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By H. J. Wasson

Published literature regarding the nation's oil reserve has been largely concerned with the estimated quantities in sight in known producing fields. This proved reserve has never been large in relation to demand. It has been the practice to consider the total future reserve (beyond that in sight within known fields) in the light of the broad potentialities of vast areas of partially explored sedimentary rocks, which are regarded as possible oil territory. Until recently, but little attention has been given to the rate at which the unexplored potentialities may be. converted into the proved reserve classification. To a certain extent, therefore, our contemporary viewpoint on the subject of national oil reserves is characterized by a pronounced contradiction. On the one hand, we measure known reserves as sufficient for only a few years of consumption—i.e., relative scarcity; on the other hand, we are confident that millions of unexplored acres will yield many new oil fields and that countless deeper productive formations underlie many of our known productive fields—i.e., infinite abundance. Of greater significance than the quantitative measure of either of these reserve classifications is the rate at which reserve replenishment must be accomplished in order to maintain an adequate time supply of proved oil reserves. The accumulation of geological data covering broad areas supports the belief that the remaining undiscovered oil reserve is exceedingly large. The distribution of oil in sedimentary formations of practically all ages, from Cambrian to Recent, is suggestive of almost unlimited possibilities; and the relatively small proportion of these possible areas that has been intensively explored in this country is a further index of the probable magnitude of the undiscovered future reserve. The implication that may reasonably be drawn from these observations is that oil, though distributed with less regularity and concentration than its related hydrocarbon, coal, nevertheless is a relatively abundant natural commodity of which the exhaustion appears remote. Final exhaustion of our oil reserve, if not infinitely remote, is a future contin-

Jan 1, 1937

By M. Gensamer

IT has been suggested by a number of people that it would be worth while for some one to attempt to summarize or condense the proceedings of this symposium. This task has fallen to me as organizer and co-chairman. Its difficulty will be appreciated by anyone who attempts to read the whole proceedings. It is therefore with trepidation that I offer the following digest. In recent years there has been a renewal of interest in America on this subject of the cohesive strength of materials, and a growing appreciation of the need for a better theory of cohesion failure. The theories of elastic action and plastic action are well developed, particularly the former. The theory of plastic action is still in the course of development, but it is well along. Plastic action is terminated by cohesion failure and what is needed is a theory that will tell us when to expect the cohesion failure. In the past it has generally been assumed that cohesion failure will occur when a critical value of the maximum tensile stress has been reached. Many experiments have shown that this is not strictly true, and this symposium concerns itself with the failures of this simple hypothesis, and with the efforts that have been made to devise a more satisfactory theory. The most active contributor in recent years to knowledge in this field is Dr. McAdam, and he was asked to open the symposium with a summary or condensation of his papers and views. Undoubtedly it is presumptuous to attempt a still greater condensation, but perhaps it will be useful, because even his contribution to this symposium contains no summary, no concise statement of just what his contribution has bees. Dr. McAdam makes two main points. The first is that the cohesive strength is not a single valued quantity, but that it is a function of all three principal stresses and hence must be represented diagrammatically by a surface in a three-dimensional figure. Dr. McAdam has attempted so to delineate the cohesion limit, basing his

Jan 1, 1944

By Rossiter W. Raymond

In the course of this address, President Raymond referred to the law, said to have been discovered at the French works of Terrenoire, that the amount of phosphorus may be increased without injury to steel, if the amount of carbon be proportionately decreased. The works named have been for more than a year, it is said, manufacturing in the open hearth, by the Martin process, steel rails containing as high as 0.35 per cent. of phosphorus, with about 0.15 per cent. of carbon, which were not found inferior to Bessemer rails. It is not claimed by the manager of the works that phosphorus is an ingredient to be preferred, or purposely introduced; but only that materials containing it (such as old iron rails, etc.), can be succesfully employed. Other parties have apparently a higher opinion still of the new manipulation, and are prepared to claim for " phosphorus steel" superior qualities. Mr. I. Lowthian Bell alluded to the subject in his recent address as President of the British Iron and Steel Institute, but without expressing a positive opinion. After pointing out that the commercial value of the process turned on the cheap manufacture of ferro-manganese, by means of which only could the necessary amount of manganese be introduced into the Martin bath, without increasing its contents of carbon, Mr. Raymond proceeded to say that the principle alleged to have been discovered at Terrenoire was already known years ago, in this country, at least. Not only had steel been manufactured here, containing high percentages of phosphorus, coupled with low percentages of carbon, and suitable for use in rails, boiler-plates, etc., but the reason of its surprising qualities had been distinctly surmised, if not widely proclaimed. The following analyses and extracts from private letters prove these assertions. Some of them assert a similar principle in .the case of wrought iron; but the analyses, and the remarks based upon them, have reference solely to the steel manufactured under the superintendence of Mr. Slade, at the works of the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company in Trenton.

By David Kellogg

THE electrodeposition of iron has been practiced for many years. The earlier work along this line was directed toward the preparation of pure metal, but later applications were the production of thin adherent coatings as used in the electrotyping of Russian banknotes in 1860. A historical discussion of this subject, however, would require too much space and would be inconclusive. Much has been written on the subject but no two experimenters use the same methods or materials. During the war, the British army repair, shops developed a method for building up worn parts of automotive machinery, aero engines, etc., using the cold surfate . bath and low-current density method.1 The method has been used successfully in commercial work for the production of about 6000 repaired parts, therefore experiments along the same lines have since been made at the Westinghouse research laboratory. The apparatus used was essentially that described in the article mentioned except that the current -used for cleaning was obtained from a 3/4-kw. 60-volt, house-lighting generator, direct connected to a 2-h.p., 870-r.p.m., 440-volt, three-phase, type CS induction motor; while the plating current was taken from the storage batteries at any desired voltage. The anodes were made from 0.036 in. (0.9 mm.) Armco iron made into cylinders 5 in. (127 mm.) long by 8 in. (203 mm.) in diameter with a disk of 1/8 -in. (3.17 mm.) micarta, having a 2 in. hole in the center fitted at each end of the cylinder for stirring. The anodes were hung on a wooden rocker frame driven by a wooden connecting I rod directly connected to a small reducing gear, such as is sold by most of the apparatus supply firms; 3 gal. stoneware crocks were used as containers. The solution used by Thomas, 75 gm. of the crystallized ferrous ammonium sulfate per liter, was tried, using the current density recommended by him; namely, 0.33 amp. per sq. dm. Under these conditions the deposit on a ½ -in.

Jan 2, 1922

By Rossiter W. Ph. D. Raymond

(From the President's Address at St. Louis, 1874.) IN the course of this address, President Raymond referred to the law, said to have been discovered at the French works of Terrenoire, that the amount of phosphorus may be increased without injury to steel, if the amount of carbon be proportionately decreased. The works named have been for more than a year, it is said, manufacturing in the open hearth, by the Martin process, steel rails containing as high as 0.35 per cent. of phosphorus, with about 0.15 per cent. of carbon, which were not found inferior to Bessemer rails. It is not claimed by the manager of the works that phosphorus is an ingredient to be preferred, or purposely introduced; but only that materials containing it (such as old iron rails, etc.), can be succesfully employed. Other parties have apparently a higher opinion still of the new manipulation, and are prepared to claim for "phosphorus steel" superior qualities. Mr. I. Lowthian Bell alluded to the subject in his recent address as President of the British Iron and Steel Institute, but without expressing a positive opinion. After pointing out that the commercial value of the process turned on the cheap manufacture of ferro-manganese, by means of which only could the necessary amount of manganese be introduced into the Martin bath, without increasing its contents of carbon, Mr. Raymond proceeded to say that the principle alleged to have been discovered at Terrenoire was already known years ago, in this country, at least. Not only had steel been manufactured here, containing high percentages of phosphorus, coupled with low percentages of carbon, and suitable for use in rails, boiler-plates, etc., but the reason of its surprising qualities had been distinctly surmised, if not widely proclaimed. The following analyses and extracts from private letters prove these assertions. Some of them assert a similar principle in -the case of wrought iron ; but the analyses, and the remarks based upon them, have reference solely to the steel manufactured under the superintendence of Mr. Slade, at the works of the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company in Trenton.

Jan 1, 1875

By C. Y. Cheng

THE purpose of this note is to show that the dislocation mechanism controlling the creep of Fe-4 pet Si alloy1 may equally account for the behavior of a-Fe2 over the same temperature range. A recent study of the creep behavior of a-Fe has been made by Ishida et al.2 Their results were in agreement with the mechanism of nonconservative motion of jogged screw dislocations over the entire range of temperatures investigated, from 480° to 1045°K. However, the observed creep rate was much higher than that which could be accounted for by the above model unless the authors assumed that pipe diffusion became significant below 775°K. More recently, Cheng et al.1 inves-gated the creep of Fe-4 pet Si alloy over about the same temperature range and found that the results could be correlated fairly well with a dislocation climb mechanism as represented by Eq. [l]. Proceeding as shown previously,1 if creep is controlled by a single climb mechanism, at intermediate stresses, the shear creep rate, y, can be represented by where n and K are material constants {K is independent of the temperature but dependent on the structure, that is, K decreases during the primary stage and reaches a steady-state value over the secondary stage of creep), t is the applied shear stress, G is the shear modulus, gc is the free energy of activation for creep (usually equal to that for self-diffusion, gd), and RT has the usual meaning. By solving for y, the apparent activation energy for creep, Q which can be determined experimentally, is given by where hc is the enthalpy of activation for creep which usually is also equal to that for self-diffusion, h^. By using Eq. [2], the data in Fig. 2 of Ref. 2 can be re-plotted as shown in Fig. 1. By comparing the two figures, it is seen that the slight increase in the apparent activation for creep over Region II, as noted in Fig. 2 of Ref. 2, is due to the influence of temperature on the shear modulus rather than of the stress on the

Jan 1, 1969

By John Birkinbine

In a former paper* attention was directed to the various forms of pumping machines employed for permanent work in mining and metallurgical processes. The following is simply a collection of memoranda of work done of a temporary character, and is presented by way of comparison with other work of similar nature. In close proximity to the charcoal fnrnace at Pine Grove, Cumberland County, Pa., is a large deposit of superior hematite iron ore, which has been worked for a number of years, and from which many thousand tons of ore have been taken by open pit workings. In July, 1874, the furnace was blown out and operations at the bank suspended, the machinery for draining being removed except a plunger pump, 18 inches in diameter and 66 inches stroke, operated by a steam-engine by means of rods. The pit was allowed to fill with water, and no steps towards its reclamation were taken until November, 1877. At that time the pit was a pond of water at the base of the mountain, having an area of about four acres and a depth of seventy feet. As the pumps, rods, etc., had been submerged for over three years, and partially buried by the mud washed down from the banks, and as it was determined to change the location of the pump for future operations and drive it by water-power, a temporary pumping apparatus was determined upon for reclaiming the pit and keeping it drained until the permanent arrangements could be completed. By opening an old adit about 10 feet of the water was removed, and the area decreased to three acres. The inflow of springs was found to be 250 gallons per minute, and the amount of water contained in the pit was computed to be 45,000,000 gallons. As the inflow would undoubtedly increase while the water sank in the pit, provision was made for removing at least 60,000,000 gallons, at the rate of 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 gallons per day. The company determined to employ a Heald and Cisco centrifugal pump driven by an oscillatinig engine by means of a belt. Steam was supplied by four plain cylinder boilers, each 36 inches diameter

Jan 1, 1879

By A. R. Ledoux

I WAS wondering whether we were going to adhere to our text. It seems to me that we are having a very remarkable meeting of mining engineers this year, because no matter what the texts may be that are assigned to us, we get back toward something higher; we turn to the consideration of questions of ethics, and of applied Christianity. Yesterday we listened to the most eloquent and remarkable address by Mr. Rickard in memory of Dr. Raymond, and it was told us that he was to speak about Raymond's achievements as an engineer. He did say considerable on that subject, but he was himself carried away with the spirit of the man and moved us all by his portrayal of Dr. Raymond's continued and fruitful labors for the betterment of mankind-that is to say his religion. Our President asked me if I would say something this afternoon and I find in the bulletin that the text of the discourses which we are to have here this afternoon is "International Cooperation in Mining in North America." But again I find that the eloquent speaker who has just preceded me has dwelt largely on ethical and spiritual cooperation rather than upon cooperation in mining. That is, cooperation as men, rather .than solely as engineers. The imaginary line dividing Canada from the United States, unmarked by fort or military post, was mentioned by a previous speaker. There are going to be in the future, I am sure, fewer entanglements of the barbed wire of tariff discrimination along our border-to that end let us cooperate. But there has always been a reciprocity in men. A Canadian conceived and created our great transcontinental line, the Great Northern Railway; an American made the Canadian Pacific what it is. In mining and metallurgy, American engineers, backed by American capital, have built up great Canadian industries while Canadian experts have developed some of the resources on this side of the line. They have done much more than develop our resources: some of them have been our leaders in sympathy for labor. It is therefore not a question of creating a spirit of cooperation, but of giving it freer scope and a fuller realization of fraternity-or, to use the .word now more common and of deeper significance-brotherhood.

Jan 4, 1919

By David N. French

In a recent paper, Miyoshi, Hara, and sugimotoL have shown that hardness increases and crack resistance decreases with polishing time in tungsten car-bide-cobalt alloys. They attribute the changes in hardness and crack resistance to cold working in these alloys. More recently Exner2 explains the decrease in crack resistance with the amount of material removed (polishing time) by suggesting that polishing removes a high compressive residual surface stress due to the initial grinding operation. He cites previous work on steel to show grinding can induce surface compressive stresses but offers no direct experimental measurements to support this in cemented tungsten carbides. In recent work we have observed changes in residual stress in the W C phase as measured by X-ray diffraction techniques with changes in polishing conditions.3 As a result of the work of Miyoshi et al.,L a brief study was undertaken to investigate the effects of polishing and grinding on the residual stress in the WC phase and have been reported.4 A single composition of tungsten carbide —10 wt pct Co was used. Two initial conditions were studied: an annealed condition with about -30,000 psi residual stress from the differences in thermal coefficients of expansion of WC and cobalt and, on the same specimen, a surface ground with a 150 grit diamond wheel. Stress was measured in the WC phase using X-ray diffractometry as a function of the amount of material removed by metallographic polishing with 6 diamond paste. The results are shown in Fig. 1. Two things are noted, 1) polishing with 6 p diamond paste has little effect on the annealed sample and 2) the magnitude of the grinding stress is markedly reduced as material is removed. By the time 0.1 mil is removed the surface has a metallographic polish satisfactory for light microscopy examination. Thus the surface, even though polished, can still retain most of the stress due to grinding. Since WC is itself slightly ductile, it seems reasonable that high compressive stresses can be generated in the surface by the plastic deformation accompanying grinding. Exner2 suggests, by analogy with steel, that as a result of grinding both WC and cobalt in the

Jan 1, 1970

By Walter A. English, Ralph Arnold

Though production began in Canada only a short time after the discovery of oil in the United States, it has never attained large proportions, and if we were to judge entirely by the past the reserves of Canada would be put at a very low figure. There are only two areas from which oil is marketed at the present time; one, the old district around Petrolia in southern Ontario, and the other is the small Sheep Creek field near Calgary in Alberta. The former district has produced between 200,000 and 800,000 bbl. annually for the past 40 years, recent figures being near the minimum amount. Sheep Creek has produced about 12,000 bbl. annually for the past five years. The known reserves in proved territory in each of these fields are exceedingly small, when considered in terms of world reserves. The chief hope of Canada for reserves of considerable magnitude lies in the western provinces. Sedimentary rocks similar to those in the productive fields of the United States occupy thousands of square miles in the western provinces, so that it seems likely that somewhere within this great area the peculiar conditions necessary for the presence of oil pools will be found. Prospecting is being carried on energetically by several large companies, as well as by many independents. The Dominion Government, which controls most of the public lands, is pursuing a fairly liberal policy toward the prospector, which should stimulate wild-catting, although the province of British Columbia, which controls public lands within t.hat province, is at present unwilling to give adequate encouragement to make wildcatting attractive. As there is really no assurance that any productive pools will be found in western Canada, the estimates of reserves are subject to a wide possibility of error. In making estimates, the various areas within which geologic conditions are more or less uniform are discussed separately; the estimates given for each area are not given with the idea that there is a reasonable probability of their eventually proving to be correct. It is hoped that an average of these estimates, taken together with those made for other undeveloped countries, will give a correct total of reserves

Jan 1, 1923

By C. R. Hocott

The distribution and movement of fluids in oil reservoirs are influenced to a great extent by capillary forces, which depend upon the size and shape of the pores in the reservoir rock, the surface characteristics of the rock, and the interfacial tension between the fluid phases. This paper presents the results of an investigation of the interfacial tension between salt water and crude oil containing dissolved gas under reservoir conditions. Apparatus and Procedure In the preliminary phases of this investigation, it was found that a scum formed at the oil-water interface, which made measurement of interfacial tension by either the ring or capillary rise methods unreliable. Accordingly, the drop-weight method, in which a fresh interface is continuously formed, was selected. In this method, a tip through which drops of one fluid can be expelled is immersed in a second fluid. At the instant that the drop becomes large enough to fall, the gravitational force tending to pull away the drop exactly balances the interfacial force tending to hold it. From the size of the drop, the dimensions of the tip, and the density of the two fluid phases, the interfacial tension may be calculated. The apparatus consists of a circulating pump for bringing the oil to equilibrium with gas at the desired pressure, a displacement pump for forming the drops, an interfacial tension cell in which the drops are formed, and a density cell to determine the density of the oil. The density of the water is determined separately in another apparatus. A flow diagram of the assembled equipment is shown in Fig. 1. The interfacial tension cell contains a stainless-steel dropping tip suspended from the top and extending below the surface of the oil. The tip is a cylindrical rod with a small hole in the center through which the water was forced to form the drop on the lower face. The walls of the tip were highly polished, to prevent the water on the tip from creeping up the side and increasing the effective diameter. The face of the tip, how-

Jan 1, 1939

By S. F. Ramseyer, E. A. Steigerwald

INFILTRATED structures represent composite materials which are capable of combining high-temperature strength with adequate low-temperature toughness and thermal shock resistance. Although copper- and silver-infiltrated tungsten structures are actually being used in rocket nozzle hardware, adequate understanding of the fracture mechanics of these composite systems is not available. Specifically the relative importance of the strength, ductility, and modulus of the infiltrant in determining composite properties is not known to the extent that optimum composites can be selected. The major portion of experimental effort in the area of composite strength has been devoted to fiber-reinforced systems1 or to systems where a discontinuous phase is imbedded in a relatively ductile matrix.2'3 In the case of high-temperature systems, which are composed of a relatively brittle matrix, such as tungsten or an oxide, a continuous phase exists for the propagation of a crack. The method by which the presence of a conjugate ductile continuous phase influences the gross properties of the composite represents an area which requires further investigation. This technical note presents results which evaluate the effect of infiltrant strength on the strength of the tungsten-base composite. A tungsten matrix and copper-base infiltrant were selected for the initial studies because of the ease of fabrication. Tungsten structures with nominally 20 and 30 pct porosity were evaluated. The porosity was controlled by varying the initial powder size and a ratio of open-to-total porosity greater than 95 pct was obtained by selective sintering cycles. The processing sequence involved hydrostatic pressing followed by a 72-hr presinter in hydrogen at 2000° F and a final sinter at 4000°F for 4 hr in vacuum. The 20 pct porous structure was obtained

Jan 1, 1965

By H. C. Kenny

The annealing or softening temperature of cold-worked copper is appreciably increased by almost unbelievably small amounts of silver. As indicated by some data in this paper, the softening temperature of high-conductivity, tough-pitch copper may be increased from 200" to 350" C. by the addition of only 15 oz. per ton (0.052 per cent) of that element. Because it has this higher annealing temperature as compared with the silver-free metal, silver-bearing copper finds considerable use in industry. For example, when hard-rolled copper is used in operations that involve soldering or tinning, silver-bearing copper insures against loss of strength, whereas silver-free copper becomes "dead soft." Yet—though several investigators, beginning with Caesar and Gernerl in 1916, have shown that small amounts of silver do definitely raise the softening temperature of copper—data are lacking on the problem: What is the specific influence of different amounts of silver on this temperature? It was to help in filling this gap in the knowledge of what might be termed "alloy coppers" that the data given herein were obtained. The softening of cold-worked copper depends, of course, on a number of factors, of which the composition of the material is only one. Other highly important factors are the degree to which the material is cold-worked and the time it is held at the annealing temperature. The method of cold working and the grain size of the metal produced are also significant. All these variables were taken into account in the investigation reported here, and the influence of silver on the electrical conductivity and on the working was also considered. The coppers used in the softening tests were Lake coppers melted and cast by the Calumet and Hecla Consolidated Copper Co. The ires were fabricated by the Roebling Wire Co. and the sheets were rolled at the Battelle Memorial Institute. Partial analyses of some of the coppers are listed in Table 1, with their electrical conductivities.

Jan 1, 1934

By C. C. Hagenbuch

Machine loading of coal into mine cars is increasing rapidly. Particular reasons for its use frequently apply to certain localities, but in general, it is profitable to install mechanical coal-loading equipment: (I) when existing hand-loading contract rates prevent further cost reduction; (2) when the height of the coal bed requires that either top or bottom must be taken to place cars in rooms; (3) when labor shortage or limited house-plant capacity prevents the production of desired tonnage ; (4) when tonnage requirements are in excess of possible hand-loaded production from developed areas; (5) when working places are scattered and it is possible to concentrate production, and therefore supervision, by the installation of mechanical equipment; (6) when rapid development is essential. Having decided to install loading equipment, the problem then arises as to what type is best adapted for a particular mine or coal bed, the choice lying between mobile track equipment, pit-car loaders, scrapers, shaker conveyors, belt conveyors and drag conveyors. MajoR FactoRs Influencing Choice of Equipment In determining the type of equipment to be used, the following major factors must be studied: Grades.—Adverse grades, while permitting other types of loading equipment to work successfully, may prevent the success of a shaker conveyor installation. Thickness of Bed.—The thickness of coal governs the choice of equipment. A machine that requires 5 ft. of head room should not be selected for a 3-ft. bed where otherwise it would be unnecessary either to brush top or to lift bottom. Nature of Pavement.—Soft or scaly bottoms are unsuitable for the use of any type of digging loader, shaker conveyors or scraper loaders. nigging loaders and scraper loaders scale the bottom, mixing it with the coal and causing preparation difficulties; shaker-conveyor drives frequently work themselves loose, destroying the conveyor alignment and creating maintenance problems. Nature of Roof.—With any type of loading machine, it is policy to obtain the maximum possible tonnage per move per set-up. This must

Jan 1, 1931

By E. Gaujot

IN connection with the question of coal waste and economy in mining, we would call the attention of those interested to an apparatus invented by M. Dernencourt, Superintendent of the Anzin Division of the Anzin Coal Company, North of France. This apparatus is known in France and Belgium under the name of prop screw-jack (vis botte), and has been used with good results in the above-named countries for some years past. M. Ponson gives, in his " Trait6 de I'exploitation des Mines," a description of it (page 533), but as the description given is old, the work not widely known in this country, and as some valuable improvements have been made since, I thought it might be useful to give a description of it, having seen it in 'operation in 1867, while in Europe to attend the great Exposition, and on a scientific tour to the mining districts of France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy. The prop screw-jack is composed of the following pieces : I. The body or column B, Fig. 4 [Plate (I)], of oak or yellow pine, sawed square, the bark taken off, and any length, proportionate to the vein. The smallest are 10 inches diameter at the base, and 9 inches at the top, the height being from 12 to 15 inches less than the size of the vein. In the axis of this column, and at the top end, is a cylindrical opening or hole, C, 22 inches diameter, 10 inches deep, for the screw, S. II. Two wrought-iron rings, R R, to strengthen the two extremities of the column ; the rings must be put on hot. III. A cast,-iron washer, E, with hole in centre a little larger than the screw, to be put on the top of the column, and on which the nut is to rest; the top side of this washer must be faced on the lathe, also the bottom of the nut, to prevent friction. IV. The screw, S, having a total length of 12 inches and a diameter of 24 inches (for very high veins this diameter may be increased to 3 inches), and has on its top a wrought-iron plate, T,

By Frederic Laist

IN the spring of 1931 an experiment was made at Anaconda with a small reverberatory furnace, with which was combined a roasting shaft. The arrangement is shown in the accompanying drawing (Fig. 1) and requires but little explanation. The general idea was to roast .flotation concentrates, mixed with the proper fluxing materials, by dropping them down a heated shaft, from which the calcines would enter the smelting zone of the reverberatory furnace through an opening in the roof. The hearth of the reverberatory was 3 ft. wide by 21 ft. long. The roasting shaft was 3 ft. square inside and had an effective height of about 20 ft. . The reverberatory furnace was arranged so that it could be charged either directly through the roof with regular hot calcines, in the usual manner, or by means of the shaft, at the top of which were a feed-ing arrangement by which cold flotation concentrates, suitably fluxed, could be fed continuously and a pipe through which cold air was blown in. Means were provided for distributing the feed over the cross-section of the roasting shaft. At first a mechanical arrangement was used but later it was found that a simple cone served the purpose equally well and gave less operating trouble. On account of the small size of the equipment, it was realized that absolute capacity and fuel consumption figures would mean but little. It was not to be expected that ratios comparable to those obtained in large furnaces could be gotten, and the only way in which any idea could be obtained as to the possibilities of the combination furnace was to run it in parallel with the reverberatory furnace charged in the usual manner and operating without the shaft. The results of such parallel runs are given in Table 1. The amount of oil burned in the reverberatory was purposely maintained at substantially the same rate during both runs in order that the benefits resulting from the shaft might be gaged.

Jan 1, 1933

By Felix B. Shay

THE Agua Fria mine is in eastern Honduras at Lat. 140° 06' N., Long. 86° 36’ W. Danli, the seat of the local municipal government, is the nearest town. The property is approximately 44 miles east of Tegucigalpa, the terminus of a truck road from the Pacific coast. The mine lies at an altitude of 3300 ft. with surrounding elevations as high as 6000 feet. For 20 years the oxidized croppings of the Agua Fria vein had been worked intermittently when in 1927 an attempt was made to open the property. A shaft was sunk 300 ft. and considerable ore was blocked out, but before a mill could be installed financial difficulties arose and the mine reverted to the original owners. Erle P. Halliburton, of Los Angeles, purchased the property in 1934. At that time a careful consideration of all factors involved showed that air transport was the only practical method of moving the equipment and machinery necessary to commence production. The other alternative was by muleback, which required sectionalizing all equipment to a maximum load of 200 lb., and during the rainy season this type of freighting was subject to serious delays. It was decided to purchase a trimotor Ford powered by three Pratt and Whitney Wasp B motors developing 400 hp. each. There were several reasons for the choice: (1) this type of plane was available at a reasonable price, owing to its replacement by faster models on most of the airlines in the United States; (2) the ship was capable of carrying a pay load of 3000 lb. over the required distance; (3) since this airplane had been widely used there would be no difficulty in securing competent personnel or in purchasing spare parts. It was necessary to rebuild the plane for cargo service. The windows were removed and the fuselage was entirely covered. A hatch was cut in the top of the fuselage to receive heavy crane loads and pieces of freight that were too large or too long to go through the rear door. The seats were removed and the interior of the plane was lined with Duralumin sheets. A heavy-duty landing gear was installed and the floor was reinforced. The nearest site for an airport was two miles north of the mine. The necessary grading was done by a small track-type tractor with a wheeled grader, which was brought in overland. Six weeks was required for bring-

Jan 1, 1940

By H. A. Wentworth

The Huff electrostatic plant of the United States Smelting CO., operated in conjunction with its wet concentrator at Midvale, Utah, was the second plant of substantial size installed using the Huff process, and the first plant to be put in operation on the so-called Western complex ores. , In spite of the machinery being of early design and consequently embracing many of the mechanical weaknesses incident to a pioneer plant the mill has operated steadily and uniformly since the summer of 1909, about five years now, without any material change other than some rearrangement of the machinery for better handling of the sizes. The ore, at present coming almost entirely from the company's mines in Bingham, is of practically the same composition as that upon which the plant was first put in operation. The crude ore, consisting of the sulphides of copper, lead, zinc, and iron, and containing small amounts of gold and silver, is brought by train and delivered to the hoppers of the wet concentrator, where by jig and table treatment, there are produced a shipping lead concentrate, a tailing, and a middling product, the latter being conveyed in push cars to the adjoining electrostatic mill. The crude ore delivered to the wet concentrator contains from 6 to 9.5 per cent. zinc. At times the plant is used also for the treatment of custom ores from the Bingham district and elsewhere, and at such times the results of the plant vary according to the material in use, but as by far the larger portion of the product is that from the company's own mines, the results given below are fairly indicative of the general work obtained. The diagram, Fig. 1, illustrates graphically the flow of the ore through the electrostatic mill. The middling coming from the wet mill, containing from 15 to 18 per cent. moisture, is hoisted while on the cars by an elevator, and delivered from the top of the elevator to a hopper over the drier. The drier first installed was of too low capacity to take care of the moisture present in the tonnage to which the mill was later

Jan 1, 1915

By Charles Catlett

Some years ago the writer was struck by what might be called the remarkable vitality of the Virginia furnaces during the panic of 1893; and attention was called to the fact in the American Manufacturer of February 8,1895. From the second half of 1892, which was a period of maximum output, to the second half of 1893, when the full effects of the depression had been reached, the output of pig-iron had fallen off in Illinois 85; in New York, 66; in Ohio, 51; in Tennessee, 44; in Pennsylvania, 28; and in Virginia only 15 per cent. It seemed a reasonable inference that the State which had thus shown its marked ability to meet hard times could make and market its product with a larger margin of profit than any of the other States. This was true at that time, and to a certain extent the reasoning still holds good; but my mistake was in not fully realizing the marked effect of the Mesabi development, combined with reduced economies in transportation, and the consequent advantage to those furnaces which were so situated as to utilize these new commercial factors. The effect of these factors is seen in comparing the second half of 1894 with the second half of 1892. New York had dropped off 44, Alabama 23, Tennessee 21, Illinois 19, and Virginia 16 per cent., while Pennsylvania had increased 5 and Ohio 10 per cent. While there is no question of the great economy which has been made possible for certain interests which are peculiarly situated with reference to the ores of the Northwest, it is yet too early to say what furnaces not so fortunate will have to pay for their raw material. Already an increase of twenty cents per ton of ore has been announced, based upon increased cost of production.

Jan 1, 1900

By F. N. Speller

Interest in the corrosion problem seems to continue without abatement and is bringing practical results. At least four important conferences on this subject have been held during the last 5 months. Those interested in steel-frame structures are taking steps to study vulnerable points on account of the failure of some minor parts in certain buildings after 35 years of service. The steam power-plant group, including the railroads, realize the importance of a better knowledge of corrosion, especially under modern high-temperature boiler operations. The chemical and refrigerating industries have already conducted a systematic study of depreciation of metals by corrosion, for which they have spent considerable money and time during the last 2 years with encouraging results. More has probably been done to control corrosion in the atmosphere and in closed water systems, because the work on these phases of the problem started over 15 years ago and the important factors are now fairly well understood. As a result of all this work, there is now little excuse for corrosion in water conduits, recirculating condensers and cooling systems, since economical means of prevention have been worked out to meet nearly all situations where such corrosion occurs. The entire Baltimore water supply was treated with lime at a cost of only 35 c. per million gallons and the rate of attack on the pipes has been reduced to not over 20 per cent. of what it was before the treatment. Yearly damage to water mains in Baltimore is estimated at $300,000, and in New York City at $5,000,000, not including damage to water conduits in buildings. In some cities corrosion is now recognized by water works' engineers as a major problem. In the oil industry, there are evidently three general classes of corrosion, relating to: (I) Production, (2) transportation, and (3) refining. (1) Production.—Some fields, those of California for example, have little corrosion trouble in the wells. In others this is a major problem and should be a strong incentive to the development of more resistant metals at a reasonable cost. E. G. Woodruff,' consulting geologist, has pointed out that more of the oil of the future will probably come from the

Jan 1, 1927