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By C. F. McCarroll

The effectiveness of an industry's safety activities can be gaged best by the accident records of that industry. In an effort to gage conditions in the petroleum industry, and with the objective of helping to reduce the number of accidents in it, the Bureau of Mines from time to time has tabulated, analyzed, and published pertinent statistical information.3/. These reports have dealt with distribution, causes, and costs and related phases of accidents for various and collective divisions of the petroleum industry in several sections of the country. This type of study aids the personnel of the Bureau in planning the course of its activities in accident-prevention work and gives useful data to persons engaged or interested in the promotion of safety in the petroleum industry, which will aid them in their efforts to reduce the number and severity of accidents. A majority of petroleum operators and "service? contractors have acknowledged their responsibility to provide their employees with safe working conditions and to their stockholders for greater economic value of invested capital by establishing safety divisions within their respective organizations. Such divisions have a primary duty, namely, to see that properly designed and guarded machinery and working equipment are furnished the employees and that they are trained in the safest practical methods of performing their work. Some companies and individual operators, however, have shown little or

Jan 1, 1939

By S. S. Clarke

THE opening of sheet-ground mines in which the ore beds are only from 7 to 9 ft. thick led the Commerce Mining and Royalty Co. to con-sider mechanical loading, in order to avoid the high cost of hand shovel-ing in such mines. Scraper loaders were chosen because the capital investment would be comparatively low; because they are small enough to be used in low working faces, and because they can be mounted on a mobile carrier.

Jan 1, 1939

Jan 1, 1939

By F. M. Goodwin, John Campbell, G. W. Jones

"INTRODUCTION In cooperation with the Boston Edison Co. and the Boston Consolidated Gas Co. of Boston, Mass., a survey has been conducted continuously since 1929 by the Bureau of Mines to determine the general hazards of combustible gases and vapors in manholes of the Boston Edison Co. The New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. also has cooperated in the investigation, and tests have been made in its manholes from May 1, 1933, to October 15, 1937. Yearly reports. 6/ on the results obtained since the beginning of the survey have been published.The methods and procedure of conducting the survey in 1937 were the same as heretofore."

Jan 1, 1939

During the latter part of 1937 consideration was given to the construction of a; local smelting plant for producing blister copper. Previously copper concentrates had been shipped to the United States of America. The proposition had the advantages of a saving in cost of realization, quicker financial return and reduced dependence on overseas shipping.The smelter was designed by the existing staff, who had difficulty in obtaining data on small plants, particularly on the reverberatory furnace. Construction was started in March, 1938, and the reverberatory was blown in on January 16th, 1939. One roaster had been operating for several weeks prior to this date.While results and operating technique on this new departure in small-scale smelting are barely beyond the experimental stage, it is felt that the experience gained to this time should be recorded to help fill the obvious gap in published information covering plants of this type.At present there are three copper smelters operating in Australia; the other two plants are equipped with blast furnaces.LOCATIONThe new smelter is situated in a position convenient to the concentrator and to the power plant. The site is traversed on two sides by a brick flue, from an old smelter plant, which connects with a 250-ft. stack. This stack and portion of the old flue are used in connection with the...

Jan 1, 1939

By J. B. Dyess

TARNISH films on some of the common metals (particularly on copper and silver) have been of much scientific and commercial concern for a long time, but before the development of the electrical method1 of measuring film thicknesses there was no satisfactory quantitative approach by which to study the separate parts of these complex films. This method has been adapted to the measurement of duplex (cuprous-cupric) oxide films on copper .2 In the present work it has been used to measure tarnish films on copper when they were mixtures of cuprous oxide and cuprous sulphide, and also when they contained cuprous oxide, cupric oxide and cuprous sulphide, each component part being measured at a different potential value. Oxide-coated copper specimens, prepared by heating copper in air at chosen temperatures for given periods, were exposed to moist hydrogen. sulphide in air to form the various oxide-sulphide films studied. The comparative resistances afforded by (1) different thicknesses of oxide films, and also (2) equal thicknesses of oxide and sulphide films, against severe attacks of hydrogen sulphide were measured. The electrical method requires that the time be observed for the cathodic reduction of each part of the film substance, and these respective time values multiplied by the constant current give the corresponding quantities of electricity expended. Then each millicoulomb per square centimeter represents a film thickness of T= MX10 8 2D X 96,494 X 103 (a) where M is weight of oxide (or sulphide) giving one gram-atom of oxygen (or sulphur) for cathodic reduction, D is density of the oxide (or sulphide) and t is the thickness in Angström units per millicoulomb per square centimeter. The value of t for cuprous sulphide (cubical) is 14.27, and is obtained by substituting 5.78 for D and 159.20 for M in equation a. Previous values2 of t for cuprous and cupric oxides (12.36 and 6.39, respectively) were used in the present work.

Jan 1, 1939

By J. Koster

[In 1178 thn S-00n of thr !~Viluralcal Divicion, pur--'11 cf Mines, bcran an o. 't iv in': n-t!Y_Vnn of vothod; for recoverin'-1, Achol, copp~r, nK precioun notnin Zycn o;. -z of tic Bunkcrvillo KOH& in Clark County, Tcv. Tho Bunkcrvillo ran arc of t,-j)(,e of -iincrilization similar to that of 02 SWbury, Ontario, CannO, nichvl dc-?o?-:.t,. At prcoont, only n anall tonnes? p of ore has loan cxDr)scd in t*ic' :hui:er7ilIp rc: inn, ann. there is decided nce! for orjn: izod OrospectiAg ina drvclo-nnnt "crk there. It wann believod, howevar, t4it the dc,cuits varo 3ilficUntly siSnIficant to warrant an investigation iito their]

Jan 1, 1939

By Larkin F, Farrer E, McGhie R. R

The Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australasia Limited commenced productive operations during February, 1936, at the- Rosebery and Hercules mines, which are situated near Rosebery, Tasmania. At this time it was decided that before re-organizing the steel sharpening shop a test should be made of the relative merits of conventional drill-steel and detachable bits. For this purpose Ingersoll-Rand type"I" thread centre hole.jackbits were selected and seventy-two of these were tested against conventional steel. Results indicated that, under the conditions pertaining at these mines, j ackbits should prove more economical than conventional drill-steel bits, and that a large-scale test, under working conditions, should be made. This was done by gradually replacing conventional drill-steel with jackbits at the Rosebery mine. Results were satisfactory and by the end of 1936 both mines were using only the jackbits.

Jan 1, 1939

Aamot, Olav Crone, Chem. Engr., Elektrokemisk Raadhusgt..23, Oslo. Norway. '29 Abadilla, Quirico A., Dir., Bureau of Mines Manila, P. I. '3S Abbott, Clarence E., V.P., Charge of Raw Materials, Tennessee Coal, Iron & R.R. Co., 1242 Brown-Marx Bldg., Birmingham, Ala. '04 Abel, Raymond L.. Prof., Dept. of Pet. Refin., Univ. of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pa. '2S Abel, Walter D., Div. of Corporations Los Angeles, Calif. '32 Abele, Louis T., U. S. Corps of Engrs 7211 Glen Oak Ave., Baltimore. Md. '31 Abel], Leo M., Research Met., Mount Morgan Ltd Mount Morgan, Queens.. Australia. '31 Abenius, Hakan V c/o Falu Gruva, Falun, Sweden. '37 Abernathy, G. E., Geol., Kansas State Geol. Survey Pittsburg, Kan. 3S Aborn. Robert H., Asst. Met., Research Lab., U. S. Steel Corp., Lincoln Highway, Kearny, N. J. '19 Abrams, Charles Jackson 1624 17th St., Denver, Colo. '3 t. Abstein. Henry T., Engr. & Mgr., Profile-Tamarack Mines CoYellow Pine, Idaho. '27 Acker, E. O'C., Met L28 East Washington Lane, Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa. '86 Ackerman, D. E., Met., Assoc. Prof. of Met., Purdue Univ Lafayette, Ind. '35 Ackerman, E. Dumont, Sub-Surface Geol., Temblador Camp, Standard Oil Co. of Venezuela, Caripito, Venezuela. '3S Ackerman, George F.,. Div. Foreman. The Fresnillo Co Fresnillo, Zac., Mexico. '36 Adami, A. F., V.P. & Prof. of Min. Engrg., Montana School of Mines Butte, Mont. '19 Adami, Charles J., Min. Engr 99 S. Downing St., Denver. Colo. '12 Adams, Army, Cons. Engr 714 W. Main St., Grass Valley, Calif. .'37 Adams, Clyde B.. Geol.. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc 26 Broadway, New York, N. Y. '39 Adams, Ernest C., 6th Engrs Fort MacIntosh, Laredo, Tex. '35 Adams, F. J., Gen'l Agent, Gulf Production & Pipe Line Cos Fort Worth, 'lox. '29 Adams, F. S., Supt., Power Dept., Anaconda Copper Min. CoAnaconda, Mont. '37 ADAMS. FRANK DAWSON, Hon. Mbr., 1913; Logan Prof. of Geology and Dean, Faculty of Applied Science. McGill Univ., Montreal, Que., Canada. '13 Adams, Gale L., Supervisor, Process & Dev. Lab., General Pet. Corp. of California, Higgins Bldg., Los Angeles, Calif. '18

Jan 1, 1939

The No. 2 Ore-shaft, at Mount Isa Mines Limited, involving the use of boreholes as ropeways for the upper portion thereof, constitutes, we believe, a unique feature in hoisting installations. The boreholes were sunk from the surface to a depth of 390 ft., thus eliminating the necessity of erecting the hoist at an underground location or construction of the shaft for this distance. Fig. 1, a diagrammatic cross-section through the shaft, shows the complete installation from the surface down to the first loading station below No. 7 haulage level.During the latter part of 1936, conditions encountered in sinking the Main Ore shaft made it impracticable and uneconomical to continue deepening it to serve haulage levels below the present No. 5-level. Plans were therefore made for an interior shaft, to serve new lower levels, that terminated above No. 5-level so that ore hoisted could be drawn off on this level and transported to the Main Ore shaft for final conveyance to the mill crude ore bin.Referring again to Fig. 1, it is apparent that the section above No. 4-level, if opened out to full shaft size, would be inoperative and would serve no useful purpose except, possibly, as a ventilation duct. Original plans therefore did not include continuation of the shaft above No. 4-level. Excavation of a hoist room upon No. 5-level; erection of sheave wheels just below No. 4-level, and a long inclined ropeway leading from the hoist to the sheaves, were incorporated in the general layout. Work on the lower sectionof the shaft had started when the idea of locating the hoist...

Jan 1, 1939

By G. W. Jones

As a part of its general safety program the Bureau of Mines has investigated various means useful for the elimination or mitigation of the explosion hazards in connection with combustible gases incident to the mining industry. Information has been obtained relative to the explosibility of numerous simple and complex gaseous combustible atmospheres. Although experiments along this line have pertained largely to combustible gases in the mining and allied industry, considerable information has been obtained relative to the explosive hazards of combustible gases and vapors used as anesthetics.

Jan 1, 1939

By A. C. Fieldner

This report, the third of a series of annual reports of research and technologic work on coal by the Technologic Branch to be released in this form, covers the fiscal year July 1, 1937, to June 30, 1938. Ever-increasing demands for information on the chemical and physical properties of coals, their proper classification rind adaptability for various uses, their economic evaluation in the complex relationships between the costs of production, distribution, and selling, and their beneficiation and amenability to conversion to more valuable and. new products of commerce have necessitated an appropriate and flexible program. To most these requirements, initiation of new projects and new physical facilities has been made.

Jan 1, 1939

By B. W. Gandrud

This is the third report published by the Bureau of Mines concerning the washability of Black Creek coal. Both of the former reports5/6/ dealt with the Black Creek coal at the Bradford mine, Dixiana, Ala., near the northeastern extremity of the Warrior field, whereas the present report is based on float-and-sink tests of coal from what is presumably the Black Creek bed near the southern extremity of the field. Although the Yolande Coal & Coke Co., owners of the property at Yolanda No. 6 slope, consider this opening to be on the Black Creek bed, the authors do not feel that there is as yet positive proof that this correlation is correct. There has been little or no development of the Black Creek bed in the Yolande Basin in the past, and a posy-tine identification of the bed at Yolande No. o will have to await further exploration and development. The Yolande No. 6 is an exploration slope 3/4 mile north of Rockcastle, Ala. The slope is approximately 400 feet from top to bottom on a dip of 18° As fax as the authors can ascertain, coal has never been produced commercially from the Black Creek bed in the southwestern part of the Warrior field. Exploration work in the past has indicated that the Black Creek coal in. this area is extremely friable and high in sulfur. Extreme friability would naturally discourage its' use as a domestic and railroad fuel, and high sulfur content would be a disasvantage in its use for coking coal. The present study of this coal has been made with particular reference to sulfur elimination on the assumption that it would make a good coking coal provided enough of the sulfur could be eliminated by washing.

Jan 1, 1939

By J. B. Newsom

SAFER, cheaper, and faster sinking of mine openings seems to have been realized with the completion of a borehole 5 ½ ft. in diameter and 1208 ft. deep, in Minnesota, during 1938. Moreover, as the opening is to be used solely for ventilation, its circular cross section, smooth walls and freedom from fire hazard recommend it in comparison with the usual timbered shafts of rectilinear cross section. It should be pointed out that a drill hole sunk without the use of explosives frequently will stand open without support, whereas a shaft sunk by standard procedure using dynamite usually must be timbered because of the wall-shattering effect of explosives. The saving in maintenance resulting from the elimination of timber is obvious. The work was done by Pickands Mather & Co. at its Zenith mine, Ely, Minn. This company wanted a ventilation opening capable of delivering 50,000 cu. ft. of air per minute to the fourteenth level, 1200 ft. below the surface. While several general articles1-3 have described the method used, detailed time and performance records have not been presented before. Moreover, with a method as new as this, it is important to compare the results attained under widely varying conditions. Among the new conditions faced at Ely were some extremely hard rock, a series of vertical fractures, seepage water, and some long stretches of sound rock which, combined with excellent equipment, gave a chance to operate without unusual delays. Developments in boring large holes have generally taken the obvious course of increasing the size of the equipment, a line of attack that has resulted in putting down 3-ft. diameter holes at damsites for studying the foundations4 and in drilling ventilation openings between levels at Butte. 5 Such drills operate from the collar of the hole, and the power from the drill is transmitted to the cutting tool through drill rods or pipes. In order to keep down the volume of rock that must be ground to sludge, the cores in large-diameter drilling are made as large in diameter as possible. Their large diameter increases their weight per foot of length, which

Jan 1, 1939

By G. W. Jones

During the course of an investigation by the Bureau of Mines into the causes, behavior, end control of anthracite-line fires, it was observed that the carbon monoxide disappeared from a scaled fire area much more rapidly than could be explained oil the basis of leakage of gases. Two suggestions were offered for this high rate of disappearance; (1) That the carbon monoxide was oxidized at temperatures below 150° C, by either the anthracite or its ash (tests on many anthracites have shown that at temperatures above 150° C carbon monoxide is liberated in the oxidation products when air is passed through it); (2) that the carbon monoxide was oxidized by micro-organisms present in the sealed area.

Jan 1, 1939

By John Wulff, H. H. Uhlig

Since its first mention in the literature in the eighteenth century12 the phenomenon of passivity in metals has stimulated much speculation and attendant controversy as to its nature and cause. No one of the numerous theories so far proposed has been generally accepted. ‡ Faraday,' in 1836, associated the passivity of iron with a protective film over the surface of the metal, which materially prevents or slows down reaction with corrosive environments. His theory was that oxidizing acids like nitric acid form an unstable oxygen or oxide layer over the iron surface, which protects the underlying metal from further attack. This concept was simple yet plausible, and without alteration has frequently been assigned in present-day discussions as explanation of the passivity of many metals. With the advent in recent times of stainless steels, it is not surprising that this oxide film theory of passivity proposed by Faraday has been used to explain the phenomenal corrosion resistance of stainless steels and other passive alloys. The passive alloys, such as the chrome-iron alloys, are supposedly covered with a protective oxide film, which forms on exposure of the alloy to air, is extremely stable and self-healing, and accounts for the remarkable resistance of these alloys to corrosion. Within the past few years, several investigators, following the theory of film protection, have attempted to gauge the resistance of the supposed film on steels. Brennert8 and Donker and Dengg9 determined the potential at which a negative ion (e.g., C1-) moving in an electric field reacted with the metal anode, as detected by increased current flow or change in potential of the steel electrode in an electrolytic cell. The potential corresponding to reaction Brennert called the film break-through potential.

Jan 1, 1939

By Leo P. Tarasov

Magnetic torque studies of ferromagnetic single crystals have been carried out in a number of laboratories during the last decade&apos;s2 and some work has been reported on polycrystalline material showing preferred orientation. Goss3 used the method extensively in developing electrical sheet with desirable magnetic properties, but he used it as a control rather than as a means of studying the texture. Bozorth4 made a quantitative correlation of a torque curve he obtained from some cold-rolled iron with the texture as determined from X-rays, but did not extend his studies beyond the one specimen. Other studies, which have been reported from time to time2,5 have also been incomplete in the sense that no effort was made to study a whole series of samples, differing only in degree of cold reduction or in the annealing temperature, in order to ascertain the effect of such treatments on the texture as revealed by torque measurements. It is the purpose of this investigation to make such a study, mainly in order to see how useful the method can be made when used under favorable circumstances and to find what kind of a correlation can be expected between magnetic and X-ray studies of texture. Before proceeding further, it is desirable to say a little about single crystals, so as to make clear the concepts involved in magnetic torque measurements. Magnetic Torque Method It is fairly well known nowadays that single crystals of ferromagnetic substances have directions of easy magnetization and of hard magnetization. In Fig. 1 are reproduced typical magnetization curves for a single crystal of iron, which show that in a < 100 > direction saturation occurs at low fields compared to those required to saturate the same crystal in a <110> or a <111> direction. (The magnetization intensity I is defined by the equation B = H + 4pI.) At fields high enough to

Jan 1, 1939

By Met M, Orr C. W, Met B. E

As was mentioned in the last paper of this series(l), magnesium was added to lead with the idea that it would act as a de-oxidiser. The magnesium lead alloys give rise to an inter-metallic compound of the composition Mg2Pb(2) and it has some remarkable properties. It is known to disintegrate on standing in the atmosphere and it confers this property also on lead alloys in which it occurs. Magnesium forms a solid&apos;solution with lead, and according to Kurnakow, Pogodin&apos; and Vidusova(S) the limits of solubility are as follow...In conformity with the practice used in preceding series, the limit of concentration used in the present investigation was 0.1 %. Accordingly, it would be expected that all the alloys used would consist of the solid solution and the detrimental Mg2Pb would be absent. Whilst this was the case, it...

Jan 1, 1939

By G. E. Pellissier, C. W. Mason

Tin has long been cited as offering a classic example of polymorphism, second in repute only to the allotropy of sulphul.. The notorious "tin disease," which Cohenl has studied so exhaustively in terms of the enantiotropic transformation of tetragonal white P tin to cubic gray a tin, has apparently encouraged the expectation that one or more additional polymorphic modifications might exist. The search for confirnmntion of this idea has, as might be anticipated, led to the accumulation of a body of miscellaneous evidence, much of which would probably never have been sought, or taken seriously even by its discoverers, but fur previous assumptions. The ball apparently was started rolling iii 1880 by Trechmann,2 who reported a new modification of tin (7 tin), which was brittle and found in "hard head," a highly arsenical, slaggy material produced in a certain stage of tin smelting. A mixture of two kinds of crystals was obtained from a Cornish tin furnace, and those thought to be 7 tin were studied crystallographically. The results indicated that these crystals were rhombic and of different density from the tetragonal tin prepared electrolytically by Miller. Their analysis was given as 98.7 per cent Sn, 1.3 per cent Fe, and traces of As, Sb, Bi and S. In 1881 von Foullon4 obtained similar crystals from a Bohemian tin furnace. Headden5 examined crystals similar to those of Trechmann and von Foullon and reported them to be monoclinic, but of analysis corresponding to stannous sulphide. Later, Stevanovic,~ by goniometric measurements, proved that these crystals of SnS were really rhombic. Groth7 pictures and describes both "rhombic tin" (Fig. 9, vol. 1) ant1 stannous sulphide (Fig. 84, vol. 1); their faces and angles correspond within the accuracy of measurement. Spencers in 1921 examined the above evidence critically; lie lound similar crystals from Cornish tin furnaces, proved them to be SnS, and even was able to analyze some of Trechmann&apos;s original specimens, finding high sulphur content. (Apparently Trechmann&apos;s analysis had been based on :L second lot of crystals, not described crystallographically.)

Jan 1, 1939

By F. S. Crawford

IRON and copper are mined in the Lake Superior district. The iron mines of the district have the best safety record for that industry in the country as a whole, while the copper mines of the district rank second in two of the four years recorded (Table 1). In Utah copper comes mainly from open-pit mines, which enables that state to lead easily in safety. All of the Michigan production comes from deep underground workings. About 60 per cent of the iron miners in St. Louis County, Minnesota, are employed at open-pit mines; this favorably affects the combined open-pit and underground accident-frequency rate, as this county provides most of the Minnesota-mined iron ore. In Michigan, however, there are few open-pit mines, the bulk of the production coming from underground mines, while all of the Wisconsin production, just across the state line from Michigan, is from underground mines. In spite of the fact that fewer mines in Michigan use the safer open-pit method, the iron-mining industry of that state maintained a consistently low record from 1931 to 1934; however, it was many points behind its nearest competitor, Minnesota, with its much greater production from open-pit mines.

Jan 1, 1939