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By Stanley Rajnak, John E. Dorn

The saddle-point activation energy for the nu-cleation of a pair of kinks is estimated as a function of the applied stress, the lattice constants, and the height and shape of the Peierls' hill by employing the line-energy model of a dislocation. The kinetics of disloration motion by the Peierls' mechanism are discussed and the microscopic dislocation velocities and macroscopic strain rates are formulated by the Arrkenius type of approach in terms of the activation energy for the formation of pairs of PEIERLS was the first to illustrate that a straight-dislocation line has its lowest energy when it lies in a potential valley parallel to lines of closest packing kinks. The log of the dislocation velocity is found to be approximately proportional to the log of the local applied stress. It is also shown that the low-temperature mechmical properties of several bcc metals might be explained in terms of the Peierls mechanism, good agreement being obtained between theory and experiment for the flow stress us ternperature, activation energy vs stress, and activation volume us stress curves for these metals. of atoms on the slip plane. When such a straight dislocation is moved rigidly from one valley toward the next, the atoms in the vicinity of the core of the dislocation change their positions and bond angles, causing the energy of the dislocation to increase. Midway between two adjacent valleys, the disloca-tion energy reaches a maximum value and any additional small displacement will cause the dislocation to fall down the hill into the next valley. The maximum shear stress necessary to promote such

Jan 1, 1964

By Gerald J. Anderson

The Marquette District of Central Northern Michigan is the oldest of the Lake Superior iron districts with a mining history dating from 1852 up to the present. The total production of all types of ore through 1965 was 338,120, 146 long tons. Emphasis up to the 1950's was on mining the direct shipping ores; however, demands for higher-grade and better-structured ores in the last decade has resulted in a complete shift in emphasis to beneficiating the lowgrade Negaunee Iron-formation to produce high-grade iron ore pellets. The Precambrian sediments of the Marquette Range have been correlated with the Animikie Series of the Thunder Bay District, Ontario, and are contained in a westward plunging synclinorium that is approximately 3 3 miles in length and 3 to 6 miles in width. -The rock unit of major economic importance is the Negaunee Iron-formation that reaches a thickness of 2500 feet near the City of Negaunee. The primary iron content of the Negaunee Iron-formation averages 26 per cent, whereas the altered iron-formation approximates 31 per cent. The Negaunee Iron-formation has been divided into three principal types: diagenetic, oxidized, and metamorphic. The ores produced to date fall into four categories: high-grade soft ores, high-grade hard ores, siliceous ores, and concentrates and agglomerates (pellets). The soft ores generally are found in synclines and in fault-trough structures, bounded by mafic dikes along at least one side, and are mainly found in the basal portion of the Negaunee. In contrast, the hard ores occur in the uppermost portion of the Negaunee and are controlled by structural features such as folds, faults, and dikes. Iron-formation that has undergone diagenetic and metamorphic alteration makes up the main beneficiating ore types. Studies on the Negaunee Iron-formation have played an important role in the formulation of many of the theories on the origin of the Precambrian iron-formations.

Jan 1, 1968

By Brahm Prakash, R. Schuhmann

Chemical conditions for flotation and nonflotation of quartz with oleic acid as collector and barium, calcium, aluminum, iron, and tin as activators were studied using a simple vacuum-flotation technique in glass-stoppered graduates. The detailed study of barium activation led to an interpretation based on ideal Langmuirian chemisorption.

Jan 1, 1950

By L. O. Howard

WHAT was perhaps the first attempt at basic converting in the Southwest was made by the late Charles F. Shelby at Cananea early in 1907, when he removed the acid lining from one of the 8 by 12-ft. barrel-type converters then in use at the reduction works of the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. and substituted a lining of one course of magnesite brick. In this shell, he blew 21 taps (about 180 tons) of matte to white metal before the brick gave out along the tuyère line. In every case, the white metal so made was transferred and blown to copper in other converters. The cost of the lining was $700 and Mr. Shelby gave up the experiment as impracticable. No further serious effort to bessemerize copper mattes in a vessel having a more or less permanent lining of basic brick was made by any of the large copper smelters in the Southwest until some months after Messrs. Peirce and Smith had brought the question permanently before the public, and had proved it to be a metallurgical and financial success by their work at Baltimore and Garfield. Early in 1911, the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. had in operation at its reduction works at Cananea, Mex., several 8 by 12-ft. barrel-type converters lined with magnesite brick which had previously been operating with acid linings. In the 18 months following, these converters produced 50,000 tons of copper. In June, 1912, this company installed the first of its new equipment of six stands of electrically operated 12-ft. Great Falls type converters, and shortly afterward discontinued the use of the smaller shells. In September, 1911, the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting & Refining Co. had installed at its El Paso plant two 10 by 26-ft. Peirce-Smith converters. Later, in March, 1913, one standard Great Falls type converter was added. .About the time the Peirce-Smith converters were going in at El Paso, the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. was experimenting with basic linings in 7-ft. by 10-ft. 6-in. barrel converters at its plant in Douglas, Ariz. These efforts were sufficiently successful to enable the plant to handle the total output of copper in these small shells until the standard. Great Falls converters were substituted in June, 1914.

Jan 9, 1916

By L. O. Howard

What was perhaps the first attempt at basic converting in the Southwest was made by the late Charles F. Shelby at Cananea early in 1907, when he removed the acid lining from one of the 8 by 12-ft. barrel-type converters then in use at the reduction works of the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. and substituted a lining of one course of magnesite brick. In this shell, he blew 21 taps (about 180 tons) of matte to white metal before the brick gave out along the tuyhre line. In every case, the white metal so made was transferred and blown to copper in other converters. The cost of the lining was $700 and Mr. Shelby gave up the experiment as impracticable. No further serious effort to bessemerize copper mattes in a vessel having a more or less permanent lining of basic brick was made by any of the large copper smelters in the Southwest until some months after Messrs. Peirce and Smith had brought the question permanently before the public, and had proved it to be a metallurgical and financial success by their work at Baltimore and Garfield. Early in 1911, the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. had in operation at its reduction works at Cananea, Mex., several 8 by 12-ft. barrel-type converters lined with magnesite brick which had previously been operating with acid linings. In the 18 months following, these converters produced 50,000 tons of copper. In June, 1912, this company installed the first of its new equipment of six stands of electrically operated 12-ft. Great Palls type converters, and shortly afterward discontinued the use of the smaller shells. In September, 1911, the Consolidated Kansas City Smelting & Refining Co. had installed at its El Paso plant two 10 by 26-ft. Peirce-Smith converters. Later, in March, 1913, one standard Great Falls type converter was added. About the time the Peirce-Smith converters were going in at El Paso, the Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. was experimenting with basic linings in 7-ft. by 10-ft. 6-in. barrel converters at its plant in Douglas, Ariz. These efforts were sufficiently successful to enable the plant to "handle the total output of copper in these small shells until the standard Great Falls converters were substituted in June, .1914.

Jan 1, 1917

By B. G. Klugh

(New York Meeting, February, 1912). IN a paper before the Institute at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., June 1911,1 Mr. James Gayley discussed the application of this process to iron-bearing materials. The same author2 described the results of operations at the plant at Birdsboro, Pa. The purpose of the present paper is to present further discussion of some technical details involved in the operation of this plant, and of the theoretical and practical relations of this product to blast-furnace practice. Since Oct. 1, 1911, the Birdsboro plant has been in operation at the blast-furnace of the E. & G. Brooke Iron Co. The results have been highly satisfactory, although the material treated, being chiefly the flue-dust currently made by the furnace or taken from the accumulated stock-pile, was excessively high, and yet not uniform, in carbon, so that the desirable control or regularity of the amount of fuel in the mixture treated could not be maintained. Nothing could more forcibly demonstrate the flexibility of the process than the fact that, under these conditions, the sinter produced was, in all cases, of excellent quality. The Dwight & Lloyd process, as such, and its present highly-developed mechanical appliances were described by Mr. Gayley in the paper above mentioned. While the repetition of some particulars will be unavoidable in this paper, it will be confined to features bearing upon the metallurgical principles involved. According to the principle of the process, the finely-divided iron-bearing material to be sintered is intimately mixed with

May 1, 1912

By Fun-Den, Wang

An open pit rock structure usually contains geological planes of weakness. They are formed by joints, faults, bedding planes, fractures, and cleavages. Rock slope failures often occur in the form of sliding of rock blocks along a plane or several planes. Such a rock block has three- dimensional geometry, and consequently a vector method of analysis has been found useful in evaluating its stability. Rock blocks of a tetrahedral shape with one free surface have been analyzed by Londe. Rock blocks formed by sets of parallel joints have been analyzed by Wittke. The present chapter presents the analysis of rock blocks formed by planes of weakness of arbitrary orientation, and of three-dimensional geometry.

Jan 1, 1972

By E. S. Wheeler, M. W. Murphy

A LARGE part of the molybdenum produced in Colorado is converted and consumed in the Eastern States. As the raw materials and the power needed for the conversion of the Colorado concentrate are also accessible in the Eastern States, the conversion plant has been installed some 1500 miles east of where the ore is mined and milled. When concentrate was first produced at Climax in 1918, a custom smelter converted the product into ferromolybdenum. By 1924, the Company had decided to produce calcium molybdate and rented a building and installed equipment for that purpose at Langeloth, near Burgettstown, Pa., about thirty miles west of Pittsburgh. For the first few years the plant was a simple one of small capacity. A small hand-rabbled roaster was used, the product of which was made iota calcium molybdate by a conventional method; then an eight hearth mechanically rabbled roaster was installed to increase and speed up production. The output was considerably less than a million pounds of contained molybdenum annually until 1928, when a small part of the produc-

Jan 1, 1946

By H. H. Campbell

MANY attempts have been made to write a formula by which to calculate the strength of steel from its chemical composition, but most of these endeavors have failed because there were too many disturbing conditions. It is idle to collect from the pages of trade-papers, books, or the proceedings of scientific societies, a multitude of observations. The combination of such results will simply show that steel of the same composition will vary in tensile strength through wide limits-a fact that has been known for generations. That cold-working, overheating, and many another form of heat-treatment alter fundamentally the strength of steel, is ancient history, although it is only recently that the microscope has pointed out the road to an explanation of the phenomena. It may be urged that the microscopic structure must be taken into consideration in any formula giving the ultimate strength, but from the standpoint of the present investigation this is unnecessary. We are trying to determine primarily, not what changes in ultimate strength may be made by variations in the condition of carbon, but what effect is produced by changes in the amount of carbon, when its condition remains constant. For such an inquiry, in order that the condition of the carbon should remain as nearly uniform as possible, it is essential that all test-pieces be made under the same conditions; and it is be¬lieved that the tests described in this paper satisfy that require¬ment. The investigations were made at the works of the Pennsylvania Steel Company,. Steelton, Pa.; the ingots from which the tests were made were 6 in. square in every case; they were heated in the same furnace and forged at the same ham

Jan 1, 1905

By J. D. Lubahn

The influence of precipitation from solid solution on the subsequent deformation resistance of alloys is well known. However, the influence of precipitation or aging that occurs simultaneously with deformation may be entirely different and of considerable importance. It is thought1 that the presence or absence of a yield point jog in impure iron at room temperature and the presence or absence of discontinuous flow at higher temperatures may be directly related to aging phenomena, particularly since the yield point jog is absent when the carbon and nitrogen are sufficiently removed.2 As a preliminary attack on the problem of simultaneous aging and deformation, three kinds of tests—constant strain rate tensile tests, constant load creep tests, and variable strain rate tensile tests—were carried out on an age hardenahle aluminum alloy. Constant Strain Rate Tensile Tests Stress-strain curves at a strain rale of about 0.001 min-1 were obtained for specimens of 61S that had been quenched into liquid nitrogen after a one-hour solution treatment at 521°C, then aged at room temperature 10 min., 20 min., 4 hr, and 26.5 hr before testing. Strain-time curves were obtained on the same chart with the stress-strain curve by means of an auxiliary pen, driven parallel to the axis of the chart drum at constant speed by a synchronous motor and gear chain. The angle of rotation of the chart drum was proportional to strain. The strain rates reported are the measured slopes of the strain time curves. Constant strain rate was approximated (within a factor of 2) by manual adjustment of the oil inlet valve of the hydraulic testing machine in such a way that the course of the recorder pen was parallel to pre-drawn strain-time lines of the desired slope. The specimens were machined from 9/16 in. rod. The cylindrical portion was 0.357 in. in diam by 13/4 in. long and

Jan 1, 1950

By Ralph E. Esarey, George V. Cohee

In Indiana, 349 wells were drilled for oil and gas in the year 1942. Of this number, 125 oil wells and 21 gas wells were successfully completed and 203 were dry holes. Drilling activity declined 37 per cent as compared with that of the year 1941. This reduction was brought about largely by Federal Conservation Order M-68, restricting drilling to one well on 40 acres, in order to save steel. This Order was later supplemented to permit closer spacing of wells drilled to sandstone formations in southwestern Indiana. Most of the drilling in 1942 was in the southwestern part of the state. Posey County ranked first, with 94 completions and 44 producers; Gibson County, second, with 77 completions and 38 producing oil wells and 2 gas wells. There were 58 drilling operations in the state at the end of the year. During 1942 a total of 589,734 ft. of hole was drilled, of which 231,702 ft. was wildcat footage. The total initial production of the oil wells completed was 9974 bbl. and of the gas wells, 11,148,000 cu. ft. (Table 2). Of the 349 wells completed, 122 were wildcat wells (Table 3); 26 were completed as oil wells; 17 were extensions to proven fields and 9 discovered new pools. Posey County was foremost in wildcat drilling, with 37 wells completed (Table 6). Thirty-five per cent of the wells drilled in 1942 were wildcat, as compared with 25.5 per cent in 1941. It is anticipated that the percentage of wildcat wells drilled in 1943 will be greater, although the total number ol ,wells drilled in the state will probably be less. The new discoveries in Indiana in I942 were, for the most part, one-well pools in the southwestern part—in Posey, Gibson and Spencer Counties (Table 4). Most of the development in pools took place in the . Hazelton and Kirksville pools in Gibson County, Mr. Vernon pool in Posey County and the Vernon Heights pool in Vander-burgh County. Deeper production was obtained from the Osage limestone in the Hazelton pool at a depth of 2402 ft., 650 ft. below the productive McClosky limestone. The well had an initial production of 140 barrels. Extensions to 17 pools in the southwestern part of the state were successfully completed (Table 5). An interesting development during 1942 was new production from the Devonian limestone in the Dodds Bridge pool, Sullivan County. The Ohio Oil Co. deepened one of its wells, which had been producing from a shallow sand, to the,Devonian, and it was completed for an initial production of 77 bbl. Five other Devonian producing wells were completed in that area. Crude-oil production in Indiana in 1942 was 6,609,000 bbl. (Table I). The Griffin field, Gibson and Posey Counties, which produced approximately 3,550,000 bbl., accounted for more than half of the state's production. The Mt, Vernon and New Harmony fields were next in importance of production, with 684,000 and 523,000 bbl., respectively. The price of crude oil was $1.22 a barrel for the old

Jan 1, 1943

By George V. Cohee, Ralph E. Esarey

In Indiana, 349 wells were drilled for oil and gas in the year 1942. Of this number, 125 oil wells and 21 gas wells were successfully completed and 203 were dry holes. Drilling activity declined 37 per cent as compared with that of the year 1941. This reduction was brought about largely by Federal Conservation Order M-68, restricting drilling to one well on 40 acres, in order to save steel. This Order was later supplemented to permit closer spacing of wells drilled to sandstone formations in southwestern Indiana. Most of the drilling in 1942 was in the southwestern part of the state. Posey County ranked first, with 94 completions and 44 producers; Gibson County, second, with 77 completions and 38 producing oil wells and 2 gas wells. There were 58 drilling operations in the state at the end of the year. During 1942 a total of 589,734 ft. of hole was drilled, of which 231,702 ft. was wildcat footage. The total initial production of the oil wells completed was 9974 bbl. and of the gas wells, 11,148,000 cu. ft. (Table 2). Of the 349 wells completed, 122 were wildcat wells (Table 3); 26 were completed as oil wells; 17 were extensions to proven fields and 9 discovered new pools. Posey County was foremost in wildcat drilling, with 37 wells completed (Table 6). Thirty-five per cent of the wells drilled in 1942 were wildcat, as compared with 25.5 per cent in 1941. It is anticipated that the percentage of wildcat wells drilled in 1943 will be greater, although the total number ol ,wells drilled in the state will probably be less. The new discoveries in Indiana in I942 were, for the most part, one-well pools in the southwestern part—in Posey, Gibson and Spencer Counties (Table 4). Most of the development in pools took place in the . Hazelton and Kirksville pools in Gibson County, Mr. Vernon pool in Posey County and the Vernon Heights pool in Vander-burgh County. Deeper production was obtained from the Osage limestone in the Hazelton pool at a depth of 2402 ft., 650 ft. below the productive McClosky limestone. The well had an initial production of 140 barrels. Extensions to 17 pools in the southwestern part of the state were successfully completed (Table 5). An interesting development during 1942 was new production from the Devonian limestone in the Dodds Bridge pool, Sullivan County. The Ohio Oil Co. deepened one of its wells, which had been producing from a shallow sand, to the,Devonian, and it was completed for an initial production of 77 bbl. Five other Devonian producing wells were completed in that area. Crude-oil production in Indiana in 1942 was 6,609,000 bbl. (Table I). The Griffin field, Gibson and Posey Counties, which produced approximately 3,550,000 bbl., accounted for more than half of the state's production. The Mt, Vernon and New Harmony fields were next in importance of production, with 684,000 and 523,000 bbl., respectively. The price of crude oil was $1.22 a barrel for the old

Jan 1, 1943

By J. V. Vogel

Jan 1, 1969

IN accordance with a programme arranged by a committee of the Institute, consisting of Mr. William P. Shinn, of St. Louis, chairman, and Mr. Joseph D. Weeks, of Pittsburgh, secretary, the member's of the Institute, with their ladies and invited guests, assembled in Chicago on Sunday morning, August 22d. A special train, provided by the Chicago and Northwestern Railway,. left Chicago on Monday morning at 7.50 o'clock, and conveyed the party to Marquette, arriving at 9 o'clock P.M. Here the steamer Northern Queen, which had been chartered by the committee for the accommodation of the Institute, was in waiting, and the members and ladies at once took up their quarters on the boat. EXCURSIONS IN THE MARQUETTE IRON REGION. Local Committee. EXECUTIVE. -J. C. Morse, chairman; C. Y. Osburn, secretary ; D. F. Wadsworth, treasurer; C. H. Hall, H. Merry. RECEPTION.-S. P. Ely, J. P. Pendill, E. Breitung, W. F. Swift, A. P. Swineford, J. C. Fowle, C. G. Griffey. TRANSPORTATION.-Samuel Schoch, D. Morgan, D. H.. Merritt, J. Pickands. FINANCE.-Peter White, A. W. Maitland, W D. Rees, E. R. Hall. EXCURSIONS.-W. E. Dickinson, H. A. Burt, A.. Kidder, C. E. Wright. REFRESHMENTS.-J. Q. Adams, H. H. Stafford, Joseph Kirkpatrick, D. H. Bacon. On Tuesday the iron mines in the vicinity of Negaunee and Ishpeming were visited, transportation being provided by special trains on the Marquette, Houghton and Ontonagon Railroad. In the morning the McComber, South Jackson, and Jackson mines were inspected, and in the afternoon the Cleveland, New York, Lake Superior, and Barnum mines. Dinner was provided at Negaunee, and gracefully served by, the ladies of the town. In the evening the first session of the Institute was held in the saloon of the steamer. The President, William P. Shinn, of St. Louis, congratulated the Institute on the happy consummation of the wishes of its members to have a meeting on Lake Superior. After tedious and baffling negotiations arrangements had been com-

Jan 1, 1881

By Roy P. Full, Robert M. Grantham

Regional structural adjustments in early Tertiary time resulted in the development of the Republic graben, a major down-dropped block that is from 6 to 10 miles in width and more than fifty miles in length. The graben became the center of extensive volcanic activity during Eocene and Oligocene time, resulting in a thick sequence of water-laid tuffaceous sediments, volcanic flows, and associated intrusives. A younger series of sediments, pyroclastics, and flows were deposited in structural depressions within the graben following the period of widespread volcanic activity. The Republic mining district is located along one of the major intragraben structural zones, where continuing subsidence during the period of volcanic activity resulted in an increased thickness of flows and associated flow breccias and pyroclastics. Intrusive masses in part healed early graben-forming faults, but later subsidence reopened old faults and created new fracture zones which later became the control for the gold-quartz veins. Considerable block adjustment along the subsidence area is evidenced by the structural pattern in the mines, and telescoped vein structures indicate north-south compressional stresses and east-west graben-forming tensional stresses prior to and during the emplacement of the veins. The veins, varying from a few feet to more than 50 feet in width, are filled primarily by fine-grained quartz, commonly chalcedonic or porcelain-like in appearance. Finely laminated dark-gray to black concentric banding within the veins generally distinguishes the better-grade ore zones, which contain finely disseminated sulfides and ore minerals that include principally electrum, stephanite, naumannite, and native silver.

Jan 1, 1968

By AIME AIME

INDUSTRIAL Pittsburgh, the center of the coal and iron and steel industry of the world, was host to the Coal Division at its Fall Meeting held there on Oct. 21 and 22 at the William Penn Hotel. The past year has witnessed remarkable progress in new methods of mining and burning of coal and many of the papers on the program discussed these developments. Nearly 100 had registered at the time of the first session on Wednesday morning and this number increased to 168 on Thursday. Owing to the large number of papers on the program, eighteen in all, it was necessary to hold group meetings on Thursday morning, with a capacity attendance at each meeting. . Chairman McAuliffe was on hand early Wednesday morning to open the meeting. George Otis Smith, representing President Lovejoy, came over from Cleveland where he attended the meetings of the Institute of Metals Division. Secretary Parsons arrived later from Cleveland and spent the whole morning with the executive committee of the Division. Doctor Smith, Secretary Parsons, and J. T. Breunich were the official representatives from Institute headquarters.

Jan 1, 1936

Erwin S. SperRy, Bridgeport, Conn.: The analysis of refined copper is a subject of great importance, and has not received the attention it deserves. Copper metallurgists, therefore, will welcome the paper of Mr. Heath with satisfaction. The state of the art of the chemical analysis of copper has been such that consumers, if they could not afford to run any risk, have been obliged to buy copper from the smelter having the best reputation, and a specification for copper to meet certain requirements could not be drawn up by the mere giving of the chemical constituents. Mr. Heath has brought the analysis of the copper to such a state that when a specification calls for copper " equal to Lake copper " one will know immediately what percentage of the pure metal to expect. It seems to be a pretty well established fact that the copper of Lake Superior is practically free from antimony and bitmuth ; and, with the exception of arsenic, the other elements are easily separated from copper by electro-deposition in an acid solution. The authorities differ in regard to the question whether antimony is deposited with the copper in an acid solution. Classen* recommends the employment of a solution containing 10 per cent. of free nitric acid, sp.gr.1.21, and the strength of the current from 0.3 to 0.4 ampere, in order to prevent the other metals from being deposited with the copper; and for this reason, I presume, the method has been generally used. I, myself, have been accustomed to use such a solution for the analysis of copper-alloys, but have found that for such alloys only a small quantity of nitric acid is necessary, if sulphuric acid is present in sufficient amount to give the solution the required conductivity.

Jan 1, 1898

By Eckley B. Coxe

I wish to call the attention of the Institute to a peculiar variety of anthracite which occurs in the Buck Mountain vein at our collieries at Drifton, and in the same and other veins in different localities in the anthracite coal-fields. It is known among the workmen as iron-gray or cast-iron. It has a dull, greasy appearance, as if a piece of ordinary anthracite had been rubbed with a dirty and greasy rag and allowed to dry. It was formerly considered a very impure coal containing a high percentage of ash, and was picked out of the coal and thrown away. But the following analysis of it and of its ash, made by Mr. J. Blodget Britton, of Philadelphia, shows that such is not the case, the percentage of ash not being much higher than that of the ordinary anthracites as they are prepared for market. ANALYSIS OF COAL. Water,.........4.36 Fixed carbon, by difference,.. 84.90 Volatile combustible matter,. . 3 48 Ash,..........7.26 100.00 The carbon proved to some extent to be of the nature of graphite, and slowly combustible. ANALYSIS OF ASH. Silica,.........25.66 Sulphur,........ .17 Alumina,........27.03 Phosphoric acid,.......21 Ferric oxide,.......42.83 Alkali, undetermined matter and Lime,.........1.56 loss,.........60 Magnesia,........1.83 Manganous oxide,......11 100.00 We recently collected a quantity of the substance and made a fire with it, in an ordinary stove, which was kept up several days. We found that it burned with intense heat, and apparently as freely as our other coal does. Mr. Britton is probably right in his view, that the difference in appearance is not due to impurities in the coal, but to the fact that the carbon is in a more or less graphitic form, as many of the standard coals are no purer. I bring this before the Institute as I know that a large quantity of this valuable fuel is thrown away every year, on account of its supposed impurities.

Jan 1, 1879

By Victor De Ysassi

THE iron mines of Spain are located on the mountain ridge forming the boundary between the, Teruel and Guadalajara provinces, called Sierra Menera. They form a property of 25 mines extending over an area of 1,677 hectares (4,140 acres) situated at a height varying from 1,200 m. (3,940 ft.) to 1,500 m. (4,920 ft.) above sea level. The deposit follows the direction north to south; huge masses of ore are being found both on the slopes and at the summit of the Sierra. The ore occurs among quartzites and magnesite limestone, in some places overlaid by quartzite 15 in. (50 ft.) thick; in some others (and this is more general) the ore is overlaid by earth and boulders of quartzite origin,; this layer is about 8 m. (26 ft.) thick. The ore beds occupy the geological horizon of the Superior Trias or Muschelkask, which are here in direct contact with the Silurian quartzites. The lime-stones have been more or less transformed. There is ample evidence to show that these mines were worked in very ancient times-objects and tools employed in mining by the ancient Romans and Arabs are to be found plentifully in old workings which extend down into the deposits. It has been estimated that more than 10,000,000 tons of ore were mined in the old days in this district and carried to the primitive forges in the vicinity where iron of much renown in Spain was extracted. Remains of more than 20 of these forges are found in the neighborhood of Sierra Menera and are usually situated near waterfalls and forests. Much investigation has been carried on for the purpose of determining the quantity of ore to be found in these mines, but no exact calculations can be made at present. When the investigation is completed it will surely be found that the deposit contains a much larger quantity than the 100,000,000 tons indicated by the present workings.

Jan 2, 1916

By R. J. Mechin

Top-slicing was introduced in the Pachuca district in 1917 by T. C. Baker, at that time mine superintendent of the Santa Gertmdis mine. There then existed 1200 ft. below the surface, lying between the fourteenth and eighteenth levels (a vertical distance of 354.2 ft.) a block of ore having a length of 295 ft. and an average width of 82 ft. and dipping at an angle of 65°. This block lay in the hanging wall of the vein and consisted of highly altered and fractured andesite, cut through with mineralized quartz stringers. On the foot-wall side, 26 ft. of old filling, left by former operators, was of payable grade. Stoping therein was first undertaken by the square-set filling system, but because of the extremely heavy hanging wall and loose dry filling in the foot wall, all square setting had to be accompanied by spiling, which made the operation exceedingly slow and costly. A system of mining was sought that would eliminate the difficulties inherent to the square-set system in heavy ground and that at the same time would effect the desired economies in mining. After several years, top-slicing has met all the conditions most satisfactorily, so that when similar conditions presented themselves in El Bordo mine, this method was adopted with necessary modifications. El Bordo mine is operated by the Santa Gertrudis company, and is situated about two miles north of Pachuca. Because of the diversity of the orebodies, a number of different mining methods are in use, among them top-slicing. Description of Block of Ore Former operators, when mining the original vein, left in the foot wall ore of too low grade to be profitable at the time; also, considerabe low-grade material was sorted out and stored as filling in the stopes. Some pillars were left in place, either for support or because they were not payable. All this has formed a body of ore that can now be exploited

Jan 1, 1925