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By W. L. Honnold

AS BOTH South Africa and diamond mining are unfamiliar subjects it seems best that on such an occasion as this I should endeavor to reflect the atmosphere of the place and to picture the mines from an industrial rather than from a technical standpoint and, because of long absence, my remarks must necessarily be sketchy and in some particulars not up to date. The preferable route to South Africa is via England, direct steamers from America being inferior as to service and effecting no saving of time. The newer boats are of about 20,000 tons capacity and very comfortable. Seventeen days are required for the voyage and only one stop is made-that at the island of Madiera, three days out. Between Southampton, the port of departure, and Madiera the weather may be warm or cold and the

Jan 1, 1925

By R. W. Raymond

THIS meeting was held in the new home of the Institute, the United Engineering Society Building, 29 West 39th Street, New York City, directly following the Dedication ceremonies. The first session was held in the large Auditorium, Thursday, April 18. The meeting was called to order by Mr. John Hays Hammond, President of the Council, who said Before taking up the reading and discussion of papers, I will call upon Dr. Rossiter W. Raymond, the oldest living past-President of the Institute, who has been in harness almost continuously for thirty-six years, and who has contributed more than any one else to bring this society to its present great success and to establish the reputation of the American mining engineer the world over, for a few words supplementary to those which were uttered to engineers generally, during the sessions of yesterday and the day before. ADDRESS BY R. W. RAYMOND. The generally accepted Darwinian doctrine of the survival of the fittest is sometimes illustrated by persons who are supposed to be the fittest because they have simply survived. I fear that I come under that category. Almost all of my contemporaries in the early history of this Institute have passed away. Only one or two of the original founders remain, and I may fairly say that scarcely any remain who were active at that : time in shaping the organization and the future career of the Institute. In May, 1871, I was thirty-one years old. Next week I shall be sixty-seven years old. All the intervening years have been devoted to the service of this Institute almost continuously, either as President or Vice-President or Secretary. You may easily imagine, therefore, with what pleasure I greet you on this occasion. I am not here to extend to you the welcome of the City - of

May 1, 1907

By William H. Shockley

THERE was an, extensive mining and industrial exploitation of Russia, about 20 years ago, by Belgian, French and British capitalists; but the results were discouraging. It is said that the Belgian and French public together lost approximately $400,000,000, chiefly in the coal and iron industry of southern Russia. This loss is largely accounted for by the fact that most of the companies were formed, as usual in " boom " times, to sell stock; and that thorough investigations were not made. In 1906, renewed interest was taken in Russian mines, especially in those of gold and copper, and a considerable literature is growing on this subject; but as yet I have seen no account of one of the large Russian mining estates. The following notes on such property, where the conditions are so different from those in the mining regions of the United States, should be of interest This inadequate and probably somewhat inaccurate account is made up, partly from my own notes made on the ground, in the summers of 1904 and 1905, and partly from a volume on the geology and resources of the estate issued several years ago, containing surface-and mine-maps, and from a pamphlet published in 1904, giving a general account of the condition and prospects of the property. This pamphlet includes a report made by Arthur L. Pearse, a member of this Institute, in 1899. Both these books are in Russian, and were prepared by the Bogoslovsk Mining Co., which owns and operates the property. Articles in many other languages have appeared dealing with various matters connected with the estate; but I know of no other general account of it. In numerous books and articles on the Urals and Siberia, however, localities are described in which somewhat similar conditions prevail. Recent papers by

Mar 1, 1908

By Thomas L. Kesler

I all of the 14 million tons of kaolin produced in Georgia through 1949 had been mined from a single deposit 20 ft thick, it would represent a mined-out area of less than 1 sq mile. This measure of depletion is in such strong contrast with the large size of the area shown in Fig. 1, from which most of the output has come, that there has developed an optimistic outlook concerning future supplies of kaolin equal in grade to that already mined. Dozens of mines are widely but not evenly distributed within this area, which consists mostly of parts of Twiggs, Wilkinson, and Washington counties. There are scarcely half a dozen kaolin mines elsewhere in the state that have been appreciably productive, although the areas in which they occur may have good possibilities. Most of the efforts to find new deposits, therefore, will be confined to the area shown in Fig. 1, for it is here that the industry has established its facilities, and prospecting is encouraged by relatively numerous outcrops and opened deposits of kaolin. The Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers drain the area. They and their main tributaries have flat, swampy floodplains covered with alluvium and for the most part thickly wooded. The divides between these streams are intricately dissected by the minor tributaries, which are spring-fed in steep-walled, cirque-like heads. Gullying and under-cutting are active along the streams but are partly controlled by unusually dense vegetation. The mean altitude is about 350 ft above sea level, and locally the relief ranges up to 200 ft. The area is near the inner margin of the Coastal Plain, and is underlain by Cretaceous and Tertiary formations. Its general location is shown in black in Fig. 1. The division between the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont plateau is actually a very sinuous line, the fall line, marking the extent to which erosion has stripped the Coastal Plain sediments from the southeastward-sloping surface of the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont. Cretaceous Host Formation The kaolin deposits, which are described in the succeeding section, occur sporadically in lenslike bodies in a thick series of poorly sorted clayey sands constituting the lowermost of the Upper Cretaceous formations, the Tuscaloosa. The basis for this correlation has been reviewed by Cooke.1 The same formation has been termed the Potomac group by Ladd2 and the Middendorf formation by Smith' in reports on the kaolin deposits. In another report, Veatch4 called the formation the Tuscaloosa but correlated it with the Lower Cretaceous. The Tuscaloosa in this area consists of fine to very coarse sands, commonly cross-bedded, which contain widely different proportions of white, pink, and yellow kaolin and considerable white mica. A few of the coarser beds contain quartz grains up to 3 in. in length, with bodies of pure white kaolin of equal size that appear to have been formed by the weathering of feldspar grains in place. In the kaolin-producing area, gravel and cobbles occur mainly at the base of the formation. Fig. 2 shows the relations of the Tuscaloosa and its kaolin deposits to the adjacent formations. Its base, on the eroded surface of the crystalline rocks, dips southeastward 50 to 60 ft to the mile, according to LaMoreaux.5 The upper surface of the Tuscaloosa is also an unconformity,

Jan 1, 1952

ANNUAL meeting of the Woman's Auxiliary of the American Institute of Mining and Metal-lurgical Engineers convened on Tuesday morn-ing, Feb. 20, the president, Mrs. H. W. Hardinge, presiding. President Hardinge, in opening the meet-ing, said: "I have the honor and great pleasure to welcome you to our seventh annual meeting. It has been a happy year, though I started in fear and trembling. My fear is partly gone and my trembling becomes less as time goes on. Never has a chairman had such splendid cooperation and harmony in her work; no. matter how much was asked nor what the task, I have always received the same answer, `We are with you, of course we can do it.' Often the road has been untried and the way full of snares, but we have all pulled together. Is it any wonder we have had a prosperous year? I cannot thank the governing -board and officers enough for their help." Mrs. Hardinge described her trip through the West last summer, during which she visited many of the local sections of the Auxiliary. She also spoke of the work of the Rossiter Raymond memorial library which has been started as an activity of the Woman's Auxiliary. Mrs. Reynders read the minutes of the last annual meeting, and Mrs. Kemp read the treasurer's report. The latter showed that on Feb. 1, 1922, there was a bank balance of $683.61 and on Feb. 10, 1923, the bal-ance was $947.93. Mrs. Westervelt expressed the sorrow of the Auxiliary for the death -of Mrs. Florence Howe Hall and of Mrs. Levi P. Holbrook.

Jan 4, 1923

By Thomas L. Kesler

IF all of the 14 million tons of kaolin produced in Georgia through 1949 had been mined from a single deposit 20 ft thick, it would represent a mined-out area of less than 1 sq mile. This measure of depletion is in such strong contrast with the large size of the area shown in Fig. 1, from which most of the output has come, that there has developed an optimistic outlook concerning future supplies of kaolin equal in grade to that already mined. Dozens of mines are widely but not evenly distributed within this area, which consists mostly of parts of Twiggs, Wilkinson, and Washington counties. There are scarcely half a dozen kaolin mines elsewhere in the state that have been appreciably productive, although the areas in which they occur may have good possibilities. Most of the efforts to find new deposits, therefore, will be confined to the area shown in Fig. 1, for it is here that the industry has established its facilities, and prospecting is encouraged by relatively numerous outcrops and opened deposits of kaolin.

Jan 10, 1951

By Edmund J. Korber, Donald E. Raab, Frank A. Burns

During the early 1960s, the advent of self- advancing longwall roof supports triggered serious consideration by Bethlehem management to introduce the technique of longwall mining at one of our central Pennsylvania coal mines. Although longwall mining was initially justified as a means to cope with the severe roof conditions at our Mine 32 (Watson, B., 1971), the result of the endeavor has been a consistent and reliable level of coal production, first from Mine 32 and then later from Mine 33, over a period of fifteen years. Longwall production from the Cambria Division has been the mainstay of the low volatile coal required by Bethlehem Steel for steel production. Let us review the events that led to this accomplishment, as well as where we stand today.

Jan 1, 1981

Prof. Henry S. Jacoby, Cornell University,Ithaca, N.Y. (communication to the Secretary): When a simple beam supports any given load, the lower fibers me in tension while the upper fibers are in compression, and if its cross-section is rectangular the neutral surface, where the stresses pass through zero from tension to compression, is at mid-depth, provided the elastic limit is not exceeded. In addition to the longitudinal stresses, there are horizontal shearing-stresses between the fibers which have their maximum value in the neutral surface, and which equal zero at the upper and lower surfaces, while there are also vertical shearing-stresses. Let another beam of the same dimensions be placed on top of this one, and the load be doubled, it then produces stresses in each beam of the same character, magnitude and distribution as in the preceding case, provided there be no friction between the adjacent surfaces of the beams. Next let these two beams be so firmly united that there will be no motion between them when the same load is again applied. All the fibers in the upper beam are now in compression, and those in the lower beam in tension, while the maximum stresses in the outer fibers are only one-half as large as before. The strength of the combined beams is therefore doubled. If, however, some motion occurs between the beams, then the stresses in some of the lower fibers of the upper beam pass from compression to tension, and those in some of the upper fibers of the lower beam from tension to compression, while the stresses in the outer fibers have a magnitude between the two values previously stated. These fundamental facts relating to the flexure of beams indicate the necessity of carefully designing the keys or brace-

Jan 1, 1898

Jan 1, 1908

By H. A. Winne, B. R. Prentice

THE announcement of this World Conference on Mineral Resources briefly traced the development of the metals industries over the past 75 years The various phases were characterized as iron and steel for the railroad era, then copper and the electrical age, through alloy steels to the age of light metals in World War II, ending with the curtain rising on the atomic age at the end of the war The interests of mining and metallurgical industries in the atomic age may perhaps be divided broadly into three - groups (1) production of the special materials required by atomic-energy installations and processes, (2) use of atomic power in the mining or refining of materials, (3) use of radioactive isotopes and radiation in metal and chemical processes both for laboratory study and in the production of materials for use in any field In the production of special materials, the mining and metallurgical, scientific and industrial groups have already contributed much to the start of the atomic age The mining, refining and fabrication of the basic uranium to a degree of purity and form suitable for production of plutonium in the Hanford Engineering Works is just one example. The production of graphite for the Hanford piles, sufficiently free of neutron-absorbing impurities to allow a chain reaction with natural uranium, was a signal achievement These, together with many

Jan 1, 1947

The American Mining Congress, of which the President is Carl Scholz, and the Secretary is J. F. Callbreath, and of which many of the officers and directors are prominent in Institute affairs, has extended to the members of the Institute a cordial invitation to attend the nineteenth Annual Session of the Congress, to be held at the La Salle Hotel, Chicago, Nov. 13 to 16, 1916, and to take part in its deliberations. The morning sessions will be, general meetings at which the attendance of all members of the Convention is hoped for, and which will he devoted to a discussion of subjects related to the three several heads, "safety," "efficiency" and "conservation." The afternoon meetings will be divided into several sections, each devoted to the discussion of subjects of interest to its special branch of the industry. It is planned to have 811 papers printed and distributed, allowing the author a limited time in which to present the salient features of his address and giving up the greater part of the time to a discussion of the subject presented by members on the floor. By this plan it is hoped to have a free expression of opinion and to provide ample time for reaching conclusions to be embodied in resolutions representing the best thought of the mining industry.

Jan 10, 1916

The Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colo. M F Coolbaugh, President. Since 1906 the School of Mines has issued a journal, known as the Quarterly of the Colorado School of Mines, which carries many articles on matters of general interest as well as other articles of a technical nature There is no regular subscription price to the School of Mines publications Anyone interested in back numbers should write and find out the conditions under which individual copies may be obtained, whether a price is set on them or whether they are free Some back numbers are not now available but efforts will be made to supply copies from the files of alumni or other friends of the School Vol 23, No. 3 of the Quarterly (July, 1928) is an index of the publications complete from July, 1906 to July, 1928. A selected list of the technical articles appearing in the Quarterly is given here: Vol 3, No. 3, Rare metals. uranium and vanadium, by H. Fleck (1909), vol 3, No 4, Tungsten in Colorado, by H R Van Wagenen, vol 4, No 3, Preliminary report of the radioactivity of the carnotite of southwest Colorado, by H Fleck and W. G Haldane (1909), vol. 8, No 1 (1913), Some recent developments at Leadville, by G. M Butler, vol 8, No. 3, Physiography of

Jan 1, 1933

By W. E. C. Eustis

1st. THE fine iron ore is mixed with a sufficient proportion of fine coking coal, and is coked in any of the ordinary methods for making coke. The effect of this is to convert the iron oxide into sponge in such a shape that the usual trouble of oxidation is avoided. 2d. The resulting mixture of coke and sponge is melted down in an ordinary cupola, the coke furnishing more than sufficient fuel for that purpose. I may briefly point out here that in the first place the iron is sponged, and this sponge, as is well known, contain-, no phosphorus or silicon when the reduction takes place at a low temperature; and in the second place this sponge is melted down in a cupola in which there is no zone of reduction for phosphorus or silicon, and that con¬sequently the resulting iron should be free from both of these impu¬rities. 3d. The liquid sponge, now carburized, is run into an open-hearth furnace, where the requisite degree of hardness or softness is obtained by adding some of the fine ore, and the usual dose of ferronmanganose. I have merely given above the rough outlines of the process, but it is my intention, as early as possible, to bring the process more fully before the Institute.

Jan 1, 1881

By W. E. C. Eustis

1st. The fine iron ore is mixed with a sufficient proportion of fine coking coal, and is coked in any of the ordinary methods for making coke. The effect of this is to convert the iron oxide into sponge in such a shape that the usual trouble of oxidation is avoided. 2d. The resulting mixture of coke and sponge is melted down ill an ordinary cupola, the coke furnishing more than sufficient fuel for that purpose. I may briefly point out here that in the first place the iron is sponged, and this sponge, as is well known, contains no phosphoras or silicon when the reduction takes place at a low temperature; and in the second place this sponge is melted down in a cupola in which there is no zone of reduction for phosphorus or silicon, and that con . sequently the resulting iron should be free from both of these impurities. 3d. The liquid sponge, now carburized, is run into an open-hearth furnace, where the requisite degree of hardness or softness is obtained by adding some of the fine ore, and the usual dose of ferromanganese, I have merely given above the rough outlines of the prows, bat it is my intention, as early as possible, to bring the process more fully before the Institute.

Jan 1, 1881

By Arthur G. Metcalfe

Arthur G. Metcalfe (SOLAR)—Three explanations to account for mechanical nucleation effects are considered in the paper, viz., theories based on fragmentation, agglomeration, and pressure-wave mechanisms. The authors show that none of these mechanisms will explain the results observed with tin and Sn-Pb alloys. A fourth mechanism of nucleation enhancement was developed during work at Armour Research Foundation on casting of beryllium and, although presented briefly on various occasions, the theory has never been discussed adequately. It is believed that this theory will explain many of the observations. Classical homogeneous nucleation theories assume that embryo nuclei are formed in the melt as a result of compositional and/or thermal fluctuations. Stable nuclei are formed when a critical size is reached such that the decrease in free energy for conversion of this volume of melt to solid offsets the increase of surface, energy. The assumption is made that the average properties of liquid and solid metal can be used. In practice this assumption is invalid and indeed is contrary to the postulation of thermal and compositional fluctuations in the melt. Actually the conditions favoring embryo formation bring the seeds of its own destruction—the thermal and compositional fluctuations leave the embryo surrounded by atoms of higher thermal energies and/or by solute atoms that depress the melting point. Any mechanical method of dispersing this destructive

Jan 1, 1964

By A. W. Hahn

THE importance, to geologists and metallurgists, of knowing the mineralogical forms in which the silver occurs in ores has increased during the past few years, and will continue to increase as long as working hypotheses are converted into proved theories and rule of thumb methods are supplanted by scientific data. The methods used for the determination of these silver minerals have been: (1) careful study of polished ore sections with the microscope, and more recently, (2) metallurgical separation of the ground ore by flotation, tabling and panning, supplemented by microscopic examination of these separated minerals, and chemical analyses. During the course of some experimental work carried on by the testing department of the International Smelting Co. and myself, it becomes important to determine, in a general way, the distribution of the silver values in the minerals, as they exist in Tintic Standard and North Lilly siliceous oxidized lead-silver ores. These mines are in the East Tintic Mining District, State of Utah. In this work the second method was used. Differential flotation tests were run, separating the sulfide from the oxidized minerals, and the products were assayed. Various concentrates were carefully panned and the separated products assayed; special samples of ore were selected and assayed. The microscope was used only for the purpose of determining whether the individual minerals were in the so-called "free" state.

Jan 1, 1929

The Institute conducts jointly with the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and American Institute of Electrical Engineers, certain activities as listed below, and is joint owner with them of certain properties situated at 29 West 39th Street in New York City United Engineering Trustees, Inc. When Mr Carnegie made his gift, "for the erection of a suitable union home" for the engineering societies, United Engineering Trustees, Inc (then United Engineering Society) was chartered un¬der Chapter 703, Laws of the State of New York, 1904, for "the advancement of the engineering arts and sciences in all their branches, and to maintain a free public engineering library " The Corporation was further empowered to acquire real and personal property and to use, maintain and occupy it, with the provision that any building erected by the Corporation shall be used perpet¬ually as a meeting place and headquar¬ters for the Founder Societies Thus the Carnegie gift realized the ideal of bring¬ing the engineering societies together under one roof, and the Corporation through its members nominated in equal numbers by the four Founder Societies had the necessary authority to act for the Founder Societies in their joint in¬terests in owning and operating for them not only Engineering Societies Building, but in the course of time, Engineering Societies Library, and The Engineering

Jan 1, 1952

THE Institute conducts jointly with the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers and American Institute of Electrical Engineers, certain activities as listed below, and is joint owner with them of certain properties situated at 29 West 39th Street in New York City United Engineering Trustees, Inc. When Mr Carnegie made his gift, "for the erection of a suitable union home" for the engineering societies, United Engineering Trustees, Inc (then United Engineering Society) was chartered under Chapter 703, Laws of the State of New York, 1904, for "the advancement of the engineering arts and sciences in all their branches, and to maintain a free public engineering library" The Corporation was further empowered to acquire real and personal property and to use, maintain and occupy it, with the provision that any building erected by the Corporation shall be used perpetually as a meeting place and headquarters for the Founder Societies Thus the Carnegie gift realized the ideal of bringing the engineering societies together under one roof, and the Corporation through its members nominated in equal numbers by the four Founder Societies had the necessary authority to act for the Founder Societies in their joint interests in owning and operating for them not only Engineering Societies Building, but in the course of time, Engineering Societies Library, and

Jan 1, 1952

By J. L. Stokes, L. J. Demer

It has recently been shown' that epitaxial films of silicon carbide deposited on silicon single crystals possess desirable properties for semiconductor applications. There is one apparent disadvantage to such a system, however; since epitaxial deposition is a high-temperature process, it can result in plastic deformation of the silicon substrate. The accompanying Berg-Barrett X-ray diffraction photographs reveal plastic deformation in two silicon semiconductor crystals which occurred when the crystals were coated with an epitaxial layer of silicon carbide at 1150°C. Due to differences in thermal expansion between the silicon substrate and the epitaxial silicon carbide, the silicon was subjected to stresses while still in the plastic temperature range. Both crystals shown were 0.7 in. in diam and 0.0055 in. thick. The crystals were sliced from a larger crystal so that their polar axes were parallel to the [ill] direction. After cutting, the crystals were polished with diamond paste, and etched in HC1 vapor to remove surface damage re- sulting from the cutting and polishing operations. This provided clean, damage-free surfaces on which to deposit the silicon carbide. Figs. l(a) and l(b) are reflection and transmission photographs, respectively, of the same crystal. A smaller portion of the crystal is shown in the transmission geometry, because a vertical slit was

Jan 1, 1965

By Robert Greenwood

The advent of the space age and its promise of interplanetary flight has prompted new ideas for propulsion systems that will allow maximum energy with minimum fuel weight. The use of cesium as the source of energy for such rocket flights has been found desirable. Theoretical efficiency of a rocket fuel is measured in terms of specific impulse, defined as the number of pounds of thrust per pound of propellant consumed per second. Specific impulse is usually expressed in seconds (the number of seconds for which one pound of fuel would produce one pound of thrust) although it is really a measure of total energy, not of power. The most sophisticated chemical fuels have a specific impulse of 300 to 400 sec; liquid hydrogen heated by nuclear reactor has a specific impulse of 1000 to 1200 sec. Specific impulses as high as 20,000 sec, however, are theoretically attainable with the ion rocket, in which free cesium ions are accelerated across a voltage drop and ejected at high velocity.' Characteristics of the system have been sketched by Boden. The desirable properties of an ion propellant are: 1) low ionization potential, 2) low boiling point, and 3) high atomic weight. Alkali metals best fulfill these requirements, and Table I indicates the superiority of cesium. The use of heavy complex ions such as UCl; is ruled out by their instability and other disadvantages.

Jan 5, 1960