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Jan 1, 1888

When the writer first began his search for the early history of coal he was amazed at the paucity of information in literature about it, and while after six years many of the reasons for such a scarcity are understood, there are still many cases, even within the last two centuries, when one who can appreciate the tremendous part coal has played in the development of modern times, finds it hard to realize how little attention was paid to this material in those early clays. Occasionally a traveller or observer is found who foresaw how valuable coal was to be when industries were developed, but these were few and to most of those recording its occurrence it was just another mineral. George Washington was farsighted in his view of the development of this country and the need for means of transportation across the mountain barrier, but it was at least sixteen years after he must first have known of coal before he made any reference to it in his journals. He did, however, knowingly or not, select some valuable coal properties in the lands lie obtained in the West. This was then almost entirely an agricultural country, and what industries there were found a great abundance of wood fuel within easy access, there were no steam plants, and all iron was made with charcoal; in fact, the "captive mines" of the iron industry then were large timber "plantations," and when these were exhausted the furnace usually was abandoned and another one built elsewhere, as transportation of charcoal was quite expensive. Along the seaboard the cities and industries began to import coal from England and Nova Scotia early in the eighteenth century, but until the war of the Revolution began the total quantity of coal used yearly in this continent did not exceed nine thousand tons. In 1800 only two places, Pittsburgh and Richmond, Virginia, were using coal to any extent for domestic purposes and it was much later. than this that the amount of coal used in Philadelphia, New fork, and Boston exceeded that of wood. Practically all of the early travellers and writers mentioning coal are noted in the following pages. Several Englishmen who were evidently familiar with its use and value at home, mention its presence as being of great future promise to the young nation, but to nearly all it was more or less of a curiosity and the smoke caused by its use an abomination, and it

Jan 1, 1942

By John T. Galey

In southwestern Pennsylvania 151 wells1 were completed during 1938, a total of 61 less than the preceding year. Of this number 81 were gas wells and 28 oil wells, which shows a considerable decline from 1937, when 108 gas wells and 64 oil wells were completed. However, 42 dry holes were drilled during 1938, which is two more than the previous year. Shallow Development—Gas No new extensions to old pools, or new wells that would indicate any substantial reserves, mere found during the year. However, a number of commercial wells and many dry holes were drilled to the Big Injun sand in Menallen township, Fayette County. One well had an initial open flow of 6 million cu. ft. In Rich Hill township, Greene County, one well producing, from the Big Injun sand, 2 million cu. ft. was brought in. Several other gas wells were completed in Shaler township, Alleghany County and Center township, Greene County, both of which had initial open flows of 1 million cu. ft. from the 30-ft. sand. Another well, in Aleppo township, Greene County, had an equal volume from the Gordon Stray sand. Oil Development has proceeded at a retarded rate because of the low price of Pennsylvania-grade crude. A total initial of only 205 bbl., an average of 7.3 bbl. per well, was developed. This is 1785 bbl. less than during 1937 and no new repressuring operations have been contemplated to prevent the declining production. The average price received for oil was $1.56 per barrel, with a high of $1.88 and a low of $1.34. This oil costs $1.94 per barrel2 to produce. The average price paid for Bradford

Jan 1, 1939

By John T. Galey

In southwestern Pennsylvania 151 wells1 were completed during 1938, a total of 61 less than the preceding year. Of this number 81 were gas wells and 28 oil wells, which shows a considerable decline from 1937, when 108 gas wells and 64 oil wells were completed. However, 42 dry holes were drilled during 1938, which is two more than the previous year. Shallow Development—Gas No new extensions to old pools, or new wells that would indicate any substantial reserves, mere found during the year. However, a number of commercial wells and many dry holes were drilled to the Big Injun sand in Menallen township, Fayette County. One well had an initial open flow of 6 million cu. ft. In Rich Hill township, Greene County, one well producing, from the Big Injun sand, 2 million cu. ft. was brought in. Several other gas wells were completed in Shaler township, Alleghany County and Center township, Greene County, both of which had initial open flows of 1 million cu. ft. from the 30-ft. sand. Another well, in Aleppo township, Greene County, had an equal volume from the Gordon Stray sand. Oil Development has proceeded at a retarded rate because of the low price of Pennsylvania-grade crude. A total initial of only 205 bbl., an average of 7.3 bbl. per well, was developed. This is 1785 bbl. less than during 1937 and no new repressuring operations have been contemplated to prevent the declining production. The average price received for oil was $1.56 per barrel, with a high of $1.88 and a low of $1.34. This oil costs $1.94 per barrel2 to produce. The average price paid for Bradford

Jan 1, 1939

By Maurice E. Peloubet

This discussion of accounting will describe the statements and the information that the accounting system produces, from the point of view of those who use such systems rather than of those who prepare them and who do the detail and technical accounting work. In any well organized mine, quarry, or other enterprise exploiting a mineral deposit, no matter how small, some clerical and accounting work must be done. Miners and other employes must be paid, supplies must be purchased and issued, and various tax and information returns, which even the smallest enterprise must file, have to be prepared. In this chapter it is assumed that the enterprise has employes of this type and that they understand the fundamentals of record keeping and accounting. It would be impossible here to give sufficiently full explanations to enable a man with no previous clerical and accounting training to set up and operate an accounting and cost system for even the simplest extractive operation. Rather, we shall hope first, to tell the investor and the operator, from the chief engineer or president down to a subforeman, what to expect from the accounting statements and records and how to use this information in his daily work; and second, that it will enable the man with some knowledge of accounting or book- keeping, but with little or no experience in any extractive industry, to set up and operate a satisfactory system for a mine or other extractive enterprise. For readers who wish to go further, the bibliography at the end of this chapter contains many references. T he emphasis has, therefore, been placed on the statements to be produced and the purposes for which they are to be used rather than the underlying books and records. These are, with a few exceptions which will be described later, essentially what might be found in any industrial enterprise and would probably, in the extremely small enterprise, consist of handwritten journals, ledgers, analysis books, payroll books, and stores ledgers. In the larger enterprise, various types of mechanical accounting would be introduced in proportion to the complexity of the operation.

Jan 1, 1964

By AIME AIME

IT IS impossible in this short sketch to give a detailed description of each part of the plant at Bethlehem, therefore, only such facts will be touched on as are necessary to give a general idea of the works. The extent of the plant, and the fact that the units making up the various departments are located in different parts of the works, make it impracticable to mention the departments in any regular order with regard to their location. They are, therefore, mentioned approximately in the order of their relation to each other with reference to their functions in the making of the various products.

Jan 1, 1924

By AIME AIME

T HE appointment of Herbert Hoover to the portfolio of Commerce in the President's Cabinet is to engineers the fulfillment of a long deferred hope to have an engineer in high political office and is a matter of congratulation to us for three reasons; because he is a mining engineer who represents the highest type of idealistic engineering effort; because he is a past president of the Institute; and because he has probably a broader grasp of world problems than any other living engineer. Frank A. Vanderlip in the preface to his book "What Happened to Europe" tells of the many interviews he had with the most prominent men in Europe which were made possible for him by his eminence as a banker and by the courtesy of the American ambassadors. He cites by name such well known figures as Austin Chamberlain, Sir Auckland Geddes, Monsieur Delacroix, Monsieur Briand, Mr. Padkrewski, Mr. Venizelos, Colonel House, General Pershing, Mr. Baruch, and many others and says :

Jan 1, 1921

By AIME AIME

PRESIDENT Edwin Ludlow and Secretary Bradley Stoughton made their first-trip of the year 1921 to visit Local Sections of the Institute, and talk over Institute interests and policies, during the early part of April. The main purpose of the trip, as usual, was to bring back to headquarters suggestions or comments on the Institute's work on the part of, members. The trip was made a brief, one by the necessity of remaining in New Fork until Apr. 1, and of the attendance of President Ludlow at a meeting of American Engineering Council and. the organization of a Philadelphia Section of the Institute in Philadelphia on Apr. 16.

Jan 1, 1921

Jan 1, 1879

By AIME AIME

THE American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers will hold its annual meeting in New York City, Feb. 9-12. The technical sessions, excepting the Sunday afternoon and evening sessions of the Mineral Industry Education Division (see the M.I.E.D. program) will be held in the Engineering Societies Building. The "All-Institute" luncheon on Monday will be at the Commodore Hotel; the Annual Banquet and President's Reception, the Smoker, and the Informal Dance will be at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The dinners of the Petroleum Division and the Institute of Metals Division will be at the Roosevelt Hotel.

Jan 1, 1942

By A. M. Beebee

IN the present century the coal and manufactured gas industries have been eclipsed in public interest by oil, natural gas, and hydro- electric energy, which have had the benefit of rapid development and novelty. I sometimes wish that our social- order were such that hydro power had been developed first, that the use of gas from coal had never been seriously considered, and that our domestic energy requirements were supplied by other fuels. Sup- pose the manufacture of gas from coal should then come on the scene at the present time with the current plight of the railroads, coal regions, and labor generally, presenting the fact that it could increase the amount of coal mined and shipped by the railroads by some 16,000,000 tons, and increase the coal used at existing u plants five times. Imagine the great public interest that would be manifested; it would supply the cooking and water-heating requirements of a community with a superior character of service at a cost to the customer approximately half that which had obtained previously. Would not such a situation be heralded as the salvation of our country and all help be given it?

Jan 1, 1940

By Henry D. Hibbard

THIS article aims to clarify the use of some terms often occurring in writings on iron and -steel, and also to suggest several new short abbreviated names for some of the things related to the subject which now are indicated by phrases. Crude or Crude Iron The name crude or crude iron is recommended for the iron produced from ore by the blast furnace. When necessary it can be specified as pig iron when in the form of pigs (usually cold), or as molten iron, commonly called hot metal to distinguish it from cold iron in pigs. The product of a direct process of making wrought or malleable iron from ore is not included.

Jan 1, 1924

THE Institute met on Wednesday evening, May 22d, in the parlor of the Stanton House, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, President, in the chair. The President delivered an introductory address on the Brown Hematite Deposits of the Great Valley, after which the following papers were read and discussed : Note on the Result of an Experiment with the Wheeler Process of Combining Iron and Steel in the Head of a Rail, by W. E. C. Coxe, of Reading, Pa. On the Jenks Corundum Mine, Macon County, N. C., by Dr. R. W. Raymond, of New York City. On Wednesday afternoon, previous to the opening session, the members who had already arrived in Chattanooga, were taken by the Local Committee to the works of the Roane Iron Company, and Chattanooga Iron Company, and then to the top of Lookout Mountain, where, at the request of the members present, Dr. Hunt described the geological and geographical features of the Chattanooga region, with the magnificent panorama spread out before them as a map. On Thursday morning an excursion was made by steamboat down the Tennessee River as far as Shellmound. Here cars were taken to the coal mines of the Dade Coal Company, where the members were courteously received by Mr. E. B. Wells, the Superintendent. After a trip through the mines the party partook of a collation provided by the company. South Pittsburgh, on the Tennessee River, was next visited, where the Southern States Coal, Iron and Land Company have a large blast-furnace plant in the course of erection. After conducting the party through the works, shops, etc., Mr. James Bowron, the manager, entertained the members with graceful hospitality at dinner. The second session was held on Thursday evening for the transaction of business. The President, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, appointed Messrs. W. E. C. Coxe, R. H. Richards, and F. J. Slade, scrutineers, to examine the ballots for officers for the ensuing year.

Jan 1, 1879

By John Wellington Finch

INVESTIGATIONS by the Bureau of Mines of deposits containing strategic minerals were authorized by what has become known as the Strategic Materials Act (Public No. 117, 76th Congress, Chapter 190. 1st Session). A later act providing an appropriation for the first of four years through which the investigations are to be conducted was signed on Aug. 9, 1939. No time has since been lost as seven field projects already are being vigorously prosecuted, and two others no doubt soon will be in course of execution. Project engineers were at their stations within two days after funds had been made available. Crews have been hired; equipment and supplies have been purchased; 5 bids for diamond drilling have been obtained and the drilling has started base camps have been established: ground has been cleared; and several thousand feet of trenching, test-pitting, and sampling have already been done. At the Reno Experiment Station of the Bureau, a special metallurgical laboratory has been provided to make assays, analyses, and tests upon samples of ores from all projects under investigation.

Jan 1, 1939

By A. C. Stevenson

IN OUTLINING the various steps taken and the exigences met during the time of unwatering and rebuilding the burnt top equipment at the Hecla mine, the major portion of the detail is omitted and a general description of the experience only is given. All the electrical power lines were out of commission, as were the mine feeder cables. The first effort, there- fore, was to restore electrical connections. The Washington Water Power Co. immediately put a crew to work restoring the power line, it being necessary to rebuild about 4000 ft. of 66,000 volt transmission and about 2000 ft. of 2200 volt feeder. This work was rushed and power was again available at the mine sub- station about 26 hours after the fire. During the same time temporary lighting lines were strung and transformer equipment obtained, so that when electrical connection was resumed the lights were turned on and the dump well lighted that night.

Jan 1, 1924

John Birkinbine, Philadelphia, Pa.: We have in the Institute two Dudleys—Dr. Charles B. Dudley, who has so thoroughly studied the chemical composition and physical behavior of rail-steel, and Dr. P. H. Dudley, whose investigations and

Jan 1, 1900

By R. W. Parsons

The over-all apparent single-phase permeability of fracture-rock systems was studied using two different two-dimensional models. In a strict sense the results are applicable only to these models, yet may give some insight into real reseruoir behavior. The regular fracture-matrix model can have any number of regular fracture sets. All fractures within each set have the same orientation, width and spacing. The gross behavior is amlytically equivalent to that of an anisotropic permeable medium. In the heterogeneous fracture systems, individual fracture conductivities vary within a two-dinensioml network pattern. A computer program calculates the overall permeability after the conductivities are randomly placed in the network. The calculated permeability depends upon the distribution of these conductivities and the particular fracture pattern into which they are placed. Although detailed information on actual reseruoir fracture systems is not available, this study shows how some of the possible variables may affect obserued gross reservoir characteristics. INTRODUCTION Characteristics of reservoir rocks are determined by direct (core analysis) or indirect (logging and production tests) examination. Both methods, singly and together, are widely used in reservoir evaluations. For fractured reservoirs a problem exists in relating characteristics of cores to the in situ reservoir properties. Knowing fracture characteristics can be of value in determining production mechanisms. Because of the limitations of observation, the intimate details of a fractured rock system will never be known. One approach in analyzing fractures is to study the behavior of some conceptually simple models. The two models analyzed contain features which may be realistic, yet are mathematically tractable. Flow is considered in two dimensions only, with the plane of interest at right angles with the fractures. This concept represents the horizontal flow in a reservoir system with the fractures oriented vertically. Only single-phase, laminar flow is considered. The regular fracture-rock system permeability is calculable from a simple analytical expression. The heterogeneous system requires a computer program for calculating overall permeability.

Jan 1, 1967

By AIME AIME

THE PAPER, "Surface Effects on Assay Beads Caused by Metals of the. Platinum Group," presented by J. L. Byers, before the Institute of. Metals Division at the February meeting of the Institute, is the subject of interesting discussion, an abstract of which follows. The original paper is available at Institute headquarters as a Preprint. Member-What assurance have you that the percentage of metals, as stated, is really an accumulation?

Jan 1, 1932

By R. W. Heins, N. Street

An investigation was made of the Rehbinder-Kuznetsov pendulum as an instrument to aid in the study of rock drillability and of the effect of surface active agents on rock drillability. The "critical weight", i.e., the pendulum weight at greatest sensitivity, was determined for several solids and it was shown that a change in surface environment changed the maximum value of the apparent hardness but not the critical weight, and the critical weight increased with increase of hardness of the solid used. Using silver halides as the solid material, and solutions of either silver nitrate or the appropriate alkali halide, it was shown that there is a hardness maximum at the zero point of charge of the particular silver halide. INTRODUCTION The development of relative hardness measurement by the method of damped oscillations, or what has been called the pendulum sclerometer, is due largely to the Russian workers P. A. Rehbinder and V. D. Kuznetsov and their co-workers.1,2 The apparent simplicity of the method has led to its use in a number of fields, particularly those where relative hardness has to be determined on a brittle solid. As will be shown, the simplicity of the method belies its complexities. THEORY OF THE PENDULUM SCLEROMETER The operation of the pendulum is quite simple. Make a sharp point such as a diamond, hardened steel or tungsten carbide, as the fulcrum of a pendulum, with the center of gravity of the system below the point of support. The attenuation of this pendulum is a function only of air friction, provided no fragmentation, breakage or other work is performed by the point. However, when the solid surface breaks or disintegrates under the point, and the latter penetrates the solid, part of the energy of oscillation is absorbed in the work of creating new surface, and the rate of attenuation increases. In the case of brittle solids, the point of the pendulum produces fragmentary particles, whereas the point produces plastic deformation in a plastic solid; but in both cases damping occurs. This pendulum damping is a function of the hardness or strength of the solid. Whereas a pendulum oscillating on a hard material attenuates primarily by air friction, in the case of a soft material, the points penetrate the surface of the solid, producing new surface, and the pendulum damps much faster. Thus the attenuation rate is a function of the hardness or strength of a material in both plastic and brittle substances. Russian workers initially used a single support for the pendulum, but this created many problems because of oscillation of the pendulum in more than one plane. A revised version used two points, or sometimes a prism as support, successfully confining oscillation to one plane. The version using two points was constructed and used throughout this investigation, making the recording of the attenuation as a function of time relatively easy. That both points should be in contact with the solid during the damping is implied. Rehbinder (c.f. Kuznetsov2) proposed that the hardness H as measured by this method could be expressed by a quantity which is inversely proportional to the relative initial rate of attenuation of amplitude. where H = hardness parameter (arbitrary units) a, = initial amplitude da/dt = rate of attenuation of amplitude with time. In the simplest case of damping with a constant logarithmic decrement, H can be regarded as a constant for the duration of the whole damped oscillation process. That is

Jan 1, 1966

By Donald F. Hammer, Donald W. Peterson

The Magma mine at Superior, Arizona, has produced over 13 million tons of ore yielding 1.5 billion pounds of copper. It is a mesathermal deposit, and, although the bulk of the ore has come from the Magma vein, most of the recent production has come from replacement deposits in limestone. The mine lies in a Precambrian and Paleozoic sequence of rocks that includes schist, diabase, quartzite, shale, and limestone; nearby, these rocks are intruded by igneous bodies of Mesozoic age that were probably the source of the ore-bearing fluids. Locally, these rocks are overlain by Cenozoic volcanic rocks and conglomerate. Layered rocks at the mine dip eastward about 30°. The area is extensively faulted, and surface faults are grouped into an earlier east-trending set and a later northtrending set. An additional set of diagonal faults that trends northwest and northeast is recognized underground. The east-trending Magma vein-fault, with its splits and branches, is the principal mineralized structure of the district. The bulk of the ore occurs in large ore shoots that plunge steeply westward and are sporadically connected by irregular ore shoots dipping gently eastward. The main ore controls apparently are selective zones of permeability related to the transverse faults. A bed of crystalline limestone near the base of the Martin Limestone (Devonian) is the host for the replacement ore bodies-discontinuous tabular pods dipping eastward parallel to the bedding. Selective permeability is again the apparent ore control, caused both by local hydrothermal solution of limestone and by deformation along faults. The principal copper minerals in the vein are chalcopyrite, bornite, enargite, tennantite, chalcocite, and digenite; these minerals vary in abundance according to a distinct zoning pattern. The upper part of the mine yielded considerable zinc as sphalerite, and the oxidized zone was rich in silver. The chief gangue minerals are pyrite, quartz, and hematite. In the limestone replacement bodies, chalcopyrite and bornite are the chief ore minerals.

Jan 1, 1968