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By Alfred E. Hunt

In a paper written for the Boston meeting of February, 1888 (Trans., xvi., 693), on "Some Recent Improvements in OpenHearth Steel Practice," the writer described the reducing agent used by the Carbon Iron Company as "a peculiar graphite from Cranston, near Providence, R. I." Upon an application pending at that time, a patent has since been issued as number 259,795, to Mr. Matthew Graff, for the use of solid carbonaceous matter in the form of coke, charcoal, gas carbon, bituminous or anthracite coal, ground to the size of coarse sand and then coated with a mash of lime, magnesia, clay, or other material of a like character, as an agent to reduce metallic oxides. An amount of this prepared carbonaceous matter equal to from 25 to 30 per cent. of the weight of the ore treated is required to perform the complete reduction. The idea is that the carbonaceous matter is protected against rapid combustion by a suitable coating of some inert material, so that, in effect, its action as a reducing agent will be similar to that of the Cranston graphite previously used, allowing the solid carbon to remain without combustion in intimate mixture with the iron oxide at a temperature sufficiently high to reduce the ore and in some cases to melt the matrix in which the iron is held. In the present practice of the Carbon Iron Company, the use of graphite, except for the formation of bottoms of the reverberatory furnaces in which the reduction is performed, has been entirely abandoned, and " retarded coke," as it is called at the works, has taken its place. Five hundred and fifty pounds of Connellsville coke is ground in a pan to 16-mesh fineness, or is taken in the form of ordinary coke-dust, and made into a hollow basin on the mixingfloor ; and seven bucketfuls of a wash composed of equal parts of lime and fire-clay, mixed in water to the consistency of thin cream,

Jan 1, 1889

By W. N. Page

Among engineers engaged in mining coal for river transportation, probably no other subject of equal importance has received so little attention as the methods of transferring into barges and other craft. The liability of all our streams to sodden freshets and their attendant drift and ice-gorges, seems to have had little effect upon the design and construction of what are commonly known as rivertipples, beyond the building of breakwaters, and other similar devices, to guard expensive structures from damage. The first method adopted for such transfer was a simple incline, with a movable cradle, which could be raised or lowered to suit the different stages of water. This system, though limited to a small capacity, and to cars not larger than those commonly used underground, possessed two advantages. The first cost was comparatively small; and, since the structure did not obstruct the channel, there was little risk from freshets, the utmost damage from which could be repaired at small expense. Its disadvantages, however, were many, the principal among them being the breakage of the coal by reason of the necessarily high dump; the damage to barges from the same cause; and the difficulties of screening and distributing the different sizes into separate barges. That system has been almost wholly abandoned of late, in favor of the basket-arrangement, lowering vertically into the barge, with the aid of counter-weights, which return the empty basket; while pipes or chutes convey the small coals into other barges, from a complete set of screens, which this method will readily accommodate. As far as my observations have gone, the latter system is now universally employed along all the tributaries of the Ohio. It

Jan 1, 1889

By Robert W. Hunt

Having had some twenty years' experience in trying to make good Bessemer steel rails, and now devoting my thoughts and energies to seeing that other people seek the same end, I venture to lay before the Institute some of the conclusions deduced from my practice and observation.

Jan 1, 1889

By Charles A. Ashburner

[The statistics contained in this paper were collected for the United States Geological Survey and communicated to the Institute, by permission, prior to their publication in the report on the Mineral Statistics of the United States for 1887.1 The total coal-production of Alabama in 1887 was about 1,950,000 short tons, the spot-value of which, at the mines, was $2,535,000. The coal-regions of the State lie in the extreme southern part of the Appalachian coal-field, the northern part of which lies along the western New York-Pennsylvania State line; between these limits, New York on the north and Alabama on the south, portions of the

Jan 1, 1889

By H. S. Munroe

The dressing-works of the St. Joseph Lead Company were destroyed by fire, February 26th, 1883. Within about four months, or on July 5th, 1883, the new mill, with a capacity of 500 tons per day, was built and in active operation. The capacity of the new mill has since been increased to 800 tons per day. The old mill was built in 1867, by Mr. C. B. Parsons, the present superintendent. It was a curious rambling old structure, which had grown with the demands of the business; a few jigs having been added in one place, a table or two in another and wings and sheds added to the main buildings, from time to time, as it was found necessary to increase the efficiency or the capacity of the mill. The old mill was, moreover, a most interesting place to the student, a perfect "museum of ore-dressing." Nearly every form of dressing apparatus known to the art had, at one time or another, found a place under its roof, jigs of many kinds, concave, convex, side-bump and stationary tables, tyes, buddles, dolly-tubs, etc., etc. The method of dressing followed in the main the lines of English practice, but with many modifications, both in the machinery and the methods of working, due to the inventive genius of Mr. Parsons. Different forms of crushing apparatus were tried, and the best method of handling the ore and the different products of

Jan 1, 1889

By Franklin R. Carpenter

In area, the Black Hills are about equal to the State of Connecticut. As the accompanying geological map indicates, they exhibit in the main a simple structure, presenting a central mass of granite and Archæan rocks, on all sides of which the later sedimentary rocks dip

Jan 1, 1889

By Franklin R. Carpenter, W. P. Headden

TWO notes have already appeared in the Transactions concerning the columbite or tantalite of the Black Hills tin-mines. In vol. xiii., page 232, Prof. Schaeffer speaks of the mineral as tantalite, and concludes by saying that its separation from the tinstone "is a matter which will, I believe, prove puzzling to the wisest metallurgist." He also observes that he is unable to find by analysis in his specimens the least trace of columbic acid. Prof. W. P. Blake, in the same volume, at page 696, says: " Even if it [tantalite or columbite] were present to a considerable amount, it would not injure the tin in smelting. It does not alloy with tin, but carries a small percentage of tin, which would probably be liberated in smelting." He calls the mineral columbite from the fact that a great number of specificgravity tests invariably indicated that it should be so classed. We have made chemical tests as well as specific-gravity tests upon many samples from many different parts of the Hills. Our analyses have always shown the presence of columbic acid, and the specificgravity tests have always indicated columbite, as we have elsewhere shown.* As Prof. Blake has already observed, it is not found in such close association with the tin as to prevent separation by a rough handsorting, but it is usually present with the stream-tin. As Prof. Schaeffer says, it cannot be separated by ordinary concentration; and while, as declared by Prof. Blake, its columbic acid may not unite with the tin in any form, yet its iron and manganese oxides may be reduced, and thus lower the quality of the tin produced, as is also the case when the smelting charge contains wolfram. To determine the effect of columbite in the ordinary potassium cyanide assay, there were assayed at the Dakota School of Mines four samples containing different proportions of columbite. The results, published in the report of the school for 1888, seemed to indi-

Jan 1, 1889

By William B. Potter

We have come together on this occasion, as so often before the members of the Institute have met in friendly council, to hear and discuss whatever investigation, observation, and experience during the past months may have developed of value or interest to the many departments of knowledge and practice represented in this association. The member, possessed of the true scientific spirit which this Institute is especially intended to foster, brings here the results of his experience and study unrestrained by fear of giving undue advantage to competitor or rival. He appreciates, moreover, the responsibilities of membership and his duty to the cause, and how much is to be gained by himself from the keen but friendly criticism of his fellow-workers and even by the suggestions that may come of shrewd question or chance remark from those who labor in other but related fields.

Jan 1, 1889

By William B. Phillips

It would be hard to find a mineral region that has been more beset with " processes" for the extraction of gold from auriferous sulphides than North Carolina. And it would be hard to find a mineral region less sought by capital. So many promising mines have come to grief here (perhaps because they were too "promising"), SO many "processes" have been tried and abandoned, so much expensive machinery has been bought and thrown aside, that to invite money here for investing in gold mines is almost sure to cause a smile of incredulity, or a sigh of disappointed hopes. Within the writer's personal knowledge, at least five disastrous failures have followed the introduction of as many processes. It would seem as

Jan 1, 1889

By E. C. Felton

At the Pennsylvania Steel Works, Steelton, Pa., a series of trials has been made with oil as fuel in steel-heating and open-hearth steel-furnaces with the following results : First Trial.—Hot 14-inch ingots, six to a charge, were heated in two Siemens' heating furnaces in the blooming mill, the oil being put in first in March, 1888. The oil used had been partly refined, so that the paraffine and some of the naphtha were removed. During a run of six weeks the consumption of oil was about 61/2 gallons per ton of blooms, including the oil required to keep the furnace hot over Sunday.

Jan 1, 1889

By H. S. Munroe

The accompanying figures illustrate the dumping-device used at the new dressing works of the St. Joseph Lead Co., at Bonne Terre, Mo. It is a dumping-cradle, of a type much used abroad, in which the car is turned upside down to discharge its load. The main

Jan 1, 1889

By G. H. Billings

The following data were collected some years since in the course of a series of experiments with oil as a substitute for coal in puddling, the earlier form of the Archer apparatus being employed. While I am not at liberty to give the name of the works at which the tests were made, I can personally warrant the accuracy of the record, and feel justified, therefore, in making this contribution to a discussion in which all trustworthy figures are likely to be helpful. Oil in Puddling. Starting with everything cold, we used 3518 pounds of oil to get the furnace in condition to charge a heat. After charging, we ran until we took out 13,340 pounds of puddled-blooms, using 8437 pounds, or 1333 gal1ons of oil. At 49 cents per gallon, the cost for oil per gross ton of blooms was $10.91; with coal at $4.871/2, and a consumption of 1.5 tons per ton of blooms (the usual quantity is ton for ton), the cost for coal is $7.31. The quantity of oil consumed in heating the furnace to the proper temperature and to make the bottom, is not included in the oil consumption stated. The quantity used was 3518 pounds of oil. Usually, the furnace need only be lighted, but in this case it had been repaired, and it was necessary to make a new .bottom. This required the quantity of oil necessary to make three heats of blooms, or 2109 pounds. Deducting this from the 3518 pounds leaves 1409 pounds of oil as the quantity consumed every week in lighting up.

Jan 1, 1889

By J. H. Bowden

On the night of January 23d, 1889, Erich C. Schaufuss, a member of the Institute, while engaged in making the regular mine-surveys in No. 4 Slope of the Susquehanna Coal Co, at Nanticoke, Pa., was killed by an explosion of fire-damp. The catastrophe, which cost another life also, is attributed to the carelessness of the " fire-boss" leading the party, who advanced with a naked lamp into a chamber

Jan 1, 1889

By Thomas H. Leggett

The conditions surrounding this mine are, perhaps, not sufficiently rare or significant to warrant special attention. A certain interest, however, attaches to the locality through the recent discovery of fossil cycads made there by Mr. Charles M. Rolker, of New York, who has repeatedly visited this district, fixing the geological horizon

Jan 1, 1889

By Henry J. Williams

The main difficulty in the determination of silicon in pig-irons containing very high percentages of that element, has been due to their almost complete insolubility in acids, or mixtures of acids. The object of the present paper, which presents no new principle, is to suggest a method of determination which has repeatedly given accurate results, and which obviates completely the tediousness and uncertainty of the usual slow solution in acids. This method has been tried with pig-irons containing from 7 to 14 per cent. of combined silicon, and properly called ferro-silicons. When reduced to an impalpable powder in the agate mortar, an 11 per cent. ferro-silicon was found to resist the action of all acids, or mixtures of acids, with the exception of sulphuric acid of about 1.25 specific gravity. But the action of this acid, even during long continued heating, was very slow, 72 hours being necessary to com pletely dissolve half a gramme of the metal. The complete decomposition of 1 gramme of the metal may, on the other hand, readily he effected in a few minutes by fusion with sodium carbonate in a covered platinum crucible over a blast-lamp —the idea being to dissolve the silicon, leaving the iron in condi tion to be readily attacked by acids. The silicon dissolves as soluble sodium silicate, and metallic iron remains in a very spongy and finely divided condition. The addition of a little hot water

Jan 1, 1889

Jan 1, 1889

By Julius Pohlman

The history of Niagara Falls, as currently told, is simple, and by that very simplicity it has been rendered plausible. AS the story runs, the Falls were once situated at Lewiston, 7 miles to the north of their present site; and, since all the rocks in this section are alternate hard and soft strata, the waters acting readily upon the soft shales caused their removal, and the overlying hard lagers, deprived of support, broke down under the weight of the large volume of water that rushed over them; and this erosive action has sent the edge of the fall more and more southward, until it now has excavated the seven-mile gorge between Lewiston and the village of Niagara Falls. (See Fig. 1.) As early as 1790" we find this theory advanced in a description of this region; and it has been practically endorsed by subsequent observers, the most prominent of whom was Prof. James Hall, the State Geologist of New York, who surveyed the Falls in 1841, and gave the most exact description of their surroundings in the publications of the State Survey.? Not until 1883 was the correctness of the accepted theory of the Falls questioned.‡ The geology of the basins of the Great. Lakes, as elucidated by Newberry,§ Speneer,ll and others, has added largely to a clearer understanding of the life-history of the Falls. The investigators have shown us that Lake Erie, as a lake, is, geologically speaking, quite young; that its valley was excavated in pre-glacial times by a series of rivers; and that the Maumee, Sandusky, Cuyaboga, Alleghany and other rivers carried the drainage of the surrounding

Jan 1, 1889

By Julius Pohlman

Considering the truly wonderful natural resources of the United States, and the variety and extent of uses for hydraulic cement at the present day, it seems strange that the manufacture of the artificial product called Portland cement has not been introduced here. Possibly the reason may be we have in different States of the Union rock deposits from which a cement can be obtained that is as good, and some claim even better, because of a more uniform quality, than the English product after it has been subjected to transportation across the ocean. One of these natural cement-rock deposits is found in the northern part of the city of Buffalo, and its manufacture has been carried on successfully for the past eleven years by the Buffalo Cement co., Mr. L. J. Bennett, President. The quarries cover an area of about two hundred acres, of which only twenty-five acres have been exhausted up to date; and the supply is assured for years to come. One acre yields on an average 80,000 barrels of cement; hence 12,000,000 barrels is a low estimate of what these quarries will yield before they are exhausted. According to the Geology of New York this cement-rock deposit is called the Water-Lime group, and forms in this section the uppermost member of the Upper Silurian. Its outcrop can be traced along the base of the second limestone terrace of Western New York, but at Buffalo a very large part of the overlying Corniferous limestone has been removed by natural agencies, leaving only about eight feet (six feet of rock and two feet of clay) on the top of the cement-rock, and thus furnishing the conditions for successful quarrying at a minimum expense. This rock is really an impure limestone, a mixture, as it were, of the underlying shales of the Onondaga Salt group with the overlying

Jan 1, 1889

By William N. Page

HAVING recently made a careful professional examination of this tract, I think its peculiar geographical, topographical and geological relations may prove interesting to members, not only because they are somewhat unusual in such a combination, but also as presenting the economical conditions of a region not widely known, at the western base of the Alleghanies.

Jan 1, 1889

By F. V. Greene

This paper is based on my experience in the use of asphalt, for paving and other purposes, during the last ten years, part of the

Jan 1, 1889