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Jan 1, 1935

By Frank E. Cash

The work of the United States Bureau of, Mines is concerned primarily with the prevention of accidents in the mining, petroleum, and allied industries. This report analyzes the fatal accidents in the coal mines of Tennessee and gives the pertinent factors in tabular and descriptive form, with interpretations and suggestions to operators, workers, and the State Division of Mines for the future prevention or reduction of accidents in coal mines. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was made possible through the cooperation of A. W. Evans, chief mine inspector of Tennessee, and his secretary, Miss Hiliary Penny, who made available the department records and assisted in the segregation and assembly of the data.

Jan 1, 1935

By Albert G. Zima

ACCORDING to recently published statistics, it is predicted that as much oil must be produced during the next 16 years as has been produced during the past 75, in order to satisfy the high rate of consumption of petroleum products. During 1934, over 17,000 oil wells were completed in the United States, and it is expected that over 20,000 additional wells will be drilled during the current year. Were it not for the remarkable progress made during recent years in the improvement of drilling technique and in the development of equipment used in the production phase of the oil industry, it is doubtful whether sufficient oil could be produced to meet present requirements. A few years ago, wells seldom were deeper than 3500 to 4000 ft., owing to the limitations of the drilling methods and equipment employed.. Today, 'however, through the application of scientific drilling methods and the adaptation of modern equipment and improved materials, many wells range from 6000 to 8000 ft. in depth, and a few recent completions exceed 10,000 feet. DRILL TOOLS Modern rotary drilling tools are the product of ingenious design and careful selection and adaptation of materials used in their construction. They must withstand terrific abrasion and, because of their compactness, must be designed to resist exceedingly high unit stresses. In bits, core drills and reamers, the bodies are made of either forged or cast alloy steels, heat-treated to develop a combination of high strength and toughness. To provide sufficient strength to the threaded portions and to protect the threads from distortion or damage, the box or pin sections of the tools are hardened to approximately 310 to 330 Brinell hardness

Jan 1, 1935

By John R. Freeman

This paper relates entirely to the casting of brass under fluid pressure in steel dies. Die castings of metals and alloys of low melting point have been available for many years but the development of brass die castings has been relatively recent, occurring within the past five years. The successful developnlent of brass die castings has resulted from the availability of alloy steels that would give satisfactory life as dies and the development of suitablc die-casting machines. The melting point of copper is 1084" C. (1983" F.) and of a high brass about 900" C. (1652" F.), as compared to 327.5" C. (621.5" F.) for lead, 419.4' C. (786.7" F.) for zinc and 658.7" C. (1217.7" F.) for aluminum, temperatures that are indicative of the casting temperatures required for the various types of alloys, of which the melting points are somewhat lower than those of the pure metals. Type of Die-casting Machine In the well-known plunger and gooseneck types of die-casting machines used for casting the alloys of relatively lower melting point, much of the working mechanism is immersed in the molten alloy. For alloys having the relatively high melting point of brass, this obviously is impossible. Machines with a separate melting chamber are essential. Two rather distinct types are in extensive use at the present time, the Pack and Polak machines, the former designed by Charles Pack and developed at the American Brass Co., the latter developed by Joseph Polak, of Prague, Czeclioslovakia. The principles of operation of these machines have been described in articles by Pack1,2,3 and by Sieg.4

Jan 1, 1935

By Hindmarsh G

The colliery is owned by the BHP Collieries Proprietary Ltd., the principal shareholders being the Broken Hill Pty. Company Ltd. and Hebburn Limited.It is situated due west of Newcastle and 6 south-east of Cessnock, N.S.W., and is conneeted by 36 miles of railway to the port of Neweastle. Of this mileage, 3 miles are owned by the Company, 3 by Hebburn Limited, 9 by the South Maitland Railways Ltd., and 21miles by the Government Railways.The seam worked is known as the Main Greta Seam of the Greta Coal Measures and is on the southern slope of the Lochinvar anticline.At the shaft, the seam is 1190 ft. below the surface, and the section of the coal measures is:-Upper or Main Seam, . 24 ft. 0 in.Conglomerate and shale 70 ft. 0 in.'Middle Seam 8 in.Conglomerate 25 ft. 0 in,Bottom Seam 1 ft. 2 in.These lie between two marine measures, and are the lower coal series of the permo-carboniferous period.Only the upper seam is workable in this area, the lower seams being too thin for eompetitive working. The section of the workable seam at the shafts is as shown on Fig. 1.Unfortunately, only the lower 12 ft. 5 in. of the seam is saleable.

Jan 1, 1935

By B. C. Craft

Development and exploratory work in Mississippi during 1934 was rather active, resulting in the expansion of the proven area and the drilling of a number of important wildcat wells. Mississippi showed a decrease in drilling operations during 1934. There were 36 completions from 18 counties during this period compared with 58 completions from 22 counties during 1933. There was a considerable decrease in activity in the Jackson gas field in Hinds and Rankin counties with only 9 completions, resulting in 8 gas wells and 1 dry hole compared with 17 gas wells, 2 oil wells and 7 dry holes during 1933. Leasing and geophysical work was reported from several sections of Mississippi last year. Extensive exploration and drilling were carried on in Lamar, Hancock, Pearl River, Greene and Stone counties and on the flanks of the Jackson anticline. Exploration will be continued in these areas during 1935. Four important wildcats were completed during 1934, all of which were reported as being structurally high, but without having important shows of oil or gas. These tests were: Hix and Germany's, J. J. Newman Lumber Co. No. 1, sec. 21-4N.-15W., Lamar County, abandoned at 3520 it. in the Wilcox; United Gas Public Service Company's Davis No. 1, sec. 30-1N.-5W., Greene County, abandoned at 7439 ft.; Gulf Refining Company's May L. Williams No. 1, sec. 33-5S.-17W., Pearl River County, abandoned at 4800 ft.; and Clarke County Oil Company's S. B. Kirkland No. 1, sec. 10-2 N.-16E., abandoned at 4002 ft. in the Eutaw. Another interesting wildcat was Gulf Refining Company's Dantzler Lumber Co. No. 6, sec. 22-4S.-llW., Stone County, abandoned at 7700 ft. (according to reports below the Selma chalk). A total of 114 of the 132 gas wells completed in the Jackson gas field are still producing and have a combined open-flow capacity of 4,145,-696,000 cu. ft. Four of the abandoned gas producers were never connected to the lines. The open-flow capacity of three wells in the Amory field is approximately 1,000,000 cu. ft. Producing against a line pressure of 50 lb., the demand during December greatly exceeded the capacity.

Jan 1, 1935

By W. H. Burke

Deeper drilling, resulting in greater circulating distance and pressure, has directed attention to the advantages of the study of properties and control of rotary muds, which until recently have not had much consideration. One fundamental property of muds is viscosity, and viscosity is influenced by the quantity and character of colloidal material and can be controlled by chemical treatment. Colloidal Matter of Rotary Muds Two types of colloids are found in muds; the hydrophobic and the hydrophilic. Hydrophobic colloids do not associate intimately with water and are sensitive to small quantities of electrolytes. Hydrophilic colloids associate intimately with water, but are not so sensitive to electrolytes. The colloidal particles of rotary muds are derived from clay; In clay the particles may range in size from submicroscopic to macroscopic; a substance is a clay if the greater proportion of the particles are within the size limits prescribed for clay. The larger particles are inert and have no effect on the viscosity of normal hydrophobic colloidal muds. There are two theories accounting for the colloidal properties of clay-water suspensions: (1) the physical theory, that clay in water is a coarse colloidal suspension, and (2) Ashley's1 theory, that clay is a granular material with a colloidal gel surrounding the crystalline grains. The most important colloidal substances known to exist in clays besides the clay particles are: (1) colloidal silica, (2) colloidal alumina, (3) colloidal ferric hydroxide, (4) colloidal silicates, and (5) colloidal organic matter. Plasticity, a peculiar property of clay-water suspensions, is due to the colloidal particles. It is commonly (although not with strict accuracy) measured in terms of viscosity, and depends upon the amount and the state of flocculation of the colloidal matter present in the suspension. Fluidity in a rotary mud may be caused by a lack of colloidal clay particles or by deflocculated or flocculated clay particles, while viscosity in a

Jan 1, 1935

By R. R. Bassermann

THE property of Howey Gold Mines, Limited is situated at Red Lake, Ontario, one hundred and seventy-five miles east of Winnipeg and eighty miles north of the Canadian National Railway line. The mine has been a continuous producer since April, 1930, and at present is hoisting 1,350 tons of ore per day. The shaft consists of three compartments (see Figure 1, sketch B). Hoisting is done by two skips in balance, one of which is interchangeable with a cage. Sinking had been carried out at three different periods. From the surface to the 550-foot level, the sets had been spaced at seven-foot intervals, from the 550-to the 1,060-foot level at six feet, and from the 1,060-to the 1,500-foot level at five feet. During the five years of operation, the shaft had become so badly worn, due to spill from the tipples and, to a certain extent, from the loading pockets, that re-timbering was considered necessary. It should be explained that no crushing is done underground because of the ad verse effect this would have on the efficiency of the sorting. The grizzly rail clearance above the ore pockets is fourteen inches and consequently the ore hoisted is extremely coarse. More than average spill from the loading pockets and tipples under such conditions is inevitable, and it is debatable whether underground crushing with consequent increased sorting costs would not be justified. The cost of complete re-timbering according to standard practice would have been prohibitive both directly and indirectly: A lengthy shut-down of the shaft, with the consequent disorganization of the staff and workmen, could not be considered. Accordingly, it became necessary to devise some method of repair that could be carried to completion in a very limited period of time. The shaft timber for the first 250 feet was not in need of repair. From the 250-foot to the 1,060-foot level the wall plates, posts, and blocking were in good condition. These had been protected by a one-inch plank lining put in at various periods during the past three years without interfering with hoisting operations. The end plates and dividers, however, could not be protected in this manner because of the lack of skip clearance. It was decided that, if the dividers in this section could be replaced, the shaft would be as satisfactory as if completely re-timbered. Several factors had to be taken into consideration in deciding on a suit-able method of repair. In the first place, the tipple plates had to be re-designed. To complete the job in a reasonable time, not only had work to be done on the tipple, but simultaneously from several points in the shaft itself. Since all power cables, pipe lines, etc., were in the manway compartment of the shaft, this compartment had to be left undisturbed.

Jan 1, 1935

By J. C. DeHaven, Harry Seltz

InteRmetallic compounds are formed in many binary metal systems. Some compounds are stable to their melting points, and others decompose at lower transition temperatures. Even those of the first class are dissociated in the liquid state, as indicated by the continuous form of their solubility curves at their melting points1. While the lattice structures of some of these compounds have been determined, their thermodynamic properties have not been investigated. In this paper is described the determination of the free energy and heat of formation of the compound CdSb, which is of the first class mentioned above, melting congruently at 455' C. This compound shows a rhombic structure, and the lengths of the edges of the elementary cell containing four molecules are: a = 6.52, b = 8.60, c = 4.16 A.' There are three possible methods of determining the free energy of formation of a compound of this type. The first method, applying the third law of thermodynamics, requires the measurement of its heat capacity preferably to liquid hydrogen temperatures, and a calorimetric determination of its heat of formation. The second method involves the study of the equilibrium of the compound in some gas reaction, such as: CdSb + CO² = CdO + CO + Sb From the known free energies of formation of CdO, CO² and CO the free energy of formation of CdSb could be calculated. The third method measures the electromotive force of a galvanic cell in which the cell reaction is the reversible formation of the compound from the elements. The first method is generally applicable, but requires elaborate experimental equipment. The second method can not be used for compounds melting at low temperatures, owing to the difficulty in establishing equilibrium. The electromotive force method, therefore, seemed to offer

Jan 1, 1935

By M. Muskat R. D. Wyckoff

The phenomenon called "water-coning" is that, observed in many oil wells, in which bottom water gradually and frequently sudderlly displaces a part or all of the oil production when a certain rather critical production rate from the well is exceeded. To follow in detail the process of the formation of a water cone as it breaks through the oil zone and enters the well bore is a problem so complex as to make a theoretical analysis practically impossible. However, an analytical treatment of the flow system before the water has broken through and during the time that it lies statically beneath the oil zone with an elevated or "coned" surface can be carried through under certain approximations. To present an analysis which shows the essential characteristics of the coning mechanism is the purpose of the present discussion. Physical Basis of Theory and Meaning of Approximations As will always be true for flow systems where true water-coning is at all possible, the water will be supposed to lie beneath the oil zone because of its density contrast with respect to the oil. In fact, tinder the usual field conditions, when the pay horizon is reasonably homogeneous, the water most frequently enters the well through the lower zones, but even when it enters from intermediate zones it may, in the later life of the well, displace the bottom layers of oil, thus resulting in a system wherein the oil is effectively floating on the water.

Jan 1, 1935

By S. J. Schofield

INTRODUCTION ONE of the greatest and most interesting problems of economic geology is to discover criteria bearing on the persistence of ore in depth. It is a question which is very much to the fore in connection with many of our important mines in British Columbia, and, as is to be expected, it is a most controversial one. The present paper, summarizing the views of the writers concerning the possibilities, in some of the mining districts of the Province, for the persistence of commercial ore to greater depths than have been, or are at present, mined, is offered as a basis for a general discussion on the subject and to call attention to the need for renewed study and research on the problem. Sooner or later-at some depth or other-individual ore-shoots become impoverished and bottom. In many mines where this has happened, either at the same or at a lower horizon, another ore-shoot, which had no surface outcrop, has been encountered and has continued downward until it, in turn, has pinched out. The Kolar (Mysore, India) gold field, for instance, presents interesting examples of this recurrence of ore-shoots at depth (1). For many years these mines have been under the management of Messrs. John Taylor and Sons. On more than one occasion they have persisted in sinking or drifting on barren quartz or along a narrow fracture for many hundreds of feet before values were again encountered. Their earliest experiment in such bold development took place at a depth comparable to that at which most mines in British Columbia are considered to be bottomed. In the past, is has been concluded that the ores in British Columbian mines do not go below approximately 2,000 feet, and to that depth only in a few instances. Consideration of the depth to which ores have been mined in the Province appears to support this view. The figures shown in the accompaning table have been gathered from various sources and are approximate.

Jan 1, 1935

Mining officials, as well as members of the Bureau of Mines staff, in their efforts to make mining safer are confronted from time to time pith complicated problems concerning solution of which there is a diversity of opinion. To reduce these differences of opinion as much as possible and to obtain a generally acceptable decision on any mine-safety question, the Director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines established the Mine Safety Board on June 1, 1924- *** to consider questions arising within any divisions of the Bureau that require a definition of tie Bureaus s collective opinion as to safety practices, safety devices, or safety methods for underground operations or open-pit mining. The approved2/decisions shall form the basis of teaching and policy for the Bureau.

Jan 1, 1935

Within the last century, and largely during the latter half of it, the increase of our knowledge of the development of man, both in his search for a livelihood and for power, and in the growth of his reason and conscience, has been greater than all we had known before. The great interest in all kinds of archaeological work and the many excavations made of buried and long forgotten places has put at our disposal historical records not available, and in many cases not known before, and a study of these and other records of human progress from paleontological and geological sources has given us a much broader view of what we call "civilization" than was possible even a short time ago. The old idea that men were created with fully developed minds, speech and reason has yielded to the view that in the upward progress of the human race the development of the mind and reason has been a comparatively recent occurrence, as we think of the half million, and probably more, years that have passed since our earliest records of man were made. The traits that come to us without effort

Jan 1, 1935

By Paul M. Tyler

The term "milling" as applied to nonmetallic minerals often refers merely to pulverizing without preliminary beneficiation. As applied to dimension stone, it embraces all the gteps involved in shaping and giving the desired finish to blocks. Processes such as sawing, planing, rubbing and polishing seem far removed from milling as the term is used in ore dressing, nevertheless they involve the element of concentration, for only 25 to 50 per cent of the gross quarry output may leave the mill as finished products after imperfect stone has been culled and the rough blocks trimmed. On the other hand, numerous nonmetallic minerals have to be concentrated in much the same manner as low-grade ores. Engineers and machinery manufacturers have begun to recognize more clearly the opportunities awaiting them in the nonmetallic field and have brought with them the methods and equipment developed in metal-mining camps, occasionally with little modification. General Economic Considerations Approximately one-half of the total value of the mineral production of the United States represents mineral fuels, and the other half is about equally divided between metals and nonmetals, the nonmetals recently having become relatively more important. In terms of volume the domestic output of nonmetallic minerals other than fuels is more than 10 times the annual output of metals. Considered on the basis of industrial utility and general commercial and military significance, moreover, the flow of nonmetallic mineral products is quite as needful to our national integrity and well-being as is that of metals, fuels, or other basic materials. Despite their importance individually and as a group, the nonmetallic mineral industries differ so widely in essential characters and economic environment that producers thereof have been slow to develop a community of interest among themselves or with the metal-mining fraternity. A spirit of change is in the air, rule-of-thumb methods soon may be relegated to limbo, and new methods—especially time-tested ideas borrowed from ore-dressing practice—are being introduced. A faithful record of plant practice in certain of these fields, however, must register

Jan 1, 1935

By Albert McIntosh

One of the most interesting as well as important factors connected with the petroleum industry is the consumption of motor fuel. A few years ago we always spoke of "gasoline," but when natural gasoline and benzol became more important it seemed desirable to include all of these products in the petroleum statistics and so there was adopted the term "motor fuel," which embraces these three products in their entirety. Gasoline always included all stove and motor gasolines, high-grade naphthas, cleaning naphthas, solvents, varnishmakers' and painters' naphtha and gas-machine gasoline. "Motor fuel" includes all of these products also; therefore, technically the term "motor fuel" is incorrect, but as the total quantity of these non-motor naphthas is small their inclusion does not distort the results to any appreciable extent. When the Federal Oil Conservation Board appointed its first semiannual forecasting committee early in 1930 to project the demand for gasoline and crude oil into the year 1930, it was necessary for that committee to formulate a method of forecasting. It adopted the system in use by some of the oil companies at that time, of using automobiles and per-car consumption. Six months later the American Petroleum Institute also formed a committee for forecasting, which adopted the committee principle of asking each member to produce his own forecast of demand by any method he thought best and to give a full explanation to the committee. The result of the latter method was to get the benefit of as many different methods of forecasting demand as there were members. The writer does not recall any two members ever using exactly the same method. By studying the different forecasts and their methods, there evolved a composite opinion, which was presented to the industry as the committee's estimate. The same method has been followed by the American Petroleum Institute or Planning and Coordination Committee ever since.

Jan 1, 1935

By S. P. Kinney, A. J. Boynton

This paper states that progress in blast-furnace engineering during the past five years is unimportant except for the advent of the electric precipitator for gas cleaning. It describes improvements in certain furnace details and in materials of construction. The paper is largely given over to a discussion of difficulties in operation due to disproportion between the diameter of the present-day furnace at the bosh and at the stock line. It is proposed to remedy this disproportion, and to restore relations in the diameter of stock line and bosh as they formerly existed, by a new method of filling. This method requires a double bell arranged to discharge towards the periphery or towards the center of the furnace. Coke is classified into two sizes, the small size going to the middle of the furnace, and the larger to the periphery along with the ore. By this means the resistance of the center of the furnace is increased, and the stock line diameter may be greatly increased. The writer believes that these modifications will result in a somewhat improved fuel economy and regularity of operation and also in a very greatly reduced production of flue dust.

Jan 1, 1935

By Maurice A. Roche

Introduction Most of the Flin Flon ore-body, like many others in northern Canada, was covered by water. The original discovery was made where the ore-body outcropped on a strip of land jutting out into Flin Flon lake. The outcrop could be traced for a distance of 600 feet across the strip of land, but disappeared under the lake on both sides of the peninsula. Following the discovery or location of the property, in 1915, and subsequent to its examination by the H.P. Whitney interests in 1925, an extensive diamond-drilling programme was completed, which proved the existence of an ore-body at least 2,600 feet long and 900 feet deep. In plan, the central part of the ore-body at surface attains an overall width of about 450 feet; including waste horses, and gradually becoming narrower to the south. To the north, it stretches out as a much narrower tongue. The main body is a solid sulphide ore containing gold, silver, copper, and zinc. Adjacent to, and on the footwall side of, the solid sulphide ore-body, there are considerable widths of talcy disseminated copper ore, particularly in the upper 300 feet of the deposit, where the maximum widths occur. The ore-body occurs in a greenstone area, the rock being quite hard on the hanging-wall side, with the footwall schisted, talcy, and much softer. The greater part of the ore-body was overlain by 12 to 15 feet of water and from 15 to 90 feet of mud and clay, this material requiring eventual removal, regardless of the system of mining adopted. The total of mud and clay overburden was estimated at 1,000,000 tons. After considerable study, it was decided to mine the upper 300 feet of the ore-body by open-pit methods; the balance of the ore to be recovered by underground mining . The present paper gives an account of the methods adopted in both operations, and of the problems encountered.

Jan 1, 1935

By John Chipman, Donald W. Murphy

RECENT developments in iron alloys containing nitrogen have indicated that this element may exert a considerable influence on the properties of the metal. This influence is not always in an undesirable direction and the indications are that nitrogen should be regarded as an alloying element, the amount of which should be subject to control, rather than as an inherently deleterious impurity. In controlling this element in liquid iron to the best advantage, it is necessary to have a reliable background of fundamental data pertaining to solubilities, rates of solution and chemical reactions of nitrogen in liquid iron. Obviously, the first step in such an investigation is the determination of the solubility of nitrogen in pure iron, and this has been the object of the experiments described in this paper. The solubility of nitrogen in solid iron has been measured by Zurich,1 Sieverts,2 Martin,3 and Iwasé4 and, the agreement among the first three inspires confidence in their results. No accurate determinations of its solubility in liquid iron have been recorded though several investigators have obtained approximate results. Strauss5 was able to introduce 0.03 to 0.04 per cent nitrogen into steel by the action of either ammonia or nitrogen on the liquid metal. This was accomplished by Eilender and

Jan 1, 1935

By Russell W. Dayton

THE metallurgical polarization microscope has been utilized in several researches in the last few years, thus attaining a fair degree of prominence, but little has been written in a manner suitable to a metallurgist concerning the theory of this instrument. In this investigation the theory was carefully studied, and the results are presented here in a detailed manner, yet as simply as possible. The theory - is discussed with particular reference to the three chief functions of the instrument: (1) determination of anisotropy; (2) effect of strain; and (3) identification of inclusions. Each of these is investigated experimentally, with especial attention to the mechanism of producing any effect. Where possible, the discussion is supplemented by photomicrographs. The instrument used had numerous defects as a polarization microscope; these and their remedies are discussed. In the microscopic study of transparent mineral sections (chalcography) the use of polarized light has aided tremendously in the identification of a mineral. The determination of strain in transparent substances (photoelasticity) by the use of polarized light has lately become a commercial process, used in testing finished glass articles. The success of the use of polarized light with opaque materials has not been so great. The magnitude of the effects obtained is much less than that of the corresponding effects with transparent materials, and the mechanical difficulties are much greater. Königsberger, (1)‡ in 1909, was the first to apply polarized light to the microscopic study of

Jan 1, 1935

By Nagel, Theodore

USE of oxygen in metallurgical operations was investigated by a committee of unusually able engineers more than ten years ago. A record of their work appeared under the title "The Use of Oxygen or Oxygenated Air in Metallurgical and Allied Processes," Serial 2502, Report of Investigations, U. S. Bureau of Mines. Shortly thereafter the A.I.M.E. published "Use of Oxygenated Air in Metallurgical Operations," based on a symposium at the New York meeting, February 1, 924. Quoting from the Bureau of Mines report In view of the many recent developments in oxygen manufacture, and considering the increasing cost and decreasing quality of our raw materials, the Bureau of Mines has taken the matter of the application of oxygen or oxygenated air to the metallurgical centers for consideration and has appointed an advisory committee to study the problem.

Jan 1, 1935