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By Richard Downs, Stephen P. Burke

The oxidation of pyritic sulphur associated with coal is important for the following reasons: 1. It is the predominant cause for the formation of acid mine drainage issuing from bituminous coal seams. This drainage pollutes the streams in coal regions, making the water unfit for industrial purposes and causing the disappearance of fish and wild life. As a consequence the movement of industry and especially recreational industry, so important to the population of these areas as an alternative means of livelihood, is impeded. 2. It is instrumental in effecting a series of reactions, which bring about the degradation and ultimately result in the spontaneous combustion of bituminous coal in storage. 3. It contributes to the breaking and shattering of the coal structure and is one of the causes of roof falls and floor lifts in mines. 4. It is the primary cause of the many nuisances associated with gob piles and the refuse of cleaning plants. 5. Its proper control and application might possibly be employed in the preparation of coal to reduce the inorganic sulphur content. The research that has been conducted on the oxidation of the various forms of iron sulphides is extensive and the literature voluminous. Nevertheless, few efforts have been made to determine experimentally and with some precision the mechanism of the reaction under the conditions of its occurrence in bituminous coal mines. It has generally been accepted that the oxidation of pyritic sulphur proceeds according to the reaction 2FeS2 + 2H2O + 7O2 ? 2FeSO4 + 2H2SO4 [1] The ferrous sulphate in the drainage streams is further oxidized by air to produce ferric hydroxide and more acid. Yet the literature fails to disclose any pertinent investigation on the mechanism of this reaction. The present contribution is concerned primarily with this aspect of the problem and while the work to be reported is not yet complete, it has yielded results from which interesting and significant conclusions may be drawn.

Jan 1, 1938

By W. P. Frey

The briquet plant of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., at Lansford, Pa., has previously been referred to.' It has passed the stage of experiment and now rests on a foundation practically and financially sound. The purpose of this' paper is to explain how success has been attained, and to set standards for the development of hard-coal briquetting which may eliminate future failures. All the conclusions are based on actual results, avoiding speculation and theory. Up to three years ago, the L. C. & N. Co. used coal-tar pitch as a binder in making hard-coal briquets. The plant operated with a monthly output of 300 to 600 tons and was unable to meet its own expenses. Naturally, no one was satisfied, especially as the ideals of a smokeless briquet were still unrealized. Then came the Dutch oil process, introduced in this country by the General Briquetting Co. of New York. This process uses as binder a small percentage of heavy residue of petroleum, which, being liquid, permits great economy of handling; it also did away with the most objectionable fumes of the former briquets. This oil2 is not absolutely smokeless; heating the fresh fuel to red heat liberates some low-volatile hydrocarbons, yielding a white smoke which is not objectionable. On the other hand, this oil adds to the briquet about 7 per cent. of volatile matter, giving the product a heating capacity equal to that of the best free-burning anthracite coal. The average silt used in the manufacture of these boulets averages 16.5 per cent. chemical ash, corresponding to 12,000 B.t.u. per pound of coal. The Hydrolene used as binder runs about 17,500 B.t.u. per pound, and approximately 7 per cent. of it enters into the mixture, hence 12,000 X 0.93..........................11,160 B.t.n. 17,500 X 0.07.......................... 1,125 B.t.u. Total.....................................12,385 B.t.u. per pound of briquets

Jan 1, 1918

By Richard Downs, Stephen P. Burke

The oxidation of pyritic sulphur associated with coal is important for the following reasons: 1. It is the predominant cause for the formation of acid mine drainage issuing from bituminous coal seams. This drainage pollutes the streams in coal regions, making the water unfit for industrial purposes and causing the disappearance of fish and wild life. As a consequence the movement of industry and especially recreational industry, so important to the population of these areas as an alternative means of livelihood, is impeded. 2. It is instrumental in effecting a series of reactions, which bring about the degradation and ultimately result in the spontaneous combustion of bituminous coal in storage. 3. It contributes to the breaking and shattering of the coal structure and is one of the causes of roof falls and floor lifts in mines. 4. It is the primary cause of the many nuisances associated with gob piles and the refuse of cleaning plants. 5. Its proper control and application might possibly be employed in the preparation of coal to reduce the inorganic sulphur content. The research that has been conducted on the oxidation of the various forms of iron sulphides is extensive and the literature voluminous. Nevertheless, few efforts have been made to determine experimentally and with some precision the mechanism of the reaction under the conditions of its occurrence in bituminous coal mines. It has generally been accepted that the oxidation of pyritic sulphur proceeds according to the reaction 2FeS2 + 2H2O + 7O2 ? 2FeSO4 + 2H2SO4 [1] The ferrous sulphate in the drainage streams is further oxidized by air to produce ferric hydroxide and more acid. Yet the literature fails to disclose any pertinent investigation on the mechanism of this reaction. The present contribution is concerned primarily with this aspect of the problem and while the work to be reported is not yet complete, it has yielded results from which interesting and significant conclusions may be drawn.

Jan 1, 1938

The Ortiz Mountain property is located approximately 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Santa Fe and 13 km (8 miles) from the village of Cerrillos. The property embodies a Spanish mineral grant from which Gold Fields acquired about 2, 200 hectares (900 acres of surface and mineral rights. Following a period of exploration, metallurgical testing and development of a feasibility study in 1974, the decision was made, because of the higher gold price in the fall of 1978, to place the property into production. the gold is confined in a quartzite breccia; it is an unusual occurrence because the gold in this host rock is leachable at minus 19 mm (3/4 in. ). Total ore reserves are estimated at approximately 3.6 million mt (4 million st) averaging 1.89 g per mt (0.055 oz per st) based on a cut-off of 0.7 g (0.02 oz). The ore will be recovered by open pit mining at a stripping ratio of 1. 2:l. Production is scheduled for 13,600 mt (15,000 st) of ore per week or approximately 680,000 mt (750,000 st) per year. Primary crushing of pit-run material is by a 1,070 by 1,015 mm (42 in. by 40 in.) jaw crusher. Crushed ore is conveyed to stockpile and then to a 2.13 m (7 ft) standard crusher with the screened over- size crushed in a 1.5 m (5 ft) tertiary cone crusher. The screen undersize, the final product for leaching, is minus 19 mm (3/4 in. ). A 1, 360 kg (3,000 lb) sample is cut from the crushed ore stream, further crushed in a small jaw crusher and then sampled in two more stages by Vezin samplers to produce a final 13.6 kg (30 lb) sample for assaying. Pebble lime is then added to the ore on the belt as it is sent to the conveyor gantry spanning the leach pads. A tripper on this moving gantry stacks the leach ore without compaction. The entire crushing plant and conveying system is of open-air construction. Leach pads have a total length of 515 m by 60 m (1,700 ft by 200 ft) wide with usable dimensions of 490 m by 58 m (1,600 ft by 190 ft). The directional length slope is 3. 870 with 370 on the width. The pad is constructed of 175 mm (7 in. ) thick asphalt containing a rubberized asphalt membrane. It is divided by a 300 mm (1 ft) high curb into eight segments. Each segment is loaded with 13,600 mt (15,000 st) of ore, which is one week's production. Optimum working height of a pad is considered to be 3. 0 m (10 ft) with a maximum height of 4. 0 m (14 ft).

Jan 1, 1981

By George Rice

THE A.I.M.E. Ground Movement and Subsidence Committee, pro-posed in 1920, held its first technical meeting in February 1923, under the able chairmanship of Mr. H. G. Moulton. The following list of papers and discussions, indicating the scope of the problems and relation to various conditions and method of mining, were given at that meeting by the distinguished mining engineers: J. Parke Channing, on Subsidence at Miami, Arizona; Howard N. Eavenson, on Mining an Upper Bitu-minous Seam after a Lower Seam Has Been Extracted; J. J. Rutledge, on Subsidence in Two Oklahoma Coal Mines; Benjamin F. Tillson, on Caving Cracks at the Franklin Mine, New Jersey; Dr. F. W. McNair, on the Dome Theory; William Kelly, on disadvantageous effects in Mining and Back-filling Working Upward a Steep-Pitching Iron-ore Bed; Eli T. Conner, on the good results of Back-Filling by Hydraulic Means in Preventing Destructive Subsidence in the Anthracite District; Thomas H. Claggett, on the merit of Systematic Pillar Drawing in Preventing Cracks in an Upper Seam; Henry H. Otto, successful results in the anthracite district in Mining Lower Seams before Upper Seams; Douglas Bunting, on Leading Factors Incident to Successful Mining of an Overlying Seam; Edwin Ludlow, on there being "less damage to buildings when there was complete removal of coal with complete packing than when room and pillar is used without extracting the pillars"; Edward O'Toole on "bumps" in eastern Kentucky mines, which he thought were the result of geologic stresses: H. A. Buehler, on Upheaval of Surface in an Illinois Case in Advance of the Face; and R. Dawson Hall, on The Mechanics of Subsidence from Mining. The author of this paper discussed various kinds of problems of ground movement and subsidence in both metal mining and coal mining; the production of great landslides by workings near an outcrop, as at Turtle Mountain, Alberta, Canada; and general

Jan 1, 1939

By E. L. Bruce

THE district of. Patricia, in the province of Ontario, lies northwest of the Albany River and extends northward to Hudson's Bay. Formerly this was the unorganized district of Keewatin, the southern part of which was divided in 1912 between the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario. The interprovincial boundary now runs north from Lake of the Woods for 275 mi. and thence northeast 375 mi. to Hudson's Bay. This district is comparable in size to all the older part of Ontario south of the Canadian Pacific Railway east of Lake Huron-thus it is roughly one-third of the whole of the present provincial area. The central part of this great triangle is one of the least accessible parts of Canada. From it streams flow southward to the English River, southeastward to the Albany, northward to Hudson's Bay and the Hayes River, and westward to Lake Winnipeg. None of the streams is large and canoe travel is not easy. The only industry it has ever had is the trade in furs. Until the development of the airplane on a commercial basis, the only means of travel was by canoe or dog-train. There is not a mile of railway in the whole district. The two areas to be dealt with lie in the southwestern part of Patricia. Red Lake is 50 mi. east of the Manitoba boundary and 75 mi. north of the transcontinental railway from Cochrane to Winnipeg. Woman Lake is 50 mi. farther east and slightly farther north. The late Dr. D. B. Dowling, of the Geological Survey of Canada, visited Red Lake and spent some time there during his exploration survey from Lac Seul to Berens River in 1893. He also visited the Woman Lake basin during the same journey, but his examination of it was much less detailed, the great area covered by him during the one field season making it impossible to make more than a hurried reconnaissance. Some prospecting in the Red Lake district followed Dowling's exploration, but the distance from railway was too great for any systematic work to be done.

Jan 1, 1928

By A. J. Boyer, T. R. Meadowcroft

An experimental determination has been made of the efject of surface diffusion on the vapor pressure obtained in a Kwudsen cell. The results show that a knife-edge orifice in a molybdenum lid may give erroneous results for the vapor pressure of silver. when a correction suggested by winterbottom and Hirth is made, the results become meaningful. Experimental work with cylindrical orifices in molyhdenz~m lids and knife-edge orifices in ceramic lids shows that good vapor-pressure results may he obtained when the orifice is designed so that ejfusion is the only significant source of weight loss. THE Knudsen effusion cell technique has been used by many investigators to study relative and absolute vapor pressures over metals and alloys at elevated temperatures. As a result of this interest, some theoretical studies have been made of geometric factors affecting effusion from the orifice of a Knudsen cell. A review of these studies has been made by Margrave.1 Recently, Winterbottom and Hirth2 have suggested that a physical effect, that of condensation, surface diffusion, and re-evaporation, may seriously affect Knudsen cell measurements, especially when a knife-edge orifice is used. Inasmuch as many of the present vapor-pressure data have been obtained using knife-edge orifices. it was felt that an experimental evaluation of the effect of surface diffusion on Knudsen cell measurements would be of value both in the design of the cell orifice and in establishing realistic estimates of the limits of error for existing data. The experimental program was in two sections. Firstly, measurements of the vapor pressure of silver were made in cells with cylindrical and conical orifices in which the surface-diffusion contribution to the weight loss should be negligible. These results were correlated with existing data to give a reliable measure of the real vapor pressure of silver. Secondly, measurements made using knife-edge orifices were corrected using the surface-diffusion theory of Winterbottom and Hirth2 and were then compared to the real values. The experimental arrangement is shown in Fig. 1. The balance was an Ainsworth RV-AU-1 automatic recording microbalance capable of measuring weight changes of ±0.02 mg on a total load of up to 100 g. The temperature was measured by an optical pyrometer signted on the bottom of the suspended crucible. The temperature readings were calibrated in a separate experiment in which pyrometer measurements were made while at the same time thermocouple readings were taken of the temperature at the inside top and bottom of the crucible. The range of reproducibility with this technique was ±4°C. A constant voltage source maintained a temperature of ±2°C at 1200°C over 10 hr. Silver of 99.99 pct purity was used in nonporous alumina crucibles. Lids of molybdenum, tantalum, or magnesia were cemented to the crucible using a sodium silicate cement. Table I shows the characteristics of the lids used. The vapor pressure is obtained using the basic Knudsen formula:

Jan 1, 1965

All the TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS and CONTRIBUTIONS published in 1939 are available at Institute headquarters, unless otherwise noted. They are also on file in many public, university and technical libraries and, when so indicated in the list, may be found in the TRANSACTIONS. TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS in Classes A-Metal Mining, B-Milling and Concen-tration, H-Industrial Minerals, and ;I-Mining Geology are distributed in MINING TECHNOLOGY, which is issued every other month. Technical Publications in Classes C-Iron. and Steel Division, D-Nonferrous Metallurgy and E-Institute of Metals Division are distributed in METALS TECHNOLOGY, which is issued twice quarterly. TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS in Class G-Petroleum Division are distributed in PETRO-LEUM TECHNOLOGY, which is issued quarterly. TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS in Classes F-Coal Division, J-Mineral Industry Education Division, K-Mining Administra-tion, and L-Geophysical Methods of Exploration are issued as separate pamphlets. An Institute member is entitled to one copy of any TECHNICAL PUBLICATION or CON-TRIBUTION. Copies of TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS listed have been mailed to members of the Institute according to their registration by classes. CONTRIBUTIONS and Other TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS will be sent upon request. A member relay purchase an additional copy of a TECHNICAL PUBLICATION Or a CONTRIBUTION at One cent a page; minimum charge, 25¢. Nonmembers may purchase any CONTRIBUTION or a TECHNICAL PUBLICATION Of the F, J, K, or L classes at the same rate, but the nonmember price per copy for METALS TECHNOLOGY, MINING TECHNOLOGY or PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY is $1. TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS (separate pamphlet form), $2 per annum; Canadian and foreign postage 50 cents extra. METALS TECHNOLOGY, $7 per annum; Canadian and foreign postage 50 cents extra (Iron and Steel Division and Institute of Metals Division ferrous and nonferrous papers). MINING TECHNOLOGY, $6 per annum; Canadian and foreign postage 50 cents extra (metal mining, milling and concentration, Industrial Minerals Division, and mining geology papers). PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY, $4 per annum; Canadian and foreign postage 50 cents extra. Bound volumes have been mailed to members that have requested them, and MINING AND METALLURGY is mailed each month. A member is entitled to one volume a year on his membership and lie may purchase for $2.50 one copy of a volume not already received; additional copies of 'the same volume, $5. Nonmembers may pur-chase the volumes listed, at $5 each, plus 60 cents for Canadian or foreign postage. Extra single copies of MINING AND METALLURGY, 25¢ current issue, back numbers 500 each to members; to nonmembers 50¢ current issue and $1 each, back issues. Subscription price to nonmembers and to members for extra copies, $3 per annum plus $1 for Canadian or foreign postage.

Jan 1, 1939

By William Colby

INCREASING governmental control of human activities seems inevitable. Within the present generation railroad rates and the public sale of water, gas and electricity have been subjected to rigid regulation. The field of control is slowly but surely being enlarged, and it is the object of this paper to outline in brief space this tendency toward increased governmental regulation, as far as mineral resources are concerned. Our, dual form of government complicates the problem. We must deal not only with the powers of the Federal Government, but also with those of the individual States. In order to approach this question intelligently we must have some conception of the powers and jurisdiction of the States and the United States, respectively, over mineral lands and mineral production. Starting with the Federal Government we find it never owned any public domain within the States that formed a part of the thirteen original colonies and, for historical reasons, the same is true of Tennessee and Texas. The Mid-Western States were erected out of the public domain which was acquired by the United States through cession from the original States or by purchase from foreign nations. Congress early in the last century adopted a policy of leasing public lands containing lead deposits in a portion of this Mid-Western territory, but later abandoned that policy and disposed of such public, lands, mineral and non-mineral, outright so that they long since have practically all passed into private ownership and become subject to the general jurisdiction of the respective State governments. In the great public domain lying west of the Mississippi River, and in portions of some of the Southern States, the Federal Government adopted a new mineral land policy following the discovery of gold in California. (Acts of Congress of 1866, 1870, and 1872.) The mineral lands within these States, instead of being disposed of on the game basis as agricultural lands, as occurred in the Mid-Western States, were segregated from agricultural lands and sold under special laws intended to encourage mining, giving the miner the free right to locate and work these mineral lands without paying any royalty to the Federal Government. A miner could also obtain at slight expense a complete

Jan 1, 1930

By Fred C. Bond

AN improved method of measuring the surface area of a comminution product down to any desired particle size has been developed. The method is largely graphical, and requires relatively little calculation. It can be used with materials containing large amounts of clay, or excess fines of any kind. The surface area S is expressed in terms of square meters per100 c.c. of solids. This expression is based upon volume rather than weight, and is considered to be more suitable for crushing and grinding problems, where the machines ordinarily are operated under constant volume conditions. It has the advantage that surface areas of different materials can be compared directly, even though their specific gravities may be unknown. The "specific surface" of a material, or the number of square centimeters of surface area per gram, is equal to 100S divided by the specific gravity. Particle diameters are expressed in microns, K being the diameter of the largest particle present and L the grind limit, or lower size limit of the particles formed directly by grinding. The value of K does not always coincide exactly with the diameters of the largest particles retained on the coarsest testing sieve, since the largest particles formed in crushing and grinding are often slabby, or have other irregular shapes. L has been chosen as 0.700 microns, or number 27.5 in the size number series,1 for reasons to be explained later. S is the total surface area of all particles larger than L microns in diameter. When a homogeneous comminution product is separated into fractions whose diameters bear a constant geometrical relationship [p] to each other, and the log per cent weight retained upon each size and passing the next larger size is plotted against the log diameter, a straight line results, which is called the distribution line, and which has a slope in called the distribution modulus. The distribution line can be extended to any desired limiting size, and the total surface area of all particles larger than that size can be calculated. The equation of the distribution line is w = Cxm [I] where w is the per cent weight retained on each successive sieve; x is the particle diameter; and C is the per cent weight retained on an opening of unit diameter.2 Theoretically, the distribution line can be extended to include infinitely small particles. When it is so extended, and the assumption is made that no fine particles are present other than those accounted for by the equation; the log per cent cumulative weight passing any series of sizes, plotted against the log diameter passed, will result in a straight line lying parallel to and above the plotted distribution line.

Jan 1, 1941

By Peter F. Weiss

INTRODUCTION Austro-American Magnesite Co. of Radenthein, Carinthia, Austria, is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Refractories Company, Bala Cynwyd, USA, and has been incorporated since 1908. The raw material basis is the magnesite mine on Millstatt Alp, located in the mountains near Radenthein at an altitude of 1500 m above sea level. The mined crude magnesite is crushed in a surface crushing plant to minus 35 mm and consequently hauled to the processing plant in the valley by means of a cable conveyor of 7.5 km length. The annual production of 350,000 mt is accomplished with 20 supervisors and 122 workers (of those 60 are in the mine). The labor requirement for block caving is 0.2 man hr/mt, corresponding to an output of 40 mt/man/ shift. GEOLOGY The rock in this area mainly consists of crystalline type schist. There are mostly coarse crystalline garnet mica schists with varying mineral concentrations, and to a lesser degree, some deposits of amphibolite and marble. This petrographically rather homogeneous rock is divided into numerous different tectonic units (covers and scales). The magnesite deposit itself is a foreign body that also has been tectonically inserted. The ore body has a length of 600 m, is 450 m deep, and has a thickness of 60 m on average, varying substantially however, The contact with the accessory rock is very precise. The deposit 1 = ore body, 2 = previous open pit, 3 = caved in area, 4 = block under excavation, 5 = land slide consists of coarse crystalline magnesite in excess of 90 per cent. The few impurities consist of dolomite and talc. The lower part of the deposit is inclined parallel with the schists at approx. 40 degrees. In profile it can be seen, however, that the upper part of the deposit has been tilted over. This is a result of a post-glacial land slide reaching from the bottom of the valley at 1400 m above sea level to the peak of the mountain at 2100 m above sea level. Due to this land slide, with horizontal movements of up to 100 meters, as well as older tectonic events, the rock was crushed to a vast extent. Through mining, the land slide was reactivated; about 40 million cubic meters of rock slowly flow downhill almost like a plasticized mass. Near the surface, the rock is completely crushed and resembles a glacier rupture zone. This renders the originally impermeable rock completely water permeable so that practically all of the annual quantity of 1000 to 1100 mm of precipitation permeates the rock and flows down into the mine. The carbonate rock turns into the preferred aquifer. From 1700 to 2600 cubic meters of water have to be pumped from the mine daily. On one hand, additional problems are caused by the water in the mine, on the other hand we have learned to make use of the down- hill pressure forces to improve the crushing process during block caving. The boundary of the downhill shearing zone moves downward as mining goes deeper.

Jan 1, 1981

By N. J. Grant, B. C. Giessen, U. Wolff

With the aid of the splat-cooling technique of rapid quenching, metastable alloy phases based on antimony ad bismuth have been prepared. At room temperature, simple cubic phases were found in the Sb + Au, 56 + Yd, and Sb + Ni systems. Another phase was retained in the Au-Bi system at -190°C; in this systent, a microcrystalline phase and a rhombohedrally distorted phase were also observed. The crystal chemistry of these phases is discussed in terms of their valence electron concentration range. A remarkable five-step Phase sequence was found upon heating and equilibration of certain metastable Au-Bi alloys. USING the splat- cooling technique of rapid quenching from the liquid,' a large number of metastable intermediate alloy phases have been prepared in recent years. Thus, Hume-Rothery phases of the hexagonal type based on the valence electron concentration have been produced in systems where they are missing in equilibrium, e.g., Ag-Ge 1 or AU-Sb. 3 In a comprehensive study of metastable alloys based on tin, simple hexagonal metastable y phases were found, raising the total of stable and metastable y phases from 3 to 13. 4 In the In-Bi system, five new metastable intermediate phases were retained.' In most cases, the new metastable phases have some crystal chemical characteristics in common: a) They have rather simple, elementlike structures with few atoms per unit cell, e.g., y phase,4'5 or the metastable primitive cubic phases in the Ag-Te and and Au-Te systems.= b) Their structures are often related to those of the terminal phases, or to elements that are straddled in their position in the periodic table by the constituent elements; this is the case for metastable ß (In-Bi) with the structure of white ß Sn,' or metastable a (Cd-sn). 4 c) They seem to represent the crystal structures appropriate to certain average group number (AGN) ranges in which no or few single-phase structures exist in equilibrium. These average group number ranges can probably be equated in the case of many elements of the Ba(Zn)-Bs(As) groups with the averaged valence electron concentration. In the present work, the splat-cooling technique has been applied to the alloys of antimony and bismuth. In equilibrium, neither element forms intermediate alloy phases with other B elements from groups Bl(Cu) to B4(Si) that contain more than 66.7 at. pct of Sb or Bi, respectively, e.g., AUSb 2. 7 Thus, antimony- or bismuth-rich phases, which might be closely related to antimony or bismuth, and which would reflect struc- tural changes occurring on alloying with small amounts of addition elements, do not exist. Also, the terminal solubility of antimony and bismuth for all B metals is very small. It was therefore of interest to investigate the influence of enforced, nonequilibrium solid solution of addition elements in antimony and bismuth on their crystal structures. It was found that additions of group B 2-B4 metals act distinctly differently than additions of group T 10 and B1 metals. The latter set of additives will be treated here. EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES Alloy preparation and splat-quenching followed closely the procedures described in Refs. 1, 4, and 5; they consisted of the preparation of master alloys from high-purity starting materials (99.99+ pct) and blast-atomizing of 20-mg quantities onto copper sheets. The resulting approximately 1 to 5 u thick foils were investigated by X-ray diffraction. The cooling rates obtained are of the order of 107 to 10 8 C per set,'" causing solidification to proceed at a rat; of approximately 100 cm per sec.' Powder patterns of the resulting fine-crystalline materials were taken with filtered CuK, radiation. For antimony alloys the substrates were held at room temperature and for bismuth alloys at -190°C both during splat foil deposition and X-ray investigation. Annealing treatments at several

Jan 1, 1969

By H. C. George

IN 1901, the United States produced 69 million barrels of crude oil, which was 41.4 per cent of the world production. By 1931, these figures were 850 million barrels and 62.1 per cent respectively, showing over this period of thirty years an increase in the world production of 718 per cent. Over this same period, the increase in the demand for technically trained men in the industry was much greater than the increase in crude-oil production. This was because much of the increase in production was secured by the application of geology and physics to the finding of new oil fields and by .the development of engineering methods and equipment incident to drilling and producing from much greater .depths.

Jan 1, 1934

By Frank Tolonen

IRON-ORE beneficiation is becoming of vital importance to the Lake Superior region, since only a few decades will be needed to exhaust the direct shipping ores even if generous allowances are made for discoveries of new orebodies. If the region is to continue as the chief source of ore to the steel industry of the United States, it must concentrate or otherwise beneficiate the enormous tonnages of available iron formations. A beginning along this line has already been made. About one-fifth of the total shipment, even now, is the product of some sort of concentrating process, while another fifth is improved in physical structure by crushing, screening, drying, sintering, or some other similar method. The amount of material amenable to these processes is limited, however; and, in order to be able to utilize the billions of tons of iron formations that cannot be so beneficiated, an intensive study of their nature and concentration possi-bilities is necessary. As long as high-grade ores are available in ample quantities, ore dressing is economically impossible, but as soon as the supply nears exhaustion it becomes necessary. At first the products of ore dressing must meet as nearly as possible the same specifications as the rich ores in order to be adapted to the reduction processes already established. The future requirements as to quality will depend on the one hand upon the ability of the ore dresser to eliminate undesired constituents and charac-teristics in the material, and on the other upon the adaptation of the reduction processes to the product that can be economically supplied. A better understanding of the blast furnace and other reduction reactions, and improvements in the preparation of raw materials, should enable the Michigan districts to continue to supply ore for a long time to come. The study and testing of the iron formations necessary to bring a utilization of the low-grade ores, though requiring time and effort on the part of all concerned, should not be postponed, especially since the economic situation forces the use of the highest grade ore in preference to the leaner material.

Jan 1, 1933

By L.W. Eastwood, Arthur E. Bousu, C. T. Eddy

The recrystallization and grain-growth phenomena of cold-worked metals have considerable industrial importance because of their role in the fabrication of metals. For this reason, and because of the general academic interest in the subject, these processes have received considerable attention since the time of J. E. Stead's paper1 on The Crystalline Structure of Iron and Steel. There are considerable differences of opinion regarding the theory of recrystallization and grain growth and also differences in the observation of the modus operandi of the processes themselves. The value of many of the existing quantitative data on grain growth is decreased by the failure to distinguish between the grain sizes just after complete recrystallization and those resulting from coalescence. For this reason also, the value of the diagrams of stable grain sizes, like those produced by Bass and Glocker2 and Czochralski3, is lessened in so far as an interpretation of the facts of recrystallization is concerned. It is hoped that the data presentcd in this paper will help to clarify and to simplify the facts relating to recrystallization, and at the same time will show that some of the present-day conceptions are untenable. A paper on the theory of recrystallization, with additional data, will be completed in the near future by the writers. Since the literature on the subject has been adequately and frequently reviewed, the only referenccs to it in this paper will be those necessary in the discussion of the data presented.

Jan 1, 1935

By Donald W. Scott, Nathaniel Arbiter, A. C. Richardson

This paper describes the application of amine flotation to a specific problem—that of increasing the grade of magnetite concentrates derived from an iron ore requiring extremely fine grinding for mineral liberation. Experiments conducted on an iron ore from Wisconsin had shown that concentrates containing 60 to 62 per cent iron and 12 to 14 per cent silica could be produced by magnetic separation. The residual silica occurred as quartz and hornblende, either entrained or locked with magnetite. Most advantageous utilization of the concentrate, however, necessitated that the silica content be reduced to about 5 per cent, equivalent to an iron content of 67.5 per cent. It had been demonstrated that tabling of the magnetic concentrate removed sufficient quartz and hornblende to yield an acceptable concentrate, but disadvantages inherent in tabling dictated that flotation be investigated as a substitute. The goals set for the flotation investigation were: (I) the production of concentrates of about 68 per cent iron content from the magnetic concentrate; (2) an iron recovery of about 85 per cent of that in the feed to flotation; and (3) minimum reagent cost. Both batch and continuous flotation tests were employed; the former, to establish the procedure and the latter to verify it. Although the data were obtained on a specific ore, and with a commercial application in view, it is believed that they have a bearing on other problems where amine flotation is being used or is anticipated. Samples Two samples, designated "(minus 100-mesh magnetic concentrate" and "minus 150-mesh magnetic concentrate," were used for the batch experimental work. They differed only in the degree to which the crude ore was ground prior to magnetic separation. They were stored moist in steel drums in quantities sufficient for all the experimental work reported. This procedure had the advantage of allowing all tests to be made on common samples, but had the disadvantage that the individual flotation samples, because of the difference in storage time, were subject to various stages of surface alteration. Previous work had indicated that common samples were desirable for the batch studies, and it was decided that if these data appeared sufficiently promising the effect of surface alteration could be checked best by continuous tests. The size distributions and the assays of the samples are given in Table I. The minus 150-mesh magnetic concentrate, on which most of the flotation tests were made, assayed 60.9 per cent iron, 13.3 per cent silica, and 0.016 per cent phosphorus. The minus 325-mesh portion represented 78.I per cent of the sample by weight, and assayed 67.9 per cent iron. Thus, the insoluble, mainly silica, was concentrated

Jan 1, 1947

By Richard P. Rothwell

Fires in mines are so serious in their consequences and of such frequent occurrence, that their causes and the means of extinguishing them are certainly questions of the greatest interest to a large part of the engineering profession. We have already, in this country, many mines which have been burning for years, and though our hard anthracite is so difficult to ignite that for a quarter of a century after it was first discovered it mas not known how to burn it except with the aid of an artificial blast, yet most of the fires which have occurred underground have been in anthracite mines, and in the coal itself. The injury which these fires have caused to properties in various parts of the anthracite regions, and the cost of extinguishing them, would amount to many millions of dollars, and they have also occasioned the loss of many valuable lives. It is not surprising, therefore, that the subject has already attracted much attention, and the exercise of great ingenuity; and the present communication is made less with the expectation of announcing anything new, than with the object of putting upon record the present state of our knowledge on this subject, or, in other words, of indicating how defective are the present means of combating underground conflagrations. Causes of Mine Fires.—Even upon the surface, fire is a terrible foe to contend with, and there is probably no other which inspires such thorough and well-founded alarm. With what feelings, then, must we look upon this destructive element, when its field is in the narrow galleries of a mine, where the poisonous products of combustion, spreading in every direction, protect, in the most effectual manner, the fire itself from the attacks of extinguishers, while, if the face of attack be ventilated so as to enable then] to approach the seat of the fire, the air current simply increases the extent and violence of the conflagration. Fires underground originate in as various ways as those on the surface, and it is scarcely necessary to say that, except in the rare cases where they are the result of design, they are invariably classed as " accidents," and most generally as " unavoidable accidents." In reality, by an intelligent understanding of their causes and with due precautions, they can almost always be prevented. Ignorance and

By J. J. Arps

This paper is a study of the effect of temperature on the electrical resistivity of sodium chloride solutions based on the published resistivity and density data in the International Critical Tables. This temperature effect is of considerable importance in quantitative interpretation of electric logs, where it is frequently necessary to correct mud resistivities measured under surface conditions to temperatures existing at the bottom of the bore hole. An empirical approximation formula was developed for this conversion which has proved to be very useful and seems to provide results well within the range of accuracy of the data involved. This approximation formula states: sistivities of sodium chloride solutions at temperatures of t and t degrees Fahrenheit, respectively. INTRODUCTION Research by various investigators during the past 20 years has clarified the physical principles of the phenomena which cause the natural or spontaneous electric potential in rotary drilled bore holes. The basic relationship which is most commonly used reads: in which the SP deflection, as measured from the shale base line, is expressed in millivolts. K is a constant, which appears to vary between 50 and 110; the low value applying to shaly sands, whereas the higher values are more common in carbonate rocks. A good average value for K = 70. for which value there is considerable theoretical justification." In order to calculate the resistivity of the connate water R and to estimate its "equivalent salinity" (as NaCl) from an electric log by means of this SP relationship from a knowledge of the static self potential and of the resistiv- ity of the mud filtrate R it is necessary to first correct the resistivity of the mud filtrate measured under surface conditions to the resistivity of this same mud filtrate in the well bore at a different temperature. In order to make this temperature conversion for the mud filtrate the variation of the electrical resistivity of sodium chloride solutions with temperature is commonly used. Since some discrepancies were found in the charts ordinarily used for this purpose, it was felt desirable to make a new study of this relationship based on the published measurement data. Because of the fundamental nature of these relationships and as an aid to other workers in this field, an attempt has been made in this study to show every step in the calculations. CONDUCTIVITY VS MOL CONCENTRATION The most complete published reference on the temperature relationship of sodium chloride solutions of different concentrations is provided in the International Critical Tables.' The basic measurement data on the electrical conductivity of aqueous sodium chloride solutions, at different temperatures, as given in these tables, are reproduced in Table 1. The electrical conductivity values in this Table 1 are expressed as 10' times the specific conductivity k in ohm-'cm'l per unit of concentration in milligram mols per liter of solution C, or: RESISTIVITY VS MOL CONCENTRATION These conductivity values from Table 1 were first converted to the corresponding electrical resistivity values (R) , expressed in ohm-meters, as is conven-

Jan 1, 1953

By M. H. Waxman, M. Gondouin, H. J. Hill

Streaming-potential experiments were conducted within the Muddy- and Dakota-sandstone interval of a Denver basin well. Analysis of the data shows that, for this case, streaming potentials opposite sands were higher than those opposite shales when the mud was fresh. Streaming potentials opposite shales, however, were of sufficient magniiIlde to be important in SP interpretation. They were linearly dependent upon pressure differential, and they increased with mud filtrate resistivity. The magnitude of streaming potentials opposite sands was influenced by the characteristics of the original mud cake formed at the time of drilling. Use of mud samples taken at the time of logging may not always be satisfactory for determining streaming-potential corrections. Both the streaming and electrochemical potentials were found to be affected by the previous history of the borehole system. Following a change in mud characteristics, several days were required for SP stabilization. This was, in part, due to the mud cake acting as an imperfect shale membrane. INTRODUCTION Laboratory investigations by Wyllie,1 Salisch,2 Moore," Sen Gupta and Bannerjee,0 and Hill and Anderson' have shown that streaming potentials developed across mud cakes deposited on permeable filter beds are of sufficient magnitude to be critically important in SP interpretation. Streaming potentials across shales have been reported by Schenck,' Gondouin and Scala; and Hill and Anderson." The magnitude of the shale streaming potentials obtained by Schenck and by Gondouin et a1 led these authors to conclude that in many cases the shale streaming potential would approximately equal the mud-cake streaming potential. Hill and Anderson, however, obtained somewhat lower magnitudes of shale streaming potential. The field experiment described in the present paper was a cooperative project carried out by the respective operations and research departments of Schlumberger Well Surveying Corp., Shell Development Co. and Shell Oil Co. The primary objective of the experiment was to determine in the borehole the streaming-potential behavior of both shales and mud cakes under conditions approaching, as nearly as possible, those normally encountered in logging practice. METHODS AND EQUIPMENT WELL A Muddy- and Dakota-sandstone vie11 in the Denver basin was chosen for the experiment. Both sandstones were water-bearing and, since reservoir pressures in these sandstones are abnormally low (gradient of approximately 0.25 psi/ft), it was expected that studies of streaming potential could be conducted from low-pressure differentials (approximately 200 psi) to about 27000 psi by bailing mud from the hole, filling up and then applying wellhead pressure. The selected well encountered the Muddy sand-

By Arthur E. Bousu, C. T. Eddy, L. W. Eastwood

The recrystallization and grain-growth phenomena of cold-worked metals have considerable industrial importance because of their role in the fabrication of metals. For this reason, and because of the general academic interest in the subject, these processes have received considerable attention since the time of J. E. Stead's paper1 on The Crystalline Structure of Iron and Steel. There are considerable differences of opinion regarding the theory of recrystallization and grain growth and also differences in the observation of the modus operandi of the processes themselves. The value of many of the existing quantitative data on grain growth is decreased by the failure to distinguish between the grain sizes just after complete recrystallization and those resulting from coalescence. For this reason also, the value of the diagrams of stable grain sizes, like those produced by Bass and Glocker2 and Czochralski3, is lessened in so far as an interpretation of the facts of recrystallization is concerned. It is hoped that the data presentcd in this paper will help to clarify and to simplify the facts relating to recrystallization, and at the same time will show that some of the present-day conceptions are untenable. A paper on the theory of recrystallization, with additional data, will be completed in the near future by the writers. Since the literature on the subject has been adequately and frequently reviewed, the only referenccs to it in this paper will be those necessary in the discussion of the data presented.

Jan 1, 1935