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THE most successful and largest meeting of the Auxiliary to the A. I. M. E. was held this year. Great praise is due Mrs. Arthur S. Dwight, the acting chairman of the Ladies' Committee in the ab-sence of Mrs. Barron, and the other members of her committee for the able way in which they planned and carried out a varied and interesting program. Miss Margaret Callow, chairman of the Junior Committee, with her co-workers, made the days delightful for the Junior members, as well as visiting daughters. Under the leadership of Mrs. Jenkins, the registration of the ladies proceeded smoothly Monday morning. At the Mrs. Jenkins became ill with pneumonia on the second day of the meeting and was taken from the dinner to a hospital where she died the following Sunday. Born in Kansas City fifty years ago, she was an active and valued member of the Auxiliary in which she had long represented the Puget Sound Section. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, the latter treasurer of the Utah Consolidated Copper Co., had previously lived at McGill, Nev., where they are well known. She leaves a son and a daughter. luncheon on the fifth floor, Mrs. DeGolyer and Mrs. Church arranged a delightful hour, when greeting visit-ing friends proved more. interesting than food. Mrs. Bain efficiently ushered the ladies through the after-noon's program, seeing that they all found the buses on time. The first stop was at the Cloisters, where the quaint carvings and the faint odor of incense trans-ported all the visitors to the Middle Ages. That atmos-phere still clung, as we all looked at the marvelous collection of old Chinese jade, at the Metropolitan Museum, which was the next stop. The buses then took us to the MacDowell Club, where Mrs. Dwight gave a charming welcome, in the absence of the hostess, Mrs. Barron. The program, by Mr. and Mrs. Hardesty John¬son, was such a delight that repeated calls induced the artists to graciously respond with an encore. Then Mrs. Coster and Mrs. Sharpless assisted Mrs. Dwight in serving tea, about the glowing fireplace. In the evening the theater-goers guided by Mrs. Jordan were thrilled by "Interference.:" A detailed account of the annual meeting, in many ways the most interesting the Auxiliary has had, will be published later. This held the attention. of the mem-bers both morning and afternoon, on Tuesday. The absence of the President, Mrs. Barron, was much re-gretted, and the letter and the cablegram with her cor-dial greetings were much appreciated. Miss Stone ably presided in the place of Mrs. Barron, and graciously welcomed the incoming President, Mrs. Hoover. Her well-worded speech, accepting the office, was received with much enthusiasm. The visiting members were especially pleased with her description of herself as a "peripatetic-president." promising to visit the various sections as she crossed the continent on her frequent trips to California. An inspiring report was read from each section, and most particularly pleasing was a greet-ing brought by Mrs. Bateman of Toronto, from our sister organization in Canada. The sections are surely to be congratulated on their splendid work, not only for their own members, but also in sending clothing and other aids to the needy, as Mrs. Reynders directed, and in supporting libraries under the leadership of Mrs. Huntoon. The important work of the Educational Com-mittee, with its presentation of scholarships to various deserving young men, has been most efficiently carried on by Mrs. Jennings. Mrs. Jordan has inspired many to help in Braille, and Mrs. Eilers has extended the hos-pitality of the Auxiliary to many. The Washington Section is leading a movement to extend the privileges of Girl Scouting to the girls in lonely mining camps. The officers of the past year received flowers and grate-ful appreciation, and the incoming officers received a warm welcome. Very delightful features of the after-noon were the speech by the President of the A. I. M. E. for the coming year, Dr. George Otis Smith, and when a visiting member rose to say how much all the visiting members had enjoyed the Auxiliary's hospitality. The banquet and dance at the Waldorf were the most brilliant the Auxiliary has attended. Nearly twelve hundred were there to enjoy the festivity and to hear the speeches given, as Mr. Hoover and the other re-cipients accepted their medals and awards. The young people, the future supporters of the A. I. M. E. and the Auxiliary, enjoyed more hilarious tables in the bal-conies, and all enjoyed the dancing later.

Jan 3, 1928

SELWYN G. BLAYLOCK, who has been awarded the Douglas medal for 1927 for his achievements in the production of electrolytic zinc and the treating of complex lead, zinc and silver ore at the Sullivan mine, British Columbia, is a Canadian and one of the notable men who have come from McGill Uni-versity, where he graduated in 1899. As the medal was founded in 1922 by a group of James Douglas' friends to honor the memory of that distinguished Canadian metallurgist, who was an honorary LL.D. of McGill, it is extremely appropriate that it should be awarded to another Canadian metallurgist and McGill graduate, who has been notably successful in practice. Immediately after gradua- tion Mr. Blaylock obtained a position as chemist at the Trail smelter and two years later was made chief chemist and metallurgist. In 1907 he became superintendent of the Hall mines smelter and after a year became superintendent of the St. Eugene mine at Moyie. While there he was responsible for the purchase of the Sullivan mine and the use of methods of mining, especially sorting, which so improved the relative per- - centages of zinc and lead in the ore as to make it better material for blast-furnace smelting. The losses in zinc, both from sorting out and in the lead blast-furnace slag made a deep impression on him, and various methods of water concentration and the use of air-jigs and flotation to increase the recovery were tried under Mr. Blaylock's supervision as early as 1910. These were followed by experiments with direct fusion, volatilization in kilns, sulfite processes, and one similar to the Ashcroft proc-ess. In 1914 experiments were made with roasting, leaching, and electrolyzing the resultant zinc sulfate solution; the following year a plant was built at Tadanac which has been in successful operation since 1916, its capacity having been increased by successive steps to 275 tons of zinc per day. Experimental work continued on the feed for the zinc plant and a 150-ton mill to use the Horwood process was constructed, but as the results were not encouraging it was altered to wet magnetic concentration, which was successful and the plant was later increased in capacity to 600 tons per day. Meanwhile experiments with differential flota-tion showed promise and magnetic concentration was continued while flotation was developed to where it could be put into operation parallel to the magnetic plant. This flotation plant, started in 1920, was so successful that eventually the magnetic separation plant was abandoned. Lead smelting conditions at Trail were difficult on account of the necessity of mak-ing slags containing as much as 20 per cent zinc and because of the high percentage of fine flotation con-centrate. The improvements in sintering and smelt-ing made under Mr. Blaylock's direction have been notable. The Betts electrolytic refining process for lead was first used at Trail, and the plant has been brought to its present highly developed and efficient state under Mr. Blaylock's direction. The first com-mercial Cottrell plant in connection with lead smelt-ing was also built there. The capacity of the Tada-nac plant is now approximately 750 tons per day of refined metal, including lead, zinc, copper, antimony, cad- mium, gold and silver. All the work necessary for this nota- ble development has neces- sarily been the work of many hands, directed by Mr. Blay- lock. In 1924 he was awarded the McCharles Medal by the University of Toronto for his achievements in con- nection with the production of electrolytic zinc and the solving of the difficulty of treating the complex lead- zinc-silver ore of the Sullivan mine, and developing it from a small producer to one of the most important mines of the world, now producing 150,000 tons of lead and 90,000 tons of zinc annually. Having spent all his professional life in one remote place, Mr. Blaylock is relatively little known per-sonally to others of his pro-fession, and the award indi-cates the truth in Emerson's well known epigram about the mouse-trap.

Jan 2, 1928