Search Documents

By James K. Richardson

Today, the enigma of the "missing man" in the metal mining industry equals, and frequently surpasses in objective importance, the problems of ore development, drilling, sampling, pumping, milling techniques, geophysical prospecting, or any one of a hundred highly technical subjects. Unfortunately, as engineers, we have confined our attentions, in the main, to the scientific phases of mineral technology, relegating our man power problems to the background. But what good has all our scientific study and preparation been if we can't get the ore mined, milled, or smelted? What has happened to our labor supply? Where is the good old miner who could timber, drill a round, lay track, or do any job underground?

Jan 1, 1949

By John H. Hollomon

A REVIEW of the steps which have been made to increase knowledge in the field of ferrous physical metallurgy during the closing period of World War II brings both pleasure and disappointment. Contributions of great value have been made, to be sure. However, due partly to the stress of the times, researchers in this field have been in the main directing their attention toward the short-range problems involved in the development and production of materiel for war. Furthermore, publication of the results of a great number of studies has had to be delayed. Much of the German work may, indeed, be lost entirely, owing to the efficiency of our bombers, which managed to account for most of the famous Kaiser Wilhelm Institut of Dusseldorf, not to mention the other large laboratories and manufacturing plants throughout that country. It would seem safe to assume, however, that fundamental research in Germany had been forced to give way to the shallow, but more pressing, engineering problems of a country trying to avoid defeat. In Russia the picture has been clouded by the limitations imposed upon comunication; but this much does seem clear: Russia alone among the great nations of the world has maintained her long-range view and has continued to foster research of the most fundamental type. English workers; on the other hand, appear to have been able only to meet the demands of the pressing problems of war, and their studies have been of the short-range variety. That metallurgical research of any sort should have continued in France during this chaotic period in her history would seem impossible, but, amazingly, a small handful of scientists did manage to carry on their work, and it is to be hoped that more will be heard from them in the future.

Jan 1, 1946

By C. M. Fellman

THE over-all picture of safety in mining has been encouraging during the past few years, and in mining activities as a whole the trend in accident occurrence is downward. This is the more noteworthy when the type of labor used in mines during the war period is taken into consideration. The drafting of young mining employees into the armed services and the departure of others for work in other war industries took a heavy toll of young, husky, active men. Their places were taken in large part by older men who returned to the mines, or by inexperienced men with little if any knowledge of mining. Despite the lack of labor and especially of skilled labor, and the difficulty of obtaining new equipment as well as maintaining and replacing worn or broken equipment, and numerous other difficulties the mining industry not only reached and maintained maximum production but made the increase with little if any sacrifice of safety. In fact, in many instances better safety records were. established than in normal

Jan 1, 1946

By T. W. Beck

Roof bolter occupations in underground coal mines continue to experience overexposure to respirable dust. One potential source of dust in roof bolting operations is the exhaust from the roof bolter dust collection system. A wet exhaust conditioner (water box) has been developed to reduce dust emissions from the exhaust of the vacuum dust collection system on roof bolting machines. The exhaust conditioner consists of a muffler chamber and a water chamber with four internal partitions to direct airflow over the surface of the water. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health conducted a series of laboratory tests to assess the respirable dust capture ability of this device as compared to the standard exhaust muffler. To determine the dust collection efficiency, both devices were placed in the exhaust stream of a simulated roof bolter dust collection system. Gravimetric samplers were operated upstream and downstream of the exhaust conditioner and muffler to evaluate the ability to capture both respirable coal and limestone dust. Researchers observed a 41 % reduction in dust concentrations for the water exhaust conditioner in the laboratory configuration. Significant levels of dust deposition in the sampling chambers may have contributed to this effective capture rate.

Jan 1, 2012

By C. S. Finney, John Mitchell

The introduction of ovens for the production of metallurgical coke is believed to be due to L. L. Norton who operated an iron foundry in the vicinity of Connellsville, Pa. Persuaded by his foreman, an English immigrant named Nickols from Durham, L. L. Norton put up a 12-ft square oven which produced coke in 1833. The coal used was taken from a local mine at Mounts Creek. The oven seems to have been used in conjunction with the customary method of coking in mounds. It was in the Connellsville district also, in 1841, that two carpenters, Provence McCormick and James Campbell, formed a partnership with John Taylor, a stone mason, for the manufacture and sale of oven coke. The task of the mason was to construct the ovens, while the carpenters were to build the arks by which the coke could be taken by water to the market at Cincinnati. The following account of the enterprise was given by McCormick: "James Campbell and myself heard in some way that I do not now recollect that the manufacturing of coke might be made a good business. Mr. John Taylor, a stone mason, who owned the farm on which the Fayette coke works now stand, and who was mining coal in a small way, was spoken to regarding our enterprise, and proposed a partnership-he to build the ovens and make the coke and Mr. Campbell and myself to build a boat and take the coke to Cincinnati, where we heard there was a good demand. This was in 1841. Mr. Taylor built two ovens. I think they were about 10 feet in diameter. My recollection is that the charge was 80 bushels. The ovens were built in the same style as those now used, but had no iron ring at the top to prevent the brick from falling in when filling the oven with coal, nor had we any iron frames at the mouth where the coke was drawn. The top and mouth had to be repaired when they fell in. In the spring of 1842 enough coke had been made to fill two boats 90 feet long-about 800 bushels each-and we took them to Cincinnati down the Youghiogheny, Monongahela, and Ohio, but when we got there we could not sell. Mr. Campbell, who went with the boats, lay at the landing some two or three weeks, retailing out one boatload and part of the other in small lots at about 8 cents a bushel. Miles Greenwood, a foundryman of that city, offered to take the balance if he would take a small patent flour mill at $125.00 hi pay, which Mr. Campbell did. He had it shipped here. We tried it, but it was no good, and we sold it to a man in the mountains for $30.00, and thus ended our coke business." So successful did the coke subsequently prove to be in use that the three partners were asked to deliver more. Evidently they had had enough of the coke business, however, for they refused to have anything more to do with it. Few ovens were built between 1841 and 1855, and it is reported that in the latter year, "there were only 26 coke ovens along the river above Pittsburgh". Successful coke makers of these years included Mordecai Cochran, Richard Brookius, and Colonel A. M. Hill. It was the use of coke in 1859 in the Clinton furnace erected by Graff, Bennett and Co. in a plant on West Carson Street, Pittsburgh, that brought the real beginning of the coke-iron era in America. Here the successful use of Connellsville coke as a blast-furnace fuel was demonstrated beyond all possible doubt, and from the year 1859 the coking industry expanded tremendously. The era of beehive coke ovens During the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth, the major percentage of metallurgical coke produced in the United States came from beehive ovens. It was not until 1893 that the first battery of by-product ovens came

Jan 1, 1961

By L. W. Rowe, S. S. Cole

A laboratory bench scale unit is described whereby finely divided chlorinatable residues are held for a short period by a restraining bed of a coarse-grained ore of comparable composition to permit 'flash' chlorination of the high surface area powder. Results on chlorinating a finely divicled titania residue using rutile sand as the restraining bed showed that 92 pct utilization of chlorine and equivalent conversion of TiO2 in the fine residue to Ticl4 were attained with a dust loss of about 3 to 4 pct and an equivalent amount of ch1om'nation of the titanium values in the restraining bed. THE chlorination of coarse grain titaniferous ores; i.e., 20 to 150 mesh sizes in fluidized beds is practiced commercially.' One effective method found for the chlorination of a very fine material in a fluidized bed is the "flash" chlorination technique.' By charging the finely divided charge material into the bottom of an established bed of optimum sized rutile, ilmenite, titanium beneficiate, or even an inert material such as sand, chlorination occurs before the dust can pass through the bed. The major requirement is that the bed be less chlorinatable than the charge. In this process, the charge consists of a finely divided (between one and 50 µ) titania residue obtained from a titaniferous ore beneficiation process. The charge is blended with a 20 pct wt basis addition of 20 to 60 .mesh size low volatile coke (to minimize hydrogen chloride formation) and fed to the bottom of the bed with the chlorine gas stream. A ball check device is used to permit entry of the charge and prevent the bed from discharging when the gas flow is cut off. The coarse pieces of coke serve to reduce compaction in the charge mixture and permit sat]sfactory feeding without plugging or jamming. Feed and gas rates are adjusted to provide for complete reaction of the charge material, with 90 to 95 pct chlorine efficiency, and maintain a gas flow in the range of 0.4 to 0.6 ft per sec. The equipment consisted of a 3-in. diam mullite tube enclosed in an electric furnace. A bow-shaped 3/4 in. Saran tube fed the charge from an air lock type of feed hopper (to prevent the escape of the chlorine gas into feed bin) to the bottom of the bed. The charge rate was set by providing a small awiliary hopper below the feed hopper where a weighed portion of the charge could be discharged in a specified time interval into the main chlorine stream. The chlorine rate was measured by a flowmeter. The reaction tube was filled with a bed of Australian rutile ore, this restraining bed serving two purposes; i.e., it rapidly heated the fresh charge to the reaction temperature and retained the particles in the bed for a sufficient time for selective chlorination to proceed. Due to the fine particle size and open, porous structure of the charge, this reaction was almost instantaneous, and, with proper adjustment of feed and gas rates, very little fine material passed through the bed without reacting and only a very small fraction of the restraining bed was chlorinated. A typical reaction procedure was to fill the bench scale fluidized bed unit with a 1 kg charge of Australian rutile ore analyzing 95.5 pct TiO2, 0.6 pct FeO, a beach sand deposit 40 to 150 mesh size. When fluidized, the bed was approximately 2 ft in depth. The ore was fluidized with a 1:l mixture of chlorine and nitrogen at a rate of 0.40 ft per sec. This gas mixture was necessitated by the comparatively short bed depth; a larger unit, with a deeper bed, could be fluidized with chlorine alone without significant free chlorine loss. Feed rate was 8.0 g per min of beneficiated ilmenite analyzing 85.0 pct TiO2, 2.6 pct FeO plus 1.6 g per min of 20 to 60 mesh petroleum coke. The

Jan 1, 1962

Discussions of the paper of Mr. Gayley read by title at the Lake Superior hieeting, but first presented at the New York meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, October, 1904 (see p. 746). With the exception of Mr. Pourcel's discussion (p. 1038), these papers are here published under a mutual agreement between the Councils of the two Institutes, and will also be found, with others, in the Journal of the Iron and Steel In-slitute for the pear 1904, Mr. E. Windsor Richards, Past-President,' said that in 1799 Mr. Dawson, of Low Moor, read a paper before a scientific society in York pointing out the great diff'erence in the moisture of the air going into the blast-furnace in the hot months of the year and in the winter months. A cold blast-furnace was a very sensitive instrument, and showed this very clearly, for in June, July and August the furnace did not drive so well; it did not make the quality of iron and required more fuel; so that Mr. Gayley was on the right road to effect an enormous improvement in this direction. He considered that Mr. Gayley was on the way to great success, and hoped that the apparatus would not be a very expensive one. He supposed it mas too early for Mr. Gayley to let them know what the saviug was

Jan 1, 1905

By Reynold Q. Shotts

Data are presented which show that fractions of varying densities-from the same coals are oxidized at different rates by nitric acid. From oxidation data, the approximate quantity of "bright" and "dull" components may be calculated. Definite relationships between oxidation rate and rank are shown for density fractions from at least two bituminous coals.

Jan 1, 1950

By Willis H. Carrier

PARTICULAR interest in the ventilation of deep mines, especially those in South Africa, has been created by a very complete system of cooling of the world's deepest mine, the Turf shaft of the Robinson Deep in Johannesburg. The writer visited this mine in January, 1936, and again in 1937. During these visits and subsequently, a considerable part of the theory involved in rock cooling in tunnels was developed and this has been checked by practical observations of the rates of rock cooling made within mines. The purpose of this paper is to set forth the method of attack of the mine problem. The cooling or air conditioning of mines by the use of mechanical refrigeration was not wholly new 1-5 when the Robinson Deep installation was made. The first mine to be cooled was the Morro Velho mine, in Brazil. The first installation in this mine was put into operation in December 1920, the refrigerant being ammonia.5 The surface cooling gave considerable benefit but it proved inadequate as greater depths were reached, therefore in 1929 two centrifugal refrigerating machines were installed at the 6000-ft. level. These were used in conjunction with the surface cooling system to furnish additional cooling at the lower levels. This later installation used Carrene as a refrigerant. This nonflammable refrigerant, having a boiling point of 104º at sea level, insured reasonable safety, since all parts of the machine operated at subatmospheric pressure. Very favorable reports have been received on the effectiveness of this installation, but no recent data are available. An interesting feature of that plant is that the condenser water is cooled by spraying it into the exhaust air from the mine at the base of the ventilation upcast, which permits the water to be cooled within a few degrees of the wet-bulb temperature of the air entering the upcast, and the only water that has to be supplied for condensing purposes is that lost by evaporation, or about 0.5 per cent of the volume circulating through the condenser. This plan affords an ideal means for the removal of the heat load from the refrigerating system, and of course also from the mine itself. In many mines, however, especially those in South Africa, there is no

Jan 1, 1938

By H. H. Alexander

IN the early part of the last century textile fabric was used for the filtration of products of combustion and lampblack was obtained by passing smoke through a series of canvas bags. Natural draft was, used to draw and force the smoke through the bags. About 1850 bag filtration was used for collecting zinc oxide. Around 1876 it was introduced for collecting the fume from lead-ore hearth smelting in. Missouri. Shortly afterward it was used, first at Portland, Me., and later at Canon City, Colo., for the collection and production of zinc-lead pigment in treating mixed zinc-lead sulphides. In 1890 the Globe Smelting & Refining Co., at Denver, Colo., installed a bag house containing 1,458 bags for the recovery of fume from silver-lead blast furnaces. This installation was too small to handle all of the gases and was increased to approximately 2,300 bags. . In 1900 the number of bags was again increased, making a total of approximately 2,800: The usual difficulties incident to new installations were encountered, but they were gradually overcome and the bag house became accepted as standard practice for this class of smelting. As all of the bag houses built since have followed the general lines of the Globe installation, a short description may be of interest. The general construction of the Globe bag house is shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. The building is 149 ft. 8 in. long by 67 ft. 4 in. wide and 40 ft. 2 in. high from the basement floor to the eaves of the roof, having brick walls 26 in. thick from the foundation up to the thimble floor, from there an 18-in. wall for 16 ft. and a 13-in. wall from this point to the top, a distance of 14 ft. 2 in. Additional stiffening is given to the walls above the basement by pilasters located every 16 ft. The end-wall construction is similar to that of the side walls with the exception of the spacing of the pilasters, which is somewhat greater. The roof is made of corrugated iron laid on 1-in. boards and supported by a timber frame work spaced 16 ft. apart resting on the basement partition walls. On top is a louver running the

Jan 8, 1914

By J. H. McCormick

This plant, near Marysville, Mont., was planned to treat the ore from the Piegan and Gloster mines, the latter being one of the early and famous producers of the Marysville district. When the mill was closed in 1888, treatment consisted of stamp milling, followed by pans and settlers for pan amalgamation. The extraction was evidently poor, because, a few years later, thousands of tons of tailings were re-treated by the ranchers in the valley below the mill, by the then new cyanide process, and gave a handsome profit. In 1914, the present owners, after laboratory tests and an experimental mill run, decided upon the following treatment: crushing to 40 mesh in cyanide solution, concentration, amalgamation, classification, and cyani-dation of sands by leaching, and of slime by agitation and decantation in charges. The ore averaged about $7 per ton, gold and silver, the ratio of weight being 1 oz. gold to 7.56 oz. silver. The ratio of gold and silver in tailings was 1 oz. Au to 36.6 oz. Ag; the quartz was sharp and sandy, however finely ground, and rather difficult to slime. The mechanical equipment was a No. 5 Symons gyratory crusher; three 10-ft. Lane slow-speed Chilean mills; one Wilfley roughing and one finishing table; one submerged-type Akins classifier; five 26 by 10-ft. fir leaching tanks; one 24 by 7-ft. Dorr thickener; four 14 by 16-ft. Dorr agitators; four 6-compartment double-row zinc-boxes having compartments 18 in. wide, 18 in. deep, and 34 in. long; Johnson zinc lathe; acid and vacuum filter tanks for treating precipitate; roasting furnace; and Case tilting No. 275 crucible furnace for melting precipitate. The mill is driven by electric power supplied by the Montana Power Co. at the following rates, per kw.-hr.: 200 to 300 hp., 0.68 c.; 300 to 500 hp., 0.61 c.; 500 to 750 hp., 0.55 c.; plus $1 per month per installed motor horsepower. The plant as above described was operated from May, 1915, to the end of the year, when an additional Dorr thickener and a 12 by 12-ft. Portland revolving filter were added, increasing the nominal capacity of 100 tons per 24 hr., but not the percentage of extraction. The combined treatment, at a cost of $1.48 per ton, saved 90 per cent. of the gold arid

Jan 1, 1919

By A. S. Callen

These iron mines of Spain are located on the mountain ridge forming the boundary between the Teruel and Guadalajara provinces, called Sierra Menera. They form a property of 25 mines extending over an area of 1,677 hectares (4,140 acres) situated at a height varying from 1,200 m. (3,940 ft.) to 1,500 m. (4,920 ft.) above sea level. The deposit follows the direction north to south; huge masses of ore are being found both on the slopes and at the summit of the Sierra. The ore occurs among quartzites and magnesite limestone, in some places overlaid by quartzite 15 m. (50 ft.) thick; in some others (and this is more general) the ore is overlaid by earth and boulders of quartzite origin; this layer is about 8 m. (26 ft.) thick. The ore beds occupy the geological horizon of the Superior Trias or Muschelkask, which are here in direct contact with the Silurian quartzites. The lime-stones have been more or less transformed. There is ample evidence to show that these mines were worked in very ancient times—objects and tools employed in mining by the ancient Romans and Arabs are to be found plentifully in old workinigs which extend down into the deposits. It has been estimated that more than 10,000,000 tons of ore were mined in the old days in this district and carried to the primitive forges in the vicinity where iron of much renown in Spain was extracted. Remains of more than 20 of these forges are found in the neighborhood of Sierra Menera and are usually situated near waterfalls and forests. Much investigation has been carried on for the purpose of determining the quantity of ore to be found in these mines, but no exact calculations can be made at present. When the investigation is completed it will surely be found that the deposit contains a much larger quantity than the 100,000,000 tons indicated by the present workings. The mines are now worked as open quarries and this method can and will be followed for a long time, probably until the deposit is worked out. Figs. 1 and 2 give some idea of the quarries in operation and the reserves, the iron-ore stocks, screening installation and general arrangement. From these quarries 1,000,000 tons can be mined annually (987,000

Jan 1, 1916

By J. H. Swisher

ALUMINUM deoxidation equilibrium in liquid iron has been the subject of many investigations. Sawamura and Sano1 have written a critical survey of the literature on this subject and consider the data of Gokcen and chipman2 and of d'Entremont, Guernsey, and Chip-man3 to be most reliable. The present study was undertaken to check these data and extend the range of the experiments to lower temperature. The experiments consisted of equilibrating 5-lb Fe-Al melts with recrystallized alumina crucibles at 1580o + 10oC, and analyzing the solidified ingots for aluminum and oxygen. The electrolytic iron stock contained 100 ppm C, 20 ppm 0, and trace amounts of other elements.* The stock was induction-melted in an atmosphere of 5 pet H2 in argon to attain equilibrium between the melt and the crucible. The temperature was measured with a W, 3 pet Re/W, 26 pet Re thermocouple, and the equilibration time was about 4 hr. The results are plotted in Fig. 1 along with curves obtained from the data of d'Entremont et al.,3 for temperatures of 1740o and 1910°C. The present results can be seen to be consistent with the previously reported high-temperature data. The reaction under study is AI2O3 (s) = 2 Al (l) +3O [1] for which the deoxidation product is Kl =[% Al]2 [%O]3 [2] (Under the experimental conditions, Fe A12O4 is not expected to form.4) In Fig. 2, values of log Ki evaluated at 0.01 pet A1 are plotted against 1/T, using data obtained from all the investigations under consideration. The deoxidation product is plotted in Fig. 2 in lieu of the equilibrium constant (normally obtained by evaluating Ki as pet A1 — 0) because of the uncertainty involved in extrapolating to zero concentration. The difficulty in extrapolating the present data for 1580°C is apparent curvature in the log Ki vs pet Al plot. This curvature is perhaps due to the uncertainty in oxygen analysis for concentrations of 5 ppm and below. For the data of Gokeen and chipman,' the extrapolation is also difficult because of experimental scatter. The line drawn through the points plotted in Fig. 2 may be represented by the equation:

Jan 1, 1968

By C. M. Young

The safety lamp is the most common and convenient apparatus for detecting inflammable gases in mines, the presence of gas being shown by a blue flame, called the cap, if the wick has been lowered to suppress the luminous flame. The height of the cap increases with the proportion of gas and with the temperature of the lamp flame. Lamps of the Wolf type, the fuel of which is benzine, have a hotter flame than lamps in which vegetable oils are used, such as the Davy, and the Clanny, and are more sensitive than the latter and their many modifications. The Piehler alcohol lamp gives a still higher cap while the Clowes hydrogen lamp is most sensitive of all. While the effect of the temperature of the source of ignition is well known, the writer knows of no previous attempt to correlate the change of this temperature with change of the height of the cap produced, In order to determine the height of the cap at various temperatures, it was necessary to have a source of ignition the temperature of which could be accurately controlled over a considerable range. This condition was met by a coil of wire of high fusing point heated by an electric current controlled by a variable resistance. The use of a coil offered the further advantage of freedom from complications due to the flame of a burning fuel. Such a flame, being itself of variable height, would to some extent raise or lower the elevation of the base of the cap and therefore add to the difficulty of determining the height of the cap. Besides this, the presence of a small cap from the lamp fuel, commonly known as the "fuel cap," would interfere with the observation of small gas caps. After some experiment, a coil was made of platinum wire, No. 26, diameter 0.016 in. The coil was 17/64 in. (6.746 mm.) in outside diameter and had eight full turns in a length of 1/2 in. (12.69 mm.). This was connected to an electric circuit through an adjustable resistance, as shown in Fig. 1. In order to measure the temperature, a thermocouple was inserted in the center of the coil; the leads passed out at the ends and were ccnducted to a millivoltmeter. It is probable that the current of air passing upward through the coil resulted in the indication of a tempera-

Jan 1, 1920

By J. R. Martson

The arrangement of the larger furnace at the United Verde smelter, together with the boiler layout and connecting flues, is shown in Fig. 1. The important dimensions are given in the figure, and cross-sectional areas of combustion space, flues, etc., are recorded. The location and extent of the baffling in the boilers also are shown because of their importance in the interpretation of the data. Two boilers serve each reverberatory furnace. They are of the class M-26 Stirling type (rated at 713 boiler hp. each). Steam is generated at 178-lb. gage pressure at a total temperature of 528" F., from feed water at a temperature of 113" F. The feed water is condensate from turbogenerators plus make-up softened by the lime-soda process. The make-up is rather large in amount as it must match the amount of steam consumed in reciprocating blowing engines and the like, which are not served by surface condensers. As a result the boiler feed water has a hardness of 1.5 to 3.0 grains per gallon, but this results in the formation, during six months to one year of boiler operation, of scale only of "eggshell " thickness or less. The boilers are set at the same elevation as the tapping floor of the furnace, which results in the introduction of the waste-heat gases at the top of the front bank of tubes and necessitates the inversion of the usual baffling arrangements. The boilers are equipped with valve-in-the-head soot blowers, which keep most of the dust blown off the surface of the tubes, but it is necessary to supplement the soot blowers by high-pressure air lances, inserted by an attendant through side doors in the boiler setting. Deposits of coal ash and of dust from the furnace charge accumulate in the flues between the reverberatory furnaces and the boilers and this necessitates cleaning of these connecting flues by hand during the greater part of one of the three 8-hr. shifts during each 24 hr. This cleaning operation requires the opening of clean-out doors, which, of course, has some effect on the yield of steam. Revebberatory Furnace Practice The United Verde furnaces are fired with pulverized coal of sub-bituminous type of which the screen and chemical analyses are given in Table 1.

Jan 1, 1934

Some years ago the open Hearth Committee of the Institute reached the conclusion that the reading of "set" papers tended to preclude the specific and detailed discussion of specialized problems of current interest to those operating steel plants. As an innovation the Committee distributed in advance of the meeting in May, 1927, a questionnaire containing a list of 27 topics involving operating problems. The subsequent discussion of the questions, participated in by 37 members, was a conspicuous success. Semiannual meetings have been held since; and at the conference of November, 1929, at Chicago, 131 men were present and the minutes comprised a book of 133 printed pages, thereby, indicating the growing value of the conference in the eyes of both the metallurgists themselves and the companies that employed them. With this example in mind, the Directors felt that definite advantages would accrue to a similar conference to be participated in by smelter officials and metallurgists engaged in the operation of copper reverberatory furnaces. The settlement of the Carson litigation, which for several years had virtually stopped public discussion of reverberatory practice, offered an opportune time for launching the scheme. Although the Conference may become largely self-financing in the future, some funds were regarded as necessary to conduct the first meeting. The members of the Rocky Mountain Income Committee, in view of the fact that copper smelting was essentially an activity of the Rocky Mountain area, recommended the project be, in effect, underwritten by the Fund, and the directors approved an appropriation for this purpose. Invitations were extended to high executives of the various-companies interested to send representatives to an initial meeting to be held at Salt Lake City, May 26-27. The response was enthusiastic. Twenty-three metallurgists representing 12 different plants were present to discuss the comprehensive-program relating to construction and operating phases of reverberatory smelting. It was understood that the record was not to be included in the regular publications of the Institute but that it would be prepared for private distribution among the participants and the officials of their companies. That the exchange of views and experience was no less instructive and stimulating than it was frank, full and informal is indicated by the following transcript of the minutes of the meeting.

Jan 1, 1930

By H. H. Alexander

In the early part of the last century textile fabric was used for the filtration of products of combustion and lampblack was obtained by passing smoke through a series of canvas bags. Natural draft was used to draw and force the smoke through the bags. About 1850 bag filtration was used for collecting zinc oxide. Around 1876 it was introduced for collecting the fume from lead-ore hearth smelting in Missouri. Shortly afterward it was used, first at Portland, Me., and later at Canon City, Colo., for the collection and production of zinc-lead pigment in treating mixed zinc-lead sulphides. In 1890 the Globe Smelting & Refining Co., at Denver, Colo., installed a bag house containing 1,458 bags for the recovery of fume from silver-lead blast furnaces. This installation was too small to handle all of the gases and was increased to approximately 2,300 bags. In 1900 the number of bags was again increased, making a total of approximately 2,800. The usual difficulties incident to new installations were encountered, but they were gradually overcome and the bag house became accepted as standard practice for this class of smelting, As all of the bag houses built since have followed the general lines of the Globe installation, a short description may be of interest. The general construction of the Globe bag house is shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3. The building is 149 ft. 8 in. long by 67 ft. 4 in. wide and 40 ft. 2 in. high from the basement floor to the eaves of the roof, having brick walls 26 in. thick from the foundation up to the thimble floor, from there an 18-in. wall for 16 ft. and a 13-in. wall from this point to the top, a distance of 14 ft. 2 in. Additional stiffening is given to the walls above the basement by pilasters located every 16 ft. The end-wall construction is similar to that of the side walls with the exception of the spacing of the pilasters, which is somewhat greater. The roof is made of corrugated iron laid on 1-in. boards and supported by a timber frame work spaced 16 ft. apart resting on the basement partition walls. On top is a louver running the

Jan 1, 1915

By L. O. Howard

What was perhaps the first attempt at basic converting in the Southwest was made by the late Charles F. Shelby at Cananea early in 1907, when he removed the acid lining from one of the 8 by 12-ft. barrel-type converters then in use at the reduction works of the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. and substituted a lining of one course of magnesite brick. In this shell, he blew 21 taps (about 180 tons) of matte to white metal before the brick gave out along the tuyhre line. In every case, the white metal so made was transferred and blown to copper in other converters. The cost of the lining was $700 and Mr. Shelby gave up the experiment as impracticable. No further serious effort to bessemerize copper mattes in a vessel having a more or less permanent lining of basic brick was made by any of the large copper smelters in the Southwest until some months after Messrs. Peirce and Smith had brought the question permanently before the public, and had proved it to be a metallurgical and financial success by their work at Baltimore and Garfield. Early in 1911, the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. had in operation at its reduction works at Cananea, Mex., several 8 by 12-ft. barrel-type converters lined with magnesite brick which had previously been operating with acid linings. In the 18 months following, these converters produced 50,000 tons of copper. In June, 1912, this company installed the first of its new equipment of six stands of electrically operated 12-ft. Great Palls type converters, and shortly afterward discontinued the use of the smaller shells. In September, 1911, the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting & Refining Co. had installed at its El Paso plant two 10 by 26-ft. Peirce-Smith converters. Later, in March, 1913, one standard Great Falls type converter was added. About the time the Peirce-Smith converters were going in at El Paso, the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. was experimenting with basic linings in 7-ft. by 10-ft. 6-in. barrel converters at its plant in Douglas, Ariz. These efforts were sufficiently successful to enable the plant to "handle the total output of copper in these small shells until the standard Great Falls converters were substituted in June, .1914.

Jan 1, 1917

By L. D. Tracy

On Aug. 5 and 6,1918, and Mar. 26, 1919, the writer made an investigation of the mine-water neutralizing plant at the Calumet mine of the H. C. Frick Coke Co. The object of this plant is to develop a process of treating the water pumped from the mines so that it may be rendered suitable for use at the power plants of the mines and also at the coke ovens; at the same time, eventually producing a byproduct which will have enough commercial value to provide a sufficient revenue to place the plant on a self-sustaining basis. The Calumet mine is situated in Mt. Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pa., on a branch of the southwest branch of the Pittsburgh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It is about 6 mi. (9 km.) southeast of Greensburg, the county seat of Westmoreland County. The coal, which is the Pittsburg or Connellsville seam, lies at a depth of about 200 ft. (60 m.) and is brought to the surface by means of a shaft. The output of the mine averages 200,000 tons of coal annually, all of which is made into coke, either at the ovens, at the mine, or at byproduct ovens. There are 260 coke ovens at the mine. The continued development of the coal fields of Pennsylvania and the increased use of electric power in the operation of the mines has brought the problem of an increased water supply for the plants to the attention of the coal operators. This is especially true in the Connellsville coking region, where large quantities of water are used in quenching the coke at the ovens. Many of the streams receive the drainage from the mines; and as this water is highly acid and contains sulfur in various forms, some method of treatment is necessary to render it suitable for use at the plants of the mines. With this end in view, the H. C. Prick Coke Co., about 4 years ago, installed at its Calumet mine a plant for experimental purposes, in an endeavor to develop a process that would provide a maximum amount of suitable water at a minimum cost. From a purely technical point of view, the result of these experiments has been encouraging. The company is now endeavoring to place the plant on a commercial basis.

Jan 1, 1922

By Carleton Ellis

(Presented at a meeting of the New York Local Section of the Institute, Apr. 12, 1912.) I. INTRODUCTION. THE problem of the influence of hot surfaces upon gaseous combustion is one which, from a purely scientific stand-point, has engaged, for many years past, the attention of Prof. William A. Bone, of Leeds University and the Imperial College, London; and as his recent work has been the direct outcome of earlier scientific investigation, it will be appropriate, by way of introduction, to review briefly the present position of science with respect to this important subject, as stated by Professor Bone. One may perhaps best arrive at an understanding of the term " ?flameless " or " surface " combustion by considering certain facts which differentiate it from the more familiar processes of combustion as they occur in ordinary flames. All hot surfaces have an accelerating influence upon chemical changes in gaseous systems. If, at any temperature, a gaseous system, A, tends to pass over into another system, B, contact with a solid at the same temperature will accelerate the process. To take a very simple example, if a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen in their combining proportions (electrolytic gas) were maintained in an inclosure with smooth glass walls at a temperature of, say, 450° C., there would certainly be a tendency to form steam, but the rate of change would be negligibly small. If, however, there were brought into the system some porous solid material at the same temperature, so that a large surface was exposed to the gases, the rate of change would at once be rapidly accelerated in the layer of gas immediately in contact with the hot surface. Steam, the product, would diffuse outward from the surface, and the supplies of hydrogen and oxygen at the surface would be renewed by diffusion inward. Thus combustion would proceed heterogene-

Sep 1, 1912