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By D. R. George

Preliminary research has identified several organic and aqueous solutions that are effective absorbents for SO, from simulated smelter gas containing 0.3 to 2% SO2. These SO2 loaded solutions are also compatible to the reaction of H2S and SO2 to precipitate a readily filtered elemental sulfur. The economic removal of SO2 and production of elemental sulfur from stack gases discharged by base- metal smelters is a challenging goal. The magnitude of this task is illustrated by the estimate that about 3.5 million tons of SO2 are discharged to the atmosphere by smelters annually in the U.S. The SO2 concentration of the gases ranges from about 0.5 to more than 3%. As the sulfur content of SO2 is 50% a potential production of 1,750,000 tons of sulfur per year is indicated.

Jan 1, 1970

By H. L. Monroe

Meramec Mining Co., owned 50% by St. Joseph Lead Co. and 50% by Bethlehem Steel Corp., is engaged in mining, concentrating and pelletizing iron ore from the Pea Ridge Mine which is located about 75 miles southwest of St. Louis. The Pea Ridge orebody lies under some 1300 ft of limestone, dolomite, shale, and sandstone. It runs from east to west for about 1/2 mile and varies in width up to a maximum of around 600 ft. The orebody dips about 80" S. The ore is high grade magnetite with some local zones of specular hematite. The Precambrian country rock is rhyolite porphyry.

Jan 12, 1965

By C. K. Leith, W. J. Mead

In 1911, we published in the Transactions a brief account of the lateritic alterations of serpentine in eastern Cuba, producing the important iron-ore deposits of the Mayari and Moa districts.' The special feature of that article was a quantitative treatment of the alterations, based on analyses, to show just what had happened in terms of chemical, mineralogical, and physical changes. Professor Kemp has published an interesting account of these ores, containing additional quantitative observations of his own, tending essentially to confirm the nature of the changes that had been worked out.2 His discussion suggests to us the desirability of publishing certain additional quantitative data which were not included in our previous article. This seems especially desirable because quantitative measurements of lateritic alterations are rare, and this particular case may be regarded as typical of a fairly wide range of alterations of this kind. At the time of our examination of Mayari and Moa deposits 29 complete analyses were supplied us by the chemists of the Spanish-American Iron, Co., representing a graded series from the unaltered serpentine rock below to the ore at the surface. These analyses are given in the accompanying table. The mineralogical composition of the ores and rocks is comparatively simple and can be easily calculated from the analyses. In Fig. 1 the mineralogical changes from the serpentine rock below to the lateritic iron ore above, based on the analyses, are expressed in terms of weight, assuming alumina to have remained constant during the alteration. It is not easy by mere inspection of this table of analyses to determine what the progressive chemical changes have been in development of the ore. In order to bring this out clearly, the analyses have been graphically represented in Fig. 2 in such a fashion as to show the progressive additions and losses of substances during alteration.

Jan 1, 1916

By Erik G:Son Odelstjerna

ALTHOUGH the Swedes have not taken as prominent a position in the open-hearth as in the Ressemer industry, the successful development of which in Sweden has been described by Prof. Åkerman, in a paper read before the Institute,? nevertheless our work with the Siemens-Martin method may possess some interest, even for countries outside our own, and especially for the United States, where the charcoaliron industry competes with that of Sweden for the first rank in extent and importance. I take the liberty therefore of giving in

Jan 1, 1895

By Arthur Notman

THE matters I had intended to present to you ap-peared in the March 12 issue of Engineering and Mining Journal over the signature of George J. Young, so that although I should like to talk to you for about three hours on this subject, unfortunately it has all been done before. The subject originally sug-gested to me was the trend in mining methods. You will find that fully set forth much more clearly than I could hope to do, in Mr. Young's article, so that I shall confine my attention to a few points of interest in specific cases. You are undoubtedly familiar with the problem that was presented to the Miami Copper Co. when they had exhausted their so-called high-grade orebody. They had what appeared to be a large tonnage of material which their preliminary development work and such drilling as was done indicated contained one per cent copper or a-little over, and how to mine that profitably by underground methods was the question. It was somewhat complicated by the fact that the nature of the ground made them doubtful of their ability to cave it successfully. It was unquestionably harder ground than that of the more highly mineralized sections of the Miami and Inspiration- ore zone which had been mined. However, they had kept very accurate and complete records of past accomplishments and knew what they had to work with and what modifications with respect to costs would be necessary in order to solve this problem. Under the old method of working, they were extract-ing about 71/2 tons per man employed in the mining department; that is to say all labor, direct and indirect required to put the ore in the mill bins, and this, with the grade of ore which they had, resulted in a satis-factory financial outcome. Under their modified method now in use, they have raised that output per man to 29 tons per man shift. That is almost four times what they were doing with the old method.

Jan 4, 1927

By C. M. Ball

The very considerable progress made during the past three years in the crushing and concentration of ores, lends special interest at the present time to any means of a more efficient character than such as are already generally known and in use, for the rapid and regular reduction of large quantities of the harder and heavier grades of mineral-bearing rock. Such means are of exceptional importance in connection with the preparation of iron-ore for separation by the magnetic process, since in this operation the capability of dealing with large volumes of material and of securing by ready means of adjustment, a granulation of the material under treatment to any required mesh or fineness, is of the greatest possible value. With these, however, must be coupled the further considerations of the amount of power expended for the work done, and the wear and tear, represented in the cost for renewal of parts of the crushing machinery, per ton of material reduced to a given degree of fineness. In general terms it may be stated that the operation of a crushing train, capable of reducing an ore-rock of average density and hardness, from the condition of mine lumps to pass 1/16-inch screenopenings at the rate of 20 tons per hour, should not call for an expenditure of more than 125 horse-power, and that the wear and tear of the crushing machinery, all told, should not exceed 2 cents per ton. In the design of a crushing-train for an ore-dressing plant, there are, moreover, considerations of great importance which relate to the simplicity or complexity of construction and arrangement, the wear and tear of few or many elements, the easy ability or difficulty of maintaining the working adjustment of the various elements of the train, and the number of hands required for the operation of the system. With these points in view, it is thought that the Cummings ore-

Jan 1, 1893

By H. A. Wheeler

The great depths attained by some of the older mines, and the milch greater depth at which they will have to he worked in the not distant future, strongly emphasize the imperfect and inadequate character of our present hoisting-practice. The depth of 3000 feet having been exceeded at several places, and 4000 feet almost reached

Jan 1, 1891

By E. L. Kamen, H. D. Kessler, M. Hansen, D. J. McPherson

The highly reactive Ti-Mo and Ti-Cb alloys were prepared and heat treated under protective conditions. Phase diagrams were established based on micrographic and X-ray diffraction analysis and detection of incipient melting. ß titanium forms a continuous series of solid solutions with both molybdenum and columbium, whereas these metals are only slightly soluble in the a titanium modification. PREVIOUS work on the Ti-Mo and Ti-Cb systems was very limited and is discussed in succeeding sections of this paper relating to the respective phase diagrams. The diagrams in the present work were determined principally by micrographic analysis, because other methods such as thermal analysis and dilatometry are not suitable, due to the low diffusion rates of these alloys in the transformation range. X-ray analysis was believed less useful than micrographic analysis because: 1—On quenching certain high titanium alloys from above their transformation range, the body-centered cubic ß phase decomposes into acicular a (hexagonal close-packed) which room temperature X-ray diffraction techniques cannot differentiate from isothermal a. 2— High temperature X-ray techniques might be used, but are difficult to apply and are subject to error because of the high reactivity of titanium with gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. Although metallo-graphic study was the basic method used, X-ray diffraction analysis was applied to a limited extent, to further substantiate the findings. The transformation ranges on the titanium side of the Ti-Cb and Ti-Mo systems were studied both with DuPont Process A (magnesium-reduced) titanium alloys and with iodide titanium alloys. The Process A metal was used chiefly to bracket the transformation range in order to reduce the number of alloys given a particular treatment for the more accurate final study with iodide titanium alloys. Experimental Procedure The analyses of the metals used in the preparation of alloys for this study are presented in Table I. Melting Practice: Early in the work, a consumable electrode, arc melting furnace was used in the preparation of the Process A Ti-base Mo and Cb alloys. This type of furnace has been described by other investigators.', ' One of the major difficulties of the consumable electrode melting process was the prep- aration of homogeneous electrodes (with the mixture of coarse titanium sponge and fine powder alloying addition) which would give homogeneous ingots. Composition gradients encountered may have been due to a tendency for powdered alloying metals to drop away from the electrode in handling. This difficulty in the preparation of homogeneous alloys was overcome by the use of a nonconsumable electrode furnace for later work. This furnace is similar to the one used by Mc-Pherson and Fontana a Ohio State University. A diagram of the nonconsumable electrode arc furnace is given elsewhere.' The source of power was a 400 amp dc welding generator. Electrode tips of tungsten (% in. in diam) were used for all columbium melts and for a limited number of molybdenum melts. Molybdenum tips were used for the majority of molybdenum alloy melts. Columbium tipped electrodes were tried, but disintegrated rapidly at currents above 300 amp. In the Process A titanium melting practice the metals were charged into the water-cooled spun copper crucible in the following forms: l—titanium: sponge (—4 + 16 mesh); 2—molybdenum: sections of 0.003 in. sheet (approximately ½ in. sq); and 3— columbium: powder compacts (? in. lumps broken from large section). After alternately evacuating and purging the furnace several times with argon or helium, the arc was struck against the metal charge,

Jan 1, 1952

By S. O. Reichert

The nuclear industry has made a considerable effort to reduce environmental pollution with the result that knowledge in the field of radioactive waste management is well advanced. An example of the methods used for radioactive waste disposal is provided by the Savannah River Plant (SRP) operated by E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. for the AEC. It occupies an area of 320 sq mi along the Savannah River downstream from Augusta Ga., and has production facilities that include a fuel preparation area, three reactor areas, two chemical separation areas (F and H), and a heavy water plant. Gaseous, Liquid and Solid Radioactive Wastes Are Handled During Disposal The primary sources of radioactive waste are the reactor and chemical separation facilities. The reactors are cooled and moderated by heavy water which, in turn, is cooled by river water in heat exchangers. This arrangement prevents irradiation of the river water so that radioactivity is not discharged into the river water except when small quantities of moderator are lost by heat exchanger leaks. Because of the high cost of heavy water, these losses must be kept to a minimum.

Jan 9, 1968

Balancing the prodigious iron ore deposits of Western Australia are the equally vast coal resources of the Bowen series of eastern Queensland. The Bowen series is a Permian basin stretching 500 miles in a north-south line. The beginning of what will be large scale mining of the Kianga-Moura coalfields in Dawson Valley was made by the Australian company of Thiess Bros. in July 1961. Then Peabody Coal Co. of St. Louis, Mo., joined Thiess. Later, Mitsui & Co. Ltd. received a 20% interest in the firm Thiess, Peabody, Mitsui Coal Pty. Ltd. Rtitsui was to lend the company money for development. Queensland Parliament, by special act, granted the company exclusive franchise over the Kianga-Moura coalfield, an area of 350 square miles. The rights do not include other minerals. The company is to have a 120-mile railroad completed to Gladstone or some other port in seven years. It must produce at least 500,000 long tons of coal annually until the line is built, after which production is to be upped to 2 million tons. By December 1962, these arrangements were completed.

Jan 10, 1964

By B. L. Averbach, M. Cohen, G. P. Conard

IT has been frequently observed that, when metal crystals are bent and annealed or when they are bent at elevated temperatures, the asterism of the Laue spots is split discontinuously into tiny intensity maxima. This finding indicates that segmented crystallites or subgrains are produced, which are relatively undistorted within themselves but which differ slightly in orientation from their neighbors. The following viewpoints have been put forward concerning the nature of this segmentation process: 1—Crussard' has described the phenomenon as "re-crystallization in situ." According to this mechanism, the deformed lattice recrystallizes on heating into an aggregate of comparatively strain-free subgrains separated from one another by low-angle boundaries and having nearly the same orientation as the original crystal. This process differs from the classical type of recrystallization in that the latter involves the formation of grains having quite different orientations from that of the mother crystal. 2—A similar but more detailed picture has been advanced by Cahn' who adopted the term "polygonization." In this interpretation, the plastic bending of lattice planes results in an excess of dislocations of one sign, but at suitable temperatures these dislocations migrate along slip planes and collect in localized regions to form an array of low-angle boundaries. Concurrently, the lattice segments between the boundaries lose their curvature and elastic strain. 3—The "cell formation" concept of Wood and co-workers: unlike the two hypotheses cited, postulates that the segmentation of the lattice is basically a mode of deformation and is not an annealing phenomenon. Cell formation appears to compete more effectively with respect to the normal slip process as the deformation temperature is increased and as the strain rate is decreased. The present work was performed on 3.2 mm diameter 99.99' pct Zn single crystals, grown from the melt in a gradient furnace. The major impurity was 0.003 pct Fe. The crystal orientations ranged from those with basal plane parallel to the rod axis to those with the basal plane almost perpendicular to the rod axis. The specimens were bent on templates to effective radii varying from 14.2 to 1.3 cm at the temperatures from —196" to 100°C. In each case, the axis of bending was parallel to the basal plane. Subsequent annealing was carried out at temperatures from —196" to 400°C. Back-reflection Laue pictures were taken on the convex surface of the bent specimens, before and after annealing. This procedure was found to yield better resolution of the detail in the diffraction spots than did the previously used Laue transmission technique. Some X-ray pictures of rods bent at —196" and —78°C were taken at these respective temperatures without intermediate warming to room temperature. In addition, bent crystals were acid cut" parallel to the basal plane, and double-crystal spectrometer rocking-curves were obtained from the etched (0001) face before and after increment an-

Jan 1, 1954

Jan 1, 1932

By Neil O. Johnson

In the cyanidation of gold, silver and mixed ores, the solids, suspended in the pulp after fine grinding, primary settling and scries agitation arc subjected to a washing step known, generally, as countercurrent decanta-tion, abbreviated C.C.D The conventional C.C.D. plant consists of a series of separate thickeners—three to five in number—arranged in series on slightly different elevations. Solids settled in the first thickener are pumped at maximum density into the second thickener, where they arc diluted with weak solution overflowing the third. After settling in the second thickener they are pumped to the third, where the process of repulping with still weaker solution is repeated, and so on throughout the system, until they reach the last thickener and are repulped with barren solution or water. Recently there has been developed a new type of thickener, known as the Dorr Washing Tray Thickener, consisting of up to five individual thickeners, which performs in a single unit all the functions of a conven-tional C.C.D plant. Fig. 1 illustrates the essential features. It is a multicompartment tray thickener, in which the trays operate in scries instead of in parallel for countercurrent washing. Feed enters the top compartment via a central, semisubmerged feed well. Strong solution overflows into a peripheral launder. Solids settle to the bottom, are raked to the center and flow into the top of the second compartment, directly below, via an inverted cup and scal. Solids pass downward, compartment by compartment, against a counter flow of wash solution and finally of fresh water. Thus, in accord-:trice with the basic C.C.D. principle, the solids transfer the dissolved metal content to the wash solution and finally are removed by a diaphragm pump from the bottom compartment virtually free of valuable material. Similarly, the wash water, as it flows through the system, becomes increasingly enriched in dissolved metal until it overflows from compartment two and returns to the process.

Jan 1, 1939

By Neil O. Johnson

In the cyanidation of gold, silver and mixed ores, the solids, suspended in the pulp after fine grinding, primary settling and scries agitation arc subjected to a washing step known, generally, as countercurrent decanta-tion, abbreviated C.C.D The conventional C.C.D. plant consists of a series of separate thickeners—three to five in number—arranged in series on slightly different elevations. Solids settled in the first thickener are pumped at maximum density into the second thickener, where they arc diluted with weak solution overflowing the third. After settling in the second thickener they are pumped to the third, where the process of repulping with still weaker solution is repeated, and so on throughout the system, until they reach the last thickener and are repulped with barren solution or water. Recently there has been developed a new type of thickener, known as the Dorr Washing Tray Thickener, consisting of up to five individual thickeners, which performs in a single unit all the functions of a conven-tional C.C.D plant. Fig. 1 illustrates the essential features. It is a multicompartment tray thickener, in which the trays operate in scries instead of in parallel for countercurrent washing. Feed enters the top compartment via a central, semisubmerged feed well. Strong solution overflows into a peripheral launder. Solids settle to the bottom, are raked to the center and flow into the top of the second compartment, directly below, via an inverted cup and scal. Solids pass downward, compartment by compartment, against a counter flow of wash solution and finally of fresh water. Thus, in accord-:trice with the basic C.C.D. principle, the solids transfer the dissolved metal content to the wash solution and finally are removed by a diaphragm pump from the bottom compartment virtually free of valuable material. Similarly, the wash water, as it flows through the system, becomes increasingly enriched in dissolved metal until it overflows from compartment two and returns to the process.

Jan 1, 1939

By John B. Pearse

IN order to get an idea as to the strength of steel rails, it will be well to review the tests to which iron rails have been subjected. In England, Mr. Ashcroft found that the best 80 pound rails broke under a 300 pound weight, falling 15 feet. In Germany the Society of Railway tyfanage1-s determined 011 and have long applied a test of 1000 pounds falling 101/2 feet, as the standard which all first-class iron rails must reach. In this country no inspection nor test is applied, but tests made show that iron rails fro; our most reliable makers, break under a G foot fall of a 1500 pound drop as an extreme test, most of those tested breaking under a far less test; some breaking with less than a 3 foot fall of the same weight. Everywhere where steel has been used, engineers have come to the conclusion that some test is required to show the regularity and strength of the product. As compared with iron, the tests which steel will stand are wonderful. After numerous experiments partially based on the experience of the rail-mill at Graz, belonging to the Southern Railway of Austria, the Society of German Railway Managers fixed upon a test of 2000 pounds falling 138 feet. They found that this test represented the steel which suited their necessities, and also found that with steel of otherwise average purity, this test represented about one-half per cent. of carbon, and made it a rule to take no steel containing under three-tenths of a per cent. of carbon, because it was too soft. They expressed a hope that a harder steel could soon be made tough enough to stand the same test. I n England, a test was adopted of 2240 pounds, falling 15 to 17 feet on the rail on heavy bearings. This test has been found satisfactory under heavy traffic on average road-beds, and has been invariably

By Howard Talbot

THE history of the development of the strip in- dustry, mentioned in this paper, was covered in considerable detail by Stephen Badlam in his paper presented. before the American Iron and Steel Institute at its meeting in New York last October. The description of progress in rolling strip there out-lined will be found good reading by anyone interested in the subject. Quoting from Mr. Badlam's paper, "For practically thirty years, we find no record of the use of the backing-roll principle, until in 1916 the Lukens Steel Co., Coatesville, Pa., put in a 206-in. plate mill of the four-high type. This was a reversing mill with two 32-in. working rolls and two 50-in. backing rolls and is today making the widest and heaviest plate made anywhere in the world." The functioning of this mill, though rolling hot plate, is, on account of the extreme width and thinness of plate rolled, quite comparable to the rolling of wide strip either hot or cold and was a considerable factor in demonstrating the marked advantages available with the four-high or backing-roll mill for thin accurate rolling. As the writer has brought out, a demand for a product, the rolling of which required the character-istics of the backing-roll mill, was broached by the In-ternational Nickel Co. This resulted in an inquiry of March, 1924, for the building of a mill capable of cold-rolling wide nickel and monel metal sheets or strip, as mentioned. It may be of some interest to note, that whereas the .six-roll cluster mill with plain bearings was built for this installation, the mill designed by the United En-gineering and Foundry Co. for this inquiry was of the four-high type with roller bearings on the backing-roll necks, being essentially the same design as the four-high roller-bearing mill built in 1925 for the Rome Brass & Copper Co. This Rome mill, to quote again from Mr. Badlam's paper, "fulfilled every requirement, and was the model on which succeeding mills of this type were built."

Jan 5, 1928

By R. P. Steijn

IT has been observed by a number of investigators that under certain conditions metals freeze into an aggregate of small hexagonal strands, parallel to one another and with their axes approximately in the direction of growth.'" This structure has been termed "cellular structure" and is explained in various ways by different workers, notably by Rutter and Chalmers." These investigators attribute the phenomenon to the presence of minute quantities of solute atoms which induce constitutional supercooling. However, if this is true, observations of the cellular structure in extremely pure substances, like frozen distilled water' and germanium of less than 0.0001 atomic pct metallic solute,' are difficult to comprehend. The purpose of this communication is to describe several observations made of the prismatic structure in zinc of 99.99 pct purity. Zinc single and bicrystals grown in a constant gradient electrical resistance furnace exhibit the cellular structure after etching in 15 pct HC1. (See Figs. 1 and 2.) It is noticed that the hexagonal substructure sometimes continues unbroken across the bicrystalline grain boundary.

Jan 1, 1956

By Richard Bosustow, Van Dyne Howbert

The Presidio mine of The American Metal Co. is situated in the "Big Bend" region, some 45 miles over state highway south of Marfa, a station on the Southern Pacific R.R. It lies 20 miles by road north of the Mexican border, in semidesert surroundings typical of this general section of the United States and the adjoining part of Mexico. All supplies are hauled in by truck from Marfa under contract. The concentrates and precipitates produced by the mill are carried by the same trucks to Marfa, from whence they are shipped, respectively, to the El Paso and Selby plants. History The mine was discovered about the year 1880 and was soon thereafter taken over for development by some army officers stationed at Fort Davis, Texas. It was later operated by the Presidio Mining Co., which treated the ore in a small pan-amalgamation mill from 1883 until 1913, when a cyanide plant was erected which has been in continuous operation ever since. When the present company, a subsidiary of The American Metal Co., Ltd., took over the mine in April, 1926, the ore-bearing zone had been worked for about 2200 ft. to the east of I the outcrops down the dip of the formation, at which point it is at a I vertical depth of 500 ft. below the surface. Up to that time the mine had produced some 1,150,000 tons of ore averaging about 17 oz. silver. After a development campaign the company started milling again in February, 1927. Since then the production has been approximately 4700 tons per month of ore; of which the yearly average grade has varied from 19.7 to 23.2 oz. silver, $0.20 to $0.50 gold, and 2.0 to 2.5 per cent. lead. No other property in this district has ever produced tonnage of any importance.

Jan 1, 1931

By C. F. Austin, J. K. Pringle

In view of the many large differences in structure and physical properties between metals, plastics, and most rock materials, a continuing experimental petrodynamics program has been established at the U. S. Naval Ordnance Test Station. Part of this program has been to test the concepts of scabbing and corner fracturing in a typical coarse-grained rock. The results of this experimental program have shown very interesting differences between the formation of fractures in rock and the formation of fractures in other materials such as metals and plastics which are often used as models for rock behavior studies. The gross behavior of coarse-grained brittle solids subjected to impulsive loading has undergone abundant empirical investigation by mining organizations and by mineral research agencies. However, the fundamental response of coarse-grained brittle solids to impulsive loading has received little detailed study in recent years. The various organizations and agencies interested in rock-like brittle materials have broadly applied the stress wave interaction concepts of the impulsive failure of metallic samples to the behavior of granular brittle materials 1,2,3,4,5,6 Using the metallic sample approach for stress wave induced fracturing, an understanding of the fracture behavior of brittle materials which perhaps is not always appropriate has been established in the open literature. An excellent summary of the metallic sample approach is provided by ref. 7 which summarizes the general beliefs prevalent at present regarding the impulsive behavior of brittle solids: "In the blasting process, rock breakage occurs primarily from tensile slabbing, beginning at a free face and proceeding back toward the explosive charge. The tensile waves formed by the reflection of incident compressive waves from two or more free faces will collide in the rock, resulting in large localized tensile stresses. Fractures formed by the interaction of these tensile stresses begin at the apex of the free face planes and progress back into the rock as shown...."

Jan 1, 1964

By M. E. Wadsworth, K. J. Richards

The oxidation rates of tantalum in various partial pressures of carbon dioxide in the temperature range 700°to 950°C were measured with a thermo-gravimetric balance. Oxidation involved a surface -controlled reaction associated with the formation of a nonprotective layer of Ta2O5. Below about 720°C, there was a change in the rate-determining mechanism, and above 830°C the linear rate was preceded by a complex region of nonlinear oxidation behavior. The linear oxidation of tantalum has been explained quantitatively in terms of carbon dioxide adsorption, followed by a rate-controlling surface reaction. The initial adsorption has been expressed both as an equilibrium process and as a steady-state reaction. The enthalpy for chemisorption of CO, was determined to be -17.3 kcal per mole. The surface-controlled reaction had an activation enthalpy of 40.4 kcal per mole. A considerable amount of interest has been shown in recent years in the oxidation of tantalum and the nature of the oxide film produced. This interest is associated with the increasing demand in our technology for structural materials to withstand high temperatures and corrosive atmospheres. The low oxidation resistance of tantalum has severely restricted its application as a high-strength, high-temperature material. As a fundamental approach to the realization of the full poten- tials of this metal, the kinetics of the oxidation of tantalum in oxygen and air have been extensively studied; however, very little work has been reported on the effect of other gases, including carbon dioxide. According to Miller,' the only reported study of the reaction between tantalum and dry carbon dioxide is a restricted observation by O'Driscoll et al.2 at 8 atm absolute pressure and 500°C. Therefore, this study was made to investigate the reaction of tantalum with carbon dioxide. EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS AND METHODS The vacuum-annealed tantalum used in this study was obtained from Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. as 0.025-mm-thick sheet stock. This material had less than 0.1 pct total impurities, and the maximum individual impurity concentrations were

Jan 1, 1964