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By Carl G. Hogberg

During recent months, the acute shortage of steel scrap has necessitated the use of higher percentages of hot metal in the open-hearth charge. With these higher percentages, the sulphur content of hot metal has become an increasingly important factor in the control of the quality of steel. Thus, the blast-furnace operator is faced with a demand not only for more output but for a higher quality of product. More than go per cent of the sulphur charged into the blast furnace is contained in the coke. With the tremendously increased demand, the trend of coke quality has been toward higher sulphur, higher and more variable ash, and poorer physical characteristics. This has been brought about by less selective coal mining, increased production rates in coke plants and resumption of operations of many beehive ovens. In a single month last year, one blast-furnace plant in the Pittsburgh district operated with coke obtained from 52 sources. The effect of variability and quantity of coke ash on blast-furnace operation is well known. The improved results obtained with furnaces operating on coke made from washed coals compared with results on coke made from raw coals is ample proof of the effectiveness of low and uniform ash. Coal-washing plants, however, require a large capital expenditure, and are impractical for most of the large number of small producers, whose operations are confined chiefly to periods of abnormally high demand. Furthermore, not all coals are physically adaptable to washing. Principles 01 Iron Desulphurization in Furnace Although investigations of the blastfurnace process have not clearly revealed the detailed mechanism of iron desulphuri-zation within the furnace, they have been sufficiently extensive to permit a postula tion of the following general principles: 1. Iron, in its travel from furnace top to hearth, continues to pick up sulphur until it has reached tuyere level. The zone of iron desulphurizatioil is relatively narrow, being confined to a vertical distance extending zapproximately from tuyere level to the iron-slag interface in the hearth.' 2. Combustion of coke is confined to spherical zones extending approximately 40 in. from the nose of each tuyere.= Coke ash is released as the coke bums in these combustion areas. 3. With a constant amount of sulphur in the charge, the sulphur content of the metal product is a function of hearth temperature, final slag analysis, slag viscosity, and slag volume. Both hearth temperature and slag analysis affect slag viscosity. For a slag of constant analysis, viscosity always decreases with an increase in temperature;

Jan 1, 1943

By Benjamin N. Webber

The peninsula of Nicoya contains virtually all of the known manganese deposits of Costa Rica. These are south and west of the Tempisque River, which flows across the peninsula near its juncture with the mainland. This peninsula forms the westernmost part of the province of Guana-caste, which is the northern. of the two Pacific Coast provinces of Costa Rica. The larger villages are connected by ox-cart roads and trails. The area may be covered on horseback without difficulty except during the rainy season, when rivers are in flood and difficult to ford. This is particularly true of the Rio Seco-Guay-jiniquil area, where there are no inhabitants and few open trails through the tropical jungle. Santa Cruz and Sardinal are served by the Taca Airlines, two planes a week from San Jose and Puntarenas. The port of Puntarenas has excellent loading facilities but none are available nearer the manganese districts; there ore must be lightered to vessels standing offshore. Physiography In Costa Rica there are three physiographic divisions: (I) the central plateau (Mesa Central), a somewhat dissected lava platform upon which are superimposed volcanic peaks, some of which are still active; (2) the Atlantic lowlands and (3) the Pacific lowlands. The peninsula of Nicoya and the larger part of the province of Guanacaste lie within the Pacific low- lands. The term "lowland" indicates relation to the central plateau, as the peninsula of Nicoya is largely mountainous. The mountains of Nicoya form the southern extremity of a range of low hills, which are almost continuous along the Costa Rican coast to the Nicaraguan border. The coast line shows evidence of subsidence. The Gulf of Nicoya obviously is the drowned valley of the Tempisque River. The west coast of Nicoya shows many rocks, shoals, bays, inlets and small islands as evidence of a sea encroachment. The altitude of the manganese deposits ranges from 0 to 800 ft. Topography is of the mature type of wide valleys and low hills, often with abrupt slopes. The climate is tropical and humid; rainfall of 125 in. falls largely between Sept. I and Jan. I. Vegetation often is very dense, the Rio Seco-Guayjiniquil area being truly tropical jungle, containing many hardwoods. History and Production The production of manganese ore in Costa Rica apparently dates from the first World War. It reached a peak of about 10,000 tons in the year 1919, then declined rapidly. Evidence of this period of prospecting has rotted away or been swallowed by the jungle. The war now in progress apparently revived the interest in Costa Rican manganese and has encouraged further prospecting. Deposits long known have been redenounced and trails have been cut through the jungle to them. Many new deposits have been discovered in the last

Jan 1, 1949

By Benjamin N. Webber

The peninsula of Nicoya contains virtually all of the known manganese deposits of Costa Rica. These are south and west of the Tempisque River, which flows across the peninsula near its juncture with the mainland. This peninsula forms the westernmost part of the province of Guana-caste, which is the northern. of the two Pacific Coast provinces of Costa Rica. The larger villages are connected by ox-cart roads and trails. The area may be covered on horseback without difficulty except during the rainy season, when rivers are in flood and difficult to ford. This is particularly true of the Rio Seco-Guay-jiniquil area, where there are no inhabitants and few open trails through the tropical jungle. Santa Cruz and Sardinal are served by the Taca Airlines, two planes a week from San Jose and Puntarenas. The port of Puntarenas has excellent loading facilities but none are available nearer the manganese districts; there ore must be lightered to vessels standing offshore. Physiography In Costa Rica there are three physiographic divisions: (I) the central plateau (Mesa Central), a somewhat dissected lava platform upon which are superimposed volcanic peaks, some of which are still active; (2) the Atlantic lowlands and (3) the Pacific lowlands. The peninsula of Nicoya and the larger part of the province of Guanacaste lie within the Pacific low- lands. The term "lowland" indicates relation to the central plateau, as the peninsula of Nicoya is largely mountainous. The mountains of Nicoya form the southern extremity of a range of low hills, which are almost continuous along the Costa Rican coast to the Nicaraguan border. The coast line shows evidence of subsidence. The Gulf of Nicoya obviously is the drowned valley of the Tempisque River. The west coast of Nicoya shows many rocks, shoals, bays, inlets and small islands as evidence of a sea encroachment. The altitude of the manganese deposits ranges from 0 to 800 ft. Topography is of the mature type of wide valleys and low hills, often with abrupt slopes. The climate is tropical and humid; rainfall of 125 in. falls largely between Sept. I and Jan. I. Vegetation often is very dense, the Rio Seco-Guayjiniquil area being truly tropical jungle, containing many hardwoods. History and Production The production of manganese ore in Costa Rica apparently dates from the first World War. It reached a peak of about 10,000 tons in the year 1919, then declined rapidly. Evidence of this period of prospecting has rotted away or been swallowed by the jungle. The war now in progress apparently revived the interest in Costa Rican manganese and has encouraged further prospecting. Deposits long known have been redenounced and trails have been cut through the jungle to them. Many new deposits have been discovered in the last

Jan 1, 1949

By B. A. Rogers

ACCORDING to petrographic investigations, 1-4 cooled steel furnace slags contain a number of substances that have been shown to be ferro-magnetic5,6 and hence capable of undergoing appreciable changes of susceptibility with temperature. Since any alteration of the suscepti-bility of a constituent affects the average susceptibility of the sample, information concerning the nature of the substance should be deducible from its magnetic behavior. The possibility of obtaining information concerning slags in this way led to the construction of the apparatus to be described. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF APPARATUS The most convenient method of observing changes in mass suscepti-bility? with temperature is the one employed by Curie7 in his original investigation of the changes in magnetic properties of substances at elevated temperatures. As the method has been described frequently in the literature and in textbooks, only a brief review of the fundamental principles need be given here, but the particular arrangements used in the present work require a more detailed description.

Jan 1, 1939

By J. W. Buch

IN THE FIELD of track haulage, interest has seemed to center on the question of larger mine cars both for handling material from loading point to shaft bottom or surface, and for shuttle service. Saving of time in car changing is obvious if larger cars are used. In addition, shorter trips result where car transportation is from face to opening without transfer. This also brings about side-track and equipment savings. Track shuttle service, using large automatic-dump cars (10 tons) between loading machines and trip loading point, has been a satisfactory solution for the operator who mechanizes a working mine regularly equipped with a large number of small mine cars. This development in track shuttle haulage, has made track installation and maintenance increasingly important, requiring closer supervision.

Jan 1, 1942

Successful preliminary experiments at the University of North Carolina indicate that computers can provide speedy, accurate identification of the mineral content of rock samples. In just two minutes, the University's Univac 1105 computer solves the complex equations that would often require more than four hours using conventional methods. In addition, the computer is frequently spotting minerals that a geologist might miss simply because he wasn't looking for them.

Jan 6, 1964

By H. R. Deeth, C. J. Koenig

About ten years ago nepheline syenite was introduced to the ceramic industry and the material has now found application in the various branches of the industry, namely, as a vitrifying agent in white-wares and as a source of alumina and alkalies in glasses, glazes, and porcelain enamels. Spencel described the early mining and processing developments regarding this material. Since the time of his article many research papers have appeared relating to the usage of nepheline syenite but little has been published relative to subsequent mining and processing methods. A complete indexed review of the literature was issued recently by Ohio State University.2 Since "Lakefield" nepheline syenite from Blue Mountain, Ontario (Fig I); is the only commercial ceramic-grade nepheline syenite now being marketed on this continent, discussion is limited to this operation carried on by American Nepheline Limited, Lakefield, Ont., and its subsidiary in the United States, American Nepheline Cory. at Rochester, N. Y. The Deposit Blue Mountain is a long ridge rising to an elevation of about 350 ft at its highest point above the surrounding country and extending for about six miles in a northeasterly direction across Methuen township, Peterborough County. The rock of the Blue Mountain central alkaline intrusive is fine grained, light colored and of even granitic texture. The solidified mass consists predominately of the minerals albite, nepheline and microcline in order of abundance. The average mineralogical composition for the deposit obtained by a study of 112 samples taken regularly over the whole formation is as follows:3 Volumetric Mineral Per Cent Albite.................... 54 Microcline................ 20 Nepheline................ 22 Muscovite................ 2 Mafics.................... 2 (Biotite, hastingsite, magnetite) Total................... loo The mineral nepheline (or nephelite) belongs to the feldspathoid group but is lower in silica content than are the feldspars. It is a silicate of soda, potash, and alumina (NaKAl2O32SiO2). Its presence with albite (Na2oA12O3 6SiO2) and microcline (K2O A12O3 6SiO2) gives the Blue Mountain deposit an alkali content of 15 pct and an alumina content of approximately 24 pct. While this huge alkaline mass is somewhat variable mineralogically, it has a uniform chemical composition. When the iron, mostly in the form of magnetite, is removed during processing, a remarkably uniform finished product is obtained. Geological surveying has disclosed many million tons of nepheline syenite in the Blue Mountain deposit. Diamond drilling in the area where mining is now being carried out indicates a block of about one million tons.

Jan 1, 1949

By Alden B. Grenninger

The time-honored description of the growth of metal crystals to form polycrystalline aggregates is one in which two important steps are considered: (1) nucleation, and (2) dendritic growth, each dendrite starting from its individual nucleus and resulting (upon slow cooling, assuming no solid phase changes) in a macrograin. This picture of the process of crystallization is incomplete, and it is with the hope of enlarging upon it that the following summary and correlation of experimental results are given. Mosaic Structure For an exact definition of the mosaic structure of metal crystals—if, indeed, one can be found that will hold for all metals—one must await the results of much experimental work in this field. The writer's investigations have been confined almost entirely to copper and a few of its alloys. The following terms are proposed, and will be used in this report: Macromosaic Structure1.—Large-scale mosaic structure; more specifically, mosaic structure of a scale large enough to produce splitting of Laue spots on back-reflection Laue X-ray patterns2. The deviation from exact parallelism of neighboring macromosaics varies from a few minutes to a few degrees3. Just as there are no exact dimension limits for macrograins, so the dimensions of a macromosaic vary considerably. Macromosaic structure may often be seen on copper single crystals if they are examined carefully with critical illumination4. However, back-

Jan 1, 1936

By Joseph W. Richards

The Ashio copper-mine of the Furukawa Mining Co. is situated 18 miles from Nikko, and 109 miles north of Tokyo, near the center of Japan. The mine-waters are run over scrap-iron, whereby most of the copper is precipitated as cement-copper, leaving iron sulphate with some copper sulphate in solution. After using in the wet concentrating ore-dressing plant, the waste water contains clay and ore-slimes. The only avenue of disposal of this water is the Watarese river; but as this flows through valleys in which the water is used for irrigating the rice-crops, it is necessary to purify and clarify the water before discharge. The water amounts to from 600 to 700 cu. ft. (from 17 to 20 cu. m.) per minute, and averages about 0.00028 per cent. of copper, representing more than 18 tolls of copper per month. The water carries H2SO4, FeSO4, Fe2(SO4)3, CuSO, and other metallic sulphates in solution, and clay, ore-fines, slimes and basic iron sulphates as suspended matters. To purify and clarify the water, precipitation by milk of lime has been used, in three different ways, as follows: I. First Method, Copper not Recovered. Milk of lime was run into the water, and the mixture run through six settling-ponds, and then through a sand filter into

Jan 1, 1913

By Carl Samans

THE attention of physicists and metallurgists has been directed toward the study and explanation of the deformation textures in metals for the past 15 years. In 1920 N. Uspenski and S. Konobejewski1 were first able to show that the symmetrical X-ray diffraction effects that had been previously reported by E. Hupka2 and others in metal foils were caused by a directed arrangement of the crystallites. Since then, the systematic study of textures resulting from the application of the pure forces of tension or compression to polycrystalline materials hag been supple-mented by many investigations on deformed single crystals, which have greatly added to our knowledge of deformation. However, despite the valuable information secured from these comparative studies only four investigations upon cold-rolled single crystals of any of the face-centered cubic metals have been reported in the literature. This lack of quantita-tive data is especially unfortunate because of the much greater practical significance of rolling textures and their effects in both cold-rolled and annealed materials. This investigation was undertaken for the purpose of specifying the deformation of rolled single crystals in the hope that such information might later facilitate the explanation of polycrystal-line textures.

Jan 1, 1934

By A. F. Buddington

INTRODUCTION EVER since a genetic connection between many ore deposits and magmas began to be widely recognized, some two-score years ago, there has been much discussion of the complex and intricate problem of the genetic association of specific kinds of mineralization with specific kinds of igneous rocks. General discussions of the latter problem and pertinent data have been given by S. F. Emmons, Kemp, Lindgren, Niggli, Rastall, Spurr, Vogt, and others. In this paper no attempt is made to deal with mineral deposits genetically associated with volcanic rocks, but only with those presumed to be related to exposed intrusive masses. The writer is indebted to E. S. Bastin, F. F. Grout, Edward Sampson, and to the members of the committee in charge of the preparation of the volume, for a critical reading of the manuscript and many worth-while suggestions.

Jan 1, 1933

By Thomas M. Drown

ZING is, as is well known, very brittle at a temperature of about 210' C. (410' F.), and may then be readily pulverized in a mortar. By sifting it may be obtained of uniform grain. I have been accustomed to prepare products passing through 40, 60, and 80-mesh sieves, and also by bolting through a fine handkerchief. The principal analytical uses to which I have hitherto applied this material are to the reduction of iron directly from the ore by heating it with the pulverized zinc, and the reduction of ferric to ferrous compounds in solution. In the first case the pulverized ore, 0.5 gram or less, is intimately mixed with about ten times its weight of the pulverized zinc (the finer the zinc the better), in a porcelain crucible, and this mixture is covered with about the same amount of zinc. The crncible is then heated at the top of the flame of a Bunsen bhrner, at a dull red heat, for about ten minutes. The crucible should not be covered. When cool, the crucible, with its contents, is placed in a flask treated with hot dilute sulphuric acid, and brought quickly to a boil. The zinc and reduced iron are dissolved in a few minutes and the flask is then tightly corked and allowed to cool. When cool, the iron is directly titrated by potassium permanganate.

Jan 1, 1879

By Howard Martens, Pol Duwez

XPERIMENTS were performed on a Cr-Fc alloy Econtaining 44.7 pet Cr in order to determine the heat evolved during the transformation of the a solid solution into the s phase, and the change in volume accompanying the transformation. Since previous measurements on the rate of formation of a from s indicated that the reaction was quite fast as soon as the equilibrium temperature of 820°C was exceeded by some 50°, standard thermal analysis experiments were performed on heating specimens of s at the rate of approximately 40°C per sec. A definite thermal arrest was observed at 870"C, Fig. 1. This result indicates that the reverse seaction of into a is exothermic. From the heating curve of Fig. 1, taking 15°C per sec as the heating rate in the neighborhood of the transformation, 2.4 sec as the time for transformation, and assuming that the specific heat of the alloy at 850°C is an average between iron and chromium, namely 9.5 cal per mol per "C, the latent heat of transformation is approximately 342 cal per mol. The order of magnitude of this latent heat was also obtained by comparing the heating curve of Fig. 1 with a similar curve obtained with pure iron under identical experimental conditions. It was found that the length of the thermal arrest for s was about 1.8 times as long as that for iron. Since the latent heat of the a to 7 iron transformation is 203 cal per mol1, 2 the latent heat of it to a would be 365 cal per mol, which is in relatively good agreement with the value determined from the heating curve. For the determination of volume change, thermal expansion curves were recorded using a specimen containing 44.7 pet Cr and completely transformed to cr by previous treatment. The curves were recorded at a rate of heating of about 4°C per min and at approximately 840°C a sharr, increase in length of about 0.08 pet took place. Fig. 2. It is therefore established that the specific volume of a near the transformation temperature is about 0.24 pet smaller than that of a, and consequently, when the s phase forms in an a matrix, it would tend to shrink away from the matrix. Since the s phase is known to be extremely brittle, these results offer an explanation for the microscopic cracks often observed in the a phase under the microscope. The results of this study are in qualitative agreement with previously published data on stainless steel 19-9DLa and on a Cr-Fe alloy containing 45 pet Cr.' The increase in density due to the transformation from n to s given in ref. 4 is 0.90 pet. These measurements, however, were made at room temperature. whereas the presently reported 0.24 pet is the change at the temperature at which the transformation takes place during heating. In the graph of Fig. 2, the percentage change in length that would be observed at room temperature is given by the length X, which is about 0.27 pet. This would correspond to 0.81 pet in volume change. Acknowledgment This work was done at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under Contract No. DA-04-495-ORD-18 with the Army Ordnance Corps, Washington, D. C. The authors wish to thank this agency for permission to publish the results of this investigation. References I H. Klinkhardt: Measurements of True Specific Heats at High Temperatures. Annalen der Physik (1927) 84, pp. 167-200. - H. Esser and W. Runghardt: Influence of the Method, of Dctcrmination on the Measured Heat Content of Iron. Archtvo ffur Dct Eisenhiittenwesen 11934) 8, pp. 37-38. J. J. Gilman, P. K. Koh, and 0. Zmeskal. Delta Ferrite Formation and its influence on the Formation of Sigma in a Wrought Heat Resisting Steel. Trans. ASM 1 1949) 11, pp. 1371-1388. 1 J. M. Thomas: Discussion of ref. 3. Trans. ASM (1949) 41, pp. 3 390-1392.

Jan 1, 1957

By L. J. Klinkenberg

It is pointed out that the current concept of pore size distribution is not unequivocally defined and that different methods aiming at a determination of such a distribution therefore do not lead to the same results. A pore size distribution should not be based on the idea that a core should, under all circumstances, behave as a bundle of straight non-interconnected capillaries of the same pore size distribution. This is illustrated by calculations and experiments on the displacement of miscible liquids. INTRODUCTION The introduction of the concept of pore size distribution has been an attempt to characterize the intricate geometry of the flow channels in porous media. As pores in a porous medium are interconnected it is impossible to describe exactly what is meant by a "pore" and, therefore, the term pore size distribution requires further amplification. In the visual method for the determination of pore size distribution "the pore" is considered to be the hole between the grains as observed on thin sections or on a polished surface of the rock under a microscope. In all other presently known methods,1,2 a displacement process is studied and it is ascertained what as- semblaae of straight cylindrical capillaries would show the same behavior. The distribution of the capillary diameters of this assemblage is said to represent the size distribution of the pores of the actual porous medium. From the foregoing it is already apparent that it is useless to try to decide which process or which method of investigation leads to a "correct" pore size distribution. To illustrate this further a displacement process in which a fluid is displaced by another miscible with it will be discussed and the results will be interpreted in terms of a pore size distribution. DISPLACEMENT EXPERIMENTS WITH MISCIBLE LIQUIDS OF NEARLY IDENTICAL VISCOSITY AND DENSITY Interpretation in the Form of a Pore Size Distribution If distilled water is displaced from a homogeneous unconsolidated sand pack by, for instance, a dilute solution of NaCI, the breakthrough recovery i.e., the amount of distilled water produced at the moment the first trace of NaCl can be detected in the effluent water, is between 95 and 100 per cent of the pore volume of the pack. This result can be understood by following in imagination the course of one particle of the liquid. Imagine a length, ?l, at the end of which a liquid particle has an independent chance of a renewed choice of pores of different diameters. In other words, the particle has a choice of traveling time, at, for any length ?l; instead

Jan 1, 1958

By AIME AIME

To accompanying photograph of the plant of the Beattie Gold Miner Limited, at Duparquet,. Quebec, is taken from the east and shows the open-pit from which the ore is taken during the summer. The buildings on the level ground above the open-pit are the change rooms, steel shop hoist building, compressor building, machine shop, warehouse, carpenter shop, and oil house. The main five-compartment shaft is shown west of the hoist building. The crusher plant adjoins the headframe and a long conveyor transports the fine ore

Jan 1, 1936

By H. E. Strauss

The short-time tensile-strength test, while it has not attained the practical importance of the creep test at elevated temperatures, has the advantage of being rapid and is satisfactory for determining relatire strengths. For platinum and its alloys, which frequently are used at high temperatures under ill-defined conditions, the short-time test provides useful data that aid in the selection of the most promising alloy for each use. Measurements have been made upon 13 alloys, using wire 0.0031 in. in diameter, the choice of alloys and of wire size being determined by the requirements of a practical problem. Later the measurements were extended to higher temperatures by the use of heavier wire, 0.010 in. in diameter. Apparatus The use of fine wire made the necessary equipment very simple, since no effort was made to measure the elongation. A small platinum-wound horizontal furnace was used, 1/2 in. in internal diameter by 1 ft. long, with the wire threaded through it. The wire, clamped at one end while the other ran over a ball-bearing pulley, of a total length of 29 in., was loaded directly by running sea sand into an attached basket, making the rate of loading and not of elongation constant. The sand flowed from a funnel, under a head of 3 in., into the basket 3 in. below the orifice, at the rate of 170 grams per minute. Pulley friction and bending resistance of the wire as well as the force of impact of the sand could be neglected, being 3 grams and 0.5 grams, respectively. Furnace temperature was uniform within ±5° C. over a length of 3 in., although a drift with time occurred, the largest amount being 20" C. No provision was necessary for a controlled atmosphere. In making the measurements, the furnace was brought to equilibrium before being used, and the temperature was measured with a platinum platinum-10 per cent rhodium thermocouple and a high-resistance pyrometer before and after all the tests at one temperature. The wire sample, after being threaded through the furnace and attached to the

Jan 1, 1940

By H. E. Strauss

The short-time tensile-strength test, while it has not attained the practical importance of the creep test at elevated temperatures, has the advantage of being rapid and is satisfactory for determining relatire strengths. For platinum and its alloys, which frequently are used at high temperatures under ill-defined conditions, the short-time test provides useful data that aid in the selection of the most promising alloy for each use. Measurements have been made upon 13 alloys, using wire 0.0031 in. in diameter, the choice of alloys and of wire size being determined by the requirements of a practical problem. Later the measurements were extended to higher temperatures by the use of heavier wire, 0.010 in. in diameter. Apparatus The use of fine wire made the necessary equipment very simple, since no effort was made to measure the elongation. A small platinum-wound horizontal furnace was used, 1/2 in. in internal diameter by 1 ft. long, with the wire threaded through it. The wire, clamped at one end while the other ran over a ball-bearing pulley, of a total length of 29 in., was loaded directly by running sea sand into an attached basket, making the rate of loading and not of elongation constant. The sand flowed from a funnel, under a head of 3 in., into the basket 3 in. below the orifice, at the rate of 170 grams per minute. Pulley friction and bending resistance of the wire as well as the force of impact of the sand could be neglected, being 3 grams and 0.5 grams, respectively. Furnace temperature was uniform within ±5° C. over a length of 3 in., although a drift with time occurred, the largest amount being 20" C. No provision was necessary for a controlled atmosphere. In making the measurements, the furnace was brought to equilibrium before being used, and the temperature was measured with a platinum platinum-10 per cent rhodium thermocouple and a high-resistance pyrometer before and after all the tests at one temperature. The wire sample, after being threaded through the furnace and attached to the

Jan 1, 1940

By P. G. Shewmon, H. E. Collins

We have studied the effect of adsorbed sulfur on the surface self-diffusion of copper using eight diflerent surface orientations and the grain boundary grooving method. The eight orientations studied were the four lying near the low-index surfaces—(loo), (Ill), and two directions in the (110)-plus four higher-index surfaces. Surface-diffusion measurements were made over a range of HZS concentrations (in Hz) from 3 to 1500 ppm between 830°and 1050°C. The results can be divided into two groups—Group 1 contains the two (110) surfaces while Group 2 contains the remaining six surfaces. In Group 1, increasing the temperature increases the effect of Hz S on DS for the Hz S range 5700 ppvn. Qs and Do increase with increasing H2S concentration in this Hz S range. Beyond this range, increasing the temperature decreases this effect on D,; also Q, and Do decrease. In Group 2, increasing the telnperature decreases the effect of H2 S on D, for the H2S range studied, and Qs and Do decrease with increasing Hz S concentration. In any study of surface phenomena, there invariably arises the question of the possible presence of and effect of adsorbed impurities. Such questions are well-founded since the presence of adsorbed atoms can sometimes produce marked changes in the kinetics of surface-energy-driven processes. In the last few years, values of the surface self-diffusion coefficient, D,, have been determined on a variety of metals by studying the decay of scratches or the growth of grain boundary grooves.L~3-L0~L3 Yet there has been relatively little work done in which the concentration of an adsorbed impurity was systematically varied and the effects observed. Work of this sort would provide some basis in fact for the assertions often made about the ro1.e of adsorbed impurities in the differences between the results of different workers in different atmospheres and on different metals. It also is relevant to those cases in which surface monolayers produce profound effects in commercially important processes. The most marked example of such effects is the ability of nickel or palladium to increase the sintering rate of tungsten by many orders of magnitude.' The aim of this work was to study the effect of sulfur partial pressures on the surface self-diffusion of copper. It was felt that this in conjunction with a study of the degree of adsorption and type of active sites involvedL8 would provide a wide range of data for one system and hopefully lead to some insight into the mechanism by which sulfur adsorption influences copper diffusion. The main reasons for choosing the Cu-S system were, first, faceting was reported not to accompany the adsorption of sulfur. This is required if our experimental technique is to work. Second, Oudar has determined a high temperature adsorption isotherm for this system, an event which puts the Cu-S system almost in a class by itself.I4 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Initially, we considered studying the effect of an adsorbed impurity on surface self-diffusion of copper using isolated (or single) scratch smoothing as the technique and oxygen as the impurity. Copper was chosen as the material because the effects of orientation and anisotropy of the surface self-diffusion coefficient, D,, of copper in a dry hydrogen atmosphere had been studied extensively by Gjostein' and by Shewmon and ~hoi.~,~ The isolated scratch technique was chosen because both the effects of surface orientation and anisotropy of D, in a given surface could be easily studied with this method.~ Oxygen was tried as the impurity because Robertson and Shewmon""~ had studied its adsorption on copper at 1000°C over the range of oxygen partial pressures of 10"22 to 10-l3 atm. After several preliminary runs, it became evident that neither the scratch technique nor the impurity oxygen would be satisfactory for this work. Scratching deforms an annealed surface so that the region near the scratches recrystallizes, thereby disrupting the scratch profiles. One can avoid this by deforming the specimen sufficiently before scratching to give complete recrystallization on subsequent heating.4 However, as a result of Gjostein's success in scratching and annealing undeformed gold single crystals without local recrystallization,13 we attempted something similar with copper single crystals using a 0.7-mil diamond phonograph needle mounted in a Tukon hardness tester. All specimens recrystallized upon being annealed. Also, some copper specimens were sent to Gjostein to be scratched using his technique. The results were the same. As a result, the scratch technique was dropped in favor of the grooving of symmetric grain boundaries. Preliminary work using oxygen showed that faceting began to occur before oxygen adsorption had any measurable effect on D, at 938°C (at Pbo/P, = 0.12). Since heavy faceting would interfere with the measurement, we decided to use a sulfur-containing atmosphere (H2S/H2). Work by Oudar and Benard' and Robertson" showed that sulfur absorbed on copper and that faceting was not observed.

Jan 1, 1967

By Henry M. Howe

Jan 1, 1909

By Thomas B. Douglas

INSTRUMENTATION in the process industries can no longer be regarded as a convenience, but rather an absolute necessity. Although many chemical processes must already be conducted with instruments, every properly designed application of automatic process control will improve operation: 1) the product will be more uniform and of higher quality; 2) the manual labor saved will reduce cost; 3) uniformity of flow and uniform control of process will increase production; and 4) surges will be eliminated, making it possible to operate equipment near ultimate capacity at all times. Industrial instruments fall into two general classifications-those that measure and those that measure and control. The cement industry has been using instruments for a number of years, particularly in the burning process, primarily for indicating and recording. Automatic process control makes additional use of these instruments, and others, to control variables. Assisted by the instrument manufacturers, engineers at Ideal Cement CO. achieved considerable progress in determining how well the usual recording instruments could be made to control various phases of cement-making. The results of these experiments were used to make the new plant at Houston as wholly automatic as possible.

Jan 2, 1958