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By Sir Robert A. Hadfield

The Hadfield method of producing sound steel ingots has been the subject of a paper read before the Iron and Steel Institute, so that it will be unnecessary to describe it fully here. The object of the method is to make poseible the production of steel ingots in which the pipe is almost entirely obliterated, and it is applicable particularly to the production of sound ingots, from which good rails could be rolled. The method in brief consists in casting the ingots on cars, usually with the small end down. Each ingot mold is provided with a sand top, rammed up in the well-known manner. After the mold is filled to the desired height with steel, a layer of slag about 0.5 in. thick is placed upon it and the balance of the mold is then filled with charcoal. Then, through suitable piping, an air blast is directed in numerous jets upon the charcoal, which is burned thereby, the combustion supplying addi, tional heat to the top of the ingot, which helps to keep the top fluid and to retard its solidification, while the lower parts are rapidly losing heat by its transfer to the mold. By one plan the ingots are cast in molds placed upon bogies, movable trucks, or platforms, in the position A, Fig. 1. The ingots are cast vertically on bogies, say four or more ingots on each bogie, as may be found most convenient, and the upper surface of the steel is maintained in a molten condition during the transit of the ingots from the casting pit to the stripper. This is effected by a series of air pipes, for example, three in number, with jets or holes on the under surface of such pipes, placed preferably horizontally, arranged in such a manner as to cause jets of air to impinge on the upper surface of the ingots. These holes or jets are made throughout the entire length of the overhead pipes, the length of such pipes being

Jan 1, 1914

By Walter Riethmeier, Arthur J. Lynch

The future of plant design in mineral processing and extractive metallurgy is discussed in relation to present trends and the future need to build plants that will treat larger tonnages and lower grades of ore. The future equipment and plant design of crushing, grinding, screening, classification, flotation, magnetic concentration, gravity concentration, hydrometallurgy, thickening, filtration, tailings disposal, health, safety, environment, and materials of construction are discussed. Future plants are expected to follow upon present evolutionary trends. The impact of escalation, energy costs, and increased regulation of the industry is foreseen as a major influence on plant design.

Jan 1, 1978

By W. Klement

By quenching liquid alloys, single-phase solid solutions are obtained in the ranges 0 to 42.0 at. pct Co-Au and 0 to 15 and 75 to about 100 at. pet Co-Cu. Metastable solid solutions are also found in multiphase 42.0 to 49.0 and 69. 0 to about 100 at. pet Co-Au alloys. fie inability to achieve complete solid solubiliiies in Au-co and cu-co alloys is rationalized by a conszderation of the rate processes during cooling and solidification. Trends in lattice distortion and shifts in the compositions of the melting-point minima and critical points are discussed for the binary alloys of copper, silver, and gold with some of the transition metals of the first long period. By rapidly cooling alloys from the melt, a continuous series of metastable solid solutions can often be obtained for components of similar crystal structure which normally form eutectic systems.' The eutectic system Au-Co, Fig. 1, and the peritectic system Cu-Co, Fig. 2, were investigated in order to determine the extent of the metastable solid solutions attainable with the present technique.* EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES Most of the alloys were prepared by melting weighed quantities of the elements (purity greater than 99.9 pct) under hydrogen in alumina crucibles by means of induction heating. After reweighing, the alloys were cast under argon into 1 mm diam wires. However, it was not possible to prepare some of the Cu-Co alloys with the requisite homogeneity (over about 1 mm3) in this way. For these alloys, reduced powders (purity greater than 99.9 pct) were mixed for 12 to 48 hr, pressed into compacts that were sintered at 1000º to 1050°C for 6 to 48 hr under hydrogen, and then furnace-cooled. Alloy charges of a few mm3, cut from the cast wires or chipped from the sintered compacts, were heated to 1550º to 1600°C in 30 sec in an alumina insert held within a graphite support and then ejected by a pulse of helium onto a lightly polished copper strip on the inner periphery of a rotating wheel. The

Jan 1, 1963

By G. Borelius

ABOUT the turn of the century, Gibbs' thermo-dynamic theory of heterogeneous equilibrium, on the one hand, and the experimental methods of thermal and microscopic analysis, on the other, gave to the physical metallurgist his first scientific tool, the equilibrium diagram. The classical equilibrium diagram of a binary alloy system shows the boundaries between ranges of homogeneous and heterogeneous equilibrium in their dependence of concentration and temperature. A homogeneous solid sohtion which on cooling passes such a boundary is assumed to precipitate, forming a mixture of two phases with different concentrations. The equilibriunl diagram and the equilibrium theory, however, give no information about the time scheme of the process or the intermediate states passed during precipitation. For this reason it satisfies neither the practical need of the metallurgist nor the curiosity of the physicist. As a matter of fact, in the heat treatment of alloys for technical use the objective very seldom is the equilibrium state. Thus good mechanical properties of construction material are connected, for the most part, with some intermediate state. As these intermediate states are thermodynamically unstable, there is, from a theoretical point of view, always to be expected a decay of the good properties with time; and it is a matter also of practical interest to know whether this natural life time of a material is of the order of, say, ten or thousands of years. Thus, for many reasons, there is a current demand to complete our knowledge of equilibrium through knowledge of the kinetics of the precipitation phenomena. From the point of view of the physicist, the most interesting question in this case is whether there are any general laws governing the kinetics. According to a generally accepted view, precipitation is ruled by two more or less independent phenomena, the formation of nuclei of a new phase and the growth of these nuclei. It is also commonly accepted that there is a tendency for the velocity of growth to increase with increasing temperature because of the increasing mobility of the atoms. There is also a tendency for the velocity of growth to decrease in the neighborhood of the two-phase boundaries. So far, however, very little is known quantitatively about this fundamental phenomenon in the case of solid metallic systems. In our laboratory attention has been directed especially toward the nucleation phenomena, and a series of measurements have been carried out with the guidance of a work- ing hypothesis (based on experiences from previous work on order-disorder transformations in alloys) about the influence on the nucleation of thermo-dynamic potential barriers. However, before discussing the experiments, the theoretical ideas will be considered. In a binary solid solution the arrangement of atoms on the lattice points approaches with increasing temperature a state of full randomness, as illustrated by the ball model of Fig. 1, that might represent a [111] plane of a face-centered alloy with 30 pct "black" and 70 pct "white" atoms. In reality the atoms are changing places continually with their neighbors so that the picture should rightly have been a moving one. On account of this thermal motion the concentration of black atoms within a certain group of, say, a hundred or a thousand lattice points fluctuates with time around the bulk concentration of 30 pct in a manner governed by statistical laws. With decreasing temperature two independent changes in this state grow more and more important. First, the mobility of the atoms decreases, and second, the forces between the atoms will have an increased influence on the fluctuations. In alloys with a tendency for precipitation, which are the concern of this lecture, the distribution function of concentration fluctuations will broaden, so that the relative probability of great local variations from the bulk concentration increases. Fig. 2 gives an example of such a fluctuation. When the alloy is supercooled below the solubility limit into the range of two-phase equilibrium, the fluctuations will now and then at some point give rise to a state that resembles the equilibrium state and thus will form a stable nucleus that is capable of growing by diffusion processes. In discussions with colleagues and in the literature, I have often encountered the idea that three or four atoms of the dissolved metal could form a nucleus of the new phase. A look at the ball model might be enough to indicate that this cannot be true. If it were true, there should be nothing but nuclei, whereas we know from experiment that nucleation must be a rather rare occurrence. In fact we have, as will be mentioned later, certain reasons to believe that the nuclei are formed by fluctuations containing some hundreds of atoms, which should be the order of the number of black balls in the fluctuating group of the figure, if it were extended into three dimensions. As a working hypothesis we have assumed that the fluctuations producing nuclei, though large and rare, still are ruled by the distribution laws of fluctuations of the supercooled solid solution in its initial state. Thus the probability of nucleation will be connected to the thermodynamic properties of the solid

Jan 1, 1952

By Albert F. J. Bordeaux

Alluvial gold was first discovered in Guiana in 1852, in the sands of the Arataye river, by Paulino, a Braziliaii convict. During the following years, gold was found also in the rivers Orapu, CirubQ, etc. In 1873 the famous placers of the Sinnamary system were opened: Saint-Elie, Dieu-Merci, Adieu-Vat, and Couriege. This group of mines has produced nearly $10,000,000, according to official records, not including the gold that escaped the taxes. The discoverer was a mulatto named Vitalo. Except in a few rich spots, the gold was rather evenly distributed along the creeks. In one instance, gold was found in the red dirt from the slope of a hill, which, after transport to the creek, gave an amount of 150 kilograms. The placers of the Mana system, Enfin, Elysee, Pas-Trop-Tot, date from 1878, and their production has been about %g5,000,000. In 1888, the Awa placers, along the boundary bet.ween the French and Dutch Guianas, on the Maroni and its tributaries, were discovered. They have yielded $12,000,000. The only industrial company, the Dutch Guiana Freiich Minillg Co., produced in 15 years about 2,500 kg. of gold, worth $1,500,000. From 1893 dates the famous Carsewene discovery, in territory then in dispute between France and Brazil. A settlement was made recently in favor of Brazil, by arbitration of the Switzerland State Council. Carsewene is said to have produced about $18,000,000 in six years (1894-1900), but not even one-fourth of tho production went through French Quiana and

Jan 1, 1911

By Robert J. Linney

IN the latter part of the year 1943, it was decided to experiment with diamond-drill blast holes in the Old Bed magnetite mine at the Mineville mines of the Republic Steel Corporation, in sections of the ore body where vertical dimensions were large and where development for sublevel bench stopes had already been done. Other possibilities of application for this drilling method were in the reclamation of old floors and pillars in the pitching folds of the Lower Old Bed ore body and in the reclamation of large vertical pillars in the " 21 " Bonanza-Joker ore body. The cross sections and views of the two ore bodies will show the conditions to which the diamond-drill method has been applied. The Lower Old Bed magnetite ore body is lenticular and dips approximately 30° toward the southwest and strikes generally southeast and northwest. An intensely folded structure, which pitches generally on an axis approximately at right angles to the strike, is continuous from the uppermost old workings down to the present bottom of the mine, and probably continues with depth. On successively lower levels this folded structure becomes greater in vertical dimensions and the two folds are closer together in a horizontal dimension. As shown in Fig. 1, this folded structure gives to parts of the ore body considerable vertical dimensions, which provide areas that were developed for sublevel bench stoping above a slushing drift, as shown in Fig. 2. It was in one of these previously developed sublevel bench stopes, No. 26 on the 1185-ft. level, that the diamond-drill blast-hole method was applied for mining the upper sublevel. The lower sublevel was underhand-bench-drilled to the finger raises of the scram drift below. The roof of this stoping area began to break and spall on the lower sublevel, causing the roof to become inclined. Along the hanging wall of the stope this reached an elevation about half way between the two sublevels. A smooth schistose seam in the hanging wall causes the ore to break away freely. Therefore, if bench mining had been carried on in the upper sublevel, a dangerous condition of poorly supported benches would have resulted. When the drillers were slashing across the sublevel to footwall and hanging wall to make a bench, spalling roof of the opening below would probably have carried away part of the bench, and would have left a dangerous place in which to continue underhand benching. A 6 by 8-ft. raise had been driven between the lower stope and the upper sublevel about 200 ft. from a manway. It was decided to use this raise for a starting cut and to arrange holes as shown in Fig. 3, so that a slot would be opened across the ore body between the footwall and hanging wall. This slot would then be used for the purpose of breaking into the ore; by blasting vertical rings of holes drilled at right angles to the axis of the pitching folds as nearly as possible. Layouts of this slot drilling and the rings adjacent are

Jan 1, 1945

By R. L. Fleischer, B. Chalmers

In order to observe size effects associated with a grain boundary, aluminum single crystals and bicrystals of various cross-sectional dimensions were deformed in tension. Typical stress-strain curves are presented in conjunction with measurements of the effects of changes in crystal dimensions. Some effects of the growth rate used in preparation of crystals are also described. It is indicated that the macroscopic constraints at a grain boundary are responsible for the most prominent grain-boundary effect, the production of multiple slip. Two measurements of the width of the region of double slip are in agreement. It is concluded that the yield stress of aluminum is affected markedly by the inherent oxide coating. THE general problem to be examined is that of dimensional effects in the plastic deformation of metal crystals. These effects will be termed "size effects" and are here defined as follows: A size effect occurs in a series of crystals if their plastic-deformation properties are a function of crystal dimensions. Clearly then size effects depend on the nature of the boundary conditions imposed on the crystal. Crystal boundaries can be of three types: interphase, inter-crystalline, and free surface. Such deformation effects as are caused by distribution of phases, grain size, lineage structure, and single crystal external geometry are specific types of size effects. This discussion will be confined primarily to grain-boundary and single-crystal size effects, though in practice most "single crystals" not only have a number of small angle boundaries but also have one or more surface phases, so that the boundary conditions appropriate to a free surface do not necessarily apply. Hence, to this extent interphase size effects will be considered. The question of size effects associated with grain boundaries (called here intercrystalline size effects)

Jan 1, 1959

By Russell W. Dayton

THE metallurgical polarization microscope has been utilized in several researches in the last few years, thus attaining a fair degree of prominence, but little has been written in a manner suitable to a metallurgist concerning the theory of this instrument. In this investigation the theory was carefully studied, and the results are presented here in a detailed manner, yet as simply as possible. The theory - is discussed with particular reference to the three chief functions of the instrument: (1) determination of anisotropy; (2) effect of strain; and (3) identification of inclusions. Each of these is investigated experimentally, with especial attention to the mechanism of producing any effect. Where possible, the discussion is supplemented by photomicrographs. The instrument used had numerous defects as a polarization microscope; these and their remedies are discussed. In the microscopic study of transparent mineral sections (chalcography) the use of polarized light has aided tremendously in the identification of a mineral. The determination of strain in transparent substances (photoelasticity) by the use of polarized light has lately become a commercial process, used in testing finished glass articles. The success of the use of polarized light with opaque materials has not been so great. The magnitude of the effects obtained is much less than that of the corresponding effects with transparent materials, and the mechanical difficulties are much greater. Königsberger, (1)‡ in 1909, was the first to apply polarized light to the microscopic study of

Jan 1, 1935

By Norman Pilling

The effects of lead and tin up to maximum contents of about 0.1 per cent. each, in the presence of oxygen between 0.04 and 0.30 per cent., have been studied. Tin is retained efficiently in the oxidized condition, whereas lead is not. An approximate relation between the lead-oxygen and tin-oxygen contents is deduced which, if observed, permits the presence of these elements without detrimental effect. Excess of lead beyond this limit affects ductility and rolling properties adversely and an excess of tin correspondingly diminishes the conductivity. It is shown that copper carrying a combined lead and tin content of several hundredths per cent., yet fully equal in quality to electrolytic wirebar, may be produced under commercial conditions. TIN is not normally found in more than bare traces in current grades of American electrolytic copper, and lead is rarely found to more than a few thousandths per cent. In the electrolytic refining of copper these metals do not present great difficulty in separation and their presence in any considerable amount in copper that has been refined by this method need not be tolerated. On the other hand, the effect of these elements is not entirely academic, as a considerable tonnage of scrap copper liberally contaminated with them has been reclaimed by the fire-refining process into metal with a residual lead and tin content of several hundredths per cent., yet having excellent working properties and fully equal in quality to current grades of electrolytic wirebar. Such copper has been found entirely suitable for use in the manufacture of electrical apparatus. In the absence of oxygen, tin is known to depress the conductivity rapidly, and lead to impair ductility and the rolling properties, yet the effects of these metals on commercial grades of copper-i. e., copper containing from 0.03 to 0.10 per cent. of oxygen-apparently has not received systematic attention. Occasional reference is made to the fact that in the presence of oxygen lead may be tolerated, yet Addicks says,1 in regard to overpoling: "The unstable condition can be controlled by adding certain substances, notably lead, in small quantities, but as mere

Jan 2, 1926

By Harry L. Brown, Philip E. Armstrong

Young's modulus doto ore presented for W, Mo. Ta. V, Cr. Ni, Ti, and Zr as a function of temperature up to about 0.7 of the melting points. A plot of reduced temperature us reduced modulus produces a general correlation except for titanium and zirconium. Young's modudlus data for some representatiue commercial graphites are given up to 2400°C. All results were obtained from longitudinal resonance-frequency measzrrements of 4-in. long samples, corrected for simultaneously measured thermal expansion. Comparison of poly crystalline and single-crystal tungsten behavior indicates that all the observed modulus values are frequencv -dependent at the higher temperatures. STATIC measurements of elastic properties of materials at elevated temperatures are extremely difficult to make since the elastic behavior is obscured by relatively large first-stage creep effects. Dynamic methods which avoid this difficulty by utilizing the measurement of the resonance frequency of a simple vibrational mode have been described in the 1iterature.l-3 The authors have extended the operating temperature range of this type of measurement to above 2000°C and have described the equipment elsewhere.~ The Young's modulus data presented here were obtained with this equipment, using samples about 4 in. long and 1/4 in. diam, supported horizontally at the center and excited to the fundamental longitudinal resonance frequency. Young's modulus was calculated by the formula: E = 4f2f2p where E = Young's modulus, / = frequency, 1 = length, and p = density. Dilatometric data were obtained simultaneously by optical measurements of the change of length of the sample. For the metals tested, an attempt was made to obtain modulus values that would be representative of the pure, strain-free, randomly oriented material. All of the graphites studied exhibited a high degree of elastic anisotropy, while the method assumes an isotropic homogeneous material. However , when the values for Young's modulus obtained for AUC graphite were compared with those taken from static measurements at room temperature they were found to be only about 4 pet higher. This is excellent agreement considering the low precision of modulus calculations from stress-strain curves. The difficulty in using data of apparent Young's modulus for anisotropic materials arises when the attempt is made to use these data and shear-modulus data to obtain Poisson's ratio. The results are usually meaningless and sometimes absurd.' RESULTS Table I lists the sources, impurity content, thermal history, and dilatometric constants of the metal samples that were investigated. All the metal samples were tested under a vacuum of 1 to 5 x 10-5 Torr. Where our dilatometric data agreed with previously published data, the table lists the previous values and the literature reference. Where no reference is given, the constants were determined from our dilatometric data. Table II presents the modulus data in units of millions of psi as a function of temperature in degrees centigrade. The numbers were obtained from curves fitted to the experimental data. For some types of calculations, such as those attempting to correlate creep data, the slope of the modulus curve is of interest, and this information also is reported in Table 11. It is always tempting to try to fit physical-property data into some general pattern and then use this pattern to predict the behavior of other similar materials. The general pattern for an elastic modulus of a metal seems to be a linear deoro- with increasing temperature Over the range between 0.1 and 0.4 of the melting temperature, then a progressive1y decreasing value up to the melting point. Metals appear to retain finite moduli

Jan 1, 1964

By Frederick G. Coqueron, Joseph E. Pogue

The purpose of this study is to present the results of a detailed survey of the financial and operating aspects of 30 oil companies comprising a major sample of the American petroleum industry. This review supplements a previous paper entitled "Capital Flow and Capital Formation in the Petroleum Industry, 1934-1941,"a and deals not only with a longer period but also gives new and more revealing analyses of the capital movements and characteristics. The data are gathered from published financial statements of the companies, especially the annual reports to stockholders and Form 10-K to the Securities and Exchange Commission, supplemented by confidential information. The 30 oil companies covered by this study are listed on the leading stock exchanges and for the purpose of analysis are grouped as follows: 9 companiesb engaged principally in crude production, 4 companiesc with production averaging in excess of refinery requirements, and 17 companiesd with refinery throughput in excess of crude production. These samples are sufficiently broad and representative to constitute norms against which individual company performances may be profitably compared. The 30 companies in 1942 produced 54 per cent of the Nation's total output of crude oil and refined 79 per cent of the country's crude run to stills. The financial data apply predominantly to the domestic oil business, although 15 of the companies have investments and operate facilities in foreign countries. The net value of these foreign holdings amounted to 724 million dollars, or 12 per cent, of the combined net assets of the 30 oil companies at December 31, 1942.

Jan 1, 1944

By Edgar C. Bain

In studying the structural characteristics of martensite it is desirable that a clear conception of the material from which martensite is produced should first be obtained. Any theory of its formation and structure incompatible with the facts of its parent substance, austenite, can be eliminated with little consideration. Austenite is the name applied to solid solutions of carbon and other elements in gamma iron. At temperatures above about 900" C. (1650" F.), pure iron exists in a system of crystallinity1 entirely different from the crystal structure below that temperature. This high-temperature allotrope of iron is of an atomic structure associated with great ductility, having very manifold symmetry and an abundance of easy slip planes. The exceptionally ductile and malleable metals (gold, silver, platinum, copper, aluminum, and nickel) have this same atomic arrangement— the face-centered cubic. The low-temperature allotrope of iron, alpha iron, the solid solutions of which are known as ferrite, has a body-centered cubic arrangement of atoms. Like it, in crystal structure, are the less ductile and malleable metals, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium and chromium. Fig. 1 shows the two atomic arrangements known in iron; the diagrams are drawn to scale. Either of these modifications of iron may dissolve other elements in the solid state; by so doing, the temperature of the transformation is changed. In general 2-7, it appears that a solid solvent metal dissolves a metal solute by substituting foreign atoms in its own space lattice. Thus, iron may dissolve nickel in either of its crystalline forms by permitting an atom of nickel here and there to occupy the normal position

Jan 1, 1924

By Edgar C. Bain

In studying the structural characteristics of martensite it is desirable that a clear conception of the material from which martensite is produced should first be obtained. Any theory of its formation and structure incompatible with the facts of its parent substance, austenite, can be eliminated with little consideration. Austenite is the name applied to solid solutions of carbon and other elements in gamma iron. At temperatures above about 900" C. (1650" F.), pure iron exists in a system of crystallinity1 entirely different from the crystal structure below that temperature. This high-temperature allotrope of iron is of an atomic structure associated with great ductility, having very manifold symmetry and an abundance of easy slip planes. The exceptionally ductile and malleable metals (gold, silver, platinum, copper, aluminum, and nickel) have this same atomic arrangement— the face-centered cubic. The low-temperature allotrope of iron, alpha iron, the solid solutions of which are known as ferrite, has a body-centered cubic arrangement of atoms. Like it, in crystal structure, are the less ductile and malleable metals, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium and chromium. Fig. 1 shows the two atomic arrangements known in iron; the diagrams are drawn to scale. Either of these modifications of iron may dissolve other elements in the solid state; by so doing, the temperature of the transformation is changed. In general 2-7, it appears that a solid solvent metal dissolves a metal solute by substituting foreign atoms in its own space lattice. Thus, iron may dissolve nickel in either of its crystalline forms by permitting an atom of nickel here and there to occupy the normal position

Jan 1, 1924

By J. O. Lewis

Oil wells usually reach their maximum daily output shortly after they are completed. From that time they decline in-production, the rapidity of decline depending on the output of the wells and on other' factors governing their productivity. The production curve of a well shows the mount of oil produced per unit of time for several consecutive periods; if the conditions affecting the rate of production are not changed by outside influences, the curve will be fairly regular, and, if projected, mill furnish useful knowledge as to the future production of the well. By the aid of this knowledge the value of a property may he judged, and proper depletion and depreciation charges may be made on the books of the

Jan 2, 1918

"The power development at these falls, three miles below the city of Great Falls, was made in 1891 by the original Great Falls Water Power & Townsite Company, and the Boston & Montana Consolidated Copper & Silver Mining company, the predecessor of the Boston & Montana Reduction Department mentioned above.The dam is 746 feet long, placed a short distance above the crest of the falls, and giving an effective head, as now constructed, of from 42 to 44 feet. There are power houses on both banks, those on the south bank belong to the Great Falls Power company, the successor of the Great Falls \!\Tater Power & Townsite Company, and the Great Falls Electric properties. The water is led from the dam to these power houses through sheet iron pen-stocks the water wheels are of the horizontal turbine type, and of various sizes.The water is here carried from the dam to the power houses by an open canal or headrace, the walls of which are concrete. This headrace is 100 feet wide at the widest point. The available head was originally less than 40 feet, but this was increased to about 44 feet by means of flashboards and tailrace wall, seperating the tailrace from the main river and delivering the water to the river at a considerable distance below the power house, thus taking advantage of a considerable fall in the river below the sheer fall at Black Eagle.A total of about 12,000 horse power 1s developed at these falls, the Great Falls Power Company, and Great Falls Electric properties developing about 2,000 horse power, and the Anaconda Copper Mining Company developing the balance."

Jan 1, 1913

By Ernest Gayford

This is a nontechnical paper on flotation, subdivided under three general headings: (I) Definition of flotation; (2) what flotation is now doing in Utah; and (3) what is the future of flotation? Definition T. A. Rickard defines flotation' as "the act or state of floating," from the French flottaison, water-line and flotter, to float. The dictionary defines flotation as "the science of floating bodies." The flotation process is a method of concentrating ores by frothing. Weinig and Palmer,2 define flotation as follows: What is the flotation process? Briefly, it consists in the agitation of finely divided ore in water containing bubbles of air or gas, a small amount of oil and, usually, other reagents, soluble and insoluble; under these conditions the small particles of native metals, sulfides, arsenides, antimonides, selenides and tellurides show a tendency to attach themselves to the films of the bubbles, and are thus carried to the surface of the water. The oxidized gangue minerals, such as quartz, feldspar, limestone, hematite, etc., show much less affinity for the bubbles, are easily wetted by the water, and either remain in suspension in the water, or sink to the bottom of the vessel. If the bubbles are sufficiently stable they can be removed, carrying their load of sulfide-mineral particles with them. Thus there can be effected a separation of the two classes of minerals from each other, assuming that the grinding has been sufficient to unlock all of the particles of different composition. The separation does not depend upon differences in specific gravity of the various minerals; in fact, the sulfides are usually heavier than the oxides, and some of the heaviest sulfide minerals are the easiest to float. A particle of mineral may be so large, however, that its weight will counteract its affinity for the film of the bubble. In most cases the ore must be fine enough to pass a screen having at least 48 meshes to the linear inch. Taggart3 defines flotation as follows: Flotation is a method of wet concentration of ores in which separation of mineral from gangue is effected by causing the mineral to float at or above the surface of a body of liquid pulp while the gangue becomes or remains submerged. The method

Jan 1, 1928

By S. S. Marsden, S. A. Khan

Externally generated foam was injected continuously into short porous media. Both flow rate and pressure drop were measured. Liquid saturation was determined by electrical conductivity. Foam yuality I, expressed as the ratio of gas volume to total volume, was varied from 0.70 to 0.96. As measured with a modified fann VG Meter, apparent viscosity of this foam µa decreases with increasing shear rate but usually falls within the range of 50 to 500 cp. At a given shear rate, µa increases almost linearly with I-. When measured with a Bendix Ultraviscoson, kinematic pa is independent of V but absolute pa increases with T from about 3 to 8 cp. The effective permeability -apparent viscosity ratio ke/µa decreases almost linearly with V for porous media of high permeability, but the rate of decrease becomes less for tighter ones. The relative permeability-apparent viscosity ratio kr/µa us V data does not fall on a single line. The kr/µa ratio increases with liquid saturation in the porous medium and with surfactant concentration. Estimates of pa for foam in porous media vary from 30 to 100 cp. INTRODUCTION Although research on the development of a foam-drive, oil recovery process has been going on for almost a decade, most of the significant publications have appeared within the last several years. This illustrates well the rate at which interest in this process is accelerating. Bond and Holbrook 1 were the first to describe the use of foam to improve oil recovery in their patent of 1958. They proposed that an aqueous foaming agent slug be injected into the formation and that this be followed by gas to produce a foam in situ. Fried 2 studied the injection of foam into porous media which had already been subjected to conventional gas or water drives and found that gas could be used to drive a foam bank which would, in turn, displace additional oil in the form of an oil bank. He attributed the increased oil recovery to the high effective viscosity of foam flowing in porous media. His microscopic observations showed the importance of foam generation and regeneration within the porous medium. By injecting both air and aqueous surfactant solution, Bernard3 generated foams within the porous medium in which oil displacement was being studied. In a separate empirical test, he also measured the dynamic foaming characteristics of the same surfactants in water and/or oil. With some exceptions and for the seyen surfactants studied, there seems to be a qualitative relationship between the efficiency of liquid rlisplacrment and the dynamic foaming testtsed. This relationship was not consistent enough to eliminate the necessity of actual foam flood tests in porous media for surfactant selection. In a study basic to gas storage in aquifers, Bennett4 described the displacement of brine by foam in consolidated porous media. Among other things, he stated that the ability of a surfactant solution to foam is more important than the stability of its foam. The presence of a foam bank between the displacing air and the displaced brine improved both breakthrough and ultimate recovery. In a continuation of this work Kolb5 attributed the great reduction in surfactant solution production rate as displacement by air progressed to a decrease in relative permeability to gas. These several effects reported by both Bennett and Kolb can all be attributed to the high apparent viscosity of foam which was obviously flowing in the porous media. Bernard and Holm6 observed that gas permeability in the presence of foam was much less than in the absence of foam when both were measured at the same gas saturations. This reduction in permeability was proportionately greater for more permeable sands and sandstones than for the less permeable. Viscosities of the surfactant solution and air were used for their calculations rather than apparent foam viscosities. The foam stability increased with decreasing permeability, which was probably due to the natural regenerative properties of porous media, and the permeability reduction increased

Jan 1, 1967

By Samuel Thomas

The specimen of anthracite coal which I hold in my hand, insignificant as it may appear to the casual observer, speaks volumes to me and to the initiated, as it suggests and represents the entire evolution of the use of anthracite coal in the manufacture of pig-iron, the growth and development of which it is my purpose to review here to-day. During our recent visit to the Mountain Copper Co.'s works at Keswiek, I picked up this piece of coal from a pile of anthracite lying in the yard, asked Mr. Edwards, the manager, a countryman of mine, where it came from, and, to my surprise and delight, discovered that it had been brought all the way from Wales, and had come out of the identical vein which my father opened near Yniscedwin, about eighty years ago. I had no idea, before this incident, of contributing to the already full and complete programme of the day; but, being requested by our distinguished President and Secretary to do so, I consented to relate here the story which this remarkable find naturally brought back to my mind.

Jan 1, 1900

By J. R. Finlay

Every business man who has reached the age of forty, or perhaps even thirty, must know from his own experience that there are occasional periods of "good times'' and others of "bad times "-booms and panics. Those who give to business some complexion of science have invented a semiscientific name for these alternations-the business cycle-indicating that it is a normal phenomenon which by its own nature repeats itself. The longer one lives and the more one enlarges his own experience by the study of history, the more of these cycles he knows and the more disposed he becomes to take their recurrence for granted. If these alternations can be put into the category of common- places, why not treat them as such? We are in a sharp depression right now, why worry about it? Is there not a certain average value for business that can be depended upon in spite of depressions? By way of rejoinder one might answer that war is the great commonplace of history, but when we get into one we generally find it worthy of attention. In the present case, many a man has lost two-thirds of his income, and he is extremely nervous about finding it again. The Southern Pacific Railroad earnings have dropped 75 per cent in the past year; Pennsylvania, 60 per cent; United States Steel Corp., about the same. The drop in current earnings is

Jan 1, 1932

By Stewart Murray, Philip Klapwijk

INTRODUCTION Forecasting commodity markets is like predicting winners in a horse race: to get the answers right, one needs both luck and judgement. Commodity analysts bear some resemblance to racing tipsters as they try to convince interested parties that they have an inside track on which metal is going to win the great minerals race of the 1990s. Commodity analysts share some features with the gentlemen of the turf: • They influence other people in how to spend risk capital, • They don't put their own money at risk, and • If their tips consistently fail to deliver, then they end up looking elsewhere for employment. In order to find winners we need to know about the kind of race we are in and the strengths and weaknesses of all the runners. Miners are not interested in a five furlong sprint: their race is a long distance affair -- after all, the lead-times between discovery and start-up generally approach a decade for mines that will provide the staying power which leaders require in this industry. We need to look at the environment in which our commodities will be competing: in racing parlance, the going. Our equivalent is the economic background: just as some horses are at a relative advantage when the going is soft, so some commodities will do better than others if economic growth is sluggish. If we are going to pick the winners for the late 1990s, and as an industry, make the right investment decisions, nothing is more important than being able to forecast (with at least a semblance of accuracy) how and where the world's economy is going to develop in the next decade. In addressing the question of whether minerals are going to be leaders in the 1990s, this paper considers the idea that it will increasingly be the world outside the industrialised OECD that will provide the incremental growth in demand for mineral products. Economic growth in the Developing World is fundamentally different from that in the OECD, and the pattern of demand for materials in relation to economic output is much more favourable than in the OECD. If we are to forecast the future, we need to be able to understand the past, both in the boom times of the so called Golden Sixties and in the lean years that followed them. This should help us to decide whether the future is going to be like one or other of these extremes or, on the other hand, a return to normality. Having forecast the going, we can look at individual competitors. • Which are best placed to take advantage of the economic, social and industrial trends that we can now dimly foresee? • Which can resist the continued onslaught of the new materials and technologies? • Which of them will best weather the economic storms (assuming that recessions have not yet been abolished)? If we can provide answers to these questions, we will be well on our way to picking winners, i.e., the metals and minerals that will reward their owners with growing demand, steady (and high) prices leading to profits beyond the dreams of avarice.

Jan 1, 1990