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By Sidney Speil

In the study of clays and related minerals, the analytical techniques commonly employed in mineral analysis are not always applicable. The X-ray examination of a clay sample usually will show the major constituents, but often minor· clay impurities will not be detected because of line broadening and the similarity of the main lines of clay· mineral diffraction patterns, The petrographic analysis of clay minerals with clay particles as small as a few microns is usually difficult. With still smaller particles, a gross effect often is noted in which a mixture of several constituents gives the appearance of a single constituent with the mean optical-characteristics of the mixture. 3/ The electron microscope has recently been used to study clay particle shapes of various aluminosilicates. 4/ However, this method has not yet been sufficiently explored. The Chemical method in which a mineralogical analysis is calculated from the oxide chemical analysis has been discussed by Wilson 5/ and others, and many of the shortcomings have been pointed out. It should also be recognized that the variable alkali and alkaline earth content of bentonites makes it inaccurate to assign these basic elements arbitrarily to feldspar or mica in any clay that contains appreciable bentonite.

Jul 1, 1944

By WILLARD W. CUTLER

This bulletin reviews, in the light of recent experience, the use of production-decline curves in estimating the future production of oil from wells. It deals with the estimation of the reserves of recoverable oil in properties already producing or in those adjacent to them, takes cognizance of the physical laws governing expulsion of oil from oil sands, and shows how the production-decline curve can be made to utilize these laws in estimating reserves and rates of production. The valuation of oil properties should be based on the total amount of oil recoverable from a property by the methods in use, the rate of recovery, the cost of production, and the selling price. Numerous other curves besides those for reserves and rates of production may be formed from the production-decline curve and will present desired information in a convenient time-saving form. These curves also are described. Methods developed before the production-decline curve method was used are briefly discussed in order that the principles on which estimations of oil reserves are based may be made plain. The construction of curves and tables for estimating future production of individual wells and of average wells in most of the important oil districts of the United States is described and operating problems that may be solved by the use of production-decline curves are discussed. The bulletin does not deal with costs, oil prices, or the methods of evaluating oil properties. Many engineers have amply demonstrated the value of the production- decline curve method by forecasting within reasonable limits the production of many thousands of wells and tracts. The value of similar estimates depends however, on (1) the application of trustworthy methods; (2) the care and judgment of the estimator; and (3) the length and reliability of the records and the accuracy of ofher information used in estimating future production. When adequate records and information are available, experience has shown that It qualified engineer can forecast production far more accurately than has been deemed possible, except where the usual conditions governing the expulsion of oil from a sand have been radically changed by applying compressed air or by flooding with water, or, to a less degree, by using vacuum. In general, the production-decline curve method, though there are limits to its accuracy, is far more trustworthy than any other.

Jan 1, 1924

By John B. Gayle

The Bureau of Mines has designed and constructed an experimental coke oven, using a commercial oven as a model where practicable. Because the rate of carbonization is important in determining the quality of the coke produced and may affect the "mount of pressure developed during carbonization, particular attention was given to those elements of the design that govern the heat transfer to the charge. The new oven deviates in design from most existing test ovens in that the charge is full width (17 inches), the heating walls ore constructed of 4-1/2-inch silica brick, and zoned, heat-input arrangements compensate for heat losses at the ends, top, and bottom of the charge. This report describes the oven, which was designed by H. S. Auvil and installed under his direction, at the Southern Experiment Station, Tuscaloosa, Ala., while he was supervising, engineer, Coke Section. It gives the results of a limited number of carbonizing tests. These results indicate that the main objective in designing and building this oven, that off duplicating commerical, slot-oven carbonizing conditions, has been accomplished; if coke-discharge conditions simulate commercial-oven conditions, the cokes from the experimental oven arc very similar to oven coke, in soma tests being fully as close is duplicate tests from a Angle batch of coke.

Jan 1, 1952

By Paul. E. Pesonen

Since early in 1940 the Bureau of Mines has been concerned with possible means of utilizing manganese-bearing materials from the Missouri Valley manganese deposit. During the period between July 1945 and August 1947, the Bureau of Mines undertook to complete certain phases of the problem by re-evaluating the results of earlier work and supplementing the findings by additional operations and field studies considered necessary to permit drawing of final conclusions. Distinctive discoloration marks the outcrop of the manganese deposit which is exposed on both flanks of the Missouri River Valley and its major tributaries for a peripheral distance of approximately 523 miles in south-central South Dakota. The apparent magnitude of the deposit, judged largely from observation of the outcrop, had led to much speculation as to its actual value in terms of tonnage and grade. Similarly, investigative work aimed at developing a means of winning a usable manganese-rich product from the deposit had reached no conclusion, except that certain methods showed more promise than others for accomplishing the final objective.

Jan 1, 1948

By Giorgio Franceschetti

Explicit expressions are presented for the input admittance and effective height of several buried metal antennas, namely: (i) prolate spheroidal; (ii) spherical; (iii) oblate spheroidal; (iv) parallel plate; (v) parallel plate with protruding dielectric in the same plane of the plates; (vi) parallel plate with protruding dielectric in a plane normal to that of the plates (H-shaped antenna). Explicit expressions are presented for the input admittance and effective height of several buried metal antennas, namely: (i) prolate spheroidal; (ii) spherical; (iii) oblate spheroidal; (iv) parallel plate; (v) parallel plate with protruding dielectric in the same plane of the plates; (vi) parallel plate with protruding dielectric in a plane normal to that of the plates (H-shaped antenna). It is concluded that in all practical situations of "small" antennas approximation 1 is almost always appropriate. Computations were carried out for bare antennas, the extension to insulated ones being, however, straightforward. Although a rigorous theory of the antenna performance in a realistic semi-infinite conductive medium has not been developed, the results quoted should also be applicable when antennas are a few skin depths below the earth's surface. In particular, for the evaluation of radio-links under up-over -and-down operating conditions, the antennas can be replaced by dipoles of length equal to the effective height. Since the antenna's parameters are given in analytical form, it is also possible, by using Laplace transform techniques, to compute the transient response of the antenna. The transient is described by pole (short-time behavior) and branch-cut contributions (large time behavior). For these last terms, an asymptotic evaluation is possible, so obtaining closed form expressions for the response at large observation times, which is closely related to the dispersion characteristic of the environment.

Jan 1, 1973

By G. R. Hopkins

Although many small refineries were dismantled in 1934 the total number of plants, including a few under construction, increased from 604 at the beginning of the year to a new high of 638 on January 1, 1935. The capacity also reached a new record, the total of 4,072,400 barrels of crude oil daily being about 45,000 barrels higher than the previous high of January 1, 1932. The number of refineries increased materially in 1933, following construction in east Texas and the building of many small plants in the Rocky Mountain district and elsewhere. Most of the new plants of 1933 were built to provide an outlet for crude or because the ratio between crude oil and gasoline prices appeared conducive to profits However, low gasoline prices and increased costs in 1934 dispelled the hopes for profits; many plants were shut down, and some were dismantled. The number of operating plants declined from 454 on January 1, 1934, to 435 on January 1, 1935, but the number of inactive plants increased from 137 to a new high of 196 during the same period. As indicated above, new construction was at a minimum in 1934, and on January 1, 1935, only 7 plants were being built.

Jan 1, 1935

By Bernadette C. Michalski

THE RAPID GROWTH of the small Albanian mineral industry in the 1950's began to taper off by 1961 and slackened sharply in 1963. The abandonment of Soviet and East European technical assistance programs in mid-1961 greatly affected Albania's mineral development, since four-fifths of all technical aid personnel were engaged in mineral activities. Chinese assistance apparently has not been able to fill the void. Overall mineral production increases during 1961-63 averaged 1 percent per year in value, as compared with 3 percent in 1959 and 5 percent in 1960. Although by world standards Albanian mineral output, except for chromite, is insignificant, it is vital to the country's domestic economy. The mineral industry generated about 14 percent of the gross industrial product in 1962 and employed a notable share of the industrial labor force. In recent years, mineral products have provided about three-fifths of the country's exports by value. Chromite and iron-nickel ores together constituted from one-fourth to one-third of the total export value. In 1963, total trade turnover increased 12 percent over 1962.

Jan 1, 1964

By Oliver Bowles

Whiting or Paris white is a fine-grained preparation of calcium carbonate having a wide variety of uses. Until recent years it was prepared almost exclusively from certain north European chalks. With the curtailment of imports of European chalk during the World War of 1914-18, however, finely ground limestone, of domestic origin was used more extensively to satisfy the American demand.

Jan 1, 1942

By Fred W. Snow

This paper describing the mining practices at the Magma mine, Superior, Ariz., is one of a series being prepared by the Bureau of Mines on mining prac¬tices, methods, and costs in the various mining districts in the United States. At present (1929) practically all the mineral production in the Superior district is from the Magma mine of the Magma Cooper Co. The ore is mined for its copper but contains associated silver and gold. Both direct smelting ore and ore of concentrating grade are produced. The mining methods now in use at the Magma mine were adopted or developed as knowledge was gained of the physical condition of the ore bodies and the inclosing formations; the wall rock is soft and crushed and the ore is relatively hard. In general, existing methods have been adapted to fit local conditions, but some of the mining practices used were originated at this mine. Most of the ore is mined by a combination of rill stopes and pillar stopes. The pillars are extracted by underhand mining.

Jan 1, 1929

By W. R. ARGYLE, R. A. SHERMAN, Henry Kreisinger, John Blizard, B. J. CROSS, A. R. Mumford

On entering the World War the United States was confronted with the necessity of building in a short time a large number of ships of tonnage adequate to transport troops and war materials to Europe and to carry food supplies to the allied countries, whose merchant fleets had suffered greatly by submarine warfare. The necessity of building ships quickly led to the formation of the United States Shipping Board, which was charged with the duty of developing an efficient organization for the purpose. Such an organization was developed under the name of the Emergency Fleet Corporation; it was under the control of the Government, but could conduct its business in the most direct way, like a private corporation. In order to build the largest- number of ships possible without drawing too heavily on the steel industry, which was already taxed heavily by the production of munitions, it was decided to build wooden as well as steel ships. These ships were built from a few standard designs to enable a large number of duplicate parts to be fabricated in inland shops and transported by railroad to the shipyards on the seacoast, where they were assembled into ships. In other words, the plan was to manufacture the ships rather than to build them. The shops on the seacoast were reserved to make those parts of the ships' equipment that could not readily be transported. The inland shops made the parts that could be transported to the seacoast by railroad. Among the more important parts of the ships' equipment to be standardized were the boilers. As the Scotch marine boiler in large units is bulky and can not be transported by railroad, and as, for the same capacity,much more steelis needed in its construction than for water-tube boilers, a few simple designs of water-tube boilers were developed that inland shops having ordinary equipment could make in large quantities.

Jan 1, 1924

By John J. Ginty

The objective of the work reported herein was to evaluate state-of-the-art repeaters used in wireless communications to determine their suitability for use in extending the range of portable and mobile communications in underground mine applications. The scope of the work included wireless repeaters in the frequency range from LF (500 kilohertz) up to the one giga-hertz range. These repeaters included not only single-channel repeaters, that is F1/F1 repeaters for short range simplex party line communications, but in addition, F1/F2 type repeaters currently commercially available in the HF, VHF and UHF bands.

Jan 1, 1975

By Charles Anema

The Mancarried and Helicopter Receivers were developed under the contract for trapped miner location. This program was a five phase program with 15 mancarried and 5 helicopter production receivers delivered under Phase IV and equipment documentation required under Phase V.

Jan 1, 1976

By W. P. Yang, L. B. Berger, G. W. Jones

"Any burning carbonaceous material, unless supplied with enough oxygen for complete combustion, will liberate carbon monoxide. Since tobacco in its many different forms consists largely of carbonaceous material, and duo to the conditions under which it is smoked (burned), carbon monoxide should be liberated. That this is true has been shown by Armstrong.***** who found that undiluted smoke from cigars contained in some tests more than 3.00 per cent carbon monoxide, the amount present depending upon the size and closeness of packing of the tobacco during manufacture and on the rate of burning.****** Cigarets gave much less CO, varying from 0.06 to 1.40 per cent. The rate of consumption and carbon content of the tobacco are not g.ven, so that a correlation of the values reported to conditions in closed spaces where people might be assembled are difficult, if not impossible.The Bureau of Mines is interested in the general question of carbon-monoxide hazards from tobacco smoke, mainly with regard to mine ventilation. In non-gaseous mines, especially metal mines, the question arises, whether, if groups of miners are permitted to smoke while working at unventilated faces or entries, would the accumulation of tobacco smoke in these places create an' additional hazards the to carbon-monoxide poisoning. The results should, in addition be of general interest in connection with ventilation of building and inclosed places where people may be assembled and smoking is permitted. The investigation described in this report was made with the above idea in view."

Oct 1, 1923

By V. F. Parry

The object of this report is to present certain pertinent data on the physical and chemical properties of South Arcot lignite and to present the results of several special tests to show how the raw lignite can be upgraded to superior fuels for certain special uses. The Bureau of Mines Branch of Coal Technology laboratories at Denver have advocated the drying and carbonization of all low-rank fuels for special uses and have introduced and developed new techniques for upgrading and refining noncoking coals. Application of these techniques to the South Arcot lignites was the object of the investigation, and this report presents significant data necessary for planning a fuel program based on utilization of dried and carbonized dusts. In general, the South Arcot lignite is similar in chemical properties to the high-moisture lignites found in the United States and has some physical properties similar to Australian brown coals. The samples submitted for test had lost moisture before delivery to the laboratory, and it has been necessary to estimate the analysis of the lignite in place in the mine. Various observations made in India by qualified technicians indicate that the bed moisture content of the entire seam is in the range of 54 to 56 percent. For estimating purposes in this report, the bed moisture content has been taken as 56 percent and the ash content of the fresh coal as 2.5 percent. The average analysis estimated for the as-mined lignite is: [Moisture percent 56.0 Volatile matter do.22.0 Fixed carbon do.19.5 Ash do.2.5 Heating value B.t.u. per lb. 4,890]

Jan 1, 1957

By Serge Rudchenko

A study to determine the potential use of retaining structures in open pit backfilling. Research and review of the open pit mine environment, mine waste disposal, and past and current use of retaining structures. A development of specific structures, the culvert/ tunnel concept, and an anchor block retaining concept. The cost benefit of retaining structures used for in-pit backfilled waste.

Jan 1, 1981

By Richard G. Stearns

Extensive thick lignite apparently lies within 250 feet of the land surface in Dyer, Lake, Lauderdale, Obion and Tipton counties. Information on geology, land use, soils, groundwater and instability is compiled, along with a bibliography. A test and monitoring site was investigated at Fort Pillow Prison in Lauderdale County. Analyses were made of lignite, overburden, associated water and leachate. Lignite has high BTU (about 7800) and low sulfur (1.1% avg.). A year or more of data are presented on rainfall, water levels, and chemistry of surface water, groundwater, leachate and water from test pits. Main potential environmental problems are quality of surface water, and possibly shallow groundwater. The main aquifer of the region will likely be un-affected by mining. Low transmissibility of shallow aquifers will minimize lowering water levels of wells. Soil reclamation and conservation should be readily accomplished, Dangerous earthquakes have a low probability and mines are not significantly more hazardous than steep bluffs.

Jan 1, 1981

By S. S. Venkata

This volume describes a comprehensive program of research into the reliability of mine electrical power system components and the resultant reliability of the total system. The research effort encompassed analytical models, laboratory testing and field testing. The analytical work included definition of terms, fail rate functions and distributions, failure rate estimation and techniques and procedures for theoretical reliability assessment. One of the primary mine power system components addressed in the study was the ac molded case circuit breaker. This device is known to have low reliability and hence an unfavorable impact on mine safety and productivity. Ac molded case circuit breaker reliability was studied by analytical means, laboratory testing and field monitoring. A similar three-pronged' effort was made to study the reliability of undervoltage relays/releases. Particular emphasis was placed on new solid state undervoltage relays. The reliability of bulk power components, such as trailing cab les, motors, control gear, and other equipment, was assessed by gathering maintenance records from active mines. These data were compared to similar records from other industries. The work was extended to include the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety of these components.

Jan 1, 1979

By G. W. Jones, R. E. Kennedy

"INTRODUCTION In the manufacture, storage, transportation, and use of combustible gases and vapors, explosion hazards, which at times may be present when air becomes mixed with the gases and vapors, become of primary importance. Such conditions are especially dangerous where large volumes of gaseous atmosphere are involved, because an explosion under such circumstances is capable of doing tremendous damage to both property and personnel.Because of its interest in safety in the mining and allied industries, the Federal Bureau of Mines has investigated, and published results dealing with, the explosibility of various types of combutible atmospheres. The explosion hazards of natural gases have received attention, and results giving the limits of inflammability and ignition temperatures in air have been determined and published. 4/ Other investigations have shown how explosions of natural gas-air mixtures may be prevented by the addition of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. 5/Because of the increased demand for crude oil for war purposes, the application of secondary-recovery methods of stimulating oil production have received considerable attention during the last few years. The process consists in the injection of natural gas into partly depleted oil wells to cause the oil in the sands to flow into producing wells and so increase the amount of recoverable oil. 6/"

Feb 1, 1945

By Walter R. Storms

"The New Mexico potash exploration described herein was begun in February- 1944 by the Federal Bureau of Mines with the object of determining the amount of potash ore in the United States Potash Reserve in Eddy County, N. Mex., by exploring the deposit from the surface with vertical drill holes. The work was completed in October of the same year after 16 holes had been drilled on the reserve and in the immediate vicinity.The Potash Reserve is located in secs. 26, 27, 34, and 35, T. 20 S., R. 29 E., Eddy County, N. Mex., about 14 miles northeast of the city of Carlsbad. Drilling was done in secs. 26 and 35 of the reserve, in sec. 14 to the north, and secs. 25 and 36 to the east. All work was done on Government-owned, unleased land.The reserve may be reached from Carlsbad by traveling northeast by automobile for about 14 miles on paved U. S. Highway 62. This highway passes through the southern part of the reserve. Other parts may be reached by a State highway which passes along the eastern side of the area, then by poor dirt roads to various drilling sites. A branch of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad also passes across the southern part of the reserve en route from Carlsbad to the plant and mine of the Potash Co. of America, a few miles northeast of the Project and 22 miles from Carlsbad.Work on the project was greatly facilitated by the help of Ralph H. King, associate geologist, R. K. Bailey, geochemist, H. C. Spicer, geophysicist, Hope Bunker, junior geologist, and R. H Allport, district mining supervisor, all of the Federal Geological Survey; and Charles H. Johnson, who at that time was district engineer for New Mexico for the Mining Branch of the Bureau of Mines."

Apr 1, 1946

By Richard Lusignea

A single boom roof bolting machine was outfitted with measurement and recording systems for detecting changes in machine parameters while drilling. The purpose of this instrumented bolter or "smart drill" is to detect changes in roof conditions from the machine parameters of penetration rate, thrust, rotation rate, torque, rejected light from rock cuttings, and vibration of the roof during drilling. The system was demonstrated underground in coal mine conditions and showed correlation between rock type and drilling parameters.

Jan 1, 1982