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By A. M. Talbot

THERE is still considerable controversy as to the exact nature of the mechanism of the age-hardening process, in spite of the many experi-ments already performed. For this reason, a considerable number of typical systems should be examined in detail and their results correlated. Furthermore, the methods of studying the changes that take place during the progress of this phenomenon should be carefully scrutinized and the different methods applied to the same samples, preferably at the same time. The experiments described in this paper are presented to supply information on one age-hardening system and to show how the various methods of investigation compare in their indication of what has hap-pened. In brief, the progress of aging in magnesium alloys containing about 10 per cent by weight of aluminum at different temperatures was followed by measurements of hardness, electrical resistivity, dilation and lattice parameter, and by microscopic observation.

Jan 1, 1936

By O. C. Ralston

Flotation is now commonly practiced in alkaline ore pulps, yet little is known regarding the action of the alkaline solutions on the ore particles beyond the fact that films of oxidized material form. We wish to chronicle our discovery of the presence of soluble reducing agents in alkaline ore pulps of the United Verde, and present some data on lime consumption. During the grinding and flotation of a pyritic ore containing small amounts of ferrous sulfate and other soluble salts, an excess of lime was added to precipitate the salts, and filtered samples of the solution were titrated with standard permanganate solution. Even in pulps of high causticity an appreciable permanganate titration was always obtained, in spite of the fact that the solutions were shown to contain little iron. Investigation of the cause brought about the discovery of several previously unsuspected compounds in flotation pulps made from pyritic ore. Not only the reducing agents present had to be identified, but also the amount of dissolved oxygen, and a survey was finally made of the free oxygen content and reducing agents of the mill pulp in the concentrating mill at Clarkdale. A great many compounds might form, caused by oxidation of pyrite or other metal sulfides or by reaction between a lime solution and pyrite. The most probable compounds considered were calcium sulfides, polysul-fides, thiosulfates, and polythionates. Later it was discovered in the literature that in alkaline pulp polythionates do not exist and if introduced are decomposed into sulfites and thiosu1fates.l Any precipitated sulfur is changed by alkali into thiosulfate and polysulfide. Sulfites and sulfides react to form thiosulfate, so that in the end it is possible to have in an alkaline solution only thiosulfate and an excess either of sulfide or sulfite. Confirmatory tests were made and it was finally established that the alkaline mill pulps made from the United Verde ore contained

Jan 1, 1930

By D. K. Crampton

The object of this work was to obtain and correlate information on effect of internal stress in variously drawn tubes on several properties. Also, a simple approximate method of comparing types of stress distribution in such variously drawn tubes was sought. There is also included some work on comparison of single and polycrystalline materials and effect of different types of operation and preferred orientation. Preparation of Material A series of tubes was drawn to study the effect of the type and degree of final reduction on various physical properties and the approximate distribution of stress intensity across the tube wall. The material used all came from a single heat of 70-30 brass melted in a regular production Ajax-Wyatt induction furnace. The analysis of the metal as cast was: copper, 70.36 per cent; lead, 0.04; iron, 0.02; zinc, balance. The material was cast in "shells" with 4 in. outside diameter and in. wall thickness. It was drawn part way down according to the usual standard mill schedule and then by suitable individual schedules to finish by a variety of types and degrees of drawing to the same final cases in every instance; namely, 0.750 in. outside diameter by 0.080 in. wall thickness. The exact final draws, together with the percentage area reductions, diameter reductions and gage reductions are given in Table 1. In fabricating these tubes, rather unusual precautions were observed to insure the elimination of ail variables not under immediate study. All intermediate anneals were carried out at about 1200" F. down to the so-called "cut-in size"; namely, 17/16 by 3/16 in. From this point on, all anneals were made at from 1050' to 1100" F. The greatest care was used all through to have the tubes as free from minor surface defects as possible. When such defects were visible on intermediate sizes they were carefully filed out. On the final draw to 3/4-in diameter the die was aligned with the greatest possible precision in order to insure as straight a tube as possible

Jan 1, 1933

By J. B. Hiskey

The hydrometallurgical application of thiourea in processing precious metal ores and concentrates has reached the development stage. This paper reviews recent technical literature covering the process development of thiourea leaching. In addition, recent fundamental contributions are discussed. Most of the interest in thiourea leaching has involved treating high grade concentrates that have sufficient value to just the use of thiourea as a reagent. An important development in thiourea technology is the addition of SO2 to the leaching solution. This procedure effectively reduces the decomposition of thiourea and eliminates the problems of passive surface layers that limit the leaching efficiency. Results for the thiourea leaching of a bulk sulfide concentrate and a residue from the autoclave leaching of a smelter flue dust are also reported. As determined by a standard bottle roll cyanidation test, the bulk concentrate was extremely resistive to cyanide leaching yielding only 16% gold and 2% silver extraction in 24 hours. Leaching with a relatively concentrated thiourea solution (1MCS (NH2)2) resulted in 83% gold and 75% silver extraction in four hours. With the treated flue dust residue, gold extraction was about 60%. Gold and silver extraction with cyanide was sensitive to both cyanide concentration and oxidizing conditions. Cyanidation resulted in 59% gold extraction and 77% silver extraction in 24 hours.

Jan 1, 1985

By Carl Beal

IN February, 1918, the conclusion was published by Lewis and Beal1 "that wells of equal output on the average will produce equal amounts of oil in the future, regardless of the ages of the wells." This conclusion was based upon the study of data collected principally in Oklahoma and was not known at that time to be true for other oil fields. An abundance of statistical proof was later, collected by the senior author of the present paper, which showed that the conclusion was undoubtedly well founded and that it applied to other fields as well. Accordingly, it was later restated2 as the "law of equal expectations" as follows: "If two wells under similar conditions .produce equal amounts during any given year, the amounts they will produce thereafter, on the average, will be approximately equal, regardless of their relative ages." Although only scanty data from the California oil fields were available at the time this publication was prepared, sufficient information was analyzed upon which to base the insert on Fig. 80, which showed beyond a doubt that the law held at least for a part of the Midway oil field in California. Recently the authors have collected more complete data in California, and it is the purpose of this paper to explain the method used in demonstrating the truth of the law and, in addition, to give several methods by which curves constructed in accordance with this law can be used in a practical way with ease and accuracy.

Jan 8, 1919

By Stanley Kesler

The first of two initial 650-mw units of the Paradise Steam Station, located on the banks of the Green River in the south-central portion of the western Kentucky coal basin, is scheduled for operation in late fall of 1962. This plant will be the eighth large-capacity, modern station built by TVA in a series starting with Johnsonville, operated first in 1951. During the subsequent ten years, unit sizes have increased from a capability of 125 mw to 650 mw at Paradise. This new unit will take its place in a power system that serves an area of about 80,000 sq miles with a present installed capacity of over 12,000 mw. Upon completion of the Paradise units and other additional hydro and steam units presently under construction, the system capacity will have reached over 15,000 mw. Projected load estimates indicate that this system will provide a margin of slightly under 10% of dependable capacity above peak demand at that time. One Paradise 650-mw unit at that time will represent approximately 4yc of the total system installed capacity.

Jan 10, 1962

By Louis L. Stott

It is well known that the oxide of beryllium was identified as a new "earth" in 17971 and the metal first isolated in 18272. The history of the many difficulties encountered by early investigators, the laboratory achievements of Lebeau3, Fichter4 and Oesterheld5, and the eventual development of methods for commercial production are well covered in the literature, particularly in the authoritative published work of Siemens and Halskes reviewing their comprehensive investigation of the element. Accordingly it has seemed desirable to restrict this paper to the properties and uses of beryllium and its alloys. PRopeRties of Beryllium A comprehensive summary of the available data on the properties of beryllium is given in " Gmelius Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie7." The metal is steel gray in color. A fractured surface exhibits a bright luster, which does not appear to change with long exposure to air, probably because of a thin, transparent protective oxide coating. The specific gravity is approximately 1.8. Although there is no recorded actual determination of Young's modulus of elasticity, it has been estimateds, according to Fessenden's law, to be 30,000 kg. per sq. mm., or about 30 per cent higher than steel. Beryllium appears to have an electrical conductivity approximately 1/12 that of copper. The physical constants as available in the literature are given in Table 1. One of the outstanding properties of beryllium is its great affinity for oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and carbon. One gram of beryllium takes up 1.774 grams of oxygen and will liberate approximately 15.23 kilogram-calories in the combination. The metal apparently reacts with all known oxides at high temperatures; in fact, beryllium will alloy with thorium and zirconium if melted in crucibles of their oxides. The true physical properties of beryllium are still somewhat in doubt, since very small amounts of impurities appear to cause a large variation

Jan 1, 1936

By M. T. Martinson, I. W. Nicholson, C. J. Chindgren, F. P. Williams, L. C. Bauerle, S. F. Ravitz

THE vanadiferous shales of southeastern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming constitute the largest known reserve of vanadium in the United States.1 These deposits have never been exploited except for the relatively small amounts of vanadium recovered by the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. in the treatment of phosphate rock from southeastern Idaho. The major domestic source of vanadium has been the sandstone ores of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. Early in World War II, it appeared that these ores could not meet the greatly increased demand for vanadium, so the investigation described in this report was undertaken to develop processes for the recovery of vanadium from the Idaho-Wyoming deposits. The utilization of these deposits became unnecessary, however, because of greatly expanded production from the Utah-Colorado sandstone ores and the continued availability of vanadium from other sources, chiefly Peru. The major use of vanadium is as an alloying agent in the manufacture of high-quality steels. Vanadium constructional steels usually contain 0.05 to 0.20 pct vanadium, which refines the grain and increases the strength, elastic limit, and resistance to shock and fatigue. Vanadium tool steels not used in high-speed work contain 0.10 to 0.60 pct whereas high-speed tool steels contain 1.0 to 4.0 pct. Vanadium compounds are used as catalysts (principally for the oxidation of SO2 to sulphuric acid and of naphthalene to phthalic acid) and in the paint, chemical, ceramic, dye, and printing industries. The selection of the particular ore deposit to be exploited would involve consideration of many factors besides the metallurgical results that might be obtained. Chief among these would be the reserves of ore available, the grade of the ore, and the mining costs. As very little was known about any of these factors, it was necessary to investigate methods of treatment of all the ores under consideration, working with samples obtained in the course of the exploration work, even though they were not positively representative of the whole deposit from which they were taken. Because of wartime conditions prevailing when this investigation was started, first consideration was given to processes that could be put into operation most quickly and would involve minimum use of strategic materials, even though these processes might not be the most economical.

Jan 1, 1947

By G. R. M. Del Giudice

The term "slime-coating" is not new in the art of flotation; the phenomenon has been observed and described by Taggart;(l)† Taggart, Taylor, and Ince;(2) and by Ince.(3) Notwithstanding that flotation was introduced for the treatment of finely crushed ore, the adverse effects of slimes have been recognized since the earliest days of the process, and the Elmore, Delprat, Potter, and other processes actually specified desliming of the ore prior to treatment. The cause of this trouble has been studied and described by Taggart;(1) Taggart, Taylor, and Ince;(2) Ince;(3) Morrow and Griswold;(4) and by Gaudin and Malozemoff.(5) Old Theory of Slime-coatings At present, so far as published work shows, there seems to be but one theory for the mechanism of slime-coatings. Ince(3) states that they are due to attraction between electrostatic charges of opposite sign on the sulfide and on the slime particles, supporting this theory by migration experiments in the Burton tube. He also used the microscope in conjunction with a glass cell employed by Beans and Eastlack(6) in studying migration, but met with interference from endosmosis. Several attempts have been made in the Department of Mineral Dressing at Columbia University to duplicate Ince's experiments with the Burton tube, but the results have never been convincing. Formation of precipitates which settled through the pulp levels, and evolution of gas at the electrodes, which disturbed the interface between the pulp and the distilled water above it, seriously interfered with observations. However, by use of the migration cell shown in Fig. 1, endosmosis effects and the disturbances due to precipitation and gas evolution were avoided, and distinct and reproducible migrations or absence of migration were observed. The cell was made of bakelite and had platinum electrodes. Objectives were employed which had a working distance of at least three millimeters,1 and the parts of the mounting which came in contact with

Jan 1, 1935

By J. R. Coleman, G. L. Corrigan

FOUR factors that largely determine the end product obtained when cement and water are mixed are the chemical composi-tion of the cement, the fineness to which the cement is ground, the amount of mixing water used, and the procedure used in mixing the slurry. In order to study the effect of two of these factors, the other two, the chemical composition and method of mixing, are kept constant, leaving as variables fineness and water-cement ratio. Through years of experimentation and usage it has been well established that the reduction of cement clinker to a very fine state by grinding improves its cementing value, principally because the reaction between cement and water takes place only at the surface of the cement particle, further action being hindered by the accumulation of reaction products that tend to coat the unreacted material. Therefore, the moE finety-ground %cement, and the greater the surface exposed in propor-tion to its mass, the more rapid is the The work covered by this paper was done by the authors in pursuance of graduate studies in the ~epartment of petroleum Engineering at The University of Texas. The present paper is a condensation of a more detailed DaDer from which, for brevity, information such as the procedure for determining permeability and some of the discussion and procedure relevant to slurry volumes and fineness of cement have bsen deleted. It was felt that this information would not be of interest to most readers and should be outside the scope of this paper. Manuscript received at the office of the Institute Aug. 16, 1940. Issued as T.P. 1266 in Petroleum Technology. January 1941. hydration rate. Similarly, the greater the surface exposed, the greater the proportion of the cement that reacts, and the lower the amount of residue that is unreacted and so remains inert and unable to make any contribution to cementing properties.] Although it is more expensive to manufacture a finely ground cement than a coarser cement, the advantages of fine grinding of construction cements were so marked that the fineness of cement has increased considerably in past years. When the manufacture of special oil-well cements was begun, it was necessary to consider properties of cement that previously were considered of minor importance, foremost of these being pumpability. Since, with the water-cement ratio constant, a finely ground cement will produce a neat slurry of higher consistency and shorter time of pumpability than will a coarser cement, there is a tendency to grind oil-well cements to a lower degree of fineness. Therefore, in order to produce oil-well cements that will make a slurry having a long time of pumpability, cements are manufactured that because of their coarseness generally are Poorer cementing materials than some of the more finely ground construction and on the other hand, often it is necessary to Pump oil-well cements for long periods of time to place them properly behind a string of casing in a deep well, and since high strength is not of foremost importance for such cement, there is room for considerable controversy concening the proper fineness range.

Jan 1, 1941

By G. L. Corrigan, J. R. Coleman

FOUR factors that largely determine the end product obtained when cement and water are mixed are the chemical composi-tion of the cement, the fineness to which the cement is ground, the amount of mixing water used, and the procedure used in mixing the slurry. In order to study the effect of two of these factors, the other two, the chemical composition and method of mixing, are kept constant, leaving as variables fineness and water-cement ratio. Through years of experimentation and usage it has been well established that the reduction of cement clinker to a very fine state by grinding improves its cementing value, principally because the reaction between cement and water takes place only at the surface of the cement particle, further action being hindered by the accumulation of reaction products that tend to coat the unreacted material. Therefore, the moE finety-ground %cement, and the greater the surface exposed in propor-tion to its mass, the more rapid is the The work covered by this paper was done by the authors in pursuance of graduate studies in the ~epartment of petroleum Engineering at The University of Texas. The present paper is a condensation of a more detailed DaDer from which, for brevity, information such as the procedure for determining permeability and some of the discussion and procedure relevant to slurry volumes and fineness of cement have bsen deleted. It was felt that this information would not be of interest to most readers and should be outside the scope of this paper. Manuscript received at the office of the Institute Aug. 16, 1940. Issued as T.P. 1266 in Petroleum Technology. January 1941. hydration rate. Similarly, the greater the surface exposed, the greater the proportion of the cement that reacts, and the lower the amount of residue that is unreacted and so remains inert and unable to make any contribution to cementing properties.] Although it is more expensive to manufacture a finely ground cement than a coarser cement, the advantages of fine grinding of construction cements were so marked that the fineness of cement has increased considerably in past years. When the manufacture of special oil-well cements was begun, it was necessary to consider properties of cement that previously were considered of minor importance, foremost of these being pumpability. Since, with the water-cement ratio constant, a finely ground cement will produce a neat slurry of higher consistency and shorter time of pumpability than will a coarser cement, there is a tendency to grind oil-well cements to a lower degree of fineness. Therefore, in order to produce oil-well cements that will make a slurry having a long time of pumpability, cements are manufactured that because of their coarseness generally are Poorer cementing materials than some of the more finely ground construction and on the other hand, often it is necessary to Pump oil-well cements for long periods of time to place them properly behind a string of casing in a deep well, and since high strength is not of foremost importance for such cement, there is room for considerable controversy concening the proper fineness range.

Jan 1, 1941

By Joseph Hartshorne

Ever since the introduction of the Siemens regenerative furnace, it has been recognized that a certain amount of gas is lost each time the furnace-action is reversed. This loss comes, first, from the gas which passes through the free connection between the stack and the gas-main, which exists during the time the reversing-valve is turning over; and, secondly, from the gas which is in the chamber and flues, from the hearth to the reversing-valve, and which flows back into the stack when the valve is reversed. The amount lost each time is, of course, small; but, since a furnace is reversed from four to six times every hour for, say, 300 days in the year, the aggregate is large enough to be well worth attention. The estimate has been published1 that, in Germany aloue, the loss from the first of the above causes amounts to 500,000 barks per year. The loss from the second cause is, of course, much greater.

Jan 1, 1907

CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION U.S. 4,067,789 - Removal of soluble manganous ions from a zinc sulfate solution formed by leaching roasted zinc sulfide ore with spent electrolyte. An excess of ammonium persulfate or like oxidant is added to the leach solution to convert manganese to insoluble, filterable gamma-manganese dioxide, and the precipitate separated from the solution by filtration. L. Harris and A. K. Hanson, Jr., assigned to Newmont Exploration Ltd. Jan. 10, 1978. 11 pp. (204-119). Filed: 5-3-76 (682.442). (Drawing on page 67.)

Jan 1, 1979

By B. O. Pickard

WITH more than a score of shafts and numerous stope openings to the surface, all inter-connected underground; with underground temperatures high, often exceeding 100° wet bulb; with an ore presenting a dust health-hazard; with certain rocks giving off inert gases; with an altitude of 6000 ft. above the sea level and a dry desert climate, the Tonopah mines offered an interesting, problem to the student of metal-mine ventilation. Tonopah is not an old mining district relatively speaking. It was discovered in 1900 and Tonopah soon was a boom camp. By 1910 the mines of this district had paid many millions of dollars in dividends. At the time of the 1921 ventilation study, mining had passed its peak of production and the operators were striving to reduce costs, to discover new ore bodies, and to attract desirable workmen. In 1925, the camp was operating on a still less prosperous basis, but the several managements had not relaxed in their efforts to keep the mines on a paying basis, neither had they lost their faith in the ability of the mines and the price of the silver to "come back." Early in the fall of 1921 the Bureau of Mines was invited by the mine operators at Tonopah, Nevada, to make a detailed study of the under-ground air conditions in the Tonopah silver district. D. Harrington,? who was then directly supervising the ventilation studies of the bureau, detailed district engineer B. 0. Pickard, mining engineer E. D. Gardner, surgeon C. E. Kindall, and petrographer H. Insley to carry on the study. G. S. Rice, as chief mining engineer of the Bureau of Mines, was in general charge of the work. Upon the completion of the study each operator was furnished a report on conditions in his mine.

Jan 2, 1927

By Charles O. Burgess

The improvement in the quality of cast iron by means of alloy additions has been a metallurgical accomplishment of recent years. Work in this field has shown that chromium is one of the most effective of such additions but, in general, the influence of chromium has been studied only in connection with other alloying additions, with irons other than foundry irons, or with relatively high percentages of chromium. The present study was initiated for the purpose of determining the influence of small additions of chromium (0.25 to 1.00 per cent) on the quality and resultant properties of cast irons of various foundry grades. The effect of small chromium additions on cast iron was investigated with particular reference to casting characteristics, hardness vs. section, strength, machinability, heat resistance and structure. Material Tested Three separate types of cast iron were investigated as to the effect of small chromium additions. The first series of these irons was prepared from remelted foundry cast iron at the Union Carbide and Carbon Research Laboratories, and the other two series consisted of cupola melts made under usual operating conditions. The first series was made by melting 30-lb. charges of foundry scrap iron containing 2.86 per cent carbon, 2.72 silicon, 0.50 manganese, 0.062 sulfur and 0.794 phosphorus in a carbon resistance furnace. The chromium was added as high-carbon ferrochrome just before pouring. The irons were cast at approximately 1250" C. (2282" F.). The analysis and physical properties of these irons are given in Table 1, test 1. The second set of cast irons was made in a cupola in accordance with normal practice, the charge containing approximately 42 per cent steel scrap and the chromium additions being made to the ladle. Analysis and tests of these heats are shown in Table 1, test 2. A small amount of copper was present in heat C of this series. Further data on the effect of chromium on strength were obtained from a third series of 13 cupola heats containing from 0.06 to 0.50 per cent chromium and made without steel additions. The heats were all

Jan 1, 1933

By E. W. Shilling Harwick Johnson

The separation of hematite by hysteretic repulsion was first brought to the attention of the public in 1922, by W. M. Mordeyl. Three years later another paper2 was published and after another four years a third paper3 appeared in the South African publications. Certain data were lacking in these papers. In order to continue the work intelligently a knowledge of the shapes of the hysteresis curves for certain minerals was very necessary. This information was not available until the present year4. It was known that reduction of certain ores rendered them amenable to this process of separation but definite data in the form of curves showing exactly the effect of such treatment were lacking. Probably our best source of information on the separation of minerals by the use of alternating-current magnetic fields today is the reports from the U. S. Bureau of Mines5"7. It is not the purpose of this paper to tell the reader in detail how to make a commercial separator. Experimental models have recently been made? and the results obtained have been so good that it is the opinion of the authors that the public will soon take an active interest in the subject and its development. The writers have constructed a separator that is considerably different in construction and operation from the two types described by Mr. Davis. This will be described, but the real purpose of this paper is to outline certain experiments and give curves showing data that have a fundamental bearing upon the practical construction of a separator of this type. Specular hematite is usually considered nonmagnetic; that is, it is very feebly magnetic as compared to some other minerals. If specular hematite is placed in a steady magnetic field there is no apparent attraction. At the moment of closing the switch, however, some particles may be seen to move. If the field is alternating, the particles are con-

Jan 1, 1936

By E. W. Shilling Harwick Johnson

The separation of hematite by hysteretic repulsion was first brought to the attention of the public in 1922, by W. M. Mordeyl. Three years later another paper2 was published and after another four years a third paper3 appeared in the South African publications. Certain data were lacking in these papers. In order to continue the work intelligently a knowledge of the shapes of the hysteresis curves for certain minerals was very necessary. This information was not available until the present year4. It was known that reduction of certain ores rendered them amenable to this process of separation but definite data in the form of curves showing exactly the effect of such treatment were lacking. Probably our best source of information on the separation of minerals by the use of alternating-current magnetic fields today is the reports from the U. S. Bureau of Mines5"7. It is not the purpose of this paper to tell the reader in detail how to make a commercial separator. Experimental models have recently been made? and the results obtained have been so good that it is the opinion of the authors that the public will soon take an active interest in the subject and its development. The writers have constructed a separator that is considerably different in construction and operation from the two types described by Mr. Davis. This will be described, but the real purpose of this paper is to outline certain experiments and give curves showing data that have a fundamental bearing upon the practical construction of a separator of this type. Specular hematite is usually considered nonmagnetic; that is, it is very feebly magnetic as compared to some other minerals. If specular hematite is placed in a steady magnetic field there is no apparent attraction. At the moment of closing the switch, however, some particles may be seen to move. If the field is alternating, the particles are con-

Jan 1, 1936

By Alan D. Hoagland

The Flat Gap mine, are important zinc deposit of the Appalachian type, is located in the Copper Ridge Belt in the Valley of Tennessee approximately 30 miles northeast of the Mascot-Jefferson City zinc district (Fig. 1). The ore is found in large stratigraphically linked deposits in solution and collapse breccias of the Kingsport, Longview and, to a minor extent, Mascot formations of Lower Ordovician age. The principal ore mineral is sphalerite and the principal gangue minerals are dolonmite and accessory pyrite. There is local minor galena and very rare barite and fluorite.

Jan 10, 1962

By J. Moore Samuel

INTRODUCTORY BEFORE the year 1909, no measurements of dust losses and flue gases had been made at the Copper Queen Reduction Works, at Douglas, Ariz. At that time the "unaccounted" loss of the smelter had reached a figure, that drew attention to the possibility of large stack losses. The measurement of dust losses had not been studied much at that time, and estimates of dust losses, with a few exceptions, were the results of tests by what has been termed "chemical methods," that is, the aspiration and filtration through cotton, wool or some similar medium of a few liters of gas, the dust being weighed on a chemical balance, and the volume of gas computed from the volume of aspirator water. The possible error of this method is enormous, and the probable error much too large for reliable results. Since the object of these tests was to discover not only the extent of the dust losses, but also the possibility of profitably reducing the same, it was decided that the method adopted must have the following characteristics: 1. The sample of gas taken for filtration must be representative of the whole volume of gas, that is to say, it must have the same dust content. This condition will be fulfilled in all cases if the gas sample is drawn off without change of rate of flow. Then it will contain the same proportion of entrained or suspended particles of dust as the original gas. In the case of flue gases which contain only fume, at a temperature above or near the sublimation point, this condition need not be adhered to since the fume will not behave as entrained particles, but more nearly as a true gas. Consequently the gas sample in this case only may be drawn off at any rate of flow. 2. The gas sample taken must be large enough (a) to yield sufficient dust to permit of accurate chemical and physical examination; (b) so that the ratio of the total volume of gas passing through the flue to the volume of gas sample taken shall not be too large.

Jan 6, 1916

By Robert Lewis

Some recent experiments in the use of compressed air for rock drills at higher than usual pressures, up to 150 lb. per sq. in., emphasize the importance of maintaining the compressed-air system in the best condition if the greatest possible over-all efficiency is to be secured. No claim of high over-all efficiency can be made for the compressed-air system of braking that is used on railroad trains, yet the air brake works effectively. Compressed air is not used efficiently in the rock drill, but no other type of machine drilling is yet a serious competitor of the air-driven rock drill.

Jan 1, 1930