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ASIDE from the John Fritz Medal, in which the Institute participates through its representation on the John Fritz Medal Board, the Institute itself has four awards it may make annually, as follows : the Robert W. Hunt Medal and Prize, the J. E. Johnson, Jr., Award, the James Douglas Medal, and the William Lawrence Saunders Medal. ROBERT W. HUNT MEDAL AND PRIZE The partners of Robert W. Hunt established a fund which was presented to the Institute at a fitting ceremony on May 27, 1920, to establish an annual medal and a sum of money to be awarded under the following rules 1. The award shall consist of two prizes: first of a gold medal, second of a sum of money; a certificate to accompany each prize, The money prize shall not be awarded to a member over 40 years of age, but under unusual circumstances, both prizes may be allotted to one person provided that he is not over 40 years of age. In general it will be understood that the Committee shall award the money prize to the younger men, rather than the medal. 2. The awards shall be made not oftener than once a year to that person or persons contributing to the Institute the best original paper or papers on iron and steel. The scope of the term "iron and steel" shall be determined by the sub-committee considering the awards. In general, papers dealing with the practical side of the subject have preference over those dealing with the theoretical side in recognition of the fact that Captain Hunt's main contributions to the industry have been in the improvement of production and quality of material. 3. A sub-committee of three to five, including the Chairman of the Iron and Steel Committee, shall be appointed by the Iron and Steel Committee annually to adjudge the award subject to approval. 4, The awarding committee shall submit its report to the Iron and Steel Committee at its October meeting, and the award shall be certified to the Secretary of the Institute in time to permit the presentation to be made at the Annual Meeting of the Institute, 5. The recipient of the award shall be designated "The Hunt Medallist," This prize is administered by the Iron and Steel Committee. Awards of the medal have been made as follows 1920-Robert Woolston Hunt. 1926-Charles Lewis Kinney, Jr. J. E. JOHNSON, JR., AWARD This award is made from the income of a fund of $3000 donated by Mrs. Margaret Hilles Johnson in memory of her husband, J. E. Johnson, Jr., who was a prominent engineer, author of two valuable volumes on iron blast-furnace construction and practice, vice-

Jan 1, 1928

QUICKSILVER is a body that consists of flowing and liquid materials, almost like water with a shining whiteness; it is composed by Nature of a viscous, subtle substance with an overflowing abundance of moistness and coldness together. This composition, in the opinion of the philosophic alchemists, is a thing that is very disposed to become metal-indeed they say that it is the original seed of all metals. When it lacks the warmness and dryness or the specific time that they require, it cannot congeal and so remains in the form that we see as an imperfect thing without becoming metal. These clever investigators have also called it mercury in consideration of its properties, perhaps because of its resemblance to the planet of him whose actions place him between gods and men, according to the poets in their stories. Thus these investigators think that this has a similar place among perfect metals, since it is the primary mineral matter. It might also be that they called it so because like the god Mercury it is winged and fugitive, and by virtue of its powerful subtlety penetrates all things and can issue forth from them at will. But let it be called by any name they wish-it does not matter to us. I, like them, shall sometimes call it mercury and sometimes [23 ] quicksilver as it has been named to me, and you will understand it as such. Now I shall leave aside the disputes on whether it is the primary matter of metals or not, since I have said enough concerning this question in the first chapter of the First Book. In order to approach what the philosophers say about it, I say that it may well be material about to be converted into metal, but since it is seen to be so ill-proportioned and so badly decocted, I cannot believe that it can be disposed to the generation of all kinds of metals. Indeed, if it is, I think that if its necessary processes had not been interrupted it would be more apt to generate lead, tin, iron, or even silver rather than copper or gold. And if we wish to consider it in relation to the natural complexions [of metals] or to the power of the, planets, I think that mercury is far distant from those of gold and from the power of the sun and of the moon. Therefore I say that if it is not what I have said, it is a thing that Nature has been pleased to make as it is. I am led to say this because all of it that I have seen has had the same

Jan 1, 1942

By D. P. Harris

This paper surveys a few of the quantitative exploration models that might be of interest to an ex-plorationist seeking to apply methods of operations research to mineral exploration. A general development of each model is presented, and the model is evaluated relative to the exploration activity. Finally, a philosophy of exploration and mineral resources is presented, and a possible exploration strategy incorporating concepts of some of these models consistent with this philosophy is proposed. The high cost of conducting an effective exploration program has generated an increasing interest in methods of optimizing the allocation of the resources of a firm engaged in mineral exploration. As a step towards this, mathematical models have been formulated which are designed to quantify those variables of mineral exploration in such a manner that they can be integrated with all phases of the firm's operations so as to optimize its profit objective. QUANTITATIVE MODELS General: Exploration models express at least two concepts: mineral occurrence and effectiveness of search. In simplest terms, an exploration model might be formulated mathematically as follows: P(X) = F(X) . G(X), where P(X) = the unconditional probability of discovery of X deposits, F(X) = the probability of occurrence of X deposits, and G(X) = the probability of discovery of X deposits, conditional upon their existence in the search area. With these general models as a basis of reference, some of the specific exploration models are examined below. The Allais Model: DEVELOPMENT - M. Allaisl performed the first study in which a philosophy of exploration was formulated into a probability framework. His objective was to estimate the economic profitability of the exploration of the Algerian Sahara. Allais divided the Algerian Sahara into blocks of land (called cells) 10 km square and defined the random variable, X, as the number of mining districts per cell. Thus, F(X) would describe the probability of 1, 2, or n mining districts occurring within any cell of the search area. Allais reasoned that his best information as to the form of the distribution, F(X), was the number of mining districts per cell that had been found in well explored areas in the world, such as the Western States of the U.S. He found that the Poisson function produced a reasonably good fit to the distribution of districts in these explored areas: where? is a parameter, such as the average number of districts per cell. Thus, by determining the value

Jan 1, 1968

By Rudolph Emmel

The mines operated by the South American Development Co. are located in the Zaruma mining district of southwestern Ecuador. They are near the old mining town of Zaruma, which is the only important city in the canton of the same name. The district is situated in the upper end of a valley lying between two spurs of the Cordillera, one of which may be considered the Coast Range and the other an intermediate range. The mining camp proper, known as Portovelo, and the plant are 2.4 km. south of Zaruma, on the north bank of the Amarillo River, a tributary of the Tumbes River, which flows southwestward through Peru to the Pacific. Portovelo is difficult of access; it is reached from Guayaquil by means of river steamers and muleback. 'Embarking at Guayaquil, the route is down the Guayas River, across the Jambeli Canal, and up the Santa Rosa River to Santa Rosa, a distance of 177 km. From Santa Rosa, the road or trail follows the Santa Rosa River, then across the summit of the Coast Range into Portovelo, a distance of 74 km.—a two-day trip on muleback. The mining property of the South American Development Co. comprises 297 lode claims and 142 placer claims. The combined lode claims cover an area, roughly rectangular in shape, 9000 m. long from north to south by 4000 m. wide; the northern edge of the rectangle is about 3000 m. north of the central plaza of Zaruma. Mineral lands in Ecuador are held by virtue of an annual tax per claim paid to the central government, no surface rights being included. HiSTOry The Zaruma mine has been worked by white men since 1549, probably before that it was worked by Indians. The followers of Pizarro, led by traces of gold in the sands of the Tumbes River, followed that stream to its source, worked the gold veins that they found and established the city of Zaruma. Among the mines worked by them were th Sesmo, Leonora, Viscaya, and Mina Grande. Only the soft ores at the outcrop were

Jan 1, 1925

At Asarco's Mission mill. located near Sahuarita, Ariz., the 20 500-t/d (22,500-stpd) throughput of highly abrasive and corrosive copper ore can play havoc on equipment wear parts. To minimize frequent replacement work and extend life on key components, Asarco engineers have over the past five years utilized liners made of "Towniprene" in the secondary grinding and flotation area of the plant. Results to date have indicated that these liners last between three and five times longer than those made of metal or ordinary rubber.

Jan 8, 1978

By ROBERT R. ABUOTT

Discussion of the paper of Prof. Albert Sauveur and, G. A. Reinhardt, presented at the Cleveland meeting, October, 1912, and printed in Bulletin No. 71, November, 1912, pp. 1335 to 1341. ROBERT R. ABBOTT, Cleveland, Ohio :-The possibilities of the commercial application of the facts brought out in this paper have been the subject of many experiments by me during the past four years. It will be well to call attention to several facts having a commercial bearing upon the problem: (1) The lower critical temperature (Ac) of a 3.5 per cent. nickel-steel of low carbon (say 0.20 per cent.) content is about 710° C. This is not lowered to any extent by increasing its carbon content by carbonizing,. By this I mean that a steel with Act occurring at 710°, must, after carbonizing, be heated above this temperature before quenching in order to make it hard. This is not contrary to Guillet's diagram, although at first thought it may seem so, due to a confusion of the Act and the Ar1, points. His diagram merely gives the physical condition of the steel upon slow cooling. Now a steel of 1.20 per cent. of carbon and 3 per cent. of nickel (point " B " of the diagram) may be martensitic upon slow cooling from three causes: (a) Its Ar1 point is below the normal atmospheric temperatures. (b) The time element is so important that the change from martensite to pearlite and cementite does not have time to occur even with this slower rate of cooling. We of course know that nickel has the tendency of retarding this change. (c) A combination of the above two causes. (2) With increasing nickel content the ability of steel to absorb carbon decreases. (3) Many carbonized nickel-steels show a martensitic. structure upon air-cooling, and yet ire so soft that they are of no commercial value.

Dec 1, 1912

"In 1899 the American Refining and Smelting Company obtained control of the East Helena Smelter, and have added improvements from time to time.The plant is four miles east of Helena, on the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads, with hourly street car service from Helena.Electric power is obtained from Canyon Ferry dam, twelve miles east on the Missouri river, and about 800 h-p. is used in the blowing engines, crushing machinery, cranes and locomotives.Besides the Montana ores convenient to the above railroads, a large part of the ore supply comes from the Coeur d'Alene district, Idaho, and is mainly lead ore and concentrates.A modern automatic sampling mill, with Vezin samplers and a capacity of 50 tons per hour, was completed in 1912.Three blast furnaces, each 48 inches by 136 inches, are now in continuous operation, and the monthly production of silver-lead bullion is six thousand tons.A part of the ore roasting is done in Godfrey furnaces, in connection with the Huntington-Heberlein process, 12 pots being in use, with a capacity of 300 tons per day.Four Dwight-Lloyd sintering furnaces, each 42 inches by 264 inches, and a smaller experimental machine, with a combined capacity of 440 tons per day, are in steady operation, and are successfully roasting ore as well as sintering flue dust. These machines are in great favor and results are being carefully watched.Three bag houses are used in connection with the 1,800 brick flue chamber, and each bag house contains 1,260 cotton bags, each 18 inches in diameter by 30 feet long, suspended on vertical roads. The product saved by the bags contains about 50 per cent lead and is retreated in the blast furnace after sintering.About 450 men are employed."

Jan 1, 1913

By Wesley G. Josephson

THE MINING PROPERTY of the Argonaut Mining Co., Jackson, Calif., is one of the oldest on the Mother Lode. A vein outcropping on a hill in this section could not long elude the eye of the forty-niner, so it was first discovered in 1850. From that time until 1893 the Pioneer mine, as it was then called, limped along under various poorly equipped and financed operators who tried tapping it by trenching and tunneling. Then the Argonaut Mining Co. took over the property and sank the present 65° inclined shaft in the hanging wall of the vein. The mine workings have now reached the 6000-ft. level, which is 5283 ft. vertically below the surface, or just 3 ft. over a mile. The total production of the mine is uncertain, because of lack of early records, but from 1893 to 1932 it is known to have produced in excess of $17,000,000.

Jan 1, 1932

By T. L. McCall

This is a continuation of the paper on bumps presented by the late Mr. Herd in February, 1929. The seam worked consists of bituminous coal, 9 ft. thick, pitching 20°, and now under a depth of cover of 2800 to 3200 ft. Full particulars are given of two bumps that happened in November, 1931, with an interval of only 9 hr. between them. The first was a "district" bump affecting an area of 1000 ft. on the strike by 700 ft. on the dip and rise, beginning at a distance of 1000 ft. from the long-wall faces. The second, which caused much greater damage, was localized to two levels 200 ft. apart, in the area left undisturbed by the first bump next to the longwall faces. Observation stations had been established in the workings in 1931 and definite records were obtained on the flow of coal taking place from the edge of large pillars developed for retreating work, into the open roadways. The records also gave evidence that "advance weighting" or "underdraw " was affecting the coal at an average distance of 260 ft. in advance of the longwall faces. The author propounds the theory that the sandstone bed varying from 0 to 75 ft. in thickness and lying 14 ft. above the coal acts as a slab in distributing the superincumbent weight. The weight is thereby concentrated on the pillars in advance of the longwall faces and this load, in conjunction with a pavement strong enough to resist the reaction, leads to overstressing the pillars, which finally collapse suddenly, thus giving rise to this particular type of low side bump. The overlying sandstone bed, which is apparently a condition common to all coal mines in which bumps occur, is not necessarily a massive bed, as the thickness of this bed at Springhill in the area that has experienced these severe low side bumps is only 25 to 31 feet. A list of 43 minor bumps occurring in the past 2½ years is appended

Jan 1, 1934

By H. R. Page, A. E. Jr Lee

A. E. LEE, JR. (author)—In addition to the paper we should like to make a few remarks. First, the seriousness of bending of the clay retort cannot be overemphasized. Not only did bending limit the length of the vessel, but it permitted corrosive fluid slags to concentrate in the belly of the retort and thus increased the possibility of boring. Bending also practically prohibited the use of cleanout machines and increased the danger of excessive fume losses by allowing furnace gases to escape around the top of the retort mouth. It will be noted that the Blackwell pottery practice places considerable emphasis on careful drying of retorts. Perhaps it is another smelter superstition, but traditionally the aging of retorts beyond a reasonable drying period has been considered important to long life. We are unable to give a good explanation of why aging should improve retorts. During the past fall in an attempt to prove a theory that the combined water in the clay decreased during aging, about 50 samples of wet retort collars were placed in a dry room when it was closed. Loss of weight, combined water and free moisture were measured each week over the 100 day drying period. The affinity of the dried retort for moisture makes difficult the accurate measurement of free water; however, there was a clearly defined free moisture change from about 12.5 pct when freshly made to about 2 pet at the end of 18 days, then a gradual loss to about 0.25 pet at 70 days and an apparent equilibrium near this figure through the 100th day. There was no appreciable change in the combined water. The change in weight of the average sample was, however, rather unusual, there being consistently a loss of weight throughout the entire 100 days. From the 63rd day on this leveled off to about 0.03 pet per week. These were small samples and certainly should have dried

Jan 1, 1950

By G. C. Kuczynski

A. J. SHALER* and H. UDIN*— Bonding, and the increase in contact area, form two of the series of phenomena collectively known as 'sintering.' A third one of these is involved in changes in dimensions of the whole compact. Dr. Kuczynski's Fig 1, in which the center of the sphere does not approach the surface of the plate, shows that he is not concerned with the last of these phenomena. On the other hand, Frenkel's work is exclusively concerned with changes in dimensions. Dr. Kuczynski's rather unfortunate remarks about Frenkel's work are therefore beside the point. The work of Wulff and myself, quoted by the author, has also been primarily concerned with what we call the 'second stage of sintering,' in which such systems as may be represented by Kuczynski's model of a sphere and a block are no longer in existence. The work of Pines also falls in this category. Neither does Dr. Kuczynski's very masterful experimental work represent a solution to the problem of bonding. It does not seek to answer the question of why particles approach one another and form a weld in the first place. Such a study clearly reveals that the area of contact is initially rapidly deformed by direct mechanical flow caused by the same force of attraction. This initial deformation is neglected here. On the other hand, students of the phenomena of sintering must not underestimate the very important contribution that Dr. Kuczynski does make in this paper. It is a well-worked out study of the mechanism of 'spheroidization' of the voids, the first manifestation of which, during sintering, is the growth of the areas of contact, with no change in the dimensions of the compact. This study is very valuable as a basis for predicting the development of the strength of such compacts as filters and certain porous bearings, in which the second stage of sintering is never reached. A few more specific points may be brought up here. If, in Table 4, the data are extrapolated to zero time, it is easily

Jan 1, 1950

By C. E. Arnold

THE CHAIRMAN (PERCY G. BECKETT, Globe, Ariz.).-When you are at Miami tomorrow, you will see a very interesting comparison on the surface of the two mining methods that are being employed there largely. In the case of the surface over the Inspiration mining method, you won't see very much left of the surface. Everything has gone down. In the case right at the line of the Inspiration ground and the Miami, you will see that the surface over the top slicing which the Miami company has been doing in that country has been riding down evenly and uniformly; and it gives a very marked comparison of the two types of mining, and, to a certain extent, of the different degrees of waste dilution. I would ilke to hear from Mr. Maclennan on this subject. F. W. MACLENNAN, Miami, Ariz.-A paper based on percentage extraction by shrinkage stoping is a difficult one to discuss for the reason that it is hard to arrive at extraction figures until a section has been completely mined out. In the Miami mine we are using a method of shrinkage stoping with narrow stopes and pillars. This ore has been completely broken up and we have started in at the far end to draw off the ore mass maintaining the top of the broken ore dipping at an angle of 60° away from the direction in which we are retreating. A very important point I think about drawing a large. mass of ore down at an angle rather than trying to maintain the top of the ore more or less horizontal is that drawing at a steep angle has a tendency to create a horizontal movement in the ore mass as well as the vertical movement of the ore traveling down to the drawing off chutes. We know that this takes place, on account of the horizontal movement of marked

Jan 12, 1916

By B. L. Sackett

IN a general way, the situation in copper smelting is quite similar to that of lead smelting. In other words, the introduction and successful flotation of copper ores has tended to decrease greatly the tonnage to be handled by the smelter and therefore has resulted in curtailed smelter operation. However, copper production has increased rather than decreased. The general effect of flotation has been to decrease the number of furnaces operating, but it has also increased to a considerable extent the difficulties in handling the material, just as was outlined in the case of lead smelting. In copper smelting, the flotation concentrates must be roasted and prepared for the reverberatory furnace. HANDLING FLOTATION CONCENTRATES The handling of copper flotation concentrate, which is more or less wet and mucky, is more difficult than was the handling of the old gravity concentrate. Also, the roasting of the concentrate and the handling of the calcine produced is more difficult. That is mainly because the material is extremely fine and the tendency to higher dust losses is greatly increased. The draft in the roasting furnaces must be kept as low as, possible, and the feeding of the calcine into the reverberatory furnace must be done carefully, so that dust losses may be kept at a minimum. TRANSITION STAGES OF CONCENTRATION AND SMELTING The general process through which the copper smelter has gone as a result of flotation has been somewhat as follows: In the relatively old days, when copper ores of low grade were first treated, a large number of furnaces were required, and naturally comparatively poor recoveries were made. Also, the profits on low-grade ores were small and the handling of those ores was possible only because of the large tonnages. Then came gravity concentration, which was a great improvement but which only incompletely removed the gangue material, the insoluble and the iron, from the copper ore, and made comparatively poor copper recoveries. This still left a considerable amount of insoluble and iron, as well as the copper itself, to be treated at the smelter.

Jan 1, 1928

By W. R. Hamilton

THE knowledge of the existence of petroleum in Southern California dates back to the days of the missions. The presence of asphaltum and semisolid bitumen was reported at Santa Barbara in 1792, but no serious attempt was made to develop oil until Professor Silliman's optimistic report in 1865 started California's first oil boom. Wells were drilled in many counties of the State, but the equipment was unsuitable and the drilling difficult and no production was obtained except in Ventura County. Even there the production was of little importance commercially, and not until the early '80s did it become sufficient to again attract attention. In 1888 the production for the State had reached a total of about 700,000 bbl. per year, practically all light oil produced in Ventura County, Pico Canyon, Los Angeles County and in the Puente Hills. The production of petroleum attained the dignity of an industry in 1895 when the Los Angeles City and Coalinga fields were discovered. The subsequent development has been remarkable, and in 20 years the production has increased from 1,000,000 to 100,000,000 bbl. per year. The refining industry has kept pace with the production of oil. The Pacific Coast Oil Co., the predecessor of the Standard Oil Co. of California, was the virtual pioneer refining company of the State, having built a refinery at Alameda about 1880. When purchased by the Standard, about 1902, it was dismantled and the refinery at Point Richmond was built. The Richmond refinery is now one of the largest in the world, having a capacity in excess of 60,000 bbl. per day. A small refinery was built by the Union Oil Co. at Santa Paula in the early days of the industry and later many asphalt refineries were in operation in Southern California. The Pacific Coast Oil Co. was then, as has been its successor, the Standard Oil Co. of California, the principal refiner and marketer of light products, the most valuable of which was kerosene.

Jan 6, 1916

By C. G. Dunn, M. Sharp

HE orientations of 137 crystals of copper pro-T duced by secondary recrystallization in a cube texture matrix have recently been obtained. Although the crystals were not prepared for the purpose of determining a secondary recrystallization texture, the orientations obtained proved to be rather interesting, as they confirmed, in part, published results and also disclosed additional preferred orientations in the texture. The investigation of Dahl and Pawlek,&apos; Bowles and Boas,&apos; and Kronberg and Wilson3 showed respectively that the orientations of secondary grains growing in a cube texture matrix were related to those of the primary grains by a rotation of approximately 30" about [001], the rolling direction, by 30" about a <111> direction, and by either 22" or 38" about a <111> direction. Kronberg and Wilson also obtained a component of the texture similar to that of Dahl and Pawlek except the angle of rotation about [001] was 19". When the cube texture matrix was deformed a small amount, Kronberg and Wilson also obtained large grains on subsequent annealing corresponding to a rotation of 15" about the normal to the sheet, but these grains should not be classified as secondary recrystallization grains since they were produced subsequent to mechanical straining. The particular texture obtained, of course, depends on the composition of the copper and the processing schedule employed, since these factors markedly affect the primary recrystallization texture and the sharpness of any cube texture produced. In the present investigation, pieces of OFHC copper in the form of M in. round bars were cold forged to a thickness of about 0.40 in., annealed 1 hr at 350°C in an atmosphere of hydrogen, and cold rolled crosswise to a thickness of 0.200 in. These pieces were given a penultimate anneal of 1 hr at 350°C in hydrogen and a 90 pct cold-rolling reduction lengthwise to a thickness of 0.020 in. Indentations generally were put in one end of the as-cold-rolled strips to promote earlier formation of secondary grains.

Jan 1, 1953

By W. T. Jr. Thom

IN PREVIOUS classifications of coal, it has been customary to regard moisture eliminated from coal samples between 20° and 100° C. as extraneous matter, rather than as a constituent part of the coal. It seems, however, that the physical character and use properties of the low-rank coals are directly related to the amount of such moisture present, and recent chemical work has shown1 that such coals contain unstable groupings which decompose between 20° C. and temperatures somewhat above 100° C., with the splitting off of moisture. According to this view, the moisture eliminated from air-dried coal below boiling point is similar in all essential respects to moisture eliminated above 100° C., and is produced by analogous reactions; and inasmuch as the moisture given off above 100° C. has always been treated as a constituent of the volatile matter of coal, it would seem that consistent usage would include as a part of the volatile matter all moisture present as an essential component of the coal as it occurs in nature. As a matter of experience, it seems clear that the general physical and chemical characteristics of the low-rank coals are largely determined by or related to the moisture, whether chemically or physically combined, present in air-dried coal; it is also demonstrable by trial that the low-rank coals cannot be satisfactorily classified on a purely chemical basis by using the moisture free form of analysis. The low-rank coals of the western United States include numerous well-defined types, many of which were referred to in a classification proposed by Ashley,2 in which the physical and use properties of the coals were made the primary basis for their systematic grouping. When testing this classification by replotting analyses of these type coals according to the Seyler scheme of classification,3 a satisfactory parallelism between use properties and chemical constitution of the dry coal was found among

Jan 5, 1925

By Leonard Greenburg

The American literature in the field of dust sampling and analysis has been growing rapidly since 1915. Studies made since that time clearly indicate that there are three fundamental factors that determine the production of lung pathology due to dust inhalation. These are the duration of exposure, the chemical and mineralogic nature of the dust and the concentration of the potentially harmful dust. In the estimation of the amount of the potentially hazardous dust there are essentially three problems involved: (I) a determination of the size of the hazardous dust; (2) determination of the most satisfactory apparatus and technique of sampling, and (3) the most satisfactory method of analysis. A complete study of the literature shows that industrial dust varies ill size from ultramicroscopic particles to those larger than lop in diameter and that relatively few particles are found over 5u in diameter. Approximately 10 to 25 per cent are less than 0.811 in diameter and the median size as a rule is found to lie between 1.25 and 1.75 microns. From the point of view of lung pathology the particle sizes of most importance lie between 0.5 and 5u. Of all the instruments for sampling dust the Impinger apparatus is the only one that will sample a larger body of air satisfactorily with small control errors and high efficiency in both low and high concentrations of dust. The Owens apparatus has the advantage of being more portable and somewhat easier to use but it does riot permit of the sampling of large volumes of air. It has a low efficiency in high concentrations of dust and does not permit dust weights to be obtained. From the point of dust-counting technique the author points out that in 1922 considerable experimentation with dark field and oblique illumination resulted in the conclusion that such methods were not readily duplicated from day to day and therefore yielded somewhat erratic results. Changes in the amount of illumination produced variations of several hundred per cent in dust counts obtained with dark ground

Jan 1, 1934

By B. L. Sackett

In a general way, the situation in copper smelting is quite similar to that of lead smelting. In other words, the introduction and successful flotation of copper ores has tended to decrease greatly the tonnage to be handled by the smelter and therefore has resulted in curtailed smelter operation. However, copper production has increased rather than decreased. The general effect of flotation has been to decrease the number of furnaces operating, but it has also increased to a considerable extent the difficulties in handling the material, just as was outlined in the case of lead smelting. In copper smelting, the flotation concentrates must be roasted and prepared for the reverberatory furnace. Handling Flotation Concentrates The handling of copper flotation concentrate, which is more or less wet and mucky, is more difficult than was the handling of the old gravity concentrate. Also, the roasting of the concentrate and the handling of the calcine produced is more difficult. That is mainly because the material is extremely fine and the tendency to higher dust losses is greatly increased. The draft in the roasting furnaces must be kept as low as possible, and the feeding of the calcine into the reverberatory furnace must be done carefully, so that dust losses may be kept at a minimum. Transition Stages oF Concentration and Smelting The general process through which the copper smelter has gone as a result of flotation has been somewhat as follows: In the relatively old days, when copper ores of low grade were first treated, a large number of furnaces were required, and naturally comparatively poor recoveries were made. Also, the profits on low-grade ores were small and the handling of those ores was possible only because of the large tonnages. Then came gravity concentration, which was a great improvement but which only incompletely removed the gangue material, the insoluble and the iron, from the copper ore, and made comparatively poor copper recoveries. This still left a considerable amount of insoluble and iron, as well as the copper itself, to be treated at the smelter.

Jan 1, 1928

By C. A. Edwards

Following a brief introduction, an outline is given of the four main conditions in which gases may be associated with metals; namely, (1) adsorbed gases, (2) dissolved gases, (3) gases in chemical combination, (4) gases entrapped in blowholes or cavities. Adsorption is essentially a surface phenomenon and is regarded as the attachment of outside molecules or atoms to the exposed free valencies of the atoms comprising the surface layers. In many cases where adsorbed films of gas are formed this is accompanied by a process of diffusion of the gas into the metal itself. This is particularly true in respect to iron and hydrogen, and experiments have shown that there is no difference between the rate at which hydrogen diffuses through a single crystal of iron arid through the same material after it has been recrystal-lized into a mass of small crystals. This does not prevent a somewhat greater concentration of gas at the boundaries of adjacent crystals, nor does it mean that the effect of the gas will be the same at the boundaries as it is within the body of the crystals. Indeed, under certain conditions, iron is rendered very brittle at the crystal boundaries, as shown in experiments by Pfeil with samples of almost pure iron. Much work has been done by many investigators concerning the temperature and conditions under which dissolved hydrogen, in particular, can be at least partially removed from different metals. With iron, the hydrogen that has diffused into the metal as a result of acid attack by pickling or by electrolytic deposition of the gas on the metal is partly removed by exposing the metal to the atmosphere at ordinary temperatures. Considerably more can be eliminated by raising the temperature, and even greater quantities by jointly raising the temperature and reducing the pressure. Annealing at suitable temperatures completely removes the bad effects of excessive mounts of hydrogen dissolved in or associated with iron. This is shown by the data plotted in Fig. 1, giving values for electrolytic iron sheets after annealing at temperatures between 250" and 950" C. The hydrogen brittleness is rapidly diminished at

Jan 1, 1935

By John Henry Harden

IT appears that in the earlier days of anthracite coal mining, 1824-25, the Lehigh region mined 76 per cent. of all the coal sent to market. During the same period Wyoming sent 12 and 5 per cent. respectively, whilst the Schuylkill sent 11 and 18 per cent., the number of tons marketed being in those days very small indeed. In the year 1828 the Schuylkill region mined over one-half of all the coal sent to market, and continued to do so for thirty years (with the exception of the year 1831), until 1858 ; since that date the pro¬duction has declined very steadily in comparison with the other regions, until, in 1876, it was only 34 per cent. Wyoming, in the year 1820, was mining 40 per cent., but the production of all the regions was very small ; in six years it declined to 5 per cent., increased to 34 per cent. in 1831, declined to 10 per cent. in 1838. Since which time the increase has been gradual, until 1873-75 Wyoming produced over 50 per cent. of all the anthracite coal sent to market. In 1867 the production exceeded that of Schuylkill, and has continued to do so since that time. In the year 1876, during the existence of the " coal combination," Wyoming lost 9 per cent. ; during the same time Lehigh gained 7 and Schuylkill 2 per cent. over their relative production of the preceding year, the decrease of Wyoming being two and a half million tons, the increase of the Lehigh one million, the decrease of the Schuylkill nearly three-quarters of a million. The extraordinary production of the Lehigh region at a time of decreased demand and in opposition to an agreement with the other regions to limit the supply to the supposed demand was the cause of the disagreement which ultimately broke up the combination of the great coal-producing and carrying companies. The Lehigh region produced very steadily, from 1829 to 1854, an average of about 22 per cent. of the whole production. From 1854

Jan 1, 1877