Search Documents

By Edwin Ludlow

To THE members of the American Institute of Mining and? Metallurgical Engineers who were fortunate enough to be able to attend the Fiftieth Anniversary at Wilkes-Barre, it was brought home that commercial anthracite requires not only expensive mining but that the milling or preparation of it is also a costly operation, requiring very large capital expenditures and high maintenance and labor costs. The great trouble that coal men meet in discussions of coal problems today is the difficulty the average coal user, especially in the East, finds in distinguishing between anthracite and bituminous coals. They are two entirely separate problems and yet the people who are burning coal complain bitterly of the high cost of anthracite and quote the figures furnished in regard to the prices of bituminous coal and feel that the anthracite operators are making an excessive profit, without realizing the enormous difference in the cost of production in the two fields. The great difference that can be marked is that in this year of industrial depression the prices of anthracite have been not only maintained but have increased during the summer, while the price of bituminous coal has been continually dropping since the first of the year, and yet the same law of supply and demand governs both anthracite and bituminous. In order to understand the situation the two problems must be considered from their separate points of view.

Jan 1, 1921

By Edward Judd

CONSTRUCTION of the long projected Moffat tunnel, on the Denver & Salt Lake R. R., between Tolland and Irving, Colorado, is now actually and actively progressing. This 6.1-mile bore through the Rocky Mountains, at an elevation of about 9200 ft., will eliminate 33 1/3 miles of probably the most tortuous standard-gage track in the world, and at the same time will avoid the necessity for crawling over the snow-bound continental divide at an elevation of 11,660 ft Completion of the tunnel within the stipu-lated four years, is expected to nave an immediate effect on the develop-ment of the known coal fields in north-western Colorado, already penetrated at Craig, the present terminus of the road, while it will also enable the railroad to carry out the original designs of its founder, David H. Moffat, for through traffic from farther west. The intention now is to accomplish the latter object by an extension from McCoy following the canon of the Grand River down to a connection with the Denver & Rio Grande at Dotsero. Legal impediments to the financ-ing of the tunnel having been removed by action of the Colorado legislature in April, 1922, the Moffat Tunnel Improvement District issued bonds to the amount of $6,720,000 which have been widely and quickly distrib-uted through a New York banking house. Responsi-bility for the execution of the project has been vested in the Moffat Tunnel Commission, to which a board of consulting engineers has been appointed for carrying out the details of administration. This board includes D. W. Brunton and L. D. Blauvelt, of Colorado, and J. Vipond Davies and J. Waldo Smith, of New York; R. H. Keays, who has managed large tunnel projects in New York, is chief engineer for the Commission.

Jan 11, 1923

By Richard A. Arterburn

For many years hydrocyclones, commonly referred to as cyclones, have been extensively utilized in the classification of particles in comminution circuits. The practical range of classification for cyclones is 40 microns to 400 microns, with some remote applications as fine as 5 microns or as coarse as 1000 microns. Cyclones are used in both primary and secondary grinding circuits as well as regrind circuits. The information given in this chapter is intended to provide a method, at least for estimating purposes, of selecting the proper number and size of cyclones and to determine the proper level of operating variables. Generally, it is recommended that cyclone suppliers be consulted for sizing confirmation. Sow cyclone suppliers employ digital computers to aid in the sizing and selection of cyclones. CYCLONE DESCRIPTION AND BASIC OPERATION Figure 1 shows a cutaway view of a typical cyclone. During operation, the feed slurry enters the cyclone under pressure through the feed pipe into the top of the cylindrical feed chamber. This tangential entrance is accomplished by two types of design, as shown in Figure 2. Since the majority of research has been done with the involuted type, the graphs and relationships shown may not be strictly applicable to other designs. As the feed enters the chamber, a rotation of the slurry inside of the cyclone begins, causing centrifugal forces to accelerate the movement of the particles towards the outer wall. The particles migrate downward in a spiral pattern through the cylindrical section and into the conical section. At this point the smaller mass particles migrate toward the center and spiral upward and out through the vortex finder, discharging through the overflow pipe. This product, which contains the finer particles and the majority of the water, is termed the overflow and should be discharged at or near atmospheric pressure. The higher mss particles remain in a downward spiral path along the walls of the conical section and gradually exit through the apex orifice. This product is termed the underflow and also should be discharged at or near atmospheric pressure.

Jan 1, 1982

By William Blauvelt

THE type of gas producer in which the ashes are fluxed and run off as slag was among the very earliest made. Ebelmen built the first one in 1840 at Audincourt, France, only a year after the installation of the first gas producer of which we have record. Charcoal was used as the fuel, with blast-furnace slag and clay is flux. My interest in this type of producer began when as a boy I saw the fluxing producer at Chester, N. J., which was invented by W. J.. Taylor, and described by him in 1881.1 This producer was invented independently by Mr. Taylor to meet the difficulties he experienced in making producer gas for roasting sulphurous iron ores. It will be of interest to review briefly his description of his producer. It was built like a small blast furnace, having a hearth 24 in. in diameter and 24 in. high. The bosh angle was 25° from the vertical; the diameter at the bosh 4 ft. and at the top 3 ft.; the total height 12 ft. The producer contained one water-cooled tuyere 12 in. above the bottom, with a 1.5-in. nozzle.. Depth of the coal above the tuyere; 6 ft. Mr. Taylor mixed the coal with from 30 to 40 per cent. of basic blast-furnace slag to flux the ash. Occasionally some limestone was also used, but never limestone alone, as the use of the furnace cinder gave a larger volume of slag and made it easier to maintain a proper fluidity. . The producer was blown with a small Weimer blowing engine, delivering 300 ft. of air per minute, at from 1 to 1.5 lb. pressure. The slag was tapped every 2 hr. and was black and glassy in appearance. Broken or egg size anthracite was used. The fine sizes of anthracite could not he made to work. Mr. Taylor expressed the belief that bituminous coal could be used if not too fine, but no experiments were made with this coal. Runs were made of four weeks' duration, with no stops or changes. Mr. Taylor reported the following advantages:

Jan 12, 1913

By Frederick Laist

I. INTRODUCTION The new slime-concentrating plant at the Washoe Reduction Works, Anaconda, was put into operation during March, 1914. This plant, which has a capacity of 26,000,000 gal. of slime pulp carrying 2,500 tons. of solid matter per day, consists of Dorr thickeners and Anaconda multiple-deck slime concentrators.' This plant is the culmination of a great deal of experimental work extending over a considerable period of time, which work will be described briefly in the following pages.

Jan 8, 1914

By M. G. Corson

THE theory of hardening by interference with slip which has been so clearly developed by Jeffries and his co-workers requires that an alloy to be amenable to age or heat hardening should contain among its components some that will stay in solid solution at high temperatures and precipitate as a secondary phase on cooling. This secondary phase may be either a more or less pure individual element (chromium in the case of copper, anti-mony in the case of lead), or some intermetallic com-pound. Those cases of hardening which depend on the precipitation of a compound are not only the most frequent, but are also far superior in the efficiency of hardening obtained. However, the slip interference theory as stated in its most general form is not sufficient to foretell new cases of this type of hardening and also will not explain some phenomena of a more intricate nature. It is not sufficient that a secondary phase might be absorbed by the main one at high temperatures and precipitated at the lower ones. The kinetics of this precipitation and the accompanying. physical phenomena of dimensional changes play independent and highly important parts. These kinetics, while not yet sufficiently studied to he formulated in the shape of physicochemical equations, might find their expression-in a qualitative systema-tization of the phenomena of precipitation according to two different viewpoints. To begin with, we encounter the question as to the velocities of the precipitation and of the growth of the phase precipitated. To harden a metal in an efficient manner we must be able to control the precipitation on one hand and also to bring the total of the secondary phase to such a number and size of the particles pre-cipitated as, will produce a desirable hardening effect under commercially feasible conditions of. age or heat hardening. From this viewpoint six different cases may be dis-cerned.

Jan 7, 1928

By John D. Wiebmer

First, a definition of a small scale miner is in order. The US Bureau of Mines classifies him as one who produces 360 t/d (400 stpd) of ore or less. In Canada, he would be refered to as a "junior company." Mexico identifies the small scale miner as one whose gross income from operations is less than $880,000 per year. A small surface mine in India employs less than 400 people, and a small underground mine employs less than 150. Peru considers a small scale miner one who produces less than 54 000 t/y (60,000 stpy) of ore. Obviously, the term is relative. What may be a small mine in one country is a medium or large mine in another. This lack of agreement is understandable since small scale mining does not often cross national boundaries. Rather, its effects are felt at the regional and local levels within each nation. Its importance doesn't lie with any huge contribution to the GNP or balance of trade. Instead, its value is as a local employer and as a frontrunner in geologic exploration.

Jan 2, 1979

By A. B. Young

T HE smelting industry in Utah is represented by four plants: The Midvale of the United States Smelting, Refining & Mini.ng Co., the Murray of the American Smelting and Refining Co., the Garfield of the same company and the Tooele of the Inter- na.tiona1 Smelting Co. The first two are lead smelters, the Garfield plant is a copper smelter while the last named embraces both a lead and copper smelter. A total daily smelting capacity of over 10,000 tons is represented, of which 4000 tons is lead smelting capacity. With the exception of Tooele, forty miles distant, all of these smelters are within twenty miles of Salt Lake City. Pyrometallurgical operations in this district are con- fined entirely to the production of unrefined bullion, which is shipped east to the various refineries of the respective companies. The smelting industry in this state had its beginning away back in the latter days of the Civil War, many years before the completion of the trans-continental railroad. Ox teams were still bringing their companies of better fixed Mormon emigrants across the plains to the valley of the Great Salt Lake and those in lesser circumstances were still pushing their hand- carts over the same roads to the temporary abode

Jan 1, 1925

By R. W. Ph. D. Raymond, Anton Filers, O. H. Hahn

THIS paper will treat of such works only as beneficiate ores directly in the mining districts. And when it is said that more than twenty furnaces exist in Utah, about as many in Nevada, five in Montana, and four in Cerro Gordo, Inyo County, California, it is obvious that a business so extended deserves attention. Wide apart as these different works are located, they have nevertheless to deal in nearly every case with the same or very similar circumstances and conditions, so that, with very few exceptions, virtually the same system of smelting is followed in all these establishments. This is the so-called method of reduction and precipitation in blast-furnaces. As the principal reasons for the employment of a blast-furnace process are to be considered : the low percentage of lead in the ores, the high price of the only available fuel, charcoal, and the exorbitant rates demanded for labor. The reasons why the reduction and precipitation process is preferred to a roasting, reduction, and precipitation process are the high prices of labor and materials, and the preponderance of oxidized ores over sulphurets, though in some cases the latter are quite abundant. The weight of these reasons will be better understood when the character of the ores to be treated and the object of the smelting are more minutely stated. The ores are in nearly all cases a preponderating mass of oxidized lead ores, such as cerussite, anglesite, and leadhillite, in which nests and nodules of undecomposed galena occur. Associated with these are : in Eureka, Nevada, arseniate of iron and arsenical pyrites, hydrated oxide of iron, quartz, and calcareous clay ; in Little Cottonwood Canyon and American Fork, Utah, iron oxide, and in some cases a combination of antimony, the nature of which I have not ascertained; also dolomite and quartz in widely varying proportions; in Bingham Canyon, Utah, only quartz and comparatively little oxide of iron, or iron sulphurets; in Cerro Gordo, California, oxide of iron, iron pyrites, antimonial compounds, copper ores, and, as gangue, carbonate of lime and quartz. In Argenta, Montana, occur, besides the above-named lead ores, pyromorphite, and molybdate of lead. The preponderating gangue of the Argenta ores is quartz, and there is here a larger proportion of galena than elsewhere in the West. In most of the localities named, the lead ores themselves contain sufficient silver to render its separation from the ore the main object of the smelting; but in some of the districts, and especially in Montana, the lead ores serve only to furnish the extracting agent for the silver of true quartzose silver ores, which at the same time contain a sufficient percentage of lead to make amalgamation impracticable. They are therefore beneficiated by smelting, although the lead itself has no market value.

Jan 1, 1873

By Dorsey Lyon

I. INTRODUCTION. In presenting, this paper the writers wish to call attention first of all to the fact that the electric furnace was not developed as a competitor of the combustion furnace, but: 1. For the purpose of doing high-temperature work which it is not possible to do in the combustion furnace; and 2. For the treatment of ores from deposits which. are located in regions where fuel is scarce and costly, and where hydro-electric power is comparatively cheap, as is the case in Chili, in Canada, in certain parts of this country and Mexico.. This paper is not presented with the idea of trying to. prove that the electric furnace should replace the reverberatory or the blast furnace as used at present in the smelting of copper ores, but that it may be substituted for their in those localities which are not favorable to them,) and where either of the two following conditions may exist: (a) A district remote from railway transportation. facilities, and where there is a deposit, or deposits, containing sufficient values to warrant their being worked, but which, due to the cost of getting coke in for operating a smelter and of getting ore out to a smelter, have to remain unworked.. And where, on the other hand, there is plenty of water power which call he developed at reasonable cost for the production of electric power, by the use of which for. smelting the ores in an electric furnace, with subsequent Bessermerization if necessary, a concentrated product may be obtained, which can easily stand the necessary transportation charges. (b) Or,. comparatively speaking, the transportation facilities may be all right, but the cost of fuel be too great to permit of the ordinary methods of smelting, whereas,- on the other hand, hydro-electric power can he developed: in the district at a, low cost,, and the ores could be smelted by the electric furnace at a cost. that would make their treatment possible. With these possibilities in mind we have attempted to make a brief comparative study of the problem for the purpose of aiding those interested in the subject, in determining whether it would be possible metallurgically, and feasible commercially; to use the electric furnace-in those localities where, by reason: of excessive fuel costs, the cost, of operating the furnaces for smelting copper-ores. is either excessive or prohibitive. Although the smelting of copper ores in the electric furnace has received considerable attention and more or less experimental work has been done, so far as: we lire: aware there ate no electric furnaces in the United States which are' being worked on copper ores. In Norway, however, trial smeltings of copper ores with an electric furnace of 1,000 h. p. and an estimated producing' capacity of 2,000 tons per annum, have been

Jan 8, 1913

Discussion of the paper of Dorsey A. Lyon and Robert M. Keeney, presented at the Butte meeting, August, 1913, and printed in Bulletin No. 80, August, 1913, pp. 2117 to 2149. C. D. WOODWARD, Butte, Mont.:-We constructed a small blast furnace, and used first carbon electrodes and an alternating current of about 50 to 75 volts. We were able to smelt the material which was fed to the furnace, but we did not carry on experiments far enough to see just exactly what the power consumption was and compare it with the amount of material treated. We found that the blast seemed to help materially in reducing our charge and cutting down our power consumption. There were several other experiments tried at the time, and I do not call to mind now just what they were. We were trying to do away with the carbon electrode and replace it with an iron one, and it also seems to me we tried to use the ore for an electrode; but I believe that the electric furnace in the reducing end is simply a question of British thermal units per kilowatt-hour compared with British thermal units in a pound of coke. Now, if a pound of coke costs us 0.5 c. and a kilowatt-hour costs us in the neighborhood of 1.5 c., I think there is a big advantage in using coke instead of the electrical current for copper reducing. We tried steam, and a number of other methods, to throw copper down, but it has been some time ago and I am not very familiar with them now. The outlook of the experiments did not seem to be very promising, and we took it more as a thermal problem than an electrical one. PROF. JOSEPH W. RICHARDS, South Bethlehem, Pa.:-Mr. Woodward has spoken of the question as a thermal problem. I would call attention to the fact that electric furnaces usually utilize the heat of the electric current at from four to ten times the efficiency with which the heat generated by fuel is utilized; so it will not do simply to compare by thermal units generated. Your total thermal units may cost much less from coke than from electricity, yet you will find the electrically generated thermal units utilized in a properly designed furnace from three to ten times more efficiently than in the combustion furnace. You must make that allowance is comparing the cost of thermal units generated electrically and thermal units from coke.

Jan 11, 1913

The smoker, Monday evening, was an unusual success. It was held in the beautiful gold room of the Congress hotel, which was very elabo-rately decorated with American flags. More than 500 were present. The gallery was filled with ladies, who responded to the request of the song leader and helped in many ways to grace the occasion. The enter-tainment, was a varied one and was original with the Chicago Committee, which deserves great credit for the unusual success of the event. Al-though it was mostly funmaking, Dr. F. B. Cottrell and George S. Rice of the Bureau of Mines gave some very interesting talks, illustrated by flags and moving pictures, of their trip through Europe since the armis-tice. Mr. Rice's talk dealt particularly with the demonstrative coal and iron regions and Doctor Cottrell's was devoted almost solely to that part of his trip in Northern Italy where he was investigating the application of volcanic steam to power purposes. This steam is derived from boracic-acid springs and helium is secured as a byproduct.

Jan 11, 1919

By Robert Livermore

THE Smuggler-Union mine is in the upper San Miguel mining district near Telluride, Colo., and the group of claims now forming the property were first worked in 1875. Development was slow until the completion of the railroad in 1890, when it pro- ceeded rapidly. In 1896 four hundred stamps were dropping in the district, the production was $3,000,000. A geologic section of the country rocks, where ex-posed by erosion from the valley at 8700 ft. to the sum-mit at 13,500 ft., shows the sedimentaries made up of flat-bedded sandstones and conglomerates, of the Jura-Trias, superimposed at 9700 ft. by a series of bedded rocks of igneous origin, andesites and andesite breccia. These rocks extend 3000 ft. to the rhyolite capping, largely fragmentary, which occurs at 13,000 ft. The ore horizon is, so far as known, contained in the 3000 ft. of' andesite and breccia. The Smuggler vein is a fault fissure which, with its extension to the north, the Humboldt vein, contains one of the longest continuously mined orebodies in the world. The length of the orebody so far developed is approximately 9000 ft. The width of the valuable part of the vein is, however, narrow, 3 ft. being the average, and the depth to which it has been worked up to the present is 2500 feet. There are several crossing and branch veins, all of which have been more or less productive. Of these, the so-called Flat vein, discovered in 1915, with its pro-duction of nearly 2,000,000 tons, has been the most important. This vein joins the Smuggler at an acute angle in the northern section of the property. North of the junction the two veins lie side by side and form an orebody of importance which gives promise of exten-sion with depth. The valuable metals of both the Smug-gler and Flat veins are gold, lead and silver. In the former silver is more important than lead, and the reverse relation holds in the latter.

Jan 3, 1928

By Henry D. Hibbard

I. INTRODUCTION. THESE impurities are perhaps the most important things in steel-especially steel made by the oxidation processes-the effect of which has not been at least approximately determined. By oxidation processes I mean the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin, during which the metalloids in the charge are removed by oxidation. It has been truly said that it is a clear advantage to have a new name for a new thing. To secure this and to economize space, let us adopt the name sonim (plural sonims) to designate the solid non-metallic impurities existing in steel or other metal. I would define a sonim as a solid non-metallic portion of matter existing as an impurity in metal. A piece of sand, brick, clay, or such material, imbedded in metal, would be considered as a foreign body, not as an impurity, and therefore not a sonim. The studies of sonims of which the results have been published hitherto, have been made chiefly or wholly on finished or at least on cold steel, without much, if any, regard to the specific methods by which the steel was made. While many of the results so obtained are valuable, they give little help in determining the cause, effect, or cure of the disease. It is not enough, in such a study, to know merely the commercial name of the process; for within the field of each process lies a great number of possible variations, each of which will yield a result differing in some respect from all others; and the control of sonims is particularly dependent. on the metallurgical treatment of the metal, because of the inability of analytical chemistry to throw much light on their presence, condition, and effect, as they usually occur in commercial steels. The microscope aids more, perhaps, than chemistry in their study.

Apr 1, 1911

By J. C. Mertz

ACCURATE knowledge of the solid solubilities of the elements that dissolve in the important base metals is needed for guidance in the preparation and heat-treatment of the alloys derived from these compo-nents. While there is still difference of opinion concerning the merits of the X-ray and microscopic methods of determining such solubilities, it is certainly true that the recent extensive use of X-ray diffraction to review the existing constitutional data has revealed many glaring inaccu-racies and has brought about a much improved knowledge of phase-boundary locations, which will inevitably come to include all of the important alloy systems. When the work is done with all necessary precautions it appears that in the majority of cases where the solubilities extend beyond a few tenths of a per cent the X-ray back-reflection technique is capable of furnishing the best of information in this field. For the most prolonged and thorough studies it is obviously advisable to combine the results of several methods, in particular, to obtain an agreement between X-ray and microscopic data. This paper reviews the work previously done on the solubilities of phosphorus, arsenic, antimony and bismuth in copper and, in considera-tion of the uncertainties thus made apparent, presents, new X-ray data obtained with the first three members of this group.

Jan 1, 1936

By B. R. Queneau

Steel has been chosen as the metal whose solidification will be used to tie in the principles discussed in the previous papers. Although steel is the most important [ ] practical example that could be chosen, its solidification is complicated by the presence of many elements added either intentionally or present as impurities. The liquid steel bath in an open-hearth furnace contains carbon, manganese, phosphorus, sulphur, and many residual alloying elements such as nickel, copper, and molybdenum. The bath also contains oxygen, the concentration of which is a function of the carbon content, as shown in Fig. I. Deoxidizers such as silicon and aluminum may be added either before or after tapping depending on the grade of steel being made. There are four types of steel ingots: Killed, semikilled, capped, and rimmed, and these differ from each other in their state of oxidation. Each type of steel has advantages in the production of specific steel products, and it should be emphasized that no one type should be considered superior to the others. Fully deoxidized steels, known as killed steels, have little or no gas evolution on solidification. When the steel solidifies in the mold, shrinkage occurs which causes a large void known as "pipe." To minimize the amount of metal that has to be discarded on account of pipe, a big-end-up mold is used together with a refractory "hot top" which supplies molten steel to the main body of the ingot while solidification proceeds, Fig. 2. A section through a 32x32 in. ingot is shown in Fig. 3. The "hot top" volume is about 15 pct of the ingot, and the yield from killed steel in billet form is about 8o pct of the ingot weight. High quality machinery and tool steels are rolled from killed-steel ingots, but at the present time this represents less than 20 pct of the total steel production in the United States. In order to reduce cost and to increase

Jan 1, 1951

By Earle Schumacher

THE solidus line above the solid solution field in the lead-antimony system was originally determined by Dean and his associates1 from heating curves. They did not regard this line as having been accurately fixed and in their more recent publications2 the curves drawn do not follow closely the original data. The precise location of the solidus line is of importance in the extrusion of lead-antimony cable sheath, as the temperature of the metal in this process must be less than the lowest temperature at which any part of the alloy in the lead-press charge becomes liquid. It is very desirable, however, to operate at as high a temperature as possible, as the rate of extrusion for a given pressure is approximately doubled for an increase of 10° C. in temperature. The precise location of this line is also important, in the investigation of ternary systems of lead, antimony and a third metal. For these reasons, and because of the differences reported in the literature, data were secured on the lead-antimony solidus line by the classical quenching-test procedure.

Jan 1, 1927

By Schumacher, Earle E.

THE solidus line above the solid solution field in the lead-antimony system was originally determined by Dean and his associates1 from heating curves. They did not regard this line as having been accurately fixed and in their more recent publications2 the curves drawn do not follow closely the original data. The precise location of the solidus line is of importance in the extrusion of lead-antimony cable sheath, as the temperature of the metal in this process must be less than the lowest temperature at which any part of the alloy in the lead-press charge becomes liquid. It is very desirable, however, to operate at as high a temperature as possible, as the rate of extrusion for a given pressure is approximately doubled for an increase of 10" C. in temperature. The precise location of this line is also important in the investigation of ternary systems of lead, antimony and a third metal. For these reasons, and because of the differences reported in the literature, data were secured on the lead-antimony solidus line by the classical quenching-test procedure.

Jan 1, 1927

By Edward Keller

(New York meeting, February, 1912.) IN a paper, entitled A Uniform Method for the Assay of Copper Material for Gold and Silver,1 A. R. Ledoux invited the assayers of this country to contribute to a symposium, in which the results of their assays of given samples of copper-matte and metallic copper would be made comparable. This symposium 2 appeared about one year thereafter; and through it and its discussion, first became generally known the fact that the ,gold-yield by the all-fire method of assaying is usually higher than by the so-called combination (wet and dry) method, in which nitric acid is employed as a solvent for the copper. In the publication alluded to, the supposed cause of gold-losses in the latter method was declared to be the solvent action of copper nitrate, or of the reduction-products of the nitric acid, upon the gold. Up to a very recent date, gold has been held to be insoluble in pure nitric acid. (The solvent action of any chlorine present in the nitric acid must here properly be disregarded as belonging in the realm of carelessness. Among later allusions to this topic, W. R. Tan Liew 3 ascribes the solution of the gold in the combination-assay entirely to the action of nitrous acid at the high reaction-temperature of copper and nitric acid ; F. B. Flinn 4 a believes the low result in gold to be due exclusively to mechanical losses-finely-divided gold penetrating through the filter-paper-but presents no experimental data confirmative of this belief; and 0. Pufahl 5 attributes the solubility of the gold in some coppers to the presence of selenium-a view which appears to be shared by many as- 1 Trans., xxiv., 575 (1894). 2 Trans., xxv., 250 (1895). 3 Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. lxix., No. 16, p. 469 (Apr. 21, 1900). 4 Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. lxxxvii., No.11, p. 569 (Mar. 13, 1909). 5 Lunge, Chemische Technische Untersuchungs Methoden, vol. ii., p. 229 (1900).

Jul 1, 1912

By R. W. Gurry

IN the course of a series of measurements of the rate of diffusion of carbon in austenite at about 960°C. (1760°F.) and 1110°C. (2030°F.), it became necessary to determine carbon concentration when austenite is saturated with graphite, because of indications that the hitherto accepted value of the solubility of graphite in this temperature range is too low. Specimens of carbonyl iron were saturated at temperature in a hydrogen-toluene atmosphere which was in equilibrium with graphite. The carbon content of the steel was measured either by combustion or by the loss of weight after substantially complete decarburization in an atmosphere of hydrogen saturated at room temperature with water vapor. The absence of carbide or graphite as a phase at temperature was demonstrated by microscopic examination of saturated specimens that had been drastically quenched. The mean result of concordant measurements is that gamma iron saturated with respect to graphite contains 1.39 per cent carbon at 957°C. (1755°F.) and 1.89 per cent at 1110°C. (2030°°F.). These two values, plotted along with what appears from the literature to be the best value (0.69 per cent) at the iron-graphite eutectoid temperature (738°C. or 1360°F.), yield a curve that is almost linear, and which, continued upward through a short interval, leads to a limiting solubility of 1.98 per cent at the iron-graphite eutectic temperature1135°C. (2095°F.) instead of the commonly accepted value of about 1.7 per cent. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The samples of carbonyl iron, with the exception of those for microscopic examination, were cylinders 3.8 cm. long, 0.475 cm. in diameter. They were placed in a graphite holder and suspended in a vertical furnace, the temperature of which was controlled precisely by means of the resistance of the platinum winding.1 In the empty furnace the range of temperature over a distance of 4 cm, at the heat center was 9°C. (16°F.) but at a given location the temperature remained within ±0.5°C. (0.9°F.); it was measured by inserting a platinum-rhodium couple calibrated at the melting point of palladium, 1555°C. Since the presence of the sample probably improved the uniformity of temperature, it was decided to consider the average temperature of the sample to be 3°C. lower than the maximum measured in the empty furnace with the same setting of the controller. Data were obtained in the vicinity of two temperatures, 960°C. (1760°F.) and 1110°C. (2030°F.). The samples for microscopic examination, 2.2 cm. long, 0.475 cm. in diameter, were suspended individually on pure iron wire; for these no temperature correction was applied. The carburizing gas passed into the furnace was dry, oxygen-free hydrogen saturated at room temperature with

Jan 1, 1942