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By W. A. Anderson

IN the pressure die-casting of zinc alloys it is customary to force the molten alloy under high pressure into a permanent steel die by means of a plunger moving in a bushing that has a clearance on the diameter of the order of 0.002 in. Successful operation of the plunger type of machine requires the presence in the zinc alloy of certain percentages of aluminum. Without these aluminum additions, the normal reaction of molten zinc on ferrous materials causes sticking of the plunger and a complete shutdown of the equipment. All of the zinc alloys used for pressure die-casting today contain approximately 4 per cent of aluminum, which is more than sufficient to make plunger operation feasible. The clearance between the plunger and its bushing is an important matter. As the space becomes larger, there is a loss in effective metal pressure. Ordinary gray cast iron served fairly well and is still used in some machines. However, the rate at which the plunger clearance increases with this material is considered by many to be far too great. There is, therefore, a serious interest in finding new materials more capable of retaining the desired clearance during long periods of use. Today many die casters are using special materials for plungers and bushings selected by the somewhat expensive and time-consuming test of actual experience. An analysis of the problem reveals two possible end points of plunger operation: (1) the building up of zinc-alloy plunger-material reaction products in sufficient bulk to cause sticking and (2) rapid solution, wear or erosion, all of which will increase the clearance to an undesirable extent. If neither of these takes place, the plunger will operate for a long time, of course. The authors have developed a laboratory apparatus in which the action of a plunger moving in a bushing immersed in molten zinc alloy could be simulated closely. Such a machine made possible a more rapid and less expensive survey of the available construction materials and an analysis of the specific alloying reactions taking place in the clear-ance area.

Jan 1, 1939

By Helmer Heldstrom

Gravity surveying with the torsion balance or the pendulum for ore prospecting purposes has generally not been considered practical or even possible. It is the intention of this paper to show that a fast and sensitive gravimeter can be very useful in ore prospecting, as an auxiliary to the electrical and magnetic instruments. A number of gravimeters have been constructed and put in practical use in the last seven or eight years; for instance, by Ising, Lejay-Holweck, Haalck, Hartley, Thyssen, Noergaard, the Humble Oil and Refining Co. and the Gulf Production Co. Their main application, apart from their use for geodetic surveys, has been for structure mapping in oil prospecting. There is no record that any of them have been used for ore prospecting. About the middle of 1934 the Boliden Mining Co., in Sweden, began experiments in constructing a static gravity meter sensitive enough for ore prospecting. Calculations and considerations that will be discussed later in this paper showed that this would necessitate an accuracy in the measurements of 0.1 milligal—roughly, one ten-millionth part of the total force of gravity. The first successful practical field tests of the instrument were made in January 1936. About the middle of 1937 the Boliden gravimeter was perfected. Ore prospecting with this instrument is now regular practice in Sweden, especially for the testing of indications given by geoelectric and magnetic methods. Gravity Anomalies that May Be Expected from Ore Bodies According to Newton's law, a mass M attracts the unit mass in a distance r with the force , GM where G = the gravitational constant = 6.68 . 10-8 c.g.s units. In the c.g.s., or centimeter-gram-second, system the force of attraction is expressed in the unit "dyne," which has the physical dimension c.g.s.-2 and denotes the force needed to accelerate the unit mass in one second to

Jan 1, 1940

By Helmer Heldstrom

Gravity surveying with the torsion balance or the pendulum for ore prospecting purposes has generally not been considered practical or even possible. It is the intention of this paper to show that a fast and sensitive gravimeter can be very useful in ore prospecting, as an auxiliary to the electrical and magnetic instruments. A number of gravimeters have been constructed and put in practical use in the last seven or eight years; for instance, by Ising, Lejay-Holweck, Haalck, Hartley, Thyssen, Noergaard, the Humble Oil and Refining Co. and the Gulf Production Co. Their main application, apart from their use for geodetic surveys, has been for structure mapping in oil prospecting. There is no record that any of them have been used for ore prospecting. About the middle of 1934 the Boliden Mining Co., in Sweden, began experiments in constructing a static gravity meter sensitive enough for ore prospecting. Calculations and considerations that will be discussed later in this paper showed that this would necessitate an accuracy in the measurements of 0.1 milligal—roughly, one ten-millionth part of the total force of gravity. The first successful practical field tests of the instrument were made in January 1936. About the middle of 1937 the Boliden gravimeter was perfected. Ore prospecting with this instrument is now regular practice in Sweden, especially for the testing of indications given by geoelectric and magnetic methods. Gravity Anomalies that May Be Expected from Ore Bodies According to Newton's law, a mass M attracts the unit mass in a distance r with the force , GM where G = the gravitational constant = 6.68 . 10-8 c.g.s units. In the c.g.s., or centimeter-gram-second, system the force of attraction is expressed in the unit "dyne," which has the physical dimension c.g.s.-2 and denotes the force needed to accelerate the unit mass in one second to

Jan 1, 1940

By Holbrook G. Botset

Experiments performed in this laboratory on the flow of gas-liquid mixtures through unconsolidated sands have been described and discussed in an earlier paper.4 In these earlier experiments a definite relationship was found between the liquid saturation of a sand and its permeability to the liquid or gas phase. Furthermore, the nature of the sand, the permeabilities of the sands over a range between 17 and 260 darcies, appeared to have a negligible effect upon the saturation-permeability relation. Likewise experiments indicated that the viscosity of the liquid, or the substitution of an immiscible liquid for the gas phase, had only a very slight effect on the permeability-saturation relation. This conclusion has since been definitely confirmed by the experiments of M. C. Leverett3 on the flow of oil and water through unconsolidated sands. The sands used by Leverett were of very low permeability (between 6.8 and 1.04 darcies), while the oil-water viscosity ratio varied between 90 and 0.057. Since the sands that constitute petroleum reservoirs are largely consolidated, although of widely varying degrees of consolidation, it was desirable to extend the experiments on gas-liquid mixtures to consolidated sand. In the study of consolidated sands additional variables are involved, but for the initial experiments the only new variable to be introduced was the cementing material. Experimental Procedure A comparatively limited assortment of sandstones was available for the selection of the experimental material. Of these, the Nichols buff sandstone appeared to be most suitable. It gives no visual evidence of any bedding planes, it has a firm structure, permitting easy handling, and its permeability is about 0.5 darcy. Its only disadvantage is the fact that it contains an appreciable amount of ferric oxide which, for experiments involving water, will hydrate and reduce the permeability. This

Jan 1, 1940

By Holbrook G. Botset

Experiments performed in this laboratory on the flow of gas-liquid mixtures through unconsolidated sands have been described and discussed in an earlier paper.4 In these earlier experiments a definite relationship was found between the liquid saturation of a sand and its permeability to the liquid or gas phase. Furthermore, the nature of the sand, the permeabilities of the sands over a range between 17 and 260 darcies, appeared to have a negligible effect upon the saturation-permeability relation. Likewise experiments indicated that the viscosity of the liquid, or the substitution of an immiscible liquid for the gas phase, had only a very slight effect on the permeability-saturation relation. This conclusion has since been definitely confirmed by the experiments of M. C. Leverett3 on the flow of oil and water through unconsolidated sands. The sands used by Leverett were of very low permeability (between 6.8 and 1.04 darcies), while the oil-water viscosity ratio varied between 90 and 0.057. Since the sands that constitute petroleum reservoirs are largely consolidated, although of widely varying degrees of consolidation, it was desirable to extend the experiments on gas-liquid mixtures to consolidated sand. In the study of consolidated sands additional variables are involved, but for the initial experiments the only new variable to be introduced was the cementing material. Experimental Procedure A comparatively limited assortment of sandstones was available for the selection of the experimental material. Of these, the Nichols buff sandstone appeared to be most suitable. It gives no visual evidence of any bedding planes, it has a firm structure, permitting easy handling, and its permeability is about 0.5 darcy. Its only disadvantage is the fact that it contains an appreciable amount of ferric oxide which, for experiments involving water, will hydrate and reduce the permeability. This

Jan 1, 1940

By W. J. Taylor

FURNACE-MEN who have not taken advantage of the use of dynamite in certain blast-furnace troubles, as explained by Mr. Witherbee in his valuable papers read before the Institute some years since, cannot appreciate the quick relief and great advantage that may be derived at times from its judicious employment. Before giving my experience in the use of high explosives in blastfurnace troubles of certain kinds, I will record a method I have used with marked success in " blowing down." Had I not understood, however, the use of powder, I would have " salamandered " effectually the first time I tried it. Early in my straight-furnace experiments, last summer, at the Chester, N. J., Furnace, I wanted to blow down to within 3 or 4 feet of the tuyeres. To do this with a down-comer not lined, and without putting in any limestone to keep the gases cool enough to do no harm, was not an easy task. We could keep the bell and hopper cool by filling them with water, say 12 inches deep; but before we got the stock down 15 or 20 feet the pyrometer in the gas-flue on top mas up to 1300°, and the clowncomer was red-hot, with the heat still rising. In this emergency my assistant, Mr. N. M. Langdon, urged the trial of a plan lie had often advocated, viz., the introduction of water in some way under the bell in the proper quantity, in order that its evaporation might absorb and reduce the heat of the escaping gases to a point where it would not do any harm. He thought the bell

Jan 1, 1885

By E. Orowan

LONG before the role of dislocations in the plastic deformation of crystals was recognized, the stress-strain field around dislocations received considerable attention in the theory of elasticity. It seems that Weingarten1 was the first to consider dislocations as simple and typical sources of internal stress in elastic solids, and Volterra2 and Timpe3 investigated their elastic field. Fig 3-1 shows the two basic types of dislocations considered by Volterra. The first arises by making a straight-edged .plane cut in a solid, displacing the two surfaces of the cut in their own plane relatively to one another by a constant amount in a direction perpendicular to the edge, and welding them together; this is shown in Fig 3-la, where the outer cylindrical surface represents the boundary of the solid, and the thin spiral cylinder around the edge of the cut has been removed in order to avoid infinities of stress and strain. The second type of dislocation is shown in Fig 3-lb; here the surfaces of the cut have been displaced relatively to one another by a constant amount parallel to the edge, and then welded together. After J. M. Burgers,4 these two types are called edge and screw dislocations, respectively. They represent simple limiting cases; in the general case, the surfaces of the cut are displaced by a constant vector that lies in the plane of the surface but has components both parallel and perpendicular to the edge of the cut. This vector is the Burgers or slip vector. The name “dislocation” was given by A. E. H. Love;5 it was bor-

Jan 1, 1954

[Murray and Renard: chondres on ocean floor, XLI, [155]. Musconetcong Iron Works, Stanhope, N. J., blnst furnace, XL, 467. MUSSEN, H. W.: Discussion on The Bogoslovsk Mining Estate, XXXIX, 897. death, XLIII, [Ixxvi]. Muzo, CoIombia: emerald deposits, LV, 910. emerald mine, XXXIX, 317. minerals, LV, 925.]

Jan 1, 1918

By Sanai Nakabe

Japanese wartime economy demanded domestic cobalt production. This paper describes a process operated for two years at the Besshi mine and smelter on extremely low grade (0.1 pct Co) pyrite concentrates obtained from copper ore. 'The steps in the process were roasting, leaching, precipitation, reduction fusion to crude cobalt, and finally refining by electrolysis to 99+ pct. COBALT ore deposits in Japan are all small and of poor grade. In the past, a small amount of cobalt has been produced from the best portions of a few of these deposits, and very little production is expected in the future. In addition to these lean cobalt ores, cobalt is present in the cupriferous pyrite which is fairly abundant although of low grade, as is shown in Table I. Considerable cobalt is expected from these deposits because of their extent. Cobalt cannot be exclusively recovered economically from ore of this type; however, if means could be devised to recover it as a byproduct of copper production, a fairly large production at reasonable cost could be expected from Japanese sources. It was along this line that the research work was done. Selection of Suitable Process The process for extracting cobalt differs from ore to ore according to their composition. The difficulty in cobalt metallurgy arises from the fact that chemically cobalt resembles many such common metals as Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, and Zn, associated with it in the ores. In the present case the most serious difficulties were: 1—Extremely low grade ore, 0.1 pct Co. 2—The large proportion of iron accompanying cobalt and its close similarity in chemical behavior. 3—The fairly large proportion of zinc and manganese and their chemical similarity to cobalt. The recovery of cobalt oxide as a byproduct of the hydrometallurgy of copper had been attempted in Japan but was stopped after a short period because it proved uneconomical. The literature disclosed no method for the recovery of cobalt from cobaltiferous copper pyrite and it was therefore necessary to devise a new process. The following basic principles were considered in selecting the process: 1—A major alteration in copper production methods should not be necessary. 2—The first step should be the extraction of cobalt leaving the large quantity of iron unaffected. For this purpose wet metallurgy would be preferred.

Jan 1, 1952

By H. S. George

A method of illumination that enhances the value of microscopic study of opaque materials, as in metallography. By simulating natural lighting, structures. That possess relief are given a natural appearance. An example is included of the revelation of a hitherto invisible microconstituent. Erroneous interpretation is avoided. For example, etching figures in ferrite, heretofore considered to be pits, are revealed as pyramids, standing in bas-relief. Suggestions on technique are given, for, while the method is obvious, practice and attention to detail are requisite. ON one occasion when it seemed desirable to reveal under the microscope not only the metallic structure of an alloy, but certain small non-metallic inclusions, that are ordinarily obliterated by etching, it was discovered that, by partly eclipsing the illuminating pencil of light rays, the residual light was thrown on the object from one side and the structure was brought out in relief. At the same time, the non-metallic inclusions were retained in clear view. In this first demonstration of lighting obliquely through the objective a card was thrust part way into the light beam between the arc iris, and the light filter; the shadow of the card on the filter served to locate its position. Next several stiff-paper disks of various diameters were mounted on flexible wires some plasticine on the other end of the wires made it easy to adjust and maintain a disk at any desired position in the light beam. To facilitate manipulation, an assortment of disks, was mounted on a wheel, as shown in Fig. 1. The purpose of partly eclipsing the light beam was discussed in an earlier paper.1 There it was pointed out that the usual methods of illuminating opaque objects for microscopic examination lend an, un-natural appearance to, the view, while the new method, which has been termed conical illumination, revels the true relationship of constituents by simulating natural lighting.

Jan 3, 1924

By C. S. Smith

QUANTITATIVE methods were used to good effect in the earliest days of metallography1-3 but they mysteriously passed into virtual disuse until the important paper4 by Howard and Cohen in 1947. Various devices for the measurements of integrated linear intercepts have been constructed, primarily by petrographers. The hydraulically operated stage designed by the writer5 was satisfactory, but prolonged use caused air bubbles to become entrapped, which introduced back-lash. A new stage has been constructed which avoids this defect and provides better integration when measuring directional structures. This utilizes a circular traverse, and integration is achieved by counting electrical pulses produced by a photocell and a light chopper.* The stage is shown diagramatically in Fig. 1 and in photograph, Fig. 2. It is of simple construction. Mounted on a plate with clamps to fit the stage of a standard metallurgical microscope is a worm and 100-tooth worm gear, the latter supporting the specimen to be measured. The worm is manually actuated by a knob which contains inside it three

Jan 1, 1961

By Charles S. Barrett, Robert F. Mehl, Dana W. Smith

The Widmanstatten figures found in the steels have been long recognized and in some aspects carefully studied,' especially as they occur in cast hypoeutectoid alloys. Aside from the practical importance of the structures obtained in the steels by various heat treatments, a study of the characteristics of these figures is interesting because of the rich opportunity the system affords to obtain new data on the mechanism of segregation from solid solutions. This opportunity is twofold: first, by changing composition within the austenite range the proeutectoid precipitate may be changed from that of ferrite to that of cementite, thus offering the same opportunity for changing the type of precipitate while maintaining the same basic lattice as that afforded by the Cu-Zn alloys;2 and second, the eutectoid inversion leads upon drastic quenching to the formation of martensite, a Widman-statten figure of unique interest from the crystallographic viewpoint, particularly in comparison with those formed on slow cooling.3 We have, therefore, two types of structure to study: that formed on slow cooling of hypoeutectoid and hypereutectoid alloys, and that formed on quenching hypoeutectoid, eutectoid, and hypereutectoid alloys. For each of these types of structure we require the crystallographic plane in the mother austenite along which the precipitate forms (we shall see that the precipitates in these alloys are invariably platelike in form), and also the orientation of the precipitate upon this plane. Some of these

Jan 1, 1933

Established as a Division March 24, 1922 R B Gilmore, '57, Chairman G L Yates, '56, Vice-Chairman Phil J Lehnhard, '56, Vice-Chairman John R McMillan, Past Chairman T A Pollard, Treasurer Joe B Alford, Executive Secretary 800 Fidelity Union Building Dallas 1, Texas

Jan 1, 1955

By Haydn H. Murray

The term clay is somewhat ambiguous unless specifically defined because it is used both as a rock term and as a particle size term. Actually most persons using the term clay realize that it has a double meaning and in most instances define it. As a rock term, clay is difficult to define because of the wide variety of materials that compose it so that the definition has to be general. Clay is a natural, earthy, fine-grained material composed largely of a limited group of crystalline minerals known as the clay minerals. Many definitions state that a clay has the property of plasticity when wet, but some clays are not plastic, i.e., halloysite and flint clay; however, most clay materials are plastic when wet. As a particle size term, clay is used for the category that includes the smallest particles. The maximum size particles in the clay size grade are defined differently on some grade scales. Soil investigators and mineralogists generally use 2 microns as the maximum size. The Wentworth scale' defines clay as material finer than approximately 4 microns. Grim' has found it convenient to use the term clay material for any fine-grained, natural, earthy, argillaceous material and in this way can include clays, shales, or argillites, and some soils if they are argillaceous. Even though no standard definition of the term clay is accepted by geologists, agronomists, engineers, and others, still the term is generally understood by all who use it. Clay is an abundant natural raw material and has an amazing variety of uses and properties which will be discussed in this chapter. In order to understand better the relationships between the clays and their uses, a brief discussion of the structure, chemical composition, and identification of the clay minerals is given. Mineralogical Composition of Clays Clays are composed of certain groups of hydrous aluminum, magnesium, and iron silicates that may contain calcium, potassium, and other ions, which are called the clay minerals, and other minerals of variable composition, which are nonclay minerals. Both clay minerals and nonclay minerals influence the properties of a clay material. In order to understand the relationship between clay minerals and the properties of a clay material, a short summary of the structure and composition of clay minerals is necessary. Any scheme of classification tends to impose a certain rigidity and as new and additional data become available it is necessary to revise classifications. Brindley3 has discussed the classification and structural mineralogy of clays in very lucid fashion and chose a classification based on structural features and chemical composition. Grim2 proposed a tentative classification which is based on the structural attributes of the various clay minerals. This classification is relatively simple and workable, and is shown as follows: I. Amorphous Allophane group II. Crystalline A. Two-layer types (sheet structures composed of units of one layer of silica tetrahedrons and one layer of alumina octahedrons). 1. Equidimensional Kaolin group kaolinite, dickite, nacrite 2. Elongate Halloysite group

Jan 1, 1960

By E. Swartzman, G. C. Behnke

THE free-swelling index, a numerical value for the free-swelling properties of coal, is being used to an increasing extent in specifying coal for burning in various types of equipment. The empirical standard ASTM method for determining this index uses, as a source of heat, a gas burner which requires frequent calibration because gas pressures are not constant, relatively small changes in gas pressure resulting in rather wide variations in the temperature attained in a crucible and thus in the resultant size of the coke button. Furthermore, the quartz crucibles specified for the test are not standard equipment, and relatively small variations in dimension and wall thickness from those specified often result in rather wide variations in the resultant size of the button. A method of analysis to be satisfactory not only for a scientific laboratory but also for use in industrial control laboratories under varying conditions should employ equipment which is rugged, easily calibrated, and readily replaceable by standard materials. Gas is not universally available as is electricity, and it is generally easier to calibrate and control a simple electric furnace or heater than a gas burner, the voltage not usually fluctuating to the degree that gas pressure does. Quartz crucibles are fragile, and the size specified in the test is not normally used for any other purpose in the laboratory. Although more expensive, the 15-cc platinum crucible, available in all laboratories where volatile matter in coal is determined by the standard ASTM method, is sturdy and standard and easily replaced. Because of these considerations, a modification of the standard method has been developed which employs a standard laboratory 350-w cone heater and standard 15-cc platinum crucibles. The results of numerous tests conducted with such apparatus show conclusively that the free-swelling index values as judged by the buttons produced with this equipment are exactly the same as those obtained by the standard gas burner method. Thus it is suggested that this electric cone heater method employing standard 15-cc platinum crucibles be considered as an alternative to the ASTM method, Designation: D720-46. The free-swelling index of coal is determined by means of the ASTM method, D720-46. This method, which is an adaptation of the crucible swelling test for coal of the British Standards Institution, consists of heating 1 g of coal in a special covered quartz crucible in a regulated gas flame for a period of not less than 2.5 min in which time the temperature of the inner surface of the bottom of the crucible reaches a temperature of 82025°C. The residual coke button is then compared in size and shape with a series of standard profiles shown in Fig. 1 and designated by number from 1 to 9 in increasing order of size. As the method is empirical, it requires rigid standardization of the apparatus and repeated calibration of the gas burner. The dimensions of the low form quartz crucible recommended must be rigidly adhered to as small variations in diameter or wall thickness result in variations in the rate of heat transmission and thus in the resultant size and shape of the coke button. The gas burner must be calibrated almost every time a new set of determina-

Jan 1, 1952

By Henry J. Welge

The approximate methods which are now in use for calculating oil displacement from reservoirs by gas-cycling or gravity-drainage at constant gas pressure, or by water flooding, make use of fundamental relationships derived by Leverett' and Buckley and Leverett.2 The mathematical equations needed are derived by applying Darcy's law to the flowing phases, and by material balance considerations. ln general, any treatment of this type gives. for any particular exploitation time considered, a plot of oil saturation against distance in the reser-voir. The oil recovery must then be obtained by integrating in some manner the area under the plot. A useful analytical method has been derived for computing the average saturation, and hence the oil recovery. Use of this method simplifies the calculations because it makes unnecessary any numerical integrations. and even the saturation distribution plots are not needed. A further advantage of the method is that knowledge of the relative permeabilities is required only for a limited and intermediate saturation range. In both the Buckley and Leverett method and the method discussed here, a linear sand section is assumed, and in the case of gas drive the gas pressure is assumed sufficiently constant both with respect to reservoir position and time so that changes in gas density. solubility, or reservoir volume factor are negligiklle. Thus, the exploitation contemplates oil displacement as by an immiscible phase. Examples are given to illustrate how the new method can be used. INTRODUCTION AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This paper treats a simplified method for computing oil recovery when the oil is displaced, from the reservoir sand by a fluid which, within the limits of accuracy desired, can be assumed to be incompressible and immiscible with the oil. The method makes use of two basic relations originally developed for the case of water displacing oil. However, the case of gas displacing oil saturated with gas at a constant (or nearly constant) pressure may also be considered a displacement by an immiscible fluid. This is possible for the reason that the concentration of the gas in the oil never changes if tile pressure is fixed. consequently, any additional free gas must remain undissolved in the oil, and so must act essentially as an immiscible phase. For convenience, the cape of gas drive will be considered first. Both of the two basic relations needed refer to a linear reservoir, or one which may be somewhat idealized so that a constant cross-section is exposed to fluid flow. Further, the displacing phase is injected at one end, or face; of the reservoir, while the produced fluids are understood to emerge at one point only. which is the opposite face of the reservoir. As indicated in Fig. 1, the reservoir may he inclined by some angle 8. The first of the required equations may be derived by applying Darcy's law to both displacing and displaced phases, and subtracting the two equations. The result for water drive has been given previously, as Equation (13) of the reference by

Jan 1, 1952

By A. Bauer, P. Calder, N. H. Carr, G. R. Harris

Since both rotary and jet piercing drills are used by the Iron Ore Co. at Smallwood, it is often desirable in planning to know in which regions of the orebody or new orebodies a particular drill will be the most economic. This makes it necessary to establish a correlation between drillability and pierceability and some physical rock properties. For rotary drills a good correlation was found with penetration rate and grinding factor index. The jet piercers were found to have a reciprocal relationship in the sense that the best rotary ground was the worst jet ground and vice versa. It is also indicated how an economic comparison could be made using these penetration rate versus grinding factor index curves, the hole size distribution curves for single pass and chambered holes and the mine distribution curve for grinding factor index. A discussion is presented on the fuel oxygen ratios to be used in jet piercing and on the site gas sampling and analysis which has been used to set up the drills. The fuel has been cut back so that stoichio-metric conditions exist, carbon monoxide is drastically reduced and pop-up or exploding holes eliminated. No decrease in penetration rate has been observed contrary to the published results of previous workers. The blasting procedure and results at Smallwood are discussed and the operation of Iron Ore Co.'s slurry pump-mix truck is also described briefly. Smallwood mine is part of the Iron Ore Co.'s Carol Lake operation and is situated in Labrador, 240 miles north of Sept-Iles, Quebec. Last year 15 million tons of crude ore were crushed to yield 6.3 million tons of concentrate and pellets. This year the figures will be 17 million tons of crude and 7% million tons of concentrate and pellets which is the full plant capacity. Carol Lake ores consist primarily of specularite and magnetite mixed with quartz. For convenience the ore has been split-into the following classifications depending on the percentage of magnetics in the sample, shown in brackets: specularite (0 to 10%), specularite-magnetite (10 to 20%), magnetite- specularite (20 to 30%), magnetite (>30%). The order of classification also represents the order of increasing grinding difficulty - the specularite generally being the easiest and the magnetite the hardest. The orebody also contains a small percentage of waste materials consisting of limonite carbonate, quartz carbonate and quartz magnetite. The first two materials are among the softest in the mine, generally softer than the specularite, and the quartz magnetite is amongst the hardest. The bulk of the material in the mine is of the specularite-magnetite and magnetite-specularite classifications. As a result of test drilling at Smallwood in 1960 with rotary, jet and percussion drills, the Iron Ore Co. purchased four JPM-4 jet piercers for the bulk of production drilling and set up an oxygen plant to supply 20 tons of oxygen per day. This oxygen is sufficient for two machines operating full time and one part time. In addition, there are two 50-R, one 60-R and one 40-R machines in use. The benches are 45 ft high and 50 ft holes are generally drilled. JET DRILLING At the onset of jet drilling in the late fall of 1962, two major problems were encountered: 1) freezing due to winter operations; experience and the use of heat at more places, such as the rotary head, has eliminated this,'" and 2) exploding or "popping" drilled holes; this happened frequently (several holes "popping" each day) and was the cause of two lost time accidents. In one instance a hole was being measured with a tape which fell down the hole causing it to "pop." Safety glasses though pulverized saved the wearer's eyesight. Various methods were then employed to detonate the holes before measuring or loading (dropping lighted rags of fusees down, or sparking across a spark gap). These methods were time consuming and far from completely successful. Consideration was given to the fuel oxygen ratio on the machines and what this would produce in the way of product gases. A fuel oxygen weight ratio of 0.35 which was quite oxygen negative was being used. Theoretically appreciable carbon monoxide would be produced at this fuel oxygen ratio. On the close down procedure of the jet which calls for low oxygen after flame out, oxygen would be left in the hole along with this carbon monoxide. This is an explosive mixture. The fuel oxygen ratio was cut back to stoichiometric

Jan 1, 1967

By H. M. Howe, W. E. C. Eustis

The processes which form the subject of this paper have been experimented on in the laboratory of W. E. C. Eustis, but have not passed beyond the experimental stage. The first is the invention of Mr. J. L. Thomson, of Capelton, Quebec, Canada, the others have been invented by the writers. Thomson's PRocess foR the Extraction oF Nickel. This consists essentially in first rendering the nickel magnetic, and then separating it from the materials with which it is mechanically vol. X.—20

Jan 1, 1882

By K. L. Komarek, P. F. J. Landler

Synthetic polycrystals of wustite were reduced ilz H2-H2O mixtures over limited roncentration ranges wiltun the wustite. field and the weight changes were continuously followed with a McBain quartz spiral balance. The reduction was. found to be controlled by a combined surface plus solid-state diffusion reaction. The solid-state diffusion had an activation energy of 38 kcal. Self--diflusioities of iron decreased with itzcreasing vacancy concentration. The activation energy of. the surface reaction runs different tor- different samples. The surface reaction-rate constan increased with increasirzg vacancy concentration. THE reduction of the oxides of iron has been studied for many years. Edstroem' has summarized the early work and has provided much information on the reduction of magnetite and hematite by hydrogen and carbon monoxide. More recent summaries are those by smeltzer2 and Themelis and Gauvin.3 Most investigators have reported that the iron metal which forms the outer layer during gaseous reduction is rather porous. According to Kohl and Engel14 the formation of such a porous iron layer depends on the properties of the underlying wiistite layer, on the reaction of the gas with the wustite surface, and on the transport of matter through the wustite layer. McKewan, Quets, Wadsworth, and Lewis, and Knacke 10 have found that, if a porous iron layer is formed, a surface reaction between gas and wustite at the bottom of the pores controls the rate of reaction. Seth and ROSS 11 and Warner 12 have pointed out that the influence of the gaseous pore diffusion through the porous iron layer cannot be neglected. It has further been shown that the wiistite layer formed during reduction is dense and that transport of matter across the layer occurs only by solid-state diffusion of iron ions.13,14 The solid-state diffusion rates observed by Edstroem and Bitsianis 14 and the surface reaction rates observed by Quets eta1.' show that an interaction of the two steps in controlling the reaction rate has to be considered. In this investigation the reduction of wustite was studied with respect to the interaction of the two steps, isolated from any other effects, by reducing wustite within the wustite field from higher to lower oxygen concentrations with H2-H2O gas mixtures. A similar study with CO-CO2 mixtures has been performed by Levin and wagner.15 Fused synthetic wustite polycrystals were reduced in steps of 0.4 wt pct from 24.4 to 23.2 wt pct 0 and over a temperature range from 700" to 1050°C. A few tests were also conducted with reduction steps from 24.4 to 23.6 wt pct 0 and 24.5 to 23.2 wtpct0. The Fe-O phase diagram is shown in Fig. 1 where the composition of the gas phase in equilibrium with the condensed phases is plotted as pct H2 vs the temperature. A careful study of the literature led to the conclusion that the fully drawn equicomposition curves (in wt pct O) in the wustite field used by Edstroem 1,16 and other authors needed some correction. Based on results by Darken and Gurry17 (shown as open circles) and on some of our own data, four corrected curves for 23.2, 23.6, 24.0, and 24.4 wt pct O were calculated (drawn as dashed lines in Fig. 1) which should replace the fully drawn equicomposition curves. MATERIALS AND APPARATUS Materials and Specimen Preparation. Wustite was prepared from iron sulfate (Fisher Scientific Co., New York) which had a purity of over 99.92 pct, with small amounts of manganese, copper, and zinc adding up to 0.03 pct. From the aqueous solution iron oxalate was precipitated and decomposed to magnetite according to Economos. 18 The magnetite powder was pressed into cylinders and sintered in vacuum at 900°C for several hours. The sintered compacts were placed in a platinum crucible of 2.5 cm diam which was fitted into a high-purity alumina crucible and then inserted into the center of the graphite heating element of an electric resistance furnace.lg The furnace was evacuated to below 1 p Hg and the magnetite sample was slowly heated. The evolution of gases during heating deter-

Jan 1, 1967

[Admissions: Aurel E. Smith, Chairman Edmond F. Egan Lawrence S. Fennell John S. Fuller Howard J. Ritts, Jr. Gene E. Roark Kenneth W. Robbins Ben M. Gottlieb Advertising: Bernard F. Klein, Chairman Henry N. Lyle R. E. Howard H. M. Krause, Jr. Mrs. Evelyn R. Robertson]

Jan 1, 1961