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By James Douglas

In discussing the waste upon which hinges, or is supposed to hinge, so largely the preservation of our national resources, the conclusions reached would be more reliable if actual experience were consulted, and fewer deductions were drawn from general statements, which are often the product of the imagination. It cannot be questioned that the value of by-products has .not been sufficiently appreciated by us, and that our tardiness in recovering the useful ingredients of the escaping gas of our coke-ovens is one of the most glaring instances of shortcoming in that direction. And yet even for that sin there is some palliation in the immature condition of affiliated industries. I presume that it is admitted, without argument, that, except under very exceptional conditions, all the elements cannot be recovered from most of the ores or natural products which we treat. While it is a shame that the by-products from our coke-ovens should be dissipated, Edward W. Parker's report to the U. S. Geological Survey for 19061 supplies a fairly good excuse in justification of this appalling waste. He says (pp. 773 to 774.): " What has been already commented on in previous reports about the slowness of manufacturers to change from the better known but wasteful beehive practice to the by-product recovery method of coke manufacture is particularly emphasized in the statistics presented in this chapter. For it would appear from the table following that the construction of by-product ovens had about come to a standstill, especially when the records for the preceding five years are taken into consideration. At the close of 1901, when there were only 1,165 by-product ovens completed in the United States, there were 1,533 in course of construction, 498 of which were completed during the following year. At the close of 1902, 1,346 retort ovens were building, 293 of which were added to the completed plants in 1903. At the close of 1903, 1,335 new ovens were building and 954 of these

Jan 1, 1910

By E. DeGolyer

THE petroleum production of the world for 1924 again passed the billion-barrel mark, as it did in 1923. A preliminary estimate of production is 1,016,000,000 bbl., a decrease of 1,100,000 bbl., or less than 1 per cent. from the 1,017,100,000 bbl. produced in 1923, the year of greatest production. FIG. 1.-TOTAL WORLD AND UNITED STATES PRODUCTION. Production in the United States decreased 18,500,000 bbl., the. first decrease in yearly production since 1906. Mexican production decreased almost 10,000,000 bbl. Russia, Persia, Roumania, Venezuela, and Peru increased their production by an amount almost great enough to offset the decline in the United States and Mexico. The decline in the production in the United States and Mexico was considerably less than anticipated by leading geologists, economists, and statisticians; nor did the increase in consumption entirely meet the expectations of estimators. Early in the year, the statistical department of one of the most important oil companies forecast a draft on stocks, from an excess of demand over supply, of about 80,000,000 bbl. Instead of decreasing our stocks, they were increased by about 33,000,000 barrels.

Jan 3, 1925

By E. S. Bardwell

THE reverberatory copper-refining furnaces at the Great Falls Reduction Dept. of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. have used successively, as fuel, lump coal on grates, pulverized coal, oil and natural gas. In no other plant, so far as can be ascertained, has such a variety of fuels been used. This fact affords a unique opportunity for comparing the relative efficiency obtained with these several fuels under nearly identical conditions. FURNACES The present furnace refinery at Great Falls was placed in operation in April, 1916. The original installation consisted of two furnaces, each with hearths 36 by 14 ft. and provided with fire boxes 10 by 12 ft. for firing lump coal on grates. These furnaces had air-cooled sand bottoms and chrome-brick side walls both above and below the metal line. The roofs were of 12-in. silica brick. Each furnace was provided with a waste-heat boiler of approximately 400 boiler-hp. capacity. We soon found that chrome brick was very unsatisfactory as sidewall material because of its excessive spalling. At the first opportunity the furnaces were rebuilt, using magnesite brick below the metal line and silica brick from the metal line to the roof. At the same time the thickness of the side walls was increased, thus decreasing the width of the hearth to 13 ft. At about this time also, the thickness of the furnace roofs was increased from 12 to 15 in. No further changes occurred in furnace design until 1922, when the use of lump coal on grates was abandoned in favor of pulverized coal.

Jan 1, 1932

By AIME AIME

LEROY SALSICH has had 37 consecutive years of operating and executive experience in the Lake Superior iron region during 35 of which he has been a member of the A.I.M.E. His recent election as an institute Director to represent the iron and copper country therefore brings to the Board a man long known throughout the area that he represents and well acquainted with the history of the Institute. Mr. Salsich is a native of the area in which his professional life has been spent, having been horn at Hartland. Wis., and graduating from the state university's college of engineering in 1901. A call had come to the college from the Lake Superior Consolidated Iron Mines, at Duluth.

Jan 1, 1938

By Roswell Johnson

THE Manual of the Oil and Gas Industry, under the Revenue Act of 1918, published by the Treasury Department for the guidance of oil companies in preparing their estimates of future recoverable oil for the purpose of calculating depletion, gives the first large public collection of comparative decline curves for the whole country. It is a matter of both scientific and practical interest to so arrange these data that the pools can be readily compared. There are certain difficulties in such a comparison, however: 1. The economic limit varies from 50 to 2000 bbl. a year in different pools taken. (2) Because of this variation in economic limit, the range of data shown makes comparison possible only for wells of intermediate size. In order to be as inclusive as possible, I have taken as an expression of the rate of decline the amount of oil produced in the period during which a well drops from 3000 to 2000 bbl. a year.. No period of smaller production could be used because of the high economic limit in California; and no period of larger production and yet include the small well areas of the Appalachian. As it is, the Lima-Indiana wells are excluded. In a few instances, curves were extrapolated to obtain the reading, where the curve seemed regular enough to warrant it. In general, the amount of oil, in barrels, produced while a well declined from 3000 bbl. to 2000 bbl. a year is shown in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1920

The Hurghada field is still the major producing field in Egypt. There was almost no activity in the Abu Durba field during 1936 and no new evidence is available. The following table summarizes the information on the Hurghada field for the year 1936. Hurghada Field Age of field to end of 1936, years.................... 23 Producing area for gas and oil, acres................. 1,050 Barbels Total oil production to end of 1936.................. 29,046,572 Total oil production during 1935.................... 1,212,182 Total oil production during 1936.................... 1,218,708 Daily average during November, 1936............... 3,249 MillionB CU. Ft. Total gas production (Aug. 1925 to end of 1936)...... 3,966 Total gas production during 1935................... 278 Total gas production during 1936................... 280 Maximum daily in 1936............................ 0.9 Number of producing wells completed to end of 1936... 94 Number of producing wells completed during 1936. ... 3 Number of wells abandoned during 1936............. 3 Producing wells at end of 1936...................... 768 Average depth of bottom of producing wells, ft....... 1,720 Average depth of top of producing horizon, ft......... 1,598 Character of oil, approx. average during 1936: Gravity at 60' F., 0.900; base mixed. Character of gas, approx. average during 1936: gallons gasoline per 1,000 CU. ft., 6.2. Producing rock (main): Nubian sands, Cretaceous; character, sand rock and sandy shales. 1 The figures given by the author were in tons. A conversion factor of 6.98. based on 0.900 sp. gr., was used to obtain the number of barrels.—Ed. 2 All pumping.

Jan 1, 1937

By Oscar Lachmund

DURING the driving of the main haulage level at the Copper Mountain mines of the Canada Copper Corpn., Ltd., near Princeton, B. C., some very rapid driving was clone, though no claim for a world's record is made. Conditions, however, were unfavorable for economical operations. The cost of power was high, for the fuel was of poor grade; besides, during the time the work was in progress, very little other power was needed so that most of the power cost was charged against the footage. The FIG. 1.-DRIFT ROUND USED IN MAIN HAULAGE LEVEL, COPPER MOUNTAIN, B. C. transmission line consisted of No. 4 galvanized iron wire with the result that the line loss was considerable. The voltage transmitted was about 30,000. The plant was operated under a lease, which was due to expire about the same time this work was supposed to be completed; an extension was refused, therefore speed was most important. The plans called for a straight adit 2900 ft. (884 m.) in length. At a point 2800 ft. (853 m.) from the portal, two raises were to be put up to the next nearest workings, a difference in elevation of about 800 ft. (243 m.). One of these was to be a two-compartment hoistway and the other a zigzag ore pass, or muck run. A location for these raises had been determined by a number of diamond-drill holes, but the material to be penetrated by the alit was not known. It seemed imperative to get the tunnel work completed as rapidly as possible, in

Jan 3, 1919

By R. Dawson Hall

Discussion of the paper of R. DAWSON HALL, presented at the San Francisco meeting, September, 1915, and at the New York meeting, February, 1916, and printed in Bulletin No. 105, September, 1915, pp. 2013 to 2021. R. DAWSON HALL, New York, N. Y.-The general practice in the past has been to view the roof as being somewhat subject only to shear. In fact the action of the roof under the stress of its own weight has been but little considered, not because the matter is unimportant but because it is so complicated that it has been felt that an analysis of it would not result in any conclusions definite enough to justify the inquiry. The result has been that the consideration of the subject has fallen into the hands of persons who are not experts in the study of beam and plate stress. They have been disposed naturally to view the destruction of the roof as the outcome of the simplest of stresses-vertical shear. In the lack of a careful consideration of the conditions of roof fracture it was thought that the roof consisted of a number of horizontal layers, which were each of them weak, because, no matter how strong they might be they usually lacked sufficient depth. This view of the condition of the roof would naturally lead one to expect that it would yield to bending moment, the various layers succumbing one by one to their lack of the necessary radius of gyration to meet such severe stresses. But,

Jan 5, 1916

By Richard Pearce

In the treatment of auriferous copper containing bismuth, I have recently observed a small quantity of a grayish-white alloy, which on examination, proved to be Bi containing in solution, as it were, a crystalline alloy of Bi and Au. This compound makes its appearance on the surface of the auriferous Cu in small globules as the latter cools. These globules are rapidly attacked by nitric acid, and fine needleshaped crystals of Bi and Au separate out. They arc insoluble even in strong nitric acid. On examination, the crystals mere found to contain : Gold, 69.94 per cent.; silver, 0.63 per cent. ; bismuth, 29.43 per cent. (No. I).* The residue is very fusible, and at a temperature considerably below its melting-point it oxidizes rapidly, changing from its original gray color to a greenish-yellow (No. 2). On melting in a crucible under flux, a bronze-colored alloy is formed that has the specific gravity 15.47—somewhat higher than the calculated specific gravity of a simple mixture of the two metals in the proportions named. Alloys of Gold and Silver.—In following out my investigations by repeated examinations of this alloy formed at different times, I found that, in dissolving a miscellaneous lot of the alloy in nitric acid, some gold-yellow crystals were formed, which I succeeded in separating from the BiAu alloy by washing. These yellow crystals, under the microscope, showed distinct, regular, octahedral faces, and on examination they were found to be a crystalline alloy of Au and

Jan 1, 1885

By J. Jolly

THIS short note on the probable character of the organic sulfur compounds in coal can do no more than indicate lines of research. We have no new experimental work to describe, nothing comparable in value with the careful studies of American coals by Powell and Parr1 and Yancey and Frazer.2 A study of the manner in which sulfur compounds exist in British coals (and their behavior on heat treatment) is rendered increasingly necessary by the fact that the British reserves of good coking coals of reasonably low sulfur content are fast being depleted. We believe that it is essentially by a study of the modes of formation, occurrence, and decomposition of the various types of inorganic and organic sulfur compounds in coal that it will be possible, with hope of success, to attack the problem of purifying coals, otherwise eminently suitable for coking, from these objectionable ingredients. Sulfur, so far as is at present known, does not normally occur in the free state in the coal conglomerate, but is chiefly distributed, irregularly, in three forms: 1. As primary constituents of the coal conglomerate, organic in nature and probably associated with those molecular complexes that have resulted from the degradation of the proteins of the plant tissues responsible for the formation of the coal mass. These constituents can be classed as "organic sulfur." 2. As metallic sulfides, e.g., iron pyrites. 3. As metallic sulfates, e.g., calcium sulfate and ferrous sulfate. (The occurrence of these compounds varies with the occurrence and degree of degradation of class 2.)

Jan 3, 1925

By L. B. Lindemuth

TO those who are in a position to carry the thought to a conclusion, I would like to present a theory of the cause of blisters in ' galvanized sheets. Blisters that are caused from piping and shrinkage cavities will not be considered, because the reason for their formation is entirely obvious. Blisters that periodically occur, with no apparent system of location, number, size or grouping, and then disappear with no apparent change in manufacturing method, are the ones to which this theory would apply. Examination of blisters of the latter type has shown that they contain hydrogen gas at atmospheric pres-sure, and that occasionally traces of oxide or sulfide are found on the inner surface of the blisters. These two characteristics have led to the rather general idea that hydrogen gas generated in pickling, and that iron oxide supposed to be inherent in the ingot and causing weak spots, were, in some manner, responsible for the development of blisters in galvanizing. The theory which I wish to advance is that these blisters are caused by moisture that has penetrated the steel after the annealing operation. This moisture comes from the atmosphere, or from pickling or wash-ing, and when it is suddenly expanded into superheated steam in galvanizing, the increase in volume is so great that it cannot escape with sufficient rapidity through the small opening which it entered as moisture. The pressure so generated forces the sheet apart along those lines of lamination that may be found in practically all flat sections of steel rolled comparatively cold.

Jan 5, 1927

By Josef Westesson

No question in the metallurgical chemistry of the present day seems to be so difficult to agree upon as the determination of phosphorus in iron and steel. To my knowledge, there are at present at least three different methods in use in the iron laboratories of the United States, viz.: The citric acid method, the molybdate-magnesia method, and the direct molybdate method,—the last-named method having been lately adopted. Each of these methods has its advocates, who take every pains to prove its advantages, and the incorrectness of the others; and much has been written for the purpose of securing the use of a standard method—as yet, however, without any result. There is no doubt, or ought to be none, that each of these methods gives correct results, when it is carefully conducted and every precaution is taken. But it is not only correct results that we want nowa-days. The demand is great, also, for getting results in the shortest possible time. I think it has been sufficiently proved that the direct molybdate method, the weighing of the precipitate, answers well in both respects. Being a pupil of Prof. Eggertz, I have myself used his method for years until quite recently, as it is described by Mr. Troilius in our Transactions, vol. x., p. 166 (but with some slight modifications), and I can safely say that the results of this method agree well with those of the molybdate-magnesia method. I have, moreover, been checked, in a few instances, by some of the

Jan 1, 1885

By Haim Chiswik

IN recent years considerable attention has been devoted to the devel-opment of new commercial uses for silver, chiefly because of lowered prices and large stocks of the metal. This has led to increased interest in the phase diagrams of silver alloys. The silver-lead diagram is reported' to be of the simple eutectic type, but no measurements of the solubility of lead in silver have been made. The solubility of silver in lead has been estimated2 from diffusion experiments and resistance measurements to vary with temperature from 0.09 to 0.18 atomic per cent (0.05 to 0.10 weight per cent). Silver-rich silver-lead alloys have recently been recommended as high-strength bearing metals.3 The silver-bismuth diagram is similar.' The solubility of bismuth in silver has been estimated to be about 5.5 weight per cent on the basis of X-ray work.4 Matthiessen5 found a solubility of silver in bismuth from 0.25 to 0.50 per cent by conductivity measurements. Silver and thallium form the same type of diagram,1 with no data on their mutual miscibilities. We have studied the first two of these diagrams by X-ray methods, verifying their main features and determining the solubilities of lead and bismuth in silver at several temperatures. We also determined the solubility of thallium in silver at one temperature. The solubilities of silver in lead and in bismuth were found to be too low to be detectable.

Jan 1, 1940

By G. L. Spencer

There is no question as to the importance of the part played by the retort in modern zinc smelting. A satisfactory retort should have properties that will result in resistance to slagging action and fire cracks, and have no tendency, or at least only a small tendency, to soften and bend under furnace heat. The life and cost of a retort also are extremely important factors. The trend in zinc smelting during the past few years has been toward longer retorts and .higher charge density. This is caused by the fact that the diameter is limited to 9 or 10 in. because of heat penetration difficulties in larger sizes. Consequently, increasing the length of the retort and density of charge offers the only practical means of increasing the amount of zinc produced per retort. The stiff-ness of a retort perhaps is the most important factor, as slag accumulates in the bottom of a retort which has sagged and very quickly cuts through, often ruining the retorts below. The development of the high-silica retort is a result of the demands made by the trend toward heavy charges. Materials Used for High-silica Retorts The materials used in the manufacture of high-silica retorts at East St. Louis are fireclay, grog and silica flour. Analyses are given in Table 1. The fireclay comes from the St. Louis district. The grog consists of clean firebrick culls, and the silica flour, a very high-grade material, is purchased in the form of a flour that has been ground through 140 mesh.

Jan 1, 1931

By Carl S. Westerberg

1,. C. McCABE*-—An increased derliand for coal in the west is to be expected because of the growth in population and industry during the past ten years. The author calls attention to the increased mechanical cleaning of Utah coal between 1938, when no cleaning was being done, and 194.7, when more than 24 pct of the production was cleaned. This is essentially the Period of most rapid growth of the Pacific Coast. area altliough the growth and, no doubt, the general trends in coal production and cleaning continued at a less accelerated rate during 1948. The Pacific southwest increased 37 pct in population between 1940 and 191.7 while the United States showed only a 7 pct increase in the same period. it has been estimated that there will be an additional 15 pct increase in population between 1947 and 1950. The conclusion that more coal and more mechanicak cleaning capacity will be required appears to be well founded. Mr. Westerberg discusses the cco- nomic advantages of coal cleaning reflected in freight savings, in lower cost per million Btu, and lowered ash and sulphur content. In view of the limited occurrence of coking coals in the west it would be interesting to know whether significant beneficiation in coking strength can be expected from mechanical cleaning of Utah coals. This has been demonstrated for some eastern and midwestern coals. One can readily agree to the desirability of recovering the fine coal that has heretofore been lost in washery slurry. The very cheapness of coal has Iridered

Jan 1, 1950

By Oscar Lachmund

During the driving of the main haulage level at the Copper Mountain mines of the Canada Copper Corpn., Ltd., near Princeton, B. C., some very rapid driving was done, though no claim for a world's record is made. Conditions, however, were unfavorable for economical operations. The cost of power was high, for the fuel was of poor grade; besides, during the time the work was in progress, very little other power was needed so that most of the power cost was charged against the footage. The transmission line consisted of No. 4 galvanized iron wire with the result that the line lass was considerable. The voltage transmitted was about 30,000. The plant was operated under a lease, which was due to expire about the same time this work was supposed to be completed; an extension was refused, therefore speed was most important. The plans called for a straight adit 2900 ft. (884 m.) in length. At a point 2800 ft. (853 m.) from the portal, two raises were to be put up to the next nearest workings, a difference in elevation of about 800 ft. (243 m.). One of these was to be a two-compartment hoistway and the other a zigzag ore pass, or muck run. A location for these raises had been determined by a number of diamond-drill holes, but the material to be penetrated by the adit was not known. It seemed imperative to get the tunnel work completed as rapidly as possible, in

Jan 1, 1920

By Peter M. Anderson

IN recent years many prophets have arisen who hold that gold has outlived its days and that its monetary use is now an anachronism. These prophets include well-known politicians, economists and businessmen. Some of them have called it a joke that metal should be dug up at heavy cost in Africa and elsewhere and shipped to the United States of America only to go underground again at Fort Knox. Others have claimed that all the gold in the world could be sunk in the ocean without anyone being the poorer. The fact that you have invited me to address you on the future of gold may perhaps reflect the fears caused by these various predictions. At present the prophets' taunts show no sign of coming true. The demand for gold is greater than ever before, although stocks held are the largest in history. Nearly all governments have gone to great lengths to suppress any demand that might be made by the public; they have reserved to themselves the right to hold gold and have lost no opportunity of satisfying their own demands. Where the public has been allowed to buy gold, the demand has proved impressively strong. In India the price of gold equals about $82 per fine ounce, having been $90 earlier in the year; in Egypt $65 to $70, after having been $87, and elsewhere it is even higher. In Palestine, for instance, the golden sovereign is traded at about £5, equivalent to $86 per fine ounce, having been nearly £6, equivalent to some $100 per fine ounce, earlier in

Jan 1, 1947

By John F. Blandy

IT is not my intention in this article to consider this subject in the light of the geographer or geologist, but rather in that of the mining engineer, and to endeavor to show the necessity and value to him of studying the minor details of the field or district in which he may be engaged. It has been said by a distinguished geologist that "the natural boundaries of the geographer are rarely described by right lines. Whenever they occur, however, the geologist may look for something remarkable." And again ; " Physiognomy is no idle or doubtful science in connection with geology. The physiognomy of a country indicates almost invariably its geological character." Our country furnishes examples enough of the truth of these remarks, and in no part of it is it so beautifully illustrated as in our own State, which has been so ably described by Prof. Lesley in his admirable little work on the "Topography of Coal." As the great mountain lines become guides to the geologist in determining and mapping out the geography of the formations, so do the minor details of topography become guides to the mining engineer in conducting his explorations, discovering of dislocations, and determining the character of the deposits which are the object of his search. It is therefore requisite that he should, whilst making his surveys, pay the strictest attention to every variation of the landscape and surface of the ground. Until he has mapped out every feature he may be unable to read the geological changes which may have

Jan 1, 1873

By E. Gybbon Spilsbury

It is not my purpose in this paper to describe all the different contrivances which have been devised, during the last quarter of a century, for the purpose of Iessening the expense of mining and tunnelling operations; I wish merely to call your attention to the crying want of the Western miners for some cheap and effective machine, capable of economizing on the heavy item of hand-drilling, and to enumerate a few of the latest improvements which have been made in machines of this class. This necessity for the introduction of some kind of labor-saving machinery in mining, especially in the West, begins to make itself felt more imperatively every day. No branch of industry has remained so conservative to the old customs and systems of working, as has mining; and yet no branch is so entirely dependent on economical working for a successful issue; and in very few is the proportion of cost of hand-labor to profits obtained so preponderantly heavy. Perhaps the chief reason for this seeming apathy towards progress in this direction arises from the fact that nearly all mining operations, especially in this country, are carried on in regions more or less remote from the great centres of civilization, thereby rendering the carriage and erection of machinery extremely difficult and expensive. Another reason, however, exists in the fact that a large number of men in charge of mining operations are greatly prejudiced against the introduction of machinery underground, from the idea that it cannot be made to adapt itself to the various positions and

By R. H. Johnson

The Manual of the Oil and Gas Industry, under the Revenue Act of 1918, published by the Treasury Department for the guidance of oil companies in preparing their estimates of future recoverable oil for the purpose of calculating depletion, gives the first large public collection of comparative decline curves for the whole country. It is a matter of both scientific and practical interest to so arrange these data that the pools can be readily compared. There are certain difficulties in such a comparison, however: (1) The economic limit varies from 50 to 2000 bbl. a year in different pools taken. (2) Because of this variation in economic limit, the range of data shown makes comparison possible only for wells of intermediate size. In order to be as inclusive as possible, I have taken as an expression of the rate of decline the amount of oil produced in the period during which a well drops from 3000 to 2000 bbl. a year. No period of smaller production could be used because of the high economic limit in California; and no period of larger production and yet include the small well areas of the Appalachian. As it is, the Lima-Indiana wells are excluded. In a few instances, curves were extrapolated to obtain the reading, where the curve seemed regular enough to warrant it. In general, the amount of oil, in barrels, produced while a well declined from 3000 bbl. to 2000 bbl. a year is shown in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1921