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By Hamilton Wingate

In view of the fact that the fineness of the resultant bullion varies with the particular treatment to which the zinc-precipitate is subjected, and since there are considerable losses attributed to both methods, the following notes on the results obtained at the Waitekauri Extended mine, Maratoto, N. Z., may be of interest. The ordinary method of roasting the vacuum-dried precipitate was adopted instead of the treatment with sulphuric acid, the necessary facilities for the latter method not being available. Moreover, provided the ordinary method is carried out with the necessary care, it is questionable if it is not the most satisfactory where large quantities of precipitate have to be handled, and where (as is generally the case in this district) a considerable amount of silver is present. All the precipitate was first washed through a 40-mesh sieve. If it was necessary to recover the bullion at once from the accumulated short zinc, it was oxidized and melted separately; but, as a general rule, being heavily charged with bullion, it was placed on the bottom of the trays at, the top end of the extractor-boxes, where it acted as an excellent precipitant, the bullion being recovered at the next clean-up. After drying on a filter with the aid of a vacuum-pump, the precipitate was weighed and removed to the oxidizing furnace, which is similar to that generally in use in New Zealand, consisting essentially of an ordinary square tray of cast-iron, with 6-in. sides, built over a brick furnace. Wood is used as fuel. The tray is hooded over with sheet-iron, fitted with a sliding-door, and the fumes pass through a flue at the top into a dust-chamber, then into the open air. Oxidation of the Precipitate.—The oxidation was conducted first at a low temperature, which was gradually raised, until

Jan 1, 1903

By W. R. Hudspeth

AS an outgrowth of its spodumene recovery operation at Kings Mountain, N. C., Foote Mineral Co. has been recovering a heavy mineral by-product. Foote leased this idle plant in 1951, reactivated it, using a new spodumene recovery process, and purchased plant and properties in October 1951. While the operation at Kings Mountain is primarily concerned with the production of spodumene concentrate, pilot plant work determined that the pegmatites also contained heavy minerals including cassiterite. Plans were made to recover the heavy minerals as a by-product and the flowsheet incorporated these facilities when the mill was modified for the new spodumene recovery process. The orebodies consist of spodumene, feldspar, quartz and mica. Apatite, tourmaline, and beryl are present in small quantities. The wall rock is pre- dominantly hornblende shist. The heavy minerals, including cassiterite, columbite, pyrrhotite, monazite, pyrite, and rutile represent about 0.2 pct of the ore. The fine-grained heavy minerals are disseminated throughout the dikes, apparently unassociated with the spodumene. The pegmatites are quarried and secondary breakage is by mud-capping and block-holing. Power shovels load into trucks transporting the ore to a coarse ore bin. A Telesmith 10x36-in. apron feeder delivers the ore to an 18x36 in. Traylor Jaw crusher adjusted to discharge -3 in. product to a primary conveyor. The conveyor delivers to a 4x5-ft Tyrock single deck vibrating screen using 3/4 in. cloth. The screen undersize is elevated to the crushed ore bin. Screen oversize goes to an Allis-Chalmers Hydrocone Crusher fitted with 4 in. concave and set to deliver approximately 66 pct minus 3/4 in. The crusher discharge returns to the primary conveyor. The crushing and screening installation has a capacity of about 60 tons per hour. Spirals The crushed ore is delivered at a rate of 350 tons per day to two 6x8-ft Hardinge Pebble Mills, equipped with 20 mesh Ton-Cap trommel screens. The screen oversize is pumped to a 12-in. hydroclone for primary desliming. The hydroclone underfl spirals. There is no heavy mineral loss in the hydro-clone overflow. The spirals bank consists of eight 5-turn Model 24-A Humphreys Spirals. The top port and the last four ports of each spiral are blanked, the remaining nine port splitters are adjusted to remove about 5 pct feed weight. The heavy mineral rougher concentrates are upgraded on a Deister Overstrom table. The spiral concentrates contain approximately 4 pct heavy mineral, and the spiral reject, which goes to another section of the plant for spodumene recovery, contains about 0.03 pct heavy mineral. There is an interesting feature in the spirals installation. An adjustable splitter mounted on the discharge boxes splits out a mica fines product containing very little heavy mineral. The mica product is cleaned by spiralling and screening. Thus the spirals recover two products; mica, and a heavy mineral rougher concentrate. Table Treatment The rougher spiral concentrate goes to a Deister Plato table, modified to receive a Deister-Overstrom No. 6 rubber cover with sand riffles. The table is operated with a 5/8 in. stroke, 270 strokes per minute, and a slope of 1/2 in. per ft from feed to tailings side. There is no slope adjustment from motion to concentrate end. Wash water consumption is relatively high, since the large spodumene grains tend to report with the fine heavy minerals. A middling band about 4 in. wide is maintained in order to produce clean concentrate. The middling, representing about 10 pct of table feed, is recirculated by air-lift. A band of concentrate grade coarse spodumene occurs just below the middling. This is removed and delivered to concentrate storage. The table tailing, containing approximately 0.7 pct heavy minerals, is returned to the spodumene feed preparation circuit. The heavy mineral table concentrates are approximately 45 pct cassiterite, 33 pct columbite, 14 pct pyrrhotite and 8 pct monazite, together, with some rutile, pyrite, and copper from blasting wire. Concentrate is collected at 24 hour intervals. and dried. If the concentrate remains in wet storage appreciably longer surface oxidation takes place which seriously interferes with the subsequent magnetic separation process. About 150 lb of heavy mineral concentrate is produced per 24 hours and shipped to the company's plant at Exton, Pa. for final separation into tin and columbium concentrates.

Jan 1, 1952

By Felix A. Vogel

I (New York Meeting, February, 1912.) FLUE-DUST, to most blast-furnace operators, means a troublesome by-product, the formation of which should be curtailed, if not prevented entirely. However, with the increasing use of fine ores, larger furnaces, and high-pressure blast, the production of flue-dust is constantly increasing, and amounts annually in the United States to from 3,000,000 to 3,500,000 tons, An exceedingly high tonnage, of which a large part has been discarded as valueless. As a result of greater economy in the iron industry, the attention of our furnace-men has been directed towards the utilization of this enormous amount of waste material, a problem which had also been given due consideration by metallurgists abroad. Flue-dust is generally a fine material containing considerable coke and iron-ore, with a small admixture of lime and silica, depending upon the burden. The iron-ore is partly reduced, which shows that the dust originates largely in the reducing-zone of the blast-furnace. In the United States this dust usually contains 20 per cent. of coke and more than 40 per cent. of iron. Estimating coke to be worth $3.25 per ton, and iron-ore 7 cents per unit, a ton of flue-dust, unless made available, represents a loss to the furnace-man of $3.50. This accounts for the first efforts to recharge the flue-dust into the furnace, either by moistening it clown with an excess of water, or mixing it with clay to form balls of pulp, or treating it with lime-water. These methods, however, have been practically discarded, as they failed to produce the desired economies. To recover, in the blast-furnace, all the values represented by the material contained in the flue-dust, the following con¬ditions should be complied with

May 1, 1912

By D. R. George, J. R. Ross, J. D. Prater

In the United States nearly 200,000 tons of copper per year are being produced, by leaching waste rock and oxidized copper ore with dilute sulfuric acid-ferric sulfate solutions and precipitating the copper on scrap iron. The flow of solutions is in excess of 80 million gpd. A survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in late 1965 at 14 mines in Arizona, Utah and Nevada, showed that with a few exceptions, the solutions contain from two to a maximum of 15 ppm U3O8, and there is strong evidence that these represent equilibrium concentration and not merely an accumulated in-process inventory resulting from recycling the solutions for many years. Consequently, it is believed that uranium could be recovered at a constant rate as long as mining and leaching operations continue. Preliminary surveys and estimates by the USBM indicate a production potential of possibly 1000 tons of U3O8 per year at a cost of less than $8 per lb if the major process streams from most of the large copper mines in the western United States were to be treated. Laboratory research by the USBM showed that the uranium could be efficiently recovered as a specification-grade uranium concentrate by a combination of ion exchange resin and solvent extraction of liquid ion exchange techniques. A joint pilot plant investigation by Kennecott Copper Corp. and the USBM was conducted on solutions from the Bingham Canyon mine to evaluate a new system of countercurrent ion exchange developed during the laboratory studies. In subsequent small-scale continuous tests, recovery of uranium from the pregnant eluate by solvent extraction and chemical precipitation techniques was investigated.

Jan 1, 1968

By Harrison Souder

THE object of this paper is to bring to. the notice of engineers a safety detonating fuse by the use of which misfires in blasting may be eliminated and safety in blasting operations promoted. This new detonator is a French invention and is known as Cordeau detonant or detonating fuse and is sold under the name of Cordeau-Bickford. It consists of a lead tube 5 to 6 mm. in diameter, filled with trinitro-toluene. While applicable to all classes of mining it will appeal especially to those who have to do with deep-hole blasting in open-cut clines or quarries, or any operations where a large number of holes are to be shot at one time. Since the introduction of the deep-hole blasting in the Cornwall iron mines, much trouble has been experienced from misfires and many experiments were made to determine the best and safest method of blasting. Before the introduction of the detonating fuse it was found that to insure the best results, two or more high-power electric exploders, not less than No. 6, with specially insulated conductors, should be placed in each hole; the holes wired in parallel, and for a large number of holes the current to be supplied by a live wire to the bus or lead wires at about the middle of the bench. The voltage in general use is 110 to 220, but as our material is a magnetic iron ore and the holes are generally damp, we found it advisable to reduce this to about 30 volts to prevent short circuits. A No. 7 or No. 8 special insulated detonator was adopted. But with the best of care and attention to the minutest detail, we were not able to eliminate occasional misfires and the consequent ever present danger of accidents.

Jan 10, 1914

By W. R. Seyfried

The problem of extracting alumina from clay and low-grade bauxites has been the subject of considerable interest for some time. The basic reason, of course, lies in the fact that known reserves of high-grade bauxite are not inexhaustible and that the present commercial process cannot successfully cope with low-grade bauxites or clay. Ultimately it may be necessary to use these poorer raw materials for all commercial operations. An unprecedented demand for aluminum during the war emergency and the constantly threatened shortage of imported bauxite caused the United States Government to take an active role in this problem. Through the National Academy of Sciences, the War Production Board and the Defense Plant Corporation, it investigated processes and finally selected four to be used in the construction and operation of four experimental plants. Each plant was to be designed in such a way as to facilitate its incorporation into a larger commercial plant should the need arise. The Chemical Construction Corporation process, or "Chemico" ammonium sulphate process as it is better known, was one of the four selected. The extensive literature and patents on record before the war generally follow one of two process-types depending upon the extracting reagent used. One group uses an acid reagent, the other an alkali. The Chemico process uses an acid reagent. For those interested in other processes described in literature, there is a short bibliography at the end of this paper. The basic steps of all acid extraction processes are: (I) to make the aluminum silicates acid soluble, (2) to separate the released alumina from impurities and insoluble gangue, and (3) to recover the reagent for re-use. The Process as Planned In April 1941, a group of chemists and engineers of the Chemical Construction Corp. became interested in the problem of extracting alumina from clays and low-grade bauxites and, under the leadership of Mr. Blakeslee Barnes, Vice President and General Manager of the company, first drafted a process in July of that year—five months prior to Pearl Harbor. The work continued in our research laboratories and with a small pilot plant. By June 1943, the work had progressed to a point where it was possible to apply for a patent on the process which was U.S. patent 2,405,426, granted August 6, 1946. Immediately prior to the development of the Salem plant, the process was envisaged to be as follows: I. The first step was to make the aluminum silicates acid soluble. It was planned: (a) Clay or lour-grade bauxite would be roasted at 700 to 800°C (1292° to 1472°F). (b) The roasted ore would then be leached with hot aqueous ammonium bi-sulphate to form a slurry. In this way the

Jan 1, 1949

By N. J. Grant, B. C. Giessen, Paul Predecki

ALLOYS of gold, silver, and aluminum with elements of the groups BII, BIII, BIV, and BV were prepared by a rapid quenching technique (splat) and were examined by X-ray diffraction. Five new intermediate phases were found and will be described briefly herein. For the gold and silver systems, the concentration ranges having an electron/atom ratio e/a of 1.4 to 1.5 ("3/2 Hume-Rothery phases") were studied primarily. Master alloys were prepared from high-purity metals (99.9+ pct or better) by melting either in evacuated fused silica capsules or by nonconsum-able-electrode arc melting in an argon atmosphere. Small pieces, 20 to 50 mg, of each alloy were blast-atomized to form a splat, by a technique similar to that described by Duwez and Willens.1 The technique used for this study is described in detail in Ref. 2; it utilizes a resistance-heated graphite crucible with a small hole at the bottom, directed toward a metal substrate or quenching plate. The prepared alloy rests over the fine hole, through which it is expelled by an explosion shock wave in the form of fine droplets (1 to 50 µ) of molten metal onto a copper or silver substrate, which is maintained at about -190°C. The resulting very high cooling rates (see Ref. 2 for quantitative measurements) can prevent the process of nuclea-tion and growth in many instances, resulting in the formation of metastable phases. The splat particles were transferred to a GE-XRD5 diffractometer and maintained at -190°C, where they were examined with CuKa radiation. The samples were then allowed to warm to room temperature or were heated to higher temperatures until the equilibrium structures formed. Of fifteen alloy systems considered, nonequi-librium structures were encountered in six; these are described below and summarized in Table I. In the system Au-Sb a metastable £ phase (A3 type, hcp, a = 2.898 + 0.002A; c = 4.731 * 0.004A; c/a = 1.633) was found in the concentration range Au + 13 to 15 at. pct Sb. This phase is isomorphous with the stable phases in the systems Au-Cd, Au-In, and Au-Sn, all at an average e/a ratio of 1.4 to 1.5. The concentration range of one-phase metastable was deduced from the small amounts of supersaturated gold solid-solution phase present in the splat product. It was found that ? could also be retained by splatting onto a substrate held at room temperature: however, decomposed into the equilibrium phases Au + AuSb2 after heating to 200°C for 1/2 hr, or on holding the powdered splatted alloy at 20°C for several months. Calorimetric measurements will be made in an attempt to decide the question whether ? is metastable at all temperatures or whether it is a stable phase at low temperatures. There is evidence that another phase, possibly also close-packed but with a different stacking sequence, can be obtained by rapid quenching of alloys with a different antimony content. Klement, Willens, and Duwez3 reported the existence of an amorphous phase on quenching Au-Si alloys (25 at. pct Si) to - 196°C. They found that on heating to room temperature another phase of unknown crystal structure was formed. This was confirmed (see Table I); however, the new crystalline phase, designated as ?, could also be formed simply by rapid quenching to room temperature, and even was found to exist already in the as-cast Au + 20 at. pct Si alloy. It was found that ? decomposed into Au + Si on the specimen surface at room temperature. This behavior, and the question whether or not there is an equilibrium-temperature region for ?, have not yet been resolved. It is probable that ? (Au + 20 to 21 at. pct Si) is cubic of the -brass type (D81-3) with a = 9.60, + 0.01A and N = 52 atoms per cell [compare 6 (CU-Sn)4]. Except for two very weak lines, the powder pattern of about thirty lines could be indexed on this basis; however, a determination of the atom positions has not yet been attempted. For Au-Ge the C phase was observed at about 21 at. pct Ge as reported by Luo et at.5 Lattice parameters a = 2.876A, c = 4.73,A, c/a = 1.64 were found. In the Au-Pb system, formation of a ? phase was not observed, but in the lead-rich region at 75 at. pct Pb, broad peaks belonging to an amorphous phase were found. The maximum diffracted intensity occurred at 28 = 32.4 deg which is about 1 deg larger than the position of the (111) line of lead (Cuka). For Ag-Pb, an amorphous phase analogous to the one found in the Au-Pb system was observed; this metastable phase exists probably at about 75 at. pct Pb. Since no lead-rich alloys were tested, all alloys consisted of silver + amorphous phase at -190°C. In A1-Ge alloys, line-rich and complex powder patterns were obtained at about 30 at. pct Ge; they bear similarities to those of aluminum and germanium, but are of lower symmetry; the existence of more than one intermediate phase is possible. The authors are grateful to the Kennecott Copper Corp. for Fellowship support, and ARPA (Contract

Jan 1, 1965

By Franklin Bache

THERE seems to be in the public mind, and even in the minds of some coal-operators not experienced in mines subject to dust-explosions, a feeling that there has been something mysterious at the bottom of a number of recent American colliery-explosions. It has been declared in cases of accidents in mines regarded as particularly well equipped, in which every preventive precaution was said to have been taken, that the explosions were incomprehensible, and resulted from causes beyond the present knowledge of the practical coal-operator. But it is safe to say that no explosion has taken place which could not be explained by reasons well understood by most operators. The LT. S. Geological Survey Test Laboratory, recently inaugurated at Pittsburg for the reported purpose of investigating scientifically the matter of explosions in mines, will discover no new explanation of explosions. It call, however, co-ordinate the previous investigations of similar boards in England and on the Continent; and it may do a vast amount of good by promulgating widely, and in a form comprehensible by the most unlettered miner, certain facts and obvious deductions that cannot but have an effect in reducing the number and extent of the mine-disasters which, in the last few years, have been so terrible in frequency and magnitude. The only possible sources of explosions of any magnitude in coal-mines are : (1) explosives stored in quantity in the mine; (2) gases generated or liberated in the mine; and (3) coal-dust. Combinations of any of the three may, of course, take part in the result. The danger of any great loss of life from stored explosives alone is very remote. The simplest ordinary precaution forbids the presence, in one place underground, of any considerable quantity of explosives, and it would require an

Aug 1, 1909

By R. W. Carpenter, J. C. Ogle

It is possible, by using pack-rolling instead of conventional rolling, to reduce a number of metals to thicknesses of 2µm or less. Such thinfoils are generally made at room temperature without intermediate annealing. In addition, pack-rolled foils fail by developing pinholes at thicknesses near 2µm instead of developing the shear cracks usually observed in cold-rolled ductile metals. This paper presents the results of a general investigation of the deformation substructure and texture developed in copper and iron pack -rolled from 130 to about 2µm thickness. Electron microscopy showed that in both metals a fine (0.2 to 0.5?µ m) deformation subgrain structure formed during pack-rolling; in neither case was this substructure grossly different from substructures formed during conventional rolling. The deformation texture formed in pack-rolled iron was quite similar to usual bcc textures; however, in the case of copper, the cube texture was stable during pack-rolling and the normal copper deformation texture was unstable. It is shown analytically that the constraining pack induced a large hydrostatic pressure in the foils during pack-rolling. The pinhole failure mechanism is attributed to the presence of the large hydrostatic pressure during pack-rolling; this strongly suppressed the growth of shear cracks. The stability of the cube texture in copper is also probably due to the unusuul stress distribution developed during pack-rolling. EXPERIMENTS at several laboratories have shown that very thin foils of the common structural metals and many of the rare earths can be made by "pack-rolling". 1-3 The technique was originally developed to make specimens for nuclear scattering experiments and foils for X-ray filters. It is also useful for making experimental laminar metallic composite bodies and foils thin enough for direct examination by ultra-high voltage electron microscopy without the need for special thinning techniques. Pack-rolling in the present context means a three-layer pack, with the material to be rolled into foil comprising the center layer. The outer two layers, which constrain the foil during reduction, are ordinarily austenitic stainless steel. Typically, a 130 µm (0.005 in.) metal strip can be reduced to a final thickness of 2 µm or less by this process. This is accomplished at room temperature, without intermediate annealing. It has been observed that foils produced by this process do not exhibit at any stage of their reduction the severe work-hardening found in strip rolled by conventional cold-rolling methods. Neither is the failure characteristic the same."&apos; Conventionally cold-rolled ductile metal strip fails by developing shear cracks on planes whose normals nearly bisect the angle between the rolling direction and normal to the rolling plane; these are planes of maximum shear stress. In pack-rolling this mechanism has not been observed; failure occurs by the formation of pinholes on the foil surface (penetrating the foil). If pack-rolling is continued the hole density increases. These differences in behavior imply the existence of appreciably different substructure in pack-rolled foils compared to substructure in conventionally rolled material, or perhaps that the geometry of pack-rolling has an effect on the foil behavior. This paper describes an investigation of deformation substructure and texture in some specimens of pack-rolled copper and iron, and some considerations of the stress distribution in the foils during rolling that result from the geometry of pack-rolling. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS Three different materials were used for pack-rolling in the present work: soft copper sheet (99.8 pct Cu, 0.03 pct 0, electrolytic tough pitch) and two types of iron, Ferrovac E* and Armco iron. Each was "Crucible Stccl Co. initially in the form of 130 µm annealed strip with grain size ranges of approximately 10 to 40 µm. The initial texture of the copper (determined as noted below) was the normally observed cube type (001)[100]; there was evidence of a small amount of material in the cube-twin orientation reported by Beck and Hu.4 The initial texture of the Ferrovac E was similar to that reported for recrystallized iron by Kurdjumov and sachs,5 who list the principal orientations as {111}<112>, {001}<110> 15degfrom RD and a weak component {112}(110) 15 deg from RD. The starting texture of the Armco iron was not determined. Pack-Rolling Procedure. A four-high mill was used for all specimens. The work roll and backing roll diameters were 1.625 and 5.25 in., respectively. The peripheral roll speed of the work rolls was about 2.5 in. per sec. All foils were initially reduced from 130 to 100 µm by conventional straight rolling and then inserted into a pack, without any intermediate annealing, for further reduction. The pack consisted of an 0.033 in. (838 µm) thick 3 by 6 in. polished sheet of austenitic stainless steel, folded to make a 3 by 3 in. jacket. After folding, the jacket was given a small reduction to close the fold tightly before insertion of the foil. During pack-rolling a constant change in roll spacing was made every third pass. The roll-spacing change corresponded to a 5 pct reduction in thickness for a new pack. This approached a 10 pct reduction when the pack had decreased to about half its original thickness. At this point the deformed pack was discarded and a new one

Jan 1, 1970

THE Section on Aerial Geologizing of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers convened on Monday afternoon, Feb. 17, 1936, during the Annual Meeting of the Institute. Mr. Theodore Marvin presided. CHAIRMAN MARVIN.-We hope to get through with the papers on the program in time so that you can examine the instruments that are dis-played here, and also the photographs and air views brought by the Fairchild people. This is what we might call the first bread and butter session "of the Aviation Committee. The group, as many of you know, was started at the request of the Board of Directors two years ago. We have had two sessions since then, both of them of a somewhat general nature, their pur-pose being to point out the reasons why mining and petroleum engineers should be more interested in the facilities of aviation. Today we have two papers. The first is one by Mr. Eliel, of the Fairchild Company&apos;s California branch. In Mr. Eliel&apos;s absence, Mr. Gale, of the Fairchild Company, will read it. C. H. GALE.-Before I begin to read Mr. Eliel&apos;s paper, I would like to point out two instruments that he mentions. One is what he calls the solar-navigator, a new type of aerial navigating device which he has developed for use in flying cameras in aerial surveys. Flying a camera at high altitudes over unfamiliar territory is a very difficult procedure and only a few pilots in this country can do it. So far as I know, this is the first time this device has been discussed in public. Another facility I want to refer to in advance is the use of the stereoplanigraph in making contour maps from photographs. This is an extremely interesting procedure, which we are appreciating more than ever at the present time.

Jan 1, 1936

The Section on Aerial Geologizing of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers convened on Monday afternoon, Feb. 17, 1936, during the Annual Meeting of the Institute. Mr. Theodore Marvin presided. Chairman Marvin.—We hope to get through with the papers on the program in time so that you can examine the instruments that are displayed here, and also the photographs and air views brought by the Fairchild people. This is what we might call the first bread and butter session of the Aviation Committee. The group, as many of you know, was started at the request of the Board of Directors two years ago. We have had two sessions since then, both of them of a somewhat general nature, their purpose being to point out the reasons why mining and petroleum engineers should be more interested in the facilities of aviation. Today we have two papers. The first is one by Mr. Eliel, of the Fairchild Company&apos;s California branch. In Mr. Eliel&apos;s absence, Mr. Gale, of the Fairchild Company, will read it. C. H. Gale.—Before I begin to read Mr. Eliel&apos;s paper, I would like to point out two instruments that he mentions- One is what he calls the solar-navigator, a new type of aerial navigating device which he has developed for use in flying cameras in aerial surveys. Flying a camera at high altitudes over unfamiliar territory is a very difficult procedure and only a few pilots in this country can do it. So far as I know, this is the first time this device has been discussed in public. Another facility I want to refer to in advance is the use of the stereoplanigraph in making contour maps from photographs. This is an extremely interesting procedure, which we are appreciating more than ever at the present time.

Jan 1, 1937

Hermann A. Keller was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Mar. 23; 1860. He received a preliminary education at the gymnasium of Darmstadt, in Germany, and subsequently entered the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1881. After serving for a few months as an assistant instructor in mining and metallurgy at the University, he went to Leadville, Colo., where he became, at first, assayer and chemist, and in due time (1886) superintendent of the Arkansas Valley smelting works. In 1888, he was appointed metallurgist of the Globe works at Denver; in 1889, superintendent of the Philadelphia works at Pueblo; and in 1891, superintendent of the Parrot works at Butte, Mont., where he remained until 1896, in which year he was employed to reconstruct the smelting plant of the Mountain mines at Keswick, Cal. In 1897, he opened an office as consulting engineer in San Francisco; and from this time on enjoyed a wide practice both as metallurgical and as mining engineer. In the former capacity, Mr. Keller had already distinguished himself by the invention of the Keller mechanical roasting furnace employed at the Parrot works in Butte and the Germania works near Salt Lake. He was a frequent contributor to the technical journals, and he collaborated in the preparation of the chapter oil "Bessemerizing" in Dr. Peters&apos;s work, "Modern American Copper-Smelting." It is a curious coincidence that these two friends and collaborators died at almost the same time, Keller in Arizona and Peters in Massachusetts on the 16th and 17th of February respectively. The latter years of Mr. Keller&apos;s life were largely given to the examination and development of mines in all parts of the world-Alaska, Chile, Germany, etc. He finally established his professional headquarters in New York City. His death was caused by an underground locomotive accident at Clifton, Arizona, on Feb. 16, 1917.

Jan 5, 1917

By C. A. Mitke

(Butte Meeting, August, 1913.) 1. Character of Gases which Caused Helmets to Get Out of Order. DURING September, 1911, the fire area, in the Lowell mine continually increased. and gases resulting from the fire came through the upcast shaft. These gases contained such a large percentage of sulphur dioxide that the men were unable to go up and down on cages, and, within a comparatively short time, repairs in the shaft were found to be necessary. Since the fire was in sulphide ores and extended into certain timbered sections, the gases contained varying amounts of SO2, CO2, and perhaps, at times, CO. The temperature in the shaft was generally about 97°, and the relative humidity from 97 to 99.5 per cent. The corrosive action of the fumes became apparent when the cables had to be changed more often than usual, the heads of lag screws in the guides of the shaft disappeared, and the cages needed frequent repairs. It also became necessary to repair two compartments of the shaft by putting in 150 ft. of new guides between the 600 and 800 levels and lag screws in nearly all the old guides from the surface to the 800 level. 2 Ordinary Methods of Testing Helmets which were Unsatisfactory. These conditions required all work to be done by men wearing oxygen helmets. The Draeger type was tried, and was used until all repairs were completed. At first the helmets were tested for air circulation and air tightness .and the injector was tested by water gauge according to the methods recommended by the Draeger Oxygen Apparatus Co. Six arrangements, covering these different tests, are illustrated in the catalogue and circulars of the company.

Jan 7, 1913

By John A. M. E. Church

AT the last meeting of the Institute, a discussion arose upon the question, " Is them pressure in coke ovens ?" and many of the members seemed to think that the superiority of the Belgian furnace might be due to the fact that it is a completely closed chamber, in which the gases given off by the coal are, or may be, at more than the atmospheric pressure. It seems to me that this position is untenable, and that an examination of one of these ovens in operation will show, not only that there is no excess of pressure in the coke chamber, but that the contrary is true, and a partial vacuum exists. The Belgian or François oven consists of a rectangular chamber closed at the ends by sliding doors, and furnished with flues in the side walls and floor. The new charge is introduced at a time when the furnace is so hot as to cause immediate and copious discharge of the volatile constituents of the coal. The gases pass downwards through the side flues giving out their heat to the walls and thus to the coal. Underneath the floor air is introduced and the gases burn, producing intense heat. Heat is also reflected from the arched roof upon the coal which is therefore heated from all sides. The especial advantage which this construction was designed to secure is that no air is admitted to the coke-chamber. All the heat is produced by the combustion of the uncokeable gases, and the yield ought to be a maximum. It is so in fact, allowing for the imperfections inseparable from furnace construction and management. Sometimes the yield is in excess of the percentage indicated by assay, showing that

Jan 1, 1873

The Colorado Scientific Society, Denver, Colo Charles Henderson, President, 519 U. S Custom House, Denver, Colo. Beginning in 1882, up to. about 1919, the Society published 11 volumes containing many valuable papers From the informa¬tion at hand, the papers in those volumes are now only available in libraries or on file at institutions. Vols 12 and 13 are the current volumes, and the list of the geologic papers contained in them are given here For any information as to price and availa¬bility, address the above. Vol 12 (1929-31) No 1, The geology of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, by J H Johnson, 2, Relation of the ore deposits of the southern Rocky Mountain region to the Colorado Plateau, by B S Butler; 3, Mosquito Range and the Leadville district, by C H Behre, Jr , 4, Geologic history of the Front Range, by T S Lovering, 6, Revision of geologic structure and stratigraphy in the Ouray district, by W S Burbank, 7, Localization of ore in the schists and gneisses of the Mineral Belt of the Front Range, by T. S. Lovering, 8, Relation of the ore deposits of the southern Rocky Mountain region to the Colorado Plateau, by J. B. Tenney; 9, Preliminary geologic map of the Alma mining district, by Q D. Singewald and B S Butler, 10, The Climax molybdenum deposits of Colorado, by B S Butler and J W. Vanderwilt, 12, Localization of ore bodies at Rico and Red Mountain, by G. F Collins, and Geology of Mount Lincoln and Russia mines, by Q D Singewald and B S. Butler. Vol 13 (1932- ): No. 1, Preliminary geologic notes on Galena Mountain, by J. W Vanderwilt, and High plains of Colorado and New Mexico (Late Tertiary history), by F. M. Van Yuyl and J M. Coke

Jan 1, 1933

ARTHUR H. STORRS, Scranton, Pa.-I would like to ask whether this same process is applicable to bituminous coal? FELLS A. VOGEL, New York, N. Y.-This Dutch process is applicable to bituminous or any other kind of coal. The Berwind Fuel Co. has had a plant in operation, in Superior, Wis., for about 2 years, using the Dutch process, and it has made a very satisfactory briquette, using Pocahontas coal. There is just one item in Mr. Frey&apos;s paper I would like to discuss; that is, the matter of cost. Mr. Frey figures a total cost of $3.35, based on the use of 7 per cent. of oil. Of course, the price of oil has advanced seriously within the last year or two, and any possible reduction in the percentage of oil required in the manufacture of briquettes is very important. I believe that Mr. Frey will agree that very good briquettes can be made with considerably less than 7 per cent. of oil; in fact, actual experience has shown that it can be clone with less than 5 per cent. The only possible effects of a low percentage of oil, particularly in anthracite briquettes, are that the briquette might not burn so freely, and that it might not be quite so hard. Briquettes made by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., using 7 per cent. of binder, are extremely tough. Those briquettes have been handled in one of the local yards in Brooklyn, chuting them from railroad cars into boats and digging them out by grab buckets, and the losses average less than 2 per cent. This compares very favorably with domestic anthracite coal, with which the losses from breakage amount to between 7 and 10 per cent.

Jan 4, 1918

By NONE N/A

THE Section on Aerial Geologizing of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers convened on Monday afternoon, Feb. 17, 1936, during the Annual Meeting of the Institute. Mr. Theodore Marvin presided. CHAIRMAN MARVIN.-We hope to get through with the papers on the program in time so that you can examine the instruments that are dis-played here, and also the photographs and air views brought by the Fairchild people. This is what we might call the first bread and butter session of the Aviation Committee. The group, as many of you know, was started at the request of the Board of Directors two years ago. We have had two sessions since then, both of them of a somewhat general nature, their pur-pose being to point out the reasons why mining and petroleum engineers should be more interested in the facilities of aviation. Today we have two papers. The first is one by Mr. Eliel, of the Fairchild Company&apos;s California branch. In Mr. Eliel&apos;s absence, Mr. Gale, of the Fairchild Company, will read it. C. H. GALE.-Before I begin to read Mr. Eliel&apos;s paper, I would like to point out two instruments that he mentions. One is what he calls the solar-navigator, a new type of aerial navigating device which he has developed for use in flying cameras in aerial surveys. Flying a camera at high altitudes over unfamiliar territory is a very difficult procedure and only a few pilots in this country can do it. So far as I know, this is the first time this device has been discussed in public. Another facility I want to refer to in advance is the use of the stereoplanigraph in making contour maps from photographs. This is an extremely interesting procedure, which we are appreciating more than ever at the present time.

Jan 1, 1936

Discussion of the paper of C. A. HEBERLEIN, presented at the New York meeting. February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 98, February, 1915, pp. 497 to 504. H. D. PALLISTER, State College, Pa. (communication to the Secretary).-Mr. Heberlein gives some valuable information concerning a branch of mining and metallurgy which has been neglected during the last few years. His results with fine grinding and Deister tables suggest the possibility of the mining and concentration of a number of low-grade cinnabar deposits. Can Mr. Heberlein give us some idea as to the loss of quicksilver during this concentration? The advances in the metallurgy of quicksilver have been few and far between in recent years. Most miners prefer to go on in the old way with the Scott furnace and the large brick condensers. The large brick condensers are expensive to build and to keep in repair, and on account of the thick walls are extremely slow in cooling the gases; and further, the joints between the bricks offer passages for the quicksilver vapors unless great care is used in building the condensers.. The escape of vapor at the top of the furnace is another source of loss and I see the people at the Oceanic mine have overcome this in a very ingenious way. I recently returned from the Terlingua quicksilver district of Texas, where the only operating company, the Chisos Mining Co., is operating a 20-ton furnace of the Scott type. They had considerable difficulty with getting a good extraction, clue to too high heating in the furnace with its .resulting diffIculties. Recently they have been running with ashpit and fire doors closed and have been able to keep the heat lower, thus getting much better results and practically verifying the results obtained at the Oceanic mine.

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion of the paper of N. V. Hansell, presented at the Cleveland Meeting, October, 1912, and published in Bulletin No. 72, December, 1912, pp. 1497 to 1,517. C. Q. PAYNE, New York (communication to the Secretary*) :-Mr. Hansell has presented in his paper a very interesting and valuable summary of the various methods of enriching iron-ores which have been developed during recent years. Particularly striking in this connection is the high degree of enrichment of the concentrates from magnetic iron-ores which is now commercially feasible. Magnetic concentrates containing from 6 7 to 139 per cent. of metallic iron, showing an efficiency of 90 and even 95 per cent. in. their separation, are not now uncommon. Such results exceed those obtained by gravity methods of treatment of all copper-, lead-, and zinc-ores, and are only equaled in the cyaniding of gold-ores and in the flotation treatment of certain copper-ores. It is of interest to note that the-type of magnetic field which is employed in securing these results, in the Gröndal (wet) and the Ball & Norton (dry) systems of treatment is the same in each case : viz., a field of alternating north and south poles. The credit for developing this simple and useful field, which has found so wide an application both in this country and abroad, is due to two American inventors and engineers, Clinton M. Ball and Sheldon Norton. At the same time, it should be noted that part of the improvement in the grade of the magnetic concentrates, especially in the case of the wet treatment of finely mineralized ores, is due to a well-devised scheme of mill-treatment, whereby a rough concentrate is usually obtained as an intermediate product, which is then recrushed and reseparated in obtaining final clean products.

Jan 3, 1913

By John A. Church

AT the last meeting of the Institute, a discussion arose upon the question, Is there pressure in coke ovens?" and many of the members seemed to think that the superiority of the Belgian furnace might be due to the fact that it is a completely closed chamber, in which the gases given off by the coal are, or may be, at more than the atmospheric reassure. It seems to me that this position is untenable, &apos;and that an examination of one of these ovens in operation will show, not only that there is no excess of pressure in the coke chamber, but that the contrary is true, and a partial vacuum exists. The Belgian or Francoise oven consists of a rectangular chamber closed at the ends by sliding doors, and furnished with flues in the side walls and floor. The new charge is introduced at a time when the furnace is so hot as to cause immediate and copious discharge of the volatile constituents of the coal. The gases pass downwards through the side flues giving out their heat to the walls and thus to the coal. Underneath the floor air is introduced and the gases burn, producing intense heat. Heat is also reflected from the arched roof upon the coal which is therefore heated from all sides. The especial advantage which this construction was designed to secure is that no air is admitted to the coke-chamber. All the heat is produced by the combustion of the unsociable gases, and the yield ought to be a maximum. I t is so in fact, allowing for the imperfections inseparable from furnace construction and management. Sometimes the yield is in excess of the percentage indicated by assay, showing that