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Jan 1, 1970

By W. E. Wrather

CURTAILMENT of production was a matter of far more serious concern to the oil industry through 1933 than the search for new supplies of oil. The huge reserves of crude, built up during past years, instead of inspiring a feeling of security, were viewed apprehensively. The status of past laws and court decisions seemed to guarantee to operators the right to produce oil at will, and this entrenched privilege was so widely adhered to that the market was-in a constant state of chaos. The more modern idea of the ownership of oil in place and correlative rights gained headway slowly, since usually there were enough belligerent producers, staunch believers in the old established order, to defeat the efforts of the majority who sought to' introduce order and restraint. State regulatory commissions were unable to cope, with the rebellion among producers with the result that those who abided by proration rulings were penalized, while those who flouted the rulings and produced unrestrainedly were able to make profits on large volumes of flush oil even at low prices. This situation, known in the vernacular as the "hot 'oil" problem, became so acute that the industry was threatened with ruin. The low price for 36c A.P.I. in the Mid-Continent came in April. at 25c per barrel 'but gradually moved upward to the long-hoped for price of $1.00 per barrel in October, after the Federal Government had taken a hand in the matter and effectively allocated production among the oil producing states and materially curbed the "hot oil" runs.

Jan 1, 1934

In 1973, US Borax & Chemical Corp. began investing three days wages and about $20 in training materials in every new employee before having him report to his first job. The result? Accidents involving new employees in the past two years have dropped by more than half from the 1972 level. What made this success possible was safety training done with programmed instruction materials-which, incidentally, US Borax also uses for vocational training.

Jan 4, 1976

By R. E. Old

Through the use of pressure and production records, formation properties and bottom-hole sample data, the performance of an oil reservoir may be studied analytically to define and evaluate the natural forces acting on and within the reservoir. Use is made of material-halance methods and the equations for natural water encroachment. to estimate reserves. Methods for calculation of pressures are given. A study of the Jones sand, Schuler field, Arkansas, has been made and is given here to illustrate the value of the methods discussed. Introduction With the decreasing rate of discovery of new oil reserves, attention is necessarily focused on the efficient development, evaluation, and production of existing reserves. From the nation's viewpoint, the necessity of conserving resources is obvious. From the operator's viewpoint, the problem is to lengthen the period of profitable operation, in an attempt to increase the return on his investment. To do this the operator must take advantage of the natural forces acting on and within the reservoir. Natural water encroachment, the nemesis of profitable operation in the past, can be and is being harnessed to produce a greater oil recovery during the stage of flowing production. Proper evaluation of water encroachment rates and a fuller under- standing of reservoir behavior dictate the appropriate production procedures. Complacency in hit and miss production is obsolete. Oil production must and will approach the efficiency of other businesses, such as manufacturing. A manufacturer will not place an article on the market until he has fully investigated the processes involved, additional investment in equipment, costs of production, and expected profits. These may be modified by actual experience at a later date, but at least he begins with an idea of expected return. It is just as logical that an oil operator should investigate these same factors during the development and the early period of production of an oil reserve. The complexity of the problems existing in oil reservoirs should not be underestimated. Conversely, they should not be regarded as insoluble. Many completely defy solution, but there are others that can be solved completely or attacked intelligently to yield approximate results. The petroleum engineer has many tools, both figuratively and literally, at his disposal. Physical data such as core analyses, electrical logs, bottom-hole sample analyses, and bottom-hole pressures are accumulated extensively. Advances in the analytics of fluid flow have kept pace with the advances in measurement of physical data. It is the purpose of this paper to show how some of these records may be analyzed to define certain phases of reservoir behavior.

Jan 1, 1943

By R. E. Old

Through the use of pressure and production records, formation properties and bottom-hole sample data, the performance of an oil reservoir may be studied analytically to define and evaluate the natural forces acting on and within the reservoir. Use is made of material-halance methods and the equations for natural water encroachment. to estimate reserves. Methods for calculation of pressures are given. A study of the Jones sand, Schuler field, Arkansas, has been made and is given here to illustrate the value of the methods discussed. Introduction With the decreasing rate of discovery of new oil reserves, attention is necessarily focused on the efficient development, evaluation, and production of existing reserves. From the nation's viewpoint, the necessity of conserving resources is obvious. From the operator's viewpoint, the problem is to lengthen the period of profitable operation, in an attempt to increase the return on his investment. To do this the operator must take advantage of the natural forces acting on and within the reservoir. Natural water encroachment, the nemesis of profitable operation in the past, can be and is being harnessed to produce a greater oil recovery during the stage of flowing production. Proper evaluation of water encroachment rates and a fuller under- standing of reservoir behavior dictate the appropriate production procedures. Complacency in hit and miss production is obsolete. Oil production must and will approach the efficiency of other businesses, such as manufacturing. A manufacturer will not place an article on the market until he has fully investigated the processes involved, additional investment in equipment, costs of production, and expected profits. These may be modified by actual experience at a later date, but at least he begins with an idea of expected return. It is just as logical that an oil operator should investigate these same factors during the development and the early period of production of an oil reserve. The complexity of the problems existing in oil reservoirs should not be underestimated. Conversely, they should not be regarded as insoluble. Many completely defy solution, but there are others that can be solved completely or attacked intelligently to yield approximate results. The petroleum engineer has many tools, both figuratively and literally, at his disposal. Physical data such as core analyses, electrical logs, bottom-hole sample analyses, and bottom-hole pressures are accumulated extensively. Advances in the analytics of fluid flow have kept pace with the advances in measurement of physical data. It is the purpose of this paper to show how some of these records may be analyzed to define certain phases of reservoir behavior.

Jan 1, 1943

By A. W. Schlechten, W. J. Kroll

As this paper is written, the only method for the commercial production of lithium metal is by the fusion electrolysis of LiC1-KC1 mixtures, as first proposed by Gunkz.2 The details of the industrial process have not been made public hut Osborg8 stated that an efficiency of more than 90 pct is obtained with a lithium metal recovery above 95 pct and that the metal is 99.5 pct pure. Pletenev9 gave a power consumption of 66 kw-hr per kilogram of lithium metal produced with a salt consumption of 9 kg of LiCl and 0.4 kg of KCI. Pletenev's figures indicate a somewhat lower recovery than that given by Osborg. In a recent report on' German lithium plants, Motock7 gives figures that are also less favorable than those reported by Osborg. At the German plants the lithium recovery in electrolysis was only 83.4 pct, with a power consumption of 140 kw-hr per kilogram of lithium. The metal averaged only 97 pct pure, with sodium and potassium as the chief impurities. The presence of SO2, SO3, SiO2, Ba, Ca, and appreciable amounts of Na and Fe2O3 were especially disturbing in the electrolysis, and it was necessary to run the cell for some time to eliminate most of these impurities and condition the bath. It may be noted here that most of these impurities do not interfere with a thermal reduction process. These facts show that the present method of producing lithium is fairly efficient and would suggest that other methods could not compete. However, fusion electrolysis has certain drawbacks, such as the necessity of supplying costly, low-voltage direct current and of collecting and processing the anodic chlorine if it is not to be wasted. An even greater disadvantage is that lithium chloride must be used for an electrolyte. It is one of the most expensive salts of lithium, since it cannot be produced in anhydrous form by precipitation from aqueous solution, as is done with LiF or Li2CO3. The reduction of lithium by a vacuum process similar to the ferrosilicon method for the production of magnesium would have certain advantages. Small units such as Pidgeon retorts, would give flexibility of production to meet demand, and a small plant would require moderate capital outlay. There is a possibility of using idle Government-owned magnesium plants for such purposes. The raw materials needed for vacuum thermal reduction would not have to be extremely pure, Director, with respect to the iron and calcium Content. This paper describes a series of experiments to determine the effectiveness of various agents for the reduction of lithium compounds. The investigation is part of a program of vacuum metallurgy con-

Jan 1, 1949

By Lucien Eaton

THE use of filling in mines is less common in the United States than it is in Europe, where in some places it is required by law. In most cases the filling is placed by hand, and the material used for this purpose is the waste from development and that sorted from the ore in the stopes. When these sources provide an insufficient supply, additional rock must be quarried on surface or mined underground, or some other material :st be used. In different parts of the world sand, clay, gravel, culm, nulated slag, mill tailings, and even ashes, have been used as filling material in place of or in conjunction with rock. Of all the materials used for filling the best is probably clean sand. Gravel, finely crushed rock, granulated slag and coarse mill tailings are almost as good, and the methods used for placing and confining sand will apply equally well to any of these. The advantages of sand are its comparatively slight compressibility and the ease, economy and convenience with which it may be placed. On account of the voids, which necessarily occur in fills made of coarse waste, such fills will compress 10 to 25 per cent before they develop their full strength, whereas clean sand seldom compresses more than 5 per cent. Sand is especially desirable when practically complete filling is required, and sand derived from mill tailings, especially when not thoroughly cleaned, has been remarkably effective in sealing off and extinguishing mine fires. When natural sand is available on surface, or when it can be obtained from the mill tailings or tailings dump, the cost of using this material for fill will probably be considerably less than that of rock. In this paper it is not proposed to discuss all methods of filling, butt to describe some of the methods used for placing sand fill and to make a brief comparison of their merits.

Jan 1, 1932

By Sydney H., Ball

ONE of the important mineral discoveries of the eighteenth century was , that of the Minas Geraes, Brazil; diamond fields. The production of this and of .other diamond discoveries in neighboring states made Brazil the premier producer of diamonds, succeeding India; its 140 years of supremacy finally passed to- South Africa- 60 years ago. Three times have diamonds contributed heavily to Portugal's somewhat checkered financial history; first in the sixteenth and seventeenth- centuries when the diamond trade of India was controlled by its citizens residing in ,Goa, later in the late eighteenth and the first 75 years of the nineteenth century when the Brazilian fields were the world's source of diamonds, and now, when the Angola diamond mines are the principal source of revenue of its colony, Portuguese West Africa. Certain phases in the history of the administration of the Brazilian field are sufficiently curious to warrant description.

Jan 1, 1929

By Harry C. Wiess

PETROLEUM has come to be one of the most important and essential of the mineral re- sources of the nation. It is the most advantageous source of mineral fuels and of lubricants, and as such it has provided in large measure for the phenomenal development in our modern means of travel and in the facilities for transportation by land, sea, and air. Without it the remark- ably rapid industrial and social progress in our country during the past thirty years could not have occurred. In view of its important place and the fact that petroleum is irreplaceable and existent in limited quantities in nature, its conservation is essential.

Jan 1, 1939

Jan 1, 1966

By John Dilworth

THE word "development," as used in connection with .mining, is a rather general term and in most instances must be qualified or explained before the exact thought in the mind of the user is made clear. For instance, by the development of a mining district is often meant its entire facilities of mineral production, such as railroads, towns, mine plants, etc. In speaking of the development of a property its prospecting by test pits or diamond drill borings may be referred to; or it may be the mines, strip pits or quarries from which the coal, ore or rock is won. But, as a rule, when the development of an individual mine is spoken of the idea in mind is the system of underground workings by means of which the mineral is recovered and transported to the surface. It is this character f development that is considered in this paper. The discussion will be confined to the ordinary room-and-pillar, system of mining. practically horizontal coal seams that is used in most bituminous coal mines in this country, and to only two phases of this subject; viz., what is properly included under the head of "Development"' as it appears on the books of a coal company or the inventories of an examining engineer, and how its "value" should be determined -by the accountant or engineer. No absolute rule or definite agreement covers these points, yet these questions are far more than academic. Development is often an important part of a mining company's assets, affecting the amount of its invested capital (and hence its rate of taxation under present Federal income tax laws) as well as the value of its total assets and the amounts chargeable to cost of coal and to depreciation.

Jan 7, 1921

By J. R. Stone, J. T. Roy

ASARC09s continuous tapper for lead blast furnace is described. Its use throughout the company's plants has resulted in higher production rates, lower labor costs, and better working conditions. It has also permitted wide latitude in blast pressures, as well as in charge and slag compositions. The practice of tapping a lead blast furnace has remained essentially unchanged for many years. In principle, it is a batch operation discharging the products from the continuous smelting of lead-bearing materials. As such, it imposes certain restrictions on the proper functioning of the smelting operation. First, it calls for a highly developed sense of timing, and a considerable amount of physical effort on the part of the operator. Dirty and hot working conditions, as well as the hazards of flying metal and slag, usually prevail. These conditions have resulted in higher labor costs, both in rate and in amount. Labor turnover has also been high. Secondly, rigid control of mechanical and metallurgical factors must be maintained. Frequent oxygen lancing of the tap hole is needed to permit tapping, thereby increasing operating costs. Rapid increases in smelting rate, plugged tap holes, or forgetfulness on the part of the operator may permit the molten material to rise above the tuyeies and freeze the furnace. Also, the operator will often blow out the tap hole after draining, filling the area with fume. Composition of charge also vitally affects the tapping. The type of lead-bearing material being smelted will naturally affect the smelting rate, and thus the frequency of tapping. The amounts and types of fluxing materials, which determine the ultimate fluidity of the slag, must be regidly controlled. Finally, the batch tapping of a continuous smelting operation of this type appears to be wrong in principle. The molten material drains into the crucible at the bottom of the furnace where it starts cooling immediately and continues to cool until tapped out. While keeping the lead molten is no particular problem, maintaining a fluid slag at all times is often difficult, and sometimes impossible. These factors all point to the desirability of a method for the continuous tapping of a lead blast furnace. The expected advantages would be more desirable working conditions, lower labor costs, increased production, and a much wider latitude in both blast pressure and charge composition. CONTINUOUS TAPPING Historical. A number of devices, e.g., mechanical tappers, siphons, and lead wells, have been tried in the past in attempting to effect continuous tapping. None proved to be entirely satisfactory for tapping lead and slag simultaneously. It was not until 1955, however, that ASARCO designed and put into operation a successful tapping unit at its East Helena, Mont. lead smelter. This unit is described in detail in U.S. Patent NO. 2,890,951. Continuous Tapping Unit—See Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing of the unit in place, showing front and side views. The component parts are identified in the caption. Fig. 2 is an actual photograph, front view, of the tapping unit attached to the base of the blast furnace. Operation. The operation of the tapping unit is quite simple. Essentially it consists of a narrow tapping bay surrounding the furnace tap hole, with a deep notch in the front wall. When the blast furnace is started this notch is open down to the level of the tap hole. Starting the furnace may be accomplished in several ways but the most satisfactory method is to plug the tap hole with clay, permitting metal and slag to build up inside the furnace. Before the liquid reaches the tuyeres, the plug is removed and the furnace is drained to the settler. The blast is then stopped momentarily while the notch in the front wall of the tapping bay is dammed with chrome brick and plastic chrome ore. The blast is again started, and the height of the dam is adjusted so that the liquid in the bay will counterbalance the internal pressure of the furnace. When the desired level is reached the slag and metal will overflow to the settler. It should be noted that the molten material ,is not siphoned from the furnace and that the metal 'acts as a liquid valve controlling the flow of slag through the tap hole. During normal operations the tapping bay is filled primarily with lead, covered with a thin layer of slag. Thus, the heavier lead plays the major role in compensating for variations in furnace pressures. Due to the high specific gravity of lead, changes in the liquid level in the tapping bay will never exceed a few inches. For this reason it is seldom necessary to change the height of the dam due to minor variations in operating conditions. Some turbulence of the liquid in the bay is essential at all times. This indicates that the level of the

Jan 1, 1963

Jan 1, 1970

By R. Salter, C. K. Chase

Although Asarco's Silver Bell Unit, 40 miles west of Tucson, Ariz., is known primarily for copper production, molybdenite is also produced as a byproduct in the 8000 tpd flotation mill. The Silver Bell ore comes from two pits approximately two miles apart. Copper mineralization is essentially chalcocite resulting from two to three-fold secondary enrichment in a highly altered zone. A typical porphyry copper deposit, Silver Bell ore is of medium hardness. The ore consists of about one part molybdenum to 65 parts of copper. In the copper concentrate which is the starting point for separate molybdenum recovery, the ratio is also one part molybdenum to 65 of copper. Molybdenum mineralization is primary. Enrichment is not evident but it is notable that the molybdenite is more common in the more siliceous, harder rocks. The actual molybdenite occurs as diversely oriented flakes of fairly constant grain size, mostly in fractures associated with quartz veins. Most of the mineral appears unoxidized; secondary coatings on the molybdenite flakes are fortunately rare. In May 1962 a modified, improved version of the molybdenite circuit was put into operation.

Jan 7, 1964

Beyer Barometric Condenser The Ingersoll-Rand Co. is now offering to the trade complete steam­condensing plants for all service conditions. This equipment includes the Beyer barometric condenser, for' which the company has secured the patent rights, Imperial duplex and Ingersoll-Rogler straight-line reciprocating dry vacuum pumps and, where required, Cameron simplex and centrifugal pumps. The Beyer barometric condenser is of the counter-current type, in which air and cooling water flow in opposite directions. The steam inlet is at the bottom of the condensing v el, the water inlet above and the air-removal opening at the top. The sheets of cooling water over owing the pool at the inlet point meet the entering steam. The two are brought into intimate contact by conical baffle plates which assist the water to absorb to its full capacity the latent heat of the steam. The non-condensable air liberated in the condensing action rises through the falling water to the removal point at the top, being cooled to practically the temperature of the incoming water. It is also to be noted that ample opportunity is given for the removal of the air content of the water before

Jan 8, 1916

By ROBERT. RICHARDS

I. INTRODUCTION The object of this paper is to enlarge the field of settling velocities treated by me in my former papers, Close Sizing Before Jigging, and Sorting Before Sizing.' There seemed need of work both on coarser and on finer sizes. Messrs. A. Sidney Warren and M. L. Nagel undertook the investigation for the coarser sizes, from 12.85 mm. down to 2.05 mm. diameter. Their work, because of the closer spacing and because of the increased number of observations and consequent stronger averages, called for a revision of the former work. Messrs. G., A. Barnaby and Ralph Hayden undertook this part of the work, from 2.49 mm. down to 0.28 mm., which is near the limit of sifting. Their work covers the ground much more minutely and comprehensively than the former papers. There remained to be covered the portion of the field too fine for investigation with the sieves. This part, covering the range of grains from 0.48 to 0.03 mm., was undertaken by Mr. E. S. Bardwell. For it he used the elutriation method. II. THE FIRST, OR COARSEST, SECTION OF THE FIELD. The first desideratum in this investigation was a series of sieves for sizing the sands preparatory to making the tests. It became necessary, therefore, to decide on a sieve-scale for this purpose. A sieve-scale is a series of sieves in which the dimensions of the holes of the successive members form a series increasing by a. definite ratio. There are three natural sieve-scales : 1, progressing by doubling the width of the hole for each suc-

May 1, 1907

CYRIL STANLEY SMITH, Chairman CARL E. SWARTZ, Past-Chairman ARTHUR PHILLIPS, Vice-Chairman E. E. SCHUMACHER, Vice-Chairman H. A. MALONEY, Treasurer FRANK. T. SISCO, Secretary 9 West 39th Street, New York, N. 1. Executive Committee 1944 1945 WILLIAM C. ELLIS C. S. BARRETT ALAN MORRIS T. A. WRIGHT KENT R. VAN HORN L. L. WYMAN

Jan 1, 1943

By K. Heindlhofer

Estimates of the "plasticity" of a metal are commonly deduced from three types of test—tensile, torsion and impact. The several results have been more or less at variance, though this disparity has attracted little notice, largely perhaps because they have been expressed in different terms. The discrepancy between the results of the three tests becomes obvious when each is made at a series of low temperatures, for the temperature range within which the "plasticity" of iron largely disappears proves to be very different in the three types of test. The rather abrupt disappearance of "plasticity" of iron within a narrow temperature range cannot be due to any physicochemical change (such as a precipitation) taking place in the material at that time, because the original plasticity is immediately regained when the temperature of the material is brought above the sensitive range. Accordingly this difference in behavior shows that the "plasticity" of a metal depends upon the mode of action of the stresses which produce the deformation, and therefore upon the method of test. Analysis of the stresses leads to the conclusion that the observed plasticity of a metal is determined by the relation between its resistance to rupture by separation and its resistance to shear (slip), on the one hand, and between the effective normal and shearing stresses on the other; and that the relation between the two resistances does not in general remain constant with change of temperature, and may somehow be altered to some extent by the previous treatment of the specimen. This suggests the view that the results of none of the usual mechanical tests are directly comparable even for a single metal tested at a series of temperatures, or for a series of metals at one temperature, because the proportion of the total resistance of the metal to the test contributed by the

Jan 1, 1935

By K. Heindlhofer

Estimates of the "plasticity" of a metal are commonly deduced from three types of test—tensile, torsion and impact. The several results have been more or less at variance, though this disparity has attracted little notice, largely perhaps because they have been expressed in different terms. The discrepancy between the results of the three tests becomes obvious when each is made at a series of low temperatures, for the temperature range within which the "plasticity" of iron largely disappears proves to be very different in the three types of test. The rather abrupt disappearance of "plasticity" of iron within a narrow temperature range cannot be due to any physicochemical change (such as a precipitation) taking place in the material at that time, because the original plasticity is immediately regained when the temperature of the material is brought above the sensitive range. Accordingly this difference in behavior shows that the "plasticity" of a metal depends upon the mode of action of the stresses which produce the deformation, and therefore upon the method of test. Analysis of the stresses leads to the conclusion that the observed plasticity of a metal is determined by the relation between its resistance to rupture by separation and its resistance to shear (slip), on the one hand, and between the effective normal and shearing stresses on the other; and that the relation between the two resistances does not in general remain constant with change of temperature, and may somehow be altered to some extent by the previous treatment of the specimen. This suggests the view that the results of none of the usual mechanical tests are directly comparable even for a single metal tested at a series of temperatures, or for a series of metals at one temperature, because the proportion of the total resistance of the metal to the test contributed by the

Jan 1, 1935