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By A. L. Murray, P. A. Surgeon

The Spring Canyon Mine Rescue Association is a cooperative association supported jointly by five coal-mining companies located in Spring Canyon, Utah. The properties of mining companies the Carbon Fuel Co, Rains , Utah, the Liberty Coal Co. , Latuda, Utah, the Standard Coal Co. , Standardville , Utan, the Spring Canyon Coal Co. , Storrs , Utah, and the Peerless Coal Co. , Peerless , Utah about a mile apart and normally employ a total of 915 men , 733 underground 182 on the surface . and The Association was organized on July 5, 1921 , and Rudolph Clark, fomerly first - aid miner on U. S. Bureau of Mines Rescue Car 11 , was placed in charge. as manager . A board of directors made up of a representative from each of the cooperating companies (usually the mine superintendent ) is the governing body of the Association and the expenses are prorated on a basis of the production of each of the five mines . The Association maintains eight sets of Gibbs rescue apparatus and a motor truck fitted up as a combined rescue truck and ambulance . Additional apparatus are to be purchased . Standardville is the central camp in the canyon and has been made the headquarters of the Association . The apparatus are now kept and the truck housed in a small station, but plans have been prepared for a large station which will be built this summer . This new station will have a large apparatus room , a test chamber, a suitable room. for training, and a garage on the first floor, while above will be the living quarters of the manager . There is a good road through the canyon and the other camps are all within two and one -half miles of Standardville .

May 1, 1922

By William H. Schiffbauer, Ph. D. Mowrey

Proximity warning devices can improve workplace safety by alerting workers when they are in a hazardous area near moving equipment. Industrial work sites often present extreme challenges to safety-based proximity warning devices. Many commercially available types of proximity warning sensors and systems can be rendered useless when covered with mud, ice, snow, ore, rock, and other material. The list includes radar, ultrasonic, capacitive, and visual types of sensors and systems. Addressing these shortcomings, NIOSH personnel have developed a patented active proximity warning system called HASARD (Hazardous Area Signaling and Ranging Device) which employs lowfrequency, low-power magnetic fields which are quite impervious to severe environmental conditions. A shapeable wire loop antenna which provides the marker of dangerous work areas, has been mounted on a continuous mining machine and was mounted inside 1.3-cm thick angle iron. This loop antenna was exposed to more than six months of active underground coal production, which included being covered by and scraped over with tons of rock, sprayed by a continuous stream of water, and immersed in thick mud. After six months the loop antenna showed signs of wear, but was still capable of performing its intended function. The HASARD system is now being applied to other industrial applications and is showing much promise, especially in harsh environments. This paper details the system, describes the tests that have been done, and mentions other areas where it can benefit the safety of industrial workers.

By Donna L. Anderson

This U.S. Bureau of Mines report discusses the status of a laser-based guidance system to provide position and heading feedback and closed-loop control of tramming maneuvers for a continuous mining machine. The system has been developed and tested at the Bureau, and is now being prepared for underground experiments. The system hardware includes laser scanners, a sensor communication network, and host computer hardware. The system software includes a position and heading computation module and a tram control module. The description of the software includes discussions of laser data acquisition, error compensation methods, position and heading determination, safety checking for continuous miner tramming, and closed-loop tram control. The accuracy of the laser scanner's data, the reliability of the lasers in a dusty environment, and the system's accuracy on tracking the position and heading of the continuous mining machine are shown in the results of experiments performed at the Bureau. Conclusions are stated based on these experimental results, and further work to improve the system performance and prepare for underground testing is discussed.

Jan 1, 1990

By R. J. SHAW

Oil shale has been defined as, "a compact, laminated rock of sedimentary origin yielding over 35 percent of ash and containing organic matter that yields oil when distilled but not appreciably when extracted with the ordinary solvents for petroleum." The oil-yielding organic matter in oil shale, commonly called kerogen, decomposes upon application of heat to form bituminous materials that are soluble in organic solvents and may be extracted from the inorganic residue. However, separation usually is accomplished by continuing the heating and thereby cracking the primary bitumens to gas and oil, which distill, leaving a carbonaceous material on the mineral residue. It has been suggested that this conversion takes place only at relatively high temperatures - 750°F or higher. On the other hand, other workers have found that transformation may take place to some extent at temperatures as low as 400°F. In either a solvent extraction or a destructive distillation process for separating organic material from the inorganic portion of oil shale, the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of the oil shale sufficiently to induce a satisfactory rate of conversion of kerogen to oil is important in determining the design of an economical process. Likewise, the quantity of heat recoverable from a spent shale is important in determining the overall heat balance of the process. Published data on the specific heat of American oil shales are meager. Gavin and Sharp present data for two samples of Colorado oil shale, one from near DeBeque and one from Parachute Creek, and for a sample of spent shale over a temperature range of 68°F to 1940°F. McKee and Lydor present data on the specific heat of two samples of oil shale from near DeBeque, Colorado. Additional thermal data on various grades of oil shale over a wider range of temperature are needed in order to apply sound engineering practices to the design of equipment for processing oil shale.

Nov 1, 1947

By L. W. Kelly

The primary purpose of this paper is to show the appreciable savings that were made by roof-bolting the main west entry of the Kings mine, which was to be the permanent, main haulage road, as compared to the cost of supporting the same roof with peg timbering as first planned. Additional items that might prove valuable to other mine operators are contained in this paper and detailed below. 1. A detailed cost of the system of roof support known locally as the peg-timbering method is given. It consists fundamentally of supporting steel cross bars on pegs inserted into holes drilled in the ribs close to the roof. 2. A method of supporting the roof in caved entries is shown, where such support must endure for an extended period in haulageways and air courses.

Jan 1, 1952

By N. S. Dalal, N. Leelarasamee, V. Castranova, K. Van Dyke, V. Vallyathan

"INTRODCICTIONSilicosis is the chronic fibrosing disease of the lungs caused by the inhalation of crystalline silica. However, inhalation of crystalline silica, may induce three distinctly different disease patterns; i.e., chrome silicosis, accelerated silicosis, and acute silicosis. These three disease patterns differ in their pathologic characteristics, clinical symptoms, onset of disease, and mortality. Many studies in the past have focused on the elucidation of mechanisms involved in the development of chrome silicosis. We recently reported that freshly fractured silica has surface properties that could make it more reactive with lung tissue than aged silica, and that this unique reactivity of freshly fractured silica may be involved in the pathogenesis of acute silicosis (Dalal et al., 1986; Vallyathan et al., 1988; Shi et II., 1988). Because freshly fractured silica could contain some moieties in an ""excited state,"" due to the breakage of silicon oxygen bonds, we postulated that the de-excitation of these moieties could produce light which could be monitored by a luminescence measurement technique. In addition, if this ""excited state'' of silica could trigger a greater biologic response by phagocytic cells, this activation could be monitored by a chemiluminescence technique in the presence of appropriate enhancers.This investigation describes for the first time the use of luminescence in the study of freshly fractured silica and its properties. Enhanced biologic reactivity of the freshly fractured silica with alveolar macrophages was monitored by the chemiluminescence technique.MATERIALS AND METHODSNative silica was obtained from the dust bank of the GenericRespirable Dust Technology Center, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, and ground for 3~ min in an agate ball mill. It was then sieved through a 20 micron mesh filter and used within 1 O min as fresh silica or stored in glass bottles for aging. X-ray energy spectrometry and X-ray powder diffraction studies on representative samples were made to confirm the mineralogic purity. All the silica samples were found to be 99 % pure with minimal detectable conlamination by metal ions."

Jan 1, 1990

By W. C. Phalen

"Tho the term “magnesite” is generally applied to the iron-bearing carbonate of magnesium, such as is found in Austria and Hungary, by some Austrian magnesite is referred to as bruennerite. The mineral bruennerite has become of commercial importance only in Austria. The important deposits are found in Styria, lower Austria and northern Hungary. It is of interest to know that the world's largest deposit of spathic iron ores or iron carbonate (FeCO3), occurs at Eisenerz, Styria, while the world's largest deposit of spathic bruennerite is found at Veitsch in the same province.The Styrian and lower Austrian deposits are located much nearer the Adriatic sea than are the deposits of northern Hungary; and it is from the former that most of the exported magnesite has come. They are located south-west of Vienna, and extend west from Semmering thru the Murz Valley to Tyrol. The chief deposits reckoning from east to west are those of Semmering, Veitsch, Breitenau, Trieben, Radenthein, and Dienten.The largest and most important deposit is that at Veitsch located near Mitterdorf, on the South Austrian railroad in the Murz Valley, Styria. Here the magnesite, which occurs in the form of a lens is quarried on the slope of a hill in a series of terraces about 50 feet apart. The entire work extends thru a vertical distance of 500 feet. The huge magnesite lens is nearly 4 of a mile long and over 1,000 feet in width, and probably extends to a considerable depth.The formation containing the magnesite extends eastward beyond Vienna into Northern Hungary where magnesite is quarried beyond Jolsva and Nyustya in the Gomor district. In spite of the remote location of these deposits as compared with those in Styria, magnesite was shipped from them before the war a distance of 360 miles to the port of Fiume for overseas shipments to other parts of Europe and to America.The average analysis showing the composition of the Austria-Hungary mineral is as follows:The magnesite occurs as lenticular masses in a belt of Carboniferous rocks consisting mainly of metamorphosed Shales, sandstones, conglomerates,,and limestone, It is grayish in color when fresh, and contains sufficient ferrous carbonate to blacken it when calcined. It turns brown owing to the oxide ion of the ferrous carbonate when exposed to the air. The quantity of carbonate of iron is ariable and different analyses show that it ranges up to 13 or 14%For the most part, only the sintered article has been imported into The United States. This material has achieved an enviable reputation for its uniformity both as to chemical and physical characteristics. The homogeneity of the sintered Austrian magnesite is doubtless due in part to the averaging effect of the different operations, such as crushing, dressing, sintering, And mixing, n effect which is not obtainable in mere hand samples.There is comparatively little variability in the sintered magnesite as marketed, and five analyses of this sintered magnesite as quoted by Cornu* are gas follows:"

Aug 1, 1919

By R. G. Gürtunca

The future of the United States (US) mining industry will be affected greatly by recent coal mining disasters. These have resulted in new legislation which will have an impact on mining economic costs as well safety and health of miners. This paper discusses the changes that new legislation and regulations are making to the industry and current research that is producing technologies to make mining safer and will likely impact the future of mining.

Jan 1, 2009

By Martin J. Gavin

During the recent study of lubricating oils carried on in the San Francisco laboratory of the United States Bureau of Mines, it became desirable to distill the oils used in the experimental work at pressures as low as 10 millimeters (mercury column) absolute. In the effort to Overcome difficulties and eliminate sources of error, certain changes were made in the apparatus for vacuum distillation used by the Bureau of Mines for crude petroleum.4 These changes were described in R.I. 2819, issued in July, 1927. Subsequent to the publication of R.I. 2819 several other changes have been made, and the present form of the apparatus for vacuum distillation of lubricating oils is described in this revision of R.I. 2819. These changes were found to give more accurate checks on duplicate distillations. The major part of the credit for the laboratory work which developed the changes in the apparatus and method revised herein is due to Boyd Guthrie, assistant petroleum chemist, and R. V. Higgins, junior chemist, o the San Francisco laboratory, United States Bureau of Mines. DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS The distilling flask employed is essentially the Hempel flask as used by the United States Bureau of Mines for the analytical distillation of petroleum.5 he complete apparatus is shown in Figure 1. The fractionating column and exposed portion of the flask is wrapped with 4 inch asbestos rope and then surrounded by a cylindrical hood of 1/8 inch pliable asbestos sheet with a narrow air space between the wrapping and the cylindrical hood. This was found necessary to prevent any radiation or convection heat losses from the column, and resulted in obtaining a more even and constant fractionation by eliminating any dephlegmating action caused by temperature changes around the column.

Jan 1, 1930

By David E. Siskind

The Bureau of Mines recorded particle accelerations in the mine roof produced by three types of explosives in the Pilot Knob Pellet Co. mine, Pilot Knob, Mo. Examined were the effectiveness of cube root, square root, and two-thirds power scaling in grouping the underground blast vibration data, and the effects of mine geometry, rock type, explosive type, and charge size on blast vibration levels. A propagation law for this mine was determined. The scaling factor of the square root of the charge weight was developed from previous Bureau studies of vibrations from quarry blasts, and in under-ground blasting both square root and cube root scaling were found applicable for scaling particle vibration data. The vibrations from the Pilot Knob blasts were best grouped by a square-root scaling factor. The empirical propagation equation AW1/2 = 76,250 (R/W1/2)-2.61 where A is the peak acceleration in g's, W is the charge weight in pounds, and R is the distance from the blast in feet, may be used to describe vibration amplitudes from charges fired with zero delay caps or with a single cap at Pilot Knob. Statistically significant differences were found in the vibration levels generated by the different explosives. The Power Primer (75-percent weight-strength ammonia gelatin dynamite) produced levels of vibration of 1.7 to 2.4 times those of AN-FO and slurry explosives; the latter two are approximately equal.

Jan 1, 1973

By L. B. Berger

"INTRODUCTION Accurate determination of carbon monoxide in concentrations ranging from 0.2 to about 0.5 percent by volume is troublesome, because such concentrations are too high for some analytical methods and too low for others. Methods that are sensitive to concentrations of carbon monoxide considerably less than 0.2 percent are approaching their upper limit of usefulness when applied to the analysis of samples containing 0.2 percent or more of carbon monoxide, and it may be necessary to resort to dilution of the sample with a known proportion of air, or otherwise modifying the analytical technique, to obtain satisfactory results. Such methods include the determination of carbon monoxide by reduction of heated iodine pentoxide 3/4/5/ by the ""Pyrotannic acid"" method 6/ and by the so-called ""phosphomolybdic acid"" method. 7/ The use of conventional gas-analysis equipment, such as the Orsat type, in the determination of carbon monoxide in concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 percent is not desirable, as possible analytical errors may be of about the same magnitude, thus producing results of little quantitative value.For several years prior to this publication, the Gas Analysis Laboratory of the Health Division of the Bureau of Mines has used a modification of the Haldane type 8/9/10/ gas-analysis apparatus for the determination, by absorption in a chemical reagent, of carbon monoxide in low concentrations that are not readily determined by other methods. The method is applicable also to the determination of higher concentrations. As the procedure has proved successful and has been adopted by others, this report was prepared to describe the method and to present results of analyses obtained with it."

Nov 1, 1947

By Robert A. Jankowski

The Bureau of Mines has recently identified five major factors that contribute to high respirable dust levels on the six U.S. longwall faces having the most difficulty complying with Federal dust standards: (1) a poorly structured cutting sequence, (2) a poorly designed external water spray system, (3) marginal waterflow to the cutting drums, (4) minimal controls at the stage loader and crusher, and (5) the lack of effective controls for dust generated during support advance. The results of this survey illustrate the need to address all the major sources of longwall dust generation and the need for mine operators to implement a variety of control procedures to assure compliance. The Bureau of Mines will continue to assist mine operators in implementing improved dust controls and will work to identify and evaluate controls for dust generated during support advance.

Jan 1, 1983

By Thomas Varley

Data on the consumption of reagents used in .flotation during the year 1925, in metallurgical plants in the United States, are presented in this paper. Previous reports have covered the same subject for the years 1916, 1919, 1923 and 1924. The data contained herein show departures most radical from even the 1924 practice. Flotation has developed rapidly and on a more scientific basis than ever before. Perhaps more fundamental and useful data have been uncovered during the past two years than in all the years the art has been practiced.

Jan 1, 1926

By Mark S. Sanders

Based on laboratory tests and preliminary field tests of off-the-shelf steel toed rubber boots, a molded sole design was developed to provide increased traction over conventional calendared sole miners' boots. The pattern provided sharp edges perpendicular to both lateral and fore-aft slip vectors. The sole was designed to reduce mud caking. An instep lace-up capability was added to better secure the foot inside the boot. A five month field evaluation compared the prototype boots to the boots the participants usually wear. Although objective slip and fall data showed no significant advantage for the prototype, subjective evaluations made by the participants indicated increased traction for the prototype boots. Approximately 75 percent preferred the prototype to their own boot. Approximately one-third used the lace-up capability. It was concluded that molded soles provide better traction than calendared soles for the underground mining environment.

Jan 1, 1982

By Walter D. Holland

LFE Environmental performed an Industrial Hygiene survey of the Paraho Oil Shale Mining and Processing facility in Anvil Points near Rifle, Colorado, on August 6 and 7, 1975. This survey consisted of an investigation of the underground operations for diesel emission contaminants and of the above ground work areas for all inhalation contaminants other than silica dust. Samples were collected to investigate the following contaminants: respirable dust, total dust, NO2, NO, H2SO4, formaldehyde, CO2, S02 and CO. None of the determinations of contaminants in the underground operations indicate air concentrations exceeding their standards. The results for the samples collected above ground indicate only one operation where the employee's exposure exceeds the standards. It is a welding operation where the standards for total dust and lead are exceeded. Since the survey the employer has installed an exhaust ventilation system which has significantly reduced the welder's exposure.

Jan 1, 1976

By Forrest T. Moyer

In conjunction -with the statistical survey of the lime industr-.r in 1939, by the Bureau of Hines, producing companies reported the lime-fuel ratios attained in their plants according to type of kiln and kind of fuel. Each ratio, expressed as the number of pounds of lime burned by a unit quantity of fuel, was weighted according to the tonnage of quicklime pro- . duced at the reporting plant and grouped with similar data from other plants, so that an average ratio for each type of fuel and,kiln could be calculated. By this method the variables trat affect ratios of individual plants are more or less equalized, and the computed average lime-fuel ratios provide a fair measure of kiln and fuel efficiencies during 1939.

May 1, 1941

By Harry R. Johnson

Laboratory experiments were conducted to study the carbon deposition characteristics of a high-gravity, paraffin-base crude oil. The results of these experiments indicate that a fuel supply adequate to initiate a combustion wave can be deposited in high-gravity-oil reservoirs. These results are significant because there has been considerable doubt whether oils over 35° API gravity are able to deposit sufficient fuel. Considered in these studies were the effects of air flux, temperature, initial oil saturation, and time on carbon deposition. Conditions that maximized carbon deposition in the laboratory and an understanding of the nature of carbon formation are shown by graphical interpretation of the data. Statistical techniques were used to design and analyze the results of the retort tests. For the same amount of laboratory work, this approach yields more information about the systems that were studied than the classical method of research presently used in many laboratories. In addition, the accuracy of calculating the effect of each variable on carbon deposition is twice that of the classical approach. This paper develops the statistical approach to research without complex mathematics, thus enabling the reader to grasp the concept of how statistics can be applied to study many complicated problems.

Jan 1, 1966

By T. J. Ballard

The Conrad Hill mine vas first opened as a gold mine about 182 and has been operated at various times since then. The Bureau of Mines, as part of the strategic minerals program, mapped and sampled the accessible mine workings. The work failed to reveal appreciable copper values or evidence of additional ore deposits.

Jan 1, 1948

By A. E. Nagel, J. E. Carpetta, M. G. Zabetakis, T. D. Moore

The method of moving averages was found useful in assessing the nature of methane emission in coal mines. Emission rates were influenced markedly by the presence of abandoned oil and gas wells in the vicinity of the mine. Such wells appeared to increase the flow rate of methane into the mine by a factor of 2 to 30 in an active mine in the Pittsburgh coal seam.

Jan 1, 1972

By R. G. Sandberg

Many gold-bearing ores throughout the Western United States contain small quantities of mercury. The presence of mercury not only decreases the gold-loading capacity of the activated carbon, but complicates the fire refining of cathodes and creates a potential health hazard. The Bureau of Mines investigated methods to limit mercury extraction during gold ore leaching and to remove mercury from cyanide leach solu-tions. Mercury dissolution was reduced from 40 to 10 pct by decreasing NaCN concentration from 20 lb to 0.34 lb per ton of solution at a pH of <11. When 0.1 lb CaS per ton of ore was added to a leach slurry, mer-cury extraction was reduced from 27 to 0.4 pct. Less than 0.5 pct of the mercury was solubilized when <0.1 lb CaS per ton of are, along with lime and NaCN, was added to a simulated grinding circuit.

Jan 1, 1984