Search Documents

By ABBOT A. HANKS

WHEN gold was discovered in California, and San Francisco grew almost over night from a handful of people to many thousands, one of the first difficulties experienced was the lack of money. Gold dust in considerable quantities was rushed into the city from the various mining camps but there was no money. Purchases were paid for by weighing out dust in hand scales. We can appreciate' the difficulty of paying for a drink or buying a postage stamp under these conditions. All this gold was in the form of dust from placer workings and the first metallurgists were the assayers' who melted and refined this gold, casting it into bars which were weighed, assayed, stamped with fineness; value, and the name of the assayer. Many .of these plants were of considerable size, handling shipments that were accumulated by banks and express companies throughout the "Diggings" and sent to San Francisco to be shipped by water to the eastern states. Several

Jan 1, 1931

By W. M. Pierce

CORRUGATED sheet zinc has been used abroad for a great many years as a roofing material. In this country it has been in use for about 10 years. From the outset it was recognized that zinc sheets required closer spacing of the supporting purlins than steel sheets. Exact data regarding safe maximum fiber stresses were not available, however, and on occasions the span used was excessive and the sheets sagged. This paper describes both service and laboratory tests to determine safe maximum fiber-stress values for various grades of zinc for use in calculating the proper purlin spacings for any gage and profile under given loading conditions. These tests consist of laboratory loading tests on full-size roof sections over extended periods of time; of actual roof installations erected in conformity with the indications of the laboratory tests and observed over a period of years; of careful determinations of the apparent elastic limit of several grades of zinc, and finally of static tests1 (so-called creep tests) to determine the rate of flow of zinc under a variety of static tensile stresses at definite temperatures. Certain of the individual tests extended over a period of more than two years.

Jan 1, 1929

By Eugene Guccione

One of the world's most respected scientists, Dr. Hans A. Bethe (see box) has concluded that if anything can solve the energy crisis, it will be coal and uranium. "It is an illusion to think that we can solve our problem by energy conservation alone. For the next few years, conservation must play a very important role, but at the same time, we must see and develop all our alternative energy sources," he said. In his series of five lectures on the energy crisis, given at the University of Utah while he was visiting professor there during February 1974, Dr. Bethe examined all the existing and newly proposed energy sources. He very quickly ruled out solar power, wind power, and tidal power. Solar power, he said, would be 3% to 4 times more expensive than nuclear energy and would only make sense in tropical areas; wind power, which could at best produce one-tenth as much energy as solar, is "for the birds;" and tidal power, which can be exploited in only a very few coastal locations, is "for the fish."

Jan 5, 1975

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 W. H. Bassett, C. H. Davis

The late J. P. Sparrow, chief operating engineer of the New York Edison CO., carried out a series of practical tests on condenser tubes of several copper alloys and reported on the results to the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies at its meeting in September, 1913. In the preparation of these tubes the senior author had the pleasure of cooperating. Copper-zinc alloys in the proportions of 60-40,70-30,80-20, 90-10, and Admiralty metal, which is in effect 70-30 with 1 per cent. of tin, were tried. Monel metal and several copper-nickel alloys, and 8, 5, and 3 per cent. aluminum bronze were also tried. At the time of this report, the aluminum bronze had been in service for 4 1/2 years and seemed to be giving especially good results but later it began to fail and showed no substantial improvement over Admiralty metal. Monel metal was unsatisfactory and the nickel alloys apparently did not give better service than the Admiralty alloy. Previous to the publication of the report, and after considerable discussion, it was agreed that a test where tubes of different kinds could be under laboratory observation would be advisable, so the apparatus described here was set up in The American Brass Co.'s Waterbury Laboratory. This was fitted with tubes of copper, brass, bronze, nickel silver, cupro-nickel and other alloys, and the test started on Oct. 11, 1912. Salt water from East River, New York harbor, was barrelled and transported to the laboratory for the test. A fresh supply, completely replacing the water in service, was obtained at the end of each six months period. Plan of Procedure In general, the procedure was to inspect the tubes at short intervals and to remove those that had begun to leak. The tubes removed were carefully examined and a photographic and microscopic record of the

Jan 1, 1925

By G. R. M. Del Giudice

The term "slime-coating" is not new in the art of flotation; the phenomenon has been observed and described by Taggart;(l)† Taggart, Taylor, and Ince;(2) and by Ince.(3) Notwithstanding that flotation was introduced for the treatment of finely crushed ore, the adverse effects of slimes have been recognized since the earliest days of the process, and the Elmore, Delprat, Potter, and other processes actually specified desliming of the ore prior to treatment. The cause of this trouble has been studied and described by Taggart;(1) Taggart, Taylor, and Ince;(2) Ince;(3) Morrow and Griswold;(4) and by Gaudin and Malozemoff.(5) Old Theory of Slime-coatings At present, so far as published work shows, there seems to be but one theory for the mechanism of slime-coatings. Ince(3) states that they are due to attraction between electrostatic charges of opposite sign on the sulfide and on the slime particles, supporting this theory by migration experiments in the Burton tube. He also used the microscope in conjunction with a glass cell employed by Beans and Eastlack(6) in studying migration, but met with interference from endosmosis. Several attempts have been made in the Department of Mineral Dressing at Columbia University to duplicate Ince's experiments with the Burton tube, but the results have never been convincing. Formation of precipitates which settled through the pulp levels, and evolution of gas at the electrodes, which disturbed the interface between the pulp and the distilled water above it, seriously interfered with observations. However, by use of the migration cell shown in Fig. 1, endosmosis effects and the disturbances due to precipitation and gas evolution were avoided, and distinct and reproducible migrations or absence of migration were observed. The cell was made of bakelite and had platinum electrodes. Objectives were employed which had a working distance of at least three millimeters,1 and the parts of the mounting which came in contact with

Jan 1, 1935

By Harry Bapty

LONGHOLE drilling with a heavy type percussion Leyner drill, jointed steel rods, and a tungsten carbide insert bit was investigated while drilling and working a quartz barite brecciated rock. Procedure and practice were developed and its suitability for tackling pillar and sill recovery proven and extended to regular stoping at Torbrit. Torbrit, as the name implies, is a contraction of the Toric property and the Britannia Mining & Smelting Co. Ltd., the former owners. This silver property, with minor amounts of lead, zinc, and rarer sulphides of little or no economic value, was discovered in 1916 from an outcrop in the Kitsault River, 18 miles north of Alice Arm Post Office, in the Portland Canal Mining District, B. C.

Jan 11, 1954

By E. T. Dumble

DuriKg explorations made for the Pacific Improvement Company in the early part of this year, deposits of natural coke, of such extent and excellent quality as to be worthy of record, were found in the Santa Clara coal-field. This coal-field lies in the neighborhood of La Barranca, a small town, 95 miles northeast of Ortiz, on the Sonora railway. The coal-beds are exposed in the drainage-basin of Calera creek, which empties into the Yaqui river opposite Toniche; and the old mining town of Turahumari is nearly at the center of the field. Without going into a detailed geological description, it Will be sufficient to say that the entire area is underlain by rocks of Triassic age, much disturbed in places, and cut through and covered by eruptive rocks of various kinds and ages. The coal-beds occur in a series of interbedded sands and clay, in the upper half of the sedimentary Triassic rocks. Below them is a great series of quartzitic sandstoiles and very sandy slates, and above them are other sandstones, and the eruptive member of the group, viz., the Lista Blanca formation', described in my paper on the " Geology of Sonora," presented at the New York Meeting of February, 1899.* Speaking very broadly, these sands and clays, with their included coal-beds, dip about 30 degrees S.E. This gives their outcropping edses a 3J.E.-S.W. direction. The general dip

Jan 1, 1900

By Gerhard Derge

A SERIES of studies of the corrosion of tin is under way in the Metals Research Laboratory at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. The complete program includes examination of the corrosion properties of high-purity tin and the changes produced in these properties by the addition of varying amounts of alloying elements. Other studies of this subject have been made recently under the sponsorship of the Inter-national Tin Research and Development Council, but these researches have been confined largely to the weakly acid environments commonly encountered in the canning industry.1 There is little information avail-able regarding the corrosion of tin under alkaline conditions, but such data would be of value, for a large amount of the metal is used under such conditions. The potential measurements to be described were made because they seemed to offer the most rapid method for obtaining a general view of the conditions to be encountered in such service. These experiments will also serve to establish a technique that will be of value in further studies. It must be emphasized that the results reported are those of controlled laboratory experiments and that the conclusions drawn cannot yet be applied to service conditions; rather, they point to the directions in which, more exhaustive experimental work may be clone to best advantage.

Jan 1, 1938

By Persifor Frazer

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

Jan 1, 1905

By K. D. Sheffler, R. W. Hertzberg, R. W. Kraft

The Ni-Ni,Ti lamellar eutectic alloy responds to unidirectional solidification by alig-nment of the platelets of the two phases roilghly perpendicular to the moving solid-liquid interface. X-ray diffraction and zetallographic experimenls show that the following cryslallographic relationships exist in the directionally solidified ingots: lamellar interface w [0001] Ni3Ti 11 (111 }Ni local growth direction (1120) Ni3Ti n (110) Ni These relationships are rationalized on the basis of the crystallography of the constituent phases. In recent years researchers in several laboratories have shown that an aligned or "controlled" micro-structure can be produced in many binary eutectic alloys by forcing the alloy to solidify unidirectionally in an elongated crucible.'-3 It also has been found that a unique crystallographic relationship often develops between the two phases in such a structure.4, 5 Since a parallel arrangement of phase particles in an alloy should, and, in many cases, does, produce unique and highly anisotropic properties, the alloys so produced are of potential interest in a variety of applications. Studies of these alloys are also of interest at the academic level because they help to improve our basic understanding of the way in which metals solidify. This paper reports the metallographic and crystallographic structure of another of these alloys—that between nickel and Ni3Ti. In a separate paper, hot tensile and stress rupture properties as well as deformation and fracture behavior of the same alloy are discussed.19 EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS AND RESULTS General Characteristics of the Eutectic Reaction. Several small exploratory Ni-Ti melts were made to resolve a conflict in Hansen6 over the eutectic composition. The alloy containing 16.4 at. pct Ti, Fig. 1, appeared metallographically to be closest to the eutectic composition, although small dendritic patches of proeutectic nickel are present. The eutectic morphology is lamellar and appears quite sharp and angular, indicating a strong influence of crystallographic factors upon the microstructure. Some of the eutectic nickel platelets are continuous with the primary phase, whereas in hyper eutectic melts a "halo" of nickel generally surrounded the proeutectic inter-metallic platelets, indicating that nickel is the nucleating phase in this eutectic reaction. Extensive precipitation of Ni3Ti has occurred in the primary nickel phase in a Widmanstatten pattern which makes the dendrites difficult to differentiate from the eutectic mixture. This phenomenon may account for discrepancies among the eutectic compositions reported in the literature. The sloping solvus line bounding the nickel primary solid solution explains the presence of the intermetallic precipitate. Poole and Hume-Rothery7 report that the solubility of titanium in nickel drops from 13.8 at. pct at the eutectic temperature (1304°C) to approximately 9 at. pct at 700°C (Ni3Ti, on the other hand, melts con-gruently and exhibits essentially no solubility for nickel or titanium). Lever rule calculations based upon Poole and Hume-Rothery's phase diagram indicate an increase from 21 vol pct Ni3Ti in the eutectic mixture at the eutectic temperature to 61 pct at room temperature. Selective point count measurements of the volume fraction of eutectic Ni3Ti platelets in the eutectic microstructure yielded a value of 46 i 2 vol pct, which required extensive precipitation of Ni3Ti from the nickel solid solution onto the eutectic intermetallic platelets during cooling from the solidification temperature. Influence of Directional Solidification. Nickel bar and titanium sponge of 99.9 pct purity were induction-melted in zirconia crucibles under argon in the proportion of 13.8 wt pct (16.4 at. pct) Ti to produce 14-lb master heats which were cast into investment molds yielding 5/8-in.-diam pins approximately 10 in. long. These pins were remelted under argon in horizontal zirconia boats and unidirectionally solidified to produce 1/2-in.-sq ingots approximately 44 in. long. Details of the experimental techniques and apparatus are described elsewhere.'

Jan 1, 1970

By Ray W. Ballmer

"For his leadership in developing and managing large, complex, and technically innovative mines, particularly the outstanding and successful Bougainville mine and for his lecture, 'The Moving Targets of Mine Development '. " Recipient of the 1981 D. C. Jackling Award

Jan 1, 1982

By N. P. Goss

ASTERISM appearing in X-ray Laue dia-grams is an extremely sensitive index of changes in the internal structures of indi-vidual grains of polycrystalline metals. It indicates the existence of various forms of subboundary structure or subdivision within the grain. The present viewpoint is that the grain is made up of lattice blocks having substantially the same size and shape.1-4 When these blocks all assume exactly the same orientation, the crystal is perfect and asterism is absent. Cleaves and Thompson5 observed that the hardness of iron is virtually constant over a range of grain sizes. It is quite possible that the subboundary structure caused this, and that the latter is just as important as grain size itself. While the experiments reported here are not con-clusive, they do support this viewpoint. Metals can, under certain conditions, be prepared entirely free from asterism, but this preparation does not necessarily require long heating or slow cooling, as will be shown here. In this paper a distinction is made be-tween mosaic and distorted grain struc-tures but the difference is only a matter of degree. In a previous paper9 it was shown that the grains can become distorted even during heat-treatment. The block structure exists inherently, even in a perfect crystal; the size and shape of these crystallites, or lattice blocks, varies, depending upon a number of factors. Goetz, for example,7 has shown that a metal before crystallizing from the molten state must go through a paracrystalline phase with oriented groups of atoms about 10-14 to 10-15 c.c., or 10-5 cm. in size.

Jan 1, 1940

By N. P. Goss

ASTERISM appearing in X-ray Laue dia-grams is an extremely sensitive index of changes in the internal structures of indi-vidual grains of polycrystalline metals. It indicates the existence of various forms of subboundary structure or subdivision within the grain. The present viewpoint is that the grain is made up of lattice blocks having substantially the same size and shape.1-4 When these blocks all assume exactly the same orientation, the crystal is perfect and asterism is absent. Cleaves and Thompson5 observed that the hardness of iron is virtually constant over a range of grain sizes. It is quite possible that the subboundary structure caused this, and that the latter is just as important as grain size itself. While the experiments reported here are not con-clusive, they do support this viewpoint. Metals can, under certain conditions, be prepared entirely free from asterism, but this preparation does not necessarily require long heating or slow cooling, as will be shown here. In this paper a distinction is made be-tween mosaic and distorted grain struc-tures but the difference is only a matter of degree. In a previous paper9 it was shown that the grains can become distorted even during heat-treatment. The block structure exists inherently, even in a perfect crystal; the size and shape of these crystallites, or lattice blocks, varies, depending upon a number of factors. Goetz, for example,7 has shown that a metal before crystallizing from the molten state must go through a paracrystalline phase with oriented groups of atoms about 10-14 to 10-15 c.c., or 10 5 cm. in size.

Jan 1, 1940

Background The annual awards, which have been given by the US National Committee for Rock Mechanics since its inception in 1969, recognize out- standing research in rock mechanics. Such recognition has always been accompanied by a plaque or certificate for the winners and a presentation at the symposium awards banquet. Starting this year, the US National Committee will give the winners even more recognition and allow the rock mechanics community to benefit from the papers by publishing abstracts of the work in the proceedings of the 25th US Symposium on Rock Mechanics and in various society journals and news letters. "We hope this will stimulate the production of more research papers," said William R. Judd, former chairman on the subpanel of awards. "It's beneficial for researchers to have their work published as an award paper." There are four categories of awards: Basic Research, Applied Research, Case History, and Student Masters' Thesis. Approximately ten papers are nominated annually for each category; however, in some years awards are not made in all four categories. For instance, there were not enough case history nominations in 1983 for an award, but there were two equally outstanding recipients of the award for applied research. The winners of the 1983 research awards reflect the wide variety of professions involved with rock mechanics. They are introduced on the following pages by category, and accompanied by an abstract of the paper

Jan 1, 1984

By S. R. B. Cooke, S. W. Clark

Adsorption of calcium and magnesium by quartz was determined over a wide pH range using flame photometry for solution analysis. A parallelism was noted between calcium adsorption at alkaline pH and flotation of activated quartz by means of various fatty acid collectors. Abstraction of calcium from 100 ppm solutions increased above pH 10.5 until all of the calcium was removed at pH values between 12 and 12.5. Calcium was desorbed from the quartz over the pH range 12.5 to 13.0 and returned to the solution. Precipitation of magnesium hydroxide prevented measurement of magnesium adsorption above a pH of 9.9. A calcium adsorption isotherm determined at pH 9 matched measurements of barium adsorption by other investigators over the range where adsorption corresponded to the equation of a Freundlich adsorption isotherm. In accordance with the Gouy-Chapman theory for adsorption in the diffuse layer, adsorption of the divalent cations under these conditions was four times the adsorption of monovalent sodium. Activation of quartz by multivalent metal cations in flotation using anionic collectors has been studied by many investigators. The occurrence of activator cations in the water of flotation mills makes depression of silaceous gangue very difficult. Alternatively, in some flotation systems it is practical to cause activation of quartz so that it is floated from the desirable mineral values. The present study was initiated to investigate the activation of quartz by measuring adsorption of calcium and magnesium ions as a function of solution pH. Early empirical tests showed that quartz would be activated to flotation using anionic collectors if any of a number of divalent or trivalent metallic cations were present in the pulp.1*2 Subsequent studies by Clemmer,3 Cooke and Digre,4 Cooke,5 Schuhmann and Prakash,6 and Cooke, Iwasaki, and Choi,7-8 showed that flotation depended strongly upon the alkalinity of the flotation pulp, the concentration of the activating cations, and the chain length and structure of the organic collectors used. The concept of the electrical double layer has been applied to the case of the quartz-aqueous solution interface by Gaudin and Fuerstenau,9-10 and by de Bruyn 11 to explain the activation of quartz by multivalent metal cations. Studies of the surface of quartz by Gaudin and Fuerstenau9,10,12 and by Li " using the streaming potential technique contributed much information on the electro kinetic condition of the surface of quartz in the presence of various organic and inorganic ions. Measurement of adsorption of ac-

Jan 1, 1969

By A. H. Grobe, F. N. Rhines

THE constitution of the indium-zinc alloy series has been investigated by Wilson and Peretti,1 who determined the liquidus and eutectic temperatures by the conventional method of cooling curves and the eutectic composition by analyzing eutectic exudations. Recent developments affecting the availability of indium and consequent increased interest in its applications make a more complete knowledge of the constitution of its alloys desirable. As a part of a program for the reexamination of the constitution of indium alloys by precision methods, the indium-zinc phase diagram [ ] (Figs. I and 2) has been redetermined in its entirety. The eutectic temperature (143.5°C.) reported by Wilson and Peretti has been confirmed exactly, but their value of the zinc concentration at the eutectic, 4 per cent, was found to be high; the new value is 2.8 per cent of zinc. There is also a rather large difference between the forms of the liquidus curves of Wilson and Peretti and those found in the present studies. The solidus curves herein have been located for the first time and the limits of solid solubility have been tenta-

Jan 1, 1944

In his paper, Sastry proposes the use of flotation methods other than the "conventional flotation!' process as possible economical methods of removing mineral fines, The practice of Liquid/Solid separation employing microbubbles to assist or induce the flotation of suspended solids is common to both municipal and industrial waste- water treatment; and is also used as a separation step in some processing industries. The pretreatment (if any) of the stream prior to flotation, the source of the microbubbles, and the design of the separation vessel depend on the application. For example: a metal finishing plant would use an elaborate chemical conditioning scheme to precipitate metal hydroxides for removal by a dissolved air flotation unit operating in the effluent recycle mode, while some oily waste can be separated using a dispersed air flotation cell with no chemical conditioning. At the present time, the "conventional flotation" process employed by the mineral processing industry makes use of mechanical agitation and aeration to generate certain sizes and quantities of bubbles and to mix these bubbles with the pulp. Specific types of chemical conditioning are used to obtain the desired results. For the separation of mineral fines, the type of chemical conditioning, bubble generation and separation device needed to obtain optimum results will have to be determined through research. The point to be made is that while the principles of flotation separation can be applied to a wide variety of applications, the specifics of the flotation process may vary with each application. Sastry's paper has dealt with the many areas of research required to fully understand and utilize the flotation process for the beneficiation of mineral fines.

Jan 1, 1979

By Jack L. Taylor

As expected from similar crystal structures and favorable atomic size factors, titanium, vanadium, and molybdenum are completely soluble in one another above the transformation temperature of titanium. The fl phase parameters of the continuous solid solution are shown graphically. Limiting compositions for retained fl phase have been determined. VANADIUM and molybdenum both have body-centered-cubic structures at all temperatures and, from the atomic diameter comparison factor, 3.9 pct, would be expected to form a complete series of solid solutions. The existence of complete solubility has been confirmed by work' at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Furthermore, vanadium and molybdenum have favorable atomic size factors to form complete binary solid solutions with the B phase, high temperature form of titanium, which also has body-centered-cubic structure. Pietro-kowsky and Duwez' and Hansen et al." have established the existence of the complete series of solutions in these binary systems. It would be logical, therefore, to expect that p-titanium, vanadium, and molybdenum would be completely soluble in one

Jan 1, 1957

By Philip R. Strand

Vermiculite is the name used for those micaceous minerals with a ferromagnesian aluminum silicate composition and the unique property of exfoliating to a low density material when heated. Commercially, the exfoliated products are also called vermiculite, or more exactly, expanded vermiculite. In its exfoliated state, vermiculite serves many markets, chief among them construction, agriculture, horticulture, and general industry. Composition and Properties Vermiculite, in a natural state, has the characteristic mica habit, splits readily into thin laminae, flexible but inelastic. In a mineralogical sense, vermiculite is a hydrated silicate with no exact chemical composition. The structural formula for a macroscopic, trioctahedral vermiculite may be written: [ ] The structure of vermiculite is basically that of a talc, and it could be regarded as a trioctahedral member of the smectite group. Macroscopically, vermiculite displays the prominent monoclinic crystal faces that are commonly marked by lines at 60° and 120°. Hardness varies from 1.5 to 2.8 or more; specific gravities are between 2.1 and 2.8; color is amber, bronze, brown, dark green, or black. When heated quickly to an elevated tempera¬ture, vermiculite expands by exfoliating at right angles to the cleavage, into wormlike pieces (the name vermiculite is derived from the Latin `vermiculare,' to breed worms). This characteristic of expansion, the basis for commercial use of the mineral, is the result of the mechanical separation of the layers by the rapid conversion of contained water to steam. The increase in bulk volume of commercial grades is 8 to 12 times, but individual flakes may expand as much as 30 times. All expansion occurs at right angles to the basal cleavage. Vermiculite may also be expanded by a number of chemical processes such as soaking in hydrogen peroxide, weak acids, and other electrolytes. There is a color change during expansion that is dependent upon the composition of the vermiculite and furnace atmospheres. Heating in an oxidizing atmosphere produces dull gray colors. The iron is generally not oxidized during chemical expansion. The exfoliation of the vermiculite crystal results in large pores being formed between groups of platelets. Thus exfoliation can make available a large increase in void volume without significantly changing the surface area of the platelets. This characteristic is important in the chemical carrier applications of vermiculite. Although there has been much research on the chemical and structural composition of vermiculite, an exact formula and composition cannot be described. This is to be expected since vermiculite derives from a number of different mineral sources. As has been proposed, vermiculite is not a single mineral species, but families of related minerals. Additionally, commercial interest in the end product has resulted in the name vermiculite being applied to the very voluminous, bloated products from calcination of baueritized (bleached) phlogopite. This has also resulted in many names for the specific vermiculite found in a particular deposit. All of this difficulty arises from the nature of its crystal chemistry. Consequently, vermiculite is now thought of as several related variable mineral series rather than a group of related species. The vermiculites have a common silica tetrahedral sheet structure with separating ions. It is now generally agreed that vermiculites must also be regarded as true clay minerals. The properties of the mineral, such as cation exchange capacity, organic complexing ability, and vari-

Jan 1, 1975