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By Franklin Bache

THERE seems to be in the public mind, and even in the minds of some coal-operators not experienced in mines subject to dust-explosions, a feeling that there has been something mysterious at the bottom of a number of recent American colliery-explosions. It has been declared in cases of accidents in mines regarded as particularly well equipped, in which every preventive precaution was said to have been taken, that the explosions were incomprehensible, and resulted from causes beyond the present knowledge of the practical coal-operator. But it is safe to say that no explosion has taken place which could not be explained by reasons well understood by most operators. The LT. S. Geological Survey Test Laboratory, recently inaugurated at Pittsburg for the reported purpose of investigating scientifically the matter of explosions in mines, will discover no new explanation of explosions. It call, however, co-ordinate the previous investigations of similar boards in England and on the Continent; and it may do a vast amount of good by promulgating widely, and in a form comprehensible by the most unlettered miner, certain facts and obvious deductions that cannot but have an effect in reducing the number and extent of the mine-disasters which, in the last few years, have been so terrible in frequency and magnitude. The only possible sources of explosions of any magnitude in coal-mines are : (1) explosives stored in quantity in the mine; (2) gases generated or liberated in the mine; and (3) coal-dust. Combinations of any of the three may, of course, take part in the result. The danger of any great loss of life from stored explosives alone is very remote. The simplest ordinary precaution forbids the presence, in one place underground, of any considerable quantity of explosives, and it would require an

Aug 1, 1909

Jan 1, 1936

By Augustus Locke

I WISH to urge on this Committee the task of evaluating mining geology. -My motive is as follows: It, is a. duty of the Institute from time to5 time, to establish the social perspective of the professions grouped within it, not simply to promote their use, but to determine with engineering definiteness their true powers and functions. This becomes the delegated duty, therefore, of this committee in respect to geology. Be- cause my own subject is mining, I shall confine my remarks to mining geology. But I believe that the evaluation should be made to include all of that geology termed economic. The perspective for such evaluation is shown in the nature of the public support given to geology. The federal Geological Survey, the leading organization on the economic side, is actuated by the zeal of a small group of devoted professionals who consider its work valuable, ' It proceeds, however, on a starvation ration of appropriations, and that implies that neither the corporations, the voters nor the vote getters consider it important. Altogether, in' the public consciousness, geology is negligible. That, at the same moment, .the profession should act with full confidence, while everyone else should act' with opposite motives, is not fitting. For us, as a committee, to remain incurious regarding such a disparity of beliefs is quite impossible.

Jan 1, 1931

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS (The Officers are the President, 6 Vice-Presidents, the Treasurer, and the Secretary ) President and Director LEO F REINARTZ Middletown, Ohio Past President and Director ANDREW FLETCHER New York City President-elect and Director H DeWITT SMITH New York City

Jan 1, 1954

Jan 1, 1935

By Walter F. Gries

AN ounce of prevention is worth A a pound of cure' is an old proverb that has sometimes been forgotten in programs having to do with the health of workmen. Realization of the truth of this maxim is increasing, however, and today the iron-mining industry, with which I am particularly concerned, is becoming more alive to the prevention of illness and the conservation of health, thus decreasing the need for treatment after diagnosis has established its necessity. The healthy workman is the happy, efficient workman, and new programs tending to make him more health-minded are being put into operation. Preventive medicine is less costly than corrective medicine, to say nothing of the better results obtained. Periodic physical examinations, with close follow-up attention when required, have reduced the time lost because of illness, workmen's compensation costs, and group-insurance benefits for nonindustrial disabilities.

Jan 1, 1939

By C. A. Stetefeldt

In my paper on "The Refining of Sulphides Obtained in the Lixiviation-Process with Hyposulphite Solutions," read at Cleveland, June, 1891 (Trans., xx., 37), I recommended the Roessler converter

Jan 1, 1893

Jan 1, 1896

[ASSETS CAPITAL ASSETS: Equity in United Engineering Society's Land and Buildings $486,792.79 Library 40,000.00 $526,792.79 INVESTMENTS: Jas. Douglas Fund-Schedule #2 $ 99,966.40 Life Membership Fund-Schedule #3 9,415.63 R. W. Hunt Medal Fund-Schedule #4 7,489.09 116,871.12 INVENTORIES: Paper Account 305.10] [ ]

Jan 1, 1925

By William G. Neilson

Edward Nichols died at Dunkirk, N. Y., January 7, 1892, in the forty-second year of his age. In the maturity of his powers, actively employing the strength gained from the experiences of a busy lift., and occupying positions

Jan 1, 1893

[Allen-Sherman-Hoff Pump Co. Third Cover Dee Carlton Brown, Advertising Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co. 822, 831, 840 Compton Advertising, Inc. American Cyanamid Co. * James J. McMahon, Inc. American Manganese Steel Div., American Broke Shoe Co. 839 Fuller & Smith & Ross, Inc. Anaconda Copper Mining Co. * Kenyon & Eckhardt Inc. Carton Products Corp. * Penn and Hamaker, Inc. Chester Cable Corp. * George Homer Martin Associates]

Jan 1, 1952

Jan 1, 1935

By L. V. Wade

US Bureau of Mines efforts under longwall research programs to develop the capability to predict support requirements for longwall/shortwall support systems are discussed. Ground control studies are being conducted in conjunction with several longwall/shortwall demonstration projects. Geologic, support performance, and strata behavior are being documented on these projects. A hypothesis is presented for the prediction of support requirements.

Jan 1, 1979

By Fred N. Kissell, Maurice Deul

When coal is broken during mining, some of the methane trapped in the coal is released. Some recent investigations by the U.S. Bureau of Mines have shown that this methane released by breakage is only a small proportion of the total methane emission into the working section.

Jan 1, 1975

By J. L. Lytton, T. E. Tietz

UNALLOYED arc-cast molybdenum sheet is typically supplied in the cold-rolled and stress-relieved condition, hereinafter denoted CRSR. Such processing eliminates the yield-point phe-

Jan 1, 1964

By Charles Will Wright

ALTHOUGH the United States has long led all other countries in both the production and consumption of mineral products, the trend seems definitely toward an increasing dependence upon foreign sources of supply. This is not to take the position that we are either a have or a have-not nation. For years we shall continue to secure a large proportion of our needed minerals: from our own mines, but we must face the fact that this century has seen "a more thorough and intense development of the mineral resources of the United States and a greater depletion of its irreplaceable mineral reserves than has occurred in most other countries. An audit of our mineral production given in the attached charts discloses the extent of our deficiencies. Because of these facts, low-cost foreign sources offer a promising field for the investment of a portion of our mining capital and an opportunity to obtain for the United States a greater supply of strategic metals and minerals. How. ever, to reach this end, the industrialist investing in the foreign field must have the full co-operation and strong backing of the Federal Government and the involved Federal agencies.

Jan 1, 1947

By Rztssell H. Bennett

A SURVEY of the Mesabi Range iron-ore industry demonstrates that a satisfactory degree of technical progress has been achieved in the last fifteen years. This advance has not been made over a uniform front, but, by salients and bays, according to the different initial positions, economic and technical, of the component producing companies. The producers endowed with rich ore have in general, because of natural advantages, progressed more slowly than their neighbors with leaner properties. The advance has been made step by step all along the line -blasting, loading, hauling and concentrating-and without the benefit of radical innovation. There have been, for instance, no such parallel discoveries in iron ore as leaching and flotation in copper. The much lower unit price of iron operates, of course, to bar the application of these and other practices developed for the higher-priced metals. There exists, however, a radically new concentration process whose technology is well worked out and which may become economically operative in the not too distant future; this, as so often happens in engineering advance, because of recent developments in an entirely unrelated field. First, however, let me devote a paragraph or two to the more important economies effected in mining.

Jan 1, 1932

By William Kelly

An exploring-drift, on the bottom level of the Curry mine, at Norway, Mich., on the Menominee range, cut a stream of water, which increased considerably the expense of pumping. The hope that the supply would drain off was not realized. It was decided to build a dam in the exploring-drift, as it was estimated that the cost would be recovered by the saving in fuel in less than two months.

Jan 1, 1898

By Max Boehmer

The first and most lasting impression made upon the mind of him who examines a mine or a mining district consists in the observation that in each and every case there is an intimate association of the ores with the eruptive rocks in the dietrict. The mines in the Mississippi valley seem to be the only excep-

Jan 1, 1904

By Ralph H. Sweetser

IN the recent world-wide deflation of commodity prices the coal industry, including both anthracite and bituminous coal, had reached a level where the actual delivered market prices received by the operators were usually less than the cost of production. Many steel companies and public utilities, operating their own "captive" mines, could have bought coal during the past three years for less money than the true cost of coal produced at their own properties. Competition within the coal industry itself was cruel to the point of profitless operation, and the competition of other forms of fuel was bearing heavily on the coal producers. They were thus forced into methods of production and utilization that they had hitherto ignored; there had been almost complete absence of any appreciation (by the bituminous operators especially) of the necessity of real research work in finding better methods of preparing coal for specific uses, and in finding new and profitable uses for different kinds and grades of coal.

Jan 1, 1933