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By Arthur Boynton

IN THE preparation of this paper the writer has been influenced by the fact that descriptions of various means of cleaning blast-furnace gas have been published and that further descriptive treatment of the subject will probably be less interesting than a statement of conclusions with regard to preferable methods which have been reached by him as a result, of experience and observation in this country and also as a result of somewhat detailed investigation of the subject made toward the end of the year 1927 on the Continent of Europe and particularly in. Germany. Owing to various circumstances, including a cost of fuel that is extremely high in relation to the wages of labor, the German iron and steel industry has accumulated experience in gas washing which is as yet in part lacking in the United States of America. The paper begins with a statement regarding the economics of the use of blast-furnace gas, then considers the principle's and practices employed in its purification. USES OF BLAST-FURNACE GAS For many reasons having to do with the utilization of coke-oven and blast-furnace gases in steel manufacture and with the use of hot metal, the blast furnace is now usually a part of a steel-producing unit, which also includes coke plant and rolling mill. Therefore both blast-furnace and coke-oven gas are usually applicable to any of the iron and steel-making processes, including the generation of power, and their allocation in any given works should be considered as a single problem. The uses to which blast-furnace gas, either alone or mixed with coke-oven gas may be put, include the following: Regenerative Heating of Air for the Blast Furnace.-This is the oldest and metallurgically the most important of all uses. It is universally performed with unmixed blast-furnace gas and under proper conditions should require not over 23.5 per cent. of the total gas generated for a blast temperature of 1350° F. For Steam-raising Purposes.-This is almost universally done with unmixed blast-furnace gas. From the standpoint of quantity used, it is at the present time the most important application in American steel-works practice.

Jan 1, 1928

By J. Charles Miller

NATURAL carbon dioxide has recently been exploited in the United States in consequence of oil and gas developments in the Western States and the growing demand by transcontinental and transoceanic shippers for solid carbon dioxide. The discovery by drilling of commercial deposits resulted in consideration of its geographic and geologic distribution and occurrence. Its wide distribution in nature is evidenced by its occurrence in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. The question of origin of carbon dioxide involves consideration of theories similar to those concerning natural hydrocarbons, although available evidence favors an inor-ganic rather than an organic source. Areas favorable to development of commercial production appear to be those in proximity to igneous rocks or in the vicinity of decadent volcanic activity, where, it has long been known, the gas is evolved either free or dissolved in the waters of furnaroles, geysers or mud pots. Structure contour maps are presented showing the Wagon Mound anticline in New Mexico and the Farnham anticline, Utah. A well drilled on the latter supplies gas to a 20-ton plant manufacturing solid carbon dioxide at Wellington, Utah, on the Denver and Rio Grande R.R., whence it is shipped to surrounding territory and to the West Coast. Before funds are invested in a plant for the manufacture of liquid or solid carbon dioxide, whether supplied by wells or springs, an effort to ascertain the volume of gas available is advisable. The use of present methods of estimation of gas reserves with modifications to account for the quantity absorbed by any water present in the produc-ing formation is recommended. The Farnham anticline is used as an example and computations are made of the probable volume of gas originally present in the struc-ture. No attempt was made to compute reserves in the Niland area, California, for the reason that in such areas it is believed the volume is indeterminate.

Jan 1, 1937

By W. L. Saunders

This paper deals specifically with heading-driving as distinguished from the broader term tunnel-driving. A heading is a pilot or path-finder for the main tunnel. Some headings are complete tunnels in themselves; that is, conditions at times warrant driving a heading the full diameter of the proposed tunnel. A tunnel 10 ft. in diameter might be driven to advantage through a single heading, provided the nature of the material admits, but it usually pays to drive rock tunnels of large diameter through the heading-and-bench system. Much depends upon the material, as in soft ground tunnels of much larger diameter are driven in a single heading. In mines, the tunnels, drifts, cross-cuts, adits, etc., are usually of small diameter, hence the driving of headings applies to completed tunnels in mining-work, except, of course, in cases like drainage-tunnels and main entries leading into coal-mines, where conditions call for tunnels of large diameter, approximating those driven for railway-service. In building aqueducts the tunnels are driven from 6 to 8 ft. in diameter up to 15 or 20 ft., while in railway-service the dimensions vary from 18 to 30 ft. in diameter. There is no department of rock-excavation so difficult as that of heading-driving. This work also belongs to the most expensive class in rock-excavation. A heading is driven directly in the solid. There are no lines of lesser resistance towards which to direct the energy of the blast, but the material must be blown out by main force. The completion of the heading simplifies all the rest of the work of excavation. It is easy, for instance, to enlarge a heading either from above, below or on the sides, by breaking towards the open face through holes approximately at right angles to the axis of the heading; or the enlargement sometimes takes place by holes driven outside of the heading running approximately parallel with it, the rock

Jan 1, 1910

By Gerhard Derge

THE chemical and physical properties of slag systems are of special interest to metallurgists, for nearly all metals are in contact with molten slags during the primary reduction from their ores and then during the subsequent refining and alloying processes that determine their ultimate use, These processes are carried out at high temperatures and involve such complex chemical systems that fundamental scientific knowledge of the properties and behavior of these slags is inadequate. Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain known slag characteristics. The commonest of these regard the molten slag as constituted of compounds that are dissociated in varying degrees into their constituent oxides, as illustrated by Schenck1 and the recent papers of Chipman and co-authors.2-5 Another proposal is that these compounds dissociate by completes or partial ionization, the evidence for which has been reviewed by Martin and Derge.7 Whatever hypothesis is favored, the exact formulation of these compounds is incomplete. It is based on three principal types of information: I, Studies of solidified slag samples by X-ray diffraction, petrography, and similar methods that can be used at room temperature, The correlation of this information with the high-temperature properties of the molten slag is uncertain, 2. Studies of slag-metal equilibria, which have the advantage of providing observations on the molten slag at high temperature, However, even these data present problems of interpretation because they require a complete knowledge of the metal phase, 3, Direct measurements of properties of molten slag at the temperature of greatest metallurgical interest. Viscosity, electrical conductivity, specific heats, and similar properties have been measured, but the data of this type are widely scattered and frequently difficult to interpret, Additional direct measurements of properties of molten slag that can be interpreted in terms of chemical behavior are required, and this paper shows that the standard physical-chemical measurement of reversible electrode potentials, which measure the activity of specific constituents, is a fruitful source of such information, The purpose of this investigation, therefore, was to find an electrode combination that would yield reversible electromotive force measurements when dipped into the molten slag to be studied. Slags of the systems CaO-SiO2 and CaO-A1203-Si02 were chosen for study because graphite containers could be used and the data could be correlated with those for viscosity, conductivity, and other proper-

Jan 1, 1946

By T. H. Troller

FOR a long time propeller-type fans have been considered a very adequate means to move great quantities of air against small static pres-sures. They have been in use for this purpose in mines, as well as in other installations. For static pressures of over 2 or 3 in. of water, the centrifugal blower almost ruled the field until very recently. Some attempts were made to use a number of propellers in line. Such arrange-ments made it possible to obtain pressures higher than 2 in. of water, but they complicated the construction and increased its expense, and the efficiencies were not improved. The more recent development of propeller-type fans has been decidedly influenced by the intensive aerodynamic research in connection with aeronautical development, which has taught us, in particular, how to use airfoils properly. The characteristic that makes an airfoil so valuable is the fact that when it moves through the air a high force component, the "lift," acts on it vertical to the motion, while the "drag" in the direction of the flow is small. The ratio of lift to drag is approximately 20 to 1 at the angles at which the profile is used in practice. An element of the turning blade, the movement of which, relative to the air, is mainly in the direction of the plane of rotation, thus experiences only a small "drag" FIG. 1.-DIAGRAM OF FORCES ON WING SECTION. opposing its rotation, and for this reason a relatively small torque is required at the driving shaft. At the same time there is a strong force component at 90° to the plane of rotation. This force is parallel to the propeller axis in the direction opposite to that of the flow of air, with a correspondingly high pressure increase.

Jan 1, 1936

By J. D. Price, W. M. Bertholf

Making maximum possible use of available equipment and material, CF&I placed a high-efficiency, high-capacity washery unit in the existing buildings to gain simplified operation, reduced manpower requirements, raised efficiency, and boosted production. THE central washing plant of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Corp. was first operated in 1918 to furnish coal for two 60-oven batteries of Koppers design. Prior to that time the coke for the blast furnaces had been secured from a number of beehive operations, some with their own washeries. The original washery had four Elmore jigs, which did not do as well as had been expected. In 1923 the jigs were taken out and replaced by Deister Plat-O tables, with various changes in auxiliary equipment. In 1936 the throughput of the plant was considerably increased by the installation of vibrating filters for recovery and drying of fine coal, thereby reducing a large recirculating load of fine coal which passed through the screens of the Carpenter driers. In the late 1940's it became evident that something would have to be done to keep the washery abreast of progress at Pueblo and other washeries. Coal requirements were nearly two and one-half times the original requirements of the 120 small ovens, as additional ovens had been built in 1930, 1938, and 1945, whereas no additional coal washing capacity had been added since the 1936 modifications. Much of the equipment, moreover, had seen better days. One answer to the problem was to build a new and completely up-to-the-minute plant, with sep- arate sections for coarse, medium fine, fine, and very fine coal. On the other hand, it might be financially more profitable to place a high-efficiency, high-capacity unit in the existing buildings. The washing problem at Pueblo is not unique, but it is approached differently. There are no established specifications for coke ash and sulphur. The plant is operated on the principle that if it is more economical to wash it out than to slag it out, wash it out; otherwise, send it on to the blast furnaces. With coals at the Pueblo plant costing what they do, the benefits of washing at a low gravity are questionable. Hence the primary problem is to eliminate the high-ash components and retain all the low and medium-ash components. Sulphur is no problem at all, averaging 0.6 pct in the coke. Since a good proportion of the free impurity in the coals is as large as the coal or bone or larger, it appeared that it would be safe to go to jig washing and discontinue crushing the coal before washing, as had been the practice with the tables. This would boost the throughput. It might also decrease manpower requirements and washing costs considerably. It was assumed at the start and has been demonstrated in the first year of operation that a jig will do as well on the fines as the tables had been doing. It would not be necessary to discount any gains due to increased efficiency in washing the coarse material because of incapacity to wash the fines. By washing at —2+0 mesh it would be possible to dewater, by screening, a considerable tonnage satisfactorily, for example, at —2 + % or —2 + l/4, and then crush it in a hammer mill. The —?+20 could be dewatered in centrifugal driers and the remain-

Jan 1, 1955

By Walter A. English

CONTENTS PAGE Introduction. By WALTER A. ENGLISH 1 Theory of Seismic Reflection Prospecting. By WILLARD H. TRACY 2 Instruments for Reflection Seismograph Prospecting. By ARTHUR NOMANN 9 Seismograph Field Operations. By FRANK ITTNER 15 Determining Geologic Structure from Seismograph Records. By P. C. KELLY 22 INTRODUCTION BY WALTER A. ENGLISH,* MEMBER A.I.M.E. THE four papers making up this symposum have been prepared espe-cially for those who have no knowledge of seismograph prospecting. To many people mathematics is a formidable subject, and many are discouraged from studying seismograph prospecting under the mistaken assumption that the mathematical requirements are severe. In the papers presented here there is not a single mathematical equation. We believe that considerable competence in dealing with some of the most important problems of this work can be attained without any mathe-matical training whatever. At the present time, there is a real need for interpretation of results by persons thoroughly competent to bring geologic experience and imagination to bear on data that are subject to multiple interpretation from a strictly physical viewpoint. Likewise, those charged with the responsibility of planning seismo-graph exploration campaigns would do well to become familiar with as . much as possible of the technical aspects of the work. They would then be in better position to judge of its success in individual cases. It has often been said that the seismograph is a new structure-finding tool for the geologists to use. Using a tool and using its product are two different things. One does not use an automatic screw-threading machine when he buys a box of screws at the hardware store. Neither does the geologist

Jan 1, 1939

By Robert Glass Cleland

THE CONNECTING link between Phelps Dodge and the copper mines at Bisbee and Morenci was a Canadian-born mining engineer and metallurgist named James Douglas. Judged by almost any standard, Douglas was an extraordinary man. Like John Muir of the California red- woods, he had in his blood "the heather and bog juices of Scotland," and the rugged virtues of a singularly great race. His father, for whom he was named, was a graduate of Edinburgh University, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and a man of rash and adventurous spirit. Extremely catholic in his intellectual interests and attainments, he was unusually skilled in his profession, certain-sometimes to the point of disastrous stubbornness--of his own judgments and decisions, careless of life or fortune where duty or moral issues were involved, and always deeply moved by the sufferings and misfortunes of his fellow men. The career of the senior Douglas included a curious medley of novel and adventurous experiences-prolonged hunger and cold while acting as surgeon on a Greenland

Jan 1, 1952

By G. F. Comstock

A serious disagreement as to the effect of titanium on the hardenability of steel exists in published references to this subject. Kramer, Hafner and Toleman reported1 that acid-soluble titanium decreased the hardenability, with multiplying factors less than unity according to Grossmann's system for calculating hardenability from the composition. Crafts and Lamont, on the other hand, showed2 how titanium increased the hardenability, with multiplying fdctors up to nearly I.; for about 0.1 per cent titanium, though reducing the hardenability with higher titanium. Their data, however, were obtained almost exclusively from steels containing more than 1.4 per cent manganese, and thus should be considered as applying mainly to manganese steels. Likewise, the results of Kramer, Hafner and Toleman regarding titanium are subject to the limitation that although they eliminated the effect of the insoluble titanium compounds from their calculations, they did not make a similar correc- tion for the carbon that was combined with titanium and therefore occurred in a similarly ineffective form. It is suggested by the literature referred to that titanium may have different effects on hardenability, depending on the mode of its occurrence in the steel. The different effects on strength, ductility, etc., have already been discussed by the author.3 In the present discussion some comparisons, on the basis of hardenability as revealed by the Jominy end-quench test, are given between three titanium and two non-titanium steels heat-treated in the same ways, and between other titanium steels heat-treated in several different ways. Comparison of Plain-carbon, Vanadium and Titanium Steels The five steels used for these experiments were cominercially melted and rolled products received in the form of 1.5-in. rounds from three different mills. Their analyses are given in Table I. Steels 2, 3, and 4 are from the same basic electric heat1 containing 0.009 per cent of phosphorus and the same amount of sulphur. They were made by adding aluminum and low-carbon ferrotitanium to different ingots. No. I is a plain carbon

Jan 1, 1947

By J. C. Fisher, J. H. Hollomon, David Turnbull

Understanding of the diffusion problem has recently been furthered by the analysis of Birchenall and Meh1.l They pursued the problem of the variation of the diffusion coefficient with composition for non-ideal solid solutions. Their analysis follows the tradition of Wagner,l Jost, Dehlinger, and Darken & who assumed the net flux of diffusing material to be proportional to the gradient of a quantity related to free energy. The basic assumption in Birchenall and Mehl's formulation of the problem is that the net flux of diffusing material is proportional to a thermodynamic activity gradient. To estimate the applicability of the derived relations, they corrected the diffusion coefficients of carbon in austenite by utilizing Smith's6 activity data for carbon, and the diffusion coefficients for zinc in copper with activity data computed from the vapor pressure measurements of Har-greaves.' The corrected coefficients for carbon were virtually independent of carbon concentration. For the diffusion of zinc in copper a moderate variation of diffusion coefficient with concentration remained after the correction. The problem of diffusion can be formulated in another way than that used by Birchenall and Mehl. The method is that of chemical rate theory and has been used by Eyring and his coworkers8,9 as well as by Eyring and Zwolinskilo in a discussion to Birchenall and Mehl's paper. As yet the method has not been applied to substitu-tional solid solutions. On the basis of their assumptions, Eyring and Zwolinski derived a relation between the diffusion coefficient and activity that is identical with that of Dehlinger and Darken but which does not correct for the variation of the diffusion coefficient with concentration as well as does the relation derived by Birchenall and Mehl. It was thought that the theory of diffusion would be more complete if the inconsistency between the two analyses could be rationalized and if diffusion in substitu-tional alloys were analyzed on the basis of the concepts of the chemical rate theory. Chemical Rate Theory According to the theory of absolute reaction ratess the reaction +..... +X, Eq I is viewed as taking place in two steps. First the reactants A1, A², . . . A; combine to form an activated complex M with which they are in equilibrium: A1 + A1+ . . . + A=M. Eq 2 Second the activated complex decomposes to give the products XI, XZ, . . . Xi: M?X, + X²+ . . . +Xi Eq g It has been showns that the number of activated complexes decomposing per unit volume per unit time is given by the expressiont kT -h CM † The transmission coefficient has been taken as unity.

Jan 1, 1949

A Discussion at a meeting of the New York Section, Dec. 2, 1914 D. H. BROWNE.-If 35 years ago we had met to discuss the subject that is before us to-night, the criticism that we must all be mad or we would not be here at all would have been perfectly applicable. No group of men would have come together a generation ago to discuss the subject of smelting ores without extraneous fuel, or largely by the oxidation of their own impurities, without incurring the imputation of being crazy. But metallurgy, like all other branches of human industry, progresses by idealism. In every generation there are old men who see visions and young men who dream dreams. Thirty-five years ago John Hollway conceived the idea that in the Rio Tinto ore the sulphur and iron, if properly oxidized, could be made to produce heat enough to carry on the smelting of the ores. He saw the vision. Twenty-five years ago Mr. Austin, of Montana, took out a patent on a furnace in which to carry out Hollway's ideas. He dreamed the dream. Twenty years ago a man working in Montana grasped the possibilities of this idea. To him has been given that inexpressible pleasure which comes from realizing the idea and making the concept concrete. Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the man who made the ideal real, Robert Sticht, of Tasmania. ROBERT C. STICHT, Queenstown, Tasmania.-I find it extremely difficult to act up, in the smallest degree, to the enconium passed upon me by Mr. Browne. It is true it has been my good fortune to be able to put some sort of method into the "madness" of 25 years ago; but I am not the originator of the idea, nor the only one who has carried it out. Mr. Browne mentioned the originator, who undoubtedly is Mr. Hollway. He also mentioned Mr. Austin, who gave the first instigation to pyrite smelting as now practiced. As against both of these men I was fortunate enough to be able to command the necessary natural resources to carry out the idea continuously in a practical way, so as to make it permanently possible.

Jan 4, 1915

By W. A. Naismith, R. T. Pakalnis

The Umgal a section of the We1gedacht Exploration Company Ltd., a member of the Rand Mines Group, is situated near Utrecht in the province of Natal, South Africa. Two coal seams, the Alfred and Gus, are mined to fulfill commitments to both inland and export markets. To increase extraction in the high quality Alfred Seam, pillar extraction, known locally as stooping, was introduced to the mine in September, 1980. Mining is a conventional cut-drill -blast operation and takes place under a unique set of geological conditions viz. moderately thick seam at 3.5 m; rapidly varying cover from 25m to 120 m; an overburden containing competent sandstone and dolerite horizons. In order to improve the understanding of the manner in which the pillar and overburden interact during pillar extraction, a largely visual system of monitoring backed up by roof-floor convergence measurements was employed. Preliminary analysis of the observations suggests that roof collapse or goafing occurs in three phases but is only initiated once a critical amount of convergence has taken place.

Jan 1, 1983

By Rex W. Woods, Morris Muskat

A leastmsquare analysis procedure has been developed and applied for the study of the deviations in estimations of oil in place as given by the material-balance equations. The data used were those obtained from field observations on the Jones sand in the Schuler pool, Arkansas, and the Monroe dolomite in the Reed City pool, Michigan. Possible effects of water intrusion were taken into account by expressing the cumulative water influx in terms of various functions previously proposed in the literature. Formulas were developed and values calculated for the minimum deviations and minimal percentage deviations in the calculated volumes of oil in place from the average values, as could be obtained by suitable choice of the water encroachment and initial gas-cap volume parameters. The results show that the fluctuations in these calculated volumes are very insensitive to the values chosen for the rate of water intrusion and initial gas-cap volume, and hence cannot be safely used in discriminating between spurious values for these parameters and such as actually pertain to the producing reservoirs. Moreover, the exact form of the water-intrusion function seems to have but little effect on the fluctuations in the computed oil in place. Accordingly, it is concluded that the material-balance method does not of itself provide a satisfactory criterion for determining the basic physical unknowns of producing reservoirs or in making conclusive decisions regarding the production mechanism, unless independently established geological control data are available for eliminating unreasonable values for the reservoir parameters, even though they may still satisfy the material-balance formulas. If, however, from core or logging data the initial oil in place and the gas-cap volume can be established in advance, the material-balance formulas can be inverted to find the water intrusion. Moreover, by determining by such calculations the water-intrusion coefficient, the iuture production performance can then be predicted by the aid of the materiaI-balance formulas for specified operating conditions. This type of application may be of particular value in predicting the results of Pressure-maintenance operations. Introduction The evaluation of the forces acting upon an oil reservoir is a problem of considerable interest to the operator as an aid in determining the proper method of operation for the reservoir to obtain an optimum recovery of oil. In many pools, the nature and magnitude of the forces acting upon the reservoir remain unknown until an appreciable amount of ultimate recovery is obtained. To be of value to the operator, a reliable interpretation of reservoir performance should be available in the early life of the pool to permit an optimum plan of operation. Progress has been made in an understanding of reservoir behavior and the importance of the different factors involved. The material-balance method of estimating oil in place has been proposed as a tool in analyzing reservoir-performance problems.l The solution of such problems by this method ordinarily involves two or more unknown values relating to the nature of the reservoir, and the results

Jan 1, 1945

By Francis H. Crockard

DURING the past five years we have probably witnessed greater technological advances than in any similar period. Industry and science have steadily marched ahead. The makers of iron and steel products have watched with great interest the development of stream-lined trains, faster and safer airplanes, the entirely new science of air-conditioning and the widespread use of stainless steels. Since 1930, we have witnessed the erection of the world's largest suspension bridge, the largest and fastest ocean liner and the spectacular Boulder Dam, while even greater things are planned in these particular fields. Other industries, too, have been moving ahead rapidly. This advance in a few years has been caused primarily by the fierce competition of the depression. Now, more than ever, is the emphasis placed upon quality and service. Makers of southern merchant pig iron have been no exception and have been confronted with increasingly strict chemical specifications and with much greater stress on physical characteristics than ever before. For example, sulfur in the iron must be held very low, competition demanding that it be in the 0.020's and low 0.030's; silicon content must be held within a very narrow range, and definite requirements of phosphorus and manganese are an essential part of the specifications. Physical characteristics are becoming of increasingly greater importance. The introduction of triple-skimmed, slow-cooled iron several years ago was the first step in this direction. Now there are a few customers who buy iron by chemical analysis and physical appearance, having found that the analysis alone is an insufficient guide to their requirements.

Jan 1, 1935

By M. L. Samuels

DURING the period from 1910 to 1920, there was a lively interest in. the subject of grain growth and many papers were published, followed by interesting discussions. Questions dealing with the fundamentals of grain growth-why and how it occurs-were treated in papers by Howe,1 Jeffries,2 Sauveur,3 Chappell,4 Beilby,5 Mathewson -and Phillips,6 McAdam,7 Carpenter and Elam,8 Stead and Carpenter,9 Ruder,10 as well as others. Since that decade, much indeed has been done regarding the practical control of grain size, and it is now possible to order material having a size specified in the American Society for Testing Materials classification. Also, one hears the term "spliced boundaries" used in connection with certain tungsten lamp filaments" wherein it is important to prevent "sagging" between consecutive turns of the helix.12 This practical use of a certain knowledge as to the things that influ-ence or even control grain growth should not be taken as an indication that the subject has been thoroughly explored and that nothing more can be learned from fundamental studies. It is with this thought in mind that a report of some observations and experiments on abnormal grain growth is believed justified. Abnormal grain growth is met with in heat-treating high-carbon steels in the austenitic range,13 in the harden-ing treatments of high-speed steels,14,15 and in the low-temperature annealing of strained low-carbon steels as in sheet and wire material. Entirely aside from these instances of exaggerated grain growth, which some might consider as freakish, it is thought that abnormal growth is simply a case where the growth forces and the forces tending to prevent growth are almost, but not quite, evenly balanced. Information relative to grain-growth characteristics in general may be obtained from a study of abnormal growth conditions, which may be looked upon as vantage points. Reflection will show at once that if growth forces are great in comparison to inertia or resistance to growth, many crystals start to grow and, for that reason, none becomes very large, whereas if inertia is predominant no growth at all takes place. Under conditions in which

Jan 1, 1938

By J. D. Price, W. M. Bertholf

One of the chief difficulties with which the operator of a coal washing plant has been forced to contend is the handling of the very fine coal. First he has the problem of separating the fine coal from washery water. This is usually accomplished by the use of settling cones or Dorr thickeners: in either event the separated fine coal contains a high amount (40 to 80 pct) of water and, somewhat loosely, dependent upon the size of the coal particles present, may be known as sludge or slurry. His second problem is the satisfactory further dewatering of such separated sludge and/or slurry. At the coal washing plant of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Corp., washed coal from the Deister Plat-O tables is sluiced to a stationary inclined de-watering screen provided with 3/16 by 1-in. slots, and the coarse coal passing over this screen is conveyed by a Baum-type elevator and a flight-type distributing conveyor to a battery of Carpenter centrifugal driers. The fine coal and water passing through the openings of the primary dewatering screens, plus the fine coal passing through the screens of the centrifugal driers (and no small portion of which is the result of the disintegrating action of these driers) is pumped to two 30-ft Link Belt settling cones. The sludge recovered as underflow from these cones was formerly dewatered on stationary screens having 1/16 by 1-in. slots and discharged on top of the coarse washed coal in the Baum drainage conveyor; but after a relatively few hours of op eration the circulating load of fine coal on this conveyor built up to a point where it became necessary to reduce the quantity of feed to the washing tables. The original arrangement of our coal washing and dewatering equipment is shown in Fig 1. In order to regain the loss in active throughput which had been caused by this circulating load, an installation of six vibrating filters was made during the year of 1936. This resulted in an increase in normal tonnage of washed coal from 1430 to 1750 tons per 8-hr shift, a gain of slightly over 22 pct. This increase in throughput has made a very substantial decrease in the " conversion cost" per ton of washed coal. Since the vibrators were installed, we have gained about 2,000,000 tons in production, compared to what would have been produced in the same number of shifts at the former rate. Putting it in slightly different form, we have saved in the past 12 yr the cost of 1400 operating shifts in the washery. Fig 2 shows the location of the vibrating filters as applied to the original flowsheet. It will be noted that the sludge from the bottom of the settling cones is passed through a distributing box and thence to the filters. The de-watered coal from the filters is de-livered to the conveyor receiving the dried coal from the Carpenter driers.

Jan 1, 1950

By G. F. Comstock

A serious disagreement as to the effect of titanium on the hardenability of steel exists in published references to this subject. Kramer, Hafner and Toleman reported1 that acid-soluble titanium decreased the hardenability, with multiplying factors less than unity according to Grossmann's system for calculating hardenability from the composition. Crafts and Lamont, on the other hand, showed2 how titanium increased the hardenability, with multiplying fdctors up to nearly I.; for about 0.1 per cent titanium, though reducing the hardenability with higher titanium. Their data, however, were obtained almost exclusively from steels containing more than 1.4 per cent manganese, and thus should be considered as applying mainly to manganese steels. Likewise, the results of Kramer, Hafner and Toleman regarding titanium are subject to the limitation that although they eliminated the effect of the insoluble titanium compounds from their calculations, they did not make a similar correc- tion for the carbon that was combined with titanium and therefore occurred in a similarly ineffective form. It is suggested by the literature referred to that titanium may have different effects on hardenability, depending on the mode of its occurrence in the steel. The different effects on strength, ductility, etc., have already been discussed by the author.3 In the present discussion some comparisons, on the basis of hardenability as revealed by the Jominy end-quench test, are given between three titanium and two non-titanium steels heat-treated in the same ways, and between other titanium steels heat-treated in several different ways. Comparison of Plain-carbon, Vanadium and Titanium Steels The five steels used for these experiments were cominercially melted and rolled products received in the form of 1.5-in. rounds from three different mills. Their analyses are given in Table I. Steels 2, 3, and 4 are from the same basic electric heat1 containing 0.009 per cent of phosphorus and the same amount of sulphur. They were made by adding aluminum and low-carbon ferrotitanium to different ingots. No. I is a plain carbon

Jan 1, 1947

By Francis Crockard

DURING the past five years we have probably witnessed greater technological advances than in any similar period. Industry and science have steadily marched ahead. The makers of iron and steel products have watched with great interest the development of stream-lined trains, faster and safer airplanes, the entirely new science of air-conditioning and the widespread use of stainless steels. Since 1930, we have witnessed the erection of the world's largest suspension bridge, the largest and fastest ocean liner and the spectacular Boulder Dam, while even greater things are planned in these particular fields. Other indus-tries, too, have been moving ahead rapidly. This advance in a few years has been caused primarily by the fierce competition of the depression. Now, more than ever, is the emphasis placed upon quality and service. Makers of southern merchant pig iron have been no exception and have been confronted with increasingly strict chemical specifications and with much greater stress on physical characteristics than ever before. For example, sulfur in the iron must be held very low, competition demanding that it be in the 0.020's and low 0.030's; silicon content must be held within a very narrow range, and definite requirements of phos-phorus and manganese are an essential part of the specifications. Physical characteristics are becoming of increasingly greater impor-tance. The introduction of triple-skimmed, slow-cooled iron several years ago was the first step in this direction. Now there are a few customers who buy iron by chemical analysis and physical appear-ance, having found that the analysis alone is an insufficient guide to their requirements.

Jan 1, 1936

By W. C. Muehlhof, L. D. Lamont

THROUGHOUT the anthracite industry's history, the problem of handling and dis¬posing of refuse material has been one of major importance. In the early days of the industry's activities, only the large sizes of anthracite were satisfactory for market requirements and the smaller sizes were deposited as refuse. As time went by, more efficient coal-burning equipment was developed and a market demand was created for the finer sizes of coal. This demand made it possible to recover market¬able coal from banks deposited as refuse in the earlier days of mining. The same condition holds good today and we can see a definite trend toward the objective of utilizing the No. 4 and No. 5 buckwheat sizes. Under present conditions, we know that a limited market exists for No. 4 and 5 buckwheat; we know that the finer sizes of anthracite can be burned as pulverized fuel; we know that these fine sizes can be processed and sold as bri¬quettes, and we also know that the heat content of these fine sizes of coal is compar¬able with that of the sizes now merchan¬dized. Therefore, it should be the objective of the industry to conserve these fine sizes of coal in such manner that if and when processing facilities are developed, and market demands exist, the material can be salvaged and made available to meet these demands. From the standpoint of economical future reclamation, the ideal method of disposing of refuse containing the finer sizes of coal is to deposit it in banks separate and apart from other breaker refuse. By this procedure, the minimum amount of material will be processed in future salvage operations to recover the No. 4 and No. 5 buckwheat sizes. Many collieries in the anthracite region are operated under leases that have a specific term. These lease agreements provide that, upon expiration of the lease by term, exhaustion or otherwise, the ownership of the refuse material reverts to the lessor. Therefore, a question was raised in the minds of these operators: Why should I assume the expense of such pro¬cedure when I have no assurance that I will benefit by the future processing and sale of these fine sizes? Under present conditions, the answer to this question is not one of choice but of necessity, as restrictions imposed by legislation make it mandatory on operators of preparation plants to take necessary steps to properly treat silt-laden waters before permitting them to enter the streams. By reason of these restrictions, the disposal of fine sizes becomes a secondary_ rather than a primary operating con sideration, and the procedure for disposing of this refuse becomes a matter of choice governed principally by topographical and geographical conditions. METHODS OF HANDLING REFUSE There are three principal methods of handling and disposing of fine-size refuse; namely :

Jan 1, 1946

By David Turnbull, J. H. Hollomon, J. C. Fisher

Understanding of the diffusion problem has recently been furthered by the analysis of Birchenall and Meh1.l They pursued the problem of the variation of the diffusion coefficient with composition for non-ideal solid solutions. Their analysis follows the tradition of Wagner,l Jost, Dehlinger, and Darken & who assumed the net flux of diffusing material to be proportional to the gradient of a quantity related to free energy. The basic assumption in Birchenall and Mehl's formulation of the problem is that the net flux of diffusing material is proportional to a thermodynamic activity gradient. To estimate the applicability of the derived relations, they corrected the diffusion coefficients of carbon in austenite by utilizing Smith's6 activity data for carbon, and the diffusion coefficients for zinc in copper with activity data computed from the vapor pressure measurements of Har-greaves.' The corrected coefficients for carbon were virtually independent of carbon concentration. For the diffusion of zinc in copper a moderate variation of diffusion coefficient with concentration remained after the correction. The problem of diffusion can be formulated in another way than that used by Birchenall and Mehl. The method is that of chemical rate theory and has been used by Eyring and his coworkers8,9 as well as by Eyring and Zwolinskilo in a discussion to Birchenall and Mehl's paper. As yet the method has not been applied to substitu-tional solid solutions. On the basis of their assumptions, Eyring and Zwolinski derived a relation between the diffusion coefficient and activity that is identical with that of Dehlinger and Darken but which does not correct for the variation of the diffusion coefficient with concentration as well as does the relation derived by Birchenall and Mehl. It was thought that the theory of diffusion would be more complete if the inconsistency between the two analyses could be rationalized and if diffusion in substitu-tional alloys were analyzed on the basis of the concepts of the chemical rate theory. Chemical Rate Theory According to the theory of absolute reaction ratess the reaction +..... +X, Eq I is viewed as taking place in two steps. First the reactants A1, A², . . . A; combine to form an activated complex M with which they are in equilibrium: A1 + A1+ . . . + A=M. Eq 2 Second the activated complex decomposes to give the products XI, XZ, . . . Xi: M?X, + X²+ . . . +Xi Eq g It has been showns that the number of activated complexes decomposing per unit volume per unit time is given by the expressiont kT -h CM † The transmission coefficient has been taken as unity.

Jan 1, 1949