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By H. Wilhelm, E. L. Davis, W. A. Clark

MATHEMATICAL formulas for the analysis of the behavior of producing oil wells can be devised which will be correct for the assumed conditions. However, in an oil zone, variables always exist which are unknown, or to which. it is impractical to assign mathematical values. It seems apparent that one should reason back from observed facts to an analysis of causes, rather than start with a hypothetical reservoir with assumed properties and attempt to explain observed phenomena. In this paper we hope to throw some additional light on factors influencing production, especially edgewater behavior. OIL and gas are contained in reservoirs of either the sealed type or the edgewater type. In the former all the recoverable oil is produced by gas expansion only. In this type of reservoir, edgewater is not effective. This may be because of faulting or overlapping strata, or more often, probably, the edgewater pressure is ineffec¬tive on account of resistance or lack of head.

Jan 1, 1933

By C. H. Li, R. J. Stokes, T. L. Johnston

Sodium chloride crystals are brittle in the presence of surface microcracks. Water immersion leads to an enhancement of ductility which is retained indefinitely in dry air providing the crystal is dried without leaving a surface precipitate. Storage in a damp atmosphere results in a surface reaction and consequent rembrittlement. Although elimination of surface flaws in ionic solids does not necessarily enhance ductility, there is always a change in the location of the fracture origin. EVER since the original experiments of Joffel there has been controversy over their interpretation and no satisfactory generalized explanation has yet been given. It is generally admitted that when sodium

Jan 1, 1961

By W. E. C. Coxe

AT the meeting of the Institute in Philadelphia, in June, 1876, it was my pleasure to read a paper on the "Manufacture and Endurance of Iron Rails." I then spoke of some trial rails which had been placed in the down track of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, over which passed, in addition to merchandise and passengers, most of the heavy coal traffic of that company. One of these rails, made at the Philadelphia and Reading Rolling Mill in 1870, and then placed in the track, was removed in 1876, after having carried about 55,000,000 gross tons, and was on exhibition at the Centennial Exhibition. A piece of this worn rail, twisted cold, was also shown there. One of the same series of rails was allowed to remain in the track until 1878, and short sections of this rail, as well as one not worn, to show its original shape, are presented for your inspection. A comparison of the two will show that the top of the head or tread has worn down 3/16 ths of an inch during its nine years of service. It carried in that time 67,000,000 gross tons of freight, passengers, cars, and engines. This rail was made in the usual way of manufacturing iron rails at the Philadelphia and Reading Rolling Mill. The head was made from puddled iron bars, piled, heated, and rolled into bars, 4 1/2 and 3 inches wide by 1 inch thick, these bars, breaking joints, were made into a pile in section 9 inches square, heated and rolled into slabs 9 inches wide and 2 inches thick; the balance of the rail-pile was made of 4 1/2 and 3-inch bars, rolled from two-thirds old rails and one-third puddled iron, the

Jan 1, 1880

By Jack M. Swales

Kermac Potash Co., the newest American entry in a rapidly expanding industry, has come on the scene with notable variations in conventional shaft-sinking and mining techniques. Located in the famed potash producing district east of Carlsbad, N. Mex., Kermac started up its mine in November, 1965, to supply ore to the company's 500,000-tpy potash crystallization refinery. In so doing, the company (1) drilled the first large diameter mine shaft in the potash industry and (2) has employed new continuous miners especially adapted for use in thin potash beds. REACHING THE ORE ZONE In its initial mine planning, Kermac, a partnership owned jointly by Kerr-McGee Corp. and the National Farmers Union Development Corp., considered it imperative that the shafts be sunk and equipped as soon as possible and that the mine be developed sufficiently to insure a constant ore feed to the mill when the unit was placed on stream. After examining the alternative sinking techniques available to it, the company decided to accept a proposal by Big Hole Drillers, Inc., to drill the shaft from the surface through various formations of sandstones, siltstone, shales, anhydrite, limestones, dolomite and salts to the potash ore zone.

Jan 12, 1966

By Larry Dale

An approach for predicting the development of mineral resources on public lands has been developed as an aid to resource agencies. It consists of new techniques for evaluating the economic potential of the resource, the uncertainty about mine cost estimates, and the uncertainty about the occurrance of mineral deposits. New mineral sup- plies from inferred and hypothetical resources can be predicted by using these techniques. A case study illustrates their application in predicting development of copper resources in western Montana.

Jan 1, 1982

By W. P. Haynes

ESTIMATED United States crude-oil production during 1943 established a new annual peak of 1,500,000,000 barrels, a daily average of 4,118,000 barrels. This would be an increase of 315,000 barrels per day, or 8 per cent over 1942 and 7 per cent over 1941, the previous peak. During the first ten months of the year, production jumped from 3,782,000 barrels per day in January to 4,400,000 in October. Available data for the last two months of the year indicate a leveling off of this trend, with daily rates slightly above 4,400,000 barrels.

Jan 1, 1944

By P. G. Shewmon, H. E. Collins

A study has been made to determine the sites at which sulfur adsorption occurs on copper surfaces. measurements were made of the relative torques, Ys, at the intersection of twin boundaries with surfaces near the three low-index orientations, i.e., (100), @lo), and 011), over a range of H2S/H2 ratios. HZS concerztvations j'ro~n 3 to 1500pp)n between 830" and 1050°C were used. It is concluded that sulfur adsorption occurved preferentially though not exclusively at edge sites near the (100) and (110) surfaces in the HzS range — 700 Ppm giving rise to negative torques near these orientations. Beyond this HzS range, adsorption occurred at all sites. Near the (111) surface, 7/y little with HzS concentration up to approxiwzately 75pptn. Above this range, the results indicate adsorption is occurring OH both terrace and edge sites. SCIENTIFIC interest in surfaces and their interactions with a gaseous environment dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. The scientific luminaries of that period—Faraday, Maxwell, Rayleigh, Dewar, and Gibbs—were already concerned about such processes. However, it has only been within the past several decades that adsorption on metal surfaces has been actively studied. This increased interest in adsorption has been brought about by the advent of new and improved experimental techniques and apparatus, e.g., ultrahigh vacuum, and field-emission and ion microscopes. However, most of the work done using these techniques has been carried out at low temperatures. When adsorption studies have been made at either low or high temperatures, they usually gave no indication of the particular surface orientations or type of sites on which adsorption was occurring. In the last few years, there have been a series of studies in which the surface tension, y,, and/or its derivative with respect to orientation, 7, have been studied as a function of orientation and atmosphere.'-7 Nearly all of the work on the relative torque,* ~/y, silver annealed in hydrogen and air.6 Recently Winterbottom and Gjostein" have used a modified and more accurate Mykurian method to determine the y plot of gold in hydrogen The only work in which T/~, has been measured over a range of chemical potentials for a given solute, p2, is that of Robertson and shewmon7 on the Cu-0 system. They measured T/Y, vs Po, (10"" to 10- l3 atm) at 1000°C in various mixtures of Hz0 and HZ. From this work they estimated the value of p2 at which one half of the surface sites are occupied with oxygen, pg, as being in the range 10- l6 to 10- l5 atm of oxygen. They also found that increasing Pa increased the magnitude of ~/y, near the (111) and (100) orientations. This indicates that oxygen is not adsorbed preferentially at step edges, but uniformly over all surface sites. In addition, they did one experiment on sulfur adsorption on copper surfaces, which indicated that sulfur adsorption decreases ~/y, near the (100) orientation, while not affecting ~/y, near the (111). This could be interpreted as indicating that sulfur adsorbs preferentially at step edges near the (100). In this paper the primary objective of the work has been to carry out a study of sulfur adsorption on copper surfaces over a range of temperatures and p,. In conjunction with this work, thermal grooving at grain boundaries has been examined as a method of determining the effect of sulfur adsorption on y,. METHODS Ideally, one would like to have information on the quantity of solute adsorbed on a surface and the types of sites at which it is absorbed as a function of p2. The total quantity adsorbed or the surface excess is given by the thermodynamic equation Thus data on the variation of y, with pz indicates the value of p2 at which adsorption becomes appreciable and the quantity adsorbed. The type of adsorption site is more difficult to deduce but information on this can be obtained from the variation of rz with 8, the angular deviation of the surface orientation. This is obtained from the thermodynamic equationlg Data on t and ys as functions of p2 have been obtained by the following methods. 1) Twin Boundary Grooving—By determining the effect of adsorption on the torque, 7, where T is the variation of surface energy, y,, with orientation, it is possible to obtain some indication as to the preferred sites of adsorption. Experimentally, the torque value measured is the relative torque, 7/ys The twin boundary grooving technique suggested by Mykura'' was used in this study to determine near the three low-index orientations— (loo), (110), and (111). Mykura's equation relates 7 /yS to measurements of the di-

Jan 1, 1967

By Robert E. Wilson

TO show the vital importance of our future oil supplies to our economy, I will merely point out that this country, with something like 15 per cent of the world's land area and something like 7 per cent of the world's population normally uses between 65 and 70 per cent of the motor vehicles of the world, between 65 and 70 per cent of the world's rubber, and produces and refines between 65 and 70 per cent of the world's petroleum. Despite all the arguments as to which is cause and which is effect, all will agree that all three of these important industries are mutually dependent. If we had not been able to produce 65 or 70 per cent of the world's oil in this country we would not have the degree of mechanization, or the efficiency of transportation, or the high industrialization that we enjoy. Furthermore, the fact that oil has been plentiful and cheap has had a tremendous effect on all the things in which we as engineers are interested. For that reason, if for no other, it is well to look ahead to see what the outlook is for the near and far-distant future.

Jan 1, 1945

By H. M. Morse

Tinsley Oil Field.—Mississippi joined the oil-producing states when on Sept. 13, 1939, the Union Producing Company's G. C. Woodruff well No. 1, sec. 13, T. 10 N., R. 3 W., Yazoo County, was completed after drilling plug at 4540 ft. in the Woodruff sand of the Eutaw formation of Cretaceous, producing 300 bbl. per day of 34.4" gravity oil through a ¼-in. choke, with a gas-oil ratio of 80 to 1 and bottom-hole pressure of 2045 lb. This was the discovery well in the Tinsley oil field. The well was drilled to a total depth of 4567 ft. and no salt water was encountered. The sand underlies the Selma chalk formation. Nine producing oil wells and one dry hole were drilled and completed by the end of 1939. Two producing sands have been found in the Eutaw and a third sand in the top of the Tuscaloosa formation, called the Woodbine sand in Louisiana and Texas. Faulting is an important factor in the Tinsley field. Total oil production has been approximately 250,000 bbl. from the nine flowing wells. Total depth to top of productive zone was 4540 ft.; to bottoms of productive wells, 4580 ft. Net thickness of the producing formation is 20 to 40 ft., and its porosity is 24 per cent. The deepest zone tested was the Tuscaloosa, in which the depth of hole was 6112 feet. Six hundred and forty acres has been proved for oil production. Jackson Gas Field.—The Jackson gas field has shown a steady decline in the number of wells but the pressure has been maintained. This field is a perfect example of a water-driven field and the time of wells going to salt water is predictable. Five wells were drilled in the Jackson field, of which only one produced. Amory Gas Field.—Interest was renewed in the Amory gas field, where a new well was started in the fall of 1939. Geological Formations.—The deepest well drilled in 1939 was the Willmut Gas and Oil Company's Cleve Love S. F. Johnson No. 1, sec. 29, T. 6 N., R. 1 W., Hinds County. This well encountered the Lower Cretaceous, Trinity series from 3770 to 6422 ft.; Lower Mesozoic from 6422 to 6484 ft. The geological correlations and nomenclature of the formations in Mississippi are shown in the accompanying strati-graphic section.

Jan 1, 1940

By H. M. Morse

Tinsley Oil Field.—Mississippi joined the oil-producing states when on Sept. 13, 1939, the Union Producing Company's G. C. Woodruff well No. 1, sec. 13, T. 10 N., R. 3 W., Yazoo County, was completed after drilling plug at 4540 ft. in the Woodruff sand of the Eutaw formation of Cretaceous, producing 300 bbl. per day of 34.4" gravity oil through a ¼-in. choke, with a gas-oil ratio of 80 to 1 and bottom-hole pressure of 2045 lb. This was the discovery well in the Tinsley oil field. The well was drilled to a total depth of 4567 ft. and no salt water was encountered. The sand underlies the Selma chalk formation. Nine producing oil wells and one dry hole were drilled and completed by the end of 1939. Two producing sands have been found in the Eutaw and a third sand in the top of the Tuscaloosa formation, called the Woodbine sand in Louisiana and Texas. Faulting is an important factor in the Tinsley field. Total oil production has been approximately 250,000 bbl. from the nine flowing wells. Total depth to top of productive zone was 4540 ft.; to bottoms of productive wells, 4580 ft. Net thickness of the producing formation is 20 to 40 ft., and its porosity is 24 per cent. The deepest zone tested was the Tuscaloosa, in which the depth of hole was 6112 feet. Six hundred and forty acres has been proved for oil production. Jackson Gas Field.—The Jackson gas field has shown a steady decline in the number of wells but the pressure has been maintained. This field is a perfect example of a water-driven field and the time of wells going to salt water is predictable. Five wells were drilled in the Jackson field, of which only one produced. Amory Gas Field.—Interest was renewed in the Amory gas field, where a new well was started in the fall of 1939. Geological Formations.—The deepest well drilled in 1939 was the Willmut Gas and Oil Company's Cleve Love S. F. Johnson No. 1, sec. 29, T. 6 N., R. 1 W., Hinds County. This well encountered the Lower Cretaceous, Trinity series from 3770 to 6422 ft.; Lower Mesozoic from 6422 to 6484 ft. The geological correlations and nomenclature of the formations in Mississippi are shown in the accompanying strati-graphic section.

Jan 1, 1940

EXPLORATION U.S. 4,065,972 - Exploration for subsurface ore bodies of uranium. mercury or other inorganic or organic minerals having specific gases associated thereto Small gas sample containers are planted in a plurality of shallow holes in the surface of the earth in a predetermined pattern and left in place for a period of time sufficient to collect migrating gases. Each container includes a gas collection chamber and means for admitting gases at a predetermined flow rate. Strips of detector material which is sensitive to specific gases are mounted in the collection chamber. Recovered containers are subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. F. W Holub and H. W. Alter, assigned to Terradex Corp Jan. 3, 1978. 9 pp (73-421 5R) Filed 5-24-76 (689,710) Same. British 1,498,737, dated Jan. 25, 1978

Jan 1, 1979

By F. W. Bradley

MY first Nevada City mining reminiscence is one of seeing Capt. Thomas Mein, over 52 years ago, in the old Wyoming mill on Deer Creek about a mile below the town of Nevada City. Captain Mein was then superintendent of the Wyoming mine, where the old fashioned Cornish pump was used, as well as hurdy-gurdy water wheels for power. This mill was one of the typical, up-to-date mills of that time and consisted of stamps, fed by Chinese hand feeders, who also cobbed the ore down to a small enough size to be fed into the mortars. Stamps at that time were of light weight and crushed about one ton to one and a half tons to the stamp, the pulp going over plates, then into sluices with self-raising gates. When a sluice became full the pulp was shut off and directed into the parallel sluice, also with a self-raising gate. The concentrate thus collected in the sluice was shoveled out and carried to Cornish buddles and there cleaned up, preparatory to being sent to a local custom chlorination works.

Jan 1, 1929

By S. A. TAYLOR

AN EDITORIAL on the Strike Situation in the Coal mining industry in the New York Evening Post of Nov. 4, 1919, gave what purported to be statistics of the Department of Labor, for a period of two weeks, which showed an average for the year, based on these two weeks, of 32% hours per week. This mode of arriving at the number of hours per week, while not accurate, is not so far off from the facts as to call for any special comment. The report of the U. S. Geological Survey, Department of Coal Statistics, give so the number of days worked in 1917 as 243; reducing the same to hours per week, assuming 8 hours per day, shows a weekly operation of mines at an average of 36J4 hours. But this assumption is not exactly correct, for the reason that it is not very often that the miners work the full 8 hours per day. There are many explanations for this, but it is not pertinent to this statement to discuss them now, as the important thing to consider is whether a 30-hour week would be for the best interest of not only the men themselves, but the public or country in general.

Jan 1, 1920

By W. L. Falke, A. A. Cochran

Vast deposits of low-grade manganese ore exist in the United States, yet domestic production is insignificant compared to the more than 2 million tons of ore imported yearly into this country.1 A basic problem in connection with manganese is to find economical ways to utilize domestic resources.2 As a part of its program to conserve domestic mineral resources and to reduce dependence on foreign sources, the U.S. Bureau of Mines has conducted extensive research to broaden manganese technology and to find economical processes for recovering manganese from these low-grade resources. Although a great many processes have been proposed for treating domestic manganese resources, a failing of many of them is that too many steps are involved for economical operation.2 Some of the major processes that have been proposed were reviewed by Norman and Kirby.3,4

Jan 3, 1967

By AIME AIME

THE list of deaths during the year 1906 comprises the following names, the figures in parentheses indicating the year in which the persons named were elected to membership Members and Associates.-Arthur Vaughan Abbott (1882), William Anderson Akers (1889), R. Scott Allen (1905), George H. Arlett (1900), Thomas Septimus Austin (1883), Thomas T. Baker (1887), William Tittley Batchelor (1902), Charles Lowthian Bell (1897), Edgar Vallentine Bensusan (1892), George Lothrop Bradley (1874), Ernst Elmer Breisch (1896), Horace F. Brown (1895), James A. Burden (1876), Alexander B. Coxe (1880), George A. Crocker (1879), Albert W. Fiero (1886),

Jul 1, 1907

By H. J. Struth

AN unusual engineering achievement in the Gulf Coast last year was the drilling of a wildcat well in the swamps of Louisiana, using direct current. More unusual was the fact that it was necessary to house a diesel engine and generator on a barge in order to supply power. The remoteness of the well made it necessary to transport living quarters and drilling equipment to the location by means of barges, and involved the digging of a canal from a lake to the location, approximated one mile. The drilling equipment used on this well consisted of two generating units, each having one 210-hp. six-cylinder @$-in. bore type VDMA, 600 r.p.m. diesel engine, direct connected to a type CD-169, 125-kw., 250-volt direct current generator, which in turn is direct connected to a type CD-105, 15-kw. 250-volt exciter. One of these motors operates the draw works, one the mud pump, and one a duplicate spare. The generating equipment on the barge was approximately 250 ft. from the derrick, the control wires being brought from the derrick to the generator barge enclosed in a standard fire hose. This is an original idea for confining the con- 11.01 wires in one cable; obtaining minimum space and ample protection. Both control and power lines were suspended on poles. This well was at Lake Grande Ecaille Dome, which was located by seismograph in 1928. Fig. 1 shows the derrick, power barge and living quarters where direct G. E. current was used with rotary drilling equipment.

Jan 1, 1932

By Westwater, J. S.

The Mather mine of The Negaunee Mine Co. embraces nearly all of Sections 1 and 2, T47N, R27W. within the limits of the cities of Negaunee and Ishpeming on the Marquette iron range of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Operations of the Negaunee Mine Co., the stock of which is jointly owned by Bethlehem Steel Co. and The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., are under the direction of the latter company. The opening of the Mather mine was described by C. W. A1len. Mather "A" shaft was completed to an initial depth of 2352 ft in early 1943. The shaft capacity of over one million tons yearly is in prospect of being realized by orderly development and mining, and sinking of the second or "B" shaft then started in accordance with previous planning. Mather " B, " also a vertical shaft, was designed as a twin to Mather "A" shaft and the sinking technique developed at Mather "A" was utilized in "B" shaft operation.

Jan 1, 1949

By John D. Hanks

INTRODUCTION Chevron's Uranium Mill is located near Panna Maria, Texas; 70 miles southeast of San Antonio. Designed by Kaiser Engineering, the Mill will process a nominal 2500 dry T.P.D. of uranium bearing ore containing 15% uncombined moisture. Earl Torgerson, San Mateo, California, is the consulting metallurgist on process design. Feed to the plant consists of a mixture of high, medium and low grade sandy day ore; the average grade of the ore will be 0.7% throughout the life of the project. The ore is delivered to the mill via truck and stored by type in individual piles on a flat storage area. The ore is fed by conveyor to a semi-autogenous grinding mill. The SAG mill discharge slurry is pumped either to a storage tank or to the first of five mechanically agitated leach tanks where both H2SO and NaC103 are added. Following leaching, the slurry is mixed with thickener No. 2 overflow before being pumped to a six-thickener, countercurrent decantation circuit where the solution containing uranium is separated from the leach residue. The residue is washed essentially free of solubilized U308 values at the sixth thickener and discharged to an adjacent tailings pond. The first thickener overflow, containing approximately 0.4 grams U308 per liter, is filtered for clarification and sent to the liquid ion exchange (solvent extraction) section. The pregnant aqueous solution is mixed with organic solvent containing amine on which the complex uranyl sulfate ions are absorbed. The immiscible aqueous and organic solutions are mixed and separated in each of the four stages of solvent extraction. The final pregnant organic is directed to a stripping section. A strip solution containing (NH4)2S04 (ammonium sulfate) and NH4C1 (ammonium chloride) is contacted and separated from the organic in each of the four mixer-settler units. The strip solution is mixed with NH3 and the uranium precipitates along with trace amounts of sulfate, chloride, and ammonia. After washing in a thickener, the uranium precipitate or yellowcake is centrifuged and dried in a multiple hearth roaster. Overflow from the yellowcake thickener is recycled back to the stripping section of the solvent extraction circuit. The dried yellowcake concentrate contains more than 98% U308; diluents include H20, ammonia, chloride, etc.. Impurity concentratons in the product are sufficiently low, after drying, to permit direct shipment to refinement installations. ORE RECEIVING Ore from one or more mines will be stored on a pad adjacent to the uranium processing mill. Ore stored in the area may total 200,000 tons or more, which is equivalent to over a two month treatment reserve for the mill. In addition to providing surge capacity, the proposed storage facility permits natural oxidation of the ore and affords an area which, in turn, improve plant U308 recovery and reduces consumption of oxidizing reagents. The uranium bearing ore is segregated at the storage area into several distinct types. One group can be identified by its sandy, clay-like matrix and will be distinguished by its U308 concentration of high, medium, or low. Other ores contain substantial quantities of carbonaceous shale, typical of ore in the area. Feed is recovered from any one or combination of piles, in accordance with operating requirements and recovery factors. The run-of-mine ore, at 15% moisture, is transferred to a stationary, 24-inch by 24-inch grizzly. Undersize material falls into a 280-ton surge hopper located below grade, while oversize material is removed for preliminary size reduction. A sump-pump is located at the reclaim hopper to recover excess mositure and ore spillage for processing. Plant feed is continuously drawn from beneath the hopper at an average rate of 120 tons per hour by means of an apron feeder. The hopper is equipped with a low level safety system to protect the apron feeder assemble. The ore is transferred to a belt conveyor, elevated and discharged into a semi-autogeneous grinding (SAG) mill. Water addition at the discharge point is automatically controlled by a feed rate, moisture analyzer system located on the belt conveyor. GRINDING Minus 24-inch ore, at a rate of 120 mosit tons per hour and cyclone underflow at a rate of 137 moist tons per hour are combined with a controlled 186 gallons per minute fresh, warm plant process water. The mixture, at an average 68% solids, is fed to the SAG mill. The viscous mass is subjected to grinding at a temperature moderately above ambient resulting from use of the 140ºF well water. The 16.5'x5.0' Marcy Mill is driven by a 500 H.P. A.C. Motor. The mill will rotate at 73.4% of critical speed or 14.06 R.P.M. Eight percent of the mill's volume will be occupied by steel grinding balls; 22% by pulp. The mill is designed to rotate in either direction, in order to obtain maximum lifter and liner life. The SAG mill is equipped with a trommel having ½ -inch slots for removal of oversize material at its discharge and the large or oversize material is collected and either recirculated periodically or discarded. The undersize slurry is diluted to 64% solids with the addition of hot well water or mine water to the mill discharge sump. The flow is automatically controlled utilizing data from a gamma density meter. The slurry from the mill discharge sump is pumped to hydrocyclones to classify the particles. Underflow from the cyclones, at 80% + 28 mesh, is recycled to

Jan 1, 1979

By Lucien Eaton

THE use of filling in mines is less common in the United States than it is in Europe, where in some places it is required by law. In most cases the filling is placed by hand, and the material used for this purpose is the waste from development and that sorted from the ore in the stopes. When these sources provide an insufficient supply, additional rock must be quarried on surface or mined underground, or some other material :st be used. In different parts of the world sand, clay, gravel, culm, nulated slag, mill tailings, and even ashes, have been used as filling material in place of or in conjunction with rock. Of all the materials used for filling the best is probably clean sand. Gravel, finely crushed rock, granulated slag and coarse mill tailings are almost as good, and the methods used for placing and confining sand will apply equally well to any of these. The advantages of sand are its comparatively slight compressibility and the ease, economy and convenience with which it may be placed. On account of the voids, which necessarily occur in fills made of coarse waste, such fills will compress 10 to 25 per cent before they develop their full strength, whereas clean sand seldom compresses more than 5 per cent. Sand is especially desirable when practically complete filling is required, and sand derived from mill tailings, especially when not thoroughly cleaned, has been remarkably effective in sealing off and extinguishing mine fires. When natural sand is available on surface, or when it can be obtained from the mill tailings or tailings dump, the cost of using this material for fill will probably be considerably less than that of rock. In this paper it is not proposed to discuss all methods of filling, butt to describe some of the methods used for placing sand fill and to make a brief comparison of their merits.

Jan 1, 1932

By Dix, E. H.

THE percentage of manganese used in commercial aluminum alloys is small, and yet this element is an important addition to some very valuable alloys. When used alone with commercial aluminum containing iron and silicon as impurities, the usual percentage in wrought materials is from 1 to 1.5 per cent., whereas castings may contain as much as 2 per cent. An aluminum-manganese alloy containing nominally 1.25 per cent. manganese is much used in sheet form for the manufacture of cooking utensils and other articles requiring a little greater strength and hardness than could be obtained with commercially pure aluminum. It is also used for various purposes in the form of rods, tubes and pipes. The aluminum-manganese alloys, both wrought 'and cast, offer excellent resistance to many kinds of corrosion attack. The U. S. Naval Gun Factory uses an aluminum alloy containing from 1 to 2 per cent. each of copper and manganese, for both castings and forgings. Manganese is also used, up to about 1 per cent., as a minor alloying .element in several of the strong aluminum alloys of the duralumin type. It is felt that the role of this element when thus used has not been fully understood, but it is believed that the results obtained in this investigation will throw additional light on the subject. The earlier work on the system aluminum-manganese was general in nature, and no detailed investigations of the relations existent in the useful aluminum-rich alloys have been reported. Guilletl1in 1902 surveyed the system, and Hendrichs2 in 1908 published an equilibrium diagram which, although based on .few data, is often used in the literature. Fragmentary work has also been done by other investigators."

Jan 1, 1927