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By L. W. Kemph, K. R. VanHorn

During the recent development of aluminum alloys for free-cutting screw-machine rod, it became desirable to know something of the solubility of lead and bismuth in liquid aluminum and in some aluminum alloys. The literature is not particularly helpful in supplying this information. These portions, therefore, of the constitutional relationships of aluminum-bismuth and aluminum-lead alloys were investigated by thermal analysis and by chemical analysis of samples taken from aluminum-rich melts in equilibrium with precipitated lead or bismuth. The solubility of lead and bismuth in some liquid aluminum-copper alloys was also investigated. Some consideration was also given to the solubility of these elements in solid aluminum. Among the earliest investigators of the aluminum-lead and alunlinum-bismuth systems was Wright,' who reported that melts of aluminum and lead formed two layers indicating limited liquid solubility. Under his conditions, the aluminum-rich layer was reported to contain 1.91 per cent Pb and the lead-rich layer, 0.07 per cent Al. Subsequently, Pecheau2 found that in aluminum-rich alloy melts with more than 10 per cent Pb three layers were distinguishable. He reported that the middle layer contained from 3 to 10 per cent Pb. He also found that the melting point of aluminum appeared to be lowered slightly by the addition of lead. Gwyer3 investigated these alloys and found evidence of a slight lowering of the freezing point of aluminum by the addition of either lead or bismuth. He found no evidence of solid solubility in either case and made no attempt to determine the liquidus curves. Hansen and Blumen-tha14 reported that the addition of lead distinctly lowered the solidification point of aluminum. They also found that bismuth lowered the melting point of aluminum. Guillet5 reported almost complete mutual immiscibility for the aluminum-bismuth alloys in the liquid state. Bohner6 examined the effect of various concentrations of lead and bismuth on the electrical conductivity of aluminum. He found decreases in conductivity on annealing at 500' C. as compared with the conductivity of the same alloys on annealing at 300' C.

Jan 1, 1939

By A. Lawley, H. W. Schadler

TWINNING has long been recognized as a possible mode of deformation in crystalline solids and has been studied in a wide variety of crystals.&apos; Recently, deformation markings which have the topographical characteristics of twins have been seen in tungsten" and the body-centered cubic alloys of tungsten and molybdenum with rhenium.3-7 These markings have been identified as twins because: 1) they are visible after polishing and etching;2,3 2) their formation is accompanied by an audible click and a drop in load;4 and 3) the habit plane is {112}, the plane which has been identified as the twinning plane for several body-centered cubic metals.&apos; However, there has been no published evidence for the specific determination of the twinning direction in rhenium alloys of tungsten and molybdenum, because usually the deformation twins were not broad enough to be detected with a conventional X-ray beam. Consequently, [111] is inferred as the twinning direction since the latter must lie in a plane of symmetry perpendicular to the twinning plane (112). As Sims and Jaffee3 and Lawley and Maddin4 have shown, the addition of rhenium to molybdenum and tungsten increases the ductility of the alloy over that of the pure metal, but twinning is much more profuse in these alloys than in the pure elements, particularly at Mo-35 pct Re*and W-30 pct Re. Since twinning is often associated with brittle fracture in iron8 and the silicon-irons,9 direct experimental proof that the deformation markings in tungsten and molybdenum alloys of rhenium are twins seemed to be needed. Using the Laue back-reflection technique, the deformation markings in a Mo-35 pct Re alloy are shown to be deformation twins. The twins have a (112) habit plane and the twinning direction is <111>. The Mo-35 pct Re specimen used was taken from a 0.060-in. zone-refined single crystal deformed 6 pct in tension at 78°K. The Laue back-reflection technique, with a film to specimen distance of 2 cm, and white radiation from a copper target were used.

Jan 1, 1962

By Milton Williams

It is generally recognized that fluid is lost from rotary drilling muds to permeable strata during normal drilling operations;1,2-3 but that this fluid is the filtrate from the mud, rather than the mud itself, has been shown by various workers.1,4,5 The presence of this filtrate in oil-bearing or gas-bearing strata is undesirable and harmful. The decreased permeability of the stratum to oil effected by the presence of water has been pointed out by several investigators,6,7 and since, in the production of the reservoir fluid, the greatest pressure drop occurs immediately adjacent to the borehole, it follows that infiltered water is particularly objectionable in this region. Again, this filtrate tends to make electrical logs less reliable, since oil in the proximity of the borehole is probably flushed out to an appreciable extent by the water.8 Observation of side wall cores may be misleading for the same reason. Drill-stem tests in low-pressure areas may be of doubtful value where no oil is recovered, unless sufficient time is allowed for production of water lost from the mud. The infiltered water may hinder drilling operations by softening shales and causing sloughing; the [&apos;tight hole" occasioned by excessive deposition of filter cake in the hole is a common occurrence. The filter cake remaining on the face of the producing formation may itself sometimes be detrimental to production.9 In view of these implications of the importance of filtration of mud, an investigation was undertaken to determine the factors involved in the infiltration process, and to correlate these in such a manner that the values obtained in routine filter tests employing a conventional filter of the "wall-building tester" type,10 together with data on size of hole, drill pipe, and rate of mud circulation, could be used to estimate water loss and distance of penetration of the filtrate into strata. Quantitative relations of filter-cake permeability, filtrate viscosity, and rate of filtration have been developed for filtration in the simple laboratory filter.4a,11,12,13 It is obvious, however, that the conditions

Jan 1, 1940

By Milton Williams

It is generally recognized that fluid is lost from rotary drilling muds to permeable strata during normal drilling operations;1,2-3 but that this fluid is the filtrate from the mud, rather than the mud itself, has been shown by various workers.1,4,5 The presence of this filtrate in oil-bearing or gas-bearing strata is undesirable and harmful. The decreased permeability of the stratum to oil effected by the presence of water has been pointed out by several investigators,6,7 and since, in the production of the reservoir fluid, the greatest pressure drop occurs immediately adjacent to the borehole, it follows that infiltered water is particularly objectionable in this region. Again, this filtrate tends to make electrical logs less reliable, since oil in the proximity of the borehole is probably flushed out to an appreciable extent by the water.8 Observation of side wall cores may be misleading for the same reason. Drill-stem tests in low-pressure areas may be of doubtful value where no oil is recovered, unless sufficient time is allowed for production of water lost from the mud. The infiltered water may hinder drilling operations by softening shales and causing sloughing; the [&apos;tight hole" occasioned by excessive deposition of filter cake in the hole is a common occurrence. The filter cake remaining on the face of the producing formation may itself sometimes be detrimental to production.9 In view of these implications of the importance of filtration of mud, an investigation was undertaken to determine the factors involved in the infiltration process, and to correlate these in such a manner that the values obtained in routine filter tests employing a conventional filter of the "wall-building tester" type,10 together with data on size of hole, drill pipe, and rate of mud circulation, could be used to estimate water loss and distance of penetration of the filtrate into strata. Quantitative relations of filter-cake permeability, filtrate viscosity, and rate of filtration have been developed for filtration in the simple laboratory filter.4a,11,12,13 It is obvious, however, that the conditions

Jan 1, 1940

By H. S. Gibson

A PROCESS that has come to be known locally as "multistage stabiliza-tion" has been developed in the Haft Kel field of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. in southwest Iran, for the recovery of casinghead gasoline. It con-sists in releasing the dissolved gases from the crude by stages, a practice common in many fields, but which, so far as is known, has nowhere been carried to the extent to which it is employed in Iran. It has been in use there for nearly nine years, during which time some 200 million barrels of crude have been handled by the process. This process of gasoline retention consists in preventing the greater part of the casinghead gasoline hydrocarbons (the butanes and pentanes) from ever leaving the crude, instead of allowing them to be vaporized and then recovered from the lighter gases by the usual compression or absorption processes. Its efficiency is fully equal to that obtained by the absorption process; its disadvantage is that it increases the quantities of ethane and propane in the crude sent to the refinery, but with the growing demand for propane this drawback is vanishing. When casinghead gasoline is recovered as a separate liquid in the Iranian fields, it is blended with the crude, as the only outlet is through the refinery, and the crude-oil pipe line offers the cheapest means of transportation. It is under these conditions that the retention of the butanes and pentanes in the crude by multistage stabilization is a most attractive process, possessing as it does the following advantages: (1) extreme simplicity, (2) low first cost, (3) easy installation, (4) practically 100 per cent operating-time efficiency, (5) no operators required, (6) no water or other services required, (7) negligible maintenance, (8) once established, very little routine testing is necessary. The one essential for reasonably efficient multistage stabilization is that the flowing pressures of the wells should be relatively high; i.e., they should not be less than about one-third the saturation pressure of the crude in the reservoir. This is a very general statement, of course, and much depends on the type of crude and its temperature.

Jan 1, 1939

By C. D. Hunter, J. B. Browning

During the year 1934, Kentucky oil and gas operators have partly overcome their past depression fears and in the oil industry, with possibly more abandonments of old oil producers than the completion of new oil wells, produced 4,814,904 bbl. of oil in 1934 against 4,501,511 bbl. in 1933. In the gas industry of eastern Kentucky, 115 gas wells were completed during 1934. This production is delivered through two 20-in., one 16-in., one 12-in., one 10-in., and two 8-in. pipe lines to supply both domestic and industrial markets in Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort, Winchester, Ashland, Covington and other Kentucky towns; Washington, D.C., and other eastern cities. The largest percentage of these gas wells and production are from the Devonian black shale area of Floyd, Pike, Knott, Martin and Magoffin counties, Kentucky. In this area the largest percentage of 1889 wells, developing 421,-215 acres, has been completed in the past 10 years, of which 55.3 per cent produce from the 400 to 550 ft. of Carbonaceous Devonian black shales. The successful results obtained from these Devonian shales are due to the physical effects of the 5000 to 6000 lb. of gelatinated nitroglycerin with which the entire 400 to 550 ft. of shale is shot. A very small number of the shale wells are natural producers and do not require shooting. Other than the Devonian shale gas production, the remaining 44.5 per cent of the gas in this field is encountered throughout the entire strati-graphic section above this horizon; namely, salt sands of Pennsylvanian age and Maxon, Big Lime and Weir of Mississippian Age. A very small percentage is encountered in the Corniferous Devonian lime and the Silurian Big 6 below the black shales. In western Kentucky, in the counties of Henderson, Webster, Hopkins, McLean, Christian, Muhlenburg, Ohio, Daviess, Hancock, Brecken-ridge, Hart, Barren and Warren, many gas wells have been completed, but, because of insufficient market, activity has been somewhat desultory. The area is served by the pipe lilies of the Kentucky Natural Gas Corporation, with headquarters at Owensboro. Their market is increasing and the gas is delivered to Owensboro, Henderson, Madisonville, and many

Jan 1, 1935

By James Terry Duce

The gross production on the Island of Sahreirl during 1944 was approximately 6,700,000 U. S. bbl. No additional wells were drilled in the field during the year, but a number that were plugged off during the critical days of the war were brought back on production. This work is continuing. The construction of the extension of the refining plant was continued during the year and the new crude still was started in November. In Arabia, the production for the year 1940 was 5,074,838 U. S. bbl. Four wells were completed in Dammam field and all were commercial producers. Production for 1941 was 4,310,110 U. S. bbl. Seven more commercial producing wells were completed in Dammam field, and Well No. I at Abqaiq was complcted at 6180 ft. and was also a commercial producer. In 1942 production was 4,530,492 U. S. bbl. Abqaiq No. 2 was drilled to 5785 ft. but was left standing because of mechanical difficulty. The 1943 production was 4,868,- 184 with one well drilled, Abqaiq No. 3 completed at 6488 ft. and a commercial producer. Total production in Arabia for the year 1944 was around 7,800,000 U. S. bbl. and at the close of the year was running at approximately 40,000 bbl. per day. The small refinery, built in 1939, at Ras Tanura was in operation in the fall and a new refinery is being constructed. Only three wells were completed during the year—the El Jauf well in Northern Arabia (completed at 10,974 ft.) which did not bring in commercial production and Wells No. 4 (completed at 6270 ft.) and No. 5 at Abqaiq (completed at 6751 ft.), which were brought in as substantial commercial producers. Production for the year was entirely from the Dammam field. In this field, some of the wells that had been plugged off early in the war were brought back in production and this work is continuing. At the close of the year, one well was drilling in the Abqaiq field and an additional well was drilling at Qatif, the latter being a wildcat. Neither of the wells in question had reached producing horizons on the first of January.

Jan 1, 1945

By W. S. Ayres

THE boiler from which these stay-bolts have just been obtained was that of the locomotive Catasauqua, Lehigh Valley Railroad, built at the company&apos;s shops, South Easton, Pa., in 1864. The iron is Lowmoor, and has been in use nearly ten years. The stay-bolts have become highly crystallized from some cause, and are very brittle, only requiring three blows of an ordinary machinist&apos;s hammer to break them. On the other hand, when annealed they are remarkably tough, as shown by the doubled sample. The majority of the broken bolts were found to be along the curve of the shell from a to c, Fig. 6. All of them were broken just inside the shell, and in no case next the fire-box. The fractures seen to have been of slow procedure, beginning at the top of the bolt, gradually working deeper and deeper until the pressure of steam overcame the tenacity of the remaining parts. Unequal contraction and expansion of the parts of the boiler seems in this case to be the only existing cause for a fracture. We cannot, from the data obtained, prove to an absolute certainty the manner in which the combined forces generated by the unequal contraction and expansion of the parts have arrived at their resultant work ; but we can, from these data and from existing circumstances, arrive at what seems to be a fair supposition, and thus at least anticipate the truth. The contraction and expansion in locomotive boilers has a large range between its extremes, and is very variable, both with reference to time and to their component parts. The shell and fire-box do not, perhaps, at any time, contract and expand at the same rate, nor proportionally ; but, on the contrary, owing to the great changes in temperature that take place both in the atmosphere around the shell, and in the fire in the fire-box, their condition is often changed suddenly, and widely from that which they just previously had. This racking tendency produces strains in the different parts, and it is fair to suppose that the continual motion of the two

Jan 1, 1874

By W. S. Ayres

The boiler from which these stay-bolts have just been obtained was that of the locomotive Catasauqtia, Lehigh Valley Railroad, built at the company&apos;s shops, South Easton, Pa., in 1864. The iron is Lowmoor, and has been in use nearly ten years. The stay-bolts have become highly crystallized from some cause, and are very brittle, only requiring three blows of an ordinary machinist&apos;s hammer to break them. On the other hand, when annealed they are remarkably tough, as shown by the doubled sample. The majority of the broken bolts were found to be along the curve of the shell from a to c, Fig. 6. All of them were broken just inside the shell, and in no case next the fire-box. The fractures seem to have been of slow procedure, beginning at the top of the bolt, gradually working deeper and deeper until the pressure of steam overcame the tenacity of the remaining parts. Unequal contraction and expansion of the parts of the boiler seems in this case to be the only existing cause for a fracture. We cannot, from the data obtained, prove to an absolute certainty the manner in which the combined forces generated by the unequal contraction and expansion of the parts have arrived at their resultant work ; but we can, from these data and from existing circumstances, arrive at what seems to be a fair supposition, and thus at least anticipate the truth. The contraction and expansion in locomotive boilers has a large range between its extremes, and is very variable, both with reference to time and to their component parts. The shell and fire-box do not, perhaps, at any time, contract and expand at the same rate, nor proportionally; but, on the contrary, owing to the great changes in temperature that take place both in the atmosphere around the shell, and in the fire in the fire-box, their condition is often changed suddenly, and widely from that which they just previously had. This racking tendency produces strains in the different parts, and it is fair to suppose that the continual motion of the two

By D. J. Mottern, F. Wald

SEVERAL systems have been investigated by Bates, Wald, and weinstein&apos; to determine the compatibility of pure PbTe with various metals. This was accomplished by experimentally determining the direction of the reaction given by Eq. [I]: The direction of this reaction is very important if alloys of the PbTe system are to be used in thermoelectric generators because the presence of free lead in the matrix, followed by incipient melting in the vicinity of the hot junction, could cause a bonding failure. According to anssen,&apos; the Au-Te system contains only one stable compound, AuTez. The initial alloy which was reacted was therefore of the composition AuTez + 2Pb. Ten-gram samples of PbTe plus 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 70 at. pct Au were encapsulated in carbon-coated quartz capsules in vacuo. All materials were of semiconductor (99.999+ pct) purity. Carbon coating was used to prevent reaction of the quartz with any of the alloying constituents (the solubility of carbon in the constituents of the alloys is negligible). Each capsule was then placed in a thermal analysis furnace, melted, and cooled through the transformation region. Thermal arrests were monitored on a strip chart recorder. Each sample was subsequently examined microscopically after standard grinding and polishing techniques were applied. For better contrast between the phases, the samples were etched in Murakami&apos;s etch; however, both phases could be identified without etching. Several of the samples were ground into powder, stress-relieved, and X-rayed in a Debye-Scherrer camera using nickel-filtered Cu-Ka radiation. The phase diagram shown in Fig. 1 indicates that the pseudobinary system exists as a simple eutectic with no measurable (<I pct) solid solubility at either limit. Figs. 2,3, and 4 are photomicrographs of the structures obtained with 20, 40, and 50 at. pct Au, respectively. At higher concentrations of gold (>40 pct) slight divorcement of the eutectic occurred, apparently due to a) the difference in density between gold and PbTe (19.6 and 8.25 g per cu cm, respectively) or b) the nonideality of the liquid as noted by the curvature of the liquidus lines. The eutectic temperature was determined to be 742° ± 5°C. The composition of the eutectic was determined by extrapola-

Jan 1, 1969

By H. A. Wentworth

The Huff electrostatic plant of the United States Smelting CO., operated in conjunction with its wet concentrator at Midvale, Utah, was the second plant of substantial size installed using the Huff process, and the first plant to be put in operation on the so-called Western complex ores. , In spite of the machinery being of early design and consequently embracing many of the mechanical weaknesses incident to a pioneer plant the mill has operated steadily and uniformly since the summer of 1909, about five years now, without any material change other than some rearrangement of the machinery for better handling of the sizes. The ore, at present coming almost entirely from the company&apos;s mines in Bingham, is of practically the same composition as that upon which the plant was first put in operation. The crude ore, consisting of the sulphides of copper, lead, zinc, and iron, and containing small amounts of gold and silver, is brought by train and delivered to the hoppers of the wet concentrator, where by jig and table treatment, there are produced a shipping lead concentrate, a tailing, and a middling product, the latter being conveyed in push cars to the adjoining electrostatic mill. The crude ore delivered to the wet concentrator contains from 6 to 9.5 per cent. zinc. At times the plant is used also for the treatment of custom ores from the Bingham district and elsewhere, and at such times the results of the plant vary according to the material in use, but as by far the larger portion of the product is that from the company&apos;s own mines, the results given below are fairly indicative of the general work obtained. The diagram, Fig. 1, illustrates graphically the flow of the ore through the electrostatic mill. The middling coming from the wet mill, containing from 15 to 18 per cent. moisture, is hoisted while on the cars by an elevator, and delivered from the top of the elevator to a hopper over the drier. The drier first installed was of too low capacity to take care of the moisture present in the tonnage to which the mill was later

Jan 1, 1915

By Gary P. Thomason

INTRODUCTION One may have heard about how various projects were financed or certain companies were successful in obtaining a bank loan, but there are many more projects and companies who fail to get the money they need. At least a portion of these failures, and a large percentage of the frustrations connected with even the successful financings, are a result of not understanding the process of obtaining money. Recent years have seen a proliferation of debt financing sources available to finance minerals operations (see the next Chapter 11), but these represent only a minor portion of the minerals financing market. The fundamental source of borrowed money to many minerals related companies remains the banks. Therefore, understanding the "Loan Approval Process" can easily mean the difference between getting the money or not. LOAN APPROVAL PROCESS The initial stages of the loan approval process should begin long before the bankers, and the organizations they represent, enter upon the scene. The loan approval can be broken down into six stages: 1) Generation 2) Preparation 3) Presentation 4) Evaluation 5) Approval 6) Documentation As you can see in Figure 1, the bank is only directly involved in the second half of the process. The perils in obtaining financing for the smaller minerals venture are primarily in the first three stages, not the last three. The minerals venture making application for a loan can, in almost every case, improve its chances of success by carefully planning and preparing itself and the information that will be required of it in the loan approval process. Generation This first step in the process is deciding on the need for a loan. (Earlier papers in this Book and in Chapter 11 provide some guidance.) It is surprising how many ventures confuse the need for money with the need for a loan. Suffice to say that the equity investor risks both the timing of the yield on his capital and, ultimately, his capital. The lender, on the other hand, advances temporary funds which he expects to be repaid on a specific schedule with a fixed

Jan 1, 1985

By W. S. Landis

WHEN dealing with a new reagent, one is concerned with three principal factors: available supply, cost, and results. The atmosphere contains an inexhaustible supply of oxygen mechanically mixed with nitrogen (omitting rare gases and minor impurities) in the proportions of one volume of oxygen to four volumes of nitrogen. (All figures are based on slide-rule precision and minor impurities are neglected.) Expressed in terms of weight, 1 ton of oxygen represents a volume of 22,500 cu. ft. and is contained in a volume of 112,000 cu. ft. of air. Water, also an inexhaustible supply, is a chemical compound containing 89 per cent. oxygen and, 11 per cent. hydrogen. Of the hundreds of schemes proposed for the enriching of air or separation of oxygen, nothing of value has yet appeared. From the standpoint of mechanical separation, liquefaction followed by rectification is the only process that has been developed to a really commercial stage. Theoretically, it should be a .simple matter to separate the mechanical mixture of nitrogen and oxygen; but fractionation can be performed only by converting to the liquid phase and this phase can be obtained only at lower than critical temperatures. The problem, therefore, is not so simple and the cost of the actual operation bears no relationship to the theoretical simplicity of the process. The largest single unit of the required apparatus so far placed in commercial use will handle only 60,000 cu. ft. of air per hour through a compressor which operates at a little over 250 lb. per sq. in. After this apparatus has operated continuously for 14 to 18 days it must be shut down for 6 to 8 hr. to be thawed out, have accumulated impurities removed and again cooled down for production. The cost of such a unit erected in batteries, with necessary spares for maintaining production, and including prime movers, hoisting and all auxiliary equipment, will be about $125,000. To produce one ton of oxygen per hour requires two operating machines of this size; and if the production is to be absolutely continuous a spare unit must be provided. To operate a plant of two units requires 10 or 11 men, excluding boiler attendants, if steam is generated in the plant.

Jan 11, 1924

By D. B. Myers

The consistent upward trend in crude oil production prevailing in California throughout the greater part of 1929, was effectively checked in November by a curtailment program instituted by mutual agreement between operators in four of the major fields. This program artificially reduced daily production to approximately the same daily figure as prevailed in December, 1928. The large amount of deep drilling during the later part of 1928 and during 1929 has established a potential, however, which is far in excess of refinery needs in the state. Low prices for crude oil which prevailed in California during 1928 continued during 1929. General curtailment continued in the older fields in San Joaquin Valley. The number of wildcat and exploratory wells drilled throughout California was materially increased, but no major field was discovered unless the recent bringing in of the Ohio Oil Co.&apos;s Recreation Gun Club No. 1 well, near Venice in Los Angeles Basin, during the closing days of 1929 results in such a field. Significant developments during 1929 were: (1) The discovery of three deeper zones in the Santa Fe Springs field known as the O&apos;Connell, Clarke, and Hathaway; (2) Kettleman Hills development and unanimous agreement to restrict production; (3) developments along the Santa Barbara Coast and the drilling of tideland permits; (4) extensions of some of the older producing areas in the San Joaquin Valley; (5) the Lawndale and Santa Barbara Mesa structures, the former discovered in Los Angeles Basin in 1928, the latter in Santa Barbara County in 1929, proved to be failures; (6) intensive exploration throughout the state and the drilling of a large number of deep wildcat wells; (7) discovery of oil by the Ohio Oil Co. in the Los Angeles Basin at Venice; (8) Long Beach and Ventura Avenue fields maintained steady production throughout the year. As a natural sequence to the discovery of high-gravity oil fields in Kettleman Hills and at Elwood in 1928, a tremendous amount of exploratory work was done in 1929 in areas underlain by rocks of lower Miocene age, particularly along the Santa Barbara Coast area, the San Joaquin Valley, and the Salinas Valley, where the Vaqueros and Temblor sands were considered to hold possibilities for production.

Jan 1, 1930

By S. D. Brady

In Monongalia County, West Virginia, the Pittsburgh and Sewickley beds lie west of the Monongahela River and underlie practically all the western end of the county. The average thickness of the Pittsburgh bed is 8 ft., where it is being mined at present, sometimes running up to 9 ft. The Sewickley bed is 4½ to 6 ft. thick and lies 90 to 100 ft. above the Pittsburgh bed. As the Pittsburgh bed had a known value, a large part of it was bought up without consideration of the Sewickley bed. When the Monongahela Railway was built up the west side of the Monongahela River, other interests bought up the Sewickley bed, as it was found to be equal in quality to the Pittsburgh, with slight local exceptions. The two beds, therefore, were owned by different people, and naturally each owner opened his mine and ran it without regard to the working of the other bed. Consequently, considerable portions of the upper bed were seriously affected for economical mining, especially on Scotts Run. In recent years there has been a tendency, influenced by the decision of the West Virginia Supreme Court, on the part of the operators in Monongalia County to try to coordinate their projections in the layout of their mines. A typical geologic section, according to the report of the West Virginia State Geological Survey on Monongalia County, agrees with Fig. 1. It is apparent that the rock above the Sewickley bed and between the Sewickley and Pittsburgh beds is of a rather friable ~lature, therefore it is easily broken in pillaring. About the only difference between this section and the geologic section in the Lowsville district is that in the latter district the rock between the coals is a denser sandstone and contains little shale and limestone and no evidence of Redstone coal. It is a laminated sandstone, and although it makes a harder mass, it is easily broken. While working in the Lowsville district, the author had an opportunity to examine a neighboring mine in the Sewickley bed, which was over a section being pillared in the Pittsburgh bed. The two mines belong to dif-

Jan 1, 1931

By S. H. Davis

THE pyrites used in making sulfuric acid in the United States have been largely imported from Spain and Canada, the Spanish imports amounting to nearly 1,000,000 tons per annum in the pre-war period. The greatly increased use of sulfuric acid and the cutting off of these Spanish imports, incident to war conditions, brought about a threatened shortage of sulfur supplies during the war period. The bituminous-coal mines of certain districts have, for many years, furnished a small tonnage of pyrite in the form of coal brasses. A mechanical concentrator at Danville, Ill., for a number of years, has been treating hand-picked lump pyrite and coal from the picking belt and from the mines and a small plant near Gillespie, Ill., for a few months has been recovering pyrite from washery refuse. Many mines throughout Illinois, Indiana, Western Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have shipped an occasional car of the hand-cleaned lump pyrite. Only a very small percentage of the available pyrite has been recovered in this way, however, as usually the miners throw such lumps into the gob with slate and other impurities. It has been estimated that the western Indiana coal field could furnish more than 100,000 tons of pyrite per annum. The present production is very small. The possibility of furnishing the domestic trade with pyrites recovered as a byproduct from coal-mining operations appears attractive but there are certain features difficult to overcome. Pyrite, to be used in acid making, must meet with certain requirements as to size and purity. Lump ore for grate burners should be under 3 in. (7.6 cm.) and over 1 in. (2.5 cm.) in diameter. Fines for use in mecnanical roasters should be under quarter mesh. The material should be high in sulfur, free from arsenic and phosphorus, and as low in carbon as possible. The pyrite obtained from coal can be made to meet all the above requirements, but it is difficult to remove all the carbon. The pyrite in coal occurs as bands and nodules of varying thickness and size and of comparative purity, but mixed with this is more or less web sulfur. The web sulfur carries with it admixed coal, which may make the concen-

Jan 8, 1919

By A. M. Nicholas

WHEN attempting to lift mill pulp containing a considerable percentage of wolframite, in an ordinary bucket elevator, difficulty was encountered from the tendency of the tungsten minerals to settle, on account of their high specific gravity. Lifts not exceeding 20 ft. (6m.) could be accomplished without particular difficulty, because there was insufficient time for consolidation of the heavy minerals in the bottom of the bucket; but with higher lifts, the heavy tungsten minerals would settle so solidly that when the bucket turned over at the top of the elevator the contents could be only partially dumped. In this case it ,was necessary to lift the material a distance of 34 ft. (10m.); hence some means had to be adopted to prevent settling, at least to such an extent that the material could be dumped from the buckets. To reduce the carrying time to a sufficient extent would have required a belt speed of 475 ft. (144.7m.) per minute, which was not feasible. It was decided to try, by vibrating the belt about midway of its span, to keel) the material sufficiently agitated during elevation to prevent settling. Underneath the rising side of the belt was placed a 12-in. (30.48-cm.) idler pulley, 18 ft.-(5.5 in.) up in the total lift of 34 ft. The idler pulley was set eccentric by 3/4 in. (19 mm.) and it was hoped that the vibration thus imparted to the belt, running at a speed of 280 ft. (85 m.) per minute, would prevent settling in the buckets. It was found that the pressure of the belt on the idler, due to the small inclination of the elevator, was not sufficient to overcome sliding on the idler, and the agitation was insufficient to accomplish the desired purpose. The idler was then connected to the drive shaft of the elevator through an intermediate pulley, gearing down to a speed of 20 r.p.m., so that a positive vibration was imparted to the belt; this imparted enough motion to the belt to prevent settling and the contents of buckets clumped satisfactorily.

Jan 2, 1918

By Wm. Hamilton Merritt

IN this paper, which I have the honor to submit to the Institute, it is my intention to treat especially of that part of the North Staffordshire field which converges to a long tongue in the neighborhood of Congleton, and which includes the villages of New Chapel, Ford Green, Norton, Biddulph, Bradley Green, Gillow Heath, and the immediate vicinity. My object is not so much to give a minute description of the geology or systems of mining and smelting, as by a general review, some idea of the extraordinary facilities for the production of excellent iron, which have enabled this district to maintain its position more successfully than any of its rivals against the late depression in trade. The North Staffordshire coal field has the Cheshire and Lancashire fields some thirty-five miles to the north, those of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire forty miles to the east, those of South Staffordshire and Shropshire, about thirty miles to the south, and the Denbighshire and Flintshire fields some forty miles to the west. It is highly probable that the coal continues under the new red sandstone to the Western and Southern fields as the dips on both sides, and absence of large faults, make it impossible to come to any other conclusion. In a section of this coal field, from Chatterly to Whitfield, thirty-two workable seams of coal are shown, of an aggregate thickness of 130 feet, varying from 2 feet 6 inches to 7 feet, and thirteen seams of ironstone, 24 feet, averaging from 2 to 4 feet. All of these seams have been minutely described in a paper by Mr. Charles J. Homer, read in 1875 before the British Iron and Steel Institute. In the northern part, to which I especially wish to direct your attention, the beds lie in a V-shaped basin, the underlying millstone grit and Yoredale rocks rising and forming escarpments on either side of the valley containing the coal. Throughout this district, at the outcrop of the coal, there are indications of old workings. A shaft 4 to 5 feet in diameter reaches the coal at about 14 yards from the surface, and from it the coal has

Jan 1, 1880

By Frank Firmstone

The furnace from which the brick here referred to were taken, was lined under my supervision and blown-in in May, 1902. It was 75 ft. high and 18 ft. in greatest diameter, and used coke to smelt a lean magnetic iron-ore. The lining was put in as follows:—First, blocks 14 in. long by 6 in. thick; second, 2 in. of loam; third, 13.5 in. of 9-in. fire-brick (one-and-ahalf brick wall) laid in English bond; fourth, red brick to within 2 in. of the iron shell; and fifth, 2 in. of slag-wool between the red brick and the shell. The brand of brick used has been known to me for over 20 years, and in my observation had always proved very durable, notably when used in a small furnace 50 k. high which treated the same magnetic. ore. On revisiting and examining the furnace in March, 1903, it was found that the whole of the lining of 14in. blocks at the top, and for an unknown distance (more than 20 ft.) below, had completely disappeared; and a few weeks later the 13.5-in. lining and the red brick at the top likewise vanished, and the furnace was blown out. N~twithstanding the complete failure of the lining higher up, measurements taken after blowing-out showed no unusual wear in the lower part of the furnace. The exact position in the furnace of the piece of brick-work used in the analysis, given below, is not known; but it came from between 30 and 40 ft. above the bottom. It had formed part of the 13.5-in. wall (no 14-in. brick remaining at that level) and consisted of parts of several bricks so firmly sintered together that fracture occurred indifferently through the joints and through the body of the brick. The joints could, however, be traced by a close examination. The surface which had been in contact with the material in the furnace was covered with a yellowish, translucent glaze, somewhat vesicular, and from

Jan 1, 1904

By William Hamilton Merritt

In this paper, which I have the honor to submit to the Institute, it is my intention to treat especially of that part of the North Staffordshire field which converges to a long tongue in the neighborhood of Congleton, and which includes the villages of New Chapel, Ford Green, Norton, Biddulph, Bradley Green, Gillow Heath, and the immediate vicinity. My object-is not so much to give a minute description of the geology or systems of mining and smelting, as by a general review, some idea of the extraordinary facilities for the production of excellent iron, which have enabled this district to maintain its position more successfully than any of its rivals against the late depression in trade. The North Staffordshire coal field has the Cheshire and Laucashire fields some thirty-five miles to the north, those of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire forty miles to the east, those of South Staffordshire and Shropshire, about thirty miles to the south, and the Denbighshire and Flintshire fields some forty miles to the west. It is highly probable that the coal continues under the new red sandstone to the Western and Southern fields as the dips on both sides, and absence of large faults, make it impossible to come to any other conclusion. In a section of this coal field, from Chatterly to Whitfield, thirtytwo workable seams of coal are shown, of an aggregate thickness of 130 feet, varying from 2 feet 6 inches to 7 feet, and thirteen seams of ironstone, 24 feet, averaging from 2 to 4 feet. All of these seams have been minutely described in a paper by Mr. Charles J. Homer, read in 1875 before the British Iron and Steel Institute. In the northern part, to which I especially wish to direct your attention, the beds lie in a V-shaped basin, the underlying millstone grit and Yoredale rocks rising and forming escarpments on either side of the valley containing the coal. Throughout this district, at the outcrop of the coal, there are indications of old workings. A shaft 4 to 5 feet in diameter reaches the coal at about 14 yards from the surface, and from it the coal has

Jan 1, 1880