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By Henry G. Dorsett

This report is a description of equipment and test procedures used by the Federal Bureau of Mines in laboratory studies on the explosibility of dusts. The principal tests concern ignition temperature, minimum explosive concentra¬tion, minimum electrical energy for ignition, limiting oxygen concentration, pressure, and rates of pressure rise. As new materials often present unique problems, variations in the general procedure and special tests performed are indicated, The general procedures for handling a dust sample from its receipt at the laboratory to the preparation of the report are described. The repro¬ducibility of the respective tests are shown. A brief history of laboratory studies on dust explosions by the Bureau of Mines and a description of current equipment and test procedures used are presented in this report. Its purpose is to facilitate interpretation of data previously published and those proposed to be published on the numerous mineral, agricultural and industrial dusts that have been studied. Through understanding and interpretation of the laboratory data obtained for the parameters of explosibility, preventive measures can be adopted for alleviat¬ing the hazard of dust explosions arising in manufacturing and processing industries.

Jan 1, 1960

President and Director JOSEPH L GILLSON, '62 Wilmington, Del Past President and Director HOWARD C PYLE, '61, Los Angeles, Calif President-elect and Director R R McNAUGHTON, '63, Trail, B C, Canada

Jan 1, 1960

By J. Bulina, J. T. Brown

SINCE the inception of vacuum cold-hearth arc melting of high-temperature alloys (about 4 years ago) it has been theoretically reasoned and qualitatively found that better mechanical properties are often obtained from alloys which have been melted by this practice. Mechanical properties are emphasized in this evaluation because of their importance in design. Vacuum-arc melting has an intrinsic advantage in that it creates an ingot grain structure which is easier to forge and thus leads to greater yields for the finished product. The greater yield naturally gives the process an economic basis when the cost per pound of alloy is rather high. However, the question stressed here is, does the process create an alloy with inherently better properties? There are several theoretical reasons for suspecting that it does. One is the vacuum refining which should permit lowering the content of harmful residuals with high vapor pressures. A second is the vacuum process which should preclude the formation of harmful distribution of oxides, nitrides, or carbo-nitrides, by keeping the amount of such constituents formed to a minimum. A third is the vacuum-arc cold-hearth method which prevents the possibility of pick-up of harmful elements from a refractory crucible since none is used. Fourth, the rapid solidification rate, induced by having a cold mold and only small amounts of molten metal at any one time, minimizes the segregation of elements like titanium, aluminum, and molybdenum from the top to the bottom of the ingot. This rapid solidification rate also decreases the tendency of the above elements to form undesirable phases by segregating locally. Another less frequently considered vacuum-arc melting advantage is the inherently finer-grained ingot structure which can be produced. Finer initial grain size leads to better forgeability, and means that after relatively small reductions to billets or final forged products a finer-grained material is obtained, which, by virtue of its finer grain size, would usually have greater stress-rupture ductility.

Jan 1, 1960

By C. S. Gibson

"MOST of the mines in the Province of Ontario in Canada are multi-level operations in steeply dipping veins; yet there is an appreciable number whose de-posits are relatively flat-lying, ranging up to 45° inclination.The veins vary in width up to several hundred feet and may or may not be branching systems. The depths of mines range from a few hundred to 8,000 feet, approximately. The primary products of the underground group are asbestos, gold, silver, cobalt, copper, nickel, iron, uranium, talc, fluorspar, gyp-sum and salt.There are a few open-pit mines. The majority are temporary in type because, as the outcrops are removed, mining is continued be-low surface. Primary products of the open pits are copper, nickel, iron, magnesium and nepheline syenite.The industry as a whole employs about 50,000 persons, approximately 60 per •cent of whom have dust-exposure occupations. The definition of a dust-exposure occupation and the requirements for •dealing with same are set forth in The Mining Act of Ontario.Results of extensive and continuing studies on the incidence and progression of silicosis have been reported periodically for years past, in annual reports of the Mines Accident Prevention Association of Ontario and in papers presented at Conferences sponsored by Mcintyre Research Foundation of Toronto, all of which have been published. The information provided therein proves the effectiveness of the means being used to prevent silicosis and allied disorders."

Jan 1, 1960

By Bernadette C. Michalski

Mineral raw materials, labor, capital, and technology form the basis of industrial production. The augmentation of one or all of the elements--labor, capital, and technology--will result in industrial growth. Thus, an increase in the labor force would increase output. A similar result would be achieved by expanding capital investment and supplying labor with more equipment. Finally, industrial growth can be achieved by introducing more productive methods and techniques born of technological advancement. The Soviet Union has employed these elements in many patterns to catapult from an agricultural to an industrial economy in four decades. The early history of the Soviet Union was marked by limited capital and borrowed technology, forcing the Soviets to concentrate on an abundant labor reserve to support the industrial program. The source of this reserve was the rural population. In [1928], 80 percent of the working population was employed in agriculture. This figure dropped to 43 percent by 1956, whereas industrial employment in the same period increased from 8 to 31 percent.3/

Jan 1, 1960

By W. A. Stickney

As part of a Bureau of Mines program to investigate recovery of manganese (Mn) from low-grade materials, laboratory studies were made of four samples of mill rejects: Three from Montana and one from Peru. These studies demonstrated that certain mill-waste products can be a potential source of manganese. Both manganese oxide and carbonate minerals were recovered by flotation in an acid circuit with a fuel oil-tall oil emulsion as collector. Sintering) required to prepare a physically acceptable product, also was used as a method of beneficiation. In addition to being low-grade, some of the samples presented problems of intimate mineral association and complex textures.

Jan 1, 1960

By J. Greenspan

The anisotropy of fracture and slip, that is, the brittleness and ductility of the beryllium single crystal, is characteristic also of po1ycrystalline beryllium in which the grains are oriented in a preferred manner. Beryllium with grain orientations resulting from hot working either unidirectionally or bidirectionally is ductile or brittle in directions given by the anisotropy and orientation of the grains. Textures developed from various hot-working sequences are given, and tensile results are correlated with textures. Not only texture, but fine grain size is necessary for obtaining high tensile elongation. Ultimate tensile strength and elongation are both correlated with grain diameter. Of particular interest is the case in which unusually high tensile elongations of 30 to 40 pct are obtained when basal planes are oriented to carry THE beryllium crystal (of nominal purity) is probably unique among metals with respect to its unusually acute anisotropy of slip and fracture. While extensive slip can occur on the system (1010) [ll20] starting at about 19,000 psi, the (0001) plane is particularly vulnerable to fracture at 4500 psi or less. Fracture occurs also on the (11zo) plane at about 26,000 psi.1"3 Further, there seems to be no other slip System which contributes significantly to

Jan 1, 1960

By George R. Mitchell

It is a common observation that objects having, different; temperatures exchange energy by radiative transfer. The quantity of radiant energy emitted by an object is a definite function of its temperature. Therefore, a measurement of emitted radiation, by means of a calibrated radiometric instrument, provides a temperature measurement without contacting the emitting object. The physical laws describing radiant energy transfer and their application to remote temperature measurement form the substance of this paper. The energy radiated by bodies having temperatures up to 4000°C is largely in the infrared spectral region. The infrared spectral region is that part of the electro-magnetic spectrum having wavelengths longer than visible light and extending to the microwave region. The wave-lengths range from 0.7 micron (1 micron = 10-4 cm) to 1000 microns. In general, infrared radiometry deals, with the methods of measuring energy flux in the 1 to 15 micron region of the infrared spectrum.

Jan 1, 1960

By A. U. Seybolt

Since the time this topic was originally treated in 1954, more recent French3,1 work has been published making it advisable to repeat the earlier oxygen solubility experiments, but using iron of a higher purity. Upon repeating oxygen saturation experiments with zone-refined iron, it was found that the oxygen solid solubility was at least an order of magnitude less than previously observed. SINCE the publication of an earlier paper1 (1954) on this subject by the present author, several contributions on this topic have appeared. Meijering2 in 1955 attempted to reconcile recent conflicting solubility data, without reaching any definite conclusion. sifferlen3 (1955) found that iron of high purity appeared to absorb a quantity of oxygen (0.005 to 0.025 pct) approximately proportional to the structural imperfections present, such as polygonization and grain boundary area. However, he also indicated that purity itself was a significant factor. He concluded that very pure iron nearly free of lattice imperfections would have essentially zero oxygen solubility. His second paper4 (1957) supported this contention since a zone-melted iron containing initially 0.0007 pct O analyzed only 0.0006 pct 0 after prolonged soaking at 850°C with an FeO layer on the surface. Because of the discrepancy between the results of Ref. 1 and those of Sifferlen, it seemed desirable to attempt to resolve this disagreement. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE AND MATERIALS The experimental method used by sifferlen3,1 was essentially the same as that of Ref. 1. In this technique thin iron strip with a surface layer of FeO is soaked for prolonged periods at an elevated temperature in order to saturate the iron with oxygen. After two days at temperatures near 800° to 900° C, one would expect that the iron would be in equilibrium with the surface FeO. In the work reported in Ref. 1 there was evidence that two days holding at 8000to 900°C was more than sufficiently long for saturation. Sifferlen used 48 hr at 850°C. Because of the evidence presented by Sifferlen that the apparent oxygen solubility is a function of iron purity, three grades of iron were used as indicated in Table 1. The Bureau of Standards wire was used only for resistivity tests, while the other two irons were used for saturation-analysis tests of the type described above.

Jan 1, 1960

By Kevin C. Milne

"The solution of problems associated with development of a sour gas reserve will be of increasing importance in tl1e next few years if gas export is approved •by the National Energy Board. The purpose of this paper is to review briefly the history of the Carstairs gas field, and tCI describe in a general manner the reservoir, and the producing and processing facilities.HISTORYThe Carstairs gas field was discovered in April 1958 when the discovery well, Home Carstairs 10-17, was successfully completed as a gas well in the Elkton member of the Turner Valley formation. Geo-graphic location of the field is shown in Figure No. 1. Note that the field is about five miles west of the town of Carstairs, Alberta, which in turn is about 40 miles north of Calgary. Drilling subsequent to the discovery well resulted in three addition-al producing wells and one dry hole during I.958; two producing wells during 1959; and one producing well and one dry hole during 1960. Thus, seven producing wells and two dry holes have been drilled in the Carstairs field to date.In November 1959 a 12-section block in the Carstairs field was unitized on a surface acre basis. Mean-while, in June 1959, operators in the field executed an ""Interim Plant Agreement"" that provided the money needed to start construction of a joint venture processing plant and gathering system. Construction of the plant and gathering system was completed in February 1960."

Jan 1, 1960

"Qatar, crude petroleum, production, annualdata MY 1949-51Quality mine, Ark., coal, carbonizing properties TP 667washabilty study RI 496N. Dak., lignite, grindabilty as function ofmoisture, tests, results RI 5167"

Jan 1, 1960

By K. A. Clark

"The repacked mineral aggregates of good grade oil sands have permeabilities ranging between 15 darcys to 350 millidarcys. The variation is due to the silt contents of the aggregates. Few good grade oil sands contain as much as 30 per cent •silt, most of them contain less than 20 per cent, and a large proportion have less than 10 per cent.The permeabilities of repacked good grade oil sands (oil included) depend on the degree of liquid saturation. When saturation with oil plus water reaches between 80-90 per cent, permeability is reduced to zero. As total saturation decreases below 80 per cent, permeability increases ranidly. Permeabilities of between one and two darcys were observed for total saturations between 60-70 per cent.The mean value for 18 measurements of the permeabilities of ""undisturbed"" core samples of good grade oil sands was 50 millidarcys. This value is •probably too high. The mean value for 20 measurements on core samples of interbedded oil sand and shale was 100 millidarcys. The mean value for 11 measurements on shale was 10 millidarcys."

Jan 1, 1960

By T. E. Gray

This report describes the preparation characteristics of the more significant coalbeds in Monongalia County, W. Va. It is one of a Bureau of Mines series planned to determine coals suitable for producing metallurgical coke, either as mined or after beneficiation. Over 9.5 million tons of coal was produced in Monongalia County in 1957, of which more than 7 million tons was cleaned mechanically in 8 cleaning plants. On January I, 1954 the Bureau of Mines estimated that 1,576 million tons of recoverable coal remained in the county in beds 28 inches or more thick.

Jan 1, 1960

By M. E. Glicksman, G. S. Ansel

It has been shown by Walton and Chalmers,&apos; that the mechanism of the development of solidification textures in castings involves the preferential growth of dendrites along certain crystallographic directions as determined by the influence of prevailing heat-transfer conditions. Specifically, this growth is parallel to the direction of heat flow. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine the applicability of this mechanism to: 1) commercially pure aluminum (99.75 pct) solidified to coarse columnar crystals, 2) an aluminum-silicon casting alloy (5.25 Si, 0.38 Fe, 0.02 Cu, 0.10 Ti, 0.002 S) cast to a fine-grained structure under complex and reproducible heat transfer conditions. PROCEDURE AND RESULTS 1) Specimen Preparation—Using a technique similar to that employed by Northcott and Thomas,2 samples were melted in the directional solidification mold, Fig. 1, by heating the entire assembly to 670° C. The mold was then end cooled using a water jet. From considerations of harmonic analysis, the likely distribution of isotherm normals encountered by the growing crystals is shown in Fig. 1. 2) Orientation Analysis—The pure aluminum sample froze to large columnar crystals, nucleated close to the metal diaphragm, with the growth direction parallel to the mold axis. Using the back-reflection Laue technique, the growth direction of these crystals was determined to be a <100>, which coincided within 53 deg to the mold axis. Metallographic examination of the relatively fine-grained aluminum-silicon sample revealed a dendritic mode of growth having its primary dendrite arms along isotherm normals. Back-reflection Debye-Scherrer patterns, taken with the specimen rotating about its cylinder axis, yielded rings displaying symmetrical arcing, thus proving that the sample did, indeed, possess the solidification texture inferred from the preliminary metallographic examination. To determine the extent and orientation of the texture in the aluminum-silicon alloy, a density distribution of the (111) poles of the sample was plotted using the transmission Debge-Scherrer

Jan 1, 1960

By Harold Bailie

The purpose of this Bureau of Mines report is to furnish information on mining practices applied to flat-bedded fluorspar deposits in southern Illinois. It presents new and improved operating procedures and specialized techniques applicable to deposits of this type. All of the operating mines of the Ozark-Mahoning Co. in this area have been opened by vertical shafts which connect with levels consisting of haul-age ways, stopes, and loading stations. The stoping practice used locally called room and pillar, is open stoping with pillars left at different distances and diameters. To facilitate haulage and drainage, the mines are worked from openings turned off the main haulage drift on a grade to conform with the dip of the ore beds. The ore is predominantly fluorspar with smaller amounts of galena and sphalerite that contain traces of cadmium and germanium. The principal gangue minerals are limestone, calcite, shale, barite, and sandstone. The rock hardness ranges from relatively soft shale to hard, abrasive sandstone.

Jan 1, 1960

By Eleanor Abshire

[THE INCREASING use of hafnium as a vital component in atomic power reactors has brought this metal into recent prominence. A literature survey was made and this bibliography was compiled to provide research and production groups with a ready source of reference to this important metal anti its compounds. This service is rendered by the Zirconium Information Center, which is sponsored by the Department of the Navy, Bureau of Ships, and the F .S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, tit the Bureau&apos;s Northwest Electrodevelopment Experiment Station, Albany, Oreg. The following reference sources have been reviewed for this compilation : Chemical Abstracts; Industrial Arts Index; Crerar Metals Abstracts; Nuclear Sciences Abstracts; Bureau of Mine; Information Cicular 7771, Bibliography of Zirconium; anal Bureau of Mint&apos; Information Circular 7830, Bibliography of Zirconium, suppllement to Information Circular 7771.]

Jan 1, 1960

By R. W. Powers, M. V. Doyle

ThE solution of a diatomic gas such as 0, or N2 in a metal usually follows Sieverts&apos; law; i. e., Here C is the solute concentration at equilibrium and P, the gas pressure. The proportionality constant Ks is also the equilibrium constant for the reaction 1/2 02 (at pressure, P) - 0 (in solution at [21 concentration., C). to use oxygen as an illustrative gas. Sieverts&apos; law is therefore interpreted to indicate that diatomic gases go into metallic solution atomically and that the solute "gas" atoms interact negligibly with each other. Of course, this interpretation is strictly valid only over the temperature interval in which the reaction indicated in [Z] can be investigated. At temperatures several hundreds of degrees below this interval, the possibility of interactions between solute atoms is conceivable. Indeed, from internal-friction measurements some evidence for the existence of groupings of oxygen atoms in tantalum solid solutions was presented a few years ago.1,2 Over a range of solute concentration, the experimental oxygen internal-friction peak in tantalum, measured as a function of temperature at constant frequency of vibration, can be described as the sum of two elemental peaks, each corresponding to a separate relaxation process. At 0.7 cps, the height of the elemental peak found at 137°C is proportional to the oxygen content, whereas the height of the one at 162°C varies as the square of the oxygen concentration. The 137°C peak was presumed to arise from the stress-induced ordering of oxygen atoms among various classes of octahedral sites in the manner proposed by Snoek.3 The 162°C peak was attributed to a somewhat similar stress-induced ordering process, in which each oxygen atom was interacting with a neighboring oxygen atom. Similarly, the experimental peak due to nitrogen in tantalum can also be described as the sum of two peaks. The height of one varies as the nitrogen concentration and the other as the square of this quantity. In fact, some evidence of solute interactions exist for all oxygen and nitrogen solid solutions of Group V transition metals. However, the interaction energy was not obtained previously for any alloy. The determination of this quantity, as a part of a more intensive study of the interaction between oxygen atoms in solid solution in tantalum, is reported in this paper. PRINCIPLE OF THE EXPERIMENT Consider an equilibrium in a solid solution of tantalum between oxygen atoms which are bound together pairwise and those solute oxygen atoms which are not so associated. 20 (Ta) - O2 (Ta) [3]

Jan 1, 1960

By Arthur E. Belton

Ever since the industrial Revolution both major and small companies have put much emphasis on the use of incentives to compensate top management for extra effort and extra skill. For many years industries have also provided hourly rate employees with incentive plans. More recently incentive plans have been extended to include the "front line" supervisors. Many companies have what are called Christmas bonus or profit-sharing plans. The incentives for foremen in mining, which we shall discuss, differ from such bonus plans in that the incentives are paid on a definite measured performance for each individual, and thus directly reflect his effort and skill. What is the objective for paying incentives? The objective for any part of an industrial Engineering Program is to increase productivity and reduce unit cost. The unit cost must include the entire cost of the program. From what base do we start an incentive plan? One should think of art incentive program as the top rung of the Industrial Engineering ladder. Therefore, a company must take several steps before reaching this top rung. The following steps are necessary:

Jan 1, 1960

By G. H. Martindill

Complex chemical and physical changes occurring during carbonization result in a heterogeneous system composed of gaseous, liquid, and solid phases, whose relative proportions and chemical compositions change constantly as temperature increases. Studies in which the participating variables are isolated and controlled should be useful in formulating the mechanism of coal carbonization. The most characteristic property of a coking coal is its ability to form a plastic mass at a certain stage of the carbonization process. During this period it is believed that fluidity of the coal influences the properties of the resultant coke. This report gives results of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Mines of the influence of the maximum fluidity attained by the charge on the physical quality of the coke or char produced. As a first approach to the problem, researchers investigated high-melting-point pitches, which are relatively simple carbonaceous materials. The plastic properties of these pitches, prepared specially for this work, varied greatly; their fluidities, as measured by the Gieseler plastometer, covered most of the fluidity range characteristic of coking coals. Blending these pitches with increasing pro-portions of fine coke progressively reduced their fluidities. Coal-pitch and coal-coke blends also were treated; their fluidities were varied by changing their blending ratios. The various blends were carbonized in a small-scale carbonizer and the resistance of the carbonized residue (char) to abrasion was determined in a small-scale tumbler test, using the Roga drum.

Jan 1, 1960

By J. R. Gump

The term "rare earths" is used to designate a group of elements, Numbers 57-71 which are closely related chemically. They were called "earths" because their oxides resemble those of the alkaline earths, and the designation "rare" was originally applied because of their scarcity. Now many of these elements are known to exist in considerable quantities, and the term "Lanthanide" is applied to this group of elements, because of their similarities to lanthanum, the first element in the group. Many authorities insist on including yttrium, element Number 39, because of its extremely close association with the members of the group in nature and because of its similarity in chemical properties. It has been estimated that the combined rare earth group makes up about five-thousandth. of one percent of the Earth&apos;s crust, a higher percent than the common elements, lead, tin, zinc, arsenic, mercury, silver and gold. Cerium is by far the most abundant member comprising about half of the total amount. Yttrium, neodymium, and lanthanum are next in order; samarium, gadolinium, praseodymium, dysprosium, erbium, holmium, and ytterbium are increasingly scarce; while the elements lutetium, thulium, terbium, and europium are extremely rare. The rare earths as a group are metals, usually trivalent, forming basic oxides, and insoluble oxalates in dilute mineral acids. Their fluorides are also difficultly soluble; hence the rare earths or lanthanides may be separated, in general, from other elements by adding oxalic or hydrofluoric acid to a dilute mineral acid solution containing them. The most striking fact which characterizes these elements is the remarkable .similarity in both the physical and chemical properties of their compounds. Their main differences are in the solubilities of their salts and the basicity of their oxides, which vary between that of the alkaline earths and that of aluminum.

Jan 1, 1960