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By Frank W. Osterwald

Violent, spontaneous destruction of coal faces and ribs during, what are commonly called, bumps endangers and at times destroys life and property in mines of the Book Cliffs coalfield, Carbon County, Utah. Because these mines supply much of the coking coal for the West Coast steel industries, mining is necessary, although costs are high and operating conditions are very difficult at times. As operations continue, mining will go to greater depths, and the difficulties will increase. Whether or not mining can be continued successfully depends in part on whether or not incidence of bumps can be controlled successfully. For this reason, the U.S. Geological Survey, at the request of and in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Mines, undertook a study of the Sunnyside No. 1 mine to determine what geologic factors were related to the incidence of bumps. This report presents the preliminary results of that study and indicates that some observable geologic features in the mine may be related directly or indirectly to bumps, and that other features may be used to infer stress distribution around workings that will aid in design of roof support measures. Coal is mined in the Sunnyside No. 1 mine from depths as great as 2500 ft by room-and-pillar methods. The surface topography is rugged with many steep cliffs and deep canyons, hence the load on the coal varies greatly within short distances. Much of the Sunnyside coal is under high stress, and while being mined, it shatters continuously' and falls from the face. Continuous shattering (bumping) makes mining easy, but if the shattering is interrupted, greater stress is built up and violent bumps may result when the coal is mined.

Jan 4, 1962

By S. Maemura

Miike Colliery of Mitsui Coal Mining Company, the biggest and oldest coal mine in Japan, is producing a quarter of the national coal production, about 5.2 million tons of clean coal annually and almost a half of which is now being mined under the "slicing Mining System". The slicing system is a mining method to mine a thick coal seam dividing it into two faces, upper and lower. Its history started nearly 20 years ago. However, the all-around modernization of this system has made little progress up to recent years, while mining methods for single longwall faces has made a remarkable progress together with the improvements in mining machineries, self advancing supports and so on. The reason was that the tremendous difference in adaptabilities of mechanized face equipments existing between the upper and lower faces has made it very difficult to increase the total production capacity of slicing system. After our persistent study for seventeen years, we have recently realized successfully the quite satisfactory slicing system, applying the combination of shield type self advancing supports and double ranging drum cutter at both faces. We are now fully convinced of that the high efficient, quite safe and improved slicing system has been basically established for the present. This paper intends to brief the transition on the combination of self advancing supports and mining machines, its results and further to detail the development of shield type self advancing support for upper face and artificial roof material which shall be the key point to be successful in full mechanization of slicing faces.

Jan 1, 1976

By J. R. Vilelia

IN accordance with the custom of this society, we are gathered here, as we have every year since 1924, to honor the memory of the eminent American metallurgist and teacher, Professor Henry Marion Howe. Unlike many of the distinguished metallurgists who have preceded me as a Howe lecturer, I cannot bring to you reminiscences of his personality, for it was not my privilege to be associated with Professor Howe, or to be directly one of his students. Yet, Professor Howe and Professor Albert Sauveur, through the medium of their books, were my first teachers of metallography, as they have been of almost all American metallurgists of my generation. As a teacher, and for many years the acknowledged leader of American metallurgists, he exercised a profound influence in the growth of our science and was held in honor by the men of science of his time. I can speak no words of technical appreciation that will add luster to his fame, for by his prophetic vision, his teachings, and his researches he stands among the immortals in the memory of all metallurgists. In 1926, the third Howe Memorial Lecture was presented by Professor William Campbell' of Columbia University, who entitled it "Twenty-Five Years of Metallography." He took as a starting date for his chronology the turn of the century, which coincided with his arrival from England to work in association with Howe at the Columbia School of Mines. In that informative lecture Professor Campbell enumerated the important advances in metallography achieved during the first quarter of the century, and, it now appears, may have established the custom of reviewing such progress every twenty-five years. The scope of Professor Campbell's lecture was as broad as his metallurgical knowledge, for it embraced a wide portion of the field of metallography, both ferrous and nonferrous. Twenty-five years later, the Howe Memorial Lecture Committee saw fit to assign to me the honor of writing a lecture that would commemorate the work of Henry Marion Howe and would at the same time constitute the 25th anniversary of the lecture by Professor Campbell. The Committee suggested that this lecture might properly be called "Twenty-Five More Years of Metallography," a suggestion that I have adopted. I must confess, however, that I have not followed the precedent established by Campbell and have narrowed the scope of this lecture to an appraisal of those achievements which in my opinion have contributed most to the progress of microscopical metallography during the past twenty-five years. Progress in Metallography The metallographic methods most widely used today, with the exception of the electron microscope, were firmly established more than twenty-five years ago. In general, our specimens were prepared for microscopic examination in those days in much the same manner as they are today. It is true that new details of technique have been introduced from time to time, and that superior equipment is available today, but on the whole, these improvements have been in the nature of refinements, often a matter of personal preference, and none can be considered essential to the attainment of the ultimate goal of the art and science of metallography, which is to reveal the structure of metallic specimens with unequivocal clarity so that they may be interpreted correctly. Mechanical metallographic polishing, which was the only method available in 1926, is still universally practiced and still consists of abrading the metallic specimen with a series of abrasives of increasing fineness until a specular surface is attained. We have now the alternative method of electropolishing, but it is not widely used because, except in a few special cases, its results are inferior to those of competent mechanical polishing. Likewise, most of the etching reagents preferred today were in common use more than twenty-five years ago and were applied in the same manner as they are today. Valuable improvements have been made in the optical and mechanical performance of metallurgical microscopes, but there was no dearth in those days of excellent instruments equipped with achromatic and apochromatic objectives capable of yielding micrographs comparable in quality with the best that we can make today. In fact, it would be a difficult task for any metallographer today to make optical micrographs at magnifications in excess of 3000 diameters that would surpass those made by Lucas more than twenty-five years ago. One of these is shown in Fig. 1. Yet, it is unquestionable that on the whole, the micrographs appearing in the metallurgical literature today are vastly superior to those

Jan 1, 1952

By F. Forscher

Pronounced porosity, decreasing with distance from the fracture surface, is found in the necked region of tensile specimens tested at room temperature or liquid nitrogen temperature. A hydrogen solution treatment followed by a quench prevents pore formation in tests at —196°C, but has little effect on tests made at room temperature. Reduction of area values at —196°C are strikingly improved by the same treatment, but show no improvement in room temperature tests. The experimental results support the hypothesis that strain-induced porosity results with hydride initially present or, in material containing less than 50 ppm H, with hydride precipitated by strain aging. ZIRCONIUM'S advent as an engineering material in nuclear reactor construction has brought forth many investigations concerned with the properties of this metal and its alloys. Some attention has been given to the ductility of the metal.1, 2 Particularly, the effect of hydrogen on the impact strength was noted," indicating a pronounced dependence of ductility on the hydrogen content and its distribution in the metal. Micro graphic:' and X-ray diffraction studies' have shown that a precipitated hydride phase causes embrittlement in zirconium,' which implies a distinctly different mechanism from that causing hydrogen embrittlement in steels."-' In the latter case, it is assumed that atomic hydrogen diffuses to rifts, where it forms molecular hydrogen under such internal pressures that it causes the rifts to enlarge, leading to fracture. Thermo-dynamic studies of the Zr-H system8, 9 also indicate that the internal pressure of molecular hydrogen would be too low to cause any damage to the zirconium at room temperature, and the formation of a zirconium hydride (d phase) is favored." It is noteworthy that this phase has a face-centered-cubic structure and nearly 18 pet larger molar volume than close-packed-hexagonal a-zlrconlum' Other features of the ductility of zirconium are the absence of a typical cup-cone failure upon tensile testing, a pronounced strain-induced porosity in the necked region of a tensile bar, Fig 1, and the associated spongy appearance of the fracture surface A tremendous improvement in ductility at liquid nitrogen temperature can be observed following a heat treatment that retains the commonly present quan- tities (10 to 50 ppm) of hydrogen in solution. Such tests show a typical cup-cone failure and the absence of strain-induced porosity, Fig. 2. The present paper reports results of an investigation into the causes of strain-induced porosity in zirconium. Room temperature tensile fractures of mild steel, aluminum, and titanium have also been examined for strain-induced porosity. In each case porosity could be detected, but the amount was orders of magnitude less than was found in zirconium. Of the three metals, titanium showed the strongest effect. Material, Specimens, and Preparation The greater part of this investigation was done on Westinghouse crystal bar zirconium, are-melted, forged, and hot-rolled. Chemical analyses of the hot-rolled plates are given in Table I, along with those of the Foote crystal bar zirconium used in this work. The specimens were machined from the hot-rolled plate (1550°F) of 1/2 in. thickness and subsequently heat-treated according to one of the treatments shown in Table IS. All specimens were machined round, the longitudinal axis in the rolling direction, with a gage

Jan 1, 1957

By M. King Hubbert

THE growth of human knowledge is an evolutionary process. Historically our separate sciences came into existence as people became interested in various apparently unrelated domains of phenomena, and in this manner we acquired the sciences of physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology and geology. As various of these sciences became established, cognizance of them came to be taken by the universities and in this manner there arose the traditional departments of physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology and geology of our American universities. As there was no particular rationality in the boundaries separating the various sciences, in the university departments the jurisdiction of each has assumed quite arbitrary limits. In the domain of earth phenomena the first science to grow up was that of geology, which arose originally from the activities of the collectors science dealing with directly observable terrestrial phenomena for which elementary rational explanations were offered. The traditional treatment of phenomena by the science of geology has rarely been with more than an elementary regard for the fact that these phenomena were also phenomena of physics and chemistry. Since the latter part of the nineteenth century, a new approach to terrestrial phenomena has been emerging and becoming of so great a significance that it can no longer be ignored. This approach has been made by people trained primarily in the sciences of physics and chemistry, who have investigated terrestrial phenomena as constituting phenomena of their respective sciences. In this manner we have acquired the so-called "borderland sciences" of geophysics, the physics of the earth, and of geochemistry, the chemistry of the earth. Neither of these fields is new, having arisen chiefly at the hands of European investigators during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The European universities have long since given official recognition at least to geophysics, by the establishment of departments or institutes of geophysics, which are on a par with the university departments of the other sciences.

Jan 1, 1938

By Thomas Read

PERSONNEL work is a term recently introduced to cover the great variety of activities in industrial work that deal with the human factor. Much attention has been focussed upon individual phases of personnel work, such as accident prevention, sanitation, "welfare" work, reducing labor' turnover, and so on. In most cases these activities have been carried on as though they were distinct and separate fields; as a matter of fact, they are only different phases of the single problem of human engineering, and each has important and fundamental relations with the others. Thus, for example, high labor turnover is one of the most .important causes of a high accident rate, and unsatisfactory housing conditions are an important cause of labor turnover. In the early stages of the study of these problems, it was necessary to take them up separately; the time has now arrived at which it is desirable to consider them as a whole in order to bring them into the right relation to each other. When thus considered as phases of an interrelated whole, they may be grouped as personnel work. A discussion of the importance of personnel work as a means of in creasing dividends in industry may be objected to by some as a too materialistic way of looking upon work that is humanitarian. Nothing could he more mistaken than such an opinion. Humanitarianism, per se, has no place in industry, and nothing is gained and much is lost in pre tending that it has. The only reason why a corporation engages in business is to make profits, and any activity of the corporation that does not tend either directly or indirectly toward that end is poor business. It is equally poor business to overlook any activities that do tend indirectly to the making of profits. On this basis, personnel work can be justified as a corporate activity; there is no justification whatever for abstract humanitarianism from the business standpoint. One characteristic of the American workman is a general high level of intelligence, and it is an insult to intelligence to ask a man to believe that anything so impersonal as a corporation is really desirous of benefiting

Jan 10, 1917

By Samuel Lasky

WITH the movement of American capital into foreign investment, a new field of specialization for the American mining engineer is gradually opening a field hitherto entered almost wholly by chance and without full appreciation of its possibilities. Our age has been fitly called the "Age of Specialization." The special application of one's knowledge and ability to a definite and restricted branch of .his profession is purely a modern condition. Any profession, or branch of a profession or, industry, in which the problems may be segregated into definite types, calls for specializa-tion. Modern industry demands efficiency and that, reduction and ultimate annihilation of waste. Effort and time wasted by workers' on a problem with which they are not familiar is as flagrant a waste of money -the final standard-as any waste of materials. One of the subdivisions of mining engineering which is beginning to be recognized is of engineers who are clearly conversant with the particular and peculiar problems obtaining under foreign operating conditions. The need is as yet obscured, however, by the domestic prosperity of our American mining industry. The opportunity here lies more with the American engineer than with other nationals. The foreign en-gineer now in that service is not there through a realiza-tion of the special opportunities that exist, but through necessity, whereas, with the American engineer, more especially ,the recent graduate or those who will soon graduate, this is a new field to be entered wholly by choice. As a matter of fact, many engineering students will find it necessary to seek foreign service if they wish to remain in mining. Although the scope of the domes-tic industry is tremendous and there are many positions open to the junior engineer, there are not enough for the great number of graduates turned out yearly from our, mining schools. Educators tell us that less than 40 per cent. of the students in engineering schools gradu-ate; and of these but a minority continue in engineering. Even this minority is too great for our domestic. In-dustry, and although the young engineer realizes that condition after a few years he rarely seeks foreign work. A. perusal of the directory of the American Institute of Mining Engineers indicates that, but about one-half of one per cent of the Junior Associates are in positions outside of North America. Granting that most of them are still in school, the figure is surpris-ingly small.

Jan 1, 1927

By Wheeler Davey

WHEN metals are subjected to mechanical working, such as rolling, one of the phenomena that take place is a movement of the crystals of the metal into a system or systems of orientation which bear an angular relation to the direction of working. In rolled metal the crystals may orient themselves with respect to the rolling plane or the rolling direction, or both. Direct evidence of the existence of preferred orientations in rolled metal has been obtained by numerous investigators from X-ray patterns of the rolled metal. Most of these workers used a monochromatic pinhole method. Where the degree of preference for a single orientation is high the monochromatic pinhole pattern may be interpreted by a geometrical calculation based on the angular relationships of the planes in the crystal and the diffraction arcs on the X-ray pattern. This process may be aided by the geometrical construction of the locus sphere (Langenkugel), and reflection circles of Polanyi,1 Polanyi and Weissenberg,2 and Mark and Weissenberg,3 and of the plane polar figures (flachenpolfigur) of Franz Wever.4 R. M. Bozorth5 solves X-ray patterns from metals having a single preferred orientation by means of a series of charts which when placed over the X-ray pattern give directly certain angular relationships, between the crystal planes and the surface of the specimen.

Jan 1, 1929

By E. H. Tenney

A discussion of the probable future use of coal for power development involves the study of several basic factors, such as future demand for power, the quantity and availability of fuels in direct competition with coal, the price of coal, and a closely related factor—the efficiency and cost of fuel utilization. Predictions based on purely statistical analyses of past coal consumption have definite limitations. For example, statistics showing the relation between coal utilization and total energy consumption from all sources between the years 1890 to 1930 indicate that during that period the energy consumption per person in the United States increased five times, while the coal consumption per person increased only twice1, and there has been an actual decrease in per capita coal consumption since 1920. Figures such as these, compiled by authentic agencies, emphasize the need for caution in attempting estimates as to the future use of coal, and, incidentally, would seem to offer little basis for optimism in the coal industry. They also suggest the value of analyzing broadly the part played in the past by the related factors of power consumption, competitive fuels, coal prices and the efficiency of utilization. Proper weight must also be given in such a study to the present status and limitations of power-plant developments, arid to the question of what the coal industry itself can do to further its own interests arid influence the consumption of its product.

Jan 1, 1936

By E. H. Tenney

A discussion of the probable future use of coal for power development involves the study of several basic factors, such as future demand for power, the quantity and availability of fuels in direct competition with coal, the price of coal, and a closely related factor—the efficiency and cost of fuel utilization. Predictions based on purely statistical analyses of past coal consumption have definite limitations. For example, statistics showing the relation between coal utilization and total energy consumption from all sources between the years 1890 to 1930 indicate that during that period the energy consumption per person in the United States increased five times, while the coal consumption per person increased only twice1, and there has been an actual decrease in per capita coal consumption since 1920. Figures such as these, compiled by authentic agencies, emphasize the need for caution in attempting estimates as to the future use of coal, and, incidentally, would seem to offer little basis for optimism in the coal industry. They also suggest the value of analyzing broadly the part played in the past by the related factors of power consumption, competitive fuels, coal prices and the efficiency of utilization. Proper weight must also be given in such a study to the present status and limitations of power-plant developments, arid to the question of what the coal industry itself can do to further its own interests arid influence the consumption of its product.

Jan 1, 1936

By R. V. Smith

The theoretical background for calculating friction factors for flow in gas wells by two methods is presented. The first method, requiring pressures, temperatures and specific volumes of the flowing fluids at various depths in the well bore, shows how the mechanical-energy-balance equation for vertical flow may be graphically integrated over the actual path of the expansion of the fluid in the well. Thus, assumptions regarding the effective temperature and effective compressibility of the fluid in the well are avoided. The second method presents an equation derived on a basis of the assumptions that both the temperature and the compressibility are fixed at constant effective values throughout the flowing column of gas. The second method provides a convenient and practical means of calculating friction factors for gas wells and lends itself readily to the problem of calculating subsurface pressures in a flowing gas well. The application of both methods to actual test data taken on a flowing gas well is illustrated in the paper. INTRODUCTION As friction factors for the producing strings of flowing gas wells cannot be measured directly and must be calculated from flow-test data, study of the methods of arriving at friction factors is a necessary adjunct to understanding the characteristics of flow in gas wells. There are two methods of calculating friction factors for gas wells; they differ from one another mainly in the treatment of the path of expansion of the fluid in the well. In the flowing well, the energy consumed in lifting the fluid from the bottom to the top of the well, overcoming the friction between the moving fluid and the pipe walls, and increasing the velocity of the fluid as it flows up the producing string is supplied by expansion of the flowing fluid. The available energy is determined by the expansion of the fluid that follows a path determined by conditions of temperature, compressibility and phase changes of the fluid during the expansion. A means of evaluating the available energy in a flowing gas well and determining the proportion of the available energy used in lifting the gas, overcoming friction, and increasing the velocity of flow is developed in this report. Knowing how much energy is consumed in overcoming friction makes it possible to calculate friction factors for given flow rates in given sizes of pipes in wells. Friction coefficients, as used in this report, are dimension- less proportionality multipliers used in the flow equations to satisfy the equality between the terms of the equation. The square root of the reciprocal of the friction coefficient is termed the friction factor. It has been known for many years that friction factors may be computed directly from mathematical formulas based on certain assumptions regarding the temperature and compressibility of the moving fluid in a well. A general equation is presented in this report without assumptions for vertical flow of fluids and a conventional-type equation is derived on the basis of assumptions that fix the temperature and compressibility at constant values. Accurate pressures at the sand faces in wells are required in the method of determining the productivity of gas wells, as outlined by Rawlins and Schellhardt1 in Bureau of Mines Monograph 7. Where measurements are not made with subsurface-pressure gauge; or static gas columns are unavailable, flowing pressures customarily are calculated at the sand face in the well by the use of the well-known Weymouth formula1. Natural gas engineers have realized that errors introduced by the use of friction factors as given by the Weymouth formula are relatively unimportant in testing low-capacity gas wells; they also know that such factors are important considerations in testing large-capacity gas wells. Accordingly. present research on the productivity of gas wells at the Petroleum Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines, Bartlesville, Okla., is being directed toward measurement of the pressure loss due to friction in flowing gas wells. It is beyond the scope of this report to show how friction factors vary with rate of flow and in pipes of different diameters, as it is intended only to develop and illustrate the use of mathematical expressions for calculating friction factors from flow-test data. The equations presented apply only to turbulent flow in circular pipes. ENERGY RELATIONS FOR FLOW OF FLUIDS2 The concept of conservation of energy is usually the basis of any study of fluid flow through vertical pipes as in gas wells, horizontal pipe lines, or orifices. In deriving equations, the following symbols are used:

Jan 1, 1950

By Robert J. De Angelis, James H. Barker

An improved method for solving dynawzical dislocation problems using a digital computer is described in this paper. Interactions between two distinct types of dislocations were studied: attractive screw dislocations; and Lomer lock forming dislocations. One dislocation is positioned in the lattice and is initially at rest, while the other dislocation is moved through the lattice on an intersecting slip plane at a constant velocity in the range 0.5 to 0.999C. (C is the transverse velocity of sound.) The results obtained from these computations indicate that screw dislocations account for a small fraction of the total strain over a wide portion of the range of velocities studied. They further indicate that mixed dislocations mainly repel other dislocations in the neighborhood of the active glide plane. From this a possible explanation for cell formation is put forth. The density of Lomer locks expected to exist after a strain of 0.2 was found to be 1.4 x 106 cm-2 which is in good agreement with indirect experimental estimates. IN the past, predictions of favorable or nonfavorable dislocation reactions were based on the associated changes in elastic strain energy. Such considerations take no account of the probability of the two dislocations coming into contact to react. Venables1 was the first to approach these probabilities by considering the interactions between two moving screw dislocations on perpendicular glide planes. Because of the restrictive types of dislocations and glide plane geometry employed, his results have limited application to metallic crystals. The work to be presented here develops a general approach to solving dynamical dislocation problems; either dislocation-dislocation interactions, presented here in detail, or dislocation interactions with any other suitably defined stress field. Two types of dislocation-dislocation interactions common to face centered cubic (fee) materials are considered: those between pure screw dislocations of opposite sign on intersecting slip planes and those between mixed dislocations on intersecting slip planes, that can react to form a perfect dislocation. This latter reaction, referred to as the Lomer reaction, produces a locked product dislocation that finds it energitical favorable to disassociate into two Shockley partials and a stair-rod dislocation. This partial configuration known as a Lomer-Cottrell (L-C) lock plays a major role in work hardening of fee crystals. seeger2 names the L-C lock as the prime contributor to Stage II hardening while Kuhlmann-wilsdorf3 and Meakin and Wils- dorf4 also state that it is a significant contributor to work hardening. However, with a few notable exceptions,5-7 direct observations of the Lomer lock and the L-C lock by electron transmission microscopy are scanty, and even these are subject to other interpretations.5,6 In a study of partial dislocations present in austenitic stainless steel, whelan8 did not observe any L-C locks at the head of pile-up groups. This result contradicted existing work hardening theories and led him to postulate an alternate theory based on the stress required to break away dislocations intersecting a pile-up group, from their stacking fault nodes. Due to the importance of the Lomer reaction in producing L-C locks which are an essential feature in current work hardening theories and because there exist no data giving direct quantitative values for the density of locks, and because there has even been some doubt expressed as to whether this important reaction occurs at all, a study of the dynamic behavior of the mixed dislocations which form the Lomer lock was undertaken. Due to their ability to cross-slip with relative ease, screw dislocations play an important role in the deformation of fee crystals. For this reason, the second type of reaction considered here is between screw dislocations of opposite sign. In addition, computations in volving screw dislocation interactions are relatively simple, thus providing a convenient check on the cornputational scheme employed. DEFINITION OF PROBLEM The force exerted on a dislocation due to a generalized stress field is given by the Peach and Koehler9 equation: Here t2 and b2 are respectively the tangent and Burgers vectors of the dislocation, and T1 is the stress dyadic defining the local stress field. The stress field may be externally applied or generated internally by the presence of a lattice defect, such as a second dislocation, as is the case in this work. Frank10 has shown that an equivalent momentum, P, of a screw dislocation can be defined by: Here, EST is the total energy of a screw dislocation and ESo is its rest energy. The left side of Eq. [2] is the time derivative of momentum and the right side is the position derivative of the energy due to the dynamical nature of the dislocation. The total energy of a dislocation is the sum of the potential and kinetic energies. Weertman11 has developed the expressions which were used here; these give the potential and kinetic energies of uniformly moving edge and screw dislocations in an isotropic medium.

Jan 1, 1969

NEW MEMBERS The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the period May 10 to June 10, 1915: Members ANDREEN, HARRY MAYO, Millman: and Assayer Thane, Alaska. BANKS, HUBERT RAYMOND, Min. Engr., Mill Staff, Consolidated Arizona Smelting Co., Humboldt, Ariz. BASSETT, ARTHUR F., Min. Engr., Care Consolidated Arizona Smelting Co., Humboldt, Ariz. BLACKNER, LESTER A., Slope Engr.... Care Ray Consolidated Copper Co., Ray, Ariz. BUSHNELL, C. E., Draftsman Butte & Superior Copper Co., Butte, Mont. CAVAGNARO, DAVID AMILE, Min. Engr., Genl. Supt., Wisconsin North Fork GravelMines, Forest, Sierra Co.; Cal. COGHILL, WILLIAM HAKES, Met., Ore Testing Laboratory, 3705 Hueco St., - - El Paso, Tex.

Jan 7, 1915

By Thomas N. Walthier

If current trends continue, the shrunken world of exploration will keep on shrinking and the number of new mines will be insufficient to meet production requirements. Mineral shortages-not natural, but government induced-will then occur.

Jan 5, 1976

By H. E. Nold

ThE raw materials of the ceramic industry are mostly clays. This raw material is ground, water is added and the mixture pugged into a moist, plastic, rather stiff mass. From this mass the desired units of manufacture are made (bricks, hollow building tile, sewer pipe, etc.). These units are dried; then placed in kilns and heated until the desired degree of vitrification is obtained. For firing ceramic ware, two distinct types of kilns are used; namely, periodic and continuous tunnel. Periodic Kilns Periodic kilns are those ordinarily seen in a brick plant. They are either round or rectangular. The raw, dried, formed ware is piled or set in the kilns to depths frequently exceeding 10 ft. The kiln is heated until the ware is matured, then gradually cooled sufficiently to allow men to remove the ware; then the cycle is repeated. The time duration of the cycle may be more than two weeks. In order that heat can be distributed uniformly throughout the pile or setting, the units are placed so as to leave open spaces or flues throughout the pile for the passage of the hot gases. Each kiln is provided with a number of fireboxes (usually 10 or 12) spaced equally in the outside wall. The fireboxes may be equipped with flat or inclined grate bars or they may have no grates at all (dead bottom). Down-draft kilns are most used. In these the hot gaseous products of combustion from the fireboxes are deflected upward by bag walls just inside the fire zone. From the top of the kiln the gases are drawn down through the setting, off through holes in the kiln bottom, and conducted to a stack or stacks. In up-draft kilns the fireboxes are usually set somewhat lower. The hot gases are drawn inward and upward through the ware and pass off from the top. Up-draft kilns find their greatest use in the firing of common brick. In either case the problem is to maintain, as nearly as possible,

Jan 1, 1934

By Robert Hoy

If the reader finds that the basic information in a commodity chapter is insufficient, he can consult the appropriate sources in this chapter to find more detailed or more up-to-date information. In these days, technology develops so rapidly that this 4th edition will be somewhat out of date even by the time it is distributed. A comparison of this edition with the 3rd edition (1960) of Industrial Minerals and Rocks will clearly demonstrate how rapidly the scene changes. One of the best sources of new information, of course, is attendance at technical meetings. For example, the papers presented at the national and sectional meetings of AIME usually discuss new developments in the respective divisions of the society. Frequently this information is available in Preprints. In addition some are printed in Mining Engineering and/or the Transactions of the Society of Mining Engineers of AIME. Furthermore, other professional and trade journals contain articles pertinent to the field. A journal introduced in 1967, Industrial Minerals, published by the Metal Bulletin, Ltd., London, is an excellent source of information. The Mining Journal, Ltd., also in London, publishes a weekly journal, a Mining Magazine (monthly), and a Mining Annual Re- view. The latter covers the field from three aspects: (1) by commodities, (2) through technical developments, and (3) geographically. Other useful magazines and periodicals include Engineering and Mining Journal, Pit and Quarry, Rock Products, and World Mining, all published in the United States. In addition many new books related to industrial minerals have been published since the 3rd edition of Industrial Minerals and Rocks. Most of these, of course, are included in the bibliography of each chapter in this volume. Another excellent information source is the proceedings of the Forum on Geology of Industrial Minerals. This group, which held its 11th annual meeting in 1975, is sponsored by a state geological survey or another mineral agency on a rotational basis. The proceedings have been published by the various sponsors and are available as indicated in Table 1. Two major sources of basic industrial mineral and rock data in the United States, and also a good source for many foreign countries, are the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The two agencies publish many reports and maps on a variety of geo- logical and mining subjects. In addition, each agency has an indexed list of all their publications with a free service announcing new publications. (New Publications of the Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 20242) and New Publications-Bureau of Mines, Publications Distribution Branch, U.S. Bureau of Mines, 4800 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213). The U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) publishes annually Minerals Yearbooks which provide statistical data on mineral products including production, consumption, imports and exports, as well as information on new developments. Another very useful USBM series is called Mineral Facts and Problems. Editions were published in 1960, 1965, and 1970. Three other major series of publications by the Bureau are Information Circulars, Reports of Investigations, and Mineral Trade Notes. The latter is particularly good for news of foreign developments. A new Professional Paper No. 820 of the U.S. Geological Survey, 1973, summarizes data on the mineral resources of the entire country. The USGS, in cooperation with USBM, other Federal and various state agencies, has also prepared summary reports on mineral and water resources of given areas which include

Jan 1, 1975

Jan 1, 1916

By C. S. Blair

THE development of a geological department as an integral part of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. in the Birmingham district, Ala-bama, in 1908 was an innovation probably unique for any mining organ-ization south of the Ohio River, At that time a few of the oil companies were starting geological departments, but there were no geologists among the larger industrial organizations. The Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. had been a substantial producer of pig iron for many years and was just getting a start in the manufacture of steel products from the pig iron. It had large acreages of coal land, ore land and timber land, but there was lacking the detailed knowledge of the possible mineral resources of much (of its territory, and this territory at that time covered an area in the neighborhood of 500,000 acres in the states of Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. Those responsible for the operations of the mining properties, not being familiar with the kind of help that might be expected from geologic work, were decidedly skeptical of the utility of the work. Therefore it was necessary to develop cooperation with the mining organization, by not infringing upon its functions, and by developing the work in such a manner as to demonstrate to the mining department its practical utility. In the first instance the man responsible for a mining operation is apt to assume the attitude that the geologist is a blockader, because the geologist, unfortunately, is obliged to point out difficulties in the carrying out of mining operations in the way originally planned. He points out the dangers of mining out one coal or metal seam at the ultimate expense of an upper or lower seam, and he develops structural features, such as faults and folds, which call to the attention of the mining operator diffi-culties in his future operations, which the latter had not anticipated. Eventually, however, -the value of having these data became ap to the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co., and the operators not only welcomed the geological work and cooperated fully in its acquisition of essential information, but reached the point of asking assistance and advice; and complete coordination of the two activities has existed for many years.

Jan 1, 1933

By Yap Chu-Phay

IN 1923, when the writer began his studies in metallurgy, he came upon an article by Professor Honda on the, Equilibrium Diagram of the Iron-carbon System, 1 which made a profound impression on him. What interested him most was this sentence: "In the recent diagram of the iron-carbon system, the solidus is usually shown as a curve bending considerably downward. But it can be shown by thermodynamics that if the liquidus is straight or slightly curved, the same must also be true for the solidus. Hence, in my constitutional diagram, the lower portion of the solidus is slightly bent upward." Ever since then the writer has been interested in thermodynamics, especially chemical thermodynamics. The applications of thermo-dynamics to the metallic systems have been, in the writer's opinion, sadly neglected, although we continually use the phase rule in our study of equilibria in the liquid and solid states of metallic alloys. Many investigators, among whom may be mentioned Heycock and Neville, and s Honda and his coworkers, have applied the simple Raoult-van't Hoff law of depression of freezing point, mainly to determine the heat of fusion, but no attempt has been made to investigate the applicability of the thermo-dynamic laws of solution (as opposed to the laws of solution derived from other sources) to metallic systems" showing either limited or complete solid solutions. Perhaps the reason for this neglect is that until recently there have been so few reliable data on the solidus, which is much more difficult to determine than the liquidus. The writer has under way at the present time an investigation of a number of systems, the solidi of which have been more or less reliably determined. Recently, the writer has not only shown the valid applicability of the thermodynamic laws of solution as applied to the system antimony-bismuth but has also suggested a method of attacking problems involving complete and incomplete equilibria.2 In the present paper, the same method of approach is employed. For convenience, we shall divide this paper into two parts:

Jan 1, 1931

By V. A. Josendal, J. W. Wilson, B. B. Sandiford

Two radioactive tracers have been tested as a means of determining core saturation in multiphase flow studies. Cesium chloride was tried as a water-phase tracer, but complications in its use in low permeability cores resulted from sorption of cesium by the core or water-wet pads. IodoI3'ben-zene proved very satisfactory as an oil-phase tracer. The synthesis of iodobenzene from the sodium iodide as received from Oak Ridge is simple and direct. The tracer is insoluble in water and there was no evidence of sorption by any of the core materials used. use of the method to determine saturation profiles during capillary and dynamic desaturations and relative permeability measurements on oil-water and oil-gas systems is described. Comparisons of the dynamic and capillary methods of relative permeability determination were made using the tracer to check core saturation and saturation distribution. Other experiments are also described in which mobility of the oil phase at various saturations was measured by displacing labeled oil by flowing inactive oil. Similar experiments were made using water labeled with cesium 134. INTRODUCTION To be fundamentally sound. any laboratory method of determining relative permeability must meet, among others, the following requirements: (1) the core saturation between the pressure taps must be uniform, and (2) there must be uniform pressure difference between the phases in the region between the pressure taps. In practice it may eventually be shown that appreciable departure from either or both of these conditions may be permitted without introducing sensible error. but the magnitude of such error remains to be established. There is need then for methods of saturation determina- tion which will determine the saturation profile in a core as well as the overall average saturation given by the gravimetric or material balance methods usually employed. Methods which have received consideration include resistivity, X-ray absorption, gamma ray absorption, neutron diffraction, and radioactive tracers. The resistivity method has use in the determination of profile, but needs checking by independent means.' The X-ray method has been used successfully, but requires elaborate equipment and calibration.23 4 At present gamma ray absorption is practical only for very large cores. The neutron methodo does not appear adaptable to measurement of saturation variations in short cores since it is a scattering method. Russell, Morgan and Muskat' employed radiovanadium in a study of the mobility of interstitial water. Coomber and Tiratsook used radioiodine as an oil-phase tracer and measured profiles in unconsolidated sand packs. ADVANTAGES OF RADIOACTIVITY METHOD A thorough discussion of the theory of radioactive tracers and the technique of using them to study the movement of fluids in sands is given by Coomber and Tiratsoos and need not be detailed here. The method requires less equipment than the X-ray method; the counting problem is similar, but the generation and regulation of the radiation, which is a major problem in the X-ray method, is not required in the radioactivity method. In the X-ray method it is customary to add up to 20 per cent of absorber, usually an iodine compound, to the phase to be labeled. while in the radioactivity method a mere trace is sufficient. A possible disadvantage of the radioactivity method is that a disproportionate amount of the activity comes from the portion of the core nearest the counter, whereas the X-ray gives a true average saturation in the region traversed by the beam. 011 the other hand, this characteristic of the radioactivity method renders it peculiarly adaptable to study of certain types of radial variations in saturation. As with the X-ray method, a tracer may be added to either the oil or water-phase. An oil-phase tracer is more generally useful. however. since it permits work on oil and gas in the

Jan 1, 1952