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F. G. CLAPP, New York, N. Y. (written discussion *).-Whatever processes of appraisal have been found most correct and feasible in one field or group of fields will generally prove most adaptable in others. So far as the California fields are concerned, Mr. Requa's paper appears to outline the most up-to-date processes of appraisal. It remains, then, to discuss and adapt these and to make such revisions in methods and processes of calculation as will give us results elsewhere. The trouble about most attempts to place a value on oil lands, whether in this country or elsewhere, has been that many of the so-called "experts" called upon to express an opinion either have not possessed the requisite engineering and geological knowledge to make an accurate appraisal of the lands, or that they were not furnished with sufficient information for the purpose in hand. The Independent. 011. Producers' Agency of California, for whom Mr. Requa's original report was prepared, had many advantages in this respect not generally available to engineers making reports, as all existing information seems to have been at the experts' disposal within the limits of a large number of properties, practically commensurate with the extent of the fields in question. Hence the report could be and was more accurate than any similar report for a single company is likely to be in other fields. Very few companies are so exempt from competition that all the data on neighboring leases of other companies will be freely turned over to them. In many companies, certain available data are concealed from the engineer who makes the reports, particularly if the properties are supposed to be worth less than their apparent value. In the case of other companies, having the best of intentions, the data are insufficient to help the engineer greatly in his appraisal, simply because the oil business has been so, unsystematic in most fields that only the largest and wisest companies have kept accurate figures regarding runs and gravity of oil from individual wells and from different depths. In many wells, which ran wild for clays or weeks in the older fields, there was a waste which is not recordable with exactness. These and many other difficulties confront even the most experienced expert in actual practice outside of the California fields. We may justly say, therefore, that an engineer in other fields of the United States and in the European, South American and Asiatic fields, must not only begin where the Independent Oil Producers' Agency

Jan 4, 1918

By R. T. DeHoff

A general method for determining the geometric properties of structures composed of particles which are all the same shape and size is presented. The application of the method requires a knowledge of' the qualitative shape of the particles in the structure, ad a maximum of three simple counting measurenzents, which are made on a representative plane section taken through the structure. It is also shown that the number of different kinds of measurements necessary JOY the complete description of the structure can be decreased if some independent information about individual particles is available. The geometric properties that can be determined quantitatiz~ely from counting measurements for susch structures are size, shape, number, surface area, vlolume, ad such extensive properties as volume Mction and surface area per unit volume. THE simplest kinds of measurements that may be made on a metallographic section are counting measurements. There are three such simple counting measurements, which are determined by sampling the microstructure with a point, a line, and an area. The first of these, the point count, is probably the most familiar among metallographers. The second count, the number of intersections a test line makes with particle outline, is somewhat more recent in its origin and application. The third counting measurement, the number of particle sections observed in unit area of the plane of polish, has long been used in the estimation of grain sizes. The real utility of these three counting measurements lies in the fact that they are rigorously and unambiguously related to certain extensive geometric properties of the three-dimensional structure of which the metallographic section is a sample. These relationships will be reviewed briefly below. Of somewhat secondary importance to the fundamental relationships is the observation that, if some simplifying assumptions about the geometry of the three-dimensional structure are introduced, manipulation of the counting measurements gives a more complete description of the structure. Specifically, in addition to the extensive properties which these measurements rigorously estimate, the number of particles, their size, and their shape may be determined. The purpose of the present paper is to explore the consequences of introducing the assumption of constant size and shape. A later paper will deal with the estimation of geometric properties of structures which may be characterized by a two-parameter size distribution. It should be mentioned that the introduction of this simplest of assumptions, while clearly not generally justified in metallurgical structures, is not without precedent. For example, many estimates of the number of particles per unit volume of structure, based upon a single counting measurement, are scattered throughout the literature.13 Virtually all of these developments assume a constant particle shape, e.g., spherical or polyhydral, and constant size. That such an assumption is necessary is evident from the fact that, for more general structures, more than a single parameter is required to describe the three-dimensional structure, so that the determination of a single parameter on a section would be insufficient to specify the structure. Similar developments for the estimation of particle size from a single counting measurement, e.g., routine grain-size determinations, make the same very limiting assumption,435 but have nonetheless proven of practical value. The present paper embodies a generalized approach to the development of relationships among the two-dimensional counting measurements and the three-dimensional geometry of the structure, subject to the assumption of constant particle size and shape. It is the hope of the author that by presenting the relationships and the assumptions involved in dealing with this approximation, in a single, unified treatment, the reader may be impressed with the usefulness of the counting measurements, may be guided in their application to the estimation of details of the geometry in specific structures in which he may be interested, and may be moved to apply the results, with understanding, to new structural problems. Several authors6, 7 have demonstrated independently that it is possible to obtain unbiased estimates

Jan 1, 1964

This fund was established in 1929 for support of research and especially refers to non-ferrous mining and metallurgy. It is administered under the Board by a committee consisting of the President and Secretary and three members selected by the Board. HOWE MEMORIAL LECTURE The Howe Memorial Lecture, in memory of Henry Marion Howe, Past President of the Institute, was authorized in April, 1923, as an annual address to be delivered by invitation under the auspices of the Institute by an individual of recognized and outstanding attainment in the science and practice of iron and steel metallurgy or metallography, chosen by the Board of Directors upon recommendation of the Iron and Steel Division. The following were the Howe lectarers for the years indicated: Albert Sauveur—1924 Bradley Stoughton—1927 John A. Mathews—1925 Henry D. Hibbard—1928 William Campbell—1926 John Howe Hall.—1929 JOINT ACTIVITIES The Institute conducts jointly with the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and American Institute of Electrical Engineers, certain activities as listed below, and is joint owner with them of certain properties. United Engineering Society This is a corporation organized by the American Institute of Mining Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American lnstitute of Electrical Engineers, to hold the title and administer the property at 29 West 39th St. In 1916, the American Society of Civil Engineers was admitted, and each society now has an equal one-fourth interest in the ownership, occupancy, and administration of the building. . The cost of this property has been over two million dollars. A. I. M. E. representatives are: Arthur S. Dwight, John V. N. Dorr and H. A. Guess. Alfred U. Flinn, Secretary, 29 West 39th St., New York City. Engineering Foundation This is a fund established by the United Engineering Society in 1915 with a gift of $200,000 from Ambrose Swasey. Subsequent gifts had increased the fund to about $620,000 on March 1, 1929. The income of the fund is used to further research in science and engineering and to advance the profession of engineering and the good of mankind. A research project in alloys of iron is being conducted in

Jan 1, 1929

By J. T. Duce

There were no important changes in the producing situation in Colombia in 1930, because the emergency bill passed by the Colombian Congress in 1927 is still in effect, and therefore no change has taken place in the law governing petroleum. At the close of 1930 the Colombian Congress began to consider a new petroleum bill. This measure is an improvement on the preceding bills which had been the subject of so much debate in the Congress. However, it cannot by any means be regarded as perfect, and a number of criticisms may be justly leveled at it. The most substantial one probably is that the royalties on public lands, and the taxes on private lands, while apparently low, are deliverable at seaboard, or payable based on seaboard price at the option of the government. If the government exercises its option to take the oil at the mouth of the well, the cost of the transportation figured back into oil is also deliverable to the government. This phase of the law has the effect of making seemingly low royalties a burden on the operator. The fact that taxes on private properties are deliverable in kind is also an unusual provision for which there is no good precedent. The pipe line provisions are also noteworthy, and the government has authority to fix rates and also to deny permits to construct pipe lines for reasons affecting national economy. There are also clauses enforcing unit operation on both public and private lands, and collecting a tax of 1 c. per 1000 ft. of gas wasted. It remains to be seen whether this bill will be enacted, or whether it will be substantially modified. This much may be said, however, that unless it is modified, it will defeat its own purpose; i. e., promotion of petroleum development in Colombia. Company Activities The South American Gulf Oil Co. shut down its operations during the year, and now employs only watchmen at its camps, Las Monas and El Tigre. The Standard Oil Co. of California continued operations on the Coast at Repelon and Gualapa. At the close of the year Repelon

Jan 1, 1931

By Arthur F. Wendt

Within the last few years the production of iron, and of the metals generally, by a given furnace-plant, has been largely increased, in many instances trebled. Iron-furnaces exceeding one hundred tons' capacity per diem are now the rule in new constructions. Copper and lead-furnaces smelting from 60 to 100 tons of ore per day are common. With this greatly augmented product, the life of furnace-linings has been diminished, and recourse has been had to various cooling devices for prolonging the life of such liuings. The object of this paper is to call the attention of the profession to an arrangement recently patented by the writer. The common course of projecting water against the exterior of the brickwork of a furnace has been in a large measure abandoned by our most progressive managers. All have recognized the danger of this proceeding, especially when applied to the crucible of a furnace below the line of the tuyeres. Cast-iron water-jackets, with wroughtiron pipes for circulating the cooling-water, have replaced the cruder methods. In iron-smelting the use of such jackets has been confined to the crucible and the space around the tuyeres; and it has been the custom to support the jackets on the brickwork of the furnace. But the erosion of the brickwork below tuyere-jackets allows them to sag, and often displaces the alignment of the tuyeres and leads to other annoyances. The principle of construction adopted by the writer to remedy this and other evils, is to use a thin fire-brick lining (not over nine inches) from the tuyeres up to the bosh, to back this lining with wrought-iron or steel water-jackets, hung from the mantel-ring, and thus to carry the whole weight of the furnace and its filling upon the supporting pillars. The crucible proper is lined with three or four thicknesses of fire-brick on the sides, and not less than forty-eight inches in the bottom. It is supported on independent pillars, and is practically an independent structure. It could even be placed on wheels and made removable, were there any adequate advantage to be gained by such an arrangement.

Jan 1, 1885

By R. Maddin, W. R. Hibbard

A series of X ray experiments conducted by G. I. Taylor' in 1927 and later substantiated in 1939 by J. A. Collins2 both on axially strained aluminum single crystals, revealed evidence that during single slip crystallite rotation occurs in such a manner that " all parts of the material rotated about the transverse direction in the plane of slip."l The actual method of preparing the specimens for X ray examination is not discussed in detail by Taylor except to say that "this specimen was cut parallel to the plane of slip, as calculated from measurements of marks in the surface of the specimen. It was ground and etched till the effect of the new cuts had disappeared. This was verified by applying the same treatment to an un-distorted specimen. The X ray reflectionsl in this case were perfect ones."' Collins, on the other hand, cut his crystals in a mechanical shaper. These surfaces were polished on No. 1, No. 1/0, No. 2/0 and No. 3/0 papers and on a broadcloth lap using No. 600 alundum as a polishing medium. "Finally, the surface was deeply etched in Tucker's reagent. An unde-formed crystal was prepared in the manner described and X rayed to determine whether or not the machining and polishing operations had produced any strain or distortion in the crystal. The Laue spots all seem to be sharp, free from tails and streaks indicating no detectable strains had been introduced in the crystals." Taylor's X ray technique involved the use of "homogeneous X rays from an iron anti-cathode"; whereas Collins used Ka radiation of copper at 31kv and 20 milliamperes. Glancing angle X ray photograms were taken (1) with the axis of rotation of the spectrometer table in the plane of slip and at right angles to the slip direction, and (2) with the axis of the spectrometer table lying along the slip direction. However, eight minute exposures were used in each case and the angle setting of the spectrometer table was increased by one degree for each exposure. With the discovery of the action of three slip systems3 in the plastic deformation of single crystalline alpha brass where, formerly, only one had

Jan 1, 1950

By R. B. Woodworth

Discussion of the paper of R. B. Woodworth, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1916, and printed in Bulletin No. 107, November, 1915, pp. 2247 to 2312. R. B. WOODWORTH, Pittsburgh, Pa.-This is a very long paper. It is a structural engineer's contribution to the art of mining and is written from his standpoint rather than from that of the mining engineer, and is, therefore, a study in the development of drilling structures by one who has made it his business to design structures rather than mechanism and machinery and rather than to utilize those structures in the actual exploitation of oil and gas. Drilling practice varies widely in different oil and gas fields. The , problems of western Pennsylvania are much simpler than the problems of the Mid-Continent and of the Gulf Coastal Plain and these again are simpler than problems of the Pacific Coast. The history of the commercial development of oil and gas is recorded in the annual publications of the U. S. Geological Survey and other bodies whose business it is to make record of statistics. The mechanical and structural features of the art of drilling have not yet received adequate treatment by the historian. Scattered references may be found on the subject in almost any work dealing at large with petroleum and its production. These references, however, are to those particular aspects of the matter that were contemporary with the publications themselves, but so far as I am aware there is no continuous and comprehensive account written of the development of drilling structures from their beginnings down to the present time, and certainly the more modern application of steel in the construction of such structures has not previously had an adequate discussion. With this latter phase of the subject I have been intimately associated, indeed, taking to myself the credit for having, in a way, been responsible more than any one else in the United States for the application of steel in the manufacture of drilling structures, and the purpose of the paper which is now before you is to record particularly the steps in that development while the subject is still fresh and the data available.

Jan 5, 1916

By David Turnbull

IN most reactions involving solids the transformation kinetics may be represented by the combination of two processes-those of nucleation and of growth. For example, Mehl and his coworkers 1,2 in their studies on the transformation of austenite to pearlite in steels have been able to describe the kinetics in terms of the rates of nucleation and of growth. By micrographic examination of their specimens they determined the nucleation rate (rate of appearance of pearlite colonies) as a function of time, of percent transformation, and of temperature. They observed that after an incubation period in which no nuclei are observed, the number of nuclei appearing per unit time per unit of untransformed grain boundary area, increases at an increasng rate with time. When recrystallization rates have been interpreted in terms of rates of nucleation and growth and the rate of nucleation determined, an incubation period followed by an increasing rate of nucleation has also been reported. Among the studies in which this phenomenon has been observed are those of Kornfeld and coworkers3 on cold-drawn aluminum wire, of Anderson and Mehl4 on the recrystallization of aluminum sheet, and of Stanley and Mehl5 on the recrystallization of silicon ferrite sheet. The existence of an incubation period during which no nuclei are observed does not appear to have been reconciled with the generally accepted Volmer-Becker theory of nucleation in condensed systems. This theory ostensibly requires the rate of appearance of nuclei to be independent of time. VOLMER-BECKER THEORY In order to form a stable nucleus of a new phase B in a mother phase A, the molecules or atoms of the mother phase must surmount a free energy barrier whose height is determined by the volume free energy change accompanying the transformation and the energy of the surface separating the two phases. The free energy difference between nuclei of various sizes and the molecules or atoms of the mother phase is plotted schematically in Fig I as a function of the radius of the nucleus r. This free energy difference is plotted for two values of the change of free energy per atom, (fB - fA) accompanying the transformation when the volumes of the two phases are infinite. One of these values of (fa-fA) corresponds to a temperature above the temperature To at which the phases A and B are in equilibrium, and the other to a temperature below To. In order for a nucleus of phase B to be stable at a temperature T2 < To, its radius must be equal to or greater than the critical value r* for which the free energy of formation of the nucleus is a maximum, ?f*. Aggregates of phase B having radii equal to or less than r* will be called embryos. Mehl and Jetter,6 in discussing the kinetics of nucleation in solid systems, suppose that embryos of critical size are formed

Jan 1, 1948

By M. L. Leonardi

THE Searles Lake orebody is located in the north- west corner of San Bernardlno County. It is a dry lake bed with an exposed salt surface covering an area of 12 square miles. Recoverable mineral values are contained in the mother liquor below the surface of the lake. Stratification in the lake bed has separated the brine into two bodies which dlffer in composition. Although liquor is processed from both bodies, this paper will discuss only the upper structure brine. Fig. 1 illustrates a typical cross-section of the two commercial orebodies. The orebody is composed of a porous salt deposit 70 to 90 ft deep. The upper structure is separated from the lower orebody by a 12 to 16-ft thick impervious mud seam, as shown in Fig. 1. These salt structures are composed of 55 pct solid-phase salts and 45 pct voids which are filled with the original mother liquor. The brine wells are drilled to the separating mud seam and cased to wlthin 10 ft of the bottom. This is done to draw the brine horizontally from the bottom of the structure. It is pumped with multistage centrifugal pumps Into the plant at the rate of 3 milllon gal per day. The first process that was successful was developed by Charles P. Grimwood for the recovery of potash. The first evaporator unit was built in 1916. In the early twenties, Dr. Morse worked out a process for the recovery of borax. This made the cycle more efficient, as the end liquor could be sent back to the evaporators rather than being sewered. In 1926 the American Potash & Chemical Corp. was formed as a new company, and the entire plant was remodeled. The plant at that time produced only potash, borax, and boric acid. Since then the American Potash & Chemical Corp. has added processes for the production of USP boric acid, refined potash, sulphate of potash, soda ash, salt cake, lithium concentrates, Pyrobor (Na2B4O7) bromine, phosphoric acid, and lithium carbonate. The main plant cycle may be depicted as a closed cycle, see Fig. 2. The raw material, brine, enters the cycle to be mixed with the end liquor, known as ML2, from the pentahydrate borax crystallizers. The mixture of these two forms evaporator feed. Evaporator feed is pumped to the evaporators where it is concentrated, with respect to potash and borax. In the same operation water vapor, sodium chloride, salt trap salt, and clarifier salt are removed from the cycle, see Fig. 3 for potash plant product. The evaporators produce a concentrated liquor which contains approximately 19.5 pct KCI. This liquor is diluted as it enters the potash plant to keep all salts, except potash (KCI, 97.0 pct) in solution. Here the moist potash leaves the cycle at 100°F. The end liquor, known as ML1, is pumped to the borax pentahydrate crystallizers, where crude borax pentahydrate is crystallized and removed as solid phase. The ML2 is sent back to pan feed to be reconcen-trated, see page 207. Note that the only water to leave the cycle is in the form of vapor and moisture in the solid phase products crystallized. Thus there is a constantly cycling volume of liquor to which brine is added. Since the volume of liquor cycled does not increase, the brine is, in effect, evaporated to dryness. This would be true if there were no liquor losses. But, as in all processes, there are always unavoidable and accidental losses which reduce the volume of cycling liquors. The losses must be made up with brine. The concentration process is the beginning and the end of the cycling liquors. In this process there are three evaporator units of the triple effect counter-current type, that is, there are three pans in each unit and the heat flows in one direction while the liquor flows the other way through the evaporator pans, see Fig. 4. During the evaporation process a great deal of sodium chloride, burkeite, some sodium carbonate monohydrate, and a little lithium-sodium phosphate are crystallized. The volume of these salts is so great that they must be removed as they are formed or the process would come to a standstill. Brine and recycled mother liquor No. 2 enter the third effect evaporator pan from the evaporator feed storage tanks, see Fig. 5. A steady flow of liquor is removed from the bottom of the No. 3 pan and is pumped through the No. 3 cone of the salt trap, a clear liquor being returned to the NO. 3 pan. A portion of this clear liquor is pumped to the second effect pan. This process is repeated in each pan. The liquor from the No. 2 pan is pumped through the No. 2 salt trap cone and returned to the No. 2 pan.

Jan 1, 1955

POLITICAL developments, the impact of Korean warfare necessitating immediate rearmament plans, and recent developments in mining taconites have focused attention on their immediate exploitation to fill the gap created by diminishing reserves. The question of rich foreign ores versus low grade development is past-we need both sources with emphasis on the immediate large scale mining of taconites. In the past three months several things have occurred which add to the taconite picture: (1) Pellets have been used successfully in the blast furnace by Armco. (2) In Congress HR 8512 was introduced by Congressman Blatnik of Minnesota to amend the lending powers of RFC to permit long term loans on basic mining developments, particularly the taconites, which may be needed for the strengthening of the national economy. (3) Walter S. Tower, president of the American Iron & Steel Institute, announced that American steel companies are planning expansion of 6,000,000 tons of steelmaking capacities in the next few years. (4) The outbreak of war in Korea has obliged the United States to rearm and make plans for a semipermanent defense establishment to which 10 to 12 pct of the national income will be budgeted. (5) Startling new advances have been made in the Linde Air Products Co.&apos;s jet-piercing drilling. The United States is now confronted with the problem of increasing its steel capacity and at the same time of securing enough iron ore to supply this increase as well as make provision for the rapidly decreasing supply of rich iron ore on the Mesabi range. Taconites, the low grade iron ore at the east end of the Mesabi, of which there are literally billions and billions of tons of easily concentratable magnetic ore, are the immediate answer. According to the Wall Street Journal on July 24: "Reserve Mining Co., backed by such steelmakers as the Armco Steel Corp., Wheeling Steel Co., Republic Steel Corp., is reported ready-as soon as the pending bill clears (HR 8512)-to seek a $100 million federal loan to build a taconite processing plant at Beaver Bay, Minn., to produce about five million tons (of pellets) annually of 60 pct to 65 pct in iron ore . . ." Experimental work indicates that pellets may be the final form, rather than nodules, agglomerates, or sinter. At Ashland, Ky., the Reserve Mining Co., which has obtained a

Jan 9, 1950

By Michael Shaughnessy, O&apos

The outstanding features of the Coloinbian situation for the year 1929 were legal and political. The passage of Law 84 and the promulgation of the Regulatory Decree 150 were recounted in the review for 1928, as was also the Presidential proclamation suspending this law and its accompanying decree until decision could be reached in the suits filed against them before the Supreme Court and the Council of State. Early this year the Minister of Industries, Jose Antonio Montalvo, announced the appointment of a commission of foreign experts to aid in drafting a new petroleum law. He requested all of the foreign experts employed not to consult with the oil company representatives in Bogota, and these experts were therefore shut off from receiving any suggestions from those who had actually operated in the country and knew the conditions under which operations would take place. It was to be expected that the provisions of a law suggested under such circumstances would not meet operating conditions satisfactorily. The specific objections are stated in O&apos;Shaughnessy&apos;s South American Oil Reports (April, 1929). An especially qualified commentator observes that one of the curious provisions of the proposed law was the high royalty on gas—5c. per 1000 cu. ft. of gas produced. There was also a provision requiring 20 per cent. of the stock of the company operating in Colombia to be offered for sale to Colombians. The bill failed to pass Congress in the closing hours of the session. The Supreme Court, in the meantime, handed down its decision on Law 84 of the previous year and Regulation 150 covering the enforcement of that law. Contrary to expectation, the majority opinion of the Court practically affirmed the constitutionality of both the law and the regulatory decree, with the exception of Article 20 and parts of Article 21 of the decree which referred specifically to the registration of private properties. At the time the suit was filed against Law 84 and Decree 150 the operation of these measures was suspended by the Executive. Law 84 and its Regulatory Decree 150 still remain suspended as the Council of State has not yet brought in a decision upon the questions raised in the suits instituted by the various companies against the law and decree, and at the moment of this writing it appears unlikely that such a decision will be reached by that body.

Jan 1, 1930

By Thomas Chance

ALL gravity methods for the separation of ore from gangue, or of slate and other refuse from coal, are based upon differences in the falling velocities, in some fluid medium such as air or water, of the materials to be separated. As all materials falling in a vacuum have the same velocity, independent of the size, shape, weight or specific gravity of their individual particles, it would be more accurate to describe the operation of these methods as depending upon the. retardation of falling velocities effected by the resistance of a fluid medium, this retardation being greater for small or light particles than for large or heavy particles. This generalization is true also of those appliances utilizing centrifugal force to replace or to supplement the action of gravity. The separation of materials of different specific gravities by means of a fluid having a specific gravity greater than that of the lighter particles and less than that of the heavier particles has not been applied commercially, or on a large scale, to the separation of ores or to the washing of coal, the method being limited to laboratory experimental work or to laboratory determinations for the purpose of checking up the work of jigs, classifiers, and other types of concentrating appliances. A solution of zinc chloride has thus come into general use inn the laboratory to separate coal, bony coal and slate, both to check up the work of coal-washing plants and for the purpose of making tests preliminary to the designing of coal-washing plants. The use of a heavy solution of some chemical in water has often been proposed for making such separations, especially in connection with the washing or preparation of coal. Practically insuperable difficulties, however, have prevented the commercial development of any such process, the difficulties being both physical and financial. The cost of the chemical used to make high-gravity solutions is usually prohibitive, and the freeing of the coal from all traces of the chemical is found to be practically impossible. Such solutions inevitably penetrate the individual lumps and particles of coal, transfusing into the pores and saturating the joint-planes, and very large quantities of wash water

Jan 2, 1918

By C. V. Millikan

New developments in air-gas lift practices in the Mid-Continent area since our Pall meeting in Fort Worth have done much to increase the efficiency of installations, and thus bring within economic limit of air-gas lift many wells which could not have been flowed profitably before. After the gas-lift had so thoroughly demonstrated its value in the Seminole field, its use spread to other areas and many installations were made of which the economy could be questioned. In the Seminole area, when production began to decline it was necessary either to increase the efficiency of the air or gas-lift or to put the wells on the pump, and pumping was not a process of lifting oil to which any operator looked forward with confidence. These conditions have resulted in the development of many practices which increase the efficiency and permit wells to be flowed with air or gas which earlier could not have been flowed economically, and wells which have been flowing to continue to a lower rate of production. The practices which have come into more common usage in the Mid-Continent area recently are mostly revivals of and improvements on practices which have been known in air-lift work for several years. Many arc peculiar to the individual well on which they are used. Intermittent Flowing Some interesting results are being obtained in Seminole and other districts by intermittent injection of gas. Gas is introduced during per-iods iods of 3 to 5 min. at a rate considerably over that necessary to acquire the production at a steady rate of injection, and is then cut off for a period of 3 to 15 min. Two to five wells are run from the same group of conlpressors. The total volume of gas required is sometimes reduced as much as one-third of that required when it is introduced at a constant rate, without changing the amount of oil production. The maximum pressure required is usually higher, but the average equal to or lower than that required for constant rate of flow. The effect on the wells is usually an irregular rate of flowing which may cause inconvenience where recycling is practiced. It would seem that this increase in efficiency is due to less slippage when the gas is introduced intermittently than when it is intro-

Jan 1, 1928

By AIME AIME

ARGUMENTS and discussions were not lacking either Wednesday or Thursday mornings, when the geophysicists got together. The first session, under the chairmanship of Paul Weaver, was devoted largely to theoretical papers, except for the first one by F. W. Lee, which was a progress report. This speaker mentioned some of the high lights of geophysical exploration during the last year, such as the recently announced extension of the Rand gold fields through magnetic exploration, and the continued activity in the oil fields of this country. Even this brought forth some disagreements, Paul Weaver feeling that credit was being given geophysics where it was not due for the discovery of certain oil fields. In this criticism Everette DeGolyer concurred, and both agreed that geophysicists must lean over backward when it comes to taking credit for discoveries. The troublesome question of interpreting resistivity curves is always being aired, and Lynn G. Howell&apos;s paper, presented briefly by the chairman, served to clear up a moot point raised last year by M. King Hubbert&apos;s work. By use of Maxwell&apos;s theory of images the author calculated that the effect of a thin, conductive sheet placed perpendicularly across the middle of a four electrode system should bring the resistivity curve up to a figure equivalent to the resistivity of the surrounding medium, but no higher. Variations from this he explained as being due to dirt on the surface of the sheet. The difficult question of interpreting three-layer curves was tackled bravely in Thomas Manhart&apos;s paper, presented in abstract by S. F. Kelly. The author seems to be attaining some success through dividing three-layer curves into two approximation curves of the two-layer type.

Jan 1, 1933

By Peretti, E. A.

Since its development about forty years ago by J. V. N. Dorr (Cyanidation and Concentration of Gold and Silver Ores, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1936, 1-5), and others, continuous countercurrent decantation has not only become one of the standard methods for extracting gold and silver from their ores, but has also found wide application in other metallurgical and chemical industries. In 1917 L. B. Eames published an excellent paper (Countercurrent Decantation, Trans AIME, 1917, 57, 143- 158), in which he determined the effects of grade of ore, ratio of solution precipitated to ore treated, variations in the density of the thickener spigot discharge and variations in the value of the barren solution upon the gold assay of the solutions discharged from the thickeners in the system. Eames showed that, other things being equal, the dissolved gold lost in the tailing varies directly as the value of the ore and as the value of the barren solution. The tailing loss de- creases rapidly as the ratio of solution precipitated to ore treated is increased to about three or four to one. Beyond this point the improvement is negligible.

Jan 1, 1949

* The greatest and richest iron ore body in the world was discovered by U. S. Steel in Venezuela in April 1947, and is disclosed for the first time in this issue (p. 178), One solid mountain of ore, Cerro Bolivar, will furnish more tonnage than the famous Hull Rust pit at Superior has, or can produce. Total resources are on the order of 2 billion tons plus. Big Steel is now moving with great speed on construction to bring out this ore, and 10 million tons are scheduled for shipment into Baltimore and Birmingham by late 1952. This ore will arrive at, Pittsburgh at a price lower than present natural ores from Superior. The Venezuelan properties will be completely mechanized. •U. S. Steel and independent companies are embarking on a taconite beneficiation program of tremendous proportions, which must be speeded to completion in the 1950&apos;s (see p. 185). By 1960 over $l.2 billion dollars will be spent on Venezuela, taconite, and Labrador to solve the United States iron ore crisis. In addition, U. S. Steel will spend another $300 million plus for a new steel mill at Trenton, N. J., before 1955. •The Deister Concentrator Co. gave $500 to the 1950 Coal Division Scholarship Fund. •Howard N. Eavenson, in analyzing the bituminous coal situation (see p. 193), suggests that anti-trust laws be extended to labor unions, disinterested trustees to administer pension funds, begin pension funds now and stop the collection of all "check-offs" for union dues or funds. •Minerals and metals worth 13.9 million dollars were produced in the United States in 1949, Secretary of the Interior Oscar L. Chapman announced. Although this value was 11 pct less than in 1948, it was the second greatest in history. Nonmetallics was the only major group that in 1949 equaled the 1948 production high. Mineral fuels decreased 12 pct and metals 15 pct. • Prospects for making gas from coal are seen to be unattractive by the Pittsburgh Consolidated Coal Co. because the success of operation depends on price and supply of coal which presently are not attractive. The company has shut down its gasification plant at Library, Pa. * Economic prospects for the immediate future in the United States are good and business probably will continue at its present high levels throughout at least the early part of 1950, Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer said in his year-end report to the White House based on his personal survey of business conditions. •A 467-ft well 34 miles north of Rock Springs, Southwestern Wyoming, is said to be flowing a 5 pct solution of nearly pure trona (sodium carbonate) at the rate of 10,000 barrels a day. Trona, natural soda ash, is mined for the chemical trade at Searles Lake, Calif., and from about 1500 ft underground near Green River, Wyo., and has been in short supply. •The AEC is "very much interested" in a discovery of radioactive material that has been made in Baraga County bordering Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, reported F. G. Pardee, Michigan State mining engineer. The material has been identified as uranium oxide in the form of pitchblende or uraninite. The discovery, made by a geologist of the Jones & Laughlin Ore Co., is the only instance in which the commission has certified samples of Michigan rock.

Jan 2, 1950

By E. C. W. Perryman

On electropolishing, high-purity Cu-Sn and Cu-Sn-P alloys with more than 5 to 9 pct Sn were found to contain many grain boundaries with a ridge-and-furrow profile. The effect was not eliminated by solution treatment and was present at the new boundaries in recrystallized material. It could be produced by diffusing tin into the 3 pct Sn alloy and it is concluded that the effect is due to enrichment of certain boundaries in tin, or possibly in an impurity present in the tin, in solid solution. IN the hot working of tin bronzes, especially those with moderately high tin contents, considerable difficulty is frequently encountered from intercrystal-line weakness, which results in cracking at the edges in sheet on strip rolling and in the unsupported regions of the rod in rod rolling.&apos; These difficulties are not at all pronounced with up to 3 pct Sn, but at 5 pct Sn impose serious limitations and at higher tin contents, especially if the phosphorus content is also high, they may become very severe. In some work carried out at the laboratories of The British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association it was found that a notable lack of ductility in tension at elevated temperatures, associated with intercrystal-line failure, was characteristic of tin bronzes even of relatively high purity. That the intercrystalline fracture is not due to a brittle or molten impurity phase at the grain boundaries was shown by the fact that the temperature at which intercrystalline fracture first occurred decreased with decrease of rate of straining. Tensile tests on some commercial tin bronzes, reported by Goetzel,² show a similar fall in ductility with increasing temperature. As no visual evidence had been obtained showing that the grain boundaries of the tin bronzes were different from those in copper, a more detailed microscopical examination was carried out, and the results of this are given in the present report. Several workers"&apos; have observed that electrolytic polishing is a powerful tool for detecting small amounts of a second phase and in particular for detecting high solute concentrations, "equilibrium segregation," at grain boundaries. Since it had been found that the suggested solutions for electropolishing bronze and the standard solutions for brass and copper did not give satisfactory results it was first necessary to find a suitable electropolishing solution.&apos; Experimental Procedure Materials Used: The cast and wrought materials used for this work were the same as those used for the mechanical tests referred to above. They comprised 3, 6, and 9 pct Sn alloys without phosphorus and the same three basic alloys with 0.03 and 0.4 pct P. A 5 pct Sn alloy without phosphorus, of similar purity, was also examined. The basis materials were Chempur tin, high purity 15 pct phosphor-copper and cathode copper, and spectrographic analyses are given in Table I. Treatment: The cathode copper was first melted under charcoal, degassed by plunging marble chips beneath the surface, and cast through a coal gas flame into sand molds to produce a number of small ingots which after machining were of a suitable size for subsequent vacuum melting. Chill cast bars of the alloys, approximately 1¼ in. in diameter, were then made by melting and casting in vacuo, the tern-

Jan 1, 1954

By D. W. Fuerstenau, J. H. Brown

The paper by Professors Sun and Mitchell illustrates the value of ultrasonics as a tool for the mineral engineer. In particular, it opens up a number of possibilities to those interested in the field of comminution. The provision of desliming technique, which is thorough as well as rapid, is a distinct contribution, but the data of the paper suggest applications beyond desliming, in that the same treatments may be useful for size determination purposes. Fig. 1 shows that a marked dependence exists between particle size and the height to which it can be elevated by ultrasonic vibrations. While the curves are only extended down to a size of about 100 u, the fact that they appear to be increasing in slope in this range suggests that the separation may be even more marked here. This, we feel, is very strong evidence that a nlethod for fine sizing could be developed to use ultrasonic waves as the separating force. Professors Sun and Mitchell indicate that floccula-ti~n will present no difficulty: "During the investigation it was found that ultrasonic waves were able to dislodge the adhering gangue particles from the min- era1 surfaces and to disintegrate the soft particles into fine sizes." Thus, it appears that the use of ultrasonic waves as the power behind a size separation process may eliminate the problem of flocculation encountered in most wet sizing techniques. It would be interesting to size a fine material under conditions in which particles are known to be flocculated and under conditions where they are known to be dispersed. Use of a sizing technique of this nature may solve several problems that have long persisted in the fine sizing field. The flocculation problem may be overcome; the continuous production of closely sized fractions may be possible with a device similar to the one described; and with photoelectric methods, rapid analyses in the subsieve sizes may be possible. In general, we suggest that this paper be followed by a study of the sizing applications of the apparatus described. We feel that such a study would not only be rewarding in providing a new sizing technique, but also that the present paper almost requires such work to complete the picture of particle motion in a field of ultrasonic waves.

Jan 1, 1958

By Rossiter W. Raymond

The lead-mining industry of Missouri, as of other parts of the Mississippi basin, appears to have been paralyzed by the shock of competition with the mines of the States and Territories further west. It is difficult for establishments working galena ores, too poor in silver to pay for extracting it, to compete with the producers of the argentiferous carbonates of Utah and Colorado, who look upon their lead as a by-product of little value, and are satisfied if it pays the charges of transportation, or the loss in smelting for silver. But simultaneously with this depression in the lead-mining of the Mississippi States, the development of new zinc deposits has caused a notable revival in the mining of zinc ores. There has recently been a sndden and strong rise in the price of&apos; spelter, which, though probably to a large extent temporary in character, has given important encouragement to prospectors and miners. Apart from the general recovery of business in the United States from the prostration of the past six years, the cause of the advance in spelter has been the falling off in production, resulting from the shutting clown of several leading Western works,—the Martindale and Carondelet works, at St. Louis, and the Consolidated Company in Kansas. At the same time, the principal works at La Salle, Ill., were undergoing repairs, and produced less than usual, while the sheet-mill of Matthieson & Hegeler, at that place, was running as usual; so that this concern, ordinarily a large producer, entered the already depleted market as a buyer. These causes are in their nature transitory, and it is quite likely that spelter will be superabundant in a few months. Having lately received from a well-informed Missouri correspondent some samples of the zinc ores and a general account of the ore deposits of Southwest Missouri, I have thought that it might interest the Institute to examine these specimens, and to hear such brief statements concerning the region as I am able, upon good authority, though without the aid of any personal investigation 011 the spot, to give. The zinc-bearing territory in Southwest Missouri appears to be very extensive; that is to sap, zinc ores have been mined during the last year at various points throughout a district extending from the eastern edge of Kansas, west of Joplin, to a line some 50 miles east

Jan 1, 1880

Discussion of the paper of Herbert F.. Miller, Jr., presented at the New York meeting, February, 1913, and printed in Bulletin No. 75, March, 1913, pp. 409 to 413. HENRY D. HIBBARD, Plainfield, N. J.:-Looking at the illustrations, it seems to me that a furnace made with the width of port that is shown here would not be a good working furnace. The economy of brick and gas might be all right, but I do not think it would melt the steel properly. I should say that the flame would not spread out suitably to fill the whole hearth of the furnace, and there would be undue waste, and it seems to me that it would be an undesirable furnace to adopt. The question as to whether a producer-gas flame would lie down in the furnace, hugging the bottom better than the natural-gas flame, is settled, not so much by the specific gravity of the gases themselves, as by the relative temperatures at which they enter the laboratory of the furnace. We know in that case that producer gas would be lighter than a natural gas which had not been run through a regenerator and expanded four or five volumes in consequence. I would like to hear what Mr. Miller has to say about the action of the flame spreading properly over the charge to give good metallurgical results in the form of furnace which he presents.

Jan 5, 1913