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By W. C. Kerr

WHEN Agassiz and his party of geologists commenced their exploration of the interior of Brazil and the Amazon region, one of the first and, to the last, one of the most novel and striking phenomena which met them everywhere was the great depth of decomposed or partially decayed rock in situ, which mantles, and for the most part conceals, the underlying strata. The same facts strike all geological observers from the North who happen to penetrate the middle and southern latitudes of the Atlantic States. In North Carolina, e. g., the entire middle and western regions, outside of the Quaternary clays, sands, and gravels of the East,-that is, all that portion of the State occupied by the Arch can and Mesozoic rocks,-show everywhere this peculiarity, so new to those accustomed to glaciated surfaces. Not only do the hills and slopes, the mountain chains and

Jan 1, 1880

Jan 1, 1967

Jan 1, 1967

By Ralph J. Schilthuis, William Hurst

The nature of the forces that are important in producing the oil in the East Texas field and the manner in which these forces are affected by the rate of production have always been problems of outstanding interest. These questions are of great interest to the industry as a whole on account of the economic importance of the East Texas field and to the engineers in particular on account of the unique character and behavior of the field. Subsurface pressure data throughout the field have been collected systematically, so that a quite complete history of the reservoir pressures has been kept as the field has been developed and produced. Subsurface samples of the oil and gas have been taken and these have been examined to obtain data on the physical properties of the reservoir fluids under the actual conditions of temperature and pressure. All of these data have been valuable because they have afforded the basis for a careful study of the means by which the oil is produced. It is the purpose of this discussion first to point out several of the important facts revealed by the data mentioned and then to describe studies that have been made concerning the interpretation of these facts. Reservoir Pressure Data and Properties of Oil The reservoir pressure data on the East Texas field have shown conclusively that the pressures are readily affected by changes in the rate at which the field is produced. This can well be seen in Fig. 1, where the average reservoir pressures obtained from time to time are plotted with the daily production rates and the cumulative production of the field. It is noted that the average reservoir pressure has declined irregularly, depending upon the rate of production, from the estimated original value of 1625 Ib. per sq. in. to the value of 1228 lb. per sq. in. observed for Aug. 11,1934. The decline in pressure has been more rapid at the higher rates of production than at the lower rates. In contrast, the average reservoir pressure has increased, on several occasions, upon reduction of the withdrawal rate from a high value to a lower value. The reservoir pressure data have also shown that a definite gradient in pressure has existed across the field from west to east since the begin-

Jan 1, 1935

THE iron and steel industry spent $1,170,000,000 in 1952 for improvements and expansion, with an accompanying rise of 9 million net tons in capacity to 117.5 million tons of ingots and steel for castings. More than $4,600,000,000 has been invested in the seven years following World War 11. An average of $1260 has been laid out every minute during those seven years for an increase in capacity of 25.6 million tons.

Jan 3, 1953

By Allen H. Rogers

THE need for coordinated effort on public problem by engineers has long been felt. Early in June there will assemble in Washington a conference composed of delegates from all the engineering organizations in the country. The call for this conference is issued by the Joint Conference , Committee of the four national societies as the completion of its work on the organization of a congress composed of delegates representing all the engineering organizations of the United States. The plan for this confederation was presented at a joint meeting of the administrative boards of the national founder societies on Jan. 23, 1920; and was unanimously approved in principle by that meeting. The work of the committee since that date has consisted in drafting a constitution of the organization to be presented at the conference for discussion and, after such amendments as may be adopted, acceptance.

Jan 1, 1920

George Smith, Sydney, N. S. Wales (communication to the Secretary): The very interesting paper by Mr. Emmons on " The Secondary Enrichment of Ore-Deposits " has just come under my notice; and its reference to my own paper* on " The OreDeposits of the Australian Broken Hill Consols Mine "† is therefore only noted some two and a half years after its publi-

Jan 1, 1903

By C. E. LAWAL

WITH the object of adapting high-school vocational courses to the industrial needs of the community, a few high-school officials in West -Virginia working with the School of Mines of the State university decided to try an innovation this year. The purpose of this experiment was to teach coal mining in two high schools situated in mining communities. We thought that if a course in coal mining would be included in the list of optional courses offered in the high school, it might interest some of the boys, and if the course were properly taught it would undoubtedly be of inestimable value to those boys who later decided to take up mining work as their vocation. This coal-mining course was started last September in the Berwind and Gary high schools in West Virginia. The high-school officials in their conferences with' us decided that we should work up the outline of this course and they would assign the science teachers of the schools as instructors, with ,the understanding that we would help 'these instructors with this work. We consented to all this and submitted -an outline to the school officials which they are following this year.

Jan 1, 1929

By John Hays Hammond

IT was but a few years ago that the mining engineer, and his confreres, the civil, mechanical and electrical engineer, were stigmatized by politicians of the parish? pump variety as advance agents of unprincipled exploiters of backward countries. Today he is recognized as a most important missionary of civilization in opening up new territory to contribute its mineral wealth and incidentally its other resources for the needs of mankind. An engineer, it is now conceded, is not only a benefactor of the world at large, but is a primary factor in the betterment of conditions of the inhabitants of those countries developed by his skill and indomitable courage-for courage is requisite in pioneering and his indefatigable industry. The engineer will, I believe, become a real "Ambassador of Good Will," when the slow-consenting academic mind realizes as it must that beneficent deeds are more enduring and more convincing than mere gestures of professed amity.

Jan 1, 1929

By M. N., Short

TIE Pioneer mining district, better known as the Superior district, from its principal town, is located in Pinal County in south-central Arizona about 80 miles east of Phoenix and 22 miles west of Miami. The region embraces a confused series of mountain ranges of moderate FIG. I.----SUPERIOR, LOOKING NORTH FROM SOUTH BANK OF QUEEN CREEK. MAGMA MINE IS INDICATED BY WASTE DUMP IN GULCH TO RIGHT OF CENTER. height but precipitous slopes, between which lie irregular valleys filled with alluvial detritus. The average elevation is about 2800 ft. in the valleys and the summits of the ranges reach 2000 ft. above this. Superior is situated on the north bank of Queen Creek where it emerges from one of those ranges into a more or less basin-shaped valley. The drainage of Queen Creek is to the southwest and the flood waters spread out and lose themselves in the desert northeast of Florence, the county seat of Pinal County.

Jan 2, 1926

Mine Transitman.-Engineer, about 30 years of age, experienced in coal mine underground surveys. Must be good draftsman and possess sufficient personality to get results from the men. Location, Illinois. No. R 419. Coal Mining Engineer: Coal mining engineer of proved ability for position of manager f high-grade bituminous coal property. Location, Canada. No. R 427. Chemist or Metallurgical Engineer.-Chemist or metallurgical engineer for special library work. Man with scientific training with the ability and education -of a young instructor in a university. Duties would consist of working out a new method of indexing scientific information, more particularly in obtaining information for use of a Committee on the Heat Treatment f Steel. Location, Washington, D. C. No. R 470. Topographical Draftsman.-Civil engineering training and topographical and surveying experience. Unmarried man, under 40 years of age. Knowledge of Spanish not necessary. Discharged army or navy man preferred. Location, oil fields, Mexico. Salary, $5 per day, living and traveling expenses. No. R 483. Mechanical Draftsman.-Engineering training, familiarity with drawings of pumps, piping, etc., need not necessarily be a designer. Unmarried man, under 40 years of age. Discharged army or navy man preferred. Location, Mexico. Salary $5 per day with living and traveling expenses. No. R 484. Engineer Translator.-Engineer of Portuguese nationality who has received his technical training abroad, and has been filling engineering positions in this country, to translate material for catalogs of an engineering character. No. R 486.

Jan 5, 1919

By John D. Kalasky

The success in providing adequate ventilation to the active faces of a coal mine for all methods of mining depends upon good face control and the air distribution and control system. A good system provides overcasts, air locks, regulators and bleeders so that an adequate flow of air will be confined to the working places with least opportunity for interruption, and that a flow of air is maintained, however small, across the worked out area to the bleeder and away from men and equipment at all times. In gaseous mines, it is just as important to satisfy effective bleeding as it is to satisfy the air volume requirements in the operating splits. The two requirements go hand in hand. Although not complicated, ventilation and methane drainage in longwall mining in a gaseous mine require careful forethought and adequate facilities to make them safe.

Jan 8, 1966

By A. D. Hodges

The process to be described, whatever other merits (or demerits) it may have possessed, certainly proved a financial success under the conditions of the locality where it was introduced and where a refining process had been sought previously in vain. I have ventured to bring it to the notice of the Institute in the hope that it may prove of some interest as a solution of a practical problem, such as is often presented to the metallurgist in the remote mining regions of the West. The method was used first at the Lyon Mill at Dayton, Nevada, and has been adopted at other tailings-mills on the Cornstock. These mills treat two classes of tailings: "sand," or; material which has passed previously through the pans of the ore-mills; and " slimes," or the fine clayey material which, coming from the battery, is too light to settle in the tanks inside of the mills but is

Jan 1, 1886

By H. T. Mercer

THE composition of steel and the theory of its heat treatment have been so ably discussed elsewhere that it is unnecessary to go into the subject here. The purpose of this paper is to describe briefly the method of treating drill steel at the Copper Range mines, giving some of the troubles encountered and the manner in which they were overcome or corrected. To study the matter properly, it was necessary to devise a system of records that would show the actual underground performance of the drills. To illustrate this system, the records of the Champion mine are used, as it is at this mine that most of the work along these lines has been done. Reports from each drill machine are made daily by the shop and mine, and tables compiled from these reports show the footage drilled, steel broken, drills received and sent out at the shop, drills sharpened, and bits cut off. These data show what each machine or party is doing and whether the miners' supply of drills is kept up to date. There have been times when the supply of drills has been short and time lost by the miner in looking for drills. The daily records show the number and condition of drills on hand at all times. Under the old method of sharpening, the drills were heated in a coke furnace, the proper degree of heat being judged by color. Then they were sharpened in a word drill-sharpening machine, reheated in a second coke furnace where the proper heat was again determined by color, and quenched in water. While this method was fairly successful in the hands of a careful workman and for the solid steel used in the old piston drill machine, the introduction of the faster water machine, using hollow steel, produced changes both underground and in the shop. Much more was expected of the hollow-steel and' hammer-type machine, with its improved method of rotation, but troubles due to breakage, burnt bits, uneven tempering, etc., at once began to appear.

Jan 8, 1920

By P. F. Kinyoun

MANY interesting new features are embodied in the latest extension to the open-hearth department of the Bethlehem Steel Co., at Lackawanna, N. Y. Automatic control of the important factors in furnace operation-fuel, air, draft, pressure, slag composition, and of the temperature in various regions of the furnace-has been carried out to a remarkable degree; the human factor is minimized, and the chances for mishaps and irregularities in operation are greatly reduced.

Jan 1, 1937

By A. T. Janssen

Production planning of direct-shipping ore from a number of relatively small deposits serves to sequence development and mining of these deposits so that both long- and short-range demand can be met while the timing of development cost is such that the average annual rate is minimized. Hand-computed methods have the disadvantage that they require substantial effort and time and cannot be exhaustive. The application of operations research and computers not only overcomes these disadvantages, but opens up additional applications, such as feasibility studies involving alternative mining strategies and changes in the ore market. The method employed concerns linear programming and specifically the Big-M algorithm applied to the variant on the simplex technique with penalties applied to deviations from the desired ore grade. Acceptable 20-year production schedules could be generated in relatively little time, i. e. , in less than 200 seconds for the central processor of the Control Data Corporation 6400 system of the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Jan 1, 1969

By B. M. O Harra, George M. Fowler, R.E. Illidge

The Tri-State district comprises an area of about 2000 square miles in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and north- eastern Oklahoma. The part that is in and contiguous to Missouri is still sometimes designated as the Joplin district (Fig. I). Early Operations Mining operations in what is now the Tri-State district date from about 1848 and have been continuous to the present. Apparently the first discoveries of ore were made about the same time near the present sites of Joplin, Oronogo, and Granby. Lead minerals were found at grass roots, probably in shattered rock in shallow excavations, then these minerals were followed in shear zones to deeper horizons. The mining of zinc followed. Before 1874, zinc ore was worthless and discarded as waste. According to published records, the total production of lead to that date was 49,000 tons of metal from 70,000 tons of concentrates. Production The a.ggregate ore production from the Tri-State district was recorded at intervals

Jan 1, 1943

By George M. Fowler, B. M. O Harra, R. E. Illidge

The Tri-State district comprises an area of about 2000 square miles in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and north- eastern Oklahoma. The part that is in and contiguous to Missouri is still sometimes designated as the Joplin district (Fig. I). Early Operations Mining operations in what is now the Tri-State district date from about 1848 and have been continuous to the present. Apparently the first discoveries of ore were made about the same time near the present sites of Joplin, Oronogo, and Granby. Lead minerals were found at grass roots, probably in shattered rock in shallow excavations, then these minerals were followed in shear zones to deeper horizons. The mining of zinc followed. Before 1874, zinc ore was worthless and discarded as waste. According to published records, the total production of lead to that date was 49,000 tons of metal from 70,000 tons of concentrates. Production The a.ggregate ore production from the Tri-State district was recorded at intervals

Jan 1, 1943

By D. G. Westlake

THE structure observed in thin foils by transmission electron microscopy is not necessarily representative of the initial bulk material. We have shown that hydrogen, originally present in a specimen of vanadium, niobium, or tantalum, can be concentrated by the thinning operation used to prepare foils from the bulk materials.' These foils exhibited domain walls indicative of a tetragonal distortion of the bcc unit cells, probably caused by ordering of the hydrogen in preferred interstitial sites. We believe this ordering does not occur at room temperature in the bulk material which contains less than 1 at. pct H. In a continued effort to prepare metal foils whose hydrogen concentrations remain constant during preparation, we have developed some new chemical and electrothinning techniques for vanadium. Each of the procedures presented in Table I produced foils that were thin enough for transmission electron microscopy. The experiments described below were performed to test the effect of each thinning procedure on hydro-

Jan 1, 1968

By Harold Powers

THIS paper presents geophysical and subsurface data observed in the vicinity of Shafts No. 1 and and 5 of the National Lead Co. lead mines at Fredericktown, Madison County, Missouri, see Fig. 1. The area selected is an excellent example to illustrate the close correlation between geophysical data and geological facts as revealed by drilling and mining. Such close correlations make geophysical applications appropriate to the development of known ore-bodies as well as the exploration for new orebodies.

Jan 3, 1953