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By Thomas L. Garwood, F. C. Menk

IT is generally accepted that no method of coal cleaning except froth flotation is effective in cleaning dust. In the majority of coals mined in the United States the dust sues contain a high percentage of impurities, hence the removal of the dust from the coarse sizes lowers the impurity content of these sizes. Dedusted coal is desired as a means of providing a better feed to cleaning plants because of increased efficiency in I both dry and wet plants. In dry-cleaning plants, a dedusted feed makes for a pervious and uniform bed. With a dusty feed the fines tend to segregate in the feed stream and pass en masse over the air separators, causing a lack of uniform aeration and fluidity of the bed necessary to efficient cleaning. In wet-cleaning plants dedusting of the feed often decreases the sludge problem to the point of eliminating the necessity of wasting wash water. It may be advantageous to eliminate sludge-settling equipment in favor of dedusting equipment, to provide the advantages of a dedusted feed to the wet-washing process. Dedusting advantages may include: (1) the removal of fusain, especially advantageous in plants washing coal intended for metallurgical coke; (2) prevention of the gradual build-up of solids in the wash water, with a consequent variation in the washing ability of the system; (3) prevention of the loss of dust to the sludge ponds, providing instead a fuel for local consumption or special markets. DEDUSTING The practice of dedusting, sometimes called aspirating, has presented a problem in disposing of the dust and intermediate small sizes recovered in the process. It has been found that no difficulty is experienced in disposing of the intermediate sizes, since they are free of fine dust and burn freely on grates built for small coal. They handle well, flowing freely from bins and hoppers and into conveyors, and pulverize easily. They have a low angle of repose. In tests made on this size as a feed to coke ovens, the results have been excellent, in that the natural breakdown of coal in handling and shooting in the mine gives this small-size coal good coking characteristics-producing a strong, fingery coke structure. Deduster dust from Illinois coal has been

Jan 1, 1950

By T. Egleston

FOR a great part of the progress of the world we are indebted to the works of engineers. It is to them that we owe our means of rapid transportation, our canals, our railroads, our bridges, many of our automatic machines, and most of those appliances which, by facili tating or decreasing the amount of human labor to be expended and by utilizing the great forces of nature, have made the present progress of the world possible. Their education is a matter of momentous interest to the whole civilized world. I have, therefore, thought that some discussion of the theory upon which their education should be based would be of interest to this body, and have ventured a few reflections and suggestions upon the subject. The word education, in its original signification, meant the draw ing out of a man what there was in him. In our common schools the practical work of education consists in putting into the brain a larger number of facts than can be retained, which are consequently more or less understood and digested. It ordinarily consists simply of teaching a round of abstractions or facts which when not assim ilated are not only useless to the individual, but generate careless habits of thought and make more or less untruthful, unfaithful or unsuccessful men. In most of our schools a procrustean system is adopted; all are made to advance upon one general plan, the quick being kept back and the slow dragged on at a rate too great for their power of comprehension. Until within a very few years it has been a theory in common school education that the brain alone should be developed, and that little or no attention need be paid to the train-

Jan 1, 1888

By A. C. Rubel

WHAT does management expect of W and from an engineer? First and foremost, it expects that he should become, and therefore should fit himself in every way to be, a part of management so that he may assume as much and as many of the responsibilities of management as his ability and the opportunities of the job permit. Let me make clear at the start that the profession of pure, technical engineering offers but limited opportunities at the top levels because of the inherent organization of engineering work. The line of succession to top jobs may be likened to a cone with a broad base and an extremely sharp point. Consider any oil company, large or small, or any operating function of that company, and you will find few top engineering jobs in the organization. This is true by the nature of the work handled. There will be a few district engineers depending on the spread of operations, a chief petroleum and production engineer, perhaps a few research engineers, possibly some technical executive assistants, and that is usually all. The road to these jobs is a long one and the competition is tough. The larger the organization the greater the opportunity, but always the ratio of engineers to top engineering jobs is only a small one.

Jan 1, 1947

By Oscar Harder

IT is now just a quarter of a century since Fred W. Taylor§(23) pub-lished his classical paper On the Art of Cutting Metals, describing -his researches in which he, in cooperation with Maunsel White, had developed what is essentially the modern method of heat-treating high-speed steels. Regarding this research, Dr. Sauveur, (22) in his address on Steel Wizards, Past and Present, at the annual banquet of the American Society for Steel Treating in Philadelphia in 1920 said, "The discovery of high-speed steel, or if you prefer, of the treatment imparting high-speed properties to certain steels by Taylor and Maunsel White I am inclined to consider as our one epoch-making contribution to the metallurgy of steel." It was at about that same time (1900) that Taylor exhibited high-speed steels, heat-treated by the improved process, at the World's Exposition in Paris and attracted much attention by showing that the steels would operate at such feeds and speeds that the tips of the tools were visibly red hot. This observation must have started metallurgists to wondering regarding the relative hardness of the various steels at red-heat temperatures. Considerable work has indeed been done in an effort to measure the hardness of high-speed steels and. related materials in the red-heat range, using various methods. . The results, however, have been only partly satisfactory, owing to experimental difficulties. The present investigation had as its immediate inception an address by J. V. Emmons, of the Cleveland Twist Drill Co., to the Columbus Chapter of the American Society for Steel Treating in 1931, in which he deplored the fact that comparatively little was known with regard to the hardness of high-speed steels at elevated temperatures, in spite

Jan 1, 1933

By W. A. Backofen, D. H. Avery, G. A. Miller

An evaluation has been made of the relative importance of yield strength (?) and stacking-fault energy (y) to the rate of fatigue-crack growth in materials of fcc structure. Pure copper and its solid-solution al-loys with aluminum and nickel were chosen for the study because they provided sufficient range in both quantities of interest that either could be varied independently of the other. Experiments involved alternating tension and compression of flat specimens which were prepared with sharpened internal notches so that most, if not all, of the crack-nucleation interval could be eliminated. Growth rate (dC/dN) was concluded to be proportional to the square of the plastic-strain amplitude (€,,) over a strain range of approximately 6x 10-4 to 6 x 10-3. The factor, k, linking dC/dN and ep in dC/dN = kEp2 increased and decreased with corresponding variations in y, but it did not respond syste?>/atically to change in ay, indicating that y is the significant variable in crack growth at constant plastic-strain amplitude. In polycrystalline material, k varied by a factor of 5 over the available range of y. In a few single-crystal experiments on Cu-A1 alloys the growth rate responded less strongly to change in y. It has been suggested that single crystals behave somewhat differently than poly crystalline material because there is more extetnsive substructure near the grain boundaries in the latter, and this facilitates crack advance by separation along subgrain boundaries. A point of some controversy in current work on fatigue relates to the effects of strength and stacking-fault energy on crack growth. In recent experiments a separation was made between the cycling intervals for crack nucleation and the subsequent growth that eventually ends a specimen's fatigue life.' The study was carried out on Cu-A1 alloys primarily, fatigued in alternating four-point bending to constant deflection. A nucleation interval of about 10' cycles (at a total strain amplitude = 0.2 pct) was found to be insensitive to aluminum content in the range 0 to 7.5 wt pct, while the growth period was increased approximately forty fold over the same compositional range. The increase was not in any sense linear, however. Rather, most of the change occurred below 4 pct A1 or a stacking-fault energy, ?, of about 15 ergs per sq cm. It was argued that the plastic-strain amplitude was approximately constant, and therefore the effect of composition must have grown out of the reduction in stacking-fault energy. Several studies have shown that, with high ?, cross slip is encouraged, subgrain structure is introduced during fatigue, and cracking is aided through propagation along subgrain boundaries.1-5 Therefore, lowering ? sufficiently to interfere with substructure formation would be expected to retard growth rate. On the other hand, it is a general rule that resistance to fatigue cracking increases as strength is raised. Accordingly, there might still have been some doubt that Y was the controlling variable, since strength would be increased as y was lowered by the aluminum additions. To help in dispelling that doubt, an experiment was made on a polycrystalline Cu-Ni alloy similar in strength to the Cu-A1 alloys but of higher ?; the crack-growth interval was found to be essentially that of pure copper.' Further support for this position on stacking-fault energy as it relates to crack growth is derived from work by Boettner and McEvily,6 in which the actual crack-growth rate was measured on samples previously notched so as to minimize the nucleation period. Unfortunately, it was necessary in isolating strength level to compare different alloy systems and grain sizes. Recognizing the complication, it was still concluded that growth may be retarded by a reduction in y, per se. A related study has also been made by Roberson and Grosskreutz.7 The zinc content of a brass was systematically changed to alter strength and stack-ing-fault energy, although not below the 15 ergs per sq cm at which pronounced change in growth interval was found in the earlier work. The results were limited to more or less conventional S-N diagrams so that nucleation and growth events could not be separated. No definite conclusions were drawn, but

Jan 1, 1967

By T. R. Scott

The acid pressure leaching of zinc-lead flotation concentrates from the McArthur River deposit, Northern Territory, Australia, has been studied in a three-stage, continuous, co-current system, using titanium reactors of 6 gal capacity. The starting pulp contained 2.7 lb solids per gal of synthetic spent electrolyte and the final liquors contained 120-125 gpl Zn. Parameters investigated included temperature (95-120°C), oxygen pressure (30-100 psi), acid addition (80-130% of theoretical), and leaching time (35-65 min per stage). Technical factors studied included mixing and pumping of feed, agitation, settling and washing and control mechanisms. The chemistry of liquor impurities, of scale formation in autoclaves and of lead jarosites in residues was studied in some detail. Results indicated that 90-93% zinc recovery could be obtained with a "low- acid" process, using 113°C and 70 psig with oxygen as the favored operating conditions. Residues contained 16-18% elemental sulphur and 15% lead, together with unreacted pyrite and gangue minerals. Pelletizing of residues was impracticable, and alternative suggestions for the recovery of lead, sulphur and silver are discussed. Preliminary estimates for plant and operating costs are given and enable some comparison to be made with conventional procedures.

Jan 1, 1973

By Edward H. Robie, E. J. Jr. Kennedy

his volume records the "clay symposium" that featured the geology side of the Annual Meeting of the Institute at St. Louis, February 19-22, 1951. The symposium consisted of four sessions held under the joint sponsorship of the Geology Subdivision and the Industrial Minerals Division AIME and the Society of Economic Geologists. Its main purpose was to define or outline certain problems of clay and laterite genesis, and the papers herein, which were presented at the first three sessions, deal for the most part with individual deposits or special problems. The fourth session was a seminar concerned almost wholly with a discussion of "problems." The discussion follows the papers in the volume. The clay symposium was not the work of an appointed committee. It was thought up and inspired by John J. Collins, who so ably supervised and co- ordinated the mining, geology, and geophysics program for the 1950 annual meeting of the Institute. After requesting Dr. A. F. Frederickson to get material together on clay and laterites for the St. Louis meeting, Mr. Collins visited Dr. Frederickson and discussed this project with him in greater detail. By that time their interest and enthusiasm had spread to others in the field. The Geology Subdivision, the Industrial Minerals Division, and the Society of Economic Geologists by common consent turned over the organization of the program to Dr. Frederickson. Mr. Collins continued in active touch with Dr. Frederickson and gave him every assistance. Dr. E. C. Harder and Dr. W. D. Keller read all the material comprising the symposium, and their comment was made available to Dr. Frederickson, who did much to put papers and discussion in final shape for publication. To the Karl Eilers Memorial Fund--one of the Funds that enables the Institute to publish books of this kind, to the authors of the various papers, to the contributors to the discussion, and to Messrs. Collins and Frederickson the Institute and readers of this book are indebted.

Jan 1, 1952

By W. R. Hibbard, Ming-Kao Yen

Various rationalizations of preferred orientations in cold worked polycrystalline metals have been based on the operation of at least two three2 five, an indefinite number, and all,6 slip systems of the type occurring in single crystals. Pickus and Mathewson3 suggested that the cold rolling texture in face-centered cubic metals could be rationalized on the basis of two or more operating slip directions symmetrically disposed about the direction of flow in such a manner that the resolved shear stress factor is equal for all operating slip systems and lattice rotations cancel each other. The importance of the direction of flow, the necessity for the operation of slip systems capable of producing the required changes in external dimensions, the maintenance of a common surface between adjacent grains and a symmetrical arrangement of the operating slip systems in order to produce an end orientation which is stable under additional deformation lead to the following rationalization of textures based on the type of slip systems operative in single crystals. The rationalization is intended to explain why certain orientations are suitable for deformational flow without a change in orientation and thus are stable end orientations or ideal texture orientations. It does not attempt to explain how the grains of a randomly oriented polycrystalline aggregate will reach this orientation. The rationalization is based on the following four postulates: 1. The ideal textures for polycrystalline aggregates are the result of reorientations of individual crystals toward the same stable end orientation at which no further reorientation will occur even during additional deformation. Since, in simple slip, the relative orientations of the stress axis and the active slip system determine the change in orientation during slip, it is considered that the orientation of the stress axis with respect to the ideal texture determines what slip systems must be active to retain the stable end orientation. Therefore the stable end orientation should be a symmetrical one around the stress axis with respect to the active slip systems such that lattice rotations resulting from slip will cancel each other and prevent a resultant change in orientation. (Rotational symmetry only—not translation, inversion, nor others—is considered here.) Thus a metal under a pure stress should develop a texture consisting of one or more of the crystallographically symmetrical directions, <100>, <110> or <111> for cubic metals or <0001>, <1010> or <1120> for hexagonal close-packed metals, parallel to the stress axis. 2. Since the active slip direction is the direction of glide during simple slip and thus the direction of maximum shear movement, in the ideal texture the active slip

Jan 1, 1949

By Ming-Kao Yen, W. R. Hibbard

Various rationalizations of preferred orientations in cold worked polycrystalline metals have been based on the operation of at least two three2 five, an indefinite number, and all,6 slip systems of the type occurring in single crystals. Pickus and Mathewson3 suggested that the cold rolling texture in face-centered cubic metals could be rationalized on the basis of two or more operating slip directions symmetrically disposed about the direction of flow in such a manner that the resolved shear stress factor is equal for all operating slip systems and lattice rotations cancel each other. The importance of the direction of flow, the necessity for the operation of slip systems capable of producing the required changes in external dimensions, the maintenance of a common surface between adjacent grains and a symmetrical arrangement of the operating slip systems in order to produce an end orientation which is stable under additional deformation lead to the following rationalization of textures based on the type of slip systems operative in single crystals. The rationalization is intended to explain why certain orientations are suitable for deformational flow without a change in orientation and thus are stable end orientations or ideal texture orientations. It does not attempt to explain how the grains of a randomly oriented polycrystalline aggregate will reach this orientation. The rationalization is based on the following four postulates: 1. The ideal textures for polycrystalline aggregates are the result of reorientations of individual crystals toward the same stable end orientation at which no further reorientation will occur even during additional deformation. Since, in simple slip, the relative orientations of the stress axis and the active slip system determine the change in orientation during slip, it is considered that the orientation of the stress axis with respect to the ideal texture determines what slip systems must be active to retain the stable end orientation. Therefore the stable end orientation should be a symmetrical one around the stress axis with respect to the active slip systems such that lattice rotations resulting from slip will cancel each other and prevent a resultant change in orientation. (Rotational symmetry only—not translation, inversion, nor others—is considered here.) Thus a metal under a pure stress should develop a texture consisting of one or more of the crystallographically symmetrical directions, <100>, <110> or <111> for cubic metals or <0001>, <1010> or <1120> for hexagonal close-packed metals, parallel to the stress axis. 2. Since the active slip direction is the direction of glide during simple slip and thus the direction of maximum shear movement, in the ideal texture the active slip

Jan 1, 1949

By E. T. Turkdogan, L. S. Darken, R. J. Fruehan

Further consideration is given to the application of the quadratic formalism to evaluate the thermodynamics of binary metallic solutions from experimental data. The use of the thermodynamic relation, in(r1/r2) dN2= 0, in the evaluation of activity data is discussed. The empirical correlations derived previously for enthalpies and entropies of solutions in Part II are shown to be predicted theoretically for a special case. The applicability of the quadratic formalism to the activity coefficients for binary organic solutions is demonstrated. DARKEN&apos; introduced a quadratic formalism describing the composition dependence of the activity coefficient in the terminal regions of binary metallic solutions. In a subsequent paper (Part II) Turkdogan and Darkeen2 extended this formalism to the enthalpy and excess entropy of binary metallic solutions, and showed that the available data for the activity coefficients and heats of mixing of many solid and liquid binary metallic solutions confirm reasonable applicability of the quadratic formalism. Much variation was noted, however, in the extent of the terminal regions from one system to another, commonly from about 10 to 70 at. pct. For the present purpose, equations derived previously need be given only for one of the terminal regions, e.g. region (I), 0 < N2 < N&apos;2: where subscripts 1 and 2 indicate quantities for components 1 and 2 and superscript ° the values at infinite dilution; other terms are: N = atom fraction, y = activity coefficient, = partial molar enthalpy of solution, ?HM = molar heat of solution, ?Sx = excess partial molar entropy, ?Sx = excess molar entropy. The heat and entropy like terms (constants) el, and S12 are defined in the following expression for the temperature dependence of a12, thus a12 £12 — s12 rnl 2.303RT 2.303 R l J Using this formalism, the thermodynamics of binary systems in the terminal regions may be described over a temperature range of experisental interest in terms of eight quantities: Lº1—Lº2, ?Sx1,?Sxº2 , £12 ,£21,fiai, S12, and S21. In the previous paper, these quantities were evaluated for many solid and liquid binary solutions, and two significant correlations were observed between these thermodynamic quantities pertaining to the terminal regions, thus [10] and [11] Combining Eqs. [9], [l0], and [ll] and rearranging gives a12 -a21 = 1.382R log rº2- 0.08(?S2xº- ?S1xº) [12] Since the second term involving entropies is small and Eqs. 1101 and [ll] are empirical relations, the above equation may be simplified to a12 = 2.74 log rº2 [13] Using the values of a&apos;s and y°&apos;s compiled in Parts I and 11, a12 - a21 is plotted against log(rº2/rº1) in Fig. 1; the line drawn has a slope of 2.74. For Hg-K at 300°C, log(yº2 /yº1)= —5.10, not shown in Fig. 1, and from correlation [13], a12 - a21 = -13.97; this is to be compared with -10.76 derived from the activity data (Part II).

Jan 1, 1970

By T. D. McKinley

Theory, operational characteristics, and indicated precision and accuracy of analytical methods based on vacuum extraction, equilibrium pressure, and combustion approaches are reviewed. At the present time vacuum extraction at 1400°C and the equilibrium pressure method are recommended for determination of hydrogen in titanium and titanium-rich alloys. UNTIL a few years ago the role of hydrogen in titanium was an unknown factor with regard to its effect on the physical and mechanical properties of the metal. However, following the work of Jaffee and othersa-" it is now generally acknowledged that hydrogen has a degrading effect on titanium and its alloys. The chief manifestations are a decrease in impact strength in -systems and delayed cracking in a-ß systems. Since hydrogen does have a de- grading effect on titanium it is essential to control it within tolerable limits. It then follows that procedures for quantitative estimation of hydrogen are a primary requirement for the industry. For greatest benefit these methods should be simple, rapid, and precise. In addition to having these virtues, methods must be easy to duplicate in both equipment and technique to gain widespread use. After inherent accuracy has been established, the, required precision to make a method acceptable is dependent largely on the nature of the work at hand. Ability to obtain a representative sample has a pro-

Jan 1, 1959

By E. M. Wise, T. E. Kihlgren, N. B. Pilling

SYSTEMATIC data are presented on the relation of composition of nickel silvers to color, tarnish resistance, hardness and liquidus temperatures, for alloys containing up to 30 per cent nickel and 50 per cent zinc, further modified at certain nickel and zinc contents by 0 to 8 per cent of tin and 0 to 10 per cent of lead. Attention has also been directed, using a still more limited range of alloys, toward a study of tensile properties and such casting properties and characteristics as fluidity, shrinkage and pressure tightness. In some of these, rather broad ranges of composition are dealt with; in others, it has been expedient to focus attention on the Federal Specification 20 per cent nickel silver casting alloy, WWP-541.

Jan 1, 1935

By M. S. Smani, P. Blazy, J. M. Cases

Investigations on the beneficiation of sedimentary Moroccan phosphate ores are reported in four separate parts. The first discusses electrochemical phenomena at the solid-aqueous solution interface for minerals of the apatite group. In the second part, the electrochemical properties of the calcareous gangue associated with the phosphate ore are investigated. The flotation of calcite and phosphate oölites, using both anionic and cationic collectors, is discussed in the third part. It is shown that selective recovery could be obtained for precise concentrations of collectors and pH ranges. Results of work aimed at optimizing depression of phosphate oölites during inverse flotation of the carbonate gangue with sodium oleate are reported in Part 4.

Jan 1, 1976

By Joseph E. Pogue

The petroleum industry has been involved in Lore collective planning than any other American industry, with the exception of the railroads and utilities, and therefore is of interest as a case study in the experimental attempts to regulate the economic consequences of free competition. Planning is of course an integral part of effective management, hence at the outset a distinction must be clearly drawn between competitive planning and collective planning. By competitive planning is meant the aggregate of plans drawn up and prosecuted by the competing units occupying a field of enterprise; by collective planning is meant a collusion of plans, either originating among some or all competitors, or else imposed upon them, whether accepted or resisted, by some superior authority, usually the state. The prevailing popular concept of "planning" as applied to industry appears to be a program of conduct superimposed upon an industry unwilling or incapable of achieving a socially and economically desirable result under free competition. In this brief and tentative analysis of the subject, competitive planning is left to one side and attention is focussed upon the matter of collective planning as defined above. A basic functional difference between the two categories of planning is that in the case of competitive planning the individual plans are small, numerous, and tend to offset one another when in error; whereas in the case of collective planning, the separate plans are larger in scope, fewer in number, and tend to escape the incidence of the principle of compensation. In viewing the evolution of collective planning in the petroleum industry we find that during the past 20 years there have developed four more or less well defined collective plans and that at the present time the industry is deeply involved in a collective planning trend pointing toward further varieties. The four plans, which are to some degree transitional, may be conveniently named from the chief incidents that led to their formulations. The first collective plan was the program of control developed during the World War and hence called the war plan. The second plan was one originating within the industry in the period between the war and the inflation of the late twenties and called the inventory

Jan 1, 1935

By D. C. McLean

This report summarizes the work that has been done during the past several years in adapting resins for use as auxiliaries in mine roof support. The resins were applied in two ways: 1) by injection into the strata, and 2) as a bonding agent for roof bolts and reinforcing bar. The Explosives and Mining Chemicals Department of the American Cyanamid Co. has worked during this period in cooperation with the Roof Control Research Group of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the Pattin Manufacturing Co., the J. H. Fletcher Co., the Homestake Mining Co., the U.S. Steel Corp., the National Mines Corp. and the Pocahontas Land Corp. in an effort to create resin formulations and methods for applying them as a practical and sate type of roof support for mining areas particularly where conventional support is inadequate, yet expensive. This, work has involved much pioneering in a field where theory, speculation, and pure mythology predominates, and little basic engineering data is available. It is strange butt true that, despite the importance of roof control both from an operational and safely standpoint, there is scarcely a mining&apos; company in this country that has an engineer, or anyone, assigned to the study of roof support problem, except temporarily--after a bad roof fall. The responsibility for improving roof control methods seems to have been placed entirely upon the shoulder, of the USBM, various State departments of mines, and individual roof bolt manufacturing; companies. It was in cooperation with the USBM that Cyanamid first developed resins for mining use.

Jan 1, 1964

By CARLE R. HAYWARDC

BEFORE discussing this subject it is necessary to define somewhat the meaning of the tern metallurgical.. When I was a student at M. I. T. ore-dressing was not thought of as metallurgy in any sense of the word, but it was considered as more closely allied to mining, enabling the miner to market an otherwise unmarketable product, or at least to market it to better advantage. Progress in ore-dressing has gradually allied it more closely with smelting, for at present the raw material received by the smelter is predominantly concentrates and smelting practice has been profoundly affected by the products of the concentrating mill. It is not surprising therefore that in many schools ore-dressing is frankly considered as metallurgy and although there may be some dissenting opinions it will be considered as such in this discussion. Twenty-five years ago at M. I. T. metallography was taught in a few optional lectures. This subject has developed rapidly and been expanded into the new and increasingly important field of physical metallurgy. To many metallurgists the -term metallurgy means only physical metallurgy. They know little or nothing about smelting and leaching and even less about ore-dressing. Having then broadened the scope of the term metal¬lurgy to cover ore-dressing, smelting, leaching and phys-

Jan 1, 1930

By Pedro Bolsaitis, Paul M. Sullivan

The activities of zinc in liquid Zn-A1 alloys in the temperature range of 1000&apos; to 1160°K were determined by means of the isopiestic technique. The results are in reasonable agreement with the previous values determined by the radioactive tracer dew point method. Slightly negative excess entropies of mixing were found. The measured activities suggest that the a function for these alloys is not a constant, as has frequently been assumed, but is better represented by two straight line segments of different slopes. THE thermodynamic data of Al-Z alloys have been the subject of investigation by many authors. However, in the recent compilation of such data by Hult-gren et al.,5 the conclusion is reached that none of the previous measurements are reliable or consistent with each other. Since then two new sets of measurements have been reported,2, 8 both laying claim to good accuracies, yet showing very significant disagreement in the measured activity coefficients of zinc in Zn-A1 alloys and in the magnitude and sign of the excess entropies of mixing. Information on the thermodynamics of the system is of particular interest for interpreting results of the Bureau of Mines research on refining of zinc by distillation of die cast scrap. The present study was undertaken as an independent check on the recent values obtained from dew point measurements 8 and electromotive force measurements.&apos; The isopiestic method, first introduced by Herasy-menko,&apos; was chosen because it is one of the few thermodynamic techniques which, in principle at least, is carried out under perfect equilibrium conditions. The disadvantage of the method is that data are obtained at various random compositions and temperatures, which makes the interpretation somewhat cumbersome. The random errors arising from temperature gradients and fluctuations appear to be comparable to those of other techniques, as evidenced by the magnitude of the estimated uncertainties in the calculated integral thermodynamic quantities. An advantage of the method is that each run provides a relatively large amount of data; thus, it is less time consuming than those methods where samples of each composition must be measured individually. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The activities of zinc in liquid Zn-A1 alloys were measured by the isopiestic method which uses the principle of the tendency toward equilibrium of a series of samples at various temperatures under an imposed vapor pressure of the more volatile component (i.e., zinc, in this case). The basic apparatus is shown in Fig. 1. The small graphite crucibles that contained the metal samples were 15 mm ID and 13 mm deep with approximately 3 mm wall thickness. Each crucible was notched at the top and bottom to allow easy passage of vapor from one to another. At the beginning of an experiment each crucible was weighed on an analytical balance. Zinc and aluminum of spectrographic purity (99.999 pct) were then weighed into the crucibles. The amounts of each metal added were such that initial compositions varied above and below equilibrium values. One crucible contained only pure zinc. After weighing, the crucibles were stacked with the pure zinc on the bottom (corresponding to the lowest temperature in the furnace) and richest aluminum alloys at the top. The entire stack of crucibles was then placed in the silica glass container "E" which was then sealed under vacuum. Sixteen to twenty calibrated Chromel-Alumel thermocouples were attached by wire along the length of the silica tube, one or more adjacent to each sample.

Jan 1, 1970

Arthur Jarman, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (communication to the Secretary*):—All designs for modern metallurgical and chemical laboratories should provide each student&apos;s desk with a hood or cupboard for the removal of fumes, but I doubt the advisability of placing air-baths and similar apparatus close to the hot plate. It seems to me that unless the draft be exceptionally strong the fumes from ordinary wet assay work will corrode the iron-work of the fittings, in which case the baths would have to be removed to a general desk in order to lighten the work of the laboratory attendant. Since the laboratory described by Mr. White has been in use for two years, I should like to ask if any inconvenience has resulted from this corrosion. If not, it is certainly an important improvement to have the air-baths and similar apparatus placed on the student&apos;s desk. The hoods described by Mr. White are supplied with a good draft by means of a fan, which gives them a great advantage

Jan 1, 1905

By F. E. Bachman

Although it has been apparent to me for a long time that too great weight was currently given to the silicon-contents of foundry-iron, and that the theory of the control by silicon of the carbon-contents of cast-iron is unsound, or that, at best, the influence of silicon is too small to be of much practical value as a guide in foundry-work, it never seemed to me desirable to enter the lists against either the " silicon-fad " or the theory, for the reason that I had neither the time nor the facilities to prove my position, nor any better theory to offer. But since Mr. Summers has taken the step, it seems but right that I should give such facts as are at hand in support of his contention. At the same time I do not think these are enough to prove the case if the contrary proposition were not itself, as it seems to me, based on insufficient evidence. Both Keep&apos;s and Turner&apos;s conclusions seem to be drawn from irons carrying less than the normal amount of carbon; Turner&apos;s " base " being, moreover, a steel rather than a pig-iron, and both the white base and the ferro-silicon of Keep being so low in carbon that compounds of them would not give a material approaching the carbon-contents of a normal casting, and having, therefore, little value as showing the effects of silicon on foundry-irons, even if his samples were treated under the same conditions as those to which pig-metal is subjected in making castings.

Jan 1, 1899

By C. R. Kuzell

INTRODUCTION KNOWLEDGE of the thermal capacity of gases is of great importance in making metallurgical calculations. The metallurgist is, frequently called upon to investigate and determine furnace efficiencies in which the heat carried into or out of the furnace by gases is a large item in the heat balance. Not only do such problems present themselves in the determination of furnace efficiency, but also in the study of the application of heat is accessory apparatus, such as stoves, regenerators, waste-heat boilers, driers,.etc. The thermal effect of the use of excess air in the combustion of fuel, the theoretical temperatures of combustion, the quantity of heat in hot blast at various temperatures, the effect of hot blast on furnace temperatures, are a few more examples of frequently occurring calorific problems involving gases. So many are the applications of the data on the heat capacity of gases that the subject merits careful study. The heat in a gas maybe due to its heat of combustion, if it is a combustible gas, and to its temperature. The latter is called its sensible heat and is the heat absorbed or evolved by a gas as its temperature is raised or lowered. The heat of combustion of gases is well established and is commonly known. The values can be found in almost any mcdern treatise on metallurgy. The sensible heat of gases has not been so well established because it is in most cases a function of the temperature, and the values of specific heats of gases over a wide range of temperatures have only recently been determined. It is the purpose of this paper to deal with the sensible heat of gases.

Jan 8, 1914