer work procedures. The goal of this article is to describe the most significant "risk factors" associated with pillar recovery, and prescribe control techniques that, taken together, can reduce the overall risk to miners. The conclusions are based on extensive studies conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) that have included detailed analysis of every fatal retreat mining incident since 1992 (25 incidents resulting in 30 fatalities). Risk reduction strategies for pillar recovery can be divided into three main groups: Global Stability: Prevention of section- wide pillar failure; Local Stability: Prevention of roof falls in the working area; and Work procedures and worker location: Minimizing exposure to hazardous areas.