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By Mark L. Requa

(San Francisco fleeting, October, 1911.) DURING the past two years California has developed a new and important oil-field : I refer to Midway. This field produced the famous Lake View gusher, which is credited with a total production in excess of 8,000,000 barrels. Fortunately for the oil industry of the State, this well is now a thing of the past, and nothing save a great crater-like opening marks its location. The pipe is entirely worn away and gone ; and it is a matter of serious doubt if there can be anything done that will cause the well to produce again. Fortunately, also, there have been no, other wells in that field or elsewhere throughout the State that in any way compared with the Lake View. Midway is noted for large wells, of from 500 to 2,000 barrels production; but the decline is rapid, and a few months serve to bring the output down to a few hundred barrels. In the oil-territory heretofore blocked out as proved and probable, there have been, during the year, many changes. Some areas which were expected to be fairly productive have apparently failed; others, more strictly "wild-cat," have come in; while in some of the older fields there are properties which are beginning to show evident signs of exhaustion. The total area of proved territory will therefore probably suffer but small increase, when balances are struck off. The increase of new area has come from extensions of the Midway field, the development of a field in Lost Hills and Belridge, and extensions of the Fullerton-Whittier field in southern California. In these later developments, down to date, the fresh area absolutely proved is not much in excess of 3,000 acres. Recent developments in Coalinga indicate the possible extension of that field to the south, but at great depth. Coalinga is still the most northerly field of any consequence in the State. The Kettleman Hills have hitherto brought in nothing, although a

Apr 1, 1912

By E. D. Gardner

FIFTY years ago the Utah Copper enterprise at Bingham was just getting under way. An epic in metal mining was in the making. Throughout the West the bonanza deposits were approaching exhaustion and most ore still went direct to smelter. But concentrators were shortly to be constructed for treating milling grade ores, and most important, the pilot plant for the Utah Copper enterprise was being built that year at the mouth of Bingham Canyon. The same decade was to see development at the Inspiration mine in Arizona of the most important new mining method for 50 years to come—undercut block caving. Although the average grade of ore being mined has been declining for 50 years, and wage rates and prices of supplies have been greatly increased, the mining industry has continued to grow and to prosper. Technology has advanced to a point where minerals can be mined under the most severe conditions. The hardest rock can be drilled and broken and the heaviest ground handled. Large or small, an ore-body can be mined successfully, at any desired rate of production. It is possible to pump great volumes of water and to ventilate the most extensive workings; air conditioning has made practicable the mining of ore where the rock temperatures are beyond those that can be borne by man. Mining today in the U. S. is a huge earth-moving operation. In 1953 nearly 2 billion tons of material were mined for direct use or for processing. Stripping at open-cut mines totaled about 1.7 billion cu yd. Table I gives relative tonnages of the branches of the mineral industry in 1953. In addition to the solid materials moved, 350 million tons of petroleum and 340,000 tons of gas were produced in 1953. Fifteen million tons of salt and 5 million tons of liquid sulphur were pumped from wells. An appreciable amount of copper was recovered by leaching old mine workings and dumps. Total value of minerals produced in 1953 was $14.4 billion: oil and gas $7.6 billion, coal $2.6 billion, nonmetallics $2.4 billion, and metals $1.8 billion. Formidable problems face some branches of the industry today, especially pertaining to increased output tons per manshift. The time has come when these problems should be reappraised. With current wage rates, the industry no longer can afford to pay men to do manual labor. It should be recognized, also, that the miner is a skilled worker; efforts to promote the dignity of his calling and his pride of accomplishment have yielded beneficial results. Mineral deposits occur under widely varying conditions. In most instances the degree of support needed by the roof and walls is the deciding factor in selection of an underground mining method. The degree of support needed, in turn, is governed by natural physical characteristics of the ore and its enclosing rocks. Mine operators, of course, learn to judge ground by observation, and an experienced mine boss generally can anticipate what will happen following any given mining operation. A more scientific approach, however, would be advantageous in most cases. More should be known about the strength of the ore and the enclosing rocks, more about stresses set up in the ground when ore is removed, and more about the mechanics of moving ground. Better understanding would work both ways: first, favorable rock conditions could be fully utilized for more efficient mining, and second, hazards of rock falls could be minimized, loss of ore in mining reduced, and expenses caused by ground pressures and subsidence lowered. In general, mining comprises breaking the ore or rock in place, supporting the mine workings, and transporting the ore to the surface. This latter is a materials handling problem. Ventilation, of course, must be provided, and the mines must be kept free of water. Development work at some places is the most important cost item in extracting ore. Drilling and blasting remain the usual practice for breaking ore or rock from place except, of course, at block-caving mines. The drilling and blasting practice at a mine must fit the mining method. In laying out mining procedures attention is being given to

Jan 1, 1956

By J. P. Smith

Permian salt measures carry extensive lenses of soluble potash salts in north central Germany. Potash deposits of Oligocene age are found in the Upper Rhine Graben of Alsace (France), and in the Catalonian Basin of Spain. These deposits are found in a wide range of structural settings. Reserves are large, and the production of potash salts is an important phase in the economy of each of these countries.

Jan 1, 1950

By Edward Keller

Jan 1, 1906

By H. V. Flagg

OPERATION of a modern steel plant presents a curious anomaly. Large-scale operations, in which large volumes or heavy weights of materials are involved, are not usually subject to close control or narrow specifications. On the other hand, operations that call for a high degree of precision are usually carried out under carefully controlled conditions with delicate, precise machinery and tools, and production is made secondary to quality. In a modern steel mill both extremes are taken as a matter of course. A strip mill making auto-body sheets must supply its customers with sheets that all come within a tolerance of plus or minus 0.003 in. in gauge at any point from side to side or end to end, and without blemishes either of color or surface. Sheets that were considered par excellence as recently as ten years ago could not even find a market today. Such exacting requirements have made necessary a nicety of control that approaches the watchmaker's art. Notwithstanding this necessity for precision, the scale of operation is stupendous.

Jan 1, 1940

By John B. Hastings

THE occurrence of such a large amount of gold in the Hartsel granite, even though the surmised existence of similar areas is not new, brings freshly to mind the pegmatite type of magmatic differentiation lately brought again to attention by occurrences at Silver Peak, Nev., described by Spurr; and in Alaska, described by both Spurr and Brooks. In both localities graunitic rocks or dikes are thought to pass into metalliferous quartz-veins. An interesting association in this connection is the occurrence of diamonds in residual pegmatitic clay of San Juao de Chapado, Brazil, described by Derby :1 (P. 142) "Bodies of pegmatite are quite common in the older rocks of Brazil, both in the. diamond regions and elsewhere, occurring not only in the gneiss and granite, but in the schistose series as well. Those that have been examined are dike-like in their mode of occurrence and granitic in composition." (P. 143) "The question of the eruptive or secretionary origin of pegmatites has long been a subject of discussion among geologists. . . . The recent studies . . . seem to have clearly established that most if not all of them are essentially eruptive masses, though possibly modified in some way by aqueous agencies. Even before becoming acquainted with the literature of the subject this view had seemed to me to be the only acceptable one as regards the typical pegmatites of Brazil." What is pegmatite ? J. F. Kemp says ". . . veins or dikes-it is an open question which is the more correct term-are met formed of very coarsely crystalline aggregates of the same minerals that constitute granite. These are called pegmatite and in them is the home of graphic granite, the curious intergrowth of quartz and feldspar, such that a cross fracture of the blades of quartz suggests cuneiform characters. . . . In regard to the larger veins or dikes it seems improbable that true igneous fusion could have afforded such coarsely crystalline aggregates, and so we are forced to assume such abundance of steam and other vapors, i.e, mineralizers, as to almost, if not quite, imply solution."

Jan 5, 1908

By J. G. Savins

Certain types of macromolecules added to water and salt solutions flowing in turbulent motion can reduce the pressure gradient. Alternatively, the volumetric capacity of a pipe for these fluids is increased by the presence of these materials. Examples presented show that the drag reduction can become significant. Thus, the presence of 0.28 per cent of a gum derivative in a solution of sodium chloride flowing at 200 gal/min in a 1.89-in. pipe yields a pressure drop which is 0.44 of the single-phase drop measured under the same conditions of turbulent flow; the addition of 0.1 per cent of a vinyl derivative to a I-in. water line yields a throughput capacity which is 1.78 of the single-phase capacity at the same pressure drop. It is further shown that these phenomena are distinctly different from previous observations with other classes of non-Newtonian systems. There a simple lowering of friction factors below the levels predicted from the resistance laws for Newtonian fluids is associated with a suppression of turbulent motion. A rational physical explanation for drag reduction is advanced. Briefly, the proposed mechanism is a storage by the molecular elastic elements of the macromolecules in solution of the kinetic energy of the turbulent motion. INTRODUCTION This study was inspired by a recent review of some paradoxical drag reduction phenomena in turbulent pipe f1ow.I Under very moderate conditions of turbulent flow, the pressure gradient necessary to pump solutions containing certain specific kinds of polymers, fibers and metallic soaps may become appreciably lower than that required* to pump the solvent, i.e., water or a low-viscosity hydrocarbon, under identical flow rates in the same conduit. As shown by our review, this phenomenon of drag reduction in turbulent duct flow was first noted during the second world war, apparently arising in connection with the development of flame warfare weapons. Since that time several papers illustrating this phenomenon have appeared: Toms, Oldroyd,3 Agoston et al., Bundrant and Matthews, Robertson and Mason,6 Ousterhout and Hall,7 Daily and Bugliarello~ Lummus, Anderson, and Fox. 9 That there are practical applications for techniques which increase discharge or decrease the pressure necessary to transport a liquid through a pipeline is illustrated in the patents which have issued which take advantage of this peculiar phenomenon, e.g., Mysels,l0 Dever, Harbour, and Seifert.11 One also finds fragmentary evidence of this effect in the data pertaining to a few of the polymeric solutions studied by Shaver12 and Dodge.13 However, these investigators were concerned with the development of friction factor vs Reynolds number correlations for a variety of non-Newtonian solutions and suspensions, rather than in a study of drag reduction-. A similar kind of drag reduction effect has been observed in gases. Sproull, for example, reports that adding dust to air flowing in turbulent motion through a pipe results in a lowering of the pressure gradient at identical flow rates. There are also military applications for reducing the drag on hydrodynamic vehicles. For example, the possibility of injecting a rheologically complex fluid into the boundary layers of bodies to reduce the skin friction has been investigated by Fabulal5 and Granville.16 Along somewhat different lines are the drag reduction studies of Kramer.17118 He has shown that skin friction can be reduced by covering the surface of a vehicle with a flexible skin. The effect is apparently due to the boundary layer being stabilized by the presence of the skin. Drag reduction by means of coexisting gas and liquid boundary layers, e.g., film boiling and continuous gas injection, has been proposed by Bradfield, Barkdoll, and Byrne,19 Cess and Sparrow,20'21 Sparrow, Jonsson, and Eckert.22 Here the skin friction occurs between a vapor and a surface rather than between a liquid and a surface. There are several references in the literature to friction-factor correlations for non-Newtonian solutions and suspensions: Shaver and Merri11,23 Dodge and Metzner, Clapp,25 and Thomas.26

Jan 1, 1965

By AIME AIME

Gentlemen, we have ten questions on our list and a number of us here probably have other questions to ask. Therefore, we arc going to allocate the time to these different questions so that we will try to be finished by 4:30; from then until 5 o'clock, if any of you have any questions on subjects not related, you will be free to ask them. Mr. Morton and I have changed the order of the questions. Instead of what is now first, we have put No. 3 first, progress on basic-roof construction, inasmuch as we feel that it is quite important. At this time, H. S. Robertson, of Harbison-Walker, is going to give you a short talk, with slides, on what has been done to date on this subject.

Jan 1, 1940

By Joseph A. Holmes

The public is already familiar with the general fact that the scope and the financial resources of the approaching St. Louis World's Fair are much larger than those of any of the preceding great expositions; and both the visitor and the exhibitor, when he comes to St. Louis in 1904, will find it to be a real World's Pair, with exhibits and visitors from every known country. Passing over the subject, as to the general Exposition, with this brief statement, I ask Sour attention to the consideration of a few important facts connected with the proposed mining exhibits at this Exposition. First of all, I may say that. reading- and writing-rooms and library facilities will be furnished in the Mines Building for miners and mining engineers, and it is expected that when they visit the Exposition they will make these rooms their headquarters, and give the Chief of the Department and his assistants an opportunity to extend to them such courtesies as may be possible. One of the exhibits in the Mines Department will consist of models and maps arranged to show the nature and extent of the mining operations in the United States at the time of the purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803, the event which

Jan 1, 1903

By R. A., Pallanch

THOUGH the flotation of gold ores has come into the lime- light largely in recent years, it is not a product of recent economic conditions but rather as old as flotation itself. It could hardly be other- wise, since gold, when in the right state of comminution and surface condition, is one of the more readily floated of minerals. In early practice it was not generally recognized that gold was floated as well; it was - thought that the gold was bound up with sulphide minerals that floated, but now we know that free gold must have been floated as well.

Jan 1, 1935

By John Lohrenz

Consider an investor who, knowing future costs and revenues, can choose how rapidly to produce from a given mineral source. If the investor elects to make that choice to maximize present value of future profits, how do policies affect the choice? Various alternative policies are examined. Some, such as higher royalty rates, lead to slower production rates than would otherwise obtain. Clearly, the chosen rates of production are policy-dependent. One is wisely counseled to consider how mineral policies affect the rate of production from given sources when analyzing current and alternative policies.

Jan 1, 1982

By W. F. Wheeler

IN the study of the coals of Illinois now being carried on by the State Geological Survey, an attempt is being made to determine the most satisfactory basis of comparison between different coals. The following discussion is based upon work done for the survey in the laboratories of the State University and under the general direction of Prof. S. W. Parr. " Pure coal " has been defined by Mr. A. Bement1 as ash- and moisture-free coal, and the use of this " pure coal " as a basis for comparing different bituminous coals has lately been much discussed among engineers in the middle West. By some the B.t.u. of the pure coal is being used to check calorimetric results, and to calculate the calorific value of different coal-samples from the same seam, for which purposes it is necessary to assume-first, that the composition and calorific value of pure coal from different parts of the same coal-seam are uniform, and, second, that these values remain constant after the coal is mined, both of which assumptions there are reasons to believe are inconsistent with the facts. Certain variables are included in pure coal, as ordinarily defined, and disregard of them may lead to serious error. In any event, where delicate shades of difference are involved, no sure interpretation of results can be made, unless these variables be eliminated. As a basis of comparison between coals, ash- and moisture-free coal is much to be preferred to " dry coal," and still more is it to be preferred to " moist coal," as ordinarily reported in analyses. There are, however, two constituents other than ash and moisture which are similar in effect to them, and which

Jan 1, 1908

By AIME AIME

T HE Mining Methods Committee held its initial meeting* on Tuesday afternoon, with F. W. Bradley in the chair and W. Y. Westervelt as vice- chairman. The first paper to be presented was "A Plea for a U. S. Court of Patent Appeals," for which Kenneth W. Greenawalt ably pleaded. The paper (which was published in full in last month's issue) is so carefully prepared that no synopsis can do it justice. It discusses the opposed views of some patent lawyers and other lawyers and members of the judiciary as, for example, Chief Justice Taft who is quoted as saying in 1921: "I think it is a great deal better to take a first class lawyer and a first-class judge and make him a good patent expert than it is to take a patent expert and try to make him a first-class lawyer and a good judge." Mr. Greenawalt argued the need for specialized scientific and engineering interest and understanding to enable a lawyer or judge to prepare or interpret patent specifications and decide the originality necessary for a valid invention. He proposed the special U. S. Court of Patent Appeals to also counteract the costly confusion and injustice now ruling where a patent may be declared valid in the courts of certain States and invalid by the courts of other States.

Jan 1, 1930

By Robert D. Longyear

IN MOST diamond core drilling the primary objective is the recovery of samples to be used for chemical analysis, physical tests, or visual inspection. Unless these samples are reliable and the information systematically recorded, the time and money spent in securing them are largely wasted. A properly taken diamond-drill sample is similar to a properly moiled channel sample but more accurate. No channel sample can be moiled in as even a groove as the smooth cylinder of material normally removed in diamond drilling. More important still, sampling by the diamond drill practically eliminates that personal equation which Jora1emon4 reference numbers apply to publications listed in the bibliography at the end of this article) has aptly termed "the almost magnetic attraction of the most conscientious hand toward rich pieces of ore."

Jan 1, 1937

By J. V. Vogel

Jan 1, 1969

By J. J. Beeson

For the past fifty years or more, the structural features of the Cordil-leran mountain system of western United States have presented some most interesting problems. Any geologist or engineer living in this region, or even making occasional examinations of the mines, will lose much of interest and importance if he is not familiar with the literature. Some of the greatest works on geology have been the result of studies carried on in sections of this region. Among the more important of the earlier works are those of Dutton,l King,2 Gilbert3 and Powell;4 of the more recent Lindgren,5 Ransome,6 Spurr,7 Butler8 and others have contributed much. Many of the papers are largely of scientific interest but even these lay the foundation for the commercial application of the broader features of the geology. I have read many of these works with the keenest interest and pleasure; in fact, some have been read until some of the more important findings seem to be my own. In this paper, however, it is my aim to accept credit for little more than the labor of assembling some of the ideas of others. This is done with the hope that an interesting and valuable discussion will be the result. If some of the ideas presented should

Jan 1, 1927

By Charles H. Fulton

(Cleveland Meeting, October, 1912.) I. INTRODUCTION. THERE are comparatively few accurate data on the melting-or the freezing-point temperature of metallurgical slays, or on related physical phenomena, such as fluidity near the melting-point, specific heat, latent heat, etc. With the exception of the work of H. 0. Hoffman,1 and some older work by R. Akerman, P. Gredt, and H. M. Howe, no information is available that is of direct interest to the metallurgist. Hofman's valuable work is the only one that refers to slags produced in the metallurgy of copper and lead. The classic work of J. H. L. Vogt,2 who views slays from the standpoint of physical mixtures (solutions in which the entities are minerals), has opened up a. new field in the study of slags, and has placed the investigation of such properties as melting-temperatures, etc., on a rational basis. The recent work of A. L. Day, E. T. Allen, and W. P. White, of the Carnegie Institution, at Washington, and of European investigators 3 on certain systems of silicate minerals confirms the value of the investigation of silicate series from this standpoint, and it is my aim to apply this method to metallurgical slaws, in order to gain exact data of value in metallurgy. The work recorded in the present paper is the result of an investigation of reverberatory-furnace slags made for a Western smelting company to determine exactly the influence of change in composition, within comparatively narrow limits, on the melting-point. For a general discussion concerning the mineralogical character of slaws and the principles on which this investigation is based, reference should be made to other work,4 for the subject is too large to be stated in this paper, except very briefly in the following outline 1 Trans., xxix., 682 (1899). 2 Die Silikatschmelzlösungen; I. Ueber die Mineralbildung in Silikatschmelzlösungen; II Ueber die Schmelzpunkt-Erniedrigung der Silikatschmelzlösungen (Christiania, 1903-04). 3 Doelter, Handbuch der Mlineralehevu:e (1911) 4 C. H. Fulton, Principles (of Metallurgy. Chapter viii., on Slags, p. 24.5 (1910).

Dec 1, 1912

By Bieniawski, Z. T.

The importance of understanding the phenomena associated with rock fracture has long been fully appreciated in rock mechanics. This is clearly apparent from the special attention paid to rock fracture in the comprehensive papers published within the past four years. These papers present a picture of how the knowledge of brittle fracture of rock was gradually enriched and also show that what was often taken for granted three or four years ago is no longer considered as valid today.

Jan 1, 1972

By Henry Newton

It may seem somewhat a work of supererogation to present to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, composed largely of gentlemen with whom the subject is so familiar, a paper on iron ores and their distribution. To many of them, however, it possibly will not be without interest, as there may be some, like myself, who hare nowhere found a connected account of the character of the deposits and the circumstances upon which are founded the great iron-producing centres of the world. This blank I have endeavored to fill,

By Henry Newton

IT may seem somewhat a work of supererogation to present to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, composed largely of gentle- men with whom the subject is so familiar, a paper on iron ores and their distribution. To many of them, however, it possibly will not be without interest, as there may be some, like myself, who hare nowhere found a connected account of the character of the deposits and the circumstances upon which are founded the great iron-producing centres of the world. This blank I have endeavored to fill,

Jan 1, 1875