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By S. J. CRAIGHEAD

IN 1912 the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Company made a large investment in a number of coal properties in Utah and in 1915 a subsidiary, the United States Fuel Co., was organized to take over these properties. Operations started in 1916 and the Company soon became, and remains, one of the major coal producers of the State. It now produces approximately one million tons of coal annually, which is about 22 per cent of Utah's output. The U. S. Fuel Co. owns large reserves of good coal and is in a position to expand operations with the industrial growth now taking place in the West. Traveling through the Western States, one is struck by numerous advertising signs portraying the picture of jovial Old King Cole of nursery rhyme fame. His rotund figure and beaming countenance are the symbols of Utah King Coal, the product of the King mine of U. S. Fuel Co. King Coal is a by-word of quality coal throughout all the Western States.

Jan 1, 1948

By Francis A. Thornson

WITHOUT desiring to perpetrate an Irish bull I think we may safely say that the major developments of the year in mineral industry education have taken place outside of the field itself. I refer to the remark- able and-to us of the Education Di- vision-most gratifying growth which is taking place in Institute consciousness regarding its responsibility for the recruitment and adequate training of student personnel and for the successful bridging of the difficult gap between graduation and achievement of professional status. Outstanding in this respect is President Jackling's interest in the students and schools of the mineral industry. Recalling his own hard struggle to ac- quire a technical education, Mr. Jack- ling is evidently anxious to smooth the path for the youngsters of this generation. Witness his splendid gift to the

Jan 1, 1939

By E. L. WOOD

IN ATTEMPTING to summarize briefly the reconstruction of the Hecla plant since the fire, three important facts must be held in mind; namely: a hurry-up job with the shadow of an insurance company in the background; restriction of working space in the narrow Burke Canyon; and building two-thirds of the plant on a filled area. Construction work was carried on without interruption through the winter season. These adverse conditions have contributed many obstacles not ordinarily encountered in mining work. The first problems immediately after the fire were organization and policy; the-former to create an efficient construction crew out of a mining organization; the latter to determine the type and extent of surface plant to be built. The new crew was organized from a nucleus of mine employees, 25 per cent. of the old crew remaining for construction work. Permanent fireproof buildings were decided upon, the general arrangement of the new plant to be similar to the old one as far as possible, at the same time enlarging it 100 per cent. in anticipation of the demands which would be made upon it when the Star Mine began operating. Cleaning up the wreckage was a big job, the extent of which is indicated by the fact that 30 carloads of scrap iron and steel were moved off the property. In re-establishing transportation facilities at the plant, a previous disadvantage of a steep grade on the high line was obviated by excavating 1600 yd. of solid rock; the fire having destroyed all town buildings below, made this work possible.

Jan 1, 1924

By Oliver M. W. Sprague

THIS gold problem is full of complications and can hardly be handled adequately or comprehensively in any short period of time. Perhaps I might begin by mentioning a few aspects of the subject about which I suppose there will be no disagreement. The first of these is that we already have a stock of monetary gold in the United States far in excess of what is needed to support any desirable increase in the present volume of currency and credit. The second is that this already superabundant gold stock is certain to be considerably enlarged during the course of the war, and presumably during the months of readjustment following its conclusion. Some billions of additional gold, we may reasonably presume, will come into the country during these next few years, thus increasing the aggregate monetary gold stock from the present eighteen billions to perhaps twenty- two or even twenty-five billion dollars.

Jan 1, 1940

Book Review MANAGEMENT AND MEN. By Meyer Bloomfield, Boston. The Century Co., New York, 1919, pp. 584, H.X. 5 1/2. $3.50. This hook is an exposition of English efforts to solve the problem of labor unrest in England. The first six chapters are reprinted from articles published in the Satur-day Evening Post, for whom the author went to England to study the problem at first hand. These articles deal with housing, increased production, eliminating the internal friction in the industrial machine and a chapter each devoted to the view-point of employer and employee. These chapters are written in the easily readable magazine style and give a complete general survey of the particular solution being tried. Perhaps their greatest., certainly not their least, worth lies in the fact that they form a vehicle for unusually voluminous appendices containing in full the famous Whitley Reports which are the basis of the new movement, together with various reports, which, except for this publication, would be largely inaccessible to those inter-ested in this country. The Whitley scheme considers each industry a unit and proposes to establish therein a Joint Standing Industrial Council composed of representatives of employers and employees to consider appropriate matters affecting the industry at large. There is to be a District Council for each industry which will, as its name implies, deal with the clatters pertaining to that interest in. the particular district. The third and last body in this scheme of Industrial Parliament is the Works Committee, which is com-posed of representatives of the management and of the workers employed in particu-lar plants or mines to act in close cooperation With the district quid national machinery. The Whitley or similar schemes have been tried in many communities in England and the book contains interesting comments on the result obtained, it being notable that most of the objections conic from plants which have not tried the scheme. Meyer Bloomfield, the author; is the specialist in industrial personnel problems who organized the industrial service activities of the United States Shipping Board, Emergency Fleet Corporation. P. E. B.

Jan 10, 1919

By E. R. Kaiser

ACTIVITY on long-range and on immediate wartime problems shared the attention of specialists in coal research during 1943. Programs of the principal coal laboratories were more adequately financed than in previous years, but all reported shortages of technical personnel. Expansion in coal research in the year to come will depend primarily on the availability of qualified research talent.

Jan 1, 1944

By F. S. McNicholas, R. L. Healy

NOTEWORTHY because of the amount of explosives used, the tonnage broken, and the wide range involved both vertically and laterally, was a large underground blast fired last November at the Hidden Creek mine, Anyox, B. C. Stoping methods and mining prac¬tices at the Hidden Creek mine have previously been described in the technical press. Earlier mining methods employed included shrinkage stoping, glory-holing, and "spiral" stoping. The latter especially has been a practice peculiar to the Granby company, having been used for years at its Phoenix mines and later at the Anyox property where conditions as to size of orebodies and strength of ground both in the ore and walls were similar. These methods all leave tremendous excavations supported at key points by pillars and braces that may only be safely mined by big blasts.

Jan 1, 1935

By Ralph M. Roosevelt

IN AS MUCH as our Institute, by tradition, never adopts any official view of matters upon which difference of opinion exists, it may be taken for granted that the duty of its Production Control Committee does' not embrace the formulation of any general policy on that much-discussed subject. During the first years of its existence the Committee confined its activities to making arrangements for an annual general session at which the broader aspects of the general problem were discussed by men both within and outside the mineral industry. These general sessions, although interesting, did not indicate any definite path of progress, so during the last year the Committee has held a number of luncheon meetings at which the members might discuss in detail problems existing in the specific industries with which they are most closely acquainted, in the hope that discussions dealing with conditions rather than theories might result in the bringing to light of some general truths. Most of these truths have been fairly obvious from the beginning but they are of such basic importance that a periodic restatement of them seems worth while,

Jan 1, 1932

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 industrial might of the Bowen Basin is primarily the result of Utah Development Co.'s work- which has opened up the Blackwater, Goonyella, Peak Downs, and Saraji mines; built the Hay Point port; and is now developing the Norwich Park mine.

Jan 1, 1977

By DONALD H. McLAUGHLlN

Few factors have had more influence in maintaining the strength and stability of the United States than our persistent habit of providing .checks and balances to the dynamic powers of free enterprise on the one hand and to the controls and guidance exercised by the State on the other. .Indeed, it is this same concern for matching forces against each other that has given our republic its ability -to preserve a democratic basis of life for its citizens, and yet maintain a ,government that is able to protect the rights of all and to resist and minimize the danger of excessive concentration of authority. Our current efforts to clarify the nation's mineral policies and to define more clearly the role that the governmental agencies should play in conjunction with the functions of private -enterprise again reveal the desirability and advantages of maintaining our traditional controls. At times, the equilibrium has been temporarily disturbed by too great enthusiasm for one or the other of these basic concepts. Sooner or later, however, the balance has been restored by the healthy opposition that is always created by excesses of one sort. At the current stage in our history, the swing toward undue enlargement of the powers of the State seems to have gone dangerously far and we would be untrue 'to our traditional behavior if the group that must demonstrate the virtues of free enterprise did not rally to its support with the utmost earnestness.

Jan 1, 1949

By AIME

ENGINEERS have long pondered the answer to the question of "How am I doing?" and in large measure the answer from the economics angle is provided by the 1946 survey of the engineering profession now being published by the Engineers Joint Council as an eighty-page bulletin entitled "The Engineering Profession in Transition." The survey, based upon a completely precoded mail questionnaire, aimed at three major objectives: (1) to determine the general impact of World War II upon the profession in the period 1939 through 1946; (2) to obtain re- R liable data from which valid findings could be derived to predict how active the profession would be after 1946; and (3) to determine if the war's upheaval had changed materially the pattern of professional activities, education, background, and earnings from those which existed prior to 1939. Abundant data on the economic status of the engineer based upon years of experience in his particular field, the specific branch of the industry in which he served, and his educational background are presented. Relationships between years of experience

Jan 1, 1947

By A. C. Fieldner

COKE and by-products have prime importance in the war program. The past year was marked by the construction of new and the rehabilitation of old by-product and beehive ovens and by the increase of production from existing plants to practically 100 per cent capacity. W. T. Brown's paper, "Plan to Improve Blast-Furnace Coke," presented at the Fuels Conference in St. Louis, Sept. 30, showed how the blending of low- and high-volatile coal improved the physical properties of coke and that improvement of the quality and uniformity of coke favored an increase of blast-furnace capacity- a vital need in the war program. Others in the industry have likewise increased production of coke or recovery of by- products by various innovations or changes in operation. Recognition of the value of pooling these developments for the benefit of the entire industry led to organization of a survey of coke- oven plants and blast furnaces by the Bureau of Mines in co-operation with the Solid Fuels Co-ordinator with a view to improving metallurgical coke production and recovery of by-products. This survey is being conducted with the help of an advisory committee consisting of representatives of the Bureau of Mines, the Solid Fuels Co-ordinator, the War Production Board, and the blast-furnace, coke-oven, and coal-mining industries.

Jan 1, 1943

By K. R. Bixby

OPENING of numerous stripping operations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other districts, particularly outside the Middle West and Southwest where the large-scale stripping mines predominate, holds the limelight for the year 1940. Several factors are responsible for this expansion. One is the scarcity of untested and undeveloped properties in this central field. Another has been the development of earth-moving and preparation equipment suitable for these smaller tonnage tracts. Draglines of the Walker type, small long-range .hovels, and large-capacity tractor- drawn scrapers have to be considered. Wash boxes, designed for light tonnages, costing a few thousand dollars, have made their contribution.

Jan 1, 1941

By David Cole

THE New Cornelia Copper Co. is mining and treating a 'monzonite " porphyry" copper deposit that is all hard rock. The oxidized surface shell, which constitutes the leachable part of the orebody, is measurably more resistent to crushing and comminution processes than is the underlying sulfide portion. The siliceous ribs running through the whole orebody are harder to crush than the main mass and there is no soft crumbly material to furnish the large volume of primary fines that features the crusher feeds of most other porphyry properties. New Cornelia ore reaches the primary crushers with a greater. proportion of large 'pieces. When the New Cornelia company first equipped its 'property, it used the following machines and flow , scheme to reduce the ore to leaching size:

Jan 1, 1925

By W. W. Duecker

SULPHUR is a peculiar combination of a nuisance and a useful element. Most of the nonferrous metallic ores contain large amounts of it in the form of sulphides, which the metallurgist has wasted up the chimney, since the sulphur dioxide formed is generally too dilute to make recovery economical and practical. Iron ore does not contain much of the unwanted sulphur; in pig iron and coke it is most unwelcome. Gold metallurgists can get along nicely without sulphides in their cyanide plants and yet they find matte-a sulphur compound -an excellent collector for gold and silver in base-metal smelting. Also, sulphur appears in the non-metallics as in barite, gypsum, Glauber's salt, and celestite, all to useful purpose.

Jan 1, 1938

By W. S. Tower

STEEL is the basic metal, the main metallic prop of the modern industrial world, a good gage for measuring the state of our complex economy. Any who had doubts on that score should have had them dispelled by the many evidences of public concern over the affairs of the steel industry in recent months. I do not need to relate the various criticisms of the industry, nor the questions about its policies and performance which have come in a rising flood, especially from unthinking and irresponsible sources. But judged from the standpoint of production, or from plans to improve and expand facilities, or from technical progress, the facts about the steel industry are proof of

Jan 1, 1948

By H. K. Work, H. B. Emerick

IN the past year the steel industry underwent an abrupt conversion from a war tempo to a highly competitive peacetime schedule. It is still too early to gain a comprehensive picture as to which of the measures in production metallurgy, that made the war effort so successful, will remain in the postwar production of steel, but many of them undoubtedly will fill an important place after the war. Considerable speculation has developed regarding the disposition of the war-born production facilities of the steel industry. These include new open-hearth and electric furnaces, as well as vast numbers of auxiliary, supplementary, and balancing units that increased and speeded up production beyond the normal capacities of existing melting furnaces and finishing mills. Although these facilities were installed primarily to help meet war requirements, consideration was also given, in planning, to their possible peacetime use. The new equipment is generally modern and efficient, and it seems reasonable to suppose that strategically located units will gradually be absorbed by various steel companies to supplement their own facilities, or to replace in kind, obsolete and inefficient equipment now ready to be scrapped. Some, however,

Jan 1, 1946

By AIME AIME

A discussion of the Papers by Prof. H. Hubert, Liege, Belgium ; Mr. Tom Westgarth, Middlesbrough, England ; and Mr. K. Reinhardt, Dortmund, Germany, presented at the London Meeting, July, 1906, and printed in Bi-Monthly Bulletin, No. 12, November, 1906; pp. 910 to 930, 971 to 987, 1037 to 1163. MR. ADOLPH GREINER, Seraing, Belgium :-I have nothing special to add to Professor Hubert's paper except to say that there are some little things that it would be well to have cor-rected when the paper comes to be published. In dealing with the thermal efficiency of the engine, you will find that the 29.84 per cent was a very high one. Professor Hubert has forgotten those engines built under the Cockerill type, but he has referred to them in Appendix II. At our works at Cockerill we have built 63 engines, giving 63,000 h.p., and the other companies who have received licenses have built 113 engines, making 103,000 h.p., and aggregating 176 engines and 166,000 h.p. Eight years ago I had the pleasure of giving to the Institute the results obtained up to that time. Since then a good many engines have been constructed. In 1898 I thought a blast-furnace producing 100 tons of pig iron would allow 3,000 h.p. Professor Witz and Professor Hubert show that with the same production of pig the new engines take 3,800 h.p. out of the gas. At present at Cockerill we make 700 to 800 tons of pig iron per day, and we hope to have 26,000 h.p; in a few years. At present we have only half of that in gas-engines, but we hope to have in five or six years all the gas out of these furnaces to the number of 25,000 or 26,000 h.p. MR. Tom WESTGARTH, Middlesbrough, England:-My contribution is not a paper in the ordinary sense of the word, because I am sure you will agree with me that what I have written is only supplementary to the other two papers. The notes are schedules of the larger-size gas-engines built by the engine-makers, of 500 h.p. and upwards. If you look at the schedules you will find that in England gas-engines have be-

Jan 1, 1907

By James Aston

Three years ago the writer presented a paper on the trend of development in the wrought iron industry,' wherein was described a process in the development of which he has been a factor, which at that time had passed through several years of progressive experimental development but which had not then been put upon a commercial scale of operation. The present paper deals with two years of observation and experience in the commercial operation of a plant by the A. M. Byers Co. at Warren, Ohio. It will not enter into the controversial field of the relative merit of wrought iron and steel in various classes of service, nor will it elaborate upon the characteristic services or fields of utility to which wrought iron is particularly adapted. It is sufficient to state that the wrought iron industry is upon a substantial basis and that the material finds service in pipe, where its advantages are in superior corrosion, fatigue, welding and threading qualities; in bar iron for staybolts, engine bolts, and rivets, demanding maximum service against corrosion and fatigue; in plates for corrosion service; and in chains, because of welding and shock-resisting characteristics. In short, ability to withstand the stresses of shock and vibration, or the ravages of corrosion, to hold protective coatings, and to give maximum efficiency in welding, are its features of relative superiority. If these features were not well recognized, the wrought iron industry would have shrunk to insignificance in the face of high costs and acknowledged limitations in manufacture. To charge that this industry is built upon a structure of assumption, psychology, and improperly weighed evidence is an impeachment of the integrity or belittling of the powers of observation of users through many centuries of service experiences. In a history which extends to prehistoric time, and which is linked up with the earliest records of ferrous products, the dominant method of manufacture, as we have known it for little over a century, occupies a very small niche in the span of years that mark production and use of wrought iron. Puddling, the outstanding manufacturing method of

Jan 1, 1929