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By Edward H. Robie

AT a recent meeting of the AIME Board there was considerable discussion of a suggestion that companies should be more interested in promoting AIME membership among their employes. The advocate of this idea argued that companies benefit greatly if their employes are active AIME members, so even on purely a selfish basis they should use various means to encourage membership. Also he argued that companies in general make no contribution to the support of the AIMS although benefiting from its work, so should not object to making more of a contribution, financial or otherwise, than they do. One Director stated that an investigation had developed the fact that a large majority of members felt it unwise for employers to pay the initiation fees or dues of employes. They felt that AIMS membership should be on a purely personal basis; that the rewards of active membership were sufficient so that it is a good investment for a man in developing his own professional stature, presumably resulting in an increase in salary sooner, or in greater amount, than would otherwise be the case. If an employer paid a member's dues or initiation fee the member would take less interest in the Institute. But this Director felt that an employer should otherwise encourage his employes to join the Institute, attend its meetings, and write papers based on company work for presentation and publication. Another Director reported that his company pays the expenses of AIME members in its employ to meetings; the company also encourages nonmembers to attend AIME meetings but does not pay their expenses unless they present papers of interest to the company. Another Director, representing a supplier, stated that his company's policy was to send some of its staff to all AIME meetings at which papers of interest were to be presented or at which valuable contacts could be made.

Jan 1, 1952

By George H. Hanna

THE importance of the Donets coal field (the Donbas) to the national economy of the Soviet Union is well known. Great as was the significance of this tremendous deposit of coal in prewar days it is destined to become an even greater factor in the economic life of the country now that the tremendous havoc wrought by the Germans is being remedied. Since the war began, new coal fields have been extended; for example output of the Moscow and Karaganda (Kazakhstan) fields has become considerably larger while new mines are producing coal in several parts of Uzbekistan and Kirghizia. The huge West Siberian coal field, the Kuznetsk Basin, is producing more coal than ever before to supply the industries of that region and of the Urals. But so great has been the development of industry to meet war needs, especially in those districts of the Soviet Union that lie to the East of the Urals, that the coal obtained, eked out by such locally-won fuels as peat and wood, is still barely sufficient to meet industrial requirements. The main burden of the coal supply for the restored industries of the West, therefore, will fall on the Donbas.

Jan 1, 1945

By Ernest R. Dickie

BRIEFLY, the ore body of the Bagdad Copper Corp., Bagdad, Ariz., is a monzonite porphyry carrying copper values fairly evenly distributed from the surface down through the primary zone. Tabular in shape, the ore body extends over several hundred acres. The oxidized zone averages about 60 ft thick and assays about 0.50 per cent copper. Under this is the chalcocite zone, or the zone of secondary enrichment, which averages about 100 ft in thickness and assays about 1.4 per cent copper. Under this zone lies the primary zone which extends in places to a known depth of about 150 ft and averages in grade about 0.60 per cent copper. Several years ago the block-caving method of extracting the ore from the chalcocite zone was installed. Then it was necessary to draw only about 250 to 300 tons per day, the capacity of the old milling plant. Early in 1943 the new 2500-ton concentrator was put into production. Drawing ore from the developed stopes in sufficient tonnage to furnish the mill at capacity proved unsuccessful in more ways than one. First, drawing the ore at an accelerated rate caused a large amount of dilution, there-by lowering the grade, and also caused funneling through to the surface. The surface material was detrimental to milling metallurgy and development of these stopes was costly per ton of ore extracted. The grade of ore decreased. making it impossible to maintain a mill head of over 0.9 per cent copper. The

Jan 1, 1947

By T. A. Rickard

T HE life and career of Daniel Cowan Jackling constitute a distinctive part of a passing era, marked by the intensive exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources of the western regions of the United States. In the development of his abilities and in the use of his opportunities, he typifies the initiative, the energy, and the skill of a modern captain .of industry. Daniel C. Jackling was born at Hudson, Mo., on Aug. 1.4, 1869. He was the only child of Daniel Jackling, born in England of English parents, and Lydia Jane (Dunn) Jackling, born in the United States, but of Scottish ancestry. His father died a few months after he was born, and he lost his mother less than two years later. The orphan boy was adopted by his aunt. He went to school as soon as he was old enough to walk the two miles, and back, alone. As opportunity offered, he went

Jan 1, 1937

By J. A. Herrick

Jan 1, 1879

By AIME AIME

STEADY advance has been made in the art of lead smelting and refining during the year. The bringing of natural gas to the Salt Lake valley has led to its adaptation to lead smelting operations. The Tooele plant of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. has put into practice the high blast pressure and constant volume for lead blast furnaces, which we understand was first advanced by John F. Austin. It would appear that within limits, capacity is nearly proportional to the volume of air. If the charge is dense, a constant pressure, as in the old practice. did not get much air through the charge and the furnace slowed up. The constant volume idea makes the charge smelt at the same rate as if the charge were porous. The cost of a little additional power insures capacity operation at all times.

Jan 1, 1932

By Hollis Peacock

THE Bingham area in the West Mountain mining district on the eastern slope of the Oquirrh range, some 28 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, has been the most consistent producer for the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company, production having been continuous, except for minor interruptions, since the organization of the United States Mining Co. in 1899. This production has come from fissures and mantos largely within limestone members aggregating something less than 10 per cent of a thick quartzite sequence of Pennsylvanian age which has been warped into an open syncline plunging northwesterly. Bedding on the easterly limb dips 10°-45° but steep-ens to 90° and even overturns on the westerly limb. Ore bodies cluster about the more northerly of two elongate interconnecting stocks of monzonite which have risen in an axial position within this syncline. Largely within the more northerly of these stocks is the low-grade copper ore body exploited in the Utah Copper open cut of the Kennecott Copper Corp. The values, in seams, minute fracture fillings, and disseminations of pyrite and silica, pervade not only the stock but adjacent sediments, and form a nebulous, sprawling mass which both mineralogically and geographically is the center of the district. The more southerly of the twin stocks appears to be comparatively inert and without obvious relation to mineralization. which

Jan 1, 1948

By C. A. HEILANDG

THERE is a need for men well trained in geo- physical prospecting. Although the number of geophysicists required by the industry in the future cannot be expected to be very great, there will always be a demand for courses on the subject. A number of educational institutions are, therefore, interested in providing instruction in geophysical prospecting. Some institutions will be satisfied with courses in general geophysical prospecting designed to give the geologist fundamental concepts on the comparative merits of the methods and the interpretation of the results. Other institutions will want to give special instructions in theory, field procedure, and interpretation of any or all geophysical methods. In giving such special courses a number of problems will be faced, and it seems to me that such difficulties are easier to overcome in an engineering institution than in a university. A knowledge of basic engineering subjects, such as required of all students in an engineering school, seems to be the best foundation upon

Jan 1, 1930

By AIME AIME

MORTIMER ELWYN COOLEY, dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Michigan, has been elected president of the American Engineering Council of the Federated American Engineering Societies. This was announced at a meeting of the Executive Board of the Council held at the Cosmos Club in Washington on Sept. 30. Dean Cooley assumes office at once. The new head of organized engineering is a past president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and has a long record of distinguished service in education, under the government and in private capacities. He was born in Canandaigua, N. Y., March 28, 1855, and was graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1878. With his classmate, Dr. Ira N. Hollis, he was ordered to the U.S.S. "Quinnebaug," then fitting out at the Norfolk Navy Yard preparatory to a cruise in the Mediterranean.

Jan 1, 1921

By Sherwin F. Kelly

NEW trend in geophysics has been uncovered in these depression years, made evident through the thinning cloak of commercial activity, which, in better times, would have completely obscured it. I refer to the increasing use of these methods for geological investigations by federal and state geological surveys. This is a trend that has been gathering momentum not alone in the United States, but abroad as well. Thus, in Poland, the Geological Survey has been playing an increasing role in geophysical work since 1927, and now has- its own geophysical department. The government petroleum producing organization of Argentina has its Geophysical Commission; Brasil boasts a completely equipped geophysical department in its Mineral Production Service; the government of Chile has contracted with commercial companies for geophysical surveys; Peru is planning an intensive program of geophysical prospecting in its petroliferous regions; and Canada has, for several years, cooperated with

Jan 1, 1935

By T. Egleston

AT the Dover meeting of the Institute, Mr. F. A. Canfield showed some of the members a machine which he had invented for dressing mineralogical and geological specimens, which he has since modified and brought to such a high state of perfection, that after having used it for several months in preparing specimens for the cabinet of the

Jan 1, 1876

By T. Egleston

At the Dover meeting of the Institute, Mr. F. A. Canfield showed some of the members a machine which he had invented for dressing mineralogical and geological specimens, which he has since modified and brought to such a high state of perfection, that after having used it for several months in preparing specimens for the cabinet of the

By Arno C. Fieldner

METALLURGICAL coke and the by-products of the carbonization of coal continue in strong demand. Nearly 500 new by-product ovens were constructed in 1943. Output of by-product coke in the first ten months of the year was about 2 1/2 percent higher than in the corresponding period of 1942, but beehive production remained on approximately the same level as last year and constituted about 11 per cent of the total coke output.

Jan 1, 1944

By E. P. Fleming

COMPARED to the situation abroad, the domestic industry continues to lag both as regards the production and consumption of newly mined lead. During 1938 we produced and consumed slightly over 20 per cent of the world output, whereas ten years ago the figure was nearly double this pro- portion. Labor difficulties and absence of demand were chiefly responsible for the general inactivity. In the foreign field, in spite of low metal prices, production and consumption of lead equaled or exceeded all previous records. Practically all the large companies, with the exception of those in Spain, increased operations, though it should be noted that the foreign lead mines have higher-grade ores than domestic mines. In view of the rapid expansion of the foreign industry, it is natural to expect greater progress abroad, particularly in process metallurgy.

Jan 1, 1939

By WALTER B. JONES

PIG iron was first produced in Alabama in 1818 from limonite or brown ore and since then much of this ore has come from the so-called mineral district of northern Alabama, especially along the Cretaceous-Paleozoic contact. For many years the Russellville district in Franklin County, where the first blast furnace was erected, produced more than 100,000 tons of brown ore annually. Limonite has been reported at many places in the Coastal Plain region, where the formations are of Mesozoic and Cenozoic age, but these scattered deposits were never considered to be of much commercial importance. However, in the last three years a considerable quantity of this ore has been scraped up and shipped, particularly from the city of Greenville in Butler County.

Jan 1, 1938

By J. R. Guard

Development of electrical power in coal mining has been an outstanding example of adaptability. It has accommodated itself to new inventions, changing mining methods, increasing demands, increasing safety requirements and many other new conditions. With the appearance of the continuous miner in the mining machinery picture, those engineers interested in the application of electricity to mining have been thinking about what new combination of electrical apparatus will best suit this newcomer. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the relative costs of supplying d-c versus a-c power to mining equipment with particular reference to continuous miner setups. Assume that a-c power will be delivered to the mine at some high voltage suitable for transmission to the various substation locations. Typical voltage for this purpose is 4000 volts. The problem then is to change the power to some kind of power suitable for driving the motors of mining equipment. For safety and other reasons the voltage to be delivered to the motor terminals must be under 600 volts.

Jan 1, 1950

By W. E. D. Stokes

WHEN history is written, the year of the blitzkrieg will go down as giving aviation its greatest impetus. No perceptible drop in military business, even with cessation of hostilities abroad, seems likely. The combined air force of the U. S. Army and Navy on July 1 was approximately 5000 planes, as against 50,000 planes currently discussed as necessary. Observers at the fronts are giving designers and metallurgists back home some realistic ideas to shoot at. As conventional runways reveal the location of airports to enemy raiders, operating bases are now masked. Difficult, often muddy and rough landing strips, requiring strong landing gears and exacting take-off and maintenance characteristics, are the specifications of war. This is "old stuff" to numerous mining operators in mountainous jungle areas where gradients up to 8 per cent are in more or less common use in such mountain landing fields. Although airplane building is not readily adaptable to assembly-line methods, a trend towards mass productions is now in evidence. Incidentally, a U.S. Army "Curtiss P-40" requires about 10,000 man hours of work to complete and is tied together with 75,000 rivets. During the past year a number of aircraft factories adopted the "shot-

Jan 1, 1941

By ELIHU THOMSON

IN 1877, Professor Thomson delivered at the Franklin Institute, [Philadelphia, five lectures on electricity. The object of the lectures and the demonstrations, which were numerous and many of them original even to the employment of special apparatus constructed by the lecturer, was to show clearly that electricity, of whatever name, was the same., differing only in tension (as it was termed) and in the current flowing, or quantity (the old term), in steadiness or in wave-like character. In those days, the textbooks divided the subject into statical and dynamic electricity, with sub-divisions such as frictional electricity, voltaic electricity, magneto electricity, electromagnetism, thermo electricity, and animal electricity. The well-known Ruhmkorff coil,' or spark coil as it is now called (as when used for the ignition of automobiles), was employed to step, up a battery current to a high-tension discharge which would charge condensers, such as Leyden jars.

Jan 1, 1921

By H. M. Roche

MAGNETITE mining and milling in the Eastern States was sharply curtailed in 1938, production showing a decrease of 36 per cent from 1936 and 57 per cent from 1937. Six mines, one in Pennsylvania, two in New York, and three in New Jersey were in operation, either part or full time, during the year. In recent years ten Eastern magnetite mines have been more or less active but since the World War the market for Eastern ores- has been spotty. The scrapping of Eastern merchant pig iron furnaces, imports of cheaply mined duty-free foreign ore, and high freight cost have been contributing factors.

Jan 1, 1939

By F. B. Plummer

PERHAPS the greatest progress made in the technical methods of oil production during the last year has been in handling gas from the new fields that yield light distillate fractions. At least sixteen recycling plants have been perfected and installed in South Texas fields alone during 1939 having a daily capacity of more than one billion -2 cubic feet of gas and capable of producing more than a million gallons of distillate daily. The process consists of running the gas under pres- sure through especially designed plants, separating out the condensate, then compressing the gas to 3000 lb. or more, depending on the subsurface pressure in the formation, and injecting gas back into the reservoir to be produced again later, along with more of the liquid hydrocarbons, and again recycled. Hence production in these distillate fields in sense has changed from that of producing a constantly diminishing and much-wasted product to a more or less continuous manufacturing process, in which practically all the gas is conserved-a real triumph in engineering practice.

Jan 1, 1940