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By John L. Burns

The object of this chapter is to present data concerning the effect of the introduction of relatively slight amounts of carbon and nitrogen into supersaturated solution in iron. The study is confined to the alpha temperature range of both the Fe-C and Fe-N systems. The age-hardening characteristics of these two systems are considered. These data are compared to those of other age-hardening alloy systems and a "classification" is essayed. A.—Relation of Lattice Parameter and Electrical Conductivity to Changes in Physical Properties Due to Aging of Fe-C Alloys Since Whiteleyl in 1927 showed that some of the iron carbide that is normally present in slowly cooled low carbon-iron alloys disappears on rapid cooling from just below the A, point, interest has been manifested in the possibilities of age-hardening in these alloys. Masing and Koch,~ and at the same time and independently, W. Koster,~ proved these alloys to be age-hardenable. A. A. Bates4 a little later also published an interesting paper on changes in physical properties due to the aging of low-carbon steels. Many other papers have appeared showing changes in physical properties in specific instances due to this same phenomenon.

Jan 1, 1934

By Comfort Adams

WHEN this country went into the war, but two concerns, The Bethlehem Steel Co. and The Midvale Steel and Ordnance Co., knew how to make steel fit for great cannons and at these concerns there were relatively few men who knew the whole art. Fortunately, certain of these men put their knowledge at the service of the Government, and proceeded to instruct the metallurgists at the arsenals and at various steel works. The then chairman of the Engineering Division of the National Research Council, Doctor Howe, suggested that this work might be facilitated, and the number of effective gun-steel makers thereby increased, if a detailed description of the best practice could be written, giving the reasons for the various steps, and issued with the endorsement of a committee composed of those who were evidently the most competent authorities. It was thought that something would be gained by clarification of the subject, and something by the eminent authority' of the members of the committee. To that end, the Engineering Division appointed-a committee, consisting of the gentlemen whose names follow, to mention only those who retained their connection with it. At, this time there were serious difficulties in the manufacture for the Government, of aircraft and high-speed engine crankshafts, of certain ordnance forgings, and of shells for both the Army and Navy. This Committee was asked to study and report upon these, with a view to betterment of practice. There were indications that the source of some of the difficulties went back to the melting of the steel and the production of the ingot. Hence, the committee first studied steel melting and ingot production, in order to guide the wartime manufacturers to an even larger percentage of useful production from the steel initially melted.

Jan 1, 1922

NEW MEMBERS The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the month of February, 1914: Members ASANO, KOSAKU, Vice-Mgr..: Ashio Copper Mine, Shimozuke, Japan. BIRD, FRANK H., Constr. Engr E. 417 Sixteenth Ave., Spokane, Wash. COLES, HENRY 0., Chem Copper Queen. Cons. Min. Co., Bisbee, Ariz. COLLEY, HYLTON H., Met Copper Queen Cons. Min. Co., Douglas, Ariz. DALEY, MITCHELL J., Mill Supt Utah Apex Min. Co., Box 753, Bingham Canyon, Utah. FISHER, GEORGE EDWARD, Director, 3d Vice-Pres., Grasselli Chemical Co. 1551 East 115th St., Cleveland, Co. FRASER, EVERETT L., Mill Supt Tightner Mines Co., Alleghany, Cal. FRASER, WILLIAM L., Min. Engr North Star Mines, Grass Valley, Cal. FROLLI, ALBERT W. Min. Engr 216 North Main St., Salinas, Cal. GEARHART, FRANK B., Chief of Smelter Dept., N. J. Zinc Co., 405 Columbia Ave.. Palmerton, Pa.

Jan 3, 1914

By W. C. Lacy

THE Cuajone porphyry copper deposit is the northernmost of a group of three deposits in southern Peru controlled by the Southern Peru Copper Corp.-Toquepala, Quelleveco, and Cuajone— all within a 20-mile belt. Although small pockets of high-grade copper oxide ores were worked in the Cuajone area in the 19th century, it was not until 1939 that its potentialities as a disseminated deposit were recognized by 0. C. Schmedeman. An exploratory drilling pro- gram was begun in December 1942 and continued until early 1945. The program was revived in November 1952 and completed early in 1954. Early exploration was by diamond drilling. Later exploration was predominantly churn drilling, with diamond drilling used only for wildcat holes. Along this northwest-trending belt of deposits. which follows the western slopes of the Andean Range, quartz-monzonite has invaded earlier dio-rite intrusives and a series of warped and tilted Cretaceous volcanic flows. Little faulting of consequence has been recognized within the mineralized areas. Sulfide minerals were introduced into all these diverse rocks, and mineralization was followed by erosion, oxidation, and enrichment. In Late Tertiary and/or Quaternary time the entire

Jan 1, 1959

By C. A. Mitke

In the Southwest, mcchanical ventilation of metal mines has been receiving consideration for many years. The United Verde Copper Co., in Jerome, has used large mine fans for ventilation and fire-fighting purposes for at lcast 15 years, while the Copper Qucen Branch of the Phelps Dodge Corpn. commenced installing mechanical ventilation in its various divisions 10 years ago.' Since then, with few exceptions, every large mine in this part of the country has installed and put in operation a mechanical ventilating system. The properties of some of these companies consist of from two to six divisions, or separate mines, each of which requires an independent ventilating system. In other words, thirteen copper mining companies, with an aggregate tonnage, when operating at capacity, of approximately 50,000 tons a day, have installed mechanical ventilating systems in their mines. All these mines are within a radius of approximately 200 miles, which constitutes the largest copper-producing area in the world. The capacities of mechanical ventilating installations in these mines range from 100,000 to 300,000 cu. ft. of air per minute, depending on the size of the mine, character of the workings, tonnage produced, etc. The latter varies from 300 to 20,000 tons per day. The mines include both high- and low-grade deposits, the greatest depth of the former, at present, being approximately 2500 ft.; and of the latter, 1200 ft. The volumes of air at present being coursed through the mines are from 60,000 up to 225,000 cu. ft. of air per minute,which, in their relation to the undcrground working force, range from 200 to 800 cu. ft. of air per man, per minute. While not to be taken as criteria, these figures are indicative of the character of the ventilation furnished.

Jan 1, 1923

By C. A. Mitke

In the Southwest, mcchanical ventilation of metal mines has been receiving consideration for many years. The United Verde Copper Co., in Jerome, has used large mine fans for ventilation and fire-fighting purposes for at lcast 15 years, while the Copper Qucen Branch of the Phelps Dodge Corpn. commenced installing mechanical ventilation in its various divisions 10 years ago.' Since then, with few exceptions, every large mine in this part of the country has installed and put in operation a mechanical ventilating system. The properties of some of these companies consist of from two to six divisions, or separate mines, each of which requires an independent ventilating system. In other words, thirteen copper mining companies, with an aggregate tonnage, when operating at capacity, of approximately 50,000 tons a day, have installed mechanical ventilating systems in their mines. All these mines are within a radius of approximately 200 miles, which constitutes the largest copper-producing area in the world. The capacities of mechanical ventilating installations in these mines range from 100,000 to 300,000 cu. ft. of air per minute, depending on the size of the mine, character of the workings, tonnage produced, etc. The latter varies from 300 to 20,000 tons per day. The mines include both high- and low-grade deposits, the greatest depth of the former, at present, being approximately 2500 ft.; and of the latter, 1200 ft. The volumes of air at present being coursed through the mines are from 60,000 up to 225,000 cu. ft. of air per minute,which, in their relation to the undcrground working force, range from 200 to 800 cu. ft. of air per man, per minute. While not to be taken as criteria, these figures are indicative of the character of the ventilation furnished.

Jan 1, 1923

By J. M. Cases

Study of the normal interaction between flotation collectors and the silicates through measurement of the electrokinetic potential carried out by the streaming potential and flotation recovery methods indicates that the interaction is wholly 07 partly of electrostatic origin. In some cases, it partly consists of the chemical affinity of the polar head of the collector for the active surface sites. Reagents composed of a polar head and a paraffinic chain and forming micelles in solution were used as flotation collectors. They are sodium dodecylsulfate (anionic collector) and dode-cylammonium chloride (cationic collector). The adsorption isotherms on biotite of alkylamine chloride having 10 to 18 carbon atoms in their chain all show a sharp change in slope relevant to the condensation of alkylammonium ions into bidimensional phase.1-1 Condensation is possible because of the relative homogeneity of the adsorbing surface and of the very strong lateral binding forces through Van der Waals type bonds in the adsorption layer. The different isotherms are seen to coincide when, instead of the equilibrium concentration, the under-saturation ?µ = kT In C/C, is plotted in abscissa, C representing the concentration of the solution with which the adsorbed layer is in equilibrium and C, the saturation concentration of micelles in solution or. critical micellar concentration. More particularly, the undersaturation ?,u1*, corresponding to a surface coverage 6 of 0.5, is equal to Since silicates immersed in aqueous solutions show a surface charge which is a function of pH, it is of primary importance to study the influence of this parameter on the adsorption of collector ions acting as Strong electrolytes in the pH range where they are utilized. The aim of this present paper is to determine by studying electrokinetic phenomena and recovery curves effectuated with a cationic collector and a anionic collector, the nature of the normal adsorbate-adsorbent interaction. Tables 1 and 2 sum up part of the results previously obtained'H11 for the determination of the point of zero charge of the silicate studied by the streaming potential method. Throughout the remainder of this paper, the surface charge will be considered positive for all values of pH below the point

Jan 1, 1971

By George C. Fryburg

The oxidation of platinum at high temperatures (above 800°C) is controlled by boundary-layer diffusion, except at the lowest pressures. The rate of oxidation is determined by the rate of diffusion of oxide through the boundary layer away from the platinum. This is in contrast to the situation in tungsten and molybdenum oxidation, where the rate is controlled largely by the diffusion of oxygen through the boundary layer towards the metal. The difference in mechanism is a consequence of the much lower rate of oxidation of platinum. Evidence is presented that supports this mechanism for the oxidation of platinum. SOME years ago we reported1 a study of the oxidation of platinum in ordinary oxygen in the temperature region above 800°C, where the oxide is volatile. All the data available up to that time had been obtained with platinum crucibles or plates heated in tube furnaces. The results were widely variant and highly dependent on the flow rate of gas through the furnace: the faster the gas flow rate, the higher the measured oxidation rate. These results indicated to us2 that reaction equilibrium was being approached in the furnace and that the rate was diffusion limited. To minimize these effects, we employed1 electrically heated ribbons placed in a cooled bulb. We were primarily interested in the low-pressure region, but some experiments were performed at pressures up to 1 atm. We found a peculiar pressure dependency which was explained on the basis that the rate of oxidation was proportional to the pressure at all pressures, but that with increasing pressure an increasing fraction of the volatilizing oxide was back-reflected to the ribbon by the surrounding gas molecules. The oxide molecules are not stable at the temperature of the platinum and are decomposed on impact, the platinum being re-deposited on the specimen. Because of the limitations of space, this explanation was offered summarily without detailed support. Recently, Jaffee and associates3, 4 have suggested that the pressure dependency of our data up to 0.5 torr could be explained on the basis of a Langmuir-type adsorption of molecular oxygen followed by dissociation. Since the correct explanation of the effect of pressure on the oxidation rate is a necessary requirement to the development of the basic mechanism of the oxidation reaction, we felt that the back-reflection theory should be presented in more detail. This is the object of the present paper. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A typical set of results showing the pressure dependency of the oxidation reaction is presented in Fig. 1, where we have plotted, on logarithmic scales, the rate of oxidation, R, vs the pressure, p. For comparison some results of Krier and Jaffee4 and of Raub and plate5 are also shown. These data were taken at atmospheric pressure using furnaces. The effect of reaction equilibrium within the furnace is apparent from the much smaller values that these observers obtained: Raub and Plate In O2 found a rate of 3.1 µg cm-2 hr-1 compared to our value of

Jan 1, 1965

By J. J. Kanter

There has been much research and commercial development in recent years in the use of chromium and nickel in steels of various types, including those intended for high-temperature service. By "high-temperature steels" are meant those specifically designed for service at elevated temperatures in steam plants, oil refineries and other industries where high-temperature operations are conducted. This paper is devoted to some preliminary data on the effect of silicon on certain of the most popular chromium-molybdenum steels now being used in quantity by the refining industry and includes a short statement on the influence of copper in steels intended for high-temperature service. Uses of Silicon Next to oxygen, silicon is the most widely distributed and abundant of the earth's substances. Although classed as a nonmetal, it is highly important in the metallurgy of all steels, having been used for years as an efficient and economical degasifier and deoxidizer. Silicon is added to various steels in the form of ferrosilicon, generally at the end of the heat so as to avoid oxidation losses. With acid steels it is added in the furnace (also in the ladle) and generally with basic steels is added in the ladle, so as to avoid reaction with the basic lining through high-temperature acidic reaction with silica, which may be formed by oxidation of the silicon alloy. Several grades of ferrosilicon are available, containing, respectively, 15, 50, 75 and 90 per cent Si. By far the largest tonnage produced is the 50 per cent grade although the 75 and 90 per cent ferro-silicons are used as ladle and furnace additions in the manufacture of steels of high silicon content. The introduction of silicon into steel as an alloying element is well known in connection with high-yield-strength constructional steel for bridges, ships, car construction, etc., and it is also well known as an alloy-

Jan 1, 1938

By J. J. Kanter

There has been much research and commercial development in recent years in the use of chromium and nickel in steels of various types, including those intended for high-temperature service. By "high-temperature steels" are meant those specifically designed for service at elevated temperatures in steam plants, oil refineries and other industries where high-temperature operations are conducted. This paper is devoted to some preliminary data on the effect of silicon on certain of the most popular chromium-molybdenum steels now being used in quantity by the refining industry and includes a short statement on the influence of copper in steels intended for high-temperature service. Uses of Silicon Next to oxygen, silicon is the most widely distributed and abundant of the earth's substances. Although classed as a nonmetal, it is highly important in the metallurgy of all steels, having been used for years as an efficient and economical degasifier and deoxidizer. Silicon is added to various steels in the form of ferrosilicon, generally at the end of the heat so as to avoid oxidation losses. With acid steels it is added in the furnace (also in the ladle) and generally with basic steels is added in the ladle, so as to avoid reaction with the basic lining through high-temperature acidic reaction with silica, which may be formed by oxidation of the silicon alloy. Several grades of ferrosilicon are available, containing, respectively, 15, 50, 75 and 90 per cent Si. By far the largest tonnage produced is the 50 per cent grade although the 75 and 90 per cent ferro-silicons are used as ladle and furnace additions in the manufacture of steels of high silicon content. The introduction of silicon into steel as an alloying element is well known in connection with high-yield-strength constructional steel for bridges, ships, car construction, etc., and it is also well known as an alloy-

Jan 1, 1938

By H. H. Podgurski

Above 200°C the observed increase in the apparent solubility of hydrogen in low alloy steels caused by cold work is attributed to the formation of methane in microvoids. This methane can be isolated quantitatively, and furthermore, the amount of methane is in accord with the equilibrium 2H2 + Fe3C = CH4 + 3Fe. The micro-void volume, calculated from the methane content via the equation of state for methane, corresponds approximately to that calculated from the measured density decrement produced by cold work. THIS investigation was undertaken with the intent of employing the hydrogen atom as a probe in detecting specific crystallographic defects in cold worked steel. It was expected that different degrees of chemical interaction of hydrogen with the various types of defects could be utilized. The original aim was to assign concentration values to defect sites. The success of this approach requires that experimental conditions can be attained under which lattice-dissolved hydrogen equilibrates primarily with only one type of defect. A set of experiments which appeared potentially to embody these requirements was described several years ago by Keeler and Davis.1 They noted in the case of a mild steel (low carbon) that the solubility of hydrogen between 200° and 400°C near atmospheric pressure was notably increased by cold working the steel. The observed solubility was an order of magnitude greater than the normal lattice solubility. * Although the Keeler and Davis studies suggested that the density decrement effected by their cold-working operation might be related to the anomalous solubility of hydrogen, they offered no explanation of the relationship between the two effects. Prior to this work, Darken and smith3 had noted a similar effect of cold work upon enhanced sorption of hydrogen by steel when charged by acid pickling. In the light of present-day concepts, interaction between lattice-dissolved hydrogen and dislocations was strongly suggested. More recently, Hill and Johnson,4 working with a

Jan 1, 1962

By W. H. Emmons

ALTHOUGH gold is one of the rarer metals, it is widely distributed; it is found on all of the continents and in each of the grand metallogenic provinces of the earth. It is prominent particularly in the shield areas of the earth; these areas have produced a large part of the world's lode gold and in most of them gold lodes are more important than the lodes of other metals. The Scandinavian shield is the only one that has not produced much gold. Nearly all of the world's gold has been derived from lodes and from sands and gravels where gold placers formed by the destruction of lodes. The gold derived from magmatic segregations, from pegmatites and from contact metamorphic deposits is quite subordinate to that derived from auriferous lodes. The lodes include all veins and related deposits that are formed by hot waters that move along fissures or other openings and that deposit vein matter in the fissures and by replacement of the country rocks along the fissures. All of the shield areas of the earth are characterized by large areas of granitic rocks including granitic gneisses, granodiorites and other acid intrusives which here are included in the general term "granite." The granites are intruded into schists, ancient lavas and other rocks which here are designated as the "invaded" rocks. The granites are parts of what once were great batholiths: that is, they are the remaining portions of great deep-seated bodies that slope outward, have very irregular roofs and so far as known have no floors but extend downward to great though unknown depths. Some of them are scores or hundreds of miles across and contain islands or "roof pendants" of the invaded rocks at places where the roofs of the batholiths were low-that is, where erosion has not yet completely unroofed the batholiths.

Jan 1, 1932

By Frank Speller

WE are here to honor again the memory of Henry Marion Howe, one of the foremost metallurgists of his time, and it is indeed a great privilege to be called upon by the Board of Directors of .this Institute to give the memorial address this year. Professor Howe started active investigation of corrosion of iron from a metallurgical standpoint in 1887, and made several important contribu-tions to the subject from 1895 to 1908.(1) ? The papers named in the bibliography are only a few of his valuable papers, but in all his works he sets a high standard of scientific accuracy, together with a clearness and power of expression rarely equaled in engineering literature. There-fore it seems appropriate on this occasion to review the work on corrosion of this distinguished gentleman and then endeavor to make a brief inventory of what has been accomplished since his time. Howe saw the beginning of the steel industry in America and before he died (May 14, 1922) witnessed it develop to a production of 45,000,000 tons per year. He was naturally very much interested in the infant industry and was quick to see the importance of the question of corrosion. It was my privilege to discuss the subject of corrosion frequently with Professor Howe at various times from 1905 to 1908; in this, as in other metallurgical problems, he sought the truth without bias and always insisted on proving an opinion or conclusion before accepting it. We should remember that when Howe started his investigation of corrosion, in 1887, steel was rapidly supplanting wrought iron. Certain papers in the early eighties (now forgotten) claiming much greater durability for wrought iron than for steel aroused Howe's interest. He could not reconcile the statement that steel was intrinsically and incurably less durable than wrought iron with the continued and widening use of steel,

Jan 1, 1934

By Blamey Stevens

In this paper, which is a logical extension of my paper, The Laws of Intrusion,1 the various pressures of emanation and their mechanical causes and effects on the large scale of nature are determined, and a classification of emanations is deduced therefrom. • The Subterranean. Sea. The subterranean sea is here defined as the intercommnnicating water contained in the trains of pores and fissures of the rocks down to great depths. Whether the actual amount of water constituting this subterranean sea be large or small, does not enter into the present argument, since the static pressure of this water at any particular depth is not a function of the quantity : it involves only the depth and the density of the water. Densities. The total pressure at depths down to 10 or 15 miles is made up of the rock-stresses investigated in my previous papers, and the pressure of the subterranean sea. The latter component must evidently be equal to the weight of a solid column of the overlying water of unit sectional area. As mater expands with heat, it should really be necessary to sum the density at every level. A knowledge of the densities of mater under a variety of conditions is therefore needed, but does not seem ever to have been ascertained for such combined pressures and temperatures as we have to consider. The specific gravity of water at 28' C. for various pressures up to 400 atmospheres, has been determined by Barus, 2 who

Jan 1, 1913

By John Birkinbine

The experience of the past five years has furnished opportunities to study and to partially explain the operation and some of the causes of the short blast of Warwick Furnace at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, as described in the paper read at the Lake Superior Meeting, in August, 1880.* The many inquiries concerning the details of furnace operation which followed the publication of the paper, and the expressed desire of furnace managers to be informed as to future operations of this plant, have encouraged the preparation of the following data. To make the record continuous, and add to the value of both contributions, the present paper commences where the review of a short blast of Warwick Furnace ended, and includes the data of another short blast of two months, and a subsequent continuous campaign of nearly five years, which, by comparison, we shall designate as "the long blast." Frequent visits to the plant in the five years, during which its operation could be studied, and correspondence with the manager, Mr. Edgar S. Cook, have given a knowledge as to general features and details, and the courtesy of the officers of the Company which has given free access to the books of record permits the presentation of data which it is believed will be welcomed by furnace managers. Interest will undoubtedly be increased by the remarkable results which Mr. Cook has achieved chiefly with anthracite coal in a furnace whose details of construction will scarcely be generally admitted as embodying advanced ideas, its height being but 55 feet, with a bosh diameter of 15 feet 6 inches, its bosh-slope comparatively flat, its crucible smaller than the average, and the heat of the blast never reaching 1000' Fahrenheit. At present writing the credit of the best anthracite blast-furnace practice recorded in our Transactions is conceded to be that pursued by Mr. Fackenthal, at the Durham furnace, and Mr. Cook, at War-

Jan 1, 1886

INTRODUCTION This chapter summarizes porphyry copper deposits within the State of Alaska. Prospecting for porphyry copper-type deposits in Alaska germinated during the 1940's, grew slowly during the '50's, boomed during the '60's, and matured in the '70's. Although large expenditures have been made in the search for porphyry-type deposits, most accrued data lies dormant in company files. However, an adequate base exists in the literature for a general synthesis of areas that contain porphyry prospects. To simplify the summary, porphyry molybdenum deposits as defined by Clark (1972) are omitted. Description of deposits in their geologic setting permits some correlations between deposit characteristics and crustal environment. These correlations allow speculation about the genesis of the deposits. The summary also attempts to group deposits on the basis of general mineralogic characteristics because diorite model deposits are separated from quartz phenocryst-bearing hosts. Data presented in this chapter summarize observations by the author, published descriptions of specific areas and deposits as noted in the bibliography, and comments by various government geologists. E. M. MacKevett, Jr., D. H. Richter, and H. C. Berg of the US Geological Survey have been particularly helpful. Because few comprehensive descriptions of individual porphyry copper deposits exist for this area, much of the data presented is new to the literature. Details of structure, isotopic geochemistry, and petro- genesis for individual deposits are largely lacking and even the general geology of some belts is not well understood. Details on petrography of Alaskan porphyry copper occurrences are inadequate for construction of ternary diagrams (e.g., Figs. 36a, b, pp. 103, 104, for the northern Cordilleran orogen). Petrographic descriptions summarized in the text are largely from published descriptions whose sources are cited. Porphyry copper-type deposits in Alaska include deposits with pervasive pyrite that contain disseminated copper (but not necessarily coproduct molybdenum). Available data preclude differentiating the deposits by size. No Alaskan porphyry copper deposit is now in production but this is believed to be, in part, a function of economics. In some cases available geologic information is in- adequate for classifying deposits. Some de- posits included with porphyry copper may, with further exploration, be demonstrated to be some other genetic type. Alaska has three distinct porphyry copper provinces: the Hogatza plutonic belt, the Continental Margin belt, and the Interior belt. Each belt contains deposits with characteristic geologic features distinct from those of other belts. Fig. 24 shows the continental margin belt to extend inland from

Jan 1, 1978

By F. Twyman, D. M. Smith

Those chemists (they are still greatly in the minority) who use the spectroscope, use it very often, and find it almost indispensable. As a means of detecting minute quantities of the metals it is unrivalled. A metal can be readily distinguished in the presence of any other element, compound, or mixture without the necessity of separation. The qualitative analysis of the metallic constituents of a substance, which the spectroscope gives so easily, is a sure basis for planning a chemical analysis. As the determination of each element proceeds the purity of precipitates may be checked as often as desired. If, possessing these advantages, the spectroscope has been neglected in general chemistry, it is not surprising that it was neglected in metallurgical chemistry; for many of the impurities which are of industrial interest, even when they are present in a metal or alloy in small quantities, are not then always easily detected by the examination of their visible spectrum. The history of the development of the art has been given in Bureau of Standards 19cientific Paper No. 444. The Development of Analysis by Spectrogbaphy Fig. 1 shows, by means of photographs taken with a quartz spectro-graph, what a valuable region of the spectrum is excluded if one has a visual instrument only. Wave length 4023 is about the end of the visible spectrum, the region from 3800 to 1854 being invisible. It is easy to understand then how it is that the vigorous resuscitation of spectrum analysis which has commenced in the last few years has been associated with the use of the quartz spectrograph; notwithstanding that the most useful instrument for the general inorganic chemist to have at his elbow, after the balance, is a good visual spectrometer.(1) 1 The revival of spectrum analysis is to be attributed chiefly to the work of W. N. Hartley with his co-workers, and to A. de Gramont. Hartley,

By T. W. Lippert

CUBA fancies herself the "pearl of the Antilles" and, by many, Jamaica is called "blessed." But far to the southward lies what is seemingly the Caribbean's most glittering jewel, the sparsely-settled, Spanish-speaking United States of Venezuela, indeed blessed by nature to a lavish degree. Not a large country, Venezuela is leaping from the donkey to the airplane under the impact of its natural wonders. Angel Falls, dwarfing Niagara and seldom seen by man, is hidden in the cold, primitive and unexplored Guiana highlands along the southeast border. A few hundred miles northwest are the low and torrid coastal plains from which gush unlimited black-gold streams of oil. About midway are the Llanos-low-lying, savanna-type grasslands, beneath which large deposits of bauxite are as yet barely touched by the explorer's diamond drill. And jutting starkly upward 2000 ft from a surrounding expanse of savanna is a small mountain (see front cover), 11 miles long and 1 mile wide. It is, or was, La Parida.

Jan 2, 1950

By A. D. Hodges

In May, 1850, the first gold from the Comstock lode was discovered in the sands near the Carson river. It had been washed down by natural agencies, through Gold Caflon, from the decomposed rock of the ledge above. Within a few weeks, the precious metal was traced more than three miles in shallow deposits along the bed of the canon, from the river to the Devil's Gate-—a narrow, rocky cleft, notable to the teamsters of a later day chiefly as the place where " Uncle Jimmy Fair" collected high tolls, and could not reduce the rates, because " this was all he had for the education of his poor children." From 1850 to 1857, a fluctuating band of miners, whose number varied from twenty to two hundred, washed the Gold Canon placers with rockers and long-toms, making four to five dollars a day each until the last-named year, when the deposits were in great measure exhausted. The chief settlement of these miners was at Johntown. During only a third of the year was the water-supply sufficient for their work. The remainder of the time they utilized in desultory prospecting of the hills and in occasional forays for supplies among the Mormons in Carson valley. In 1857, the Grosch brothers discovered the Comstock lode at some point, now unknown, in Gold Hill, but their discovery perished with them. Early in 1858, the " Pioneer Quartz Company," having located several of the small surface-veins around Silver City (whose connection with the main lode has never been definitely shown), built an arrastra, and worked some of their ore; but the returns were so small that they soon abandoned this business. The following winter, James Finney and his partners found gold in place in

Jan 1, 1891

By C. C. Furnas, T. L. Joseph

It is well known that particles of different sizes are not distributed evenly throughout the average charge in an iron blast furnace. Just how great the disparity in particle size in different parts of a single plane in a furnace may be is indicated by the results of some recent investiga-tion1,2 conducted by the Bureau of Mines on a furnace operating on Lake ores. The wide variations found in gas velocity, gas composition, and temperature from the periphery to the center of the upper charge column were caused by the great variation in particle size of the raw materials used and were also greatly influenced by the methods of charging. This paper summarizes the results of an investigation of the influence of different methods of charging and of the treatment of raw materials upon the size distribution of the solid particles in the blast furnace. A more complete report will appear later as a Bureau of Mines technical paper. Importance of Gas-solid Contact One of the authors has pointed out in a previous report? that the operation of the blast-furnace process is entirely dependent on contact between the gas stream and the solid particles in the stock. The gas stream carries the necessary heat as well as the carbon monoxide molecules that do the work of rednction. In the parts of the furnace in which there is little or no contact between the gas stream and the solids there can be little work of reduction. Obviously, the part of the apparatus that is not doing the work for which it is intended is inefficient; the ideal condition is one in which all portions of the stock column are

Jan 1, 1929