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By Jürgen Brune

This is a shortened version of the paper ?The Methane-Air Explosion Hazard Within Coal Mine Gobs published in the 2013 volume of SME Transactions (Brune, 2013, pp. 376-390). This paper analyzes the explosion hazard resulting from the formation of methane-air mixtures in the mined-out gobs of underground longwall coal mines. Evidence from numerous mine explosions suggests that explosive methane zones can form within longwall gobs. Explosions and fires resulting from these methane accumulations have led to severe and fatal injuries to the miners, including the explosion of the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, where 29 miners lost their lives April 5, 2010.The paper also reviews current research on numerical modeling of gas flows in longwall gobs and outlines how targeted injection of nitrogen into gobs can effectively reduce the volume of such explosive methane zones. The paper concludes that comprehensive monitoring of gas compositions, along the accessible fringes of the gobs along with inertization, improved ventilation schemes and further research are necessary to control this explosion hazard and make mining operations safe. Keywords: Longwall, gob, methane, EGZ, explosive gas zones, underground, coal, explosion, fire

Feb 1, 2014

By J. F. Brune

This is a shortened version of the paper ?The Methane-Air Explosion Hazard Within Coal Mine Gobs published in the 2013 volume of SME Transactions (Brune, 2013). This paper analyzes the explosion hazard resulting from the formation of methane-air mixtures in the mined-out gobs of underground longwall coal mines. Evidence from numerous mine explosions suggests that explosive methane zones can form within longwall gobs. Explosions and fires resulting from these methane accumulations have led to severe and fatal injuries to the miners, including the explosion of the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where 29 miners lost their lives. The paper also reviews current research on numerical modeling of gas flows in longwall gobs and outlines how targeted injection of nitrogen into gobs can effectively reduce the volume of such explosive methane zones. The paper concludes that comprehensive monitoring of gas compositions along the accessible fringes of the gobs along with inertization, improved ventilation schemes and further research are necessary to control this explosion hazard and make mining operations safe.

Feb 23, 2014

By T. B. Brooks

THE iron ores of the Marquette region are mostly extracted in open excavations ; hence the process is more properly quarrying. Several attempts at underground work have been made, which have not, on the whole, been successful. The Edwards mine has been almost entirely wrought by candle-light. The slate ore pit, No. 1, of the New England mine, is now worked in the same way, as is also the Pioneer furnace pit of the Jackson mine. The Champion mine was opened systematically for underground work, with two levels, 60 feet apart, and three shafts at distances apart along the bed. of 200 feet; but this idea has been practically abandoned, the greater part of the ore in that mine being now taken out in open pits. Several other mines have occasionally worked underground stopes, but only temporarily; if such stopes could not be opened out to day-light, they have usually been abandoned. In brief, it may be said that no considerable amount of ore has as yet (1870).been extracted underground in the region, and of that so mined very little has been taken out at a profit; and I may add that it seems to be the belief of the most experienced mining men that this state of things will hold for some time to come for reasons which will appear. Nearly the same remarks may be applied to the mines of the Iron Mountain region, Missouri, the ores of which are very similar in character to those of Marquette. Some of the New York and New Jersey magnetic deposits are wrought open, but this is the exception, underground mining there being the rule. The following brief sketch of the geological structure of the Marquette deposits will indicate some advantages of the method of mining employed. The iron-bearing (Huronian) series of rocks, are stratified beds, the principal ore formation being overlaid by a quartzite, and underlaid by a diorite, or greenstone. This ore formation is made up, first, of pure ore ; second, of a mixed ore" (i. e., banded * A second part of this paper was read before the American Society of Civil Engineers. Both papers are embraced in Chapter IX, Part I, Vol. II, Geological Survey of Michigan.

Jan 1, 1873

HAVING taught you to make aqua fortis and to cleanse and reduce it to perfection, before I teach you the work of parting on a large scale, I wish now to teach you how to make an assay of the amount of gold present in a quantity of silver, so that you may proceed to your work with open eyes in order to become aware of mistakes when you have erred yourself or have been deceived by someone else. Therefore it is necessary to know very exactly, before you take it out, how much gold should be in your cucurbits from the weight of the silver that you put in. Thus you may see the gain or loss, if you had to deliver it to someone else or if you had bought it. If you did not do this you would proceed blindly in your work.

Jan 1, 1942

By Werner A. Dürrfeld

The Bullflex® System was introduced as a substitute for timber and debris lagging in mines and to create an in-situ early-stage interlocking effect between steel supports and the rock wall. As deplacement and/or disintegration of strata and of rock beds is to be avoided under all circumstances - following the ideas of NATM-steel support can only be loaded to the maximum when point load is avoided and ideal bedding of the rock is maintained.

Jan 1, 1981

I HAVE striven to demonstrate to you as well as possible the method of bringing the metals of your ores to their ultimate perfection. But one cannot always do with gold that is found in the ores what is done with the other metals, for gold is not always accompanied by fine silver nor is it

Jan 1, 1942

HAVING demonstrated to you above the practice of bringing silver to its ultimate fineness and perfection, it now remains for me to describe how the two kinds of metals that are found in the smelting product that you made from the ores are to be brought to their end: One is copper and the other lead, and perhaps a third is gold, if per-chance the silver that you refined in the cupeling hearth contained any. It would be almost impossible that it should not contain any, because either a little or a lot is almost always found as an admixed substance not only in silver but in. every one of the other metals as well. But in order to continue in sequence, you must suppose that there is some gold and that, of the two materials you have that I mentioned above and told you to save, one is the matte (calling it according to the usage of Germany, * since I do not know a more exact or better word for describing it to you) and the .other is the litharge that you took from the cupeling hearth. In addition, the hearths themselves are saturated and full of lead. If these things should remain in their present condition they would be useless bodies without any perfection. First, taking one of the three said parts, as a material of greater quantity and also as a thing that needs greater labor, and because, being reduced to the point I have told you with smelting and evaporation, it is nearer to its end, I shall tell you what must be done in order to bring it to pure copper. As I have told you, there are two materials on hand, one of which is the matte and the other the litharge. Each at first sight seems a half-burned thing; one has already been finished metal and the other is to be, but in my opinion the matte is nearer to its end than is the litharge because the latter has been dried by the power of the fire and re-formed from another body. Now leaving aside the discussion of this thing, after the matte has been well evaporated and reduced, it is taken and put on a forge. In front of the tuyère a receptacle is made of stones that neither calcine nor melt, or of coals and powdered clay, in the form of a little cradle that is longer than it is wide and not very deep. Its length should be about one and a half

Jan 1, 1942

A USEFUL and very ingenious idea was surely that of the inventor of AN a short way of extracting gold and silver from the sweepings of all those arts that handle them as well as every particle that smelters of ores might have left in the slags, and also that in some ores themselves. This is done without using great labor in smelting but by the sole means and virtue of mercury. To do this, first make a large bricked pan of stone or wood and arrange a millstone inside which rotates in the hollow of this pan like that of a flour mill. In the hollow of the pan put some of your material containing gold after it has been crushed well in a mortar and then washed and dried. Grind it in the said mill, moistening it meanwhile with vinegar or water in which sublimate, verdigris, and common salt have been dissolved. Then enough mercury to cover these materials is poured over them. They are agitated inside for an hour or two, by turning the mill either by hand or with a horse, depending on the device that you have arranged. Remember that the more the mercury and the material are rubbed together in the mill the more it can be believed that the mercury absorbs the substance that the materials contain. Finally, thus prepared, the mercury is separated from the earthiness with a sieve or by washing and thus the mercury is retrieved. Then, make it rise with a little cucurbit or pass it through a purse and there will remain at the bottom the gold, silver,. copper, or whatever metal you placed in the pan under the millstone to be ground. Wishing to know this secret, I gave to the one who taught it to me a ring with a diamond worth twenty-five ducats, and I also pledged myself to give him the eighth part of whatever profit I should gain from this

Jan 1, 1942

IF you wish to make the acid that is vulgarly called common aqua fortis,* for parting gold from silver, you must first provide as many cucurbits and alembics, receivers, and materials as you wish, and then make a furnace that is long and conveniently wide for holding three or four pairs of cucurbits or as many as you wish. If you have to make this by art in order to work a large quantity, you could make several small furnaces for it seems that not more than three or four pairs are suitable for one. Prepare the places where the cucurbits are to stand with bottoms or covers made of potter's clay or tiles that are half round like the bottoms of the cucurbits and have a little rim around the top so that they can be built in. Proceed to build these in in pairs, one by the other with convenient spaces between, placing an iron support across to make this place stronger and more secure. In every corner and also in the middle a hole must be made as a vent for the smoke, as is done in all furnaces. You will see the form of this somewhat roughly drawn here. [Figure 25] Near this prepare a number of cucurbits which are made of glass, as clear and uniform as possible and very well formed. There must be no bubbles or other indentations in these, for they would be dangerous and uncertain for your work. Lute these with lutum sapientiae up to within three dita or less from where the neck narrows. This lute must be spread out well all over to the thickness of two threads or a little more. Then cover and make them strong with this well-made plaster, and finally dry it, taking care that there are no clefts or cracks such as clays are often prone to make even though they be well prepared. For greater security choose among these [64v] a clay that is lean and then mix it with at least a fourth part or more of wool-clloth clippings and about an eighth part of wash

Jan 1, 1942

THE good and lofty men of intelligence are constantly discoverers of many beautiful things, because of their kindness or because they are driven by necessity. Either they shorten the method of making them after they have seen them, or they think how they can be increased in power or how they can be used for various effects in addition to the one intended by the inventor. Certainly all the effects described to you in this Tenth Book derive from gunpowder. When so many proper- ties and so much strength were observed in this, it was thought that by enclosing it in some strong thing that had the power to resist it, gunpowder would produce a marvelous effect. And thus they made a tube of bronze or iron [160v] which they closed with a wooden plug. They applied fire, and when they saw how forcefully this plug issued they thought of making one that would come out and strike in order to destroy things. They made an instrument of bronze or of iron and put some powder and a round stone inside, and called it a spingard. Developing then from this,

Jan 1, 1942

CONTRARY to the natural order of art, it has been discovered how to cast in moist earth in order to avoid labor and expense. This is truly a thing that many desire and few practice because it is not as smooth a way nor as easy to effect as it apparently seems. To do this, one part of fine-grained yellow tuff is taken, or some very

Jan 1, 1942

IF you do not make the disc at the same time as the core and as part of it, it is necessary to make it by itself. This is done by spreading on a board or other flat surface a layer of clay as thick and wide as [88] the disc that you made at the feeding head of the first pattern of the gun. When it is dry, mark it exactly with compasses and then, cutting with a chisel or rasp, make it fit exactly into the empty space at the head. Likewise, make a hole just as wide as the thickness of the core exactly in the middle of this clay disc. When you have put the disc in its place in the mould and then pass the core through this hole, it passes exactly through the center of the mould in such a way that it meets the iron ring that you put at the foot of the mould for this purpose. As I said above, if' you do not make it as part of the core, it is necessary to proceed in the aforesaid way. But if' you wish to make it attached to the core (which I like better because it can be done more accurately) make a

Jan 1, 1942

MELTING in a crucible is the customary method for small things. It is done in two ways: with the blast of bellows and with an air furnace. The one with bellows, which I wish to show you now, is the common method most in use. It melts quickly and is very well known to goldsmiths and to all melters. I could continue without telling you of it, but I shall tell you its method in order to caution you about what you might perhaps not notice. In order to do this, first make a little forge with a pair of bellows that can be worked with one hand or in some other way. A crucible of the size needed is then taken and filled with the material that you wish to melt. Then, on the forge in front of the place where the wind issues from the bellows, kindle as much charcoal as you think will well cover your crucible and put your crucible full of material in the midst of this burning charcoal above the place where the blast strikes the fire, two or three dita distant from the place where the blast issues-or as much more or less as the size of the crucible or the force of the bellows requires. It is allowed

Jan 1, 1942

THE ladle is a small hearth made on a cage of iron bars like a bird-cage, and has a handle so that it can easily be taken from the forge and carried wherever desired. It is a common device and is much used among masters for small castings, but with a large weight you would have difficulty in lifting it by hand even though you were aided by levers and winches. If you should indeed do it, it would be just as if you had lifted the aforesaid hearth by force, and this would be unwise if you could do anything less difficult. A forge is likewise made for this, with a good pair of large bellows that are well covered with cloth. When the small hearth has been made with good clay, baked, and well covered with ashes, it is placed in front of the mouth [of the bellows] and a crown of two or three brick ends is built around it on top of the rim so that the charcoal may be held better and in greater quantity. Then, having lit the fire and heated the ladle and the charcoal, the pieces of material that you wish to melt are gradually put on

Jan 1, 1942

THIS method of melting with a little wind furnace is called by many melting with air. It is a method that is done with little labor. First a furnace is made with crucibles and charcoal. It is small or large as you wish, without blast from bellows, but not without a draft of air which proceeds from the place where it is made and from the arrangement of the furnace.* This, after a certain period of time, has the effect of melt- [ ] gin the thing in the quantity that you wish, provided, however, that you proportion it properly to the space, to the fire, and to the air which makes the wind. In order to make this, the aforesaid furnace is first made of bricks, or it is dug out of an elevation of stone or [106V] in a wall of clay. It can also be made portable with iron bars and loam as I shall tell you. However you may make it, you must place it in a spot that is windy, for instance, in some large room or opposite doors or windows. It is made round or square as is most pleasing to him who is to make it. But here we will now say that it is to be made square for greater convenience of building with bricks. Having chosen the place, make it a half

Jan 1, 1942

By Lee T. J

The area, A, under a gamma-ray log that passes through a horizontal bed given by: A = gl/k. Here is the equivalent concentration of U3O8 in the body, l the thickness of the body, and k the calibration factor or sensitivityof the logger. The area is independent of the logging speed or logger time constant.This relationship, together with the first moment about the maximum of the log and its value there suflicient to determine the thickness, position of the centre of the bed from the log maximum and the concentration of U3O8.Numerical results obtained from artificial and field data show that the computed results arc as good as those obtained by methods such as the inverse filter technique and the iterative method. The present method yields results that arc easier to feed into an ore reserve data base.

Jan 1, 1981

AS you and anyone else can understand, a great expense and a large supply of things are necessary for parting a quantity of silver by means of aqua fortis. First, as you have seen, it is necessary to have a great abundance of every kind of cucurbit and alembic, of charcoal and wood, and a large number of pounds of a vigorous, well-purified aqua fortis, because for every pound of silver there are of necessity [71v] at least four pounds or more employed from the parting to the coloring of the separated gold. It is also necessary to prove its fineness and to granulate or beat it, to have furnaces and supplies, and to provide for a thousand other necessities which need not be repeated now. The most important thing in this art seems to me to be that it requires continual working night and day with extreme watchfulness and care. For this reason another way, much quicker, less dangerous, and less expensive than the aforesaid one was found by some clever men (alchemists, I believe) in order to avoid such laborious and heavy methods. It produces the substance of the thing exactly as the acid does. If you wish to make use of it in conjunction with the acid it is possible to render great aid to this work although there is a great difference in the techniques of the two. The method used in this parting is as follows: First, make a round or square wind furnace for melting, below ground or above, and of height and size in proportion to the work and as it comes out best for you. Then take a large clay crucible and fill it almost up to the edge with that silver which contains the gold, cut into pieces, and put it to melt with the silver on top of a piece of brick cut to the size of the bottom of the crucible and resting on a grate in the middle of coals that are burning well. When you see that the silver has been made so hot by the fire that it looks white and that it wishes to begin to liquefy, take a little stick of sulphur or a small piece of antimony and put it in. When this is melted, lifting away the charcoal that covers it, put in more sulphur or antimony (for the method is the same with either one) until the silver is very well melted and these materials properly incorporated. Then for every pound of silver that you put in add half an ounce of sheet copper. When this is melted take your crucible out with tongs or pincers and strike the bottom gently on the coals two or three times so that the gold may make a residue on account of

Jan 1, 1942

THERE have always been in this world men of such keen intelligence that with their discourse they have been capable of infinite and various inventions that are as beneficial as they are simultaneously harmful to the human body. Wherefore, from day to day, we see unfolded before our eyes some of these that greatly astound our minds, and we remain so stupefied that when-we think of them we are not able to control our faculties for some time, both from considering by what necessity or purpose these men were goaded, as well as from contemplating the profound subtlety of their discoveries, which, in truth, are such that they are awarded the greatest commendation by noble minds. By following their counsels and with their aid, there have been* some astute and lever captains who have had certain pots or balls of earthenware carried by their infantry, expressly filled with compositions of powder or other unctuous liquors disposed to ignite easily. When they meet the enemy in battle and come up close to them, they try to strike vigorously with these in the first assault in an effort to throw them into disorder and to make them give way by breaking them up and drawing them out of formation. The smoke is harmful, but the fire very much more so. These are made in this way. Take the number of vessels that you have to make-it does not matter whether they are raw or baked as long as they are well freed from the moisture of the clay-and fill them a little more than half full with coarse gunpowder which has mixed in it pounded Grecian pitch and at least a third of crushed sulphur. Then pour in a covering a dito thick of strained pig fat mixed with powder. This keeps it from falling out when it is thrown and keeps the fire slower until it reaches the enemy. When this has been made, open up the pig fat a little at one side when you wish to throw it and put in a little fuse or a little good powder and apply fire, holding it in your hand until you see that the fire has taken hold well. Then throw it, choosing your time. A liquid composition is also made in a kettle in which are put pork fat, petroleum oil, oil of sulphur, live sulphur, [163] doubly refined saltpeter,

Jan 1, 1942

BECAUSE it is necessary that the powders made for casting have a magistery of salt water, I wish now to teach you to prepare the salt that must form this magistery, for without it these powders would not have the toughness to hold themselves together when they are dry. In short, you take the quantity [119v] of salt that you need to prepare and put it in a rough pot, either baked or, if it suits you better, raw but well dried. This is completely covered with a lid or is luted with well- made moulding clay. Then it is encircled with brick ends at a distance of three dita, like a drying furnace. This space is filled with good charcoal; fire is applied and it is left to stand until all the charcoal is consumed by itself* Then you take that quantity of this burned or rather melted salt which you wish to use for moistening the clay and which you think can be dissolved in the water so that it wd remain very salty. It is boiled in a pot with water and then left to stand. After it has settled, your powder is moistened with it and used for moulding. When you see by testing it that the powder stands up as you wish, it is good. If not, give it some more of this water again and continue until you see that it holds enough. For without this magistery it would return to the dryness that it had before as a powder, and you could not use it without fear that it would fall from the Games. In this way this earth, either natural or artificial, is prepared and made ready, and it is used as the need occurs.

Jan 1, 1942

ALL that I have been able to tell you concerning the ordinary practice of parting with aqua fords I have striven to demonstrate to you as briefly as possible. Now, before passing on to speak of other things, I wish to teach you the method that you must follow in order to recover whatever is good in those chalky precipitates of that acid and all the silver that you put in; it was for this reason that I told you to save them in a cucurbit by themselves. This is called "water of whites" by the master parters, and in reality is nothing other than the precipitates of thick phlegm of aqua fords, white as chalk. If these were not extracted from the acid, the spirits of the infused materials [69] would be almost without

Jan 1, 1942