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By Thomas T. Read

REVIEWING the events of the year in mineral industry education, a certain amount of either amusement or irritation, depending upon one's viewpoint, can be derived front the section dealing with mining engineering in Walter B. Pitkin's "New Careers for Youth" which appeared during the summer. On p. 102 Prof. Pitkin says "The mining engineer is disappearing .. . because . . . the profits of mining decline rapidly with the age of the mine." In his "Are Too Many Students Taking Mining Courses?" published in the May issue of this journal, W. B. Plank presents statistics showing that there was some decline in student enrollment in mining and metallurgical courses in 1932-3 and 1933-4, compared with 1930-31, but that the decline was proportionate to that in all lines of engineering study combined. Informal reports from Institute officials that have visited tinning schools during the fall indicate that nearly all schools showed an increase in enrollment for the current school year. Pre else statistics will be made available by Prof. Plank at the Annual Meeting. His study last year provided, for the first time, accurate and complete information on the enrollment in mining schools, as well as the number of various courses and the degree granted, and it will be interesting to have comparable figures for this year. Prof. Pitkin's views on the future opportunities for mining engineers were discussed at some length - on pages 439-4.40 of the November issue of MINING AND METALLURGY.

Jan 1, 1935

By A. English, M. J. Greaves

This paper is a discussion of pelletizing systems developed over the last 15 to 20 years for the agglomeration of fine iron ore concentrates. Five different pelletizing systems are now in commercial use in the U.S., and for the purposes of comparison, estimated operating costs and capital costs for the construction of four of them are included. Capacities of existing commercial plants are examined, together with the anticipated capabilities of plants presently being built or projected. In just 21 years, the art of pelletizing iron ore concentrates has reached maturity with mastery of the separation of finely divided concentrates from low-grade iron ores and their agglomeration into pellets containing about 65% iron. This accomplishment has firmly established an improved feed for the blast furnace, with resulting benefits in faster reduction of burdens and greater economy of operation. The present production capacity of pelletizing facilities in the U.S. is about 20 million tons annually, and it is expected to double by 1970. The rapid expansion of pelletizing in the U. S. has been closely observed in European countries, notably in Sweden and Germany, where pioneer agglomerating techniques were developed early in this century. PELLETIZING PLANTS AND PROCESSES Twelve commercial pelletizing plants are presently in operation in the U. S. and Canada. An equal number are in various stages of engineering and construction, and many others are being considered. The pelletizing systems currently employed include shaft furnaces, horizontal grates using three different airflow arrangements, and grate kilns. The capacity of pelletizing operations in North America is shown in Table I. All of these plants are integrated with the mine, the ore-crushing facilities and the concentrating plant and are equipped with storage and loading-out facilities for the product. Normally, a pelletizing plant is composed of a shuttle conveyor above the receiving bins; balling equipment; a heat-hardening system including the necessary auxiliaries such as furnaces, burners and controls, ducts, fans, meters and instrumentation; fines recovery equipment; and product handling equipment. Also included are the necessary auxiliaries and utilities such as boilers or power plant; oil unloading and storage facilities; coal unloading storage, grinding and distribution facilities; and bentonite or other additive storage and distribution equipment. Shaft Furnaces: Vertical shaft furnaces used in this country are limited to the treatment of natural magnetite concentrates containing minor quantities of residual fluxing elements. Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of the shaft furnace with balling, feeding and pellet-handling equipment. An elevation of a shaft furnace is shown in Fig. 2. A commercial shaft furnace unit is about 45 ft in height with a 6 x 14-ft rectangular cross section and has a nominal production rate of approximately 50 gross tons of pellets per hour. The upper portion of the furnace shaft is constructed of fire brick as protection from the high process temperatures involved. The lower portion of the shaft is lined with abrasion-resistant brick to withstand erosion from the fired pellets. Rectangular-shaped, refractory-lined and insulated combustion chambers are situated on each side of the shaft furnace. Oil or gas is burned to produce high temperature gases which are forced into the furnace through ports located near the top of the combustion chambers. The shaft furnaces operate at a pressure of approximately 6 psi. Pellets are fed into the top of the furnace by a pantographic feeder designed to produce the desired pellet stockline. The furnace is kept filled at all times and pellets are fed and discharged from the furnace at the same rate. In early development, 10 to 12 lb of solid fuel was incorporated in the pellets. However, the main source of process heat is now derived from the combustion chamber gases. In some instances no solid fuel is used. The pellet movement in the shaft furnace is counter-current to the flow of gases. Ambient air is introduced through louvers at the lower end of the furnace, at about 6 psi, cooling the fired pellets and supplementing the heat of the high temperature gases from the combustion chamber ports. The zone of maximum temperature, located above the ports of the combus-

Jan 1, 1963

By Alexander Anderson

TABLES showing the drift and inclination of wells surveyed in the years 1924 to 28' and in the year 1929' have already been published. Each of these tables included a little over 1,000,000 ft. of rotary hole. In the year 1930 the table -shown-in . Fig. 1, comprising, the results of surveys .of 1,030,344 ft. of hole and representing 11,642 individual survey readings, was compiled. For that purpose we selected 'I only wells that had been drilled in California during that year. The footage of Fig. 1 differs from the two earlier tables in that the wells were all drilled in the year 1930. In the earlier tables, the footage shown was surveyed in the years designated, but some of the wells were drilled in earlier years.

Jan 1, 1931

By D. B. RUSHJIORE

(New York -Meeting, February, 1912.) TORCHES were used by the early Romans for mine-lighting, and these were followed by open lamps or earthen jars filled with tallow or oil, and later by candles. In early coal-mining, explosive gases seldom occurred, and, if they were encountered, the danger of explosion was materially diminished by the absence of any ventilating-system and the consequent insufficient circulation of air to form with the methane an explosive mixture. As the art advanced, the danger of fire-damp became more apparent, and methods for testing the air were resorted to as early as in the fifteenth century. The method of testing consisted in lowering a clog in a, basket down the shaft. As soon as he encountered fire-damp he would commence to howl, after which he was withdrawn, and a leafy bush was fastened to the end of the rope and run rapidly up and clown the shaft. This so disturbed the accumulation of gas as to cause it to rise out of the shaft. Later this odd method of testing was improved upon through the discovery that a light inserted in a body of fire-dam p would produce a blue flame. Candles were used for this purpose, and, when fire-damp was thus discovered, brushing or some other primitive method of fanning was resorted to for driving out the gas. In some instances the gas was burned away, regardless of the danger thereby incurred. A man, wearing a well-moistened coat and a mask with glass spectacles, descended in the mine a few hours before each shift. With a long stick, to which was fastened a burning torch or candle, lie would crawl on the floor with the stick so raised that the light would sweep the roof and ignite the gas which it encountered. In this position the flame of the explosion would pass over him, after which he would retreat from the gases resulting from the combustion. The occurrence of serious accidents resulted in

Jul 1, 1912

R. F. MCELVENNY.- Over 20 years ago I went back East on a little tour of copper companies to see how copper was handled and fabricated, and I met a Mr. Bassett who took me through the Waterbury branche of the American Brass Co. I have not seen this gentleman for 20 years, but I have a letter from him that I would like to read to you. 'The American Brass Co. Waterbury, Conn. May 19, 1930. To the-Salt Lake City Conference on Reverberatory Smelting Practice: Through the courtesy of Mr. Scott Turner, Director of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, Mr. G. L. Oldright has been temporarily released from his regular duties to act as your secretary. We have asked him and Mr. McElvenny to make the necessary preliminary arrangements and to present to you at the opening session the greetings of the officers and' directors of the Institute. I am very glad that it has been possible for you to come together under the auspices of the Institute and that the acceptance of our invitation has been so very unanimous. Such an acceptance of the invitation to this meeting indicates your interest in getting together for an exchange of technical data and ideas. We anticipate that this meeting will be of real service to the smelting industry through your open discussion and exchange of ideas, and we sincerely hope that you will form an organization which will arrange for future meetings of a similar nature. While it probably may not be desirable to. distribute the minutes of this conference except to the members who take part in it, we hope that later the Institute publications may be enriched by such matter as you think it desirable to have published; and also, that some of you may be able to offer technical papers for the Institute publications. I hope that you will find a permanent organization desirable and trust that it will be possible for you to form such an organization so that conferences may be regularly called. We hope that you can make use of the Institute organization and that we can be of real service to your industry. With best wishes for your success in this undertaking, I am Most cordially yours, W. H. Bassett, President.

Jan 1, 1930

By J. C. HEILMAN

THE Tri-State district, named from its situation in three States, lies in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, the southeast corner of Kansas and the adjacent part of Missouri east of the common corner of the above States. Production in the past eighty years has come from scattered mines within an area of some 35 miles east and west, by 25 miles north and south, although the actual area of the mined ground is but a small fraction of this territory. The land is leased from the individual land-owners, and the size of the tracts varies from 4.0 to 200 acres, the smaller sized tracts predominating. The leases usually call for a royalty of 7% to 15 per cent of the gross receipts of the concentrates, continuous operation during the life of the lease and specifically set out that no ores can be brought in from a foreign lease for custom milling nor can any ore be removed from the lease for milling. The ownership of the tailings remains with the land-owner.

Jan 1, 1931

By Eugene Guccione

It would be extremely difficult and unfair to compare the United States to Australia when wondering about which of the two countries offers the best opportunities for running a mining operation. However, if somebody would ask "Where is the best place to mine outside the US?"-I'd answer without reservations: Australia. Some of my Australian mining friends will disagree with me for my giving their country such a high rating. And they'll probably accuse me of being an optimist by telling me, as one of them did, that "the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that the pessimist is better informed."

Jan 1, 1977

By James Lorimer

THE topography at the Stan Trg mine facilitated early exploration by adits; in consequence adit levels were developed at horizons 865, 795, and 760 meters above sea level, and the levels in the mine 'are named according to their elevation. Exploitation started from the 760-m. level . upwards while simultaneously first steps were taken with regard to mining in depth. A deep dewatering adit 2.5 km. long now gives access to the deposit at the 610-m. horizon which also is connected with the 760-m. adit level by a three-compartment main hoisting shaft. Main levels have been developed internally from

Jan 1, 1936

By AIME AIME

THE following Officers, Directors, and guests were present: Herbert Hoover, A. R. Ledoux, Henry S. Drinker, Edwin Ludlow, Samuel A. Taylor, Charles F: Rand, William M. Corse, Arthur S.. Dwight, Glen H. Clevenger, L. W. Francis, F. G. Cottrell, Bradley Stoughton, Percy E. Barbour, E. P. Mathewson, Dorsey A. Lyon, Archibald Douglas, A. D. Flinn, RobertLinton, James F. Kemp, William Y. Westervelt, J. W. Richards, W. L. Saunders, George Otis Smith, Thomas T. Read, J..C. Murray, Ralph Arnold. A Committee on Mine Equipment was appointed composed as follows: Graham Bright, chairman, William Kelly, Howard N. Eavenson, R. E. Hobart, and S. P. Rumsey. B. D. Saklatwalla was added to the Committee on Miscellaneous Metals and W. Spencer Hutchinson was added to the Committee on Mining Geology. A revised budget for 1921 was approved. A petition duly signed to amend Section 1., of Article III of the Constitution, increasing the initiation fees from ten dollars to twenty dollars, was approved by the Board.

Jan 1, 1920

By Robert E. Sorenson

EXPLORATION for deep-seated orebodies in the Silver Belt area of the Coeur d'Alene mining district is complicated by meager surface expressions of diagnostic criteria, lack of knowledge of the significance of specific alteration phenomena, and the great expense involved in the exploration for ore shoots, the tops of which often occur near sea level elevation or below and as much as 4000 ft or more below the surface. Except for the early studies of Ransome and Calkins in 1903 and 1904,[1] little geological work was done in the Coeur d'Alene district for many years, and it is only during the last 15 to 20 years that complete and careful geological mapping has been applied to most of the mines in the area. Much early information, which now would prove invaluable, is lost in hundreds of miles of caved and inaccessible mine openings not mapped by mining geologists. In more recent years mining geology has become a tool of greater use in the district, and some measurable progress is being made in the accumulation of observations that are adding gradually to the knowledge of ore deposits in the district.

Jan 7, 1951

By R. V. Mrazek, F. E. Block, S. B. Knapp

The mixed homogeneous and heterogeneous kinetics of the thermal decomposition of tungsten hexacarbonyl were studied by employing a batch reactor. The system was such that a sample of tungsten hexacarbonyl could be injected into the preheated reactor, and the progress of the reaction followed by a simple pressure measurement. Both the homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions were found to be first order, and approximate activation energies were determined for each reaction. It is shown that the dis-proportionation of carbon monoxide to give carbon and carbon dioxide cannot be the source of carbon in tungsten deposits prepared by this reaction. The kinetics of the thermal decomposition of tungsten hexacarbonyl have been investigated as part of a continuing study by the U.S. Bureau of Mines on the decomposition of organometallic compounds. Reactions involving the thermal decomposition of metal carbonyls have a potential application in the preparation of pure metals and fine metal powders. Indeed, it was these applications which provided the impetus for much of the early work involving the carbonyls of nickel1 and iron.' The relative lack of study of other metal carbonyls can be traced to the comparative difficulty in synthesizing these compounds. The most common use for tungsten hexacarbonyl has been as an intermediate in vapor-phase plating.7'8 However, attempts to obtain a carbon-free deposit of tungsten by this method have not been successful, and some investigators have taken advantage of the carbon contamination and used this process to form tungsten carbide deposits.lo Other investigators have studied the thermodynamic properties11"14 and molecular structure of tungsten hexacarbonyl. However, very little is known about the kinetics of this thermal decomposition, the mechanisms involved," or the source of carbon in the resulting plate. In contrast, studies have been made of the kinetics of the thermal decomposition of nickel tetracarbonyl, iron pentacarbonyl, and molybdenum hexacarbonyl.'l It has been found that these thermal decompositions occur by a mechanism which is partially heterogeneous in nature. Information available on the equilibrium constants for the decomposition of tungsten hexacarbonyl was used to determine a temperature range, 500" to 560°K, in which the reaction could be expected to be essentially complete. APPARATUS The apparatus used allowed the injection of a sample of tungsten hexacarbonyl into a preheated batch reactor and the use of a simple pressure measurement to follow the progress of the reaction in the sealed reactor. The pressure was sensed by means of a pressure transducer (Consolidated Electrodynamics Corp., 0.3 pct)* capable of operating at the *Reference to specific products is made to facilitate understanding and does not imply endorsement of such brands by the Bureau of Mines._______ reaction temperature. This type of sensing element was chosen to avoid the problem of condensation of the sublimed carbonyl in the capillary tubing leading to any type of remote pressure-sensing device. stirring was provided by rotating the entire apparatus. Glass beads placed in the reactor provided a pulsating agitation. To minimize thermal gradients in the reactor walls, the reactor was constructed of aluminum. The support tube which held the reactor in the furnace was thin-walled stainless steel to minimize heat conduction out of the reactor. As a result of these measures, a nearly uniform temperature (°C) was maintained throughout the reactor. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the apparatus. The small gear motor rotated the entire apparatus at about 200 rpm. The bearings shown at the ends of the air cylinder were perforated to allow air to be fed to the charging piston and to allow inert gas to be fed to the reactor during the preheating period. The sample was simultaneously injected and sealed inside the reactor by operation of the air piston. Fig. 2 shows a cross section of the air cylinder and the adjoining portion of the support tube leading to the reactor. The sample carrier is shown in place at the right-hand end of the injection rod extending from the air piston. The piston is shown in the retracted position, as it would be prior to the start of an experiment. The small Teflon gasket which encircled the sample carrier at the end of the injection rod sealed the reactor when the sample was injected. This seal was maintained throughout the test by maintaining air pressure on the piston. The sample carrier was a 2-in. section of thin-walled, -in.-diam nickel tubing with an internal blank about 1 in. from the base and with the base end sealed.

Jan 1, 1969

By GUY C. RIDDELL

THE recent purchase by an American investment trust of a substantial block of shares in a British owned Venezuelan copper operation directs attention to mining activities that have been quietly gaining momentum in that country for a number of years. We hear so much of oil work in Venezuela that attention to its metal-mining activities is in most quarters casual. In gold and copper the country has made some interesting mining records, and two of the old districts are ,digging in for a come-back. Copper Copper production centers in the state of Yaracuy. The Aroa-Cumaragua mining region has had a long and eventful history. The Aroa mine itself, 50 miles from the coast in West-Central Venezuela, was discovered in 1605. First mined in 1632, owned at one time by Simon Bolivar, it has been reopened many times and is now , the basis of substantial operations by the South American Copper Syndicate, Ltd. of London. The latter has operated the property profitably, off and on, for a number of years, paying heavy dividends on a small investment-at times over 300 per cent annually.

Jan 1, 1929

By John E. Hockett

The need for basic information about the relationship between resistance to dejormatim (flow stress), temperature, strain, and strain rate, for the solution of metal-fovming problems, is pointed out. Some early attempts to satisfy the need are mentioned. A brief description of a machine called a Cam Plastome-ter is given, including the processing of results of testing in the machine. Next, a program of testing aluminum in compression over a wide range of constant true-strain rates (0.1 to > 200 sec-1) and a modevately broad range of temperatures (223° to 673°K) is described. The results of this program are presented in the form of true-stress us true-strain cuvves. The data in these curves are presented in the form of relationships between true stress and true-strain rate in sermilogarithmic and log-log form, as functions of temperatures—for several true strains. Finally, true stress, for a given true strain, is displayed as a function of log true-strain rate and absolute temperature, i.e., a surface. SINCE the publication of Hill's book1 on plasticity theory, increasingly rapid advances have been made in analytical solutions to forming problems. Methods in common use are the slab method, the uniform deformation energy method, the limit analysis method, the slipline field method, and the semiexperimental method called "visioplasticity". These approaches, and examples of their use, are covered in detail by Johnson and Melloor2 and by Thornsen, Yang, and Kobayashi.3 unfortunately, practically all of the above work has had to rely upon a number of basic assumptions, e.g., homogeneous deformation and Coulomb (sliding) friction; and virtually no dependence of the mechanical behavior of the deforming metal, upon temperature, strain, and strain rate, has been included. It is with this dependency that this paper is concerned. Loizou and sims4 looked at the above relationship for lead using both a constant compression-speed Cam Plastometer and a constant true-strain-rate Cam Plastometer designed by Orowan.5 Alder and Phillips8 investigated the relationships for aluminum, copper, and steel in the same constant true-strain-rate Plastometer. cook7 tested twelve steels at temperatures ranging from 1170° to 1473°K in the same Plastometer over a range of true-strain rates of 1.5 to 100 sec-'. The writer tested commercially pure aluminum at room temperature and depleted uranium at temperatures from 573" to 873°K at strain rates from 10-3 to 1.0 sec-1 in a Cam Plastometer designed and built at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.8 During the past few years the Cam Plastometer at Los Alamos has been used for a number of relatively minor experiments on brass, mild steel, duralumin, Armco iron, and depleted uranium. In this time the machine has been continually modified and improved. It was decided to utilize fully the wide range of strain rates now available with the machine by testing a material about which some information was already in the literature. Prior work on commercially pure aluminum6 appeared to deserve confirmation and expansion. So it was decided to explore the resistance to compression of this material over the currently available range of constant true-strain rates and a convenient range of temperatures. This paper is a report of that exploration. I) EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURE The principal item of equipment is, of course, the Cam Plastometer, the working part of which is shown in Fig. 1. In this figure, an aluminum specimen may be seen between two tungsten carbide platens, in position for a room-temperature test. Above the upper carbide platen is a load cell. Output from the load cell is amplified and applied to a galvanometer in a recording oscillograph. Auxiliary equipment includes the oscillograph, the control console, a counter, and a time-mark generator. The counter is first used in adjusting the time base. Then it registers the count, of sixty pips per revolution generated by the rotating cam, in each second. These pips and the time base are also applied to galvanometers in the oscillograph. Thus, load, time, and cam position are recorded simultaneously. Heating of a specimen prior to compression is done

Jan 1, 1968

By AIME

After an adventurous past-four changes of government in thirty years -the whole of Silesia and attached coal territories have become part of the Polish State. The coal resources of this area are the biggest among the European countries. Under a surface area of 5700 sq km are about 100 coal seams, with a total thickness of 150 meters. According to German estimates, there are some 150 billion metric tons of coal ranging in thickness up to 14 m within a depth of 1500 m. The seams are mostly level, free from faults, with good top and bottom; the coal is of excellent quality, hard and clean; and mining conditions are favorable. The mines are worked at considerable depth by means of vertical shafts and operate with cage and skip hoisting. Before the war, the mines were up to date, equipped with modern machines. Among the European countries, output per man shift was the highest ? 1.9 to 2.1 metric tons ? and cost of production was the lowest.

Jan 1, 1949

MODERN mining is based on drilling--everything else stems from that. U. S. and Canadian mining companies and suppliers of mining equipment are constantly seeking new techniques and tools for increased drilling efficiency. Ultimate goal is increased bit-against-rock time. Just how important their efforts are can be seen through a legitimate extension of available statistics. In Canada some 70 million ft of drilling per year is required. While the number of feet actually drilled in the U. S. is unknown, it is possible to compare U. S. and Canadian mineral production, excluding oil and coal. In the U. S. mineral value was $4200 million and across the border $836 million. Taking into account the number of drilled feet required to produce Canada's total, the U. S. total would be 365 million ft in 1953. A saving of 14 per ft would reduce over- all metal and nonmetal mining costs some $3.65 million per year. This does not take into account other indirect savings. Methods have changed and there have been structural and metallurgical advances in blasthole practice in the last ten years. The Editors of MINING ENGINEERING in the articles on the following pages present the most significant innovations coupled with results in the field. Environment plays an important role in selection of materials and equipment -but while unanimity does not exist throughout the industry in reference to drilling problems, a definite trend is evident. For the story of that trend read the articles on the following pages.

Jan 9, 1954

Prof. H. O. Hofman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. (communication to the Secretary): When Mr. Stetefeldt quotes me as saying that " silver-assays are uniformly made by scorification," he has evidently not understood that I was referring solely to the practice of silver-lead smelting-works. Everybody knows that silver-mills do not employ the scorification-assay for regular work ; and it is equally certain that in very few, if any, silver-lead smelting-works will the crucible-assay be found in use for determining silver. The second part of the quotation, "as it is adapted to all kinds of ores and gives excellent results unless organic matter is present," although, of course, also intended in a restricted sense, might very well be extended to a general one. Mr. Furman, in his Manual of Practical Assaying,* says, on page 123: "We believe that the Colorado practice is preferable, as most ores will yield higher silver-results by scorification." The fact that the scorification-assay is the accepted one in Colorado is strong presumptive evidence for its accuracy, as exactness would nowhere else be more jealously demanded. Mr. Stetefeldt cites Albert Arents- as a supporter of his preference for the crucible-assay, although I had already done so in favor of scorification. Looking up again the reference, I find that I was justified in quoting him, as, while Mr. Arents advocates the crucibleassay for low-grade gold ores, not on account of the greater accuracy of its results, but because it is quicker and less expensive, he condemns it§ for the assay of silver-ores, and prefers the scorifier for rich goldores, and for coppery ores, and in general for ores containing both silver and gold. As I, like Mr. Stetefeldt, have kept no detailed

Jan 1, 1895

By O. P. Dolph

SPANIARDS were probably the first to mine the rich surface ore in the veins cutting the rhyolite capping that outcrops on the hills of La Mazata, oil the Allyones side of the Magdalena valley in Jalisco, Mexico, although the name comes from a word of Indian origin meaning "deer". The camp is about 12 km. west of Magdalena, a town on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and about 17 km. north of Etzatlán, on the Mexican National Railroad, at an elevation of 4500 ft. The climate is subtropical with no extremes of heat or cold, the rainy season beginning in June and ending in October.

Jan 1, 1938

By Paul M. Tyler

THE winning of metals from Nature has been advanced to a degree of efficiency that commands admiration even in this Machine Age. Economy of human effort underground, in surface plants, and in treatment works, and better means of performing all manner of operations have cut costs and im¬proved products to an extent that seems far beyond the wildest imagin¬ings of those that labored in the days of hand mining and muscular metallurgy. Principles and methods borrowed from other professions and sciences - mechanical engineering, chemistry, and physics-all have con¬tributed to the rapid development of ore production and treatment, but no small part of the achievements must be credited to the free exchange of ideas within the industry itself and mass attack upon problems of mutual concern. The esprit de corps or class consciousness that has contributed so effectively to the progress of the metal industries has been less apparent among nonmetallic mineral producers. As a class they have been handicapped by inadequate contact with the metal-mining fraternity as well as among themselves.

Jan 1, 1935

By Byron B. Morton

NICKEL-BEARING alloys are associated with petroleum in the fields of exploration, production, and refining. In the first- named field the geologist of today makes use of such instruments as the seismograph, torsion balance, and magnetometer, the selection of proper alloys and metals for the manufacture of which is an important matter. Nickel-bearing alloys are useful for parts that require resistance to corrosion or that must have non-magnetic properties. Where special co- efficient of thermal expansion are de- sired, they are obtained by using alloys high in nickel (20 to 60 per cent), since, by varying the nickel contents, alloys can be obtained ranging fro111 "Invar", with a low expansion between -40 and 175 cleg. F., to those with coefficients of expansion exceeding that of steels. The latter are obtained by additions of chromiurn to the alloys. Alloys containing 50 to 80 per cent of nickel, which possess high magnetic permeability, find application in certain instruments where this property is important.

Jan 1, 1935

By J. E. Johnson

(Cleveland Meeting, October, 11,1912.) THE subject of blast-furnace slag is one which has had much consideration, particularly from the scientific standpoint, and several years ago technical literature contained many learned discussions on the oxygen-ratio of the acids and the bases, all on the assumption that acids and bases must be present in a ratio depending on molecular weight and chemical valency. Much work has also been done, sometimes in conjunction with the former, on the total heat and the temperature of initial fusion or softening of various slags. A wider knowledge of the blast-furnace now enables us to say that for practical purposes this work has been of almost no value. It is now generally admitted that on the physical side the important point of a given slag is neither its total heat of fusion nor its softening-point, but its free-running temperature, since this is the critical temperature of the furnace. This temperature bears no definite relation to the softening-temperature, as determined by Seger cones, for instance, because some slags melt relatively like ice, with a very short viscous-range, while others melt relatively like tar, with a very long viscous-range. In one the difference between the softening- and the free-running temperature may be very small, as little as 100° F., while in another this difference may easily be 200° or 300°. The importance of this difference is so great in practice as to destroy completely the value of exhaustive investigations, even such as those of 0. Boudouard, published a few years ago.1 * Presented also at the Joint Meeting of the Institute with Section IIIa, Metallurgy and Mining, of the Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry, New York, September, 1912. 1 It may not be amiss at this point to call attention to the excellent suggestion of Woolsey McA. Johnson, made several years ago, for determining the temperature at which different slags have the same practical fusibility. This suggestion

Oct 1, 1912