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By G. Britsianes, T. L. Joseph

THE reduction of a lump of iron ore is a complicated sequence of up to three reactions proceeding simultaneously in a gas-solid system. As the ore moves down the blast furnace into zones of higher temperature and higher reducing power, it is successively reduced through the three oxides of iron into metallic iron. The reduction process involves much more than chemical problems. Physical factors add to the complexity of the overall process. Under optimum conditions, reduction of the ore is completed at a level about one-half way down the blast furnace stock column. At this point, the ore undergoing reduction has attained a temperature of about 1000°C and has been in the furnace for about 6 hr. On the practical side, the behavior of the ore during smelting has been of great interest to operators. Unsatisfactory blast furnace operation on burdens containing magnetite ore or badly slagged sinter has often been attributed to poor re-ducibility. The question of reducibility has also been raised in formulating quality standards for agglomerates such as nodules, briquettes, and pellets. In the present investigation, the solid phases formed during reduction were studied as a step toward a better understanding of the overall process. Equilibrium Studies The iron-oxygen equilibrium diagram shown in Fig. 1 reveal; a number of facts pertinent to the gaseous reduction of iron ores. This diagram is from the work of Darken and Gurryl, 2 and represents a correlation of the best available data. Four solid phases may exist during the complete reduction of hematite to metallic iron. These are hematite (Fe2O3), magnetite (Fe3O4), wustite (FeO), and iron (Fe). The wustite phase is a solid solution which is not stable below 570°C. At this temperature the solid solution undergoes a eutectoid-type of decomposition into the phases, magnetite and iron. Thus above 570°C, the diagram dictates that a hematitic ore should pass through a four-phase sequence on reduction to metallic iron. Below 570°C, only hematite, magnetite, and iron should appear. Information on the iron-oxygen system has been derived largely from CO and H2 reduction equilibria. The Fe-C-0 relationships have been studied extensively by R. Schenck and his coworkers and well summarized by H. Schenck.3 More recent studies have been made by Darken and Gurry.1, 2 Data from these sources have been combined and plotted in Fig. 2. With respect to the Fe-H-O system, the works of Emmett and Schultz4 seem the most reliable, and these data have also been included in Fig. 2. Certain physical properties of the solid phases of the iron-oxygen system are summarized in Table I. The crystallographic information is of special interest as much of the present work has been concerned with the X-ray analysis of the products of reduction. Reduction with Hydrogen The reduction of ore with hydrogen is the net result of two or more gas-solid reactions. Above 570°C, the reaction sequence may be represented by stoichiometric stages as follows: 3Fe203+ H2e2Fe,O, + H20 [1] 2Fe3O, + 2H2 6FeOw + 2H2O [2] 6FeOw + 6H3 ^ 6Fe + 6H=O [3] Fe2O3 + 3H2 ^ 2Fe + 3H,O. [4] These reduction reactions follow the general form: A (solid) + B (gas) e C (solid) + D (gas). This type of gas-solid reaction has been investigated by Langmuirl' who has shown that such reactions can occur only at the boundary between the two solid phases. Furthermore, a nucleus of the second phase must initiate the reaction. Once such an interface exists, the reaction proceeds through a layer of the solid reaction product (C). The specific mechanisms involved will depend a great deal on the properties and condition of this particular layer. A number of heterogeneous reactions such as the dehydration of single crystals of copper penta-hydrate and the calcination of limestone follow this type of process. It should be noted that the inter-facial type of reaction also occurs even in dense polycrystalline material which simulates a mono-crystalline behavior.

Jan 1, 1954

By R. W. Freeman, L. L. Tavlarides

The experimental methods used in obtaining kinetic data for solvent extraction systems can affect the validity of the results The method of contacting the two liquids should allow for accurate determination of the surface area, hydrodynamics, and diffusional processes The appropriateness of the Liquid Jet Recycle Reactor is discussed and the modelling of the mass transfer and chelation reaction is presented The LJRR is used to investigate the chelation of copper by LIX65N in toluene from aqueous copper sulfate sulfuric acid solutions The ranges of experimental variables are Copper, 1 8-13.8 g-dm-3, sulfuric acid 0-1.6 g-dm-3, LIX65N, 0 1-1.0 mol-dm-3 Data on the initial rate of copper chelation at the interface is generated Nonlinear regression analysis shows that the following expression adequately describes the data within experimental error.

Jan 1, 1981

By D. R. George

Preliminary research has identified several organic and aqueous solutions that are effective absorbents for SO, from simulated smelter gas containing 0.3 to 2% SO2. These SO2 loaded solutions are also compatible to the reaction of H2S and SO2 to precipitate a readily filtered elemental sulfur. The economic removal of SO2 and production of elemental sulfur from stack gases discharged by base- metal smelters is a challenging goal. The magnitude of this task is illustrated by the estimate that about 3.5 million tons of SO2 are discharged to the atmosphere by smelters annually in the U.S. The SO2 concentration of the gases ranges from about 0.5 to more than 3%. As the sulfur content of SO2 is 50% a potential production of 1,750,000 tons of sulfur per year is indicated.

Jan 1, 1970

By Roger N. Dokken

It is well-known1-4 that Fe-Si alloys from approximately 9 to 27 at. pct Si show an ordered structure of the Fe3Si type at room temperature. Recently Meinhardt and Krisement,' through an investigation of Fe-Si alloys at room temperature by neutron diffraction, discovered that at 10.8 at. pct Si ordering of the FeSi type occurs while above this composition the normal Fe3Si-type superstructure appears. This FeSi type of ordering was also found by Davies8 as indicated by X-ray diffraction measurements on an Fe-8.7 at. pct Si alloy. Meinhardt and Krisement7 extended their neutron-diffraction work and determined the phase-boundary temperatures for both FeSi- and Fe3Si-type ordering. Ordering phenomena can also be studied by resistance measurements.4,8-11 Krivoglas and Maty-sina" carried out a theoretical development of the

Jan 1, 1965

BECAUSE of the impetus given to placer mining since the price of gold was advanced to $35, several types of small dredges have made their appearance, especially in the Lincoln and Oroville areas of California. Some of these are known as "doodle bugs," and have been given considerable publicity, though many believe their performance has been overrated and that complete costs of construction and operation, if known would not put them in so favorable a light. Fig. 1 is a doodle bug owned by E. M. Clark and operated near Lincoln, Calif. It is understood that it was abandoned because of inability to handle deep ground. A similar machine that has been operated-profitably by Comstock Placers is shown in Fig. 2.

Jan 1, 1938

By D. W. Brunton

THE maps of our large mines are usually prepared with the greatest care; and it is somewhat singular that, in comparison with the great amount of time and money spent in surveying and platting, so little actual use is made of them. Almost the only purpose for which a completed survey-map is afterwards consulted, is the determination of the relative position of the different workings to each other, and to the boundary-lines of the property. After the completion of such a map, it should be made the beginning of another, and in most cases a far more important, undertaking, namely, its utilization as -a starting-point for a complete inventory of the company's underground possessions. The ordinary mine-survey map, being nothing but a record of what has been done, is, in one sense, only ancient history. To increase its value, such additions should be made as will render it a complete statement of the amount and value of ore in sight at any particular time, and a guide for future develop¬ments. Comparatively little extra labor is involved in this undertaking, since the larger and most expensive part of the work has already been completed when the mine has been surveyed and mapped. The necessary additions consist in working out, and platting on the maps, the geology of the mine as exposed in the workings, in such a manner that the geological survey may be of daily use in the development and operation of the mine. The first step towards the production of a geological map consists in tracing individual level-sheets from the general or composite map. The area to be included, outside of the property in question, will depend very much on local conditions; but, for geological, legal and commercial reasons, it should be extended as far as reasonably practicable. The scale to be

Sep 1, 1905

By H. H. Otto

COMPARED with 1939, the year 1940 has seen no material change in the production of anthracite. Many factors seem to indicate a stabilized anthracite production of approximately 50 million tons per year. The present war has stimulated demand in the Cana¬dian and New England markets, which were formerly furnished with a portion of their needs from Great Britain and other European countries. Neither has there been any material change in the "bootleg coal" situation. This problem is more serious in the Southern anthracite field than in the Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton areas. One reason for this is the nearness of the Southern field to the large anthracite markets in Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, and Harrisburg. During the past year no new large

Jan 1, 1941

By Paul D. Merica

DURING the Dark Ages, when metallurgy was practiced by the alchemists, any unusual or disturbing variation in metallurgical operations was ascribed to the, presence, in the metals or ores, of an evil spirit, and it was necessary to exorcise and drive it out "by suitable incantations. In this day of science and of engineering, things still incomprehensibly go wrong in the metallurgist's work shop. The metallurgist is even now not unwilling to lay the blame for many such experiences at the door of something which intellectually- much resembles an evil spirit, "gas in the metal." The presence of gases in his metal, he knows, occasions him many very definite troubles which he can clearly distinguish and diagnose-why may it not be also responsible for those which he cannot so well understand?

Jan 1, 1931

By AIME AIME

THE papers presented at the geophysics session" on Feb. 17 were concerned largely with three aspects of the science. The first ones dealt with the transmission of elastic waves through the earth, then electrical methods came in for their share of attention and finally, the question of the teaching of geo- physics came up for the first time at these meetings. Also, for the first time, there was a symposium of mining men on the practical value of the new science. The paper (T. P. 267) entitled "Seismic Propagation Paths" was presented by Donald C. Barton in the absence of the authors. It dealt with an investigation of the speed of propagation of seismic waves. The latter travel in a straight line when proceeding at a constant velocity, but if the velocity increases at increasing depths, the line of travel becomes a curve. Under the assumption of the authors this curve is found to be the arc of a circle, and their paper gives calculations for reflected and refracted wave paths under these circumstances.

Jan 1, 1930

By Lysle E. Shaffer

TEACHING engineering students how to write and speak effectively -is one of the greatest problems facing the technical schools today. No phase of engineering education has received more criticism, and rightly so, for the criticism is justified. Year after year we continue to graduate men that are indifferent to the use of a tool they will need every day of their lives. Our young engineers cannot write a clear, concise report, and their business letters are a disgrace to the profession that takes pride in precision. The problem is not new. The remark ascribed to Sir James Barrie, that "The man of science appears to be the only man who has something to say, just now-and the only man who does not know how to say it" is as uncomfortably true today as it was thirty years ago. The records of meetings of engineering educators and the transactions of the engineering societies show that the inability of the engineer to communicate his ideas has been discussed for years. Engineering educators, prodded by industry, have recognized that the problem exists, but they have not solved it. Instead they continue to expose the student to composition and rhetoric, hustle him through English and American literature, and then blame his high school because he does not know enough English grammar to write a clear sentence. We must face the fact that the graduate is not going to reflect on the high school, but on his college. If the high school has shirked the job, the responsibility for correction rests on the faculty of the professional school.

Jan 1, 1948

By S. F. Shaw

IT IS generally recognized that the natural gas absorbed in petroleum plays the leading r6le in moving the oil through the sands to the well and supplies the energy that delivers the oil to the surface when the wells are flowing. It is the purpose of this paper to note the amount of oil that could be lifted by this gas if 100 per cent. efficiency were obtained and the efficiencies actually obtained in the use of this gas. An article in MINING AND METALLURGY,' stated that in a Wyoming field, with a pressure of 300 lb. per sq. in., there would be absorbed 65 cu. ft. of gas per barrel, or 1.55 cu. ft. per gal. of oil. The writer does not know if data have been obtained, by experiment, for pressures beyond those indicated in this article, therefore, for the purpose of illustration, he has projected this curve to obtain figures for pressures greater than 300 lb., although probably experiment will show that the extended line is not quite correct.

Jan 1, 1926

By William C. Harrigan, William D. Nix

Dynamic measurements of Young's modulus have been made for poly crystalline Ni-W alloys from room temperature to 800°C. The alloys studied range in composition from pure nickel to Ni-10 at. pct W. The results indicate that Young's modulus decreases linearly with temperature above the Curie temperature. The rate of change of Young's Modulus with temperature mas found to range from 104 psi per "C for pure nickel to 0.82 x 104 psi per °C for Mi-10 pct W. At all temperatures the elastic modulus decreases with increcrsing tungsten content up to 1 at. pct W, and increases as the tungsten content is increased above that level. Young's modulus decreases slightly as the carbon content is increased from 0.002 to 0.09 wt pct C THE knowledge of the elastic modulus of metals and alloys is important for a number of reasons. The first and most obvious reason comes from the need to predict elastic deflections under given loading conditions. A second and somewhat more subtle reason comes from the fact that the elastic properties of an alloy must be known before a proper account of the mechanisms of plastic deformation can be made. This is especially true for high-temperature creep of crystalline solids. Sherby and his coworkers have shown that the high-temperature steady-state creep rates of crystalline solids are inversely related to the elastic modulus1,2 and that the temperature dependence of the elastic modulus must be taken into account if reliable determinations of the activation energy for creep are to be made. In addition, measurements of the elastic constants of solid solutions are needed to allow one to assess the modulus interaction contribution to solid-solution Strengthening.3-5 Pelloux and Grant6 have demonstrated that substantial solid-solution strengthening at room temperature and elevated temperatures occurs when refractory metal solute atoms are added to nickel. While the high-temperature elastic properties of pure nickel have been measured by a number of authors,7-10 the elastic properties of nickel-based refractory metal alloys have not been determined. The purpose of this paper is to report on measurements of Young's modulus of polycrystalline Ni-W alloys at elevated temperatures. It is expected that these measurements will be valuable to studies of the mechanical properties of nickel-based refractory metal solid solutions. I) EXPERIMENTAL Young's moduli of polycrystalline samples were determined by a dynamic method in order to reduce high- temperature anelastic and plastic relaxations. The samples were forced in transverse free-free vibration; that is, both ends of the sample were unrestrained and the vibration was transverse to the long axis. The fundamental resonant frequency was determined by the Forster method.11 The analysis of this type of vibration which was formulated by Rayleigh,12 Timo-chenko,13 and pickett,14 and reviewed by Fine," leads where fn is the resonant frequency of the nth mode, r is the radius of the circular cross section. L is the specimen length, ßn is 1.5056 for free-free vibration in the fundamental mode of vibration, 6 is the mass density, and E is Young's modulus in the axial direction. This equation can be transformed into: E = 9.17605 x 10-6(L/D)E/Lf2 [2] where E is Young's modulus in psi, L is the length in inches, d is the diameter in inches, W is the weight in grams, and f is the resonance frequency in cps. Eq. [2] was further modified in order to take account of the thermal expansion of the samples. The resulting correct term is: where the thermal expansion coefficients for nickel and tungsten, respectively. Xw is the atom fraction of tungsten in the sample and T is the temperature in "C. The treatment of the thermal expansion coefficient as a linear function of composition seems sufficiently accurate since an error of 25 pct in the expansion coefficient will result in only a 0.3 pct error in the modulus at 1000°C. A) Apparatus. The equipment for this investigation has been described by Lytton et al.16 Several modifications of the equipment have been made. The most significant change involved replacing the detector crystal transducer with a magnetic transducer. A phonographic magnetic transducer was employed as a sensing device since the contact pressure necessary to produce a stable signal is much less than that for a crystal transducer. This magnetic transducer is also not affected by conditions of high temperature and vacuum which are present in these experiments. The vacuum was 10-5 torr at room temperature and about 5 x 10-4 torr at 900°C. This was sufficient to prevent surface contamination of the samples during the tests. The samples were heated in an elliptical furnace with a quartz lamp at one focal line and the sample at the other, as described by Lytton et a1.16 The temperature of the sample was measured by monitoring the

Jan 1, 1969

By Luke L. Y. Chang, Bert Phillips

ThE tendency toward further oxidation of the intermediate oxides and the high volatilization rates of the higher oxides have prevented direct attainment of equilibrium data for the system tungsten-oxygen. As a result, St. Pierre et al.1 have proposed a phase diagram (to 800°C) based on thermody-namic data to 1200°C for the known tungsten oxides (WO2z, W18O49, W20O58, and WO3) and a report on a tungsten suboxide W3O.2 Recent modification of a technique previously described3 5 now permits adequate preservation of compositions of mixtures of metallic tungsten and metal oxides (e.g., of tungsten, cobalt, calcium, samarium, titanium) in order that condensed phase relations may be established to 1700 This method has been applied to study the high-temperature stability of tungsten oxides. In the method used, the desired compositions were sealed in nonreactive containers such that only a small gas volume remained. Each sample then established its own equilibrium atmosphere at temperature. This method has advantages in the study of systems of the W-0 type where knowledge of the condensed phases is desirable but for which composition and pressure of the gas phase are not readily attainable because of oxide volatility. Mixtures of 99.99 pct tungsten metal powder and purified tungsten anhydride (WO3) or in some cases W18O49* were equilibrated in pellet form in sealed

Jan 1, 1964

By W. F., Dietrich

THIS paper deals with the- methods of mining the high-grade clays of California. Although the majority of the clay pits in the state are operated on a scale that is small by comparison with most metal mines, this very fact results in a diversity of methods and gives rise to problems of selection of the method best suited to given conditions. Two or three operators in California produce approximately 500 tons per day of a single kind of clay from a single pit. About five varieties of clay are mined on a scale of 200 to 400 tons per day; not over fifteen varieties are mined on a? scale of 50 to 200 tons per day; and more than 50 varieties are mined at a rate of less than 50 tons per day. It is the aim of this paper to delimit, insofar as the data at hand permit, the conditions and scale of operations that favor the selection of each dominant method of mining that is actually being applied at California properties. Details of the occurrence and utilization of the clays of California have been given in a recent bulletin and are not considered here.

Sep 1, 1928

By E. R. Smith

ANALYSIS of the requirements for gun perforation equipment suitable for penetrating casing and cement showed that these points would be involved: (1) Powder charges electrically detonated under high fluid lieads and at remote distances. (2) Selective firing of sliots in sequence. (3) Sufficient velocity for the bullet to penetrate at least two strings of seamless casing and all cement beyond the strings. (4) Heat-treatment of steels to withstand great pressures and penetration. (5) Esclusiorl of fluid under extremely high hydrostatic pressure. (6) Stranded steel wire line acting as weight - suspending and current - carrying medium. (7) Firing controls operated above the surface. (8) Determining gun depth and suspended weight by means of the wire line. (9) Portability for field use.

Jan 1, 1936

By R. W., Ludt

THE use of froth flotation for the separation of minerals has become one of the most important of ore dressing processes. Its particular adaptability to the enrichment of low grade ores has made the process an important factor in the national economy. The methods have been extended to the recovery of a great number of minerals. Among the few minerals which have resisted efforts toward industrial flotation is chrysocolla, a hydrated partly colloidal copper silicate. Chrysocolla, being a product of natural oxidation, has been found to occur in small quantities with many ores which are recovered by flotation methods. In present practice, these small quantities of copper silicate pass off with the tailings and are lost. The advantages to be gained by a satisfactory process for the recovery of chrysocolla is apparent. Any application of principles which points a way toward the satisfactory industrial flotation process for copper silicate would be of advantage. This paper presents an attack on this problem.

Jan 1, 1949

By P. R. Sahm, T. V. Pruss, D. A. Gandolfo

Cb 3 Sn powders were hot-pressed to estahlish densi-fication conditions and assess the possible use of such compacts in multiphase structures with ceramic or magnetic inclusions. Superconducting transition temperatures, Tc, were measured as a function of powder particle size, pressing temperature, and second-phase admixtures. The highest transition temperatures were found in coarse powder (5 to 500 u) compacts and were only weakly depended on pressing temperatures up to 1200°C. Fine powders (below 5 p), however, both single-phase CbsSn and Cb3 Sn-composites, showed a stronger dependence on hot-pressing temperatures. While Al2 O3 phase admixtures did not affect T, much more, a Pronounced T, degradation was observed upon the addition of ferrimagnetic Fe2 Mno. 5 Zno.5 O4 powders. Likewise, critical current densities, Jc, at 4.2° K were lowered appreciably in the ferrite doped samples, whereas the neutral A1203 inclusiow gave slightly improved Jc values. MULTIPHASE structures in electronically active materials have recently gained in interest as pointed out by Galasso in a review article.' In superconductors the most widely reported group are eutectic alloys which have been mostly investigated with respect to the proximity effect.2"4 In addition, "artificial eu-tectics", for example in the form of mercury-vycor glass sponge5 or fine niobium wires imbedded in a copper matrix,= have been prepared to attain higher critical fields and critical current densities. The idea was to enhance flux pinning phenomena by second-phase inclusions or ho1es. 7 Flux pinning should also be possible by the introduction of insulator inclusions into a superconducting matrix. Ceramic-metal combinations are most easily produced by hot pressing (= pressure sintering), as it permits an almost unlimited selection of material combinations. Cb 3 Sn has been prepared by vapor phase growths or in the form of thin films. Large compacts must be sintered,1° however, and normally present difficulties. At temperatures below 1350°C insufficient densities are obtained and at higher temperatures the loss of tin due to dissociation upsets the stoichiometry. Hot pressing is a natural approach to circumvent the problems, since one can obtain satisfactory densities despite low sintering temperatures. This work was mostly concerned with establishing conditions to hot press Cb3 Sn and Cb3 Sn multiphase structures (= composites), because no data are presently available, and to evaluate these with respect to their transition temperatures. However, a few measurements on critical current densities were also carried out, in particular to assess the value of ferrimagnetic inclusions. I) EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The experimental procedure involved the preparation of feed material and powders, hot pressing, and evaluation of the resulting ingots. As no attempts were made to synthesize Cb3Sn from the elements during hot pressing, feed material had to be produced. For this purpose, a stoichiometric Cb-Sn powder mixture was compacted into a 3-cm-diam ingot (80,000 psi) and then inserted into a quartz tube and evacuated. Rf heating was employed. Above the tin melting point (230°C) liquid tin was forced out of the ingot, but was pulled back by capillary action after approximately 0.5 hr of continuous pumping at 700°C. Thus, it appears that evacuation at this temperature caused desorption of impurity gas creating wetting surfaces which, later on, favored alloying at relatively low temperatures. After a presintering period of 17 hr at 800°C, the quartz tube was tipped off and sealed into another such larger-diameter tube which, in turn, was connected to a pump system. This configuration permitted a temperature treatment at 1400°C, carried out for 65 hr, without collapsing of the glass walls or unfavorable chemical interaction of Cb3Sn with the quartz. The resulting material was

Jan 1, 1969

By Ralph Smith

DEVELOPMENT of the lime industry in Ste, Genevieve County began in a crude way in 1840. According to information furnished by the Missouri Bureau of Geology, in the early days small vertical kilns built of stone were used, and wood was the fuel. Modern development began in 1904 when one company introduced steel shells lined with firebrick. Within a few years two more companies erected similar plants, and in 1925 a fourth company began operations. Thus there are today four lime companies at Ste. Genevieve, all operating at high capacity and with a gradually increasing production. GEOLOGY The limestone of Ste. Genevieve County, which has the chemical composition and purity required for lime burning, is the upper 80 or 90 ft. of Spergen formation. The Missouri Bureau of Geology, in its geological map of Ste. Genevieve County, gives the Spergen formation a total thickness of 160 ft., but only the upper portion is pure enough for lime burning, with an average raw-stone analysis of 98.7 per cent CaCO3; 0,35 Si02; 0,3 R203; 0.35 MgCO3; 0.3 SO3. The Spergen, one member of the Meramac group, Iowa series, of the Mississippian system, underlies an area approximately 12 miles long north and south, by 5 miles wide east and west (Fig. 1) in Ste. Genevieve County. The entire eastern two-thirds of Ste. Genevieve County is sedimentary, the formations dipping gently toward the east on an average grade of about 4 per cent, or 2 ½ °. Thus the outcrops of the various sedimentaries run approxi-mately north and south. A line running west from Ste. Genevieve crosses the outcrops of the sedimentaries, ranging from the top of the Mississippian to the Ozarkian geological system in a space of 12 miles. Thus with the gentle dip of 2 1/2° the 160-ft. thickness of the Spergen formation stretches out in its outcrop so that it is approximately one mile

Jan 1, 1938

By Scott Howard

MANGANESE being perhaps the least expensive of the metallic alloying elements that can be advantageously added to iron in considerable quantities, the basic characteristics of its alloys with iron are properly receiving much attention at present. In the course of a dilatometric investigation of this system several years ago, the writer observed certain transformation phenomena not found in other iron-base alloys. The interpretation of those effects was not evident from the information then available, but recent X-ray studies clear up at least one anomaly and permit a more satisfactory description of the results than would have been possible otherwise. Aside from the new phenomena observed, the effect of manganese on the Ar3 transformation is of timely interest because of its bearing on the critical compositions of austenitic alloys, the applications of which are now being greatly extended. It is known that the properties of these alloys are unstable unless the Ar3 transformation occurs at a temperature considerably below atmospheric and that manganese is very effective in depressing the temperature of this transformation. The writer aims to establish a simple general relation which expresses the location of Ar3 quantitatively in terms of the content of the common alloying elements used in steel. A step in that direction is taken here. Early dilatometric investigations1 indicated that only one transformation other than the eutectoid A1 occurs in the high-iron alloys of the iron-manganese system. Dejean represents the Ar3 point as falling to 0° C. with a manganese content of 11 per cent and carbon content of between 0.30 and 0.40 per cent. Esser and Oberhoffer,2 using alloys low in carbon (under 0.03 per cent), arrived by extrapolation at 14 percent for the manganese content at which Ar3 is depressed to 0° C. Not until both low carbon contents and alloys having a manganese content

Jan 1, 1931

By A. Lee Barrett

AN accelerated trend toward mechanical mining was noted in 1940, calling for improvements in and better performance of transportation, hoisting, and ventilating equipment. One of the most interesting experi¬ments in transportation is the track shuttle-car operation first put into use by the Princeton Mining Co. in Indiana and later at the Montour 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. This system is based on the use of 10-ton drop-bottom mine cars operating on track and han¬dled by an ordinary gathering loco¬motive. These mine cars are loaded and taken in trips of two to a central dumping station which serves four or less loading machines. The dumping station consists of two standard chain-and-flight room conveyors, approximately 50 ft. long placed side by side approximately 4 ft. below the track from which the drop-bottom cars are dumped. These conveyors are operated at low speed and discharge into two similar elevating conveyors which operate at a higher speed and convey the coal to a trip of standard mine cars. A dumping station is usually located so that approximately 500,000 tons of coal may be handled through it before a move is required. This plan appears to have considerable possibilities for the mine equipped with small mine cars and standard locomotives since the advantages of large mine cars can be secured at a fraction of the cost required to install such cars throughout the mine. It appears logical that the future will see a much wider use of this modification in transportation.

Jan 1, 1941