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By V. H. Wilhelm

Developments in California during 1942 were marked by many difficulties in operation, of which the lack of labor and material were the main factors in slowing down work. During the many years of curtailment, which has been effective since 1928, a number of estimates of the state's capacity to produce have been built up, but during the year 44 fields were 'eliminated from curtailment and valuable data were obtained as to the normal capacity of these fields to produce. Because of new discoveries and the normal decline of old fields, which is more than 15 per cent per year, it is estimated that the sustained capacity of the state for a 5-year period is not more than 500,000 bbl. per day. Decline in the rate of production was greatest in the fields in the Los Angeles Basin district. These fields have been produced nearly at capacity for many years and had no reserve of shut-in production. The San Joaquin Valley and Coastal districts have responded well to the increased allotments assigned to them by the Petroleum Administrator for War. All heavy oil fields in the state are on full production, except in the Coastal district, where transportation is the limiting factor. Although approximately 2500 more wells are on production in the state than there were in 1941, the supply of heavy crude has not yet reached the demand. A summary of statistics for 1941 and 1942 is given in the following table. Production in California for 1942 was 680,000 bbl. a day as against 631,000 bbl. a day for 1941, an increase of 7.8 per cent. The present maximum efficient rate has been estimated at 808,000 bbl. per day. This indicates that in the 15 restricted fields of the state there is only an additional 83,000 bbl. per day of light oil available. Drilling Activity Drilling activity during the year was equivalent to but 70 per cent of normal. Although shortages of equipment and labor were in part responsible for the reduced drilling activity, the main reasons were the lack of proved locations due to a cycle of very few new discoveries and the restrictions of Conservation Order M-68. For the first six months of the year, 300 new oil wells were completed, which were equally divided as to the number of light and heavy oil producers. But, for the last six months of the year, it is

Jan 1, 1943

LIST OF THE MEETINGS OF THE INSTITUTE AND THEIR LOCALITIES FROM ITS ORGANIZATION Transactions Number Place Date Vol Page 1 Wilkes-Barre, Pa May, ?71 1 3 2 Bethlehem, Pa August, ?71 1 10 3 Troy, N Y November, ?71 1 13 4 Philadelphia, Pa February, ?72 1 17 5 New York, N Y May, ?72 1 20 6 Pittsburg, Pa October, ?72 1 25 7 Boston, Mass February, ?73 1 28 8 Philadelphia, Pa May, ?73 2 3 9 Easton, Pa October, ?73 2 7 10 New York, N Y February, ?74 211 11 St Louis, Mo May, ?74 3 3 12 Hazleton, Pa October, ?74 3 8 13 New Haven, Conn February, ?75 3 15 14 Dover, N J May, ?75 4 3 15 Cleveland, 0 October, ?75 4 9 16 Washington, D C February, ?76 4 18 17 Philadelphia, Pat June, ?76, 5 3 18 Philadelphia, Pa October, ?76 5 9 19 New York, N Y February, ?77 5 27 20 Wilkes-Barre, Pa May, ?77 6 3 21 Amenia, N Y October, ?77 6 10 22 Philadelphia, Pa. May, ?78 6 18

Jan 1, 1923

By Bunting S. Crocker

In the summer of 1961, the Anaconda Research staff and Kilborn Engineering Ltd. began a study to investigate the possibilities of using some form of autogenous grinding in the new concentrator which Anaconda was planning to erect at Butte, adjacent to their Berkeley pit. The following criteria applied to the project: 1) The Butte mill was to be able to handle 36,000 to 42,000 tpd of copper ore, taken from the Berkeley pit and adjacent underground mines. 2) The plant was to be built in six units. 3) It would be started up two units at a time. 4) Equipment from the Anaconda mill was available for use in the new location. 5) Tonnage would be maintained at Butte and Anaconda, with equipment being moved down as required. 6) The ore from the Berkeley pit was known to vary widely from place to place in the pit and to be generally soft and friable.

Jan 5, 1964

By T. A. Read, S. W. Kitchen, H. I. Fusfeld

At the present time most artillery cartridge cases are used only a single time. Since the process of reshaping a fired cartridge case so that it may be used again is much simpler and cheaper than the original manufacture of the case, it is clear that important savings could be effected if such re-formed cases were used in place of new cases. Extensive use of reconditioned cases has been hindered in the past, however, by the deterioration of the brass which may occur in the period of time between the first firing and the reconditioning of the cartridge cases. This deterioration sometimes results in a dangerously high incidence of firing splits in groups of reconditioned cartridge cases. It appears that the mechanism of the deterioration is the season cracking of the brass, for season cracks, of varying degrees of severity, may frequently be found in the cartridge cases after their return from the field. There are, of course, severe practical limitations to the extent to which fired cartridge cases can be protected from corrosion under battle conditions, particularly since the powder residue in the case is itself corrosive. The present paper describes a rapid method of testing the sidewalls of artillery cartridge cases for the presence of season cracks. This method has been developed specifically for use in connection with the reconditioning of fired cases, and makes it possible to carry out 100 per cent inspection. This new method of inspecting cartridge

Jan 1, 1945

By Robert B. Sosman

ONE of the most neglected fields for physicochemical education as well as for research is that of high-temperature phenomena. Few universities or technical schools give instruction in the physical chemistry of substances at high temperatures. On the contrary such instruction is almost entirely confined to the region between the freezing and boiling points of water. This field should be extended to a much wider range of temperatures, both low and high. Such an extension is logical, sound, feasible, and practical.

Jan 1, 1943

The Motor Truck Sections of the 20th Annual Automobile Shows of 1920, to be held in the 8th Coast Artillery Armory, New York, Jan. 3 to 10, 1920, and in the International Amphitheatre, Chicago, Jan. 24 to 31, 1920, will he the largest and most comprehensive exhibitions of the kind ever held. Approximately 125,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space has been alloted at each place and upward of seventy makes of motor trucks, together with trailers, pacts and accessories will be dis-played. In conjunction with these expositions, Highway Transport Conferences will be held, with sessions each afternoon and evening. Every important phase of highway transportation will be discussed by men recognized as qualified authorities. Various talks will he il-lustrated by motion pictures and stereoptican slides. Members of the Institute may apply for complimentary tickets to-S. A. Miles, Manager, 7 East 42d Street, New York City.

Jan 12, 1919

B. F. TILLSON,* Franklin Furnace, N. J.-I would like to ask Major Yerkes if he will not give us more examples of the tests than are contained in the printed pamphlet. It would be of great interest to study them more carefully. ROBERT M. YERKES, Washington, D. C.-The reason for not reproducing the methods in any public print is that it lessens their value and necessitates the preparation of new test materials. BRADLEY STOUGHTON, New York, N. Y.-I hope that this matter will be of so much interest to the members of the Institute that the Directors will decide to appoint a committee which can bring further results of this practice before us. I understand that Columbia University, at least in some departments, has already adopted the B and A tests and is using them. I understand that some industries have considered seriously the question of grading their employees in accordance with

Jan 4, 1919

By H. De Cizancourt

AS in former years, Pechelbronn, in Alsace, was the most important producer in 1936, with 484,453 bbl., of which 283,151 from drilling and 201,302 from mining showed a slight increase in comparison with the preceding year. Gabian, in France and Tliouanet, in Algeria, are nearly exhausted. At Gabian, four wells drilled in intermittent exploitation produced during the year 2893 bbl. Four wildcats, one of which is producing, constituted all the activity in research on French territory. In Morocco, some wildcats have been drilled in search for new fields and exploratory drilling has been done in Tselfat and in Djebel Bou Draa in known fields, but the results have been inconsiderable. In Tunisia there was a gas outburst in Kebir 1, which is the first practical result obtained. In Madagascar, the Andrafiavelo region has been left and a new region has been tried in Folakara with the Tsimororo. In French Equatorial Africa, one drilling is in progress.

Jan 1, 1937

A novel method of reconditioning vertical rock openings which are on the verge of collapse has been developed, ant1 a world patent applied for, by LKAB, the Swedish iron ore mining company. Without anyone descending into the dangerous opening, workers can place concrete reinforcement in the unstable section using sand-filled canvas tubes which LKAR development engineers are calling "stockings." First application of the new technique was in several inclined ore pockets which form part of the underground crushing and loading station at LKAB's Kiirunavaara mine in Swedish Lapland. LKAB experience demonstrated that with other methods it took about three months to repair a pocket, and neighboring pockets had to be closed while repairs were underway. With the new stocking method, the work was completed in three weeks with no disruption of nearby activities. Production losses amounted to 10% over the three-week period, as opposed to 30% with other methods. The simplified technique could save millions of dollars in underground maintenance, according to LKAB.

Jan 11, 1978

The following are excerpts from the report of the Treasurer of the United Engineering Society, for the year ending Dec. 31, 1915. Finances Due to the growth of the activities of the United Engineering Society, it was found desirable early in the year to consolidate the various accounts and financial records of the Society and of the Library, heretofore kept separately, and to have all the data pertaining to the building and its operation in the charge of one individual. An assistant secretary especially assigned to this work has been appointed, and a separate office has been established. The Finance Committee has had all of the records brought fully to date and has prepared a new set of account books to meet the new conditions. The Real Estate Account now includes the following items: Land $ 540,000.00 Building 1,050,000.00 Equipment 33,171.16 Founder Societies, Preliminary expenses 24,000.00 Total $1,647,171.16

Jan 4, 1916

By William P. Blake

The adaptation of aluminum to the construction of portable instruments of precision, where lightness is important, is well illustrated by the double reflecting and repeating circle, the invention of Captain Charles Hervey Tomnshend, of New Haven. One of these instruments, now exhibited to the members, has just been completed by Stackpole & Bro., of New York, and is made of aluminum, with the exception of a few minor pieces and a portion of the handle. This instrument is intended for use in a boat, and to be held in one hand like a sextant; and as it is a complete circle, lightness of the material becomes more important. The whole instrument, as shown, exclusive of the eye-pieces and the handle, weighs only one pound, or about one-third of the weight of a sextant of the usual construction. The circle, about nine inches in diameter, was cast in one piece from metal furnished by the Pittsburgh Company.

Jan 1, 1890

By W. J. Travers

SEVERAL new procedures for completing oil wells have been developed in recent years. Each method when used where properly applicable promises to be a definite aid to operators in lowering development or operating costs, or in developing the full potentialities of the oil well. Multiple-zone completions are now frequently used, in contrast to the older practice of setting a solid water string over each zone to be produced. Gravel packing in unconsolidated formations often prevents sand troubles formerly experienced where a conventional perforated liner was used. Light-weight bentonitic clay muds and oil-base drilling fluids are definite steps toward eliminating mudding damage, which occurs when heavy rotary mud is used. Since in each case the new procedure developed is an alternate of older conventional methods, a problem of selection is presented. The purpose of this paper is to suggest methods of arriving at these choices and to present practical observations that may be of aid in their application.

Jan 1, 1942

The 116th (New York) Meeting of the Institute will be held in the third week of February, 1918. The Committee on Papers and Publications has set Dec. 1, 1917, as the closing date for the receipt of .manuscripts intended for this meeting. Manuscripts must be received by the Secretary on or before this date. If they are sent through members of the technical committees they must be sent to those committees enough in advance of the time to be forwarded and in the. hands of the Secretary by the time specified.

Jan 11, 1917

By Henry A. Mather

While this device is not new in its inception, its peculiar advantages failed to be of practical utility until furnace-builders instituted the mechanical reform of supporting the upper and lower water-jackets by hanging them from an I-beam frame, independently upheld by iron columns, instead of resting the entire weight of structure on the bottom, as practice formerly prescribed. The Colorado Iron Works were among the first to build copper-furnaces of this description, and the device, illustrated herewith, has been installed by them in three recent plants,—two furnaces for the Westinghouse interests near Ely, Vermont, and one for the Grand Prize Copper Company, of Gila county, Arizona. The jack-screw supports (Figs. 1 and 2) and the familiar iron bottom of former practice are retained as integral parts of this new furnace-bottom. And, instead of resting inert on the tapfloor of the furnace-room, the jack-screws are supported on and bolted to two I-beams the length of the furnace, placed immediately beneath, and parallel to, its sides. These I-beams are bolted to, and supported by, three steel axles equipped with small flanged wheels, the whole constituting a carriage, which runs freely on a track. The entire apparatus is movable or rigid at will, for the wheels are easily braced, if the tension of the tightened jack-screws does not serve to hold the whole in position. The advantages of this design will be at once apparent to those who have had practical experience in barring furnaces provided with stationary iron bottoms. It is a well-known fact that the larger part of the time occupied in cleaning and preparing a frozen furnace for active service is necessitated by working in a confined place where the temperature is uncomfortable, and that in such case the débris must be removed from

Jan 1, 1903

By Boris J. Kochanowsky

In a mobile crushing unit system trucks are replaced by a conveyor, which results in a continuous, almost fully automated operation with all its attendant advantages. Because of new designs for large mobile crushing units that have been placed on the market, the use of these plants has increased significantly during the last three years. Gains in productivity and reductions in costs are vital to every mine operator, and the shovel-crusher-conveyor system is a powerful tool with which to achieve this goal. New Designs Increase Throughput While Reducing Size The basic concept of the shovel-crusher-conveyor scheme of operations is simple and sound, with the result that domestic operators are showing a growing interest in its application. A number of operators have been using small mobile crushing plants for several years, but large operators, in spite of considerable interest, have not been able to use this system because no mobile crusher capable of crushing 1000-2000 tph of rock loaded by a large shovel (6-12 cu yd) has been available. A suitable crusher must accept rock of the size handled by these large shovels, be simple in design, easily maneuverable, remotely controllable, and have price and maintenance costs not much higher than those for stationary crusher installations.

Jan 9, 1968

PROF RICHARD ÅKERMAN Stockholm, Sweden ANDREW CARNEGIR New York, N.Y. DR. JAMES DOUGLAS New York, N.Y. R.A. HADFIELD Sheffield England PROF HANS HOEFER Leoben, Austria PROF HATON DE LA GOUPILLIERE Paris, France M FLORIS OSMOND Paris, France PROF DIMITRY CONSTANTIN TSCHERNOFF St Petersburg, Russia PROF DR HERMANN WEDDING Berlin, Germany

Jan 1, 1910

By Georges Fleming

The new burden preparation plant of ARBED Luxembourg, Belval- Works, which comprises 2 large sinter strands, is equipped with a process computer connected to a comprehensive process control system. The main jobs done by the computer are the control of the raw mix composition, and thus the monitoring of the stacking of the piles at the bed-blending plant, and the optimization of the sintering process. Among the optimization criteria, quality is considered as the most important. The sinter quality, characterized by the mechanical strength and the state of oxidation, is controlled automatically. The control system which we have dev loped is highly reliable; as a result, the standard deviation of Fe++, for the control of bivalent iron, has been narrowed to 0,5 % and the standard deviation of the IS0 + 6, 3 mm index, for the control of the mechanical strength, has been kept within 1 %. Thanks to these results, the combined savings in fuel consumption at the sinter plant and at the blast furnaces have covered the total costs of the optimization project in 2 years. By applying automatic control, the optimum driving range of the sinter plant has been defined and these new guidelines are used for monitoring the sinter production.

Jan 1, 1977

By T. L. Joseph

IN connection with its investigations of the blast'-furnace process, the Bureau of Mines, in coöperation with the Minnesota School of Mines Experiment Station, developed a 6-ton experimental furnace. Such a furnace was needed to determine the feasibility of producing ferromanganese from Minnesota manganiferous iron ores, a problem of national importance because of the present need for manganese in the steel industry and our small reserves of ferro-grade ores. Furnace operators are reluctant to use new or untried raw materials or to make decided innovations in practice on account of the financial hazard of experimenting with full-scale equipment. A small furnace which can be operated at a relatively low cost is particularly adapted for testing new, raw materials and for determining the feasibility of decided innovations in practice. Laboratory experiments, plus whatever information may be available, are valuable but often do not indicate the net result of changes in an operation involving a large number of interrelated variables. From time to time the coöperation of the Bureau of Mines is solicited in connection with problems involving departures from normal procedure. Under these circumstances some sort of a practical demonstration is a desirable forerunner to full-scale operations which appear feasible after small-scale tests.

Jan 1, 1928

By Philip McKenna

WHEN a new material becomes available to industry, it is useful to describe its properties as a guide to its most effective application; and when the new material may be produced in compositions having a series of graded properties, tests to select the combination of properties best adapted for various uses are helpful. The class of materials to be con-sidered in this paper are hard tool materials produced by processes of powder metallurgy from hard carbide constituents and various matrices of iron, nickel or cobalt, or alloys of them with tungsten, or tungsten and carbon. The customary use of carbide hard alloys is for metal-cutting tools; although wire-drawing dies, lathe centers, follow rests, grinding rests, burnishers, rolls, extrusion dies, measuring gauges and micrometers, and a number of other tools are also made with these hard alloys as the essen-tial wear-resisting parts. The properties and tests to be considered are those affecting these uses. In the development of tool, materials since the industrial revolution we have had carbon tool steels, Mushet steel, high-speed steels, stellites, and now cemented carbide compositions. For an understanding of the latter category of materials their properties and uses relative to the older and more familiar tool materials will be considered.

Jan 1, 1938

By Hugh D. Pallister, Richard W. Smith

The Alabama flake-graphite industry has flourished only in times of war when importations of foreign graphite for crucible use have been greatly curtailed or cut off. World War I was a boom period and in 1918 some 30 plants produced 7,795,475 lb. of flake graphite. The industry languished following the war and no graphite was produced from 1929 to 1939. The Federal Bureau of Mines began investigating the Alabama graphite deposits in 1940 and worked out modern recovery methods that were applied to production during part of World War II. A prospecting program disclosed reserves of over 25 million tons of graphitic schists. In 1942 the War Production Board authorized the enlargement of the only plant then producing flake graphite and the construction of two new plants. Production of flake graphite from these three plants in 1943 is estimated at 8,100,000 lb. Increased imports from Madagascar late in 1943 shut down one of the new plants and curtailed production at the other. Alabama flake graphite has not yet been able to compete with Madagascar graphite for use in the manufacture of any but small graphite crucibles. The future of the industry must depend on meeting the higher carbon content demanded for other uses.

Jan 1, 1945