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By D. H. NETLAND

DURING the year 1907 an investigation of the Clinton formation in New York has been carried out under the direction of the State Geologist, and a full account of the results has been prepared for publication.1 The more important economic features of the report are summarized in the present paper. Previous knowledge of this, the type, section of the Clinton has been contributed mostly by Hall and Vanuxem in their reports for the Natural History Survey of New York, which were issued in their final form in 1842-43. Brief accounts of the ore-occurrences have been given by B. T. Putnam,2 J. C. Smock,3 A. H. Chester,4 and E. C. Eckel.5 Prof. C. H. Smyth, Jr.,6has discussed the origin of the Clinton ores in two papers, which, so far as the local occurrences are concerned, have removed all doubt that may have existed on that subject. Distribution of the Clinton Formation. The Clinton strata in New York State are restricted to a single belt, Which extends from the eastern central part to the Niagara river, which it crosses, and thence continues for some distance into the province of Ontario. The New York

Mar 1, 1909

Willet G. Miller, Toronto, Canada (communication to the Secretary): In his interesting paper Mr. Lindgren says: " As to ultimate results, it would seem as if we should be justified in concluding, with Prof. Suess, that the gold-supply of the world will gradually decrease if no further important improvements are made in the processes for the extraction of this metal; but regarding events so far distant no predictions may safely be made." It seems to the writer that no very important improvements require to be made in order at least to keep up the present production for many years to come. In many parts of the world there are large deposits of auriferous material which can be worked if present conditions are slightly changed. In the territory occupied by the Archean protaxis of the Province of

Jan 1, 1903

By K. W. Nelson, John N. Abersold

INDUSTRIAL hygiene has been defined by Patty' as "the science and art of recognizing, evaluating, and controlling potentially harmful factors in the industrial environment." This definition implies thorough study of operations, evaluation of potentially harmful factors through air sampling, micro-analyses and other means and finally, appropriate medical and engineering control wherever indicated. The prevention of industrial health injuries is a vital part of operations of American industry today. Progress and interest in this field has increased steadily for many years, the most rapid progress having been attained, perhaps, during the last three decades. It is significant to note that there are now official agencies in 46 states actively concerned with industrial health problems and that a western field station has been established recently in Salt Lake City by the U. S. Public Health Service to augment its industrial hygiene services directed from headquarters of the National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Md. Many of the larger industries have found it advantageous to establish their own industrial hygiene departments. The American Smelting and Refining Co. is a world-wide organization engaged in the mining, smelting, and refining of lead, copper, zinc, silver, gold, by-product metals, including cadmium, arsenic, and others. In the United States there are 13 smelters and refineries, 11 secondary smelters or foundries, and a number of mines. Approximately 9000 workers are normally employed. It has long been the established company policy to seek out occupational hazards and provide safeguards for employee health. Protective equipment has been supplied to individual workers and exhaust ventilation installations have been in use in some operations for more than 40 years. All of the major units have their own medical departments which provide employees with excellent medical and hospital care. In 1937 full scale industrial hygiene studies were undertaken at the Selby Plant and were extended to most of the other smelters during the next three years. In 1945 the Department of Hygiene was organized with Professor Philip Drinker of Harvard University as Director and with Dr. S. S. Pinto as Medical Director. The department is responsible for coordinating and maintaining a program for the good health of all employees from top management down to the lowest paid day worker. It is essentially a service organization serving all of the United States plants regardless of location or size. Full and part-time physicians employed in all of the company's American plants and working in close cooperation with the Medical Director are responsible for de- termining the state of health of all the employees and giving treatment when necessary. In general, medical care is confined to accidents or illnesses occurring while the men are on the job. Among the duties of the doctors is the making of careful physical examinations of new employees and routine check-ups of old employees. In addition to medical care a primary responsibility of the department is the prevention of occupational illnesses. In this the main concern is with the working environment in relation to its effect on the worker. Environmental factors may be dusts, fumes, gases, toxic materials, heat, humidity, radiation, or noise. The objectives are: (1) Immediate control of these factors through the education of the worker, through providing the wearing of respirators or other protective devices, and through careful medical examinations and regular analysis of urine specimens; (2) a long range control program which may be accomplished by local exhaust ventilation, wetting of materials, changes in metallurgy, changes in methods of handling, or by use of special devices and special equipment. To accomplish these objectives a fine industrial hygiene laboratory was built in Salt Lake City and equipped to do routine and experimental work. Trained and experienced industrial hygienists obtain the facts by making frequent hygiene surveys. These surveys include tests of the air, studies of all processes, and careful investigation of ventilation, lighting, and general working conditions. Except in emergencies, the air contaminants and often the substances handled by the worker are sent to the laboratory for analysis by chemists and technicians specially trained in industrial hygiene methods. The findings are evaluated in terms of limits recommended by various State and Federal agencies, and in light of all available medical data. The methods used for studying the working environment involve all of the usual chemical and physical procedures employed in industrial hygiene. The Impinger, electric precipitator, thermal pre-cipitator, and filter paper sampler have been used to collect atmospheric dust and fume samples. Of special interest here is the filter paper sampler, shown in Fig. 1, which was developed by Dr. Silver-man at Harvard University. The instrument has been improved and is used very extensively in field studies. A water manometer connected behind an orifice is used to determine the rate of air flow. Calibration is effected by use of a standard gas meter or rotameter. The dust or fume is collected on a filter paper clamped between two rings, as shown in Fig. 2. The filter paper, such as Whatman No. 52, collects both dust and fume with a very high efficiency. The instrument is very convenient and easily transported. The solids collected on the filter paper are analyzed in the laboratory usually by use of a polar-ographic procedure. By this procedure it is possible to measure quantitatively in a single analysis the

Jan 1, 1952

By Pat McCarran

WHEN this Government was founded, the framers of the Constitution wrote into that instrument a provision that Congress should "coin money and fix the value thereof;" and the Constitution prohibits making anything but "gold and silver" lawful money. So silver is written into our basic law. Shortly after President Washington took office in 1789 the Congress passed the first Mint Act, setting up the U. S. Mint. In that Act, signed by President Washington on April 2, 1792, the weight of the American dollar was fixed, and it was provided how much silver should be contained in a silver dollar and how much gold should be contained in a gold dollar. It was decided that 371 1/4 grains of pure silver was to be the standard dollar of America. That standard with respect to the pure silver content of the dollar has never changed.

Jan 1, 1947

John Birkinbine, Philadelphia, Pa.: Mr. Sperry's paper is certainly a valuable addition to the literature upon alloys with iron, supplementing the data already published concerning the influence of manganese, chromium, tungsten, titanium, aluminium, etc.; and it is to be hoped that the presentation of information upon the influences of nickel may bring out comparisons with other alloys. Taking into consideration the properties of nickel, and its use as an alloy in heavy forgings, as set forth in the paper, there would appear to be no serious difficulties in utilizing this alloy by extending its application to pieces of more moderate size. The melting-temperature of nickel, as stated by Mr. Sperry, is considerably lower than those given by various authorities. Its point of fusion being so near that of iron, and its density but little greater, the difficulty of alloying it in the foundry should not be serious, particularly if it is applied as a ferro-nickel. The addition of nickel monoxide (NiO) to molten steel would appear to be less desirable than the application of metallic, nickel or of ferro-nickel, if such is produced on a commercial scale and at a satisfactory price.

Jan 1, 1896

By AIME AIME

WIDESPREAD interest in the better utilization of coal is indicated by the attendance of over seventeen hundred men interested in the pro- cessing and utilization of coal and its by-products, at Pittsburgh, Nov. 15 to 18. The conference was truly international in scope and of a scientific character, and must be considered a real success. There were dele- gates--official and unofficial-from America, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, and Sweden. Several Federal and 28 State departments had representatives, also many colleges and universities, and many leading industrial and mining corporations throughout the country. A feature of the sessions was that papers were mostly read in full and attentively listened to, although in some cases they were of a technical nature. The proceedings were opened by the president of Carnegie Institute of Technology, Thomas C. Baker, who spoke of the importance of the conference and felt that without foreign cooperation it could not have been held. There was no need to apologize for the movement of Carnegie Institute of Technology in the matter. Coal is commanding attention in every part of the world; so is power; and coal will remain the chief source of power for generations to come. The coal chemist is working with the engineer, and nobody can forecast what developments there will be in fuel technology. This conference may be the turning point of fuel technology in America. The development and application of these new processes may be of great benefit to Pittsburgh.

Jan 1, 1926

By E. R. Kaiser

ACTIVITY on long-range and on immediate wartime problems shared the attention of specialists in coal research during 1943. Programs of the principal coal laboratories were more adequately financed than in previous years, but all reported shortages of technical personnel. Expansion in coal research in the year to come will depend primarily on the availability of qualified research talent.

Jan 1, 1944

By C. R. Van Hise

[Concluding Contribution of Prof. Van Hise to the Discussion of his Paper, and Others on the Same General Subject, presented at the Washington Meeting, February, 1900 (see Ram., xxx., 27, 177, 323, 424, 578) ; also of the contributions of Vogt, De Launay, Beck, Lindgren, Kemp, Rickard, Bain, Keyes, Collins and Adams, presented at the Richmond Meeting, February, 1901, and to be printed in the present volume.] In June, 1900, shortly after my paper was published in the Fransactions, I made a briefer statement* before the Western Society of Engineers covering the same ground, which, in certain respects, is somewhat of an improvement. For instance, instead of using the terms descending and ascending &th reference to the waters resulting in the two concentrations, my modified statement is as follows: " The first concentration of many ore-deposits is the work of a relatively deep water-circulation, while the reconcentration is the result of reactions upon an earlier concentration through the agency of a relatively shallow water-circulation. Commonly the deep water-circulation is lacking in free oxygen, and contains reducing agents, and the shallow water contains free oxygen. The deep water is therefore a reducing, and the shallow water an oxidizing agent."† Of the papers upon ore-deposits which, in vol. xxx. of the Fransactions, follow my own, or which were presented at the Richmond meeting, a considerable number are wholly con-

Jan 1, 1902

By J. Ralph Finlay

In latitude 4" S., about fifty miles from the Pacific, and in the amphitheater on the west flank of the Andes, which is drained by the river Tumbez, is the ancient town and mining district of Zaruma. The town is picturesque in the extreme, perched on a ridge 1800 feet high, between two lovely mountain rivers, looking out upon neighboring hills and valleys clothed in rich green, relieved by many hamlets roofed in red tiles, and, at greater distances on all sides, upon mountain slopes of gloomy forest crowned by the bare summits of the Andes. General Description. The gold-mines, discovered in 1549, mere worked extensively by the Spaniards in the 16th and 17th centuries, until their success was curtailed by the exhaustion of the oxidized surfaceores, and the uncovering of the refractory and hard ores underneath. The industry slowly declined until it was nearly or quite at a standstill in 1878, when an unfortunate English company, organized by Chilian promoters, acquired some of the best properties and began to work them. This company, after an extravagant début, relapsed into a struggle against poverty and mismanagement, and finally collapsed in 1894. In 1896 the English mines and many others, covering most of the district, were acquired by the South American co., formerly the South American Development Co., of New York. (See Figs. 1 and 2.) The vein-formation of Zaruma is extensive and complex, and the ores are somewhat refractory. In the immediate neighborhood of the gold-bearing veins the formation seems to be altogether volcanic, consisting of rather fine-grained holocrystalline diorite; but a few miles away, on either side, some gueisses and crystalline schists are to be found. About four miles south of the mines, and beyond some intervening granites, appear

Jan 1, 1901

Fifty to 75 million years ago, hydrocarbon-bearing rocks were formed in the Green River formation of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The hydro- carbons can be extracted from these rocks, marl- stone but misnamed oil shale, after crushing and intense heating. At about 900°F the marlstone decomposes to produce liquid shale oil. A press release from the Colony Development Co. describes a process which may permit, for the first time, economically feasible access to shale oil. Shale oil has resisted economic extraction for almost three centuries. According to the USBM, a patent was issued as early as 1684 in England to produce "oyle from a kind of stone". France produced oil from marlstone in 1838 and a dozen years later, Scotland started an oil shale industry, producing kerosine, that lasted nearly 100 years. In both countries, the process involved crushing the stone and retorting it to decompose the kerogen-a long and costly process at that time. In 1859, Edwin L. Drake brought in the first oil well in Titusville, Pa., and shale oil faded into oblivion.

Jan 8, 1965

By C. M. Smith

PILOTED by Cadwallader, Evans, Jr., as chairman, the Coal Division got under way Monday morning for the first of three consecutive sessions. N. F. Patton started the ball rolling with a paper on the economics of anthracite distribution, which was ably discussed by H. J. Rose, W. S. Blauvelt, and others. Mr. Patton pointed out many incongruities in freight rates, dealers' margins, and other factors which are disturbing the distribution of anthracite, one result being that trucks are hauling at least six million tons of anthracite annually, half of which is stolen. In the discussion of the papers the desirability of greater uniformity in the production and shipment of coal from month to month was urged; with larger summer price concessions as a means toward this end. "Performance Expectancy of Domestic Underfeed Stokers for Anthracite," by Allen J. Johnson, brought this important platter down to date by showing the range in capacities and efficiencies to be expected from well-made stokers, and by detailing other of their operating characteristics. One of his most interesting points is that the efficiency of domestic stokers is practically equal to that of handfiring for good installations and operations of both

Jan 1, 1935

By AIME AIME

AMONG the European nations Germany is the center of interest economically as well as politically, and of prime importance for Europe as a whole is Germany's capacity to produce mineral products for armament and for export in exchange for the import of the essential supplies to maintain its industries. So far as minerals are concerned, Germany is worse off than any other great power except Italy, and deficiencies are being met by attempts to increase output from local deposits and by greater use of substitutes derived from domestic raw materials to replace imported metals, petroleum products, and other minerals.

Jan 1, 1939

By J. W. JESSUH

TO certain people the name of Northern Rhodesia brings only a vague recollection of a distant country somewhere in Africa; to others, it means a big game territory and the opportunity for excellent shooting; to some, a land of sunshine and peace; but to mining men the name signifies the land where the latest discoveries of copper ore are astonishing the mining world and bid fair, in a few years, to make Northern Rhodesia one of the largest copper- producing countries. There is a fascination about this part of the globe that is somewhat similar to southern California, and at the same time there is that feeling of mystery peculiar to a tropical climate. Perhaps it is the isolation, the fear of wild animals, or the influence of an undefinable something which cannot be expressed.

Jan 1, 1931

By H. W. Camp

RESEARCH is defined, scientifically, as a "sys- tematic investigation of some phenomenon, and also a search for hidden treasures." Chemists tell us that the hidden treasures of petroleum are far richer than the .products which have been best known to us. However, these secrets will be discovered only through intensive and systematic, as well as scientific, industrial research. Indeed, the scope of the subject is so great that such an intensive research program should be assumed by a centralized organization supported by the petroleum industry as a whole. Such organization would assume the responsibilities for investigation of new products and development of markets for such products. Gasoline, the chief product of the petroleum industry, has become a cheap commodity. The continual un-controlled overproduction of crude petroleum, the in-tensive competitive condition in the marketing of petro-leum products and the increase of refining efficiency and installing of cracking facilities, have all combined to lower the market value of gasoline. The lower cost of gasoline has all been passed on to the purchaser in the form of lower prices so that today the most important product can scarcely be manufactured at a profit. In other fields, manufacturing industries have diversified their products when faced by a similar situation. Thus, they have been able to widen their marketing outlook. Why cannot the petroleum industry employ the same tactics ? Right now we are hearing much discussion concerning the development of a wider market for existing petro-leum products and new products for existing or prospec-tive markets. For instance, we can cite recent develop-ments for use of propane, butane, and ethylene. Butane has been found to be an efficient and inexpensive re-frigerant, especially adapted to home refrigerating sys-tems. Propane and butane fractions of natural gasoline may be shipped under pressure and may be used as a substitute for acetylene in cutting torches in connection with oxygen. There is a possibility of substituting butane for gas oil in the carbureting of coal gas, as we know that butane contains practically the gas enrich-ment as the same volume of gas oil and should prove to be a superior product for this function. Ethylene, a hydrocarbon present in cracked gases, is finding an outlet for the artificial ripening of green fruits. The following table . shows the more general use of petro-leum products as now established.

Jan 4, 1928

By John F. Wiggert

DURING the early years of Homestake operations, shaft signaling from the cage tenders to the hoisting engineers was done by mechanical means. Small steel cables or jointed steel rods were suspended in the shaft compartments and counterbalanced with weights or springs. These cables or rod strings were connected to the mechanically operated gongs at the engineers' stations by means of bell cranks and steel wires. The system was simple and economical and served the purpose well until the mine reached a depth of 1000 ft., then the system became slow and cumbersome and required a considerable amount of muscular effort to operate it with much speed, because of the inertia of the heavy moving parts. The mechanical signaling was superseded by a simple electrical system consisting of a single pair of wires in steel conduit for each shaft compartment. In the shaft at each station a pull switch was connected to the wires. The switches were operated by means of bell cords, which extended from station to station. This electrical system was a great improvement over the mechanical one, but it had one serious drawback, which also applied to the older system; namely, the engineer did not know where a signal originated. Later on this signaling was improved to overcome this drawback, and to give the engineer a positive indication of a signal's origin. In this system a separate return wire from each pull switch is carried to an annunciator at the engineer's station, where it indicates the signal's origin. While the annunciator system used by Homestake is very safe and reliable, it has the inherent drawback of all wire-connected systems in that it is impossible to send a signal from a moving cage. A number of years ago Homestake became interested in the possibility of using some sort of radio transmission for shaft signaling. The company did much experimental work with purely radio signal transmission, but no practical way was discovered to use radio transmission in a mine shaft for signaling to or from a cage. Therefore, all efforts were directed to devising a practical way of using the hoisting rope as part of the circuit. It was realized that the return circuit from the rope would need to be through electrostatic coupling between the cage and the earth or ground sides of the shaft, because the guides would not always be wet enough to make possible good electrical contact between the cage and earth, therefore relatively high-frequency alternating current was chosen as the medium of transmission. Soon a practical system was developed for transmitting an electric current from a moving cage over an electric circuit of which the hoisting rope was a part. A high-frequency electric current is used as a carrier to transmit the signals or mes-

Jan 1, 1941

By William B. Plank

FOR the third consecutive year, I have collected the data on enrolment and employment of graduates from the schools in. the United States and Canada that grant degrees in mineral technology. The data were collected in the same way as formerly; namely, by questionnaire, dated Jan. 5, 1935, and are therefore comparable with the figures reported for former years. This year, along with the names of the 48 schools in the United States and the six in Canada, are listed the courses offered and the degrees granted by each, school, together with the names of the professors in charge. The names and addresses of the four schools in Mexico are also given. The list is on pages 450-1, which should he valued as a directory by those interested in mineral technology education. So far as is known, this is the most complete and up-to-date list that has ever been published.

Jan 1, 1935

By AIME AIME

THE Annual Meeting-numerically the 162d meeting-of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers will be held at the Pennsylvania Hotel, 7th Ave. and 33d St., New York, Feb. 18-22, with the exception of the following events: the Mineral Industry Education Division will meet Sunday afternoon and evening at the Columbia University Men's Faculty Club, 400 West 117th St.; and a meeting of the Section Delegates, the annual business meeting of the Institute, and an executive session of the Board of Directors will be held in that order Tuesday afternoon in the Engineering Societies Building, 29 West 39th St., where the Directors will meet in the evening following their annual dinner to the Section Delegates. The Pennsylvania--one of the Statler group of hotels-was selected as headquarters because it has the physical equipment and facilities-for registration, technical sessions of all sizes, luncheons, social events, etc.-as well as the prominence and location desirable for an Institute annual meeting. (A tip for Tuesday afternoon and evening: You can walk underground from the Pennsylvania to within half a block of the Engineering Societies Building,)

Jan 1, 1945

By William H. Waggaman

CURTAILMENT of the mineral industry as a whole undoubtedly will follow world peace, but the output of certain minerals should pursue a course well above the average on any curve of probable output projected beyond the trends exhibited through 1939. Without speculating on industrial conditions in the pending recomversion period, demand for fluorspar should be greater than before the war because of these factors, introduced by or resulting directly from military necessity: (1) Discovery and development of new deposits. (2) Improved technology in benefication. (3) New and expanded uses for fluorspar and its derivatives. The steel industry has been and continues to be the greatest consumer of fluorspar, and it wag largely to meet the wartime needs for steel that the domestic fluorspar industry has been expanded so greatly. Not only were the search for and development of new deposits of this mineral considered esstinal but the marginal nature of some of the,c- domestic deposits made it necessary to improve mineral dressinc and processing techniques to utilize them

Jan 1, 1945

By B. Paul, C. C. Fu

Experiments indicate that the fatigue limit of various drill steels becomes vanishingly small in the presence of water and other corrosive liquids. Therefore one must generally expect fatigue failures of drill steels in a great many field operations. However, it is theoretically possible to so choose the hammer impact speed of a percussion drill in order to maximize the total length of hole drilled before failure occurs. In this paper the existence of an optimum speed is demonstrated and it is shown to be comparable to presently used piston speeds. The influence on drilling speed and hole length of a number of other pertinent design features, such as bit geometry, hammer geometry and steel properties is also established. Although machinery should be designed to obtain optimum performance, it is not always clear just what performance characteristic is to be optimized. For example in a rock drill it would be desirable to optimize all of the following characteristics: drilling speed, bit life, steel life, total length of hole drilled before failure, and efficiency of energy conversion. The word failure could signify excessive bit wear, bit fracture, steel fracture, or some other type of component failure. It is not possible in general to optimize all performance criteria simultaneously. For example, one could achieve fantastically large drilling rates at the expense of bit or steel life, energy requirements and physical size of system. It therefore becomes necessary to compromise requirements in order to achieve a well-balanced albeit non-optimum design. It is, however, extremely useful to explore the interrelationships between the different performance characteristics. Such a procedure would help to establish theoretical limits of performance within the framework of existing knowledge and also serve as a practical design procedure for special applications where a particular performance characteristic is of greatest concern to the user (e.g., steel breakage might be especially undesirable in certain locations). It is the purpose of this paper to examine the problem of how one may drill the deepest possible hole before breakage of the drill steel occurs. Of course the problem is almost trivial if a well defined fatigue limit (endurance limit) exists for the drill steel. In such cases one merely keeps the piston impact speed sufficiently low to insure that the stresses in the steel never exceed the fatigue limit, thereby achieving an infinite life. If, however, no definite fatigue limit exists, as seems to be the case in the presence of even mildly corrosive agents such as water (see later discussion), then a finite life is inescapable and one can at best hope to maximize the useful life of the system. Indeed it will be shown that the system life is related to drilling speed in the manner shown schematically in Fig. 1-a. Even if a definite fatigue

Jan 1, 1965

By John V. Beall

When a mine has ore averaging 5% lead, 7% zinc, 0.60% copper, 1/4 oz gold, and 6 oz of silver, adequate reserves, power and water, easy access to market, and is situated in beautiful natural surroundings with the advantages of a big city within a few hours drive, there is little left to be desired. Such a mine is the Mayflower mine of the New Park Mining Co. situated 30 miles from Salt Lake City in the Wasatch Mountains near Keetley, Utah.

Jan 1, 1949