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By D. Harrington

FROM 1870 to date, the coal production of Utah has been somewhat less than 85,000,000 tons. There have been at least three major disasters with total fatalities about 380; or approximately. 4.4 persons killed by mine explosions per million tons produced, a record that is decidedly bad. Even during the periods when there have been no disasters, such as the years 1914 to 1920, inclusive, the fatalities .in ordinary working ran about 5.4 per million tons produced, against 3.7 per, million tons. for the whole United States for the same years. The five-year period following the war, 1918 to 1922 inclusive, showed 4.7 fatalities per million tons, hence the fatality record in the coal mines of Utah has uniformly been in excess of the average of the coal mines of the entire country. Notwithstanding this poor record, Utah has given to the coal-mining world many excellent safety methods and practices and the Utah. coal mines in general take greater measures toward safe mining than do the coal mines of any other State; if practices and methods allowed and pursued in coal mines of other States were tried in Utah coal mines, there would be a succession of disasters. Utah's principal producing coal mines, operated by about eighteen companies and numbering less than forty, have comparatively thick seams. Very little coal under 5 ft. thick is being worked and practically none under 4 ft.; much, if not most, of the coal comes from seams in excess of 8 ft., some running as high as 30 ft. In thick seams in which coal is left on floor and roof, any dust found or made is entirely combustible. In addition, the thick seams induce the use of large capacity cars, handling which in rooms and other workings on fairly heavy grades (up to 10 or .12 per cent.) tends to cause haulage accidents. The thick seams give high ribs and roof, in which it is difficult to prevent slabs of coal or rock from dropping on workers and also difficult to keep free of gas and of coal dust. The coal is high volatile, running usually over 40 per cent and in some instances nearly to 50 per cent; hence is highly flammable. Most of the coals have very high resin content, the resin usually being in dust form, hence almost as highly flammable as black powder. At .least one-third of the mines give off methane and several give off other

Jan 8, 1925

By James J. Scott, John J. Reed

In a year fraught with difficulties, especially to small operators, the more stable mining organizations have shown a dynamic readiness to plunge ahead in the development of new mines, new and ingenious equipment and new tools for management to take the guesswork out of important decisions. New Mining Equipment The mining equipment display at the American Mining Congress in San Francisco demonstrated some rather radical new design concepts and a new willingness to use imagination to come up with ingenious new applications and adaptations of standard equipment.

Jan 2, 1963

By Joseph Sinclair

THE Republic of Ecuador is situated partly in the northern and partly in the southern hemisphere. The equatorial line passes about 11 miles north of Quito, and. divides the country into two almost equal parts. Crossing the equator almost at right angles, and extending from Colombia into Peru, the Andes form a great upland that, in cross-section, resembles a truncated cone, the top of which is about 40 miles wide and about 10,000 ft. above the sea, while the base is about 80 miles wide extending from sea level, on the Pacific Coast, to the Amazon Plain, on the east. Superimposed on this upland are many active and extinct volcanoes, which form roughly two parallel chains of mountains, on the eastern and western boundaries, respectively, of the plateau. These are often referred to as the Eastern and Western Cordilleras of the Andes, although their parallelism is somewhat. questionable. The highest of these mountain, masses is Chimborazo, about 21,000 ft., above the sea; among the others is the volcanic peak, Cotopaxi, rising to about 18,000 ft. above the sea. The development of the petroleum resources of Ecuador is greatly affected by this Andean mass, not only .because of its composition and geological structure but because of the barrier it interposes between the lowlands on the Pacific side and whatever part of the Amazon Plain to the east is finally found to belong to Ecuador, for the eastern boundary of the Republic is still in dispute with Peru. To understand, therefore, the development of the petroleum reources of the Ecuador and the barriers to such development, we must bear in mind the three great physio-graphic divisions, viz., the Pacific Coastal region on the west, the Andean Plateau in the center, and the Amazon Plain on the east. The first important effect of the threefold physiographic division is that Ecuador has two sets of petroleum regulations: one for. that portion east of the Andes, and one for the Andean Plateau and the Pacific Coastal region although it is probable that the two sets of regulations are, in part, 'due to the boundary dispute with Peru.

Jan 3, 1924

By Dwight M. Lemmon

Encouraged by increased demand and higher prices for such metals as copper, lead, zinc, silver and tin, search was pressed in 1964 for mineral raw materials, especially in parts of the world that are relatively more stable politically and economically. New discoveries of metallic ores continued to be made, discoveries based on extensive geologic and geophysical work but nonetheless made in part because of good fortune.

Jan 2, 1965

By George J. Young

The recurrence of mine-fires in Nevada during the past decade is not only a matter of interest, but also one of considerable concern to engineers and mine-managers. The more important fires may be enumerated as follows: Forman Shaft fire, Gold Hill, April 21, 1903; shaft-house, machinery, and shaft destroyed; loss estimated at $50,000; cause unknown. Union Shaft fire, Virginia City, July 14, 1904; shaft-house, machinery,and shaft in part destroyed; loss estimated at $100,-000; cause of fire stated as the careless throwing of a match in the rope-house. Sutro Tunnel fire, Virginia City, Jan. 27, 1909; 700 ft. of tunnel-timbering destroyed, and direct damage of $10,000; cause " probably electric wires." Belcher Shaft fire, Gold Hill, Aug. 9, 1910; shaft-house destroyed, machinery ruined, and upper part of shaft damaged; damage, $25,000; no cause given. Belmont Mine fire, Tonopah, Feb. 23, 1911; fire started ill winze; 17 men killed. Giroux Mine fire, Kimberly, Aug. 23, 1911; fire originated in shaft-station from unknown cause; 7 men killed, and $34,-521 damage caused. (Note 1.—On June 11, 1912, some time after the present paper was written, a fire broke out in the pump-room on the 2475 station of the Ward shaft, Virginia City. This fire was caused by the short-circuiting and exploding of the starting-switch on No. 5 pump. The oil in the switch was scattered about and set fire to the timbers and lagging of the pump-room. The pump-man in charge notified the surface, and the electric current was shut off. A hose was then turned on the fire, but the dense smoke drove the attendant out. Inspection by the electrician and the shaft-foreman, equipped with oxygen-

Jan 1, 1913

By Newell Alford

FORECASTS of future timber consumption in soft-coal mining are handicapped by; the lack of adequate experience records for estimating properly the timber requirements of the industry. Data were obtained from plants where records are kept or from operators who collected the information and to these were added FIG. 1.-GROWTH OF POPULATION IN UNITED STATES, FROM PEARL'S ?BIOLOGY OF DEATH." composite figures for the continental United States in 1905 and 1919 1 and for central and. Western Pennsylvania and for Illinois in 1922.2 The result, representing slightly over 928;000,000 net tons, is shown in Table 1. Some of the companies furnishing data were unable to segregate the timber into classes of use but for those who did, Table 2 shows the board feet of posts and cross bars used per ton of coal mined and the, percentage of the total timber consumed that was used in roof support. The wide variation in amounts of timber per ton of coal mined is the result of

Jan 5, 1924

By David Mitchell

MANY of the difficult operating problems of the preparation of coal for market, of sampling coal shipments and in the utilization of coal are caused by segregation in the coal mass. Segregation may be of two kinds: i.e., "size segregation," in which parti- cles of the same size in a mass of coal containing a range of sizes collect to-gether and "density segregation," in which particles of the same density or specific gravity in a mass of particles of varying density gather together. MECHANICS OF SEGREGATION Size segregation cannot take place with closely sized coal. As the size range increases, the tendency for size segregation increases. Similarly, cleaned coal with particles of approxi- mately the same specific gravity have very little tendency for density segrega- tion. The wider the density range of particles and the more particles of different density, the greater the chances are for density segregation. FIG. 1.-SEGREGATION IN A SIDE-FILLED The following discussion deals primarily BIN with coal of a wide size range as screenings and of wide density differ-ences as uncleaned or run-of-mine screenings. If a mass of coal containing particles of a wide size range is subject to the stream action of a moving current of water, the small particles are transported farther than the coarser. Particles of different density in a stream of moving water are subject to the laws of classification, the heavier settling out first. The familiar sluice box of the gold miner and the action of rivers and other streams in classifying material according to

Jan 1, 1937

By Gregory B. Baecher

Rock engineering involves uncertainties which are large and difficult to quantify. The traditional design approach to these uncertain- ties has been conservatism, and has been satisfactory to the extent that failure rates are reasonably small. Yet, a price is paid for conservatism, and that price is not always small. Today, reliability and risk analysis are finding use in rock engineering. The introduction of such methods, usually under the name 'probabilistic design,' is controverisal. However, if the jingoism of both sizes in this controversy is stripped away, it appears that new insights about uncertainty in rock engineering are emerging.

Jan 1, 1982

By John G. Tate, George W. Nicolson, James L. Bruce

FOR more than 25 years modern mining has been carried on in the Island of Cyprus, Mediterranean Sea, by the Cyprus Mines Corp. of Los Angeles, Calif. The general features of these operations have been described.1 From 1935 to June 30, 1940, top slicing in the Mavrovouni mine produced in excess of 2,000,000 long tons. The rate for the last part of this period was approximately 50,000 tons per month. DESCRIPTION OF ORE BODIES The shape of the ore body now being top sliced in the Mavrovouni mine is an inclined irregular pyritic pipe or chimney of large dimensions, extending from unknown depths below the bottom level at elevation 250 ft below sea level, to the highest level at elevation 400 ft above sea level. The present surface above the ore body lies between 550 and 650 ft elevation. Undoubtedly the ore body extended to surface and was mined by the ancients by opencast and underground methods. The old pits were gradually filled up by erosion until now they show as slight depressions in the topography. The largest area of the ore body is at elevation 170 ft below sea level, where the horizontal section is almost elliptical, with a width of 600 ft and a length of 1000 ft. Below this elevation the shape of the ore body continues to be elliptical but with reduced dimensions. Above this elevation it rises flatly towards the south with a substantial depression in the upperside of the chimney and irregular ridges or wings rising on each side. It gradually grows smaller as it rises. The ore body is a pyritic replacement of andesitic extrusives which occur as flows and pillow lavas. With the exception of the upper portions of one or two small offshoots rising from the main ore body, all ore is completely surrounded by andesite. Most of the andesite lying above the ore body is covered by marl and clay sedimentaries of Miocene and later age. The Miocene is presumed to be older than the ore mineralization. That portion of the andesites which lies between the sedimentaries and the ore body has been broken by slumpage, and weathered, and iron-stained by the descending meteoric waters. It is a mass of crushed material that caves and follows downward readily as the top-slice stopes retreat. The main ore body is a heavy cupreous pyrites mass assaying on the average about 4.0 pct Cu; 48.0, S; and 42.0, Fe. In places the copper drops below 1.0 pct. On the borders of this heavy sulphide ore body lie disseminated cupreous pyrites ore deposits of large dimensions. Some portions of these appear to be closely related to the heavy sulphide ore, as the ratio of copper to pyrite is about the same. The greater part of the disseminated ore, most of which lies immediately to the east of the main ore body, contains less than 0.10 pct Cu and about 25.0 to 30.0 pct S. This probably can

Jan 1, 1947

By Henry F. Cooper, Lee Burford, John C. Thompson

In the past year or two, considerable effort has been expended to calculate the spherical wave propagation phenomena associated with explosions in a "hard rock" medium (Godfrey, 1969; McKay and Godfrey, 1969; Burford, et al, 1970). This effort was stimulated primarily by the recognition that early calculations predicted peak particle displacements which seriouly disagreed with field data. In most of the calculations mentioned above, rock was modeled as an inelastic continuum (see for example Isenberg, et al, 1970 for some recent results using "classical" elastic-plastic material property models). However, several investigators (Handin, et al, 1967; Cherry, et al, 1967) have shown that the simple classical yield surface models cannot simultaneously account for the observed brittle failures of intact materials under compression, extension and torsion. One approach to more correct modeling of dynamic rock behavior is to make the inelastic model more and more sophisticated. For ex- ample, recent experiments at the University of Utah (Swanson, 1969) have suggested possible modifications to the yield surface model that could better account for the ductile behavior of intact granite sam- ples under various states of stress. The approach followed in this paper proceeds in an entirely different direction. We want the physics which is built into our conception of rock to be as simple as possible while at the same time reproducing the most important features of rock's behavior. Therefore, we abandon the requirement that rock be treated strictly as a continuum. Instead we consider a "discontinuous" model in which one of the most significant characteristics of rock is treated..

Jan 1, 1971

By Norman Gerald

THE lack of a continuous operating balance in petroleum refining, which is analyzed in this paper, is by no means a feature solely of this division of the oil industry. Serious disequilibria of a capital as well as an operating nature exist both in the producing and marketing departments, while problems in the former and to some degree the latter are complicated by political involvements. Attention has previously been directed to the unstabilizing influence of present proration formulas in stimulating unnec-essary drilling.1 While equilibrium in petroleum refining operations has been fairly well maintained in the past decade, examination of departures may prove fruitful. Economic analysis is the application of time and motion study to the functioning of management, rather than labor. Properly applied it may reveal changes in policies that would increase the utility of the properties and facilities of the industry for stockholders, employees and the public, while contributing a stabilizing influence to the general economy. The study of economic equilibrium is essentially one of measurement and interpretation, requiring adequate data and the development of a tech-nique of analysis that employs statistical and mathematical methods as a supplement to the broad descriptive phase of economics. Economic equilibrium in petroleum refining is a dual concept. It embraces both the over-all balance between total storage and total demand for major products and the internal balance between the demands and inventories of the various products. The latter is the more complex of the two for it is concerned with proportionating the supplies of the several products stemming from the joint source to the demands for the individual products which are subject to wide variations. All the products are essentially nondurable goods, and they are used both by producers and consumers but in varying proportions. Motor fuel is very largely a consumer's good, while residual fuel oil is almost entirely a producer's good, the other products falling between these extremes. The peculiar-

Jan 1, 1939

By A. E. Harnsberger

IT is obvious that details such as the physical and chemical properties and methods of heat-treating of the materials mentioned must be omitted in a paper on the subject of materials used in oil-refinery pumps1. Only sufficient identification is given to enable the reader to find additional information from already published data. Also, the subject covers many operating conditions, but only the most important services can be discussed here. To the oil refiner, the pumping equipment is of vital interest. Practically every refinery operation, from the charging of crude oil to a distillation unit to the shipping of refined products, involves some form of pumping machinery. Intermediate refining stages involve a great variety of pumping machinery to carry out successfully the aims of the refinery technologist. Temperatures at which oils are handled vary from -50° F. to 900° F. Pressure may vary from subatmospheric to 2000 lb. per sq. inch. The selection of the proper materials involves a careful consideration of the conditions under which the particular pump must operate. The four, most important considerations are temperature, pressure, corrosion, and abrasion or wear. Consideration of temperature may be divided into three parts: (1) extremely low temperatures of the order of -50° F.; (2) temperatures at atmospheric or slightly above; .(3) temperatures from 200° to 900° F. Pressures fall into two groups: (1) pressures reached by ordinary trade pumps of the order of. 200 lb. per sq. in., (2) extreme pressure conditions involving pressures as high as 2000 lb. Noncorrosive and corrosive oils can be treated differently. Under the latter falls corrosion in the presence of water, which will occur up to 250° F. The second type of corrosion occurs in high-temperature pumping equipment, with temperatures from 450° to 900° F., largely caused by sulfur compounds. There are also other corrosive conditions met with

Jan 1, 1935

By G. B. Pryde

IN laying out a new mine, provision should be made for the ultimate recovery of as much coal in any given bed as is consistent with safety and economic mining. Though each mining district, if not each individual mine, has problems that make the adoption of any hard and fast rule impossible, certain basic principles are adapted to practically all conditions. One of the most vital is the provision for barrier pillars of ample dimensions to protect all haulage and permanent airways during the life of the property. Where conditions permit, room or butt entries should be driven on the strike or slightly to the raise and rooms turned at right angles to said entries. The width of rooms and room pillars is governed by conditions prevailing in the mines under consideration. A safe rule is: In advancing, extract not more than 25 to 35 per cent. of the entire seam; in exceptionally thick seams, considerably less than 25 per cent. should be taken. Rooms usually vary in length from 250 to 350 ft. (76 to 106 m.) with a barrier pillar of not less than 80 ft. between the last crosscut in rooms, and entry and room crosscuts should be driven on sights; room crosscuts should be driven at right angles to the direction of the rooms. In mines under excessively heavy cover or where roof conditions are bad, rooms should be driven narrow and a barrier pillar left at every fifth to tenth room. This barrier should be of such dimensions that one or more rooms, with pillars of usual dimensions, may be turned through it when the barrier is no longer required. Two of the advantages of such a barrier are the protection of the panel against peaking of roof load during pillar extraction and the easy closing of the entry in case of fire.

Jan 2, 1921

By R. G. Woolery

INTRODUCTION Since 1975, Union Carbide Corporation has been conducting uranium exploration in southwestern South Dakota. This program has resulted in the discovery of an ore body about eight miles north of Edgemont in Fall River County. The site which was previously mined for uranium in the 1950's and 1960's consists of 950 lode claims (approximately 20,000 acres) and is within the Black Hills National Forest. Preliminary development plans indicate that fewer than 200 surface acres will be involved in the mining and heap leaching of the ore. The ore occurs in both the Fall River and Lakota formations. The exploration to date has developed something in excess of two million tons of ore averaging -0.1% U308. About 75% of the ore is expected to be mined from underground with 25% coming from five to seven small pits. The surface mining will be extensions of previously mined areas with a disturbance of 35-40 new acres near 35-40 previously disturbed acres requiring a total reclamation of 70-80 acres. Several options for processing the ore including conventional milling by UCC, conventional milling in joint venture with another producer, and heap leaching are under consideration. This paper is concerned with the preliminary assessment of the heap leaching option based on the limited test work conducted on surface samples and on available cores from the deeper ones. The final design for a commercial operation will not be available until an underground bulk sample has been obtained and evaluated. Union Carbide has been operating heap leach facilities commercially since 1973 at Gas Hills, Wyoming and Maybell, Colorado. During this period, we have made considerable progress in heap construction

Jan 1, 1983

By Kenneth N. Weaver

Portland cement can be made from relatively abundant industrial minerals and rocks, and this may explain why cement producers placed little emphasis on geology during the early days of the industry. After World War II, however, the industry began to recognize the need for geological exploration, and some of the larger companies began to build a permanent geological staff. This development had its roots in the following factors: Rapid expansion of the industry; closing of many cement plants due to inadequate raw materials; necessity for upgrading the quality of portland cement; and the increasingly large capital investment required to build new cement plants, which in turn, required a higher degree of accuracy in reserve calculations. Whereas the geologist's function during the active expansion of capacity was primarily in exploration, one of his major functions today is the development of existing reserves.

Jan 1, 1965

By B. H. Bergstrom, Will Mitchell, T. G. Kirkland, C. L. Sollenberger

SEVERAL constructive and fundamental studies have been made in the analysis of data obtained from experiments carried on with batch ball and rod mills. The operating characteristics of ball milling in small continuous circuits have also been appraised. It is from these analyses that some of the theories of comminution have been developed. Relatively few studies of continuous rod milling have added significantly to the fundamental concepts, because seldom have they yielded sufficiently consistent results. Perhaps they have been too limited in their scope. Careful control of the variables in batch grinding is simple compared with that encountered in a continuous operation. This factor alone has discouraged many investigators. Occasionally results of systematic changes made in industrial rod mill circuits have been published, but usually the data are sketchy and are restricted because -of the unwieldiness of the equipment used. The work, in general, has not been comprehensive; nevertheless it has provided empirical relationships that have bridged the gap between postulate and practice so that by proper manipulation of formulae, a mill designer can anticipate mill size and power requirements.1-3 Although operating variables of a small continuous mill are not so easy to control as with the batch mill, with present day devices, and with careful experimental work, consistent results can be obtained.

Jan 10, 1954

By W. J. Keep

Those who have observed the influence of various elements upon cast-iron will be interested in the methods used by us to form the several series of test-bars, which form the basis of the conclusions presented in this paper. We found that we could not, by adding ordinary white stickphosphorus to molten iron, produce bars which would exhibit to the eye the peculiar influence of phosphorus. By melting wrought-iron drillings with red phosphorus, Mr. H. S. Fleming produced in his laboratory 10 pounds of phosphide of iron, containing 10.22 per cent. of phosphorus. With this we made two series of test-bars, the first with our white-base iron, and the second with our FLM gray-base iron. Before the time of making these bars we had been unable to procure regularly made pig-iron which contained enough phosphorus to permit of the production of

Jan 1, 1890

By G. P. Boomsliter

IN previous discussions on stresses in hoisting ropes, little has "been said concerning the effect of the elasticity of the rope itself on the stresses due to acceleration. Laschinger1 has calculated acceleration stresses. for several cases but he has ignored the elasticity of the rope as a factor, except as it compresses the drum and stretches itself as it winds thereon. He also deals with steam plants and he shows the effect of the "jerky" start of the engine. This effect would actually be reduced by the elasticity of the cable. With the advent of the motor-driven hoist, new conditions have arisen. The jerk mentioned by Laschinger has been eliminated and smoother starting made possible. But the elastic properties of the rope seem to introduce considerable periodic acceleration stresses in the rope. The following discussion of acceleration stresses is based on the assumption of a constant acceleration at the drum. To be exact, the mathematical work is based upon the assumption that the top is moving upward with a constant acceleration, and ignores the fact that the cable is shortening as it winds. However, the effect of the shortening would be inconsiderable during the first part of the acceleration period. Most hoisting engineers make the assumption of constant acceleration at the drum. Under the older method of calculating acceleration stresses, this would be true with a constant torque motor. But if stresses vary, as this paper attempts to show that they do, constant torque would not give constant acceleration, although the velocity-time curves obtained in the full size test herein described showed that they approach rather closely to this condition, at least as nearly as could be measured.

Jan 2, 1927

By W. H. Bassett

THE subject assigned is rather a broad one but it, is doubtless expected that it will be dealt with as applying to metals and alloys and not to the ob-taining of metals from their ores. The liberty will further be taken of confining the matter discussed to copper and some of the copper alloys. Everyone is familiar with copper, at least everyone who attends the meetings of the A. I. M. E., so no gen-eral description of the metal is necessary. There are still to be recognized two classes of copper and each of these has some sub-divisions. The two general classes are electrolytic and fire-refined copper. Since there is some misunderstanding about these materials, definitions are in order. Electrolytic is just what the name implies. It may and it should be very pure but with high current densi-ties or very impure anodes, or both, impurities such as antimony, tellurium and lead may be carried over to the, cathode. Any one of these, or a combination in which they occur, are alike fatal to good working quali-ties in the resulting metal. Of course, these metals are not supposed to be deposited with copper, but slimes containing them may be 'occluded. in the deposited cop-per or held in rough cathodes if not washed with suffi-cient thoroughness.

Jan 5, 1927

By G. H. Anderson

H. R. HANLEY*—I have been asked to discuss briefly the development of rotating cathodes for the electrolytic deposition of cadmium. The earliest recorded use of rotating cathodes was by Hoepfner at Frufurt, Germany about sixty years ago. He elec-trolized zinc chloride solution using diaphragms to separate electrodes. In the early experimental work of the Bully Hill Copper Mining and Smelting Co., Shasta County, Calif., rotating aluminum cathodes 4 ft in diam were used in the electrolysis of an acid zinc sulphate solution. Finished cathodes weighing up to 400 lb were produced. Because of mechanical difficulties, this type of cathode was abandoned for zinc, but was later used for cadmium because of the relative smoothness of deposit in comparison with stationary plates with comparable current densities. Cadmium sponge which forms on the cathode at moderate current densities (without special treatment) is entirely eliminated by a slow rotation. The rate of rotation of the cathode has an effect on the mechanical nature of the deposit. A high rate of rotation concentrates the adhering electrolyte on the shaft; a moderate rate appears to concentrate on the cathode a short distance out from the shaft tending to corrode the deposit in the form of a ring. At a very slow rotation (2 to 3 rpm) the adhering electrolyte gravitates nearly vertically, thus avoiding the cutting ring referred to above. The true explanation for the smoother deposits obtained on rotating cathodes may not be given definitely as the numerous factors involved are not thoroughly understood. Smooth deposits are obtained when the orderly growth of the metal crystals in the cathode lattice are disorganized. Thus the crystals form and grow for a very short interval when they are arrested and a new crystal forms. The continued growth of the original crystals provides large crystals and a rough deposit. Also if the acidity of the electrolyte is low, hydrogen gas bubbles adhere to the deposit. As the cathode is rotated the gas surface is brought into the atmosphere where they burst; thus the deposit is made on a surface relatively gas-free. An aluminum hub distance piece was riveted to each aluminum disk 4 ft in diam, slipped on a 4 1/2 in. steel shaft and pressed tight to prevent acid electrolyte seeping through to the shaft. The 9-cathode assembly was supported on insulated bearings. Electrical contact to the shaft was made through what was equivalent to a copper pulley. Sufficiently high conductivity brushes were placed on the face of the pulley to lead the current to the cathode bus bar. The assembly was driven by a link belt contacting a sprocket insulated from the shaft. The lead anodes were semicircular and supported on porcelain insulators placed on the bottom of the cell. Two anodes were provided for each cathode to permit an 8-in. space between them without increasing the ohmic resistance. This ample spacing permitted easy stripping of deposit with the assembly in place. Cathode cadmium was melted under 650 W cylinder oil. After casting, the primary slabs were remelted under molten caustic soda and cast into pencils 1 1/32 in. in diam. Rotating cathodes for deposition of cadmium are used at Risdon, Tasmania, and at Magdeburg, Germany. W. G. WOOLF*—This paper is very-interesting to me because in our work at the Electrolytic Zinc Plant of the Sullivan Mining Co. we had an exactly similar problem—that is, a method of producing cadmium from our purification residue, the recovery of the contained copper as a copper precipitate which could be sent to a copper smelter and the production of merchantable cadmium. It is interesting to me, not knowing of the work of the Risdon people, how closely we approximate them in their main metallurgy, diverging at several interesting steps which I would like to discuss for just a moment. For example, at Risdon they oxidize their purification residue. In our practice we take the current residue as it is produced in the purification department of the zinc plant and process it in the cadmium plant. The only oxidation that it obtains is the oxidation in the presses, the dumping of the presses and the collection and transportation of the residue to the cadmium plant. We find that the leaching of that residue does not necessarily require the oxidation step that the Risdon people evidently find necessary. The discussion of oxidation comes in again in the matter of the treatment of the precipitated cadmium sponge with zinc dust which again at Risdon is oxidized but which we do not attempt to oxidize except as it oxidizes itself in the storage. There is a partial oxidation which cannot be avoided, as Mr. David-sou pointed out, but we make no attempt to attain a complete oxidation and we dissolve the cadmium sponge in the sul-

Jan 1, 1950