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By Charles Hawes

WHEN sulfur is encountered in objectionable amounts, it is regarded as the most trouble-some element for the mine operator to control. It exists in two conditions in iron ores, as sulfide in iron pyrites and as sulfate in gypsum and barite. The sulfate radical (SO,) may also be linked to one or more of the several other elements found in the iron ore compound. The only dependable method for the de-termination of sulfur, particularly when found in the insoluble residue, has been the so-called fusion method. This is a long and tedious process involving several hours for its completion. In looking for a more rapid method which would be .applicable to all iron ores, the writer investigated the work of M. Groger1 who in 1881 showed that by heating pyrite with iron out of contact with air, the pyrite is reduced to iron sulfide and from the latter all of the sulfur will be given off as hydrogen sulfide gas on treat-ment with hydrochloric acid. FeS2 + Fe = 2 FeS FeS + 2 HCl = FeC12 + H2S In 1891 F. P. Treadwell2 not only confirmed the results of M. Groger but also found that iron powder would reduce to sulfide the sulfate radical of any substance, including barite, if not found in excessive quantities. The writer found this to be true and developed a method, in cooperation with F. J. Baker, chief chemist, mining department, of the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., Ishpeming, Mich., for the determination of sulfur in iron ores which is not only very rapid but also accurate. Pure iron ore powder, reduced by hydrogen, gave good results but was found to be very slow in reacting. A high silicon iron with a low sulfur content of 0.012 per cent was found to be. much more active than the pure iron and gave excellent results.

Jan 11, 1927

The following paragraph of appreciation of the Engineering Societies Employment Bureau is from the letter of a young engineer who found the Bureau of service. "I wish to sincerely thank you for the services rendered. They are of immense value to anyone located as I am, in a small town without the opportunities for keeping in touch with openings in manufacturing lines."

Jan 12, 1919

The co-operation of the. members of the Institute is earnestly sought by the Committee on Nominations, recently appointed by the Board of Directors, in its work of formulating a ticket for officers and places falling vacant in the Board of Directors in February, 1916. The Committee must present the official ticket of nominations to the Board of Directors at its October meeting. Members are, therefore, urged to send promptly their nominations for officers and Directors in order that the Committee may have an opportunity to give, them full consideration. The officers to be elected at the annual meeting in February, 1916, are: One officer, known as Director and President: Two officers, known as Director and Vice-President. Five officers, known as Director. The officers of the Institute whose terms expire are as follows: President, William L. Saunders (not eligible for re-election). Past President, Charles F. Rand. Vice-Presidents, Thomas H. Leggett, District 0; Fred W. Denton, District 4.

Jan 10, 1915

By John R. Riede

Most beneficiation plants utilize automatic controls to varying degrees-some have the bare minimum of controls, others qualify as semi-auto- mated operations; a very few are nearing what may be termed "fully-automated" status. But for those plants that produce a filter cake product, the lack of suitable instrumentation for measuring and con- trolling the moisture of the filter cake has been a major stumbling block to fully-automated operations. Today in many cases, this bottle-neck can be removed because various moisture measuring devices are now available to permit automation of the filtering stage. What are these devices? . . . Where can they be used? To answer these questions, two types of operating plants-one, semi-automated and the other, almost fully automated-can be examined. Both plants employ disc filters from which is produced a magnetic concentrate for pelletizing. (The control schemes and equipment depicted in this article are similar to those usable in drum filter plants.)

Jan 3, 1967

By Warren A. Sinsheimer

ProbDly there has never been a year during which the petroleum industry expended so much effort as in 1929 in an attempt to rectify its ills. Eventually good will undoubtedly result, but as yet there have been no marked changes from the unhappy conditions familiar to all. Throughout the year remedies were sought that would cure the long-existing troubles of overproduction and waste. Proration of production and voluntary curtailment of output, for a short time considered the means for stability, not only failed but contributed to further waste and created a false sense of security. It encouraged a high rate of field development, weakened the economic structure by excessive development of newly discovered reserves and absorbed large sums of capital yielding meager or negative return. The manufacturing of gasoline by refiners without regard for market requirements furthered the unsatisfactory condition by falsely stimulating the demand for crude and placed on the market an oversupply of finished products, particularly gasoline. The marketing section of the industry has made progress by its adoption of the Code of Ethics as promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission and by the formation of an Export Association. The year 1929 opened not only with a current supply of oil exceeding demand but with an additional daily shut-in and potential supply variously estimated at from 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 bbl. This situation stimulated the industry, through the American Petroleum Institute, to attempt to work out an economically sound solution which would further conservation by bringing supply and demand into closer balance. Production Control After a thorough study of producing conditions, the committee of the American Petroleum Institute had for its recommendation that the production of crude oil in 1929 be held in check to an amount equal to that produced during the year 1928. The Federal Oil Conservation Board heard the appeal of the American Petroleum Institute and referred the matter to the Department of Justice. It was ruled that neither the Federal Oil Conservation Board nor the Department of Justice had the * Land and Oil Production Dept., Henry L. Doherty & Co.

Jan 1, 1930

By W. W. West

MACHINERY used for size reduction of materials may be divided into three classes-depending upon the manner in which the crushing force is applied. In the first class could be listed the primary crushing units, such as the jaw crusher and gyratory crusher-which crush to coarse sizes by applying pressure intermittently between converging surfaces. In the second class may be listed crushing units, such as the hammer mill, roller mill, and ball mill, which crush principally by grinding or attrition. In the third class is the impact mill which, as the name infers, crushes by impact. The second and third classes generally include machinery used as secondary units for intermediate or fine crushing and grinding. Theory of Crushing by Impact Throw a stone into the air and give it a severe blow while it is momentarily suspended, and it shatters into several pieces. The impact crusher uses this "batting" principle, but carries it one step further. As the material to be reduced enters the crushing chamber, it receives a severe free-air impact blow by hard-hitting beaters suspended from rotor discs. The shattered particles formed are then driven at high velocity against impact blocks, where a further reduction in particle size takes place. The rebounding particles from the impact blocks are again caught by the beaters, and the process repeated until the material is swept out of the open bottom of the crusher. Impact Crushing Versus Attrition Crushing Fig. 1 shows a Hammermill type of attrition crusher. This particular mill has central feed and is reversible. Because of the central feed, an impact section can be designed into it at the feed entrance for preliminary crushing, followed by the cage bar attrition area for final sizing. The material is caught and held in a crushing chamber enclosed by grate bars or perforated plate. It remains in this chamber until it is reduced to particle size small enough to pass through the openings between the bars or in the plate. In this manner the top particle size discharged from the mill is closely controlled. As the swinging hammers pass through the bed of material, the material is broken down by a scrubbing action between hammers and material, material and grate bars, and material against material. This attrition produces a rounded particle shape, accompanied by slivers and a comparatively high percentage of fines. The crusher is especially useful in industries where the material treated is not too abrasive, such as limestone, cement or coal plants. It can be readily understood that from the maintenance standpoint, it is not suitable for hard abrasive materials such as refractories and aluminum oxides. One common type of impactor is shown in Fig. 2. The bottom of this type crusher is entirely open and the passage of the material through the crushing chamber is almost instantaneous. Liberal clearances are maintained between the impact hammers and the anvil type breaker blocks. This eliminates practically all attrition. It is the elimination of attrition that makes the impactor particularly adaptable for reducing hard, abrasive materials. The impactor is also well suited for the reduction of wet or frozen materials, which clog an ordinary Hammermill. Particles broken by impact, when examined under the microscope, show a distinct tendency toward rough, cubical shape, with a minimum of fines. Another important factor in impact crushing is that crushing is accomplished along natural cleavage lines, thus freeing foreign ores or materials.

Jan 1, 1952

Mr. Address Member is hereby proposed by the undersigned, as a Associate Junior Member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Signature of three Members. or Associates (not Junior Members). Place of birth Year of birth . Education, when, where and how acquired, with degrees, if any. A technical education is not requisite for membership. Dates Please give record of experience on following page with dates; for example, in the form used by ?Who's Who In America" and similar publications.

Jan 3, 1918

Mr. Address Member is hereby proposed by the undersigned, as a Associate Junior Member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Signature of three Members or Associates (not Junior Members). Place of birth Year of birth Education, when, where and how acquired, with degrees, if any. A technical education is not requisite for membership. Dates. Please give record of experience on following page with dates; for example, in the form used by "Who's Who In America" and similar publications.

Jan 12, 1917

Mr. Address Member is hereby proposed by the undersigned, as a Associate Junior Member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. Signatures of three Members or Associates. Place of birth Year of birth Education, when, where and how acquired, with degrees, if any. A technical education is not requisite for membership. Dates Please give record of experience on following page with dates; for example, in the form used by "Who's Who In America" and similar publications.

Jan 11, 1917

By C. J. McHargue

THE angles between the crystallographic planes in cubic crystals have been given by Bozorth,¹ in magnesium, zinc, and cadmium by Salkovitz,² and in tin by Nicholas. The determination of the orientation of single crystals and the study of plastic deformation require the knowledge of these angles and are often facilitated by use of a standard projection. Tables of these angles and standard projections have not been published for titanium or zirconium which have c/a ratios considerably less than those hexagonal metals for which this data is available. Accordingly, Table I has been prepared giving these angles. Fig. 1 presents a standard (0001) projection of titanium. The angle between (h1k1i1l1) and (h2k2i2l2) was calculated by means of the formula: h1h2 + K1K2 + 1/2 (h1k2 + h2k1 + cos 4 = [(hi2 + K + h1k1 + 3/4 l12 (h2² + C" a² 3/4 — l1 l2 C² k2²+ h2k2 + 3/4 —l2²) ] 1/2 c² The c/a ratio for titanium is taken from the data

Jan 1, 1953

By T. Kilner, A. Plumtree

DURING an investigation of electro-deposited silver structures, samples were prepared for metallographic examination by cold mounting in plastic, grinding on successive grades of emery paper down to 3/0, and chemically polishing by swabbing using the chromic acid solution described by Gilpin and Worzala.1 Attempts to etch these samples using the standard solutions described for silver (e.g., 5 pet KCN-5 pet Na2S2O8, H2O2-NH4OH, and various potassium dichro-mate solutions) all failed to give good results due to staining of the samples and to rapid etching. The staining was caused by the chromic acid polishing solution being trapped in small fissures between the sample and the mounting plastic, and also in small fissures in the sample itself. To overcome these difficulties, an etchant was developed which prevented staining at the same time as it slowly etched the sample. This resulted in a very clean, crisply etched surface as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. This etch consisted of 10 ml of orthophosphoric acid, 10 ml of distilled water, and 2 drops of the polishing solution noted above,' which is made by mixing 100 ml of saturated CrO3 solution, 45 ml of 10 pet HC1 solution, and 800 ml of distilled water. The etching procedure involved taking the final polished sample, either immersing or swabbing in the etchant for a period of 1 to 2 min, rinsing as quickly as possible in distilled water, alcohol, and ethyl ether in that order, and then immediately drying. This etch is easily controlled due to its slow rate of etching, and produces samples with clean, sharp surfaces. Pits due to overetching produced varying contrast effects when viewed under polarized light, and are therefore obviously useful for revealing many structural details within the sample. Another effect of overetching was to produce a height varia-

Jan 1, 1968

By Walter Wood

The specifications for locomotive-cylinders, which are given in a separate paper at this meeting, have been prepared so that castings (upon the successful use of which so much depends) shall be made to conform to standards that will yield good results. After the essentials, which go with a sound and perfect cauting, the requirements to be borne in mind are those concerning the quality of the material. These have been determined from the actual practice of the largest users,—representatives of the American Locomotive Company, the Baldwin shops, and the Pennsylvania Railroad being upon the Committee. The results called for by the test-bar have been carefully checked by actual experiment upon metal that has given satisfactory service in cylinders.

Jan 1, 1905

By J. V. Richards

(Canal Zone Meeting, November, 1910,) THE Altar district, State of Sonora, Mexico, is for the most part a desert with but little rain-fall and few running streams. On account of this scarcity of water it is necessary for the natives to " dry-wash" the placer-gravel, and the object of the present paper is to describe some of the more common Mexican dry-washing devices. My observations were confined to a property known as Las Palomas placers, 15 miles from the Gulf of California and about 150 miles south of the United States border; a brief description of which property may be of interest as illustrating what is, perhaps, a typical Sonora dry placer. It is said that as long as a century ago the Yaqui Indians discovered rich cement-gravel, known as argo masa, at Las Palomas, and that there has been a more or less steady production of gold from the property ever since. The argo masa is a fairly-coarse gravel, the pebbles being quite firmly held together with a lime cement. Gold is scattered through this cement in particles ranging from fine specks to pieces several grams in weight, and occasional large nuggets are encountered. The contents vary so widely that it is difficult to estimate the average value, but returns of from $10 to $50 per cubic yard are common, and it is doubtful if the Indians considered anything less than from $4 to $5 a yard as "pay dirt." This argo masa occurs in channels varying in thickness from a few inches to several feet, and in width up to 300 ft.. These channels are continuous and are probably ancient stream-beds. They are for the most part covered with an over-burden of a more recent gravel, varying from 30 to 50 ft. thick, and the fact that this over-burden contains values as high as $1.50 per cubic yard, and yet was not worked by the Indians, shows that their idea of what constituted pay-ground was high.

Apr 1, 1911

By George Smith

TWELVE years ago, the Director of the United States Geological Survey addressed to the Secretary of the Interior a letter calling attention to the government's need for liquid fuel for naval use and pointing out that the rate of increase in demand was more rapid than the increase in production.1 This letter, in a way, inaugurated the policy of public oil-land withdrawals, which was well founded in its primary purpose of protecting the oil industry and highly desirable in its immediate effect of checking the over-development of that day in California. Unfortunately, however, through delays in legislation, this policy may be regarded now as having outlived both its intent and its usefulness. In 1908, the country's production of oil was 178,500,000 bbl., and there was a surplus above consumption of more than 20,000,000 bbl. available to go into storage.: In 1918, 10 years later, the oil wells of the United States yielded 356,000,000 bbl.-nearly twice the yield of 1908-but to meet the demands of the increased consumption more than 24,000,000 bbl. had to be drawn from storage. Nor is this all of the brief comparison. In 1918, our excess of imports over exports of crude petroleum was nearly 33,000,000 bbl. whereas in 1908 we exported 3,500,000 bbl., which was net, as we had not begun to import Mexican oil. In this period, the annual fuel-oil consumption of the railroads alone has increased from 16,871,000 to 36,714,000. bbl.; the annual gasoline production from 540,000,000 gal. to 3,500,000,000 gal. This record may be taken not only as justifying the earlier appeal for Federal action, but as warranting deliberate attention to the oil problem of today.

Jan 1, 1920

By H. D. Wilde

GREAT emphasis is being placed today on petroleum as a source of chemicals. Such prominence is well merited, for rapid strides have been made in developing processes for the conversion of petroleum into synthetic chemical products, which are now being made on a huge scale. These marvelous accomplishments have resulted in some highly optimistic predictions as to what can be expected in the future. Many of these forecasts are well justified, but some writers, especially those contributing to the Sunday supplements and the popular-cience type of publications, have let their imagination run wild and present a rather distorted picture of the possibilities in this field in the postwar period. Commercial manufacture of synthetic organic chemicals had its beginning in England with the establishment of a plant by Sir William Perkin in 1857 for the manufacture of "Aniline Purple" or "Mauve." The preceding year he had discovered in the laboratory how this dyestuff could be made from aniline, one of the many derivatives of coal tar, and he soon made commercial application of his discovery. Influenced largely by his success, organic chemists began research on production of a vast array of synthetic dyestuffs, medicinals, flavors, scents, and explosives. Rapid progress was made and by the turn of the century hundreds of these products were being manufactured. Most of these synthetic chemicals were derived from materials obtained as by-products in the conversion of coal into coke. These by-products are generally referred to as "aromatics" and are obtained by processing coal tar recovered in the coking process, so they are popularly known as "coal-tar chemicals." During the early years of this century, coal-tar chemistry was the wonder of the age, and rightfully so, since the products so made seemed limitless.

Jan 1, 1944

By Nicholas J. Grant, Italo S. Servi

SPECIAL polishing and etching techniques were developed during an investigation of the high temperature mechanical properties of high purity aluminum (99.995 pct Al).* Electrolytic polishing was done successfully in the following electrolyte: 5 ml perchloric acid (72 pct), and 95 ml glacial acetic acid. No special precautions need be taken during the preparation of the electrolyte since no appreciable heat of mixing is evolved. Although the electrolyte is not an explosive, it is recommended that Jacquet's safety rules' be followed during the polishing operation. A voltage of 25 to 60 v gives a good polish in about 2 min at room temperature after preparation on 3/0 metallographic paper. Most of the grain boundaries are visible under the microscope after polishing. Since the current is controlled essentially by the resistance of the bath, it is necessary to keep the anode-to-cathode distance as constant as possible. Accordingly, polishing of irregularly shaped pieces will be difficult. A cooling bath and a stirring system are advisable in order to keep the temperature of the bath uniform and constant. Coarse-grained samples can be macroetched in a few seconds by lowering the voltage below 10 v. This is done after electrolytic polishing, without removing the sample from the bath, Fig. 1. The specimen can be repolished in less than 1 min by raising the voltage above 25 v. The "galvanic etching" technique, which has been described elsewhere,' was found to be helpful not only for macroetching, but also for microetching coarse-grained specimens. In fact, the different orientations of adjacent grains provide good contrast at the grain boundaries, when the sample is observed under polarized light. If the specimen is only partially etched, Fig. 2a, the grain boundaries can be located without completely destroying the appearance of the surface of the specimen. The unetched surface appears black under polarized light. Excellent color contrast is obtained by using a "sensitive tint" plate in the optical system of the microscope. In this case, the unetched surface has a magenta color, while the etched part of the sample assumes different colors varying from green to brown, according to the orientation of the grains. Etch pits were produced on high purity aluminum by using the technique suggested by Lacombe and Beaujard." Good results also were obtained by substituting 70 pct nitric acid for the fuming nitric acid recommended. This gave an etching reagent of the following composition: 70 ml nitric acid (70 pct), 50 ml hydrochloric acid (37.5 pct), and 3 ml hydrofluoric acid (48 pct). An example of the results is shown in Fig- 2b. The outline of the etch pits is revealed sharply if the specimen is observed under polarized light, as shown in Fig. 2c. These metallographic techniques are not suitable for the examination of commercially pure (2s) aluminum. References 'P. A. Jacquet: Metal Finishing (Nov. 1949) 47, p. 62. 21. S. Servi: Metal Progress (1950) 58, p. 732. 3 P. Lacombe and L. Beaujard: Journal Inst. of Metals (1947) 74, p. 1._________________________

Jan 1, 1952

By J. Ostachowicz, B. Holynska, M. Lankosz

The paper presents an analyzer and the method for the continuous determination of weight percentage of ore grains with diameter smaller than 75 µm in mineral slurries. The method is based upon the measurement of characteristic x-rays of copper excited by primary radiation of two different energies 16.5 keV and 60 keV from Pu238 and Am241 sources respectively. Additionally the backscattered primary radiation is measured in order to correct the variations of the solids content in the slurry. Since the particle size distribution of slurry can be described by the Rosin-Rammler formula, some calculations have been carried out in order to evaluate the influence of distribution parameters upon the results of the measurements of weight percentage U75 of particles smaller than 75 µm. The influence of solids content and of the copper concentration variation on the results has been also evaluated.1 It resulted from the calculations that the ratio rl/rz, where rl and r2 are the relative intensities of copper characteristic x-rays excited with 16.5 keV and 60 keV photons respectively does not depend on the copper content within the range 1 % to 4% of copper and is slightly dependent on the solids weight fraction and its chemical composition. The change of the dispersion parameter of the Rosin- Rammler distribution from 0.5 to 0.9 results in a change of value of U75 of approximately 3.0%. The results of calculations have been confirmed by the results of laboratory experiments. Therefore, a prototype of industrial analyzer for continuous determination of weight percentage of particles smaller than 75 µm has been designed and made. Its schematic drawing is shown in [Fig. 1]. Slurry is flowing down through steel flow-cell of the length equal to approx. 2 m. In the center, two XRF measuring heads (1) and (2) are located. Each of the heads comprises a rigid waterproof cover (3) with the mylar window (4), in which a proportional counter of resolution 15% for 6.4 keV is mounted with a preamplifier (5). The low- energy isotope source (6) is centrally located above the detector

Jan 1, 1980

By W. A. Vine

WHEN a hole is made in a stressed solid, such as rock pierced by mine openings, equilibrium of the solid is destroyed. To re-establish that equilibrium the stress condition in the rock surrounding the opening becomes rearranged. This rearrangement may or may not develop local stresses in the vicinity of the opening which exceed the elastic strength of the rock. Since stability of the opening depends, therefore, on the strength of the naturally occurring rock surrounding the opening, this rock is an engineering material of construction, and all rock affected by the associated opening or system of open- ings may be considered a structure. The term invert is chosen to describe the formation of the structure —built from the inside, as it were, and a consequence of mining rather than an entity built for a purpose. By definition, an invert structure is formed when openings are made underground and is composed of that material on the solid side of a rock-air interface wherein the stress condition is affected by the associated opening or system of openings. The shape of an invert structure is never clearly defined; the skin of the structure may be mapped, and even described, but the boundary of the structure within the solid rock mass must be arbitrarily set. The name geomechanics is proposed to describe a branch of scientific knowledge which will encompass principles and working hypotheses for behavior and design of invert structures. It is foreseen that study

Jan 1, 1956

By Sherwin F. Kelly

The need for geophysicists to adopt a uniform mode of expressing the electrical resistivity of geological formations has been stressed by Dr. A. S. Eve.1 The present paper is to emphasize the point he raised, to bring the weight of disinterested authority to bear on the matter, and to urge the adoption henceforth, save in exceptional cases, of a standard expression for resistivity; all in the hope that the needed reform will thus actually be brought about. The general definition of the resistivity of a material is the resistance in ohms between two opposite faces of a unit cube of that material. No account need be taken here of the cases in which the unit volume is not a cube, and the units of length and cross-section are different, encountered principally when dealing with metallic conductors such as wires. The idea of the resistance of a unit volume of earth or rock has found expression in geophysical literature in a number of forms and with a variety of units. Fortunately, the metric system has been adhered to in most cases, so ordinarily the meter or the centimeter, usually the latter, has been the measure chosen. The resistivity is then the resistance of a cube of the given rock, or soil, one centimeter on an edge. This is far from always being the same thing, however, as the resistance of a cubic centimeter. A long thin wire could contain a cubic centimeter and have a high resistance, whereas the same volume formed into a flat plate would have an entirely different, and quite low, resistance between faces. Consequently, it is not proper to express resistivity in ohms per cubic centimeter, inch, etc., as has been done occasionally by some writers. In an effort to emphasize the idea of cubic volume, some geophysicists, the writer among them, have used the phrase, ohms per centimeter cubed. This is a graphic way of picturing the measure, but is not in favor among highly qualified authorities. In this connection, an appeal was made to the U. S. Bureau of Standards for advice, and the Director, George K. Burgess, kindly replied in detail as to the practice adopted by his Bureau: 'I.., such expressions as 'ohms per centimeter cubed' or any similar expressions are objectionable, because they certainly carry the implication that the resistivity is found by dividing ohms resistance by the volume in cubic centimeters." Actually, of course, resistivity is found

Jan 1, 1932

The Committee on Nominations will welcome from members of the Institute suggestions for the offices which are to be filled by election in February, 1018, and which are as follows: One officer, known as Director and President. Two officers, known as Director and Vice-President. Five officers, known as Director. The attention of members is called to Articles V and. VII of the Constitution, and to By-Law VIII, which reads as follows: "The geographical districts to he considered by the Committee on Nominations shall be as follows, until otherwise ordered by the Board.

Jan 8, 1917