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By Alphonse C. Van Besien, Arcy A., L. T. Larson, D&apos Shock, J. W. Peters, Ted H. Eyde, Dermot Ross-Brown, David L. Campbell, W. W. Dudley, John P. Bunch

Over the last several years, unfavorable economic and political pressures on open-pit mining have placed the industry in a generally defensive position. As a consequence, there have been changes in the traditional organizational and production methods to increase operating efficiency. For example, staff groups that were once used almost exclusively for production support are now being organized as mining/environmental specialists. These specialized groups are responsible for obtaining mining permits and insuring compliance with existing permit requirements. Permit issurance and renewal continues to grow as a major budget item in open-pit operations.

Jan 2, 1977

By Thomas Fraser, H. F. Yancey

BefoRe a new coal-washing plant is installed, or an existing washery is remodelled and improved, considerable experimental work on the coal to be washed should be done. A thorough examination of a coal, to determine whether it can be washed successfully and the best and most economical process for securing a satisfactory grade of washed coal, calls for mine sampling, analytical work, and experimental coal-washing tests which may require several months' time and the expenditure of considerable money. Having collected the required data on the characteristics of the coal and the results secured with different types of machines under different sets of conditions, it is necessary to decide what method of treatment should be used. The interpretation of the experimental data is no small part of the problem. The first step in the investigative work is to determine from the characteristics of the coal and the manner of occurrence of the impurities whether it is possible to separate the dirt from the coal and produce a washed coal of the required quality. Then it is necessary to select the type of washer or the system of treatment that will produce the greatest amount of washed coal of this grade for the least cost. To secure this information, tests may be made at laboratories operated by consulting or contracting engineers, at the testing plants of machinery manufacturers, at commercial washeries, or in an experimental washery erected on the site of the proposed plant. Such tests will produce figures in which every factor, including analyses of raw coal and washed coal and yield of washed coal, may vary widely. To reduce these results to a common basis for comparison is very difficult. A number of plans

Jan 1, 1923

By Thomas Fraser, H. F. Yancey

BefoRe a new coal-washing plant is installed, or an existing washery is remodelled and improved, considerable experimental work on the coal to be washed should be done. A thorough examination of a coal, to determine whether it can be washed successfully and the best and most economical process for securing a satisfactory grade of washed coal, calls for mine sampling, analytical work, and experimental coal-washing tests which may require several months' time and the expenditure of considerable money. Having collected the required data on the characteristics of the coal and the results secured with different types of machines under different sets of conditions, it is necessary to decide what method of treatment should be used. The interpretation of the experimental data is no small part of the problem. The first step in the investigative work is to determine from the characteristics of the coal and the manner of occurrence of the impurities whether it is possible to separate the dirt from the coal and produce a washed coal of the required quality. Then it is necessary to select the type of washer or the system of treatment that will produce the greatest amount of washed coal of this grade for the least cost. To secure this information, tests may be made at laboratories operated by consulting or contracting engineers, at the testing plants of machinery manufacturers, at commercial washeries, or in an experimental washery erected on the site of the proposed plant. Such tests will produce figures in which every factor, including analyses of raw coal and washed coal and yield of washed coal, may vary widely. To reduce these results to a common basis for comparison is very difficult. A number of plans

Jan 1, 1923

By K. G. Wikle, J. G. Klein, W. W. Beaver

Consolidation of hydride process, electrolytic, calcium reduced, and comminuted thorium powder, as well as saw chips and lathe turnings, by vacuum hot pressing and by cold pressing-vacuum sintering was studied. The mechanical properties of the consolidated material in the extruded form are compared with those of wrought castings. AT present there little little industrial use for thorium metal, although it has some important though small scale applications in electronic equipment. Despite its high inelting point—about 1750°C —a low modulus of elasticity, 11.4xl0 si at 20°C;' relatively low mechanical properties coupled with a high density, 11.7 g per cu cm; and an unusually high chemical activity with normal atmospheres limit any structural applications. The metal is utilized as an alloying element principally in magnesium. Pure thorium finds utility as electrodes in gaseous discharge lamps such as the high intensity mercury lamp' because its low work function and high electron emissivity provide lower starting potentials and more uniform operating characteristics than other available materials. The metal is also found in photoelectric tubes used for the measurement of the ultraviolet spectrum." Thorium metal has been used in germicidal lamps of the cold cathode type as sputtered coatings on nickel in order to provide a low work function surface and a low starting voltage. Other applications have involved the radioactive properties of thorium for the production of ionized particles." The potential value of thorium is much greater than its present use pattern because of possible utility in the field of nuclear power. Th may be converted through nuclear reaction to a fissionable element U which should be capable of acting similarly to U in the g'eneration of atomic power. Thorium has been reported to be about three times as plentiful as uranium in the earth's crust, placing it in the order of abundance of lead and molybdenum." Thus, it is of interest in augmenting the potential supply of fissionable material for nuclear power. Because of its high melting point, thorium is usually produced as a powder through the calcium reduction of its oxide or thermal reduction of halides by sodium, magnesium, and calcium. It may also be produced in flake form by electrolysis of fused alkali or alkaline earth chloricles and fluorides. Therefore, powder metallurgy assumes importance in the fab- rication of thorium metal shapes. Furthermore, it is rather difficult to obtain pure thorium by melting, as the molten metal reacts readily with graphite as well as oxide, carbide, and nitride refractories. These contaminate the melt with oxides, carbides, and metallic impurities." The current investigation was undertaken to examine the fabrication of thorium by powder metallurgy methods which have been used for the commercial production of beryllium and other metals.' A sparcity of data concerning the comparative cold and hot compaction of thorium powders of different derivation existed. Therefore, all commercially available types were examined along with other experimentally produced thorium powders in order to round out the comparison of consolidated thorium powders with melted reguline metal. Review of the Literature By heating a mixture of ThC1, with potassium, Berzelius made the first thorium metal as an impure powder in 1828. Improvements in the basic process, increasing thorium assay to 99 pct, were made by several investigators including Arsem," Lely and Hamberger10 and Von Bolton." Calcium reduction of Tho, to make powders was investigated by Berger," Huppertz,'" Kroll," and Kuzel and Wedekind.'" A thorium powder produced by this method using a CaC1, fluxing agent assayed 99.7 pct, as reported by Marden and Rentschler.'" Compacted and sintered, this product was found to be ductile, and could be fabricated into wire and sheet. Improvements of the calcium reduction process were made later" wherein CaCl, was eliminated from the reaction, producing metal assaying 99.8 pct Th. Further work by Lilliendah118 howed that a coarser metal could be obtained by the substitution of ThC1, or ThOC1, for oxide with consequent advantage of stability to atmospheric reaction. Reports on the technology of thorium developed in Germany during World War II have been made by Espe."' Thorium powder of 99.5 pct Th was obtained by reduction of the oxide by calcium. Screening to —200 mesh, compacting with about 20 tsi, and sintering in vacuo at 1320" to 1360°C for 3 hr resulted in a porous sinter cake. The sinter cake was sufficiently ductile to be worked into bar, wire, and sheet which could be employed as electrode materials.

Jan 1, 1957

By Robert W. Fullerton, Barry G. McMillan, Donald T. King, Henning E. Soderberg

INTRODUCTION Dust control in coal preparation and related transport is a multi- faceted problem which must be anticipated whenever dry, fine coal is subject to rough handling which can disperse it in the air. This problem can be minimized by careful planning and proper design, by eliminating procedures which maximize dust production, and by utilizing the most appropriate dust-collection "hardware" for a given situation. Proper maintenance after dust-collection systems are installed is also very important, and will not only enable the selected equipment to perform properly, but will also reduce component wear, recover valuable product with the highest efficiency, provide cleaner and safer working conditions, and allow local clean-air standards to be met. This chapter is designed to provide basic information about dust control in relation to material processing and handling during coal preparation. Areas discussed should provide the reader with insight into basic dust-collection theory, particle behavior, equipment types, ductwork and hood considerations, general maintenance and design planning, and the economics of dust collection. Because of the wide range of areas covered and the various specialized problems inherent in each, the text is organized to be a practical reference, and not a complete, unabridged treatise of ventilation and dust-control design. Nevertheless, the information presented should be of value in both understanding and reducing problems of dust control in coal preparation.

Jan 1, 1979

By D. J. McAdam

Results of investigation of corrosion-fatigue of metals at the U. S. Naval Engineering Experiment Station, Annapolis, Md., have been discussed by the writer in several recent paper~.1,2,3,4 In those papers references were also given to the work of Haigh in 1917.= Efforts by the writer to obtain a better understanding of some of the factors involved in corrosion-fatigue finally developed into a general investigation of the effect of time and cyclic stress on corrosion of metals. Corrosion-fatigue of Metals As described in the papers mentioned, rotating-cantilever specimens, conically tapered so that the stress is nearly uniform over a length of about 1.5 in., were subjected to simultaneous fatigue and corrosion. For this purpose a stream of water was diagonally applied so as to sweep the specimen from the outer to the inner fillet and surround the stressed surface with water. The fresh water is a calcium carbonate water, the composition of which has been given in a previous paper.2 The salt water is Severn River water having a saline content about one-third that of sea water. The previous papers described results obtained with ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The experiments showed that even slight corrosion simultaneous with fatigue may cause failure at nominal stresses far

By Arthur G. Levy, Henry M. Howe

$1. Introduction.—Any given piece of metal is made up of a very great number of grains, usually microscopic, each of which is a perfect crystal save only in outward form, with cleavage planes of low cohesion, geometrically arranged quite as in fie familiar non-metallic crystals. The plastic deformation of such a mass occurs chiefly through the slipping of the crystalline blocks of which each grain is composed along these cleavage planes, causing steps called slip bands to form on a previously polished surface. In this slip, the metal immediately adjoining each of the cleavage planes along which the slip takes place is thought to pass extremely rapidly through a very mobile state into the amorphous state, in which it is harder than the remaining still crystalline metal between the amorphous layers thus formed along the slip planes. Whether the slip planes below the surface in ferrite can be detected by cutting, polishing, and etching sections is in dispute; but if this detection is possible at all, it is usually made impossible by heating the metal even gently. In short, the change along the slip planes does not persist through heating, and it is thought not to persist through time even at the room temperature, nearly all the amorphous metal recrystallizing. The network in Fig. 22 and the parallel N.-70-E. lines in Fig. 21 are slip bands in copper. When plastically deformed metal is heated, certain parts of certain grains may twin, that is, their component crystalline units may rotate into a position, or more exactly into an orientation, symmetrical with the initial orientation and hence with that of the remainder of that grain. As seen in a microsection of a metal the twinned areas usually have parallel sides. The existence of twinning is recognized in metallic sections either by the presence of such parallel-sided areas differing in brightness from the adjoining metal, especially when seen under oblique light after etching, or more surely by the zigzagging of the slip bands which form when twinned metal is itself deformed again. Hence the usual procedure in developing twins is to deform plastically so as to cause the twinning tendency; to heat so as to allow the tendency to assert

Jan 1, 1915

Jan 1, 1905

By S. F. Emmons

Br far the greater number of the members of this Institute are men who are engaged in the strenuous work of the technical part of their profession, and find little time for the abstract scientific work which is less distinctly practical and pecuniarily emunerative. There is, however, a small but increasingly numerous class whose members devote themselves to broad geological problems which underlie the systematic development, and whose work, theoretically, ought to precede and form a basis of that of their more practical brethren. These are the so-called mining or economic geologists, who are, for the most part, connected with State or National geological surveys. From the character of their work, the life of these men necessarily follows rather different line's than that of most of their colleagues, and is not generally familiar to them. It seems admissible, therefore, that to the life of a prominent member of this class, who died during the past year, having literally sacrified his life to his work, a more extended notice should be given than the relatively small number of his contributions to the Transactions might seem to justify. George Romans Eldridge, son of Ellery and Sarah (Mathews) Eldridge, was born on Cape Cod at Yarmouth, Mass., Christmas day, 1854. His boyhood education in the public school at Yarmouth was followed by a six years' course in the Public Latin School at Boston, from which lie entered Harvard Uni¬versity in 1872, being graduated with the highest rank in his class in the natural sciences in 1876. During his college course he spent the summers of 1875-6 at Cumberland Gap, Ky., as volunteer aid to Prof. N. S. Shaler, who was then in charge of the State Geological Survey of Ken¬tucky. This vacation work, undertaken by him rather as a pastime, gave him his first leaning toward geology. Soon

Mar 1, 1906

By R. W. Heckel, R. L. DeGregorio

The DeHoff method of determining the size distribution of ellipsoid-shaped, second-phase particles has been applied to the spheroidization of cementite in a eutectoid steel. The surface area of Precipitates determined from the various size fractions in the distribution was correlated with surface-area measurements based on the number of intersected interfaces on a random lest line. The precipitate particles were found to be oblate ellipsoids with an axial ratio of about 0.90. The size distributions were found to be log-normal. A method is proposed whereby the shrinkage of small particles and growth of large ones can be determined from the experimental data. The experimental data are compared to previously proposed mathematical models describing diffusion-controlled kinetics and various types of interface-controlled kinetics. The experimental growth and shrinkage rates are considerably slower than those predicted by diffusion-controlled kinetics. The best fit is obtained for a model describing interface-controlled kinetics limited by the rate of formation of cementite at the growing interfaces where the interfacial reaction rate is proportional to the solute thermodynamic activity gradient across the surface. THE subject of spheroidization of second-phase particles has been considered previously by other investigators. Livingston1 has studied the precipitation of the cobalt-rich phase from copper alloys containing 0.7 to 3.2 wt pet Co. His results indicate that the average particle size increases as the cube root of the heat treatment time in accord with diffusion-controlled kinetics.'-' Komatsu and rant' in their studies of the growth of SiO2 in a dispersion-strengthened copper-silica alloy found that the initial growth of SiO2 proceeded by diffusion-controlled growth and later stages were limited by interface-controlled growth. The values of the activation energy obtained for the interface- controlled process led them to the conclusion that the process was limited by the dissociation of SiO2 at the shrinking interface. The transition from diffusion-controlled growth to interface-controlled growth was characterized by a particle size which varied with the heat-treatment temperature. It is also interesting to note that the particle-size distribution as found by Komatsu and Grant exhibits log-normal behavior when replotted on log-probability coordinates. Dromsky, Lenel, and Ansell9 have observed the growth of Al2O3 particles having a mean free path of about 1.5 to 13 µ. Their photomicrographs indicate that the Al2O3 particle sizes were larger than those observed by Komatsu and Grant. Dromsky, Lenel, and Ansell concluded that the Al2O3 coarsened by an interface-controlled growth mechanism limited by the solution of A12O3 at the shrinking interfaces. Bannyh, Modin, and Modin10 have studied the spheroidization of a eutectoid steel (0.83 wt pet C). Their spheroidization (tempering) treatments were carried out in the range from 210o to 700°C for times between 1.5 sec and 20 hr. Measurements of mean particle size as a function of time indicated a cube root of time dependence of size at 700°C, in agreement with previous analyses of diffusion-controlled kinetics.2°7 At lower temperatures, the time dependence was less than the one-third power. It is important to note that, although mathematical models of growth* considering particle-size distribution have been available, measurements of only mean particle size have been carried out. DeHoff11 has presented a quantitative metallography technique which is applicable to the determination of the size distribution of ellipsoids of constant shape. This method is applicable to both oblate and prolate ellipsoids of all ratios of minor to major axis and is based upon an extension of Saltykov's analysis12 of the distribution of spheres of varying size. DeHoff's analysis is based upon measurements of the minor axis of the particles on a random plane of polish in a unit area. This method provides a measure of the number of ellipsoids in various size ranges per unit area. As pointed out by DeHoff, such measurements may be used to obtain surface area and total precipitate volume data. Thus, the accuracy of the distribution analysis may be checked by comparison of the surface and volume

Jan 1, 1965

By A. Hultgren, B. Herrlander

The original aim of the present investigation was to study the mechanism of cracking on hot-deforming red-short steels. During the microscopical examination of hot-deformed soft steels attention was directed to various patterns of so-called veining in the ferrite, as related to variations in the deformation procedure and the heat-treatment of the steels. Later, a hot-short steel of higher carbon content was also studied. Historical Storey1 suggested in 1914 that veining developed during the gamma-alpha transformation from the growing together of several alpha nuclei within the same gamma grain. Rawdon and Berglund2 found that in soft steel, forged somewhat below A3, the ferrite showed profuse veining, while usually there was very little veining after forging at very high temperatures. They emphasized the similarity between the pattern of veining formed by deformation about 600°C and that of slip lines formed by deformation at room temperature. They also suggested a relation between the gamma-alpha transformation and veining. They became convinced from etching and from the slip-line pattern in cold-deformed material, that the orientation within any ferrite grain showing veining was uniform. In recrystallized alpha grains veining was absent. Veining did not appear materially to affect the properties of ferrite. Independent of veining, continuous networks, attributed to preexisting delta and gamma grain boundaries were sometimes found, the former only in cast steel. Those networks were usually connected with small inclusions. Ammermann and Kornfeld3 confirmed that recrystallized ferrite grains showed no veining. In soft steel annealed between A1 and A3 there was veining only in the ferrite grains formed during cooling. Electrolytic iron deformed at 880' was free from veining. Bannister and Jones' considered veining in ferrite to be a manifestation of microscopical and sub-microscopica~ inclusions. NorthCOtt,5,6 in studies on veining in steel and other metals and alloys, attributed veining to oxide inclusions. It could generally be removed by annealing in hydrogen, a suggestion earlier made by Rawdon and Berg1und. TrittOn (discussion in ref. 5) emphasized the importance of perfect polishing for bringing out veining by etching, and thought the veins or subboundaries were produced during the gamma-alpha transformation, when it was rapid, as a result of the volume change and contraction during cooling. Slight distortion would not allow projecting parts of a growing crystal to join up with atomic symmetry. Hanemann and co-workers showed that veining in ferrite consisted of ridges

Jan 1, 1948

By B. Herrlander, A. Hultgren

The original aim of the present investigation was to study the mechanism of cracking on hot-deforming red-short steels. During the microscopical examination of hot-deformed soft steels attention was directed to various patterns of so-called veining in the ferrite, as related to variations in the deformation procedure and the heat-treatment of the steels. Later, a hot-short steel of higher carbon content was also studied. Historical Storey1 suggested in 1914 that veining developed during the gamma-alpha transformation from the growing together of several alpha nuclei within the same gamma grain. Rawdon and Berglund2 found that in soft steel, forged somewhat below A3, the ferrite showed profuse veining, while usually there was very little veining after forging at very high temperatures. They emphasized the similarity between the pattern of veining formed by deformation about 600°C and that of slip lines formed by deformation at room temperature. They also suggested a relation between the gamma-alpha transformation and veining. They became convinced from etching and from the slip-line pattern in cold-deformed material, that the orientation within any ferrite grain showing veining was uniform. In recrystallized alpha grains veining was absent. Veining did not appear materially to affect the properties of ferrite. Independent of veining, continuous networks, attributed to preexisting delta and gamma grain boundaries were sometimes found, the former only in cast steel. Those networks were usually connected with small inclusions. Ammermann and Kornfeld3 confirmed that recrystallized ferrite grains showed no veining. In soft steel annealed between A1 and A3 there was veining only in the ferrite grains formed during cooling. Electrolytic iron deformed at 880' was free from veining. Bannister and Jones' considered veining in ferrite to be a manifestation of microscopical and sub-microscopica~ inclusions. NorthCOtt,5,6 in studies on veining in steel and other metals and alloys, attributed veining to oxide inclusions. It could generally be removed by annealing in hydrogen, a suggestion earlier made by Rawdon and Berg1und. TrittOn (discussion in ref. 5) emphasized the importance of perfect polishing for bringing out veining by etching, and thought the veins or subboundaries were produced during the gamma-alpha transformation, when it was rapid, as a result of the volume change and contraction during cooling. Slight distortion would not allow projecting parts of a growing crystal to join up with atomic symmetry. Hanemann and co-workers showed that veining in ferrite consisted of ridges

Jan 1, 1948

By L. F. Coffin

Monotonic tension and controlled cyclic-strain tests have been conducted on an annealed steel at various strain rates and temperatures in the weep range. Evidence of a strain-induced precipitate reaction abozle 500°C was determined from pronounced cyclic-hardening effects, increase inflow stress, inter granular fracture, drastic decrease in low-cycle fatigue resistance, and loss in tensile fracture ductility, as well as through electron-microscopy examination. It was found that strain rate as well as temperature had a pronounced effect on these observations. A parameter of the form P = T(7.95 - log ip) was determined, which was directly related to the ductility, defined either as the true strain at fracture in the case of simple tension, or as 2N 1/2 ? E p in the case of cyclic plastic strain. A highly satisfactory comparison of the cyclic life as measured and as computed from the ductility predicted by this parameter was obtained for a range of temperatures from 400° to 650°C and for crosshead speeds of 0.002 to 0.2 in. per min. MANY metals subjected to sustained loading at elevated temperatures derive resistance to creep from solid-state reactions of various alloying constituents. These reactions can be many and varied, and occur as a consequence of time and temperature according to reaction-rate principles. Strong evidence exists that many of these reactions are influenced by plastic strain, the argument being put forth that dislocations act as sites for nucleation and growth for the new phase.' Many examples can be cited where plastic strain during transformation influences the structure, and as a consequence affects the properties.2 The low-alloy steels serve as particularly good examples for investigating the effect which aging reactions have on resulting properties. Alloying elements such as carbon and nitrogen, and carbide formers such as manganese, chromium, molybdenum, and so forth, can, by the particular aging reaction which occurs, produce strengthening effects at various temperatures, and so endow strength to the alloy over a broad range of temperatures. These effects have been systematically studied by Glen both during creep3 and for constant strain-rate tension testing.4,5 The work of Glen is of considerable interest in connection with the present study, particularly in regard to the effect of various alloying additions on the true stress-strain curve and on fracture ductility at various elevated temperatures. He has shown that strain-age hardening occurred during plastic straining, which was quite specific both to the temperature of the test and to the alloying element involved. When strain-age hardening was noted at a particular temperature, a .minimum in reduction of area was also obtained. Provided the temperature for the minimum reduction of area exceeded 300°C, all minimum ductility fractures were found to be inter-crystalline in nature. For carbon steels containing molybdenum, two minima in reduction of area were noted, one occurring at 200° to 250°C, the precise temperature depending on the percentage of molyb-

Jan 1, 1964

By Harry C. Wiess

RECENT announcement of further restrictions on gasoline consumption in the Mid-West and Southwest has focused public attention on current discussions of an oil scarcity. Conflicting arguments are advanced on the one hand that we have plenty of oil and will not need to restrict consumption as soon as transportation facilities are adequate, and on the other hand that a great impending shortage will require most drastic reductions in civilian consumption in order to provide adequate supplies for military purposes. Data can be presented to support both views, the result being that the public is confused and uncertain of where the truth lies. For a nation with about half of the known crude-oil reserves of the world and two thirds of the total production it seems almost incredible to the layman that any shortage can exist. Those familiar with estimates of future demand. however. show increasing concern regarding our ability to meet military demands without further restrictions in civilian use or wasteful production from our remaining reserves. Only by considering such facts as are available and can be made public can a true appraisal be made of whether or not we are faced with a shortage that will amount to a crisis in crude oil.

Jan 1, 1943

By G. R. Fitterer

NonmEtallic inclusions in steel have received much attention by metallurgists during the past few years. Many investigators have been emphatic in stating their belief that these impurities are the chief causes of steel failures, while others think that their effects are negligible. One of the main reasons that definite information on the effects of these impurities is lacking is that no reliable method has been developed for the exact determination of the amounts of these different impurities in steel. Some valuable new information has been brought out by a reliable method for nonmetallic inclusions which has been developed at the Pittsburgh Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, in cooperation with the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Metallurgical Advisory Board. This procedure satisfactorily extracts some of the more common inclusions from steels, thus enabling the investigator to correlate steel failures with inclusion content. Although the data given herein are the first to be published on the subject of the electrolytic extraction method, the interest in the subject is evidenced by the fact that it is already being used by some 20 to 30 steel companies for their various purposes. Some of the comments received from these laboratories indicate that the method is highly satisfactory: the unfavorable comments, when traced to their sources, have been found to be based on some small mistake made in either installation or operation. The chief discrepancy seems to have occurred in attempts to apply the method to the extraction of inclusions from alloy steels. The procedure can be used only for the plain carbon steels and for such low alloy steels as those containing the usual amount of copper (0.2 to 0.3 per cent). Steels containing the carbide-forming alloys such as chromium, tungsten, etc., present far too many difficulties for the accurate determination of inclusions. Luckily, the iron and manganese carbides do not offer any difficulties and no contamination of the oxide-sulfide residue results, It is highly probable that some modification of the following

Jan 1, 1931

By F. D. Hoyt, H. L. Hartman

The development of new processes and methods by The Pennsylvania State University to improve slate quarrying technology has centered in recent years on cutting and sawing stone in the quarry to eliminate a second cutting process in the mill. Two machines exhibit promise for this work: 1) a circular saw mounting diamonds or hard inserts to produce smaller sizes of stone and 2) a chain saw with insert cutting teeth to produce stone in the larger dimensions. Prototype machines have been constructed and tested in several Pennsylvania slate quarries, and one commercial installation has been operated for several months with a circular diamond saw. Other kinds of dimension stones may be cut by these saws. Research at Penn State has begun to study the fundamental cutting action of rotary tools or saws in slate and other dimension stones. A laboratory drill press is being instrumented to permit thrust-torque-rotational speed us penetration rate studies of single tooth cutting surfaces on stone. Machinability studies of slate conducted with tungsten-carbide inserts have been performed. The dimension stone industry generally accepts the rather basic premise that the larger the block removed from the quarry, the more practical and economical the operation. Thus, the concept of cutting to size any dimension stone while it remains in place in the parent bed would receive little consideration from the majority of members of the industry. However, the slate industry, which is usually considered a separate member of the dimension stone family, is pioneering in the development of an in-place sawing method. Before any final decision can be reached concerning a proposed new system, it is essential to take a long, hard look at the present method of operation in order to determine if the new system is indeed an improvement or even desirable. In the following section is a brief description of present quarry practice in the slate quarries of eastern Pennsylvania. PRESENT METHOD OF QUARRYING SLATE In the numerous slate quarries of Lehigh and Northampton Counties of Pennsylvania, the grain and cleavage of the slate are most often at right angles to each other; if a third surface is broken at right angles to these two natural planes of weakness, blocks of more or less rectangular shape can be separated.' In conventional quarrying a large calyx core drill prepares holes of 36-in. diam in which wire-saw standards are positioned. By wire sawing between strategically located core-drill holes, large sinks or benches of virgin slate are opened up. The sides freed by wire sawing will vary from quarry to quarry but generally are rectangular in shape with dimensions averaging 20 ft in length and about 15 ft in depth. Some quarries are fortunate in having a joint or natural parting to work to, which of course diminishes the amount of core drilling and wire sawing required. Once the various benches have been developed either through wire sawing alone or through a combination of wire sawing and natural jointing planes, the block removal proceeds in the following manner. A plug hole is drilled in the block with a compressed-air hammer and a feathering chisel is inserted in the hole to cause a fracture of the rock either with or against the grain as indicated by the positioning of the so-called feathers. This operation is referred to as sculping. After a block has been freed with and against the grain by means of wedging from the cross fracture with long bars or levers, the block is further freed along the cleavage plane by shimming it up with small wooden pieces in an operation known as styling. A large steel loading chain is wrapped around a block thus freed and the chain is attached to the wheel of an overhead cable. The block is then hoisted vertically to the cableway and moved along this cableway laterally to the lip or edge of the quarry. From here it is unloaded onto a rail car or truck for transportation to the processing mill. Except for occasional blasting to free stubborn blocks,

Jan 1, 1961

By Paul Billingsley

CERTAIN adequately developed mining districts give complete three-dimensional patterns of ore bodies as clusters rising from roots in basement rocks with details controlled by structure of cover rooks. Examples are Goodsprings, Tintic, Bisbee, Leadville, Hedley, Eureka, Ely and Goldfield. In these and others the controlling structures in both basement and cover rock are elements of the neighboring regional structure and have been produced by rock movements in harmony with continental adjustments, which are usually steep tear faults in basement and thrust crumples in cover. Invariably the structures and movements in the districts have long geologic history and result from intersecting or superimposed deformations of different ages. Salt Lake districts show intersecting Uinta and Cordilleran elements; Colorado dis-tricts show intersecting pre-Cambrian and Tertiary elements, and Bisbee shows Tertiary superimposed on final Paleozoic folding. Thus the position of districts has been determined by the patterns of North American orogenic belts, which make cross-roads in Rocky Mountains and blocks of superimposed deformation in Sierra Nevada, northwest Coast and Canadian Coast Ranges. Essential function of repeated deforma-tion is to strengthen rock, as from shale to slate to schist to gneiss, and thus make it competent to carry channels to depth with or without addition of intrusives. The essence of a mining district is the presence of such competent rocks with long-lived, deep, penetrating breaks reopened to permit passage of heat and associated products from depths to surface. It is suggested that melts such as magmas; metamorphism up to and including granitization; alteration, such as orthoclase-quartz or quartz-sericite or garnet, and also mineralization, may all be by-products of such heat escape along channels made by tectonic forces at specific foci.

Jan 1, 1939

By A. S. Yue, A. E. Vidoz, F. W. Crossman

Tensile specimens were prepared from a single grain of an epitaxially grown Al-CuAl2 eutectic ingot. The eutectic lanzellae were oriented parallel and perpendicular to the tensile axis of the specimens. Since the composite was of the eutectic composition, the aluminum-rich matrix could dissolve up lo 5. 7 wt pct Cu in solid solution and, therefore, was amenable to strengthening by precipitation hardening. The tensile properties of the eutectic single crystals were determined at room temperature as functions of interlamel-lar spacing, platelet orientation, and thermornechanical trealment. The obserced variations in composite stress and modulus with respect to the level of&apos; composite strain are discussed in terms of premature fracture of CuAlz platelets, a distribution function for the strength of the lamellae, and unequal strains due to localized fracture of&apos; platelets. The discontinuous fiber composite model of Kelly and Tyson is modgied to account for a changing distribution of fiber lengths during composite loading. The tensile properties at elevated temperatures were determined for the direc-tionally solidified eutectic oriented with platelets parallel to the tensile axis. The observed properties are attributed to the onset of plasticity of the CuAL2 phase above 150°C. DURING the investigation of whisker- and fiber-reinforced metallic matrix composites in recent years, two major problem areas have developed: 1) The fabrication of the composite involves tedious handling techniques in order to obtain a unidirection-ally aligned and uniformly spaced set of whiskers in the metal matrix. 2) Due to weak interfacial bond strengths or because of the formation of additional embrittling phases at the metal-fiber interface during long-time exposure or fabrication at elevated temperatures, many composite systems have exhibited considerably lower strengths than those predicted by a law of mixtures analysis.&apos; These problems have been bypassed by the technique of growing whiskers and plates of high-strength materials in a ductile metal matrix by controlled unidirectional eutectic solidification.2 The tensile properties of directionally solidified A1-CuA12 eutectic are presented here. This alloy consists of a ductile aluminum matrix, containing up to 5.7 wt pct Cu in solid solution, which is amenable to precipitation hardening by heat treatment and a reinforcing high modulus CuAlz intermetallic phase. The two phases are present in the form of alternating platelets or lamellae. The microstructural stability of this unidirectionally solidified alloy at elevated temperatures has been studied extensively.3.4 and preliminary tensile and bend tests have been reported. 5-7In the present investigation the tensile properties of the A1-CuA1, eutectic have been studied as a function of several ther-momechanical variables: solidification rate. heat treatment. rolling at elevated temperatures. and lamellar orientation. It was felt that the uniformity of structure and excellent interfacial bonding would give tensile properties concomitant with the metal matrix composite theory of strengthening proposed by Kelly and coson. 8-9 The tensile properties that were obtained point to a wide distribution of strengths for the CuAlZ platelets, which leads to large deviations from the predicted mechanical behavior for this composite. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Epitaxial Growth of Eutectic Alloy. The A1-CuA1, eutectic alloy was prepared by an epitaxial growth process. Sections of a master alloy ingot (total impurity content <0.008 pct) were placed in an alundum boat, melted. and directionally solidified to obtain a multigrained plate 12 by 2 by 4 in. This plate was tapered at one end to mate with a seed crystal 1; in. long and 4 by $ in. square. Then the seed-plate combination was placed in an alundum boat which sat in a quartz tube passing through the center of a horizontal resistance wound tube furnace. A dried argon atmosphere was maintained. The temperature gradient in the furnace was such that the liquid-solid interface of the eutectic alloy was located near the end of the furnace and could be observed through the quartz tube. Single-crystal plates were formed by melting the material back to the midpoint of the seed crystal of the desired platelet orientation and then epitaxially growing the plate from the seed by withdrawing the alundum boat from the furnace at a constant rate. This technique was used to produce aluminum and CuA12 lamellae parallel and perpendicular to the transverse direction on the plate. Metallographic examination showed that both phases were continuous across the original liquid-solid interface. It was also possible to grow a plate from two seeds placed side by side: and, although the lamellae of one seed were oriented at 90 deg to those of the second seed, the interface between the two grains remained parallel to the growth direction along the entire ingot length. Maintenance of a straight intergranular boundary during the solidification process was possible as long as both seeds were oriented with their original growth direction parallel to the solidification direction of the plate. Eutectic plates were directionally solidified at rates of 0.2, 1.0. and 4.7 cm per hr and sectioned transversely to the solidification direction to determine the apparent inter lamellar spacing of the lamellae. Metallographic examination was also employed

Jan 1, 1970

By G. S. Rice

The subject of dust explosions in coad mines first appears in the Transactions of this Institute following the first great mine disaster that happened in…

Jan 1, 1915

By J. F. Kemp

Introduction The Bulletin of the Institute for March, 1911, is chiefly devoted to papers upon the iron ores of northeastern Cuba. At that time information about the new developments in the peculiar brown hematites of the region was becoming widely circulated and interest was especially keen. For some years exploration had been conducted with pits and trenches and so great an area had been shown to contain ore in the Mayari, Moa, and Cubitas or San Felipe districts, that the reserves conveniently situated for the consumption of American furnaces were estimated as quite two billions of tons. In the subjoined footnote will be found a list of the principal papers of special interest which have already been published.1 The further remark may, however, be made that the

Jan 2, 1915