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By Thomas E. Howard

Recently, the mining community has begun to move toward a more prominent place in the structure of American society. Extensive press coverage of our energy problems during the past year or two has led to an increasing awareness on the part of the public of the vital role that mining must play if today's standard of living is to be maintained. It appears that mining may be emerging from a status generally characterized in the public mind as an esoteric, dirty, man-killing, land- scape-despoiling endeavor, to a new stature that may eventually become as respectable as agriculture. To be sure, we are still being criticized, as has been the lot of miners since the time of Agricola. In fact, the clamor has never been louder. Nevertheless, the public, in increasing numbers, is beginning to know it needs us. But we cannot be complacent. Our improving stature brings along with it increasing responsibility. The mineral industry will be expected to produce mineral raw materials and fuels in ever larger amounts and sell them at reasonable prices, in the face of rising labor costs, decreasing labor availability, chacging labor attitudes, increasingly stringent environmental regulation, stricter health and safety standards, and a deteriorating geo-political climate.

Jan 6, 1975

By E. N. Cameron

Graphite has been included in U. S. lists of strategic minerals since the problem of mineral deficiencies was revealed during World War I. Since 1918 the domestic graphite industry has led a precarious existence, and there has been much uncertainty as to the amounts of usable graphite of various grades that would be available from domestic sources in time of emergency. In 1950-1951 therefore, the writer, assisted by Paul L. Weis, undertook a review of domestic graphite sources for the U. S. Geological Survey. The conclusions of this study are presented here, with a discussion of some technologic and politico-economic factors bearing upon the problem. Uses of Graphite: Natural graphite as marketed exhibits a wide range of properties, which determine the uses to which it is put. The most essential uses are in the manufacture of crucibles and related refractory articles, in lubricants and packing materials, and in the manufacture of batteries, foundry facings, pencils, and carbon brushes. Numerous specifications covering the mineral in its various applications must be met by producers and processors of graphite. The problem of supply is therefore not simply one of procuring a sufficient total tonnage, but the more difficult problem of procuring enough of each different grade to meet foreseeable needs.

Oct 1, 1956

By E. Alan Haley

Accurate and economic control of line and grade on long tunnels, large structures, excavations and waterways has been a problem to surveyors and engineers for decades. The conventional method of surveying, incorporating a level, transit and a number of surveying technicians, has proven to be a very expensive and time-consuming operation. Now, however, engineers have adapted the laser to help ease the problems of surveying, at the same time increasing the efficiency of such operations. The laser, which projects a continuous, narrow red beam of brilliant light, provides a constant alignment reference that does not interfere with personnel or equipment. A complete laser alignment system, specifically designed for and suited to a variety of mining and tunneling operations, has been developed by the Perkin-Elmer Corp. The engineering significance of this development can be fully realized when it is noted that, aside from potentially tremendous economic advantages in terms of labor savings, the laser beam provides a system of alignment that is at least ten times more accurate than presently used optical systems. The new laser system provides accuracies within 10 microinches per foot (1 x 10-5in.) when used with an accessory centering detector. In one of its first field trials, the laser was used for alignment of a two-mile tunnel which showed a total deviation of less than 5/8 in.

Jan 4, 1968

By J. C. Draper

Duquesne Light Co.'s Portal No. 3 mine, in the Warwick group of mines in Southwestern Pennsylvania, was started in June 1965 with battery- powered tractor-trailer face haulage. The area as- signed to Portal No. 3 encompasses over 8000 acres of coal and will be developed by driving a set of main entries through the center of the tract in roughly a westerly direction, and sub mains on a 45º deflection angle in roughly a northerly direction (Figs 1 & 2). In the original planning these sub mains were to be at a 90º angle with the mains, but difficult roof conditions necessitated a change in plans. The entries and crosscuts are driven 18 ft wide in the normal Sewickley seam which varies between 46 and 56 in. high. The mine bottom is a strong shale and in average, cool or dry outside conditions stands up well for rubber-tired haulage equipment, but when the outside conditions are hot and humid, the bottom becomes soft and muddy. This condition lessens as the mine faces are advanced further from the portals because the condensation will then take place principally on the surfaces of intake entries outby the working areas. To aid the situation, an air cooling system was installed and is used as conditions dictate.

Jan 7, 1968

By Moshe Sheinkin, Burke O. Trafton

This paper describes the use of a computer in analyzing the expected return on a mining venture. The computer program is designed to incorporate all aspects of a mining project, including the mine, mill, smelter, and refinery. Data input may consist of the operating variables in each phase such as the mining rate, grades, reserves at the mine, and the technical operating characteristics of the mine, mill, smelter, and refinery. Detailed tax computations are shown for a domestic operating company, for a foreign company and for a foreign subsidiary. In addition, the use of the various options that are available such as expense write-offs or deferments to create tax credits during preproduction years are considered, and its effect on the DCF. The program is also constructed to accommodate changes in metal prices, and escalation of capital requirements and operating costs. Output consists of profit and loss statements for entire projects using different methods of depreciation, cash flows, discounted cash flows, net present value and returns on investment. Returns on investment are computed for equity investment, total investment, and total investment less tax credits. Allowances are made for bank and guaranteed loans. Additional financial statements can be made for the following: a) A mine-mill segment with a concentrate selling schedule b) A mine-mill-smelter complex with a smelter product selling schedule c) Profitability of the smelter separately d) Profitability of the refinery separately

Jan 1, 1969

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 Willard H. Tracy

The method of seismic reflection prospecting has many times been compared to sound ranging, a process that became familiar to many during the World War. According to this very simple theory, the dynamite goes off and sends out a compression wave, which meets a reflecting horizon and returns to the surface, where it is recorded and the elapsed time of its travel in the earth accurately determined. Computations are then made on the general theory that the longer the elapsed time, the greater the depth of the reflecting bed. While this serves to give an idea of the fundamental basis of the process, it suggests a simplicity that does not exist in the life history of the various waves set up by a dynamite explosion in the earth. To begin with, a seismic wave in the earth does not obey the same simple laws of propagation that apply to a sound wave in the air. The property of strength in shear possessed by solids introduces a factor that sets such waves apart from the ordinary air waves. Also, the transmission charactcristics of the earth vary widely from place to place, and a fairly accurate knowledge of the space relationships of these variations is necessary if the final results are to be understood. Besides the waves recorded and used in the reflection computations, there are many

Jan 1, 1940

By Willard H. Tracy

The method of seismic reflection prospecting has many times been compared to sound ranging, a process that became familiar to many during the World War. According to this very simple theory, the dynamite goes off and sends out a compression wave, which meets a reflecting horizon and returns to the surface, where it is recorded and the elapsed time of its travel in the earth accurately determined. Computations are then made on the general theory that the longer the elapsed time, the greater the depth of the reflecting bed. While this serves to give an idea of the fundamental basis of the process, it suggests a simplicity that does not exist in the life history of the various waves set up by a dynamite explosion in the earth. To begin with, a seismic wave in the earth does not obey the same simple laws of propagation that apply to a sound wave in the air. The property of strength in shear possessed by solids introduces a factor that sets such waves apart from the ordinary air waves. Also, the transmission charactcristics of the earth vary widely from place to place, and a fairly accurate knowledge of the space relationships of these variations is necessary if the final results are to be understood. Besides the waves recorded and used in the reflection computations, there are many

Jan 1, 1940

By Franklin Bache

It is appropriate to the place of meeting, and of interest to those members of the Institute whose attention has been more or less directed to Virginia during the past eleven years, to know the result of recent developments of the Virginia coal-field. While, during the late " boom," the attention of the industrial pioneers of Virginia was mainly directed to iron-ore deposits and manufacture, it is safe to say that the coal to which, at that time, comparatively little attention was turned, and which did not directly foster a growth of " boom " towns, will prove the most reliable source of mineral wealth in the State. At the time of the last Virginia meeting of the Institute, held at Roanoke, in 1883, the Wise county coal-field was untouched by a railroad, and its economic existence was scarcely considered. Although, in the meantime, a number of reconnaissances had been made, and a fair estimate of the value of the field formed, it was not until 1891, when the Norfolk and Western and the Louisville and Nashville railroads, respectively, completed their Clinch Valley and Norton extensions to a junction at Norton, Wise county, that any development took place, and not until 1892 were shipments of any importance made. The coal-measures of Virginia are confined to the seven counties of Buchanan, Tazewell, Dickenson, Russell, Scott, Wise, and Lee,

Jan 1, 1895

By P. H. Royster

On the Continent, ferromanganese has been produced in the blast furnace almost continuously since 1876, but little definite information concerning the practice is to be found in technical literature, and almost nothing in the way of a theory of the manganese furnace. In this country, prior to 1904, but one company had attempted its production in a serious way, and none of the operating data or other information from this company has been, or is, available to the public..In the last 5 years, as a result of the restriction of imports, a number of furnaces have been blown in on this alloy, with the result that in 1918 as many as 18 furnaces were in blast. The majority of the men in charge of these furnaces had had little previous experience in such operations; so the Bureau of Mines, in the summer of 1918, undertook the collection of data from ferromanganese furnaces. Operating data were collected by the Bureau from eleven ferromangahese furnaces, which will be referred to throughout this paper as furnaces A, B, C, F, G, I, J, K, L, M, and P; the dimensions of seven of the furnaces are given in Table 1. The companies from whom this information was obtained, and to whom should go the credit for whatever value this information may possess, are the Bethlehem Steel CO.,

Jan 1, 1920

By V. N. Burnhart

After eight years of testing and development, the E. J. Longyear Co. has adapted the wire- line core barrel to small diameter drillholes. Field performance indicates that the apparatus for the BX hole will be an important supplement to the conventional techniques used in the diamond core drilling industry. Higher core recovery, faster drilling progress, and reduced diamond costs will provide substantial savings to the user of coring equipment. The wire-line principle is not new, having been successfully applied to the large-diameter holes of the petroleum industry. But scaling the practices of core recovery in oil well drilling down to the small BX hole presented a number of problems. The technique, difficult even for large holes, was complicated by the exacting limitations of the small diameter in which durable and foolproof mechanisms would be required to operate. Since the maximum benefits could be realized from this sys- tem in holes 1000 ft and deeper or in holes in badly fractured ground, the drill string would have to be able to withstand heavy stresses. Most vital to the success of the idea was the development of a positive latching mechanism to assure proper positioning of the inner tube of the core barrel when the tube is dropped into place. Lastly, little was to be gained from the wire-line method without diamond bits that would give optimum penetration rates and a long service life in the drillhole.

Jun 1, 1955

By Arthur V. Abbott

During the past four years I have had occasion to make quite extensive use of steel castings in the manufacture of testing-machines and large scales for Messrs. Fairbanks & Co. The failure of some of these' castings at stresses much below those which were claimed for them by the makers, induced me to institute a series of experiments to determine the actual constructive value of the steel castings now to be obtained in this country. The art of steel-casting is rapidly improving, almost every issue of the scientific press bringing accounts of some new development; consequently, the results of the following experiments are only exponents of the value of steel castings as at present made. In order to make the examination as thorough as possible, ten sets of patterns were made and forwarded to as many different firms in the country who advertised to make steel castings. The first part of the accompanying table gives a list of these manufactures, together with the price per pound. The order accompanying the patterns simply requested the manufacturer to supply two castings from each pattern of his ordinary product of steel. These castings were sent to me and paid for in the usual manner, so that it is probable that the samples fairly represent the quality of the average of steel castings, and are free from the suspicion of being "special runs." Two patterns were sent to each maker, one being a straight

Jan 1, 1886

By B. H. Bergstrom, Will Mitchell, T. G. Kirkland, C. L. Sollenberger

SEVERAL constructive and fundamental studies have been made in the analysis of data obtained from experiments carried on with batch ball and rod mills. The operating characteristics of ball milling in small continuous circuits have also been appraised. It is from these analyses that some of the theories of comminution have been developed. Relatively few studies of continuous rod milling have added significantly to the fundamental concepts, because seldom have they yielded sufficiently consistent results. Perhaps they have been too limited in their scope. Careful control of the variables in batch grinding is simple compared with that encountered in a continuous operation. This factor alone has discouraged many investigators. Occasionally results of systematic changes made in industrial rod mill circuits have been published, but usually the data are sketchy and are restricted because -of the unwieldiness of the equipment used. The work, in general, has not been comprehensive; nevertheless it has provided empirical relationships that have bridged the gap between postulate and practice so that by proper manipulation of formulae, a mill designer can anticipate mill size and power requirements.1-3 Although operating variables of a small continuous mill are not so easy to control as with the batch mill, with present day devices, and with careful experimental work, consistent results can be obtained.

Jan 10, 1954

By W. C. Schroeder

PRACTICAL experience has shown that at elevated temperatures solu-tions containing sodium hydroxide may attack stressed steel in a manner that cannot be explained in terms of ordinary corrosion. Because the ductility of the metal has been greatly reduced during the reaction, the entire phenomenon is usually called "embrittlement." Thus, after several years of operation caustic evaporators have been so badly embrittled that rivets could be cracked off with the blow of a hammer. Since fine intergranular cracks are almost always present in the zone of fracture, it has often been assumed that a process of selective corrosion in grain boundaries was responsible for the failure, although this has not been clearly proved experimentally. Concentrations of sodium hydroxide below those necessary for the uniform, rapid attack of the steel surface are reported to be most effective in producing embrittlement2,3. In the operation of steam boilers a similar type of failure has been found, mainly in riveted seams or other capillary spaces where the solu-tion may concentrate and where high stresses may also exist. It is believed that in such localized areas the dissolved solids may reach a value many times the few hundred parts per million prevalent in the body of the boiler. While this type of boiler failure has been the subject of investigation for a period of 20 years', an understanding of its mecha-

Jan 1, 1936

By R. B. Sosman

INTRODUCTION WE have shown in the preceding paper that practically all natural oxides of iron contain a determinable percentage of ferrous iron, and in many cases the percentage approaches that in magnetite itself. Some of these oxides are true homogeneous solid solutions. Others are not homogeneous, and can be separated magnetically into fractions. The nature and cause of this inhomogeneity in certain special cases form the subject of the present paper. MAGNETIC FRACTIONATION OF OXIDES OF IRON The magnetic fractionation of a sample of oxide can be conveniently carried out by powdering the material very fine, and exposing it at various distances from the poles of an electromagnet. The magnet that we used was specially designed 1 to give a strong field together with a steep gradient outside of the poles. It is set in a frame, with the pole pieces directed downward. A glass plate can be adjusted at various distances beneath the poles. If the fine iron oxide powder is placed just beneath the glass plate, successive portions of the powder are picked up by the magnetic attraction and are caught against the glass plate, the most magnetic portions being taken up at the greatest distance from the poles. Some natural oxides can thus be separated into several-fractious of different magnetic susceptibilities. Among other natural iron oxides, we examined the powder obtained by crushing some crystals of hematite from Elba.2 We found that

Jan 6, 1917

By J. R. Low

The brittle fracture of a Tic-lnconel cermet at room temperature is shown to occur primarily as a result of the cracking of the larger carbide particles (at a tensile strain of approximately 0.3 pct), followed by cracking of adjacent, smaller carbides and, finally, by the rupture of the lnconel matrix between cracked carbides (at a strain of-1.2 pct). No evidence was found for separation at the interface between carbide and matrix at any point in the fracture process. MATERIAL used in this study was a Tic-Inconel cermet prepared by infiltration (50 pct Tic, 50 pct Inconel: designated as TC66-I). A thin section of this material was brazed to a piece of low carbon steel and then mounted in lucite for metal-lographic preparation." After grinding, polishing, Deformation and fracture of the specimen was accomplished by bending the specimen as a simply supported, centrally loaded beam, in a bending fixture which could be placed in the stage of a microscope, with the tension side of the bend specimen under the microscope objective.? This method of deformation and observation has the advantage that the surface under examination is the most severely deformed portion of the specimen. The procedure followed was to deform the specimen a small amount, scan the surface at Xl OOO for any evidence of deformation or cracking, deform another small increment, scan the surface again, and so on until a

Jan 1, 1957

Works Manager or General Superintendent.-Technical graduate, for position with a company whose works consist of a large machine shop and foundry. This company manufactures well-known power plant equipment. Location, Pennsylvania. Salary, $5000-$8000 per year. R-871. Motion Study Engineer with extensive experience in shop operation and motion study. Must have sufficient technical experience to recognize inefficiency and waste in plant. Salary, $175-$200 per month. Location, New Jersey. R-876. Metallurgical Engineer.-Technical graduate with at least 2 or 3 years' practical experience in the operation of zinc smelters. Duties will be to take charge, under the guidance of -the superintendent of the smelter, of the operating end of the furnaces, and the roasting kilns, as well as the mix room and ore crusher. Man desired should not be over 30 years of age and should be progressive and able to handle men. Salary, $250 per month. Location, Oklahoma. R-877. Private Secretary to Vice-president in charge of development department and laboratories of large manufacturing plant; must be technical man of good personality, and A-1 in every respect, as position is an important and responsible one. Location, Ohio. R-896. Sales. Engineer familiar with his local territory, particularly with the fanning trade. Should have had at least 2 years' experience in selling tractors; and in any event, must have had at least 5 years' experience in selling machinery. High grade, energetic, and capable; man who is not satisfied with less than $3000 per year and who can earn up to $7000. Location, Iowa. R-897.

Jan 8, 1919

By F. R. Morral, K. T. Aust

The preferred orientation and earing characteristics of ZS aluminum were studied. An empirical correlation was obtained relating earing behavior and variation of mechanical properties for face-centered cubic metals. Strain-ratio mecsurements for ZS were found to be in good agreement with Hill's theory of plastic anisotropy. DIRECTIONALITY in sheet metals may be revealed by earing in a cupping test, or by the variation of mechanical properties of tensile specimens taken at different angles to the rolling direction. However, no simple correlation appears to exist between earing and variation in mechanical properties in metals and alloys studied.1-5 Aluminum of commercial purity (known as 2S, with a specified minimum of 99.0 pct Al) cast by the direct casting process was chosen in the present investigation since ears at 45° or 0°, 90° can readily be obtained. Preferred orientation is often the principal cause of uneven metal flow, such as earing, and variation in mechanical properties. Consequently, the preferred orientation characteristics of 2s aluminum were initially studied using both X-ray diffraction and micrographic techniques. The variation of mechanical properties with angle to the rolling direction was next determined in an effort to clarify the apparent lack of correlation of earing behavior with mechanical properties for face-centered cubic metals. Strain-ratio*5,8 measurements were finally conducted to determine first, if the maximum values of the strain ratio occurred at the earing positions, and second, if Hill's theory of plastic anisotropy7 is applicable to other face-centered cubic metals such as aluminum. Detailed treatments, working, and heat treating are not given in this paper since this study is not concerned with the methods to produce earing, but to correlate earing with other properties and characteristics of the material. The percentage of earing was measured using the formula specified by the x—Y Aluminum Association, -------- X 100 = pct earing, where x is the height of the ear and y is the height of the valley from the bottom of the cup. Preferred Orientation Characteristics of 2S X-ray Studies: Beck and coworkers8 have determined that the rolling texture of 2s after 95 pct cold reduction may be approximately described by four equivalent ideal orientations near (123) [121]. Also, the recrystallization or annealing texture of 2s aluminum consists of four components of the (123) [l21] type, retained from the rolling texture, and of a (100) [001] or cube texture component." Fig. 1 illustrates the typical appearance of deep drawn earing cups with the corresponding X-ray diffraction patterns. The X-ray patterns were taken with copper radiation using the structure-integrating method'" in which the specimen is scanned during the X-ray exposure. The rolling direction was vertical and the rolling plane was perpendicular to the horizontal X-ray beam. It was found that an increase in the retained rolling texture component resulted in a greater 45" ear height, while an increase in the recrystallization texture component (i.e., cube texture) caused greater 0°, 90° earing. X-ray diffraction studies of 2s cold rolled to final thickness followed by a final anneal have shown that the rolling texture, and also the retained component of the rolling texture after annealing, are increased with greater cold-rolling reduction. The preferred orientation characteristics of 2s sheets given an intermediate anneal between cold rolling followed by a final anneal were found to depend on the position of the intermediate anneal during cold rolling. For instance, three identical samples of 2s homogenized ingot, each 1 in. thick, were given the following cold-rolling and annealing treatments: 1—50 pct reduction, intermediate anneal, 96 pct reduction to 0.020 in. and a final anneal; 2—75 pct reduction, intermediate anneal, 92 pct reduction to 0.020 in. and a final anneal; and 3—90 pct reduction, intermediate anneal, 80 pct reduction to 0.020 in. and a final anneal. The intermediate and final annealing treatments consisted of a 70°F per hr heating rate, held 6 hr at 800°F and air cooled. Typical X-ray patterns after each of these treatments are shown in Fig. 2. It was evident that after treatment 1, the retained rolling texture component predominated; after treatment 2, the retained roll-

Jan 1, 1954

By M. R. Geer, H. F. Yancey

THE performance of coal-washing equipment, that is, the effectiveness with which coal and impurity are separated, is a subject of undisputed interest to all concerned with the preparation of coal. Through the years much has been written in both American and European literature on the performance of coal-washing equipment and its interpretation, but until recently no effort has been made to consolidate this wealth of information into a single, comprehensive treatment of the subject. A splendid effort in this direction was made at the First International Conference on Coal Preparation held in Paris in June 1950 in which representatives from virtually every coal-producing country participated. Although the scope of the conference covered the entire field of coal preparation, many of the sixty-odd papers and a great deal of the discussion dealt with the subject of evaluating washery performance. Prominence was given this subject by the Centre d'Etudes et Re-cherches, des Charbonnages de France, which sponsored the conference. This research organization, generally referred to as Cerchar, was formed in 1948 following the nationalization of the French coal industry. Since that date it has conducted an intensive study of coal preparation. Perhaps because of a fresh viewpoint, Cerchar realized immediately that complete information on the performance of French washeries and a thorough understanding of the mechanism of gravity separation were the fundamental prerequisites in a program to improve preparation practice. For this reason Cerchar concentrated on obtaining performance data and on a comprehensive study of methods of evaluating such information. Some idea of the magnitude of this work will be appreciated from the fact that 175 performance tests were made in 44 plants. The work performed by Cerchar emphasized a condition that is recognized by many of those concerned with coal preparation, namely that the lack of uniformity in presenting data on washery performance, the diversity of methods used in evaluating such information, and the frequent confusion of the terms related to performance have been prime factors militating against the progress from art to science. Thus, Cerchar feels that standardization of the methods employed for evaluating washery performance, not only in France but in the entire world, is essential to progress, and the prime objective of the Paris conference was to seek international standardization of the evaluation methods advocated by Cerchar. At the conclusion of the conference the question of standardization was referred to the International Standards Organization. A careful study of the dozen papers on the subject of evaluating washery performance presented at the conference reveals that none of the methods is new; most of them date back over a decade. Nevertheless, the intensive scrutiny of these methods brought about by the conference unquestionably has resulted in a valuable exchange of ideas and a clarification of thought that could scarcely be achieved in any other way. The object of the present report is to make available to the American coal industry the ideas developed at the conference which seem most important from an American viewpoint and to provide a critical analysis of some of the evaluation methods advocated by Cerchar. The various methods of evaluating washery performance are illustrated partly with data that have been published in American literature, and some new data have been obtained as the result of experimental work undertaken since the conference to provide information on certain controversial points. An English translation of the proceedings of the conference, including the discussion as well as the papers, will be available,' and previous to the conference Coal Age2 published a very brief description of some of the principal evaluation methods used by Cerchar. Americans will appreciate as well as do the French the desirability of standardizing both the termi-

Jan 1, 1952

By Herbert W. Huse

Nitrogen, and its compounds, unique among the materials described in this volume, is absolutely essential to the existence of the human race. Almost all minerals are important and the absence of any one of them would be sorely felt; but nitrogen is an integral part of the cycle of life itself. Man cannot live without nitrogen which, as an inert gas, composes the major part of the air he breathes; as compounds, nourishes the vegetation which he eats; and, as protein, forms a part of his very flesh and blood. Nature originally provided man with a vast reserve of usable nitrogen compounds in the form of fertile soil. She constantly replenishes the supply by "fixing" nitrogen in the air at the estimated rate of 400,000,000 tons per year (an insignificant 6 lb per acre) during electrical storms. She has also placed certain microorganisms in the soil which are able to "fix" nitrogen and convert it into forms which plants can use. Legumes like cow peas, soy beans, clover, and alfalfa have extraordinary roots which serve as stimulating hosts to these bacteria which, in turn, nourish the plant. By plowing in all or part of such crops, their above-average nitrogen content can be returned to the soil for other more useful crops. The mechanism for this recycle is supplied by "denitrifying" bacteria which attack the dead plant tissue and liberate nitrogen and ammonia. However, since one crop of grain, sugar beets, potatoes, tomatoes, etc., takes out a major portion of the nitrogen which a plowed-in legume crop can supply, this method of fertilization is obviously inadequate. Drastic intervention by man has become necessary to support the ever-growing population of the world.9,15,20 Old civilizations with a high population density, such as the Chinese, were able to exist for centuries by carefully tilling the soil, rotating crops, and returning to the soil all the nitrogen in vegetable wastes plus human and animal excreta. But the lack of a means for augmenting their supply of nitrogen placed a ceiling on further development and kept the mass of the population in a chronic state of undernourishment, frequently punctuated by famine. Nitrogen plays another important role in the life of mankind. In the form of explosives, nitrogen helps to wrest from the earth many materials needed for our material well-being. Also, in the form of explosives and propellants, nitrogen increased the destructiveness of wars to a point only exceeded by the fantastic power of atomic energy. Man's first really effective efforts to improve his position with respect to nitrogen began in the 18th Century with the mining of sodium nitrate. By the late 1880's this had become a big industry serving a large part of the world. In the late 1890's nitrogen, in the form of ammonia, was being recovered from coke-oven operations. In 1900 nitrogen, in the form of nitric oxide, was being obtained from the air by an electric-arc process. About 1904 another "fixation" process based on the reaction of nitrogen with calcium carbide to form cyanamide was commercialized. By 1913 the Haber-Bosch process of "fixing" atmospheric nitrogen by reacting it with hydrogen to produce synthetic ammonia was successfully applied on a large scale, first in Germany and then throughout the industrial areas of the world.9 All the above methods of obtaining nitrogen compounds are still in use and, between them, they assure mankind of adequate supplies for all time. While this fortunate situation is not unique amongst industrial raw materials, all too few of man's needs are so well in hand.

Jan 1, 1960