Search Documents

The Marine Corps has found the Mining and Sapping Department one of the most efficient individual organizations of the Soldiers of the Sea. The men of the unit were assembled among "hard rock" miners from Montana, Idaho, and Utah; most of the detachment hail from Butte. It includes experienced gas-helmet men, blacksmiths, compressors, carpenters, timbermen, concrete and cement gun experts, diamond drill runners, civil and mining engineers, in fact, artisans of every craft in and around mines. Experienced miners with both technical college training in mining and engineering and the practical turn of actual work as mine superintendents and foremen are used as instructors in their craft, except thirty-eight who "shoved off" with the Eleventh Regiment to actually apply their skill in Marine trenches abroad. They are the "finishers" after the trenches are dug. Covering and camouflaging the tops for protection against attacks from the air, engineering the arrangement of the trenches for protection against shell fire, establishing listening posts by projecting "Russian saps" within a few yards of the enemy's trench; sapping or tunnelling into the very lines of the Teutons, and leaving pleasant little bundles of explosives there; are just a few of the high spots touched by these wizards of the soil. They make the trenches comfortable, plastering the interiors until the underground bunk houses not only look like hotels but are just as comfortable "with all the modern conveniences." Draining is another feature which the work of the Miners and Sappers at least partially assures.

Jan 1, 1919

C. H. BIERBAUM,* Buffalo, N. Y.--I agree with Dr. Merica that the eutectoid has a distinct effect upon the alloy and also that, as yet, it is difficult to say at just what point this eutectoid occurs or the conditions under which it appears; that is, the percentages of copper, tin, zinc, lead, and the other elements together with the temperature of pouring and the rate of cooling that is necessary; all seem to have a contributing effect. Some authorities, Law for instance, gives it as 9 per cent. of tin, yet under certain conditions I have found it with a lower percentage of tin to copper contents than that. The hard delta and the soft alpha crystals are both necessary for a bearing alloy; the one supplements the other. I am not inclined to think that phosphorus has any effect upon the eutectoid forming. The phosphide, PCu3, forms in and around the delta but is and remains distinct and separated from it. Etching with ferric chloride and then with nitric acid shows this very distinctly; it darkens the eutectoid and the other parts and leaves the phosphide bright. The rate of cooling determines the size of the crystals and the eutectoid together with their distribution and orientation. It is possible to chill the alloy to such an extent Where no eutectoid appears. I think it has been positively demonstrated that only an alpha and a beta appear. when this copper-tin alloy has been poured between two polished ingots

Jan 1, 1919

The name of this Committee, which was formerly known as the Committee on Increase of Membership, was changed in the revised Constitution adopted last year. At the same time, the form of organization and the functions of the Committee slightly altered. Previously it had concerned itself only with endeavoring to secure applications for membership from those who are, or should be, interested in the field of activities of the Institute and in a position to benefit from membership in it. The Committee was large and widely scattered, with the result that it was impracticable for it to hold meetings and discuss any of the larger problems involved in stimulating growth along sound and healthful lines. At the suggestion of last year's Chairman, the Assistant Secretary of the Institute, an executive committee of the main committee, consisting of two past presidents and three other members, each a prominent figure in one branch of the mineral industry, and with the past Chairman as executive secretary, was created to make a study of the general problems of membership. The first problem it took up was the membership structure of the Institute in its relation to beginners in the industry. After reviewing the organization of the three other national engineering societies and the experience of the Institute during the past ten years with the Junior Associate grade of membership, the Committee recommended to the Board of Directors, on Nov. 21, 1928, that this grade of membership be abolished and the two grades of Student Associate and

Jan 1, 1929

By L. Graydon Carpenter, Donald E. Garrett

Probably the largest single tungsten deposit in the U. S. is one that has yet to produce any tungsten; it is not even listed in tables showing U. S. reserves. This deposit is at Searles Lake, Calif., where the brine contains about 70 ppm WO3. Small though the concentration is, the amount of brine in the lake is so great that it is estimated at 170 million lb of WO3 (8.5 million units), equaling the total of all other known reserves in the U. S. This dry lake is located in the basin formed by the Argus and Slate ranges in the northeastern corner of the Mojave Desert (Fig. 1). It consists of a massive salt body some 35 sq miles in extent, varying in thickness from 0 to 120 ft and containing more than 3 billion tons of salt. A central section of about L. G. CARPENTER and D. E. GARRETT are with the Research Dept., American Potash & Chemical Corp., Trona, Calif. TP 47881. Manuscript, Nov. 4, 1958. AlME Trans., Vol. 214, 1959. 8 sq miles is exposed salt; the remaining area is overlain by mud. Except for the exposed sodium chloride (10 to 15 ft thick) the body consists of a very complex and heterogenous mixture of soluble crystals, containing at least eight major phases. It is only about 53 pct solid, the voids being occupied by a dense brine which is the raw material for two chemical companies operating in the valley.

Jan 3, 1959

By Lawrence Adler

MINE hoist ropes have hitherto been selected by successive approximation, a process both tedious and inexact. The proposed expression is a readily solved synthesis of existing data and the following standard equation:' [ W + Wr + (W + Wr) -a 9 (W + W)f + b] n=T [1] For convenience, a glossary of all terms appears on page 564. Since rope weight (W,) and bending load (B) are functions of unit rope weight (Wv), which in turn is a function of rope strength (T), W, and B can be expressed in terms of T. W, as a Function of T: A study of the curve in Fig. 1, unit rope weight vs strength, yields Eq. 2: W. = -f- [2] Therefore Wr = WvL = T. [3] iv B as a Function of T: From Fig. 2, unit rope weight vs diameter, Eq. 4 is obtained: W, = 1.6d2 [4] B is related2 to d and D, and d has been expressed in terms of W, by Eq. 4, so the curve B vs W, (Fig. 3) gives Eq. 5: 177,000 177,000 This may readily be checked from the expression3 for a 6x19 rope, i.e., d3 B = 288,000D Since d2 = 0.625 W, and N = substituting d into the above expression gives Ea. 6: 180,000 180,000 B T, which will be used. [6] Into Eq. 1 substitute Eq. 3 and Eq. 6, noting that f=0.02: W + T 1.02+=T. [7]

Jan 1, 1958

By S. P. Sharples

Having occasion a few weeks ago to investigate the subject of black band iron ore in West Virginia, I was surprised at being met at the outset with a denial of its existence. One gentleman went. so far as to offer one hundred dollars an acre for any land in West Virginia that contained a seam or vein of even a single foot in thickness, and when shown the ore he acknowledged that it was genuine, but declared it had been imported. That black band does occur in West Virginia is to-day well known to a number of persons. There is a seam on the Gauley River of about a foot in thickness of good ore, which I understand Mr. Lewis and others are making preparations to work. The great trouble with black band ores as heretofore found in this country has been their limited extent. At Fort Washington, for instance, they had a very fine show ing of ore, but it soon gave out. It has also been asserted that the black band ores of the Western Coal Measures were worthless in the furnace, and Fort Washington has been pointed out as an example of the fate of any one who should undertake to work them. But they have been successfully worked at Youngstown and in other parts of' Ohio, and I am assured by old furnace-men from Ohio that there is not the slightest difficulty in. working them if properly managed. The deposits to which I wish to call the attention of the Institute,

Jan 1, 1882

By L. G. Austin, R. R. Klimpel

This communication points out that serious errors exist in some current treatments of the random fracture of solids, including the prior treatments by Klimpel and Austin, Gilvarry, and Gaudin and Meloy. The problem considered in all of these papers is: what cumulative weight versus size distribution is expected for the fragments produced by fracture of a particle? The basic assumption made is that fracture surfaces propagate in random directions from weak flaws in the solid (these weak flaws being activated to fracture by applied stress), with the activated weak flaws distributed at random spatially within the solid. The previous treatments considered fracture in three dimensions, and all use similar physical models, although the mathematical techniques were somewhat different. We first noticed that these treatments were in error when we attempted to reduce the equations developed to the simple case of fracture of a one-dimensional particle, e.g. a long, thin fiber which breaks along its length. For this simple case, it is readily shown that the assumption of random fracture leads to the expression P(V) = (r/Vo) (1-V/Vo) r-1 dV (1) is the probability of occurrence of a fragment of length within the range V to V + dV; V being length dimension, from r random fractures passing through an original size of Vo to produce r + 1 fragments. This equation agreed with the one-dimensional form of an equivalent equation in the original Klimpel-Austin treatment. However, in this treatment it was then stated that, "The fractional weight below size V is [ ]

Jan 8, 1968

By Joseph Hodgson

Introduction SINCE about 70 per cent. of the total cost of mining is due to underground work which is out of sight, it is essential that expenditures should be made here to the best advantage. A great many mistakes have been made which were expensive, but perhaps these have not even been detected by mine owners. In the future these may be minimized to some extent, especially if there is cooperative effort on the part of each employee. I have been interested in this subject for some years and have tried to deduce principles and methods. These have proved highly advantageous and may also be of help to others. Some corporations, like the United States Steel, and the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., have done a great deal in this field by having stated meetings of their organizations, with the view to interchanging ideas among their men and educating them along the lines of concerted effort. Since no man knows all about the various branches of mining, it is advisable that frequent meetings of the operating department be held for the interchange of ideas and that all members of the organization have an opportunity to express themselves on the various subjects. It has often been found that in discussions between heads of departments, foremen and bosses, many valuable suggestions may be obtained which promote the best interests of the company. The method regarded as the most conducive to cooperative effort, and pursued by the organization, is to analyze and develope the different phases of various mining subjects at regular meetings.

Jan 5, 1916

By A. F. Crawley

THIS paper describes part of a series of density measurements on low melting point metals being undertaken at the Mines Branch, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Ottawa, Canada. This program has received support from the Canadian Zinc and Lead Research Committee and the International Lead and Zinc Research Organization. Examples of the type of work being done have already been given in earlier papers' , which deal with the densities of lead, tin, and some of their alloys. Densities were measured using a graphite pyc-nometer by a technique which has already been described." The cadmium and indium, supplied by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Co. of Canada were of 99.999 pct purity. Density determinations on indium, as for lead and tin,1,2 were made under a vacuum of about 5 x 10-6 torr because the oxidation and vaporization characteristics of the metal do not create experimental difficulties. This contrasts markedly with cadmium which, even at the relatively low temperatures of our experiments, has a high vapor pressure and a strong oxidation potential. To suppress the harmful effects of these properties, determinations on cadmium were made with success under an atmosphere of argon, the technique having been previously established in this laboratory for measurements on zinc.3 The densities of cadmium and indium are listed in Table I and plotted in Figs. 1 and 2. From the graphs, it is readily observed that the densities of both metals vary linearly with temperature. This relationship expressed mathematically is of the form:

Jan 1, 1969

By S. P. Sharples

HAVING occasion a few weeks ago to investigate the subject of black band iron ore in West Virginia, I was surprised at being met at the outset with a denial of its existence. One gentleman went so far as to offer one hundred dollars an acre for any land in West Virginia that contained a seam or vein of even a single foot in thickness, and when shown the ore he acknowledged that it was genuine, but declared it had been imported. That black band does occur in West Virginia is to-day well known to a number of persons. There is a seam on the Gauley River of about a foot in thickness of good ore, which I understand Mr. Lewis and others are making preparations to work. The great trouble with black band ores as heretofore found in this country has been their limited extent. At Fort Washington, for instance, they had a very fine show ing of ore, but it soon gave out. It has also been asserted that the black band ores of the Western Coal Measures were worthless in the furnace, and Fort Washington has been pointed out as an example of the fate of any one who should undertake to work them. But they have been successfully worked at Youngstown and in other parts of Ohio, and I am assured by old furnace-men from Ohio that there is not the slightest difficulty it working them if properly managed. The deposits to which I wish to call the attention of the Institute,

Jan 1, 1882

A group of prominent engineers and contractors of Chicago and vicinity have cooperated in forming a Joint Committee on Military Engineering. The founders are members of all of the leading engineering and contracting organizations of Chicago, including the local branches of the national engineering societies. The purposes of the Committee are to further military preparedness among engineers, contractors and their associates by the following means: (1) Courses of lectures; (2) assigned reading; (3) studies and practical instruction in military engineering;. (4) assisting engineers to qualify as officers in the National Reserve Corps of Civilian Engineers; (5) urging enlistment in and support for engineer troops of the National Guard and such other organizations as the Government may create; (6) furthering instruction in military engineering in training camps and the attendance in them of those qualified; (7) by such other means as from time to time may be deemed advisable. The Joint Committee has already prepared a program covering the vital points outlined. To date the program is practically complete for a period extending from April 20 to July 25. Something of interest will be taken up each week, including lectures by Lieutenant-Colonel W. B. Judson, Engineer Corps, U. S. Army; two lectures by Major P. S. Bond, Engineer Corps, U. S. Army; Lieutenant-Colonel Mason M. Patrick, Engineer Corps, U. S. Army, and several exhibition drills, terrain exercises and inspection trips under the direction and guidance of various officers of the Engineer Troops of the Illinois National Guard. Additions to the program will be made from time to time. '

Jan 5, 1916

By B. B. Cox

The principal event during 1936 was the sale of Mosul Oilfields, Ltd. to Mosul Holdings, Ltd., a British company with French and American participation, and the expansion of its wildcat activities to untested structures on its West Tigris concession. Mosul Holdings continued the exploration of its low-gravity Qaiyarah-Najmah-Jawan-Qasab field. The Iraq Petroleum Company's systematic exploration and exploitation of its Kirkuk field was continued on a scientific unitized basis. Pressures and gas-oil ratios remained satisfactory. All wells were produced by flowing. A stabilization plant large enough to supply the 4,000,000-ton pipe line to the Mediterranean was completed at Kirkuk about the close of the year and only sweet oil is now being exported. The Khanaqin Oil Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., Ltd., continued the normal exploitation of its Naft Khaneh oil field, refining and marketing through the Rafidain Oil Co., Ltd. for local Iraq market. This field lies partly on the Iraq side of the boundary and partly on the Iranian side, the latter portion being known as Naft-i-Shah. Only the Iraq side is considered in this paper. Slightly more than 30,000,000 bbl. of crude was produced in Iraq during 1936. The I.P.C. exported all crude sold outside of Iraq and showed an increase of about 2,500,000 bbl. over the preceding year. Crude production in Iraq for export in 1934 was 7,096,669 bbl.'; in 1935 it was 27,014,904 bbl. and in 1936 it was 29,521,053 barrels.

Jan 1, 1937

By G. Gutierrez, M. C. Fuerstenau, J. D. Miller

The response of pure goethite and two natural iron ores to flotation with potassium octyl hydroxamate is presented. The ores contained 12.5% and 39.7% iron; concentrates containing 69.5% and 61.5% iron, respectively, were obtained with additions of 0.4 lb/ton hydroxamate. Selective flotation of iron oxides from associated gangue minerals has proven difficult in the past with standard collectors, such as sulfonates and fatty acids. As a result, recent work has been directed toward silica flotation with calcium activation after the iron oxide surfaces have been blinded with certain starches.& The results obtained with this technique are encouraging. This method, however, involves depressing a mineral that would normally float under the conditions employed. A preferable method would involve floating the iron oxide because quartz is naturally depressed until activated. Earlier work involved this approach, but in view of the results obtained, collectors that exhibit greater specificity for iron are needed. During an investigation of chrysocolla flotation with potassium octyl hydroxamate, a metal chelate former, it was observed that pyrite floated well with low additions of collector.3 This phenomenon suggests that hydroxamate has a rather strong affinity for iron, and that other iron-bearing minerals should also respond to flotation with octyl hydroxamate. The object of this paper is to determine this response. The experimental work was divided into areas, the first of which involved microflotation experiments with pure goethite with an apparatus described previously.4 Goethite was selected because of the ease

Jan 1, 1968

A group of prominent engineers and contractors of Chicago and vicinity have cooperated in forming a Joint Committee on Military Engineering. The founders are members of all of the leading engineering and contracting organizations of Chicago, including the local branches of the national engineering societies. The purposes of the Committee are to further military preparedness among engineers, contractors and their associates by the following means: (1) Courses of lectures; (2) assigned reading; (3) studies and practical instruction in military engineering;. (4) assisting engineers to qualify as officers in the National Reserve Corps of Civilian Engineers; (5) urging enlistment in and support for engineer troops of the National Guard and such other organizations as the Government may create; (6) furthering instruction in military engineering in training camps and the attendance in them of those qualified; (7) by such other means as from time to time may be deemed advisable. The Joint Committee has already prepared a program covering the vital points outlined. To date the program is practically complete for a period extending from April 20 to July 25. Something of interest will be taken up each week, including lectures by Lieutenant-Colonel W. B. Judson, Engineer Corps, U. S. Army; two lectures by Major P. S. Bond, Engineer Corps, U. S. Army; Lieutenant-Colonel Mason M. Patrick, Engineer Corps, U. S. Army, and several exhibition drills, terrain exercises and inspection trips under the direction and guidance of various officers of the Engineer Troops of the Illinois National Guard. Additions to the program will be made from time to time.

Jan 5, 1916

By Tracy Jarrett

In 14-karat gold alloys, as in 10-karat gold alloys,3 the addition of such metals as zinc, nickel, copper and silver produces a wide range of physical and chemical proper-ties such as color, hardness, corrosion resist-ance and melting points. These important factors made gold alloys desirable in the optical work and for jewelry. In 14-karat gold alloys, as well as in 10-karat or 12-karat, it is possible to have two golds of the same color, one of which will corrode more than the other, although it may be harder. Some of these alloys have been investigated by F. E. Carter,1 E. M. Wise,5 and L. Sterner Rainer.4 In this group of alloys the gold content of 58.3 per cent (14-karat) was held constant, while the copper varied from 36 to 24 per cent. The balance of the alloy consisted of one, two, or three of the metals silver, zinc, and nickel. All the alloys were melted in an induction furnace and cast into an ingot that meas-ured 3 by 1/4 by 3/4 in. The method of determining the melting points, color deter-minations and acid test have been discussed in previous papers by the author.2,3 It is necessary to use small test bars (Fig. r). The tensile bars were annealed at 1300°F. for 20 min. and then air-cooled. There being a very marked drop when the yield point was reached, "the drop of the beam" method was used in determining the yield point.

Jan 1, 1940

By W. A. Oates, J. S. Blakemore, E. O. Hall

AS part of an investigation into the effect of hydrogen on the serrated yielding of Ni-Cu alloys,' it was necessary to determine the solubility of hydrogen in the alloys of interest. With the exception of the work by Fukusima and Mitui2 who investigated the solubility of hydrogen in solid Ni-Cu alloys at 20 wt pct intervals at 1050°, 700°, and 350°C, the information in the literature is limited.3-10 Alloys were prepared from deoxidized Analar Copper and Mond Nickel pellets.' Wire samples were hydrogenated at 7.8 atm in an autoclave consisting of 5 ft of thick-walled Inconel 600 tube with a resistance furnace around the middle portion. The top end, at room temperature, was fitted with a safety valve, a calibrated pressure gage, and a sample inlet, while the bottom end, again at room temperature, was filled with water. After reaching equilibrium samples were quenched by dropping from the high-temperature region of the autoclave into water. They were then quickly transferred to liquid nitrogen where they were stored until analyzed for hydrogen using an Exhalograph.11 The results, which are shown in Fig. 1, represent the mean of two separate determinations on each sample. Because of the lower level of hydrogen at the high copper end of the series, the results here are of poor precision using this method. Fortunately, the results of Himmler9 using the Sieverts technique are available for these copper-rich alloys (>80 at. pct Cu)

Jan 1, 1969

By Tuncel M. Yegulalp, Malcolm T. Wane

In general, many problems relating to the exploitation of mineral deposits are probabilistic in nature. This derives from the fact that the geologic universe is inherently random. Probability theory and statistics have been found useful for forecasting the behavior of natural events that occur in the geologic universe. The objective of this paper is to outline the application of the theory of extremes to this forecasting problem. Consider the design of an underground structure or the design of a rock slope. The initial step is the formulation of the various possible structural actions which result from the geometry of the layout. For a given structural model, various intensities of behavior are possible depending upon the load, deformation, and material characteristic spectra, respectively. Of popular interest to mining people is the failure behavior or condition. A necessary feature of the analysis is the rupture strength of the material. Information on the rupture strength is derived from testing either in situ or in the laboratory and the usual outcome is a variation in the test results. This variation is overcome by constructing a frequency distribution of rupture strengths, and then determining a measure of central tendency and variability. The main feature of interest in the analysis is the failure characteristic and its percentage chance of occurrence. Hence, one is naturally led to examine those areas of a distribution curve which are termed the tails. The statistical concepts which can most efficiently handle such areas are contained within extreme value statistics.

Jan 8, 1969

By F. W. McNair

WITHIN the last twenty-five or thirty years the actual operations of the great mining industry have passed almost wholly under the charge of men trained in the technical colleges. It follows that the industry is profoundly influenced for good or ill by the character of the training which the college graduate receives, and the relations existing between the industry and the colleges. This fact seems to be generally recognized, as evidenced, for example, by the existence of a Committee on Technical Education created some two or three years ago by the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America. In 1921 this committee rendered a very able and. extremely well poised reports of technical education as applied to the prospective mining engineer. It deserves the attention of every one interested in the effectiveness of engineering training. That the importance of the relation between the mining industry and the engineering colleges is recog-nized is evidenced also by the mass of criticism, usually adverse, which is proffered to and often hurled at the colleges by those in the industry. The man inn the field sometimes goes so far as to say that engineering educa-tion is hopelessly inefficient and its product worthless, while the college worker sometimes complains that the demands of the industrialist are too numerous and conflicting to be met, and adds that they would' best be ignored. Between these extremes, there seems to be a general consensus of opinion that the training of the would-be engineer can be, and. ought to be, made much better than it now is.

Jan 4, 1923

By T. M. Morris

R. T. Hukki (Finland Institute of Technology, Helsinki, Finland)—Two schools of thought are developing concerning the order of the rate of flotation. The paper by Morris is intended to show experimental evidence in favor of the first order rate. Arbiter, on the other hand, has presented an earlier paper" to demonstrate the validity of the second order rate equation. Unfortunately his method of plotting is open to criticism, as pointed out by Morris." A more sensitive method of plotting has been described by the writer,= whereby the data presented by Arbiter demonstrate the superiority of the second order plot. The general rate equation may be written in the following forms for the integrated first and second order equations: (A) t = -1/k In Co-R/Co (first order) [4] 1 (B) 1/t = - kCo + kCo2 1/R (second order) As a first approximation the value of Co may be taken as a unity, 100 pct or 1. Whether or not this is the case in all tests performed by Morris is impossible to judge, owing to the fact that the flotation times are extremely short, e.g. 150 sec in tests A. It would, indeed, be very interesting to know what the total recovery R would be after 1 hr of flotation, for example, instead of after 150 sec. Certainly there are circumstances when C, approaches unity within a very small margin of error. Morris has used the same approximation in his example D "since the feed to this cleaner

Jan 1, 1954

(Under this heading will be published notes sent to the Secretary of the Institute by members or other persons introduced by members.) No. 504.-Member, technical graduate, draft exempt, who has been employed as research chemist in cyanidation and flotation for past 5 years, desires position with large company as metallurgist or assistant mill superintendent. Especially experienced in flotation of gold and silver ores, but am also familiar with flotation of lead-zinc ores. Foreign service not desired. Will be at liberty after Dec. 1, 1918. No. 505.-Member, graduate mining engineer, with 8 years' practical experience, including experience as superintendent. Desires position as engineer, foreman or superintendent of mine. No. 509.-Petroleum geologist and engineer, member, now engaged in consulting work, with five years' experience in Mid-Continent and Eastern fields, desires position with responsible concern either in South or South American countries. No. 510.- Chemical engineer, member, technical graduate, at present officer in Chemical Warfare Service of the United States Army, desires position in the East. Several-years' experience in design, construction, and operation of chemical and metallurgical plants. Minimum salary, $200. Available Jan. 1, 1919. No. 511.-Mining engineer, 32 years old, single, desires position. Speaks Spanish and French. Recently manager of large copper mines. Experience in steam shovel and underground mining. No. 512.-Mining engineer, technical graduate, member, 32 years old, single, 10 years' experience in United States, Mexico and Central America in mining, prospecting, milling, chemical research and business experience. Speaks Spanish. Open for engagement as superintendent or assistant. Can give references as to ability and integrity.

Jan 1, 1919