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MELTING in a crucible is the customary method for small things. It is done in two ways: with the blast of bellows and with an air furnace. The one with bellows, which I wish to show you now, is the common method most in use. It melts quickly and is very well known to goldsmiths and to all melters. I could continue without telling you of it, but I shall tell you its method in order to caution you about what you might perhaps not notice. In order to do this, first make a little forge with a pair of bellows that can be worked with one hand or in some other way. A crucible of the size needed is then taken and filled with the material that you wish to melt. Then, on the forge in front of the place where the wind issues from the bellows, kindle as much charcoal as you think will well cover your crucible and put your crucible full of material in the midst of this burning charcoal above the place where the blast strikes the fire, two or three dita distant from the place where the blast issues-or as much more or less as the size of the crucible or the force of the bellows requires. It is allowed

Jan 1, 1942

By J. C. Miller

In offshore oil drilling as it is done today, accidental blowouts cause considerable damage lo the environment. Public alarm over such accidents has already resulted in a number of legislative proposals which appear to favor the cessation of all drilling on the Federally owned continental shelf. Present concern for the environment and the increasing water depths associated with offshore drilling suggest the desirability of applying underground mining technology to offshore petroleum exploration. If offshore drilling were to proceed from underground accesses to the continental shelf, accidental damage to surface waters would be avoided, and so would the difficulties of exploring in deep or ice-filled waters. The specific approach proposed here is intended as a preliminary to offshore oil exploration in a known field or geologic structure. The end result of this method would be an on-shore vertical or inclined shaft terminating in an operating tunnel or haulageway as shown in the illustrations. From the haulageway, branching access tunnels would lead to drilling compartments. With this arrangement, it appears likely that one operating tunnel could serve all lessees ill a particular unit operation. Although an inclined shaft is not illustrated, this would probably be more practical than a vertical shaft owing to the length of the casings and the character of other equipment used in oil producing operations.

Jan 1, 1971

By Edgar S. Burkhardt

In mining, the process of comminution starts at the pit and ends at the classifiers. The first machine that breaks or comminutes ore is the primary crusher. There are many types of crushers, but the one most commonly used in large tonnage plants is the gyratory so discussion is restricted to this type of machine. See Figure 1. The primary crusher is the most important piece of comminution machinery in the plant because every ton of ore processed by the concentrator must pass through it, as shown in Figure 2. Most plants can operate if a secondary crusher or a mill is shut down, but if the primary crusher stops, the whole concentrator goes down. It is, therefore, important that the machine be able to produce sufficient ore to keep the concentrator running without hesitation. The plant designer first considers the required daily capacity and an estimate of the size of the ore from the pit. To this he adds an availability factor to compensate for delays due to shovels, trucks and rou- [ ] tine maintenance at the crushing station. This factor is based on experience and can be on the order of 75% (1). With these figures, he determines the hourly capacity required of the primary crushing station to keep the concentrator supplied. See Table I.

Jan 1, 1982

By A. Lee Barrett

THE Maintenance Committee of the Coal Division of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers is presenting with this report the first of a series of cost comparisons which it plans to present to the Institute. The plan is to assemble maintenance cost on all equipment connected with mechanical operations at the face of coal mines, to arrange these costs by districts, to make comparisons between districts, and within districts. This particular report covers data with respect to mobile loading machines, including both "on-track" and "off-track" equipment. It is anticipated- in-fact, considerable data have already been accumulated-that next year complete maintenance costs by districts can be presented for complete loading units, including the various classes and combinations of on-track and off-track equipment. Data have also been collected with respect to some phases of maintenance methods and certain recommendations of the committee are included dealing with maintenance problems. In the assembly of these data more than 120 questionnaires were sent to operating companies through- out the United States. At the time the report was written 33 questionnaires had been returned with completed information and an additional group of companies had written that the information requested was not at present available but that they hoped to have such information available in the not far distant future. The replies as

Jan 1, 1946

By William C. Aitkenhead, John A. Jaekel

Uranium deposits in the Spokane Indian Reservation, as well as those around Mt. Spokane, are essentially low grade, much of the ore containing less than 0.2 pct U808. The Mining Experiment Station of the Division of Industrial Research, State College of Washington, has been engaged in intensive research on the amenability of these low grade ores to froth flotation. The results: successful flotation of autinite, chief mineral constituent. At the outset of this work the goal was a concentrate of 1 pct U308 with a 90 pct recovery from ores containing less than 0.2 pct U3O8. Most of the work has been done on argillite ore from the Midnight mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The goal has not been attained using this ore, but samples of the granite ore from Mt. Spokane yielded successful results. For example, a concentrate containing 11.2 pct U308 was produced from a Mt. Spokane high grade ore containing 1.27 pct U3O8 with a recovery of 97.8 pct. Another Mt. Spokane ore yielded a concentrate of 5.0 pct U3O8 from an ore containing 0.13 pct U3O8, with a recovery of 85 pct. This same ore gave a recovery of 93.5 pct when the grade of concentrate was reduced to 2.0 pct.

Jan 1, 1959

By A. M. Gaudin

It is only in recent years that substantial progress has been made in developing a physico-chemical picture of the solid state. The molecular concept, so useful in dealing with gases, was naturally carried over to the field of crystalline solids; it has resulted in the firm implanting of erroneous concepts that only now are being eradicated successfully. Two simply written and effective books on the subject are Crystal Chemistry by Stillwell' and An Introduction to Crystal Chemistry by Evans. A more complete treatment of the subject is available in a book by Wells. The monograph by Hucke14 also touches on a subject most easily perceived by reference to the brief introduction by Bragg; that master of the field. These texts make it clear that while some solids are built of molecules, many are built of ions, others of atoms connected in the form of giant molecules, and still others of cations and electrons. The various lattices in which these entities are systematically arranged, the joint use of several of these entities, and the transitional character of some of the bonds make for the great variety of crystalline solids. The purpose of this paper is to point out a most important corollary of present views on the structure of solids. In this connection the classification of solids in Table I is helpful.

Jun 1, 1955

By J. L. Stokes, L. J. Demer

It has recently been shown' that epitaxial films of silicon carbide deposited on silicon single crystals possess desirable properties for semiconductor applications. There is one apparent disadvantage to such a system, however; since epitaxial deposition is a high-temperature process, it can result in plastic deformation of the silicon substrate. The accompanying Berg-Barrett X-ray diffraction photographs reveal plastic deformation in two silicon semiconductor crystals which occurred when the crystals were coated with an epitaxial layer of silicon carbide at 1150°C. Due to differences in thermal expansion between the silicon substrate and the epitaxial silicon carbide, the silicon was subjected to stresses while still in the plastic temperature range. Both crystals shown were 0.7 in. in diam and 0.0055 in. thick. The crystals were sliced from a larger crystal so that their polar axes were parallel to the [ill] direction. After cutting, the crystals were polished with diamond paste, and etched in HC1 vapor to remove surface damage re- sulting from the cutting and polishing operations. This provided clean, damage-free surfaces on which to deposit the silicon carbide. Figs. l(a) and l(b) are reflection and transmission photographs, respectively, of the same crystal. A smaller portion of the crystal is shown in the transmission geometry, because a vertical slit was

Jan 1, 1965

By A. Lee Barrett

The Maintenance Committee of the Coal Division of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers is presenting with this report the first of a series of cost comparisons which it plans to present the Institute. The plan is to assemble maintenance cost on all equipment connected with mechanical operations at the face of coal mines, to arrange these costs by districts, to make comparisons between districts, and within districts. This particular report covers data with respect to mobile loading machines, including both "on-track" and "off-track" equipment. It is anticipated—in fact, considerable data have already been accumulated—that next year complete maintenance costs by districts can he presented for complete loading units, including the various classes and combinations of on-track and off-track equipment. Data have also been collected with respect to some phases of maintenance methods and certain recommendations of the committee are included dealing with maintenance problems. In the assembly of these data more than 120 questionnaires were sent to operating companies throughout the United States. At the time the report was written 33 questionnaires had been returned with completed information and an additional group of companies had written that the information requested was not at present available but that they hoped to have such information available in the not far distant future. The replies as

Jan 1, 1947

By A. Lee Barrett

The Maintenance Committee of the Coal Division of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers is presenting with this report the first of a series of cost comparisons which it plans to present the Institute. The plan is to assemble maintenance cost on all equipment connected with mechanical operations at the face of coal mines, to arrange these costs by districts, to make comparisons between districts, and within districts. This particular report covers data with respect to mobile loading machines, including both "on-track" and "off-track" equipment. It is anticipated—in fact, considerable data have already been accumulated—that next year complete maintenance costs by districts can he presented for complete loading units, including the various classes and combinations of on-track and off-track equipment. Data have also been collected with respect to some phases of maintenance methods and certain recommendations of the committee are included dealing with maintenance problems. In the assembly of these data more than 120 questionnaires were sent to operating companies throughout the United States. At the time the report was written 33 questionnaires had been returned with completed information and an additional group of companies had written that the information requested was not at present available but that they hoped to have such information available in the not far distant future. The replies as

Jan 1, 1947

By Richard N. Grigsby

INTRODUCTION The Chord property was acquired in 1975 from Roy Chord, an early prospector and miner of the area. He had staked numerous claims on the southern flank of the Black Hills in the early 19501s, and by the late 50’s, many small open pit and underground mines had been or were in operation. By the mid 1960's small tonnages of high-grade oxidized uranium ore had been mined from the property. Starting in 1975, Union Carbide conducted a series of exploration programs to determine the remaining economic potential. The previously mined areas were re-examined in order to define additional oxidized mineralization. Meanwhile, a wide-spaced drilling program was initiated to determine the potential for deeper unoxidized deposits. Through the exploration program of 1979, measured minable reserves in excess of two million pounds of contained uranium had been discovered. GEOLOGY The Edgemont District is located on the southern end of the Black Hills Uplift. A succession of pre-Cambrian to Cretaceous Formations is exposed within the core and across the flanks. The uranium host is the lower Cretaceous Inyan Kara Group which is divided into two formations, the Lakota and Fall River Formations (Figure 1). The basal Lakota Formation rests unconformably on the Jurassic Morrison Formation and consists of fluvial channel sandstones

Jan 1, 1983

By A. W. Fahrenwald

THE absolute efficiency of crushing and grinding in a ball mill is not known. A number of investigators have made calculations to this end and have presented efficiency figures. Two factors have prompted further investigation of this subject: (1) the unbelievably low magnitude of the values offered, and (2) a desire to obtain, if possible, true relationships between the relative efficiencies of a ball mill operating under varying conditions. A useful forward step in the study of mill efficiency was made when Martin1 and Gross and Zimmerley2 proved the correctness of Rittinger's law, and incidentally the incorrectness of the so-called Kick law, and when Gross and Zimmerley3 determined and gave surface values for Tyler sieve-sized quartz. These data are probably accurate throughout the range of the sieve scale, but on -400 mesh (which is the finest sieve available), the surface data, as obtained by the hydrofluoric acid disso-lution method, are of doubtful reliability. Any inaccuracy existing in surface determinations of -400-mesh material, especially when comparing runs in which varying quantities of this product are formed, will cause the resulting relative mill efficiency values to be distorted. Moreover, knowing surface accurately, the efficiency calculations require a surface energy figure. Two such figures are to be found in literature, one by Edser4 and one by Martin.5 Edser's surface energy

Jan 1, 1931

By J. P. Norris, W. T. Pettijohn

The Mufulira Copper Mine, Ltd., is in Northern Rhodesia, ten miles from the Belgian Congo border, and is one of the group of four operating mines comprising the Northern Rhodesian Copperbelt. The ore deposits at Mufulira are on the limb of a large syncline striking NW.-SE. and dipping NE. at about 45 deg towards the Congo border. The host rocks are well-consolidated, highly-silicified, felspathic quarzites of the lower part of the pre-Cambrian Séries des Mines of the Katanga. The ore rocks are underlain, unconformably, by the older "Muva Series," in this case hard, green, metamorphosed quarzites. There are three superimposed orebodies, the first, or upper, orebody averaging 40-ft true thickness with a strike length of about 5000 ft, the second, or middle, orebody of about 50-ft true thickness with a strike length of about 6000 ft, and the third or lower orebody of around 60-ft true thickness with a strike length of 8000 ft. The orebodies are separated by varying widths of waste, or very low-grade ore, from a few feet up to 50 ft. The middle and lower orebodies are so close together for a strike length of 3000 ft that they are mined as one orebody. In all, the mineralized zone is about 200 ft in true thickness.

Jan 6, 1950

By L. W. Kempf

THE thermal conductivity of aluminum alloys is of considerable indus-trial importance. This is particularly true in such applications as inter-nal-combustion engines where one of the principal reasons for the use of these alloys is their relatively higher thermal conductivity. In spite of this, relatively few data are available on this property of aluminum alloys. The reason is quite apparent to anyone concerned with the experimental determination of coefficients of thermal conductivity. This determina-tion, in theory so simple, is extraordinarily difficult if any high degree of precision is desired. Fortunately, some knowledge of the relationship between thermal and electrical conductivity has permitted the use of the latter physical property in deducing the relative approximate-values of the thermal conductivities of metals. This fundamental relationship, first enunciated by Wiedemann and Franz1 as applying to metallic elements and later shown by Lorenz to be applicable to alloys within a single metallic system, has been of service in the industrial application of metals. The electrical conductivity of metals is easily determined with a high degree of precision. It is, therefore, quite desirable that the relationship between electrical and thermal characteristics be determined with the greatest possible precision. This paper presents data on the electrical and thermal conductivities of a number of aluminum alloys of industrial importance.

Jan 1, 1937

By Michel Daghert, Michel David

In the exploitation of large porphyry type deposits where a cut-off has to be applied and where "internal waste" exists, planning people ask the geologist for the estimated grade of small blocks. Comparison with actual production figures and blast hole assays shows that any kind of weighted average of neighboring DDH (diamond drill hole) samples provides an excessingly smooth picture of reality, resulting most of the time in overevaluation of tons of ore. Solutions based on examination of Past production data exist14 but it would be necessary to have a solution which can be applied before production starts as the preceeding problem also results in an overestimation of the total reserves, often by as much as 20%, thus changing the mine life accordingly and destroying any "optimum planning" which could have been done. The proposed alternative is to forecast the grade distribution of small blocks in a larger block, sufficiently well documented. Several Possible ways to estimate these distributions are reviewed and emphasis is placed on recently developed methods (source G. Matheron) where the coefficients of the orthogonal polynomial series expansion of the distribution of any size of block are directly estimated by kriging. The efficiency of the technique is tested on a level of the Cyprus Pima open pit where the predicted recovery is compared to actual production figures.

Jan 1, 1980

By Victor G. Hills

This paper comprises suggestions on certain points rather than a complete survey of the whole subject. In other words, it is a contribution to the kenera1 discussion invited by John Hays Hammond in his paper, presented as a Presidential address at the Chattanooga meeting of the Institute, in October, 1908.1 Mr. Hammond says, in conclusion: "... I am not offering a code, or even an official and representative declaration of principles.. My remarks are intended, and will, I hope, be accepted, simply as a contribution to that discussion of their theme in which every engineer of experience may participate." Such a discussion has been conducted in technical journals, as well as in contributions to the Transuctions of the Institute; and, in the remarks here offered, I shall have occasion to refer the read& to what I have thus published elsewhere, for more extended statements of my views. What Mr. Hammond says about loyalty to employers, the double capacity of the engineer as an employer, the expert witness, commissions on machinery, the statement that most swindling is done by laymen and not by engineers, duty to the investing public, and the engagement of local engineers as colleagues, it is a pleasure to indorse. Under the head of the expert witness, Mr. Hammond refers to the address of Dr. R. W. Raymond on Professional Ethice. This paper con-

Jan 1, 1911

By Paul Billingsley

IN THEIR course across Ecuador, the Andes fail to show the mineral wealth with which they abound in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. This may well be due merely to the concealment of recent volcanic ash and dense tropical jungle, but at any rate Ecuador has lacked the stimulation to development and progress afforded to the southern countries by the mines of Cerro de Pasco, Potosi, etc. 1 There is, however; in Ecuador, near its southern border, one mining district that, in recent years under North American management, has become a steady producer of mineral. wealth and. a community in which the sanitary and mechanical elements of modern life are displayed, for ;the first time, to the Ecuadorians of the lowland forests. The mining district of Zaruma is .situated in the province of El Oro, near the southwestern corner of Ecuador, about 50 km. (31 mi.) from the coast. Pizarro's first landing on the mainland was at Tumbez, at the mouth of the river that drains the Zaruma area; and the gold so abundantly found in this Indian town was soon traced to its source. In 1549, Mercadillo, one of the original (band, reached Zaruma, having worked his way up-stream through canyons that .are now regarded as impassable. The Spaniards proved themselves efficient prospectors, finding practically every orebody in the district as yet discovered; and, working

Jan 10, 1925

By T. S. Fuller

VARIOUS phases of the embrittlement of solid copper containing oxygen by the action of reducing gases at high temperatures through the work of many experimenters are familiar to readers of metallurgical literature. In 1900, Heyn1 recorded observations of copper being heated in hydrogen with the development of fine cracks, the result of the formation of steam within the metal through the action of hydrogen on the copper oxide usually found in copper. Archbutt,2 in 1905, published the results of experiments, showing that all oxygen can be removed from copper by heating to redness, for several hours, in hydrogen. Intercrystalline cracks and extreme brittleness developed. Archbutt attributed the brittleness to the reduction of oxides present in the copper. Bengough and Hill,3 in 1910, encountered the now well-known embrittlement at the outset of their investigation and stated in their paper: It soon became evident that the effect of any heat treatment depended largely on the presence or absence of reducing gases in the atmosphere of the furnace, as well as on its temperature. Hence it became necessary to adopt a somewhat elaborate scheme of heat treatment. The authors found embrittlement in separate experiments due to both hydrogen and carbon monoxide and concluded that: "The gases ruin the alloys after being heated to about 650° C. in their presence."

Jan 2, 1926

By Wheeler P. Davey

When metals are subjected to mechanical working, such as rolling, one of the phenomena that take place is a movement of the crystals of the metal into a system or systems of orientation which bear an angular relation to the direction of working. In rolled metal the crystals may orient themselves with respect to the rolling plane or the rolling direction, or both. Direct evidence of the existence of preferred orientations in rolled metal has been obtained by numerous investigators from X-ray patterns of the rolled metal. Most of these workers used a monochromatic pinhole method. Where the degree of preference for a single orientation is high the monochromatic pinhole pattern may be interpreted by a geometrical calculation based on the angular relationships of the planes in the crystal and the diffraction arcs on the X-ray pattern. This process may be aided by the geometrical construction of the locus sphere (Lagenkugel), and reflection circles of Polanyi,l Polanyi and Weissenberg,2 and Mark and Weissenberg,3 and of the plane polar figures (flachenpolfigur) of Franz Wever.4 R. M. Bozorth5 solves X-ray patterns from metals having a single preferred orientation by means of a series of charts which when placed over the X-ray pattern give directly certain angular relationships, between the crystal planes and the surface of the specimen.

Jan 1, 1930

By George Burgess

1. Introduction.-THE methods of production of sound steel ingots have been described in several papers read recently before this Institute. It was thought by Director Stratton, of the U. S. Bureau of Standards, and ourselves to be of sufficient interest and importance, as a further contribution to this subject, to compare the properties of rails rolled in one mill according to American practice, from several types of ingot of substantially the same chemical composition but cast by several processes; and to compare in considerable detail the properties of an ingot manufactured by the Hadfield special-feeding process and one of the usual type for rolling into rails. We are greatly indebted to F. W. Wood, President of the Maryland Steel Co., who made this investigation possible by kindly placing his rail mill at our disposal; and he and his associates at Sparrows Point did everything possible to make the experiment a success, including the execution of several of the tests and analyses. 2. Classification and Manufacture of Ingots.-Of the ingots used in this investigation, eight were made in Sheffield and furnished by Sir Robert Hadfield, and one was made and furnished by an American steel company,' as a comparison ingot, and was supposed to represent the usual type of ingot from which rails are made.

Jan 2, 1915

When Ponce de León landed in Florida in 1573 he was told of an Indian chief that possessed much gold. In 1576 Diego Meruelo obtained some of it from the Indians, and in 1579 Álvarez de Pineda reported that the natives wore ornaments of gold, which they obtained from the rivers. These statements all refer to the southern Appalachian region. The name is recorded in 1527; when Pamphilo Narváez landed at Tampa he heard that there was much gold to be obtained in a region named Apalache. * In 1564 René Laudonnière describes the methods used by the natives to win gold in the Apalatcy mountains.† However, no serious mining operations were undertaken until long afterward; the mining of gold in the Southern States may be said to have had its beginning when a nugget was found at the Reed mine, in North Carolina, in 1799. This nugget, which was of "the size of a small smoothing iron", was kept for several years before the finder learned what it was, but later more lumps, one weighing 28 pounds, were found in the same locality, and eager digging ensued. ‡ Thomas Jefferson, in his `Notes on Virginia', mentions the finding of a quartz specimen, not a nugget as is generally stated, that contained 17 pennyweights of gold; this was found on the Rappahannock river in 1782. §

Jan 1, 1932