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By Charles Becker

THE practice of drying phosphate in Florida is as old as the industry, which began a little more than half a century ago. The methods, however, have changed considerably. At first, the natural process of exposure to the sun and air was used, later supplemented by wood fires beneath open-air stationary dry kilns and drying towers of various designs. It was not until the early nineties that rotary driers came into use, and at first they were of very small design and fired with wood. As the industry grew and tonnage increased, so likewise grew the number and size of rotary driers, until today the largest installations are 6 ft. up to 7 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and 55 to 60 ft. long, fired with crude oil. The reasons for drying phosphate rock are: (1) to eliminate freight on water in the shipment and (2) to facilitate the good grinding qualities required by the buyers in their acidulation. Phosphate pebbles vary materially in natural characteristics and each property has a direct bearing on the processing. In making comparisons of cost and operating conditions, the following are usually taken into consideration: 1. The hard dense pebbles, which contain very little interior moisture and 6 to 8 per cent total moisture, usually produced from the low-grade deposits. 2. The lighter, porous pebbles, which contain 4 to 5 per cent interior moisture and a total moisture ranging from 9 to 15 per cent. 3. The product of recovery operations using oily reagents, containing from 15 to 25 per cent moisture. 4. The size of the pebbles. Usually the plus 5-mesh material is considered as "coarse rock"; the minus 5-mesh plus 24-mesh is "fine rock," and the minute particles below 24 mesh are called "concentrate." 5. The amount of moisture allowed in the dried product. The practice is generally to dry down to 1.5 to 2 per cent moisture. There is, however, an actual range in guarantee of from 1 per cent maximum to 3 per cent maximum.

Jan 1, 1936

By G. R. Mansfield

THE third year of Government exploration for potash by the U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. Bureau of Mines under the authorization of the act approved June 25, 1926 (Public 424-69th Cong.) is drawing to a close. The results thus far obtained are thought to be sufficiently interesting and satisfactory to justify the presentation of a brief pre¬liminary account of the work. REVIEW OF EARLIER EXPLORATION The general geologic similarity of the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico to the potash field of Germany had long ago suggested the possibility of the presence of potash salts somewhere in that basin, but petroleum exploration was then making little headway there and the necessary data could not be obtained. The discovery by Udden in 1912 of potash in brine from the Spur well in Dickens County, Texas, was the first direct evidence of its presence. In 1915-17 the U. S. Geological Survey drilled a test well with standard tools at Cliffside near Amarillo, but failed to find potash. Nevertheless, an observer has been kept in the field, at first in cooperation with the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology but since 1922 by the Survey alone, to secure data and samples from oil and gas tests. Since the discovery of oil in Reagan County in 1923 exploration by drilling has been rapidly extended to many parts of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The identification of the potash-bearing mineral polyhalite was first announced by the Geological Survey in June, 1921, the material having come from cuttings from the Bryant well in Midland County and the Burns well in Dawson County, Texas. Successive discoveries and announcements of similar purport aroused widespread interest in potash exploration, which culminated in the action by Congress already noted.

Jan 1, 1929

ARTHUR H. STORRS, Scranton, Pa.-I would like to ask whether this same process is applicable to bituminous coal? FELLS A. VOGEL, New York, N. Y.-This Dutch process is applicable to bituminous or any other kind of coal. The Berwind Fuel Co. has had a plant in operation, in Superior, Wis., for about 2 years, using the Dutch process, and it has made a very satisfactory briquette, using Pocahontas coal. There is just one item in Mr. Frey's paper I would like to discuss; that is, the matter of cost. Mr. Frey figures a total cost of $3.35, based on the use of 7 per cent. of oil. Of course, the price of oil has advanced seriously within the last year or two, and any possible reduction in the percentage of oil required in the manufacture of briquettes is very important. I believe that Mr. Frey will agree that very good briquettes can be made with considerably less than 7 per cent. of oil; in fact, actual experience has shown that it can be clone with less than 5 per cent. The only possible effects of a low percentage of oil, particularly in anthracite briquettes, are that the briquette might not burn so freely, and that it might not be quite so hard. Briquettes made by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., using 7 per cent. of binder, are extremely tough. Those briquettes have been handled in one of the local yards in Brooklyn, chuting them from railroad cars into boats and digging them out by grab buckets, and the losses average less than 2 per cent. This compares very favorably with domestic anthracite coal, with which the losses from breakage amount to between 7 and 10 per cent.

Jan 4, 1918

By Charles N. Becker

The practice of drying phosphate in Florida is as old as the industry, which began a little more than half a century ago. The methods, however, have changed considerably. At first, the natural process of exposure to the sun and air was used, later supplemented by wood fires beneath open-air stationary dry kilns and drying towers of various designs. It was not until the early nineties that rotary driers came into use, and at first they were of very small design and fired with wood. As the industry grew and tonnage increased, so likewise grew the number and size of rotary driers, until today the largest installations are 6 ft. up to 7 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and 55 to 60 ft. long, fired with crude oil. The reasons for drying phosphate rock are: (1) to eliminate freight on water in the shipment and (2) to facilitate the good grinding qualities required by the buyers in their acidulation. Phosphate pebbles vary materially in natural characteristics and each property has a direct bearing on the processing. In making comparisons of cost and operating conditions, the following are usually taken into consideration: 1. The hard dense pebbles, which contain very little interior moisture and 6 to 8 per cent total moisture, usually produced from the low-grade deposits. 2. The lighter, porous pebbles, which contain 4 to 5 per cent interior moisture and a total moisture ranging from 9 to 15 per cent. 3. The product of recovery operations using oily reagents, containing from 15 to 25 per cent moisture. 4. The size of the pebbles Usually the plus 5-mesh material is considered as "coarse rock"; the minus 5-mesh plus 24-mesh is "fine rock," and the minute particles below 24 mesh are called "concentrate." 5. The amount of moisture allowed in the dried product. The practice is generally to dry down to 1.5 to 2 per cent moisture. There is, however, an actual range in guarantee of from 1 per cent maximum to 3 per cent maximum.

Jan 1, 1938

By Charles N. Becker

The practice of drying phosphate in Florida is as old as the industry, which began a little more than half a century ago. The methods, however, have changed considerably. At first, the natural process of exposure to the sun and air was used, later supplemented by wood fires beneath open-air stationary dry kilns and drying towers of various designs. It was not until the early nineties that rotary driers came into use, and at first they were of very small design and fired with wood. As the industry grew and tonnage increased, so likewise grew the number and size of rotary driers, until today the largest installations are 6 ft. up to 7 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and 55 to 60 ft. long, fired with crude oil. The reasons for drying phosphate rock are: (1) to eliminate freight on water in the shipment and (2) to facilitate the good grinding qualities required by the buyers in their acidulation. Phosphate pebbles vary materially in natural characteristics and each property has a direct bearing on the processing. In making comparisons of cost and operating conditions, the following are usually taken into consideration: 1. The hard dense pebbles, which contain very little interior moisture and 6 to 8 per cent total moisture, usually produced from the low-grade deposits. 2. The lighter, porous pebbles, which contain 4 to 5 per cent interior moisture and a total moisture ranging from 9 to 15 per cent. 3. The product of recovery operations using oily reagents, containing from 15 to 25 per cent moisture. 4. The size of the pebbles Usually the plus 5-mesh material is considered as "coarse rock"; the minus 5-mesh plus 24-mesh is "fine rock," and the minute particles below 24 mesh are called "concentrate." 5. The amount of moisture allowed in the dried product. The practice is generally to dry down to 1.5 to 2 per cent moisture. There is, however, an actual range in guarantee of from 1 per cent maximum to 3 per cent maximum.

Jan 1, 1938

By Clintford R. Jones, Om P. Pande

This chapter presents a survey of instrumentation and control systems used on ball mill circuits from the past to the present. It is based on the concept of optimization of plant practice, and addresses the influence of the circuit design on the control strategy and on the instrumentation philosophy. Methods of optimization of the grinding circuit, within the constraints of the mill design requirements, are reviewed. The modern use of automation and circuit optimization is critically reviewed for known and possible conceptual control loops. A comparative study of circuit variations due to instrument hardware, location and installation is provided. Future trends i.e., computer control (DDC) and the effects on both the control stratagems and the optimization stratagems are described.

Jan 1, 1982

By David J. Reddish, Barry N. Whittaker

The characteristics of surface ground strains due to longwall mining are reviewed with special reference to U.K. coal mining observations. The current empirical method of estimating ground strain is discussed. A method of determining surface ground strain above a longwall extraction is described whereby strain can be accurately represented along a line in any direction. The discussion is supported with examples of its application to common subsidence engineering problems.

Jan 1, 1984

By John Gross

THE deductions drawn in crushing and grinding operations have heretofore been based on a separation of the products into various sizes. A crushed product may be sized by sieving, by elutriation, and by aid of the microscope. To estimate the surface of each size the relation of the surface to the estimated average diameter must be assumed. Such a relation, owing to the irregularity of the particles, may involve two assumptions: First, a factor to convert average diameter to surface for one particular size; and second, a variation in the factor as the diameter of the particle changes. Obviously a surface measurement in which such assumptions and estimates are involved is questionable. In the first paper of this series1 a method has been given by which an accurate measure of surface of quartz can be obtained from its dissolution rate. By the use of this method, surface measurements have been made on a series of sieve sizes of crushed quartz, the results of which are given and discussed in this paper.

Jan 1, 1928

By A. K. Sinha

The annual production and productivity of underground coal mines in recent years declined from 334 Mt (368 million st) and 14.5 t (16 st) per man per shift in 1969 to approximately 254 Mt (280 million st) and less than 8 t (9 st) per man per shift in 1977. Productivity is still hovering at about 7.25 t (8 st) per man per shift. According to US Bureau of Mines, the estimated US coal reserve is about 396 Gt (437 billion st), 68.65% of which is obtainable by underground mining methods. Approximately 153 Gt (169 billion st), or about 85.2% of the high Btu premium coking coal of the eastern US, would need to be extracted by underground mining methods. It is thus apparent that under- ground mining will continue to play a major role in total US coal production, which is expected to rapidly increase to about 1.1 Gt (1.2 billion st) by 1985, with about 606 Mt (668 million st) being contributed by underground mines. Production Potential of Continuous Mining The production potential of a continuous mining section depends primarily on the producing ability of the miner, transporting ability of the face haulage, and the matching of the two systems. The producing ability of the continuous miner depends on its actual cutting ability and the time available for cutting coal. The performance of 10 continuous miners operating in coal seams of various thicknesses were monitored in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, using continuous electrical power analyzers and time studies. The recordings on current and power strip charts yielded an accurate analysis of the cutting, trimming, and idle times of the machines on a full shift basis. Continuous miners of various models and sizes from 112-298 kW (150-400 hp) were monitored. Based on actual cutting time, the average cutting ability of the machines, as shown in [Fig. 1], ranged from

Jan 1, 1983

There were two official representatives of Foreign Governments as guests at the Chicago Meeting. One was Frederick Goransson, managing director of the Saudvikens Steel Works, who represented the Jernkonteret, the Iron and Steel In-stitute of Sweden, and who came to this country especially for our meeting. The other distinguished guest was Commander Toublet, who repre-sented the French Embassy. Commander Toublet delivered a most polished address at the Banquet, dealing with the felicitous relations existing between this country and France for the last 150 years. Com-mander Toublet was accompanied by Mrs. Toublet, who won the hearts of all the ladies present, whose guest she was.

Jan 11, 1919

By P. Ramachandrarao, T. R. Anantharaman

EVER since the technique of quenching metals and alloys from the melt (splat cooling) was perfected a decade ago, it has been recognized that the grain size of products solidified by this technique may be extremely small.' The further observation that fcc metals quenched from the liquid state contain very few dislocations has led to the inference2 that metals are subjected to negligible or no stresses during the rapid solidification characteristic of the "gun" or "piston-and-anvil" technique. Evidence for the incidence of appreciable densities of stacking faults has, however, been obtained in case of some splat-cooled fcc and hcp alloys,3 although not for pure metals. In the light of these earlier observations it was considered desirable to study X-ray line-broadening effects, if any, in fcc metals rapidly cooled from the melt. In the present work pure silver (>99.99 pct), aluminum (>99.99 pct) and lead (>99.9 pct) were quenched from the liquid state from temperatures about 50°C above the melting point by the "gun technique" and the resulting foils were subjected to X-ray examination in a Philips Diffractometer. The quenched foils (up to -10 u thick) did not generally stick to the substrate surface and could be easily transferred to the Diffractometer without introducing any plastic deformation. The profiles of the first five reflections from the foils were recorded in each case with Cu Ka, radiation at the slowest available scanning speed of 1/8 deg per min. To correct for instrumental broadening, profiles were also recorded from the metals annealed in vacuo at suitable temperatures. The integral breadths of the X-ray reflections were arrived at by a procedure described earlier.' There was a distinct suggestion of preferred orientation in the recorded intensities of reflections from aluminum and lead foils. Such an effect was not observed in case of silver. In addition, the integral breadths of X-ray reflections from splat-cooled aluminum and lead were not significantly different from those recorded for the annealed metals. The analysis was therefore continued only for silver where the X-ray line broadening was appreciable. The pure diffraction broadening, B, was evaluated for each X-ray reflection (hkl) from silver from the observed, B, and instrumental, b, breadths with the aid of each of the three equations due to Scherrer,5 Anantharaman and Christian,6 and Warren and Biscoe,7 respectively: Bs= B-b BAC=B- b2/B Table I gives the values of particle size, 71, the lattice strain, E, arrived at by the use of the following well-known relations and on the assumption that all observed diffraction broadening could be attributed to lattice strain or particle size, respectively: E = 1/4 cos ? n= B cos ? where A is the wavelength of X-radiation and 0 is the Bragg angle. As no significant peak shifts or asymmetry could be detected in the profiles from the foils, the possibility of any significant contribution due to twins or stacking faults was ruled out. The absence of faults is by no means surprising since pure silver is known to develop stacking faults only on severe deformation and the stacking fault densities recorded so far for even silver filings have been extremely low.' The very low values for percentage mean deviation from the mean value for the particle size in Table I strongly suggest that all observed broadening in splat-cooled silver can be attributed only to small particle size. This conclusion receives further support from the lowest mean deviation recorded for data computed from the Scherrer equation based on Cauchy profiles that are considered characteristic of particle size broadening. Further analysis for separation of particle size and lattice strain effects was considered unnecessary in view of the very large mean deviations obtained for strain values and also the earlier results suggesting absence of even detectable strain in metals and alloys quenched from the melt. It is to be stressed in this connection that the particles are actually grains and not cells formed by walls of high dislocation density usually encountered in deformed samples. As such, the absence of strains is not surprising. The present results are probably the first to record X-ray line broadening due only to small particle

Jan 1, 1970

By E. R. Smith

ANALYSIS of the requirements for gun perforation equipment suitable for penetrating casing and cement showed that these points would be involved: (1) Powder charges electrically detonated under high fluid lieads and at remote distances. (2) Selective firing of sliots in sequence. (3) Sufficient velocity for the bullet to penetrate at least two strings of seamless casing and all cement beyond the strings. (4) Heat-treatment of steels to withstand great pressures and penetration. (5) Esclusiorl of fluid under extremely high hydrostatic pressure. (6) Stranded steel wire line acting as weight - suspending and current - carrying medium. (7) Firing controls operated above the surface. (8) Determining gun depth and suspended weight by means of the wire line. (9) Portability for field use.

Jan 1, 1936

By P. T. Chiang

Chemical etching methods for the simultaneous revealing of the tellurium or selenium Phase and the chalcogenide grain boundaries of the alloy systems are given. A tellurium eutectic was found Present in zone-melted ingots. Similarly, a selenium monotectic was present in ingots. In general, the second phase (tellurium or seleniumn) occubies three different sites; viz., along the chalcogenide grain boundaries, as inclusions within the chalcogenide grain, and on the undersurface of the ingot. The detection limit for the tellurium phase is about 1 u in width. THERMOELECTRIC materials based on Group V (bismuth, antimony) and Group VI (selenium, tellurium) elements have aroused considerable interest in recent years in the practical application of thermoelectric cooling. In many cases, a small amount of excess tellurium (or selenium) was added to the material to optimize its thermoelectric properties. Then the question immediately arises as to the number of phases present in the resultant alloy. In the binary systems of Bi-Te, Sb-Te, and Bi-Se, the congruent melting compositions have been reported to be non-stoichiometric and are represented by Bi~Te respectively. It is to beexpected and known that Bi2Te3 and SbzTe3 crystallize from the melt with an excess of bismuth and antimony in the lattice and that tellurium forms a eutectic.~' The same could be assumed to take place in the pseudo binary systems of (Bi,Sb)zTe3 and Bi2(Se,Te)3 as well as in the system studiedby puotinen5 and other workers. Likewise, BiaSe3 crystallizes from the melt with an excess of bismuth in the lattice and selenium forms a monotectic.~ Therefore, in practice, alloys solidified from the melt often contain a second phase (tellurium or selenium) in one region or another of the solid mass even without the addition of excess tellurium (or selenium). ~u~~recht' studied the thermoelectric properties of (Bi,Sb)2Te3 alloys with excess tellurium and simultaneous additions of selenium. He mentioned that the materials show two phases because of the considerable excess of tellurium or selenium. However, he did not report as to how the tellurium or selenium phase was identified. It is generally believed that the presence of an excessive amount of tellurium or selenium phase in the alloy would adversely affect its thermoelectric properties and its uniformity. Consequently, there is a need for a simple method for the identification of the tellurium and selenium phase. The quantity of the second phase present is usually too small to be detected either by chemical analysis or by normal X-ray techniques. This investigation was therefore carried out, first, to devise a simple metallographic method for the identification of the tellurium or selenium phase coexisting with the chalcogenides and, second, to determine the distribution and specific location of the tellurium or selenium phase in the ingots. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The starting materials used for the alloy preparations were 99.999 pct pure bismuth, antimony, and tellurium and 99.997 pct pure selenium. The bismuth and antimony were obtained from Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. of Canada Ltd., while the selenium and tellurium were obtained from Canadian Copper Refiners Ltd. The tellurium was purified further in the laboratory by zone refining. The elements were pulverized in a stainless-steel pestle and mortar. The amounts for the desired composition were weighed out each time on an analytical balance to make up a 100-g sample. Then the sample was introduced into a Vycor ampule (19 by 150 mm), pumped down to a vacuum of 10"5 Torr for 15 min, and sealed off. The ampule was then heated in a horizontal resistance furnace at 800" to 900°C for about 20 hr. During this period the assembly was rocked back and forth several times to ensure good mixing. At the end of the heating period, the ampule was quenched in cold water and then transferred to the zone-melting apparatus described in a previous publications to grow large-size aligned polycrystals. The background and ring-heater temperatures were adjusted to make the freezing solid-liquid interface slightly convex to the liquid. The recorded temperature gradient in the vicinity of the freezing solid-liquid interface was around 15°C per cm. The ampule was moved horizontally at a speed varying from 0.4 to 2 cm per hr so that the ring heater would cover the whole ingot length from end to end. A single zone-melting pass was used for the Bi-Te, Sb-Te, and Bi-Sb-Te ingots. Two passes in the forward and reverse directions were carried out for the Bi-Se and Bi-Se-Te ingots. Six passes in the forward and reverse directions were performed for the Bi-Sb-Se-Te ingot. The zone-melted ingots were found to contain several large crystals, with their basal planes (0001) approximately parallel to the growth axis. Samples of bismuth and antimony tellurides coated with a layer of tellurium, and bismuth selenide coated with a layer of selenium, were prepared for comparison in phase identification. These coatings were made by dropping a piece of the zone-melted ingot into some molten tellurium or selenium under argon atmosphere and allowing them to cool slowly to room temperature. The metallographic specimens were prepared by

Jan 1, 1969

By Harold S. Morgan

INTRODUCTION The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is being developed in southeastern New Mexico by the United States Department of Energy as a research and development (R&D) facility to demonstrate the safe disposal in salt of radioactive wastes resulting from defense activities. As part of the WIPP R&D program, a series of in situ tests will be performed to determine the behavior of drifts and storage rooms in the creeping salt medium (Matalucci, et al. 1982). Data obtained in these tests will be used to evaluate and improve numerical models used to compute the structural response of these drifts and rooms. Stress has been proposed as one of the parameters to be measured in the tests, and borehole inclusion stressmeters have been included in the instrumentation package. Cages of this type provide an indirect measurement of stress change in that they actually monitor borehole displacements which are then related to changes in the in situ stress away from the borehole. The relationship between stress and displacement is highly dependent upon the constitutive behavior of the rock in which the gage is emplaced. This relationship is well understood for rocks with linear stress-strain behavior (Fossum, et al, 1976), but, for creeping rocks like salt, the relationship has yet to be determined. Thus, inclusion gage response in salt must be investigated fully before stress measurements from the WIPP in situ tests can be used for comparisons with computed stresses The calculations presented in this paper were performed as part of an investigation of inclusion stressmeter performance in salt. They focus on the strain gaged stressmeter (SGS) (Cook and Ames, 1979) and on a hypothetical solid cylindrical inclusion with variable stiffness Issues addressed include the effects of creep and the effects of gage stiffness on stressmeter output for various loading conditions. The

Jan 1, 1984

Upon the recommendation of its Technical Committee, The Com-pressed Air Society has adopted the following definitions of, certain terms. Displacement.-The displacement of an air compressor is the volume displaced by the net area of the compressor piston. Capacity.-The capacity should be expressed in cubic feet per minute, and is the actual amount of air compressed and delivered, expressed in terms of free air at intake temperature and at the pressure of dry air at the suction. Volumetric Efficiency.-Volumetric efficiency is the ratio of the capacity to the displacement of the compressor, all as defined above. Compression Efficiency.-Compression efficiency is the ratio of the work required to compress isothermally all the air delivered by an air compressor to the work actually clone within the compressor cylinder, as shown by indicator cards, and may he expressed is the product of the volumetric efficiency (the intake pressure and the hyperbolic logarithm of the ratio of compression), all divided by the indicated mean effective pressure within the air cylinder or cylinders.

Jan 8, 1918

By A. C. Fraker, H. H. Stadelmaier

WIENER and Bergerl reported the existence of the nitrides Fe3NiN and Fe3PtNwith a cubic L1'2 structure. The present note shows that a similar nitride Fe3PdN can be observed and that the composition range between the iron nitride Fe4N and the nitrides Fe3NiN, Fe3PdN, and Fe3PtN is occupied by single-phase cubic nitrides with structures intermediate between L1' and L1'2. The materials used in this investigation were electrolytic iron of 99.9 pct purity, carbonyl nickel of 99.7 pct purity, sponge platinum of 99.95 pct purity, and palladium sheet of 99.8 pct. purity. Binary alloys of the transition metals were induction-melted in a crucible of fused alumina, powdered, and screened to a particle size of - 200 mesh. The powders were nitrided at 600°C in a gas mixture of ammonia and hydrogen, and the crystal structure was determined with the aid of a Wilson powder camera. The results are compiled in Table I together with information from the paper of Wiener and Berger.1 The compound at the nominal composition Fe3PdN has a diffraction pattern with prominent reflections of a face-centered cubic lattice (h2 + k2+l2 = 3, 4, 8, 11, 12, 16) and weaker superstructure lines (h2 + k2 + 12 = 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14). With decreasing palladium content the superstructure lines become weaker and approach the intensity of those of Fe4N. No analysis was made of the intensities, but it can be assumed that the structure is that found by Wiener and Bergerl in Fe3NiN and Fe3PtN, namely L1'2 (perovskite structure) with both palladium and the interstitial nitrogen fully ordered. The dependence of the lattice constant upon the solute atom (Ni, Pd, Pt) content can be explained tolerably well by simple lattice expansion due to subsequent work confirms this suggestion, it will be of significance to order-disorder theory. The author is grateful to Lester Guttman for discussions on this topic.

Jan 1, 1961

By Fenton Scott, Patrick Hannon

Some occurrences of lead-zinc mineralization in Mississippian carbonates of central Nova Scotia are briefly described. The results of geophysical and geochemical prospecting are presented. Because the deposits do not give a positive response to these indirect techniques it is necessary to site exploratory drilling through the development of geological concepts.

Jan 1, 1976

By HUBERT O. De

IN December, 1936, several drilling tests were made at the Hubert O. De Beck feldspar mine at Green Mountain, N. C., to determine the most efficient type of hammier-drill bit and drilling method for use at this particular property. This mine is well recognized as having the hardest rock in the Burnsville - Spruce Pine feldspar district and drilling costs always have been high. Local structural deformation has greatly distorted and warped the normal crystalline structure of the feldspar so the rock is much tougher than usual. In studying drilling methods and bit types, available literature was re¬viewed but little specific data could be found on the direct comparison of four-point and six-point drill bits so the following results may be of some interest.

Jan 1, 1937

By John Wellington Finch

WHAT is an engineering opportunity? To the mining .engineer the natural assumption is that the first requisite 'is a mineral deposit, but, of course, it is not so simple as that. There are at various points on the earth really very great mineral deposits which, on account of geographic location, backwardness of the country, or hostility of its natives, are now, and for a long time to come will be, quite valueless. The mining engineer, and for that matter the civil engineer, is more dependent upon the decisions of capital than upon any other factor in his profession. Ordinarily it is to be assumed that money will go to any place where it is clear that an adequate return upon its investment can be secured, but for many years it has not been safe to depend upon this. ' As already stated, there are many places where local conditions are such that mining is not safe to engage in and there are still other places in which conditions have been so aggravated by the Great War and by the social unrest which has upset the Asiatic region that capital is naturally most reluctant to venture, even when engineering data makes the undertaking appear attractive. It will be evident, I. believe, that there are many factors vital to the success of a mining enterprise in some of the remote countries which we do not have to consider in the United States and which do not, in fact, exist here.

Jan 1, 1924

By John Wellington Finch

THE- impression which the public has of northern Canada is that it is a' vast wilderness of forests; river's, and. lakes, sparsely inhabited by. a few Indians and `containing a few, scattered trading posts of the Hudson Bay Co. This is far from the facts. The building of the Canadian Pacific Railway led to the discovery, in 1883, of the nickel deposits of Sudbury, Ont.; these are the largest known nickel deposits in the world and produce about 90 per cent. of the world's output of nickel. The building of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway north, from North Bay, to open up farming lands along Lake. Temiskaming, resulted in the discovery and development of the great silver deposits of the Cobalt area, Ontario. Since the discovery of these deposits in 1903 to Dec. 31, .1923, Cobalt has produced a total of ' 327,301,897 oz. of silver, valued at $212,668,434, and paid in. dividends $88,338,185. In 1923 the production of Cobalt amounted to 10,285,247 oz. of silver. Just south of Cobalt, in South Lorrain,. a. new silver district has recently been developed and mills have started production. These deposits are of such extent that 'a branch railroad is under construction from Cobalt to that area. Northwest of Cobalt is the Gowganda silver area which is also a producer of silver ore and is now attracting outside attention. This area is not connected by railroad.

Jan 1, 1924