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By A. L. Sweetser

Experience has shown how difficult it is to obtain information regarding laboratory-tests in connection with the chlorina-tion-process for the extraction of gold from its ores, and I therefore present the following method, somewhat in detail, for the benefit of those who may desire to pursue research work in this field. The ore chosen was a partly-decomposed porphyry, extremely siliceous and comparatively soft, and of an average value per ton of from $25 to $26 in gold and $0.68 in silver. The chemical analysis gave: Fe,O,, 3.35; FeS, 1.5; MnO,, 0.75; ZuCO,, 4; A1,0,, 3.20; H,O, 0.7 ; SiO, and insol., 83.50 per cent. The ore, first crushed to pass a 5-mesh screen, was coned and quartered until a 45-lb. sample was obtained. Samples for assay and analysis, taken from this lot by means of riffles, were crushed to pass a 100-mesh screen. The original sample was divided into 10-lb. lots, of which one was crushed to pass a 10-mesh screen; another through a 12-; the third through a 20-, and the last through a 30-mesh screen. Because of the production of an excessive quantity of fine material it was deemed inexpedient to crush finer than 30-mesh size—a decision the wisdom of which is proved by the data in Table I., showing the increasing ratio of slimes, in proportion as the ore is crushed finer. In order to determine the percentage of fines in the sizes of mesh selected, a weighed sample of ore was taken from each mesh, and a sample from the 10-mesh lot was passed successively through 20-, 40- and 100-mesh screens, and the percentage remaining on each screen determined. This process was repeated with the 12-, 20- and 30-mesh lots, with the results given in Table I.

Jan 1, 1908

By H. T. Hildage

Although Greater New York does not bear any resemblance to a great mining district, the mining operations that are being conducted in and about the city are both extensive and interesting in character. With regard to the extent, it may be mentioned that, at present, there is more dynamite used in New York than in any mining district in the United States; that there are under construction about 38 miles of tunnel, and that 66 miles more are projected, most of which must be constructed .in the near future; that since 1903 at least 2,000,000 tons of earth has been removed in underground work, in addition to about 3,500,000 tons that has been removed in open-cut in connection with tunnel-work, and many times this quantity that has been removed in excavating foundations for buildings not connected with tunnel-work; and that there are to-day probably more than 5,000 men engaged in mining-work in and about New lrork City. These undertakings include almost every operation connected with underground work, from exploration by means of trench and boring, to the sinking of large shafts and the driving of large tunnels through every kind of ground from hard rock to soft, semi-fluid silt and quicksand. It is proposed in this paper to give a general description of some of the methods and appliances used in the opening-up of a " mine " in a large city, and a brief description of some of the &'mines" now being developed in New York, connecting as far as possible the methods described with the particular work for which they were designed, in order to give a general idea of the

Jan 1, 1908

By Bradley Stoughton, Henry M. Howe

This paper presents an experimental verification of some of the predictions made by one of us1 concerning the influence of certain conditions of casting upon the size and position of the pipe, and the position of the segregate, in steel ingots. The predictions which we have been able to verify are the following: A. That the pipe is shortened and the segregate raised: 1. By slow casting; 2. By casting with the large end up instead of down; 3. By retarding the cooling of the top, e.g., by means of a sinking-head. B. That the pipe is shortened by slow cooling. C. That the pipe and segregate lie in the last-freezing part. Our procedure was to cast ingots of wax (commercially pure stearic acid) containing a little bright green copper oleate (usually 1.5 per cent.) under varying conditions; to saw each ingot open along a longitudinal plane passing through its axis; and to examine the longitudinal section thus laid bare. In order to make the segregate or enriched part more distinct in color from the impoverished part, a very little red cerasine was added. An experiment which will be described later showed that the cerasine itself does not segregate markedly, if at all. Hence we may assume that the strong contrasts between the green and red shown in so many of our ingots are due, not to segregation of cerasine, but to that of the green oleate, in the wax which in itself is uniformly reddened with cerasine.

Jan 1, 1908

By H. O. Hofman

At the Lake Superior meeting, September, 1904, Messrs. A. Gibb and R. C. Philp presented a paper entitled " The Constitution of Mattes Produced in Copper-Smelting,"' in which they concluded that ferrous and cuprous sulphides formed the chemical compound, 5 Cu2S, FeS. They arrived at this inference from the observed fact that a matte containing Cu,S, 90.4, and FcS, 9.6 per cent. (or, in round figures, Cu2S, 90, and FeS, 10 per cent.), did not contain any metallic copper, while one with more than 10 per cent. of FeS readily dissolved copper, and with less than this amount retained copper in mechanical suspension. Although they determined the melting-points of five mattes containing from 32.6 to 80.1 per cent. of copper, they did not draw a freezing-point curve, as the necessary apparatus was not available. A microscopical examination of 11 polished samples gave them a grayish-black field of very uniform appearance, except that five of the specimens showed the presence of metallic copper. The object of the present investigation was to supplement the above paper by drawing the freezing-point curve of the ferrous sulphide-cuprous sulphide series, and to see how the constitution could be further revealed by microscopical work. The results obtained lead to conclusions very different from those of Gibb and Philp. While their paper bears the date 1904, it was published only in 1906.2 In the meantime, Bolles3 had presented his paper, " The Concentration of Gold and Silver in Iron-Bottoms." The raw material which formed the basis of the research was a matte containing Fe, 61.68, and Cu, 11.20

Jan 1, 1908

By Thomas Leonard Watson

I. Historical. Barite has been mined for many years in various parts of Virginia, probably the earliest mining-operations being in Prince William county, within 600 ft. of the Fauquier county line, about 4 miles south of east from Catlett, a station on the Southern Railway. It is claimed that the mineral was mined here as early as 1845. Mining-operations in Campbell and Pittsylvania counties in the Piedmont region, and near Marion in Smyth county, in the southwest Virginia Valley region, were begun about 30 years ago. The mining and milling of barite on a commercial scale in Tazewell and Russell counties are more recent, and commenced about 15 years ago. II. Geographical and Geological Distribution. Barite occurs in many counties in the State, as shown in Fig. 1, but the industry has been confined to only a few of them. Its occurrence is noted in two of the three major divisions of the State—namely, the Piedmont region east of the Blue Ridge, and the Paleozoic area west of the Blue Ridge. In the Piedmont region the mineral has been mined in the following counties: Bedford, Campbell, Louisa, Prince William, and Pittsylvania. In the region west of the Blue Ridge, composed of Paleozoic sediments, barite has been mined in Montgomery, Russell, Smyth, and Tazewell counties. Of the counties mentioned, Bedford, Campbell, and Pittsylvania of the Piedmont region, and Russell, Smyth, and Tazewell of the Valley region, have been the principal producers. In 1906, operations were confined to five counties—Bedford, Louisa, Pittsylvania, Russell, and Tazewell—but in the first two counties named there was no production, the work being solely development.

Jan 1, 1908

By Henry M. Howe

This paper gives the results of an investigation of the beha vior of the argentiferous cobalt-nickel arsenides of Temiskam-ing, Ontario, in roasting, made in the metallurgical laboratories of the School of Mines of Columbia University in the City of New York. The ore was kindly given by the owners of the La Rose and Trethewey properties at Cobalt, Ontario, and Mr E. J. Hall, Tutor in Assaying in Columbia University, has helped us much. I. Object of the Investigation. The object of the investigation was to learn: 1. The temperature at which the arsenic is most rapidly expelled ; 2. The thoroughness with which it is expelled by prolonged roasting at this temperature; 3. The effect of adding charcoal (a) near the end of the roast and (b) at. the beginning of the roast. II. Nature of the ORe. The important ores mined in the Temiskaming deposits are: native silver—with small amounts of dyscrasite (Ag,Sb), ar-gentite (Ag,S), pyrargyrite (Ag,SbS,)—smaltite (CoAs,), chlo-anthite (NiAs,) and niccolite (NiAs). Mispickel (FeAsS) and cobaltite (CoAsS) also occur in smaller quantities. The average composition of the ore shipped from this district for the first six months of 1905 was: silver, from 4.1 to 4.8 per cent.; cobalt, from 6.9 to 8.2 per cent.; nickel, from 3 to 4.7 per cent.; and arsenic, from 30.9 to 34.6 per cent. The ore which we treated consists chiefly of smaltite. In our 1aboratory-work

Jan 1, 1908

By Robert H. Richards

The object of this paper is to enlarge the field of settling velocities treated by me in my former papers, Close Sizing Before Jigging, and Sorting Before Sizing.' There seemed need of work both on coarser and on finer sizes. Messrs. A. Sidney Warren and M. L. Nagel undertook the investigation for the coarser sizes, from 12.85 mm. down to 2.05 mm. diameter. Their work, because of the closer spacing and because of the increased number of observations and consequent stronger averages, called for a revision of the former work. Messrs. G. A. Barnaby and Ralph Hayden undertook this part of the work, from 2.49 mm. down to 0.28 mm., which is near the limit of sifting. Their work covers the ground much more minutely and comprehensively than the former papers. There remained to be covered the portion of the field too fine for investigation with the sieves. This part, covering the range of grains from 0.48 to 0.03 mm., was undertaken by Mr. E. S. Bardwell. For it he used the elutriation method. 11. The First, or Coarsest, Section of the Field. The first desideratum in this investigation was a series of sieves for sizing the sands preparatory to making the tests. It became necessary, therefore, to decide on a sieve-scale for this purpose. A sieve-scale is a series of sieves in which the dimensions of the holes of the successive members form a series increasing by a definite ratio. There are three natural sieve-scales: 1, progressing by doubling the width of the hole for each suc-

Jan 1, 1908

By Persifor Frazer

For various reasons I have not specified the locality where the research indicated in the following pages was undertaken. It will suffice to say that it was on the grounds of a villa once remote from, but now completely surrounded by, its neighboring city, and in close proximity to an industrial establishment of great extent and importance manufacturing many kinds of steel articles and employing upwards of thirty chimney-stacks for power and process work. The problem was to discover the cause or causes of the mortality to trees and plants on the place, and to trace these causes to their origin. Before undertaking this experimental work, the bibliography accompanying this paper was compiled and studied. It appears from an examination of the careful scientific work performed by the ablest French, German, and English chemists during the last 25 years that they are unanimous in assigning the principal—in fact, the overwhelmingly predominant— cause of the destruction of vegetation to sulphur oxides, resulting either from direct oxidation of sulphur in oil of vitriol works, etc., or from the oxidation of the sulphur from the minerals associated with commercial coal. Schroder and Schertel showed in 1884 that the sulphates deposited upon the leaves are not injurious to the plants; and Freytag proved that free sulphuric acid could not be found

Jan 1, 1908

By Thomas Leonard Watson

Sulphide ore-bodies of more or less lenticular shape occurring in metamorphic crystalline schists, gneisses, and slates, and conforming closely in strike and usually in dip to the inclosing rock, have been recognized and described along the Atlantic seaboard from Quebec to Alabama. The ore-bodies do not entirely conform, in all cases, to the structure of the inclosing schists, but they sometimes cut across the foliation in dip, though conforming more closely with the direction of strike. In composition the principal sulphide mineral is usually py-rite or pyrrhotite, or both, accompanied by copper, frequently gold, and almost always some sphalerite and galenite. Other metallic ores are, so far as these sulphide bodies have been investigated, less common; silver is not uncommon, and in some of the pyrrhotite masses nickel is present in quantity sufficient to be commercially valuable. Cobalt frequently accompanies the nickel, usually in smaller amount, and the two vary much in relative proportion. Quartz and calcite are probably the most common of the non-metallic minerals. A number of silicate minerals are frequent representatives in one place or another ; garnet, am phi-bole, biotite, pyroxene, zoisite and others. The sulphide bodies of Virginia, comprising both pyrite and pyrrhotite, are among the most extensive along the Atlantic seaboard. Among the pyrite bodies may be mentioned the well-known and extensively worked mines of Louisa and Prince William counties, located on the main pyrite belt (A, Fig. 1) of the middle and northern, eastern Piedmont region in Virginia, and among the pyrrhotite bodics is the famous " Great Gossan Lead" (13, Fig. 1) of the Floyd-Carroll-Grayson coun-

Jan 1, 1908

Jan 1, 1908

By George B. Lee

During the two years in which the new reduction-works of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. have been in operation at Douglas, Ariz., there has developed a remarkable condition in regard to the corrosive action of the water used to cool the jackets of the blast-furnaces. Were it not for the many contradictory features, it might pass as one of the unavoidable troubles due to the composition of the water. This water, obtained from wells 600 ft. deep, is also used in the steam-boilers, and its composition, as shown by the following analysis, does not indicate the presence of any ingredient which would explain the corrosion: Grains Per U. S. Gal. Silica,...........0.861 Iron oxide and alumina,....... 0.223 Calcium carbonate,....... 0.261 Calcium sulphate,................. Magnesium carbonate,........... Sodium and potassium sulphates,..14.850 Sodium and potassium chlorides,.9.732 Sodium and potassium carbonate, . 6.482 32.409 The jackets are made of inner plates 0.5 in. thick and an outer plate # in. thick, with 3/8-in. stiffeners between the inner and outer plates. In from 10 to 12 months the inner plates have been reduced by corrosion to a thickness of from + to & in., while the outer plate in the same time is reduced by less than 1/16 in., and the stiffeners show very little corrosion. The plates are pitted and eaten away in some places more than in others. There is practically no scale found on the jackets, but when cleaned considerable iron oxide is found in the bottoms. With an action so marked, serious trouble would be expected in the boilers, but, on the contrary, a recent inspection by a

Jan 1, 1908

By Hjalmar Sjögren

Introduction.............767 Group I. The Ores of the Archean Crystalline Schists.... 770 Distribution............. 770 The Rocks.............770 Structures............772 The Rocks of Norrbotten..774 The Ores.............775 Type A. Apatite.Ores..........776 Type B. Mixed Hematite and Magnetite..777 Type C. Quartz-Banded Ores....777 Type D. The "Skarn" .Ores l..778 Type E. Limestone-Ores,..779 The Origin. of the Ore-Deposits......... 779 Arguments against the Sedimentation Theory,... 780 Concentration and Transformation within the Deep-Seated (Ana-morphic) Zone........783 The Chemical Changes.......784 Transformations in the Surface.Zone....789 The Graingesberg and Norrbotten Deposits,.....791 Analogous Deposits........794 Group II. The Ores of the Porphyries (Keratophyres) ... 796 Kiirunavaara. Luossavaara and TuoIlavaara....797 The Syenite.........799 The Porphyry of the, Foot. Wal1 .....799 The Porphyry of the Hanging-Wal1 ....799 The Ores.........800 The Forms and Dimensions of the Ore-Bodies ..802 Contact-Zones........803 The Genesis of the Deposits .......804 Mertainen and Painirova.......806 Ekatrömsberg..........808 Analogous Deposits,........808 Group 111. Magmatic Seregations in Basic Eruptives,... 809 Taberg in Smaland,.........811 Segregations in Diabase Younger than the Dala Sandstone, . 814 Iron-Ore in Nepheline. Syenite.......815 Ekersund and Soggendal in Norway......816

Jan 1, 1908

By W. O. Crosby

The crystalline belt of the Atlantic Seaboard, south of New York, attains its maximum breadth of 220 miles on the northern border of North Carolina; arid in this State it is most widely characterized by the occurrence of gold in workable deposits. Half a dozen auriferous belts have been recognized by Nitze and Hanna.' These are, in the main, coincident in position and trend with the NE.—SW. zones of metamorphic slates and schists, which, more than any other feature, give character to the geological map of North Carolina. The central gold-belts, accompanying the main zone of slates and as-

Jan 1, 1908

By Edward W. Parker

Note.—The material from which this paper has been prepared was collected tor the U. S. Geological Suvey Bulletin, No. 316, Contributions to Economic Geology, 1906, and appears also, though in somewhat more extended form without illustrations, in that publication. Although the briquetting of coals and lignites has been carried on for many years in Europe, and has reached a particularly high state of development in France, Belgium, and Germany, it has made comparatively little progress in the United States. The causes for the backwardness of the United States in this regard are several, and first among them has been the abundant supply of cheap raw fuel with which the manufactured article has to compete. With our millions of acres of coal-productive territory, from which the product can in moat cases be cheaply extracted, it has appeared in many districts more economical to waste the slack or culm, which constitutes a considerable percentage of the product, than to attempt to save it at the additional expense required for briquetting. It is for this reason that the view in all sections -of the anthracite-region of Pennsylvania is marred by the unsightly culm-banks which encumber the ground, and that in some of the bituminous-districts one sees huge piles of unmarketable slack allowed to burn up in order to get rid of them. When the coal is of a coking quality, or when the slack can be used for steaming-purposes, these losses are not sustained, but many thousands of tons of what might be converted into usable fuel have been wasted every year simply because of the increased expense involved in its preparation.

Jan 1, 1908

By Woolsey McA. Johnson

Independently of the recognized chemical reactions involved in the production of metallic zinc, the process is affected by physical conditions in efficiency, and by commercial as well as technical economy. To offer some observations concerning these conditions is the purpose of the present paper. Among the important elements of this problem is the physical nature of the particles constituting the mass of zinc oxide to be reduced. This may be the result, either of the manner of the original deposition of the mineral, or of the treatment to which it has been subjected in the roasting-furnace. The physical character of the reducing-agent is another important factor, since the carbon of some coals is much more active in reduction than that of others. The degree of fineness, whether of ore or coal, or both, likewise plays a significant part. These factors, together with the physical admixture of foreign substances with the ore, may give rise also to chemical " side-reactions," sometimes hindering or retarding, and sometimes accelerating, the reduction. Finally, thermal conditions, including the relative conductivity of the materials, deserve to be taken into account. In firing a furnace with retorts charged with a mixture of roasted ore and coal, the first reaction is naturally the boiling-off of the contained water; the next is the distillation of the light hydrocarbons from the coal; the next is the reduction of the iron oxide to protoxide and sub-oxide successively, and then to metallic sponge; and the final reaction is the reduction of the zinc oxide in the ore by the carbon to metallic zinc. This reaction commences at 1,022o to 1,060o C., according to the physical nature and condition of the coal and ore. Since the retort and the charge are far from being good con-

Jan 1, 1908

By E. P. Mathewson

The experiments described in this paper were made at the Washoe Reduction Works, Anaconda, Mont., for the purpose of determining the relative speed of elimination of the iron, sulphur and arsenic during the process of bessemerizing copper-mattes. The samples were taken from a horizontal a barrel" converter, 8 ft. in diameter and 12 ft. 6 in. long, having an average charge of 9 tons of matte, and blown with a 16-lb. air-pressure. All samples were taken with the blast on, turning the converter from its normal blowing-position to nearly vertical, so that a conical mold, with a long handle attached to a horizontal rod, could be introduced from a platform above the converter into the mouth of the converter and a sample taken. The difficulties of taking a sample with the blast on are apparent, and the irregularities of' the lines in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 can be readily accounted for by the amount of slag in the samples. On the whole, the plotting of the results gives comparatively uniform lines, considering the conditions. The samples were taken by the regular sampling-force of the works at 10-min. intervals, as shown in Tables I., 11. and III., which also give the chemical analysis of the samples so taken. The test shown in Table I. was made with a new converter; that of Table 11. with a converter that had made three charges and had been cleaned out; that of Table 111. with a converter that had blown one charge to white metal, and had then been " washed " out and used for the test. In plotting these results, it was necessary to take, as a basis, the percentage of copper in the samples. This basis does not exactly represent the true condition, since the volume is constantly decreasing and a certain quantity of copper passes into the slag, but it is as near as can be obtained in practice. Take, for instance, in Table I., the sample No. 5, which shows: Cu, 59.9;

Jan 1, 1908

By Persifor Frazer

CONTENTS. PAGE 1. Committee House of Commons Report (1843).......521 2. Clark (1880).............521 3. Schröder and Schertel (1884).... . 521 4. Committee House of Lords Report (1887).......523 5. Vita (1890).............524 6. Irvine (1890-1)............524 i. Cramer (1891)............525 8. Bailey. Cohen. Tatham and Hartog (1891))......525 9. Morrison (1891)............525 10. Brunner (1891)............525 11. Bell (1892).............585 12. Oades (1892).............526 12a. Purcell (1892)............526 13. Sennett (1892)............526 14. Bulier (1892).............526 1.7. Wiesner (1892))...........526 16. Thomson (1892)............530 17. Fletcher (1892)............530 18. Committee Engineers' Club Report (1892).......530 19. Cohen and Hefford (1892)..........531 20. Discussion Soc. Chem. Ind. (1893). ..532 21. Reuss (1893).............532 22. Thomson (1894—5) ...........535 23. Clowes and Feilmann (1895). ...536 24. Callan (1895)...........536 2.5. Wright (1895)............536 25A. Mabery (1895)............536 26. Re- (1896). ..........536 27. Herman (1896)............ 537 28. Cohen and Russell (1896).......... 537 29. Dennstedt and A hrens (1896). ..537 30. Cohen (1897). ...........537 31. Drehschmidt (1897)........... 538 32. Pfeiffer (1898). .........538 33. Fritzche (1898)............ 540 34. Ost and Wehmer (1899)........... 540 35. Donkin (1899). .........541 36. Beilby (1899)............. 643 37. Berthelot (1900)............ 544

Jan 1, 1908

By William L. Saunders

Many members of the Institute, who participated in the visit made, during the Bethlehem meeting of February, 1906, to the shops of the Ingersoll-Rand Company, at Phillipsburg, N. J., inspected with interest the new Electric-Air drill, which the company had set up for the purpose of showing it in actual operation to American mining engineers. At the request of the Secretary of the Institute, I promised at that time to prepare a paper for our Transactions, describing the construction and advantages of the machine. But such a paper would then necessarily have contained much that was only expected or claimed by the designers and manufacturers of the drill, and not yet incontrovertibly proved by varied and long-continued practice. However moderate such statements might have been, they would have given inevitably to the paper, to some extent at least, the air of a prospectus, rather than of a technical contribution. I therefore decided, with the Secretary's approval, to postpone the writing of the promised paper until it could set forth the results of adequate actual practice, as well as the latest details of construction, etc., based upon practical experience. That period has now arrived. The Electric-Air drill has been exhaustively tested in the field, under varied and arduous conditions and upon the hardest rocks. It is now fairly in the field; its merits and performances are matters of unimpeachable record, and its place among established competitors can be definitely determined. As a representative of the Ingersoll-Rand Co., as well as a member of the Institute, I may be permitted to add that my company, being largely interested in the manufacture of air-coxpressors and machinery driven by compressed air, has no desire to injure its own business by claiming for this new machine that it should immediately supersede all existing applications of pneumatic transmission of power for drilling. On the

Jan 1, 1908

Jan 1, 1908

By Albert Hill Fay

In giving a sketch of the geology and mining of the tin-deposits of Cape Prince of Wales, a short description of the geographic and climatic conditions may be of special interest on account of this being a part of the world of which very little is known, even by the reading public. As shown in Fig. 1, the location of the Cape is lat. N 65° 35' and long. W. 168o. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic ocean ; on the west by Bering strait and on the south by Bering sea. It is the Westernmost point of the mainland of North America, and to the west, across the strait, one can see East Cape, Siberia, which consists of a rugged, steep coast of granite cliffs. The climatic conditions arc of interest because of the part they have had in the surface geology, and also because they affect mining from an economic standpoint. In connection with the climate and geography, it does not seem out of place here to quote a few lines from the prologue of The Wandering Jew, written by Eugene Sue, under the caption " The Land's End of Two Worlds." "The Arctic Ocean encircles with a belt of eternal ice, the desert confines of Siberia and North America—the uttermost limits of the Old and New World, separated by the narrow channel known as Bering's Straits. " To the north, this desert is bounded by a ragged const, bristling with huge black rocks. At the base of this Titanic mass lies enchained the petrified ocean (Bering sea) whose spell-bound waves appear fixed as vast ranges of ice mountains, their blue peaks fading away in the far-off frost-smoke, or snow-vapor. " Between the twin peak* of East Cape, the termination of Siberia, the sullen sea is Been to drive tall icebergs across a stream of dead green. There lies Bering's Strait. Opposite, and towering over the channel, rise the granite masses of Cape Prince of Wales, the headland of North America. "These lonely latitudes do not belong to the habitable world."

Jan 1, 1908