Search Documents

[A discussion suggested by the paper of Mr. James Gsyley on " The Development of American Blast-Furnaces," read at the New York meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute, October, 1890, and reprinted from the Journal of that Society in Bans. A. I. M. E., xix., 932.1 (Cleveland Meeting, June, 1891.) [Kote by the SecretaRy.—The three following contributions to this discussion were communicated by letter to the Secretary of the Iron and Steel Institute, and were received by me too late for insertion in vol. xix. of the Transactions.] FRed. W. Gordon, Philadelphia, Pa.: Mr. Gayley's paper calls our attention to the very expensive blunder hitherto made in blowing too much wind in a given size of furnace. It was quite evident from an analysis of blast-furnace operations that the work we are doing in America is anything but creditable. We were consuming fully 1000 pounds of coke more than is necessary for each ton of iron made, and were hammering the linings of our furnaces out in a very short time, and nothing but the very high price of pig-iron would stand the drain. It had long been my pet scheme to gradually reduce the quantity of air, at the same time increasing the burden to the maximum and decreasing the limestone, and determining, if possible, the fuel economy which might be reached consistently with the maximum production of the furnace. After the success of the Isabella furnace at Pittsburgh, which was remodelled in 1880, the North Chicago Rolling Mill Company had

Jan 1, 1892

By Sir Lowthian Bell

WITH the exception of air and water, it is open to question whether there is any form of matter which the human race could less easily spare than iron. Short of going the length of asserting that, without this metal for an anchor or steel for the compass, the adventurous navigator could never have crossed the wide Atlantic, we may credit the locomotive' and the steamer, and hence iron, for that sequence of events which has peopled North America with the

Jan 1, 1891

By A. E. Seaton

In this paper it will be my endeavor to trace the development of the marine engine and its appurtenances, and the general progress that has taken place in marine engineering generally during the past fifteen years, rather with the object of attributing much of it to the successful efforts of the makers of iron and steel, thereby rendering my thanks to them for the valuable service they have contributed to my profession, than to recount what has been achieved by the skill, ability and perseverance of my colleagues in shipbuilding and engineering. The engineer has been at all times dependent on the ironmaster, and on more than one occasion his progress has been barred by the inability of the latter to overcome some obstacle to success in his manufacture. But on the other hand, it is equally true that the ironmaster has often been ahead of the engineer, and has been prepared, long beforehand, to supply that which would make a success for the marine engineer if he would avail himself of it.

Jan 1, 1891

By William Hamilton Merritt

A brief paper on this subject (which might readily be made to, fill a volume) is suggested at this time by several considerations, among which may he named the meeting of the Institute on the borders of Ontario, not far from some of the mining undertakings which are hereafter mentioned ; the mineral developments made in the Province quite recently ; the highly creditable collection of most of the minerals of Ontario, for the first time got together, and exhibited this year at Cincinnati, in the Centennial Exhibition of the Ohio Valley ; and, finally, the recent appointment, by the Government of Ontario, of a Commiesion to inquire into, and report upon the mineral resources of the Province, and the best means to be adopted for their development. The Province of Ontario has no Department of Mines or official geologist, to take note, and keep record, of mining and mineralogical development and discovery. Within the last few years some valuable statistics have been collected by Mr. A. Blue, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture; but recently a desire has risen on the part of the people to obtain further knowledge of these subjects, and the government has appointed a Commission, the report of which is expected to be issued in part, if not in completed form, this winter.

Jan 1, 1889

By W. H. Adams

One of the most attractive subjects for technical writers is the gigantic industry of the manufacture of sulphuric acid. This is no doubt, natural when we take into account that it has grown in this country during the past twenty years, from a production of 60,000 tons in the year 1867, to that of nearly 450,000 tons in 1887. We may well excuse much of the literature which but repeats the same old story, as it serves to bring to the public notice, at proper intervals, the hidden resources of our land; and this constant application of essential truths will sooner or later be the means of freeing us from dependence upon the Old World for necessary chemical products. The present increase in manufacture of this acid in the United States is almost wholly from pyrites ores, which we have in unlimited quantities close at hand. The largest consumption of such acid is for treatment of other native products, petroleum, rock-phosphates, etc.; and, considering the knowledge we have gained during the past twenty years, it is safe to say that the industry is but fairly established, and the causes which have operated to place us in our present proud position are but natural incentives for a further growth and an increased consumption of the many other undiscovered or undeveloped resources of our American soi1. In one of his earlier editions Muspratt says: " It would seem that the manufacture of sulphuric acid, though as extensively carried on as any other business, yet seems to be the least understood; and the ignorance of some manufacturers appears to be only equalled by that of writers, who, in their description of the production of this acid, give figures of apparatus, and vaunt as improvements, things which have been exploded for years. It is possible to find in the works of eminent men drawings of apparatus, for the production of sulphuric acid, which never could possibly have worked one day—some, in fact, could never have worked at all."

Jan 1, 1888

By Alfred E. Hunt

The application of the color-method for the estimation of manganese in iron and steel, based upon the depth of the characteristic purple color of permanganic acid, was first made in this country, the writer thinks, by one of the members of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, Mr. Samuel Peters, in 1874, at the laboratory of the Bay State Iron Company, and was published by him in the Chemical News. The method is credited to him in the new edition of Crooke's Select Methods. The principle of oxidizing manganese with peroxide of lead, or other oxidizing agents, and determining the amount of manganese from the color of the purple permanganic

Jan 1, 1887

By Theodore B. Comstock

Prior to 1885, the College of Engineering in the State University was under the care of such professors and instructors as were required for efficient work in the Schools of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Architecture. The development of the coal and other important mineral resources of the commonwealth led gradually to a considerable demand for instruction in the branches more closely related to mining engineering, and a very creditable effort was made to meet this want by arranging special work in the field and in the laboratory for students of mining and metallurgy. This plan, while it gave much added labor to several already heavily taxed professors, caused such students to become something like undesirable excrescences upon the regular courses. But its partial success gave abundant proof of the real necessity for a complete course in Mining Engineering. The famous Braidwood disaster emphasized anew the importance of thorough training on the part of those to whom the responsible duties of mining must be confided. As is well known, a very excellent beginning was made some years ago by the Legislature in the matters of inspection and regulation by the enactment of a reasonably effective law, which was afterward much improved.* About the date of the last Acts, it was deemed wise to enlarge the facilities at the University arid to furnish adequate training for the increasing number of applicants. Accordingly, in August, 1885, the writer was requested to assume the duties of the professorship, it being the expressed desire of the Board of Trustees and the Regent of the University that a School of Mining Engineering should be founded which might eventually come to rank with the other engineering schools already flourishing here. It is the main object of this paper to state plainly the steps thus

Jan 1, 1887

By Charles A. Ashburner

The petroleum industry of western Pennsylvania and southwestern New York lias been one of phenomenal development. Greater and more sudden flucuations hare occurred in the price* of crude oil, and in all the collateral interests dependent upon its production, than in the case of any other mineral product which has been extensively exploited in the United States. This was more particularly so from the commencement of drilling for oil in 1859 down to the end of 1877. The experience gained during these early years has enabled the oil men to operate more intelligently since; the business is not now attended with the hazardous risks with which it is generally credited. The most important questions connected with the oil industry are those of (a) the oil-supply, and (6) the possible ultimate exhaustion of the field. Since 1876 my attention has been directed to the study of the statistics of the product of the oil regions. In January, 1880, in order to slow some interesting points connected with these questions, I prepared a graphic chart which was used to illustrate a lecture on petroleum delivered before the Franklin Institute. This chart was afterwards reconstructed in two distinct forms for publication in the census report. on Petroleum and its Products. These latter I have redrawn in a condensed form, and have extended them to include the statistics up to 1885, for publication in the Transac tions of the Institute, in conjuction with a map of the oil-re&'~IOIIS prepared by Mr. John F. CarII and myself. It is hoped that these illustrations will be found interesting to the members of the Institute, and of practical utility to oil-men, without any extended discussion, since it is my desire to make only such brief references to them and give such additional detailed facts as may serve to make the prominent features understood.

Jan 1, 1886

By John Birkinbine

The experience of the past five years has furnished opportunities to study and to partially explain the operation and some of the causes of the short blast of Warwick Furnace at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, as described in the paper read at the Lake Superior Meeting, in August, 1880.* The many inquiries concerning the details of furnace operation which followed the publication of the paper, and the expressed desire of furnace managers to be informed as to future operations of this plant, have encouraged the preparation of the following data. To make the record continuous, and add to the value of both contributions, the present paper commences where the review of a short blast of Warwick Furnace ended, and includes the data of another short blast of two months, and a subsequent continuous campaign of nearly five years, which, by comparison, we shall designate as "the long blast." Frequent visits to the plant in the five years, during which its operation could be studied, and correspondence with the manager, Mr. Edgar S. Cook, have given a knowledge as to general features and details, and the courtesy of the officers of the Company which has given free access to the books of record permits the presentation of data which it is believed will be welcomed by furnace managers. Interest will undoubtedly be increased by the remarkable results which Mr. Cook has achieved chiefly with anthracite coal in a furnace whose details of construction will scarcely be generally admitted as embodying advanced ideas, its height being but 55 feet, with a bosh diameter of 15 feet 6 inches, its bosh-slope comparatively flat, its crucible smaller than the average, and the heat of the blast never reaching 1000' Fahrenheit. At present writing the credit of the best anthracite blast-furnace practice recorded in our Transactions is conceded to be that pursued by Mr. Fackenthal, at the Durham furnace, and Mr. Cook, at War-

Jan 1, 1886

Jan 1, 1886

By J. C. Bayles

Jan 1, 1886

Jan 1, 1886

By J. C. Bayles

Jan 1, 1885

Jan 1, 1885

By C. A. Stetefeldt

FoR the convenience of those who do not care to enter into the details of this long essay, I begin with a summary of the most important results it presents. The extraction of silver by the lixiviation-process from ores which have been subjected to a chloridizing-roasting, is based upon the fact that silver chloride is easily soluble in solutions of sodium or calcium hyposulphite, and that silver is precipitated from such solutions by an alkaline sulphide, with regeneration of the hyposulphite salts. In case the ore contains lead a large portion of the latter is and dissolved, lead sulphate being soluble in hyposulphite solutions. If, at the same time, copper is present, the sulphides precipitated from the solution, contain silver, copper, and lead, a combination of metals not desirable for subsequent treatment. Mr. E. H. Russell, of Park City, Utah, is the inventor and the patentee in the United States and several foreign countries of a new lixiviation-process, based upon the chemical facts discussed in this paper. Mr. Russell has discovered that lead can be completely separated from a sodium hyposulphite solution, as lead carbonate, by sodium carbonate or purified soda-ash, without precipitating any copper or silver. After decanting the solution from the lead carbonate, silver and copper are obtained from it in the usual way. This method of separating lead prohibits the use of calcium poly-sulphide as a precipitant for the sulphides, because any calcium entering the regenerated lixiviationsolution would also be precipitated as a carbonate with the lead by soda-ash. Hence, a sodium sulphide must be employed. A full investigation has demonstrated that this is by no means detrimental. Sodium sulphide and hyposulphite are more advantageously used in the lixiviation-process than the corresponding calcium-salts. Another defect in the lixiviation-process consisted in the necessity of a very perfect chlorination of the silver in the ore, because silver in

Jan 1, 1885

By W. Lawrence Austin

Jan 1, 1884

Jan 1, 1884

By Fred P. Dewey

Although coke is the acknowledged metallurgical fuel, and has been extensively used in this country for more than thirty years, yet the facts on record in regard to its physical properties are exceedingly meagre; and this is also true, but in a less degree, of its chemical composition. An investigation is being carried on in the National Museum which is intended to supply, so far as may be, this deficiency, and through the kindness of Professor Baird, Director of the Museum, I am permitted to present to the Institute a summary of a portion of the results already obtained. So far as I am aware, the credit for the first systematic investigation of the physical properties of coke belongs to Mr. John Fulton, Mining Engineer of Cambria Iron Co. The results of this investigation have been published in Report L, Second Geological Survey, Pennsylvania, 1875, and in a pamphlet setting forth the advantages of the Connellsville coke, the latter published also by the " Virginias"* His results are not altogether free from experimental errors, and the assumption that "the specific gravities of coke and water are very nearly alike "- is scarcely warranted. It has seemed to me, therefore, desirable to make an independent investigation of the physical properties of coke on a plan somewhat different from that adopted by Mr. Fulton. This is the investigation now being carried on at the National Museum.

Jan 1, 1884

By Richard P. Rothwell

REVOLING slime-tables with stationary sprays and oscillating brushes have for many years been a favorite apparatus used for working slimes in German dressing-works, often displacing Rittinger tables and the many variations of Cornish buddles. The difficulty of building these tables larger than 5 1/2 meters (17 feet) in diameter, increasing the cost and making them unwieldy, rendered it necessary also to concentrate the slimes in several operations, because the travel over so short a length of hearth would not suffice for close concentration. A preliminary sizing is effected in a system of spitzkasten. Herr C. Linkenbach, general manager of the Ems Lead and Silver Works, Germany, devised a buddle, in 1878, which has since worked well and found much favor in Germany, and has been in one instance copied here, at Colorado Springs, without any credit having been given to the original inventor. Linkenbach's plan has been to reverse the functions of the table and the washing apparatus of the old German revolving table. He makes the tables stationary and rotates the washing apparatus,, thus enabling him to save in power, and, within certain limits, to increase the dimensions of the table, without in any way affecting its durability or materially increasing its cost. In its earlier form, the buddle was single, and that type is still

Jan 1, 1883

By Richard P. Rothwell

IN the pear 1881, I visited San Domingo, in the interest of French capitalists, to examine and report upon certain "concessions" of gold-bearing gravel and quartz veins, on the Isabella and Jaina rivers and their tributaries. This district is periodically reported to he extraordinarily rich, and there is oast around it the glamour of the mysterious shipments of gold, credited, in romance and in more or less romantic history, to Columbus and the Spaniards of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Since considerable sums of money and several valuable lives have been lost in the unsuccessful search for its profitable mines, it seems desirable to place on record Borne of the information collected concerning the value of these famous gold fields, with the hope of facilitating the work of those who may hereafter be called on to investigate these claims, and of preventing the unnecessary waste of capital. It is needless to add that the capitalists for whom my investigations were made abandoned the enterprise they had in view,although no doubt similar schemes will be brought forward many times in the future, as they have been in the past, under the fervent advocacy of too sanguine enthusiasts. Since the time of the Spanish occupation of the Island of San Domingo, in 1497, when Columbus Found the natives wearing ornaments of gold, more or less of the precious metal has been obtained annually by washing the gold-bearing sands of several of its streams. It is said that during the Spanish domination, when the native Indians were held in the most abject servitude, a certain amount of gold was required of each one as the rault of his labor. Uuder this

Jan 1, 1882