Search Documents

By David B. Morris, Paul I. Eimon

Computer-assisted data storage and retrieval in the geosciences is coming of age. A growing awareness of the need of the geological and mining community for effective access to existing data has triggered studies and development programs on many levels; governments, professional societies, industrial concerns, and the academic world are all active in this field. Developments in the past decade in computer hardware and software lend hope to the geoscientist searching for a means of expediting the flow of data. The new concern of the earth sciences coming together with the blossoming child of technology, computing, has led to serious study of the geoscience information problem. Active system development is under way in several areas. The papers presented at this Symposium effectively sample the spectrum of present day activity in machine-based geologic data storage and retrieval. These papers show the reader where the action is in this field today. Both long-range studies and plans and operational systems are discussed. Several studies and research efforts have been undertaken on a national or international scale. Robinson discusses the activity of the international geological community in these Proceedings. He speaks from a position of authority as Chairman of the International Union of Geological Sciences' Committee on Storage, Automatic Processing and Retrieval of Geological Data. A study of a "coordinated information program for geological scientists in the United States" documented by Smith, et al.1 proposes a "long-range information program ... responsive to the entire geosciences community . . . (to) draw on the best of large-scale information systems technology." The European geologic community is embarked on project Geosemantica 70, started at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris. Dixon discusses some results of this work in a following paper. The Canadian study of geological data storage and retrieval on a national scale is reported in a volume edited by Brisbin and Ediger.2 The Canadian report presents detailed recommendations for recording and coding geologic data for automatic process-

Jan 1, 1969

By Sir Robert Hadfield

Table 1 gives the composition of the specimens listed by the author. The details of test procedure and the results of the tests on mechanical, magnetic and electrical properties and cor-rodibility of the alloys are published in full in a paper by the same author, "Alloys of Iron and Manganese Containing Low Carbon," presented before the Iron and Steel Institute (of Great Britain) and published in full in their Proceedings for 1927, to which reference should be made. After reporting these tests the author gives the following discussion of results:] The studies here reported do not indicate that any of the series has really valuable or useful qualities for industrial applications, though the demands of industry are so varied that it is unsafe to prophesy that no special use will be found for a given material. The non-magnetic property of manganese steel is due to the association of Fe and Mn, but carbon has also an effect, enabling non-magnetic qualities to be obtained with a much lower percentage of Mn than would otherwise be the case; for example, 16 per cent. Mn is necessary for alloys practically free from carbon, while with 1 per cent. C nonmagnetic alloys may be obtained with as little as 7 per cent. Mn. Carbon, however, is the prime cause of the development of magnetic qualities by heat treatment. (Sec section 8 of the paper referred to above.) These Fe-Mn alloys show a resistance up to 87 microhms per c. c., but. as there are other alloys which have a resistance as high as 130 microhms per C. c., this does not provide any new feature of value. The most marked feature of the series studied is the brittleness in the range 3 to 10 per cent., with a maximum of brittleness at 7 per cent. Material with this percentage, while possessing quite appreciable hard-

Jan 1, 1927

By W. W. Scott

The application of engineering methods to the problems connected with drilling and producing in the oil industry has led to the development of the science that is variously termed "petroleum engineering," "production engineering," "petroleum production engineering," and even Itpolitical engineering." It would require much detail to enumerate the qualifications of a petroleum engineer, just as it would for an engineer in any major industry. For those who have a genuine liking for the oil industry, there is a wide selection of pathways to achievement. The oil industry is now highly specialized. Its products are necessary to all civilized people and are indispensable in the security of our nation and also in the well-being of our families. The business structure of our country depends in a large measure upon oil, and the welfare of this group as individuals is certainly linked with the welfare of the oil industry. What Is the Trend of Engineering? The oil industry offers a fertile field of opportunity for engineering; probably more so than any other industry. The sciences of geology, physics, chemistry and mathematics are all used in some phase of the oil industry and to a very considerable extent in the production division, which embraces the geological, drilling and producing departments. In drilling and production alone, research programs of considerable magnitude are being carried on at this time, and no doubt the future will see a great deal more of this kind of work. Through the cooperation of the engineer, the equipment manufacturer, and the American Petroleum Institute, immense savings have been made by the standardization of drilling and production equipment. Drilling equipment in itself offers a wide scope for study, in that continued efforts are being made to improve the equipment so that it can be made to drill faster and to greater depths. The improvements in drilling equipment are required because new reserves of oil are being found at progressively greater depths. In order to produce such oil in competition with oil now being produced from reservoirs

Jan 1, 1937

THROUGH the courtesy of the Southern Appala-chian Coal Operators' Association, a joint meeting of the Southern Appalachian Efficiency Associa-tion and local members of the A. I. M. E. and A. S. M. E. was held at Knoxville, Tenn., on Nov. 12. In introduc-ing the subject and stating the object of the meeting, H. Foster Bain, speaking for the. Institute members, said "Shoveling coal is the largest job of hand labor re-maining in this country, with the exception of the mis-cellaneous work on the farms, and even there nearly all the big jobs are now performed with the help of machines. The men in the coal mines, by hand labor, dig, each year, more cubic yards than were taken out of the Panama Canal. It has been a natural ambition of engineers, operators and men alike to follow here the characteristic lead of American industry and to substi-tute as far as possible the work of machines for the work of men; to promote the latter to the position of con-trolling and directing mechanical power rather than being themselves the machines that lift the coal from the floor of the room into the mine car. "Handling materials is one of the regular jobs of mechanical engineers, and the American Society of Me-chanical Engineers maintains a Materials Handling Division for discussion of the technical problems con-cerned. Having in mind the excellent results that had flowed from application of mechanical power and de-vices to these problems in factories, port terminals, warehouses, and other above-ground plants, the Me-chanical Engineers began to consider the possibility of introducing similar methods underground. Individual-ly, many were called upon to design, erect and operate machines for such use and at once they found them-selves faced by many novel conditions and difficulties. The Division thereupon planned a general meeting in New York in March, 1926, for consideration of problems and progress in this field. The Mining Engineers. and representative coal operators were invited to attend and

Jan 12, 1927

By Van H. Manning

In substance, the international aspects of the petroleum industry, as these relate to the United States, are as follows: The domestic production is not keeping pace with the domestic demands; our best engineering talent warns us of the imminence of a decreased production by our oil wells, although more oil is needed; and the only practical source whence this increasing demand can be supplied for some time to come will be the foreign fields. Other nations have given thought to the future and, in recent years, have shown a tendency to adopt strong nationalistic policies regarding their petroleum resources, policies that hinder or prevent the exploitation of these resources by other nationals. In consequence, we find that, facing a probable shortage of the domestic supply, our nationals are excluded from foreign fields; and this in spite of the fact that foreign nationals have been permitted to enter into and exploit our own oil resources on an equality with American citizens and without hindrance or restrictions. This country has supplied the larger part of the petroleum consumed by the world and yet, with a failing supply imminent, it finds that those countries that, have been drawing upon our resources to supply their needs are showing a tendency to exclude us from their resources. In this way we shall be transferred from a position of dominence to one of dependence; and only by sufferance of those countries that are now seeking financial or political control of petroleum supplies, shall we be able to obtain the oil we will need. Impoetance of Petroleum Petroleum has become, during recent years, one of the essentials of our social and industrial life. All civilized countries recognize that the world is dependent on petroleum as on nothing else except textiles: foodstuffs, coal, and iron. Today, the tendency is toward an ever-increasing consumption of petroleum and its products as new and more efficient uses are found for them. The utilization of petroleum is extending more and more into the structure of our civilization. Consequently,

Jan 1, 1921

By AIME AIME

BOB VAN PELTS boyhood days in the mining atmosphere of Colorado apparently influenced him to direct hip college education first towards geology, at. Cornell College, then to mining at Michigan College of Mines and finally to graduate work in geology at the University of Chicago. He taught geology at his alma mater. Cornell College. served as geologist for the National Park Service then was on the staff of the Illinois Geological Surrey investigating and mapping mineral resources, and in 1928 because chief of the department of geology, mining, and metallurgy in the newly organized Rosenwald Industrial Museum (now the -Museum of Science and Industry,). He was made assistant director of the Museum in 1931.

Jan 1, 1941

By C. R. Boyd

The region to which I have the pleasure of calling your attention, though limited in area, is remarkable for the quantity and purity of its mineral deposits, and in these respects it would be difficult to find its equal anywhere. IRON ORES. The red and brown hematites, pipe ore, and semi-magnetites, from which is made in charcoal furnaces the highest quality of iron for car-wheels, extend through the counties of Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski, Wythe, Smyth, Washington, Bland, Tazewell, Russell, Scott, Lee, Floyd, Carroll, and Grayson, Virginia, and run over into Ashe County, North Carolina. One locality of semi-magnetite, in the centre of the great Giles County basin, has in sight, by actual measurement, 50,000 tons of ore, which, according to Prof. Fesquet, contains 69.74 per cent. of iron and no phosphorus. In the great brown-ore belt, which passes through the counties of Montgomery, Pulaski, Wythe, Smyth, and Washington, there is an extraordinary deposit of more than a million tons. A small section of this very long vein, on Cripple Creek, in the County of Wythe, yields an ore which, analyzed by Mr. James Aumann, gave the following results: Metallic iron,........58.15 Water,.........12 96 Alumina,........2.32 Silica,.........1.09 Phosphorus,.. none. At one point towards the western end of Red Land Mountain, in Pulaski County, New River section, I measured a body of ore in this belt which will yield, to a depth of 150 feet, over 8,000,000 tons, and the deposit extends far below the 150 feet measured at the upper part. Again, at Rich Hill, near the mouth of Reed Island Creek, these veins show extraordinary surface development, giving an ore of very great purity. At numerous places, also, in the counties of Giles, Bland, Tazewell, Russell, Scott, Wise, and Lee, these brown and red iron ores are exposed in such vast quantities as to baffle both description and measurement. That of Chestnut Flat, in Giles County, back or west of the Angel's Rest Mountain, is an easily reducible ore, blood-red when crushed, of which there are fully 300,000 tons in sight. Its analysis is as follows :

Jan 1, 1880

By C. M. Wayman, R. Bullough

The rediffraction of Bragg diffracted beams by differently oriented regions (such as twins) of a crystal may give rise to "extra" reflections or reciprocal lattice points. These two papers are concerned with predicting these additional reflections which result from twin related regions of a lattice. Analysis is made for {111}fcc twins, (112)bcc twins, and {hkil}hcp twins. It is first required, knowing the specific variant of the twinning plane in each case, to predict the positions of the twin reflections relative to the matrix reciprocal lattice. Once this is done, the positions of the "extra" multiply diffracted reflections may be deduced. Part I is devoted to establishing "selection ru1es" for twinning, i.e., the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of twinned reciprocal lattice points. 1. INTRODUCTION. Transmission electron diffraction patterns are frequently complicated by multiply diffracted beams. Pashley and stowell1 have recently demonstrated that certain extra reflections in evapo- rated films of gold result from the rediffraction of matrix Bragg diffracted beams by (111) microtwins in the gold. It was previously (and erroneously) suggested 2,3 that observed "irrational" reflections in fine-grained gold were due to the presence of some hcp gold. A similar situation exists, apparently, for some bcc materials; fine (112) twins in bcc martensite in Fe-Ni alloys4 give rise to extra reflections. There are many other examples. The number of transmission electron microscopic investigations is continually increasing, and because of the importance of double (and multiple) diffraction in the interpretation of diffraction patterns, it was judged that a detailed elaboration of the principles involved is desirable, as well as the extension of these principles in reasonably closed form to other crystal structures, particularly bcc and hcp. The present analysis considers double diffraction caused by (111) twins in fcc metals, (112) twins in bcc metals, and {hkil} = {hkl) twins in hcp metals. For each case of twinning, the various possible (variants of) twins give rise to a set of interpenetrating reciprocal lattices. The relative spatial arrangements of these reciprocal lattices can be deduced (Part I) and are expressed in terms of simple "selection rules". The resulting sets of interpenetrating reciprocal lattices are then analyzed for possible doubly diffracted reflections (Part II). The notation used, and some important formulas are given in Appendices I and 11.

Jan 1, 1967

FINAL REPORT OF' THE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING AND METALLURGICAL ENGINEERS W. E. FOHL, Chairman J. W. PAUL J. M. RAYBURN C. A. WARNER JOHN B. CORRIN C. E. KREBS JOHN H. WILSON A. W. HESSE M. M. LEIGHTON H. I. SMITH [Accepted and Committee discharged with thanks, April 27, 1928.] Regulations recommended for the location, drilling, casing, protection, operation, plugging and filling, and abandonment of natural gas and petroleum wells; having for their objectives the protection of life and property by prevention of intrusions of oil and gas into workable coal beds, and the conservation of oil and gas resources in territory not underlain with workable coal beds. ARTICLE I DEFINITIONS SEC. 1. For the purpose of these regulations, definitions are as follows: Well.-A bore hole drilled for the purpose of developing natural gas or petroleum, or a bore hole producing natural gas or petroleum. Well Operator.-Any person, persons, firm, partnership, corporation, company or association that proposes to, or does drill, operate or abandon a well as herein defined. Coal Operator.-Any person, persons, firm, partnership, corporation, company or association that proposes to, or does operate a coal mine in territory known or reputed to be underlain with oil or gas-bearing strata. Coal Owner.-Any person, persons, firm, partnership, corporation, company or association, other than a Coal Operator as herein defined, that owns coal lands in territory known or reputed to be underlain with oil or gas-bearing strata. State Mining Department.-The duly constituted authorities of a state having jurisdiction over coal-mining operations, and oil and gas operations as herein provided. Plat.-A map, drawing or print made in accordance with the provisions of these regulations. Casing.-The pipe commonly used in wells drilled for natural gas and petroleum. Oil and Gas.-Synonyms, respectively, for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Jan 1, 1928

By W. R. Seyfried

THE -problem of extracting alumina from clay and low-grade bauxites has been the subject of considerable interest for some time. The basic reason, of course, lies in the fact that known reserves of high-grade bauxite are not inexhaustible and that the present commercial process cannot successfully cope with low-grade bauxites or clay. Ultimately it may be necessary to use these poorer raw materials for all commercial operations, An unprecedented demand for aluminum during the war emergency and the constantly threatened shortage of imported bauxite caused the United States Government to take an active role in this problem. Through the National Academy of Sciences, the War Production Board and the Defense Plant Corporation, it investigated processes and finally selected four to be used in the construction and operation of four experimental plants. Each plant was to be designed in such a way as to facilitate its incorporation into a larger commercial plant should the need arise. The Chemical Construction Corporation process, or "Chemico" ammonium sulphate process as it is better known, was one of the four selected. The extensive literature and patents on record before the war generally follow one of two process-types depending upon the extracting reagent used. One group uses an acid reagent, the other an alkali. The Chemico process uses an acid reagent. For those interested in other processes described in literature, there is a short bibliography at the end of this paper, The basic steps of all acid extraction processes are: (I) to make the aluminum silicates acid soluble, (2) to separate the released alumina from impurities and insoluble gangue, and (3) to recover the reaent for re-use. THE PROCESS AS PLANNED In April 1941, a group of chemists and engineers of the Chemical Construction Corp, became interested in the problem of extracting alumina from clays and low-grade bauxites and, under the leadership of Mr. Blakeslee Barnes, Vice President and General Manager of the Company, first drafted a process in July of that year-five months prior to Pearl Harbor. The work continued in our research laboratories and with a small pilot plant, By June 1943, the work had progressed to a point where it was possible to apply for a patent on the process which was U.S. patent 2,405,426, granted August 6, 1946. Immediately prior to the development of the Salem plant, the process was envisaged to be as follows: I. The first step was to make the aluminum silicates acid soluble. It was planned: (a) Clay or low-grade bauxite would be roasted at 700 to 800°C (1292° to 1492°F). (b) The roasted ore would then be leached .with hot aqueous ammonium bisulphate to form a slurry. In this way the

Jan 1, 1948

Albert Ladd Colby, New York, N. Y. (communication to the Secretary†):—I observed (Trans., xxxvii., 585) that to obtain tenders from several American mills, the foreign engineer should modify his maximum phosphorus to 0.10 per cent., not as Mr. E. Windsor Richards quotes me, that no American rail-maker can produce rails under 0.10 per cent. of phosphorus. Mr. Richards claims that no English engineer would agree to accept 0.10 per cent. of phosphorus on any terms whatever. Mr. Webster writes that only after an engineer has .been convinced that rails can be made in America equal in every respect to those he is getting abroad, should he be asked to modify ally conditions in his specifications. I know it to be a fact that during recent years in many cases, as, for instance, When delivery could be secured more promptly in the United States than in Europe, the consulting engineers of several British and colonial railroads have frequently agreed to modify their phosphorus requirement to a maximum of 0.10 per cent., and the rails delivered' under these modified specifications have, under like conditions, given just as satisfactory service and proved to be no more brittle than similar sections of 0.07 per cent. phosphorus rails, rolled in England under the same specification except without modification as to phosphorus. Furthermore, it would appear from the analyses of British rails, quoted by E. A. Dancaster,2 in his discussion of Mr.

Jan 1, 1908

By GEORGE D. RAMSAY

ABOUT three miles west of Fontana San Bernardino County, California, and fifty miles east of Los Angeles, the Kaiser Co., Inc., has built an integrated steel plant. By integrated, I mean that from its wholly owned iron ore and coal supply, the Kaiser Co. is producing in its own mills iron and steel products. Pig iron to meet the West Coast needs has been produced at Fontana since Jan. 1, 1943; steel ingots were first poured there May 14, 1943; and steel plate for ships was first rolled Aug. 15, just sixteen months after ground was broken. Briefly, the plant consists of: (I) Two batteries of by-product coke ovens, totalling ninety ovens, carbonizing about 1740 tons of coal per day at capacity; with by-product facilities for the production of tar, ammonia, and ammonium suIphate, light oil distillates, and tar distillates. (2) One blast furnace producing at

Jan 1, 1944

By Arthur F. Taggart

ENGINEERING education today is like a crazy quilt of somber wools and gaudy shoddy, chain-stitched on an academic assembly line, and sold at ever mounting prices to inexperienced youths for lifetime use. Each engineering school offers a half-dozen or so patterns with essentially the same skimpy wool content. Sales appeal is in the color of the shoddy, denoted by the hopeful adjectives chemical, civil and the like. This article is argument for an all wool product made by slow, careful handwork. Bluntly it proposes a thorough four-year undergraduate drill in fundamental science and general engineering empirics, leavened by continuing study of the third of the engineer's troubles: Man. It is not contended that existing methods of engineering education have failed to start men on the path to successful engineering practice (too many of you have started that way); rather, social conditions and the bounds of knowledge have changed tremendously, and corresponding alterations in the pattern of engineering education are overdue. We'll Teach the Specifics The first part of this contention is illustrated by excerpts from a letter received recently from an officer of one of the largest corporations: "We are interested in employing two or three outstanding young engineers to be placed on a special training program to develop them as design and construction engineers.... "We propose to put these men on a four-month indoctrination and orientation course after which they would be given job-training assignments for a period that will vary from about six months to about a year and a half depending upon the aptitudes, abilities and intelligence of the candidates.... "I am not too fussy about what kind of engineers the men might be insofar as academic courses are concerned. They could be.. . in almost any engineering classification.... We can furnish the additional training beyond the academic fundamentals. "The starting rate for these jobs would be $326 per month...." This letter is not unique; rather it is representative of a practice that has become common. It is industry's enforced response to the general refusal by young graduates to submit to union domination in order to gain operating experience at the labor level. The message to engineering schoolteachers is plain: You teach the fundamentals; we'll teach our practice and pay the graduate to learn it. The letter means to the student that time spent in school studying the specific practices of particular industries is waste compounded. The school can't give the equivalent of what industry teaches, wherefore industry will still demand apprenticeship. The student must pay for the specific instruction at school instead of being paid to take it later. And time-consuming specifics crowd out drill in basic scientific and technical subjects as well as liberal arts.

Jan 1, 1952

By C. W. Binckley, F. R. Burgess, E. R. Haymaker

A method of establishing stabilized back-pressure curves for gas wells producing from formations of extremely low permeability is presented. Actual well performance under many different operating conditions is shown by the stabilized back-pressure curve. By use of the method. it is possible to conduct back-pressure tests with a critical-flow prover on wells that stabilize slowly, and save approximately 88% of the gas ordinarily vented to obtain satisfactory test data, with a great reduction in time required for testing. INTRODUCTION The reasons for establishing dependable back-pressure curves on gas wells have been pointed out by previous publications. The publication most referred to. of course, is the United States Bureau of Mines Monograph 7, titled "Back-Pressure Data on Natural Gas Wells and Their Application to Production Practices". The technique generally established therein has been accepted and used by many engineers; and, when proper tests are conducted, the results can be used for the analysis and solution of several practical problems concerning field operation and development. Even where formations of low specific permeability are encountered, the determination of a well's actual performance by the back-pressure test method permits the engineer to analyze many problems in individual well operation and also to predict necessary future field development. Such problems as the determination of the ability of a well to produce into a pipe line at a predetermined line pressure, the design of gas gathering systems and meter settings, and the determination of the time and the number of wells required to be drilled to meet future market obligations, can be solved, in part., by the use of a reliable back-~ressure curve. In addition, the computed well delivery rates determined by data from backpressure tests ordered by state regtilatory bodies, when compared with the true back-Pressure curve, permit the operator to ascertain whether such data represent unstable or relatively stabilized delivery rates for given pressure conditions of the well. The technique of back-pressure testing, as described in this report, was developed by Phillips Petroleum Company engineers from data obtained during a testing program that started in 1944 and has been continued to date. Three hundred and eleven back-pressure tests were conducted on 299 wells located in the southern part of the Hugoton Field. The gas-bearing zone is composed of several dolomitic formations of the Permian Age; the important ones are the Herington, Upper Krider, Lower Krider, and Winfield. The average bottom-hole temperature is approximately 91 °F.. and the initial wellhead shut-in pressures range from 400 to 440 psig. The spacing pattern is 640 acres per well with each well located near the center of the section. The range of back-pressure potentials on wells tested was from 500 to 23,000 Mcfd. All gas wells were acidized, and the quantity of acid used, expressed in 1574 hydrocloric acid, varied from 12,000 to 22,000 gallons per well. The quantity and concentration of each treatment depended on the stage, the formation being treated, and experience gained from previously completed wells. The gas in the Hugoton Feld is a "dry" gas. It has a gasoline content of approximately 0.25 gallons per thousand cubic feet, as determined by charcoal test, and its specific gravity averages about 0.71 as compared to air (air = 1.00 at 60°F.). Of the wells tested, 71 were completed with 7" casing, 3 with 9 5/8" casing, and 1 with 6%" casing set on top of the upper producing formation with the well bore through the gas bearing formations being open hole. Two hundred and twenty-four were completed with 5 1/2'' O.D. casing set through the gas bearing formations and perforated. For the purpose of establishing reliable back-pressure curves in the area, Phillips Petroleum Company personnel has computed data on the basis of 24-hour flows per point. Early in the program, many tests were actually permitted to flow 24 hours to obtain data for each plotting point, at great expense in man power and time. Presently, however, such tests have been replaced by tests of short duration flows which can be made to effect results that correspond to the tests obtained by flows of much longer duration. METHOD When a gas well producing from a reservoir of low permeability is opened for production through a constant size orifice, both the rate of flow and working pressure decline. first at a high rate and later at a lower rate until after several hours the decline becomes difficult to ascertain. In this paper the rae of flow and working pressure are considered to be stabilized when it becomes difficult to observe changes in working pressure during a period of three hours by the use of a deadweight pressure gage. Stalibization of pressure in the literal sense is never obtained in a producing gas well. In formations of low permeability. such as those in the Hugo-ton Field, most wellhead working pressures approach stabilization closely enough to be used satisfactorily in the determination of a back-Pressure potential curve after flow periods of 24 hours. We shall therefore describe the backpressure curve calculated from ohserved rates of flow and working pressure at the end of 24-hour flow periods.

Jan 1, 1949

By E. R. Haymaker, C. W. Binckley, F. R. Burgess

A method of establishing stabilized back-pressure curves for gas wells producing from formations of extremely low permeability is presented. Actual well performance under many different operating conditions is shown by the stabilized back-pressure curve. By use of the method. it is possible to conduct back-pressure tests with a critical-flow prover on wells that stabilize slowly, and save approximately 88% of the gas ordinarily vented to obtain satisfactory test data, with a great reduction in time required for testing. INTRODUCTION The reasons for establishing dependable back-pressure curves on gas wells have been pointed out by previous publications. The publication most referred to. of course, is the United States Bureau of Mines Monograph 7, titled "Back-Pressure Data on Natural Gas Wells and Their Application to Production Practices". The technique generally established therein has been accepted and used by many engineers; and, when proper tests are conducted, the results can be used for the analysis and solution of several practical problems concerning field operation and development. Even where formations of low specific permeability are encountered, the determination of a well's actual performance by the back-pressure test method permits the engineer to analyze many problems in individual well operation and also to predict necessary future field development. Such problems as the determination of the ability of a well to produce into a pipe line at a predetermined line pressure, the design of gas gathering systems and meter settings, and the determination of the time and the number of wells required to be drilled to meet future market obligations, can be solved, in part., by the use of a reliable back-~ressure curve. In addition, the computed well delivery rates determined by data from backpressure tests ordered by state regtilatory bodies, when compared with the true back-Pressure curve, permit the operator to ascertain whether such data represent unstable or relatively stabilized delivery rates for given pressure conditions of the well. The technique of back-pressure testing, as described in this report, was developed by Phillips Petroleum Company engineers from data obtained during a testing program that started in 1944 and has been continued to date. Three hundred and eleven back-pressure tests were conducted on 299 wells located in the southern part of the Hugoton Field. The gas-bearing zone is composed of several dolomitic formations of the Permian Age; the important ones are the Herington, Upper Krider, Lower Krider, and Winfield. The average bottom-hole temperature is approximately 91 °F.. and the initial wellhead shut-in pressures range from 400 to 440 psig. The spacing pattern is 640 acres per well with each well located near the center of the section. The range of back-pressure potentials on wells tested was from 500 to 23,000 Mcfd. All gas wells were acidized, and the quantity of acid used, expressed in 1574 hydrocloric acid, varied from 12,000 to 22,000 gallons per well. The quantity and concentration of each treatment depended on the stage, the formation being treated, and experience gained from previously completed wells. The gas in the Hugoton Feld is a "dry" gas. It has a gasoline content of approximately 0.25 gallons per thousand cubic feet, as determined by charcoal test, and its specific gravity averages about 0.71 as compared to air (air = 1.00 at 60°F.). Of the wells tested, 71 were completed with 7" casing, 3 with 9 5/8" casing, and 1 with 6%" casing set on top of the upper producing formation with the well bore through the gas bearing formations being open hole. Two hundred and twenty-four were completed with 5 1/2'' O.D. casing set through the gas bearing formations and perforated. For the purpose of establishing reliable back-pressure curves in the area, Phillips Petroleum Company personnel has computed data on the basis of 24-hour flows per point. Early in the program, many tests were actually permitted to flow 24 hours to obtain data for each plotting point, at great expense in man power and time. Presently, however, such tests have been replaced by tests of short duration flows which can be made to effect results that correspond to the tests obtained by flows of much longer duration. METHOD When a gas well producing from a reservoir of low permeability is opened for production through a constant size orifice, both the rate of flow and working pressure decline. first at a high rate and later at a lower rate until after several hours the decline becomes difficult to ascertain. In this paper the rae of flow and working pressure are considered to be stabilized when it becomes difficult to observe changes in working pressure during a period of three hours by the use of a deadweight pressure gage. Stalibization of pressure in the literal sense is never obtained in a producing gas well. In formations of low permeability. such as those in the Hugo-ton Field, most wellhead working pressures approach stabilization closely enough to be used satisfactorily in the determination of a back-Pressure potential curve after flow periods of 24 hours. We shall therefore describe the backpressure curve calculated from ohserved rates of flow and working pressure at the end of 24-hour flow periods.

Jan 1, 1949

By R. W. Raymond

This name is applied to the present mining law, as enacted in 1872 and since, to indicate its leading characteristic—in which it differs from all previous mining laws of this or any other country. The earlier act, passed in 1866, was practically the first attempt of Congress to deal with the question of mining titles upon the public domain. It was framed after nearly twenty years of acquiescence on the part of the Government in the self-constituted tribunals, officials, rules, and customs of the mining districts. In its recognition of these, and in several other particulars, the act of 1866 was open to serious criticisms. It is the purpose of this paper, not to trace the history of legislation on this subject, or show in detail what were the faults of the earlier law, but rather, by a discussion of certain aspects of the present law, to point out how great a revoluition it has effected in the rights of mining locators, and to indicate some of the difficulties attending its application. In the attempt to correct the vagueness of the act of 1866 an entirely new elernent was introduced into the law, bringing with it a new set of difficulties. Under the act of 1866 and the miners' customs which it followed, the lode was the thing claimed and subsequently acquired by patent. And the claim to a given number of feet on the longitudinal course of the lode was rooted in 'a discovery of any part of the lode in any part of the claim. ("Extensions" could in many districts—perhaps universally—be located and claimed on the strength of the discovery in the principal claim to which they referred; but this is a point not essential to the present discussion.) It was not necessary to find the outcrop or the upper edge of a lode in order to lay a valid location upon it. An explorer, sinking a shaft and intersecting a lode not already discovered and claimed by another, could claim by that discovery the number of feet along that lode which the local laws might permit (not exceeding the maximum set by the United States statute) whether his sur-

Jan 1, 1884

By J. W. Stewart

That our American civilization will have extensive postwar problems in such fields as economics, unemployment, and social adjustment is now well understood by all readers of the press and listeners to the radio. But precious little is heard from these sources regarding the impact of the war on education, though education is one of the fields where the effect of the war is going to be felt most-for youth is fighting the war. Unquestionably, serious educational problems will ;rise in the postwar period, challenging the best efforts of our educators. Most acute will be the problems at the college level of education, for it is this age group that will have had its educational process most thoroughly disrupted. The return of these students to our college and university campuses wiI1 bring about a new set of conditions which we might as well try to foresee and begin to prepare for now. To begin with, the average returning college student who has had his education interrupted by war service will certainly be more mature in both years and mental outlook, and possibly married. As a result he will want to finish his college education as quickly as possible. His natural action will be to shop around among the various schools of the country to see where he can get the most credit for work he has done or thinks he has done. It is just possible that what might impolitely be termed "dark - market" schools may arise to cater to his needs. These schools will not think of them- selves in this light, of course, but will be conscious only of a keen sympathy for the veteran student and an urgent desire to help him solve his pressing problems. A considerable number of American colleges are going to be pretty well impoverished before this present war is ended and unless some professional organization takes it upon itself to place this possible situation under supervision and regulation, we may well suffer a serious setback to the

Jan 1, 1944

By G. Carman Ridland

In conjunction with a geological investigation of the silver-bearing veins at Contact Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, a survey was made with a Geiger-Miiller counter of the gamma-ray emissions from the rocks in the vicinity of the mine workings. Discontinuous pitchblende veins have been encountered occasionally in the silver-bearing fissures, and the geophysical survey was undertaken with the hope that abnormally high gamma-ray intensities, if detected, might lead to larger and more continuous pitchblende discoveries. Before the instrument was used at Contact Lake, preliminary tests were made, first with laboratory specimens at Princeton University, and later over known pitchblende deposits at the Eldorado property, LaBine Point, N.W.T. The Geiger-Müller counter, as adapted for field use, is described; the technique of transporting and operating the instrument is outlined; and the general precautions to be observed are discussed. The results obtained at Great Bear Lake show that the instrument is capable of detecting not only a pitchblende ore shoot in a shear zone, but also the mildly radioactive "host rock" at a considerable distance from the ore body. Hence, use of the Geiger-Müller counter is urged, not just for the detailed search for an ore body in a shear zone, but for the detection of possible radioactive "host rocks" in large-scale reconnaissance surveys of unexplored regions made by prospectors and members of federal geological survey parties. Location.—Along the rocky eastern shores of Great Bear Lake, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, lies one of the world's great radium-producing areas. The Eldorado mine, owned and operated by the Eldorado Gold Mines, Ltd., is at LaBine Point; while the Contact Lake mine, operated by Bear Exploration and Radium, Ltd. (B.E.A.R.), lies 9 miles to the southeast of LaBine Point and 2 miles south of Echo Bay, an indentation in the eastern shore line of Great Bear Lake. Geology.—The Eldorado company obtains its radium by the mining of the mineral pitchblende, which is found associated with a complex variety of metallic and nonmetallic minerals1 in quartz-carbonate veins occurring in metamorphosed pre-Cambrian sediment aries. Most of the pitchblende is intimately associated with a brown quartz and belongs to an early hydrothermal stage of mineralization during which safflorite-rammelsbergite and minor cobalt-nickel minerals were also deposited. Some pitchblende occurs with a group of minerals belonging to a later stage of mineralization in which the gangue is mainly dolomite and sometimes ferruginous rhodochrosite. Associated with this group are native silver and lead-zinc-copper sulphide minerals. The Contact Lake property owes its existence to the mining of rich, native silver ore shoots, which are

Jan 1, 1946

By G. Carman Ridland

In conjunction with a geological investigation of the silver-bearing veins at Contact Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, a survey was made with a Geiger-Miiller counter of the gamma-ray emissions from the rocks in the vicinity of the mine workings. Discontinuous pitchblende veins have been encountered occasionally in the silver-bearing fissures, and the geophysical survey was undertaken with the hope that abnormally high gamma-ray intensities, if detected, might lead to larger and more continuous pitchblende discoveries. Before the instrument was used at Contact Lake, preliminary tests were made, first with laboratory specimens at Princeton University, and later over known pitchblende deposits at the Eldorado property, LaBine Point, N.W.T. The Geiger-Müller counter, as adapted for field use, is described; the technique of transporting and operating the instrument is outlined; and the general precautions to be observed are discussed. The results obtained at Great Bear Lake show that the instrument is capable of detecting not only a pitchblende ore shoot in a shear zone, but also the mildly radioactive "host rock" at a considerable distance from the ore body. Hence, use of the Geiger-Müller counter is urged, not just for the detailed search for an ore body in a shear zone, but for the detection of possible radioactive "host rocks" in large-scale reconnaissance surveys of unexplored regions made by prospectors and members of federal geological survey parties. Location.—Along the rocky eastern shores of Great Bear Lake, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, lies one of the world's great radium-producing areas. The Eldorado mine, owned and operated by the Eldorado Gold Mines, Ltd., is at LaBine Point; while the Contact Lake mine, operated by Bear Exploration and Radium, Ltd. (B.E.A.R.), lies 9 miles to the southeast of LaBine Point and 2 miles south of Echo Bay, an indentation in the eastern shore line of Great Bear Lake. Geology.—The Eldorado company obtains its radium by the mining of the mineral pitchblende, which is found associated with a complex variety of metallic and nonmetallic minerals1 in quartz-carbonate veins occurring in metamorphosed pre-Cambrian sediment aries. Most of the pitchblende is intimately associated with a brown quartz and belongs to an early hydrothermal stage of mineralization during which safflorite-rammelsbergite and minor cobalt-nickel minerals were also deposited. Some pitchblende occurs with a group of minerals belonging to a later stage of mineralization in which the gangue is mainly dolomite and sometimes ferruginous rhodochrosite. Associated with this group are native silver and lead-zinc-copper sulphide minerals. The Contact Lake property owes its existence to the mining of rich, native silver ore shoots, which are

Jan 1, 1946

By William Sharp

DISCOVERY of new ore in the Eureka district, Nevada, as a result of bold and persistent exploration based on a geologic interpretation of structure has recently aroused wide comment in mining circles. It may therefore be of interest to the profession to have a summary of the historical background and an account of the recent program of development. The mines of Eureka, discovered in the late 1860's, were the first important silverlead mines in the United States. They have a production record of more than fifty-one million dollars.1 After the ore bodies were apparently bottomed in the 1880's, repeated attempts to find new ore were unsuccessful until 1940, when a diamond-drill hole cut a 40-ft width of sulphide ore 1409 ft below the 841-ft level of the Locan shaft. The next hole cut 30 ft, of ore and three additional holes drilled in 1943 and 1944 showed the ore body to be continuous, Shaft sinking to reach and open up the ore body has been in progress since 1945. GEOLOGY Stratigraphy The ore in the Eureka district occurs in a series of Cambrian sediments which is exposed through a thickness of over 6000 ft. The stratigraphic column is as follows:2 [THICKNESS, FI ORDOVICIAN Pogonip limestone (upper part). Thin bedded limestone with some chert. UPPER CAMBRIAN: Pogonip limestone (lower part). Thin-bedded limestone (with shaly limestone and chert).... 425+ Dunderberg shale. Shale (clay and calcareous shale) and thin bedded limestone340+ Hamburg dolomite. Dolomite and limestonegoo+ MIDDLE CAMBRIAN: Secret Canyon shale. Shale and thin-bedded limestone1,035 Geddes limestone. Carbonaceous, flaggy limestone with some shale partings 335 MIDDLE (?) AND LOWER CAMBRIAN: Eldorado dolomite. Dolomite and limestone2,000 LOWER CAMBRIAN: Prospect Mountain quartzite. Quartzite with occasional inter calated conglomerate and shale 1,660+ The Prospect Mountain quartzite has been subdivided into two formations: Upper part, Pioche shale. Shale, quartzite with some intercalated limestone (Lower Cambrian fossils)-200 ft. Lower part, Prospect Mountain quart zite proper-I,460+ft. Total thickness6,695+] Much the most productive of these formations has been the Eldorado dolomite, which yielded more than $42,000,000 at Ruby Hill and an additional amount

Jan 1, 1947