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By T. A. Rickard

Slovenliness is as reprehensible in words as in clothes. Much writing that we recognize as poor in style is merely sloppy. Just as some students postpone the necessary shave or forget to change their collars, so young engineers in writing drop their articles, definite and indefinite, or omit prepositions where they are required, possibly to compensate for these they use unnecessarily The work will begin [on] Saturday. The work will begin [on] Saturday. `Influenza seriously affected many mines [during] the last three months. Flotation in America [during] the last two years has made tremendous strides. Construction of the mill started [on] August 12, 1915, at which time 75% of the excavation was completed. The idea I wish to convey is [that] there are mineral deposits to which the present law applies badly. For this reason, if there was [for] no other, the ownership of the ore below and [of] the surface above should go together. When a unit of mapping is furnished, be the unit a claim or [a] group of claims, it is necessary .. . A fully stocked store was started in Park City and all employees [were] sold merchandise on a strictly cost basis. The word "merchandise" is left without government or agreement. I suggest: ". . . and merchandise] was sold to all the employees on a strictly cash basis.". The verb `be' is serving concurrently both as a principal and as an auxiliary in the following: At first the work was interesting and [was] liked by most of the men. The sulphide ore was more complex or [was] milled at an increased cost. The failure to repeat tie auxiliary verb in successive clauses is a common error, as in The filter is filled with liquid allowed to empty, and then ignited.

Jan 1, 1931

By J. W. Byrkit

Design features and operating methods at the new Ajo smelter are described in detail. Successful operation of a novel method of handling and charging wet concentrates to a deep bath type reverberatory furnace contribute to the daily production of 200 tons of anodes with good results from the standpoint of both metallurgy and economy. THE New Cornelia Branch of the Phelps Dodge Corp. is located at Ajo, Ariz. Large scale mining operations were started at Ajo in 1917, when a 5000 ton leaching plant was put in service to treat the copper carbonate ore that overlaid the sulphide ore-body. In 1924 a 5000 ton flotation plant was built to treat the sulphide ore and the leaching operation was abandoned a few years later. Changes in practice and additions to plant facilities have resulted in a gradual increase in the milling rate which now approaches 30,000 tons daily. Prior to the erection of the Ajo smelter, flotation concentrate was shipped by rail to Douglas, Ariz, where it was treated in the Phelps Dodge smelter. Construction of a one reverberatory furnace smelter to produce an average of about 200 tons per day of copper anodes at Ajo was started early in 1949. Initial heating of the reverberatory furnace was begun on June 21, 1950. Charging the furnace was started on july 8, and the first anodes were cast on July 14. Neither the anode furnace nor the reverberatory furnace has cooled since the initial firing. Fig. 1 is a photograph of the new smelter. Built primarily to eliminate the '300 mile haul of concentrate to the Douglas plant, the new smelter was designed to treat the Ajo concentrate, with a minimum of capital investment. A novel, and relatively simple, method of concentrate handling and furnace charging made unnecessary the installation and operation of expensive storage facilities and reclaiming equipment, and obviated the necessity of holding in storage large quantities of copper-bearing materials. (Patents are pending in the United States and abroad on the Ajo process.) In the selection and arrangement of equipment, consideration was given to the full utilization of all smelting facilities, reducing the amount of idle equipment to a minimum. The layout of the smelter is shown in Fig. 2. The important problem of internal transportation was minimized by arranging the reverberatory furnace, converters, and anode furnace in a compact group and providing storage bins inside the smelter building, within reach of overhead cranes, for fluxing materials and other supplies needed in the daily operation. This can be seen in the sectional view of the smelter given in Fig. 3. Incorporated in the design were many innovations in smelting equipment intended to facilitate operations and effect economies in maintenance expense and manpower requirements. Table I gives operating data of the entire plant. Metallurgy The metallurgical practice at Ajo is based essentially upon the use of a single, deep bath reverberatory furnace for smelting wet concentrate, without concentrate storage facilities. The large reservoir of slag and matte maintained in the furnace serves to equalize, to some extent, the day to day variations in the nature and grade of concentrate and permits

Jan 1, 1954

By Walter Renton, Ingalls

SEVERAL years ago I became interested in computing the historic lead production of the United States, and the mines, or mining districts whence derived. This led me subsequently to an examination of the recent records- of some of the American zinc-mining districts and of the great lead and zinc-mining districts in foreign countries. My present article thus will be to a large extent an addendum to my book, "World Survey of the Zinc Industry," which was published by the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America in 1931, and to which I shall refer hereinafter as Ingalls, op. cit. Throughout this article all expressions of tons mean the ton of 2000 lb. Where original data have been given in metric tons I have converted in many instances simply by multiplying by 1.1, and long tons by 1.12. I have not been fussy about digits and have rounded off many figures. These may explain differences between data herein and other data.

Jan 1, 1946

By Joklik, G. F.

Most publicity about the copper industry nowadays is focused on the adequacy of ore reserves and on excessive mining capacity. These concerns, stemming from public awareness of actual and potential shortages and oversupplies, relate to production rather than consumption. Perhaps the reason for this one-sided view is that copper is thought of as a commodity which is conspicuously traded in world markets, rather than as one of many industrial materials that serve today's rapidly changing technology. Copper differs from other widely traded commodities in that its real cost of production has progressively increased since World War 11. The reasons for the increase are identifiable by analyzing operations in one of the world's large producing centres, the copper province of Arizona. Another respect in which copper differs from some other commodities is that increases in demand occur less automatically in the case of copper than they tend to in commodities whose consumption is more directly related to population growth. The copper industry's current inability to generate and attract needed investment capital is attributable to these differences between copper and other commodities; it suggests that the concept of copper purely as a commodity is outdated. The key to the problem is better integration between the activities of copper producers and users. Depending on circumstances, integration takes various forms- for example, investment tied to long-term sales con- tracts between producers in developing countries and consumers overseas; common ownership of producing and manufacturing facilities in industrialized nations like the U.S.; and consumer-oriented research and marketing by the copper producers.

Jan 1, 1978

The problems confronting the development of Latin America's mineral resources have hinged largely on the political and economic climates-in short, the investment climate--existing and often changing in each nation. .The attractions and risks confronting today's investors in such mineral developments have been described and debated to considerable length during the past two decades, the arguments pro and con colored by the previous experiences incurred by the would-be investor, whether company or individual. In an effort to shed light on the investment climates existing today throughout Central and South America, the Council of Economics brought four experts together at the AIME Annual Meeting last March to give their views on this subject.

Jan 7, 1966

By A. D. Hughes

A relatively small area in Malaya, about 200 miles long by 40 miles wide, is the most important source of tin in the world. Some tin is recovered in other parts of the peninsula. Of the tin mined, 98 pct is recovered from alluvial deposits. From 1935 to 1941 the average annual world production of tin was 190,000 tons. The average annual production from Malaya during the same period was 62,000 tons or about one third of the total. Other producing countries, in order of importance, were the Netherlands East Indies 34,000 tons, Bolivia 30,000, Belgian Congo, Nigeria, Siam, Burma, China, and a few others with smaller amounts. The serious shortage of tin during the war period was due to the fact that the Japanese were occupying Malaya, Netherlands East Indies, Siam, Burma, and China which, together, formerly were producing 65 pct of the world supply.

Jan 1, 1949

By R. W. Raymond

THE sudden death of Dr. Drown, on Nov. 17, 1904, brought to multitudes the pang of personal loss. Of all those who, as students at Lafayette College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lehigh University, were brought under his influence, not one can have forgotten him, and all will now acknowledge, with an unfading gratitude, what they owe in professional equipment to his wise, clear, skillful guidance, and in character to his sympathetic, stimulating personality. Outside of this wide circle, the experts of both hemispheres will lament the departure of one who, in his department of scientific inves¬tigation, both knew what work was needed, and how to do it so that it needed not to be done again. The older members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers will remember with gratitude the part he took, as Secretary from 1873 to 1884, in promoting the interest of that organization, and in shaping the plan and policy which it has followed with such noteworthy success. And, in addition to all these (though partly included among them), there are a host of friends; who can scarcely think of the public loss by reason of their own. Thomas Messenger Drown was born March 19, 1842, at Phil¬adelphia, Pa. His parents were natives of New England; and. he was the youngest of their three sons. He received his preliminary education in the public schools and the High School of Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1859. Be-

Jul 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 may be urged that the microscopic structure must be taken 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 test-pieces be made under the same conditions; and it is be¬lieved that the tests described in this paper satisfy that require¬ment. 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

By Paul Weir

FOR the first time in 1938, bituminous coal production for the week ending Nov. 19 surpassed that of the corresponding week in 1937, and indexes of industrial activity indicated the possibility that the remaining weeks of 1938 would run ahead of the corresponding weeks of the preceding year. But regardless of this year-end pickup, total production in 1938 was approximately 25 per cent less than in 1937. The estimate of 340 million tons for 1938 places the bituminous industry slightly above the production level of 1933 and approximately 10 per cent above the modem low of 1932. Anthracite production is not subject to the same extent as is bituminous coal to fluctuations arising out of the rate of industrial activity, hence the decline from 1937 has not been so great being approximately 14 per cent under 1937. The estimate for 1938 production is approximately 45 million tons, but this represents the lowest level reached in the last fifty years with the possible exception of several strike years.

Jan 1, 1939

By PERCY E. BARBOUR

SECONDARY copper1 has &come more or less of a bugbear generally. What is its influence is often the subject of heated argument. The inedapable fact usually quoted is that since in 1929 primary production of copper in the United States was 1,026,348 tons and secondary production was 626,550 tons, there- fore, 0.6 lb. of secondary is produced for every pound of primary, and "How can you get around that?" The matter seems very plain, now that I have reached my conclusions, but they are the result of much laborious study and research. I shall show that' the production of secondary copper is not 0.6 per lb. of primary, in spite of statistical appearances; that the production of secondary is a function of primary production rather than of price; that secondary production has 'only a sub-. ordinate influence on the price of copper and then only in abnormal times; that there is not an accumulating reservoir of secondary from which the country is some- time to be drowned in copper, as is believed by some, or a reservoir from which we are going to draw much needed and more or less inexhaustible stores in the future, as is believed by others; and finally, that the United States always produces more copper than it uses and exports the surplus. These are all controversial points, and for that reason and to anticipate argument I have set forth my reasoning in considerable detail.

Jan 1, 1931

By Kefton H. Teague

This paper deals with the practical application of the Dutch State Mines cyclone separator for fine-coal cleaning. The more important operating variables are discussed, and results of a number of continuous-scale tests on various fine coals with a 6-in. cyclone separator are given. Descriptions of the Cyanamid Pilot Plant and the 50 tph Cyclone Separator Plant at the Emma Washery in Holland are included.

Jan 1, 1950

By Henry D. Hibbard

I. INTRODUCTION. THESE impurities are perhaps the most important things in steel-especially steel made by the oxidation processes-the effect of which has not been at least approximately determined. By oxidation processes I mean the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin, during which the metalloids in the charge are removed by oxidation. It has been truly said that it is a clear advantage to have a new name for a new thing. To secure this and to economize space, let us adopt the name sonim (plural sonims) to designate the solid non-metallic impurities existing in steel or other metal. I would define a sonim as a solid non-metallic portion of matter existing as an impurity in metal. A piece of sand, brick, clay, or such material, imbedded in metal, would be considered as a foreign body, not as an impurity, and therefore not a sonim. The studies of sonims of which the results have been published hitherto, have been made chiefly or wholly on finished or at least on cold steel, without much, if any, regard to the specific methods by which the steel was made. While many of the results so obtained are valuable, they give little help in determining the cause, effect, or cure of the disease. It is not enough, in such a study, to know merely the commercial name of the process; for within the field of each process lies a great number of possible variations, each of which will yield a result differing in some respect from all others; and the control of sonims is particularly dependent. on the metallurgical treatment of the metal, because of the inability of analytical chemistry to throw much light on their presence, condition, and effect, as they usually occur in commercial steels. The microscope aids more, perhaps, than chemistry in their study.

Apr 1, 1911

By H. Hubert

THE first attempts at direct utilization of blast-furnace gas in engines were made in 1895. For a considerable time the gas had been burnt in Cowper stoves for heating the blast for the furnace, and under the boilers which supplied steam to the blowing-engines, and others serving the furnaces. It was natural, therefore, that the idea of directly employing it in gas-engines should have occurred simultaneously to several engineers, notably to Lürmann and to Lencauchez, who had pointed out the blast-furnace as a powerful -gas-producer. Nevertheless, nowhere had any attempt been made to apply it to this purpose up to the end of 1894, when Thwaite proposed it to Mr. James Riley, of the Glasgow Iron & Steel Company. About the same time investigations were being made in Belgium and in Germany, independently of Thwaite's experiments, which were not generally known on the Continent. The industrial world, which up to that time had hardly favored the idea, had thus been gradually prepared to receive it. The gas-engine, long restricted to small sizes and dependent upon the use of an expensive fuel obtainable only in large centers, now began to make headway. At the Paris Exhibition of 1889 two engines of 100 h.p. were shown and excited much interest among engineers. One had four cylinders, and was made at the celebrated works of the Deutz Company, and the other was a single-cylinder engine, exhibited by two French designers, Messrs. Delamare-Deboutteville and Malandin. In the meanwhile the design of gas-producers had made important progress, completely freeing the new engine from its

Nov 1, 1906

By C. EDWARD STAFFORD

A Discussion of the paper by Mr. James P. Roe which was read at the Washington meeting, May, 1905. MR. C. EDWARD STAFFORD, Chester, Pa.:-During all my business life, I have been engaged in the manufacture of Bessemer and open-hearth steels, but, during my long connection with the Shoenberger Steel Co. of Pittsburg, I had some experience in the manufacture of high-grade puddled iron for horse-shoes and in the making by Dr. Otto Wuth's process extremely pure low phosphorus puddled blooms (analyzing from 0.005 to 0.01 per cent. of phosphorus and sulphur), which were melted with low-phosphorus pig-iron in acid open-hearth furnaces to make extra locomotive fire-box steel. I have also seen the Dank's puddlers in operation at different times and places, notably where they were most successful, at the Otis Steel Works, Cleveland, Ohio; then under the management of our friend, Mr. S. T. Wellman. These Dank's blooms were made solely for open-hearth melting-stock to which they were well adapted ; the unavoidable presence of bits of ore-fix imbedded in the mass of the, metal always prevents the profitable manufacture of merchant iron from Dank's blooms. With the experience just described, I was to some degree in position to value fairly the means, methods and results of Mr. Roe's mechanical puddling from the metallurgical or technical and economic points of view, when given an opportunity by Mr. Roe to see his puddling furnace or machine in operation in Pottstown, Pa. Briefly, the furnace, with water-cooled bottom, is rectangular in plan, about 20 by 8 ft. in the clear, suspended by trunnions at the middle of the long sides, at a. height of 17 or 18 ft. above the general level; the oscillation (65° each way from the vertical) is accomplished by geared segments (attached to the downward-projecting side or trunnion-plates) with which engage pinions driven by a reversing engine. The whole section

Sep 1, 1905

By Henry D. Hibbard

A NOTED ordnance engineer once said to a friend, in speaking of the production of great steel guns, "How is it? We design our guns with a factor of safety of eight, and the guns burst." The vague way in which internal stresses and strains in iron and steel are often considered and spoken of makes it worth-while to examine them, as to their nature, their causes and results, how they may, for useful purposes, be advantageously dealt with, and how, when detrimental or dangerous, they may be reduced or kept within harmless proportions. Rankine defines ?strain " as a change of form or dimensions of a solid or liquid mass produced by a stress. This definition seems not intended to cover strains due to internal stresses, and it will help us in the present inquiry to consider strain as a tendency to change as well as an actual change of form. Internal strains in iron and steel are the result of stresses within the mass of the piece, some parts pulling and others pushing in resistance to them; or, in other words, some parts are in tension and some in compression, each part striving to relieve itself from strain and make the piece assume a form in which all parts are at rest. Subdivision, so that each part could relieve its strain by motion relative to the other parts, would, if carried out far enough, practically obliterate strain. The internal strains we are now to consider are not those due to the stresses of the service which the piece is rendering, either alone or as, a part of a structure, which may be termed service-strains, but those which originate or at least are contained in the piece itself. Internal stresses in a piece of metal are, like action and reaction, always equal and in opposite directions. The stresses

Sep 1, 1906

By O. W. Shimer, D. C. Helms, C. E. Brown

THE early history and progress of anthracite stripping, from the first known operation at Summit Hill in 1821 through 1917, was covered in 1917 in a paper by J. B. Warriner,1 then chief engineer, now president of the Lehigh Navigation Coal Co., and stripping methods between 1917 and 1931 were the subject of a paper in 1931 by H. H. Otto,2 of the Hudson Coal Company. The present paper is confined to methods used today on pitching beds in the western middle and southern anthracite fields. The anthracite industry, not unlike other large industries, had been affected for more than a decade by the adverse economic conditions of the country. High development and operating costs and the competition of other fuels caused some collieries to be closed temporarily, while others were permanently abandoned. In order to obtain a larger tonnage at a lower development cost, a larger stripping program was put into effect by many companies. In 1932, stripping operations accounted for 334 million tons, or 7 per cent of the total anthracite production of the year, and in the next 10 years this increased until more than double that amount, or over 14 per cent of the total production, was from stripping operations. These figures represent the total production of the entire anthracite region; unfortunately, the figures have not been separated from the different fields. There are some operations in the southern and middle western fields where the tonnage obtained from stripping amounts to more than 30 per cent of the total colliery production. Stripping operations on pitching beds present difficult problems. Owing to the various geological formations, a different situation is encountered in nearly every stripping pit; and because of the proximity of an overlying bed, it is very often necessary to load the entire overburden into trucks and haul it out of the pit to the dump area, although back filling and casting is done whenever possible. Beds in the areas described in this paper pitch from 20° to 90° and some are on the invert in, many sharp folds and faults. PLANNING The more successful strippings have had adequate engineering analysis. Some work is being done without much preliminary planning, but many strippings would have failed completely if close supervision by the engineering department had not been maintained. Locations of stripping areas are determined as follows: 1. By constructing cross sections over the areas and drilling sufficient diamond-drill or well drill holes to study the strata and to determine the location, thickness and pitch of the beds.

Jan 1, 1944

By F. Ernest Brackett

Much new data on the flow of gases have been discovered by recent experiments by the United States Bureau of Mines and others. Although additional investigation is still desirable, the information now collected seems sufficient to attempt a tentative coördination of the friction factors. This study is confined entirely to fluid friction when the density throughout the duct is so nearly constant that it may be so considered. In the subsequent discussion the following notation is used: v = mean velocity of fluid in duct, feet per second. v' = mean velocity of fluid in duct, meters per second. R = hydraulic radius of duct, feet. R' = hydraulic radius of duct, meters. S = the hydraulic slope. P = pressure absorbed by friction, pounds per square foot. p = pressure absorbed by friction, pounds per square inch. p' = pressure absorbed by friction, kilograms per square centimeter. A = sectional area of duct, square feet. O = perimeter of duct, feet. L = total length of duct, feet. L' = total length of duct, meters. d = diameter of a cylindrical duct, inches. w = density of the fluid, pounda per cubic foot. g = specific gravity of the fluid compared with water = w % 62.4. C, k and B, coefficients for formulas using English measures. C' = metric coefficient, v' = C'R'S. n = coefficient of roughness for English or metric units. The basic formula for the flow of all fluids at constant density appears in the three following forms, which may be denominated: (a) The slope formula, v = CRS (b) The ventilation formula, " n = (c) The pipe formula, C is Kutter's coefficient, which is extensively applied to the flow of water in ducts and channels of all kinds; E is Atkinson's coefficient, used principally with air in ventilation problems; B is a coefficient conveniently adapted to studying the flow of water, gases and vapors in pipes. 312

Jan 1, 1927

By O. W. Shimer, D. C. Helms, C. E. Brown

The early history and progress of anthracite stripping, from the first known operation at Summit Hill in 1821 through 1917, was covered in 1917 in a paper by J. B. Warriner,1 then chief engineer, now president of the Lehigh Navigation Coal Co., and stripping methods between 1917 and 1931 were the subject of a paper in 1931 by H. H. Otto,2 of the Hudson Coal Company. The present paper is confined to methods used today on pitching beds in the western middle and southern anthracite fields. The anthracite industry, not unlike other large industries, had been affected for more than a decade by the adverse economic conditions of the country. High development and operating costs and the competition of other fuels caused some collieries to be closed temporarily, while others were permanently abandoned. In order to obtain a larger tonnage at a lower development cost, a larger stripping program was put into effect by many companies. In 1932, stripping operations accounted for 3½ million tons, or 7 per cent of the total anthracite production of the year, and in the next 10 years this increased until more than double that amount, or over 14 per cent of the total production, was from stripping operations. These figures represent the total production of the entire anthracite region; unfortunately, the figures have not been separated from the different fields. There are some operations in the southern and middle western fields where the tonnage obtained from stripping amounts to more than 30 per cent of the total colliery production. Stripping operations on pitching beds present difficult problems. Owing to the various geological formations, a different situation is encountered in nearly every stripping pit; and because of the proximity of an overlying bed, it is very often necessary to load the entire overburden into trucks and haul it out of the pit to the dump area, although back filling and casting is done whenever possible. Beds in the areas described in this paper pitch from 20" to 90° and some are on the invert in many sharp folds and faults. Planning The more successful strippings have had adequate engineering analysis. Some work is being done without much preliminary planning, but many strippings would have failed completely if close supervision by the engineering department had not been maintained. Locations of stripping areas are determined as follows: I. By constructing cross sections over the areas and drilling sufficient diamond-drill or well drill holes to study the strata and to determine the location, thickness and pitch of the beds.

Jan 1, 1946

By ERJIINICI FERRARIS

1. HISTORICAL REVIEW AND INTRODUCTION. THE development of the mining industry in Sardinia dates from the application of the minim law of 1859, which, following the example of the French mining law of 1810, declared prospecting to be free, and suppressed the liens which had previously attached the mine to surface ownership. The first ore-dressing plants were installed by German engineers upon the classic models of the Harz and of Freiberg; but in 1880 Sardinia commenced to open a new path in that industry, utilizing the refuse from the mining of rich, selected minerals, of poor deposits, and of mixed ores. The first experiments were attempts to adapt the existing apparatus to local conditions, but progress was rapid, as was demonstrated already in 1887 by the calamine-dressing-mill of Monteponi, which exhibited a large plant designed in accordance with the experience gained, and constructed entirely in the machine-shops of the country, after new models and designs.1 This example was followed two years later by the Société Malfidano, with a large plant of the same sort, and with the reconstruction of the old-fashioned-dressing-mill, built in 1880 by the Austro-Belgian Company. In 1900, almost all the mines of Sardinia had adopted the new designs, and the island contained 32 concentrating-works, employing 2,000 h.p. and 1,924 workmen. Since that time, there have been added a large dressing-mill for blende at Gennamari, and two for calamine, at San Giovanni and at Masua, while the establishments at other mines have been enlarged and perfected. For the treatment of intimately mixed ores, a large establishment has been built upon the new

Jan 5, 1908

Coal - Surface Mining Coal Preparation Coal Utilization Research and Development Health and Safety

Jan 3, 1976