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By Emil Schroedter

The death, on May 6,1908, of Dr. Hermarnn Wedding, Privy Mining Councilor of the Kingdom of Prussia, and Professor of the Metallurgy of Iron and Steel at the Royal Mining Academy of Berlin, was a loss keenly felt by the whole metallurgical world. Not alone in his native land, but also in foreign countries, did he enjoy an esteem of which the title of honorary membership in the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the United States Association of Charcoal Iron-Workers, and the (British) Iron and Steel Institute bears eloquent testimony.

Jan 1, 1910

No. 349.-A Canadian university wishes to engage a man to teach non-ferrous metallurgy and ore-dressing as well as to direct research work. The instruction work covers 7 months but the research work is continued throughout the year. To a suitable man the rank of professor will be granted. Applicants are requested to state education, experience, salary desired and any other particulars that might assist in selecting a man for this position. No. 354.-Wanted, for Northern Nigeria, one chief and two assistant mining engineers, competent surveyors, with good knowledge of alluvial tin mining and dressing of tin concentrate. Preferably with previous Nigerian experience, and exempted or able to. secure passport. Apply in writing, stating qualifications, experience and salary required.

Jan 12, 1918

By Henry Rogatz

During the year 1937, there were 663 oil wells drilled in the Texas Panhandle, making a daily initial production of 322,332 bb1.—that is, 191 more oil wells drilled than in the previous year, with an increase in the total daily initial production of 66,283 bbl. The total daily potential of the field as determined by the Texas Railroad Commission in its Schedule of Dec. 17, 1937, was 1,039,982 bbl., or an increase of 205,094 bbl. over the previous year. On Dec. 17, 1937, the daily allowable of 68,578 bbl. was assigned to the entire field. The total amount

Jan 1, 1938

St. Joe Minerals Corp. opened a new $30 million mine and mill at its Balmat-Edwards division in September. It will be the largest single zinc mining operation in the United States. St. Joe expects to produce more than 200,000 tons of zinc concentrates from its combined Balmat-Edwards mines and mills in 1972, equivalent to more than 100,000 tons of zinc metal-20% of U.S. mine production. The company has operated in Northern New York since 1926, having commenced zinc mining with its Edwards mine and mill, 12 miles from Balmat. They will continue to operate at a rate of 31,000 tons of concentrate per year. St. Joe started the Balmat facility in 1930 with two mine shafts and a mill, with a capacity of 2300 tpd.

Jan 1, 1971

The mines of the country are called upon to bear a very large part of the enormous taxes to be raised for 1917 and later years. The Internal Revenue Bureau, which is charged with the assessment and collection of these taxes, desires that the taxation laws shall be administered in a fair and business-like way. The application to mines, however, which have wasting assets, involves questions of particular complication and difficulty. To meet this situation, there has been established in. the Income Tax Branch, a Section of Mine Valuation in which these specific problems of the industry will be handled by competent engineers. But it is realized that something more than this is required for the satisfactory application of the tax laws to the mines, namely, as complete understanding as possible between the Government and the taxpayer, a spirit of cooperation as between the two and every possible assistance and advice from mine owners and mining engineers.

Jan 9, 1919

By E. C. Reed

Drilling activity in Nebraska continued to decline during 1944. Nine tests for oil and gas were completed during the year and four wells were drilling at the close of the year. Four wells were drilled in Richardson County, three in Hitchcock County and single wells were drilled or drilling in Butler, Gage, Holt, Nemaha and Scottsbluff Counties. Only one of the completions resulted in commercial pro- duction, the others being abandoned as dry holes. A number of stratigraphic test holes were drilled in the state by the Stanolind Oil and Gas Co. and the Sinclair-Prairie Oil Co., in Johnson, Otoe, Chase, Dundy and Garden Counties. No new fields were discovered during 1944 but the limits of the Barada field, Richardson County, was extended a short distance southward. Oil production continued to drop and about two thirds as much oil was produced in 1944 as in 1943.

Jan 1, 1945

By W. Mostowitsch, H. O. Hofman

In our investigation of the Behavior of Calcium Sulphate at Elevated Temperatures with Some Fluxes,' we incidentally studied the decomposition of ferric oxide when heated in a current of dry air. We found that at 1,500° C., with 15-min. periods of heating, Fe²,O³, hardly changed in weight, the greatest loss being 0.23 per cent., and we therefore concluded that the compound remained unchanged at 1,500° C. in a current of dry air. In a more recent experiment we heated Fe²,O³, in a current of dry air and found that there was a decided loss in weight. A new investigation upon the behavior of Fe², O³, using a larger amount of substance and heating for a longer period of time, revealed the fact that a measurable dissocia-

Jan 1, 1910

The co-operation of the members of the Institute is earnestly sought by the Committee on Nominations, recently appointed by the Board of Directors, in its work of formulating a ticket for officers and places falling vacant in the Board of Directors in February, 1916. The Committee must present the official ticket of nominations to the Board of Directors at its October meeting. Members are, therefore, urged to send promptly their nominations for officers and Directors in order that the Committee may have an opportunity to give there full consideration. The officers to be elected at the annual meeting in February, 1916, are: One officer, known as Director and President. Two officers, known as Director and Vice-President. Five officers, known as Director. The attention of members is called to Articles V and VII of the Constitution, and to By-Law XIII, which reads as follows: -

Jan 6, 1915

By Allen R. Rowen

One of the greatest deterrents to more widespread use of manufactured lightweight aggregate is the fact that no industry-wide standards for its application exist. It is true that ASTM has specifications covering lightweight aggregate, but they are so broad as to be of little assistance in mix design work. Today even an engineer who has worked with one lightweight aggregate may be faced with re-education on his next light- weight concrete job if he is in an area served by another producer. Manufacture of lightweight aggregates has grown with the country, appearing in the patent literature at least as early as 1875, when a patent was issued covering use of burnt clay aggregate as an admixture in manufacture of artificial stone. The widely known Haydite came into the picture prior to 1920 as a result of work by Stephen J. Hayde, and there have been many others since who have contributed significantly to the growth of the industry and its technology.

Nov 1, 1956

HENRY M. Howe, Bedford Hills, N. Y (written discussion*).¬Mr. Foley's explanation of this interesting occurrence is perfectly reasonable. Possibly a word explaining the phenomenon more in detail may not be amiss. In the act of solidification each drop as it starts to solidify splits up into a half drop poorer in carbon and another half drop richer in carbon than the drop itself. The half drop poorer in carbon solidifies and attaches itself to-the already solid walls, whereas the half drop richer in carbon remains molten for the excellent reason that it is richer and hence is more fusible than the original drop, and hence in turn is wholly fusible at the existing temperature. Under usual conditions, as when the steel solidifies in a mold of any form, the successive molten half drops thus enriched in carbon remain present and by their enrichment progressively raise the carbon con-tent of the remaining molten mass, out of which successive half drops are continuously solidifying and attaching themselves to the already solid walls. Because the molten mass thus. becomes progressively richer

Jan 10, 1919

By G. A. Burrell

A gasoline recovery plant at a refinery is usually considered such a profitable investment, and performs so well apparently, even under conditions of low efficiency, that frequently but little attention is given it to make it perform at top efficiency. Further, there are so many other units in a refinery that demand most of the available attention that the recovery plant is left to shift for itself. "It seems to be doing pretty well so why bother with it," is sometimes the attitude toward it. On the other hand, there is no reason why it should not be placed on the same high plane of efficiency as that of many natural gasoline plants. The two problems, gasoline recovery from natural gas and gasoline recovery from refinery gases, have much in common. At some refineries the gasoline recovery plant produces too much gasoline, because too low a pressure is carried on the gathering lines and the condenser boxes are robbed of gasoline that they can and should take care of, and as a consequence the refiner fools himself into believing that his recovery plant is an extraordinarily fine unit, when on the contrary it may be working at low efficiency insofar as doing its rightful job is concerned.

Jan 1, 1928

By L. Ianniello

AMONG the more interesting peculiarities of plutonium is the brittleness of its room-temperature monoclinic phase, a, since the adjacent higher-temperature phase (transformation temperature, 112C), ß, is also monoclinic but very ductile. Other elements, e.g., tin and manganese, have phases which exhibit similar contrast in plasticity. However, it was considered unusual when the a phase which has less than 0.1 pet tensile elongation' was rolled to 90 pct reduction in thickness at room temperature.' Since brittle behavior often is a structure-sensitive property, but could also be the result of covalent-type bonding, further experiments reported here have been conducted in an attempt to illuminate the problem. Electrorefined plutonium was rolled under various conditions and examined to determine the strain-hardening characteristics and also to determine under what conditions rolling could be performed. The rolling mill had 6.0-in.-diam heatable rolls with a variable roll speed (6.25 to 445 in. per min). Microhardness measurements were taken using a square-base diamond indenter with loads from 50 to 1000 g. The method used for rolling plutonium at room temperature consisted of prior

Jan 1, 1964

By J. J. Bodmer

ALTHOUGH the similarity between puzzolana, or trass, and blast-furnace slag, as seen by comparison of the analyses, is a well-known fact, blast-furnace slag has not been used commercially as a substitute for those cementing materials. The reason, the writer apprehends, lies in the fact that unless such slag is disintegrated or subdivided by rolls, the process must either be too costly, or the material is not in a fit and proper condition for the purpose. In order to produce a reliable slag cement, the slag must be ground together with the lime into an impalpable powder. The subdivided slag must, therefore, be perfectly dry, and, at the same time, friable. The stronger the hydraulic properties of the lime, the more reliable the slag cement will be, and practice has proved, that the slag from a gray-iron furnace gives the best results. The slag cement which has given the results shown in the annexed table, under pressure tests, was composed of six parts of slag, from a blast-furnace producing No. 3 foundry iron, and one part of lime, of medium hydraulic properties. The above-described class of cement bears storing as long as most Portland cements, and the cheapness of its production is self-evident.

Jan 1, 1874

By O. C. Wheeler

There was a marked increase in the investigation of undeveloped areas in Colombia during 1936. The Shell company commenced geological and geophysical investigations on an intensive scale in the Upper Magdalena Valley and at the end of the year had several geological and geophysical parties working in that area. These investigations were supplemented by aerial photography and it is understood that negotiations are under way for having this work continued. The Shell is reported to have acquired some options and leases on private properties in the Upper Valley region and in the western part of Cundinamarca. The Socony Vacuum was making preparations to begin seismograph work on its property north of the Sogamoso River, acquired in 1934 from Sefior Luciano Restrepo. This company will probably start drilling on the property during 1937. The Richmond Petroleum Co. (Standard of California) is said to have renewed geological investigations in the Upper Magdalena Valley above Honda. Local Colombian interests took an active part in applying for concessions on nationally owned lands in the area between the Carare and Magdalena Rivers. The application of the Sociedad National del Carare for a concession in this area was granted during the year. Subsequently an agreement was reached between this

Jan 1, 1937

The Sixty-fifth Congress was a "War Congress." Perhaps nothing else than war work should have been expected of it, but it had time and opportunity to do much more. Engineers have good reason for sorrow over the engineering legislation that died merely because there was no opportunity for a vote. The mineral resources of the public lands of the United States are, except the precious metals, locked away from development. For more than eight years there has been an attempt by both the executive and legislative departments of the nation to secure legislation which, under proper conditions and without detriment to the public interest, will open up these lands for development. After eight years of study, argument, conciliation, and compromise, Congress agreed in conference of the two Houses upon a measure satisfactory to it and to the Executive Department and the final draft was passed by the House of Representatives, but in the Senate it was talked to death by Senator LaFollette of Wisconsin. Some of its proponents plan to, reintroduce the bill identically as agreed to in conference into the 66th Congress, where it is hoped that by reason of its peculiar fate in the 65th Congress it will be regarded in the nature of unfinished business and thus receive early consideration and passage.

Jan 5, 1919

By Henry Emmett Gross

Two types of decline curves are considered and their applications are discussed. The first is the well-known semilogarithmic decline curve having the rate of production plotted on the logarithmic scale and the time on the horizontal scale. The other curve is the percentage of oil in the fluid versus cumulative production, and it is plotted on Cartesian coordinate paper. These curves are illustrated by carefully and adequately labeled graphs. Where conditions permit application of both types of curves for rationally determining the reserves of a well, both should be applied and the most conservative reserve should be chosen. Formulas are given for determining the economic limits. For a semi-l~~arithmic~decline curve the formula is: A = B X C X D X E X F or B = A/C ? D X E X F A = total monthly operating cost (average of past year), B = economic limit in barrels of oil per day, C = days in an average month = 30.4, D = market price of crude per barrel, E = 1-royalty, F = 1-gross production tax, G = water production in barrels per day at the economic limit, H =per cent oil in fluid at economic limit. The economic limit for a per cent oil in the fluid curve is: H = B/B+G X 100 The semilogarithmic decline curve is treated first. Straight-line extrapolations on semilogarithmic paper follow the compound interest compound discount law, hence the ensuing formulas derived from this law may be used in computing reserves for such extrapolations: [1___1/(1+Y)]

Jan 1, 1939

An abstract of a paper from the Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin of August 1978 by E. Stamboliadis, J. McHardy, T. M. Salman, Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, states that: “The recovery of gold, silver and other heavy metal cyanides from mill solutions is technically possible using the ion exchange technique. However, the costs involved are greater than the costs of the zinc precipitation technique used for gold recovery. There are two main reasons for this: one, the fact that in gold ore cyanidation metal cyanides other than gold and silver occupy most of the resin capacity and hence reduce the adsorption efficiency of the resin for the Au and Ag cyanides; secondly, the high cost of the eluting agents.” Resin, therefore, cannot in most cases be efficiently used for recovery of precious metals. With copper in solution, only 1.47% of the resin capacity is used for gold and 0. 8970 for silver; the rest is occupied by unwanted metal cyanides, such as copper occupying 73.7%. On the other hand, although activated carbon will adsorb copper cyanides, they will be preferentially displaced by gold and silver cyanides. Ion exchange is by one or two orders of magnitude more expensive than the conventional method of zinc precipitation. The cost of removing impurities, such as copper from the resin, is greater than the cost of recovering gold. With an oxide ore amenable to cyanidation and with a low content of other metals, such as may occur with some of the Soviet gold deposits, ion exchange would be an efficient as Carbon-In-Pulp.

Jan 1, 1981

By Henry Emmett Gross

Two types of decline curves are considered and their applications are discussed. The first is the well-known semilogarithmic decline curve having the rate of production plotted on the logarithmic scale and the time on the horizontal scale. The other curve is the percentage of oil in the fluid versus cumulative production, and it is plotted on Cartesian coordinate paper. These curves are illustrated by carefully and adequately labeled graphs. Where conditions permit application of both types of curves for rationally determining the reserves of a well, both should be applied and the most conservative reserve should be chosen. Formulas are given for determining the economic limits. For a semi-l~~arithmic~decline curve the formula is: A = B X C X D X E X F or B = A/C ? D X E X F A = total monthly operating cost (average of past year), B = economic limit in barrels of oil per day, C = days in an average month = 30.4, D = market price of crude per barrel, E = 1-royalty, F = 1-gross production tax, G = water production in barrels per day at the economic limit, H =per cent oil in fluid at economic limit. The economic limit for a per cent oil in the fluid curve is: H = B/B+G X 100 The semilogarithmic decline curve is treated first. Straight-line extrapolations on semilogarithmic paper follow the compound interest compound discount law, hence the ensuing formulas derived from this law may be used in computing reserves for such extrapolations: [1___1/(1+Y)]

Jan 1, 1939

By Robert Mehl

IT is generally understood by workers in the field of the crystal struce ture of metallic alloys that terminal solid solutions are of two types, the substitutional and the interstitial. In reviewing the literature, the work of Weiss1 on the crystal structure of the alpha copper-tin alloys wa-encountered, in which a new type of terminal solid solution was proposed. In brief, Weiss' findings showed that the density of the alloys calculated from the side of the unit face-centered cube on the assumption of simple substitution-that is, with four atoms to the unit face-centered cell-was much higher than the density measured directly. It was suggested that the assumption of four atoms to the unit cube is not valid for these alloys, and that each unit cube contained less than four atoms; in other words, that one tin atom replaces more than one copper atom, leaving some atomic positions unoccupied. Such a structure, if verified, would have far-reaching significance in the study of the crystal structure of metallic alloys. It would indicate a complexity in terminal solid solutions not hitherto suspected and might encourage work leading to the discovery of other alloys of the same type, and perhaps to types intermediate between it and the two recognized types. It is of importance, therefore, to reinvestigate these alloys with respect to the type of solid-solution structure obtaining therein.

Jan 1, 1929

By C Gunther

The purpose of this book is to present the practical side of economic geology concisely and in convenient form; established facts and the applications of accepted views are emphasized; theoretical discussions and questions of genesis are avoided. Coal, iron, and placer deposits are omitted; they are subjects of specialized study that are fully and concisely treated in other works. The reader is assumed to possess a knowledge of mineralogy, petrography, and elementary geology. The arrangement adopted is based on Kemp's theory of magmatic waters, on Lindgren's conclusions on hydrothermal and secondary alterations, and on the theories of secondary enrichment enunciated by Emmons and Weed. No general classification of ore deposits is attempted, nor is any attempt made to fill by hypothesis the wide gaps, nor to explain the apparent contradictions that rank economic geology among the most inexact of sciences. The present knowledge of the subject is too incomplete to warrant such broad generalizations. The demand for good properties generally exceeds the supply. While mines of the first rank will undoubtedly be discovered from time to time, it is probably true that a great proportion of deposits having outcrops of commercial grade or of evident promise have been recognized and explored. A review of mining conditions over long periods shows that the rich discoveries belong to pioneer days, and that as time goes on the more important developments are the result of lower working costs, improved metallurgical processes, and an increasing knowledge of economic geology. As engineers in search of developed mines no longer expect to find properties having positive ore of greater net value than the price asked, so those in search of prospects should not expect to

Jan 1, 1932