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By Nathan C. Rockwood

LIME is a very general term applied to products of limestone, in popular treatises often incorrectly, including ground or pulverized limestone used in agriculture. When used without qualifying adjective, the term usually means burned or calcined limestone, or quicklime, or calcia. The corresponding calcined product of magnesite is magnesia. If the calcined rock is relatively pure calcium carbonate, the resulting lime is a "high-calcium" lime; if the rock is dolomite, or a combination of calcium and magnesium carbonates, the lime is a "dolomitic" or a "high- magnesium" lime. There are various grades in between, depending on the percentage of magnesium carbonate and other ingredients in the raw rock. For some industrial purposes only high-calcium limes are suitable; in other processing-as, for example, neutralizing acid wastes -the relative percentages of magnesium and calcium carbonates in the raw material are not important. Limestone is burned (roasted or calcined) in furnaces known as lime kilns by direct exposure to the hot gases and flames. When heated to incandescence, the carbon dioxide content of the rock is expelled, leaving calcium and magnesium oxides, according to the formula usually written: [ ] This thermal reaction is reversible, which requires that the lime be withdrawn from the "calcining zone" of the kiln about as fast as made. Pure calcium carbonate would lose 44 pct of its weight in the calcining process; dolomite, 48 pct. Generally, the lime will retain the approximate size and shape of the piece of rock from which it is made but some few limestones tend to break down into granules or dust. Hence lime (quicklime) comes from the kilns in lumps or granules and normally is packed in water- tight containers in these forms, or is pulverized after calcination.

Jan 1, 1949

By J. E. Fox Jr., J. L. Lummus, J. P. Gallus

Fresh water or brine drilling fluids may be kept free of suspended drilled solids by the addition of a water soluble acrylamide-carboxylic acid copolymer at the flowline. Addition of from .01 to 0.2 lblbbl of the polymer solution to drilling fluids containing less than 5 per cent clay solids by weight causes the solids to flocculate and settle rapidly to the bottom of the pits. Solutions of the polymer injected at the pump suction reduce the loss of water to permeable formations without impairing the permeability to oil. The use of drill-itlg fluids clarified with the polymer has resulted in increased drilling rates, extended bit life, and lower drilling fluid costs. INTRODUCTION Field experience and the results of a number of investigations have established that the accumulation of solids in drilling fluid reduces drilling rate.'-' Drilling with water makes possible higher drilling rates than can be achieved with mud but in many areas drilling with water may not be feasible because of the possibility of encountering high formation pressures or by-dratable formations. To combat these conditions, the drilling fluid must possess certain physical properties such as viscosity, density, fluid loss, etc., which require the presence of solids. The current trend in drilling fluid treatment is to maintain as low a percentage of solids as is possible without harmfully affecting the mud properties needed for drilling. Mechanical separating devices such as wet cyclones and decanting-type centrifuges are proving to be an economical means of controlling the percentage of solids and thereby maintaining low solids muds. Also: special muds have been developed for the purpose of retarding the hydration of drilled solids so that they may be more easily removed by shale shakers or settling pits. In some areas, such as West Texas, the characteristics of some formations will permit drilling with water. However, because of the dispersion of drilled solids, it is usually not possible to maintain clear water even with the aid of mechanical separators, or by utilizing large settling pits. For this reason the commonly used term "water drilling" is a misnomer since the water usually contains some solids. Because of the improved drilling rates and other benefits which might be effected, a laboratory and field study was made of the use of flocculating agents for maintaining clear water for drilling. PROCEDURE Laboratory—Solids Settling Two techniques were employed to determine the effectiveness of flocculating agents in settling solids from drilling mud. First, the rate of fall of solids was measured in graduated beakers containing mud treated with various flocculating agents. Natural gum, oil-in-water emulsions prepared with ethoxylated nonyl phenols and diesel oil. and a powdered synthetic acrylamide-carboxylic acid copolymer* (hereinafter referred to as "polymer") were tested as flocculating agents in both fresh water and salt saturated muds containing 4 per cent solids. The polymer was not added in the powder form directly to the muds but was first dissolved in water in a concentration of 3.5 lb/bbl. The polymer solution was then added directly to the mud. The concentration of the flocculating agents, including the polymer, was varied. High rates of fall of the solids indicated high flocculating efficiency. A second technique consisted of measuring the time in minutes required to obtain clear water at the pump suction after addition of the various flocculating agents at the flowline. These tests were made using a model mud circulating system having a total volume of approximately 10 gal. The natural fresh water and brine muds used contained 4 per cent solids. A sketch of the circulating system appears in Fig. 1. The circulating rate

By H. I. Aaronson, H. A. Domian

The self-diffusivity of Ag10 has been measured as a function of temperature and composition in AgMg. a CsCl-type intermetallic compound with a substitutional defect structure on both sides of the stoichiometric (50 at. pct Mg) composition. These measurements show that In D increases linearly, and both In Do and Q decrease linearly with deviation from stoichiometry. The slopes of these lines are significantly steeper in magnesium-rich alloys. Equations for the variation of Q with composition have been derived by application of the theory of random walk processes on the assumption that diffusion in compounds of this type takes place by the six-jump cycle mechanism of Huntington, Elcock, and McCombie. The favorable agreement obtained with experiment furnishes fresh support for the correctness of this assumption. A principal result of this treatment is that. although the concentration of vacancies is considerably higher in the silver sublattice than in the magnesium sublattice, the acfivation energies for movement of the magnesium sublattice vacancies are so much lower that these vacancies are responsible for effectively all diffusion of silver in this compound. A tendency for vacancies of both types to be kinetically bound to wrong atoms is also noted. THIS study was undertaken to examine the influence of substitutional defects upon self-diffusion in an intermetallic compound, AgMg, with a CsCl-type crystal structure. The CsCl structure is exception- ally simple. At the equiatomic or stoichiometric composition in a binary alloy, it consists of two interpenetrating simple cubic sublattices, each of which is exclusively populated by the atoms of one species. When atomic size and other factors are favorable, deviations from stoichiometry can be entirely accommodated by the substitution of atoms of the species present in excess of 50 at. pct on the sublattice of the other species on a one-for-one basis. Under this condition, the only vacancies present are those formed by thermal activation. The excess atoms thus incorporated into the sublattice of the minority species may be considered as substitutional defects in this sublattice. Several X-ray studies have shown that the defect structure of AgMg is entirely of the substitutional type on both sides of the stoichiometric composition.1"3 The thermodynamic investigation of Kachi indicates that, aside from a low level of thermal disorder and these constitutional defects, order is maintained to the solidus temperature. This compound is therefore a particularly useful vehicle for a study of the influence of substitutional defects upon diffusion kinetics. Other advantages of AgMg for this purpose include: the broad composition region, as much as approximately 10 at. pct on either side of the stoichiometric (50 at. pct Mg), in which the compound is stable; the comparatively low temperature range of the solidus (820°C and below),5 making diffusion anneals near this range experimentally convenient; the reasonably good machinability of the compound, permitting utilization of the standard sectioning method of radiotracer analysis; and the availability of a good tracer, A for one of the constituent species. While this investigation was in progress, Hagel and westbrooks reported data on the self-diffusion

Jan 1, 1964

By F. T. Davis

Many contributors have added to the fund of knowledge in the basic sciences related to mineral dressing during the past year. During 1964, the French edition of the Proceedings of the VIth International Mineral Processing Congress together with discussions was printed. Also, complete Preprints of papers delivered at the VIIth IMPC were published in September1. Over a third of the papers presented at VIIth IMPC dealt with fundamentals. COMMINUTION It has been postulated by Ponceleta that flaws need not exist before a stress is applied but rather the flaws are created at the tip of a propagating crack at a stress well below the theoretical breaking stress.

Jan 2, 1965

By V. V. J. Sarma

Interpretation of earth resistivity data involves not only obtaining depth to interfaces but also determining the nature of formations from their resistivity characteristics. Moore's method of interpretation envisages obtaining depths to the interfaces alone. A simple method of estimating the true resistivity values of formations by applying Hummel's formula of average resistivities is proposed. The method would increase the interpretative value of Moore's method as originally proposed. For most of the earth resistivity measurements, the four-electrode configuration developed by Wennerl is employed. In principal, the method consists of energizing (Current I) the ground through two outer electrodes and measuring the resultant potential (v) between the two inner electrodes. The configuration is such that the separation (a) between any two successive electrodes is equal. The apparent resistivity (pa) for such a configuration is given by 2p- a (V/I). By increasing the electrode separation (pa vs a) curves are obtained. Ideally, a homogeneous isotropic formation underground has a characteristic resistivity. However, the field conditions do not present such ideal cases. Almost invariably, even in the same geological bed, the physical conditions are widely different at different parts in the bed. It is further shown that the penetration of the current into the ground for a given horizontal electrode separation, a, is roughly down to a depth, equal to a. It is therefore, evident that the apparent resistivity calculated from the field observations is a weighted average of the resistivities of the materials present down to this depth. With some prior knowledge about the relative dispositions of the geological formations and their physical conditions, it would be possible, by resistivity surveys, to obtain characteristic resistivities for these formations. It is, thus, that the apparent resistivity-electrode separation curves enable one to decipher the resis- tivity distribution at various depth levels and therefore the nature of the geological formations present. Both empirical and theoretical methods have been developed for determining resistivity characteristics of the various formations. The theoretical methods proposed by Tagg2 and Roman3 are derived from studies of the potential distribution on the surface due to the presence of layers of widely differing resistivities underground. The more recent methods of Wetzel and McMurry4 and Wetzel and Mooney5 are but extensions of the original Roman method of superposition. These methods suffer from lack of similarity of the actual field conditions with those of assumed conditions in developing the theory. The empirical methods such as the one developed by Gish and rooneY6 depend purely on personal observation and local peculiarities, and are applicable only for those limited areas. Out of the empirical methods, moore's7 cumulative resistivity method is still found to be applicable in several localities of differing conditions. While Reudy in 1945 adduced some theoretical justification for the method (Eve and Keys),8 Muskat9 and Mooney 10 tried to show the lack of theoretical basis for the same. It is, however, observed that the method in practice "forms a valuable means of successfully attacking the apparent resistivity curves which fail to respond to the Gish-Rooney, the Tagg or the Roman logarithmic methods" (Ramachandra Rao). 11 Comparatively good results are also reported by Melbyel2 by employing Moore's method in interpreting the resistivity results obtained for ground water in the city of Gunnison, Colo. MOORE'S METHOD As has already been pointed out, the application of the theoretical methods is time-consuming, laborious and sometimes not applicable for quick and accurate interpretation of the field data. moore7 has developed a quick method for obtaining depths to interfaces by plotting the cumulative sums of resistivities, against the corresponding electrode separations a instead of plotting the usual Pa — a curve. In this process of continuous integration, corrections for small variations in resistivities, arising due to local surface conditions or adjacent layers, are made, while large consistent variations are brought out

Jan 1, 1963

By Charles P. Williams

DURING the fall of the year 1873, attention was redirected to the occurrence of lead ores in Southwestern Arkansas (chiefly in Sevier County), and somewhat extensive explorations of the deposits have since been made in the hope of finding the ores sufficiently argentiferous to be profitably worked. How far the expectations have been realized I am not authentically advised, but samples of the galena ore, yielding 62.09 per cent. of lead, gave on assay at the rate of 15 3-10 ounces of silver to the ton of ore. This was the highest result obtained by myself, though I am informed that higher yields have been obtained by others. Among the samples of ores from this locality, forwarded to me in January last, was one specimen which I at once recognized as stibnite, and, on notification, other specimens of the same from Sevier County were forwarded me. The first specimen of the several received contained 11.51 per cent. of gangue, 57.62 per cent. antimony, 4.57 of bismuth, with small amounts of arsenic and iron. The latest result from a portion of another hand specimen I append in full, with duplicate estimations of the arsenic, bismuth, and gangue. The analyses were all conducted by Mr. C. R. Winters, under my direction, and in the case of those given below the ore was separated as closely as possible from the gangue before analysis. The results are for the mineral freed from hygroscopic moisture, and are as follows:

Jan 1, 1875

By E. V. Crane

A tremendous volume of the metal rolled annually into sheets strips and coil stock finds its way to a host of stamping and manufacturing plants which are the quantity production units of the country. Considerable in volume, too, are the rolled and extruded rods which go into forging and manufacturing plants for conversion into the same general line: those widely sold metallic necessities and luxuries of the household, the office, transportation, farming and building construction. Yet, in spite of its age and its importance, the stamping trade has been doing its "engineering" largely by trial and error. Its distinctive method is shearing out and plastically working metal to finished shape in a few quick strokes with high loads and expensive tools which are warranted only by large quantities to be produced. The principal operations have many features In common with rolling and wire-drawing methods. Combinations of stresses are diffcrent, however, and details of operations are infinite in variety. An engineering study of the subject begins with stress analysis, but must go back to metallurgy for its foundation. A grouping of pressed-metal working operations according to whether the metal is (1) sheared, (2) bent, (3) drawn or (4) squeezed has proved useful. All of these groups include instances of both hot and cold operations. For discussions of metal working properties, the division between hot and cold working is taken as the recrystallization range of temperature. This, of course, brings tin, lead and often zinc into the hot-work range at or near room temperature. The outstanding hot-working press field is in forging: particularly of brass; all of which is included in the squeezing group. Shearing Operations The shearing group of operations, including blanking, piercing, trimming, shaving, slitting, shearing, notching, parting and numerous variations and combinations of these enters once or more into the production schedule of practically every stamped or forged article. The transverse stress, set up in shearing, as shown in Fig. 1A, is a combination of an angular compressive thrust and a tensile stress which is also at an

Jan 1, 1931

By C. F. Smart

SINCE their comparatively recent development, the alloys of cadmium with silver and copper or nickel, and of cadmium with nickel alone, have been used somewhat extensively as liners for connecting rod bearings and main bearings of internal-combustion engines. In applications where, owing to high hearing loads and elevated operating temperatures, the life of hearings made from tin-hale or lead-base alloys has been undesirably short, cadmium alloys have demonstrated considerable advantage. In applications where, because of deflection of the crankshaft or bearing supports, copper-lead bearing metals have resulted in scored shafts, cadmium alloys have been operated successfully. The somewhat serious drawback to these alloys in hearing service has been that they, in common with copper-lead and certain lead alloys, are susceptible to corrosion in the presence of lubricants containing organic acids. These acids may be fatty acids (such as oleic acid) derived from animal or vegetable oils that sometimes have been compounded with engine lubricants, or they may be compounds of an acid nature developed by the oxidation of some petroleum oils under operating conditions. The result of such acid attack on hearings is illustrated by the photograph, Fig. 1. The petroleum oils that are most readily oxidized to a corrosive condition, and the operating conditions under which such oxidation most readily occurs, are now rather well known among the technical organizations of both the petroleum and automotive industries. While means have been developed for inhibiting petroleum oils against such acid formation, the knowledge that this condition may be encountered has been a factor in restricting the wider use of cadmium alloys as engine bearings. It has appeared, therefore, that their value and use would be enhanced if they could be made corrosion-resistant to a degree compatible with the most severe operating requirements. Investigation, undertaken with this in view, indicated that the addition of fractional percentages of the metal indium to the cadmium bearing

Jan 1, 1938

By William Hurst

THE content of this paper is a presentation of the diffusivity theory for the calculation of the water drive on an oil reservoir in which b the history of reservoir pressure with time are the essential parameters for the determination of the rate and cumulative water encroachment into a field. The paper is divided into two parts-the main portion and appendix. The main body is essentially the application of the principles underlined here to actual field data. It consists of the work plots of the radial-flow case, and includes a discussion of an illustrated problem for which the water-drive calculations are treated in conjunction with the volumetric-balance equation. The appendix is a mathematical treatment of the linear, radial, and spherical cases of water influx into a reservoir.

Jan 1, 1942

By Lewis V. Wade

U.S. Bureau of Mines efforts under longwall research programs to develop the capability to predict support requirements for longwall/ shortwall support systems are discussed. Ground control studies are being conducted in conjunction with several longwall/shortwall demonstration projects. Geologic, support performance, and strata behavior are being documented on these projects. A hypothesis is presented for the prediction of support requirements.

Jan 1, 1978

By J. E. Steiner, J. M. Hodge, M. A. Orehoski

Ingots of four steels (1045, 1080, Ni-Mo-V, and Ni-Cr-Mo-V) were cast at pressures varying from about 1 to 760 mm of mercury, so as to obtain a range of hydrogen contents in each steel. The susceptibility of these steels to flaking was evaluated by cooling hot-rolled blooms at a range of cooling rates, varying from water quenching to slag cooling, and studying the occurrence of flaking as a function of cooling rate. The steels exhibited differences in susceptibility to flaking, and a tlzreshold value for hydrogen content for each steel was found, below which the susceptibility was very low and above which the susceptibility increased markedly with increasing hydrogen content. Mechanical property evaluations, metallogvaplzic exantinations, and X-my diffraction determinations o,t retained austenite were made on samples from the blooms. A mechanism of flaking which is consistent with the observed behaviors, the effects of hvdrogen content, and the differences in susceptibility among the steels investigated is postulated, based on the results of mechanical property evaluations and metallographic and X-ray diffraction studies. ThE important role of hydrogen as a factor in the occurrence of "flakes" or "hair-line cracks" in steel has now been established by many investigations. These have included investigations by steel producers and forging manufacturers, to whom the prevention of flaking is a very real and serious problem, and many research studies aimed primarily at establishing the mechanism of this behavior Several investigators3 have reported that steels cast at reduced pressures (absolute pressures of about 1 mm) not only are low in hydrogen content but are essentially insensitive to the formation of flakes. These investigations have shown that a general relationship exists between hydrogen content and susceptibility to flaking. The difficulty of obtaining suitable samples of steels of a given composition with the desired range of hydrogen contents, particularly in the relatively large sections in which flaking most commonly occurs, has been the principal obstacle to quantitative evaluations of these relationships. Steels with intermediate hydrogen contents between 1 ppm, and the 4ppm or higher of air-cast steels are generally not available in commercially produced steels. Laboratory procedures, in which the hydrogen is introduced into solid steel samples by heating in a hydrogen atmosphere under pressure, generally involve a limitation in the size of the sample which can be treated, and thus are not representative of the behaviors in large sections. The availability of a facility at the South Chicago Works of U.S. Steel, in which several ingots could be cast from a single heat of steel at total air pressures ranging from 0.25 to 760 mm of Hg, has made it possible to overcome this obstacle and to obtain ingots of a given steel covering the intermediate range of hydrogen contents desired. These ingots, furthermore, are of a size suitable for the production of product with section sizes large enough to be representative of the products in which flaking most commonly occurs in commercial production. In these experiments, this facility was used to study the relationships between hydrogen content and the susceptibility to flaking of four steels, two plain carbon steels at 0.45 and 0.80 pct C and two low-carbon alloy steels representing a medium and a rather high hardenability level. These flaking studies were supplemented by evaluations of mechanical properties and by metallographic studies on samples from the blooms, in order to obtain pertinent information on the factors other than hydrogen content which influence the susceptibilities of these steels to flaking. Based on the results of these tests, a mechanism for the initiation and propagation of the flaking cracks, which is consistent with the observed behaviors, is postulated. MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL WORK Steelmaking and Conversion. To provide material for the investigation, five 29- by 35-in., hot-topped, big-end-up ingots were cast from each of four 80-ton, basic electric-furnace heats of four different steels (a 1045 steel, a 1080 steel, a Ni-Mo-V steel, and a Ni-Cr-Mo-V steel). A double-slag practice was used on all steels and the two plain carbon steels were Si-A1 deoxidized with an addition of 2 lb of A1 per ton, while the Ni-Mo-V and Ni-Cr-Mo-V steels were deoxidized only with silicon and

Jan 1, 1964

By Francis S. Peabody

This paper will not be a technical paper, because, although I have been in the business of mining and selling coal for 30 odd years, I am neither a mining engineer nor a practical miner. If I digress from time to time from my thesis, I must be forgiven by the expert engineers and highly technical gentlemen for whose proceedings this article is written. Waste of the wonderful store of power that the Creator placed at our disposal appears to have been the theory and the basis of our methods of extracting this power—waste from the time the coal is mined to the time it is consumed. Let us consider the prime causes of this wastage which has been the heritage of the coal mining industry. In the early days—about 150 years after " Stone Cole" was discovered in Illinois by Joliet and Marquette, and Father Hennepin noted a "cole" mine on his map—the mode of mining prevalent among farmer landowners, on whose property coal was discovered near the surface or outcropping on the hillsides, was to enter the seam by a shallow shaft or drift into the hillside and remove the coal by wedging it down until a large room was left. The roof without support would fall and our primitive coal operator would then sink another shaft or drive another drift. In these early operations only the large lumps were taken and all small pieces and screenings were left to be covered by the fall of the roof—in fact this condition prevailed in Illinois up to about 1885. Gradually the method of mining changed from the open chamber, to a single entry with rooms turned to the right and left. Later, as the demand for coal increased and the necessity for larger mines became evident, the "room and pillar" system grew to be regular practice. The room and pillar system of mining consisted of starting away from the shaft bottom or drift mouth, with a pair of entries usually 12 to 15 ft. wide and about 30 ft. center to center, one entry being used for the air intake and the other for the return air and haulage; from each entry rooms or chambers were turned, narrow at the mouth and widening

Jan 1, 1918

By H. L. Stone, A. O. Garder

A numerical method of solving the partial differential equations which describe the one-dimensional displacement of oil by gas has been presented. Possible extension of the method to treat multidimensional flow is discussed, and the limitations of this extension are indicated. Using this method, it is possible to allow for the existence of a gas cap, the presence of any number of gas-injection or oil-production wells and the evolution of dissolved gas from the oil. It is also possible to allow for variation in the cross-sectional area, elevation, porosity and permeability of the reservoir. The influence of relative permeability and the force of gravity in the direction of flow upon the displacement is considered. The influence of capillary pressure upon the flow and the effect of gravity in the direction perpendicular to flow are neglected. The physical properties 01 the fluids are considered to be Junctions of pressure only, and equilibrium between contiguous phases is assumed. The numerical calculations can be readily carried out by the use of a digital computer. Several example analyses have been performed using the IBM 704 computer, and about one-third of an hour of computing time was required per case. Reservoir behavior predicted by use of this numerical method was compared to data obtained by other methods for three cases — complete pressure maintenance, dissolved-gas drive and gas-cap drive. The independent solutions to these problems were obtained by analytical solution, laboratory experiment and field data, respectively. Agreement of the numerical solution with data from these sources was good; this agreement establishes the convergence and accuracy of the numerical method. INTRODUCTION Most petroleum reservoirs can be produced by any one of several alternative programs. When a reservoir is produced by primary methods, production economics can be influenced by controlling the number and location of wells and the flow rate of each well. An even greater influence may be achieved by augmenting the recovery of oil obtainable by primary methods. This can be accomplished by injection of fluids such as water, natural or enriched gas or a bank of light liquid hydrocarbons. Selection of the most desirable operation requires a means of predicting the reservoir behavior which will result from each of the several alternative programs. The purpose of this paper is to present a mathematical method for predicting the behavior of reservoirs produced by gas-cap drive, dissolved-gas drive or pressure maintenance by gas injection. The method described herein takes cognizance of phase changes caused by a decline or an increase (due to gas injection) in reservoir pressure, of the presence of a gas cap and of the effect of gravity on the flow of gas and oil. Relative permeability relationships are used to define the flow properties of the rock. Allowance is made for variation in cross-sectional area, elevation, permeability and porosity of the reservoir. Both the influence of capillary pressure upon the flow and pressure gradients in the gas cap are neglected. Whenever a liquid phase and a gas phase are in contact, they are assumed to be in equilibrium. The physical properties of the fluids are considered to be functions of pressure only. Therefore, if the method is to be used to predict the effects of a gas-injection program, mixtures of the injected gas and formation crude should-have the same physical properties as mixtures of formation gas and crude. The equations to be presented in this paper apply only to a one-dimensional case; therefore, they neglect the influence of gravity in the direction transverse to the flow. As is well known, this gravitational influence may lead to overriding of oil by gas. Consequently, this procedure as presented is most applicable to long, thin reservoirs for which gravity overriding is not important. On the other hand, the equations presented can be generalized to treat multidimensional flow and, hence, to consider gravity overriding, if desired. A word of caution on two points is advisable here, however. First, the authors have not demonstrated the accuracy of the numerical technique for multidimensional flow. Second, and more important, capillary pressure will often be of importance in multidimensional problems. Obviously, in such cases a generalization of the

By W. L. Zeigler

THE tailing from the gravity concentration plant of the Hecla Mining Co., Gem, Idaho, was former-ly loaded into railroad cars to be used for ballast, highway surfacing material, or concrete work, or dis-posed of by an aerial tramway, which dumped it into another gulch. The tailing averages about 1.2 per cent lead and 0.8 oz. silver to the ton. Further treatment for the recovery of the valuable metals had been investigat-ed several times with results that did not warrant the construction of a retreatment plant; but early in 1925 experimental work was again started with small tests, and later with a 10 tons per day flotation test plant. This showed that the tailing could be ground and treat-ed by flotation at a profit. It was decided to make the new flotation plant an addition to, rather than incor-porate it in the old concentrator, the original capacity of which had been increased many times, the present arrangement being by no means ideal. The old mill buildings were of timber and board contruction, creat-ing more or less fire hazard, so all new construction was made fireproof. Construction work on the new plant was started in the middle of July, 1925, and the plant was placed in operation early in December. The building is of concrete and steel with hollow tile walls, steel sash and corrugated asbestos roofing. The ball-mill floor has for its foundation a cellular reinforced concrete block about 14 ft. deep, extending to cemented river gravel, and the cells filled with tailing to give weight to the block. Overhead, built into the steel frame, is a 5-ton hand-operated traveling crane. With both ball-mills running fully loaded, there is not the slightest trace of vibra-tion in the foundation or building. The flotation floor is of reinforced concrete beam construction and spans Canyon Creek. Adjustable plunger feeders are arranged under the the tailing-bin, which feed by gravity to a 14-in. eleva-tor, discharging to a short 18-in. conveyor. From the conveyor the tailing is discharged into a dividing hop-per, from which point the plant is arranged in three separate units. Each unit consists of a ball-mill in closed circuit with a classifier, and an 8-cell flotation machine and has an approximate capacity of 300 tons per 24 hours.

Jan 8, 1927

By Alan Morris

Season cracking of brass has received wide attention and there is a wealth of technical literature on the subject. Its causes arc fairly well understood and means for its prevention are inexpensive and effective, so that the frequency of failures from this source has diminished of recent years. But its sister phenomenon, the failure of annealed brass by reason of applied tensile stress plus a certain type of corrosion, has received less attention, though it has been responsible for occasional more or less troublesome cases of cracking of brass in service. The work described in the following pages was undertaken about two years ago to determine the relative resistance of various commercial brass mixtures to stress-corrosion cracking, and to learn something of the controlling factors. By stress-corrosion cracking we mean the cracking of brass free from internal stresses by reason of applied tensile stress and simultaneous attack by certain corrosive agents. Rogers,' in discussing a paper by Hatfield and Thirkell, says: " He had also applied a solution of mercuric salt to tensile test pieces of brass whilst they were under stress in the testing machine. At very moderate stresses such test pieces cracked, and very readily broke." Moore, Beckinsale and Mallinson2 subjected test pieces to simultaneous corrosion and tensile stress. In order to determine the minimum stress detectable in brass by the mercurous nitrate test, tensile samples were placed under stress and treated with mercurous nitrate solution. They found that brass stressed below a minimum did not crack. Dr. McAdam3 has investigated the effect of corrosion on the fatigue limit of brasses, among other materials. He directed a stream of either fresh or salt water against the specimen while it was undergoing fatigue test. The corrosion-fatigue limits thus determined may be considerably lower than the endurance limit without coincident corrosion. The exact

Jan 1, 1930

By R. T. Walker

GROUND waters-hot or cold-containing small amounts of the more common earth acids, such as carbonic acid, silicic acid, hydrogen sulfide, sulfurous acid and sulfuric acid, have only a very limited "solvent effect on dominantly siliceous rocks, whether of igneous or sedimentary origin, but in limestone they often form extensive cavities; and such "limestone caves" are the only openings of considerable size and continuity in rock formations that do not owe their existence directly and almost wholly to dynamic action. Limestone caves such as are developing at the present time must have been formed in all past geological ages in which limestone beds existed and where suitable conditions for the development of such caves prevailed; hence it would seem a reasonable expectation that, in the course of geological history, a certain number of ancient limestone caves must have been utilized as channels for the passage of mineralizing solutions, during portions of their course, at least, and that, in consequence, orebodies must have been deposited in such caves. Such a conception is not novel; it was proposed many years ago, but its possibilities, as explaining certain types of ore deposits, have been rather lost sight of in the development of the theory of the metasomatic replacement of rocks by minerals. It is the purpose of this article to assemble evidence to show that many of the orebodies found in limestone beds have been deposited in pre-existing caves; to discuss the criteria whereby such orebodies can be distinguished from others which have been formed along fissures and fracture zones traversing limestone, by the more common method of metasomatic replacement, analogous to orebodies in other formations; and to describe certain orebodies-particularly the "ore channels" of the Tintic district, Utah-as illustrative of the principles discussed. Limestone caves may be divided into two classes: those formed by cold, descending surface waters, which emerge again at some lower elevation as cold springs; and those formed by hot, ascending waters of deep origin or circulation, which attain the surface as thermal springs. Although these two classes are similar in many respects, there are certain characteristic and inherent differences whereby they can usually be distinguished.

Jan 1, 1928

By C. G. Dunn

NUCLEI that are formed during the recrystallization of a grain following plastic deformation generally have orientations that differ from the original. This aspect of recrystallization may be described in terms of orientation changes. It was shown previously, in an investigation on recrystallization in silicon ferrite,1 that the observed orientation changes were highly improbable on a chance basis, and that some mechanism must be involved. Analysis showed that the data could be satisfactorily classified into the smaller of two subclassesf of the 36 third- order twin transformations. No attempt was made at that time to classify the data within the special class of 12 third-order twin transformations, although results did indicate a greater probability for some of them to occur. A classification of this type would be more valuable, of course, with more data on orientation changes per old deformed grain. The present work fulfills this condition to some degree and also extends the scope of the investigation to include the effects of original orientation and the amount of plastic deformation. The effect of original orientation is of considerable interest because of the known effects of orientation on plastic deformation, particularly with regard to degree of fragmentation and the formation of de- formation bands, and because the orientations produced by deformation should influence the orientations obtained through recrystallization. Barrett and Levenson2 reported that single crystals of iron deformed in the range 82 to 97 per cent could be put into three general classes; namely, crystals in class I maintained a reasonably sharp single orientation, those in class 2 transformed into two distinct orientations, and those in class 3 changed into a large number of major and minor orientations. Something similar would be expected for silicon ferrite crystals, and verification of this for a few cases of types class I and class 2 deformation has been reported elsewhere3 for single crystals of silicon ferrite cold-rolled in the range 10 to 20 per cent. As an example of class 2 deformation, it was shown that a crystal of silicon ferrite cold-rolled in a {110} plane in a < 100> direction developed two layers, or deformation bands differing in orientation. When this happens it is possible to etch away one band and leave a single structure for use in studying the orientation changes that occur during recrystallization. when preferred crystal orientations are obtained in recrystallization, it is notparticularly necessary to evaluate groups of common orientation, as was done previously (ref. I, Table 6); but an

Jan 1, 1946

By W. H. Moore, E. T. Powell

IN the early days of mining in the Anthracite field, only the thicker and better seams of coal were mined, because of the limited mining and coal-cleaning facilities, therefore many of the thinner and less productive seams were permitted to remain unmined. With improvements in mining methods, the introduction of modem preparation plants, and the increased market demand for small-size coal, the thinner and more laminated seams have now become assets. In many instances these seams overlie the mined-out beds of the thicker and better seams, from which all recoverable coal was removed by the conventional breast-and-pillar method of mining. Some collieries in certain sections of the Anthracite field are now relying on these thinner and laminated seams. For the purpose of illustration, a large area in the Hickory Swamp-Ridge Basin of the western middle coal field has been selected, where as early as 1898 the No. 4, or Little Buck Mountain, seam was mined and pillars removed. The No. 5, or Buck Mountain, seam lying on a comparatively light pitch and with intervening strata of but 55 ft. of rock was not mined until 1935. Farther east, in the same basin the Nos. 8 and 9 seams, which are two splits of the Mammoth seam, have been mined and robbed and the workings have been abandoned since 1896. The overlying No. 9 ¾ seam, or the upper split of the Mammoth, and the No. 9 ¾ or 4-ft. seam remained virgin, with only an interval of 50 ft. of rock separating them, and with 40 to 50 ft. of rock strata separating the No. 9 ½ seam from the completely mined area of the Nos. 8 and 9 seams. These seams lie on a pitch of 45° on the south side of the basin and on 75° on the north side of the basin. Mining has been carried on in the 9 ½ and 9 ¾ seams for 3 years on both dips of the basin, for a distance of 3500 ft. In some sections the overlying strata of the thicker seams previously mined have settled without any apparent breaks in the upper strata, as indications have shown in the top split of the Mammoth; while in other areas the roof and bottom of this top split of the Mammoth have settled unevenly, thereby causing the bottom and roof to break into blocks. In attempting to mine over a large area of the No. 5 or Buck Mountain seam, a similar settlement has been encountered; the roof of the seam has been broken and a considerable amount of timbering has been necessary in order to make the mining of the seam possible. The conventional breast-and-pillar method, using shaker conveyors, has been used in the No. 5 seam, and a slant-breast method in the mining of Nos. 9 ½ and 9 ¾ seams. MINING OF LIGHT-PITCH SEAMS The No. 4 seam was mined and robbed by the conventional breast-and-pillar system. In this area the seam pitched from 5° to 25° on the north dip, averaged 8 ft. in thickness and had a slate bottom and a

Jan 1, 1941

For a nation whose mining industry has generally been floating through history in the shadows of major mining developments elsewhere in the world, Australia has in the decade of the Sixties made a convincing bid to be one of the world&apos;s great "store- houses" of minerals. In fact, at the rate things are developing Down Under and Out Back, what with professional prospecting teams crisscrossing the continent under the direction of professional exploration management, Australia may one day find itself as the world&apos;s greatest storehouse. Whereas Necessity may be the Mother of Invention, Consumption is surely the Mother of Exploration. At least this is true in Australia of today. First, the forecasted shortage of iron ore in the world led to the fabulous discoveries in the Pilbara district of Western Australia. Now, the demand for nickel has generated even more interest among mining companies in the vast, untapped potential of Australia.

Jan 10, 1968

By D. A. J. Swinkels

The problem of determining oxygen levels in liquid steel to aid in deoxidation control has received general attention for a number of years. Work in this direction started at the B.H.P. Central Research Laboratories early in 1967 with an evaluation of sampling techniques followed by vacuum fusion analysis to determine the oxygen content of the samples (1). It was found that these techniques had a number of drawbacks if they were to be used for deoxidation control. The method of analysis was rather too slow to allow effective control and measured total oxygen level rather than dissolved oxygen. Furthermore, the results were found to be very variable due to slag entrainment in the samples. Attention therefore turned to the galvanic cell method using a solid oxygen ion conductive electrolyte such as cubic stabilised zirconia. The ionic conductivity properties of electrolytes such as (ZrO2) 85 (CaO).15 had been studied by a number of investigators and had already been applied to the measurement of oxygen activity in gases, in lower melting metals such as copper, lead, tin, silver, alkali metals and indeed the first studies in steel had been made (2,3). Since then the results of a number of studies in the development of an expendable oxygen probe for steel have been reported (4-9).

Jan 1, 1972