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By F. C. Hull

The grain size of a metal or alloy is one of the most important factors determining its properties. In steels, for example, grain size affects hardenability, toughness and machinability; in brasses, grain size is related to hardness and deep-drawing quality. In the field of heat-resistant alloys, grain size has a marked effect on ductility, creep and endurance strength. In order to determine these effects, as well as to control the properties of materials, many accurate and rapid measurements of grain size must be made. This paper presents a new and improved method for the estimation of grain size. Usual Methods OF EvaluatiNg Grain Size A frequetly used method of estimating grain size is that of comparing the image of a polished and etched specimen on the ground-glass screen of a metallographic microscope with standard grain-size charts. Several types of standards are available for use with different classes of microstructures. Geometric Grids.—The Metals Handbook' has a series of hexagonal grids ranging in size from ASTM No. I to 8. Idealized Grain Networks.—Idealized grain.boundary networks for ASTM grain sizes I to 8 are included in the American Society for Testing Materials Tentative Standard E 19 - 39 T, standard Micrographs & Metals Handbook and ASTM Tentative Standard E19-3gT contain micrographs of hypo-eutectoid and hypereutectoid steels ranging in grain size from No. I to 8. The grain size of annealed brass (diameter of the average grain in millimeters) is obtained by comparison with 10 micrographs of varying. grain size in ASTM Tentative Standard E 2-39 T. A handicap to accurate evaluation of grain size by this method is the fact that it is difficult to compare photographs in a dimly lighted room with the image on the ground-glass screen, or, if the general illumination is increased so that the printed standards may be clearly seen, the contrast of the image of the unknown is decreased. It is easier to estimate grain size by comparing a micrograph of the unknown with the grain-size standards. However, photographing every specimen on which the grain size is desired is too costly in time and materials to be practicable. For hardened steels, the Shepherd or Jernkontoret fracture grain-size standards are very accurate and useful, but this method obviously cannot be applied to ductile alloys such as brass, stainless steels and austenitic heat-resistant alloys. Jeffries' method for grain-size measurements consists of counting the number

Jan 1, 1948

By C. E. Sims, C. A. Zapffe

AN investigation of the behavior of inclusions in steel several years ago1 led to the conclusion that some of the commonly occurring inclusions in steel have appreciable solubilities, particularly in liquid steel. In the belief that further study and clarification of this matter was warranted, a laboratory study of oxides in liquid steel was started. These oxides are generally the result of deoxidation treatment, and the basis of an understanding of their behavior must be, therefore, the behavior of the deoxidizer in liquid iron. The Fe-Si-O system was selected for the first study, and the apparatus used and experiments conducted are described herein. APPARATUS The apparatus is shown in Fig. I and the system is shown by diagram in Fig. 2. Furnace Atmosphere Commercial hydrogen (1) passes through an orifice (2) into a manometric system that measures the tankside pressure (3) and the back pressure (4) in the system. A water trap (5) guards against excess tankside pressure. A by-pass with stopcocks (6 and 7) is provided, so that the hydrogen can be routed directly from the tank to the furnace if desired. When stopcock 7 is closed and stopcock 6 is open, the gas proceeds through the conditioning train, of which the first unit is a furnace (8) that contains platinized asbestos at 350°C. The temperature is measured by a thermo-couple and potentiometer (9) and is controlled by a slidewire resistance (10). In [ ] this furnace free oxygen is converted to water vapor. The exiting gas passes over a water bath (11) kept slightly below boiling temperature by an auxiliary heating unit (12). This unit also heats a surrounding copper coil (13) containing water, and the heated water rises through a collar (14)

Jan 1, 1942

By Frederick C. Pearson, Albert Brown, Emil R. Ermert

EARLY in 1946 the Shen-Penn Production Co., a subsidiary of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Co., was organized to operate the Shenandoah Stripping, one of the largest open-pit anthracite mines in the world. This mine is located in the Western Middle Field near Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, Pa., and involves the removal of approximately 60,400,000 cu yd of overburden to permit the recovery of 9,200,000 gross tons of rough cleaned coal from an area 8000 ft long and 2700 ft wide, with a maximum depth of 400 ft. Operations began in August 1946, and within the next few years 31,811,000 cu yd of overburden and 2,994,000 gross tons of rough cleaned coal had been removed. During the early days of open-pit mining operations, steam was the primary motive power. However, as the size of the equipment increased, so did the problems of fuel, water, labor, and maintenance. Because of its efficiency and convenience, electric power rapidly replaced steam. Later the modern diesel engine was developed, and today practically all stripping equipment is either electric, diesel-electric, or diesel-powered. In locations where electric power is not readily available or where operations are scattered over a large area, diesel power is favored. At Shenandoah operations are highly concentrated in a relatively small area, and this fact, coupled with the availability of ample electric energy, indicated the selection of electric-powered equipment. Since this was a new company, it was necessary to purchase every item, from the smallest tools to stripping shovels. Although the organization period was hampered by the postwar scarcity of materials, an excellent opportunity was afforded to set up a thoroughly modern plant. This paper will describe the power facilities, with particular emphasis on the more unusual features. The substation is a major item in a power distribution system, and a simple arrangement utilizing high quality equipment is an excellent investment. With this in mind, a 3000-kva unit type substation was selected and installed. This unit is made up of three sections, which are assembled simply by bolting together the various sections and connecting the power leads, see Fig. 1. The transformer proper, rated at 3000 kva, is oil-filled and nitrogen-sealed, having a 66,000-v Delta primary and 4160-v Wye secondary with a grounded neutral and 46-ohm ground resistor. The function of this resistor will be described later. Electrical energy is purchased from a public utility and is delivered to the main substation at 66,000 v over one or the other of two incoming lines. These lines terminate on a high voltage switching section on which high voltage fuses and Thyrite lightning arresters are installed. The outgoing feeder switching unit is made up of the following: 1-An auxiliary compartment consisting of potential and current transformers with necessary terminal blocks for connecting to power company metering equipment. 2-Another auxiliary compartment containing a control transformer, battery, and battery charger for the furnishing of power for tripping and reclosing of power circuit breakers. The assemblies in these auxiliary compartments are mounted on carriages that can be rolled in and out with ease. Potential transformers are readily accessible for inspection and fuse replacement. When withdrawn from the operating position they are completely de-energized and grounded. 3-Two feeder breaker compartments, each with a 1200-amp, 5000-v, solenoid-operated magneblast air circuit breaker, voltmeter, ammeter, overcurrent relays, and a ground relay. These power circuit breakers can be quickly and safely withdrawn or repaired. A built-in isolating mechanism is used for lowering the breaker to a transfer truck for repair or inspection or as a means of disconnecting the breaker from the source of power as an added precaution when working on power lines. Thus inspec-

Jan 1, 1952

By W. A. Anderson, R. F. Mehl

RECRYSTALLIZATION of cold-worked metals has long been known to proceed by a process of nucleation and growth.1 When a cold-worked metal is heated to a temperature at which recrystallization will ensue, nuclei of new grains, essentially strain-free, appear and grow. As the process proceeds, nuclei continue to appear and to grow, until the cold-worked matrix has been entirely consumed and recrystallization has been completed (Fig. I). Conducted isothermally, a measurement of the fraction of the matrix recrystallized plotted against time, yields an isothermal recrystallization curve, showing the time course of the recrystallization process (Fig. 2).2 Evidently, then, the rate of recrystallization is determined by the rate at which nuclei form and the rate at which they grow. The rate of nucleation N is the number of nuclei that form in unit time in unit volume of the unrecrystallized matrix, and the rate of growth G is the increase in radius of the recrystallized grain per unit time. In recent years attempts have been made to determine N and G as these vary with the well-recognized variables affecting recrystallization: time, temperature, degree of deformation, etc.' Such studies yield information that is more fundamental than that conveyed by the conventional recrystallization diagram,' since the rate of recrystallization is thus analyzed into its two component rates.2 Methods are now available by which N and G can be measured, and analytical expressions have been developed for the interrelationships among N, G, the isothermal recrystallization curve, and the final grain size, which greatly facilitate analysis.2-4 The application of these methods has been demonstrated recently for the recrystallization of silicon ferrite.2 Data on N and G in dependence upon the recognized recrystallization variables are, however, very fragmentary;* values of N and G have been determined for some metals, but the effect of temperature, which would yield the fundamentally important activation energies, has been too little studied. Thus far there has been no detailed study of the recrystallization of any one metal in terms of N and G over appreciable ranges of the variables time, temperature, degree of deformation, and original grain size. It is the purpose of the present paper to provide such a study, employing aluminum.

Jan 1, 1945

By P. S. Miller, S. H. Ash

Extensive and diversified resources justify large populations and great industries. To carry on the business of commerce and meet the demands of large populations, the utilization of tunnels in some form for transportation purposes constitutes an important link in modern civilization. The driving of tunnels has been appropriated by the tunneling branch of the heavy-construction industry, and the progressive steps taken by modern tunnel builders were not even dreamed of 50 years ago. Great strides have been made toward more rapid progress in tunneling in the United States during the past I0 years. Tunneling consists of a definite cycle of operations developed from ideas that are crystallized and translated into action programs through various engineering phases that begin with the first preliminary survey and do not end until the job is completed. Once the line of the bore is established and a time set for the completion of the work, the face must advance according to estimates prepared before the work commences. This schedule must be followed in regular sequence from the moment the drills start against a new face of rock until they are ready again to drill the Succdeding face, constituting a round. Mining is largely tunneling carried on under conditions often more inherently hazardous than actual tunnel construction, but for various reasons" tunne1ing is more hazardous than mining in any branch of the mineral industry. On the other hand, obstacles are sometimes encountered in heavy-construction tunneling projects that when met in mining enterprises do not offer comparable tasks to avoid or overcome them. One is the existence of water under high pressures. In mining enterprises, various alternatives offer a solution in driving a tunnel, even to the extent of its discontinuance or the abandonment of the mine, but a "construction" tunnel usually must go forward because some important project depends largely if not entirely upon it. This paper describes an unusual method of driving a water-supply tunnel through rock carrying water under pressures and conditions that did not permit the use of ordinary tunneling methods. The Delaware Aqueduct The new Delaware aqueduct is a Manhattan project of some magnitude; when regular it will contain what probably will be, for some time to come, the longest tunnel in the world. Various features in its construction are currently described in the trade journals of the construction industry, and informative engineering details are given in the Delaware Water Supply News, published twice a month by the Board of Water Supply of the City of New York. Work was begun on this project on March 24, 1937. The tunnel will convey water from reservoirs at the headwaters of the Delaware River to the City of New York.

Jan 1, 1943

By John C. Branner

Shales rich in oil are found at several places along the coast of Brazil. The material has been prospected at several places, and samples have been examined and reported upon by competent authorities. So far as I am acquainted with them, these oil-bearing beds are of Tertiary age. A glimpse at the distribution and character of the Tertiary rocks of the region should give us some idea of the possible distribution of these oil-bearing shales. Tertiary rocks skirt the northeast coast of Brazil from the northern part of the State of Espirito Santo almost or quite to the Amazon valley. Here and there this narrow strip is cut in two by the encroachment of the sea, and the underlying gneisses, granites or other crystalline rocks are exposed upon the beach. In other places, the Tertiary belt widens out until it is 80 kilometers or more in width. Fig. 1 is a sketch-map of a part of the coast-area referred to. Along the coast from Prado, in the State of Bahia, northward to Natal, there is a line of bluffs from 15 to 90 meters high, interrupted here and there by stream-valleys. As seen from the sea, these bluffs are rather conspicuous and highly colored yellow, brown, red, white, black, and purple. These colors are often so mingled as to give the beds a mottled or parti-colored appearance. Fig. 2 shows a characteristic bit of the coast in the State of Parahyba do Norte. In some places, especially in the southern part of the State of Sergipe, and in the northern part of Rio Grande do Norte, the immediate coast is covered with sand-dunes. Here and there these sanddunes have been carried inland over the top of the Tertiary beds, and the subsequent encroachment of the sea has exposed the Tertiary rocks again, where they form the bases of the bluffs. This is well shown in Fig. 3, from a photograph taken at Bahia Formosa, on the coast of Rio Grande do Norte.

Jan 1, 1901

By Albert Sir Kitson

THE manganese ore deposits of the Gold Coast, British West Africa, occur in very ancient rocks, of both sedimentary and metamorphic types. In. certain respects they strongly resemble those of India and Brazil, as contrasted with those of Tertiary age in Georgia. Viewed from the present condition of the maganiferous rocks, the oldest deposits are in the sediments. Later than these are the progressively metamorphosed representatives of these sediments; youngest are the products of decay and degradation with the concentration of manganese oxide of both areas. The oldest occurrences are in argillaceous and siliceous phyllites and slates, which show only a moderate amount of metamorphism. They belong to a series which also includes mudstones, sandstones, grits, conglomerates and subordinate limestones, with tuffs and lava-flows largely of basic types. To this series I have given the name Birrim. Its age is unknown, for no definite fossils have been discovered in it. As the characteristics of these non-fossiliferous strata at many places are the same as those of strata in many parts of the world that are suitable for the preservation of fossils and that contain them, it is assumed that the Gold Coast deposits are pre-Cambrian. These rocks of the Birrim series have normally a northeast-southwest strike and are folded, but not to any very great degree except in certain belts., From the Eastern Province of the Gold Coast they may be traversed across their strike for more than 600 miles to the extreme northwestern corner of the Northern Territories. Thence. they probably extend much further into French Territory.

Jan 5, 1927

By J. T. Eash, W. S. Crowell, E. M. Wise

The practice of dentistry, particularly the construction of artificial dentures and "bridges," involves a unique and difficult application of the precious-metal alloys. Appliances used in the mouth are continuously exposed to corrosive agencies which can hardly be described as mild, and must remain free from tarnish and be substantially immune to corrosion. Limitations with respect to space and weight demand high physical properties, while complexity of form requires ease of working. The high corrosion resistance required necessitates the use of alloys of high precious metal content. The usual expedient of resorting to mechanical working to produce the requisite strength and stiffness cannot be utilized because of the frequency of annealing and soldering operations. To meet these difficult conditions manufacturers of dental goods were early led, unknowingly perhaps, to the production of precipitation-hardening or temperable alloys. The excellent properties of iridium-platinum may have suggested the addition of platinum metals to the conventional gold-silver-copper alloys to produce greater strength and hardness. It was found that such quarternary alloys retained their high physical properties after passing through the usual soldering process; i. e., heating to 750° to 800" C. and cooling naturally in the air. Later it was discovered that they could be softened and rendered more ductile by heating to the same temperature and quenching in water. These early examples of precipitation hardening, for years the common knowledge of dental practitioners and laboratory technicians, escaped the attention of the scientific world and discovery of the transformation which was responsible for this hardening was disclosed by the Russian investigators of the system Au-Cu, Kurnakow, Schemtschushny and Zasedatelev~,(~)$ although the optimum conditions for securing good properties in aged alloys were not given attention.

Jan 1, 1932

By G. H. Shefelbine

DISCOVERED during the time of the Spaniards, the Namiquipa silver-lead-zinc mines in Chihuahua, Mexico, remained idle until 1916, when mining claims were first denounced. About 1922 a Japanese company, the Santo Domingo Mining Co., was formed to mine the oxide silver ore. The company built a 75-tpd cyanide plant and mined in the area for a number of years. Because of an error in surveying in one of the company's mines situated in another district, mining was carried over into a claim owned by General Marcel Caraveo, at that time governor of Chihuahua. Santo Domingo Mining Co. lost the resulting lawsuit and consequently had no capital to continue operating at Namiquipa. Later, Ray Brown and Eugenio Caballero formed a company to operate the mine, shipping crude ore to the American Smelting and Refining Co. smelter at Avalos, Chihuahua. The cyanide plant was changed to flotation with a capacity of 75 tons per 24 hr. In 1936 the property was again closed owing to labor trouble, a drop in the price of silver, and increased water in the mine.

Jan 10, 1957

[NORTH AMERICA UNITED STATES ALABAMA Birmingham Cord, Richard H. Dlsmukes, Edward B. Hunter, Robert A. Citronelle Perrin, Huey P. Fairfield Pagel, Herbert Ervin Fairhope Ruffles, William R. Huntsville Eng, Harvard Kelley, Dean W. Waggoner, J. B. Weber, Thomas C. Mobile Hankins, James D. Horner, William L. Petroutson, Peter C. University Cudworth, James R. Jones, Walter B. Mason, William L.]

Jan 1, 1961

By Oscar Johnson

The industry has been canvassed for information on methods of handling grinding steel at milling plants, an important subject overlooked in most descriptive articles on milling plant arrangements. The data collected are offered in this paper as a guide to designers and planners who have loading and storage problems to solve. WITH capacities of milling plants expanding from a few hundred tons per day to many thousand, replenishment of grinding media is an important phase of mill operation. Information on this aspect of milling procedure, solicited from several mining companies, is summarized here. At International Nickel's Copper Cliff concentrator the normally strenuous job of changing rods is considerably simplified by the use of the Garrow rod charging machine, Fig. 1. The overhead crane, Fig. 2, brings a bundle of rods, weighing four to a ton, to the loading platform of the machine, positioned in front of the mill. The rods roll one by one down the slight incline of the platform onto a conveyor which sends them into the mill. A modified version of the Garrow machine, Fig. 3, is used at the Federal mill of St. Joseph Lead Co. An overhead crane places the portable steel structure in position in front of the discharge end of any one of the five 9x12-ft rod mills. It then raises a bundle of about twenty 3-in. rods to the discharge platform of the charging machine. The rods are 11 ft 7 in. long and weigh about 278 lb. By tripping a lever the operator allows one rod at a time to roll onto the inclined rollers. A slight push by the operator sends the rod smoothly into the mill. The Union Miniére du Haut Katanga rod charging machine, Fig. 4, is mounted on a pair of wheels at the forward end with swiveling castors at the back for steering it to position for use or storage. Wheels are equipped with locking brakes to maintain the machine in position while it delivers rods to the mill. The device is made in two parts. The first consists of the base, which carries the supporting wheels, grooved rollers, and drive. The other part serves as the rod deck, which can carry up to six 3-in. x 12-ft rods. A short boom built integral with the base reaches through the mill trunnion and delivers the rods into the mill barrel. Three grooved guide rollers ,are provided to receive the rods from the sloping charging deck. One rod at a time is fed to the rollers and thus delivered into the mill. Two of the rollers are driven by 11/2-hp motor through a V-belt drive. The third roller is driven off the first by a single V belt in a groove below the rod groove and on the same center line. Rods are delivered to the charger by an overhead crane in bundles of three to six as needed. The power is supplied by cables plugged into power outlets, suitably located near the rod mill discharge end. The Oliver Iron Mining Co. uses a rod charger, Fig. 5, suspended from a monorail by cables. It is constructed .of structural steel and has two decks, each capable of carrying five rods of 4-in. maximum diameter. The rods ride in grooved free-turning rollers. Legs extending down from the mill end of the mechanism act as supports when the unit is ex-

Jan 1, 1955

By David White

Attention has been given to the sources and supply of the raw vegetal matter and the conditions of its submission to the process of sedimentation. An original and most valuable review has been made of the more important or significant chemical compounds originally contained in the organic dct,ris, and of the biochemical changes undergone by the latter during deposition. Consideration also has been given to the factors controlling the selective biochemical decomposition, in whole or in part, of this debris, and the deposition, as sediments, of the undecom-posed plant structures and compounds, together with more or less of the so-called "ulmic," or "humic," organic decomposition products in colloidal so1ution. Biochemical Changes End in Peat Formation The biochemical process terminates in the peat stage of coal formation, and with the cessation of this process organic sedimentation is completed. All subsequent changes result from geological causes and conditions. The deposits are in the form of peats of different types, organic muds, oozes, etc. They are essentially uncompressed and are wholly uncon-solidated, and their water content is great, amounting to over 85 per cent, near the surface of the deposit. Many of the chemical compounds remain as in the once living organisms; others are biochemically broken down and new ones formed. Geochemical and Geophysical Changes in Buried Deposits Subsequent Changes " Dynamochemical" The changes which subsequently take place through dehydration, lithification, and simultaneous progressive chemical alteration, by which organic sediments are advanced to brown lignite, subbituminous, bituminous, semianthracitic, and graphitic ranks, are geochemical and geophysical, and the process, which really is metamorphic,2 takes place under dynamic influences. In fact, the essential changes, including loading,

Jan 1, 1925

By Harold C. Price

One year ago, that is in January, 1923, there had not been constructed a single oil-storage tank of 55,000-bbl. or more capacity with a completely electric welded roof and bottom. Today, there are at least fifty 80,000-bbl. storage tanks completed, or nearing completion, on which both the roofs and the bottoms are electric welded. It is the purpose of this paper to describe, in a general way, the construction of these welded roofs and bottoms, and to give their advantages over riveted construction. All of the following data and conclusions were obtained from observations made during the welding of tanks by the Welding Engineering Co. at Texas City, Tex., and Tonkawa and Burbank, Okla. As far as can be determined, the first electric welding on large tankage was completed in May, 1922. At that time the Empire Companies of Bartlesville, Okla., discovered a badly leaking bottom in a 55,000-bbl. tank at El Dorado, Kans. They had considered concreting this bottom, but because of the much smaller cost, decided to try electric welding; so a contract was given the Welding Engineering Co. of Bartlesville, Okla. In this instance, no new sheets were added, the bottom being repaired by electric welding of all seams and rivets, Fig. 1. In some places where the original rivets were missing, the holes were filled by welding; patch plates were also added at certain badly worn spots. This tank has since been used for over a year and a half, but no other

Jan 1, 1924

By Victor O. Homerberg, Dexter N. Shaw

A study of the correlation of the mechanical properties and of the microstructure with the heat treatment of 60-40 brass has been confined, heretofore, to the rolled or extruded material as received from the mannfacturer. The results obtained by Babson and Buhler,' Bengough and Hudson12 Stead and Stedman,3 and Brayton4 have been confined to the treatment of the material as received. No attempt was made to get the material into a given condition and then to work from this basis. To start with a given structure would have the decided advantage of making the work independent of the original condition, hence, to make the results reproduceable. In a previous paper, it was shown, in connection with the study of the transformation that occurs at about 470" C., that if specimens were quenched to produce the beta structure and then reheated, the beta would begin to break down, at approximately 200" C., into a very finely divided alpha. It was predicted that important results might be obtained if test pieces were to be given a similar double heat treatment and then tested for the mechanical properties as well as a study of the microstructure. The material used in the present investigation was a 3/4-in. round bar of extruded muntz metal of the following composition: Copper, 61.05 per cent.; zinc (by difference), 38.90 per cent.; lead, 0.05 per cent.; iron, trace; tin, nil.

Jan 1, 1924

By L. G. Sprague

The fact that this latest and most modern of the Universal Atlas Cement Company's plants at Northampton, Pa., is the fifth to be built on these same properties, and their development has been coincidental with the development of the portland cement industry in the United States, makes it appropriate to sketch briefly the history of the successive steps. In 1889 the original Atlas Portland Cement Co. started its first plant at Coplay, Pa., which is just across the Lehigh River from the present operation. Here the first successful rotary kiln was operated. These kilns were 6 ft. in diameter and 60 ft. long; they used oil for fuel until 1895, when the company developed the first burner for pulverized coal. Shortly thereafter the Atlas company acquired property on the Northampton side of the river and built its plants Nos. 2, 3 and 4 within the following 10 years. During the same period the production of portland cement in the country was increasing rapidly; owing largely to the development of the rotary kiln and improved grinding machinery, which lowered the cost and improved the quality of cement. The general tendency has been to increase the length of the kiln and grind both raw material and finished product Liner. In 1930 the Atlas Portland Cement Co. and the Universal Portland Cement Co. united to form the Universal Atlas Cement Co., and the same policy of improving the product has been continued. Because of the large amount of research carried on by manufacturers and consumers, including government agencies, there is a demand for cement of different chemical and physical characteristics for different kinds of structures. Hence many engineers in recent years have been asking for cements of certain definite chemical analyses, which they think are best for their particular jobs. This has compelled the manufacturer to make several different types of cement by variations of chemical composition. These are generally made by adding silica, iron and lime to the standard mixture, which necessarily increases the cost of the product. Therefore the Universal Atlas Cement Co., in planning the modernization of its Northampton plant, gave this particular phase of the problem considerable study. Research and experimentation have developed the practicability of making a wide variety of differently proportioned raw materials for cement by a process of subtraction rather than by addition. With such process, it is possible to discard the undesirable aluminates and silicates from the ample supply of impure limestone available from the company's property rather than by adding high-grade limestone obtained from distant sources. This procedure requires mineral separation by centrifugal sedimentation and froth flotation. Since the chemical and mineral constituents of Lehigh Valley "cement rock," together with the methods of separating them, have been thoroughly described in published

Jan 1, 1948

Jan 1, 1881

By O. E., Kiessling

THE better control of production was made the topic for a special program of the annual meeting of the Institute last February. In the discussion at that meeting it was brought out that in many branches of the mineral industry (as in other industries), there was faulty industrial coordination. Those who were best informed by reason of their intimate connection with coal, copper, oil, iron, lead and zinc, and almost all other of the essential minerals pointed to a condition of chronic over-capacity, to the dissipating use of irreplaceable minerals, to an unstabilized price structure, and to over-stimulatecl production and the destruction of some mineral resources over and above what is thought to be the needs of prudent cur- rent consumption. The discussion went far enough to point out the existence of various problems, and the question then raised was "what can be done by way of self-coordination of industry?" by "production control from within?" or in other words, "how can the mineral industry protect its resources against waste and at the same time protect both the producer and consumer against loss from prices that are too low or too high?"

Jan 1, 1928

By R. G. Knickerbocker

A STURDY and consistent expansion of the metal industry occurred in 1947 exemplified by an increase of approximately 30 per cent in steel consumption over 1946. For this major reason, ferroalloy metals have seen their most useful and important peace-time year. The current domestic rate of consumption of high-grade ferroalloy ores, together with added consumption of new foreign producers as well as for eign nationals' restrictions on high-grade exports, makes very evident the increasing difficulties of obtaining sufficient high-grade ores. This accentuates the need for new and less expensive methods of production of ferro-alloy metals of higher purity from lower-grade domestic resources. As an important factor in preparedness, procurement of these high-grade, -critical ferroalloy minerals and metals for our nation's stock piles is a most important task. Also, this stock-piling can be the means of supplying incentive for the industrial development of the new metallurgical processes and plants necessary for the recovery of ferroalloy metals from our domestic low-grade deposits.

Jan 1, 1948

By R. H. Swallow, George Hess

Aerial photography was once a crude, uncertain tool. Today it is a precision mapping instrument which saves important time and money for strip mining and other industry. Aerial photography began in the boxkite days of aviation. The Army first used it for rough reconnaissance photographs. Then, in the early Twenties, industry began to use aerial photographs of their plants and facilities for advertising or annual reports. The quality of these pictures was not very good by today's standards, but this work began the development of better cameras, better lenses, better photographic techniques.

Jan 1, 1949

By Walter Kauzmann

All viscous or plastic flow of incompressible matter is the result of shear strain; the changing shape of any body that is being plastically deformed can be completely described in terms of the shear strain occurring at each point in the body.† Furthermore, the relative amounts of shear strain occurring in different parts of a body under stress depend upon the relative rates of shear strain at those different points, so that if the dependence of the shear rate of any material on the temperature, shear stress, previous history, etc., were understood, the principles of plastic deformation would be known, and we could calculate how a body made of a given material, having a given shape, and subject to a specified system of forces, would change its shape with time. It may be said, then, that the problem of plasticity resolves itself into, first, the problem of the rates of pure shear processes, and second, the application of what is known about pure shear to actual cases. It is the purpose of this work to investigate the former problem —i.e., the dependence of shear rates on temperature, stress, etc.—from the standpoint of .recent developments in the field of chemical-rate theory and with particular reference to the phenomena occurring in the creep of metals and in the plastic flow of crystalline solids in general. It is left for the mechanical engineer, and perhaps the expert in hydrodynamics, to deal with the problem of app1ications.l Resolution of Macroscopic Shear into Microscopic Movements; Resemblance to Chemical Reactions Just as any large body is made up of many small units, or atoms, so macro-scopically observable shear is the result of many microscopic unit shear processes; just as the understanding of the behavior of large bodies demands the understanding of the atoms of which it is made, so the understanding of macroscopic shear demands the understanding of these fundamental unit processes. The study of shear from this "atomistic" point of view has made considerable progress. There has been fairly complete understanding of shear processes in gases for a long time, at least for non-turbulent flow, as a chapter on gaseous viscosity in any text on the kinetic theory of gases will prove' In recent years Andrade2 and Eyring3 have presented important theories for the flow of liquids and amorphous solids. Becker14 Orowan,5 Taylor,6 Burgers,7 and Kanter8 have considered the plastic flow of crystalline solids from this

Jan 1, 1941