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By John Chapman, J. C. Vaughan

Although a considerable amount of practical importance attaches to systems involving gases and molten metals, little is known regarding the effects of alloy elements upon the solubility of gases in liquid iron. The solubilities of hydrogen1 and nitrogen2,3 in pure liquid iron arc known and it has been shown that small amounts of silicon and aluminum3 exert only a small effect upon the solubility of nitrogen but greatly increase its rate of solution. This paper presents the results of a study of the solubility of nitrogen, at pressures approximately one atmosphere, in molten iron containing up to 15.8 per cent silicon. EXPEBIMENTAL METHOD There are two general methods by which the solubility of a gas in a molten metal may be determined. In the first, which Sievertsl employed, the gas is measured from a burette into the enclosure containing the metal and the amount absorbed is found by subtracting from the total volume that of the dead space in the container. The second method, which was used successfully for pure liquid iron, is to expose the molten metal to the gas until absorption ceases, then to solidify and analyze the metal. In either method the stirring produced by inductive heating prevents the development of a stagnant layer at the metal surface and ensures actual attainment of equilibrium. Obviously the second method is accurate only when the saturated metal is capable of solidifying without gas evolution. Since the rate of solution of nitrogen in iron is increased by the presence of silicon, it was to be expected that the rate of evolution would be correspondingly increased and for this reason the first method was selected. A sketch of the furnace is shown in Fig. 1. A small high-frequency coil having 17 turns fitted closely around a fused silica tube, 2 in. in diameter, in which was placed, on a bed of 60-mesh alumina sand, an

Jan 1, 1940

By C. E. Shoenfelt, E. W. Krampert

The major oil discovery in 1938 for Wyoming was the General Petroleum Corporation's So. 1 Government, C.NW.SE. of sec. 21-35N-77W, on the Cole Creek structure in central Wyoming, 14 miles northeast of Casper. This well found commercial oil production in basal Cloverly sand (Lakota) at 7978 ft. and was completed on May 28, 1938, at 8019 ft., 3 ft. in Morrison shale. It had an initial produrtion of 10 bbl. of oil an hour but at the end of a 7-day test made 336 bbl. of oil in 24 hr. During 1938, the well produced a total of 23,161 bbl. of oil. It has been agitated about 10 days out of each month to provide fuel for lease and drilling operations, the balance of the time it has been shut in pending the completion of the second well on the structure. The Cole Creek oil is of intermediate base and has an A.P.I. gravity of 32.7". The record of the well contains the "tops" listed in the accompanying tabulation. Tops in General Petroleum Corporation's No. 1 Government Well Feet 2210 Top of the Mesa Verde (Teapot sandstone) 2960 Top Steele shale 4500 Shannon sand; good show of oil and gas 6740 Top Frontier sand; some oil saturation 6840 Halliburton test of Froutier did not show much oil, but at 6878 ft. the oil showing amounted to 50 barrels 6878-7051 Shale 7051-7062 Sand with some oil saturation 7062-7920 Shale (sandy phase of Thermopolis shale 7779 to 7788 ft.) 7920-7926 Sand (Muddy); oil-saturated 7926-7974 Shale 7974-7979 Hard, coarse, limy sand (Dakota); some oil saturation 7979-7997 Soft sand; high oil saturation 7997-8002 Shale with pyrites 8002-8016 Sand (Lakota) 8016-8019 Variegated Morrison shale 5600 Elevation Lance Creek Field.—Important extensions to the Lance Creek field in eastern Wyoming were made in 1938 by the completion of a number of

Jan 1, 1939

By Warren L. Howes

This paper deals primarily with an investigation of ball-mill liners that was conducted by the writer over a period of six years at the Mammoth mill in Arizona. The investigation covered a wide variety of designs of liners in both primary and secondary mills. The comparative results are presented herein as evidence of the extent to which design influenced liner life and mill performance. Flowsheet The feed to the Mammoth mill was a complex, oxidized, gold-silver-lead-molybde-num-vanadium ore with rhyolite, andesite and granite as gangue. Although the ore varied between stopes, the long-term average in character remained substantially the same. Capacity was 560 tons per day.† Fig. I shows an abbreviated flowsheet of the grinding section of the mill. Primary Ball Mill A 3-ft. Symons shorthead crusher in open circuit crushed to 1/4-in. maximum one-way dimension the feed to the 5 by Io-ft. Marcy open-end ball mill. The mill rotated at 80 per cent of critical speed and was charged with 4-in. forged steel balls. Cast balls were used for a few months at a slight reduction in ball cost, but breakage of the large balls reduced the ball size and grinding capacity to a point where the over-all costs suffered out of proportion to the saving in cost of balls. For metallurgical reasons, the finished product of the mill was maintained at minus 8-mesh. This coarse product, plus the very abrasive ore and the absence of fines in the feed, caused abnormally rapid wear of the mill liners. The resultant high operating cost led to the most extensive phase of the investigation. In order to clarify the difference in design of the various types of liners used, Fig. a shows the profiles with the arrangement in which grinding balls of maximum size would lie on the face of the liners. The results with each type of shell liner in the primary mill are shown in Table I. Since most of the testing was done with

Jan 1, 1943

By H. I. Young

INASMUCH as there has been a great deal of activity in this district recently, a paper of this kind should treat of all the various phases of mining, namely, prospecting, developing and operating. PROSPECTING Where ore is found it a depth of 100 ft. (30 m.) or more, the prospect work is done by churn drilling. Several makes of churn drills are used in this work, both steam- and gasoline-driven machines being used. The drilling is usually started with a 6-in. bit, and the size of the bit is reduced, if necessary, as the hole is advanced. It is general practice to drill from 100 to 400-ft. holes, but this is governed entirely by the location and formation of the ground. In drilling sheet ground, close spacing of drill holes is unnecessary, but in narrow orebodies, the holes are spaced from 15 to 50 ft. (4.6 to 15 m.) apart. Ten years ago, very few assays were kept of the drilling, but during recent years records have been kept very accurately, showing the location, elevation, assays, and also the vertical section of the hole. After the orebody is reached, cuttings are taken every 2 or 3 ft. (0.6 to 0.9 m.) samples being sometimes taken by pouring the water off the cuttings and taking a portion of the coarse material for assay. It has been found, however, that very often the sludge material poured off with the water contains high mineral values. To overcome this, cuttings from each 2 or 3 ft. are put in a container and after the water is evaporated, sample for assay is taken by means of Jones samplers. Permanent records of cuttings showing various formations are kept in glass jars or glued on large cards. Drilling at present is costing from $1.25 to $1.50 per foot. In pre-war times, the drilling costs ran from 75c to $1 per foot.

Jan 9, 1917

By J. J. Sense

This paper deals with the Asarco method for the determination of equipment availability. It is apparent that no single availability equation will provide all of the information necessary for the complete record of equipment availability. In the Asarco system, three separate availability records are carried on major equipment. The first is mechanical availability, the second is operational availability, and the third is a historical record of equipment use. The derivation of the three items and the definitions of the time elements used in the various availability equations are presented and discussed. The Mission unit of American Smelting and Refining Co. is located in Pima County, Ariz., approximately twenty miles southwest of Tucson. The unit consists of an open pit copper mine and concentrator. The concentrate is shipped by rail to company smelters at Hayden, Ariz., or El Paso, Tex. Mine stripping began at Mission in the fall of 1959, and construction of the 15,000 tpd concentrator was started in the spring of 1960. The first ore was treated in midsummer of 1961 and full ore production was reached in August 1961. At that time over 46 million tons of material had been moved from the pit. Current production (ore and waste) averages over 100,000 tpd. Total production to date (ore and waste) is over 120 million tons. Major equipment currently in operation at the Mission pit is as follows: 3 P & H 1800 Electric Shovels - 9 cu yd dippers 1 P & H 1900 Electric Shovel - 9 cu yd dipper 2 B.E. 190-B Electric Shovels - 9 cu yd dippers 35 Euclid LLD Trucks - 60-ton capacity 6 KW-Dart 55-T Trucks - 55-ton capacity 1 KW-Dart D-2550 Truck - 65-ton capacity 1 LeTourneau Westinghouse 65 Haulpak - 65-ton capacity 3 Euclid S-18 Scrapers - 274011 capacity 4 Caterpillar D-8 Dozers 4 LeTourneau Westinghouse Tournadozers 1 Michigan 280 Dozer 2 Caterpillar Model 12 Motor Graders

Jan 1, 1964

By C. D. Starr

IT is well known that the martensite reaction can be induced to occur isothermally above the M, temperature by plastic deformation of an alloy in its austenitic state, and also that as the test temperature is increased above the M. temperature, plastic deformation under a given set of conditions merely causes additional slip with a corresponding tendency toward the formation of less martensite per unit of strain. Thus it appears that a maximum temperature exists above which martensite cannot be formed isothermally by plastic deformation. This temperature is commonly designated as the equilibrium temperature Te. Attempts to determine experimentally the equilibrium temperature have indicated that a critical temperature is observed, under a given set of conditions, above which martensite cannot be formed isothermally by plastic deformation. But the observation of a "so called" critical temperature, Te, should not be confused with the equilibrium temperature, Te. In order to clarify this anomaly, true stress-strain curves were obtained for a series of type 304 stainless steel specimens (manufacturer's analysis, 0.08 pct C, 18 to 20 pct Cr, 8 to 10 pct Ni, balance Fe) over the temperature range 67" to 300°K.' Since martensite is magnetic, a quantitative measure of the amount of martensite that was produced by plastic deformation was obtained by determining the magnetic permeability as a function of strain. The results of these tests are given in Fig. 1. They appear to indicate that a plastic critical point does exist at about 240°K for the stainless steel under investigation here. But that 240 °K is not the equilibrium temperature nor even a true plastic critical temperature can be seen from Fig. 2 wherein the permeability of the same material is shown to increase with cold rolling at 293 OK. Consequently the observation of a "so called" plastic critical temperature is dependent on the mode of deformation and has no theoretical significance. Acknowledgment This work was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. Permission to publish this note is gratefully acknowledged.

Jan 1, 1954

By B. B. Zavoico, J. G. H. Crump, P. P. Gregory

West Texas was the scene of greatly increased oil activity during 1937, producing 75,743,000 bb1.l in that year as compared with 61,901,-000 bb1.2 in 1936, an increase of 22.36 per cent. The annual total of wells completed increased from 15863 in 1936 to 28062 in 1937, an increase of 76.92 per cent. Of the total completions in 1937, 2464 were oil wells,2 11 gas wells2 and 331 dry holes.2 The marked increase in the number of oil wells completed in West Texas during 1937 had a substantial effect upon the daily average production per well, which decreased 20.84 per cent from December 1936, when a total of 5310 wells3 produced 5,236,467 bbl.3 for an average of 31.81 bbl. per well per day to December 1937, when 7571 wells2 with a total production of 5,910,257 bb1.2 averaged 25.18 bbl. per well per day. Drilling blocks and checkerboard acreage were being acquired following geophysical work in the northern end of the Permian Basin area, composed of Bailey, Cochran, Hockley, Yoakum and Terry Counties, presaging extension of active development northward. During 1937, at one time 30 geophysical crews were working in West Texas, and an average of 15 to 20 crews was active in this area throughout the year. Discoveries Wasson-Denver Field.—Wasson-Denver field in Gaines and Yoakum Counties was the outstanding field discovery of the year. Production is from porous limestone found at about 5000 ft., and an average well is good for from 300 to 500 bbl. of crude oil per day through 3/4-in. choke. The discovery well was drilled by A. G. Carter and others on the Wasson Ranch, Gaines County, and the field has since been extended into Yoakum County. At the year's end 21 wells had been completed, producing

Jan 1, 1938

By Charles E. Carlsen

Underground construction involves all the legal problems common to the construction industry and adds a nice little group of its own. Elements which will ultimately affect contractor-owner relationship commence to form almost as soon as the owner conceives of the project. A few of these with emphasis on their application to underground construction will be mentioned. (1) During the design stage, determination must be made as to whether the specifications will be general or restrictive. To what extent will the operations of the contractor be controlled? Can he proceed to use any method of tunnel excavation that he desires and only be responsible for the end result or will specific excavation procedures be required? Can explosives be used? Under what restrictions? Are tunnel supports required? How long can the crown behind the heading remain unsupported? What kind of supports are required? What restrictions on the placement of tunnel-lining concrete will be required? Each of you could extend this list for many pages but these illustrations are indicative of decisions that must be made in advance of bidding, and the ultimate decision on each question can have a significant effect on the legal relationships that exist between the contractor and the owner. The owner wants a good job at a fair price. On the other hand, nothing is worse than having a tunnel collapse during the construction period, with its extra costs, loss of life, and delay to the entire project. If the specifications are too restrictive, increased costs of performance are bound to occur. Owners save tremendous amounts of money by obtaining a contractor who has been ingenious in devising the most economical construction procedure. Care must be taken in drafting the specifications so that the benefits of such ingenuity will not be lost. (2) HOW is the contract to be awarded? Will there be open bidding, a restricted list of bidders, or will there be negotiations with a comparatively few contractors? If it is a government project, whether Federal, state, or

Jan 1, 1970

By Warren L. Howes

This paper deals primarily with an investigation of ball-mill liners that was conducted by the writer over a period of six years at the Mammoth mill in Arizona. The investigation covered a wide variety of designs of liners in both primary and secondary mills. The comparative results are presented herein as evidence of the extent to which design influenced liner life and mill performance. Flowsheet The feed to the Mammoth mill was a complex, oxidized, gold-silver-lead-molybde-num-vanadium ore with rhyolite, andesite and granite as gangue. Although the ore varied between stopes, the long-term average in character remained substantially the same. Capacity was 560 tons per day.† Fig. I shows an abbreviated flowsheet of the grinding section of the mill. Primary Ball Mill A 3-ft. Symons shorthead crusher in open circuit crushed to 1/4-in. maximum one-way dimension the feed to the 5 by Io-ft. Marcy open-end ball mill. The mill rotated at 80 per cent of critical speed and was charged with 4-in. forged steel balls. Cast balls were used for a few months at a slight reduction in ball cost, but breakage of the large balls reduced the ball size and grinding capacity to a point where the over-all costs suffered out of proportion to the saving in cost of balls. For metallurgical reasons, the finished product of the mill was maintained at minus 8-mesh. This coarse product, plus the very abrasive ore and the absence of fines in the feed, caused abnormally rapid wear of the mill liners. The resultant high operating cost led to the most extensive phase of the investigation. In order to clarify the difference in design of the various types of liners used, Fig. a shows the profiles with the arrangement in which grinding balls of maximum size would lie on the face of the liners. The results with each type of shell liner in the primary mill are shown in Table I. Since most of the testing was done with

Jan 1, 1943

By William Catron, Cyril U. Colledge

BECAUSE the rich La Colorada orebody of the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. does not outcrop at surface, after its discovery (by churn drill) and before mining was begun, a large amount of development work was done to learn the shape and extent of the ore and to provide for economic and effective mining. As these openings progressed, the actual shape of the orebody became known and with this knowledge came the realization that mining this rich and unusual deposit without loss of ore or danger to workmen presented several difficult problems. This paper will describe one of these problems; namely, the handling of an inverted cone-shaped core of barren rock, on the periphery of and below which the ore occurred. It was clear that as the ore was mined out from around and under this inverted cone of rock, weighing about 3,000,000 tons, it would hang over the workings, held suspended only by its own tensile strength and threatening to crash into the stopes below with disastrous results to men and mine. The method of mining developed during the years 1928, 1929 and 1930 anticipated and provided for the eventual collapse of this core of rock. In November 1936 the core settled down gradually on the edges of the stopes descending a total of about 50 ft. vertically. The men in the stopes had ample warning and no lives were endangered. There were no air blasts in the mine. The core broke loose from its top support at the 500-ft. level along old fracture planes and evidently is crushed to the ninth level. Movement was of short duration; the following shift went to work in the stopes as usual. No ore was lost. GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE The shape of the orebody is illustrated in Fig. 1. The geology of the Colorada orebody has been described by V. D. Perry1 and by W. G.

Jan 1, 1938

By R. W. Smith. Discussion by D. Watson, R. M. Manser

D. Wotson, R. M. Monser (Watten Spring Laboratory, Stevenage, Herts., U. K.) - This is a valuable and interesting paper and will make an important contribution to the development of a general theory of silicate flotation. In particular the dominance of surface reactions which produce fluosilicic acid and its ions has been convincingly demonstrated. In a paper to be published shortly, however, we offer some evidence which is not consistent with the feldspar activation theory proposed by Prof. Smith. This theory, given in Eqs. 17-20, suggests that activation takes place through the exchange of SiF6 ions for OH- at aluminum sites. This results in a negatively charged site facilitating adsorption of RNH3 Firstly, we have determined the flotation response (using the vacuum flotation technique) and the adsorption of dodecylamine on a natural feldspar (albite) and on the same feldspar after washing with perchloric acid at pH3. This pre-treatment was shown to remove surface adjacent aluminum atoms. It was found that although the acid washed feldspar floated much less easily than the untreated sample, the function of fluoride ion - giving activation over the pH range 4-6.5-was preserved. Moreover, the amount of dodecylamine adsorbed either with or without fluoride present is little affected by acid-washing, despite the depression caused by this treatment. This suggests that surface aluminum atoms can be of little importance in the fluoride activation mechanism. Secondly, we have determined the changes in solution concentration of F- and H+ (or OH-) accompanying reaction of the surface with fluoride ion. The ratio of H+ lost from solution to F- lost is high, ranging from 6.9 at pH4 to 1.0 at pH 7.5. This is consistent with reaction of HF (6 molecules for every Si removed) at the surface, producing SiFi-ions, but not with the re-adsorption of these ions.

Jan 1, 1967

By J. C. Vaughan, John Chapman

Although a considerable amount of practical importance attaches to systems involving gases and molten metals, little is known regarding the effects of alloy elements upon the solubility of gases in liquid iron. The solubilities of hydrogen1 and nitrogen2,3 in pure liquid iron arc known and it has been shown that small amounts of silicon and aluminum3 exert only a small effect upon the solubility of nitrogen but greatly increase its rate of solution. This paper presents the results of a study of the solubility of nitrogen, at pressures approximately one atmosphere, in molten iron containing up to 15.8 per cent silicon. EXPEBIMENTAL METHOD There are two general methods by which the solubility of a gas in a molten metal may be determined. In the first, which Sievertsl employed, the gas is measured from a burette into the enclosure containing the metal and the amount absorbed is found by subtracting from the total volume that of the dead space in the container. The second method, which was used successfully for pure liquid iron, is to expose the molten metal to the gas until absorption ceases, then to solidify and analyze the metal. In either method the stirring produced by inductive heating prevents the development of a stagnant layer at the metal surface and ensures actual attainment of equilibrium. Obviously the second method is accurate only when the saturated metal is capable of solidifying without gas evolution. Since the rate of solution of nitrogen in iron is increased by the presence of silicon, it was to be expected that the rate of evolution would be correspondingly increased and for this reason the first method was selected. A sketch of the furnace is shown in Fig. 1. A small high-frequency coil having 17 turns fitted closely around a fused silica tube, 2 in. in diameter, in which was placed, on a bed of 60-mesh alumina sand, an

Jan 1, 1940

By Edward Keller

GOLD MOVEMENT ON SURFACE OF AURIFEROUS COPPER WHEN LATTER IS SUBJECTED TO OXIDATION SOME years ago the writer's attention was called to the fact that rolling-mill scales from auriferous copper do not have the gold content proportional to the gold contained in the copper from which they are derived. I So, later, he made a few simple experiments, which are described herewith. In: order to test the gold movement on the changing surface of a copper plate under the influence of oxidation, plates 6 in. by 8 in. by I in. (15.2 cm. by 20.3 cm. by 2.5 cm.) of converter copper, refined, of 99.29 per cent. purity, and leaded copper with a content of 95.65 per cent. copper, were obtained. Ten cuts were made through the thickness of the plates along the longitudinal center and the silver and gold content ascertained in each of the 10 samples in both plates, as shown in the accompanying illustration. The assay results, recorded in Tables 1 and 2, show that the gold distribution is relatively uniform in both plates, while silver has greater variations, especially in the leaded plate. The plates subjected to oxidation were placed in a red-hot muffle for about 2 hr., two small scorifiers being used as supports. Arranged alongside each other, they nearly filled the width of the muffle, and so were practically under equal conditions of heat and draft. The accurate observance of the time was not possible, however, because of other work, but the time of the exposure of each plate in a pair was identical. At the end of each period, each plate was plunged into water and completely freed of scale, which was carefully collected, dried, weighed, and analyzed. Samples of the plates had also been taken of the molten metal and duly analyzed. Table 3 contains the analytical data for the two plates and their several sheets, or layers, of oxide scales. These figures show that in the oxidations of the converter copper the silver is fairly uniform, while

Jan 1, 1919

By Earl S. Greiner, Eric R. Jette

The constitution of the iron-silicon alloys containing from 14 to 33.4 weight per cent silicon has been studied by a number of investigators, whose results have been reviewed in a monograph published by the Engineering Foundation1. In these previous researches, the solubility of silicon in iron was determined by thermal, microscopic or magnetic methods and the compound Fe3Si2 was reported to be stable at temperatures from 0 to approximately 1030' C. This paper describes the results of an X-ray investigation of the solubility of silicon in iron and gives data which prove that the Fe3Si2 phase is unstable below 825" C. In order to obtain the present results on the solubility of silicon in iron, the authors have utilized the lattice constants of the alpha-phase iron-silicon alloys given in a previous publication2, and also some additional data which will subsequently be described. Materials and Methods The alloys used in this investigation are listed in Table 1. They were prepared in 30 or 50-gram ingots by melting specially purified silicon and electrolytic or carbonyl iron in alundum crucibles under a pressure of less than 1 mm. of mercury. The purity of the silicon, electrolytic and carbonyl irons has been given by the authors in previous publications2, 5. The ingots were homogenized in vacuo at approximately 1000" C. for at least 96 hr. and then slowly cooled. The homogenized specimens were ground to powder in a hardened steel mortar. This powder was passed through a 150 or 200-mesh screen and sealed in evacuated quartz, Jena or Pyrex glass tubes and heat-treated as noted in the various tables. Specimens 23A, 24B, 33 and 35 and the specimens heated for one month at 700" C. were quenched by quickly removing the tubes from a horizontal tubular furnace and dropping them into water. The other specimens were quenched by means of a drop-quenching device, which has been described previously3.

Jan 1, 1937

By J. P. Sheeha, W. F. Craig, M. Baeyertz

The loss in toughness caused by phosphorus within commercial ranges was studied in AISI-SAE 1340 steel and in molybdenum modifications of this grade. The replacement of part of the manganese by molybdenum in amounts which maintain the hardenability of the standard 1340 grade was shown to counteract to a marked degree the detrimental effects of phosphorus. THIS paper deals with the effect of phosphorus on the toughness of 1340 steel and with the effect on toughness of replacing part of the manganese by molybdenum while retaining the same hardenability as that of 1340. In previous work1 a progressive decrease in toughness was observed when the phosphorus content of 5140 was raised from 0.020 to 0.036 pct; that is, from a moderate phosphorus level to one higher but yet within the AISI-SAE specification for this grade. The structural condition of the steel was tempered martensite. Toughness was evaluated by the transition temperature determined by V-notch Charpy tests. Replacement of a part of the chromium in 5140 by molybdenum provided a factor of safety against loss of toughness caused by phosphorus, especially where the steel was cooled slowly after tempering. Scope of the Study: In view of the improved tolerance for phosphorus obtained by replacing a part of the chromium in 5140 with molybdenum, it seemed desirable to investigate the possibility of obtaining similar improvement in 1340 by replacing part of the manganese with molybdenum. Heats were made at different phosphorus levels, in a series that began with 1340 and ended with steels containing 0.32 to 0.35 pct Mo with 0.82 and 0.90 pct Mn. The analyses of the heats are given in table I. In order to facilitate later discussion, the 1340 heats have been placed together in the order of increasing phosphorus content, and the molybdenum modifications have been grouped according to phosphorus

Jan 1, 1951

By William R. Webster

An investigation has been made of 500 samples of universal and sheared plates of basic Bessemer and basic open-hearth steel manufactured by the Pottstown Iron Company, the carbon-limits being 0.07 to 0.18 per cent. Through the courtesy of Mr. W. H. Morris, President, I am able to lag before the Institute the results of these tests. The samples tested were all taken from the finished material, and the chemical determinations were made on drillings from the broken test-pieces, which were sent to the chemist without giving him the heat-numbers. The results are such as to encourage me to keep on with the work, and, if possible, to have it carried out on other steels. It is kith this view that I now offer my tables in their incomplete form. My first table mas constructed by grouping the tests according to chemical analysis in various. ways, and making a rough tabulated statement, from which the ultimate strengths were worked out and carefully compared with the actual results of the tension-tests. From data thus obtained, one table after another was worked out, and by this method of "cutting and trying" I finally arrived at the results which I now present in Table I. (p. 771). I do not claim absolute accuracy, but my approximations have proved to be so close that the figures are practical data for current use at the works. The indications are that a pure iron, without carbon, phosphorus, manganese, or silicon, if it could be obtained, would give 38,000 pounds ultimate strength. This is assumed as a base, and to it is added the effect of each of the above elements, as explained below. The upper part of Table I. gives the ultimate strength due to carbon and phosphorus, and is the same for both basic Bessemer and basic open-hearth steels. The lower part gives the increase in ultimate strength due to manganese. By adding this to the amount obtained from the upper part, we have the ultimate strength of basic Bessemer

Jan 1, 1893

By W. J. Sharwood

IN the cyanide process, gold and silver are dissolved from crushed ore as double alkali-metal cyanides, from which they may he precipitated by such positive metals as sodium (amalgam), aluminum, or zinc, or by electrolysis. Two extreme conditions may he noted. Some works, especially slime plants practising decantation, use a relatively large volume of solution-possibly 4 or 5 tons per ton of ore-nearly all of which may require precipitation, so that the solutions handled are of much lower value per ton than the ore. On the other hand, in some leaching plants it is possible to extract with very little solution, and to percolate some of this more than once through the charge before precipitation, so that the solution to be precipitated may he much less than half the weight of ore, and proportionally richer. Solution intended for further use need not have all its precious metal removed, but any that has to be thrown away should be impoverished as far as is economically possible. In spite of certain advantages possessed by other precipitants, zinc in some form has been almost universally used. In some of the first attempts to utilize cyanides as gold solvents, a "piece or plate of zinc" was suggested as a precipitant, but extension of surface was early recognized as a desideratum. Macarthur and the Forrests adopted a "metallurgical filter" of zinc shaving, turned from disks or rolled sheets. They had previously experimented on other forms of zinc, and Macarthur records having tried zinc dust, which had of course been long known as a general reducing agent. It had also been known and used as a precipitant of precious metal from plating and photographic solutions, and comminuted zinc had been patented for recovering copper, etc., from ore leaches. Other inventors proposed the virtual making of zinc powder by the attrition of balls of zinc, and by similar means, during the passage of a stream of gold-bearing solution.

Jan 9, 1917

By D. T. MacRoberts

Tins paper embodies the results of theoretical studies concerning gas reservoirs, especially the effect of drilling programs of various intensities upon pressure depletion and ultimate recoveries. The primary objective has been to determine the net quantity of recoverable gas that could be obtained as a result of each additional well, in comparison with the gas that might be secured from a single well ideally placed with respect to both acreage and geological structure. No method is yet known whereby the relative merits of intensive and sparse drilling can be compared experimentally; a reservoir must either be drilled closely or developed with wide spacing, but both programs cannot be conducted simultane-ously. Hence, the analytical method seems to be the only approach to the problem. While the present state of our theoretical knowledge does not offer a precise solution to the problem of gas flow in sand bodies, it takes such appropriate cognizance of the limitations of the methods used as to restrict any answer obtained to the realm of engineering accuracy. In solving the problem for the average gas field, it was found that practically the same answers resulted as to pressure distribution, regardless of the size of the drainage radius, even though the latter was assumed to vary from a few feet as a minimum to that of the entire reservoir as a maximum. Such limits represent extreme possibilities; therefore, the practical conditions that are associated with normal development programs, in which wells are placed in the center of tracts varying in size from 40 to 640 acres, will of necessity result in less extreme variations than those indicated in the tables accompanying this paper. Stated more concisely, the amount of gas unrecovered at abandonment (of the particular field used for illustrative purposes) will lie somewhere between 4.6 and 6 per cent of the total original content, no matter how intensively the field is drilled.

Jan 1, 1938

By Milton Williams

IT is generally recognized that fluid is lost from rotary drilling mud s to permeable strata during normal drilling operations;1,2,3 but that this fluid is the filtrate from the mud, rather than the mud itself, has been shown by various workers.1,4,5 . The presence of this filtrate in oil-bearing or gas-bearing strata is undesirable and harmful. The decreased permeability of the stratum to oil effected by the presence of water has been pointed out by several investigators,6,7 and since, in the production of the reservoir fluid, the greatest pressure drop occurs immediately adjacent to the borehole, it follows that infiltered water is particularly objectionable in this region. Again, this filtrate tends to make electrical logs less reliable, since oil in the proximity of the borehole is probably flushed out to an appreciable ent by the water.8 Observation of side wall cores may be misleading for the same reason. Drill-stem tests in low-pressure areas may be of doubtful value where no oil is recovered, unless sufficient time is allowed for production of water lost from the mud. The infiltered water may hinder drilling operations by softening shales and causing sloughing; the "tight hole" occasioned by excessive deposition of filter cake in the hole is a common occurrence. The filter cake remaining on the face of the producing formation may itself sometimes be detrimental to production.9 In view of these implications of the importance of filtration of mud, an investigation was undertaken to determine the factors involved in the infiltration process, and to correlate these in such a manner that the values obtained in routine filter tests employing a conventional filter of the "wall-building tester" type,10 together with data on size of hole, drill pipe, and rate of mud circulation, could be used to estimate water loss and distance of penetration of the filtrate into strata.

Jan 1, 1939

By Alvinus Brown Wood

The ancient copper-mines of Lake Superior, having been destroyed or covered by modern mining-dumps, are not accessible to the present inhabitants of that region, and, since no more are likely to be found, some account of those already discovered, from one who has seen them, may be acceptable to the Institute. Early in May, 1855, I took a party of men to open an ancient pit on the Quincy mine-location. Mr. C. C. Douglas was the " Agent," as mine-managers were then called on Lake Superior. The Quincy Co. had previously done work on a fissure-vein, several hundred feet west of the Amygdaloid lode (afterwards called the Pewabic lode), on which was the ancient pit herein described. 'It was at this pit that the Quincy main shaft was subsequently sunk. The ancient pit showed an apparent depth of about 4 R., but when cleaned out it was shown to he 14 ft. deep, having been filled up by the sliding-in of material composed largely of broken rock, taken out in sinking the ancient shaft, and left near its mouth. Midway of the shaft, and below water-level, was found a scaffolding of white-birch poles, which had been used as a landing, to assist in removing the excavated rock. The shaft was 7 ft. in diameter. The excavation had been done by first building fires in order to disintegrate the rock, as was proved by the abundance of charcoal found; then breaking the softencd rock with hammers of diorite, such as is found in the greenstone range on Keweenaw point. These hammers had about the size of large paving-stones. Only broken ones were found, the whole ones having been doubtless carried away for other work, such as could be traced on the lode for a hundred feet or more to the south. At the place where this shaft was sunk, barrel-copper (i.e.,

Jan 1, 1907