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By Charles E. Heinrichs

IN the last decade one of our oldest and largest non-metallic metallic mineral industries has been the subject of persistent technical research, the results of which are another example of the benefits following the systematic application of scientific principles. The consequent improvement in the technique of phosphate recovery represents the greatest material advance in the industry since the discovery of phosphate in Florida in 1881. Moreover, these successes have stimulated interest and development in numerous other nonmetallic industries. Strange as it may seem, and despite the fact that the phosphate deposits of Giles County, Tennessee, together with those of Polk and Hillsborough Counties, Florida, have yielded more than 50,000,000 long tons in the last twenty years, the mineralogy of phosphates has been given scarcely any space in our technical literature. For many years it was the general consensus that these so-called phosphate rocks represented a physical mixture composed principally of tri-calcium phosphate, together with smaller quantities of calcium carbonate, calcium fluoride, iron phosphate, aluminum phosphate and other less important constituents. More recent investigations, however, led to the conclusion that these phosphates really represent a complex mineral in which calcium, iron, aluminum, phosphorus pentoxide, carbon dioxide, and fluorine all form a definite part of the molecule. Colony, after a careful study, utilizing chemical, microscopic, and X-ray diffraction methods, reported that American phosphates consist principally of calcium-carbono-phosphate of the staffalite type.

Jan 1, 1933

J. M. TIPPETT? Colorado Springs, Co1o.-There are several points which offer ground for discussion, although the authors' indicated results leave small chance for argument. Under classification of the ores as they come to the mill, it will be noted that these are classified according to their lime contents. In previous years the classification was based upon sulfur contents, CaO not being considered; class A would be called the oxidized ore and class B the sulfides. Classification according to CaO is the first public indication that a decided change in the ore has necessitated improved methods of treatment. The very serious effect that CaO, even in small quantities, has upon extraction has been noted for some years.

Jan 11, 1918

By M. von Heimendahl, G. Thomas

The microstructure of TD-Ni has been examined by transmission electron microscopy in the extruded, annealed. and deformed states. The tensile properties hove been correlated with the observed microstructures and the results ore com-pared with those obtained from pure nickel. The important conclusions are that the thorin particles in TD-Ni act as strong burriers to dislocntion motion during both deformation (slip) and annealing (climb). During deformation. the dislocations tangle around the particles and a cell structure is devleloped after 10 pct or more strain. The cell size appears to be determined by the spacing of the largest particles and is about five times smaller than that in pure nickel for the same strain. The higher work-hardening rate in TD-Ni compared to nickel is probably due to the more rapid rate of dislocation multiplication in the alloy as a result of dislocation-particle interactions. The Th0,particles inhibit recrystallization and twin growh so that some strengthening may arise from the high density of small annealing twins. THE strengthening of materials due to the presence of a dispersed second phase has been the subject of considerable experimental and theoretical investigation in recent years. One of the newest dispersion-strengthened alloys to be developed is TD-Ni,1 a system of approximately 2 vol pct thoria (ThO2) dispersed in a matrix of commercially pure nickel. This material is fabricated by powder-metallurgical techniques and offers high-temperature stability and useful mechanical properties virtually to the melting point of the base metal. While the mechanical properties of this system have been investigated,2,3 there have been no reports in the literature concerning the microstruc-ture of TD-Ni and its correlation to mechanical properties. This paper describes a transmission electron microscopy investigation of the micro-structure of TD-Ni together with its mechanical properties. The results are compared with the structure and properties of pure nickel.

Jan 1, 1964

By C. R. Van Hise

PART I.-GENERAL PRINCIPLES. [ ]

Jan 1, 1902

By Samuel H. Dolbear

THE purpose of a technical report is to record facts, usually collected by investigation, and to interpret these facts in understandable language. The audience may range from a small shareholder without technical knowledge, to a highly trained engineer or geologist. If the client is a mining company with technically trained executives, the report writer's problem is relatively simple. The writer will then be appraised not only for his conclusions, but for clarity of language and organization of the report. If the writing is bad, the construction careless, and there is a failure to clearly convey to the reader the facts and the author's conclusions, the report is a failure and the writer may have damaged his professional character. Spoken words die quickly, written words may constitute a permanent record and if they are badly composed they may rise up to damn the author. "A good measure of an author's understanding of his subject is his ability to express it clearly in plain words." Good English Teachers in the fields of mineral technology have frequently complained that even in post-graduate groups there is an appalling indifference to their appeals for good English. Some have even noted a student's belief that the use of refined English is effeminate. If those with such immature beliefs could measure the pay-check damage arising from the use of "sloppy" language, they would realize that precision and refinement in English may be quite as important as technical accuracy. When the reader audience is without technical knowledge simplicity in treatment becomes especially important. If one is engaged in consulting work, in government service, or in any field where reports have public distribution, the language employed should be technically adequate but simple enough to be understood by non-technical readers. For example, one may use the term "visual" in place of "megascopic." Technical language can be so obscure that it cannot be understood even by highly-trained students. In the March-April (Vol. 47-No. 2) issue of Economic Geology, Nicholas Vanserg ridicules these extremes and quotes various paragraphs from published material, such for example: "However, lattice orientation unaccompanied by cognate dimensional orientation can never be attributable to growth from an isotropic blastetrix." "The temperature declines because of cessation of the exothermic chemical and mechanical equilibriopetal processes." These he calls "good geologese" and they are calculated not only to baffle the reader but to impress upon him the erudite character of the author. Revision In some cases, difficulty arises from the fact that the writer is too close to the subject and unconsciously assumes that his reader is equally familiar with the background of the report. It is difficult for the writer to regard his work objectively and to determine to what extent it is likely to be understood. Every important manuscript will gain in clarity if the author will have it reviewed by an informed reader. But the writer must not be oversensitive to criticism and should not treat his composition as perfect and beyond the possibility of improvement. The first draft of a report always requires revision, regardless of the care used or the ability of the writer. Three or four revisions are not uncommon. The first draft usually requires expansion in places, the deletion of non-essential material, and language changes to promote clarity of expression. This should be done by the author after a lapse of time, even if only overnight, in which his mind has been occupied on some other subject. Possible improvements are always more visible. The manuscript should be passed on to another reader for further suggestions. Organization of Material The engineer should study available reports and library references before going into the field. If the previous reports have been responsibly done and can be accepted as correct, then much field time can be saved. It is, of course, customary to make some on-the-ground checks to confirm earlier reports, particularly those relating to ore reserve which may have undergone changes. Report writing requires time and expense, but nevertheless, the basic reasons for conclusions should be presented even in the case of a worthless property, for it may prevent a duplication of the work. If the mine examined is obviously of no further interest, no useful purpose can be, served by preparing a report in detail. In one case an engineer travelled all the way to South America only to find that the mine had been grossly misrepresented and was valueless. His cabled report "Nonsense" is a case of over-simplification, but it served his company's purpose. The first step in report organization should be the selection of subjects. This should be done at the mine, and the data collected for each subject should be reviewed in considerable detail on the ground. Otherwise one may find that he has failed to collect some essential details not readily obtained after he has returned to headquarters. If the property to be described is undeveloped, then many of the subject titles are automatically eliminated. Usually no useful purpose is served by an attempt to calculate the cost of production under such circumstances, although the cost of exploration

Jan 1, 1952

By E. D. Hummer

During the planning of the fine coal cleaning addition at the Gary, W. Va., Coal Preparation Plant of United States Steel Corp. careful consideration was directed toward the problem of minus 48 mesh refuse disposal. The plant flow sheet included wet screening the raw coal at ¼ in., pumping the minus ¼ in. raw coal to bowl desiltors for desliming, and then cleaning the deslimed raw coal on tables. The material to be removed from the circuit as minus 48 mesh refuse consisted of the minus 100 mesh desiltor overflow thickened in two 120 ft diam thickeners and minus 1 mm screened from the table refuse. Later a flotation plant was added to recover coal from the desiltor overflow, and a classifier replaced the screens to make a sharper size separation of the table refuse at 48 mesh. Today the minus 48 mesh refuse at Gary consists of thickened flotation tailing and thickened spiral classifier overflow. The transportation of large quantities of fine, wet refuse filter cake mixed with jig and table refuse over existing conveying equipment would have been neither dependable nor economical. Filtration was therefore impractical, and disposal of the fine materials was a problem. The decision was to pump the material to storage ponds.

Jan 3, 1965

By H. E. Wheeler

The work described was carried out during 1917 and 1918 at the testing laboratory of Watertown Arsenal at the instigation of the Nitrate Division and later with the concurrence of the Cannon Section of the Ordnance Department, U. 8. A. The experiments follow three principal lines of work: First, the effect of nitrogen under pressure on steel containers of various compositions at a red heat; second, the effect of decomposing ammonia on various alloy steels, iron, and non-ferrous alloys; third, a new theory of the erosion of guns in respect to the effect of nitrogen in steel. Part I In the Haber process for the manufacture of ammonia from its elcnlents, it is necessary to have nitrogen and hydrogen of 1500 lb. per sq. in. (105.5 kg. per sq. cm.) at a temperature of 500 to 600' C. The steel containers for these gases gave trouble by failing without apparent cause. When the General Chemical Co. began to develop its method for the production of ammonia, it experienced the same difficulty and, knowing that the Haber process had solved the difficulty by the use of alloy steels, it made several small steel bottles of different compositions and kept them filled with these gases at this pressure and temperature until they failed. The time of service varied from a few days, for the plain steel casting, to two years for a chrome-vanadium forging. Four of these steel bottles were sent to this laboratory for investigation; they were a plain carbon-steel forging, a nickel-stee1 forging, a chrome-vanadium steel forging, and a chrome-steel forging. The time of service was as follows: plain carbon steel, 4 mo.; nickel steel, 6 mo.; chrome-vanadium steel, over 2 yr.; chrome steel, 4 mo. When these containers were cut open and the cross-section surface polished, they showed an inside zone with a different luster from the rest of the metal. Upon etching, this zone was almost unaffected while the rest of the steel etched normally.

Jan 1, 1922

By H. E. Wheeler

The work described was carried out during 1917 and 1918 at the testing laboratory of Watertown Arsenal at the instigation of the Nitrate Division and later with the concurrence of the Cannon Section of the Ordnance Department, U. 8. A. The experiments follow three principal lines of work: First, the effect of nitrogen under pressure on steel containers of various compositions at a red heat; second, the effect of decomposing ammonia on various alloy steels, iron, and non-ferrous alloys; third, a new theory of the erosion of guns in respect to the effect of nitrogen in steel. Part I In the Haber process for the manufacture of ammonia from its elcnlents, it is necessary to have nitrogen and hydrogen of 1500 lb. per sq. in. (105.5 kg. per sq. cm.) at a temperature of 500 to 600' C. The steel containers for these gases gave trouble by failing without apparent cause. When the General Chemical Co. began to develop its method for the production of ammonia, it experienced the same difficulty and, knowing that the Haber process had solved the difficulty by the use of alloy steels, it made several small steel bottles of different compositions and kept them filled with these gases at this pressure and temperature until they failed. The time of service varied from a few days, for the plain steel casting, to two years for a chrome-vanadium forging. Four of these steel bottles were sent to this laboratory for investigation; they were a plain carbon-steel forging, a nickel-stee1 forging, a chrome-vanadium steel forging, and a chrome-steel forging. The time of service was as follows: plain carbon steel, 4 mo.; nickel steel, 6 mo.; chrome-vanadium steel, over 2 yr.; chrome steel, 4 mo. When these containers were cut open and the cross-section surface polished, they showed an inside zone with a different luster from the rest of the metal. Upon etching, this zone was almost unaffected while the rest of the steel etched normally.

Jan 1, 1922

By OTTO HERRES

UTAH has enormous deposits of high-grade bituminous coal. The United States Geological Survey estimates that there are 13,130 sq. mi. of land in Utah known to contain workable coal and these extensive fields contain 196,000,000,000 tons of coal. Growth in population and development of industry in the intermountain and Pacific coast regions will in time give Utah a place with the great coal producing states of the country. Even today, faced by adverse conditions in competition with cheap fuel oil from southern California, water-power throughout the western states in general, and comparatively high freight rates to its distant markets, the Utah coal industry is notable in many respects. In recent years, Utah has led the United States both in the percentage of its mines in class 1, mines producing more than 200,000 tons a year, and in average production per man per day, which was 6.01 tons in 1921. In Mineral Resources of the United States, 1921, Part

Jan 1, 1925

By B. W. Vallat

(San Francisco Meeting, October, 1911.) THE Newport mine, located at Ironwood, Gogebic county, Mich., on the Gogebic iron-range, is owned and operated by the Newport Mining Co., for the mining of iron-ore. I. GEOLOGY. The general geology of the Gogebic range has been determined and recorded at different times by well-known geologists,) and their work will be referred to briefly in connection with the local conditions in the mine. The strike of the formation across this property is about 15° north of east. The, general dip is 68° to the north. At the base of the formation on the south lies the granite. Looking north, at right angles to the strike of the formation, we have the foot-wall of quartz-slates and quartzite about 400 ft. wide; the iron-formation about 800 ft. wide, and the hanging-wall of black slates. The iron-formation is composed of banded jasper and quartzite together with iron oxide and concentrations of iron-ore. In character the ore is a soft red hematite, with occasional masses of hard blue "steel ore." The formation is crossed in many places by diorite dikes, which cut through at various angles, the larger or main dikes dipping into the foot-wall in a SE. direction at angles varying from 15° to 30°, while numerous small dikes occur which strike through the formation in a vertical plane and at approximately right angles to the main dikes. There are various theories concerning these dikes, especially as to the time of their origin with relation to the ore-deposition. The commonly-accepted theory is that the dikes were there first, but there are some who contend that they were formed

Nov 1, 1911

By FLOYD T. TAYLOR

IN 1833, less than one hundred years ago, Michael Faraday discovered and stated the laws of electrolysis. His discovery formed the foundation of a new use of metals which has now reached a variety of application not ordinarily appreciated. Furthermore, things can be done with electro-deposited coatings which have thus far defied other methods. Some of the uses of electro-deposited coatings are interesting. The tonnage of metals already finding an outlet through such a channel is considerable. In general electro-deposits have two characteristics: ornament plus utility; utility plus ornament. Both these factors are usually found associated in electro- deposits. Ornament plus utility was probably the first use. For example, the silver-plating of tableware, having its real birth in Birmingham, England, about 1844. However, this same ornament plus utility retarded the development of electro-plating, because in the beginning, electro-plated articles were branded with the odium of imitation and shunned accordingly. The gold brick of the swindler may be an exception to this statement.

Jan 1, 1929

By Herbert W. Graham

IRON ORE is widely distributed throughout the world. Ores sufficiently high in iron content to be practical for the operations of iron and steel making occur in so many places that it is only by the accident of political subdivisions that any given nation does not have adequate and suitable iron ore. Data prepared by various authorities show that in the Lake Superior region alone there are reserves of 1,200,000,000 tons of iron ore of an iron content and at the level of production cost to which the industry has been accus tomed. At an annual consumption of 80,000,000 tons these reserves will last fifteen years. Taken alone these figures would be alarming, but over a considerable period of years the total reserve tonnage has been more or less steadily increased by improvement and extension of mining and beneficiation methods. The rate of depletion of reserves has been only about one third of the rate of consumption. On this basis the cheap high-grade ores of Lake Superior would last 45 years.

Jan 1, 1947

By Roy G. Mead

BECAUSE of its magnitude, and the type of occurrence, the deposit of boron minerals in the Kramer district, Kern County, California, is unlike any other in the world. Discovery of this vast deposit has brought about many changes in the borax industry, so a discussion of the geology, and the occurrence, would not be complete without a brief history of the development of the borax industry. Until the discovery of boron minerals in the desert regions of California and Nevada some seventy years ago, borax was imported from Tibet and India, principally for medicinal purposes, at almost prohibitive prices. Following the discovery of commercial deposits of boron minerals in California and Nevada, and the subsequent development of new uses for borax and boric acid, the consumption has steadily increased until today borax is used in some form or other in every household.

Jan 1, 1933

By Frederick G. Clapp

SINCE oil journals commenced to feature the progress of Iraq pipe-line developments and since newspapers undertook to follow the discussions between a certain large oil company and an Asiatic nation, I have repeatedly been asked questions that are only answerable by setting forth the essential geographic and historical facts of concessions in that part of the world. In so doing effort will be made to correct erroneous statements made in various quarters: and mistakes herein are being kept as low in number as possible. Perhaps the best-known concession in the Middle East is the one of the Iraq Petroleum Co., covering the greater part of the portion of the kingdom of that name- lying east of the Tigris River. West of the stream is the concession of the British Oil Development Co., which takes in all presumed petroliferous areas in western Iraq. No other important oil concessions exist in that country, except for the lands of the Khanikin Oil Co., which operates in "Transferred Territories" on the border of Persia. East of and continuous with the Iraq fields are those of Persia where the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. holds the well-known D'Arcy concession comprising three-quarters of the country, omitting the five northern provinces. This is the only valid existing concession in Persia, so far as known, except certain old firmans that permit development at Semnan in central Persia and possibly also certain regional grants to a French banking syndicate in eastern Mazanderan Province.

Jan 1, 1933

By T. L. Joseph

S. T. Killian (Johnstown, Pa.)—This is one of the finest papers I have read. Tying in stoichiometric calculations with furnace performance and practice is a step which had to be taken sooner or later. The noteworthy difference between Dr. Joseph's type of calculations and regular blast furnace calculations is that the Ib mol system is used as a basis. With the Ib mol system, weights, volumes, and chemical reactions can all be expressed in the same equation. In the paper, wind, ore, flux, and fuel are all expressed as lb or lb mols. Probably Dr. Joseph does not realize it, but the vague word coke appears only twice in the entire paper. Lb of C and Ib mols of C are followed through reactions but the word coke appears only as 1560 lb coke per ton of pig and 1700 lb of coke per ton of iron. Obviously in order to understand furnace reactions, the coke should be expressed as lb or lb mols of C. Furnaces can also be compared more easily. In some respects the paper is too thorough and too complete. The effects of the metalloids reduced into the iron upon the top gases represents a difference of less than 3 pct of the CO formed in the bosh. Due to the completeness of the calculations in relation to the CO/CO2 ratio, this was included and was necessary. However, the exclusion might have enabled more furnace men to follow the lb mol system of calculations through the blast furnace to a better degree. By considering only irons of similar analysis, this part of the calculations might have been omitted. However, if this had been done, total rewriting of the paper later would have been necessary in order to make the work complete as it is now. It also would not have been nearly as authoritative. In the paper, there appears the reaction: H2O + CO ? CO2 + H2 [I] Dr. Joseph states that he did not take this reaction into consideration in any calculations pertaining directly to the paper. The piobable reason- for this is that although it contains all the main reacting top gases except N2, it is rather inflexible since it is monomolecular in relation to each of the reacting gases and does not tie in with the gasification of C. Actually the reactions: H2O + C ? CO + H2 [2] 2H2O + C ? CO2 + H2 [31 and the solution loss reaction: CO2 + c ? 2c0 [41 tend to assume an equilibrium through the reaction: H2O + CO ? CO2 + H2 [I] which should be considered a balancing or equilibrium reaction. Reactions 2, 3 and 4 permit furnace conditions to balance with the CO/CO2 ratio and H2 formation. They tie in with the solution loss. Reaction 1 unites them chemically. Probably the best calculation to make at this time would be to try to find the relative importance of the CO2 from the flux and the H2 in the dilution on an actual furnace gas analysis. For this purpose the Dob-scha-Carnegie-Illinois paper—"Effect of Sized and Sintered Mesabi Iron Ores On Blast Furnace Performance" is chosen. This paper was presented before the blast furnace section of the AIME in 1948. This represents the best large scale furnace operation available to me. Unfortunately the changes were brought about by beneficiation of the burden and not by changes on one burden. In choosing the basis for the calculation in relation to the furnace, 100 mols of dry top sgas is chosen. This leaves something to be desired inasmuch as the nitrogen basis is changing but I believe it will be better understood than any other type and it is the easiest to use.

Jan 1, 1952

By Walter S. Weeks

CONFUSION appears to exist in the discussions of fan testing because engineers do not agree on what energy should be credited to the fan in certain cases, and because certain terms that are used in the discussions seem to have double meanings. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to discuss the useful energy that should be credited to the fan and the methods of determining this energy, and to suggest changes in nomenclature for the sake of clearness. The instruments commonly used in the measurement of fan pressures are the manometer, the static tube, and the impact tube. The static tube is a tube with small pinholes in it. When connected to one leg of the manometer and placed in the air current with the holes facing at right angles to the direction of the current, this tube causes the manometer to register the static pressure, unaffected by the impact of the air. The impact tube is a tube with an opening that faces the air current. When connected to one leg of the manometer, this tube causes the manometer to register a pressure which is the static pressure modified by the impact of the flowing' air on the end of the tube. If the static tube is connected to one leg of the manometer and the impact tube to the other leg, and both instruments are inserted close together in the air current, the static pressure is eliminated and the manometer registers the impact pressure. The efficiency of a fan is the percentage of the expended power utilized in useful work. The items to be included as useful work are a matter of convention, and as the conventions are not universal I feel that the matter is open to discussion.

Jan 1, 1929

By Thomas T., Read

T HE preceding chapter has recorded the initiation of mineral industry education during the period 1890-1910 in numerous institutions that had not previously offered it. It should also be emphasized that in many institutions where instruction had begun before 1890, as recorded in earlier chapters, but had not yet become firmly established,, this period was one of marked growth and development. This was not universally true, however, for at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington (St. Louis), Iowa, Vanderbilt and Tennessee, and at the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania, mineral industry instruction was being dropped during this period, instead of gaining in strength. It is necessary to emphasize this, because writers on the subject have not infrequently , attempted to make a much too simple correlation between mineral -discovery or production and the intensity of student interest in mineral industry curricula. It would naturally be true that periods of large mineral production would, in general, coincide with cycles of business prosperity, and the latter are conducive to starting new ventures, educational as well as business. It should be equally evident that opportunities for business and professional success might, in such periods, appear to increase at a more rapid rate in industries other than mineral, or in the utilization of minerals rather than in their production. The author has not been able to perceive any simple and clear relation between interest in mineral industry education and mineral discovery, production, and utilization, or general business prosperity. On the contrary, the more the problem is studied the more complex the factors involved in it appear to be. In a later chapter an attempt will be made to analyze them in more detail.

Jan 1, 1941

By W. Spencer Reid

ALTHOUGH there have been some developments during the last five years which have had far- reaching and important bearing on lead smelting, it cannot be said that any basic principles of pyrometal-lurgy have been discovered. Eighteen or twenty years ago the Dwight & Lloyd sintering machine was intro-duced and literally turned the roasting end of lead smelting upside down. There has been nothing com-parable to the advent of the sintering machine during recent years. Actual blast-furnace practice today is slightly, if any, better than it was five years ago ; although immeas-urably better than it was twenty to thirty years ago. Some tell us that as far as cleanness of slags is con-cerned, it is no better today than in the days of the old Romans. The metallurgist of a generation ago did very good work, considering the equipment he had available. It is true he was working with the cream of the ores, the clean oxides and carbonates and the low-zinc sul-fides. He was troubled very little with high zinc and selected his type of slag according to preference of -some authority such as Eilers, Iles, Raht, Hahn, etc. As these free-smelting ores were depleted the complex ores were encountered, and the metallurgist gradually discovered that he had to forget the old type slags and run a slag according to the percentage of zinc on the charge. I believe it is now universally agreed that SiO2 and CaO must be lowered and FeO raised in a slag as the ZnO increases. The ratio of these variations is practically uniform and can be relied upon over wide fluctuations of the determining element, zinc. These "bastard" slags, as they are sometimes inappropriately designated, are actually in daily use, and the metallurgist of today has been forced to adopt certain standards, as a guide to successful operation. These slags practically refute the old Eilers' theory that all good slags are chemical combinations of SiO2 with FeO and MnO, and CaO and MgO. Eilers' and the other type-slag theories were based upon the assumption that a good slag must con-form to a definite formula, such as 3 (FeO)2 SiO2 + 2 (CaO)2 SiO2 or 2 (FeO)2 SiO2 + 2 (CaO)2 SiO2 which respectively figure 31.3 and 36 per cent SiO2. The SiO2 was supposed to remain constant even with the entrance of impurities such as Zn and A1,0? into the slag. The increasing amount of impurities, espe-cially Zn, soon discredited the theory, for in actual practice the slag failed to run freely.

Jan 1, 1927

AT the meeting of the Board of Directors on Jan. 28, 1927, the tentative budget of this Institute for next year was discussed, and in connection with the evident necessity for a larger income to meet increasing demands for service, the advisability of in- creasing the dues of members, was brought up. W. Spen- cer Hutchinson advocated an upward revision of the dues "believing it necessary that the Institute have a larger income, in order that it may carry on necessary work and render adequate service to its membership." Since this is a matter that directly affects every member, .President Taylor was directed to appoint a committee, which he did, consisting of George D. Barron, W. H. Bassett, and R. H. Sweetser, with T. T. Read as secre- tary, to bring in a tentative outline of the main factors in the problem for discussion at the annual meeting, on Feb. 15, and to prepare, after they have had the benefit of the discussion at that meeting, a report for the board. The amount of the annual dues is fixed by the con- stitution and can only be changed by proposing an amendment to the constitution. This amendment would have to be submitted to the members by letter ballot at the time of the election of officers for 1928, so that no change can be made in the dues for 1927 in any case. WHY THE INSTITUTE NEEDS MONEY At the annual meeting past-president Reynders, as chairman of the executive committee made the follow-ing report, which since it admirably sets forth the rea-sons why an increase in the dues has been suggested, is included here. "The report of the president has covered the situation so fully that little is left for me to say. However, a word in regard to the functions of the executive com-mittee may not be out of place.

Jan 3, 1927

By Thomas T. Read

THE official title of our topic for today is "Resources of Metals and Other Strategic Minerals," but in accepting the invitation to open this discussion I claimed the privilege of being allowed to talk about problems other than resources for the two reasons that a great deal has already been said about resources and because we can never discuss them with the degree of certainty that an engineer likes. Resources are uncertain for many, reasons. One is that we do not know what is in the earth. It is four thousand miles to its center and although oil wells 1 ½ miles deep are becoming common and engineers are now talking of drilling holes 2 miles deep, even when they do they will have advanced only one two-thousandth part of the total distance. Only a relatively few mines are over a mile deep as yet. We know certainly that it is comparatively expensive to work at such great depth, but it would be a very foolish man who would assert it will be' impossible, one or two hundred years from now, for engineers to obtain from great depths mineral supplies that are now being obtained at or near the surface. As long as- I can remember I have been hearing that our petroleum resources were in imminent danger of speedy exhaustion, and yet the yearly output is now of the same order of magnitude as the total resources were once estimated, with ' the cry of over-production the loudest it has ever been. Tapping progressively deeper and deeper sources of supply, has produced this result. Even in the thin layer that we are now working much-exploration still remains to be done. .

Jan 1, 1929