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By C. D. King

The advances in basic open-hearth practice which have occurred during the past decade have been principally in the direction of the physical development of larger units, decreased fuel consumption and increased length of furnace campaigns. However gratifying the economies which have resulted from these improvements are, it must be granted that like advances in chemical, physical-chemical and metallurgical knowledge pertaining to open-hearth practice would have added greatly to these already attained reductions in costs and it is the purpose of this paper to stimulate the discussion and study of these phases of cooperation and their relation to ingot yields. Definition and Calculation oF Losses In discussing basic open-hearth yields, the writer refers to the ingot yields obtained in the process of converting pig iron, scrap and ore to steel. In this conversion some scrap is produced. The difference between the total weight of ingots and scrap produced and the original metallic charge constitutes the loss. Basic open-hearth yields vary considerably, and while some of the divergencies can be explained metal-lurgically because of differences in slag analysis, proportion of pig charges, and character of steel made, there often remain differences that apparently do not readily disclose themselves. In reconciling yields by the usual accepted methods of calculation, one is often forced to evaluate large losses as ((unaccounted for." Such a system is prone to accept these large losses as inherent to the operat.ion and not, susceptible of appraisement and correction. It is obvious that if the ingot yield plus the scrap recovered subtracted from 100 per cent. determines the loss, a drop in yield may increase the loss or the scrap, and both contribute to a monetary loss. To be sure, one can subdivide these unaccounted for losses into various components, such as metallics in slag, free Fe in slag, spillage, etc., and thereby reduce the amount of losses considered as "unaccounted for." If empirical methods could indicate with some degree of accuracy all losses, however slight, the undetermined losses become appreciably smaller and resultant calculations will check actual

Jan 1, 1929

By F. R. Hensel

PuRe silver and silver-lead alloys have been studied as to their suitability for bearing~.' A review of the properties of thallium and the silver-thallium constitutional diagram was made by the author to analyze the possibilities of silver-thallium compositions for antifriction materia1s. t The silver-rich end of the diagram as reported in the literatureg-" was found to be sketchy and it was necessary to carry out corisiderable experimental work to arrive at definite conclusions. Some of the results of this work are reported in this paper. Test Materials In the beginning of the work, only fused alloys were investigated. Later, research Table i.—Composition of Fused Silver-thallium Alloys Tested for Antifriction Properties Percentage Alloy No. of Thallium 1533...................... 0.48 1534.................... 1.06 a31 HT................... 2.04 231....................... 2.10 232 HT................... 3.83 Balance 232....................... 4.07 Silver 233 HT................... 5.86 a33....................... 6.38 a34....................... 9.84 a34 HT................... 10.07 was carried out on electroplating methods and diffusion processes. In preparing the fused alloyst care was taken to exhaust the toxic fumes caused by the thaillium content. The compositions of the series of fused alloys are listed in Table I. The silver-thallium alloys were melted in clay-graphite crucibles and cast into preheated steel molds of 3/4-in, diameter. In the cast condition, they showed a cored structure, as indicated by the micrographs of Figs. I to 3. The etching reagent used was a mixture of 2 grams K2Cr207, 8 C.C. H2S04, and IOO C.C. H20. The cored structure is unsatisfactory for the type of corrosion resistance required for bearing applications, and homogenizing experiments were carried out at various temperatures, the results of which are shown in Figs. 4 through 8. The alloys with a lower thallium concentration, which were heated for 2 hr. at 525°C show an almost completely homogenized solid solution type of structure. With higher thallium concentration, the homogenizing temperature was dropped to 475OC. to eliminate the formation of a liquid phase. It is evident that heating for 2 hr. at this temperature did not iesiilt iii complete elimination of the cored structure. As would be expected, cold-working of the cast structure is an expedient in establishing equilibrium conditions. The fine homogeneous grain structure shown in Fig. 7 corresponds to the cold-worked area under the Rockwell ball penetration when the hardness was taken before heat-treatment. A detailed structural study was made on a cast silver-thallium alloy containing 3.67 per cent thallium. Three micrographs (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) show the transition

Jan 1, 1946

By F. R. Hensel

PuRe silver and silver-lead alloys have been studied as to their suitability for bearing~.' A review of the properties of thallium and the silver-thallium constitutional diagram was made by the author to analyze the possibilities of silver-thallium compositions for antifriction materia1s. t The silver-rich end of the diagram as reported in the literatureg-" was found to be sketchy and it was necessary to carry out corisiderable experimental work to arrive at definite conclusions. Some of the results of this work are reported in this paper. Test Materials In the beginning of the work, only fused alloys were investigated. Later, research Table i.—Composition of Fused Silver-thallium Alloys Tested for Antifriction Properties Percentage Alloy No. of Thallium 1533...................... 0.48 1534.................... 1.06 a31 HT................... 2.04 231....................... 2.10 232 HT................... 3.83 Balance 232....................... 4.07 Silver 233 HT................... 5.86 a33....................... 6.38 a34....................... 9.84 a34 HT................... 10.07 was carried out on electroplating methods and diffusion processes. In preparing the fused alloyst care was taken to exhaust the toxic fumes caused by the thaillium content. The compositions of the series of fused alloys are listed in Table I. The silver-thallium alloys were melted in clay-graphite crucibles and cast into preheated steel molds of 3/4-in, diameter. In the cast condition, they showed a cored structure, as indicated by the micrographs of Figs. I to 3. The etching reagent used was a mixture of 2 grams K2Cr207, 8 C.C. H2S04, and IOO C.C. H20. The cored structure is unsatisfactory for the type of corrosion resistance required for bearing applications, and homogenizing experiments were carried out at various temperatures, the results of which are shown in Figs. 4 through 8. The alloys with a lower thallium concentration, which were heated for 2 hr. at 525°C show an almost completely homogenized solid solution type of structure. With higher thallium concentration, the homogenizing temperature was dropped to 475OC. to eliminate the formation of a liquid phase. It is evident that heating for 2 hr. at this temperature did not iesiilt iii complete elimination of the cored structure. As would be expected, cold-working of the cast structure is an expedient in establishing equilibrium conditions. The fine homogeneous grain structure shown in Fig. 7 corresponds to the cold-worked area under the Rockwell ball penetration when the hardness was taken before heat-treatment. A detailed structural study was made on a cast silver-thallium alloy containing 3.67 per cent thallium. Three micrographs (Figs. 9, 10 and 11) show the transition

Jan 1, 1946

By A. Stanley, J. C. Mead

The MacIntyre Development of the National Lead Co. is located at Tahawus, N. Y. The operations involve the mining and concentrating of a titaniferous iron ore to produce an ilmenite concentrate and a magnetite concentrate. Construction of the MacIntyre plant was commenced during the summer of 1941,when world conditions threatened to cut off the supply of Indian ilmenite. An open pit mining operation was developed and the crushing and milling equipment put in operation in July 1942. A general description of the operation was given in the Adirondack Issue of Mining and Metallurgy for November 1943. The metallurgy of the mill operation was described by Mr. Frank R. Milliken,* Plant Manager, National Lead Company, MacIntyre Development, and presented at the AIME New York Meeting, February 1948. The magnetite concentrate produced in the milling operation was too fine (minus 20 mesh) to be used directly in iron blast furnace operation, and most of the magnetite had to be stockpiled in 1942 and 1943. In 1943, the Defense Plant Corp. built a Greenawalt sintering plant at Tahawus, N. Y., to put the magnetite concentrate in a more suitable form for use in the iron blast furnace. The Greenawalt sintering plant consists of three 10 by 25 ft sintering pans designed to produce 1800 gross tons of sinter per 24 hr. The vacuum to each pan is produced by two Greenawalt fans in series, pulling approximately 30,000 cu ft of air per minute at 50 in. water gauge vacuum. The plant started operation in August 1944. The present plant production averages 25 tons per operating pan hour (approximately 224 lb per operating hour per square foot of grate area) of plus 1 in. sinter. Raw feed to the plant consists of 61 pct magnetite, 4 pct anthracite coal culm, and 35 pct minus 1 in. return fines which are conveyed to a pug mill where the materials are mixed thoroughly and water added to give the mixture 5.5 to 6 pct moisture. The mixed prepared feed is conveyed to two 4 by 10 ft vibrating screens where the minus 1 in. plus 5/8 in. return fines are screened out and discharged into a surge bin for use as a hearth layer. The minus % in. prepared feed is discharged into another surge bin for use as prepared feed. A charge car, electrically operated, having a capacity of one charge of prepared feed and several charges of hearth layer, lays a thin layer of plus 5/8 in. return fines and 9 1/2 in. depth of prepared feed into the pans. A fluffing roll and a vibrator on the car fluffs and spreads the prepared feed into the pans. An ignition car, electrically operated, ignites the top of the bed with a 30 sec flash burn. The 9 1/2 in. bed sinters in approximately 13 min. Dumping the pan, and recharging and igniting the bed requires 2 min. To improve the quality of the ilmenite concentrate produced in the mill and to reduce the amount of titanium dioxide lost in the mill tailings and in the magnetite product, extensive research work and pilot plant operations have been done on grinding the crude ore to minus 65 mesh size (rather than to minus 20 mesh) and concentrating it by a combination of magnetic separation (for magnetite recovery) and flotation (for ilmenite recovery). These tests have proved successful in increasing ilmenite recovery and grade. With the development of the ilmenite flotation process to a stage where a full scale flotation plant was in the design stage, the problem arose of handling the 65 mesh magnetite concentrate that would be produced. In order to study and solve the problems of handling and sintering the 65 mesh magnetite in the sinter plant, a pilot sinter plant was plus from John E. Greenawalt. The effect of using 65 mesh magnetite in the sintering operations was then studied on the 2.4 sq ft test pan, operating under conditions as similar to the large plant as could be set up in the laboratory. A series of tests were run in the test pan on present sinter plant feed that had been mixed in the plant pug mill. An average production and an average quality of sinter produced in this series

Jan 1, 1950

By W. E. Bron, E. S. Machlin

GRAIN boundary migration in V-shaped thin specimens of high purity silver was studied. Each specimen contained two crystals having the relative orientation: (111)A/(111)B; (ll0)A/(101)B. The boundary between these two crystals varied between a continuous curved and an alternating two plane interface. The plane interfaces were oriented parallel to (101)A/(011B) and (121)A/(211)B. Traces of these planes are shown in Fig. 1. Evidently the two plane interface, although of higher area, comprises lower total interface energy than the average curved boundary it replaced. The plane boundaries were found to move at 650 °C to consume the broad segment of the V opposite to the direction of interface area and energy decrease. On investigation, using the thermal etching technique of Hendrickson and Machlin,1 it was found that the outer grain contained 8.3x108 more dislocations per cm" than the grain at the apex of the V. Consequently, the boundary moved to decrease the strain energy associated with the difference in dislocation density across the boundary. The rates of motion of specific {110} and {112} boundaries were measured during interrupted anneals at 650°C by referring the position of the boundaries to each other and a fiducial line on the specimen surface. The measured rates of motion are 0.075 and 0.025 mm per hr for the {110} and {112} boundaries, respectively. Plots of grain boundary motion vs time of annealing show straight lines with little deviation of data points from these lines.

Jan 1, 1957

By E. C. Potter

It is not the purpose of this paper to enter into the minutiae of a subject so vast, upon which volumes have already been written and volumes more might still be written, but simply to pass in review the characteristic features of that practice, which, dating from the blowing-in of the Edgar Thomson "A" furnace in 1879 and continuing down to the present day, has given to American blast-furnace operations a new significance. The blowing-in of " A" furnace marked the beginning of a new era in the science of iron-smelting if, indeed, it was not the very birth of science as applied to this industry in the United States. American blast-furnace practice in its generic sense and world-wide significance dates from that day, and really all that is valuable, all that is remarkable or worthy of discussion, is embraced in the experiences and achievements of the past fifteen years. Back of that we find only the dead level of mediocrity, or worse, a dispoition to " let well enough alone;" a general, almost universal, employment of " rule of thumb " methods. The application of scientific principles and methods was rare and, indeed, previous to the introduction of the Bessemer process in the early seventies, science had no place in controlling the operations of the American blast-furnace. The old practice consisted mainly in dumping raw materials in at the top of the furnace and tapping out iron and slag at the bottom, for the successful consummation of which the furnace-manager directed his best energies toward keeping the furnace as free as possible from "gobbing" with, alas ! but indifferent success. The burdening of the furnace was based largely on Mark Twain's receipt for " Johnny-cake," altered to suit the circumstances, viz.: a lot of ore, a lot of fuel and about a quarter of a lot of flux. The possible capacities of furnace-plants were not nearly realized. Enormous wastes were permitted, unheeded because not understood. In the use of fuel quantum suff. was always the rule. Increase of product was not thought of because it was not deemed wise or safe to attempt

Jan 1, 1894

The papers presented at the International Congress, held in San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 20 to 25, 1915, are published in 11 volumes of Transactions. In addition, an index volume is published, containing .besides the author and title index, a report of the business meetings of the Congress, and a brief digest of each paper presented. The following is a schedule of the volumes: Index and Digest.-General proceedings, indexes and digests. Vol. I. Panama Canal. II. Waterways and Irrigation. III. Municipal Engineering. IV. Railway Engineering. V. Materials of Engineering Construction. VI. Mechanical Engineering. VII. Electrical Engineering and Hydro-electric Power Development. VIII. Mining Engineering. IX. Metallurgy. X. Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. XI. Miscellaneous. Aeronautics; Refrigeration; Agricultural Engineering; Engineering Education; Heating and Ventilation. Remember the New York Meeting, Feb. 14 to 17, 1916.

Jan 12, 1915

By R. G. Baughman

With the constantly increasing sales competition, coal to be sold today must meet the test of quality in every respect. The producers must be able to make all marketable sizes that will meet such general requirements as follows: 1. Ash content must be consistently low, depending upon the use to be made of the coal. 2. Sulfur content must be controlled accurately according to requirements. 3. All sizes must be positively free from visible impurities. 4. Free moisture of washed sizes must be reduced to a minimum. 5. The freezing of wet coal in cars must be prevented. 6. The percentage of fines in small mixed sizes must be controlled to give the uniform and proper combustion when used on various types of automatic stokers. 7. The undersize particles or degradation caused by handling must be kept to an absolute minimum in all sizes loaded. Many difficulties may be met in bringing any particular coal to meet these quality requirements, because the extent to which the quality of a coal may be controlled is determined largely by its physical characteristics. Preparation of an Impure Coal Bed The application of modern and scientific methods in the controlled preparation of bituminous coal from a bed in the mid-western field will illustrate the results that can be accomplished by adequate preparation: The bed referred to contains coal inherently excellent as to low ash and other desirable characteristics; in fact, the coal itself is one of the best in the field. It is, however, divided into four layers by dirt bands of soft shale 1 to 2 in. thick. It also contains much sulfur in the form of sulfur lenses and laminated sheets. Horsebacks or rolls varying from 6 in. to 12 ft. in width are encountered in the mining of the bed and heretofore have rendered it practically unworkable. The mines operating in this

Jan 1, 1931

By Anson Hayes, John Chipman

THE quality of sheet and strip products made of rimming steel is closely related to the structure and chemistry of the ingots. The variation in composition throughout the ingot, as affected by segregation, is of great importance, as are also the form and distribution of the voids that result from the gases evolved. It is because of this importance that the considerable literature in this field has accumulated. No attempt is made in the present paper to compile a bibliography of the excellent work that has already been done, as this has been adequately covered in the many excellent reports on the heterogeneity of steel ingots prepared by a joint committee and published by the British Iron and Steel Institute.1 From time to time, in any field of investigation new tools and new technique are developed, which make further progress possible. In the field with which this paper is concerned, this is true. The development of the vacuum-fusion method as a means of following oxygen segregation, and a technique for obtaining the volume and composition of the gases evolved during solidification, have opened the way to obtaining data by means of which some considerable progress has been realized in developing more of the detailed mechanisms of solidification and segregation in rimming-steel ingots. GENERAL THEORY OF SEGREGATION The basic cause of segregation lies in the fact that the impurities are less soluble in solid than in liquid iron. The solid that forms from the impure liquid is more nearly pure than the liquid itself. If solidification proceeds slowly enough, or if the liquid and solid phases are maintained in contact with one another for a sufficient time, a condition of equilibrium is set up, which may be represented by a phase diagram. Portions of the

Jan 1, 1938

By Henry M. Howe

The brilliant and very original matter in Professor Jeffries' discussion† should rank not only as an independent paper, but as a most important one. In particular, the explanation which it gives of the remarkable Sauveur phenomenon, over which so many of us have puzzled long and hard, is so clear, complete, and cogent as to go far toward establishing Professor Jeffries' hypothesis. The very leatures of Professor Sauveur's photographs which fit this hypothesis so exactly are reproduced in Chap-pell's photographs of steel coarsened under somewhat different conditions.' The ideas developed by these discoveries are so novel that convenicnce of language seems to call for new conventional terms for expressing them. In what follows here I propose certain terms for this end, for criticism and improvement, and I attempt to generalize from Professor Jeffries' hypotheses. Generally speaking, a given set of grains which undergo no growth in the cold will, when the temperature is raised progrcssively, start to grow on reaching a certain temperature, and will continue growing at all higher temperatures. The "germinative" temperature is that at which growth begins, quite as the conditions which cause a seed to grow are "germinative." We have then an inert temperature range below the germinative temperature, and a growth range above it, the germinative temperature being the limit between these two ranges. So, too, a germinant grain is one which is at its germinative temperature, and hence beginning to grow, while inert grains are those below their own germinative temperature, and the term "growing grains" includes those which are germinant and those which are above their germinative temperature. These last could be called " supergerminant" if the distinction should be needed. "Germinative temperature" seems better than "critical temperature

Jan 1, 1917

By C. M. Shigley

Tan record of the largest magnesium plant in the country utilizing sea water as a primary raw material stands as another victory in the struggle for large-scale production of pure chemical elements from the oceans. Bromine was the first element to be economically and commercially recovered when, in 1933, a six million pound per year unit was built on the Atlantic Coast near Wilmington, North Carolina, by the Ethyl-Dow Chemical Co.1 The bromine was reacted with ethylene to produce ethylene dibromide, a necessary associate of tetraethyl lead in ethyl antiknock fluid. Within eight years that plant was doubled and redoubled, and another large unit was put into operation at Freeport, Texas, taking bromine from the Gulf of Mexico. In 1940, in fortunate anticipation of the impending demand for magnesium and the limitations of the production from natural brines, the Dow Chemical Co. turned again to the sea, and designed and erected a plant at Freeport to produce 18,000,000 lb. of magnesium per year from sea water.2 In March 1941, two months after the new plant had been put into successful operation, construction of an 18,000,000-lb. Government-financed addition was started. Late in 1941, as a part of the $400,000,000 defense program intended to produce 600,000,000 t0 700,000,000 lb. of magnesium per year, Dow was asked to build and operate for the Government a 72,000000-lb. plant near its original plant at Freeport. Within a few days after the Japanese made their attack at Pearl Harbor, preparation of a site was started at Velasco, Texas, for the construction of the Texas plant of the Dow Magnesium Corporation-the largest known magnesium plant utilizing sea water as its raw material. Less than six months after the first piling was driven, urgently needed magnesium was in steady production. Five months later, the plant had exceeded its rated capacity. It remained above rated production until the general magnesium curtailment was applied to Government-owned plants in September 1944. Credit for the construction and operation record of the Dow magnesium plant must be divided among the efforts of a very determined group of men, an extremely favorable location, and a simple process. It is with the two latter aspects of the plant that this article will deal. The site for the new enterprise was chosen near Velasco, Texas, on property bordering the Brazos River at a point approximately 6 miles inland from the original magnesium plant and y miles inland from the Freeport Harbor on the Gulf of Mexico. This location was far enough away from the operating units to reduce both interference from construction and the vulnerability of closely bunched manufacturing operations to the then feared air attack. Yet the distance inland was not too great for the economical construction of a barge canal from the harbor to serve both the transportation of raw

Jan 1, 1945

Discussion of the paper of E. J. Hall and C. W. Drury, presented at the Butte meeting, August, 1913, and printed in Bulletin No. 78, June, 1913, pp. 1059 to 1066. A. M. SMOOT,* New York, N. Y. (communication to the Secretary +) :-The nails method is given in many text books on assaying as a standard method for gold or for gold and silver in ores. It appears to be taught in the laboratories of technical and scientific schools as a standard method, and to some extent it is used by assayers in actual practice, although the class of ores to which it may be applied is limited to those free from reducible metallic compounds, the metals of which would enter the lead button. The experiments of Messrs. Hall and Drury show the inaccuracy of this rnethod for silver, in heavy sulphides, but not so clearly the short-comings with regard to gold. It seems certain that low silver is caused by the solubility of silver in iron-alkali sulphide as compared with its solubility in molten lead; that is, silver is distributed between iron-alkali sulphide and metal in the charge in proportion to solubility at the particular temperature of the fusion. Lead is a fixed quantity in these assay charges, but iron-alkali sulphide increases with increased sulphur, so the more sulphur in the charge, the lower the silver results.

Jan 11, 1913

By Thomas Lane Carter

The history of mining in South Africa differs somewhat from that of other countries in the part taken by the aborigines in the development of the mineral deposits. The Spaniards in America, and the fortune-seekers of Australia and New Zealand, found large numbers of natives in these new countries, but the inhabitants did not become willing or efficient workers in the mines which the white men started. The Kaffirs of South Africa have not shown the same antipathy to labor, nor do they show any signs of dying out in the presence of the white man's civilization. They are a virile race, and so far the vices of civilization have not killed them. While it is true that the brain and skill necessary for the exploitation of the mineral resources of this sub-continent have been supplied by the white race, it is also a fact that most of the rough labor in the development of the mining industry of South Africa has been done by the Kaffirs. The Kaffir tribes differ greatly in their mental and physical capabilities. Compare, for instance, a Zulu of Natal with a Bechuana, or a Xosa of Cape Colony with some of the degenerate tribes of Central or East Africa, and you will find that they have little in common, save that their skin is black and that they do not believe in clothes. As a general rule, the tribes in the milder, healthier climates are far superior, both in mind and body, to the Kaffirs brought up in the hot malarial sections of Central Africa; and it naturally follows that the black men from the temperate zones of the country are much finer workmen than the degenerates from less favorable sections. It is universal in South Africa to speak of the Kaffirs as " boys." No matter if he is 90 years old, the Kaffir is always a a boy," and in this paper the word " boy " is synonymous with Kaffir.

Jan 1, 1909

By G. A. Vissac, R. G. Minet, N. E. Sylvander

R. G. Minet—The authors' description of the remarkable progress made in the last few years in applying the fluidized solids technique to the problem of lignite drying and carbonization clearly demonstrates that engineering techniques available today may make many processes practical and profitable which a few years ago were considered otherwise. As pointed out in the article, the future of the carbonization step hinges on the value and utilization of low temperature tar. On paper, at any rate, this tar looks like a valuable raw material for the chemical industry to use. Some 50 to 60 pct may be converted to pitch for electrodes, roofing, road tars, and other valuable products; the 25 to 30 pct tar acids could conceivably form a basis for a new low cost resin or plastic of the phenolformalde-hyde type. Yet these materials are so new and dissimilar from available sources that much work must be undertaken by the chemical industry before they will be accepted. Now that the work of Dr. Perry and his colleagues has made a large supply of low temperature tar a real possibility, I would expect the chemical industry to accelerate its work in this field. On the basis of certain data available in the literature it appears possible to produce a more aromatic tar, although in smaller yield, by operating at temperatures in the range of 1300" to 1500°F. Operating a fluidized bed process for lignite at these conditions should be technically possible, at least, and could produce a tar having more familiar characteristics. I wonder if Dr. Parry would care to comment on such a possibility. Incidentally, in our own work on carbonizing coking coals in fluidized beds, using Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia high volatile bituminous coals, we have obtained yields which agree with the correlation given for tar yields vs moisture and ash-free volatile Btu. Our data are slightly under the line, but certainly in the range of the correlation. We have also obtained evidence in support of the authors' statement as to the effect of air on the process. In our pilot plant all the heat required for carbonizing is released by internal combustion of char in the fluidized bed in normal operation. We are also equipped to obtain all carbonization heat by external electric heaters on the shell of the carbonizer while introducing only an inert gas to the process. We note no difference in tar yield or characteristics between the two operations. In the case of the gas, however, it appears that some hydrogen is consumed by the air combustion. We would be interested in hearing in a little more detail about the hot dust and char handling problems at Sandow. Have the authors found char subject to spontaneous combustion? Have they ever tried a coking coal in their pilot plant? V. F. Parry (author's reply)—Production of a more aromatic tar by operation of the carbonizer at 1300" to 1500°F does not appear to be economical. 1) The capacity of a reactor operating at 1500°F would be 30 to 50 pct less than the capacity at 932 °F and the cost of processing would increase materially. 2) The cracking of tar vapors in a reactor requires appreciable time to complete the reactions and it is doubtful that considering the very short time of residence of tar vapors within the reactor (4 to 10 sec after evolution) the basic character of the tar would be changed significantly. This is indicated from the data reported in Table XIV. 3) General studies have shown that it is advisable to operate at the minimum temperature to produce the maximum tar and minimum gas. 4) Operating problems and the maintenance of vessels and reactors, and the hazards of handling hot char, increase with the temperature of carbonization. It is technically possible to operate at temperatures as high as 1500°F, but in my opinion it is not economical or desirable. We believe that the primary tar must be won in the simplest way and then processed alone to change its character for production of desired products. It is interesting to have confirmation of our observations on the reaction of air with the products of carbonization. The major reaction is with the char, fol-

Jan 1, 1957

By O. N. Carlson, H. A. Wilhelm, J. M. Dickinson

On the basis of microscopic studies, melting-point observations, and X-ray analyses, a phase diagram is proposed for the Cb-V system. A complete series of solid solutions is formed with a minimum in the solidus at 1810°C near 35 wt pct Cb. No compounds or intermediate phases were found in the system above 650°C. THERE is an ever increasing need for better structural metals and alloys for use in nuclear reactors. In addition to the normal properties of engineering structural materials, such as high temperature strength, resistance to corrosion, and fabric-abil~ty, the nuclear properties of the material must be considered. In a nuclear reactor it is important to conserve neutrons, so a material which removes these neutrons from the reaction excessively is considered to have unfavorable nuclear properties. In nuclear-reactor design the engineer must have nuclear as well as other data available on alloys in order to make a wise selection of materials. Due to the fact that many of the common structural materials have undesirable nuclear properties, it is vital that new alloys of metals having more favorable nuclear properties be investigated. Columbium and vanadium are both high melting metals, both exhibit resistance to chemical attack, and no great difficulty is encountered in fabricating them into desired shapes. With proper treatment both metals can be cold rolled extensively without failure. In addition they have desirable nuclear properties for certain types of reactors. Therefore, the alloys of columbium and vanadium should be of interest in the atomic energy program. Since an alloy-development program is enhanced by a knowledge of the phase equilibria of the components, this investigation was undertaken to establish the phase diagram for the Cb-V system. According to the Hume-Rothery rules for alloying,' the chemical similarity, crystal structure, and atomic-size factor are favorable for a complete series of solid solutions for this system. Both elements are in the same family of group V of the periodic table and thus are quite similar chemically. The crystal structures of columbium and vanadium are compatible for extensive solid solubility, since both have body-centered-cubic structures. The atomic diameters of columbium and vanadium are 2.85 and 2.62Å, respectively. This difference of slightly more than 8 pct is well within the 15 pct maximum difference allowed for extensive solid solubility. Experimental Procedures Source of Materials: Columbium powder and sheet trimmings were obtained from the Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. According to the manufacturer the metal contains less than 1 pct impurity. An analysis of the metal showed approximately 1800 ppm C in the powder while the sheet trimmings contained less than 500 ppm C. Spectrographic analysis showed minor amounts of Ca, Cr, Fe, Mn, Si, Ti, V, and Zr in both forms of the columbium. No commercial source of vanadium having the ductility and purity desired was available to the authors at the beginning of this investigation. As a result, all of the vanadium used in this study was prepared by the bomb reduction of vanadium pen-toxide with calcium employing the method reported by Long.' Yields of massive vanadium normally were about 80 pct. Chemical analysis of the vanadium prepared in this manner showed the presence of 200 to 500 ppm N and 800 to 1000 ppm C. Minor amounts of Ca, Fe, Mn, Si, Zr, Cr, and Cb were detected by spectrographic analysis. This vanadium metal was ductile and was cold rolled into 5 mil sheet. Annealing was not necessary during this rolling and the metal retained its cold-rolling characteristic after are-melting. Preparation of Alloys: The Cb-V alloys were prepared by melting pieces of vanadium sheet togethel-with columbium in the form of sheet or pellets of powder. The melting was carried out under argon in conventional arc-melting equipment employing a tungsten electrode and a water-cooled copper crucible. Each alloy was remelted three or four times, inverting the alloy after each melting in order to assure complete mixing. Alloys normally were obtained as round flat disks, weighed approximately 70 grams, and had roughly the shape of a disk 1 1/2 in. in diameter and 1/4 in. thick. Half of each alloy

Jan 1, 1955

By James K. Stanley

WHEN a plastically deformed metal is heated to a certain temperature, it undergoes a complete change in microstructure, the consequence of which is a marked alteration of mechanical properties such as hardness, strength and ductility. This change in microstructure occurs by recrystallization and is a process involving the formation and growth of strain-free nuclei in the deformed matrix. These nuclei continue to form with time and grow until a new grain structure replaces the cold-worked structure. The formation of the nuclei in the deformed sheet of 1 per cent silicon ferrite is illustrated in Fig. 1. If a recrystallization is conducted isothermally, a measurement of the fraction of the matrix recrystallized plotted against time leads to an isothermal recrystallization curve, first established in 1942.1 Such recrystallization curves are shown in Fig. 4. These curves show that the recrystallization of a cold-worked metal is best considered as a rate process rather than a time independent process such as is suggested by the improperly named and misleading recrystallization diagrams involving deformation, temperature, and grain size. 2-5 Any study of the rate of recrystallization resolves itself into a study of the component rates of nucleation and growth. The previous paper' provided an account of the determination of the rates of nucleation; N, the number of nuclei formed per unit time per unit of unrecrystallized area, and growth, G, the radial growth in unit time, in the recrystallization of silicon ferrite (1 per cent Si). A method was developed to furnish experimental data for evaluating the effect of the recrystallization variables on N and G. The mathematical analysis for the derivation of the isothermal recrystallization curve was developed for a two-dimensional case (in thin sheets where the diameter of the recrystallized grain is greater than the sheet thickness). The present paper is a continuation of the study of recrystallization of 1 per cent silicon ferrite begun in 1942.1 In this work the effect of the factors deformation, temperature, grain size, composition, and recovery is studied with respect to the rates of nucleation and growth. At the same time it is shown how the cooperation of N and G affects the isothermal recrystallization curve. The study of these variables on N and G has a definite bearing on the mechanism of recrystallization and should lay a foundation for a rational theory on the subject. PROCEDURE The procedure used in these experiments was essentially the same as that described previously but in certain details some changes were made in the interests of speed. With few exceptions, the procedure is the same for the study of all the variables. Where the procedure is different from standard manipulations attention is called to this fact.

Jan 1, 1945

By Louis B. Slichter

Prospecting is certainly the world's biggest and best gambling business. It is a game where the chips cost many thousands and where many millions, even billions, can be won. An attractive feature of this gamble is the fact that the players are free to rig the odds as favorably as possible. Only the limited bounty of nature, the restrictions of the laws of the land, the competition from other players, the limited sagacity of the player himself- only these, and other factors, restrict the possibilities for large winnings. Today probably about half the land surface of the earth remains to be searched for signs of ore visible at the surface. It is fortunate that so much land still remains for exploration by relatively economical methods. Looking to the future, it is a good guess that the costs of finding ore will increase in response to increasing technical difficulties. To continue to achieve profits from prospecting, it will become necessary to analyze the business more skillfully, in a more and more sophisticated manner. Whenever feasible, qualitative concepts must be replaced by their quantitative equivalents, improvements, and extensions.

Jan 6, 1960

The third special war meeting of the New York Section was held on Thursday evening, Sept. 27, in joint session with the New York Section of the American Electrochemical Society, in conjunction with the Third National Exposition -of-Chemical Industries, at the Grand Central Palace. The topic for discussion was ferro-alloys, and the supply' of raw materials for their manufacture. After a few introductory remarks by President Philip N. Moore, of the Institute, and President Colin G. Fink of the American Electrochemical Society, Mr. C. S. Newcomb presented his paper on "Chrome Mining and Concentration."

Jan 11, 1917

By C. H. Curtis

The Esperanza mine of the Copper Division of Duval Sulphur & Potash Co. is located in the Twin Buttes District, 32 miles southwest of Tucson, Ariz. Records of mining activity in this vicinity date back to the 1850's. The New Year's Eve mine, which was last active briefly during the years of World War II, made the first actual penetration into what is now Duval's Esperanza property. Duval's exploration department became interested in the Esperanza in the fall of 1954. The first test hole was started on May 8, 1955. Two years of intensive exploration work together with metallurgical studies developed the basis for the decision to establish an operation.

Jan 11, 1961

By W. I. Garms, J. L. Stevens

BECAUSE of the many conflicting opinions regarding the functioning of the ball load and the characteristics of ball wear in ball-mill grinding, the following resume of reports covering recent tests conducted at the Hayden plant of the Kennecott Copper Corporation is submitted with the view of pointing out certain salient features that should throw additional light on the subject. MILLS USED Cylindrical drum mills with trunnion feed and discharge were used. The discharge trunnion was I3 1/2 in. in diameter. Dimensions inside the lining were 6 ft. 6 in. in diameter and 9 ft. 6 in. long. The mills were Britannia-lined and nine lifter bars projected 2 in. from the lining. The mill speed was 16 2/3 r.p.m. Feed to the mill was 9 per cent on 10-mesh, 85 per cent on 100-mesh, 77 per cent solids. New balls measured 2 in. in diameter and the approximate weight of the ball load was 40,000 pounds. INITIAL TEST During a test that was being conducted to determine the relative economic value of standard cast balls vs. forged steel balls in the local grinding operation, certain observations were made in regard to the functioning of the various ball sizes and the characteristics of ball wear, which warranted a supplementary test for the purpose of confirming such observations. For the initial test, the necessity for developing a graduated load of the new forged balls before the test could be started was realized, but the time required to obtain a graduated load and the functioning of the various ball sizes was not clear. No advantage could be seen for starting out with a full load of forged balls, as this initial load, at the least, would have to be completely ground out and replaced by daily additions of balls before the graduation could be complete and a normal static condition of ball sizes reached. For a considerable period prior to exhaustion of this initial charge there would be an unusual quantity of worn balls of a certain size, which would not be typical of a normal charge and could influence the characteristics and functioning of the entire load. Therefore, it was decided to start by daily addition of the forged balls to a mill that contained a normal operating load of cast balls. After 88 days of operation the mill was shut down for inspection. By that time the load consisted of a mass of forged balls functioning around a large core of the residual material of the former cast-ball load. This core of cast slugs, locally referred to as "the kidney," was well defined from the forged-ball load.

Jan 1, 1946