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By Mark Sheppard

DURING the winter of 1937, the writer visited a West Virginia stone, quarry at which the overburden is stripped hydraulically. The quarry is in a bed of limestone, about 200 ft. thick, which outcrops on a hillside above a small river; the quarry face is 175 ft. high. The top of the stone is cut in all directions by erosion channels, which are filled with a tough, red clay. Some of the larger channels are 30 ft. deep and 8 ft. wide, The thickness of the clay overburden ranges from a few inches to 10 ft., the average being estimated as less than 3 feet. The topography of the district is rugged, and the hillside above the quarry face is not suited to the use of the usual mechanical methods of moving dirt. Until hydraulicking was started 10 years ago, the over-burden was dug by hand labor, dumped to the quarry floor and trans-ported to the dump in quarry cars, Cleaning deep channels was a slow and expensive process. When hydraulicking was started, the top of the quarry face was over 200 ft. above the level of the river. The pipe line was carried in a semi-circle around the top of the quarry about 200 ft. from the face and about 50 ft, above it. As there is no adequate supply of water above the quarry, the water must be pumped from the river: As quarrying pro-gressed the pipe line was moved until the discharge points are now over 300 ft. above the river. Water is pumped from the river by a four-stage centrifugal pump having a 5-in. intake and a 4-in. discharge. It is direct-connected to a 200-hp,, 2300-volt, 1760-r.p.m. induction motor. At 1760 r.p.m. the rated capacity of the pump is 750 gal. per minute under a head of 600 ft. The pump is installed in a house of frame construction on the river bank, about 10 ft, above normal water level, which also houses the pump for the mill-water supply. Above the pumps are hoisting hays into which the motors are raised whenever the river reaches flood stage.

Jan 1, 1938

By M. TAYLOR

AT Grand Saline, some 65 miles east of Dallas, the Morton Salt Co. of Chicago has for some years operated a brine pumping and evaporation plant on a salt dome. They recently drilled trial holes to obtain data on the dome, preparatory to opening, a new mine, with the following results: The dome is in the form of a truncated cone, with an average of 210 ft. of cover. The top of the dome is approximately one mile in diameter, with the town of Grand Saline lying over the northern rim, and the sides slope off at an angle of 50" to 80" from the horizontal. The deepest holes were drilled to 900 ft. without penetrating beyond the salt, and indications are that the salt deposit is several thousand feet thick. As the deposit increases in area with the depth, there is undoubtedly enough salt to supply a mining operation for an almost unlimited period of years.

Jan 1, 1930

By Robert Archer

IT is now well known that the structure of aluminum-silicon alloys can be refined in a rather remarkable manner, with consequent improvement of physical properties, by certain treatments applied to the molten metal shortly before casting. The differences between the treated and the untreated alloys are so marked that special terms are used to distinguish them, the untreated alloys being referred to as "normal" and the treated alloys as "modified." The first practical method of accomplishing this result was that of A. Pacz,1 which consists in treating the molten metal with a, salt flux of which the, active ingredient is sodium fluoride. The result can also be brought about, and in a more economical manner, by the addition of small quantities of metallic sodium (or potassium) to the molten alloy shortly before casting.2 The action of the Pacz flux evidently consists essentially in the production of free sodium by the reaction of sodium fluoride with aluminum. The changing of a normal alloy to a modified alloy is referred to as "modification' and any process for accomplishing this result is a "modifying" process. Modified aluminum-silicon alloys were introduced several years ago, and it has been demonstrated both in the laboratory and in commercial practice that it is no simple matter to produce castings having the maximum or nearly the maximum properties which under favorable circumstances can be obtained. The alloys are rather sensitive to small changes in chemical composition, and the modifying process must be carried out in a very particular manner to obtain the best results. Extensive experimental work has been carried out in the laboratories of the Aluminum Company of America with the object of determining the conditions that must be observed to make these alloys of the greatest possible

Jan 2, 1926

By L. R., McLeod

NO important changes in metallurgical practice are exhibited in the smelter that has been erected for treating the Morenci concentrate: the material is charged to reverberatory furnaces without roasting, and the matte subsequently blown in Peirce-Smith converters to separate the iron and sulphur from the copper. In fact the process is essentially the same, except for preliminary roasting of the concentrate, that was adopted in the new smelter that was built for the Arizona Copper Co. at Clifton, a few miles away, to treat Morenci concentrate just before the start of the first World War, and which went into service in October, 1913.

Jan 1, 1942

By Charles H. Fulton

(Cleveland Meeting, October, 1912.) I. INTRODUCTION. THERE are comparatively few accurate data on the melting-or the freezing-point temperature of metallurgical slays, or on related physical phenomena, such as fluidity near the melting-point, specific heat, latent heat, etc. With the exception of the work of H. 0. Hoffman,1 and some older work by R. Akerman, P. Gredt, and H. M. Howe, no information is available that is of direct interest to the metallurgist. Hofman's valuable work is the only one that refers to slags produced in the metallurgy of copper and lead. The classic work of J. H. L. Vogt,2 who views slays from the standpoint of physical mixtures (solutions in which the entities are minerals), has opened up a. new field in the study of slags, and has placed the investigation of such properties as melting-temperatures, etc., on a rational basis. The recent work of A. L. Day, E. T. Allen, and W. P. White, of the Carnegie Institution, at Washington, and of European investigators 3 on certain systems of silicate minerals confirms the value of the investigation of silicate series from this standpoint, and it is my aim to apply this method to metallurgical slaws, in order to gain exact data of value in metallurgy. The work recorded in the present paper is the result of an investigation of reverberatory-furnace slags made for a Western smelting company to determine exactly the influence of change in composition, within comparatively narrow limits, on the melting-point. For a general discussion concerning the mineralogical character of slaws and the principles on which this investigation is based, reference should be made to other work,4 for the subject is too large to be stated in this paper, except very briefly in the following outline 1 Trans., xxix., 682 (1899). 2 Die Silikatschmelzlösungen; I. Ueber die Mineralbildung in Silikatschmelzlösungen; II Ueber die Schmelzpunkt-Erniedrigung der Silikatschmelzlösungen (Christiania, 1903-04). 3 Doelter, Handbuch der Mlineralehevu:e (1911) 4 C. H. Fulton, Principles (of Metallurgy. Chapter viii., on Slags, p. 24.5 (1910).

Dec 1, 1912

For the year ending February, 1917 PRESIDENT L. D. RICKETTS, 1............... NEW YORK, N. Y. PAST PRESIDENTS BENJAIMN B. THAYER.1 ............... NEW YORK, N. Y. WILLIAM L. SAUNDERS,P ................ NEW YORK, N. Y. FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT SIDNEY J. JENNINGS,1 .....,...... ., .... NEW YORK, N. Y. TREASURER GEORGE C. STONE,l. ................ NEW YORK, N. Y. SECRETARY EMERITUS ROSSITER W. RAYMOND, .... .,. .......... NEW YORK, N. Y

Jan 9, 1916

By David R. Maneval, H. B. Charmbury

At the turn of the century, iron and coal were the keys to industrial prosperity. At that time, Pennsylvania was the leading mineral producer in the Country, producing 200,000,000 tons of coal in a typical post-World War I year. Close to 90% of the Nation's energy was generated by coal. Today, coal accounts for but 22% of the energy generated, leading to a drastic reduction in Pennsylvania coal output. In contrast with the post-World War I days, 1964 figures showed a drop in production to 93,846,480 net tons. This huge decrease has created a serious economic problem in a state so much dependent on the coal industry. Along with the reduction in coal production, employment has dropped considerably through these years (the number of miners alone has gone from 280,011 to 43,149), thus causing a heavy burden of supporting the unemployed on the taxpayers. As far back as 1939, coal operators and economists saw the problems on the horizon and the need for improvement. Realizing that research was a way to improve and stabilize the industry they demanded legislative action. The Legislature reciprocated with a small grant to The Pennsylvania State University with the provision that each State research dollar be backed with one from the industry. This initial grant laid the foundation for the further growth in coal research.

Jan 3, 1966

By M. J. Pool, P. J. Spencer, R. V. Miner

The partial molar heat of solution of rhodiunz in liquid lin and Rh-Sn alloys has been measured as a function of rhodium concentration at 700" , 725" , 750" , and 775°K. The values at infinite dilution are very exo thermic, ranging from -29,950 to -28,260 cal per g-atom Rh at 700" and 775"K, respectively. At the solubility limit the heat of solution becomes sharply nzore exothermic and has permitted the liquidus boundary to be accurately established at each temperature. From the measurements in the two-phase region of liquid Plus RhSn, the heat of formation of RhSn,has been determined. A large increase in the heat of formation between 725" and 750°K suggests the possibility of a phase transformation in this compound. V ERY few measurements have been made of the heats of solution of transition metals in liquid tin; yet those values that are available are of great interest because of their very large exothermic nature. For example, the heat of solution at infinite dilution of palladium in tin has been measured as about -26,000 cal per g-atom (625" to 800°~),' while the heat of solution at infinite dilution of platinum is even more exothermic at -28,591 cal per g-atom (914°K).' These values are of the same order of magnitude as the heat of formation of many intermetallic compounds and as such clearly indicate that very strong bonding must exist between the solute and tin atoms in the liquid solutions. Rhodium might be expected to display similar solution characteristics in tin in view of its close electronic resemblance to palladium and platinum. Since no thermodynamic data are available for Rh-Sn alloys, rhodium was chosen as an appropriate solute for further investigation of transition-metal systems with highly exothermic heats of solution at infinite dilution. EXPERIMENTAL The heat of solution of rhodium in dilute Rh-Sn liquid solutions was measured as a functlon of rhodium concentration at 700°, 725", 750°, and 775°K. The liquid-metal solution calorimeter used in this work has been fully described elsewhere. At the start of each series of measurements, the solvent bath consisted of about 0.5 g-atoms of 99.9+ pct pure tin. To this was made a number of small rhodium additions, about 0.0005 g-atoms each, and the heat of solution was measured for each. Rhodium of 99.9+ pct purity in powder form was used in order to promote rapid dissolution in the liquid tin. The powder specimens were contained in tin foil stated to be purified (lead-free). This foil was found to have no measurable heat of solution in pure tin so the effect of any impurities could be neglected. The energy equivalent of the calorimeter was experi- mentally determined by dropping tungsten and/or tin specimens at intervals during each series of rhodium drops. The tungsten and tin used were 99.95 and 99.999+ pct pure, respectively. The only heat effect due to a tungsten drop, or a tin drop at low rhodium concentrations in the bath, is the sensible heat of the specimen. The heat content of these materials is well-established and is presented in the compilation of Hultgren et al. 4 As the rhodium concentration in the tin bath increases a small heat effect arises from the reaction: Sn (liquid, T) — & (soln, T) where T is the temperature of the tin bath. Where necessary, this heat of solution of tin was determined by Gibbs-Duhem integration, and corrections were made to the heat effect of the tin calibration specimens and the tin foil containing the rhodium specimens. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The calculated values of the heat of solution of rhodium in dilute Rh-Sn alloys as a function of composition are shown graphically in Fig. 1. The values have been corrected for the sensible heat of the specimens, initially at 273"K, and apply to the reaction:

Jan 1, 1969

By P. H. Mell

THE little village, from which this formation receives its name, is situated on a bluff of the Alabama River, 175 feet above water level. This bluff is a portion of high table land that begins in the western portion of Choctaw and extends through Clarke and Monroe counties. We find points on this ridge more than 100 feet higher than Tuscaloosa, and nearly as high as the Tennessee River at Tuscumbia. Through this the Alabama River cuts its way, exposing a beautiful cross-section of the strata, of which the accompanying sketch may give some idea. The fossils are found about 75 feet below the surface and 100 feet above the level of the river. There are seven distinct strata. 1. The lowest, extending from the water's edge up the bluff 80 feet, is a soft calcareous rock containing about 15 per cent. of carbonate of lime, with occasional specks of mica. In this a few Ostrea, Turritellce, and Flustrce were found, but so friable as to fall to pieces when handled. 2. Next comes a stratum varying from 2 to 8 feet, consisting of

Jan 1, 1880

Edward S. Simpson, Perth, Western Australia (communication to the Secretary): In 1896 the East Coolgardie gold-field was divided into three fields, viz. : Area, square miles. Officia1 Centers. (1) East Coolgardie,. . 634 Kalgoorlie. (2) Broad Arrow,. , 588 Kurawa. (3) Northeast Coolgardie,. 22,960 Kanowna. The whole of the area embraced by the eastern gold-fields is covered with late Tertiary sands and gravel, with occasional beds of clay shales. These mostly overlay granite which occasionally shows through in small round hills. At Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and other mining centers, belts of diorite, serpentine and highly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks appear on the surface. The rainfall at Kalgoorlie in 1897 was 4.75 inches. That the climate has not always been so arid is evidenced by the recent discovery at Coolgardie (only twenty-five miles away) in the late Tertiary formations of a thick bed of brown coal, containing numerous fossil fern-leaves. As assayer and mineralogist to the Government of Western Australia I have had occasion to examine a large amount of the Kalgoorlie ores, both in Perth and at the mines at Boulder itself. The only tellurides I have been able to determine are

Jan 1, 1899

By James P. Kimball

AMONG the curious results of the recent advance of prices in the iron trade of the United States, one of them at least is to be regarded as of great importance. I allude to the utilization of mill cinder as a cheap and almost costless substitute for high-priced iron ores in many blast furnaces, situated within easy reach of such raw material. It has been, with but few exceptions, the practice in this country, based upon tradition rather than upon authority or European precedents, to waste this material on 'account of its high proportion of silicic and phosphoric acids, although known to contain more iron than most ores, and although also known to be sometimes applied to the blast furnace in greater or less quantities without serious detriment to the iron for specific purposes. While in use to a limited extent in the Hocking Valley and Hanging Rock iron regions of Ohio for several years, its use in Western Pennsylvania has only become general of late, under the exigencies of high prices and a short supply of ore. Especially has mill cinder largely entered into the stock of furnaces attached to rolling mills in and about Pittsburgh. Under such circumstances the cinder pig has been paddled on the premises, and the malleable iron produced has been unexpectedly good. Cautiously as at first mill cinder has been applied, it is evident that the temptation to use it freely is a strong one whenever the commercial rates for high-class ores are out of proportion to the general conditions of the iron trade, as sometimes happens in this country, especially as the free use of it is apparently justified by the quality of the iron produced from this cheap and abundant material. Indeed the consumption of cinder pig has., not been wholly confined to mills using up the production of furnaces belonging to the same plant. One furnace at least on the Ohio, at Covington, for several' months has been making foundry pig from "all cinder." The iron has gone into the general trade. It is probable that malleable iron of good quality can he made from the poorest cinder pig, but with what degree of economy will

Jan 1, 1881

F. E. Bachman, Port Henry, N. T. (communication to the Secretary*):—In discussing Mr. o.o.Laudig's paper, the Action of Blast-Furnace Gases Upon Various Iron-Ores,' I took the ground that Mesabi-ore explosions were entirely mechanical; but more observation and later experience has caused me to

Jan 1, 1905

By CHARLES M. SCHWAB

THE ENGINEERS have placed this great country of ours in a preeminent position with everything pertaining to manufacture, metallurgy, and the kindred arts. We are second to none in the world. We have a country which, another speaker has said, God has endowed with such riches in coal and natural resources as no other country in the world. But rich as these are, there is one thing greater; the sturdy character, energy, and integrity of its people, which will make these great resources an influence in the world's developments. Great as are these resources and the energy and integrity of our people, there is one problem of our .engineering, which I term human engineering, that is of far more importance than the creation of machines and methods, with which you have been so successful in the past. Of what value is the skillfully devised machinery, the complex process, unless manned and operated by people whose heart and soul are in sympathy with the work they are doing and who have before them the giving of a complete day's work for a day's pay?

Jan 1, 1920

By Daniel Bloomfield

ONE of the major problems of management is how to restore in some measure the personal relation-ship between employer and employed which, in the days of small concerns, meant better morale among employees. The complexity of industry today, the heterogeneous mass. of workers employed, many .of them new to this country and to its institutions, the inability of those whose task it is to get out production to spend much time on the problems of labor-all these and many other factors serve to make of great impor-tance the question of how to establish more satisfactory mutual good will. While there is no such thing as a sure cure for labor troubles, in spite of the fact that charlatans have been selling alleged cures to guileless employers, study and experience have brought to light methods of approach to the problems confronting management in its relation to labor that are well worth consideration. Labor problems must be approached with common sense and an open mind. Facts must be the basis of action. So it is with the question of morale in industry. What makes or breaks morale? What are the forces behind the actions of men? What is there in one man that makes him act differently from another man under similar circumstances? How are men affected by the actions of others in their own group or by the actions of those under whose supervision they work? These are questions that must be carefully studied if we are, to get at the bottom of industrial unrest. It is an easy thing to say that good will can be created by "treating men right." That involves so many things and points of view that it will hardly serve as a full answer to our problem; but it is a good starting point if we mean by right treatment the payment of wages consistent with the well being of the worker and his family as members of the community, and if we also mean the provision of sanitary, wholesome working conditions and a working schedule that does not overtax the worker physically, and mutuality-a give and take relationship. With this as a basis we can go a step farther and see what else can be done to promote better relations between management and the workers.

Jan 9, 1922

By John A. Gann

WITHIN a very few years magnesium has sprung from oblivion, from classification as a technically unknown, little appreciated, and expensive material to front-page importance in many fields of engineering. Bunsen may be considered the real founder of our present magnesium industry. In 1852; he prepared this metal by the electrolysis of fused magnesium chloride in a porcelain crucible. In the following years the electro¬lytic process became recognized as superior to chemical reduction methods and Germany became the world's chief producer, installing the first electrolytic magnesium plant in 1886. ' Thirty years later, national defense requirements, occasioned by the outbreak of the World War and the cutting off of imports, caused France, England, and the United States to begin production. Most of this magnesium was used for military purposes so the close of the war resulted in a large curtailment in production. A few companies, however, encouraged by the early success of the Germans and by the rapid developments taking place in aeronautics, and confident in the certain future and ultimate value of this metal, undertook extensive re¬searches in its production and utilization. A variety of production methods, both chemical and electrochemical, were investigated and some of them operated on a commercial scale. Reduction of the oxide with carbon at high temperatures and the electrolysis of the oxide in a fluoride

Jan 1, 1932

By W. E. Wrather

DURING the war the mineral industry, and metal mining in particular, extended itself more than any other to attain the limit of its productive capacity. Likewise, probably no other industry went quite so far toward jeop¬ardizing its own economic future through depletion of material reserves. Once we looked to Europe for most of the manufactured goods we needed. Our own limited mineral requirements were easily supplied from mines near the Eastern seaboard. With expansion and industrialization, our mineral needs increased in proportion, and the centers of mining activity moved westward to Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Tri-State district, where seemingly inexhaustible high-grade deposits of iron, copper, lead, and zinc ores were opened and rapidly developed.

Jan 1, 1946

Cooperation will be the keynote of the meeting of the Institute that will be held in New York on February 17 to 20. Arrangements are being made for two joint sessions with the Canadian Mining Institute, on the same day, which therefore will be known as Canadian Mining Institute Day. On the afternoon of Wednesday, February 19, there will be a joint session with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Besides, we will receive six or eight papers through the National Research Council, four of which will be presented at the National Research Council Session. In March, at the next meeting, of the Canadian Mining Institute, there will be an American Institute of Mining Engineers Day. The plan is to have the same subjects discussed at both meetings, but by different speakers. One speaker on each subject will represent the Canadian Mining Institute, and one speaker the American Institute of Mining Engineers. The Canadians and the Americans who will speak in Canada are expected to attend the discussion in New York. In addition the discussion at the New York meeting will be sent to Canada in printed form, so that the Canadian discussion will be a continuation of the former. At the joint session with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, there will -be presented six very important papers on the subject of Electric Welding, one by the Chairman of the Electric Welding Research Committee of the National Research Council, another by the Chairman of the Metallurgical Sub-committee of that same Committee, and a third by Comfort A. Adams, President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and Chairman of the Welding Committee of the Emergency Fleet Corporation. We will receive six or eight papers through the National Research Council. These papers are results of recent investigations and represent the last word in their respective subjects. The excursion on Thursday, February 20, will be to Newark Bay to visit the Federal Shipyard where the first, electric-welded ship is being built. Philip W. Henry is chairman of the excursion committee of arrangements.

Jan 1, 1919

By V. T. BERNER

THIS apparatus was designed primarily to meet the demand for a quick, efficient stopping to seal off the burning area temporarily during a mine fire, but it can be used in any circumstance where an immediate brattice is required for ventilation control. In using the old style brattice, mine-rescue workers have found it difficult, in smoke-laden drifts and stopes, to erect an effective stopping with wooden frame and canvas. Stulls must first be cut to the proper length, the canvas tacked in place, and the numerous irregularities of the walls and back must be caulked. This operation requires the employment of axes, saws, and hammers, which cannot easily and safely be handled in dense smoke. The fire fighters have often been forced to abandon their brattice, unfinished, because of the rapid approach of the fire, or because of the exhausted sup- ply of oxygen in their breathing apparatus. It is neces-

Jan 1, 1930

Robert W. Hunt, Chicago, Ill.:—It has been my good fortune to know of this development of Mr. York's for some time, and I think he will permit me to say that this is not the first demonstration that he has made of his method for rolling difficult shapes, and which, as he has stated, had in the past been regarded as practically impossible. I have good reason to know that Mr. York has been successful on other lines, because I myself went through a period of professional disrepute for having reported favorably on his methods, which received discredit up to the time that it was practically demonstrated that his claims were true ones. Years ago Mr. York built a mill at Duluth, Minn., for the production of structural shapes, and notably of what might be called balanced beams—beams that did not have flanges of restricted width. His scheme was to produce beams with flanges so wide that they could be used in place of built-up beams. The mill, of course, went through the difficulties that such a mill would have to encounter. I mas called upon to make an examination of the property and report. These beams were rolled on a universal mill—a mill which would admit of various-sized sections without change of rolls. I was convinced that Mr. York could do it, and I so reported. Having received condemnation and ridicule for having taken that position, later on I was glad to find that Mr. John Fritz had come to the same conclusion, and had so reported. I concluded we both could rest content, while awaiting developments. Later still, as we all know, there was another difficulty that Mr. York met with—namely, that the architects or structural engineers would not accept his proposed sections. That is still a great difficulty in America. Later, the Grey mill came into successful operation in Luxemburg, producing such sections, which are being used in England and on the Continent. In fact, the whole process, both from a commercial and a mechanical point of view, is a success. The Bethlehem Steel Co., Bethlehem, Pa.,

Jan 1, 1907

By J. E. Lamar

THAT Illinois is an important mineral producing state is well known. A value of over $237,000,000 for the mineral products in 1926 indicates the magnitude of the industries. Coal mining is the largest mineral industry, and the value of its product was about 63 per cent of the total mineral production of the state. Oil and gas constituted about 8 per cent and the non-metallic minerals about 29 per cent. This 29 per cent represents the production of a varied group of mineral industries of wide geographic distribution through the state.

Jan 1, 1929