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By Peter N. Calder, Alan Bauer

The complexity of modem open pit load-haul-dump systems is described, and the need for realistic working models is pointed out. Both standard and probabilistic simulation procedures are discussed, probabilistic simulation being indicated as the more powerful and practical technique. Acquisition of the necessary pit operating data required for simulator construction and general modelling procedures are described. Finally, results from a typical open pit simulator are used to indicate the scope of the technique.

Jan 1, 2014

By Torres F, Cerda I, Gimenez P, Gonzalez G, Castelli L

Slurry density measurement, specially in cyclone feed streams, is fundamental to grinding circuit control. With the purpose of increasing the availability of such a measurement, the design of a soft-sensor in an actual grinding plant is addressed in this paper. The system is designed to substitute the momentary unavailability of the real density sensor, either because it has failed or because it has been removed for any other reason. The ARMAX model structure is determined using the stepwise regression method. Starting with a list of the candidate variables, the method selects, one by one, and in a systematic manner the variables which best model the measurement to be replaced, choosing them from the set of presumably correlated candidate variables. In this paper not only the single measurements are included in the list of candidates, but also combinations of such measurements having physical significance. A phenomenological model has been built with the purpose of determining these combinations. It turned out that in most of the cases the components of combined measurements having physical significance were selected by the stepwise regression method, instead of the single measurements. Actual grinding plant data is used to determine the model structure, to estimate the model parameters and to test the predictive capability of the developed soft-sensors. Good results are shown to be obtained during periods of up to 30 hours of the density soft-sensor operation.

Jan 1, 1995

By P. J. Urso

"The coal reserves of the Crow's Nest Basin in British Columbia have been known since the late 1860's. The 51.0-million-long-ton (over 15 years) sale of low-volatile coking coal to Japanese steel mills, as finalized in 1968, establishes the importance of these coal reserves in the world markets.In the early stages of the exploration program, which began in January, 1967, emphasis was placed on deter-mining the reserve of underground low-pitch coal within the No. 10 or Balmer seam of the Kootenay coal forma-tion. The finding of low-cover reserves in excess of 100,000,000 tons altered the initially planned underground program. Extensive tests were performed, establishing the excellent coking characteristics of the open-cast Balmer coal. Due recognition was given to the ultimate reclamation costs of mined lands and associated spoil areas.t was determined that, to achieve the costs desired, a high productivity was necessary, requiring large mining equipment. Operating criteria were set out, based on producing 4.2 million tons of clean coal per year. To optimize recovery, the preparation plant feed size was fixed at Yi in. x 0. The initial basic design capacity of the plant was 1,000 tph. The washing plant is composed essentially of four separate cleaning sections: a dedusting section; a multi-stage heavy media cyclone section; water cyclones; and flotation cells. Subsequent to the basic program, additional sales were made of 6.0 million long tons over the initial three-year period and the plant capacity was raised to 1,400 tph through the addition of a 400-tph coarse-coal treatment section. All wet coal products from the fine coal plant will be dried in a 70-tph (water) heat dryer. A unit-train concept of coal transportation between the mine site and the Westward Terminals at Roberts Bank has been negotiated with the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Facilities at the port will include a 4,000-tph rotary car bumper, 400,000-ton clean-coal stockpiles, and a bucket reclaiming system having a total ship-loading capacity of 6,000 tph."

Jan 1, 1969

By John S. Lagarias

When ore bodies are faulted or mill feed turns refractory, mining managers and engineers act vigorously to convert imminent failure into eventual success. The recent proliferation of onerous "environmental" regulations and restraints is likewise a threat to successful mining enterprise, in some ways more insidious and dangerous than the problems presented by natural obstacles. The regulatory burden has become so heavy that a pall of pessimism covers much of the mining enterprise. In this paper we frankly recommend a Pollyanna approach, making not just "the best of it" but directing the whole environmental process: first, to improve our planning, engineering, and operating procedures; and, second, to demonstrate the need for modification of laws and regulations which are intolerably burden-some to both the mining industry and the public. It is customary for government officials and environmentalists to point out how great are the new environmental regulations and how successfully these have improved the natural environment in particular and the quality of life in general.

Jan 1, 1978

By Harry M. Bendler, W. A. Wood

Electron metallography has been applied to the study of the torsional fatigue of polycrystalline OFHC* copper. The development of slip bands, fis- sures, and microcracks has been followed as a function of strain amplitude and number of cycles. Those factors that have been found to be relevant to a geometrical theory of the fatigue process are described. From the point of view of this theory it is important to distinguish between the effects of cycling at large amplitudes and at small amplitudes (true fatigue deformation). EARLY investigations showed metal fatigue cracking is caused by continued reversal of a small plastic strain. Fundamental study of fatigue, therefore, has been largely concerned with the cumulative effects of these plastic reversals on the metal structure. In particular, recent work has shown that the plastic reversals produce slip movements that are finer than the slip movements produced by unidirectional increments of plastic strain; individual slip movements in fatigue, for instance, are too fine to see by optical microscopy.2 It has also been shown that the fine slip movements of fatigue tend to concentrate in bands and that in this way they can build up, after enough cycles, a progressive surface disturbance. It is this disturbance which, in effect, makes the slip movement visible. It is also in this disturbance that the first cracks appear to form. From this point of view, therefore, the problem of fatigue becomes one of finding why the fine slip movements should concentrate in bands and why the. bands should finally open into cracks. Thus far, study of the slip bands has been limited to the changes they produce at the surface only. These studies have given interesting results. Ewing and Humfrey3 many years ago showed that the bands in iron could extrude debris. Forsyth found that bands in aluminum alloys could extrude thin tongues of material. Thompson showed that, after lightly dissolving away the surface of copper specimens, some bands persisted as superficial cracks might, and that the life of a specimen under fatigue deformation might be prolonged by dissolving away the surface at intervals. Thus these and related results have suggested that the metal structure in fatigue bands may disintegrate and that this may happen long before obvious cracking. These surface studies, however, have not shown definitely how cracking may begin, for they do not show sufficiently what is happening in depth. However, some advance in this direction has been made recently by a new approach, summarized later, which reveals slip bands and their surface disturbances in section. In the work done thus far, the sections have been studied by optical microscopy only. In the present work they have also been studied by electron microscopy with extended results. This paper also describes some observations on the surface disturbances prior to sectioning. These observations are relevant to a suggested theory of fatigue cracking. REVERSED SLIP MOVEMENTS Slip movements in fatigue deformation must reverse direction in each cycle. The question arises: DO the "backward" and "forward" movements take

Jan 1, 1962

By C. L. Karr

The efficient management of the distribution of goods and services is important throughout the minerals industry. From the scheduling of processing plant operations, to the routing of work crews in mines, to the planning of product development, vast amounts of time, energy, and money are wasted due to poor planning and scheduling. Thus, the U.S. Bureau of Mines is investigating computational algorithms that can be used to minimize the economic losses related to scheduling and allocating resources. Although there is commercial software available for tackling many scheduling problems, there has been little relief provided for solving the difficult traveling salesman with time windows problem (TSTW). The TSTW problem is a "derivative" of the classic traveling salesman problem, and can be used to minimize the distance traveled by vehicles or personnel to visit all points on a tour, with the additional constraint that each point on the tour must be visited within a specified time window. This paper is a survey of published work in which genetic algorithms have been used to efficiently solve the traveling salesman problem and its more difficult derivative, the TSTW problem. A genetic algorithm is a search algorithm based on the mechanics of natural genetics, and has been used to solve a broad spectrum of engineering optimization problems. Results indicate that the versatility, searching power, and simplicity of genetic algorithms can be used to provide substantial improvement in the area of scheduling and resource allocation.

Jan 1, 1994

By B. M. Davis

The problem of assessing uncertainty in grade estimates has been a topic of research and debate since kriging was first introduced. Use of the kriging variance was originally touted as all that was necessary in order to produce confidence limits for grade estimates. Since then the prudence of using the kriging variance for confidence interval estimation has been questioned, and techniques such as the jackknife and conditional simulation have been proposed to develop "true" interval estimates. This paper compares the differences between interval estimates produced by the three methods and makes conclusions about the performance of confidence intervals produced by the different methods.

Jan 1, 1997

By A. V. Kozub, D. O. Sharkovsky, R. I. Ismagilov

"Due to complex mineral composition and fine ingrained nature concentration of iron ores deposited in Mikhailovskoye mine field requires application of wet magnetic separation to produce 65–66% Fetotal and 8.2–8.6 %SiO2, concentrate with 90–94% of material being –0.044micron grain size. Higher specific consumption of ROM, increase of production costs with concurrent reduction of output - those are inevitable side effects of desired concentrate grade improvement. Large-scale complex analysis and surveys have been carried out aimed at concentrate grade improvement with concurrent output increase. Classification of feed in hydraulic cyclones (hereinafter referred to as hydrocyclones) has been the bottleneck for improvement of processing throughput and concentrate output. Hydrocyclone classification efficiency is 50-60% and further improvement is practically impossible. Actual circulating load may achieve as much as 500-600% while the optimal rate is 200-250%. Application of wet fine screening has been considered to improve iron ore concentrate grade. Objective of this work is to design processing flow diagram for unoxidized ferruginous quartzites with implementation of wet fine screening. Large-scale tests have been run in Crushing and Concentrating Plant with application of wet fine screening stage. These tests included application of wet fine screening in 2 and 3 stages of classification to separate desired grain sized material; replacement of hydrocyclone classification with fine screening; application of fine screening as additional stages to concentration process and screening of final concentrate. Testing Methods. EXPERIMENTS AS WELL AS THEORETICAL RESEARCH HAVE BEEN APPLIED FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS WORK; INCLUDING MAGNETIC, GRAIN-SIZE AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CONCENTRATION PRODUCTS. MODERN ANALYTICAL DATABASE HAS BEEN APPLIED TO STUDY WET FINE SCREENING FEATURES, MINERAL AND PHYSICAL COMPOSITION OF CONCENTRATION PRODUCTS. Work Results: - analysis of wet fine screening application for iron ore concentration. - technological solutions enabling to improve slurry classification of fine ingrained low magnetic iron ore have been developed. - effective process flow diagram including fine screening has been designed based on the feasible and reasonable arrangement solutions."

Jan 1, 2018

By Richard P. Killmeyer, Carl P. Maronde, W. W. Wen, Peter J. Suardini

Under a cost-shared Department of Energy contract, awarded as part of the Coal Preparation Program&apos;s High Efficiency Preparation subprogram, Custom Coals International will be installing and testing a 227 kglhr micronized-magnetite cycloning circuit in PETC&apos;s Coal Preparation Process Research Facility. The project includes the design, construction, testing, and decommissioning of a fully integrated circuit complete with feed coal classification to remove the minus-30-micron material, dense-medium cycloning of the 300 by 30 micron feed coal using micronized magnetite (<10 microns), and medium recovery via drain & rinse screening and various stages and types of magnetic separation. This paper will describe the micronized-magnetite beneficiation technology and the scope of work for this project including an update on the status of the project, the circuit, and the proposed test plan.

Jan 1, 1995

By B. W. Gandrud

WET-PROCESS coal-washing tables as we know them today have been in use in this country for approximately 25 years. The literature records only a few table installations worthy of note prior to adoption of the present-day differential-motion table. According to Phillips,&apos; six Campbell bumping tables were being operated by the St. Bernard Coal Co., Earlington, Ky., in 11893. As late as 1923, according to Richardson, 2 72 such tables were in operation in the Rosedale washery of the Cambria Steel Co., at Johnstown, Pa. Bumping tables probably were not used to any considerable extent except in the plant at Earlington, and at two or three plants in Pennsylvania, but they may be considered as forerunners of the present-day coal-washing table. The transition from bumping tables to the type of tables now in use signalized a revolutionary change in table design. The advantages of the new design over the old were so outstanding as to make its adoption inevitable. BUMPING TABLES Bumping tables, as the name implies, utilized a bumping action for conveying the refuse and discharging it over the refuse end. The tables were hung from rods attached to overhead supporting beams. A shaft and cam arrangement at one end of the table served as the actuating mechanism and imparted to the table an endwise, back-and-forth, swinging motion. A bumping block was fixed in the proper position at the shaft end, so that the table would strike against it at the end of each backward swing. The hanger rods or stirrups were so adjusted as to give the table a slight uphill slope toward the refuse end; that is, the end next to the driving mechanism. The feed box was near the upper end, of the table and designed to spread the mixture of coal and water over the width of the table. Wash water was added a short distance below the feed box with the table in motion and coal mixed with water being fed to it through the feed box, a certain amount of stratification took place, depositing heavy refuse at the bottom of the bed in contact with the surface of the table. Constant bumping and a certain amount of

Jan 1, 1943

By H. J. O’Donnell, B. C. Parks

IN 1930 the late Dr. Reinhardt Thiessen set up a method of microscopic analysis and type classification of coal that has since been followed as standard practice in the coal-petrography laboratory of the Bureau of Mines. Thiessen&apos;s terminology which designated the constituent parts of coal in terms of botanical origin was introduced in 1920.l The technique, however, of preparing a completely representative series of thin sections from a column sample of coal for use in making quantitative determinations of coal components with a microscope was developed about 10 years later by Thiessen and coworkers G. C. Sprunk and H. J. O&apos;Donnell.2 Complete thin-section analyses subsequently have been made of 126 column samples of various ranks and types of American coals. The data and information were assembled from these thin-section studies and published in a large number of reports dealing chiefly with investigations of the coking and hydrogenation properties of certain American coals. In the years following adoption of Thiessen&apos;s method, a considerable amount of work was done in collecting column samples of many coals, making routine thin-section analyses of these, interpreting the results, and finding practical application for the information in other fields of coal research. The many reports and papers covering the work in coal petrography, however, offer very little discussion that can be considered as critical appraisal of the technique. Criticism outside the Bureau most often has voiced questioning opinions concerning the accuracy of the method used of measuring coal components microscopically and classifying the coal into arbitrary types on the basis of the quantitative determinations. The principal purpose of this paper is to discuss in some detail and present data showing the results of certain investigative work done in the petrography laboratory on the accuracy of the Bureau&apos;s method of microscopic measurement of components in coal thin sections. Data from microscopic analyses on file made by G. C. Sprunk and H. J. O&apos;Donnell were freely used in the investigation, and a table of columnar analyses from an unpublished manuscript by Sprunk is included in this paper for reference. In the course of the experimental work a method was developed for measuring instrumentally with a planimeter the components shown in micrographs of selected thin sections. Measuring coal components with a planimeter furnished useful information for studying the accuracy of microscopically measuring the same components in thin sections. PETROGRAPHIC COMPONENTS AND TYPE CLASSIFICATION OF COAL Thiessen considered coal to be composed of two visibly different major components present in various types of coal in greatly varying proportions. He named

Jan 1, 1948

By Russell G. Haworth

Three companies, United States Potash Company, Potash Company of America, and International Minerals and Chemical Corporation, are now operating potash mines and refineries in the Carlsbad, New Mexico, area. The three mines are located approximately twenty miles east of Carlsbad. The deposits have been found ideal for mechanized mining methods. This summary has been compiled from information made available by the three operating companies.

Jan 1, 1949

By J Rola

This paper outlines a laboratory-based design method, founded in critical state soil mechanics, for identification of an appropriate compaction specification to ensure dilative conditions prevail across the design TSF stress range. The method makes use of the critical state line (CSL) and consolidation tests prepared at varying compactive efforts. The CSL and consolidation curves are plotted together in e-log p’ space, with the compaction curves transformed from vertical effective stress to mean effective stress using the coefficient of earth pressure at rest (K0). Consideration is given to the sensitivity of K0 as it is generally not available during the design phase. An example of the design method is illustrated with laboratory data.

Jul 1, 2021

By Gustavo Estrela da Silva

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo avaliar a influência da taxa de resfriamento durante a solidificação na formação de diferentes microestruturas de ferros fundidos. Para tal, uma liga de ferro fundido com pequena adição de Si foi fundida em forno de indução e vazada em molde de areia, gerando um corpo de prova dotado de regiões com diferentes espessuras de parede, impondo ao metal líquido vazado diferentes taxas de resfriamento. Foi possível constatar que o aumento da taxa de resfriamento aumenta a tendência de formação de ferro fundido branco, respeitando-se o equilíbrio metaestável Fe-cementita, e que menores taxas de resfriamento priorizam a formação de ferro fundido cinzento (respeitando o equilíbrio estável Fe-grafita). Estudos macrográfico e micrográfico detalham as regiões de ferro fundido branco, mesclado e cinzento, e relacionam as diferentes morfologias obtidas com as taxas de resfriamento impostas.

Aug 8, 2018

By David G. C. Robertson

A new approach is described for the calculation of the kinetics of metal/slag, metal/slag/gas, and metal/matte/slag/gas reactions. The algorithm assumes that equilibrium is achieved at the interface between phases, and uses an equilibrium solver (such as SOLGASMIX) to compute the equilibrium state at the interface at each time step during the reaction. For multiple phase systems a number of unit operations, representing the different phases and interfaces, must be connected together in a reasonalbly complex manner, and the METSIM software package has been utilized for this purpose. The new approach is superior to the SMAK software developed by the author and his co-workers over the past decade, for the reasons discussed in this paper.

Jan 1, 1995

By F. L. Pirkle

A heavy mineral deposit about 1.6 km (1 mile) in length, 0.13 km (0.08 mile) in width and averaging about 3 m (10 ft) in thickness is exposed approximately 130 km (80 miles) east of Denver, along Interstate 70, in Elbert county, CO near the town of Limon. The deposit is exposed in a geomorphic feature known locally as Titanium ridge. The dominant heavy minerals, accounting for about 70% of the total heavy-mineral suite by weight, are ilmenite, garnet and zircon. The mineralized zone appears in a series of visually interpretable facies that are stacked vertically and represent subtidal, forebeach, backbeach, washover fan and aeolian depositional environments. These paleoenvironments are analogous to depositional environments represented by a modern heavy-mineral bearing facies tract on St. Catherines Island, Ga. Thus, Titanium ridge provides evidence that heavy-mineral accumulation models for late cenozoic deposits in the Georgia and Florida coastal plains are applicable to heavy-mineral deposits of the Western Interior subsurface and, by implication, the Western Interior Seaway, extending from Mexico to the Canadian Arctic.

Jan 1, 2012

By C. R. Johnson, R. A. Greenkorn, E. G. Woods

A new method of reservoir evaluation called pulse-testins has been developed for describing formation properties between wells. Pulse-testing utilizes a sensitive differential-pressure gauge at a responding well to measure and record the response generated by a series of flow rate changes (pulses) at an adjacent or pulsing well. Since the pulse-test instruments have a sensitivity of about 0.001 psi, pulses of several hours or less in duration will generate a measurable response in most reservoirs. For this reason, many well pairs can be tested in a short period of time with little interference in field operations. Comparison of pulse-test results to conventional testing methods shows that the pulses obey unsteady-state, compressible-flow theory and thus provide a measure of both transmissibility (kh/µ) and storage (Fch). In additian, the method can be used qualitatively to describe communication across faults and between zones, and direction and tnagnitude of fracture trends. INTRODUCTION To obtain maximum usefulness of new reservoir analysis methods as well as to aid the field engineer in understanding local reservoir anomalies, improved methods are needed to describe heterogeneities in specific reservoirs. Optimum well spacing, equipment specifications, well completion design and especially the economics of pressure maintenance and secondary recovery programs depend on the extent and location of the heterogeneities that affect flow behavior in the field. One method for obtaining a measure of areal reservoir heterogeneity is an interference test. In the simplest interference test. constant-rate production or injection is initiated at one well and the effect of this flow is measured as pressure vs time at another well. Thus, during interference tests the flow characteristics of the formation are determined in situ. Despite their obvious usefulness in reservoir delineation. interference tests have not enjoyed frequent usage. Reasons for this have been the weeks or months required in many fields to obtain a pressure response measurable with conventional gauges, and the interruption of routine field operation during the field-wide shut-in normally required during these long times. Also, only average properties of the relatively large volume of the reservoir disturbed during these long times can normally be obtained — variations in properties between individual wells cannot be delineated. To eliminate these drawbacks of conventional tests, a special reservoir description technique called pulse testing&apos; has been developed. Pulse-testing has several advantages that make it more convenient and practical for field use than interference tests. Valid tests are more certain because use of a series of flow disturbances gives rise to a diagnostic pressure response that can more readily be distinguished from unknown trends in reservoir pressure and other "noise." The time required is only a fraction of that for an interference test because a special, high-sensitivity differential pressure gauge can detect a much smaller pressure change. Variations in properties between individual wells can be delineated because of the relatively small volume of the reservoir disturbed during these short times. Finally, wells other than the pulsing and responding wells do not have to be shut in or carefully regulated.

Jan 1, 1967

By K. H. Ribe

Water often enters an oil reservoir during completion or workover operations on a well and forms a partial "water block" to oil production. A mathematical study of radial two-phase flow, neglecting capillary effects, has been employed to study the formation of such a water block and subsequent re-moval by production from the well. The effects of reduced oil permeability about the well on the well productivity were studied. The fluid saturation distributions about the well during formation and removal of the water block have also been computed. Several relative permeability relations and viscosity ratios were employed. If water has invaded the formation, its influence through relative permeability effects alone can cause the following. 1. Oil productivity will be depressed for extended periods after production is resumed and will build up only gradually as the water is removed. 2. Oil injected for treatment of water blocking will delay rather than promote restoration of full well productivity by enlarging the region invaded by water. Thus, unless the specific action of chemicals contained in the oil is needed, oil injection appears undesirable. INTRODUCTION During oilwell workover operations, water may enter the oil-bearing formation from the wellbore. When production is resumed, oil must flow through the region invaded by this water. The presence of this region can cause both well productivity and oil production rate to be low and oil to be produced with high water-oil ratio for some time after production is initiated. This situation is sometimes described as a water block. The introduction of water into the formation may result in other actions which also lead to reduction in well productivity and which are also usually included in the connotation of the broad term, water block. Often considered, for example, are the possibilities of clay swelling by contact with fresh water and the formation of emulsions with the formation oil. If it is suspected that such specific actions have taken place, remedial treatments are undertaken which usually involve the injection of chemicals in oil. Since the introduction of water, even in the absence of specific interactions with the formation or oil, will cause a temporary water block (which might be misinterpreted as evidence of a more severe situation), it is of importance to evaluate the magnitude and duration of this blocking which results purely from the reduction in relative permeability to oil in the vicinity of the wellbore. It is also of interest to evaluate the effect of oil injection on the productivity of a well blocked by water in this manner. Inasmuch as this unfavorable condition may persist for some time, it may lead to premature condemnation of a workover or premature abandonment of a potentially productive pay zone. A quantitative evaluation of the influence of water entry on the oil productivity through changes in relative permeability was made by solving a radial form of the Buckley-Leverett equation. The distribution of water saturation around the wellbore during the entry of water was calculated and was followed by a similar calculation of the saturation distribution during the period of resuming production. At any stage in the removal of the invading water, knowledge of the distribution of its saturation permitted calculating the attendant loss in oil productivity. The influence of the shape of the relative permeability relationships was also evaluated by carrying out the calculations for two hypothetical cases. Further, the effect of the oil-water viscosity ratio was examined by repeating the calculations, for several ratios of unity and greater, with the same relative permeabilities. Fi-nally, results are presented to show how the length of time a well must be swabbed to resume production depends on the length of time it has been subjected to invasion by water. STATEMENT OF THEORY Differential Equations Water is assumed to enter a producing formation which is initially at the connate-water saturation and contains no gas. The water and oil are treated as in-

By Brendan Demich, MAHIYAR F. NASARWANJI, Alan G. Mayton

During dusk, nighttime and dawn operations, effective illumination is a crucial component of safety for getting on/off mobile surface mining equipment and for preshift inspections. U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) researchers examined whether illuminance levels could be improved for ingress/egress systems and preshift walkaround inspections of equipment using light-emitting diode (LED) area luminaires. Illumination and glare were key metrics evaluated. Although headlamps provided adequate illumination, LED area luminaires illuminated a much broader area compared to the narrow spot lighting of the headlamp. Hence, the use of additional area luminaires can increase slip-trip-fall (STF) hazard awareness and detection. Furthermore, a commercially available luminaire demonstrated better results than a custom LED luminaire relative to discomfort and disability glare.

By T. A. Rickard

The dictionary defines &apos;jargon&apos; as "barbarous or debased language". This description does not suffice. Quiller-Couch has said, it is "a kind of writing which, from a superficial likeness, commonly passes for prose in these days, and by lazy folk is commonly written for prose, yet actually is not prose at all ". The two main vices of jargon, he says, are "that it uses circumlocution rather than short straight speech", like the Babu who reported his mother&apos;s death by saying: "Regret to inform you, the hand that rocked the cradle has kicked the bucket ". Its other chief&apos; vice is that "it habitually chooses vague woolly abstract nouns rather than concrete ones", like the newspaper statement; "He was conveyed to his place of residence in an intoxicated condition", instead of saying, "He was carried home drunk ". Jargon is "an infirmity of speech", it is not journalese, but akin to it. "Like respect- ability in Chicago, jargo4 stalks unchecked in our midst" and renders much technical writing ridiculous. It deals in periphrasis instead of going straight to the point, it loves the abstract rather than the concrete, it dabbles in words of sound rather than of meaning. Avoid it, despise it., if you purpose earnestly to write well. "III literature as in life he makes himself felt who not only calls 4 spade a spade but has the pluck to double spades and re-double." * Jargon is rampant in technical publications. Catalogues and other advertisements are conspicuous offenders, but with these the critic is not concerned, except in so far as such &apos;write-

Jan 1, 1931