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William Kent, New York City: I regret that I have not had the time since the Cincinnati meeting to make as complete a study of Mr. Salom's paper as I wished. I regard it as one of the most important papers that have been presented on this subject, and worthy of complete study. I started out, on the limited time I had, on a system of study which I would recommend to any one else who has leisure to complete the investigation. I took the original report presented at the Cincinnati meeting, and selected from it' such tests as had the analyses reported along with the physical tests, giving the amounts of carbon, phosphorus, manganese, etc., taking only those in which all these elements are given.

Jan 1, 1885

By C. A. Stetefeldt

FoR the convenience of those who do not care to enter into the details of this long essay, I begin with a summary of the most important results it presents. The extraction of silver by the lixiviation-process from ores which have been subjected to a chloridizing-roasting, is based upon the fact that silver chloride is easily soluble in solutions of sodium or calcium hyposulphite, and that silver is precipitated from such solutions by an alkaline sulphide, with regeneration of the hyposulphite salts. In case the ore contains lead a large portion of the latter is and dissolved, lead sulphate being soluble in hyposulphite solutions. If, at the same time, copper is present, the sulphides precipitated from the solution, contain silver, copper, and lead, a combination of metals not desirable for subsequent treatment. Mr. E. H. Russell, of Park City, Utah, is the inventor and the patentee in the United States and several foreign countries of a new lixiviation-process, based upon the chemical facts discussed in this paper. Mr. Russell has discovered that lead can be completely separated from a sodium hyposulphite solution, as lead carbonate, by sodium carbonate or purified soda-ash, without precipitating any copper or silver. After decanting the solution from the lead carbonate, silver and copper are obtained from it in the usual way. This method of separating lead prohibits the use of calcium poly-sulphide as a precipitant for the sulphides, because any calcium entering the regenerated lixiviationsolution would also be precipitated as a carbonate with the lead by soda-ash. Hence, a sodium sulphide must be employed. A full investigation has demonstrated that this is by no means detrimental. Sodium sulphide and hyposulphite are more advantageously used in the lixiviation-process than the corresponding calcium-salts. Another defect in the lixiviation-process consisted in the necessity of a very perfect chlorination of the silver in the ore, because silver in

Jan 1, 1885

By W. Lawrence Austin

Jan 1, 1884

By W. P. Shinn

In a paper contributed by W. A. Goodyear, M.E., on "Water Gas as Fuel," read at the Boston Meeting, February, 1883,* the following statenlent was made: "The latest experiments on a scale of some magnitude in our citier, in the way of heating buildings and furnishing power for manufacturing purposes, have been by the distribution of high-presslire steam through pipes laid in the streets. Hilt these experiments (1) have not hitherto been very successful; and when we consider the high cost and (2) the great and unavoidable loss of heat and power, which always accompany the conveyance of high-pressnre steam to any considerable distance in pipes, to say nothing of (3) certain practical difficulties in the management of the pipes themselves, (4) it is evident that all such methods must eventually disappear before a system which can furnish a cheap gas of great heating power, easily distributed wherever wanted, without requiring pipes to stand pressures of 50 to 75 pounds per square inch, and (5) without keeping the whole mass of ground in the streets through which it passes hot, gratis, for a distance of ten or fifteen feet, in all directions around the pipes!' For the purpose of controverting Mr. Goodyear's statements in regard to steam-distribution in cities, I hare numbered the points made in his indictment, my principal object being, not a professional discussion of the technical and theoretical merits of steam vs. watergas, but a simple statement of facts, in regard to the present state of the street system of steam distribntion. Taking Mr. Goodyear's points in their order: 1. Concerning what he terms " These experiments," saying that they " have not hitherto been very successful," I propose to show, that the problem of stearn-distribution has passed beyond the experimental stage, and that its practical solution is highly successful. This will be shown by the facts hereinafter fully set forth. 2. "The great and unavoidable loss of heat and power whicn always accompany the conveyance of high-pressure steam to any con-

Jan 1, 1884

Jan 1, 1884

By Willard P. Ward

The numerous direct processes which have been patented and brought before the iron-masters of the world, differ materially from that now introduced by Mr. Wilson. After a careful examination of his process, I am convinced that Mr. Wilson has succeeded in producing good blooms from iron-ore, and I think that I am able to point out theoretically the chief reasons of the success of his method. Without going deeply into the history of the metal, I may mention the well-known fact, that wrought-iron was extensively used in almost all quarters of the globe, before pig or cast-iron was ever produced. Without entering into the details of the processes by which this wrought-iron was made, it suffices for my present purpose to say that they were crude, wasteful, and expensive, so that they can IE employed to-day only in a very few localities favored with good and cheap ore, fuel, and labor. The constructiou of larger furnaces and the employment of higher temperatures led to the production of a highly carbonized, fusible metal, without any special design on the part of the manufacturers in producing it. This pig-iron, however, could be used only for a few purposes for which metallie iron was needed; but it was produced cheaply and with little loss of metal, and the attempt to decarbonize this product and bring it into a state in which it could be hammered and welded was soon successfully made. This process of decarbonizatioa, or some modification of it, has successfully held the field against all, so-called, direct processes up to the present time. Why ? Because the old-fashioned bloomeries and Catalan forges could produce blooms only at a high cost, and because the new processes introduced failed to turn out good blooms. Those produced were invariably "red-short," that is, they contained unreduced oxide of iron, which prevented the contact of the metallic particles, and rendered the welding together of these particles to form a solid bloom impossible. The process of puddling cast-iron, and transforming it by decarhonization into wrought-iron has, as everybody knows, been in successful practical operation for many years, and the direct process referred to so closely resembles this, that a short description of the theory of puddling is not out of place here.

Jan 1, 1884

By T. Sterry Hunt

Jan 1, 1884

By W. A. Goodyear

It is safe to assert that in cities generally, the fuel of the future for all domestic, as well as for most manufacturing and metallurgical purposes, will be gaseous fuel. The immense advantages which gas possesses in facility and cheapness of distribution, cleanliness, and economy of manipulation, and the facilities which it offers for utilizing in almost all cases a much higher percentage of the total quantity of heat produced, than it is possible to do with any kind of solid fuel, are facts which will vastly more than compensate for the comparatively small loss of heating power, which will be found necessary in the turning of the solid fuel into gas upon a large scale, and which, in the bpinion of the writer, will, at no distant day, command attention, and will ultimately result in a revolution in our use of fuel. The employment of gaseous fuel upon a scale of any considerable magnitude, has hitherto been almost entirely confined to the utilization of the waste gases of the iron smelting furnace for heating the blast, and the rapidly increasing use, for certain metallurgical pur-

Jan 1, 1883

By A. N. Rogers

Jan 1, 1883

By A. J. Bowie

The discovery of the auriferous cement gravel deposits in and near Deadwood Gulch, Lawrence County, Dakota Territory, in 1876, created a mining excitement, and rush to the Black Hills. Numerous ten and twenty-stamp mills were built on Deadwood Gulch; Central City and the town of Deadwood sprang into existence, and became the centres of the mining industry of the Hills. Gold quartz deposits were subsequently discovered and located on a so-called mineral belt, extending from Whitewood Creek on the south, to Deadwood Gulch on the north. A northerly group of these quartz locations was purchased in December, 1877, by parties in San Francisco, who formed a company, incorporated under the name of the Father de Smet Consolidated Gold Mining Company. This company immediately commenced the work of exploration The deposits were proved to be extensive, and easily mined, but it was found that the ore, on an average, would not yield more than $10.00 per ton* of 2000 pounds. • At this trine the cost of supplies and materials in the Hills was high. Miners' wages were $3.50 per diem, and custom mills charged $6.00 per ton. The successful working of mines on "the belt" necessitated cheap milling. The ores being of so low grade,f this could be accomplished only with large and economically running mills. To insure the greatest possible economy, the Father de Smet mill

Jan 1, 1882

By Augustus J. Bowie

THE discovery of the auriferous cement gravel deposits in and near Deadwood Gulch, Lawrence County, Dakota Territory, in 1876, created a mining excitement, and rush to the Black Hills. Numerous ten and twenty-stamp mills were built on Deadwood Gulch ; Central City and the town of Deadwood sprang into existence, and became the centres of the mining industry of the Hills. Gold quartz deposits were subsequently discovered and located on a so-called mineral belt, extending from Whitewood Creek on the south, to Deadwood Gulch on the north. A northerly group of these quartz locations was purchased in December, 1877, by parties in San Francisco,, who formed a company, incorporated under the name of the Father de Smet Consolidated Gold Mining Company. This company immediately commenced the work of exploration. The deposits were proved to be extensive, and easily mined, but it was found that the ore, on an average, would not. yield more than $10.00 per ton* of 2000 pounds. At this time the cost of supplies and materials in the Hills was high. Miners' wages were $3.50 per diem, and custom mills charged $6:00. per ton. The successful working of mines on "the belt" necessitated cheap milling. The ores being of so low grade,† this could be accomplished only with large and economically running mills. To insure the greatest possible economy, the Father,& Smet mill * Up to December 31st, 1879; the de Smet mine had produced bullion of the value of $718,211.68 from 76,155 tons of ore, being an average value of $9.41 per ton. During the year ending December 31st, 1879, the mine produced 46,344 tons, which yielded $425,360.42, or $9.18 per ton. The total gross cost of working for the corresponding period, including deadwork, exchange, legal expenses, fete., wits $219,914.82. The yield of the mine for the year 1880 (Engineering and Mining Journal, February 5th, 1881), was $600,011, with total expenses of mining and milling, of $313,108. † The first 4083 tons extracted from the de Smet mine, were selected, yielding $62,783.97. The next 25,728 tons produced $230,067.24. The total 29,811 tons were weighed, and worked at custom mills. The yield of the first 409 tons from tine Golden Terra Mine was $11.44 per-ton.

Jan 1, 1882

By James P. Kimball

Jan 1, 1881

By James P. Kimball

AMONG the curious results of the recent advance of prices in the iron trade of the United States, one of them at least is to be regarded as of great importance. I allude to the utilization of mill cinder as a cheap and almost costless substitute for high-priced iron ores in many blast furnaces, situated within easy reach of such raw material. It has been, with but few exceptions, the practice in this country, based upon tradition rather than upon authority or European precedents, to waste this material on 'account of its high proportion of silicic and phosphoric acids, although known to contain more iron than most ores, and although also known to be sometimes applied to the blast furnace in greater or less quantities without serious detriment to the iron for specific purposes. While in use to a limited extent in the Hocking Valley and Hanging Rock iron regions of Ohio for several years, its use in Western Pennsylvania has only become general of late, under the exigencies of high prices and a short supply of ore. Especially has mill cinder largely entered into the stock of furnaces attached to rolling mills in and about Pittsburgh. Under such circumstances the cinder pig has been paddled on the premises, and the malleable iron produced has been unexpectedly good. Cautiously as at first mill cinder has been applied, it is evident that the temptation to use it freely is a strong one whenever the commercial rates for high-class ores are out of proportion to the general conditions of the iron trade, as sometimes happens in this country, especially as the free use of it is apparently justified by the quality of the iron produced from this cheap and abundant material. Indeed the consumption of cinder pig has., not been wholly confined to mills using up the production of furnaces belonging to the same plant. One furnace at least on the Ohio, at Covington, for several' months has been making foundry pig from "all cinder." The iron has gone into the general trade. It is probable that malleable iron of good quality can he made from the poorest cinder pig, but with what degree of economy will

Jan 1, 1881

By A. L. Holley

THERE is a growing demand for pure and cheap material for fine open-hearth steel ; a material not only very free from phosphorus, but from carbon and silicon; so that it may he rapidly converted into steel. Iron and steel scrap are not trustworthy as to quality, and they are often dear. There are three methods of purifying cheap materials for the open hearth. 1. Mechanical puddling, as done at Creusot, which removes 90' per cent. of the phosphorus from the pig iron. 2. Krupp's washing process (the conduct and results of which I fully described in a former paper*), which eliminates 70 to 80 per cent. of the phosphorus and most of the sulphur and silicon from pig iron. Neither of these processes would sufficiently purify, for very fine steel, those very impure pigs which are cheapest in many parts of the United States: 3. The process of producing directly from the ore an iron which is practically pure chemically, although mechanically mixed with the impurities of the ore. This is the oldest of iron processes ; one form of it, the Catalan forge, employed to produce charcoal blooms, is still in use, but its great cost is rapidly throwing it out of competition. Among the modern attempts to produce iron direct from the one, on a large scale and at a cheap rate, several have been in various respects successful. Dr. Siemens's process of treating a ton and a half or more of ore and the coal to deoxidize it, in a rotating gas furnace, and bringing out, in some four hours, a ball of chemically pure iron so soft that the fluid and impure slag may be squeezed out of it, is the most attractive and the most highly developed of all the modern direct processes. I have watched it, from time to time, since 1874, and have noted a steady improvement. It may now be said to have passed the experimental stage, although, like older processes, it must be adapted by practice to special materials. The cause which has been more potent than all others, including the defects of the best direct processes, to bring these processes into disrepute, is the waste-ful treatment of the direct product. With one or two exceptions (when failure was due to other and obvious causes), the direct product has been made into wrought iron (weld iron). Even Dr. Siemens has, at Towcester, in England, and at Park, Bro. & Co.'s, in Pittsburg, set up his apparatus for this purpose. Is it likely that

Jan 1, 1880

By A. L. Holley

There is a growing demand for pure and cheap material for fine open-hearth steel; a material not only very free from phosphorus, but from carbon and silicon; so that it may he rapidly converted into steel. Iron and steel scrap are not trustworthy as to quality, and they are often dear. There are three methods of purifying cheap materials for the open hearth. 1. Mechanical puddling, as done at Creusot, which removes 90' per cent. of the phosphorus from the pig iron. 2. Krupp's washing process (the conduct and results of which 1 fully described in a former paper*), which eliminates 70 to 80 per cent. of the phosphorus and most of the sulphur and silicon from pig iron. Neither of these processes would sufficiently purify, for very fine steel, those very impure pigs which are cheapest in many parts of the United States. 3. The process of producing directly from the ore an iron which is practically pure chemically, although mechanically mixed with the impurities of the ore. This is the oldest of iron processes ; one form of it, the CataIan forge, employed to produce charcoal blooms, is still in use, but its great cost is rapidly throwing it out of competition. Among the modern attempts to produce iron direct from the one, on a large scale and at a cheap rate, several have been in various respects successful. Dr. Siemens's process of treating a ton and a half or more of ore and the coal to deoxidize it, in a rotating gas furnace, and bringing out, in some four hours, a ball of chemically pure iron so soft that the fluid and impure slag may be sqneezed out of it, is the most attractive and the most highly developed of all the modern direct processes. I hare watched it, from time to time, since 1874, and have noted a steady improvement. It may now be said to have passed the experimental stage, although, like older processes, it must be adapted by practice to special materials. The cause which has been more potent than all others, including the defects of the best direct processes, to bring these processes into disrepute, is the wasteful treatment of the direct product. With one or two exceptions (when failure mas due to other and obvious causes), the direct product has been made into wrought iron (weld iron). Even Dr. Siemens has, at Towcester, in England, and at Park, Bro. & Co.'s, in Pittsburg, set up his apparatus for this purpose. Is it likely that

Jan 1, 1880

By A. L. Holley

THOSE who are familiar with working gas furnaces will perhaps admit that the ordinary producer is the least satisfactory feature of the- whole system, chiefly by reason of its great waste of fuel, both above and below the fire. The waste of fuel in cleaning the fire has not, as far as I am aware, been carefully measured ; it has been roughly estimated at various works as averaging twenty per cent. to twenty-five per cent. The coke that falls into the ash-pit is largely mixed, if not stuck together with clinker; when this coke is not recovered and utilized (and where coal is cheap it does not pay to recover it), the waste is certainly as high as above estimated. Cleaning a fire on a grate (especially a fire of dirty coal, like much of our Western coal), by inserting a few temporary grate-bars, then withdrawing the regular grate-bars and letting the whole lower part of the fire tumble into the ash-pit, must necessarily be wasteful of fuel, but it has been found to be the most practical system. The fire under a boiler should be thin, to insure perfect combustion; hence it may be moved from one side to the other, so that .the clinker and ashes may be uncovered and removed. But a producer fire should be so thick that carbonic oxide only shall rise from it ; a thick fire cannot be thus manipulated. In several of the French works the ordinary producer without grates is employed ; the whole body of the fire rests on the floor of the ash-pit. It did not seem to me that less fuel was wasted here than with grates in cleaning fires. The bottom layer of the fire had to be drawn out with hooks, and there was nothing to prevent much coke from coming away with the clinker and ash. A producer shaped like a cupola furnace has many advantages, but if grates are employed the waste of coke in cleaning is not lessened. But the waste at the bottom of the fire is only a part of the waste in the ordinary producer. Mr. Emmerton, chemist to the Joliet Iron and Steel Company, has lately made a number of gas analyses from the producers of that company, worked with impure Illinois

Jan 1, 1880

By William P. Shinn

Jan 1, 1880

By John A. E. M. Church

THE prospector's pan was the first implement used for saving gold, and its action is so effective that it has never been equalled for thorough work. Copper plates, blankets, sluices, and amalgamators of several patented designs have thrust it aside, but in spite of all the advances made there is no dispute among experienced men as to the comparative thoroughness of the work done by it and its rivals. When its rivals are doing their best, the pan can take their discarded refuse and prove their inefficiency by producing from it not only gold, but even the mercury which has been lost from the machines themselves. The trouble with the pan has always been that it was only a tool. Man was the machine that moved it. His work was high-priced, the quantity treated small, and it was impossible to use the pan for any but the richest sands. As a consequence the best gold-saving appliance known has been discarded for years and replaced by machines of inferior excellence, but which could more than make up for their limited ability in saving gold by their capacity for treating great quantities of ore. Mr. Peck is one of the old-time amalgamators of the Comstock district, and the first idea of the new machine came to him as he used to pan below the tailrace of his mill. No matter how fine the work of the mill was, the pan invariably proved that better could be done. The tailings always contained gold, silver, and mercury. This state of things is just as true to-day, after all the improvements that have been made, as it was then, and the much-vaunted method of the " Washoe process" consists in extracting 72 per cent. of the gold and silver by one operation, and then repeating this operation half a dozen times to get out about one-third of the remainder. With all the advances of twenty years in milling, there is nothing more crude in metallurgy than the treatment of tailings in many of the large mills of the West.

Jan 1, 1880

By E. Gybbon Spilsbury

THE introduction of underground machinery in mines, and especially the invention of the rock drill, called attention to the necessity for some motive power to drive them. The use of steam generators underground is as a general thing inadmissible, owing to the, difficulties of ventilation and the transportation of fuel, and the great loss of power by condensation in the pipes, when surface generators are used, added to the inconvenience of getting rid of the exhaust steam, has precluded the direct use of steam for this class of machinery. Water as a power has with very few exceptions proved a failure, owing to its weight and incompressibility, and there-fore the attention of mining engineers has very naturally turned to the use of compressed air. This agent not only answers all the requirements for power, but has the double advantage of greatly assisting in thoroughly ventilating remote workings, and in cooling the underground atmosphere. It is therefore clear that the successful introduction of underground machinery is dependent on the economical production of good and efficient air-compressing machinery. Although many improvements have of late years been introduced in this class of machines, the most of them are open to serious objections, the chief of which are the very small duty they perform for the power expended, and their great expense, due to the complexity of their construction. This latter fault is the chief reason why the introduction of rock drills and other underground engines is so limited, as comparatively few mines can afford to expend the required capital for the installation of a complete compressing plant. But with the introduction of a cheap and effective compressor, there is no doubt that power drills will become as generally used in mines as the hand drills are now. The great excess of power required in most machines to compress air over that given out again by the use of the air thus compressed (amounting as it does in most cases to sixty per cent.) is well known to all mining engineers. Of course a portion of this loss is due to the friction of the air through the pipes, and will always occur however effective the machine used maybe, but the chief cause -of the

Jan 1, 1880

By A. L. Holley

Those who are familiar with working gas furnaces will perhaps admit that the ordinary producer is the least satisfactory feature of the- whole system, chiefly by reason of its great waste of fuel, both above and below the fire. The waste of fuel in cleaning the fire has not, as fdr as I am aware, been carefully measured ; it has been roughly estimated at various works as averaging twenty per cent. to twenty-five per cent. The coke that falls into the ash-pit is largely mixed, if not stuck together with clinker; when this coke is not recovered and utilized (and where coal is cheap it does not pay to recover it), the waste is certainly as high as above estimated. Cleaning a fire on a grate (especially a fire of dirty coal, like much of our Western coal), by inserting a few temporary grate-bars, then withdrawing the regular grate-bars and letting the whole lower part of the fire tumble into the ash-pit, must necessarily be wasteful of fuel, but it has been found to be the most practical system. The fire under a boiler should be thin, to insure perfect combustion; hence it may be moved from one side to the other, so that .the clinker and ashes may be uncovered and removed. But a producer fire should be so thick that carbonic oxide only shall rise from it; a thick fire cannot be thus manipulated. In several of the French works the ordinary producer without grates is employed ; the whole body of the fire rests on the floor of the ash-pit. It did not seem to me that less fuel was wasted here than with grates in cleaning fires. The bottom layer of the fire had to be drawn out with hooks, and there was nothing to prevent much coke from coming away with the clinker and ash. A producer shaped like a cupola furnace has many advantages, but if grates are employed the waste of coke in cleaning is not lessened. But the waste at the bottom of the fire is only a part of the waste in the ordinary producer. Mr. Emmerton, chemist to the Juliet Iron and Steel Company, has lately made a number of gas analyses from the producers of that company, worked with impure Illinois

Jan 1, 1880