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I HAVE previously shown you in the Fifth Book the process of making guns and gun carriages, together with other preparations and methods of moving them. If I now failed to show you more about them, it would be as if I had pointed out only the useless shadow of a thing, for I did not show the kinds and arrangement of their supplies or how the effects for which they are made are achieved. For these reasons I now wish to tell you, in addition to what I have already said, how saltpeter is made and the methods of refining it well; what it is and how without it guns and many effects of violent and artificial fires would have been discovered in vain. After this, I also wish to tell you the methods of compounding the powders for large and small guns, and finally how these are loaded and discharged. I also wish to tell you how mines are made, and fire tubes, [149v] fire pots, squibs, fireballs, rockets, shells, grapeshot, and other similar devices for shooting fire in order to bum ships, supplies, bridges, and ramparts, or, in offense, for firing on batteries. I also wish to teach you to make certain bronze balls for shooting, which carry fire and break in many pieces when they hit. For surely, besides being terrifying to the sight, they would be harmful to armies lined up in battle when they are fighting. Likewise, I wish, to enlighten you as to how artificial fires are made that last long and are difficult to extinguish. Since these are fine and useful things in wars, every captain and soldier should give them consideration and know how to use them when necessary. You will be pleased to have this information if for no other reason than that you can teach it to those who take delight in celebrating holidays with festivities and with fires.

Jan 1, 1942

SIR ROBERT HADFIELD, London, England (written discussion*).-We have in the past known so little about tungsten that an important paper such as Mr. Zay Jeffries contributes is most welcome. I have not much personal knowledge on the subject except as regards combinations of iron with tungsten. I put forward the results of my research on natural alloys in 1903,1 and so far as I know the facts there presented still stand. Singular to say, tungsten added to iron affects the electrical resistance less than any other added element. The following tables taken from research work by myself and Sir William Barrett may be of interest.

Jan 10, 1918

By Robert E. Tally

THE membership of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers is composed largely of technicians, operating engineers, and executives in the mining, metallurgical and petroleum industries. The Institute also has its student, junior and associate membership and its Woman's Auxiliary. Primarily, it is a technical society, devoting itself largely to the encouragement of progress within the industries it represents, and to the discussion and dissemination of facts regarding this progress to its membership. The wisdom of this policy is reflected by the prestige and position which the society has gained, not only .among its members but throughout the entire mining world.

Jan 1, 1932

By Walter C. Smith

THE Cerro de Pasco Copper Corp. began to produce bismuth at the Oroya smelter in 1929, at which time the only important consumption of that metal was in the manufacture, of pharmaceutical compounds, and the normal supply of metal exceeded the demand. With a new and major producer entering the field, additional uses for bismuth had to be developed. A survey indicated that the most promising opportunity lay in fusible alloys containing bismuth. A large number of bismuth alloys were known and a few of them were being used in the manufacture of automatic sprinkler heads and safety plugs. The literature cover in,- the- alloys was found to be sketchy and contradictory. Research, development, and educational work carrried on by the Corporation during the past fifteen years has resulted in greatly enlarged uses for the metal. In general the low-melting bismuth alloys are of high specific gravity, relatively soft, of low tensile strength, brittle to shock, yet subject to plastic

Jan 1, 1945

By Magnus Troilius

The heat-calculations of gas-analyses involve cumbrous multiplications, which are apt to lead into errors. The foliowing tables and formulae have been found useful as facilitating such calculations, and therefore I hope that they will be of interest to some of the members. By "heat-unit" will, in the following, be understood the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water l° Cent. All the tables refer to cubic meters at O0 and 760 mm. pressure. The following gas is chosen as an example: C02, - 4.0 vol. per cent. co, = 20.0 " CHI, - 3.5 " H, - 7.0 " N, - 65.5 " " 100.0

Jan 1, 1884

Jan 1, 1926

The following correspondence relating to a paper bearing the above title, presented by J. F. Wolff, at the New York meeting in February, 1917, and published in the Transactions, Volume LVI, page 142, has passed between the author of the paper, and Mr. Anson G. Betts, and is interesting, although it was received much too late for incorporation in its proper place in Volume LVI. ANSON CT. BETTS, Asheville, N. C.-1. I should like to ask Mr. Wolff if he finds-from analysis of the iron formation and of the iron ore, and from the relative amounts of each in each unit area of the formation, unleached and after leaching, that the iron remains entirely insoluble and the total quantity still remains present; or whether he finds that some of the iron is removed, or possibly even added by deposition from the water passing through the formation. 2. The water that passed into the iron formation had to go somewhere; was it absorbed by underlying formations through hydration, or, after passing through the ore formation, did it come to the surface in springs at a lower elevation, or how did it escape from the ground? 3. I should like to ask Mr. Wolff whether he finds that the iron formation in the sedimentary series does not, come next to the quartzites and generally between the quartzites and slates. J. F. WOLFF, Duluth, Minn.-1. In common with others, you appear to have some hesitancy in accepting the fact of the removal, by solution, of the enormous quantity of silica which has been leached out of portions of the Biwabik iron formation, thus forming orebodies of merchantable iron ore. I believe that even Dr. Waldemar Lindgren once hesitated to accept this fact. However, the evidence is so simple and absolutely conclusive that the fact is established beyond all question. At the contact of orebodies with their rock walls, the bands of iron ore in the orebody can be seen in contact with the corresponding bands of original iron oxide in the rock wall, and the chert layers in the rock wall can be seen to give place to fine granular material (fine silica and iron oxide) and pore space. This is especially noticeable where slumping at the rock walls his not been so great as to displace the layers in the orebody from their contact with their corresponding layers in the rock wall.

Jan 9, 1918

In answer to inquiries from members, Mr. Sheafer said that the culm-banks of which his paper gave the shipments were of about the average quality of the banks in the Mahanoy region of the Schuylkill field,.made prior to 1881 or 1882, when the practice of preparing buckwheat coal was introduced; but that in a very old hank, made about 1849, no coal above pea-size had been found. Apparently it was then the practice to ship everything. In reply to an inquiry concerning the utilization of the fine coaldust, Mr. Sheafer said that it was not utilized in connection with the washing described in his paper, but was carried away in the water as waste; that during Mr. Corbin's presidency the Reading Company built at Mahanoy City an extensive plant for making artificial fuel, but difficulty was encountered, due to the circumstance that the small coal from different collieries varied in its combustible quality and also in the amount of pitch required to be mixed with it, and he believed they concluded that from some varieties of the coal-dust a very good fuel could be made, but at a cost entirely too great for successful competition with cheap coal. Of course, the anthracite dust was not so well suited to this manufacture as bituminous slack. R. W. Raymond, New York City : I believe that was the practical outcome of the enterprise of a member of the Institute, Mr. E. F. Loiseau, now deceased. It was found, I think, as an additional drawback, that the manufacture of artificial compressed fuel from anthracite dust could not be successfully practiced with material so impure as that of the culm-banks. Consequently, the manufacture could be based on that source of supply only when accompanied with a preparatory washing. The most favorable location for it would be at large yards where the waste from the handling of coal, which is comparatively pure material, could be thus treated. I believe the manufacture of compressed fuel from bituminous coal was at one time a profitable business in Nova Scotia, but was destroyed by the indirect effect of the general introduction of watergas for illuminating purposes. The result of that change on the

Jan 1, 1895

By AIME AIME

THE Petroleum Division will hold its first fall meeting in Tulsa, Okla., Thursday and Friday,' Oct. 2 and 3, preceding the. International Petroleum Exposition that opens there on Oct. 4. Headquarters will be at the Hotel Mayo, and members planning to attend should make reservations promptly because of the large attendance expected at the Exposition. The program for Thursday will feature production engineering problems and that for Friday the unit operation of oil pools. The principal papers planned for the various sessions are as follows:

Jan 1, 1930

AS I have told you before, "alloy" here signifies nothing but the mixture of one metal with another in friendly companionship. Whenever you wish to do this, you should consider the purpose that moves you, whether it is to increase the quantities, or for corruption. Then you should choose whatever has by its nature more affinity with what you wish to alloy, or whatever is best for your purpose. Give it in the melt the proportion that you wish or as much as it can support without being entirely removed from its first nature, as [73v] water is in wine or white in black if too much is added. However, you must make the proportion with a definite ratio by weight and not by chance in order that you may bring your work to the degree of perfection that you desire. For he who, proceeds with his eyes closed not only stumbles many times but frequently falls. Therefore you must know first that gold does not join in an alloy with any metal other than silver and copper. Thus if you wish to make a work of gold or to have it made, and begrudge the expense of having it fine, or if you find that you do not have enough, or if you do not care about such fineness, you must decide exactly how many carats less than perfectly fine you wish it to be, or by what weight you wish it to be increased. In order to do this accurately weigh the fine gold that you have and accompany it with silver or fine copper in the quantity that you wish to give it, and melt both these things together very well. So that you may understand the procedure better, let us suppose that you wish your gold to be 23 carats. You are to imagine that the whole quantity is twenty-four parts because this is the final limit at which the gold can be perfect. Now if this were the case, you would put in one part, which corresponds to one twenty-fourth of the whole quantity. You will have taken away one carat of the value of its fineness and increased it another in quantity. In the same way it will happen if you put in two or three or four or six. Up to the limit of one-half, you will always have gold according to the denomination of the lesser virtue and the greater quantity. Surpassing one-half, so that there are eleven parts of silver and thir-

Jan 1, 1942

By Paul Cherin

ThE angle of intersection, 0, between h2k2l2 planes and the (loo), (110), (101), and (111) planes was calculated on an IBM 7040 using the well-known relationship

Jan 1, 1968

(Under this heading will be published notes sent to the Secretary of the Institute by members or other persons.) Mine and mill accountant for Mexico. Knowledge of Spanish desirable. Salary $150 to $200 gold per month with living quarters. No. 60. Master mechanic familiar with mine and cyanide plant machinery for Mexico; $200 gold per month and living quarters. No. 61. Electro-metallurgist for production of ferro-alloys, salary $200 to $400 depending on experience. No. 62. Man familiar with ferro-tungsten products of electric furnaces to draw up specifications for machine tools, to watch these tools in service and revise specifications accordingly. Salary $150 to $200 per month. No. 63. Engineers under 35 years of age for placer mining work in Belgian Congo; $1,500 to $1,700 plus traveling and living expenses, two years' contract. No. 67.

Jan 2, 1916

By R. S. Shoemaker, F. W. McQuiston

ECOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN CYANIDATION PLANT PRACTICES Ecological controls of tailing storage pond effluents are mainly concerned with mercury and residual cyanide and are critical problems for gold and silver recovery plant operators. For example, mercury for direct amalgamation of gold ore was used at Homestake until 1970 when the Federal Government acted to prevent further use thereby forcing the abandonment of this practice. However, mercury is still used at Homestake, in South Africa, and also in some Philippine and Canadian cyanide plants for barrel amalgamation of free gold gravity concentrates. The amount of mercury involved in South African practice is about 150 ounces for every 100,000 tons of ore milled and which reaches the tailings ponds. In South Africa, it is obligatory that no pond effluent be discharged beyond the mining property boundaries and waters containing mercury and cyanide must be evaporated either on the tailings pond or in specially constructed evaporation dams. In some cyanide plants such as Carlin and Cortez in the United States, all supernatant solution from the tailings ponds are returned to the plant for reuse. When all solution cannot be reused, the excess may be evaporated in shallow ponds, or by spray systems inside of the tailings dam. Such plant reuse of tailings effluent depends strictly upon the degree of contamination or "fouling" of the barren solution and tailing water with cyanicides. Foul solutions that cannot be returned from the tailings pond may be effectively cleaned up by cyanide regeneration. Cyanogens in plant solutions exist chiefly as free alkali cyanides, as zinc and copper double cyanides, as sulphocyanides, and as ferrocyanides. From the free cyanides and zinc double cyanides, substantially complete recovery of the cyanogen is easily effected. Part of the cyanogen combined with copper is also recovered; regeneration of the remainder with the cyanogen existing as sulphocyanide and ferrocyanides requires special treatment. At this stage, it would be generally more practical to eliminate the remaining cyanogen by chlorination. Ecologists have also been concerned with pollution of ground waters from cyanidation plant tailings. An accute problem is solution seepage down stream from tailings dams and strict attention to prevent or collect any seepage is a real necessity. The tolerance levels of the total cyanide content in potable water set by several U. S. and State health agencies are 10 ppb, and 20 ppb discharged into ground waters. The cyanide content so established is, strangely enough, based on the survival tolerance of fingerling trout. Decanted waste water from tailings dams may be effectively treated by the use of alkaline chlorination for the purpose of destroying all cyanide compounds. The alkaline hypochlorite used to oxidize the cyanide to cyanate is applied as such or generated within the waste solution by adding caustic (NaOH) and chlorine gas. A second chemical reaction involves complete destruction of the sodium cyanate.

Jan 1, 1975

By EDBIUND U. NORTH

IN making a glass model of mine-workings, each mine will present some little individualities, to meet which will call for the exercise of special ingenuity. Having made several models, I offer the following details of the model of the Montana-Tonopah mine-workings, believing that with small changes for different conditions the method described can be successfully used in making a glass model of the workings of any mine. The model, Fig. 1, has the top, one end, and the front removed. The case is made of kiln-dried pine, painted with several coats of dead-white paint. It is made to take sheets of glass 24 by 42 in. in size, and is 18 in. high, the workings shown being on a scale of 1 in. = 40 ft., or 4800 : 1 scale. The base is made of four pieces of 2-in. material, well pinned and glued together. The back, of material 1 in. thick, is secured rigidly to the base by screws and countersinking. The four posts, 1.5 in. square, are so cut that. the front and two ends of the model fit in flush with the outside edges of the posts. The top rails, 1 in. square, are fastened rigidly to the front and back posts by means of small iron braces. The ends, front, and top of the case are of 0.5-in. material; the ends and front are held in place at the bottom by pegs fitting into the base ; at the top the ends are held by buttons and the front by cupboard-hooks on the inside. Hinged hasps on the cover, fitting over staples in the end-pieces, make it easy to lock the entire case. Before the back is fastened to the base, it is cut with horizontal and vertical grooves to receive the horizontal and vertical sheets of glass, shown clearly in Figs. 1 and 2. The horizontal grooves, spaced to scale, represent the vertical distances between the levels at the shaft. The vertical grooves are placed wherever cross-sections of the workings are desired.

Jan 1, 1910

By Walter O. Snelling

IN combating mine-fires the use of carbon dioxide as a means of producing an atmosphere in which combustion cannot be sustained, has been many times suggested and frequently tried, generally with a fair degree of success. The carbon dioxide is produced by acting on limestone with dilute sulphuric acid, large wooden boxes being used to hold the limestone, and arranged in such a manner that one box may, be cleaned and refilled with blocks of limestone while another is being used in generating the carbon dioxide. The gas is led by means of pipes of large diameter to the location of the fire, tight brattices having been previously put up as close to the fire as possible on every side, so as to limit the space to be filled with the .gas to the smallest possible volume. The cost of producing Carbon Dioxide has been, however, a decided draw-back to the use of this method, and the danger of producing carbon monoxide by the reduction of the carbon dioxide by heated carbon, and consequently bringing about an explosion, has also tended to prevent the application of this method. The use of sulphur dioxide in combating mine-fires has not, I believe, been previously suggested or tried, and yet the method presents such decided advantages over the use of carbon dioxide that it seems proper to suggest the advisability of considering it as a cheap, convenient, and safe means of fighting stubborn mine-fires. 1. Cost, Preparation, etc.-One ton of brimstone, costing from $20 to $30, will produce about 25,000 cu. ft. of sulphur dioxide gas, and allowing for all sources of loss it is probable that sulphur dioxide gas can be produced for about $1,300 per 1,000,000 cu. ft. For carbon dioxide gas, produced by the action of sulphuric acid on limestone, a good estimate would be $4,000 per 1,000,000 cu. ft., provided that sulphuric acid

Sep 1, 1908

By John A. S. Dow, Garry G. Lowder

Tapadaa is one of several centers of porphyry copper mineralization in northern Sulawesi. Host rocks are mainly varieties of quartz diorite porphyry. Structural control of mineralization is indicated by elongation of the sulfide system (5 x 1 km) parallel to prominent NW-trending structures, but in detail mineralization is strongly influenced by relative age and lithology. Hydrothermal alteration is characterized by widespread occurrence of advanced argillic assemblages and the presence of sodic rather than potassic alkali feldspar. Propylitic alteration surrounds the mineralized area. Phyllic and advanced argillic alteration occur in structurally controlled zones and in limited pervasive areas. Hypogene copper mineralization develops in rocks with sericite-albite alteration and comprises low total sulfide chalcopyrite-bornite or chalcopyrite-pyrite.

Jan 1, 1978

By J. McD. Porter

IN many of the old placer-mining districts are still to be found large tracts of gold-bearing gravel not suitable to be worked with a dredge, because the bed is too shallow- or the gulch too narrow. Frequently there is not enough grade to handle the gravel successfully by ground-sluicing or a bedrock flume, or it contains too many boulders to be worked successfully with the ordinary pipe or tube hydraulic elevator. In southwestern Oregon, two practical placer-miners named Ruble, after working for years trying to make money out of placer-ground containing many large boulders, invented and patented a hydraulic elevator of an entirely new type, and one . that has been found to work very successfully in flat' ground and in gravel containing many large boulders. It is a very simple contrivance. A few years ago I acquired the property near Pierce City, Idaho, known as the American placer-mine. Various attempts .bad been made to work this ground. A bed-rock flume had been installed by one company, an Evans elevator by another, and still other methods were tried on a smaller scale. All were unsuccessful. I installed a Ruble elevator, and it has proved very satisfactory. Working under 100-ft. (pipe) head, the 'ground has been handled at a cost of a little less than 8 cents per cubic yard. The conditions at the American mine are exceptionally hard, the boulders being large, heavy, and numerous. Basalt-boulders, up to a size of 16 by 18 by 32 in., have been elevated to a height of 16 or 17 ft., with a 4-in. nozzle-stream, under 100-ft. head. Boulders larger than this size are blasted. At the American mine, a foreman, two pipemen, and two laborers are-required per day of 24 hr. to operate the elevator. Several sizes of this elevator are in use, the one at the American mine being the 25-ft. size, having 25 ft. of grizzly

Oct 1, 1909

By J. B. NEALEY

THE common method of shale mining, drilling, shooting and steam-shovel loading, is fast giving place to a comparatively new method which is purely mechanical. This machine is known as the shale planer and takes a cut from a very large face, 50 ft. or more in height. As shale deposits are usually stratified, the quality varying with the stratification, a very uniform product is obtained with this planer, for its "cut" is across the entire face, vertically. This planer was designed and built some 15 years ago by J. M. Powell, president of the Indiana Drain Tile Co., Brooklyn, Ind. Unevenness in mixing the material from the different layers in the shale deposit of this company was causing considerable fluctuation in the firing- shrinkage and color of the ware produced, thus lowering the quality. Some method of maintaining a uniform proportion was vital and this planer was therefore devised. Its capacity was approximately 175 tons daily: cut, mixed and loaded.

Jan 1, 1929

By Edward H. Robie

OF the current Adirondack iron mine development, the Benson Mines operation of the Tones and Laughlin Ore Co. (Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. wholly owned subsidiary) is the last to go into operation. Following an active construction program in 1943, the mine. concentrator and sintering plant were scheduled to enter production in the fall. This description therefore cannot include any operating data, and details of equipment and flowsheet have not as yet been released.

Jan 1, 1943

By R. C. Canby

The American water-jacket furnace is the outgrowth of lead-smelting at Eureka, Nev., subsequently developed in Utah and Colorado. Early smelting in Virginia, New England, or the Missouri-Kansas-Illinois district seems to have had no direct influence in the development of this furnace. First Decade, 1870 to 1880. In 1870, the draft-furnace was used in Nevada, coincidentally with the first crude sandstone blast furnaces, which were 2 or 3 ft. sq., with Sturtevant fans or small Roots blowers, and sheet-iron or water-cooled tuyeres. Stetefeldt, Liebenau, Albert Arents, and 0. H. Hahn mere the early metallurgical leaders. Arents's siphon-tap and the re-establishment of the furnace-bosh mere the most important improvements of the decade. Second Decade, 1880 to 1890. At first there were ,many small local plants; but by the time Eureka had reached its maximum production of lead-ore, two custom works (the Eureka and the Richmond) were treating all the ore, the miners having learned the economy of smelting at larger and well-constructed plants. In the early eighties, most of the features of modern practice were already discernible at Salt Lake, Leadville, Denver, and Pueblo. The small square sandstone furnaces had been replaced by rectangular water-jacket furnaces, mostly 36 in. wide, and from 60 to 80 in. long at the tuyeres, which entered between cast-iron water-jackets. Subsequently, Franz Casin, at the Holden works, Denver, put the tuyeres in the middle of the jackets, and many other improvements were made by him and others, so that the cast-iron jacket became the favorite, until the possibility of

Jan 1, 1913