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THE Institute met on Wednesday evening, May 22d, in the parlor of the Stanton House, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, President, in the chair. The President delivered an introductory address on the Brown Hematite Deposits of the Great Valley, after which the following papers were read and discussed : Note on the Result of an Experiment with the Wheeler Process of Combining Iron and Steel in the Head of a Rail, by W. E. C. Coxe, of Reading, Pa. On the Jenks Corundum Mine, Macon County, N. C., by Dr. R. W. Raymond, of New York City. On Wednesday afternoon, previous to the opening session, the members who had already arrived in Chattanooga, were taken by the Local Committee to the works of the Roane Iron Company, and Chattanooga Iron Company, and then to the top of Lookout Mountain, where, at the request of the members present, Dr. Hunt described the geological and geographical features of the Chattanooga region, with the magnificent panorama spread out before them as a map. On Thursday morning an excursion was made by steamboat down the Tennessee River as far as Shellmound. Here cars were taken to the coal mines of the Dade Coal Company, where the members were courteously received by Mr. E. B. Wells, the Superintendent. After a trip through the mines the party partook of a collation provided by the company. South Pittsburgh, on the Tennessee River, was next visited, where the Southern States Coal, Iron and Land Company have a large blast-furnace plant in the course of erection. After conducting the party through the works, shops, etc., Mr. James Bowron, the manager, entertained the members with graceful hospitality at dinner. The second session was held on Thursday evening for the transaction of business. The President, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, appointed Messrs. W. E. C. Coxe, R. H. Richards, and F. J. Slade, scrutineers, to examine the ballots for officers for the ensuing year.

Jan 1, 1879

Jan 1, 1879

By S. Whinery

In these times of sharp rivalry, both as to price and quality, among the makers and venders of engineering explosives, it is often desirable to be able to determine the relative energy or value of the various explosives offered for sale, in order to purchase intelligently ; or, having contracted for a large amount of an explosive of a certain standard quality, to be able to ascertain if the manufacturer keeps his product up to the specified standard. The simple and inexpensive apparatus described below was devised by the writer while engaged on the improvement of the Tennessee River, at MuscleShoals, under the direction of' Major W. R. King, U. S. Engineers, in the summer of 1879. It answered the purpose so well that it is thought that a brief account of it may be of interest to other engineers. It consisted, essentially, of an old blacksmith's anvil and a common striking hammer, such as is used for driving rock-drills. The anvil was placed face downward on solid, level ground. In what was then the top of it, a vertical hole, one and one-fourth inch in diameter and about one arid three-fourths inch deep, was made with a ratchetdrill. The surface of the anvil immediately around the drill-hole was made as true and smooth as possible with a file. Next, a new striking-hammer, weighing nine pounds, with a turned and true face, was selected ; and a handle, eleven feet long and about one and a half inches in diameter, was fitted into it so that it

Jan 1, 1886

By Mungo Park, C. Baring Horwood

This paper is intended, in the light of recent investigations, to call attention to some of the essential features of good practice in sampling and mine-valuation. Mine-sampling may be divided broadly into two classes: (1) development-sampling and cornputatioll of ore-reserves; and, (2) stope-sampling and estimation of stope-values. Development-Sampling. It is with development-sampling only that this paper deals— the term development being taken to mean the opening-up of a mine by cross-cuts, drives, connections, etc., preparatory to actual extraction of the ore for milling. In development-sampling the work of the sampler and the consequent estima-

Jan 1, 1909

By Edward B. Cook

The installation of the Gayley dry-air process appealed specially to the management of the Warwick Iron & Steel Go., for the reason that for fifteen years records had been kept at the works of the company, showing the amount of water entering the furnace in the form of aqueous vapor, and careful observations had been made of its effect upon the working of the furnace. Some years had proved much worse in their effect than others, on account, not only of excessive moisture, but also of great variation in the moisture from day to day, and sometimes within a few hours. It had been found impossible to make a satisfactory percentage of high-silicon foundry-iron in summer, even on high fuel; and for some years the endeavor had been made so to arrange the sales that, during July and August, only a small percentage of the iron produced would be required to carry more than 2 per cent. of silicon. Our larger furnace, running on basic iron, year after year, produced in February a tonnage 20 per cent. higher than in August, 011 a much lower fuel-consumption, while, at the same time, the summer months were marked by " messes," tuyeres closed by slips, and other irregularities, constituting serious additional business losses. It will be easily understood, therefore, that the records made at the Isabella furnace after the installation of the dry blast in 1904 possessed special interest, and were closely watched by us. On the basis of our own experience, we argued that if the moisture could be kept low, and also uniform, the cost of installation would be more than justified. The subject was brought before our Board of Directors in the fall of 1905; and in the spring of 1906 it was decided to install a plant of sufficient

Jan 1, 1909

By Robert W. Hunt

Delays in the completion of the alterations to the plant at the works of Messrs. Oliver Bros. and Phillips, in Pittsburgh, coupled with the increased demand for metal made from regular Bessemer pig, placing the firm many hundreds of tons behind in their deliveries, prevented Mr. Henry W. Oliver, Jr., from redeeming his promise to place his works at my disposal for further tests of high-phosphorus irons, until May 5th. Upon that date, I assumed charge of the operations in his steel-plant. Mr. Oliver had purchased Neshannock pig as a basis for a supply of phosphorus. My information is to the effect that this iron is made from low-grade Lake Superior ores and mill-cinder, the latter "ore" being utilized to about 40 per cent. of the total mixture. At all events the pig had quite as much phosphorus, and in as varying quantities, as the most exacting could desire. My experiments of last fall had well satisfied me as to the effect of from 0.35 to 0.55 per cent. of phosphorus in the Clapp Griffiths metal. Hence at this time my first trials were directed to

Jan 1, 1886

By R. W. Raymond

The immense commercial value of the Gayley dry-blast process has been established beyond controversy. The testimony of practical blast-furnace managers, on both sides of the Atlantic, agrees that it reduces the cost of pig-iron about $1 per ton; but from the same testimony it appears that this direct economy does not by any means cover its commercial advantages—in fact, that under conditions frequently encountered in practice, it presents other benefits of even greater immediate financial importance. To this point I shall recur in a later part of the present paper. The history of the reception given to this invention, especially on the other side of the Atlantic, has repeated an experience familiar to American engineers. First, the reports of our practice were rejected as theoretically impossible, according to generally accepted notions and formulas; then the figures were reluctantly accepted; and finally the attempt has been made to explain how they could have been obtained. As to the Gayley dry blast, me Americans have been for several years in the last stage of the discussion, and the rest of the professional world is rapidly coming to it. Meanwhile, the remark has been repeatedly made that, whatever Mr. Gayley's process may turn out to be worth, it was not an invention on his part, but simply the energetic and persevering execution of a procedure already proposed by others. This question I wish to discuss first in the present paper. I. What Did Mr. Gayley Invent? Realizing that this is not the place for detailed argument on an issue of patent law, I shall not undertake to quote and criticise the publications prior to Mr. Gayley'a first patents. It may be admitted, without such critical analysis, that the possible advantages of removing moisture from the air forced into an iron blast-furnace were recognized and talked about a hun-

Jan 1, 1909

By Henry G. Granger

It still rains in the Choco! I well remember one evening a dozen years ago, while traveling toward the town of Negua in a small champa or dug-out canoe, the rain fell so heavily that I had to work my hardest to bail out the water with a large totuma or gourd in order to keep the canoe afloat, the native boatman meanwhile plying his paddle in the stern. If any one thinks bailing is easy work, let him scoop out a quart or more at a stroke, 40 times a minute for half an hour, and I venture that he will change his opinion. These small canoes required only one paddler to make the 3 miles an hour which is the standard rate of aquatic progress on the Choco. Another time, on the Atrato river, about six o'clock in the afternoon, the rain fell so heavily that an empty gourd, 9 in. in diameter and 4.5 deep, was filled to the brim in 90 sec., timed by a watch. Such downpours are typical, but unless caught in one it is not specially noticed. These downpours seldom last more than an hour, and frequently cover only a limited area, occasionally falling on one bank of a river and not on the other. During the night-time, the rain, if gentle, will usually last until dawn, and sometimes an intermittent drizzle will keep up all day as well, although, as a rule, it rarely rains during the day. The rise of the rivers, due to the rain-fall, varies from a few inches to several feet. One night in August, 1899, the spuds of the dredge Margaret, operating on the Atrato river, showed a rise of 16 ft., and for 3 days thereafter occurred the greatest flood known in that district for 32 years. The dredge had all three spuds down, and the 2-yd. shovel dragging 011 the bottom. A 0.75-in. cable fast to a stout tree, 700 ft. away, stretched tight

Jan 1, 1909

By Victor O. Strobel

Fire-brick hot-blast stoves have been the subject of frequent discussions at the meetings of the Institute; and although it is my object to elucidate some of the points in connection with this subject, I will not go into the specific features of all types, but more especially call attention to a new type recently designed by Mr. Fred. W. Gordon. As the economical production of a ton of pig-iron is a more essential feature than a large output, much depends, where fuel cannot be obtained cheaply, upon suitable apparatus whereby high temperatures can be maintained. Where iron-pipe stoves have been employed, the fuel-consumption reached one and a half pounds of fuel, and, when a larger output was desired, often two pounds, to the pound of iron produced. The temperature attained rarely exceeded 900' F., and that at the expense of frequent renewals of the pipes, which was not inconsiderable. The fire-brick hot-blast stoves of the past five or six years have clearly demonstrated their superiority over the old system. Of the accompanying drawings, Fig. 3 illustrates a four-pass regen-

Jan 1, 1886

By J. A. Herrick

Jan 1, 1879

By P. Barnes

The sums given in the accompanying table are those actually paid for material and labor up to about August, 1875; but, as some parts of the machinery were not wholly completed at the starting of the works in September, 1875, the statement cannot be taken as an absolutely correct note of the total cost. A complete description, with engravings of the building and machinery, was given in Engineering, April 26th, 1878, in a paper by Messrs. A. L. Holley and Lenox Smith, to which convenient reference may be made. A detailed list of the construction accounts has been given in a paper, by the present writer, in vol. vi, Transactions of the Institute. A summary is given in the table of the items in each class which enter into the total cost, and also a note of the proportion which each of these items forms of the whole. A concise view may thus he obtained of the facts embodied in the statement as a whole, even though it cannot lay claim to completeness in showing the entire or final cost. An urgent suggestion has reached the writer from a distant country that such statements of cost to be really most serviceable should give the details in days of labor, in weight of iron, and in number of brick, and to this an assent is most cordially yielded. It is true, however, that the mere labor of copying arid compiling these details to such a degree of minuteness, would be very great, and, in any event, the probable difference between the plans of an existing establishment and one projected, would be so wide as to render even so complete a statement of cost of little more real service than the approximate notes given herewith.

Jan 1, 1879

By W. E. C. Coxe

Many of you who are interested in the manufacture of iron and steel, have no doubt heard of the "Wheeler process for combining iron and steel." Mr. Wheeler has formed a company, styled the "Combination Trust Company," whose business is to grant licenses for the use of this patent process in producing what he calls "iron-clad steel." It has been proposed to apply it in the manufacture of car or wagon axles, also to shafting, having steel cores or centres covered with iron; to tubes of steel with an inner and outer skin of iron ; to structural purposes, such as girders and beams; bridge and tie-bolts, where the strength of the iron and the rigidity of the steel would be desirable. In answer to a request from Mr. Wheeler, permission mas accorded him to make some experiments at the rolling mill of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, at Reading, Pennsylvania, with a view to manufacturing some steel-headed rails. In making this kind of a rail two difficulties are encountered. If the iron is brought to the requisite heat to weld properly, the steel is likely to be burned; if the steel is cared for, to prevent burning, the several layers of iron are not brought up to the proper welding heat. Mr. Wheeler claimed that the steel slab covered with iron which he furnished for the head of the rail could net be injured by any heat to which it might be subjected in the ordinary course of heating the rail-pile. He claimed, also, that by this method the porosity, which he thought was characteristic of all solid rails of Bessemer steel, would be overcome. Four steel slabs were furnished for this experiment, being Bessemer steel of .61 carbon, made at the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, and covered with iron in one of the Pittsburgh mills. The slabs were in section seven inches wide by three inches thick, and the iron covering was one-eighth to three-sixteenths inch thick. Each slab was placed on a pile of iron made up in the ordinary way for a rail fifty-six pounds per yard and thirty feet long. The heating was under the personal direction of Mr. Wheeler, and

Jan 1, 1879

By Walter E. Mingramm

The construction of rescue-apparatus on the principle of furnishing the wearer with air from a tank containing it under high pressure was given up by inventors about 20 years ago. Such an apparatus must supply continuously, for not less than two hours, nearly 50 liters of pure air at atmospheric pressure per minute, or a total of 6,000 liters (210 cu. ft.); and a cylinder containing this amount of air, under 2,000 lb. pressure, would weigh 180 lb. or more. Although apparatus has been recently constructed utilizing liquefied air, no experiments have been made to determine the regularity with which the air is generated, nor has its chemical composition been determined. Moreover, the chief objection to such an apparatus is the difficulty and cost of keeping on hand a large quantity of liquefied air. The system of furnishing the wearer of a breathing-apparatus with air which has given the best results, and has found

Jan 1, 1909

By H. Foster Bain

Jan 1, 1910

By W. Mostowitsch, H. O. Hofman

The mineral gypsum, CaSO4 + 2 H2O, has been used for many years as a sulphurizing and basic flux in several smelting-operations. Thus, in smelting oxide nickel-ore in the blastfurnace, it is commonly added to the charge to furnish the sulphur necessary for collecting the metal in a matte, and a base for slagging the siliceous gangue. In the concentration of lead-copper matte in the reverberatory furnace it has been used for years at Preiberg, Saxony,1 for a similar purpose, and for producing at the same time a copper-matte with less than 0.15 per cent. of Fe. The latest use gypsum has been put to is in the blast-roasting process of Carmichael-Bradford.2 The term " blast-roasting," given by A. S. Dwight3 to the Dwight-Lloyd method of roasting and agglomerating: is a happy generic term which covers the ground better than the " lime-roasting " of Ingalls5 or the " pot-roasting " of Austin: in that it leaves the operation independent of the character of the flux and the form of apparatus, and retains the characteristic feature of this class of processes—namely, that of using forced draft. In the Carmichael-Bradford process the dehydrated material, mixed with galena-concentrate, acts as a diluent and a flux. The process differs in this from the Huntington-Heberlein7 and the Savelsberg8 processes, in both of which limestone is used.

Jan 1, 1909

By Ernest F. Burchard

PAGE. I. Introduction,........... 75 II. Outline of the Geology......... 76 1. Stratigraphy............ 76 A. Clinton Formation........ 77 2. Structure...........82 3. The Ore..........85 A. Character............ 85 B. Geographic Distribution....88 III. Local Descriptions........... 88 1. Birmingham District.......... 88 A. Topography and Its Relation to Industrial Development... 88 H. Distribution and Structure of Formations.... 89 C. Divisions of the Birmingham District. 95 Division A (Description of the Ore-Beds), . 95 Division B.........105 Division C.......... 106 Division D,..107 Division E,...........108 Division F........ 111 Division C.......... 112 D. Mining .Development.... 113 2. Northeast Alabama........114 IV. Possible Origin oF the Ore......... 119 V. Relation of Origin to Quality and Extent of Ore... 122 VI. Estimates of Ore-Reserves,......... 125 1. Method of Making Estimates......... 125 2. Data and Results....126 VII. Production and Consumption oF IRon-ORe,.... 132 I. Introduction. Brief and interrupted studies of the Alabama Clinton iron-ores have been made within the last four years by members of the IT. S. Geological Survey. Reports on the progress of this

Jan 1, 1910

By D. H. Newland

During the year 1907 an investigation of the Clinton formation in New York has been carried out under the direction of the State Geologist, and a full account of the results has been prepared for publication.' The more important economic features of the report are summarized in the present paper. Previous knowledge of this, the type, section of the Clinton has been contributed mostly by Hall and Vanuxem in their reports for the Natural History Survey of New York, which were issued in their final form in 1842-43. Brief accounts of the ore-occurrences have been given by 13. T. Putnam? J. C. Smock: A. H. Chester: and E. C. Eckel.5 Prof. C. H. Smyth, Jr.,6 has discussed the origin of the Clinton ores in two papers, which, so far as the local occurrences are concerned, have removed all doubt that may have existed on that subject. Distribution of the Clinton Formation. The Clinton strata in New York State are restricted to a single belt, which extends from the eastern central part to the Niagara river, which it crosses, and thence continues for some distance into the province of Ontario. The New York

Jan 1, 1910

By J. J. Rutledge

I. Description of the Clinton Ores and Associated Rocks. The Clinton rocks in Stone valley comprise (1) thick layers of deep-red shale, (2) layers of reddish-gray shale interspersed with beds of sandstone and thin beds of extremely fossiliferous limestone, and (3) yellowish-gray shales alternating with thin layers of olive-colored shales. These layers of shale are all very thin and are at no point massive.' A bed of gray-white sandstone varying in thickness from 12 to 30 ft. occurs in the upper portions of the Clinton shales. This is called the ore sandstone, a name given to it by Rogers and adopted also by the Second Pennsylvania Geological Survey. It is the surest guide to the presence of the iron-ore bed, which lies below its lower edges at distances varying from 10 to 20 ft. This ore sandstone, in the valley, lies generally at very low inclinations, but often is locally subjected to considerable changes in dip. At its outcrop this ore sandstone weathers very easily and yields a rather sparse crop of stone, composed of dirty, iron-stained boulders. Upon the roads these boulders are quite well rounded, and bear fragments of crinoid stems and other fossil forms. The ore sandstone exhibits at many points evidences of former movements in this very great thickness of the shales, and as it is the only stratum in this series competent to transmit and record stresses due to structural movements, its evidence is of considerable importance in determining the occurrence of movements in times past.

Jan 1, 1910

By B. F. Fackenthall

The Durham Iron Works of Messrs. Cooper & Hewitt, near Riegelsville, Pa., occupy a site which has been almost continuously the scene of iron-manufacturing industry since 1727. Doubtless if Anthony Morris and his thirteen associates, who in that year erected a blast-furnace on the Durham Creek, a short distance above where the Durham Iron Works now stands, could have had a vision of the improved and enlarged apparatus of their successors, they would have been not less astonished by the huge stack, the hot-blast ovens, and the blowing-engines of the modern blast-furnace, than by the railroad which now follows the bank of the river on which their clumsy " Durham boats " once floated pig-iron to Philadelphia. In one particular, posterity must confess their snperiority. We are told that in November, 1728, they shipped three tons of Durham iron to England. The proprietors of the Durham Iron Works are not now shipping iron to England. The present Durham furnace was built (in place of two smaller ones) in 1874 and 1875, and made its first blast in 1876. A description of it, with other works of the same proprietors, at Trenton, N. J., by A. L. Holley and Lenox Smith, was published in London Engineering for January 31st, and February 21st, 1879. Since that time, a number of improvements, dictated by experience, have been made in the details of the furnace and fittings; and the recent roilclusion of a long and successful blast presents a convenient opportunity for a description of the works and a statement of the results of practice. The accompanying drawings will show the general arrangement of the works. The furnace, Plate I., Figs. 1 and 2, is 75 feet high by 19 feet bosh. The hearth is 11 feet 4 inches in diameter, with seven tuyeres 5 feet 6 inches above hearth-line. The tuyeres project 9 inches into the furnace, making the interior tuyere-circle 9 feet 10 inches in diameter. The front is a modification of Luermaun's

Jan 1, 1886

By Lucius W. Mayer

The iron-mines of the Ilsede Hutte Co. are at a town called Peine, about 20 miles east of the city of Hanover, on the railroad to Brunswick (Braunschweig). Hanover, the capital of the province, is a military city, of approximately 250,000 inhabitants, and Brunswick, 33 miles to the westward, has half this number. The mines here described are located in a hamlet called Bulten. The Ilsede Hutte Co. operates two mines, 1.5 miles apart, in this district, Gruber Bulten Adenstadt and Gruber Lengede Bodenstadt. It also operates an iron-mine north of Hanover, known as Eiserhaven, and one in the Harz mountains, the Georg Friedrich, at Grauhof. At Bulten a coarse conglomerate, a, Figs. 1 and 2, contains nodules of limonite, cemented together by calcium phosphate. The ore contains Fe, 25 to 45; Mn, 3 to 4; P, 0.6 to 1.4; '5, 0.02 to 0.09; and CaCO,, 40 per cent. Directly above the conglomerate is limestone, 6, followed by a mixture of clay and sand, c. Below the conglomerate is a hard clay floor, d. The ore-body, from 10 to 12 km. long, and from 3 to 4 km. wide, has a maximum thickness of 20 m. It dips approximately 10" S.E., and strikes K 45° E. Diamond-drill prospecting shows that the thickness diminishes to 1 m. as the end of the deposit is approached to the northward. At this point the deposit is 250 m. below the surface. In Fig. 2, the arrow, A, indicates the general direction of the work along the face, a, which is carried forward in a straight line for its entire length. At B, a train is approaching, which has come from the bench-track, shown at C, by a circuitous route, and is dumping the overburden behind the face, in the space left by the excavated rock. Formerly the work at this mine mas essentially open-cut, the deposit having a very strong outcrop. Figs. 1 and 2 show also

Jan 1, 1909