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By R. W. Raymond

Jan 1, 1905

By Sydney H. Loram

The following notes have been compiled more for the reason that the district is little known to the outside world for its gold production, than for the hope of giving valuable information. The district of Canutillo lies about 15 miles south of the city of Freirina (1at. 28' 50' S. long. 70" 75' W.), and contains nine principal veins, all within a radius of a mile; 50 or more claims have been located on these veins, and this paper refers chiefly to those belonging to the Anglo-Chilean Exploration Go., Ltd., on which the greater part of the development work has been done. In all probability the mines were first worked by the Incas, who, under Tupac Yupangui, captured the country as far south as the Mauli river, between the years 1430 and 1470, and imposed a yearly tribut,e of gold and copper, which was forwarded by carriers on foot to Cuzco, the Inca capital in Peru. In the year 1535, soon after the time of the Spanish conquest, the stories of these consignments, together with those of supposed precious stones, led Diego de Almargro with a band of 400 soldiers to explore as far south as the Incas had gone, in the hope of finding the source of the precious metal, which he believed to have come from some definite point instead of being, as was afterwards proved, the collection of innumerable districts scattered over the entire length of the country. The method of winning the gold used by the Incas or by the natives whom they forced to work seems to have consisted in removing the ore by hard-wood wedges driven by stone-hammers, while a human shoulder-blade worn along its rounded edge, found in one of the mines, had evidently done duty to its second owner as a scraper or shovel. The mining was done by steep inclined workings sunk on the lodes at about 40" from the horizontal, the direction being reversed every 10 or

Jan 1, 1905

Jan 1, 1905

By Henry W. Edwards

Concrete is not a new, nor even a modern substance. Important structures built by the old Romans before the commencement of the Christian Era are to-day sound and solid— for example, the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, 142 ft. in diameter. I do not propose, therefore, to discuss the durability of the material, as in the mining and metallurgical business, structures, as a rule, are not calculated to endure for two thousand years. I do wish to urge, however, that much of the stone masonry around mines and smelters would have given better results if concrete had been used in place of stone. Concrete looks better; is stronger, cheaper, more durable, more quickly built, and above all requires no skilled labor, except that of the carpenter, who, like the poor, is always with us. Well proportioned concrete, that is to say, having well proportioned ingredients, may be safely relied upon to withstand a compressive or crushing strength of 50 tons per square foot. In most American cities, however, the building laws limit it to the absurdly low figure of 16 tons. This restriction is probably due to the political influence of the building-trades unions, which object strongly to its too free use, undoubtedly owing to its not requiring the services of skilled workmen. I hope to show that quite important construction work may be' undertaken without the aid of the gentleman with the trowel. In some of the isolated districts of the West and Southwest this is no mean advantage. The weight of good concrete, dry, is from 130 to 160 lb. per cubic foot. Ingredients of Concrete. Concrete is composed of four ingredients; viz., 1. Crushed Stone; 2. Sand; 3. Cement; and 4. Water.

Jan 1, 1905

By William R. Webster

At the Florida meeting of the Institute, in March, 1895, I presented a Note on a Proposed Scheme for the Study of the Physics of Cast-Iron,1 giving an outline which, for convenience of reference, I here repeat. Suggested Lines for DiScuSsion and IvestiGation. I.—Correspondence between chemical composition and melting-point, fluidity, shrinkage, fracture, chill, micro-structure, and other physical properties. II.—Influence of: 1. Cupola-mixture, use of steel and other scrap, oxidized or clean material, 2. Manner of melting, flux, etc., 3. Casting-temperature, A. Fracture. 4. Manner of handling melted metal and B. Micro-structure. method of casting, C. Physical properties. 5. Size and form of casting, D. Shrinkage. 6 Kind of mold, green sand (under dif- on E. Chill. ferent conditions of ramming, amount F. Residual strew of moisture, and skin-dried), dry sand, G. Condition and quan- loam, and chills, tity of carbon and 7. Rate and mode of cooling castings, other elements. 8. Manner and temperature of heating for annealing, 9. Additions of nickel or aluminum, III. —-Segregation as affected by : 1. Composition ; 2. Casting-temperature; 3. Rate of cooling ; 4. Size and shape of casting. IV. —Blow-holes, their volume and position as affected by: 1. Composition; 2. Casting-temperature; 3. Casting-pressure ; 4. Rate of cooling; 5. Size and ehape of casting ; 6. Special additions. It was hoped that a discussion might thus be elicited, similar in interest and value to the discussion of the physics of steel, which had been so widely and gratefully welcomed by students and practitioners in that department. That this hope was not

Jan 1, 1905

By William P. Blake

Travelers in the desert regions of the southwestern portion of United States, especially along the valley of the Colorado of the West, can hardly fail to note that most of the rocky outcrope of the harder rocks have a uniform prevailing blackness of the surface, in strong contrast with the normal color of the interior of the rock when freshly broken. For example, the granitic or gneissic rocks of Pilot Knob, below Yuma, are blackened beyond easy recognition. So also rocks upon the lower Mojave in California are so thoroughly blackened, as if painted, that ordinary gneiss can scarcely be recognized without breaking it so as to show the interior color and structure. The discoloration is not confined to the rocky outcrops in place, but is found upon boulders and upon the loose rounded pebbles which strew the surface of the mesas along the Colorado river. These fragmentary rocks partake of the general blackening.

Jan 1, 1905

By H. H. Campbell

Many attempts have been made to write a formula by which to calculate the strength of steel from its chemical composition, but most of these endeavors have failed because there were too many disturbing conditions. It is idle to collect from the pages of trade-papers, books, or the proceedings of scientific societies, a multitude of observations. The combination of such results will simply show that steel of the same composition will vary in tensile strength through wide limits—a fact that has been known for generations. That cold-working, overheating, and many another form of heat-treatment alter fundamentally the strength of steel, is ancient history, although it is only recently that the microscope has pointed out the road to an explanation of the phenomena. It mag be urged that the microscopic structure must betaken into consideration in any formula giving the ultimate strength, but from the standpoint of the present investigation this is unnecessary. We are trying to determine primarily, not what changes in ultimate strength may be made by variations in the condition of carbon, but what effect is produced by changes in the amount of carbon, when its condition remains constant. For such an inquiry, in order that the condition of the carbon should remain as nearly uniform as possible, it is essential that all testrpieces be made under the same conditions; and it is believed that the tests described in this paper satisfy that requirement. The investigations were made at the works of the Pennsylvania Steel Company, Steelton, Pa.; the ingots from which the tests were made were 6 in. square in every case; they were heated in the same furnace and forged at the same ham-

Jan 1, 1905

Jan 1, 1905

By Arthur C. Spencer

The object of the following paper is a description of the Treadwell gold-deposits in their geological aspects. quite apart from any consideration of the economical methods of mining and milling which have been developed and successfully applied

Jan 1, 1905

By Robert Schorr

PAGE 1. Introduction,........... 82 2. Characteristics of Briquettes,........ 87 3. The Manufacture of Coal- and Coke-Briquettes,.... 89 Binders, Organic and Inorganic,...... 90 Mixing,...........94 Presses, Continuous and Intermittent Action,....95 Cost of Briquettes and Sales-Prices in Various Countries,.. 99 4. The Manufacture of Peat-Briquettes,......101 Solid Peat-Slabs,.........101 Solid, Carbonized Peat-Briquettes,......103 Estimates of Cost of Operating Peat-Briquetting Plants,... 105 5. Manufacture of Mineral-Briquettes for Metallurgical Processes,.. 108 6. Manufacture of Artificial Stone-Masses,......112 7. Bibliography,...........115 Introduction. Briquetting is apparently a very simple operation, yet it has offered so many mechanical and chemical difficulties that it required almost a century to place it on a commercial basis. Since 1860, however, the progress has been steady and satisfactory, and to-day, for most of the European coal companies, the briquette-plant is a very profitable investment. Among the many applications of scientific knowledge to further economy by recovering and utilizing by-products and raw materials, there is possibly none which deserves the attention of Americans to a higher degree than briquetting. The recent miners' strike in Pennsylvania, which resulted in a scarce and irregular supply of coal at a high price, has advanced the possibilities for briquetting, and as a consequence public interest has grown rapidly. While the manufacture of coal-briquettes is not new in the United States, adverse conditions and sometimes lack of

Jan 1, 1905

By Gardner F. Williams

Chemically, the diamond is composed of the element carbon in its pure crystallized state. The diamond crystallizes in the isometric system, and the most common forms are the octahedron and dodecahedron, while the (24-sided) tetrahexa-hedron is not uncommon. Cube diamonds with beveled edges representing the combination 8 0 8 and 8 0 2 are occasionally found in the Bultfontein and Premier (Wesselton) mines at Kimberley, South Africa. The diamonds from various mines have distinctive forms of crystallization, or variations of the same forms, so characteristic that those familiar with South African diamond-mines and their products can determine positively from which mine any given parcel of diamonds has been obtained. It is not always possible to determine the source of each individual diamond, for similar stones are occasionally found in digerent mines; but these are exceptions to the rule. There is a difference in the luster, shape or crystalline form of the diamonds from the various mines that gives each mine some distinctive characteristic. In one mine nearly all of the crystals are sharp-edged octahedrons, while in another, dodecahedrons with rounded faces predominate. One might give no end of peculiarities of the diamonds from the various mines; but it will suffice for the purposes of this paper to state the fact that such distinctive characteristics do occur. From this observation it may be concluded that the diamonds in the mines of the Eimberley district, which occupies a small area (see Fig. I), did not have a common origin. The diamond is the most impenetrable of all known substances, and will scratch any other stone, or the hardest steel. It is a very strong reflector of light, and refracts incident rays more than any other substance except crocoite.l

Jan 1, 1905

By Carlo Massa

The Societâ Anonima di Miniere e di Alti Fòrni, familiarly known as the " Elba Company," works the rich ore-deposits of the Island of Elba under a long-term contract with the Italian Government. The ore-deposits are scattered over the eastern and southeastern coast; but as these parts of the island are not well provided with ports, the blast-furnaces were built at Porto-ferraio, the principal town of the island, situated on the northern shore, and possessing a magnificent natural harbor where vessels even as large as the battleships of the Italian navy can comfortably anchor. In the selection of Portoferraio the cost of transporting the iron-ore from the different mines to the blast-furnaces has been reduced to a minimum, and shelter has been provided for the company's flotilla of tugs and barges, as well as for the steamers carrjing coal and pig-iron. The whole plant, of which a general view is given in Fig. 1, comprises: 1. A discharging-pier with unloading-cranes. The ore and coal are transported from this pier by means of an aerial cable-railway to the coal- and ore-storage yards. This cable-railway is supported by an iron bridge extending from the pier to the shore and by a wooden trestle extending from the shore to the yards. 2. Blast-furnaces, two in number, with all the accessory apparatus, such as blowing-engines, dry purifiers, Cowper hot-blast stoves, hoists, etc. 3. Coke-ovens, two batteries, with coal-bin, crushers and boilers. 4. Engine-house containing the blast-engines and the electric generating-station. 5. Pumping-plant. 6. Narrow-gauge railways.

Jan 1, 1905

By Edward V. D’Invilliers

In connection with some recent professional work in the coalfields of Western Pennsylvania, with special reference to results of coking operations, I was asked to compile a statement giving the estimated cost of mining coal and manufacturing coke at two hypothetical plants of 500 ovens each, giving the relative yield of coal in coke at each plant; and, upon the average number of working days in each of the past five years, from 1899 to 1903, together with average selling price of coke at the ovens, to prepare an estimate of the relative commercial returns in each district. What seemed at first sight to be a comparatively simple proposition, involving only the ordinary elements of mining and coking costs, became complicated by the lack of standard published records of mining costs and sales, which would be applicable to the subject at issue. Upon searching through the usual channels of Government publicatious and the files of our technical societies and mining periodicals, I was surprised to note the absence of fundamental factors that would approximately meet the case in point. The very elaborate and interesting statistics annually published by the National Government' do not supply the required data for the following reasons:—1. Being reported by arbitrary districts, the average values are too general to be applied to special fields. 2. The value of coal charged to the ovens is apparently based upon the regional average value of the coal if sold in the market, and not upon the cost of production. 3. Some plants only use the slack (a by-

Jan 1, 1905

Jan 1, 1905

By Walter Wood

The specifications for locomotive-cylinders, which are given in a separate paper at this meeting, have been prepared so that castings (upon the successful use of which so much depends) shall be made to conform to standards that will yield good results. After the essentials, which go with a sound and perfect cauting, the requirements to be borne in mind are those concerning the quality of the material. These have been determined from the actual practice of the largest users,—representatives of the American Locomotive Company, the Baldwin shops, and the Pennsylvania Railroad being upon the Committee. The results called for by the test-bar have been carefully checked by actual experiment upon metal that has given satisfactory service in cylinders.

Jan 1, 1905

By Theodor Knutzen, Charles H. Fulton

The plant of the National Smelting Co., a corporation controlled by the Horseshoe Mining Co., was built during 1901 to smelt the dry siliceous ores of the northern Black Hills, extracting the gold- and silver-values in a matte of low copper-percentage which is shipped to Omaha and Denver for refining. Originally, the plant was designed to collect the values of the siliceous ores in an iron-matte, which mas to be resmelted with lead-ores, in a lead-furnace, the lead-bullion produced to be refined into Doré bullion in English cupelling-furnaces. However, the scarcity of lead-silver ores in the Black Hills, owing to the present non-productiveness of the Galena district, led to

Jan 1, 1905

By H. C. Meister

THE zinc-smelting industry of the United States has grown very rapidly in recent years and bids fair to outrival that of all other countries in the future. On account of the geographical situation of the chief ore-supplies, the industry may be divided into two main groups, the eastern and the western. The eastern and older group includes the works of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia, which practically control their own ore-supply. The western group includes the works of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin and Indiana, which do not control their own ore-supply, but are compelled to buy the ore in the open market. It is for this reason that the western zinc-smelting industry has been undergoing continual changes since its inception 40 years ago. During the early discoveries of lead- and zinc-ore in the lead- and zinc-districts of Wisconsin and northern Illinois, the zinc-ore (sinithsonite or " bone " as the miner calls it) had no value and was considered waste; but later, when this ore was found in large quantities, it attracted the attention of metallurgists, which finally resulted, during the early sixties, in the building of the Matthiessen & Hegeler Zinc Works at LaSalle, Ill., the pioneer zinc-works of the West. A few years later, zinc-ore was discovered associated with the lead-ore in Jefferson county, southeastern Missouri, which started the industry at Carondelet or South St. Louis. Still later, the discoveries of zinc-ore in the lead-ore region, first' at Granby and then around Joplin, lead to the introduction of the industry in the southwest Missouri and Kansas districts. At first the development of the industry was slow, but it progressed steadily and it is now one of the leading metallurgical industries of the middle West.

Jan 1, 1905

By B. F. Bush

THE coal-fields of Missouri, situated hi the northern and western portion of the State, are distributed, in whole or in part, over 57 counties, embracing an area estimated by Mr. Broad-head to be practically 23,000 sq. miles, including small detached beds and outliers in St. Louis, St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren counties in the eastern part of the State. This area includes about 8,000 sq. miles of Upper or Barren Measures, 2,000 sq. miles of exposed Middle, and 12,420 sq. miles of exposed Lower Measures. In a general way, the Missouri coal-field is bounded on the east by an imaginary line entering the northern part of the State just east of the 92c1 Meridian and passing across the State in a southwesterly direction to a point on the Kansas-Missouri line a little below the southern boundary of Barton county. An important part of the field overlaps this line and extends down the northern side of the Missouri river, under¬lying the greater part of Randolph, Howard, Boone and Audrain counties. In all, 34 counties produced coal during the year 1903. Fig. 1 shows the position of the coal-fields in Missouri. GEOLOGICAL FEATURES. The Coal Measure formations, all of the Carboniferous age, rest unconformably upon the rocks of the sub-Carboniferous or Mississippian series, and, in some cases, upon the rocks of the Devonian and Silurian ages. From their outcrop on the eastern and southeastern borders of the field, the Measures dip west to northwest at the rate of 10 ft. per mile, reaching a maximum thickness estimated by

Jan 1, 1905

By JAMES QATLEY

THE atmosphere, which plays such an important part in the manufacture of iron and steel, is the most variable element involved in its several processes; and particularly is this true of the blast-furnace process, which consumes air in large quantities. At no time since the blast-furnace became an important and widely used apparatus-even when it was operated in the most crude manner-have the variations in composition of the raw materials used been as frequent and as great as the variations in humility of the atmosphere. Important, improvements have been made in the blast furnace and its accessories, such as the hot-blast stoves, the increase in size and change in the shape of the furnace, more efficient blowing engines, the increased protection given to the bosh walls, and the careful preparation of' the raw material, all of which have exerted a pronounced influence on the furnace-operations from a metallurgical standpoint. But during the past eight years little advance has been made in this direction; the fuel-consumption has not diminished, nor has there been any material increase in production. Within that period, however, there has been witnessed the greatest development in appliances for the economical handling of material. So complete has been the work in this direction, that, except in isolated cases, in this country at least., a further extension does not hold out much promise of a satisfactory return on the investment required. It seemed that, with the exception of the gas-engine, we had about reached the limit, for like a strong wall, the atmosphere, with its humility as variable to-clay as when first blown into a primitive blast-furnace, appeared to stand as a Barrier to

Jan 1, 1905

By George A. Laird

I. INTRODUCTION. THIS old and once famous district played, through its enormous production of silver and gold, an important part in the history of the State of San Luis Potosi. According to a pamphlet prepared under the direction of the Governor of the State, Sr. Don Blas Escontria, and presented to the visiting members of the Institute during the Mexican meeting of 1901, this district is situated 20 km. east of the city of San Luis Potosi, in a range of mountains of moderate height, extending 135 km. N. and S., and 16 km. E. and W.; and the mineralized area hitherto developed is about 600,000 sq. m. The history of the district,. as given by the record dated 1778, and formerly kept in the San Francisco convent, says that it was discovered in 1575 by Sr. Don Pedro Irarte, and adds that the city of San Luis Rey de Francisco del Potosi received its name (in allusion to the famous Potosi mines in Bolivia) by reason of the remarkable productiveness of its gold- and silver-mines in the first period of their exploration, during which they paid to the Crown, as " quintos " (the fifth part of the product), $97,000,000, as appears from the accounts of the royal treasury. The amount of the quientos paid during the " bonanza period " of 80 years was $72,000,000. The larger sum first mentioned probably represents a longer series of years. But either will suffice to indicate the great wealth of the mines. In 1663, the decadence of the industry began with the caving¬ in of several mines, concerning which the record of 1778, al¬ready cited, says, in substance, that on Good Friday one of the owners in the enterprise, in view of the unfavorable prospect of a lawsuit in which he was engaged, set fire to the timbers supporting the underground galleries and workings of the San

Jan 1, 1905