Search Documents

By William Campbell

(Cleveland Meeting, October, 1912.) [SECRETARY'S NOTE.-To avoid repetitions of foot-notes, references to authorities are made in the paper by means of figures, referring to a numbered list in the appendix.-J. S.] I. INTRODUCTION. IN the olden days the making of alloys was au art, and the secrets of the craft were jealously guarded. To-day it has become a science, though the old ideas in regard to the secrets and formula are dying hard. Modern progress may be attributed to scientific research and testing of materials, and the substitution of chemical analytical control for " cook-book " methods. We know to-day a great deal about the constitution of alloys, the reasons of the change in structure and physical properties by heat and mechanical treatment; and this new knowledge is due for the most part to the physical chemist and metallographist, who have shown us that alloys are simply solutions, and as such obey definite laws. The application of the theories of solutions and of the phase rule tells us what ought to happen when our alloys are in a state of equilibrium. The working-out of the temperature-composition diagram (thermal diagram) for numerous alloys has thrown a light on the structure and constitution which has dispelled most of the darkness in which we labored before the advent of metallography. The work began with the determination of the freezing-point curves, and here the research of Le Chatelier,1 Gautier,2 Roberts-Austen,3 and the other pioneers broke the ground. Next the physical chemists, Tammann,4 Rooseboom,5 Bancroft,6 and their colleagues, showed us the complete thermal diagram and its meaning. Then the researches of Heycock and Neville 7 on the Cu-Sn series and of Shepherd 8 on the * Associate Professor of Metallurgy, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Dec 1, 1912

By GEORGE ROBERT DE BEQUE

WHAT is wrong with oil shale? The answer is of interest to the public, to the oil refiner, and to the engineer. Many people have invested in shale land or shale securities, and others would invest if early development of the industry were certain. In the face of increasing demands for oil products, oil refiners are threatened with inability to maintain present output unless the supply of domestic petroleum is supplemented. Development of the oil shale industry would open a new field for engineering services. The object of this paper is to suggest reasons why there is but one shale plant in operation in the United States, and to discuss the probable time when the business will be firmly established in Colorado. As the Colorado deposits are the richest and largest in the world, ample supply of material is assured, consequently, this discussion will be confined principally to technical problems and economic problems affecting shale development.

Jan 1, 1924

By S. H. Ash

IN no part of the world other than a small area in Pennsylvania is anthracite mining an industry of major magnitude. As the deposits of anthracite in the United States are limited virtually to Pennsylvania, the difficulties of this industry have been commonly considered a state rather than a national problem. However, there is also national interest in the conservation and wise utilization of all the country's fuel resources and in the control of interstate waterways. The anthracite industry is confronted with a serious problem of water accumulation in many of the mines, a problem that must be solved in the near future if progressively higher mining costs are to be avoided. It cannot be solved by the operating companies without state or Federal aid, or both, owing to the magnitude of the work required, the diversity of interests of the coal and surface ownerships, the hazard to the whole mining community, and interests affected outside the mining region. 'The costs of abating the ever-increasing surface seepage to mine workings and of handling this seepage once it has occurred are beyond the eco¬nomic resources of the operating managements.

Jan 1, 1941

By WILLIAM BOWIE

IN most human endeavors a knowledge of the terrain is essential to the effective carrying out of projects, but no line of work is more dependent on maps than theoretical and applied geology. Maps of a kind do exist for all of the area of the United States, but most of them are crude affairs and of little use in engineering, planning, and scientific research. Topographic mapping in the United States was initiated on a national scale by the U. S. Geological Survey and the organizations that were merged in its creation to make base maps for geologists. Their work could not be effectively done then and cannot be effectively done now without maps that accurately delineate the earth's surface. The distribution of the rock masses that contain valuable mineral bodies, or that by their intrusion brought them into existence, is the first step in a study of the mineral resources of the nation. This work requires three-dimensional maps, that is, topographic maps on which the land forms are shown by contours.

Jan 1, 1938

By F. B. Plummer

GEOLOGICAL engineering as applied to oil fields, or production geology as some prefer to designate the profession, is designed to fill in the border line between pure geology and pure petroleum engineering. Therefore the production geologist may, and frequently does, reach out to grasp much in both professions. Where once the oil geologist was content to pick samples out of a mud ditch and try to identify oil formations from the color or appearance of flakes of rock bailed out of a well, now he has to deal with graphic electrical logs obtained by intricate and highly technical electrical apparatus and to make exact determinations to the fraction of an inch of the depth and thickness of an oil sand 2 miles below the surface.

Jan 1, 1944

By George C. Gibbons

ALMOST everyone in any of the five counties embracing the great East Texas field depends heavily upon oil for his living whether or not he actually owns a well or piece of royalty himself. Oil is a natural resource that, when utilized, spreads its benefits over a vast area and into many channels. Depending then almost entirely upon agriculture: what is now known as the East Texas oil field a decade ago had a scattered farming population. For many of its people, tomatoes and other vegetable crops coupled with the old southern stand-by of cotton, furnished an adequate living and a small cash surplus. Some farm families on the red hills, however, were not far re- moved from the sowbelly and black- eyed peas, or cornpone and potlikker, standard of living. Kilgore of that day, was a village of less than 850 per- sons. Longview, with just over 5000, apparently had reached the limit of its growth. Tyler was an overgrown farming town of around 17,000 persons, de- pending largely upon the agricultural income of Smith County and surrounding territory for which it was a trading center.

Jan 1, 1941

By M. J. Sinnott

WITH the advent of nodular iron as an engineering material, considerable interest has been shown in developing this material for various applications. Generally the strength, hardness, or ductility are the more common properties used for design purposes but occasionally applications involving a knowledge of the thermal conductivity of the material is required. A search of the literature showed, rather surprisingly, that relatively little work has been done on this property for all types of cast iron. Insufficient data are available on thermal and electrical conductivities to develop the Weidemann-Franz ratio, or the Lorentz relationship, for estimation purposes. There are no data on nodular irons and the published data on malleable irons are quite sketchy. For these reasons the conductivity of the group of nodular irons listed in Table I were measured. Irons I to IV were made in such a fashion as to maintain the carbon and alloy content essentially the same while varying the silicon content. Test specimens were cut from the mid-section of 4-in. keel castings. Iron V is a commercial casting of nodular iron. The test specimen of this iron was cut from the center of a large cast billet 3x10x26 in. All alloys were tested in the as-cast condition. A microstructural examination showed that each iron had spheroidal graphite but the size and distribution varied with the silicon content of the iron. The spheroid size decreased while the number of graphite nodules increased as the silicon content of the iron was increased. The matrix structures of each iron consisted of pearlite and ferrite with the proportions varying from predominantly pearlite in the low-silicon iron to mostly ferrite in the high-silicon iron. The commercial heat, iron V, was predominantly pearlite probably because of its higher manganese and phosphorus content. Two methods for measuring the thermal conductivity were used. The first was a modification of the techniques described by Powell and Hickman and Van Dusen and Shelton,² the second method was a simpler technique described by Jakob and Hawkins." Since the agreement of both methods as tested on two sets of duplicate samples was excellent, the simpler experimental technique was used. The results of the measurements are given in Table II along with a summary of the microstructural constituents. These conductivity data indicate that as the percentage of silicon increases there is a corresponding decrease in the thermal conductivity even though the structure is changing from pearlitic to ferritic. Such a change in microstructure is usually accompanied by an increase in conductivity. A third factor involved in the behavior of these irons is the size and distribution of the graphite nodules. The relative amounts of graphite do not change greatly but the size and distribution do. Generally graphite improves the conductivity but in the present case such an effect is probably masked by the alloying effect from the silicon and its dispersion through the matrix. The thermal conductivity of the nodular irons studied is less than that of regular foundry irons by some 10 to 30 pct and is less than that of regular malleable irons.' The cause of the decreased conductivity is probably the more highly alloyed fer-rites obtained in these irons and the changed mode of distribution of the graphite as compared to the regular foundry irons. References R. W. Powell and M. J. Hickman: Journal Iron and Steel Inst. (1946) 154, No. 2, p. 99. 'M. S. Van Dusen and S. M. Shelton: U. S. Bur. Standards Journal of Research, RP668 (1934) 12, p. 429. ³M. Jakob and G. A. Hawkins: Elements of Heat Transfer and Insulation. 2nd Ed. (1950) New York. John Wiley and Sons. ' J. W. Donaldson: Journal Iron and Steel Inst. (1933) 128, No. 2, p. 255.

Jan 1, 1954

By B. M. Burchfiel

CALIFORNIA possesses such an abundance of ceramic materials other than clays, that she is quite independent of other states and foreign countries so far as these materials are concerned. Certain users import some feldspar, silica, and allied minerals, but they do so from choice and not necessity. Production is largely for home consumption, so the total volume of ceramic materials produced is comparatively small. Many small deposits of the materials here under discussion are worked by individuals, and their output sold to individual grinding companies or users. The data given here shall be confined to the larger deposits and developments because they give a truer picture of typical deposits, operations, and materials.

Jan 1, 1936

By T. Sterry Hunt

Jan 1, 1884

By Johnson Crawford, Alan H. Hoagland

Zinc mining at Jefferson City began in 1854 with small scale production of oxidized ore from open pits. Significant production began in 1913 with the development of the Mascot Mine by the American Zinc Company. In 1965, four flotation mills were treating crude ore at the rate of about 12,000 tons per day and the Mascot-Jefferson City district currently is the largest zinc producing area in the United States. The producing mines, Mascot, Young, North Friends Station, New Market Zinc, Grasselli, Davis-Bible, Coy, and the Jefferson City, are 15 to 28 miles northeast of Knoxville in the Valley and Ridge physiographic province, an area of gentle relief lying between the more rugged Great Smoky Mountains and the Cumberland escarpment. The ore is strata bound, occurring essentially within a stratigraphic range of 200 feet in the Lower Kingsport and Upper Longview formations of Lower Ordovician age. In the lower strata of the mineralized section, the ore generally is found in coarsely crystalline elastic dolomite breccia containing silica and chert debris within a sequence of aphanitic limestones. The upper strata of the mineralized section are fine-grained primary dolomites that, in the ore zones, have been fragmented in mosaic patterns by solution collapse with the interfragmental space filled by white gangue dolomite and sphalerite. The mineralogy is unusually simple, sphalerite being the only important sulfide. Pyrite is very sparse. Dolomite gangue is abundant, silica was deposited in quite small amounts, calcite is minor, and fluorite and barite are very rare. The principal ore controlling structures are rubble breccia zones that were formed during the post-Lower Ordovician-pre-Middle Ordovician erosion interval by supergene solution as a phase of the development of a regional karst system of underground drainage that extended to' depths of at least 800 feet. The major Appalachian orogenic structures are post-ore and have been superimposed on the ore bodies. There is substantial evidence to support the current thinking of the writers that the ore deposits were formed at a depth not exc1~eding 800 feet.

Jan 1, 1968

Body Hoists A complete new line of hydraulic dump truck body hoists and bodies featuring many outstanding design improvements has just been announced by St Paul Hydraulic Hoist Fourteen models of this new hoist are available in a selection of capacities from 6 to 25 tons The new body hoist features low standard mounting height, advanced lifting point, new low operating oil pres [ ] sures, a new Uniflex subframe, friction-free roller bearing drive mechanism, including pump and power takeoff, to insure quiet operation and long trouble-free life A stress-eliminating design feature of the new hoists absorbs dumping shocks and permits use of a new principle in hoist design a flexible subframe which ends tendency of rigid hoists to crack or bend when flexed Circle No. 1 Combination Drill A new combination drill offering all three methods rotary, auger, and percussion drilling on the same rig is the revolutionary feature of the latest drill rig designed by Mobile Drilling Inc The B-36 drill is larger, more powerful and versatile than previous models built by this company This new drill has a hydraulic feed of approximately 8000 lb pressure The hydraulic feed cylinder is located directly over the rotary turn table The carriage of the drill is of tubular construction The drill mast, also of tubular construction, nests in the tube members of the drill carriage for cross-country travel with a maximum overall height of 10 ft The drill mast telescopes together with the feed cylinder hydraulically to an operating height of 16 ft The drill can be furnished with an auxiliary cat head, sand reel, and special high pressure water pump The B-36 maximum depth for auger drilling without water is approximately 150 ft, depth for rotary drilling with water is in excess of 300 ft Circle No 2

Jan 1, 1952

By J. B. Dilworth

OUTCROPS of coal have bees discovered is many localities is the Philippine archipelago, and practically all of the larger islands contain deposits of this mineral. Very little prospecting has been done to determine the value of the various coal-bearing areas, but so far as known, the largest and most promising fields are found : (1) is northern Cebu; (2) is the small island of Batan, a part of the province of Albay is southeasten Luzon; (3) is the somewhat larger island of Polillo, off the east coast of Luzon, and (4) is southern Mindoro, sear the small coast tows of Bulalacao. Northern Panay, south-central Cebu, and various localities is southern Luzon, Masbate, Negros, and Mindanao also afford evidences of the existence of coal-beds, the extent and value of which have not yet bees proved. The general position of these islands and districts is shows on the map of a portion of the Philippine Islands, Fig. 1. Some of these coal-fields have been known for many years (coal was discovered is Cebu 1827 and is Batas is 1842),1 and several futile attempts were made by the Spaniards to operate mines is these districts. But owing to many circumstances, chief among which were indifferent management, the political unrest of the islands, natural difficulties of transportation, and those inherent in the mining of steeply-inclined and somewhat irregular seams, no considerable output was ever obtained from any of these mines, and the fuel required is the many departments of industrial and political life has continued to be drawn largely from Australia and Japan. These conditions exist to a great degree at present, and though much interest is the coal-deposits of the Philippines

Jan 1, 1909

By Robert Glass Cleland

IN gathering material for this book, I have made extensive use of the archives of Phelps Dodge, contemporary news- papers, and a wide range of secondary sources. Two manuscripts-one on the history of Phelps Dodge by Arthur Train, Jr., and John L. Lawler, the other a biography of William E. Dodge by Richard Lowitt-have been of the greatest value. I owe a particular debt to the authors whose names I have just mentioned. I have also gathered important information and obtained revealing points of view from conversations with many people. Personal visits to the company's mines and plants added knowledge and understanding that nothing else was able to supply. I am greatly obligated to the officers of the company, especially to Mr. Louis S. Cates, chairman of the board of directors, Mr. Robert G. Page, president, Mr. George R. Drysdale, vice-president of Phelps Dodge Corporation, and Mr. Walter C. Bennett, president of Phelps Dodge Refining Corporation, for their co-operation and assistance. Mr. Wylie Brown, former president of Phelps Dodge Copper Products Corporation, also supplied valuable data and deeply appreciated hospitality. In my visits to the Phelps Dodge properties, company representatives extended every hospitality and placed at

Jan 1, 1952

By L. R. Smith

BUTANE OPERATED drilling rigs are a recent innovation in the petroleum industry, so extensive data on their operation are not available. However, experience indicates that, within limitations, as much can he accomplished with butane as with steam, at a decided reduction .in expense of installation and cost of operation. Commercial butane is a liquid motor fuel similar to gasoline, but much more volatile, so that it has to be stored under pressure. At 10° F. it is liquid at atmospheric pressure, but at 100° it has a pressure of 70 lb. or more. As soon as the pressure is reduced, it turns to vapor and in that state is far more easily mixed with the air necessary for combustion. Butane occurs as a by-product in the absorption process of natural gasoline extraction from casing-head gas. The product has been used to some extent 10 raise the octane value of gasoline. However, because of its volatile nature, such admixture is stable only to a limited degree. Attempts also have been made to introduce the product in a gaseous form into oil- hearing formations in repressuring work. It has, however, until recently, for the most part been wasted.

Jan 1, 1937

By Scott, Turner

MY whole life has been spent in the mining business, PO I naturally tend to address my remarks particularly to the newly-graduated mining and metallurgical engineers among you. To a certain extent, all forms of engineering principles are involved in the training of the mining engineer, and most sorts of engineering are certainly utilized by him, so every one of this graduatins class is concerned with the field I propose to discuss.

Jan 1, 1932

By Sheldon P. Wimpfen, Ralph H. Sweefser

FOR centuries the pumping of water has been one of the chief problems to be overcome by the persistent men who win the mineral wealth of the world. Profitable operations have often been forced to suspend activities as the mine penetrated well below the water table or when sudden rushes of water were encountered. To operate below the local water level requires continuous pumping equal in volume to the amount of water flow¬ing into the mine workings. Often the water to be removed exceeds the tonnage of valuable material produced. To be above local water level is a valuable asset. Modern mining practice permits nothing short of the extraction of the last pound of profitable ore from a mineral deposit. In the days before the development of mechanical and electrical power as we know it today. water in any quantity was a major

Jan 1, 1948

By W. B. Plank

RETURNS already received from a current survey of the enrolment of students in the mineral technology schools indicate a degree of activity and prosperity in those schools never before equalled. The returns are as yet too meager for accurate analysis, but those at hand point LO considerable increase in the metallurgical and petroleum engineering groups, and indicate that the total of 5011 two years ago in the United States schools will be substantially increased. Generally speaking, the enrolment is not only maximum in quantity but optimum in quality. Better income has sent the boys back to school, but the improved employment conditions have somewhat reduced the number of graduate students. Laboratories are commonly filled to capacity, in some instances overcrowded. Increased enrolment of foreign students from both Canada and South America is noticeable.

Jan 1, 1937

By CHARLES COURT

I must tell you at the outset that I come to this conference deeply disturbed at the 'role of Government in international dealings in mineral and energy resources'. I am disturbed by- the confusion that now passes for policy. I am disturbed by the short- range view of critical problems taken by a majority of Governments. I am equally disturbed by the even shorter range of view taken by a growing army of industries. Many of them clamour for Governments to solve their problems in a specific way, with little regard for any other sector but their own-and with even less regard for the fact that every time a Government takes over some of their responsibilities they surrender some of their freedom. I would not say that longer range views don't exist. But I would say that they don't prevail at the present time. Instead, we are seeing the constant development of many policies for individual problems which don't tackle the fundamental causes. We must get back to basics without delay.

Jan 1, 1978

By Charles R. Keyes

Discussion of the paper of Charles R. Keyes, Bi-Monthly Bulletin, No. 19, January, 1908, pp. 1 to 31. BERNARD MACDONALD, Guanajuato, Mexico (communication to the Secretary*) :-Mr. Keyes's paper is very interesting to me because of my personal experience with the development of the ore-deposits of Lake Valley. Seeing that many of the important facts connected with the early history of the development of these mines are either now unknown, or have become more or less distorted, and thinking that it would be interesting as well as valuable to have these recorded as a historical supplement to Mr. Keyes's elaborate paper, I present the following narrative: In February, 1881, soon after the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé railroad made connection with the Southern Pacific at Denting, N. M., the Lake Valley properties were brought to the attention of New York and Philadelphia capitalists by John A. Miller, of Silver City, N. M. At that time silver was $1.10 all ounce and silver-mining was very attractive. Vast fortunes were being made in Leadville and other Colorado camps, and Tombstone was pouring out its millions. Lake Valley, like all' other mining-camps in their early history, had its drawbacks, but the railroad, then passing within 14 miles of it, mitigated many of these. The camp lay in the foot-hills of the Black range, in which the Apaches had their stronghold, and raided, when it suited their convenience, the surrounding country, killing the prospectors and pioneer settlers and stealing their cattle. This band of Indians was joined by the outlaws and desperadoes from the frontiers of Texas, Arizona, and Mexico, who collectively defied the United States soldiers, restrained, as the latter were, by the mollycoddles from the East. The brutality of the Indian raids through Arizona and New Mexico in those days would scarcely be believed now, but they stain in deep

Feb 1, 1909

By G. R. Love, M. L. Picklesirner

THE use of color adds a new beauty, power, and versatility to metallography. This has been amply demonstrated in a number of public exhibits and on the walls of corporate, government, and university metallographic laboratories around the world. Indeed, in a number of cases, the color not only is of esthetic value but is scientifically essential to the competent examination of particular samples and systems. Optical strain analysis,' determination of true grain size in U-A1 alloys: phase identification in Nb-base alloys,3 analysis of transformation rates in heat-treated Nb-Zr alloys,4 measurement of solidification segregation in cast Nb-Zr alloys,' study of the intermediate phases in Nb/Sn diffusion couples,6 investigation of the oxidation kinetics at various surface orientations in single crystals,7'8 and a number of other research efforts9'10 would have been vastly more difficult without the extra clarity and distinction introduced by color—either the colors resulting from particular polarized light techniques or the interference colors obtained by oxidation. It is unfortunate that the beauty of colored micro-structures cannot be shared more widely, but the economics of publishing a technical magazine apparently prohibits color plates except under extraordinary circumstances. It is doubly unfortunate that no convenient, general method exists for communicating the information available in colored microstructures to the scientific community. True, in some instances the color changes observed are dramatic enough that direct black and white photography is adequate. In photoelastic stress analysis, several orders of interference fringes may be produced and it is frequently desirable to suppress the color effects (use monochromatic light) to simplify interpretation. On the other hand, relatively minute color variations may be readily detectable by eye, be of considerable assistance in interpreting a structure, and yet be enormously difficult to reduce to an unambiguous black and white print. In order to illustrate a possible compromise or solution to the above problems, we wish to show three black and white photographs of the same region of an Nb/Sn diffusion couple whose interpretation depends heavily upon use of color techniques. These micro-structures were obtained from a section through a rod consisting of commercial-purity niobium tubing filled with 99.995 pct Sn (melt-filled in 10"6 Torr vacuum). The composite rod, measuring 500 mm long, was bent into a hairpin shape and inserted into water-cooled copper grips in a vacuum high-temperature furnace. The rod was outgassed for 2 hr at a furnace temperature of 800°C and was further heated by self-resistance using a 2.2-kva ac power supply. The rod was raised to 1910°C over a 4+-hr period, held for 15 min, slow-cooled to 1500°C over a -hr period, and free-cooled to room temperature (all temperatures were measured with W5Re/W26Re thermocouple). Throughout the heat treatment the ambient pressure was kept below 8 x lo-' Torr. Metallographic preparation of the sample was completely conventional except that it was necessary to extend the grinding steps to remove damage in the brittle NbsSn phase introduced by sectioning. No satisfactory chemical or electrochemical etch has been found for these diffusion couples; of those which have been tried, any that attack the niobium-rich phases at all attack the tin-rich phases disastrously. However, the final polishing steps did produce a slight relief effect and this, coupled with anodizing, yielded excellent clarity in the microstructures for direct observation. The anodizing voltage was chosen to give maximum change in color per unit change in composition. In this case, indeed normally, this maximum sensitivity occurred in the blue-to-red color range. The pure niobium tube wall anodized to a relatively bright blue

Jan 1, 1967