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By E. E. Carpenter

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) BELIEVING that the results accomplished in the mill of the Churchill Milling Co., Wonder, Nev., during the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1914, will be of interest, I am presenting the more prominent facts and figures showing the progress made in treating this ore with especial reference to tonnage, supplies, costs, and extractions. The mill is situated at Wonder, Nev., in the Wonder mining district, 55 miles east from Fallon, Nev., the nearest railroad point. All supplies are hauled this distance by freight teams, this method of transportation having been found more reliable for continuous service than trucks, the price paid for hauling being slightly under one cent per pound. In this mill are treated the ores of the Nevada Wonder Mining Co. ,

Jan 6, 1915

NEW MEMBERS The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the period Apr. 10 to May 10, 1915: Members ADMAN, WILLIAM, Supt., Susquehanna Coal Co Lykens, Pa. BARTH, CARL G., JR., Min. Engr 6151 Columbia Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. BOOTH, ERIC EDWIN, Min. Engr., Mount Elliott Mine, Selwyn via Cloncurry, North Queensland, Australia. BOYDELL, HARRY CYRIL, Asst. Mgr., Randfontein Central Gold Min. Co., Box 42, Randfontein, Transvaal, South Africa. BRADY, SAMUEL HOWARD, Mine Supt Bohemian Club, .San Francisco, Cal. Buses, HARRY EDWARD, Mine Supt., Engels Copper MiningCo Keddie, Cal.

Jan 6, 1915

POSITIONS VACANT (Under this heading will be published notes sent to the Secretary of the Institute by members or other persons.) Opening for man as head of laboratory of large brass manufacturing plant in Ohio; must also be competent to manage foundry making brass castings, following practice of malleable iron castings and insulating materials. Good opportunity for right man. No. 36. Professorship in Mining at a Western university; requires man competent to give instruction in ore dressing, in metal and coal mining, and in zinc smelting, and capable of gaining confidence of mining interests. Salary $2,200 to $3,000. No. 37. ENGINEERS AVAILABLE (Under this heading will be published notes sent to the Secretary of - the Institute by members or other persons introduced by members.) Member, graduate engineer, aged 44, with over 20 years' experience in connection with large coal and coke operations in different parts of the country, desires position as general superintendent of large coal company, or will take an interest with the management in a smaller company. No. 206.

Jan 6, 1915

By Roswell Johnson

THE principle of sliding or graduation in royalties is accomplished either by the block, period, cumulative, or class method. The block method calls for a very low royalty rate on all oil produced up to. a certain amount. This amount would normally be that which is believed to suffice to repay the cost of the well. A higher rate would be charged after the well is making a profit. This method, common in many industries, is peculiarly inadaptable to any industry such as this where the productivity per day of the units gradually and inevitably decreases. This, for reasons given later, is because it forces an early abandonment of the well and so offends against conservation. In the period method, the royalty rate is changed by some definite amount when the well produces less than a specified quantity per day or other given unit of time. While simple to explain, it operates badly because a great deal is made to depend upon a small reduction in production, whereas the reduction as a matter of fact declines rather erratically owing to the exigency of lease management, connecting of tankage, and vagaries of the gaugers. These disadvantages are obviated by the cumulative method. In this method, all the production less than a certain amount per week has one rate of royalty, or none at all, and the oil produced in excess of that amount pays an additional rate of royalty. In the long run the calculation is probably no greater than with the period method, for simple tables will be published and printed in the oil papers that can be cut out, enabling quick readings to be made. Even without the table the calculation is easy with the few royalty rates, two or three, which would be used. In this method, the amount paid in royalty declines gradually, rather than suddenly as in the period method.

Jan 6, 1915

Meeting of Apr. 23, 1915.-The Iron and Steel Committee was authorized in its discretion to defer the date of acceptance of papers for the Hadfield Research Prize to Nov. 1, 1916. The sum of $250 was appropriated as a guarantee fund to establish a Library Research Bureau in co-operation with the other Founder Societies. The sum of $50 was appropriated to the Puget Sound Section. The sum of $250 was appropriated to the San Francisco Section. The sum of $125 was appropriated to the St. Louis Section. The matter of memorializing the New York State Constitutional Convention was referred to the New York Section of the Institute with authority to act as a Section only. Upon recommendation of the Committee on Membership, 50 Mem¬bers, 1 Associate, and 6 Junior Members were elected.

Jan 6, 1915

Discussion of the paper of CHARLES T. MALCOLMSON, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 98, February, 1915, pp. 271 to 289. E. W. PARKER, Washington, D. C.-The briquet or boulet, or coalette (whatever name is used) has come to stay as a part of the fuel supply, particularly for domestic purposes. During the past winter I have had some personal experience with the use of boulets made from anthracite coal. All of this winter I have used boulets in my furnacee and in my grate at my home in Washington. One reason for doing so is that we get the boulets at a price considerably cheaper than the prepared sizes of anthracite coal. The fuel has proved entirely satisfactory. One advantage possessed by the boulet is its absolutely uniform size, which makes the ventilation of the firebed practically perfect. The boulets burn until entirely consumed. There is not, even in an open grate fire, if the fire is kept constantly going, any unconsumed fuel passing through the grate bars. The boulets hold their form until entirely consumed and then break away into a clean white ash, with absolutely no clinker. That in itself is a particularly favorable recommendation to the housekeeper. Mr. Malcolmson has mentioned the fact that notwithstanding the smokeless character of anthracite, the boulets made from it emit smoke. The emission of smoke is due to the coal-tar pitch used as a binder. This is particularly noticeable if the fireman is somewhat careless, or wants to save labor, and feeds too much of the fuel on the fire at one time, cooling it down and thus causing an unnecessary amount of smoke. The smoke lasts but a short time, however, and if the fire is fed a little more frequently, with a small quantity of fuel at one time, the smoke is reduced to a minimum. I believe it will not be long before some of our engineers will have overcome the objectionable smoke; and will produce either from anthracite or from the so-called smokeless New River and Pocahontas semi-bituminous coals, a briquet which will be as smokeless as anthracite for all. practical purposes.

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion of the paper of Frank H. Kneeland, Safeguarding the Use of Mining Machinery. By B. F. Tillson and Arthur Williams. 1073 Discussion of the paper of Howard N. Eavenson, Safety Methods and Organization of United States Coal & Coke Co. By William H. Grady, Thomas W. Dawson, C. W. Goodale, J. Parke Charming, B. F. Tillson, George S. Rice, Arthur Hovey Storrs, Harry H. Stoek, Lawson Blenkinsopp, Arthur Williams, and Howard N. Eavenson. 1075 Discussion of the paper of J. Parke Channing, Enlarging the Worth of the Worker and the Perspective of the Employer. By Fred H. Rindge, Jr., S. A. Taylor, Elmer L. Corthell, and Philip W. Henry. . 1095 Discussion of the paper of Walther Mathesius, High Blast Heats in Mesaba Practice. By Joseph W. Richards, W. A. Forbes, J. E. Johnson, Jr., H. P. Howland, and Walther Mathesius. . 1100 Discussion of the paper of W. R. Shinier, Effect of Finishing Temperatures of Rails on Their Physical Properties and Microstructure. By William R. Webster, Henry M. Howe, A. A. Stevenson, G. K. Burgess, and Samuel L. Hoyt . 1107 Discussion of the paper of George K. Burgess and Sir Robert A. Hadfield, Sound Steel Ingots and Rails. By Albert Sauveur, Henry M. Howe, Henry D. Hibbard, Joseph W. Richards, F. W. Wood, and George K. Burgess. . 1112 Discussion of the paper of Henry M. Howe and Arthur G. Levy, Are the Deformation Lines in Manganese Steel Twins or Slip Bands? By J. E. Stead 1116 Discussion of the paper of F. C. Langenberg and R. G. Webber, Structures and Hysteresis Loss in Medium-Carbon Steel. By Henry M. Howe. . . 1117 Discussion of the paper of Charles H. MacDowell, German and Other Sources of Potash Supply. By George S. Rice, Charles H. MacDowell, and V.C. Grubnau . . 1118 Discussion of the paper of Joel H. Watkins, White-Burning Clays of the Southern Appalachian States. By H. Ries 1120

Jan 5, 1915

By R. E. Somers

1. INTRODUCTION 1. Location, Topography, and Climate The Burro Mountains are located in the southwestern part of New Mexico, in Grant County. The group is made up of two distinct moun-tain masses, known as the Little Burros and the Big Burros, the former lying about 6 miles southwest of Silver City-, and the latter about 9 miles farther in the same direction. They are separated by the valley of the Mangas River, a tributary of the Gila, and a stream only in name, except after a heavy down-pour of rain. . The Little Burros attain an elevation of 6,625 ft. above sea level, and the Big Burros 8,054 ft., with the surrounding country averaging about 6,000 ft. To the south of these mountains stretches the desert plain, while to the north are the more frequent elevations of the mountainous country.

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion of the paper of F. C. NEWTON, presented at the New York meeting, Feb-ruary, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 9S, February, 1915, pp. 473 to 477. H. 0. HOFMAN, Boston, Mass.-The results of these large-scale experiments, which were carried on at Perth Amboy, show that there are many differences between theoretical conceptions and their applications to work on a large scale. The author has given reasons why the results of bringing a desilverizing kettle to the high melting point of the zinc-silver alloy, Zn3Ag2, melting at 665° C., are not satisfactory. In all probability the alloy is dissolved in the lead; it may also be decomposed by the lead; the practical result is that this high temperature does not work. It remains now for the laboratory man to carry on systematic experiments

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion of the paper of COURTENAY DEKALB, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 98, February, 1915, pp. 331 to 337. HORACE V. WINCHELL, Minneapolis, Minn.-Mr. Dehalb summarizes the reasons which he believes are important for the revision of the mining laws, as follows: "1. The conceptions as to the characteristics of orebodies that were held at the time the statute of 1872 was enacted have since proved to be in many respects erroneous." We all appreciate the force of that suggestion. The idea of the old prospector who made rules and regulations in the early days, which were attempted to he incorporated, so far as possible, in the Mining Act of 1872, was that all of the veins in a certain district outcropped upon the surface, or approximately parallel to each other upon the surface, and maintained that parallelism beneath the surface. Therefore, it seemed perfectly proper and natural for each man to stake his claim upon an outcropping, and have the right to follow that vein in working downward, with the general expectation that his workings would always remain just as far away from those of his neighbor as the outcroppings upon the surface. This does not happen to be the case. Dr. Raymond has very ingeniously referred to the subject in one case, in words which read as follows: "If all mining properties presented this beautiful simplicity of structure (ideal location of ideal vein), and all mining locators exhibited a corresponding simplicity of purpose, the application of the law would be easy, but the naiveté of the statute fares badly between the freaks of nature and the tricks of man."

Jan 5, 1915

By F. L. Bosqui

INTRODUCTION The history of the development of gold metallurgy in South Africa is divisible into two periods: That preceding the introduction of the cyanide process on a commercial scale in 1890; and the 24 years intervening between that important event and the present time. The period between the discovery of the banket reefs of the Witwatersrand and the year 1890 was one of phenomenally rapid progress in mining development, but of no special interest to the metallurgist. There were no strikingly original or distinctly local advances in the treatment of gold ores. Californian practice in stamp milling and amalgamation prevailed, in mills ranging in equipment between 5 and 50 stamps, operating within a wide range of efficiency, and under the trying conditions usually en¬countered in a new and isolated field. The somewhat incomplete records of gold output of that period show that in December, 1887, there were 20 producing companies in the Witwatersrand district, of which 10 had mills, the largest being of 20 stamps. The only official record of returns for May, 1887, was that of the Wemmer mine, whose modest achievement with a 5-stamp, mill was 100 tons crushed, producing 887 oz. 3 dwt. of gold. This is interesting in view of the .present-day output of this field, which in 1913 reached 8,430,998 oz. The rapid increase of production during this first period (May, 1887, to January, 1891) is shown by the following summary for the year 1890:1 Total tons crushed 702,828 Number of stamps in operation 1,046 Average number of tons crushed per stamp per day 2.36 Yield of gold, ounces 494,817 Yield per ton, pennyweights 13.36 The stamp duty ranged between 1 ½ and 4 tons per day, according to weight of stamp, fineness of screen, and operating skill available. The prevailing weight of stamp was about 900 lb., and the screen, 900 meshes to the square inch.

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion of the paper of MANUEL EISSLER, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin. No. 9.5, November, 1914, pp. 3661 to 2703. J. W. RICHARDS, So. Bethlehem, Pa.-I do not see in the paper a description of the Mabuki hearth as used for ore smelting. I noticed it described for concentrating matte, but I believe the older Japanese process was to use it for-smelting directly, by a pyritic smelting and Bessemerizing all in one operation, in the same simple hearth apparatus. There is a monograph published in German, on Copper-Ore Smelting in the Mabuki Hearth. At Ashio the practice of injecting bituminous coal at the, tuyères is noteworthy. It is very interesting to see two men load little cartridges on the end. of an iron rod with bituminous coal, and push them into the furnace tuyères, and with a piston inject 2 or 3 lb.. of bituminous

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion of the paper of C. A. HEBERLEIN, presented at the New York meeting. February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 98, February, 1915, pp. 497 to 504. H. D. PALLISTER, State College, Pa. (communication to the Secretary).-Mr. Heberlein gives some valuable information concerning a branch of mining and metallurgy which has been neglected during the last few years. His results with fine grinding and Deister tables suggest the possibility of the mining and concentration of a number of low-grade cinnabar deposits. Can Mr. Heberlein give us some idea as to the loss of quicksilver during this concentration? The advances in the metallurgy of quicksilver have been few and far between in recent years. Most miners prefer to go on in the old way with the Scott furnace and the large brick condensers. The large brick condensers are expensive to build and to keep in repair, and on account of the thick walls are extremely slow in cooling the gases; and further, the joints between the bricks offer passages for the quicksilver vapors unless great care is used in building the condensers.. The escape of vapor at the top of the furnace is another source of loss and I see the people at the Oceanic mine have overcome this in a very ingenious way. I recently returned from the Terlingua quicksilver district of Texas, where the only operating company, the Chisos Mining Co., is operating a 20-ton furnace of the Scott type. They had considerable difficulty with getting a good extraction, clue to too high heating in the furnace with its .resulting diffIculties. Recently they have been running with ashpit and fire doors closed and have been able to keep the heat lower, thus getting much better results and practically verifying the results obtained at the Oceanic mine.

Jan 5, 1915

ENGINEERS AVAILABLE (Under this Beading will lie published notes sent to the Secretary of the Institute by members or other persons introduced by members.) Member,, technical graduate, aged 38, 14 years' experience in engineering, exploration, and management of copper, pyrite, and large iron mines, safety work, professor of mining in large university. Married. Open for position after June 10. No. 205. Member, graduate engineer, aged 44, with over 20 years' experience in connection with large coal and coke operations in different parts of the country, desires position as general superintendent of large coal company, or will take an interest with the management in a smaller company. No. 206.

Jan 5, 1915

By William Grady

FACTORS entering into the market value of coal are its grade, and the cost of labor, material, and capital. Reduction in these costs cannot be expected in the future, and it therefore follows that greater economy in their use must be accomplished if it is desired to hold the present markets; more tons of product per unit must be obtained in a given time from both men and material, and means devised for increasing the percentage of lump and domestic sizes. This paper is presented for the purpose of inviting discussion and stimulating thought in regard to the influence of methods of procedure and plans of mining, upon the quality of coal, the economical use of labor, material, and capital, and the cost of production. Even the better methods of the. present day leave much to be desired, and a review of the reasons and necessities for their use may be of value in pointing the way to more economical mining. The writer does not attempt to discuss untried methods of mining, but rather to state clearly and concisely a summary of the results obtained under the several methods of procedure that have been adopted. In some instances a high degree of concentration has been effected, and comparisons of the results obtained with the results of lesser degrees of concentration form an interesting study. It is believed that much may be accomplished in improving the quality, and in the more economical use of labor, material, and capital, by concentration, and it is to concentration in particular that your study is invited. The writer, who .has occasion to visit many mines, most of which ire under different management, has been inclined to the opinion that improvement has been retarded in many ways and that mining has not as yet been entirely freed from the early-day practices which were forced upon it.

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion of the paper of F. C. LANGENBERG and R. G. WEBBER, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 98, February, 1915, pp. 291 to 300. HENRY M. HOWE, Bedford Hills, N. Y.-The results here given are of great interest and are welcome as forming another rivet to increase the stability of our present theories of the constitution and properties of steel. The important discovery is that the hysteresis increases with the fineness of the structure, that is to say with the extent of contact between the particles of ferrite and cementite. All of the specimens except No. 4 consist of ferrite and cementite of different degrees of intimacy of admixture. If hysteresis represents something akin to surface friction, which retards the rotation of the ferrite on the application and release of the magnetizing force, then it is only natural that it should increase as it does with the intimacy of admixture, because it is at the surface of contact of a given particle of ferrite with the neighboring particles of cementite that this friction is to be expected, and of course the extent of surface must in¬crease with the intimacy of admixture. The somewhat greater hardness of specimen 4 than of the others may perhaps he referred to the principle discussed in my paper, Why Does Lag Increase with the Temperature from Which Cooling Starts?' The furnace-cooled specimens were cooled so slowly that the influence of the initial temperature of heating is effaced. But in the air-cooled specimens we have the suggestion that the high temperature, 1,000°, from which the cooling of No. 4 started has prevented the completion of the transformation, with the result that the metal is slightly harder than any of the others. The difference is not to be explained by difference in the fineness of structure, because the whole range of fineness from No. 1 to No. 6 is accompanied by no change in hardness, the only change being an appreciable increase of hardness following the air cooling from 1,000°.

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion of the paper of M. E. Lormbardi,. presented at the New York meeting, February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 9S, February, 1915, pp. 209 to 215. I. N. KNAPP, Ardmore, Pa.-Some years ago I made a swinging spider to carry a string of casing in a way somewhat similar to that described in this paper. The ground I tried it in was too soft for its successful operation. The spider had a central one-flange bushing to carry the slips. Under this flange and on top of the spider was a properly protected ball runway, or ball bearing, which permitted rotating the casing when it was in place and supported by the slips.

Jan 5, 1915

By Fred T. Greene

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) MOST of. the recent discussion of the mineral land law published in the Transactions is in the abstract-an exception being Mr. Goodale's paper, The Apex Law in the Drumlummon Controversy,1 which illustrates in concrete instances many of the practical disadvantages of what Dr. Raymond has. called "The Law of the Apex." The present paper, it is hoped, may serve a similar purpose, emphasizing the necessity for a change in our mining laws, and bringing home to mining engineers some of the defects and dangers of our present code. There are many storm centers of "apex litigation" in the Rocky Mountains; and not the least of them is the Wardner camp, where such litigation has been almost continuous since 1892, and the end is not yet. In their decisions, the courts have accepted the claims of the litigants that the " Wardner vein" is a broad zone varying from 250 to 500 ft. in width at the surface. This is the simplest theory which could have been advanced, and probably decreased, rather than augmented, the number of contests; in fact, every one of the claim owners seemed to feel that the greatest advantage would accrue to him if this theory were adhered to. The dominant structural feature of the Wardner vein is a persistent fault, striking N. 40° W., clipping about 40° to the southwest and called the "Wardner foot wall." Fig. 1 is a composite of two adjacent cross-sections of the vein and is a fair representation of the relative size and shape of the orebodies and their relation to the "Wardner foot wall." The country rock is a comparatively thin-bedded sericitic quartzite which has an average strike of N. 80° W. and clips at high angles to the north and south.

Jan 5, 1915

Discussion -of the paper of I. N. KNAPP, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1915, and printed in Bulletin No. 96, December, 1914, pp. 2783 to 2793. A. C. LANE, Tufts College, Mass.-Is there any noticeable effect in drilling against salt water? Mr. Knapp says that the mud settles very quickly when brine is added-. What is the effect when you strike a strong salt water ill boring? I. N. KNAPP.-You are supposed to have enough mud pressure in your well to keep the saltwater out. I have drilled against what I knew to be 80 ft. head of water, and hot water too at 99.5°; this water did not show until the well was bailed and the mud pressure reduced. HENRY Louis, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England (communication to the Secretary*).-Mr. Knapp may be interested to learn that the use of mud in drilling through porous strata is much older than lie appears to be aware of. It has been used notably by Honigmann for boring shafts in Holland and in some of the adjoining portions of Germany. At the Oranien Nassau colliery, shafts about 12 ft. in diameter and 425 ft. deep were sunk in. this way-namely, by boring with a rotary borer, a thick mud puddle being pumped into the shaft, so as to maintain a pressure in the shaft greater than the hydrostatic pressure in the surrounding loose sands and thus keeping the sides of the shaft from collapsing. He will find references to this method in Das Abbohren von Schächten; Handbuch der Ingenieurwissenshaften, p. 134, also in the Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers, vol. xiii (1896-97), p. 155. The process appears to have been employed even before 1895, though I cannot give the exact date when it was first used.

Jan 5, 1915

By R. C. Patterson

IN view of the circumstance that very few important changes have been made within the last 15 or 20 years in the equipment of rod and wire mills, the description of a new process introduced by Grenville Mellen, of Llewellyn Park, N. J., to take the place of the present laborious system of producing rods of lead, zinc, brass, copper, aluminum, etc., may be interesting to members of the Institute. This new process consists in the production of cast rods at one operation in a small continuous casting machine. The hot liquid metal is transferred from the melting crucibles directly into an endless chain of mold blocks in the machine, where solidification takes place, and the rod comes out continuously in a solid form at one end as long as the molten metal is supplied. The operation of these mold blocks so as to produce a solid rod of uniform structure constitutes an important part of Mr. Mellen's invention. The machine (Figs. 1 and 2), 12 ft. in height over all, 2 by 3 ft. in horizontal- cross-sectional area, and 6,000 11). in weight, has a framework of cast iron, holding in position two endless chains of mold blocks, which are made in sections and join in center alignment. The mold orifice is made up of these mold sections, into which the liquid metal flows. The molding chains are composed of steel blocks, grooved on one face to form the molding cavity, and linked together with flexible joints. Each block is carried on four rollers which guide the chain around the end sprockets and carry it in its course through the machine. The accuracy of alignment requisite to the production of a perfect rod in the mold groove formed by these sections is secured by careful machine work, and by building the four ways, down which the alignment takes place, so that two of the sides are fixed permanently, while the opposite sides are held to their position by spring pressure. The guides carrying the molds, while in casting position, are water-cooled square tubes.

Jan 5, 1915