Search Documents

The nickel suppliers are hard at work across the entire spectrum of the industry-from exploration and mining on the one hand to the development of new applications of this unique metal on the other. The reason-a surging demand for nickel by the free world. Evidence of interest and activity in nickel abounds. Companies such as Anaconda, American Metal Climax, Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical, Patino, Newmont-firms that have not been in the nickel industry before-are now involved in various exploration and development ventures around the world. International Nickel, Falconbridge, Le Nickel and Sherritt Gordon-the big names in the industry -have committed vast sums of money and talent in a variety of new developments designed to ensure their status as leading producers of this commodity. As a result, the world is now seeing a rapid build- up in nickel capacity, and in this issue of [ ], the editors have prepared a summary of these fast- moving major developments.

Jan 10, 1968

By V. H. Wilhelm

Developments in California during 1942 were marked by many difficulties in operation, of which the lack of labor and material were the main factors in slowing down work. During the many years of curtailment, which has been effective since 1928, a number of estimates of the state's capacity to produce have been built up, but during the year 44 fields were 'eliminated from curtailment and valuable data were obtained as to the normal capacity of these fields to produce. Because of new discoveries and the normal decline of old fields, which is more than 15 per cent per year, it is estimated that the sustained capacity of the state for a 5-year period is not more than 500,000 bbl. per day. Decline in the rate of production was greatest in the fields in the Los Angeles Basin district. These fields have been produced nearly at capacity for many years and had no reserve of shut-in production. The San Joaquin Valley and Coastal districts have responded well to the increased allotments assigned to them by the Petroleum Administrator for War. All heavy oil fields in the state are on full production, except in the Coastal district, where transportation is the limiting factor. Although approximately 2500 more wells are on production in the state than there were in 1941, the supply of heavy crude has not yet reached the demand. A summary of statistics for 1941 and 1942 is given in the following table. Production in California for 1942 was 680,000 bbl. a day as against 631,000 bbl. a day for 1941, an increase of 7.8 per cent. The present maximum efficient rate has been estimated at 808,000 bbl. per day. This indicates that in the 15 restricted fields of the state there is only an additional 83,000 bbl. per day of light oil available. Drilling Activity Drilling activity during the year was equivalent to but 70 per cent of normal. Although shortages of equipment and labor were in part responsible for the reduced drilling activity, the main reasons were the lack of proved locations due to a cycle of very few new discoveries and the restrictions of Conservation Order M-68. For the first six months of the year, 300 new oil wells were completed, which were equally divided as to the number of light and heavy oil producers. But, for the last six months of the year, it is

Jan 1, 1943

By V. H. Wilhelm

Developments in California during 1942 were marked by many difficulties in operation, of which the lack of labor and material were the main factors in slowing down work. During the many years of curtailment, which has been effective since 1928, a number of estimates of the state's capacity to produce have been built up, but during the year 44 fields were 'eliminated from curtailment and valuable data were obtained as to the normal capacity of these fields to produce. Because of new discoveries and the normal decline of old fields, which is more than 15 per cent per year, it is estimated that the sustained capacity of the state for a 5-year period is not more than 500,000 bbl. per day. Decline in the rate of production was greatest in the fields in the Los Angeles Basin district. These fields have been produced nearly at capacity for many years and had no reserve of shut-in production. The San Joaquin Valley and Coastal districts have responded well to the increased allotments assigned to them by the Petroleum Administrator for War. All heavy oil fields in the state are on full production, except in the Coastal district, where transportation is the limiting factor. Although approximately 2500 more wells are on production in the state than there were in 1941, the supply of heavy crude has not yet reached the demand. A summary of statistics for 1941 and 1942 is given in the following table. Production in California for 1942 was 680,000 bbl. a day as against 631,000 bbl. a day for 1941, an increase of 7.8 per cent. The present maximum efficient rate has been estimated at 808,000 bbl. per day. This indicates that in the 15 restricted fields of the state there is only an additional 83,000 bbl. per day of light oil available. Drilling Activity Drilling activity during the year was equivalent to but 70 per cent of normal. Although shortages of equipment and labor were in part responsible for the reduced drilling activity, the main reasons were the lack of proved locations due to a cycle of very few new discoveries and the restrictions of Conservation Order M-68. For the first six months of the year, 300 new oil wells were completed, which were equally divided as to the number of light and heavy oil producers. But, for the last six months of the year, it is

Jan 1, 1943

By H. De Cizancourt

AS in former years, Pechelbronn, in Alsace, was the most important producer in 1936, with 484,453 bbl., of which 283,151 from drilling and 201,302 from mining showed a slight increase in comparison with the preceding year. Gabian, in France and Tliouanet, in Algeria, are nearly exhausted. At Gabian, four wells drilled in intermittent exploitation produced during the year 2893 bbl. Four wildcats, one of which is producing, constituted all the activity in research on French territory. In Morocco, some wildcats have been drilled in search for new fields and exploratory drilling has been done in Tselfat and in Djebel Bou Draa in known fields, but the results have been inconsiderable. In Tunisia there was a gas outburst in Kebir 1, which is the first practical result obtained. In Madagascar, the Andrafiavelo region has been left and a new region has been tried in Folakara with the Tsimororo. In French Equatorial Africa, one drilling is in progress.

Jan 1, 1937

Organization Place Date 1918 National Society of Naval Architects New York, N. Y. Nov. 14-15 American Society of Mechanical Engineers New York, N. Y. Dec. 3-6 Geological Society of America Boston, Mass. Dec. 28-31 American Association for the Advancement of Science Boston, Mass. Dec. 27¬ Jan. 2. 1919 American Society of Civil Engineers New York, N. Y. Jan. 15-16 American Wood Preservers Association St. Louis, Mo. Jan. 28-30 American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engi¬ neers New York, N. Y. Jan. 28-30

Jan 11, 1918

Organization Place Date 1918 American Institute of Architects Washington, D. C. April American Iron and Steel Institute New York, N. Y. May American Institute of Chemical Engineers : Berlin, N. H. June 19-22 American Society for Testing Materials Atlantic City, N. J. June 25-28 New York Electrical Society New York, N. Y. June National Association of Stationary Engineers Cincinnati, 0. Sept. 9-13 National Exposition of Chemical Industries New York, N. Y. Sept. 23-28 American Chemical Society Cleveland, 0. Sept. National Petroleum Association Atlantic City, N.. J. Sept.

Jan 4, 1918

By Ian Campbell

THE year 1952 was marked by several new alltime highs in industrial mineral production; by an easing of the critical situation with respect such minerals as fluorspar and sulphur; by important production of asbestos, lithium, and rare earths; by the perfecting of new products which will place new demands upon industrial mineral supplies, such as "Fiberfrax", and the finding of new uses for old minerals, such as wollastonite; by continuation of basic and applied research; and publication of a notable study of the national mineral economy, viz., the "Paley Report".

Jan 2, 1953

By Marcus Grossmann

THIS paper offers for consideration certain somewhat radical modifications in the iron-carbon diagram, these modifications being the result of the presence of notable amounts of alloying elements. When only small amounts of alloys are present, 'the standard iron-carbon diagram (Fig. 1) can be used with but insignificant changes; when larger amounts of Chromium, Per Cent FIG. 1.-IRON-CARBON DIAGRAM. FIG. 2.-IRON-CHROMIUM DIAGRAM. alloys are present, however, it assumes a distinctly altered appearance. No comment is offered for the present except to call attention to the delta area, A4BM, which represents a region of mixtures of austenite and delta iron, just as area A3SP represents mixtures of austenite and alpha iron.

Jan 12, 1926

By T. B. Massalski, Horace Pops

Martensitic transformations were observed by optical metallography and electrical-resistivity measurements during cooling at cryogenic temperatures of the bcc pr-phase Au-Zn alloys. The com-position dependence of the MS, MF, AS , and AF temperatures have been determined. It is concluded that the martensitic platelets which grow mainly in the lengthwise direction and which are associated with a very small temperature hysteresis are "thermoelastic" martensite. In some cases the observed structure seems to have no definite crys-tallographic habit or consists of a mixture of- plates and broad transformed areas. THE majority of the bcc /3-phase alloys in systems of copper, silver, and gold with zinc and cadmium are unstable at low temperatures and undergo a transformation upon further cooling into another structure. A large number of such transformations are martensitic. The composition dependence of the Ms temperatures has been determined and reported for CU-~n,' Ag-Cd,' and AU-C~~ alloys. The 50 at. pct ordered Au-Zn p' alloy has been reported by Jan and pearson4 to transform martensitically at 58°K in connection with their study of the de Haas-van Alphen effect The p' phase in the Au-Zn system has the ordered CsC1-type structure. The phase field is shown in Fig. 1: it has the typical V shape which is characteristic of all copper-, silver-, and gold-based binary /3-phase alloys. There appears to be no a priori reason why the transformation should be limited to the equiatomic composition and the availability of a cryogenic stage for optical metallography5 has permitted studies down to the liquid-helium temperature of a series of alloys in this system. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Predetermined weights of 99.999 pct pure gold and zinc were melted and cast under a partial atmosphere of helium in sealed quartz capsules. Thorough mixing of the molten metals was achieved by vigorous shaking, followed by a rapid quench into a brine solution. All ingots were homogenized at 640°C for 4 days. The loss in weight was usually less than 0.04 wt pct and was assumed to be due to

Jan 1, 1965

By Gilbert P. Moore

Petroleum operations in Bolivia are still limited to those of the subsidiaries of the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey. Development work is being carried on at Sanandita and at Bermejo and testing operations in the north. Five wells have been completed at Sanandita. Wells 1 and 2 are producers, 3 and 5, which are north of 1 and 2, are poor wells, and well 4, to the south, was dry. In the Bermejo field, well 5 has just been completed. No information as to the production is obtainable. In the north one string was operated at each of the following locations: Machareti, Camatindi and Camiri. The well completed at Machareti during the year was a failure. The result of the others is not known. It is reported on good authority that a pipe line will be completed in 1931 to connect the Sanandita field with the Lomitas field in the Argentine. This will place Bolivia among the ranks of the producing countries of South America for the first time. This development indicates that some arrangement has been arrived at with the Argentine Government for the importation of Bolivian oil. During 1930 the Bolivian Government declared in effect the new Petroleum Law which had been expected for such a long time. One of the first acts of the military junta, which rose to power through a coup d'état, was to cancel this law, so that Bolivian oil operations are still under the old law of 1921. One new local company was formed to exploit 1,500,000 hectares near the town of Cochabamba. The Bolivia Concessions, Ltd., which had a concession permitting the selection of 17,000,000 acres in eastern Bolivia, is reported to have failed in 1930 and is now being liquidated. Chile During 1930 the Chilean Government entered into a contract with an individual to explore in five distinct zones of the Republic. According to the contract, geologists must be at work there by May 1 of this year and a well must be started by the end of 1931. If the operations are

Jan 1, 1931

By Ole Singstad

The legislatures of New York and New Jersey, determined in 1919 that a vehicular tunnel should be built under the Hudson River. On July 1, 1919, an engineering staff was organized with the late Clifford M. Holland as chief engineer. After preliminary investigation it was decided to build the tunnel from Canal St., New York, to 12th St., Jersey City, which is the center of the heaviest traffic across the Hudson River. It was also decided to build two tunnels—one for west-bound traffic and one for east-bound—the tunnels to be of cast iron, built up of segments and bolted together, each tunnel to have a roadway 20 ft. wide and a clear head room of 13 ft. 6 in. The tunnels have an exterior diameter of 29 ft. 6 in. The interior lining is of concrete, the sidewalls, tiled with a vitreous white tile, and the roadways are paved with granite block. The entrances and exits at both ends are separated by two blocks so as to reduce traffic congestion. Basis of Ventilation It was recognized very early that one of the most important problems confronting the engineers was a proper ventilation system. It was estimated that each tunnel as planned would have a traffic capacity of 1900 vehicles per hr. The tunnels are 8500 ft. long between portals, and it was considered that the ventilation should be based on all of these vehicles being operated by gasoline engines. That presented a problem in ventilation unlike any other either in magnitude or character. There have been vehicular tunnels built in Europe, principally in London, but they are shorter and have a smaller traffic capacity. Up to the present time, at least, they have handled a very large percentage of horsedrawn vehicles so that the necessary ventilation has been provided for by the natural draft through the portals and open shafts. Within the last few years, however, a small mechanical ventilating plant has been installed in the Blackwall Tunnel, which has been in operation about 27 years. I might mention that at the time this work was started, it was considered by many that the problem of ventilation was insuperable and it

Jan 1, 1927

By Robert Mehl

IN examining the progress of metallurgical science, the critic must remember that most of our present knowledge of metals and alloys has been accumulated through the needs of industry and commerce rather than through the desire and efforts of a large body of scientists interested primarily in developing a science of metals. The progress of metallurgy, scientifically speaking, has been irregular, and little given to the exhaus-tive exploitation of important scientific fields. The experienced engineer now recognizes the need for the development of the basic science upon which his engineering rests. In addition to the increase in knowledge which results from the normal requirements of industry, a development of the basic science of the behavior of metals and alloys is as desirable in metallurgy as in any other branch of science and engineering. The continued growth of the science of metals-as of every other science-requires studious attention to the principles that underlie the behavior of matter, with the result that knowledge in the several fields of interest should continue to increase. Among the various subjects recognized as important in physical metallurgy few have a wider significance than that of diffusion in solid metals. The phenomena of diffusion are intimately related to many basic problems of the metallic state, but in addition to this, the process of diffu-sion is of first importance practically. The formation of alloys by the annealing of mixed powders, first practiced by Faraday and Stodart81 in 1820 and in more recent years investigated by Masing187,189 and others, has led to the development of special alloys like Carboloy, Vascoloy-Ramet, Genelite, Elcon68, and has recently been applied to the production of noble-metal alloys for electrical contacts"'.

Jan 1, 1936

Crushed limestone is now being "de-dusted" at the Warner Co. plant in Bellefonte, Pa., by a new high-efficiency classifier utilizing aerodynamic principles not previously employed in classifiers. Crushed limestone for certain glass industry requirements must not have more than 10 pct fines in the overall aggregate, and it is the function of the new-type classifier to separate these fines from the coarse material. During the development of this classifier by the Buell Engineering Co. of New York, it was found to have possible applications for separating pulverized coal, sintered metals, ores, mineral flours, and fillers, among other items. Limestone from Warner's deep mine is initially crushed and particles larger than 3/8-in. mesh are burned in kilns to provide calcium oxide for the chemical industry. The 3/8-in. screenings are dried and crushed to -16 mesh for use by the glass industry. For those applications requiring a minimum of fines, no more than 10 pct -100 mesh material is allowable in the end product. Hence the need for high-efficiency separation.

Jan 11, 1960

R. W. Raymond, New York City: As was announced in the Secretary's note, appended to the pamphlet edition of Dr. Ledoux's paper, I have undertaken to superintend the preparation of the samples required by his plan, and the ollation for publication of the results reported. Promises of cordial co-operation hare been received already from a number of leading assayers;? and it is to he expected that the data thus collected, and the discussion to be based upon them, will shed much light upon the important question raised in this paper. Although a detailed discussion of methods on the present occasion might be deemed premature, I am sure that suggestions on the subject from members engaged in assaying would be timely and valuable as a preliminary to later and more detailed criticism. Herbert G. Torrey (U. S. Assay Office), New York City : I may say in relation to the losses in the furnace that I have made a number of experiments, and on my little blank form years ago I put down a place for the losses in the cupel. It met with a good deal of opposition among the smelters, but I claimed that it was my duty to give the full amount of the gold and silver present, and that it

Jan 1, 1895

By M. R. Tek

A new method for correlating the data on multiphase flow through vertical pipe is presented. The correlation is based on a "two-phase f factor" concept which was developed and successfully applied to horizontal multiphase flow by Bertuzzi, Tek and Poettmann. Field data previously published on several flowing and gas-lift wells have been used as the basis for the developed correlation. The application of the method to actual two-phase flow problems indicate that this method is capable of predicting the pressure distribution in vertical multiphase flow strings well within the accuracy range usually desired for common engineering and design calculations. A new working chart developed for calculation of two-phase pressure gradients and a graphical step-by-step procedure for the computation of pressure distribution are presented along with an example problem. INTRODUCTION Multiphase flow through vertical pipe is encountered in many engineering installations. In petroleum, chemical process, nuclear engineering and many other industries, problems associated with simultaneous flow of two or more phases through vertical pipe have been of interest for a long time. This interest has increased considerably during recent years due to applications to new processes in petroleum production and refining and to problems of steam generation and heat removal from nuclear reactors. One prominent example of vertical two-phase flow is provided by the gas-lift process where oil, water and gas flow simultaneously. If the pressure profile in a gas-lift well can be predicted within reasonable accuracy, it would be possible to get good estimates of the power required to lift the oil, the optimum depth, the pressure and the rate at which to inject gas. Furthermore, the effect of production rate and tubing sizes on these quantities can be evaluated before any design decision is made on the installation and operation of the flow string. The majority of experimental work available in the literature deals with two-component systems where individual phase flow rates in and out of the pipe remain constant. The general problem of prediction of pressure drops in multiphase flow systems is very complicated. The co-existence of numerous flow patterns of widely different geometry and mechanism, conditions of surface instability and the nature of force fields acting upon the system are among the major difficulties commonly encountered. The classical approach of fluid dynamics which would be based upon the formulation and solution of Navier-Stokes equations has been found by many investigators completely devoid of any hope of success-—not only because of inherent nonlinearities but also because of insurmountable analytical difficulties standirng in the way of setting up the boundary conditions. The presence and effect of interfacial forces on mu1tiphase flow systems further complicate the theoretical approach. For these reasons, many investigators choose to adopt semi-empirical if not purely empirical approaches in order to obtain solutions of engineering utility. A prominent practical solution has been given by Poettmann and Carpenter' in the form of an empirical correlation. In their paper, total flowing densities of fluids and solubility effects of gas in oil have been taken into account for the correlation of field data covering a wide range of operating conditions for oil wells. They treated the gas. oil and water as a single phase of combined propcrties and correlated the multiphase friction factor as a function of the product (pvd), i.e., density X velocity X diameter of the flow string. However, because the product (pvd) is dimensional while the frictior factor is dimensionless, the generality of their result's is somewhat restricted. It seems that the omission 01 viscosity effect may be one of the reasons for the scatter of data as shown in their correlation chart. The concepts of the "two-phase f factor" and the "two-phase Reynolds' number function" were recently developed and successfully applied to correlate horizontal multphase flow by Bertuzzi, Tek and Poettmann.' Recently, two new methods of correlation by Tek and Chan' have been presented on simultaneous flow of liquid and gas through vertical pipe. These two methods of correlation and the working equations in field units necessary for their application are included in this paper. The extension of the conccpt of two-phasc Reynolds' number function successfully developed for horizontal flow into vertical multiphase flow systems, development and evaluation of working charts permitting calculation of two-phase pressure gradients and

THE following employment items are made available to AIME members on a non-profit basis by the Engineering Societies Personnel Service, Inc., operating in cooperation with the Four Founder Societies. Local offices of the Personnel Service are at 8 W. 40th.St. New York 18; 100 Farnsworth Ave., Detroit; 57. Post St., San Francisco; 84 E. Randolph St., Chicago 1. Applicants should address all mail to' the proper key numbers in care of the New York office and include 6c in stamps for forwarding and. returning application. The applicant agrees, if placed in a position by means of the Service, to pay the placement fee listed by the Service. AIME members may secure a weekly bulletin of positions available for $3.50 a quarter, $12 a year. MEN AVAILABLE Mining Engineer, 41, married, one child, employed. Broad experience, both underground and open-pit, type mining. Exploration, development, exploitation, industrial construction, milling in northwestern United States. Desires position with progressive, established concern. M-666-259¬Chicago. Recent Graduate, 24, married, no children, B.S. mineral economics. Employed-one year's experience in development of deposits, study of problem areas. Will accept position anywhere in the world. Available immediately. M-667.

Jan 1, 1952

By E. O. Wagner, V. F. Parry, W. S. Landers

Following investigations by the Denver Bureau of Mines on drying fine coal in the entrained state, Texas Power & Light Co. employed the fluidized technique to upgrade Texas lignite for use in power plants. Because of the rapidly rising cost of natural gas in Texas the company agreed to cooperate with the Bureau of Mines in studying further the upgrading of lignite by low-temperature carbonization, since potential value of the tar would help off- set the cost of fuel. Considerable interest was aroused, therefore, when Aluminum Co. of America decided to use dried lignite in its 240,000-kw power plant at Rockdale, Texas, operated by Texas Power & Light. Carbonization of coal before burning in a power plant is not new. Plants in Germany have been operated for many years on carbonized brown coal and lignite briquets produced in large integrated plants. Large-scale experiments in carbonizing pulverized coal with hot flue gases were made 30 years ago at Milwaukee, and many inventors have proposed other processes. In the U. S., technical and economic problems have prevented successful operation of large plants on carbonized coal, but new techniques of handling solids in fluidized beds may overcome these difficulties, particularly if the higher volatile noncoking coals are used.

Jan 1, 1956

There were present eight Directors, the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of the Institute, and seventeen guests. Messrs. John V. N. Dorr and George D. Barron were appointed members of the Founder Societies Finance Committee on Joint Activities. A request from the New York members of seventeen societies that the Institute send a delegate to Engineering Congress for the purpose of formulating a code for professional conduct was referred to the Engineering Council. There were elected thirty-four members, twenty associates, and thirty-one junior associates. The status of one member was changed from associate to member; and of one junior associate to associate:

Jan 7, 1919

By John M. Rayburn

When plans were made for the new mine of the Allegheny-Pittsburgh Coal Co., Springdale, Pa., it was decided to operate on the room and pillar system, but not to have any extensive room development, the pillar work being done altogether on the retreat. On each room heading five rooms were to he driven advancing, while five pillars were being removed, so timed as to form a continuous pillar line, with all approaching

Jan 1, 1930

By Robert Bakish

VARIOUS aspects of structure-sensitive corrosion of single crystals and polycrystalline aggregates of Cu,Au have been presented in papers by the author, in association with W. D. Robertson. Prompted by some observations in the course of these studies, a new approach to the problem was undertaken. Results of these new experiments are reported here. Thin slices, less than 2 mm thick, were prepared from single crystals 3.5 mm in diam grown by the Bridgman technique. The crystals were homogen- ized for 300 hr at 850°C. Crystals with no deformation, crystals deformed in tension to the yield point, and crystals deformed 20 pct in excess of the yield point were used. Crystals of several different orientations were studied. Slices were immersed for one month in 2 pct aqueous solution of FeCl3 and, subsequent to this immersion, were subjected to bending. Immersion and bending were carried out at room temperature. The size and geometry of the crystals did not permit accurate data on the loads involved. A most unexpected result was obtained in the process of bending these slices of Cu3Au crystals normal to the (110) plane. Completely brittle be-

Jan 1, 1958