Search Documents

By R. W. Raymond

The immense commercial value of the Gayley dry-blast process has been established beyond controversy. The testimony of practical blast-furnace managers, on both sides of the Atlantic, agrees that it reduces the cost of pig-iron about $1 per ton; but from the same testimony it appears that this direct economy does not by any means cover its commercial advantages—in fact, that under conditions frequently encountered in practice, it presents other benefits of even greater immediate financial importance. To this point I shall recur in a later part of the present paper. The history of the reception given to this invention, especially on the other side of the Atlantic, has repeated an experience familiar to American engineers. First, the reports of our practice were rejected as theoretically impossible, according to generally accepted notions and formulas; then the figures were reluctantly accepted; and finally the attempt has been made to explain how they could have been obtained. As to the Gayley dry blast, me Americans have been for several years in the last stage of the discussion, and the rest of the professional world is rapidly coming to it. Meanwhile, the remark has been repeatedly made that, whatever Mr. Gayley's process may turn out to be worth, it was not an invention on his part, but simply the energetic and persevering execution of a procedure already proposed by others. This question I wish to discuss first in the present paper. I. What Did Mr. Gayley Invent? Realizing that this is not the place for detailed argument on an issue of patent law, I shall not undertake to quote and criticise the publications prior to Mr. Gayley'a first patents. It may be admitted, without such critical analysis, that the possible advantages of removing moisture from the air forced into an iron blast-furnace were recognized and talked about a hun-

Jan 1, 1909

By R. L. Loofbourow, Roger V. Pierce

THE degree to which our mineral requirements are being met by mining leaner, more complex or more remote deposits is indicated by developments during 1953. Heavy capital investment, skilled technical advice, planning, and able execution are requirements for the typical venture. Producers, faced with rising costs and with softer prices, are seeking improved mining and recovery. Developments in production of iron ore are typical of the course being followed in metal and nonmetal mining. Iron ore development in the U. S. is concentrated on the spectacular work with Lake Superior taconite, while in Canada new production is expected from Labrador and output from Steep Rock, Algoma, and Newfoundland is being increased. Shipment of iron will soon be made from Venezuela.

Jan 2, 1954

By J. Lemish

Considerable research has been conducted in Iowa in recent years on carbonate aggregate reactions in concrete. Groups outside the state have become active in the past few years after recognizing that certain carbonate aggregates are reactive in concrete. The paper reviews the nature and extent of the problem and a summary is given of research by the author and his associates. In recent years considerable research has been conducted in Iowa on carbonate aggregate reactions in concrete. The research is part of a general study on the behavior of carbonate rocks as concrete aggregates sponsored by the Iowa State Highway Commission. Research on carbonate aggregates has not been extensive in the past. Laughlin1 published one of the first papers on carbonate aggregates in 1928 and was followed by others, notably H. S. sweet,' B. Mather et al.,3 and K. Mather4 who emphasized the petrographic and physical aspects of carbonate aggregates. The recognition that certain carbonate aggregates are reactive in concrete has led to increased participation in research in the past few years by groups outside of Iowa. Significant contributions have been made by Swenson and Gillot,5 Hadley,6 and Chaiken and Halstead7 in work which emphasizes the expansion of carbonate rocks in alkaline environments and the reaction of carbonate minerals or dedolomitization with alkalies. It is the purpose of this paper to review briefly the nature and extent of the problem and present a summary of the research by the author and his associates. EXTENT AND NATURE OF THE PROBLEM The problem is the deleterious behavior of certain carbonate aggregates in concrete. It was first recognized in Iowa over 20 years ago when poor service records of certain highways were correlated with aggregates produced from the Glory and LeGrand quarries. Deleterious behavior of carbonate aggregates have been reported in Canada and, more recently, in New York and Virginia. As more knowledge is gained concerning the problem, distress in concrete related to carbonate aggregates may be recognized over a widespread area. The problem may potentially exist in the Midwest, the Northeast, and other parts of the country underlain by thick sections of carbonate rocks readily available for utilization as aggregates. The nature of distress in Iowa highways is a general weakening and deterioration of concrete characterized by progressive cracking and spalling away from joints and edges (Fig. 1). The distress generally occurs after 15 years of service and becomes progressively worse. Specimens of such concrete lack the toughness of sound concrete and break easily under the hammer in the manner of a soft brick. The matrix is generally highly carbonated and dark borders, or reaction shells or rims outline the argillaceous carbonate aggregate fragments (Fig. 2). Cracks observed in cores cut across the aggregates and concrete matrix. Although localized volume change (expansion) is associated with spalling, there is no definite field evidence in Iowa that excessive growth of concrete slabs has occurred. The experience with carbonate aggregates in Iowa indicates that the concrete deterioration is not the same as that induced by the alkali-aggregate reaction associated with siliceous aggregates. The principal difference is that in Iowa the distressed concrete is weakened throughout the slab. In concrete affected by the alkali aggregate reaction, the

Jan 1, 1961

By M. G. F. Söhnlein

In the earlier clays, these ores were treated by chloridizing-roasting followed by amalgamation, with satisfactory results, according to the information now available. Material from old tailing dumps from ore treated by this process, which are found at several places in the vicinity of Oruro, seldom contains more than 5 to 6 oz. of silver per ton. As ore with less than 100 oz. per ton was not treated, the extraction of silver must have been good. Reports of the operating companies published about 1890 asserted that over 90 per cent. of the silver was recovered, but in these calculations, as a rule, no allowance was made for silver lost during roasting and the figure referred only to the extraction of silvcr by amalgamation from the roasted ore.

Jan 1, 1921

By William P. Blake

Copper Basin in Yavapai county, Arizona Territory, about twenty miles southwest of Prescott, is well named. It is a depressed area, and a region of cupriferous impregnation.* The geologic conditions are simple. The foundation rock is a coarse-grained granite and gneiss, in which soda feldspar predominates. There are also dykes of porphyritic rock, and a large quartz vein containing pyrites. Superimposed on this crystalline foundation, we find heavy beds of mechanically formed rocks, conglomerates, breccias, and sandstones, in horizontal layers cropping along the bed of a creek, and apparently the remnants of a much more extended formation, now denuded and largely carried away by gradual atmospheric erosion. The heavy beds of conglomerate are in many places much broken and tilted up, even standing on edge in large blocks, as if they had been lifted by some great convulsion; but the cause is much more simple, being merely the removal by gradual disintegration and erosion of the softened and decayed granitic rock below. The materials of these sedimentary beds are chiefly fragments of granite, gneiss, and plutonic rocks loosely mingled. They are the chief repositories of the copper-ore, which forms the cementing substance. This copper-ore is the blue and the green carbonate, azurite and malachite, and the ore is so generally spread through the mass of the beds that the blue and the green croppings can be seen at a great distance, particularly after or during a shower of rain, when the colors are extremely brilliant and beautiful. The copper carbonate is not only a matrix and a cementing material for the fragments of rock, but it invests and covers these fragments so that only malachite and azurite are visible. The beds are from three to ten feet or more in thickness, and, although seemingly solid carbonate of copper, rarely contain over 12 or 15 per cent. of that metal. Some portions of the conglomerates are much more highly charged with copper than others, and in places the beds are almost without copper. If a lump of the coarse sandstone

Jan 1, 1889

By John Eash

DURING recent years nickel has had an increasingly important role as an alloying element in the copper-tin bronzes. Nickel additions not only produce better casting alloys but also make alloys whose properties can be varied by precipitation hardening; thus leading to increased commercial application of copper-nickel-tin alloys. Recent investigations have indicated a decrease in the solubility of tin in the alpha phase as the annealing temperature is lowered and as the nickel content is increased within certain limits. A further change caused by the nickel additions is produced in the excess phase of the copper-tin bronzes. The alpha plus delta eutectoid is replaced by a clear precipitated constituent in the alloys containing up to 15 per cent tin and not less than 1 per cent nickel. This paper has a dual purpose. The first is to present a new determination of the alpha-phase boundary in alloys containing from 0 to 20 per cent nickel, together with the liquidus and solidus temperatures above that field. The second purpose is to give the equilibrium conditions existing in alloys exceeding the alpha phase containing up to 31 per cent tin and 5 per cent nickel, so that the disappearance of the alpha plus delta eutectoid constituent may be explained. After considering the earlier investigations of the related alloy systems and the experimental procedure used in this investigation, the alloys will be discussed in groups as separate quasibinary systems containing constant amounts of nickel. The systems considered contain 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 and 20 per cent nickel. The straight copper-tin system was reinvestigated in order to establish a foundation on which to build the remaining material. The 1 per cent nickel alloys studied give the relations existing in the region of the eutectoid transformation between the copper-tin system and the 2 per cent nickel copper-tin system which has been investigated in detail. The thorough examination of the latter system was made since 2 per cent of nickel is representative of the commercial additions to the cast bronzes and also because it is sufficient to produce

Jan 1, 1932

By A. C. Boyle

PaGE I. Introduction.........68 II. Location of the District,....... • 70 .. III. Stratigraphy...........73 Description of the Rocks.......73 Triassic Eruptives (Andesite Flows and Tuffs) ....73 Triassic Sediments (Shales and Slates)..75 Areal Geology ............75 Structure...-.......76 Folds............. 76 Faults..........79 Shear ...........80 Intrusives..........81 Alaskite Dike.........81 Andesitic Intrusion.......82 IV. PetrogRaphy of thE Rock Types......83 Andesite Flows.........84 Tuff 8...........84 Andesite Tuff........84 Rhyolite Tuff.....-.......85 Alaskite-Porphyry.......89 Andesite Dike........91 V. Description of the Mines......92 VI. Metalliferous Deposits ........ 95 Character of the Ores...........97 Mineralogy of the Ores.......97 Metallic Minerals.......97 Microscopic Character of the Ores...98 Secondary Enrichment....... 103 Genesis of the Ores ...........104 VII. The Sulphate Deposits.......109 Gypsum ..... HO Anhydrite......... ,... 110 Barite............ 110 Origin. with special reference to Gypsum....111 VIII. Summary.............. 113 IX. BIblYogRaphY.............114

Jan 1, 1915

By Howard Scott, Henry S. Rawdon

The method of demonstrating the structure existing in a metal or alloy at high temperatures, by etching a polished sample after it has been heated to the desired temperature, is quite familiar to metallog-raphists. The usual procedure1 2 is to heat the specimen, previously polished for microscopic examination, to the desired temperature, in a neutral atmosphere (hydrogen or nitrogen), then admit the etching gas (chlorine, hydrochloric acid or similar gas) for a few seconds, and finally, after flushing out the etching gas with the neutral one, cool the specimen in the neutral atmosphere. The pattern produced by etching at a definite temperature is usually taken as a record of the microstructure prevailing at that temperature. It has frequently been pointed out that changes in composition of the surface metal occur during the preliminary heating in the neutral atmosphere, so that the appearance produced by the etching at high temperature may not exactly represent the condition of the interior of the specimen. To overcome this uncertainty, the heating has sometimes been done in vacuo,3 the etching gas being admitted when the desired temperature was reached, then pumped out and the specimen cooled in vacuo. The studies of Rosenhain, Humfrey, and other workers 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 dem-

Jan 1, 1922

By Howard Scott, Henry S. Rawdon

The method of demonstrating the structure existing in a metal or alloy at high temperatures, by etching a polished sample after it has been heated to the desired temperature, is quite familiar to metallog-raphists. The usual procedure1 2 is to heat the specimen, previously polished for microscopic examination, to the desired temperature, in a neutral atmosphere (hydrogen or nitrogen), then admit the etching gas (chlorine, hydrochloric acid or similar gas) for a few seconds, and finally, after flushing out the etching gas with the neutral one, cool the specimen in the neutral atmosphere. The pattern produced by etching at a definite temperature is usually taken as a record of the microstructure prevailing at that temperature. It has frequently been pointed out that changes in composition of the surface metal occur during the preliminary heating in the neutral atmosphere, so that the appearance produced by the etching at high temperature may not exactly represent the condition of the interior of the specimen. To overcome this uncertainty, the heating has sometimes been done in vacuo,3 the etching gas being admitted when the desired temperature was reached, then pumped out and the specimen cooled in vacuo. The studies of Rosenhain, Humfrey, and other workers 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 dem-

Jan 1, 1922

By N. G. W., Cook

When an excavation is made underground the original rock stresses are removed from the surfaces of the excavation. These surfaces converge to partially close the excavation and the superincumbent rock mass moves down towards the excavation. If the convergence of the surfaces of the excavation were controlled, energy generated by their motion against the controlling forces could be extracted. Since the total forces in the rock mass are not significantly affected by the excavation, stress concentrations arise around the excavation, which compensate exactly for those stresses no longer transmitted through the excavation. These phenomena give rise to two general principles which provide the basis for analyzing the effects of making any underground excavation. The first of these is that the total force resulting from the stresses across any plane in the rock, including any plane through the excavation, must be the same before and after the excavation is made. The second of these is that energy must necessarily be released as a result of making an underground excavation.

Jan 1, 1969

By A. P. Woods, J. A. Elias, A. J. Heckler

A method is described by whichX-ray pole figures and axis density figures may be plotted automatically. The X-ray data are obtained using a Siemens texture gonionleter and the Schulz reflection method. Composite sampling methods are used to obtain a full quadrant of the pole figure. The contour lines of the pole figure and axis density figures are drawn using a computer-controlled x-y plotter. The computer program used to draw the contours was obtained from ZBM. POLE figures used to describe crystallographic orientations of poly crystalline sheet materials are usually plotted manually from X-ray diffraction output in the form of a strip chart recording of the intensity distribution of a given crystallographic pole in physical space. Today's computers and associated plotting equipment now make it possible to plot pole figures and axis density figures automatically. Inverse pole figures have been determined by mathematically "inverting" X-ray pole figure data.'-' In general, these methods require complicated, time-consuming numerical calculations. A more economical but less accurate method is to determine the axis densities of low-index crystallographic poles using an X-ray diffractometer. When these axis densities are plotted in a unit stereographic triangle contour lines can be drawn to represent the axis density distribution. This can now be done automatically. Computers were used to plot pole figures by a method developed by Holland, Engler, and powers.' In their method intensity ratios based on a random standard sample were obtained from a strip chart recording, and the stereographic (x, y) coordinates of these ratios were determined by a computer. Symbols characteristic of different intensity ratio levels were then plotted using an automatic x, y plotter and intensity contours were drawn manually. The present paper describes a method by which pole figures and axis density figures have been automatically plotted from digital data obtained from a Siemens X-ray unit. Plotting was accomplished using an IBM 1620 computer and a Calcomp 563 digital plotter. COMPUTER PROGRAM The computer program was obtained from IBM Systems Reference Library, No. 1620-CS-05X, and was designed to plot contour maps from randomly distributed data. It consists of a set of twelve separate subprograms, four of which were used in this work. The program takes a given distribution of data points and by a numerical method determines the values at mesh points of a square grid system superimposed over the input data. The output data from this program is in a form suitable for input to the contour plotting program. A smoothing program is also available which calculates new mesh point values from a continuous function fitted to neighboring mesh points. The degree of smoothing depends on the number of points around a given grid point which are used to adjust or smooth the grid value. The contour plotting program is designed to allow the user to specify the interval, scale, and annotation of the contours to be plotted. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Pole Figure Data Points. Diffracted X-ray intensities were determined using a Siemens texture goniometer and the schulzs reflection method. Due to geometric

Jan 1, 1968

By Charles White Merrill

Mankind's progress is measured in minerals. Man's emergence from prehistory is marked by passage through a Stone Age and a Bronze Age and into the present era, sometimes called the Iron Age or the Age of Metals. With the evolution of civilization and the development of a modem industrial economy, minerals become more and more important. Structures, roads, and machines are built largely of minerals; the energy to heat the structures and to drive the machines is mostly mineral; agricultural fertility is maintained by mineral fertilizers and water; and military strength is provided by fortresses, armaments, and munitions, largely of mineral origin. Thus in the material world, in the productivity of the economy, access to minerals has paramount importance. Every evidence indicates increasing dependence on minerals in the modem economy, particularly on the mineral fuels as energy sources to provide the power base for advancing industrialization. Both the total and the per capita consumption of almost every mineral is increasing in the industrialized nations. Moreover, nations with predominantly agrarian economies call themselves underdeveloped and universally strive to industrialize. Most mineral consumption trends in the more advanced economies have been greatly exceeding population growth-which itself has been advancing at an accelerating rate--and sometimes have surpassed the growth in real income. Some minerals have only recently been adopted or grown to importance in use. Titanium as a metal appeared as a commercial product only in 1948, and even coal seriously displaced wood as a source of heat less than two centuries ago. On the other hand, minerals have always played an important role in construction. The prehistoric megaliths that form the dolmens of Salisbury Plain are stone; the pyramids are andesite faced with limestone; and many other ancient structures are built of mineral materials. In modem times the whole course of architecture has been redirected by new building materials, mostly mineral. Most conspicuous is the sky-

Jan 1, 1959

By Richard Moldenke

One of the gravest problems of the iron foundry today is the accumulation of sulfur in commercial scrap and its effect on the castings made therewith. The ordinary jobbing castings today show a sulfur content of 0.18 per cent;, and occasionally as high as 0.22 per cent. The product of the foundry during the war is undoubtedly to blame for this rapid increase and conditions will become worse as the millions of tons of gray-iron castings of the war period return to the foundry in the form of commercial scrap. In the ordinary cupola remelting of pig and scrap, at least 0.02 per cent. sulfur is taken up; often double that amount. The high cost and difficulty of obtaining pig iron during the war period compelled the use of considerable scrap in the mixtures; frequently charges containing 90 per cent. of bought scrap were melted. Naturally the sulfur content of the castings increased. Until the advent of the basic-hearth electric furnace, the only method of holding the sulfur within reasonable limits was to use high percentages of pig in the foundry mixtures. Pig iron seldom contains over 0.05 per cent. sulfur, if well made. With pig iron forming 60 per cent. of the charge and the gates, runners, rejections, and bought scrap the other 40 per cent., the sulfur content of the castings can easily be held down to 0.10 per cent. Pig iron, however, costs more than scrap even when melting loss differences are considered, hence as small a percentage as possible will be used. The recent advance in knowledge of rational melting and the consequent reduction in losses directly due to oxidation of the metal and cold iron, has permitted the acceptance of castings with a much higher sulfur content than formerly. The steel industry also is seeking to determine how high sulfur may go with safety. In the iron foundry, however, there is the danger of a low cupola bed or an unduly retarded air-furnace heat, with the consequent raising of the freezing point of the metal and segregation effects resulting from high sulfur with insufficient manganese. The iron foundryman must, therefore, have a means of correcting his

Jan 1, 1922

By Richard Moldenke

One of the gravest problems of the iron foundry today is the accumulation of sulfur in commercial scrap and its effect on the castings made therewith. The ordinary jobbing castings today show a sulfur content of 0.18 per cent;, and occasionally as high as 0.22 per cent. The product of the foundry during the war is undoubtedly to blame for this rapid increase and conditions will become worse as the millions of tons of gray-iron castings of the war period return to the foundry in the form of commercial scrap. In the ordinary cupola remelting of pig and scrap, at least 0.02 per cent. sulfur is taken up; often double that amount. The high cost and difficulty of obtaining pig iron during the war period compelled the use of considerable scrap in the mixtures; frequently charges containing 90 per cent. of bought scrap were melted. Naturally the sulfur content of the castings increased. Until the advent of the basic-hearth electric furnace, the only method of holding the sulfur within reasonable limits was to use high percentages of pig in the foundry mixtures. Pig iron seldom contains over 0.05 per cent. sulfur, if well made. With pig iron forming 60 per cent. of the charge and the gates, runners, rejections, and bought scrap the other 40 per cent., the sulfur content of the castings can easily be held down to 0.10 per cent. Pig iron, however, costs more than scrap even when melting loss differences are considered, hence as small a percentage as possible will be used. The recent advance in knowledge of rational melting and the consequent reduction in losses directly due to oxidation of the metal and cold iron, has permitted the acceptance of castings with a much higher sulfur content than formerly. The steel industry also is seeking to determine how high sulfur may go with safety. In the iron foundry, however, there is the danger of a low cupola bed or an unduly retarded air-furnace heat, with the consequent raising of the freezing point of the metal and segregation effects resulting from high sulfur with insufficient manganese. The iron foundryman must, therefore, have a means of correcting his

Jan 1, 1922

By J. L. Gillson

Andre Hubaux: In the writer's opinion, more stress should be put on field and microscope observations, as J. L. Gillson does. His discovery of relics of big labra-dorite feldspars from the Marcy anorthosite in all the other rocks is proof enough that previous field observations have been inadequate. The writer's field experience with anorthositie massifs is limited to the Egersund-Sogndal district in southern Norway; however, this is a very large and well exposed area. It seems to have so many points in common with the Adirondack region that a detailed comparison should be beneficial. This comparison was not possible 20 years ago, owing to the scarcity of geological data, at least for Norway. Both regions are now far better known—the Norway district because of the work of Professors Bugge and Barth 33-35 and especially because of the extensive field and microscopic research of P. Michot,30-35 who introduced me in the field to the problems of that region. In a particular unit of the Egersund district, a sodi-fication of the plagioclase, very similar to what Gillson calls "andesinization," has taken place. 12' The percentage of anorthite in the plagioclase has dropped from 42 to 43 pct in the original norite down to 27 pct, but never below that level. This metasomatical transformation is a part of a whole series of processes of mig-matitization which have produced, above the level of granitization, concentrations of Mg, Fe, and Ti and among them, patches and parallel bands of ilmenite and magnetite. Thus both regions present somewhat comparable features and the theories to explain them have several points in common. However, as there seem to be differences between some American conceptions and the views commonly accepted at the University of Liege, I would like to make some comments about J. L. Gill-son's article. The author speaks of the garnet as being an anti-stress mineral. However, garnet may be found in schists, where its helicitic texture, when present, demonstrates its formation during differential movement. Furthermore, the whole concept of stress and anti-

Jan 1, 1959

By S. R. Zimmerley, S. F. Ravitz

High-grade cobalt concentrates were produced from the complex Blackbird ore with very good recovery in continuous pilot-plant operations in which a low-grade bulk cobaltite-pyrite flotation concentrate was roasted in a multiple-hearth furnace to oxidize the pyrite selectively. The cobaltite was floated from the resulting calcine.

Jan 1, 1950

By Olin M. Hart

Uranium ores occur in the Lower Cretaceous Inyan Kara group of heterogeneously stratified fluvial and fluvial-marine sandstones in the Black Hills of western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. There are three principal mining districts, each in the ancestral and present drainage area of a major river partially responsible for stripping the region to its present topographic form. Primary minerals in the deposits are coffinite and uraninite with minor amounts of paramontroseite and haggite. The ore minerals coat sand grains and fill interstices of complexly cross-stratified sandstone along solution fronts similar to "roll" type deposits of the other districts. Minerals of oxidized deposits are typically carnotite and tyuyamunite with different proportions of secondary vanadium accessory minerals. Ground water was the transporting medium and deposition of primary uranium and vanadium minerals occurred in reducing environments produced and controlled by physio-chemical characteristics of the sedimentary rocks.

Jan 1, 1968

By William P. Blake

IntroductioN.............989 The Blake stone- Breaker Prize.......989 Great Labor-Saving Inventions.. 990 I. Biographical NoticE OF the Inventor......990 II. Former Methods of Breaking Stone......992 Ragging and Spalling......... 992 Cornish Rolls..........993 III. Construction of the Blake Stone-Breaker.. .. 993 The Lever.Pattern.........994 The Eccentric Pattern.........997 The Challenge Pattern......... 999 The Monarch Pattern.........1001 The Multiple-Jaw Pattern........1001 Movable Dies for Jaws......... 1004 Cheek.Plates,..........1007 IV. The Capacity OF Blake Breakers......1007 Position and Feeding of Breakers...... 1008 V. Gyratory Jaw Crushers.........1010 The Gates Rock- and Ore-Crusher......1010 The Comet Crusher.........1010 VI. Some Unusual Forms OF the Breaker......1010 The Smith Hydraulic Pattern.......1012 The Forster Crusher.........1012 The Stafford Crusher.........1013 The Gates Crusher.........1013 The Dodge Pattern.........1013 The Rawson Crusher.........1014 The Duplex Breaker.........1015 Booth's Modification of Wedge-Block......1015 Marsden's Eccentric Pattern.......1017 The Lancaster Machine........ 1017 VII. Combined Crushing and Grinding Impracticable,. . 1018 The Hanscomb Machine ...1019 Howland's Crusher and Pulverizer..1020 The Oliver Crusher and Pulverizer..1021

Jan 1, 1903

By J. E. Tobey

UNDER war conditions coal immediately assumes a position of highest importance for coal must carry the basic load for industry. The upward trend in production continued through 1941. Bituminous coal production alone about equaled the total output of bituminous and anthracite in 1940. The figures for 1941 approximated 500,000,000 tons for bituminous, and 54,000,000 tons for anthracite, and production of by-product and beehive coke exceeded that of the previous year. The coal industry, under the National Bituminous Coal Act, is going through a period of readjustment, and is beginning to stabilize itself under the statute. The Federal Mine Inspection Nill became law during the year.

Jan 1, 1942

By C. A. Pierce

Underground operations of the United States Potash Co. at its mine near Carlsbad, N.M., have been continuous since the property was opened about five years ago. Approximately one million tons of potash has been mined and two shafts have been sunk, each to a depth of about 1000 ft. Outstanding in the company's operations is the fact that not a single blasting accident has occurred during the aforesaid period. The purpose of this paper is to describe the blasting practice that has made possible the achievement of this accident-prevention record. The mining method employed in extracting the thick horizontal bed of potash may be described as a double-entry room-and-pillar system. Mine development is kept well in advance of extraction operations, and a three years' supply of ore, at least, is always available. Limits of the orebody have not been determined, and in the present system of mining headings are advanced by a "shortwall" method. This was the first potash ore bed developed in the United States. The nature of the deposit, therefore, was unknown, and it was deemed expedient to outline a conservative mining policy. Later, when more is known about the deposit and certain control ascertained, a "longwall" panel retreating method may be found advisable. The necessity for a domestic supply of potash became a national issue previous to and during the World War. The United States Government came to realize that this country should not be dependent upon foreign sources of potash, and began extensive explorations in many parts of the country, seeking an orebody that would meet the exacting requirements of the domestic market. The Department of Interior, through the Geological Survey and Bureau of Mines, made every effort to determine the location of potash deposits and encouraged their exploitation by private capital. Through the combined efforts of the Department of Interior and private industry, the deposit now being worked by the United States Potash Co. was discovered and brought into production.

Jan 1, 1937