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By George S. Rice

MANY studies on ground movement and subsidence have been carried on by members of the Institute during the past year, but only a few papers have reached maturity. Two of the mining schools of this country have continued their interest in ground movement research. At Columbia University School of Mines, Philip Bucky has continued his investigations, employing photoelastic methods and the use of his centrifugal apparatus for testing what he termed "the strength and behavior of mining structures." Helmut Landsberg, of The Pennsylvania State College, has developed a convergence recorder similar in principle to that used by the

Jan 1, 1936

By James P. Sloss

WHAT is the likelihood if any-that a real gold mining industry will be developed in the southern Appalachian region? Has the increase in the dollar value of gold from $20.67 to $35 per ounce potency to turn the trick? Suppose it be assumed that the price of gold will, at worst, not recede, and that the cost of digging ore and treating it of which the average level of commodity prices and wages is a fair index-will, at most, not exceed that prevailing in 1926. One may or may not accept these as reasonable assumptions; but one must arbitrarily remove some of the potential variables if one is to get anywhere on a problem like this. As a matter of fact, this article is not going to venture a conclusive answer to the question that has been posed; but it will endeavor to present some of the factors that have a bearing on the problem. The writer spent ten days visiting a dozen properties in Virginia and the Carolinas early in April, 1935, and in doing so got a first-hand slant on mining conditions in the domain of King Cotton.

Jan 1, 1935

By R. P. Smith

In 1937 the employees of the Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines Ltd.. at Timmins. Ont., Canada, approached organized medicine for a plan to provide themselves and their families with a complete medical service including hospitalization. This approach was made because of two conditions: (1) the necessity for some organization whereby contributions could be made in instalments to offset the sudden and large expense connected with illness for which the average employee is not prepared, and (2) the need for a more cohesive quality of service to replace a contract practice then in vogue, which did not take care of the employee's family or dependents. In different parts of the United States and Canada similar plans were in force, not only for employed groups but for numbers of people in circumscribed areas. In Europe different countries had adopted various forms of health insurance plans. It then was no surprise that these employees as a group should ask for some similar plan. With the cooperation of the management, a plan was instituted. The plan has one object only—the provision of medical services, including the accessory services such as hospitaliza-tion, X-rays, nursing, and necessary drugs and medicines. It is not concerned with cash benefits, sickness and accident payments, or any form of monetary return as the result of illness, but is simply an organization to provide medical services and pay for them from a central fund. It is a nonprofit organization and the only shareholders are the employees and their families who contribute and who in turn receive services. The Hollinger plan is limited to the employees of the Hollinger mine, who live in Timmins and the immediate vicinity. At first, the membership was voluntary. In the third year, it was made a condition of employment, with the proviso that at the end of any Association financial year an employee may withdraw if he wishes to do so. After withdrawal, he cannot again become a member until the end of the next Association year, and then only by the payment of the back dues. This step was taken to ensure continuity, and to prevent employees from withdrawing when well and reentering when faced with impending illness or operations. The employee himself is subject to medical examination on application for employment, and if accepted is subject to further examination by a specialist in chest diseases under the Workmen's Compensation Board of Ontario. Thus it is possible to exclude those who have heart disease, tuberculosis, or other disabling conditions when first employed. Wives and families of employees are not subject to medical examination but other dependents of an employee—mother, father, or other relative—who are declared by the employee to be wholly dependent upon him must be examined. The employee

Jan 1, 1946

By Lewis Carroll

AS he contemplates the numerous good things the hard-working committees have evolved for the 140th Meeting of the Institute, the Editor knows just how the walrus felt when he uttered his memorable, if somewhat lugubrious lines. For there are the Annual Reception and Dinner at the Commodore, 'the Gold Supply Symposium, the luncheons, general and special, and the Annual Institute of Metals Lecture, a Round Table on Iron Ore and a wonderful Informal Dance at the Grand Central Art, Gallery, substantial general sessions, a Smoker-and many other things. -Old, friends and new, reminiscences and confidential chats, horizons pushed back by new information and adjusted perspectives, courage revived and ambitions stimulated-one with a flair for the modernistic might make something-or nothing-of the kaleidoscopic preview 'of the coming Annual Meeting.

Jan 1, 1931

Jan 1, 1970

Industrial minerals enjoyed a fairly successful year in 1978, despite the sluggish economy, inflation, and environmental restrictions. A glance at US Bureau of Mines statistics shows that, in general, production of industrial minerals increased from + 1% (salt) to as much as 26% (sulfur, other than Frasch or recovered). A few industrial minerals showed a decline; fluorspar production, for example, registered a 23% decrease in 1978 from 1977 due to the closing of three domestic mines. Bromine, natural sodium sulfate, Frasch sulfur, and vermiculite also had production decreases of 2-6% in 1978.

Jan 5, 1979

By E. G. Dahlgren, Dan O. Howard

THE West Edmond oil field, which covers parts of Oklahoma, Canadian, Kingfisher, and Logan Counties in the State of Oklahoma, is in geographical extent the largest single oil field found in the state. At the present time, its area of 26,800 acres is almost twice as large as the Oklahoma City field, which hitherto was the state's largest field. Many authorities believe that the West Edmond field is the most important oil pool found in the United States since Pearl Harbor. The discovery of the field without the help of geological, geophysical, or other recognized technical information, the fact that the oil and gas accumulated in a stratigraphic or wedge-type trap, and the rapid development of the productive area under wartime conditions are some of the interesting features of the field. The West Edmond field lies west of the Oklahoma City, Britton, and Edmond fields. The field is in an area that has been considered on the west flank of the Granite Ridge line of folding, on which a number of Central Oklahoma's most important oil fields are located. Over a period of years, especially since the discovery of the new pools such as Oklahoma City, Edmond, Britton, and Crescent, the general area of the West Edmond field has been explored intensively by geological and geophysical methods. This led at times to the drilling of a few dry Wilcox sand tests.

Jan 1, 1945

Executive Committee. ROBERT H. RICHARDS, Chairman. ALBERT SAUVEUR, Vice-Chairman. TIMOTHY W. SPRAGUE. HENRY A. WENTWORTH. AUGUSTUS H. EUSTIS, Secretary, 131 State St., Boston, Mass. The twelfth meeting of the Boston Section was held at the Engineers' Club, 2 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, on Monday evening, May 5, 1913, fifteen members and three guests being present. The meeting was called to order by Vice-Chairman Albert Sauveur, who introduced the speaker of the evening, Utley Wedge, of Ardmore, Pa. Mr. Wedge read his paper on the chloridizing roasting of copper ores, which he illustrated with a stereopticon, and which will be published in full by the Institute. After Mr. Wedge had closed his paper, which was received with great interest by all the members, the following discussion took place: Professor Hofman said that iron was formerly thought to ho essential to the Henderson process, but that it is not absolutely essential. Mr.Wedge said that, as far as he. knew, the presence of some sulphates was an abso¬lute necessity, and that line ores can be worked satisfactorily, although lime has an effect on the subsequent leaching. He added that the low fuel consumption of the latest Wedge furnace is a result of direct application of the combustion gases to the ore. Ten per cent. of fuel was needed with the muffle furnace. By direct firing he has been able to reduce the fuel needed to from 2 to 4 per cent. In the latest types of furnaces the gases from the upper hearth are not used. There is doubtless some temperature at which the loss. from copper chloride volatilization becomes serious, but in practice on Rio Tinto ores troublesome losses are not experienced. The copper apparently does not become volatile at. the temperatures where we would expect that it would. There are doubtless ores in which there would be serious danger from losses from this source. The latest furnaces do not use the high temperatures that were needed in the former single-hearth Wedge furnaces.

Jan 7, 1913

By PHILIP N. MOORE

THE development of the power of the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals has become a matter of political interest as well as engineering possibility. The controversy over it has been so active that the facts have been obscured, the possibilities exaggerated. Although the members of the American Institute of Mining & Metallurgical Engineers are not generally specialists in hydroelectric development, those who visited Muscle Shoals in October, following the Birmingham meeting of the Institute, were interested, and many of them surprised to learn the actual conditions. These have long been familiar to those who have studied the matter through the reports of the U. S. Engineers on the subject. The approved plan contemplates three dams-No. 1, a low dam close to the City of Florence, planned in the interests of navigation, since the construction of the other dams has rendered impossible the use of the river without it. No. 2-named the Wilson Dam is now under construction. Concerning it political argumentation has waged. No. 3 Dam-much smaller, is planned to be erected several miles above No. 2.

Jan 1, 1925

By Christopher Haycocks, Lawrence P. Johnson, George M. Neall, James M. Townsend

No method of roof control yet devised has proven to be universally acceptable for the wide range of strata conditions experienced in U. S. coal mines. However, a relatively new innovation, the roof truss, has proven itself capable of preventing roof failures which both conventional and resin bolting could not. Presently, the economics of roof trusses are not favorable when compared to bolting due primarily to drilling and installation procedures, but this is expected to change with improved truss and equipment designs. To realize the full potential of this new method of roof control, design criteria are needed which can optimize the effect of the truss for varying strata conditions. A review of the literature reveals that some work has been conducted on the roof truss. Cambrell and Haynes1 (1970) showed that the roof truss is superior to angled roofbolts installed through a header. Sheorey, Verma, and Singh2 (1973) used statics to prove that the optimum angle of inclination should be greater than 45°. However, to date, no systematic attempt has been made to establish design criteria. In this paper, the problem was approached in three ways. First, model studies were performed to determine general trends of truss support as a function of a number of variables. This provided a better understanding of the support mechanism involved. Secondly, beam theory was employed to calculate the actual support capacity of a truss, realizing the many simplifications, assumptions, and shortcomings of this approach to such a complicated problem. Last, field testing will be utilized to test the hypotheses previously developed and provide hard data to further synthesize roof truss design criteria. Field testing has recently commenced and should be complete before mid 1977.

Jan 1, 1979

Jan 1, 1969

Jan 1, 1880

THE opening session was held on Tuesday evening, February 17th, in the house of the American Society of Civil Engineers. The President of the Institute, Mr. E. B. Coxe, after a few introductory remarks, congratulating the members on the general prosperity in all the branches of the professions and manufactures represented by the Institute, called on Mr. E. F. Loiseau, of Philadelphia, for the first paper, On the Successful Manufacture of Compressed Fuel at Port Richmond, Philadelphia. Professor Prime called attention to the fact that the work of the United States Testing Board had been left unfinished at a point when valuable results had just been reached, and offered the following resolutions: WHEREAS, The American Institute of Mining Engineers has seen with regret that the work of the United States Testing Board has been suspended through the lack of an appropriation by Congress, which appropriation dues not seem likely to be renewed, and WHEREAS, It seems most important to the vital interests of our iron and steel manufactures that the experiments commenced by the United States Testing Board should be carried to successful completion ; Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed, to act with a like, committee to he appointed by the American Society of Civil Engineers, to carry out to completion the work commenced by the United States Testing Board. Resolved, That the American Society of Civil Engineers be requested to cooperate with this society by the appointment of a like committee. Resolved, That the committee have authority to request, in the name of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, contributions to a fund to be devoted to the completion of the experiments aforesaid. Resolved, That the Council of this Institute be authorized, whenever requested by the committee so appointed, to petition Congress for the free use of the testing machine at the United States Arsenal at Watertown. Resolved, That a committee be appointed by the President, to select the afore-said committee of experts. Resolved, That the President of the Institute have authority to fill any vacancies which may occur in the committee. The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and President Coxe appointed the following committee in accordance with the resolutions : Messrs. A. L. Holley, James Park, Jr., and J. F. Holloway. The President also appointed Messrs. Heinrich, Mickley, and Spils-

Jan 1, 1880

By J. Armanet

THREE MINING colleges are maintained in France; the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines, of Paris; École Nationale Supérieure des Mines, of Saint Etienne; and the École Supérieure de la Metallurgie et des Mines at Nancy. Besides graduates of these schools, a few graduates of the École Centrale des Arts et MIanufactures and of the École Polytechnique are employed as ]nine managers or engineers; however, most of the latter have taken a graduate course at one of the mining schools.

Jan 1, 1939

By C. A. Zapffe, C.E. Sims

Many hundreds of publications have appeared during the past 78 years that treat the subject of hydrogen in iron and steel.l05 but conclusions regarding the functions of hydrogen in causing some important defects in steel are still unsatisfactory to many; and other hydrogen-caused phenomena yet remain to be identified with this gas. The most widely discussed of these defects is hydrogen embrittlement, but the conception, perhaps the popular one, that embrittlelnent is due to hydride formation aoes not conform to the known facts.l04 The true identity of hydrogen embrittlement seems instead to lie in a mosaic nature of metal crystals, which is a concept not Yet accepted by most metallurgists. A study of hydrogen embrittlement therefore provides new viewpoints in regard to the crystalline substructure of steel.

Jan 1, 1941

By C. E. Sims, C. A. Zapffe

Many hundreds of publications have appeared during the past 78 years that treat the subject of hydrogen in iron and steel.l05 but conclusions regarding the functions of hydrogen in causing some important defects in steel are still unsatisfactory to many; and other hydrogen-caused phenomena yet remain to be identified with this gas. The most widely discussed of these defects is hydrogen embrittlement, but the conception, perhaps the popular one, that embrittlelnent is due to hydride formation aoes not conform to the known facts.l04 The true identity of hydrogen embrittlement seems instead to lie in a mosaic nature of metal crystals, which is a concept not Yet accepted by most metallurgists. A study of hydrogen embrittlement therefore provides new viewpoints in regard to the crystalline substructure of steel.

Jan 1, 1941

By D. B. Williams

The end of the war in Europe and the Pacific failed to curb the upward trend of production in Venezuela,- which easily surpassed that of any previous year. The total production for 1945 amounted- to 323,369, 430 bbl., which was 26 per cent over the total for 1944, the previous peak in the history of the oil industry of the country. This increase was caused mainly by the greater demand for petroleum in the last stages of the war; the fact that the danger from enemy submarines had been overcome, which allowed all oil companies to use increased shipping facilities, and the fact that more materials were available for drilling operations. However, the materials supplied were by no means adequate and considerable credit is reflected on the Venezuelan petroleum industry for the increased production obtained by utilizing all available equipment to its fullest extent.

Jan 1, 1946

By AIME AIME

THE American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers will hold its annual meeting in New York City, Feb. 9-12. The technical sessions, excepting the Sunday afternoon and evening sessions of the Mineral Industry Education Division (see the M.I.E.D. program) will be held in the Engineering Societies Building. The "All-Institute" luncheon on Monday will be at the Commodore Hotel; the Annual Banquet and President's Reception, the Smoker, and the Informal Dance will be at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The dinners of the Petroleum Division and the Institute of Metals Division will be at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Jan 1, 1942

By V 9. 0 / 300 dpi

ATHOUGH turquoise mining was, so far as we know, the first large, well-organized mining operation,' gem mining, from the Roman con-quest of Egypt until the opening of the South African pipe diamond mines some 50 years ago, was largely carried on' by individuals 01' small companies in a relatively primitive way. Now" however" gem mining does not yield in efficiency or in scale of operations to the mining of other mineral products. In 1926 the diamond mines of the world milled some 9,000,000 cu. yd. and produced 0,43 cu. yd. diamonds, a remarkable example of concentration. The Premier Diamond Mining Co. up to Oct. 31, 1927, had milled 116,455,550 loads (each of 16 cu. ft.) from which 26,-217,144 carats of diamonds" worth £29,897,971 2s, 9d., were recovered. The Burma Ruby Mines, Ltd., operating sever-al alluvial mines in Burma in 1911-12, mined and milled 1,479,845 truckloads of gemmiferous earth for 15c. per load. We of the industry can there-fore, with good grace, disclose some of the myths and also describe some of the primitive mining methods of the, dark ages of our industry. The methods, so far as I know, were not patented, and if they were, the patents have expired, so that engineers in other branches of the art are free to use them if they see fit.

Jan 1, 1928