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By P. D. I. Honeyman, P. A. Faust

At the Miami plant of the International Smelting Co., Inspiration, Ariz., there are four reverberatory furnaces, all 120 ft. long. At present only one of these furnaces is in operation. It is operated as a wet-charge furnace, the charge being distributed for about 65 ft. down the furnace length. Usually this charge contains about 12 per cent moisture and runs 25 per cent sulfur, of which there is eliminated in the furnace from 25 to 30 per cent. The furnace is oil-fired, the fuel being burned in a battery of Cananea-type, low-pressure burners. The flame is kept short and conditions so adjusted as to obtain complete combustion within the furnace. The average furnace draft, taken through the verb arch, amounts to only 0.02 in. of H2O. Draft is purposely kept low to cut down infiltration through the flues and boiler settings, and control dampers are regulated to maintain this uniform condition throughout the charging as well as the smelting period. Hot gases discharge from the furnace uptake through a common header flue to the waste-heat boilers. The general layout and dimensions of the plant are shown in Fig. 1. Four Stirling boilers, two of class M-26 (713 hp.) and two class M-31 (850 hp.), serve the furnace. Three usually are sufficient to take care of normal operation, the fourth boiler being used as a spare when necessary. The distribution of hot gases to the various boilers is regulated by the dampers in the boiler exit flues. Normally the boilers closest to the furnace uptake would evaporate more water than do those farther away, but dampers are regulated so as to distribute fairly well the load between the several boilers. Steam from the waste-heat plant is delivered to the adjoining power house of the Inspiration company, where it is used both in the Nordberg blowing engines and for electrical generation. Steam pressures and temperatures recorded are those in the main power-plant header and are thus inclusive of all losses in about 500 ft. of 10-in. line. Steam for smelter heating and auxiliary use is taken from the main waste-heat header, is reduced to 125 lb. and distributed through separate lines. Boiler feed water is supplied by the power plant and consists of returned condensate, augmented to a large extent by make-up water

Jan 1, 1934

By AIME AIME

No democracy such as ours, can ever be prepared for war, because we could never conceivably be the aggressor. The aggressor prepares in secret, designs his new tactics, and invents and makes new equipment and selects the time to strike. If a democracy prepare done year and the war came later, all that it had one would have to bed one over. All that England has today in the way of effective armament has been invented, designed, made, and the crews trained since the war began, because the totalitarian aggressor introduced new types of equipment and new techniques.

Jan 1, 1941

By L. D. Jaffe, D. C. Buffum

EARLIER the authors and coworkers had pre sented data on isothermal temper embrittlement of an SAE 3140 steel?' In that work, however, attention was concentrated on embrittlement at 575°C and below. Preliminary measurements showed that embrittlement at 675 °C was much mote rapid than would be expected from the data at the lower temperatures: and indicated the need for further work above 575°C. The possibility of an upper nose in the time-temperature embrittlement diagram above 575°C was pointed out. Procedure The same heat of SAE 3140 steel was used as in the previous work, and experimental methods were the same. All blanks were austenitized 1 hr at 900°C and water, quenched. Groups were then tempered 1 hr at 675"C, water quenched, and given embrittling treatments for times of 5 min to 240 hr at 675" to 600 °C, as shown in Table I. Other groups, after the temper and quench, were embrittled 48 to 1440 hr at 550°C. Another series was tempered 240 hr at 675"C, quenched, and held for various times at 650" to 375°C (Table 11). For comparison, a series was tempered for these same times at 700°, 675", and 650°C (Table 111). The Ae, temperature for this heat of steel had been determined as approximately 690°C;1*a the treatments at 700°C were introduced to determine the effects of tempering in a range where a little austenite would fonn. A large number of other treatments, involving holding at two temperatures in succession after the temper, and occasionally slow cooling or heating, were also studied. These treatments are listed in the tables. Austenitizing was done in air; all subsequent treatments were in salt. Blanks were always water quenched after the last treatment. The heat-treated blanks were machined to standard V-notch Charpy specimens. A transition curve for each group was obtained by breaking the specimens at various temperatures on a 217 ft-lb impact machine having a striking velocity of 16.8 fps, and plotting the observed percentage of fibrous fracture vs the test temperature. From this plot, the transition temperature was taken as the lowest temperature at which the fracture appeared 100 pct fibrous; its accuracy is estimated as +5"C. Generally, hardness was measured on every bar. Since a decrease in hardness itself seems to decrease the transition temperature somewhat, a correctiona of —0.28"C per Bhn was applied to permit comparison of the transition temperatures on a uniform basis of 24 Rc. The transition temperature and hardness results are given in Tables I through VI. Where overlap of earlier work1.' occurred, data were combined.

Jan 1, 1958

By Zay Jeffries

HOSTILITIES in Europe, Asia, and northern Africa were responsible for dislocations in rare-metal supplies during 1940. Although the consumption of some of the rare metals is small the dislocations may be relatively large. In some cases these are advantageous to North America and in others they are disadvantageous. Specific instances will be cited later. Barium T HIN films of barium metal on special steel balls greatly improve the life and reduce the friction of rotating anodes in highly evacuated small X-ray tubes and make possible the operation of these anodes at relatively high temperatures. These remarkable results are described in an article by Atlee, Wilson, and Filmer in the Journal of Applied Physics for September, 1940. Oil could not be used because of the high temperatures on the one hand and its volatility on the other. Fig. 3 shows diagramatically the rotating anode and the method of coating the steel balls with barium. The letters K.I.C. refer to "Kemet Iron Clad." The K.I.C. wire was mounted so that the barium could be evaporated by direct passage of the electric current. At high temperatures the barium dif-

Jan 1, 1941

By PHILIP N. MOORE

THE development of the power of the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals has become a matter of political interest as well as engineering possibility. The controversy over it has been so active that the facts have been obscured, the possibilities exaggerated. Although the members of the American Institute of Mining & Metallurgical Engineers are not generally specialists in hydroelectric development, those who visited Muscle Shoals in October, following the Birmingham meeting of the Institute, were interested, and many of them surprised to learn the actual conditions. These have long been familiar to those who have studied the matter through the reports of the U. S. Engineers on the subject. The approved plan contemplates three dams-No. 1, a low dam close to the City of Florence, planned in the interests of navigation, since the construction of the other dams has rendered impossible the use of the river without it. No. 2-named the Wilson Dam is now under construction. Concerning it political argumentation has waged. No. 3 Dam-much smaller, is planned to be erected several miles above No. 2.

Jan 1, 1925

By H. J. Wasson

With the close of 1932 and the third year of the depression, the activity of oil production presents, amidst the general wreckage and chaos of industrial society, a somewhat unique picture of rationalized economic effort. How long it will continue to present such a picture, however, is a subject for conflicting surmises. East Texas still dominates the contemporary horizon, but it has become, at least for the time being, a definitely known factor. With its 9500 wells it is approximately 90 per cent drilled up. So long as production control obtains, it is merely one important factor of the national oil reserve. Domestic Production The notable new discoveries in the United States were less numerous than for several years. Elsewhere in the world the record is much the same. The Conroe field in Montgomery County, Texas, lying in an intermediate zone that might be classified either as Gulf Coast or East Texas, represents perhaps the single example of a truly major discovery during the year. Elsewhere in Texas the new pool discoveries, about a dozen or so in number, were nearly all in the region known as Southwest Texas. Oklahoma contributed seven or eight new pools of the routine "run-of-mine" caliber, and the opening up of a few deeper oil pays also were of some significance. Continued expansion of the proved and semiproved reserves in Kansas added an important increment to the oil resources of that state. In California not a single new field was added to the roster, though deeper pay zones equivalent to or of greater importance than many new fields in other parts of the country were discovered or indicated. The new deep zone in the Belridge field is considered by some to underlie the prolific Temblor and may thus forecast the widespread distribution of a potentinl oil horizon underlying many San Joaquin Valley fields below the depths thus far exploited. Aside from the routine operations in connection with settled production, the Eastern fields were decidedly inactive. Further new develop-

Jan 1, 1933

By CHARLES SIMENSTAD

COAL preparation, or coal washing, is not a new subject to the Pacific Northwest. Most of the coals mined in this state smaller than lump, and nearly all such sizes mined on the Pacific slope of the Cascade mountains, require washing before marketing. A large proportion is being put through some washing process, but coal washing in this state, has not reached the efficiency it is practicable to obtain. In fields where the coal, as mined, contains less impurities, where working conditions make it practicable to eliminate some of these impurities under- ground, or where a large proportion of the run-of-mine coal is lump, coal preparation does not present the problem it does in our local field. Here the coal is associated with considerable impurities and the slack, or steam sizes, aggregate about 80 per cent. of the output. Therefore, approximately 80 per cent. of the coal mined must be washed to become a valuable fuel. Washing then becomes a major operation, as hand picking of the 20 per cent. of lump is a standard and comparatively simple operation. Some coal beds here are so interstratified with bone, of a more or less massive nature, that hand picking of lump is not economically efficient. In such cases the coal must be crushed fine enough for it to be freed from the bone, so that the two may be separated. Coal cleaning in this field, therefore, must receive skilled attention to purify this fuel and raise its stand- ard. Without greater efficiency in cleaning, the importation of coal from outside the state will be even greater than in the past.

Jan 1, 1926

By Kenneth E. Gray

The turbulent flow drag coefficients, or friction factors, have been experimentally determined for the cut-tings normally encountered in drilling operations. The gas law and average drag coefficients for characteristically flat particles (limestones and Shales) and for angular to sub-rounded particles (sandstones) were used to extend Newton's equation to a more useful form. The resulting equations are expressions for the slip velocity of a particle as a function of the particle size and shape, the bottom-hole injection Pressure, and the Bottom-hole temperature. The velocities necessary to lift actual rock cuttings as observed in the laboratory were compared with velocities predicted from the derived equations. Results indicate that there is no single correct circulating velocity and that the commonly used 3,000 ft/min linear velocity may he sufficient to lift only very mall particles. The advantage, in terms of horsepower requirements, of cycling high pressure air to obtain lower compression ratios was shown. INTRODUCTION A promising departure from standard rotary hydraulic drilling is air or gas drilling. In many instances the rate of penetration and bit life increases resulting from this method have been very substantial. Further the application of air drilling in areas of lost circulation or water sensitive pay zones has been highly successful. Purpose For the drilling contractor, the practical question remains, "How much air pressure and volume should I have?' lt is necessary to have a reasonable knowledge of the air velocities and pressures required in air drilling operations for the proper design and most advantageous use of surface equipment and for adequate removal of cuttings from the borehole. Eased on experience, most operators agree that at least 3,000 ft/min linear velocity is necessary for satisfactory hole cleaning.' It was the purpose of this investigation to evaluate the drag coefficients, or friction factors, for the cuttings normally encountered in drilling operations, i.e., sandstones, limestones and shales, and to utilize the values obtained to develop an expression for the minimum velocities and pressures (hence the volumes) necessary to lift these cuttings. THEORY Several investigators have done extensive work on the ability of drilling mud to lift bit cuttings. They conclude that the ability of a drilling mud to lift cuttings is dependent on the density difference between the rock being drilled and the drilling mud, the cutting size and shape, the mud flow constants, and the flow state (laminar, transitional or turbulent) of the mud. However, drilling muds are not true fluids but have a variation of viscosity with velocity in laminar flow and a constant apparent viscosity in turbulent flow. A survey of the literature revealed that no experimental work had been done to determine the velocities necessary to lift actual rock cuttings using a compressible fluid such as air or gas. In 1953, Nicolson6 stated that in air drilling fluid mechanics the particles could be assumed spherical in shape and that ; constant drag coefficient of 0.5 could be used due to the highly turbulent flow of the circulating air. By equating the turbulent resistance on the particle to the gravitational force on the particle, he obtained the expression, ^ = 2.67^y ,.......(1) where V, is slip velocity of spherical particle, ft/sec; D is particle diameter, in.; p, is particle density, 1b/ft8; and p, is fluid density, lb/ft3. However, as stated earlier, most operators seem to agree that adequate hole cleaning can be obtained by circulating a sufficient volume of air to give a linear velocity of 3,000 ft/rnin in the annular space. Basic Equation The velocity with which a solid particle freely falls through a fluid will increase until the accelerating force, gravity, is equal to the resisting forces, buoyancy due to the fluid displaced by the particle and friction due to the relative motion of the particle through the fluid. When the accelerating and resisting forces become equal,

By O. J. Malacarne, D. G. Millenbruch

The use of a series of thickeners for washing of the slime fraction of a leached ore is not uncommon in the uranium industry; however, few ore processing mills have used a thickener circuit for washing leached total ore. The common practice is to wash the sand fraction in classifiers and the slime fraction only in thickeners. At the Uravan mill of Union Carbide Nuclear Co., a total ore acid leach is employed to extract uranium values from sandstone ores. These leached ores are then washed at a nominal rate of from 1000 to 1300 tpd in a series of washing thickeners. A typical screen analysis of the ore being washed in these thickeners is: 25 pct, -200 mesh; 3 pct, +35 mesh; and about 1 pct, +14 mesh. The amount of slimes (-200 mesh) will vary from 20 to 30 pct as the mill receives ore from 150 different mines. The washing liquor is acidic, from a pH of about 2 in the first thickener to 0.6 pH in the last thickener and, of course, all acid duty equipment must be used. The Uravan mill of Union Carbide Nuclear Co. is located in Montrose County, Colo. and is physically located on a canyon wall along the San Miguel River. The thickeners referred to in this paper are located on top of the mesa above the canyon. For purposes of identification, these thickeners are numbered 1 through 8 from south to north. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF CIRCUIT The circuit utilized consists of eight wooden fir tanks, 60-ft diam by 12-ft deep, set in a line and staggered in elevation by approximately 3 ft. The washing water flows through the thickeners by gravity, while the ore pulp is pumped uphill from thickener to thickener. Adequate piping and pumping capacity are available so that any of the thickeners can be bypassed in the circuit. All the controls for the

Jan 1, 1962

PRECEDING chapters on thermochemistry, and the reactions in and between metal and slag phases in the bath of the furnace tend to emphasize the equilibrium or "static" conditions in the furnace and process, such as the total amounts of heat from fuel combustion or from certain bath reactions, the concentration relationships between slag and metal at the steady state for certain reactions, and the like. Such data are obtained essentially by means of the logic of thermo- dynamics, which helps to determine the energy change between initial and final states in a process as well as to define its equilibrium or steady-state condition, but which is not concerned with the rate of change in the process or with the mechanisms or path followed between initial and final states. These questions of just "how it works" and "how fast" belong to the kinetic aspect of any process; their answers are helpful in speeding up or slowing down and thus controlling intelligently its operation, and also to understand certain natural limitations which are especially important in many high-temperature processes. The kinetic aspects of interest here comprise mainly (1) the flow of gases through the furnace system, (2) the flow of heat in the system, and (3) the mechanisms and rate factors in the various chemical reactions. A really adequate discussion of the first two subjects would require at least three or four times the space available here; it has been tried, therefore, in this and the next chapter to outline but a few fundamentals necessary to an intelligent approach and to indicate some of the conditions of heat and gas flow more or less peculiar to the open hearth, since several good general discussions on these subjects may be found in the literature.(1) For the designer of open-hearth furnaces, the principles of gas flow are of paramount importance.(2,3,4,5) They are also important to the operation of the process, however, at least to the extent of a general qualitative picture of the movement of gases in the system, which is all that is attempted here.

Jan 1, 1944

By G. E. Anderson

THE Asientos-Tepezala district is in the north of the State of Aguascalientes, about 30 miles north of the city of Aguascalientes, the capital. The district is reached by a standard-gage railway on the west side through the junction, Rincon de Romos, which is on the main line of the National Railways of Mexico from El Paso to Aguascalientes. The terminal is Tepezala. On the east side a narrow gage connects Asientos with the junction, San Gil, on the main line, Asientos to San Luis Potosi. Tepezala on the west side of the Asientos hills is about 2 miles from Asientos on the east side. The area between the two mining centers is separated by a low subued divide which forms the central part of the hills. The district is in a group of isolated hills surrounded by characteristic bolson plains. The hills rise above the surrounding plains about 6500 to 10,000 ft.; the highest peak is Alta Mira. The two mining districts lie somewhat upon the flanks of the hills at about the same elevation, 7200 ft. The district is an old one and has been known since early in the 17th Century when the mines were worked by the Franciscan Monks. Their mining operations which were limited to the oxidized ore above the water level, consisted chiefly in extracting silver from the Santa Francisca vein. To judge from the old workings and the remains of surface plant, the operations were on a large scale. By modern mining operations since about 1900, the various mines of the district have been one of the principal sources of ore for the smelter located at Aguascalientes.

Jan 2, 1926

There's a right way and a wrong way to store diesel electric systems and similar equipment for generating on-site power, according to James Frankow, service manager for Allis-Chalmers Corp's Engine Division. In any event, the less storage the better. Many generating sets are stored before installation, especially when new construction is underway. Improper storage, or mothballing, can create initial reliability problems. Therefore; arrange for inside storage with no drastic extremes in temperature or humidity. If engines and alternators are stored in areas other than inside a dirt-free and temperature-controlled building, the unit or engine should be completely covered and protected against the environment. Before covering it with a canvas or with plastic, the unit should first be sealed at the following critical engine openings:

Jan 3, 1978

By N. P. Weymont

A first step towards using advanced control and optimization techniques at Kaiser Aluminum's Baton Rouge Plant has been the decision to utilize digital process control equipment exclusively throughout the plant. This paper describes the philosophy and strategy which has been used to successfully implement this program for both existing plant facilities and plant expansions. Some of the problems that have been encountered include system selection, vendor support, soft- ware development, system security and system reliability. How these problems arose, were overcome and how they can be prevented in future projects is discussed. A key element of the success has been the organization of the technical, engineering and maintenance efforts and also training has been found to be extremely important. Finally, the effect of these experiences upon present thinking is discussed.

Jan 1, 1984

By John A. Dunn

Continued increase in electric power requirements for mining, brought on by higher capacity mining machines and total mechanization, emphasizes the importance of proper power system design and planning. How effective a mine operates to produce quality coal at low cost depends to a great extent on how well its power system is planned and how well it is maintained. To be planned well it must be adequate to serve all the needs of the mine, it should be safe, there should be a margin for expansion, and it should be easily maintained. In planning a power system for mining coal it is helpful to establish a reliable base for estimating loads. Since most mines are served electric power by utility, power bills for similar mine loads are useful in setting up a base for estimates.

Jan 12, 1964

By James R. Swaisgood, Ronald E. Versaw

Hundreds of shafts have been sunk in the United States in the past. Most of these have been successful however, in some instances thousands of dollars have been lost due to work stoppage while emergency measures were taken to control unexpected water flows. In cases where it was not possible to control the water, the shafts were completely lost. Many thousands of dollars have also been wasted in overconservative support design for the successful shafts. These "hell for stout" designs were necessary because of the importance of the shaft in the operation of the mine. If there was trouble in the shaft, all underground operations would come to a halt. Over-design was also necessary because no reliable preconstruction investigation methods or rational support design methods were available.

Jan 6, 1974

By A. S. C. Owili-eger

Coal mining is one of the major activities that may affect the natural or existing hydrologic equilibrium of a basin. Consequently, the mining industry is committed to the conservation and protection of the hydrologic balance within and around mining environments. This commitment embodies thorough and careful consideration of the quantitative and qualitative variations and, in general terms, the environmental impacts of mining activity on the natural water systems. A research program was undertaken to study the impacts of full extraction coal mining on the ground water systems at one of the coal basins in the Appalachian region. The primary objective was to provide reliable information for determining the local and possibly the regional effects of longwall mining on well yields, and the hydraulic and hydrogeochemical parameters of the immediate surface and subsurface water resources.

Jan 1, 1985

By Jules E. Jenkins

In the past quarter century the seismograph has I played an increasingly important role in evaluating vibratory effects transmitted to adjacent communities by industrial blasting operations. In this period research has advanced through two major phases-from falling pin seismometers to three- component recording seismographs. The initial phase of this research is now regarded as the era of recording, during which the seismograph merely recorded occasional events. It has emerged from this stage into the era of control and analysis and in this later period has been recognized as a full-fledged industrial tool. Although the falling pin machines of earlier years indicated probable amplitudes of industrial blasting vibrations, they gave no reliable measure of such displacements, nor did they provide essential information concerning direction or frequency of motion.

May 1, 1956

By G. Ferrara

In process and plant simulation, more reliable prediction of industrial results and evaluation of data for designing purposes may be attained by the combined use of (a) modeling and simulation of ore characteristics and (b) modeling and simulation of integrated plant operations. The systems for modeling and simulation of ore characteristics are discussed as well as the conditions in which their use may be necessary (complex structure of the ore-body and variability of the ore fed to the plant). Two examples, for coal and bauxite run-of-mine (ROM), are reported. The procedure of linking the process unit models and the approaches for the solution of integrated systems are indicated. A general-purpose program for the simulation of integrated plant operations is described, and some examples of its use are reported.

Jan 1, 1984

By Clark B. Risler, Walter E. Thomas

MILL planning must include electrical drives and a system to supply them. These should be considered at the time metallurgical and mechanical plans are being made. Because it is convenient, flexible, reliable, and economical, electricity is the accepted source for powering mill concentrating equipment. Ore-treating mills have grown to the point where a single mill has been built using 360 motors ranging from 1 to 1000 hp and totaling 50,000 hp. Such a system of electrical drives can be scattered over a square mile and employ 4000 to 220 v. Drive Motor Characteristics: Since ore processing is predominantly a continuous operation, very few of its drives require wide speed variation after initial adjustment. Consequently squirrel cage, wound rotor, and synchronous alternating current motors are most often used.

Jan 5, 1957

By Arthur Notman

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) SACRAMENTO HILL is a mass of granite porphyry intruded along a fault between Paleozoic sediments and pre-Cambrian schists in the Bisbee district, Cochise County, Arizona. The intrusion invaded both walls of the fault to a large extent, and the accompanying extensive mineralization of the Paleozoic limestones is the locus of the great high-grade copper orebodies of the Bisbee mines. Prior to 1909, although the presence of ore in the mass of the hill itself had long been suspected, systematic exploration had not been attempted. A few shallow pits on the surface here and there had disclosed some chalcocite with associated carbonates as stringers in a mass of strongly brecciated, silicified, and iron-stained porphyry. The workings in the surrounding limestones had penetrated the porphyry in a dozen or so places for some distance from the contact but had disclosed no ore. However, the rock had been largely altered to quartz and sericite and very thoroughly impregnated with pyrite and traces of the copper sulphides. A close geological study of the conditions, both surface and underground, strengthened these suspicions, and plans for prospecting the hill were made in 1909. Reference to the accompanying illustrations, Figs. 1 and 2, will give an idea of the general appearance of the surface. The mineralization is more intense in two main zones, one at the west end and the other at the east end of the hill. The outcrop of the hill is elliptical and approximately 3,000 ft. long by 1,400 ft. wide. The Sacramento shaft, which is the main hoisting shaft of the mine and situated at the east end of the hill, as shown by the accompanying map (Fig. 3), offered a convenient base for prospecting that end of the hill, while the workings from the Holbrook shaft offered a similar opportunity at the west end. The choice of level for the first work was determined by analogy with the most favorable depth for enrichment below surface observed in the other disseminated deposits of the Southwest.

Jan 8, 1915