Search Documents

ALL critical and strategic materials procurement functions have been transferred from the Defense Minerals Administration, General Service Administration, and the Economic Cooperation Administration and are now centered in a newly formed agency, the Defense Materials Procurement Agency. DWA will report directly to the Director of Defense Mobilization. Mr. Truman stated that he intended to appoint Jess Larson, administrator or General Services to head the new agency (see Trends P. 756). W. C. Schroeder has been named acting director of the Defense Minerals Administration replacing James Boyd. He has been named also to a newly created assistant director position of the Bureau of Mines serving under Mr. Boyd who is director. Schroeder was formerly head of' the Synthetic Liquid Fuels Division of the Bureau of Mines.

Jan 9, 1951

By Hermsdorf, Richard P. E.

AMONG the newer lead smelting and refining plants of the country is that of the United States Metals Refining Co., at Carteret, N. J. Not only is the technical practice here modern and efficient, but exceptional care is taken to assure healthful operating conditions for the employees. One large building houses the entire department, which includes, as its chief units, one reverberatory smelting furnace, one blast furnace, two softening furnaces, one utility reverberatory furnace, two Faber du Faur retorts, five 120-ton kettles, three 60-ton antimouial lead kettles, and one 5-ton kettle for experimental purposes. There is a 10-ton overhead crane in the kettle aisle, which is also used for shipping lead. Other auxiliary equipment is referred to in the outline of operations. A general plan of the plant is shown in Fig. 2, and a general view in Fig. 1. Primary smelting operations are conducted in a 30 by 11-ft. reverberatory furnace with bottom, roof, and upper walls of clay brick, magnesite

Jan 1, 1934

By AIME AIME

A FALL meeting that should have repercussions both in the "Transactions" and MINING AND METALLURGY was that of the Industrial Minerals Division (Nonmetallics) at Wilmington, Oct. 21-23; headquarters, Du Pont Hotel. The sixteen technical papers and two addresses were substantial and interesting. Moreover, in every instance but one, the author made the presentation, and the one exception must have been next of kin because the ensuing discussion indicated his command of the subject. The meeting schedule clicked at every turn, thanks to Dr. Gillson, chairman of the local committee, and even the four field trips adhered to the time table. The program pre-empted morning, noon, afternoon and night two general luncheons, two dinners, and an evening technical session reminding one of the Annual Meeting. Only the registration was disappointing - about 80.

Jan 1, 1943

By William B. Plank

ENROLMENT data given in this report of the seventh study of the schools by the Mineral Industry Education Division reveals the critical situation in the mineral engineering schools of the United States. Complete figures for the year 1942-43 show that at that time, about one year after Pearl Harbor, the enrollment of mineral engineers was 6385 or 30 per cent less than in 199441. By October 1943, however, enrollment had dropped to 2050, as reported in the Journal of Engineering Education of January 1944. This was a further reduction of 68 per cent in one year, or 77 per cent in three years. With accelerated programs in effect during the current year, with many graduations since last October, and with the military forces taking practically all the high school graduates, the present enrollment is, of course, much lower than the 2050 above given. There are no late data on the exact situation. In Canada, the same situation exists in the mineral engineering schools, only

Jan 1, 1944

By AIME AIME

THE fall meeting of the Petroleum Division, held at Tulsa, Okla., on Oct. 11 to 14, devoted two days to technical sessions and two to field excursions. A representative attendance of 250 to 300 engineers and operating officials engaged in oil production marked the sessions and paid close attention throughout to a notable series of highly technical papers. Restricted as the program was to consideration of production problems only, the time proved too short for discussion or even the presentation of the 20 papers submitted. Much informing and pertinent discussion none the less took place, and the sentiment was general to the effect that the meeting was one of the best ever held by the Division. The meetings were held in the auditorium of the Municipal building and local arrangements were well looked after by the Mid-Continent Section of the Institute and the Oil and Gas Association. The combination of the three organizations served to bring together engineers and operators most usefully. F. Julius Fohs, chairman of the Division, presided at the sessions on Monday. Tuesday morning John M. Lovejoy of the local section took over this responsibility in the absence of T. E. Swigart, who was detained in California. The afternoon session was presided over by A. G. Heggam of the Oil and Gas Association and the Tuesday evening banquet by W. C. Franklin of the same organization.

Jan 1, 1926

By CHARLES M. A. STINE

IN fighting a war the all-absorbing intent is to win. There is little time to analyze the rush of events or to appraise their consequences beyond the war's end. The united objective is, rightly, success for our arms. Yet under the pressures of a great war there may be compressed scientific, economic and social developments that might have taken many decades to achieve under less urgent conditions. Their effects on our lives and all civilization may be more wide-reaching and lasting than any military conquest. They constitute one of the must imperative incentives to victory. No American, least of all any scientist worthy the name, conceivably could endorse war as a justifiable means to progress. The destruction of life and property wrought by the present war far exceeds the havocs of a century's earthquakes. Most of mankind is burning itself on an altar of paganism. Nonetheless, one fact is inescapable Despite the recurrent malady of war history's overall course is forward. Mankind has the habit of rising phoenix-like from its own ashes to attain greater heights. Progress is immortal.

Jan 1, 1942

By C. W. Goodale

TOMBSTONE, a name not exactly full of cheerful suggestion, has a great record as a mineral producer and a colorful history as a frontier mining camp. The only practical route to Tombstone in the early 80's was by way of San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Southern Pacific was building across Arizona, and a sleeper was attached to a construction and freight train at Los Angeles, and was trailed slowly across the Colorado Desert to Benson in the San Pedro Valley. Thence one staged 26 miles to Tombstone, which is located near the foot of a range of hills at an altitude of about 4500 ft.

Jan 1, 1925

Jan 1, 1966

Jan 1, 1968

Jan 1, 1968

By C. D. Thurmond

Jan 1, 1968

By R. W. Baldwin

On page 309, column 1, the second equation should read: Ma-M1 = dlog_Pa M2-M1 d log P2

Jan 1, 1961

By W. J. Parton

THE efficient recovery and preparation of small sizes of anthracite called No. 4 Buckwheat (3/3 2 by 1/3 2 in.) and No. 5 Buckwheat (1/3 2 in. by 0), present a difficult problem to the anthracite operators. In many instances preparation of these sizes, particularly No. 5 anthracite, is extremely inefficient. In many of the older preparation plants, inadequate facilities, and often none at all, were provided as an integral part of the plant for cleaning this fine anthracite. Consequently, much of the material smaller than s, 32 in. was discarded. As the demand for these sizes increased, facilities for preparing the fine sizes were often crowded into existing structures with consequent sacrifices of capacities and efficiency. In addition to this condition, the methods of preparing the finest sizes are being developed in an attempt to improve their efficiencies. Because the demand for small sizes of anthracite still is increasing, many operators would benefit by investigating and improving the cleaning equipment employed on these sizes.

Jan 1, 1949

In 1973, US Borax & Chemical Corp. began investing three days wages and about $20 in training materials in every new employee before having him report to his first job. The result? Accidents involving new employees in the past two years have dropped by more than half from the 1972 level. What made this success possible was safety training done with programmed instruction materials-which, incidentally, US Borax also uses for vocational training.

Jan 4, 1976

By W. E. Wrather

CURTAILMENT of production was a matter of far more serious concern to the oil industry through 1933 than the search for new supplies of oil. The huge reserves of crude, built up during past years, instead of inspiring a feeling of security, were viewed apprehensively. The status of past laws and court decisions seemed to guarantee to operators the right to produce oil at will, and this entrenched privilege was so widely adhered to that the market was-in a constant state of chaos. The more modern idea of the ownership of oil in place and correlative rights gained headway slowly, since usually there were enough belligerent producers, staunch believers in the old established order, to defeat the efforts of the majority who sought to' introduce order and restraint. State regulatory commissions were unable to cope, with the rebellion among producers with the result that those who abided by proration rulings were penalized, while those who flouted the rulings and produced unrestrainedly were able to make profits on large volumes of flush oil even at low prices. This situation, known in the vernacular as the "hot 'oil" problem, became so acute that the industry was threatened with ruin. The low price for 36c A.P.I. in the Mid-Continent came in April. at 25c per barrel 'but gradually moved upward to the long-hoped for price of $1.00 per barrel in October, after the Federal Government had taken a hand in the matter and effectively allocated production among the oil producing states and materially curbed the "hot oil" runs.

Jan 1, 1934

THE annual meeting of the Lake Superior Mining Institute was held on Sept. 7 and 8, Crystal Falls and Iron Mountain, Mich., being the principal centers of activity. Members of both institutes began assembling early, and by the evening of Sept. 6, some 60 had already arrived at Crystal Falls. The greater number arrived the following morning, however, and after the usual formalities of registration were attended to, the party were loaded into automobiles and set out on a tour of inspection of the mines near Iron River; some properties were passed through, and some were briefly visited to permit the inspection of any unusually interesting piece of equipment or detail of practice. The last stop of the morning was at the Caspian, Iron River, where the entire party was entertained at luncheon at the Caspian Club House. Both the food and the company were excellent, and as the weather was superlatively good (though the natives of the district modestly declared it was only ordinary autumn weather) the lunch was served on the lawn at the rear of the club, where the green turf, abundant flowers, and music by the band, added to the charm of good fellowship. The degree to which mining men have become addicted to golf was indicated by the large number of plus fours in evidence, whose wearers appeared just before lunch and disappeared immediately afterward.

Jan 1, 1928

By Zay Jeffries

HOSTILITIES in Europe, Asia, and northern Africa were responsible for dislocations in rare-metal supplies during 1940. Although the consumption of some of the rare metals is small the dislocations may be relatively large. In some cases these are advantageous to North America and in others they are disadvantageous. Specific instances will be cited later. Barium T HIN films of barium metal on special steel balls greatly improve the life and reduce the friction of rotating anodes in highly evacuated small X-ray tubes and make possible the operation of these anodes at relatively high temperatures. These remarkable results are described in an article by Atlee, Wilson, and Filmer in the Journal of Applied Physics for September, 1940. Oil could not be used because of the high temperatures on the one hand and its volatility on the other. Fig. 3 shows diagramatically the rotating anode and the method of coating the steel balls with barium. The letters K.I.C. refer to "Kemet Iron Clad." The K.I.C. wire was mounted so that the barium could be evaporated by direct passage of the electric current. At high temperatures the barium dif-

Jan 1, 1941

By D. B. RUSHJIORE

(New York -Meeting, February, 1912.) TORCHES were used by the early Romans for mine-lighting, and these were followed by open lamps or earthen jars filled with tallow or oil, and later by candles. In early coal-mining, explosive gases seldom occurred, and, if they were encountered, the danger of explosion was materially diminished by the absence of any ventilating-system and the consequent insufficient circulation of air to form with the methane an explosive mixture. As the art advanced, the danger of fire-damp became more apparent, and methods for testing the air were resorted to as early as in the fifteenth century. The method of testing consisted in lowering a clog in a, basket down the shaft. As soon as he encountered fire-damp he would commence to howl, after which he was withdrawn, and a leafy bush was fastened to the end of the rope and run rapidly up and clown the shaft. This so disturbed the accumulation of gas as to cause it to rise out of the shaft. Later this odd method of testing was improved upon through the discovery that a light inserted in a body of fire-dam p would produce a blue flame. Candles were used for this purpose, and, when fire-damp was thus discovered, brushing or some other primitive method of fanning was resorted to for driving out the gas. In some instances the gas was burned away, regardless of the danger thereby incurred. A man, wearing a well-moistened coat and a mask with glass spectacles, descended in the mine a few hours before each shift. With a long stick, to which was fastened a burning torch or candle, lie would crawl on the floor with the stick so raised that the light would sweep the roof and ignite the gas which it encountered. In this position the flame of the explosion would pass over him, after which he would retreat from the gases resulting from the combustion. The occurrence of serious accidents resulted in

Jul 1, 1912

By Jack F. B. Silman

Proving up any large, open pit ore deposit by normal exploration drilling under the best of conditions is a noteworthy accomplishment. But, when adverse conditions preclude standard drilling methods, and the same end result is achieved by a relatively new and little known type of drilling, special comment is in order. Three major problems confronted exploration drilling at the Questa molybdenite mine of the Molybdenum Corporation of America-sampling, terrain and time. Surface and underground longhole drilling provided the needed solutions, thus making the greatest single contribution to an exploration and development program that was successful in proving a major, open pit molybdenum deposit.

Jan 5, 1965