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By Arthur F. Taggart

ENGINEERING education today is like a crazy quilt of somber wools and gaudy shoddy, chain-stitched on an academic assembly line, and sold at ever mounting prices to inexperienced youths for lifetime use. Each engineering school offers a half-dozen or so patterns with essentially the same skimpy wool content. Sales appeal is in the color of the shoddy, denoted by the hopeful adjectives chemical, civil and the like. This article is argument for an all wool product made by slow, careful handwork. Bluntly it proposes a thorough four-year undergraduate drill in fundamental science and general engineering empirics, leavened by continuing study of the third of the engineer's troubles: Man. It is not contended that existing methods of engineering education have failed to start men on the path to successful engineering practice (too many of you have started that way); rather, social conditions and the bounds of knowledge have changed tremendously, and corresponding alterations in the pattern of engineering education are overdue. We'll Teach the Specifics The first part of this contention is illustrated by excerpts from a letter received recently from an officer of one of the largest corporations: "We are interested in employing two or three outstanding young engineers to be placed on a special training program to develop them as design and construction engineers.... "We propose to put these men on a four-month indoctrination and orientation course after which they would be given job-training assignments for a period that will vary from about six months to about a year and a half depending upon the aptitudes, abilities and intelligence of the candidates.... "I am not too fussy about what kind of engineers the men might be insofar as academic courses are concerned. They could be.. . in almost any engineering classification.... We can furnish the additional training beyond the academic fundamentals. "The starting rate for these jobs would be $326 per month...." This letter is not unique; rather it is representative of a practice that has become common. It is industry's enforced response to the general refusal by young graduates to submit to union domination in order to gain operating experience at the labor level. The message to engineering schoolteachers is plain: You teach the fundamentals; we'll teach our practice and pay the graduate to learn it. The letter means to the student that time spent in school studying the specific practices of particular industries is waste compounded. The school can't give the equivalent of what industry teaches, wherefore industry will still demand apprenticeship. The student must pay for the specific instruction at school instead of being paid to take it later. And time-consuming specifics crowd out drill in basic scientific and technical subjects as well as liberal arts.

Jan 1, 1952

By E. T. Turkdogan, P. Grieveson, J. F. Beisler

Experimental results are given for the rate of reduction of silica from silicate melts by paphite-saturated iron in the presence of carbon monoxide. It is shown that, when gas bubbles are present at the slag-metal interface, the interfacial chemical reaction is the rate-controlling process in the transfer of silicon from slag to metal. From the silicon-concentration profiles in the metal sample, the diffusivity of silicon in paphite-saturated iron is found to be (5.4 * 0.4) x 10 sq cm per sec at 1600°C. Some consideration is given to the transport of oxygen from the slug-metal interface to the walls of the gvaphite metal container as becoming the rate-controlling process in the absence of gas bubbles at the slag-metal interface. ATTEMPTS were made by Fulton and chipman1 to investigate the kinetics of reduction of silica from calcium alumino-silicate melts by graphite-saturated iron in an atmosphere of carbon monoxide. In these experiments with 400 to 500 g of metal and slag, both phases were stirred in such a manner that the interface was essentially undisturbed. Initially, the graphite-saturated iron contained about 15 pct Si and, after about 8 or 10 hr of reaction time at 1600°C, the silicon content of the metal in- creased by about 0.2 pct. In a written discussion on this paper of Fulton and Chipman, schuhmann2 pointed out the possibility that this observed slowness of the reduction of silica could be due to the transport of oxygen across the liquid metal boundary layer at the slag-metal interface. Although this explanation of Schuhmann is quite feasible for the experimental data of Fulton and Chipman on silica reduction, such a reasoning should not be extended to other rate data on slag-metal reactions unless sufficient evidence is available satisfying the boundary conditions for such a transport process. The hydrodynamics of stirred liquids are very complex and even for a simple method of stirring there is no exact mathematical solution which will predict the mass transfer coefficient accurately. The best available solution of this problem is that given by Lewis' and later modified by mayers~ for a two-liquid system where liquids are stirred by counter-rotating stirrer blades without disturbing the interface. In such a system the mass transfer coefficient is estimated from an empirical relationship using the data on viscosity and density of the two liquids, rate of revolution, the length of stirrer blades, and the diffusivity of the element which is transferred from one phase to the other. It was found in these investigations' that the estimated and observed mass transfer coefficients, in systems containing two immiscible aqueous solutions, agreed within *40 pct. Although this is not considered to be an unreasonable error for the study of industrial processes, uncertainties of this magnitude cannot be tolerated in any theoretical study of reaction kinetics. In view of the complexity of the

Jan 1, 1963

By J. W. Stewart

That our American civilization will have extensive postwar problems in such fields as economics, unemployment, and social adjustment is now well understood by all readers of the press and listeners to the radio. But precious little is heard from these sources regarding the impact of the war on education, though education is one of the fields where the effect of the war is going to be felt most-for youth is fighting the war. Unquestionably, serious educational problems will ;rise in the postwar period, challenging the best efforts of our educators. Most acute will be the problems at the college level of education, for it is this age group that will have had its educational process most thoroughly disrupted. The return of these students to our college and university campuses wiI1 bring about a new set of conditions which we might as well try to foresee and begin to prepare for now. To begin with, the average returning college student who has had his education interrupted by war service will certainly be more mature in both years and mental outlook, and possibly married. As a result he will want to finish his college education as quickly as possible. His natural action will be to shop around among the various schools of the country to see where he can get the most credit for work he has done or thinks he has done. It is just possible that what might impolitely be termed "dark - market" schools may arise to cater to his needs. These schools will not think of them- selves in this light, of course, but will be conscious only of a keen sympathy for the veteran student and an urgent desire to help him solve his pressing problems. A considerable number of American colleges are going to be pretty well impoverished before this present war is ended and unless some professional organization takes it upon itself to place this possible situation under supervision and regulation, we may well suffer a serious setback to the

Jan 1, 1944

By Robert H. Richards

My first paper, read at the Cobalt Meeting of the Institute,' July, 1907, dealt with the behavior of a small Wilfley table when collceiltrating galena from quartz, the table being fed with natural products, with sized products, and with classified products. Since galena, having a specific gravity of 7.5, is among the heaviest minerals ordinarily concentrated by Wilfley table, it was desirable that a similar set of tests upon a mineral of lighter weight should be made. Chalcopyrite, of a specific gravity of 4, would have been the best mineral for this purpose, on account of its great importance as an economic mineral, but in carrying out the test I was obliged to content myself with a cupriferous pyrite, the specific gravity of which was 4.68 and the content in copper 8.80 per cent. Through the kindness of H. 0. Cummins, this material was obtained from Shasta, Cal., in very pure, clean, homogeneous condition. It was broken by rolls to 2 mm. in size, taking care to make a minimum of slimes. The quartz used to mix with it was pure, white, New England quartz, broken in the same way to the same size. In studying the accompanying tables, it should be borne in mind that the material concentrated was of low copper-content, and in many cases the quantity fed to the machine was 1 kg. or less. As a consequence of the smallness of the quantity treated it was very difficult to adjust the table and get it in condition to do its best work before the feed became exhausted, and for this reason many results were obtained which appear irregular.

Jan 1, 1909

By Rudolph G. Wuerker

The progress made in testing the strength of rocks and minerals as they are encountered in mine operation is reviewed. An attempt is made to correlate these physical measurements with abrasive hardness, grindability, and behavior in comminution on one hand and fracture of rocks in pillars and roof control on the other. THIS paper reviews the progress made in testing the strength of rocks, ores, coal, salts, and other minerals as they are encountered in mine operations. It attempts to correlate the results of these physical measurements with technological properties more useful to the mining engineer: abrasive hardness, grindability, and behavior in comminution on one hand, and roof control, fracture of rocks in pillars, and mining methods with controlled caving on the other. In the following pages, the materials discussed will be referred to as rocks. Basic to rock mechanics and comminution are the problems of strength, elastic behavior, and failure, common to all brittle materials. A distinction will be drawn as to theoretical and applied research, and discussion of the progress made in each field will include test data obtained by the U.S. Bureau of Standards,1-1 the U.S. Bureau of Mines," the Iowa Engineering Experiment Station,"." the Committee on Geophysical Research at Harvard University,'" Basic Industries Research of the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co.,11,12 by Philipps,13 and by Mueller," to name only a few. With refinements of testing methods and increased standardization. more useful and more comparable results have been achieved. This is especially important in testing a material like rock, as the inherent heterogeneity demands careful and exacting procedures. New measuring procedures that appear to supersede well known standard methods have contributed to faster and less costly testing yet have introduced new concepts, with implications as to comparability of results which must be watched. Reference is made to the sonic method for determining elastic properties," to be discussed in detail below. Basic Investigations Historically, all work in the field has started with the simplest determinations such as those for crushing strength, abrasive hardness, and grindability. These serve the limited objectives in the researcher's field of specialization: building construction, road ballast, roof control in mines, comminution, and seismic prospecting. Occasionally, fundamental properties like the modulus of elasticity E and Poisson's ratio v have been determined with the idea that they might have some bearing on the technological properties of the material under investigation. But it was not until the work of Philipps,13 of Harvard University,'" and of the U.S. Bureau of Mines"' that sufficient basic data were collected to allow researchers to go beyond the technological test and find the fundamental laws behind the behavior of rocks in mine and mill operations. The properties to be looked for are those that describe the elastic behavior of any material, the modulus of elasticity E and Poisson's ratio v being the ones determinable with least difficulties. Only two such properties are required to compute any other property such as the shear modulus, the modulus of rigidity, and the bulk modulus, all of which are related to each other according to well known equations of the theory of elasticity." In spite of their heterogeneous character, all rocks tested have possessed elastic properties. This does not mean that rocks of the same type always have the same modulus of elasticity, which varies exactly as the crushing strength or any other physical property of a rock can spread over a wide range. This has been explained by imperfections of the material always found in rocks, but to some extent this scattering of data is caused by inaccuracies inherent in the testing methods. Modulus of Resilience, a Criterion of Failure Increased availability of E values should allow us to test the validity of the quantity of strain energy theory which has been used in the solution of roof control problems by Philipps13 and by Holland.'" Recently Bond and Wang12 have applied this theory to explain the failure of an elastic material in comminution. Actually it is a very old theory, proposed as far back as 1885 by Beltrami.16 By its assumption the condition of yielding is determined by the term S2 M, = — x volume. Here M, is the modulus of 2E resilience, and its dimension is inch-pounds per cubic inch, that is, work per unit volume. Its numerical value is equal to the area under the stress-strain diagram. In the foregoing equation S is the yield stress (in psi) in tension or compression, whatever the case may be. E, the modulus of elasticity, is in psi. The great appeal of Beltrami's concept of stored energy lies in the fact that the two properties which seem to influence failure most, strength and elasticity, occur in the formula for the modulus of resilience. As an illustration of this, the moduli of resilience in compression of some typical materials tested by the U.S. Bureau of Mines" have been plotted in Fig. 1. The sample of concrete of conventional mix is shown only for the sake of comparison. Its determination was made in the Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, University of Illinois. The values of the moduli of resilience of the various specimens in the plot are:

Jan 1, 1954

By William Griffith

THE purpose of this paper is to make public record of new information in regard to the sustaining power of artificial mine-roof supports (not timber props) the result of investigations recently made in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania. First.-By the "Scranton Mine Cave Commission," appointed to investigate the mining conditions under the City of Scranton. Second.-By the "Pennsylvania Mine Cave Commission," appointed by the Governor to investigate the general subject of mine caves in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. Third.-By the personal researches and tests made by the author in an effort to secure a better artificial mine-roof or surface support. During the progress of the work of the Scranton Mine Cave Commission, the Engineers for the Commission, Messrs. Conner and. Griffith, being aware of the general lack of exact information in the engineering profession as to the strength of the ordinary artificial mine-roof or surface support, and particularly the stronger kinds, such as mine cogs, rock piers, etc., had tests made at the. Fritz Engineering Laboratory at Lehigh University, to determine the sustaining power under various compressions of the several kinds of artificial mine supports in use in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. A report of these tests was included in the report of this Commission, which was published as Bulletin No. 25 of the United States Bureau of Mines, Washington. A similar series of tests, more extensive and more elaborately-planned, were subsequently made for the Pennsylvania Mine Cave Commission at the U. S. Government Testing Laboratory at Pittsburgh, Pa. The report of this Commission was made to the Governor, but has not yet been published.

Jan 10, 1917

By R. Hogg

INTRODUCTION As mineral particles are made smaller and smaller, it follows that their surfaces assume a greater and greater importance. In the extreme, the colloidal systems are characterized by the complete dominance of surface over bulk properties. Surface characteristics and properties will clearly influence any fine-particle processing operation. Comminution, for example, is a process of creating new surface. Agglomeration, on the other hand, may involve the reduction of surface area and the forces involved are generally surface forces. All mineral separations, solid-solid as well as solid-fluid, involve the treatment of two or more phases (solid plus liquid and/or gas). As the interfacial area increases, so will its effects on processing. Both physical and chemical separations are influenced by interfacial phenomena. Gravity separations are usually performed in a liquid phase and may be affected, for example, by the wetting characteristics of the solids. Flotation processes, of course, are based on the exploitation of differences in surface properties. Hydrometallurgical processing usually involves interfacial chemical reactions, e.g. leaching. The rates of such reactions depend on surface area and may be influenced by electrochemical effects in the electrical double layer at the solid-liquid interface, or by adsorption of reactant and/or product species from solution. In characterizing a mineral surface, it is important to consider first the surface area, since this determines the relative importance of the interfacial effects. The structure and chemical composition of the surface, which may depend on segregation of impurities within the solid and on adsorption from the external environment as well as on the bulk composition of the solid, will generally determine such

Jan 1, 1980

By Frank F. Aplan

INTRODUCTION Coal is a solid, combustible mineral substance resulting from the degradation and alteration of vegetable matter largely in the absence of air. In this natural process of coalification, some non-combustible mineral matter is always associated with the combustible material. Coal preparation or cleaning is the process of removing this inert mineral matter from the coal. Preparation is highly successful in removing the large fragments of inert material, but is not very effective in removing the fine inorganic mineral matter intimately associated with the coal. Of the 600 million tons of coal produced in the United States every year, approximately one-half is produced by coal cleaning methods (1). The bulk of this tonnage is cleaned by coarse or intermediate gravity preparation methods (5 inches to 28 mesh, Tyler). Fine cleaning, say, -28 mesh, is done by shaking tables, washing cyclones, and flotation, or, until recently, the fines were either incorporated into the clean coal or simply discarded--not infrequently, the latter. In 1972, only 13 million tons of raw coal were cleaned by flotation in the United States, and from this 8.4 million tons of clean coal were produced (1). The percentage of clean coal produced by flotation in Europe (England, West Germany, Poland, U.S.S.R., etc.) is substantially higher. However, coal flotation has grown rapidly in the United States from only a few plants in 1950 to 31 in 1960 (2) and 66 in 1970 (1). Virtually all new preparation plants incorporate flotation into their basic flowsheet. The essential difference between ore and coal flotation is that for ores the entire tonnage is ground to flotation size, whereas for coal

Jan 1, 1976

By A. H. Miller, G. W. H. Norman

This survey is one of the more recent tests of geophysical methods of prospecting by the Dominion Observatory and the Geological Survey of Canada, of which the purpose is to find out what application such methods may have to geological problems in Canada. The Malagash salt deposit lies on the north shore of Nova Scotia about 40 miles east of the New Brunswick boundary, arid forms a part of faulted and folded Carboniferous strata. The salt beds are exposed only in the mine workings, which are about 1000 ft. deep and at one place extend for 1000 ft. along the strike. Lack of rock exposures, complicated folds, and faults make it impossible to predict the location of salt away from the mine. A survey of an area in the vicinity of the mine was therefore undertaken to find out whether the salt could be located by the torsion balance and whether its extension from the mine workings could be traced. As the gravitational effects at Malagash may be fairly typical of those at other concealed salt deposits in the Carboniferous rocks of the Maritime Provinces of Canada, the survey has a direct bearing on prospecting for other deposits. The survey was made in 1934 by A. H. Miller in collaboration with Dr. W. A. Bell, of the Geological Survey of Canada. Observations began on June 15 and were completed four months later, on Oct. 15. Definite gravitational effects including a lowering of gravity were observed over the deposit. The survey also disclosed one other area of low gravity cast of the mine hut whether this area is underlain by a large body of salt is not yet established.

Jan 1, 1938

By G. W. H. Norman, A. H. Miller

This survey is one of the more recent tests of geophysical methods of prospecting by the Dominion Observatory and the Geological Survey of Canada, of which the purpose is to find out what application such methods may have to geological problems in Canada. The Malagash salt deposit lies on the north shore of Nova Scotia about 40 miles east of the New Brunswick boundary, arid forms a part of faulted and folded Carboniferous strata. The salt beds are exposed only in the mine workings, which are about 1000 ft. deep and at one place extend for 1000 ft. along the strike. Lack of rock exposures, complicated folds, and faults make it impossible to predict the location of salt away from the mine. A survey of an area in the vicinity of the mine was therefore undertaken to find out whether the salt could be located by the torsion balance and whether its extension from the mine workings could be traced. As the gravitational effects at Malagash may be fairly typical of those at other concealed salt deposits in the Carboniferous rocks of the Maritime Provinces of Canada, the survey has a direct bearing on prospecting for other deposits. The survey was made in 1934 by A. H. Miller in collaboration with Dr. W. A. Bell, of the Geological Survey of Canada. Observations began on June 15 and were completed four months later, on Oct. 15. Definite gravitational effects including a lowering of gravity were observed over the deposit. The survey also disclosed one other area of low gravity cast of the mine hut whether this area is underlain by a large body of salt is not yet established.

Jan 1, 1938

By Thomas T. Read

The purpose of the following research, as originally planned, was to investigate the influence of temperature upon the plate-amalgamation process. In order to consider the amalgamation process intelligently, it was first necessary to learn the nature of an amalgam. In the performance of this task it was found necessary to consult a large volume of literature and to perform experimental investigations. The conceptions of the nature of amalgams thus obtained have so important a bearing on the amalgamation-process as a whole, as well as upon the possible influences of temperature, that it was advisable to include them in the treatment of the subject. The broader title is therefore used, even though some features of the amalgamation process have been treated very briefly and others entirely omitted, there being nothing new to present regarding them and their development not required for a clear presentation of the matter in hand. I. Historical Introduction. Gold was one of the earliest metals known to man. Occurring in the metallic state, it could be picked up in nuggets or mashed, as gold dust, from the sand and gravel of streams. Interestiag descriptions of the processes employed in early times for the recovery of gold may be found in Pliny's Natural History and in the treatise by Agricola on ores and minerals. But little progress in the treatment of the ores of gold mas possible until efficient crushing machines were devised. This want was supplied by the introduction, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, of the stamp-mill to treat the ores of Saxony. Blanket-strakes, or similar devices, were used to catch the

Jan 1, 1907

By A. H. Miller

THIS survey is one of the more recent tests of geophysical methods of prospecting by the Dominion Observatory and the Geological Survey of Canada, of which the purpose is to find out what application such methods may have to geological problems in Canada. The Malagash salt deposit lies on the north shore of Nova Scotia about 40 miles east of the New Brunswick boundary, and forms a part of faulted and folded Carboniferous strata. The salt beds are exposed only in the mine workings, which are about 1000 ft. deep and at one place extend for 1000 ft. along the strike. Lack of rock exposures, complicated folds, and faults make it impossible to predict the location of salt away from the mine. A survey of an area in the vicinity of the mine was therefore undertaken to find out whether the salt could be located by the torsion balance and whether its extension from the mine workings could be traced. As the gravitational effects at Malagash may be fairly typical of those at other concealed salt deposits in the Carboniferous rocks of the Maritime Provinces of. Canada, the survey has a direct bearing on prospecting for other deposits. The survey was made in 1934 by A. H. Miller in collaboration with Dr. W. A. Bell, of the Geological Survey of Canada.. Observations began on June 15 and were completed four months later, on Oct. 15. Definite gravitational effects including a lowering of gravity were observed over the deposit. The survey also disclosed one other area of low gravity east of the mine but whether this area is underlain by a large body of salt is not yet established.

Jan 1, 1936

By Arthur C. Simmons

The Pennsylvania-grade oil industry suffered a serious decline in 1938, which can be largely accounted for by the decrease in the use of lubricating oil. Production was considerably lower than in previous years and prices were very much lower. Operating profits undoubtedly were lower than the year 1933, for the average price of Bradford crude in 1938 was $1.898 as compared with $1.86 in 1933, and the difference in average price of $0.04 per barrel was more than offset by increased operating costs and taxes. Bradford Field Production in the Bradford field in the state of Pennsylvania averaged 36,759 bbl. per day in 1938 as compared with 41,300 bbl. in 1937. The decline in average daily production of 4541 bbl. can be attributed to low market price and pipe-line proration rather than to the actual physical capacity of the field. Pipe-line proration was in effect for the last eight months of the year and the daily average production per month fluctuated between a maximum of 41,852 bbl. per day in March 1938 and a minimum of 33,649 bbl. per day in November. Production figures for Bradford field have been corrected to include only the parts of the Bradford field that arc within the state of Pennsylvania, but the well-completion data for the Bradford field cannot be segregated and include those of the entire Bradford field, part of which is in Sew York state. Production from the Bradford field was obtained almost wholly by water-flooding and no radically new methods or practices occurred. Intensive research work was carried on both by individuals and companies and as a cpooperative enterprise, and minor improvements are gradually occurring in spacing, shooting, application of pressure and water conditions. Drilling Central and Southen Pennsylvania.—Pennsylvania production in central and southern Pennsylvania was obtained largely by air and gas repressuring together with the usual amount of natural production, and the repressuring operations in other than the Bradford field have not

Jan 1, 1939

By Arthur C. Simmons

The Pennsylvania-grade oil industry suffered a serious decline in 1938, which can be largely accounted for by the decrease in the use of lubricating oil. Production was considerably lower than in previous years and prices were very much lower. Operating profits undoubtedly were lower than the year 1933, for the average price of Bradford crude in 1938 was $1.898 as compared with $1.86 in 1933, and the difference in average price of $0.04 per barrel was more than offset by increased operating costs and taxes. Bradford Field Production in the Bradford field in the state of Pennsylvania averaged 36,759 bbl. per day in 1938 as compared with 41,300 bbl. in 1937. The decline in average daily production of 4541 bbl. can be attributed to low market price and pipe-line proration rather than to the actual physical capacity of the field. Pipe-line proration was in effect for the last eight months of the year and the daily average production per month fluctuated between a maximum of 41,852 bbl. per day in March 1938 and a minimum of 33,649 bbl. per day in November. Production figures for Bradford field have been corrected to include only the parts of the Bradford field that arc within the state of Pennsylvania, but the well-completion data for the Bradford field cannot be segregated and include those of the entire Bradford field, part of which is in Sew York state. Production from the Bradford field was obtained almost wholly by water-flooding and no radically new methods or practices occurred. Intensive research work was carried on both by individuals and companies and as a cpooperative enterprise, and minor improvements are gradually occurring in spacing, shooting, application of pressure and water conditions. Drilling Central and Southen Pennsylvania.—Pennsylvania production in central and southern Pennsylvania was obtained largely by air and gas repressuring together with the usual amount of natural production, and the repressuring operations in other than the Bradford field have not

Jan 1, 1939

By E. H. Griswold

The efforts of petroleum production engineers during the past year have largely concentrated upon ways and means of reducing operating investments and expenses in order that the industry may survive a period of low crude oil prices. Major progress was made in outlining and solving the technical problems pertinent to unit operation in order that executives and legal staffs may actually arrange operating contracts to effect unit operation. Consequent savings in development and operating costs, accompanied by increased recovery, will thus be obtained. Well spacing has received considerable constructive thought and study, from which practical results are assured in the near future. The control of edge and bottom waters has advanced in technique through the engineering work done in Yates, Hobbs and East Texas, and there is evidence of greater cooperative efforts between engineers to increase recovery from pools by mutual gas conservation. The use of pressure control by surface and bottom-hole chokes has become general practice to reduce gas-oil ratios. The study of bottom-hole pressures has led to new conceptions of proper utilization of reservoir energy and maintenance of pressure by natural means. Pressure gradients of flowing wells have been measured in practice and strides made to develop workable formulas for the flow of oil and gas mixtures through vertical pipes. The information thus obtained will permit the intelligent design of flow tubing combinations. Gas-lit and repressuring advancements have been few, due to overproduction from naturally flowing wells. Satisfactory unloading valves for gas-lift wells have been developed and consistent progress made in gas-lift displacement pumps. The necessity for producing wells at high rates of flow while producing large quantities of sand has resulted in radical changes in Christmas tree and separator designs for the Oklahoma City pool. The opening of wells to obtain potential production for proration purposes has been eliminated in the Yates and Hobbs pools by the application of engineering principles.

Jan 1, 1932

By Sir Robert Hadfield

Table 1 gives the composition of the specimens listed by the author. The details of test procedure and the results of the tests on mechanical, magnetic and electrical properties and cor-rodibility of the alloys are published in full in a paper by the same author, "Alloys of Iron and Manganese Containing Low Carbon," presented before the Iron and Steel Institute (of Great Britain) and published in full in their Proceedings for 1927, to which reference should be made. After reporting these tests the author gives the following discussion of results:] The studies here reported do not indicate that any of the series has really valuable or useful qualities for industrial applications, though the demands of industry are so varied that it is unsafe to prophesy that no special use will be found for a given material. The non-magnetic property of manganese steel is due to the association of Fe and Mn, but carbon has also an effect, enabling non-magnetic qualities to be obtained with a much lower percentage of Mn than would otherwise be the case; for example, 16 per cent. Mn is necessary for alloys practically free from carbon, while with 1 per cent. C nonmagnetic alloys may be obtained with as little as 7 per cent. Mn. Carbon, however, is the prime cause of the development of magnetic qualities by heat treatment. (Sec section 8 of the paper referred to above.) These Fe-Mn alloys show a resistance up to 87 microhms per c. c., but. as there are other alloys which have a resistance as high as 130 microhms per C. c., this does not provide any new feature of value. The most marked feature of the series studied is the brittleness in the range 3 to 10 per cent., with a maximum of brittleness at 7 per cent. Material with this percentage, while possessing quite appreciable hard-

Jan 1, 1927

By W. W. Scott

The application of engineering methods to the problems connected with drilling and producing in the oil industry has led to the development of the science that is variously termed "petroleum engineering," "production engineering," "petroleum production engineering," and even Itpolitical engineering." It would require much detail to enumerate the qualifications of a petroleum engineer, just as it would for an engineer in any major industry. For those who have a genuine liking for the oil industry, there is a wide selection of pathways to achievement. The oil industry is now highly specialized. Its products are necessary to all civilized people and are indispensable in the security of our nation and also in the well-being of our families. The business structure of our country depends in a large measure upon oil, and the welfare of this group as individuals is certainly linked with the welfare of the oil industry. What Is the Trend of Engineering? The oil industry offers a fertile field of opportunity for engineering; probably more so than any other industry. The sciences of geology, physics, chemistry and mathematics are all used in some phase of the oil industry and to a very considerable extent in the production division, which embraces the geological, drilling and producing departments. In drilling and production alone, research programs of considerable magnitude are being carried on at this time, and no doubt the future will see a great deal more of this kind of work. Through the cooperation of the engineer, the equipment manufacturer, and the American Petroleum Institute, immense savings have been made by the standardization of drilling and production equipment. Drilling equipment in itself offers a wide scope for study, in that continued efforts are being made to improve the equipment so that it can be made to drill faster and to greater depths. The improvements in drilling equipment are required because new reserves of oil are being found at progressively greater depths. In order to produce such oil in competition with oil now being produced from reservoirs

Jan 1, 1937

THROUGH the courtesy of the Southern Appala-chian Coal Operators' Association, a joint meeting of the Southern Appalachian Efficiency Associa-tion and local members of the A. I. M. E. and A. S. M. E. was held at Knoxville, Tenn., on Nov. 12. In introduc-ing the subject and stating the object of the meeting, H. Foster Bain, speaking for the. Institute members, said "Shoveling coal is the largest job of hand labor re-maining in this country, with the exception of the mis-cellaneous work on the farms, and even there nearly all the big jobs are now performed with the help of machines. The men in the coal mines, by hand labor, dig, each year, more cubic yards than were taken out of the Panama Canal. It has been a natural ambition of engineers, operators and men alike to follow here the characteristic lead of American industry and to substi-tute as far as possible the work of machines for the work of men; to promote the latter to the position of con-trolling and directing mechanical power rather than being themselves the machines that lift the coal from the floor of the room into the mine car. "Handling materials is one of the regular jobs of mechanical engineers, and the American Society of Me-chanical Engineers maintains a Materials Handling Division for discussion of the technical problems con-cerned. Having in mind the excellent results that had flowed from application of mechanical power and de-vices to these problems in factories, port terminals, warehouses, and other above-ground plants, the Me-chanical Engineers began to consider the possibility of introducing similar methods underground. Individual-ly, many were called upon to design, erect and operate machines for such use and at once they found them-selves faced by many novel conditions and difficulties. The Division thereupon planned a general meeting in New York in March, 1926, for consideration of problems and progress in this field. The Mining Engineers. and representative coal operators were invited to attend and

Jan 12, 1927

By K. Huessener

Discussion of the paper of K. HUESSENER, presented at the New York. meeting, February, .1916, and printed in Bulletin No. -110, February, 1916, pp. 443 to 474. KARL NIBECKER, Youngstown, O.-It has been contended that the method of measuring the operation of a blast-furnace boiler plant by means of the amount of steam generated per pound of coke used in the blast furnace is not of any value and even that it is quite misleading. It has been found, in the plant with which I am connected, that, in general, a blast furnace will operate during a month so close to average. conditions that the average monthly measure of the plant efficiency is indicated by the number of pounds of steam made per pound of coke put into the furnace, neglecting the amount of iron made and the amount of gas used for heating the stoves. For some time, it has been our custom to keep a record of this figure and use it as a general indicator of the operating practice. In comparing this figure from two different plants we have found some difficulty, due to differing conditions. It is conceivable but not altogether probable that a slight difference in burden, kind of ore or coke, would account for this difference. The method of using the gas, whether washed or unwashed, and the plant arrangement, may affect this number. For several plants on which we have worked up this number, we have found that most of the ordinary running irregularities are eliminated during a run of a month or more and that the number is, therefore, satisfactory. In connection with a plot of the number of pounds of steam generated per pound of coke, we are also plotting the production of the furnaces and the pounds of coke used per ton of production. With these three curves plotted on the same sheet, we believe that the operating man has sufficient information to judge of the efficiency of his plant' for any month.

Jan 5, 1916

Gentlemen.-The Institute was founded 54 years ago "with the object of promoting the arts and sciences connected with the economic production of the useful minerals and metals and the welfare of those employed in these industries by means of meetings for social intercourse and the reading and discussion of professional papers, and to circulate by means of publications among its members and associates the information thus obtained," At least once a year it is well to take stock of our assets, review our performance and determine how well we are now carrying out the purposes of our Founders. There can be no question as to the work the Institute has done and is doing in promoting the arts and sciences in the fields of mining and metallurgy. One needs only to contrast the methods, the labor and the costs of a half century ago with those now to visualize how far we have gone in the development of accurate technology and sound economics in mineral and metal production. The great mines, mills and smelters of the present, handling individually thousands of tons per day, would' have been impossible except for the accumulation of knowledge, the development of theory, and the improvement in practice that has characterized the period since the foundation of the Institute. The United States has prospered in the last half century greatly, and this has been due not merely to the possession of great natural resources, but to these resources being reduced to possession and put to work. The absence of customs barriers and the freedom of trade across the whole width of this great continent has been an important factor in the growth of our wealth. Unrestricted interchange of goods has permitted each citizen to draw on the resources of the whole country. However, these are but subsidiary causes of prosperity. The free interchange of scientific and technical data, by making the whole body of facts and theory available to each worker, has made this quick and unrivaled development possible. In promoting this free trade in knowledge the Institute may claim a large place without fear of denial. The .72 volumes of TRANSACTIONS, the special volumes, the bulletins and the other publications that have been issued, include a store of knowledge of the arts and sciences related to the production and use of metals and minerals not duplicated elsewhere. The large list of foreign members-1746 in number-few of whom ever have opportunity to attend meetings and all of whom derive their main benefits from membership through the pub-

Jan 1, 1928