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By William Metcalf

One of the first questions that naturally occurs to one who handles steel is, " Why does steel harden?" To answer this question the chemist and physicist have devoted much thought and experiment, and while they have enriched our store of knowledge of the nature and composition of steel, it cannot be said that they have yet solved the problem involved in its hardening. In this communication I desire to direct attention to a line of investigation yet new, in the hope that it may receive the attention. of those who have the time and ability to pursue it. I refer to magnetism. There are so many parallels between the action of magnetism on iron and steel and their behavior under different processes of manipulation that it would seem. as if there must be some connection between tile forces at work in the different cases, if, indeed, there be not an identify of force in all of these cases. Magnetism, as me know it, may be merely the visible manifestation of forces, which may serve as a guide to lead us to an exact knowledge of the structure, tile strains, and the resistances with which me have to deal in iron and steel. If a magnet be brought close to a pile of iron filings, the little pieces of iron will fly to the maguet and attach themselves to it, with their longer axes lying in the direction of the force. If molten cast iron be poured into an iron mould,—a chill,—the iron upon crystallizing will form needlelike crystals, with their long axes normal to the surfaces of the mould. • If the iron is at the proper temperatare and the quantity small, compared to the mass of the mould, the whole of it, will be chilled, or set, in 'the hard needlelike crystals

Jan 1, 1881

By Douglas Ashmead

In his paper Mr. Braley makes no mention of the bacteriological aspects of the problem. It is now quite well established that certain bacteria play a major role in formation of acid mine waters, and it is a simple matter in the laboratory to show that under sterile conditions the rate of acid production from a pyrites suspension is only about one quarter of that obtained from a similar suspension inoculated with drainage from a mine producing an acidic pit water. Under sterile conditions the oxidation is due to direct chemical action and, from the evidence just given and from much other evidence, this increase under nonsterile conditions is due to certain bacteria. Experiments recently completed, and shortly to be published, have shown that this bacteriological oxidation can be prevented by the maintenance of pH conditions above 4. It was found that to raise this pH above 4 at the beginning of the experiments was not sufficient but that, due to the continuing chemical oxidation, alkali had to be added daily to maintain the pH conditions above 4. The amount of alkali added, however, over a fixed period, was only about one quarter of the alkaline equivalent of the acid produced when pH conditions were not controlled over an equal period. The opinion expressed by Mr. Braley that sodium hydroxide has little or no effect on the rate of oxidation of pyrites is not substantiated by the above experiments. The writer does not claim that these results show a practical solution to the problems, especially in abandoned workings, but feels that the application of an alkaline coating, such as lime wash, to exposed accessible workings might be well worth trying. S. A. Braley (author's reply)—In 1919 Powell and Parrl suggested that bacteria, or some catalytic agent, hastened the oxidation of pyritic or marcastic sulfur in coal. Carpenter and Herndon (1933)' attributed the action of Thiobacillus thiooxidans. Colmer and Hinkle (1947)3 observed an organism similar to T. thiooxidans and another organism that oxidized iron. Leathen and Braley 9rst discovered this organism in 1947 in a sample of water from the overflow of the Bradenville mine (Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania). They characterized the organism in 1954" and gave it the name Ferrobacillus ferrooxidans. Although Temple and Colmer (1951)' had suggested the name Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, since they claimed it oxidized both ferrous iron and thiosulfate, we have found that pure cultures of the organism do not oxidize thiosulfate, hence the name F. ferrooxidans. In 1955 Ashmead7 isolated an organism, similar to the one called Thiobacillus ferrooxidans by Temple and Hinkle, from acid mine water in Scotland. It is probable that this organism was F. ferrooxidans. In 1954 Bryner, Beck, Davis, and Wilsonh reported microorganisms in effluents from copper mine refuse. These organisms appeared to be similar but were not in pure culture. In view of this history of bacterial investigation of acid mine water and our own ten years of experience, we do not agree with Mr. Ashmead that bacteria play a major role in acid formation. We do not find that any of these bacteria will directly oxidize pyritic material. They do, however, augment the chemical formation of sulfuric acid by atmospheric oxidation. In two papers in 1953% eathen, Braley, and McIntyre discuss the role of bacteria in acid formation and postulate the mechanism through which they operate. Mr. Ashmead in his discussion of my paper has assumed that this work was carried on in the presence of acid mine water in which bacteria would be present. This was not the case. Strictly sterile conditions were not maintained, but the organisms present in mine drainages were definitely absent in these experiments. We believe that we have demonstrated that alkalis do not inhibit the chemical oxidation of pyritic material. This is also indicated by Mr. Ashmead's discussion in which he says that alkali must be added daily due to the continuing chemical oxidation. It is interesting to note that Mr. Ashmead finds that maintenance of pH above 4.00 decreases the activity of the bacteria. We have found also that a decrease in pH below 2.8 also inhibits its activity. Table XIII of published data'" illustrates the decrease in activity with increased acidity, although pH values are not given. These values are in comparison with uninoculated controls and show the marked increase in acidity up to 22 weeks but a decline at 29 weeks, at which time the experiment was terminated. It is probable that after a longer period only chemical oxidation would have continued. From our studiesv we have postulated that the iron oxidizing bacterium (Ferrobacillus ferrooxidans) oxidizes the ferrous iron, resulting from chemical oxidation, to ferric iron. The ferric iron then aids the atmospheric oxidation of the sulfuritic material and is itself reduced to ferrous iron, which in turn acts as food for the autotrophic bacteria. Study of the physiologic properties of F. ferrooxidans shows that its preferred pH is about 3.00 and its activity decreases with variation in either direction. It is extremely inactive above pH 4.00 and below 2.5. This inactivity above 4.00 is indicated by Mr. Ashmead's observations. These properties of F. ferrooxidans then correlate perfectly with our hypothesis. Ferrous iron is oxidized very slowly by atmospheric oxygen in highly acid sohtion and since the bacteria become inactive, acid is formed only by atmospheric oxidation. At a pH of 4.00 or above iron is more readily oxidized by atmospheric oxygen, but the bacterial activity is decreased. However, with a pH above 4.00 the ferric iron is removed from the field of activity since its soluble sulfate hy-drolyzes and precipitates the iron as ferric hydroxide or a basic sulfate. As we have shown in the paper under discussion, the alkali does not inhibit the chemical oxidation, and thus the acid formation continues. This

Jan 1, 1957

By Samuel S. Wyer

The following description of methods for conducting gas-producer tests is probably the first attempt to give the subject an analytical, thorough and comprehensive treatment. In some cases where tests have been made, the methods have been so unsystematic and ambiguous that it has been impossible to secure comparable results. To eliminate this difficulty, the following provisional code of gas-producer tests— which has some resemblance to the code of boiler-trials of the American Society of MechanicalEngineers—has been developed. The primary object in testing a gas-producer is to determine whether the producer is working satisfactorily or, what is the same thing, to see if the efficiency is as high as it should be with the type of producer in question; and also to find out if the composition of the resulting gas is adapted to the work it has to do. In order that the test shall be of any value, it must be thorough and comprehensive, and must be conducted with skill and care. When so conducted, the test will reveal the economy of the'producer; and, by making suitable changes, the efficiency will often be increased very much. As a result of the tests made by Jenkins,' the efficiency was raised from 56.2

Jan 1, 1906

There have been no major field developments during 1935. Operations have proceeded normally on the company's three producing fields, Masjid-i-Sulaiman, Haft Kel and Naft-i-Shah. The refinery at Kermanshah was commissioned in September, 1935, with a rated throughput capacity of 75,000 tons a year of topped crude to meet local requirements. Crude production from the Masjid-i-Sulaiman and Haft Kel fields is tabulated below: Masjid-i-Sulaiman Field.—The flowing lives of wells have been extended by (I) a process of acid treatment, thereby reducing the bottom-hole pressure differentials, and (2) by reducing the back-pressure. Optimum producing conditions for individual wells have been determined as a result of an experimental study of the amount of available energy in the reservoir crude and of energy losses in flowing wells. The return of surplus products to the reservoir has continued to be a satisfactory economic operation and the crude throughput capacity of the topping plant has been increased. The viscosity of residue returned to the reservoir is reduced before injection by regassing at 35 lb. per sq. in. absorption pressure with surplus gas. The pressure in the gas dome is falling at the low rate of one pound per annum. Haft Kel Field.—The delimitation of the main structure has proceeded; the oil-bearing area so far proved being about 50 square miles.

Jan 1, 1936

There have been no major field developments during 1935. Operations have proceeded normally on the company's three producing fields, Masjid-i-Sulaiman, Haft Kel and Naft-i-Shah. The refinery at Kermanshah was commissioned in September, 1935, with a rated throughput capacity of 75,000 tons a year of topped crude to meet local requirements. Crude production from the Masjid-i-Sulaiman and Haft Kel fields is tabulated below: Masjid-i-Sulaiman Field.—The flowing lives of wells have been extended by (I) a process of acid treatment, thereby reducing the bottom-hole pressure differentials, and (2) by reducing the back-pressure. Optimum producing conditions for individual wells have been determined as a result of an experimental study of the amount of available energy in the reservoir crude and of energy losses in flowing wells. The return of surplus products to the reservoir has continued to be a satisfactory economic operation and the crude throughput capacity of the topping plant has been increased. The viscosity of residue returned to the reservoir is reduced before injection by regassing at 35 lb. per sq. in. absorption pressure with surplus gas. The pressure in the gas dome is falling at the low rate of one pound per annum. Haft Kel Field.—The delimitation of the main structure has proceeded; the oil-bearing area so far proved being about 50 square miles.

Jan 1, 1936

By Leonard Greenburg

The American literature in the field of dust sampling and analysis has been growing rapidly since 1915. Studies made since that time clearly indicate that there are three fundamental factors that determine the production of lung pathology due to dust inhalation. These are the duration of exposure, the chemical and mineralogic nature of the dust and the concentration of the potentially harmful dust. In the estimation of the amount of the potentially hazardous dust there are essentially three problems involved: (I) a determination of the size of the hazardous dust; (2) determination of the most satisfactory apparatus and technique of sampling, and (3) the most satisfactory method of analysis. A complete study of the literature shows that industrial dust varies ill size from ultramicroscopic particles to those larger than lop in diameter and that relatively few particles are found over 5u in diameter. Approximately 10 to 25 per cent are less than 0.811 in diameter and the median size as a rule is found to lie between 1.25 and 1.75 microns. From the point of view of lung pathology the particle sizes of most importance lie between 0.5 and 5u. Of all the instruments for sampling dust the Impinger apparatus is the only one that will sample a larger body of air satisfactorily with small control errors and high efficiency in both low and high concentrations of dust. The Owens apparatus has the advantage of being more portable and somewhat easier to use but it does riot permit of the sampling of large volumes of air. It has a low efficiency in high concentrations of dust and does not permit dust weights to be obtained. From the point of dust-counting technique the author points out that in 1922 considerable experimentation with dark field and oblique illumination resulted in the conclusion that such methods were not readily duplicated from day to day and therefore yielded somewhat erratic results. Changes in the amount of illumination produced variations of several hundred per cent in dust counts obtained with dark ground

Jan 1, 1934

By K. G. Davis, P. Fryzuk

The diffusivity of silver in liquid tin has been determined, using the capillavy-reservoir technique, over the temperature range 250° to 500°C. The new value, D = 2.5 x 10'* exp(-2480/ RT) sq cm per sec, differs from that obtained by other workers in an earlier investigation. The analysis of data from the capillary-reservoir technique is discussed. In a recent investigation of the solidification of dilute alloys, values for the diffusion constant of silver in liquid tin were required in the analysis of the formation of impurity substructures. AS a result, measurements were made of the diffusion constants in the temperature range 250° to 500°C (melting point of tin 232°C), for the alloy concentrations used in the solidification experiments and at higher concentrations, to verify previous determinations.I)2 The capillary-reservoir method was adopted, using experimental procedures similar to those followed by Ma and Swalin,1 with the main exception that radioactive silver was used in the present investigation to facilitate solute-concentration measurements. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE a) 100 ppm Samples. Glass capillary tubes of 2 mm inside diameter and approximately 5 cm- long were sealed at one end, evacuated, and filled with tin of 99.999 pct purity. The region of shrinkage near the mouth was cut off, and the tubes were then placed in a graphite holder and immersed, with the open end up, in an unstirred bath of alloy containing 100 ppm Ag 110, where they remained for periods of up to 30 hr. On removal from the bath they were cooled by an air blower. The bath was kept under a small positive pressure of argon, and the temperature controlled to within +1°C. A 10-hr diffusion period was used in the majority of the tests, scatter on runs of less than 5 hr being rather large. The procedure outlined above was chosen in preference to putting alloy in the capillary and pure tin in the bath, in order to avoid segregation when the tubes filled with alloy were first solidified. To minimize segregation when the diffusion period was complete and the capillaries again solidified, the earlier samples were held in thin-walled silica tubes which could be cooled very rapidly. Later tests were made in precision-bore Pyrex tubes, to eliminate effects caused by variations in the capillary diameter. No consistent differences in diffusivity as measured in the two types of tube were detected. After removal from the glass tubing, the samples were sectioned into 2.5 mm lengths and counted for y activity, using a scintillation counter with fixed geometry. Samples were also drawn directly from the bath and counted, so that values for C/C,, the ratio of the weight of Ag 110 in the sample to that in the bath, could be obtained. b) 5000 ppm Alloy. To check for possible effects of concentration, the silver content of the bath was increased to 5000 ppm. Complete mixing was found to have taken place in the capillary after a 10-hr period at 300°C. It appears that the greater density of the alloy was sufficient for buoyancy forces to cause instability in the alloy-tin interface, leading to rapid convective mixing. For the 5000 ppm alloy, therefore, the bath was of pure tin and the capillary tube was filled with alloy. With this arrangement, values of D consistent with those for the 100 ppm alloy were obtained, Fig. 1. CALCULATIONS OF DIFFUSIVITY The terminology used applies to a capillary of pure tin immersed in a bath of alloy. 1) Error-Function Method. under the present experimental conditions, the rod of liquid tin into which silver is penetrating may be considered semi-infinite. Assuming the concentration at the mouth of the tube to remain constant at Co, the concentration C at distance x from the mouth of the tube at time / is given by3 Plots of the inverse error function of (1 -C/Co) vs .v gave straight lines passing through the origin with slope 1/2-, x being corrected for shrinkage both on solidification and while cooling to the melting point (total correction about 6 pct at 500°C). Values for log D obtained in this manner are shown in Fig. 1. A least-squares fit to the relation D = Do exp(-Q/RT)

Jan 1, 1965

By A. M. Gaudin

MANY studies of comminution have been made to ascertain the size distribution of the product and to evaluate the work of comminution in the light of the size distributions of the feed and product. Up to now, these studies have been essentially statistical in character, that is, a certain lot of feed was subjected to comminution in some specified way, and the aggregate product was fractionated into sizes, thereby losing all knowledge of individual relationship of feed to product pieces. Radioactive tracers offer a means to do something in this respect which could not be done before, namely, to follow the rupturing of some particular piece in its normal environment of other pieces. That is, it permits going beyond the usual statistical limitations of size distribution studies to what may be termed a personalized or individualized study. The purpose of this paper is to present some preliminary experiments conducted with this tool.

Jan 11, 1951

By Joseph P. Brennan, Robert L. Vines

A historical comparison of the frequency of fatal coal mining accidents occurring underground in mines of various size ranges in the United States and in member countries of the Commission of the European Communities is presented. Frequencies are normalized on hours-worked and tons-produced bases. The comparisons rely on published and confirmed data and on theory for selective treatment of data in an effort to overcome reporting differences and basic differences in the mining conditions and system employed. Trends are identified ad projections made of the effect on accident records of various industry growth patterns. Conclusions are drawn regarding the reasons for differences between the records of U.S. underground coal mines and the records of those mines in European countries.

Jan 1, 1984

By Nev A. Gokcen

PUBLISHED data on the solubility of nitrogen in liquid manganese are widely discordant. Ochsenfeldl observed that a Mn-N alloy with 3.6 pct N consisted of solid and liquid phases at 1260°C but at 13 00° to 1340°C the solid phase disappeared and the liquid contained 0.1 to 0.13 pct N. In contrast Saito's measurements at approxhately 1400°C yielded an average value of 0.97 pct N. Sieverts3 volumetric method is not suitable for the determination of gas solubility in manganese because the liquid metal vaporizes readily and condenses in the cooler parts of the apparatus where it can absorb large amounts of nitrogen. The purpose of this investigation was, therefore, to determine the solubility of nitrogen in manganese accurately in the range of 1273" to 1500°C. The experimental method used in this study was as follows. Electrolytic manganese of 99.9 pct purity, and weighing 50 g, was melted in a pure alumina crucible placed in a tubular furnace. Temperature was measured with a Pt-10 pct Rh thermocouple and controlled within ± 5°C. Pure nitrogen was bubbled through the melt for 1 hr at constant temperature and then a sample was taken by sucking the metal into a 2-mm clear silica tube and immediately quenching in water. The sample was broken into small pieces and found to be sound to the naked eye. The entire sample was then dissolved and the resulting solution was analyzed for nitrogen by the well-known solution-distillation method. The experimental results are presented in Fig. 1. All the nitrogen solubility data refer to 1 atm of nitrogen pressure; hence the observed values are slightly corrected by using Sieverts' equation when the atmospheric pressure differed more than 5 mm Hg from 760 mm, and further, in the case of the runs at 1500°C the correction arising from the presence of Mn vapor has been made. (Cf. Eq. [3]). Scattering in the data is within ±5°C in temperature measurement and ±3 pct in total nitrogen analysis. The straight line in Fig. 1, correlating the percentage of dissolved nitrogen, %N, with the inverse temperature in OK-1, can be expressed by:

Jan 1, 1962

By Theodore A. Blake

At the Chicago meeting of the Institute, May, 1884,I had the pleasure of announcing the introduction of a new machine for fine crushing, or The Blake multiple-jaw crusher, which, in combina tion with the ordinary Blake breaker, could be used in the reduc tion of ores or any hard and brittle substance to almost any degree of fineness. I am now able to give some practical results derived from its use on an extensive scale, on the gold ores of South Caro lina and the iron ores of Lake Champlain, together with some accurate and detailed statistics of the cost of crushing over one hundred thousand long tons of magnetic iron ores of the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company at Lyon Mountain, Clinton County, N. Y., about thirty miles west of Plattsburgh. The construction of the multiple jaw-crusher, since the date of my first paper, is the same, except in the substitution of main swinging, instead of main sliding, or toggle jaw,—thus doing away with the upward thrust on the tension rods and the wear incident thereunto. (See Fig. 1.) It has also been found, in case of the fine crusher, that is, in machines of not over 4 inch width of opening, that the use of several small machines with a series of jaw openings, say 15 inches by 4 inch, is better than one large machine with a series of openings 24 by 4 inch, or 36 inches by 4 inch, as at first constructed. Many details of the method of holding in jaw-plates, etc., have been perfected. Without giving any details with respect to the different mills built upon the Blake 'system, let me state that, although it has proved possible to carry any hard and brittle material with crushers alone to a fineness such that all particles will pass a 30-mesh wire screen, still the economical limit of such crushing will be found somewhere between 14 and 20. If it is necessary to carry all the material to a fineness greater than this, the system must be supple

Jan 1, 1888

By McDowell Graves, Joseph Jensen, W. D. Goold, M. L. Gwin

During the present year the Santa Fe Springs field has proved to be the most important oil field under development in the United States. Its production will exceed that of any other field. Without it, production within the United States would have been almost in even balance with consumption. The field has forced to the fore and compelled, more than any other single factor, serious consideration of the need of conserving the gas resources of the State of California. It has also contributed much to the development of new drilling equipment and important features in petroleum engineering, and has required the development of a new cement for use in deep wells because of high temperatures. It is the only oil field in the country where wells 8000 ft. deep have become so common that they are no longer given special attention. The field covers a little less than 1400 acres of land. In it 196 producing deep-zone wells have already been drilled since August, 1928, and 224 wells are still drilling. More wells may be drilled. This indicates that probably more than 450 wells will be drilled in the present campaign. In hardly a year's time it has caused the outlay of nearly $50,000,000 for drilling, and within the year 1929 it will have returned practically an equal amount of revenue. In contrast to conditions during 1923, when this field was once before an important and disturbing factor, the California oil industry has not been forced to refinance to meet the situation presented by such a large production of oil. There has been practically no unit selling and no stock selling, nor any unnecessary development far beyond the limits of the field. Production is now about 275,000 bbl. per day and gives every promisc of remaining at this figure or increasing to nearly 300,000 bbl. Six months from now the field should still be capable of producing more than 200,000 bbl. per day. Obviously, the need for conserving gas that would be blown to the air, incident to the production of so large a volume of oil, represents a problem in conservation deserving of the most serious attention of the oil industry and of the State of California.

Jan 1, 1930

By L. Alan Weakly

Abstract-The Bureau of Mines has pursued a program of research on mine illumination that has defined the coal miner's illumination needs. St. Joe Minerals Corporation, recognizing the need for improving the illumination of the working places in their mines, entered into a cooperative research agreement with the Bureau of Mines to utilize the Bureau's expertise in this field. Some similarity in the environment, in which coal and hard rock miners work, has allowed the application of developed coal mine illumination technology and equipment to be utilized in hard rock, room and pillar mines.

Jan 6, 1978

By Harold M. Mooney

RESISTIVITY measurements for determining depth to bedrock, water table, and other geo- logic discontinuities have had only limited success. Many of the difficulties can be attributed to complex geology and to basic limitations of the method; current flow through a continuous medium is a diffusion phenomenon, emphasizing irregularities near the source and smoothing out those at a distance. Some of the failures, however, are due to careless field work and incompetent interpretation. A forthcoming publication1 may help to reduce difficulties of this sort. The writer here attempts to bring order into the multiplicity of interpretation methods and, to a limited extent, to evaluate them. For all methods, the field data to be interpreted consist of apparent resistivity values plotted against electrode separation, Fig. 1. The interpretation should give depths to one or more geologic horizons. Direct currents and the Werner four-electrode configuration will be assumed, since these are widely used, although the interpretation problems remain essentially the same for other electrode configurations. Alternating currents higher than, say, 20 cycles per second introduce complications beyond the scope of this paper.

Jan 9, 1954

By N. Mungan, J. L. Thompson

Laboratory displacement tests were performed to study oil recovery elficiency by gravity drainage in fractured systems under miscible conditions. The porous media used were cylindrical Berea and Blue Jacket sandstone cores containing a number of well-defined, artificially formed, vertical and subvertical fractures. Butane and Soltrol 130 were the two miscible fluids used. The purpose of the study was to examine the influences of the displacement rate, fracture density, fracture orientation, fracture permeability, matrix permeability, crossflow, core length and connate water on the oil recovery. It was found that displacement rate, matrix permeability and the subvertical fractures affected oil recovery most. The critical flow rate, based on the matrix permeability, was found to be a significant factor in the process. For displacement rates below the critical flow rate, the oil recovery efficiency appeared to be unaffected by the density of the subvertical fractures. At the high displacement rates, the fracture density becomes important, with the recovery being the most efficient in the core having the greatest number of the subvertical fractures. The magnitude of the fracture permeability, the fracture orientation, the core length and the connate water have little effect on the oil recovery efficiency. INTRODUCTION Gravity drainage under miscible conditions from relatively thick reservoirs can be a very efficient recovery process, especially at low flow rates where the gravity forces are dominant and, consequently, the adverse viscous fingers associated with the unfavorable viscosity ratio are minimized or eliminated. Such a process might involve injection of an LPG or some solvent bank at the crest and then driving the bank with dry gas. For some favorable combination of reservoir temperature, pressure and oil composition, there may be no need to inject any solvent bank, since enrichment of the dry gas by the light ends of the crude creates an in-situ solvent bank. Slobod and Howlett2 have studied the effects of gravity segregation in vertical unconsolidated porous media under miscible conditions in the laboratory. The main variables in their study were the viscosity ratio, the density differences and the rate of flow. In this study, the objective was to find the influence of fractures on gravity drainage under miscible conditions. A greater number of related variables were also studied. LABORATORY STUDY CORE DESCRIPTION Displacement tests were performed mostly in cylindrical Berea sandstone cores. In a few cases in which a much lower matrix permeability was desired, Blue Jacket sandstone cores were used. The vertical fractures were formed by cutting the cores with a thin circular blade or by parting them along a bedding plane. The vertical fracture plane always contained the axis of the cylindrical core. The subvertical fractures, cut with a saw, were inclined 45' from the horizontal. The line of intersection between the planes of the vertical and subvertical fractures was parallel to the circular faces of the cores in all cases except one, as depicted by VF3HF-2 in Fig. 1. Fracture geometry of the other cores is also given in Fig. 1. Tables 1 and 2 give the physical properties of the solid and fractured cores, respectively. The suffixes and prefixes shown for each core have been used throughout the paper so that the reader may discern the fracture geometry from the core numbers.

Jan 1, 1970

By William A. Vogely

Mining employment in the United States declined from 986,000 employees in 1948 to about 600,000 employees today. This has occurred even though the Index of Physical Volume of Mineral Production (1957-59=100) has increased from 88 to 111 and the value of mineral production measured in constant(1957-59) dollars has increased from $14.7 billion to approximately $19.3 billion. Average unit mine value has increased 24% as compared with a 34% increase in prices in general. Apparent consumption has increased more than domestic production, indicating an increased dependence on imports. The mineral economy presents a complex pattern of development factors in the post-war period. This article presents a technique by which the various forces that have been acting on the market for a mineral commodity may be sorted out and by which the extent of the impact of technological change in use as well as the technological change in production can be measured. If one is interested in delineating fully and completely the impact of technological change upon the mining industries, it is not sufficient to describe the increase in productivity reflected by the above employment and production figures. What is reflected there is only the effect of technological change in the production function of the commodities under concern. These effects are obviously very substantial and have major implications for labor, capital and supplying industries. However, they are not the only effects of technological change and, in fact, may be relatively minor when the impact which arises because of changing technology in the using or consuming industries is considered.

Jan 4, 1965

By J. H. Bowden

The shaft-plant here described was put in operation in September, 1895, and the No. 6 slope-motor was started in May, 1896. The plant comprises : One Norwalk three-stage compressor l21/2, 91/2 and 5 in. diameters of air- and 20 in. diameter of steam-cylinder, all 24 in. stroke; capacity at 100 revolutions, 296 cu. ft. of free air per minute, compressed to 600 Ibs. per sq. in. A main pipe, 5 in. diameter, 4380 ft. long, with five charging-stations in No. 6 Shaft, and a branch of 3 in. pipe, 3100 ft. long, with three charging stations, in No. 6 Slope. These pipes on each line charge a Porter compressed-air motor, with 7 by 14 in. cylinders, and four 24 in. drivers, weighing about eight tons, with a tank-capacity of 130 cu. ft. of air at 550 lbs. pressure in the main tank, reduced to 160 lbs. in the 8-in. auxiliary tank of 4.2 cu. ft. capacity, supplying the cylinders. The No. 6 shaft run averages 4000 ft. each way on grades of $ to 23/4 per cent., and averaging close to one per cent. in favor of the loaded cars. The No. 6 slope run averages 2100 ft. with nearly the same grades. The mine-cars weigh 2800 Ibs. empty, and about 9800 lbs. loaded, and are hauled in trips of 12 to 20, averaging about 15 cars. The shaft-motor now hauls about 355, and the slope-motor 320 cars per day of 10 hours, replacing in the shaft 17 mules, and

Jan 1, 1901

By K. K. Clark

Excessive injection pressures in water injection wells may create deeply penetrating fractures, or may open up existing reservoir fractures. If these fractures are oriented toward offset producing wells, oil recovery at injected water breakthrough and ultimate recovery will be impaired. A method of calculating fracture lengths from pressure fall-off test data is presented. The method is based on a linear flow model that simulates conditions present during the early-time period after shutting in an injection well. Fracture lengths can be calculated directly if formation permeability is known. A graphical technique is presented that provides fracture lengths based on permeabilities calculated from normal fall-off tests, where those permeabilities are adjusted for flow geometry. Test data from four injection wells and results obtained from applying the method to these wells are discussed. Introduction Rates of water injection into nonstimulated wells in low permeability reservoirs frequently fall below economically desirable levels. Therefore, some form of stimulation such as hydraulic fracturing often is performed on these wells. Usually these fractures penetrate a short distance from the well — short as compared with interwell spacing — and therefore should not create problems of water channeling to offset producing wells. In the past, some operators have been tempted to increase injection pressures continually to maintain a specified injection rate. But pressures cannot be increased indefinitely. Field data indicate that continued injection above fracture opening pressure can cause excessively long fractures to approach between well distances. If these long fractures intersect or closely approach offset producing wells, premature water breakthrough can result. It is difficult to seal effectively these fractures by various workover procedures after premature water breakthrough has occurred. This paper describes testing procedures that are potentially capable of detecting premature water breakthrough before it occurs. Knowledge of fracture lengths and fracture opening pressures can assist field engineers in selecting optimum operating conditions for water injection wells. Fracture lengths should be calculated from pressure fall-off tests on injection wells, and maximum permissible iniection pressures should be determined from step-rate injectivity tests. Equipped with this information, the field engineer is in a better position to recommend for a particular injection well the optimum operating conditions that will lessen the chances of channeling to offset producers. Historically, pressure transient tests have been conducted primarily on producing wells and analysis procedures have been based on radial flow concepts. Several authors have suggested that these same procedures be applied to tests conducted on water injection wells. This application is justified for wells that are not connected to extensive fracture systems. However, if the formation is severely fractured, the interpretation methods must be modified. Several authors have presented the pressure response of various systems that are intended to simulate reservoir conditions. A paper by Russell and Truitt* on vertically fractured svstems is probablv the most useful from the standpoint bf the fieid engineer. Russell and Truitt presented the pressure-vs-time behavior of a well connected to vertical fractures with various fixed lengths. Their permeability adjustment technique is used in this paper to refine methods of calculating fracture length and interwell permeability. Theory and Definitions Three flow-system geometries are considered in analyzing injection well test data. These various geometries are applicable during specific time intervals of transient pressure tests. Schematic drawings of the flow models, and the time intervals over which they are applicable, are shown in Fig. 1 in the chronological order that they are applied to the pressure response of water injection wells in fractured formations. The very early response is simulated by an infinite linear system as shown in Fig. 1A. This representation permits the calculation of matrix surface area exposed to the fracture. The model shown in Fig. 1B is identical with the one studied by Russell and Truitt. They evaluated the transient pressure response of this vertically fractured system by finite difference techniques. The results were presented as tabulations of dimensionless pressure drop functions for a range of fracture lengths. A semilog plot of these data shows that the apparent matrix permeability can be related to the true matrix permeability by a simple exponential function. Their adjustment factor is used in this paper to improve the accuracy of matrix-permeability and fracture-length calculations.

Jan 1, 1969

By Avnulf Muan, P. V. Riboud

The effect of Cr2O3 on melting relations of iron oxide at oxygen pressures slightly above those prevailing in contact with metallic iron has been determined. Liquidus and solidus temperatures of wüstite are raised by the addition of Cr2O3, from 1385°C for pure iron oxide to 1420°C at the peri-ledie point where wüstite, iron chromite, liquid, and gas coexist in equilibrium under the atmospheric conditions used in the present investigation (CO2/H2 = 1). It has been shown in a previous investigation1 that the liquidus and solidus temperatures of iron oxide are drastically increased by the addition of Cr2O3 under the relatively oxidizing conditions prevailing in air. This is to be expected in view of the easy substitution of cr3+ for Fe3+ in crystalline oxide structures which are stable at high oxygen pressures, as demonstrated for instance by the completeness of the solid solution series Fe2O3-Cr2O3 at high temperatures (>1000°C). The stable phase of iron oxide at oxygen pressures approximating those prevailing when metallic iron is present is wüstite. This phase, although commonly represented by the simplified formula FeO for sake of convenience, in reality has a defect structure in which a part of the iron ions are present as Fe3+. It is to be expected that at least a limited amount of cr3 ions will substitute for Fe in this structure when Cr2O3 is added to wüstite. Depending on the ease of this substitution in comparison with that of cr3 substitution for Fe in iron oxide-Cr2O3 liquids under the same atmos- pheric conditions, the liquidus and solidus temperatures of wüstite may increase or decrease upon addition of Cr2O3. The methods of establishing these melting relations and the results obtained are presented in the following. I) EXPERIMENTAL METHOD 1) General Procedure. The quenching technique was used in this study. Oxide mixtures were heated at chosen constant temperatures in an atmosphere consisting of equal parts of CO2 and H2 until equilibrium was established among gas and condensed phases. The samples were then quenched in mercury to room temperature, and the phases present were determined by microscopic and X-ray investigation. 2) Preparation of the Mixtures. Starting mixtures were prepared by weighing and thoroughly mixing Fe2O3 and Cr2O3, or wüstite and Cr2O3. The Fe2O3 and Cr2O3 used were "Baker Analyzed" reagent grades, whereas wüstite of composition was synthesized by reducing Fe203 at 1325°C in an atmosphere consisting of equal parts of CG andHz. In order to avoid contact with crucibles, the equilibration runs were made with small pellets suspended from thin (-0.004-in.) platinum wires. Mixtures made from FOs and Cr203 were readily pelletized at a pressure of 500 atm in a 9.5-mm die, whereas mixtures made from wüstite and Cr203 when treated identically were too weak for handling. In order to obtain a stronger product, these pellets were sintered by heating for 2 min at -1200°C in the same atmosphere as was subsequently used for the equilibration runs (CG/H2 = 1:1). During the sintering, these pellets were wrapped in thin (0.0004-in.) platinum foil, which was stripped off before the equilibration runs. In order to reduce the time needed for equilibrium to be attained, preliminary equilibration of relatively large pellets of each mixture was carried out at -1200°C for 4 to 12 hr. Smaller pellets

Jan 1, 1964

By D. G. Westlake

The electrical resistance of a series of V-H alloys (0 to 3.5 at. pct H) has been measured over the temperature range G° to 360°. Interstitial impurities made contributions to the residual resistivity, but not the ideal resistivity. The contribution of hydrogen in solid solution is expressed by Ap = 1.12 microhm-cm per at. pct H; but the contribution of precipitated hydride was negligible. A portion of the so1vu.s for the V-H phase diagram is presented. The solubility limit is given by In N (at. pct H) = (5.828 i 0.009) - (2933 i 44)/RT. Comparison of critical temperatures joy hydride precipitation and published critical temperatures for hydrogen embrittlement suggests the two are related. ThiS study was initiated as part of an investigation of the mechanism by which small concentrations of hydrogen embrittle the hydride-forming metals at low temperatures. It has already been shown that, in the case of hcp zirconium, a reduction in ductility accompanies the strengthening resulting from precipitation of a finely dispersed hydride phase.''' Our attempts to detect a similar precipitation of a second phase at low temperatures in V-H alloys by transmission electron microscopy have been thwarted because we have been unable to prepare thin foils that are representative of the bulk material with respect to hydrogen concentrati~n.~'~ The present investigation establishes the solvus of the V-H system at subambient temperatures. Subsequently, we hope to be able to determine whether the embrittlement temperature is related to the critical temperature for precipitation of the hydride in a given V-H alloy. veleckis5 has proposed a partial phase diagram for the V-H system based on extrapolations of the pressure-composition relations he measured at higher temperatures. Kofstad and wallace' conducted a similar study of single-phase alloys but did not attempt to establish the phase diagram. Zanowick and wallace' and ~aeland' have studied a portion of the phase diagram by X-ray diffraction, but they investigated no alloys in the hydrogen concentration range 0 to 3 at. pct, the range of interest to us. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The vanadium was obtained from the Bureau of Mines, Boulder City, Nev., in the form of electrolytic crystals. The analyses supplied with them listed 230 ppm by weight metallic impurities, 20 ppm C, 100 ppm N, and 290 ppm 0. The crystals were electron-beam-melted into an ingot that was rolled to 0.64 mm. Strips, 60 mm long and 4.2 mm wide, were cut from the sheet, and both rolled surfaces were ground on wet 600-grit Sic paper to produce specimens 0.4 mm thick. They were wrapped in molybdenum foil, vacuum-encapsulated in quartz, and annealed 4 hr at 1273°K. The specimens were annealed in a dynamic vacuum of 2X lo-' Torr for 30 min at 1073°K for dehydrogenation, and charged with the desired quantity of hydrogen by allowing reaction with hydrogen gas at 1073°K for 2 hr and cooling at 100°K per hr. Purified hydrogen was obtained by thermal decomposition of UH3. Sixteen specimens were studied: two contained no hydrogen and the others had hydrogen concentrations between 0.5 and 3.5 at. pct (hydrogen analyses were done by vacuum extraction at 1073°K). Electrical resistances were measured by the four-terminal-resistor method on an apparatus similar to the one described by Horak.~ The specimen holder was designed so that both current and potential leads made spring-loaded mechanical contact with the specimen. The potential leads were 30 mm apart, and the current leads were 55 mm apart. The current was 0.10000 amp. We used the following baths for the indicated temperature ranges: liquid nitrogen, 77°K; Freon 12, 120" to 230°K; Freon 11, 230" to 290°K; and ethanol, 290" to 340°K. Temperatures lower than 77°K were achieved by allowing the specimen to warm up after removal from liquid helium. Temperatures above 77°K were measured by a calibrated copper-constantan thermocouple (soldered to the specimen holder) and below 77°K by a calibrated carbon resistor. The temperature of the bath changed less than 0.l0K between duplicate measurements of the resistance. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Typical plots of resistivity p vs temperature T are shown in Fig. 1. In the interest of clarity, only five curves are presented and the data points have been

Jan 1, 1968