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By Forrest T. Moyer

The National Safety Competition was inaugurated in 1925 by the Bureau of Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior, in cooperation with the Explosives Engineer. In the first nationwide contest, 210 mines and quarries were enrolled. In 1962, the thirty-eighth anniversary of the competition, 910 mines and quarries were enrolled. These participating plants were worked a total of 133,292,989 man-hours. Of the enrolled plants, 415 achieved injury-free operations for the year, the largest number of perfect safety records in the history of the contest.

Jan 1, 1964

By Jeffrey Y. Foley

In 1980, the Bureau of Mines investigated the northern Darby Mountains on the Seward Peninsula, AK, for radioactive mineral deposits. Uranium is concentrated in silicified shear zones in biotite quartz monzonite of the Darby pluton. The shear zones are best exposed in steep, narrow, avalanche gullies; they are characterized by radiometric anomalies and by uranium and thorium geochemical anomalies. Radiometric and geochemical anomalies are also found over altered biotite quartz monzonite where there are no visible shear zones. The radiometric and uranium anomalies are often spatially, but apparently not genetically, associated with alkaline mafic and felsic dikes. Similar geochemical and radiometric anomalies over discolored altered zones and geochemical anomalies in sediments downstream from the altered zones indicate that additional areas may also be favorable targets for uranium deposits. Analyses of panned, heavy mineral concentrates show no significant concentrations of uranium or thorium in resistant heavy minerals. This indicates that radioactive elements in the Darby pluton are concentrated in soluble, nonresistant minerals that may constitute a recoverable uranium resource.

Jan 1, 1986

By Forrest T. Moyer

The National Safety Competition was inaugurated in 1925 by the Bureau o1 Mines, U.S. Department of the Interior, in cooperation With the Explosives Engineer. In the first nationwide contest, 210 mines and quarries were enrolled. In 1962, the thirty-eighth anniversary of the competition, 910 mines and quarries were enrolled. These participating plants were worked a total of 133,292,989 man-hours. Of the enrolled plants, 415 achieved injury-free operations tar the year, the largest number of perfect safety records in the history of the contest. In 1961 and 1962, the National Safety Competition was conducted and sponsored by the Bureau of Mines. In January 1963, the American Mining Congress became a cosponsor and participated with the Bureau in the award activities related to the 1962 contest. The basic purpose of the competition is to stimulate employees to work safely and too give impetus to the building of better accident-prevention programs. A well-designed and efficient safety program helps a company economically by cutting costs, preventing damage to equipment and materials, and reducing nonproductive delays. An effective safety program benefits the employee more directly because his injuries cause personal suffering, lost time, and lower living standards for his family. Since both have much to gain, management and workers should cooperate closely to eliminate disabling work injuries. The greater contest participation and the larger number of perfect safety records indicate increasing safety consciousness on the part of management and employees.

Jan 1, 1964

By D. Harrington

Although for many years considerable attention has been given to devising safe and efficient methods of using explosives, with some success, relatively little has been done to provide satisfactory storage facilities for them. This was known long before the present war began, but it was emphasized during the past 30 months? inspections of explosive magazines by employees of the Bureau of Mines in administration of the Federal Explosives Act of December 26, 1941. These inspections have revealed woeful in adequacy as well as definite hazards and the urgent need for obtaining better storage facilities either by remodeling old magazines or constructing ink new ones that would afford suitable protection for the contents against theft, fire, deterioration, and detonation. The purpose of this paper is to offer suggestions and to show by sketches and drawings some of the fundamental features of suitable magazines. Type of construction and available materials differ with different; localities, but the information herein contained can be applied to most magazines, whether already constructed or the construct: on of which is planned. It is hoped that this information will be helpful and will aid persons who are trying to provide suitable storage for explosives end detonators. It is also hoped that States and cities will be made aware of the unbelievable laxity practiced in storing explosives in the United States and will take some remedial action.

Jan 1, 1945

By Michael R. Norland

This U.S. Bureau of Mines report on U.S. and Canadian 1iterature pertaining to soil characterization and the use of soil amendments as a part of the reclamation process of coal surface-mined lands contains 1,280 references. The references were published during the 1977 to 1988 period. Each reference is evaluated by keywords, providing the reader with a means of rapidly sorting through the references to locate those articles with the coal mining region and subjects of interest. All references are annotated.

Jan 1, 1991

By Thomas Fraser

WHEN the Bureau of Mines initiated the program of large-scale research and development in the field of synthetic liquid fuels authorized in the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act of April 5, 1044, the Coal Preparation Section was assigned the task of obtaining data on the preparation characteristics of the coal in large reserves that might be adaptable to use in this new industry. It is natural that, as the rapidly developing general research program brought about new concepts of raw-material quality, preferred geographical location, and the like, the orientation of coal-preparation investigations should have undergone some change. The first major assignment was the sampling and testing of a series of typical American coals deemed to he suitable for hydrogenation based on early research work conducted by the Bureau of Mines. This first series of tests has been completed and is reported in this paper.

Jan 1, 1950

By Richard F. Zaffarano

The Bureau of Mines compiled information for the nonspecialist about natural gas liquids recovery from hydrocarbon streams in natural gas processing plants. Attention is directed to the impact of the technology of processing and the quality of gas processed in view of the increased availability of natural gas for processing. Significant changes in product and market trends within the natural gas processing industry are highlighted. Fixed capital-plant costs for grassroots, refrigerated-oil absorption and conventional adsorption schemes, adapted from published studies, are presented giving ranges of cost estimates for medium-sized plants. Marketed products of the natural gas processing industry are briefly discussed in relation to automotive air pollution problems and approaches to their control.

Jan 1, 1970

By F. S. Crawford

This study was made to find methods of preventing back strains, among workers in brick plants, however, the information should apply to other industries that employ hand labor too process materials. The report is based on information in letters from. Bureau of Mines engineers and other safety men in the United States who visited numerous brick plants. Back strains, as wall as hernias and other muscular strains, result when certain body structures are subjected to strains greater than, they can withstand. Such breakdowns may be prevented simply by not straining these body structures. This is simple in theory but complicated in practice. It requires primary education of new workers and reeducation of older workers in the best method of lifting, preemployment physical. examinations to select employees for the jobs that require constant lifting, all possible mechanization of material-handling operations, relocation of machinery, and elevation of working surfaces to reduce to a minimum the muscular effort the workers must exert to perform operations impossible to mechanize. Accidents of any kind are a total bee for the American economy and decrease productivity; whereas mechanization raises the level of productivity and constitutes progress toward total safety. Heavy lifting should be done mechanically whenever possible, saving the men to direct the machines. This is an essential step in preventing strain accidents.

Jan 1, 1953

By K. L. Paciorek

The aim of this program was to develop a reliable and meaning-ful basis for assessing certain safety aspects, namely fire and, in particular, toxicity hazards of articles employed in underground coal mining operations. The present investigation was concentrated on the thermal oxidative degradation of representative hydraulic fluids. To achieve this goal all products formed on thermal oxidative degradation of the fluids studied were analyzed, identified I and the amount of each individual species present was determined quantitatively on a weight of product per weight of material basis. The weight/weight data thus obtained can then be factorized to reflect the relative toxicity of each individual species present, using for example the Threshold Limit Values adopted by the American Conference of Governmental and Industrial Hygienists, whereby an overall "toxicity index" can be arrived at which makes it possible to compare the different fluids and/or classes of fluids in a quantitative manner insofar as their toxicity is concerned.

Jan 1, 1976

By R. S. Dean

[Methods s of preparing the manganese metal that has been used in chemical and metallurgical investigations have passed through a cycle. Most of the investigations made before the turn of the century, used Moissen's pyrophoric manganese.3/ This material was made by electrolysis into a mercury cathode and distillation in vacuo. The material was essentially pure, and investigations in which it was employed (with proper precautions against oxidation) led to accurate results on tie intrinsic behavior of metallic manganese.]

Jan 1, 1941

By E. C. Hoeman, W. C. Stoecker, R. C. Redfield

"INTRODUCTION Industrial sands, characterized by specific physical and chemical proportion, are,essential new materials for the manufacture of glass, sodium siliante and other products. Sands of suitable characteristics are used extensively for molds and cores in the casting of metals as a granular medium in municipal water filters, as abrasives, as traction sand to prevent the slipping of driving wheels of self-propelled vehicles on trucks and in various ceramic and other structural forms. In addition to the use of common silicon sands in concrete, cement, and mortar, special sands find use in sand-lime brick oxychloride cement, and flooring, for coating prepared roofing, and for placing ware in saggers although sand for sandpaper has been mostly displaced by other harder mineral or synthetic grains, other abrasive uses are numerous and include sandblasting stone sawing, glass burnishing and finishing."

Oct 1, 1945

By Robert J. Tuchman

This report presents the origins of the Bureau of Mines and the evolution of the Pittsburgh Research Center from its inception to its present form. Areas of major research emphasis over the years, as well as administrative reorganizations, are discussed.

Jan 1, 1998

By Ruth F. Brinkley

This report is the 16th of a series of reports originally issued annually and more recently biennially to acquaint the reader with the work of the Explosives and Physical Sciences Division, Region VIII.3/ In the majority of instances the results of the investigations are made available to the public through Government publications and journal articles. In certain instances (specifically as regards security-classified research, investigations of a confidential nature, and short-range programs of very limited scope) results are reported only to those immediately concerned.

Jan 1, 1957

This manual provides instructions for installing, operating, and maintaining a protective canopy on the Galis Mfg. Co. face drill. The instructions are based upon an actual installation made in the mine on face drill model 460-S. The parts list and engineering drawings for the protective canopy are included at the end of the manual. And a discussion of some alternative design concepts is also included. The manual can also be used for retrofitting other face drills with similar protective canopies. Skilled mechanics can determine if the instructions herein would be applicable to the other face drills and can determine any necessary modifications if they are not.

Jan 1, 1973

By Frederick C. Trutt

A guide to the development and utilization of an interactive mine-power-system fault program (Z-bus by algorithm) is presented. Theoretical foundations, as well as implementation considerations are discussed with respect to the mine-power system. Alternative Kron reduction techniques are presented along with a triangular-storage method for storage conservation. Program capabilities include the analysis of balanced and unbalanced (line-to-line, line-to-ground, and line-to-line-to-ground) fault situations using symmetrical component theory. To account for phase shifting in delta-wye transformers and zero-sequence network constructions, transformer and load configurations are specified by the user. The positive-and zero-sequence connections needed for network conformity are automatically constructed with the required impedances.

Jan 1, 1979

By Thomas W. Thompson

The Zebulon manganese deposit has been known for a number of years. It is situated about 3 miles east of Zebulon, Wake County, N. C., on the Avon, Privett property (fig. 1). The deposit outcrops as a vein, or dike averaging-16 to 20 feet in width. Drilling by the Bureau of Mines has shown that this outcrop results from consolidation of a number of small stringers near the surface. The surface width and the Percentage of manganese oxides (resulting from. weathering) diminish with depth. Below 50 to 80 feet, the vein material is mainly quartz and spessartite garnet. The deposit was first examined by W. T. Benson, a Bureau of Mines engineer, in 1941. The Bureau conducted a diamond-drilling exploratory program an the property from November 7, 1944, to January 25, 1945. A. total of 2,508.5 feet was drilled in 14 holes along the strike of the deposit.

Jan 1, 1950

By F. E. Block

This investigation was made as part of a larger program to develop basically new methods for preparing yttrium metal in high-purity form. It was performed under a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Federal Bureau of Mines. Laboratory-scale tests were made to devise methods for preparing high-purity, anhydrous yttrium trichloride, for reducing the yttrium trichloride with sodium or lithium, and for consolidating the resulting yttrium sponge into ingots.

Jan 1, 1960

By Eugene W. Bartel

This report describes in detail the circuitry used in the Automated Time Domain Reflectometry System and the testing and modification done to the system to improve the units performance and consistency. The analog ATDR software is described and explained in detail. Also attempts to implement the same Assembly Language program in a higher level language (PLM) are documented along `h two versions of the PLM program - one which uses a data filtering approach to limit noise and another which uses data averaging to reduce noise. The field testing of the analog and digital ATDR units is described along with the hardware modifications that resulted. The analog unit has been abandoned and the digital unit adopted for most field tests. Tests indicate that the digital units are much more consistent and less confusing for the lay-person to operate. The results indicate that the it can locate an abnormality in a test cable to within 5% of the true location (provided the cable phase velocity is known). The units can consistently locate shunt type faults which are less than 300 ohms and series type faults which are greater than 30 ohms.

Jan 1, 1980

By William H. Tavenner

1. The 1952 Annual Report of the West Virginia Department of Mines lists nine beds that arc being mined in Logan County, of which the Cedar Grove and Chilton are the most important. The Cedar Grove group, No. 2 Gas, and Alma beds have the largest remaining reserves, in the order given. 2. Known measured and indicated reserves in all beds, based on a minimum thickness of 14 inches and 1,800 short tons per acre-foot of coal in place, are estimated at 5,411 million tons as of January 1, 1954. Of this total, 3,939 million tons is in beds 28 inches and more thick. Areas in each bed were omitted from the estimate because available data relative to the bed characteristics were too meager for making an estimate that conforms with the definitions of measured and indicated coal adopted for this study. Should future drilling or development prove reserves in these areas, such reserves should be added to the total estimate reserves.

Jan 1, 1956

By R. S. Nutter

The results of designing, constructing, and laboratory testing of a modular, distributed, microprocessor-based mine monitoring and control system are presented. A standard computer communications protocol (DDCMP) was utilized throughout the system. Tests were performed on the utilization of a high-level language for programming mine monitoring and control systems. Laboratory tests were run on a combined air velocity/methane sensor.

Jan 1, 1980