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By John S. Johnson

The purpose of this article is to describe several types of borehole lining in common use, and especially to offer a relatively new means of reducing the expense of maintaining boreholes where they are subjected to corrosive action of water flowing either inside or outside of their casing. In the Anthracite region of Pennsylvania, boreholes are used for many purposes, the principal ones being: openings between the surface and underground workings through which are passed steam, water and compressed-air lines, ropeways from surface hoists to underground rope haulages, conduits for electric power and signal lines, water-discharge lines from underground pumping stations, and inlets to mine workings for flushing material. Linings for Boreholes The inadequacy of steel pipe for use in boreholes has long been recognized. Various substitute materials have been tried, including screw-joint cast-iron pipe (Fig. I). Cast-iron pipe, while very effective as a discharge line for acid water (mine water) being pumped to the surface, is not so effective when serving as a conduit for silt and crushed rock being flushed underground for filling mine voids. Terra cotta pipe (Fig. 2) has been used in boreholes, and lasts a long time if the glazed inner surface of the pipe remains intact. Its installation in a borehole is very difficult and is recommended only where it is certain that there will be no subsidence of the surrounding territory. Accessibility in order properly to join each section of the pipe is essential to a satisfactory job. In large water holes, where it is possible to lower a man into the hole for sealing the joints of the pipe, glazed terra cotta pipe has been used successfully for delivering mine water from pumps in the mines. For large holes used for flushing refuse into mine workings where the surface wash is shallow, standard paving brick have been used to form a tube through the wash to the bedrock. These brick are laid radially, backed by common brick and cobbles laid in cement. It is obvious that the shaft through the wash must be large enough to permit a man to work in it. The flushing material is carried through bare rock from the juncture at bedrock to the openings underground. This plan has been used particularly where a cast-iron surface line is laid upon the surface to carry the flushing material from the breaker to the hole, and down the hole continuously, with no opening to the air at the top of the hole, thereby eliminating the necessity of an attendant at this point (Fig. 3). Another similar type of borehole lining is constructed of hexagonal pieces of vitrified brick (Fig. 4). This type requires a steel drive pipe through the surface wash large enough to provide a finished tube of the desired size surrounded by a brick wall about 4 in. thick. The special bricks are laid in cement, six to a circle, around a lubricated pipe used as a form, and lowered in sections inside the large drive pipe; the bottom section is seated in a socket drilled in the solid rock, having the same inside

Jan 1, 1942

By J. M. Gaines, C. H. Herty, M. W. Lightner, H. Freeman

Few subjects have attracted the attention of metallurgists more than oxygen in steel. From the days of Mushet and Ledebur interest in this subject has been increasing, and as additional knowledge has become available, the problem has naturally grown more complex. Instead of using the simple term "oxygen" we now distinguish between iron oxide, silicates of various kinds, oxysulfides, oxygen as gas and oxygen in solid solution in steel. There are five general methods for determining oxides in steel: hydrogen reduction; vacuum fusion; various wet-extraction methods, including electrolytic methods; methods depending on volatilization of the iron away from the oxides; and metallographic methods. For oxygen in solid steel each of these methods has both advantages and disadvantages. The hydrogen-reduction method is of no use on steels above about 0.20 per cent. carbon;' furthermore, it gives only FeO and possibly some MnO. The vacuum-fusion method2 is expensive and gives total oxygen, with the exception of some A12O3, and does not differentiate between the various oxides in which the oxygen exists. Most of the wet extraction methods3 give only the more insoluble oxides SiO2 and A12O3, though the iodine method gives MnO to an uncertain degree (information that may be more misleading than no information

Jan 1, 1930

By Frederick Laist

IN the course of the past 75 years the treatment of copper ores has undergone the most profound changes. To a lesser degree, this is true of all the nonferrous metals, but the rapid increase in the demand for copper due to the phenomenal growth of the electrical industry, and the discovery of vast new ore deposits in Michigan, Montana and Arizona, provided an exceptional incentive for improvements in smelting practice and for large-scale operations. Because these must perforce be carried on in regions where labor was scarce and wages high, the need for mechanization and larger smelting units soon became apparent. At a later date the porphyry coppers were discovered, with ores so low in grade that enormous tonnages had to be treated daily if they were to be made to pay at all. In some instances these ores were associated with, or overlain by, oxidized ores, which could not be concentrated mechanically and, of course, could not be smelted directly. This led to the development of the copper-leaching process. While the principles of the various smelting and leaching processes are for the most part of European origin, and have long been known, modern practice is essentially American and was evolved on this side of the Atlantic. The ores of copper may be divided into three general classes; viz, native copper, sulphide and oxidized ores. By far the greater number of commercially important ore deposits come under the classification of sulphides. Commercial deposits of native copper are limited to the Lake Superior

Jan 1, 1947

By John F. Elliott, David L. Schroeder

SURFACE depletion can be a significant source of error in the use of the effusion method for determining the thermodynamic properties of alloys, particularly in the case of solid alloys.' However, as yet this problem has not been treated quantitatively by experimentalists in the field.1-3 The method necessitates diffusive transport of material out of the source alloy to obtain a relevant measurement. The general character of the system is shown in Fig. 1. The diffusive flux (nD) at the alloy surface is equal to the effusive flux (nE): where D is the diffusion coefficient of the diffusing substance, C is its concentration, X is the distance from the surface into the source alloy, p is the density of the alloy, and AS is the actual available surface of the alloy. The concentration of the diffusing substance at the surface is CS, and Here fE is the Clausing factor, AE is the area (sq cm) of the orifice, y is the activity coefficient of the substance in the alloy, PO is the vapor pressure (Torr) of the pure substance, M is the molecular weight of the effusing species, and T is the absolute temperature. The differential equation for diffusive transport in the source alloy is Fick's second law. Its solution is dependent on the geometry of the source alloy. Two boundary conditions must be established to obtain the proper solution, the first being Eq. [1], or its equivalent. The solutions for several important forms of the source alloy are considered below.

Jan 1, 1967

By R. V. Ramani, R. D. Zigmond, R. L. Frantz

In this paper, a computer program for determining the capital and operating costs for coal preparation plants is described along with its applications. The logic of the computer program is based upon the results of a survey of existing preparation plants, operators, plant contractors, equipment manufacturers, and consulting firms. This survey provided information on plant performance, order-of-magnitude costs, and costing procedures. Additionally, an extensive cost data file for the major capital equipment in coal preparation plants has been developed. Using the washability data and the computer program out- puts, the cleaning costs per million Btu can be calculated. Details about the program and its applications can be found in a report by the authors (Zigmond et al., 1979).

Jan 1, 1983

US 4,185,077 - In the recovery of uranium from a solution produced by leaching uranium ore, the leach liquor is contacted with a polymeric crosslinked vinyl benzyl chloride anion exchange resin and eluted with sulfuric acid to recover uranyl sulfate Such a resin is resistant to attrition and thermal degradation during elution. R.L. Albright, assigned to Rohm & Haas Co Jan. 22, 1980. 6 pp (423-7). Filed: 10-31-75 (627,829).

Jan 1, 1982

By R. I. Jaffee, E. S. Bartlett, D. N. Williams

The oxidation resistance and fabricability of molybdenum powder-metallurgy alloys containing up to 20 wt pct nickel in the form of a fine dispersion were studied. The effects of dispersion distribution and of amount and type (pure nickel or nickel compounds) of additive were considered. A definite improvement in oxidation resistance was observed, but the amount of improvement fell far short of requirements for an oxidation-resistant alloy. Fabricability by hot-rolling was limited. INVESTIGATIONS at Ohio State university1 and Battelle Memorial institute2 have indicated that the attainment of a truly oxidation-resistant molybdenum-base alloy for high-temperature service, with the coincident retention of high-temperature strength and toughness, will be a difficult, if not impossible, feat. Among the most promising alloy systems studied was the molybdenum-nickel system shown in Fig. 1. Alloys in this system show good oxidation resistance at temperatures well above the normal melting point of molybdenum trioxide because of the regenerative formation of protective nickel-molyb-date (NiMoO4) on the surface of the alloy during exposure at high temperatures. Unfortunately, the required alloy content to obtain oxidation resistant molybdenum-nickel alloys far exceeds the limits of the narrow terminal solid-solution boundary, and closely approaches the peri-tectic composition involving the brittle intermetal-lic compound, MoNi. Because of the peritectic reaction, fusion alloys are characteristically brittle, since the MoNi phase, being the last to form, tends to occur as a continuous grain-boundary network around each molybdenum grain. An added problem with this system is that the protective nickel-molybdate layer formed at high temperatures is unstable, undergoing one or more allotropic modifications upon cooling. The volume changes associated with this modification during cooling are such as to cause violent expulsion of the protective molybdate coating from the surface of the piece. This is, of course, quite detrimental in material exposed to cyclic temperature during service. The research reported here resulted from an attempt to overcome the aforementioned problems associated with the molybdenum-nickel alloys primarily by controlling the amount, size, and location of the MoNi phase. By using powder-metallurgy techniques of alloy preparation and sintering the blended molybdenum-nickel powder mixtures at a temperature below the peritectic reaction temperature, molybdenum-nickel alloys with a randomly dispersed MoNi phase were produced. MATERIALS The molybdenum powder used in the preparation of alloys for this study was commercial hydrogen reduced, minus 325-mesh (Tyler) material. Master alloys, by which nickel was added, consisted of elemental carbonyl nickel powder (12 average particle size), an alloy of 50 wt pct Ni-50 wt pct Cr, and compounds of MoNi, Ni,Si, and Ni2B. The nickel-chromium powder was prepared by filing a vacuum-arc-melted ingot, separating impurities magnetically, and screening to minus 200-mesh. The MoNi powder was prepared by pulverizing a hydrogen-sintered powder-metallurgy compact to minus 325-mesh material. Further sizing of this powder for study of effects of dispersion distribution was accomplished by air classification of the minus 325-mesh powder. The Ni2Si and Ni2B powders were prepared by crushing vacuum-sintered powder-metallurgy compacts to minus 200-mesh material. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Specimen Preparation—The general procedure followed in the preparation of alloys for testing is described as follows: 1) Blending. Either hand-blending of the powders in a ceramic mortar and pestle for X 1/2 or mechanical blending was used. Hand-blending seemed preferable for optimum homogeneity. 2) Compacting. Most of the blended powders were pressed to green compacts at pressures of 15 tons per sq in. in a single-action die, although some were pressed at 80 tons per sq in. A 1 X 11/4 X 1/4-in. green compact was the standard size for oxidation test material, and 7 X 1/2 X 1/4-in. compacts were used for fabricability test specimens. 3) Sintering. All green compacts were sinteredat

Jan 1, 1959

By Allen J. Johnson

It is probable that the word "anthracite" was derived from the Greek preposition an, and the Greek word for Thrace, meaning, in combination, "toward or near Thrace." Aristotle, Theophrastus, Strabo and Pliny all mention Thrace, or Samothrace, in treatises upon stones and stone coals dating back to about 371 B.C. In 1769 Obadiah Gore, a blacksmith of Wilkes-Barre, successfully burned anthracite in his forge, the first of millions of consumers of Pennsylvania anthracite. The Anthracite Region While anthracite is found in widely scattered locations throughout the world, 99 per cent of the total production of the United States origintitles within an area of 3300 square miles in castern Pennsylvania, less than 500 square miles of which arc underlain by workable coal beds. Eminent authorities such as the United States Geological Survey agree that this Pennsylvania anthracite is the only true anthracite east of the Rocky Mountains. There is some graphitic anthracite in Rhode Island but it is not suitable for combustion; and coals from such states as Virginia and Arkansas, frequently sold as anthracite, are in reality semi-

Jan 1, 1934

By George F. Weaton

Mining differs from the ordinary industry in that most industries and enterprises have an indeterminate life, apparently perpetual, and therefore, are not called on to replace the original investment. In mining, however, when the ore bodies are mined out, there is nothing left, The original capital investment must, therefore, be returned to the investor by the time that the profitable life of the mine is ended. When the operating company makes no provisions for perpetuating its life by investing a portion of its earnings in other properties, the usual procedure is to pay the investor, periodically, a dividend sufficiently larger than the risk return on his investment to enable him, if he reinvests this overplus at a safe rate of compound interest, to replace his original capital by the time the mine is exhausted. This overplus constitutes a return of invested capital. In estimating the value of a mining enterprise, the work leading to the final result may be divided into two parts. The first is the examination of the property to determine ore reserves, mining costs and profits, financial requirements and future prospects. Whatever conclusions are reached in this phase of the work depend on the experience, thoroughness and integrity of the examining engineers. The second is the calculations pursuant to the field examination.

Jan 5, 1973

By Ihor A. Kunasz

Lithium minerals occur predominantly in pegmatites which contain mineral assemblages derived from the crystallization of postmagmatic fluids or from the metasomatic action by residual pegmatitic fluids. They have been the traditional sources of raw materials for ceramic and chemical industries. However, with the discovery of Searles Lake, brines became new sources of lithium. Indeed, the 1960s may well be referred to as the "brine decade" because several brine bodies of significant economic importance were discovered. In the United States, the brines of Clayton Valley, Nevada, presently exploited by Foote Mineral Co., and the Great Salt Lake of Utah, to be exploited by the Great Salt Lake Chemicals Corp., have been defined as major sources of lithium. Also a lithium-bearing brine has been discovered in Chile. Following the termination of the AEC purchase program in 1959, several companies such as Maywood Chemical Co., American Lithium Chemicals, and Quebec Lithium Corp. were forced to close down their operations. Nevertheless, with the development of new applications in glass ceramics, air conditioning systems, synthetic rubber, and metallurgy (aluminum potlines), the lithium industry grew steadily, and with the potential application of lithium metal in batteries and nuclear reactors, a healthy growth can be foreseen. New products and new applications are likely to stimulate exploration for expanded reserves as well as the search for new sources from which lithium could be extracted economically. Geochemistry of Lithium Lithium is the third element in the periodic table. It is the lightest of all the metals, having an atomic weight of 6.938. Its ionic radius is 0.60A and its charge is + 1. The geochemistry of lithium has been extensively studied and has been summarized by Rankama and Sahama (1950), Goldschmidt (1937), and Hortsman (1957). The distribution of lithium in igneous rocks is controlled by its size and its charge, and by the (MgO+FeO)/Li2O ratio. In the early stages of crystallization of a magma, that ratio is very large. Consequently, both magnesium and iron are removed by ferromagnesian minerals in preference to lithium which is then concentrated in the residual magma. This results in an enrichment of lithium in silicic rocks and pegmatites (Strock, 1936). Pegmatites are coarse-grained igneous rocks formed by the crystallization of postmagmatic fluids. Minerals within pegmatites may also form by metasomatism (Jahns. 1955). Genetically, the pegmatites are associated kith neigh- boring intrusives. Mineralogically, granitic pegmatites contain feldspar, quartz, and mica as the main constituents and a variety of exotic elements such as lithium, beryllium, tantalum, tin, and cesium, which may or may not occur in economically significant concentrations. Detailed studies by numerous investigators (Cameron et al., 1949, 1954; Hanley et al., 1950; Jahns, 1953, 1955; Page et al., 1953) indicate that pegmatites often exhibit an internal zonal arrangement, with each zone containing a specific suite of minerals. The lithium minerals are usually found in the intermediate zones, and although as many as 13 zones have been recognized by Cameron, a complete zonal arrangement is rarely found. Zoning of pegmatite bodies has also been observed on a regional basis. The regionally zoned pegmatite sequences exhibit mineral assemblages and complexity according to their respective distance from the granitic bodies to which they are genetically related (Mulligan, 1965). Lithium is also found in small proportions in a variety of rocks. The average lithium

Jan 1, 1975

By G. G. Priest, B. E. Morgan

The production of oil and gas from wells is often seriously hindered by the compaction of solids in the perforations during the perforating process. To realize the full productive capacity of a well, it is necessary either to remove the plugging material from the perforations or to perforate in a manner which does not cause plugging of the perforations. The latter method can be accomplished by having a non-plugging fluid in the casing at the time the well is perforated. This paper describes the results of laboratory tests, perforating tests, and experimental field tests which demonstrate that certain emulsions serve effectively as non-plugging perforating fluids. The principal components of these emulsions are two liquids: an aqueous phase consisting of a solution of either sodium chloride or calcium chloride, and an oil phase consisting of diesel oil, tetrachloroethylene, or a combination of both. Small amounts of other agents which serve to stubilize the emulsions, to reduce the fluid loss, and to inhibit corrosion are also present. The density of the emulsions is controllable within the range of 7.5 to 12.5 lb/gal; no insoluble solids are present, the filtration rate is low, and the thermal stability is satisfactory at temperatures as high as 200°F. The corrosion of steel by these emulsions is negligible. Tests conducted under conditions which simulate the temperature and the pressure in an actual well demonstrate that these emulsions fulfill the requirements of a non-plugging perforating fluid. In addition, lirnited field experience furnishes evidence that these emulsions remain in position after they are spotted, that they are retained in the casing after the perforations are made, and that they are easily removed from the perforations when the well is opened for production. When the pressure in the borehole is greater than the formation pressure at the time a well is perforated, plugging of the perforations can be avoided by spotting an emulsion adjacent the interval to be perforated. This procedure should eliminate low well productivity caused by plugging the perforations. INTRODUCTION Nature of Problem The most widely used method for the completion of oil and gas wells is to set and cement casing through productive horizons, and then to obtain production by gun-perforating the section of casing opposite the desired interval. This method is gen- erally successful and it was thought at one time that those failures which did occur were due to insufficient penetration by the perforator. Despite recent improvements in perforators which assure ample penetration, unsatisfactory fluid production continues to be a problem. Evidently, the trouble comes from some other source. Recent results obtained by Allen and Worzel1 demonstrated that low fluid productivity may be caused by the perforating process and/or by the fluid in the wellbore at the time of shooting. They found that perforations are often completely plugged by debris from the perforator, pulverized sand from the formation, and compacted solids from the drilling mud when the pressure in the wellbore is greater than the pressure in the formation at the time of perforation. In some cases a differential pressure in excess of 400 psi was required to initiate flow into the well through these plugged perforations. The plugging of perforations by solids not only causes low productivity from wells, but it creates simultaneously other problems in the production of oil and gas. For example, when most of the perforations are plugged, high rates of flow must occur through the few perforations that are open. The resulting high pressure drop may cause production

Jan 1, 1958

P. E. McKinney,* Washington, D. C.-Observation made after examination of a number of defective gun forgings, together with a history of their manufacture, has strongly suggested that so-called "flakes" and woody or fibrous fractures are not necessarily analogous and are often caused by entirely different conditions. While some flaked bars may show fibrous areas in the fracture, it does not necessarily follow that the conditions causing these areas are the same as cause the fibrous, or so-called laminated, structures so commonly met in gun forgings subject to transverse tensile test; the fibrous structure formed in some flaky bars are merely incidental to the conditions causing the flakes. It is believed that the so-called flakes, or bright silvery spots, are mainly due to inherent physical defects in the steel, which existed at the very origin of the steel, rather than metallographic defects caused by subsequent irregularities in mechanical or thermal treatment. While great care in forging and treatment may, in a measure, tend to overcome the evil effect of the defects, with many heats of ingots, no such precautionary measures are needed to produce perfect forgings- and with such heats of steel it would be impossible, no matter how carelessly handled, to produce intentionally a forging containing the defects commonly known as flakes. It has been found possible, on several occasions, to actually predict flaky forgings from an inspection f the ingot after it had solidified, and in such cases no amount of careful forging or heat treatment would prevent the occurrence of such defects in the forging. The inspection of the physical condition of the ingot, and especially the character of the shrinkage on. the top of the ingot, has been given too little thought and study in this connection.

Jan 5, 1919

By Joseph P. Hodgson

JOSEPH P. HODGSON.-As to ".Safety First," I did not deal with that, but I will say that in 1913, the number of .men killed was nine, and that year the "safety first" program was commenced; the next year, 1914, the number was reduced to five. In 1915, I am pleased to say that the number was reduced to two in the Copper Queen's entire property, and we have none so far this year. THE CHAIRMAN (G. F. G. HERMAN, Bisbee, Ariz.).-I can say, further, that we have from eight to nineteen men per month incapacitated for more than 14 days. Those are classified in this State as serious accidents. The number of men injured has apparently increased, -but that is clue to our improved method of recording and classifying accidents, no matter how slight. C. W. GOODALE, Butte, Mont.-The importance of cooperation among the members of the staff of an industrial organization is well brought out by Mr..Hodgson's paper.

Jan 12, 1916

By J. N. Hummel

The methods of electrical prospecting, which employ contact electrodes to produce an electric field in the ground, furnish information concerning the constitution of the material beneath the surface, as indicated by the distortion of this artificially produced field and anomalies therein. To reveal the distortion of such field of known character, it is only necessary to measure qualitatively the direction of the field, using sensitive compensation methods. In such a case, the survey is relatively simple, and that is an important factor from a practical point of view. The distortion of the normal field thus determined permits an easy interpretation and gives approximate information as to the subsurface conditions, without the necessity of a thorough theoretical knowledge of the electrical field. The true field of application of the equipotential lines and search-coil methods, which are based on this principle of directional determination of the electrical field in the ground, is that of search for deposits of economic minerals for the mining industry, although they can also be used in solution of other problems; for example, in the determination of the strike of anisotropic beds. The distortion of the electric field as represented by the picture of equipotential lines or other measured curves is striking only when bodies having conductivities different from that of the country rock are embedded in the underground, or when the underground is anisotropic. It is obvious that methods based on such a simple principle and capable of solving directly many of the practical problems of mining geology have found a widespread application. However, these methods are unable to furnish any information as to the presence, depth and physical properties of layers in the underground, which have different conductivities, but are parallel, or only slightly inclined, to the surface. Where such conditions exist in the underground, the picture of the field

Jan 1, 1932

By Cyril Stanley Smith

IsolatEd alloys of copper and silicon were prepared and examined by chemical methods more than one hundred years ago, but it was not until the work of Rudolfi l that the equilibrium relations were studied. The early history of the alloys was well described by Baradue-Muller 2 and need not be further discussed here. The diagram of Rudolfi, based entirely on thermal observations, showed sillcon to be soluble in copper up to 4.5 per cent. at 849" C., at which temperature there was a peritectic horizontal resulting from the formation of a ß phase with about 7.4 per cent. silicon from a and liquid with 7.85 per cent. silicon. The ß phase was believed to form a eutectic with Cu3Si at 820" C. and 9.8 per

Jan 1, 1929

By Cyril Stanley Smith

IsolatEd alloys of copper and silicon were prepared and examined by chemical methods more than one hundred years ago, but it was not until the work of Rudolfi l that the equilibrium relations were studied. The early history of the alloys was well described by Baradue-Muller 2 and need not be further discussed here. The diagram of Rudolfi, based entirely on thermal observations, showed sillcon to be soluble in copper up to 4.5 per cent. at 849" C., at which temperature there was a peritectic horizontal resulting from the formation of a ß phase with about 7.4 per cent. silicon from a and liquid with 7.85 per cent. silicon. The ß phase was believed to form a eutectic with Cu3Si at 820" C. and 9.8 per

Jan 1, 1929

By George W. Sheary

Situated 45 miles west of Philadelphia and 50 miles southwest of Bethlehem Steel Company's Bethlehem plant, the integrated Grace mine facilities produce 4000 tpd of high-quality iron ore pellets. Startup of the Grace mill was in November 1958, and iron concentrates were shipped until March 1960, when the pellet plant went into operation. The underground mine, when fully developed, will hoist about 9000 tpd, including development rock. The crude ore, which has an iron content of approximately 42%, is magnetically cobbed and crushed in closed circuit with 3/4-in. slotted vibrating screens. The ore is washed and screened in the mill and the plus 1/4 in. screen product is again cobbed prior to feeding to the rod mills. Grinding is done in rod mills, and in ball mills that are in closed circuit with 30 in, cyclones, to 1% on 100 mesh and 65% minus 325 mesh. The ground ore is magnetically concentrated by three-drum permanent type finisher magnets to 67% Fe. The magnetite concentrate is pumped from the mill to a 50 ft thickener in the pellet plant. The thickened magnetite concentrate is relayed to the filters through a two-stage pump arrangement. The filter cake is fed by belt from filter concentrate bins to mixer-muller belts where it is intimately mixed with bentonite and a slight amount of water for moisture control. The fluffed concentrate then drops into balling cones. The green pellets from the balling cones are fed in a prescribed feed pattern to shaft furnaces through the use of shuttle car mechanisms. The green pellets are dried, heated to 2500°F and cooled to 1200°F as they descend through the furnace and into pellet coolers where the pellets are further reduced in temperature to 250°F. Heat is recovered in the cooling process through the use of air-to-air heat exchangers. The cooled pellets discharge on a rubber conveyor belt and are transferred to 6000-ton pellet railroad loading bin. The final pellet product consists of 90% plus 1/4 in. material (after tumble testing1) and contains 66% Fe plus 3% silica.

Jan 5, 1962

By H. A. Dierks

PENNSYLVANIA's anthracite region lies in the heart of the richest and most densely populated area of the U. S. Nearly 70 million people live within a radius of 500 miles, in which 130,000 manufacturing plants employ more than 8 million workers. The region comprises some 3000 sq miles and contains 484 sq miles of coal measures, which folding and erosion have divided into four separate and distinct fields, known as the Northern, Eastern Middle, Western Middle, and Southern.

Jan 10, 1957

By C. C. Wright, T. S. Spicer

A characteristic property of bituminous coal is that upon being heated the coal becomes plastic, evolves volatile gases, and finally solidifies into coke. This fundamental characteristic is of utmost importance and is utilized in the production of the high-temperature coke upon which the steel industry is so dependent; but from the standpoint of operation in the domestic underfeed stoker this coking tendency seriously interferes with efficient combustion. When the coke formed has too strong a structure, certain difficulties result, such as low rate of burning, slow response to heat demand, and, in extreme cases, extinction of fire. The plastic mass prevents uniform distribution of air through the fuel bed and, with strongly coking coals, large dense pieces of coke are produced which have much less reacting surface than was possessed by the original coal. In both ignition and combustion of solid fuels, the extent of the reacting surface is an accelerating factor. Poor combustion permits a surplus of fuel to accumulate in the furnace because the rate of feed and the rate of combustion are not in equilibrium, and this produces an unbalanced condition detrimental to continued automatic service. In order to bum strongly coking coals satisfactorily in a conventional stoker during the three requisite types of operation—continuous, intermittent and hold-fire, frequent attention is necessary. Domestic stokers are defined by the industry as residential stoker heaters that burn 60 lb. of coal or less per hour. With a few exceptions, these units employ the underfeed principle of combustion in which both air and coal move in the same direction up and through the fuel bed. Domestic combustion equipment has difficulty in meeting the problems presented by the several variations in ash and volatile matter, in ash-clinkering tendencies, in coking properties, and in the particle size of bituminous coals. The work of Bituminous Coal Research Inc. at Battelle Memorial Institute has shown that, of these, coking characteristics and the clinkering tendencies have the greatest effect upon the operation of the conventional clinkering type of stoker. Typical coke formations in a clinkering type of underfeed domestic stoker are illustratcd in Fig. I, which shows (A) the ideal fuel bed obtained with a noncoking or free-burning coal; (B) the type of fuel bed formed with a coal that produces a weak coke; and (C) the type of fuel bed obtained with a strongly coking coal. C is characteristic of the fuel bed developed when the average Pennsylvania bituminous coal is burned in an underfeed stoker of conventional type. It is apparent from these pictures that the formation of coke trees will seriously interfere with the efficient automatic combustion of Pennsylvania bituminous coals.

Jan 1, 1942

By T. S. Spicer, C. C. Wright

A characteristic property of bituminous coal is that upon being heated the coal becomes plastic, evolves volatile gases, and finally solidifies into coke. This fundamental characteristic is of utmost importance and is utilized in the production of the high-temperature coke upon which the steel industry is so dependent; but from the standpoint of operation in the domestic underfeed stoker this coking tendency seriously interferes with efficient combustion. When the coke formed has too strong a structure, certain difficulties result, such as low rate of burning, slow response to heat demand, and, in extreme cases, extinction of fire. The plastic mass prevents uniform distribution of air through the fuel bed and, with strongly coking coals, large dense pieces of coke are produced which have much less reacting surface than was possessed by the original coal. In both ignition and combustion of solid fuels, the extent of the reacting surface is an accelerating factor. Poor combustion permits a surplus of fuel to accumulate in the furnace because the rate of feed and the rate of combustion are not in equilibrium, and this produces an unbalanced condition detrimental to continued automatic service. In order to bum strongly coking coals satisfactorily in a conventional stoker during the three requisite types of operation—continuous, intermittent and hold-fire, frequent attention is necessary. Domestic stokers are defined by the industry as residential stoker heaters that burn 60 lb. of coal or less per hour. With a few exceptions, these units employ the underfeed principle of combustion in which both air and coal move in the same direction up and through the fuel bed. Domestic combustion equipment has difficulty in meeting the problems presented by the several variations in ash and volatile matter, in ash-clinkering tendencies, in coking properties, and in the particle size of bituminous coals. The work of Bituminous Coal Research Inc. at Battelle Memorial Institute has shown that, of these, coking characteristics and the clinkering tendencies have the greatest effect upon the operation of the conventional clinkering type of stoker. Typical coke formations in a clinkering type of underfeed domestic stoker are illustratcd in Fig. I, which shows (A) the ideal fuel bed obtained with a noncoking or free-burning coal; (B) the type of fuel bed formed with a coal that produces a weak coke; and (C) the type of fuel bed obtained with a strongly coking coal. C is characteristic of the fuel bed developed when the average Pennsylvania bituminous coal is burned in an underfeed stoker of conventional type. It is apparent from these pictures that the formation of coke trees will seriously interfere with the efficient automatic combustion of Pennsylvania bituminous coals.

Jan 1, 1942