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By AIME AIME

IF the observation of our British friends is true that Americans put new records in bigness above everything else then the 150th meeting of the Institute was not the grand success it seemed to be. Just why the attendance slumped a little this year is anyone's guess, but the favourite explanation seemed to be that half the country is planning to come to the New York World's Fair this summer and that two trips from the hinterland to the me- tropolis, with another to San Francisco of course, can hardly be justified with the present condition of the stock market and the prices of the products of our mines. Certainly, some were pre- vented from coming too by the epidemic of respiratory afflictions that was rampant in February. Unfortunately. several succumbed after they had reached New York.

Jan 1, 1939

Jan 1, 1959

By John F. Wiggert

DURING the early years of Homestake operations, shaft signaling from the cage tenders to the hoisting engineers was done by mechanical means. Small steel cables or jointed steel rods were suspended in the shaft compartments and counterbalanced with weights or springs. These cables or rod strings were connected to the mechanically operated gongs at the engineers' stations by means of bell cranks and steel wires. The system was simple and economical and served the purpose well until the mine reached a depth of 1000 ft., then the system became slow and cumbersome and required a considerable amount of muscular effort to operate it with much speed, because of the inertia of the heavy moving parts. The mechanical signaling was superseded by a simple electrical system consisting of a single pair of wires in steel conduit for each shaft compartment. In the shaft at each station a pull switch was connected to the wires. The switches were operated by means of bell cords, which extended from station to station. This electrical system was a great improvement over the mechanical one, but it had one serious drawback, which also applied to the older system; namely, the engineer did not know where a signal originated. Later on this signaling was improved to overcome this drawback, and to give the engineer a positive indication of a signal's origin. In this system a separate return wire from each pull switch is carried to an annunciator at the engineer's station, where it indicates the signal's origin. While the annunciator system used by Homestake is very safe and reliable, it has the inherent drawback of all wire-connected systems in that it is impossible to send a signal from a moving cage. A number of years ago Homestake became interested in the possibility of using some sort of radio transmission for shaft signaling. The company did much experimental work with purely radio signal transmission, but no practical way was discovered to use radio transmission in a mine shaft for signaling to or from a cage. Therefore, all efforts were directed to devising a practical way of using the hoisting rope as part of the circuit. It was realized that the return circuit from the rope would need to be through electrostatic coupling between the cage and the earth or ground sides of the shaft, because the guides would not always be wet enough to make possible good electrical contact between the cage and earth, therefore relatively high-frequency alternating current was chosen as the medium of transmission. Soon a practical system was developed for transmitting an electric current from a moving cage over an electric circuit of which the hoisting rope was a part. A high-frequency electric current is used as a carrier to transmit the signals or mes-

Jan 1, 1941

By J. W. JESSUH

TO certain people the name of Northern Rhodesia brings only a vague recollection of a distant country somewhere in Africa; to others, it means a big game territory and the opportunity for excellent shooting; to some, a land of sunshine and peace; but to mining men the name signifies the land where the latest discoveries of copper ore are astonishing the mining world and bid fair, in a few years, to make Northern Rhodesia one of the largest copper- producing countries. There is a fascination about this part of the globe that is somewhat similar to southern California, and at the same time there is that feeling of mystery peculiar to a tropical climate. Perhaps it is the isolation, the fear of wild animals, or the influence of an undefinable something which cannot be expressed.

Jan 1, 1931

By R. V. Taborelli, P. B. Bucky

This investigation was carried on by means of models and the application of the principles of similitude to determine the effects of props, props and cribs and sand filling in longwall mining. The geologic structure and rate of face retreat were kept constant and the only change introduced was in the method of support. It is not felt necessary to repeat a description of apparatus, or to explain the fact that a scalar model made in all parts of the same material as the prototype will behave similarly to the prototype when rotated at speeds such that the centrifugal force is as many times the gravitational force as the prototype dimension is a similar linear model dimension. The reader is referred to earlier papers1,2 for further information regarding these statements. All models were made of sandstone and were as in Fig. 6. They are composed of a 3/16-in. ore body bed A, overlain by a 3/16-in. bed B, a ?-in. bed C and two ?-in. beds D and E. The model was rotated at + 2350 r.p.m. equivalent to a model ratio of 1268. It was worked back ¼ in. at a time before being replaced in the centrifuge and again rotated. Table 1 gives model and prototype dimensions occurring in this discussion, the prototype dimensions being 1268 times the model dimensions. Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 were taken while the model was rotating at 2350 r.p.m. One was taken for each face retreat of 26.4 ft., but for obvious reasons all are not presented. Fig. 1 (A-E) shows the behavior of this type of structure with face retreats of 26.4 ft. and no artificial support. Fig. 2(A-E) shows the behavior of this type of structure where breaker and face props were used. The props were exceptionally strong, being of steel ? in. square in cross section, and capped with 1/16 in. ± of soft wood and paper, to allow for roof deflection. The face props were

Jan 1, 1940

By P. B. Bucky, R. V. Taborelli

This investigation was carried on by means of models and the application of the principles of similitude to determine the effects of props, props and cribs and sand filling in longwall mining. The geologic structure and rate of face retreat were kept constant and the only change introduced was in the method of support. It is not felt necessary to repeat a description of apparatus, or to explain the fact that a scalar model made in all parts of the same material as the prototype will behave similarly to the prototype when rotated at speeds such that the centrifugal force is as many times the gravitational force as the prototype dimension is a similar linear model dimension. The reader is referred to earlier papers1,2 for further information regarding these statements. All models were made of sandstone and were as in Fig. 6. They are composed of a 3/16-in. ore body bed A, overlain by a 3/16-in. bed B, a ?-in. bed C and two ?-in. beds D and E. The model was rotated at + 2350 r.p.m. equivalent to a model ratio of 1268. It was worked back ¼ in. at a time before being replaced in the centrifuge and again rotated. Table 1 gives model and prototype dimensions occurring in this discussion, the prototype dimensions being 1268 times the model dimensions. Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 were taken while the model was rotating at 2350 r.p.m. One was taken for each face retreat of 26.4 ft., but for obvious reasons all are not presented. Fig. 1 (A-E) shows the behavior of this type of structure with face retreats of 26.4 ft. and no artificial support. Fig. 2(A-E) shows the behavior of this type of structure where breaker and face props were used. The props were exceptionally strong, being of steel ? in. square in cross section, and capped with 1/16 in. ± of soft wood and paper, to allow for roof deflection. The face props were

Jan 1, 1940

By Edward Griffith

The anthracite industry, which produces about 50 million net tons of coal annually, has been talked of as being able to last for another century; but if the water record of the past century continues into the expected century, this expectation of many years production still to come out of the remaining reserves will not be attained. The industry will be a submerged one in fact as well as in name. A recorded forecast of what has since occurred appears on page 34 of the Mine Inspectors' reports of 1897: It should also be noticed that bodies of water had accumulated in parts of abandoned mines before duplicate surveys of the same were required by law; and as a result we have today to contend with bodies of water, the exact location and position of which are not correctly known. Since that date, 47 years ago, the implications of the foregoing comment have grown enormously. This is shown in Fig. I and in the following table showing flooded and partially flooded areas that have come into existence since the early 1930's in the northern anthracite field: Number of Year Flooded Areas 1932...................... 2 1933...................... 3 1934..................... 3 1935...................... 5 1936...................... 7 1937...................... 9 1938.................... 11 1939...................... 11 1940...................... 11 1941...................... 14 1942...................... 14 1944...................... 26 Similar conditions exist in other fields in the anthracite region. In the period between 1923 and 1940, abandonment of collieries in the southern field resulted in the flooding of approximately 60 sq. miles (30 per cent) of the field. The ahandonment of collieries in this field has imposed additional expense for pumping on the collieries still operating. This condition will be aggravated by the extension of developments and cause suspension of operations if economic conditions do not justify the assumption of additional pumping costs. During the years, the region's rainfall has not altered, but the quantity going inside the mines through breakages in the surface, brought about by extraction of the coal, has increased materially, as indicated by the ratio of tons of water pumped to tons of coal produced underground for one of the large companies in the northern anthracite field: Year Ratio 1920................. 8.4:1 1925.................. 10.6:I I930.................. II.4:I 1935................. 26.2:1 1940.................. 32.7: I 1942.................. 30.3:I The data in Table I shows the total amount of water pumped and its ratio to underground production for one of the large companies in the southern anthracite field, and shows a rapidly growing serious situation. Rainfall quickly affects the workings in all the fields. In mine inspection district 7 of the southern field the rainfall in 1935 was 92,083,000,000 gal. The total water pumped was 36,274,000,000 gal. (39.4 per cent of the rainfall). The operating mines

Jan 1, 1947

By Edward Griffith

The anthracite industry, which produces about 50 million net tons of coal annually, has been talked of as being able to last for another century; but if the water record of the past century continues into the expected century, this expectation of many years production still to come out of the remaining reserves will not be attained. The industry will be a submerged one in fact as well as in name. A recorded forecast of what has since occurred appears on page 34 of the Mine Inspectors' reports of 1897: It should also be noticed that bodies of water had accumulated in parts of abandoned mines before duplicate surveys of the same were required by law; and as a result we have today to contend with bodies of water, the exact location and position of which are not correctly known. Since that date, 47 years ago, the implications of the foregoing comment have grown enormously. This is shown in Fig. I and in the following table showing flooded and partially flooded areas that have come into existence since the early 1930's in the northern anthracite field: Number of Year Flooded Areas 1932...................... 2 1933...................... 3 1934..................... 3 1935...................... 5 1936...................... 7 1937...................... 9 1938.................... 11 1939...................... 11 1940...................... 11 1941...................... 14 1942...................... 14 1944...................... 26 Similar conditions exist in other fields in the anthracite region. In the period between 1923 and 1940, abandonment of collieries in the southern field resulted in the flooding of approximately 60 sq. miles (30 per cent) of the field. The ahandonment of collieries in this field has imposed additional expense for pumping on the collieries still operating. This condition will be aggravated by the extension of developments and cause suspension of operations if economic conditions do not justify the assumption of additional pumping costs. During the years, the region's rainfall has not altered, but the quantity going inside the mines through breakages in the surface, brought about by extraction of the coal, has increased materially, as indicated by the ratio of tons of water pumped to tons of coal produced underground for one of the large companies in the northern anthracite field: Year Ratio 1920................. 8.4:1 1925.................. 10.6:I I930.................. II.4:I 1935................. 26.2:1 1940.................. 32.7: I 1942.................. 30.3:I The data in Table I shows the total amount of water pumped and its ratio to underground production for one of the large companies in the southern anthracite field, and shows a rapidly growing serious situation. Rainfall quickly affects the workings in all the fields. In mine inspection district 7 of the southern field the rainfall in 1935 was 92,083,000,000 gal. The total water pumped was 36,274,000,000 gal. (39.4 per cent of the rainfall). The operating mines

Jan 1, 1947

Jan 1, 1969

Meeting of Mar. 26, 1915.-The following Committee on Nominations was appointed: Fred W. Bradley, Chairman; James F. Kemp, Past President; Frank M. Smith, Chairman Montana Section; R. C. Gemmell, Chairman Utah Section; Frank A. Ross, Chairman Columbia Section; Louis S. Cates, Arthur Thacher. The Committee on Precious and Base Metals and the Committee on . Coal and Coke were appointed, the personnel of which is shown in another part of this Bulletin. The President was authorized to appoint a Committee on Welfare with J. Parke Channing as Chairman. W. P. Cutter, Librarian of the United Engineering Societies' Library, was appointed a representative of the Institute on-the Committee oh Classification of Engineering Knowledge to co-operate with similar committees of other engineering societies. A vote of thanks was extended-to Edward B. Sturgis for his excellent work in arranging for the Annual Dinner. in February, of this year. The suns of $57.30 was appropriated to the New' York Section. It was resolved that in response to the courteous invitation from 36 members of the Institute in Arizona and the neighborhood, the 1916 summer meeting of the Institute be held in Arizona.

Jan 5, 1915

The one hundred and twentieth meeting of the Institute was held at Chicago, Sept. 22 to 26, inclusive, and was in every way success although the steel strike against the United States Steel Corpn. prevented many engineers from attending the steel session and made necessary the annulment of the trip to the steel works at Gary on Tuesday. All of the meetings were held at the Congress Hotel, with the excep-tion of the session on Non-ferrous Metallurgy which was held at the Coliseum where the Fifth National Exposition of Chemical Industries was in progress. This session was a joint one with the American Electro-chemical Society. The total attendance, as shown by the registration, was 850.

Jan 11, 1919

By FRANK FIRRISTONE

Ix the summer of 1842 my father, William Firmstone, was engaged by Charles Jackson, Jr., of Boston, to examine the conditions in the Lehigh valley as a site for blast-furnaces using anthracite for fuel. In consequence of his report, he was further engaged by Mr. Jackson to build a furnace for him and his partners on the Lehigh canal, 2 miles above the mouth of the river at Easton. Work was begun in the fall of 1842, and the first furnace blown-in in 1844. The history of the works, therefore, from 1844 to 1887, when my own connection with them ceased, covers only four years less than the whole period of the rise, culmination, and commencement of the decline in the smelting of iron with anthracite in America, the beginning of which, in a commercial sense, may be put in 1839.' Although this paper, as the title indicates, is concerned almost exclusively with the furnaces at Glendon, still what was done there was more or less influenced by current opinion in the dis¬trict, and even reflects, to some extent, the changes in opinion and practice with mineral fuel the world over. No. 1 Furnace was built of red brick, on four piers, had three tuyeres and fore-hearth and tymp, as was universal with furnaces using mineral fuel until the introduction of Liirmann's cinder-tuyere. The dimensions and profile are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The first hearth (Fig. 1) was of sandstone; all after were of fire-brick (Fig. 2). The profile was no doubt derived directly from Gibbons's furnace,2 for it appears from W. Firmstone's note-books that in October, 1840, he visited ." Gibbons' new furnaces building at Corbyn Hall," and I have an old drawing,\

Sep 1, 1909

By Walter W. Bradley

AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER and in greater or less amounts, gold has been mined in at least 40 of California's 58 counties. It may not be inappropriate, by way of introduction, to give a brief historical statement relative to her production of the yellow metal. The presence of gold in the gravels of San Gabriel, San Francisquito, and other streams near Los Angeles, was known and they were worked in a small way by the Indians, at least as early as. 1841' and possibly 1820. -On March 2, 1844, Don Manuel Castanares, deputy for California to the Congress of Mexico, reported' to his government that placers near Los Angeles had yielded up to December, 1.843, a total of 2000 oz. of gold dust, most of which had been sent (via Mexico) to tile United States Mint at Philadelphia.

Jan 1, 1932

South Dakota State Geological and Natural History Survey, State University, Vermillion, S D. A list of publications will be sent upon request Many of the publications are out of print A series of Biennial Reports of the State Geologist will be sent upon receipt of three cents for postage on each, and are available as follows: 1918-20, 1920-22, 1922-24, 1924-26, 1926-28, 1928-30 Available Bulletins of greatest interest are: Bulletin 4, Pre¬liminary report of the geology of the Rosebud Reservation (1909), 10 cents; 10, Possibilities of oil in South Dakota (1922), 10 cents A series of Circulars (5 cents each) deals with the possibilities of oil and gas in various parts of the state, as follows¬ Circular 8, Eastern Pennington County (1921), 9, Western Dewey County (1922); 10, Northern Dewey County (1922), 12, Eastern Harding County (1923), 13, Northern Ziebach County (1923); 20, Western Ziebach County (1925), 23, Northeastern Meade County (1925); 27, Western Corson County Other Circulars (5 cents each) are: Circular 16, The natural resources of South Dakota (1924), 22, Structures ,in northern Haakon County (1925); 24, The Ragged Butte structure (1925), 25, The structure of western South Dakota (1925), 28, Structures in western Haakon and eastern Pennington counties (1926)

Jan 1, 1933

By Edwin M. Chance

EDWIN M. CHANCE, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (communication to the Secretary*).-I have read with great interest Mr.. Liebermann's paper reporting dynamometer tests of mine cars and wish to express my appreciation of this investigation. The coal-mining industry needs just such precise study of the problems with which it is confronted.

Jan 10, 1916

By Dix, E. H.

THE percentage of manganese used in commercial aluminum alloys is small, and yet this element is an important addition to some very valuable alloys. When used alone with commercial aluminum containing iron and silicon as impurities, the usual percentage in wrought materials is from 1 to 1.5 per cent., whereas castings may contain as much as 2 per cent. An aluminum-manganese alloy containing nominally 1.25 per cent. manganese is much used in sheet form for the manufacture of cooking utensils and other articles requiring a little greater strength and hardness than could be obtained with commercially pure aluminum. It is also used for various purposes in the form of rods, tubes and pipes. The aluminum-manganese alloys, both wrought 'and cast, offer excellent resistance to many kinds of corrosion attack. The U. S. Naval Gun Factory uses an aluminum alloy containing from 1 to 2 per cent. each of copper and manganese, for both castings and forgings. Manganese is also used, up to about 1 per cent., as a minor alloying .element in several of the strong aluminum alloys of the duralumin type. It is felt that the role of this element when thus used has not been fully understood, but it is believed that the results obtained in this investigation will throw additional light on the subject. The earlier work on the system aluminum-manganese was general in nature, and no detailed investigations of the relations existent in the useful aluminum-rich alloys have been reported. Guilletl1in 1902 surveyed the system, and Hendrichs2 in 1908 published an equilibrium diagram which, although based on .few data, is often used in the literature. Fragmentary work has also been done by other investigators."

Jan 1, 1927

By W. G. Matteson

The Gulf Coastal plain of the southern United States is that area bordering for a large part, the Gulf of Mexico and extending inland and northward to the main interior highland region. It is more or less V-shaped and includes the States of Florida, extreme southern Alabama, all .of Mississippi and Louisiana, the eastern and southern half of Arkansas, and the eastern, southeastern, and southern portions of Texas. While the contents of this paper apply to. the Gulf Coastal plain in general, they are intended to refer more specifically to that portion of the plain included between the 90th and 97th meridians, and the 29th and 33d parallels, an area that may be described geographically as comprising western Mississippi, all of Louisiana, part of eastern and all of south-eastern Texas. It is within this area that numerous and prolific oil pools have been developed during the last 17 years.

Jan 2, 1918

By Max Hebgen

Within the State of Montana the streams rise in the high mountains at. an elevation of from 5,000 to 8,000 ft. These streams leave the State line both east and west at elevations from 3,500 to 2,400 ft. It is, therefore, apparent. that all these streams have an average fall of 3,000 ft. within the confines of the. State, and many opportunities are presented on all streams. for the development of power, by taking advantage of the natural fall. It is probable that 1,000,000 h. p. can :be developed in the State of Montana. I. NATURAL FEATURES OF STATE AFFECTING POWER DEVELOPMENT. The main. range of the Rocky mountains, forming the Continental Divide, cuts the State of Montana into two parts. The eastern part is drained by the Missouri river and its tributaries, the Madison; Jefferson, Gallatin and Yellowstone, rivers. The western part is drained by tributaries to the Columbia river, the Clarks fork and the Kootenai river. The Clarks fork in turn is formed by the junction of Missoula and Flathead rivers, the latter, draining Flathead lake. The western part of the State. is mountainous and the eastern part is comparatively level. As a natural result the rivers in the western part are capable of generating large amounts of power, while in the eastern part of the State natural power sites are much fewer and farther apart. It also follows that in the mountainous districts large amounts of power are required for the mining industry, while in the eastern part of the State, which is principally devoted to agriculture, power is required in smaller quantities. ?

Jan 8, 1913

By Roshan B. Bhappu

This is the Centennial year of AIME and many of us reading this issue of ' will be getting ready to attend the Centennial Celebration in New York from February 26 through March 4. The officers of the Division sincerely hope that a large number of our members will attend the fine technical sessions and social functions arranged for this really big meeting. The year 1971 will be a crucial one for MBD. This SME Division is a working group organized "to furnish a medium of cooperation among those interested in the basic unit processes and unit operations of minerals beneficiation; and to promote the advancement of this branch of mineral technology through meetings for professional intercourse, and to stimulate the preparation, reading discussion and circulation of papers connected therewith." No one can deny the worthiness of these objectives or minimize the efforts that Division officers and members have made to attain them. Much has been done over the past several years to achieve a smooth-running and effective MBD organization. However, there is still room for improvement and much more needs to be done in order to provide the best possible services for the membership and the profession.

Jan 1, 1971

By Charles Janin

(San Francisco Meeting, October, 1911.) THE first successful bucket-elevator dredge to operate in California was put in commission at Oroville in March, 1898. There had been numerous previous attempts at dredging, but none of the earlier boats proved a success. The gold-miners in California early conceived the idea of a machine to dig gravel from the beds and bars of auriferous streams that were inaccessible by the methods then employed, and it was only a few months after the discovery of gold in California that such a machine was. shipped around Cape Horn from New York to San Francisco. This was, however, but the forerunner of many failures in gold-dredging, and was soon at the bottom of the Sacramento river. During succeeding years many other unsuccessful attempts were made, and it was not until 1897 that a dredge of the single-lift bucket-elevator type was floated on the Yuba river. This dredge was built by the Risdon Iron Works for R. H. Postlethwaite, and would probably have been a success if it had been operated on some of the rich Oroville ground instead of in a turbulent stream, where the dredge was wrecked during a flood, and was not repaired. Fig. 1 is a sketch-map of California, showing gold-dredging areas. It is not my intention to narrate in detail the history of the early failures in gold-dredging, and the various steps in the development of the modern boat, but merely to touch upon this in a general way, and to call attention to the wide difference in capacity and operating-cost between the first successful dredge, with an actual capacity of 600 cu. yd. per day-though its rated capacity was in excess of this-and the present modern dredge with 15-cu. ft. buckets, and an average capacity of 250,000 cu. .yd. per month. Even this enormous capacity has several times been exceeded on monthly runs. The first successful dredges

Mar 1, 1912