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By William B. Phillips

The concentration of natural magnetites has been carried on in this country for several years, and more or less information has been collected on the subject. Various inventors, availing themselves of the magnetism which is inherent in such ores, have devised machines for separating the impurities from the ore by means of the electric current; and a greater or less degree of success has rewarded their painstaking and persevering efforts. We are now fairly in position to judge of the value of the process as applied to such material. It is not my purpose to speak of this matter further than may be required by the emergencies of the case. I shall assume that most engineers and metallurgical chemists are already acquainted with what has been done at the Chateaugay mines, at Mineville, at the Benson mines, at the Weldon and Ogdensburgh mines, and at Cranberry; although, at this latter place, there has not been so much done as we could wish. I shall not now speak of the various types of separators. From the time of William Fullarton, to whom was granted an English patent, in 1792, for separating iron-ore by the application of magnetic attraction, down to the present time, a great. many devices have been suggested, and a great many patents taken out for this purpose; but it is not necessary now to enter upon a discussion of their merits. Perhaps, at some future meeting of the Institute, after we shall have experimented further with some of the machines on the market, there may be an opportunity to contribute something to the current knowledge of the efficiency and economy of separating-machines. In this paper I propose to give, as briefly as possible, the results already reached in converting a non-magnetic ore into magnetic ore, and then concentrating it over a magnetic separator of the alternate-polarity type. I am aware of the work

Jan 1, 1896

In reply to inquiries and comments which have reached me since the publication of this paper, and in explanation of some seeming discrepancies between my statements in the text concerning the amount of displacement of the faults, on one hand, and certain figures in the plates on the other hand, I give here, with some additional remarks, my measurements of the displacements in the different sections, which it originally seemed unnecessary to print : By displacement, I mean neither the throw, i.e., the vertical distance apart of the two edges of a faulted bed (what Mr.

Jan 1, 1896

By Henry Lloyd Smyth, J. Ralph Finlay

The most important area of the so-called Keewatin rocks of northern Minnesota is that which runs westerly from Lake Saganaga, near the national boundary, and finally disappears beneath the drift (or has not been farther traced), in the neighborhood of Vermilion Lake. With this belt we have a general acquaintance, extending back some four years. During the past year we have had the opportunity of studying in considerable detail a small part of it, embracing an area of about 12 square miles on the south and east shores of Vermilion Lake. In this paper we desire to record our observations and conclusions, which seem to us important. II.—Literature. Outside the Minnesota Geological Survey, the list of the investigators who have studied the geology of the Vermilion Lake area is not long. Whittlesey, in 1876,* mentioned the occurrence, in the area about Vermilion Lake, of rocks resembling the Canadian Laurentian. Chester,? in 1884, described the iron-ore at Vermilion Lake as occurring in connection with jasper and quartzite, intimately bedded with the country-rock, chiefly sericite schist, and standing in a nearly vertical attitude. The Vermilion iron-bearing rocks, and those of the Mesabi range, he says, are of the same age.

Jan 1, 1896

By Clinton M. Ball

Magnetic iron-ore is found in many localities throughout this and other countries, in large bodies and in convenient proximity to other materials required for its conversion into iron and steel; and these bodies of ore would have great commercial value on account of their nearness to consuming markets if they were generally suitable in their natural state for use in the larger operations of steel-making. In the manufacture of iron and steel it has been found, however, that not all ores are equally valuable as sources of raw material for the finished products of furnace, forge and foundry; and, as is now well understood, this is because of the intrusion, in the process of formation of the ore-bodies, of substances which can enter into deleterious combinations with the iron itself, or form compounds associated with the iron oxide which will hinder, if they do not altogether prevent, the production therefrom of the higher grades of finished metal. It is only since the development of the modern method of steel-making by the Bessemer process that the art of the chemist has been called to a critical study of the nature and effect produced by the presence of these pernicious substances in the furnace while the iron is undergoing reduction to the metallic state. Phosphorus and sulphur are the most common and obnoxious elements, and the admixture of one or the other, or both of these, in small percentages and varying proportions, will greatly modify the final results of manufacture. It so happens that generally, although not always, these hurtful elements are found in compounds in the ore which are not magnetic, and this circumstance has led to the expenditure of much ingenuity and money over a long period of time, in attempts to utilize the attractive power of magnets to separate the magnetic oxide of iron out of its crushed ores and from sands, in

Jan 1, 1896

By H. A. J. Wilkens, H. B. C. Nitze

From time to time papers treating of specific cases of Southern gold-mines and mining have appeared in the Transactions of this Institute, as well as in other journals and publications. Mr. George I?. Becker, of the United States Geological Survey, made a reconnaissance of the Southern Appalachian gold-belt during the fall of 1894; the results of his investigations are published under the title of "A Reconnoissance of the GoldFields of the Southern Appalachians," in the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Director of the United States Geological Survey, 1894-95 : Part III., " Mineral Resources of the United States." Mr. Becker has treated the subject mainly in a scientific geological manner. We present this paper to the members of the Institute as requested by the Secretary last May, with the object of covering the ground from a more practical and technical standpoint. The notes for this paper were made in a large measure from personal observations, gained chiefly during the past summer on a trip through the field. In connection with this trip we collected a suite of typical hand-specimens, representing the gold-ores and wall-rock from the more important localities. This collection forms a part of the exhibit

Jan 1, 1896

By Jake Coibion, Elmira Riahi, Dominic Reda, Walter Klary, Vojtech Gall

Progressive Design-Build is becoming a more common delivery method in the tunneling industry. This approach allows the Owner to select a design-builder primarily based on qualification instead of lowest price. The delivery method promotes flexibility and collaboration at all levels from the initial design stage through construction. Using the example of the Atlanta Airport Plane Train Tunnel West Extension, value-added risk management was added during the initial design phase with an independent reviewer. This paper presents the independent reviewer transitioning from constructability review in the very early stages of design to independent design verification to on-site supervision during construction.

Jun 13, 2023

By L. U. Spellman

Atlantic Cement Company's new multimillion dollar, 10,000,000 barrel per year cement plant went into full operation in February, 1962, bringing into reality a new concept in the distribution of Portland cement. The Cerro and Newmont Mining Corporations, well established in the mineral extraction and dressing industry, backed the venture. To take advantage of the, economics inherent in single production units of large capacity, it was necessary to first find a market' capable of absorbing such large quantities. Cement can be economically shipped by rail and truck about 200 miles. Beyond' that radius from the producing facility the freight costs become prohibitive. No single marker area within that radius exists which could absorb such a large volume of cement. However, water transportation provides a relatively inexpensive method of transporting bulk products many times over such a distance. Thus, it was decided to locate the producing facility near a deep water port which had ready access both to the Atlantic Ocean and, just as important, a good source of raw material. An extensive feasibility study was made and the site at Ravena, New York on the Hudson River near Albany was chosen. Here, vast quantities of limestone in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains are found within a short distance of-the deep-water Hudson River.

Jan 1, 1964

By F. Louis Grammer

The iron industry has been so markedly the cynosure of all eyes, that a sense of weariness has overtaken many on-lookers, and a new wonder is desired. While the commercial phase of the iron industry has necessarily engrossed the public attention and probably is the more worthy of record, still the mechanical and metallurgical phases have recorded conspicuous advances and merit attention. In order to appreciate the present condition of blast-furnace practice, it is necessary before enumerating the advances made during the past decade to give a brief discussion of the tendencies in the methods of administration as well as the conditions governing supremacy, for these factors have modified the aims of the manager. It might also be well to apologize for a record of the advances made during such a short period as a decade, were it not that, for the individual, time is marked as much by the impressions recorded on the brain as by the jumps of the second hand of a watch. Furthermore, this article is written in order to carry out a project of the late Dr. Egleston, to have a record made each decade. I regret that the data collected by him, and forwarded to me, end with 1896, and therefore do not include the interesting results which followed the introduction of Mesabi ores. The perusal of the notes is melancholy reading, somewhat like the feelings we experience in going through a graveyard. It is a record made up of so many plants, which have ceased to be factors in the iron world, if they are not entirely moribund. Historically, they would be interesting, emphasizing as they do the abnormal and somewhat overestimated importance of furnace lines, taken without proper reference to volume of blast and nature of stock used. I regret, however, that the time at my disposal does not permit of this presentation.

Jan 1, 1905

By Edward Keller

About a dozen years ago the art of bessemerizing copper- * matte, brought to these shores from France, was first established at the smelter, in Butte, Montana, of the Parrot Silver and Copper Company, which had bought the process from Mr. Manhks, the inventor. Through the efforts of Mr. J. E. Gaylord, general manager, and Mr. A. J. Schumacher, snperintendent,, assisted by an able staff, the new method rapidly underwent, at the Parrot establishment, an evolution towards higher perfedion, and within a few years its success and its advantages were so marked that all the great works in the west followed in the footsteps of this pioneer. The converter-process has now practically superseded the reverberatory-process in this country. The latter will undoubtedly, in a not very distant future, be relegated to metallurgical history. The writer has availed himself of what was perhaps the last chance to make comparisons of the two methods, working practically on the same material on an extensive scale, the reverberatory process being that of the Baltimore Copper Smelting and Rolling Company,* while the converter-process is that of the Anaconda Copper Company—both using the matte from the latter company's works in Anaconda, Montana. For the greater portion of the material considered in this paper, the writer is indebted to the two companies. In order to understand the difference of behavior of the several elements, and the difference of the copper produced in the two processes, it is best to study and follow those elements

Jan 1, 1899

By Edgar S. Cook

Portions of this paper repeat in substance the statements made by me in an address before the meeting of the American Society for Testing Materials, held in June, 1903, at Delaware Water Gap, Pa. The views I then expressed, I still hold and believe to be pertinent to the present discussion of this subject. In doing my part, therefore, at the request of our Secretary, towards the further consideration by the Institute of the Physics of Cast-lron from a commercial as well as a theoretical standpoint,—a theme which received interesting treatment in our meeting some years ago, but has been somewhat neglected recently,—I make no apology for reiterating the views I have expressed elsewhere. Indications all point to the substitution of classifying pig-iron by chemical analysis for the old-time method of grading by fracture. Commencing with the larger users, and the makers of specialties, who require more positive information as to the composition than is afforded by the fracture; the use of pig-iron, guided by analysis, has spread with much greater rapidity to all classes of foundry-work than the most sanguine expected. Grading by fracture, as guided by experience with any particular brand of iron, has some points in its favor. The fact that, for so many years, castings of multitudinous forms, and for an endless variety of uses, were made in a fairly satisfactory

Jan 1, 1905

By Henry W. Edwards

Concrete is not a new, nor even a modern substance. Important structures built by the old Romans before the commencement of the Christian Era are to-day sound and solid— for example, the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, 142 ft. in diameter. I do not propose, therefore, to discuss the durability of the material, as in the mining and metallurgical business, structures, as a rule, are not calculated to endure for two thousand years. I do wish to urge, however, that much of the stone masonry around mines and smelters would have given better results if concrete had been used in place of stone. Concrete looks better; is stronger, cheaper, more durable, more quickly built, and above all requires no skilled labor, except that of the carpenter, who, like the poor, is always with us. Well proportioned concrete, that is to say, having well proportioned ingredients, may be safely relied upon to withstand a compressive or crushing strength of 50 tons per square foot. In most American cities, however, the building laws limit it to the absurdly low figure of 16 tons. This restriction is probably due to the political influence of the building-trades unions, which object strongly to its too free use, undoubtedly owing to its not requiring the services of skilled workmen. I hope to show that quite important construction work may be' undertaken without the aid of the gentleman with the trowel. In some of the isolated districts of the West and Southwest this is no mean advantage. The weight of good concrete, dry, is from 130 to 160 lb. per cubic foot. Ingredients of Concrete. Concrete is composed of four ingredients; viz., 1. Crushed Stone; 2. Sand; 3. Cement; and 4. Water.

Jan 1, 1905

The Secretary : The work of Mr. A. E. Outerbridge, Jr., of Philadelphia, first made known in his paper on " The Mobility of Molecules of Cast-Iron," read at the Pittsburgh Meeting of the Institute, in February, 1896, has been reviewed by the Committee on Science and the Arts of the Franklin Institute, whose report, dated May 5, 1897, is accompanied with a table of tests made by the Committee, and amply confirming the statements of Mr. Outerbridge. Concerning the originality and novelty of his investigation, the Committee says: " The fact that a certain molecular change takes place in cast-iron in the course of time has been known and recognized by many persons for a long time, and that this change tends to relieve the internal strains and render the casting tougher has often been noticed and acted on, although in a very crude way; but, so far as the sub-committee has been able to learn, Mr. Outerbridge has been the first to make a careful study of this, and to note that the change may be hastened by impact, and the whole effect produced in a short time, and also to make a scientific study of the phenomenon. We believe great credit is due him for the initial observation and the careful work dependent thereon. The results were first given to the public in a paper read before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, on February 20, 1896. This aroused a wide-spread interest and discussion among users of cast-iron, and so far as the sub-committee has been able to determine, it has not been shown that anyone, either in this country or abroad, has antedated Mr. Outerbridge in his work in this line. The Franklin Institute therefore recommends the award to him of the John Scott Legacy Premium and Medal." This report has not been published, hut I have had the opportunity to read it in manuscript. The table of testa accompanying it comprises 91 tests of " rumbled" and an equal number of " not rumbled" companion-bars of cast-iron, 26 by 2 by

Jan 1, 1898

Edward S. Simpson, Perth, Western Australia (communication to the Secretary): In 1896 the East Coolgardie gold-field was divided into three fields, viz. : Area, square miles. Officia1 Centers. (1) East Coolgardie,. . 634 Kalgoorlie. (2) Broad Arrow,. , 588 Kurawa. (3) Northeast Coolgardie,. 22,960 Kanowna. The whole of the area embraced by the eastern gold-fields is covered with late Tertiary sands and gravel, with occasional beds of clay shales. These mostly overlay granite which occasionally shows through in small round hills. At Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and other mining centers, belts of diorite, serpentine and highly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks appear on the surface. The rainfall at Kalgoorlie in 1897 was 4.75 inches. That the climate has not always been so arid is evidenced by the recent discovery at Coolgardie (only twenty-five miles away) in the late Tertiary formations of a thick bed of brown coal, containing numerous fossil fern-leaves. As assayer and mineralogist to the Government of Western Australia I have had occasion to examine a large amount of the Kalgoorlie ores, both in Perth and at the mines at Boulder itself. The only tellurides I have been able to determine are

Jan 1, 1899

Charles H. Morgan, Worcester, Mass. (communication to the Secretary): In connection with Mr. Douglas's mention of the continuous charcoal kiln used at Kopparberg, some further data concerning this important invention may be of interest. Before giving these, however, I will say a word or two concerning other features of Swedish practice. In 1894 I spent two days at Soderfers with Mr. Tom Bergendal, the manager of the works, and was specially interested in the gas-producers and wood-drying kiln, illustrated in the paper contributed to our Transactions by Mr. Odelstjerna in that year.* The wood-drying kiln is, however, quite different in design and construction from Ljungberg's charcoal kiln. In the summer of 1894 it was discovered that by placing the gas-producer as close as possible to the open-hearth furnace, and working the producer hot, ordinary weather-dried wood, still containing a considerable percentage of moisture, could be used to advantage in the melting-furnace. Hence, the dryingkiln was needed for wet wood only. One of the iron-works of the Udeholm Go. was the first to adopt the Lundin saw-dust gas-producer and condenser, enabling them to make gas from saw-dust containing 45 per cent. of moisture, and convey the gas from the condenser through wooden pipes to the Siemens steel-melting furnace.† This sawdust gas gave very satisfactory results in iron-works; but the proprietors experienced much trouble by reason of the pollution of rivers by the tar-water from the condenser. On my visit, in 1894,I found that the Udeholm Co. had put in for their steel-melting furnaces the same wood-gas producers

Jan 1, 1899

E. D. Peters, Jr., Dorchester, Mass.: This paper of Mr. Keller's seems to me a step in a direction that has been very little exploited, and iff likely to lead to valuable practical re-

Jan 1, 1899

R. H. THURSTON, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. (communication to the Secretary): The " tri-axial diagram" was, I think, first employed by me in the work of the " U. 8. Board Appointed to Test Iron, Steel and Other Metals." A model was exhibited to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the diagram was first published, and the model described, in a paper presented to the same society at its Nashville meeting in 1877." The problem then presented to its inventor was to find a method of planning a research involving proportions of ternary compositions in such manner that, a limited number of such compositions being tested, the results should give the law of variation in the physical properties of all possible combinations of the three elements, and the actual numerical values of such as were important to the investigator. The investigation of the binary alloys, copper and tin, copper and zinc, and tin and zinc, had been completed and satisfactorily discussed, employing the usual bi-axial diagram, of which the ordinates represented the one, and the abscissæ the other, of the characteristic properties to be studied, the composition being commonly indicated by the abscissæ. In these cases it was easy to ascertain, by the study of a limited number of compounds, the law of variation in strength, ductility, etc., with composition; but, for a long time, the ternary alloys were not attacked, because no simple and satisfactory method presented itself of securing results significant for the whole field by the investigation of a comparatively small number of alloys. The tri-axial diagram was finally hit upon as a means of representing and interpreting results, and researches were at once begun, and in due time satisfactorily completed.

Jan 1, 1899

By Robert Schorr

PAGE 1. Introduction,........... 82 2. Characteristics of Briquettes,........ 87 3. The Manufacture of Coal- and Coke-Briquettes,.... 89 Binders, Organic and Inorganic,...... 90 Mixing,...........94 Presses, Continuous and Intermittent Action,....95 Cost of Briquettes and Sales-Prices in Various Countries,.. 99 4. The Manufacture of Peat-Briquettes,......101 Solid Peat-Slabs,.........101 Solid, Carbonized Peat-Briquettes,......103 Estimates of Cost of Operating Peat-Briquetting Plants,... 105 5. Manufacture of Mineral-Briquettes for Metallurgical Processes,.. 108 6. Manufacture of Artificial Stone-Masses,......112 7. Bibliography,...........115 Introduction. Briquetting is apparently a very simple operation, yet it has offered so many mechanical and chemical difficulties that it required almost a century to place it on a commercial basis. Since 1860, however, the progress has been steady and satisfactory, and to-day, for most of the European coal companies, the briquette-plant is a very profitable investment. Among the many applications of scientific knowledge to further economy by recovering and utilizing by-products and raw materials, there is possibly none which deserves the attention of Americans to a higher degree than briquetting. The recent miners' strike in Pennsylvania, which resulted in a scarce and irregular supply of coal at a high price, has advanced the possibilities for briquetting, and as a consequence public interest has grown rapidly. While the manufacture of coal-briquettes is not new in the United States, adverse conditions and sometimes lack of

Jan 1, 1905

By Persifor Frazer

"The nebular theory is a noble speculation supported by plausible argument, and the verdict of science on the whole subject cannot be better expressed than in the words of Newcomb :—'At the present time we can only say that the nebular hypothesis is indicated by the general tendencies of the laws of nature, that it has not been proved to be inconsistent with any fact, that it is almost a necessary consequence of the only theory by which we can account for the origin and conservation of the sun's heat, but that it rests on the assumption that this conservation is to be explained by the laws of nature as we now see them in operation. Should any one be skeptical as to the sufficiency of these laws to account for the present state of things, science can furnish no evidence strong enough to overthrow his doubts until the sun shall be found growing smaller by actual measurement, or the nebulæ be actually seen to condense into stars and systems.' " Leibnitz2 is credited by Cuvier3 (who associates with him Descartcs) with " amusing their imaginations " by conceiving the world to be an extinguished sun or vitrified globe upon which the vapors, condensing in proportion as it cooled, formed the seas, and afterwards deposited the calcareous strata. Whiston4 believed the earth was crested from the atmosphere of one comet and deluged by the tail of another. The heat which remained from its origin excited the whole antediluvian population, men and animals, to sin, for which they mere all drowned in the deluge, except the fish, whose passions were apparently less violent. De Maillet5 held that the globe had been covered by water for many thousand years. The terrestrial animals were originally inhabitants of the sea, and man himself began his career as a fish. He adds it is not uncommon to meet with fishes in

Jan 1, 1905

By S. F. Emmons

Jan 1, 1899

By Harrison Souder

In view of the proposed visit of the Institute to Cuba this winter, the following brief sketch of the principal mineral deposits near Santiago de Cuba has been prepared largely from notes taken in February, 1903, during a visit to the mines then in operation in the province of Santiago de Cuba. Westward from Cape Maysi, the most eastern point of the island, the coast is rocky and uninviting. The usual course of the steamers is well in toward the shore, and the lines of stratification of the rocks can be distinguished clearly, the presence of iron or other ores being indicated by frequent blotches of mineral stain. One is impressed with the general rugged character of the southeastern coast-line,—an almost unbroken barrier of coral-limestone bluff's, full of caves and hollows, into which the surf rushes with a roar and bursts into tall fountains of spray. Beyond rises abruptly the Sierra Maestra range, whose sharp, peaked crest-line betrays its eruptive or igneous origin. From a height of about 800 ft. near Cape Maysi, this range gradually rises to the westward, attaining its maximum elevation of more than 8,300 ft. in the Pico Turquino, beyond Santiago. A general resemblance to the mountain-ranges of southern New Mexico is noticeable. At Daiquiri, 20 miles east of Santiago harbor, the extensive

Jan 1, 1905