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By Foster Bain

THOUGHTFUL people have raised questions as to how long nature's bank could continue to accept our drafts. These questions came to the fore so persistently, and there were so many evidences -such as the failure of natural gas in Indiana, the increasing scarcity of lumber in the Lake Superior region, the progressive sterility of Southern farm lands, the choking of the Sacramento River by tailing-point-ing to possible danger from overdraft or to misuse of resources and opportunity, that President Roosevelt called a conference which assembled at the White House on May 13, 1908, to consider these and related questions. This, the first great Conservation Congress, had a wide and beneficial influence on the thought of the world. It profoundly influenced the course of succeed-ing events and, while even yet there are sharp dis-agreements as, to the wisdom of much that has been done in the name of conservation, I believe that thoughtful men, and engineers especially, agree that the time had come when sharp attention was properly called to the waste that accompanied development of our resources. RESOURCES LARGE BUT NOT INEXHAUSTIBLE In 1908 there was a surprisingly large number of men, who should have known better, prepared to argue that our resources are "inexhaustible." No competent mining engineer, of course, believes that, as regards minerals at least. They may be, and, in most cases, fortunately are, large; as to many of them our knowledge is too general to permit measuring the reserves; but we know now, and I think the public appreciates, that there is a limit to our supply of gas, oil, coal, iron, and metals. Indeed, with the inten-sive study made necessary to meet the demands of the war, and the more careful accounting required by the newer systems of taxation, depletion has become a common word, and that mines are wasting assets has become a platitude.

Jan 8, 1922

By J. G. Koenigsberger

THE electrical specific resistance of rocks in the field is measured by sending a current through a medium of great volume, compared to the electrodes, whose resistivity should be measured. The whole resistance can be determined by the Wheatstone bridge and the specific resistance calculated by a well-known formula. The resistivity of some rocks in place in Germany and in Switzerland is given; first, of a rock near the surface, and especially near electrodes. Practical applications are made in the determination: (1) of the continuity of a conducting orebody; (2) of the surface area of an orebody; (3) in the detection of a water-bearing fault in a salt mine. Preliminary observations are described: (1) on the influence of the depth of ground-water table; (2) on the detection of gas under high pressure in coal seams. The observations in this paper of the electrical resistivity of rocks and soil in place are along the lines of the very interesting method and results of the Messrs. Gish, Rooney, Hotchkiss and Fisher.1,2 All the work described has been done since 1920.

Jan 1, 1928

By A. J. Lanza

IN view of the immense amount of attention that silicosis has received in this country in the past few years, it is timely to review the status of the silicosis problem at present. Who gets silicosis? The individual exposed to the inhalation of free silica dust. The effects upon the individual depend upon the amount of silica inhaled or, in other words, the severity of exposure, rather than upon any special variation or susceptibility among those exposed. A considerable amount of study has been given to determine what may be the role of predisposing causes in the development of silicosis. To mention one instance, at the Picher Clinic careful records were kept of all previous illnesses of the men examined as well as abnormalities present at the time of examination. Examinations of over 27,000 miners were made during the years the clinic was conducted under governmental auspices-a very fair sized sample. The general conclusions from all this work were that the incidence of silicosis is not appreciably influenced by racial, structural, or other inherent qualities; it is influenced by acquired defects-particularly as these affect the lungs. That is to say, the average run of human beings respond similarly to similar exposures to silica dust and those whose lungs are already impaired by tuberculosis or other pulmonary disease acquire silicosis more readily than those with healthy lungs. It may well be, and there is some clinical evidence in support, that negroes acquire silicosis more readily than do whites, but the infection factor has not been so carefully studied among negroes exposed to silica as it has among whites. We know that tubercle infection is more prevalent among negroes than among whites. There may be other factors concerned in the development of silicosis in negroes as compared to whites, but there is not available information upon which to base positive statements. INFECTION AND COMPENSATION Our first ideas about silicosis in this country were derived from early studies in the mining industry where the silica exposure was severe and

Jan 1, 1937

PHILIP D. WILSON,* Warren, Ariz. (written discussiont).-Mr. Tovote's idea of attempting to classify according to their broad geologic relations the ore deposits and prospects of the Southwest is an admirable one. Attempts have been made to evolve some comprehensive scheme of classification that would be of practical assistance in determining the possible value of prospects, but the ore deposits are too varied in type, form, genesis, and distribution to lend themselves readily to any definite, scientific pigeon-holing. The classification Mr. Tovote recommends, combining the age of the mineralization with the type of the rock supposed to be its source, is open to criticism even on the evidence he presents. The age of many deposits is not nor can be definitely determined because of the absence of sedimentary rocks in their vicinity. Furthermore, the character of the mineralizing solutions has, in a large majority of cases, no relation to the composition of the associated igneous rock. While the solutions may have originated in the same magma, they were usually a much later manifestation of it, often appearing after the intrusive rock had completely solidified and been subsequently crushed and fractured, and in many cases the chemical difference is very marked. It is true that igneous activity in the Southwest is definitely related to-certain geologic periods. The statement, however, that no ore deposits can unmistakably be referred to periods earlier than late Cretaceous is not supported by fact. The bonanza copper orebodies of the Jerome District are definitely pre-Cambrian. As suggested by J. R. Finlay,1 they are probably post-Beltian or late Algonkian in age, perhaps related to the same great mountain-making period as the copper deposits in the Keweenawan series of Lake Superior and the Sudbury, Porcupine, and Cobalt deposits of Ontario. The proof that they are pre-Paleozoic may be summarized as follows: 1. The pre-Cambrian complex in which they occur is overlaid by a great thickness of Paleozoic sediments with the Tonto or Tapeats sandstone at their base. The only primary mineralization in these sediments is an economically unimportant one connected with very recent basalt. 2. In the United Verde Extension mine, the gossan over the great orebody extends to the old pre-Cambrian surface where it is directly

Jan 2, 1919

By William G. Schultz

Sylvite’s potash mine probably ranks as one of the most highly mechanized and automated mining operations in the world. Employing, on a normal 10-hr production shift, one supervisor and a crew of seven operators, Sylvite is able to mine at an average rate in excess of 600 tph. The ore is produced by two Marietta miners weighing 258 tons, making them the largest and heaviest piece of equipment ever taken underground. The ore produced by these two Marietta miners is conveyed to the shaft area, cycled through a 15,000 ton storage system and hoisted to surface completely automatically. The operation of all equipment in the mine can be monitored and controlled from a central control panel located underground.

Jan 7, 1972

By James E. York

The honor so fairly earned and so incompletely and tardily paid to Henry Cort, the inventor of the puddling-furnace and the rolling-mill, has been fully set forth by Mr. Charles H. Morgan,' and needs no further emphasis here. In view of the importance of the rolling-mill in the treat ment of iron and steel, the paucity of information concerning it is surprising. With the exception of a book, written about 35 years ago, by Peter Ritter von Tunner, an Honorary Member of this Institute, and of desultory articles on simple sections, which have appeared in technical journals, I know of no publication attempting to treat this subject, although volumes have been written on the scientific theory and technical manipulations involved in other branches of the iron- and steel-industry. This strange anomaly may be due to the fact that roll-turning cannot be called a scientific business. It does not ordinarily come within the range of an educated engineer; yet it cannot be performed by an ordinary mechanic. It demands some of the qualifications of an engineer, in designing, and those of a mechanic, in execution. The men who have followeci this trade have controlled the training of their successors. In many cases the technical knowledge required has

Jan 1, 1907

By J. M. Armstrong

Jan 1, 1934

Discussion of the paper of DORSEY HAGER, to be presented at the Colorado meeting, September, 1918, and printed in Bulletin No. 138, June, 191S, pp. 1109 to 1118. WALLACE E. PRATT, Wichita Falls, Tex. (written discussion*).¬Mr. Hager has touched upon interesting problems related to the broad subject with which he has entitled his paper. As to the existence of the important structural feature in the buried Bend series, which Mr. Hager constructs from well-logs, and designates as the "Bend Arch," there seems to be general agreement among a number of observers. Indeed, M. G. Cheney1 and Robt. T. Hill2 have each published structural maps of the Bend Arch that do not differ essentially from the map shown in Mr. Hager's Fig. 1. The reflection, in the overlying, unconformable Cretaceous, of certain folds in the Pennsylvanian, with which the petroleum accumulations has to do, is an important observation on the part of Mr. Hager, since, as he says, much critical territory is covered by Cretaceous, and it is highly desirable that the underlying Pennsylvanian structure be mapped, if possible. If the folds in the Pennsylvanian are of post-Cretaceous age, then it should be possible, in spite of the intervening unconformity, to determine approximately the position of buried folds beneath the Cretaceous overlap. The idea of post-Cretaceous folding would not be out of accord with the suggestion by Carroll H. Wegemann that the folding of the Permian beds in southern Oklahoma was still in progress as late as the Tertiary.3 But most observers have related the folds in the Pennsylvanian and Permian beds at the surface, both in North Texas and southern Oklahoma, to the process of. emergence of the land area at the end of the Permian. It seems more probable that the reflection of Pennsylvanian folds in the unconformable Cretaceous which Mr. Hager observed is due to long continued persistence of stresses which were largely relieved at the close of the Permian, than that the principal period of folding was post-Cre-taceous; this being the case, it seems likely that only folds of greatest intensity in the Pennsylvanian will, be decipherable in the Cretaceous overburden, and that many promising structural features are so concealed by the Cretaceous as to escape detection except by drilling.

Jan 8, 1918

By E. J. Roberts, E. B. Fitch

THE mechanism of classification by settling pools is most simply shown in the case of batch sedimentation such as was analyzed by Oden.1 The batch model will be considered, therefore, and it will be shown that the same mechanism applies to continuous operation. Classification in Batch Settling Pools: Consider a beaker or tank of slurry containing particles so dispersed that they can settle independently of one another under the influence of gravity. Originally all particle sizes are uniformly distributed throughout the suspension. All particles start immediately to settle towards the bottom at rates determined by their size, shape, and density—among other factors. Particles reaching the bottom settle out of suspension. After some given time the slurry above the deposited solids is siphoned off or otherwise removed, leaving the deposited solids behind. The deposited solids, together with entrained and any unremoved supernatant slurry, represent the underflow of a classifier. The slurry removed represents the overflow. There is a certain separation, size of particle which during the sedimentation has just time to settle from the top surface of the slurry to the level at which underflow and overflow are parted. All particles with a faster settling rate will have dropped to below this level, no matter where in the beaker they started from originally, and therefore will be absent from the overflow. Particles with a slower settling rate will not reach this level if they started from the top of the slurry, but a portion of them,

Jan 1, 1957

By K. P. Anderko

INVESTIGATIONS of the constitution of the system Mg-Ba were first made by Grube and Dietrich1 between 0 and 47 atomic pct Ba and then by Klemm and Dincke1acker" ver the whole composition range. Klemm and Dinckelacker corroborated intermediate phases of the approximate formulas Mg9Ba and Mg4Ba, and showed a third compound to have the formula Mg2Ba, rather than Mg5Ba, as suggested by Grube and Dietrich. Mg2Ba had been previously recognized by Hellner and Laves3 s a MgZn2 (C14) type structure. The main discrepancies between the results of Grube and Dietrich and those of Klemm and Dinckelacker exist, however, in the liquidus temperatures and solidification equilibria of alloys containing more than about 10 atomic pct Ba. The liquidus temperatures measured by Grube and Dietrich, and the outline of the liquidus of Klemm and Dinckelacker are plotted in Fig. 1 on an enlarged scale. Although there are strong reasons to prefer the results of Klemm and Dinckelacker, it was considered worthwhile to remeasure liquidus temperatures of some alloys in the controversial composition range. The alloys, made up from sublimed magnesium and 99.5 wt pct pure barium, were melted in an Armco-iron crucible in a dynamic argon atmosphere. Thermal analyses were taken using a Speedomax auto- matic recorder. Careful stirring during the solidification process was required in order to avoid segregation. After thermal analysis some of the cast alloys were chemically analyzed. The intended and analyzed compositions of the ten alloys prepared are listed in Table I. Since standard barium determinations cannot differentiate between barium present as element and as oxide, both the barium and magnesium contents of the alloys were analyzed. The fact that the sum of barium and magnesium was close to 100 pct in each case was taken as evidence that no excessive oxidation had occurred. The liquidus temperatures measured are listed in Table I and plotted in Fig. 1. As can be seen, they are in good agreement with the liquidus found by Klemm and Dinckelacker. This leaves no doubt that the thermal results of Grube and Dietrich above 10 atomic pct Ba are incorrect. This work was performed under the sponsorship of the Pitman-Dunn Laboratories of Frankford Arsenal, Philadelphia, Contract No. DA-11-022-ORD-1975. Sponsorship and permission to publish by this organization are gratefully acknowledged.

Jan 1, 1958

By Charles W. DeWitt

The ore treated at the reduction plant (called Yangdei) of the Chiksan Mining Co., Korea, is brought from four of the company mines, and from the small tribute mines. The largest shipments come from Sajunkohl mine, situated about a mile and a half from the mill (Fig. 1). The ore is quartz of medium hardness. The average assay value in gold is $6.95 per ton. At the mine the ore is put into bins, and is then trammed over an 8 per cent, grade to the tipple bins above the mill, where the ore is drawn through the mill holes as desired. The capacity of the tipple bins is about 3,500 tons. Ore from Moonsukohl, Chung Tarrie, Yang Chun, and the tribute mines is brought in by bulls and bull wagons. The bulls carry from 350 to 800 lb.; the average wagon load is about 1,200 1b. (Fig. 2). One shovelful of ore out of every ten is taken as a sample. Considerable ore is brought in from the outside mines, and this method of sampling is

Jan 1, 1916

By Ralph Hultgren

Few phase diagrams of alloys composed of two transition metals have been adequately studied, probably because of the high melting points involved. Transition metals are the elements that have inner shells incompletely filled with electrons. They comprise groups lIIa to VIIIa of the periodic table, including more than half of all metals. We have chosen to study two systems whose comparatively low melting points allowed the alloys to be melted in a molybdenum resistance furnace. The nickel-palladium system proved to consist of a simple series of solid solutions, but iron-palladium manifested several remarkable features. The main characteristics of the latter diagram were decisively established, but lack of time prevented precise determination of phase boundaries. The gamma to alpha transformation in this system is unusual and warrants further study. Grigorjewl determined the liquidus and solidus of the iron-palladium system by thermal methods. He found a minimum melting point, but no eutectic. He also found that palladium lowered the gamma to alpha and raised the gamma to delta transformation temperatures of iron, with a complete series of solid solutions existing between gamma iron and palladium. His measurements also indicated a compound or quptbr-lattice near the composition FePda. Jellinghausz found that annealing at 500" C. greatly increased 111 magnetic coercive force of an alloy of composition FePd. X-ray diffraction photographs showed that a tetragonal ordered phase had formed during the anneal. Hocart and Fallot made magnetic measurements over the entire range of composition. They found that less than 5 atomic per cent Pd

Jan 1, 1939

By Alden B. Greninger

Although the crystallography of lattice transformations has been studied extensively during the past few years, these studies have been limited, with few exceptions1'2, to specimens in which the transformed lattice appears as a segregate phase. A realization of the technical importance of the segregation mechanism, especially in the formation of martensitic structures and in age-hardening phenomena, has undoubtedly stimulated research in this direction. In the crystallographic studies of segregation, the general problem has been to relate the orientation of the parent crystal to that of the segregate crystals. The technique has been complicated by the fact that it has been necessary to deal with the presence of as many as 24 ideal segregate orientations within one parent lattice; furthermore, the segregate lattices are invariably scattered (seldom less than ±2º, often as much as 15" or 20') about these ideal positions. It is probable that a more complete picture of phase transformations may result from a study in which complete lattice relationships between individual grains are evaluated, thereby providing an additional parameter which when it is necessary to work with multiple segregate orientations, cannot be evaluated. The present paper presents the results of such a study, ? wherein a peritectic reaction is made use of to produce the transformed lattices. Matebials and Methods Pem'tectic Reaction.—In Fig. 1 is reproduced a portion of the copper-zinc equilibrium diagram, which includes the peritectic reaction a + liq. —ß. A liquid of composition between B and D upon solidifying will

Jan 1, 1937

By K. L. Meissner

It is well known that the so-called pure aluminum contains noticeable amounts of impurities, chiefly iron and silicon, and many investigators have studied the forms in which these impurities exist. Hanson and Archbutt1 state that iron exists in aluminum as FeA13 and silicon as elementary Si. The solubility of FeA13 in solid aluminum is practically zero, or at least so small that the smallest trace of this compound is always visible as a separate constituent. Under the microscope an untrained eye can hardly distinguish, without etching, the two constituents FeA13 and Si, but they can be differentiated by suitable etching reagents. Anderson2 also found the same results. At the same time, Merica, Waltenberg, and Freeman3 found a constituent of unknown composition. They found a small thermal effect, at 610" C., on the cooling curves of aluminum with small amounts of iron and silicon. The intensity of this effect increased with increasing silicon content, until an effect occurred at 576" C. due to the eutectic between aluminum and silicon. The authors ascribed the effect at 610" C. to a compound, which they call "X constituent." It was thought to be a ternary compound containing iron and silicon and could be observed under the microscope as dark particles. Dix4 has published unetched photomicrographs of an aluminum with 0.51 per cent. iron, 0.99 per cent. silicon, and 0.32 per cent. copper that shows three constituents: the dark Si (black in the figure), the lighter FeA13, which appears in half tone and crystallizes in needles, and a constituent of the same color as FeAL3 but of different crystal form, often resembling Chinese script. This last constituent, Dix thought, is a compound of Fe and Si; not the compound FeSi but a compound containing a relatively small amount of silicon. Therefore an alloy of aluminum. iron, and silicon (the copper should not be regarded in the following considerations) must contain the following four constituents: Al, FeA13, Si, and a compound of Fe and Si. This, however, does not agree with the laws of chemical equilibrium.

Jan 1, 1926

By Eugene Guccione

FOREWORD-At the SME-AIME meeting in Las Vegas this year, the SME Publications Board and the MINING ENGINEERING Committee decided that a fitting way of celebrating the United States' bicentennial would be to publish an article in ME covering the great men in American mining. After some discussion as to the inclusion of financiers -men such as William Randolph Hearst, J. Pierpont Morgan, etc.-the group agreed that the feature should be restricted to the "nuts-and-bolt people," e.g., mining engineers, geologists, mineral processing engineers. Thus, from the AIME All Institute Honors roll and from the SME Awards list, the group chose these 11 historical figures: Herbert Hoover, Daniel C. Jackling, Henry Krumb, James Douglas, Rossiter W. Raymond, Hal W. Hardinge, Seeley W. Mudd, Erskine Ramsay, Howard N. Eavenson, Robert A. Richards, Arthur F. Taggart. What follows is an account of each of these great miners' achievements and the problems they faced, and an assessment by some of today's mining leaders of the challenges that lie ahead.

Jan 7, 1976

By Stanley Herold

As an accompaniment to the interesting papers which discuss the practical aspects of forced drive, or flooding, in our oil fields, and to others which deal with laboratory or field tests on the same subject, a few remarks on the theoretical principles concerned may not be considered inappropriate at the present time. Without claiming to have had the field experience which some of you certainly possess I venture to present some of the results of an analytical investigation upon this method of increasing the recovery of oil from our natural reservoirs. I firmly believe that these results will accord with your experience. I shall confine the present discussion to the consideration of a perfectly ideal situation Let us assume that the productive formation lies perfectly horizontal, that it is of uniform thickness, of perfectly homogeneous texture, and that it contains oil with gas in solution, and no water, throughout a definite, although undefined, lateral extent. We shall furthermore assume that the pressure existing within the reservoir as thus specified, is such that some of the gas is in the free state, spread uniformly throughout, in the form of minute bubbles within the pores of the formation. We now have an ideal reservoir subject to the peculiar action of capillarity as described by the French physicist Jules Jamin. In all directions within the reservoir we see these bubbles of gas, separated by globules of oil which tend to remain in the capillary channels that connect the pores. The action of these bubbles and globules under the application or release of pressure has been fully described by Jamin.1 Most of our oil fields in the Mid-Continent and Eastern districts are subject to this action of capillarity: The fact that the actual reservoir is often far from being ideal in the manner specified above does not preclude the, influence of this phenomenon. The oil, existing under a pressure exerted by the compressed gas, is securely locked in place

Jan 11, 1926

By Persifor Frazer

These properties, owned by Mr. William A. Butcher, of Philadelphia, are in the Panuco Mountain, which lies about thirty miles southwest of the town of Candela. It is a granite which penetrates the surrounding limestones and contains the famous copper-mine to which it gives its name. This mine, which is the property of a company in Philadelphia, has long been known to produce gold as well as copper from almost all its parts; and in corroboration of this be it said, that the undersigned has washed gold from a number of places where the works of the mine or natural sections had exposed the decomposed granite to view in the state of kaolin. It is well known that these junction- or contact-planes between two different formations are often the lodging-places of much freemilling gold, which through fissures are sometimes carried long distances perpendicular to the strata and into the interior of the formation. The structure of the Panuco Mountain, with its outlying spurs and adjacent foot-hills, forms a most instructive and unusual study. At a rough guess the area covered by this mountain will equal, perhaps, twenty-five to thirty square miles ; but its singular feature is the intimate welding together of two formations into one topographical unit. The lines of division between the granite and the calcareous sandstone are of such complicated character that they could not be mapped on a small scale. Unlike the majority of such contacts, the divisions between formations are not always marked in the Panuco Mountain by gulches, valleys, and streams (or the dry beds of the latter), but in the portion of the mountain which lies south of the Panuco copper mine, the lines of junction of these formations cross the gulches and promontories, and, in some instances, cannot be traced by any such topographical features. The house of the Panuco copper mine is 3742 feet above oceanlevel (by rough barometric observation), and the gold-mine about to be described is 235 feet above this, and about two miles distant,

Jan 1, 1886

By Frank R. Hunter

Introduction Scope of Work This paper represents the results of an investigation of the presence, amounts, and degree of concentration of heavy minerals found in the pulp of the phosphate flotation plant at Peace Valley, Fla., which is operated by the International Minerals and chemical Corporation of Chicago. In this paper, heavy minerals are those, excepting collophane, that sink in acetylene tetrabromide with a specific gravity of 2.95. Percentages of heavy minerals at several points of the flowsheet and the species of minerals have been determined. Some information as to the screen size of the minerals has been acquired. Previous Work All previous published reports or investigations of the deposits of heavy minerals in Florida have been limited to present beach sands. The mining operations conducted by the Humphreys Gold Corp. about seven miles east of Jacksonville along an ancient shore line have been described in trade journals, but descriptions of the minerals have been lacking. Commercial grades of ilmenite, zircon, and rutile are produced on a large scale. Papers have been published on heavy minerals found on the Florida beaches.1-6 Location "International's" Peace Valley flotation plant is in south-central Polk County, Fla. about eight miles south of Bartow and along the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The mine surrounds the plant and includes about 1500 acres of the phosphatic lands in this area. Geology General Setting All of the rock underlying the area is almost horizontal. The oldest bed exposed is part of the Hawthorn phosphatic limestone of Miocene age. This outcrops in the stream bed of the Peace River about one mile east of the plant. Elsewhere the Hawthorn is covered except where it has been exposed by mining operations. The Bone Valley formation of Pliocene age, which is the phosphatic stratum extensively mined in this area, unconforma-bly overlies the Hawthorn. Resting unconformably upon the Bone Valley formation are Pleistocene (?) terrace deposits of unconsolidated quartz sand which comprise the overburden of the phosphate ore. Stratigraphy Hawthorn formation: "Bedrock" of the pebble phosphate deposits is a cream to white colored, sandy, dense limestone containing varying amounts of small grains and nodules of collophane. The upper surface of the formation is undulating and irregular showing evidence of former

Jan 1, 1949

By F. A. Jerabek, H. L. Hartman

This study presents results of investigations in a small model of segregation in discharged fill slurry, the quantity of solids escaping in the drain liquid, and the relationship of solids to slurry concentration and discharge rate. Compressibilities of fine fill material, in dry and wet states and individual size fractions, are compared. Two terms are frequently used in describing the hydraulic placement of fill material underground: hydraulic stowing is mostly associated with the underground flushing of coarse-sized fill material, such as coal washery refuse; while hydraulic backfilling refers to placement of small-sized fill material, e.g., sand or classified mill tailings, mainly in metal mines. Characteristically, in backfilling, only a few hours may elapse between the time the material is hoisted as ore and redeposited as fill underground. Hydraulic filling was first used about 100 years ago to control subsidence in coal mines. It was subsequently adopted in many mining operations all over the world, but its basic concepts have never been adequately studied and analyzed. This is not surprising, when one considers the number of variables involved in the hydraulic backfilling operation. Recently, much work has been done on the problems of transportation of slurries in pipes. Comparatively less research work has been done concerning the physical properties of fill material (compressibility, cementation, permeability, etc.). Very little work has been done on the problems of fill placing, distribution, and segregation of fill material discharged in the mine void. It is the purpose of this paper to explore two of the basic, lesser known aspects of filling: segregation and compressibility in discharged fill slurry. Difficulties in observing the behavior of hydraulic fill slurry during the pouring operation underground, and insufficient knowledge to conduct any kind of meaningful theoretical analysis, suggest experimental model studies. The tests described in the following sections were conducted in the Rock Mechanics Laboratory of the Department of Mining at Penn State.

Jan 1, 1965

By A. L. Holley

Those who are familiar with working gas furnaces will perhaps admit that the ordinary producer is the least satisfactory feature of the- whole system, chiefly by reason of its great waste of fuel, both above and below the fire. The waste of fuel in cleaning the fire has not, as fdr as I am aware, been carefully measured ; it has been roughly estimated at various works as averaging twenty per cent. to twenty-five per cent. The coke that falls into the ash-pit is largely mixed, if not stuck together with clinker; when this coke is not recovered and utilized (and where coal is cheap it does not pay to recover it), the waste is certainly as high as above estimated. Cleaning a fire on a grate (especially a fire of dirty coal, like much of our Western coal), by inserting a few temporary grate-bars, then withdrawing the regular grate-bars and letting the whole lower part of the fire tumble into the ash-pit, must necessarily be wasteful of fuel, but it has been found to be the most practical system. The fire under a boiler should be thin, to insure perfect combustion; hence it may be moved from one side to the other, so that .the clinker and ashes may be uncovered and removed. But a producer fire should be so thick that carbonic oxide only shall rise from it; a thick fire cannot be thus manipulated. In several of the French works the ordinary producer without grates is employed ; the whole body of the fire rests on the floor of the ash-pit. It did not seem to me that less fuel was wasted here than with grates in cleaning fires. The bottom layer of the fire had to be drawn out with hooks, and there was nothing to prevent much coke from coming away with the clinker and ash. A producer shaped like a cupola furnace has many advantages, but if grates are employed the waste of coke in cleaning is not lessened. But the waste at the bottom of the fire is only a part of the waste in the ordinary producer. Mr. Emmerton, chemist to the Juliet Iron and Steel Company, has lately made a number of gas analyses from the producers of that company, worked with impure Illinois

Jan 1, 1880