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By Carlos Kovacs-Figueroa

Complying with air pollution regulations created the need to dispose of increased sulfuric acid production by the Morenci smelter. As a result, a two-module leaching plant was constructed to leach Morenci flotation tailings. The leaching plant was equipped to perform the following operations: leach feed pumping, agitated leaching, two-stage countercurrent decantation, neutralization of leached tailings, and copper precipitation. Ancillary facilities were provided for neutralizer and flocculant preparation as well as precipitant handling and recovery of precipitates. Plant control is automatic from a central control panel supervised on a shift schedule by one operator and two helpers. Construction of the first module was initiated in April 1973 and leaching of tailings commenced in November 1974. Construction of the second module began in January 1975 and was completed in November 1975.

Jan 1, 1977

By A. B. Kinzel

IT has often been stated that the steel industry did no research or development work in the decades preceding 1920. If restricted to organized research on the quality and field of application of structural and engineering steels, this statement may be true. But the industry did conduct a vast amount of process research during this period, although some of the projects were not carried out as separate organized research programs. Securing a low cost of tonnage production was the sole problem receiving serious attention from the industry prior to 1920, and today this is still the major problem. Those in the industry deserve much commendation for the important increase in production capacity per dollar invested and for the markedly lowered cost of production. In recent years, a distinct change may be noted in the attitude of the steel industry toward research involving its product. With the advent of high-speed machinery both in the manufacturing and transportation industries, steel as a quality engineering material has come to the fore. In the past, high-quality carbon steels and alloy steels have been introduced over a period of years, largely at the insistence of the consumer and partly prompted by research carried out by those interested in the use of the alloys. The commercial introduction of these materials made slow progress.

Jan 1, 1935

By O. Katz, A. Spilners, M. Simnad

THE oxidation of titanium has been studied in recent years by a number of investigators.'-W ne of the most important aspects of the reaction of titanium with oxygen, which has been observed by several of the investigators, is the extremely high solubility of oxygen in the metal. A detailed study of the Ti-0 systeml% as shown that the solubility limit of oxygen in a-titanium is approximately 14.5 wt pct 0 from 800" to 1700°C. The unusual oxidation behavior of titanium may be ascribed to this phenomenon, since part of the oxygen uptake enters into solid solution in the metal and only a part is available for scale formation. A more complete study of the kinetics of oxidation of titanium would require information on the influence of oxygen in solution in the metal upon the oxidation rate. Such information would also be of interest in regard to the theory of oxidation of metals. The authors have measured the oxidation rates of oxygen-saturated and oxygen-free titanium between 800" and 1200°C and have found appreciable differences in their rates of oxygen uptake and in the activation energies. The experimental set-up was similar to that described in a previous paper.u The course of oxida-dation was followed continously by attaching the specimen to a sensitive spring balance and observing the extension of the spring with time of oxidation. High purity electrolytic oxygen was used and precautions were taken to purify the gases employed. The specimens were prepared from iodide titanium and were ground on metallographic polishing papers to a fineness of 4/0. The furnace was first evacuated and filled with argon; the specimen was lowered into the furnace, which was then evacuated and filled with oxygen, after the specimen had reached the oxidation temperature in argon. The samples were presaturated with oxygen by means of the following procedure: Each specimen was first heated in oxygen at 1200°C until its increase in weight indicated 13.8 pct by weight uptake of oxygen. The furnace was then immediately evacuated and filled with purified argon five times. The specimen was heated in the argon atmosphere for a period of 72 hr at 1200°C in order to saturate the metal with oxygen by complete absorption of the scale. The temperature was lowered to the oxidation temperature, the furnace was evacuated and filled with oxygen, and the oxidation rate was followed by noting the extension of the spring balance. No oxide film was visible on these specimens at the start of the oxidation experiments. Titanium samples in the oxygen-free as-received condition were also oxidized and their oxidation rates measured. The results are shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, which indicate that the initial rates of uptake of oxygen by both the oxygen-saturated and oxygen-free specimens are parabolic at these temperatures. The rate of uptake of oxygen is, however, appreciably lower

Jan 1, 1956

By Henry M. Howe

The natural effect of large ingot-size should be to increase segregation. I have previously pointed1 to the excessive segregation in many large ingots as tending to confirm this, but I have shown that in case of ingots less than 16 in. square this expected effect of ingot-size is liable to masked by that of Note.—The "maximum enrichment" of each ingot, i.e., the excess of the richest spot over the average of the whole ingot, is first calculated in percentage of that average. The average of the maximum enrichment of the several ingots of a given group is the abscissa in Fig. 1. The number beside each spot tells the number of cases which that spot represents. FIG. 1.—Influence of Ingot-Size on Maximum EnrichNent in Steel Ingots. other variables. Under these conditions we should expect that, if large ingot-size really does tend to increase segregation, this effect would be shown by taking the average of large numbers of cases, so that the effects of these other variables might off-set and cancel each other.

Jan 1, 1910

By W. C. Krumbein

GEOLOGICAL problems are approached from a geometrical (space relations) viewpoint, a kinematical (time sequence) viewpoint, or a dynamical viewpoint. The first two require sound training in conventional geology and in field methods. The third approach requires a solid foundation of chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Modern training for geologists should include close integration of basic sciences with geological principles. INTRODUCTION Our knowledge of the earth has increased tremendously during the last half century. We know more about its surface configuration, the distribution of its natural resources, the procession of living forms that inhabited it in the past, the chemical composition of its oceans, the areal distribution of its surface rocks, the movements of its atmosphere, and so on. Not only do we know more facts about the earth, but we have a better understanding of the processes that take place on and within it, such as the nature of earthquakes, the thermodynamics of the atmosphere, the chemical equilibria involved in the formation of igneous rocks, the mechanics of stream flow, the dynamics of the earth's origin, and so on. Many sciences contributed to the sum total of this knowledge, including such established disciplines as geology, geography, physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology. Out of this accumulation of new knowledge grew also a group of new sciences, such as seismology, oceanography, meteorology, volcanology, hydrology. Collectively these latter are known as the geophysical and geochemical sciences, and to a large extent they began as branches of geology. Until the turn of the century, for example, the study of earthquakes (seismology) was a part of geology, although as early as 1846 Mallet, a physicist, had suggested that the subject could be investigated by elastic-wave theory. Comparatively little progress was made along these lines until the seismograph was developed near the turn of the century; since then, additional earthquake data have accumulated rapidly, but more important, the interpretation of these data essentially has kept pace with their accumulation. In similar fashion, meteorology was generally considered a branch of geology as recently as one or two decades ago. Considerable progress had been made in such aspects as weather forecasting, but the science dates its recent rapid rise from the year 1911, when Bjerknes first applied the principles of dynamics to the analysis of air masses. The rapid development of such disciplines as oceanography, volcanology and hydrology was due in part to the application of principles of chemical equilibrium, of dynamics, and of thermodynamics to earth problems, by men who were essentially physicists or chemists by training. The last half century, therefore, and particularly the last two decades, saw the influx of numerous chemists and physicists into the realm of the earth sciences. In the meantime the main body of geology itself showed a marked growth, and

Jan 1, 1941

By Richard B. Greenwalt

INTRODUCTION Direct reduction of iron ores has unquestionably become established as an important step in the worldwide steelmaking industry. The history of this development has been long and fraught with difficulty. In 1800, Champlain suggested the direct reduction concept using carbon and a shallow hearth vessel. Roughly 100 years later, Jones attempted a commercial process using carbon and producer gas in a rotary kiln. During the early years of this century, numerous attempts were made to start commercial direct reduction plants using such processes as Hoganas, Wiberg, Krupp-Renn, and others. Most of these were short lived, being abandoned due to a variety of technical and economical factors. Today, however, a new generation of direct reduction processes has emerged. We enter 1977 with at least 40 commercial plants in operation using 15 processes in 14 countries. These plants have combined total annual capacity of roughly 10 million tonnes of direct reduced product. Many articles have been written, and projections made, concerning the future growth potential for direct reduction. As is al- ways the case with projections, the numbers vary, but the outlook does not. Anyone who participated in the years of effort that have gone into this field of endeavor should be excited and justly rewarded by noting the shape of the curve in Figure 1.

Jan 1, 1977

Some years ago the open Hearth Committee of the Institute reached the conclusion that the reading of "set" papers tended to preclude the specific and detailed discussion of specialized problems of current interest to those operating steel plants. As an innovation the Committee distributed in advance of the meeting in May, 1927, a questionnaire containing a list of 27 topics involving operating problems. The subsequent discussion of the questions, participated in by 37 members, was a conspicuous success. Semiannual meetings have been held since; and at the conference of November, 1929, at Chicago, 131 men were present and the minutes comprised a book of 133 printed pages, thereby, indicating the growing value of the conference in the eyes of both the metallurgists themselves and the companies that employed them. With this example in mind, the Directors felt that definite advantages would accrue to a similar conference to be participated in by smelter officials and metallurgists engaged in the operation of copper reverberatory furnaces. The settlement of the Carson litigation, which for several years had virtually stopped public discussion of reverberatory practice, offered an opportune time for launching the scheme. Although the Conference may become largely self-financing in the future, some funds were regarded as necessary to conduct the first meeting. The members of the Rocky Mountain Income Committee, in view of the fact that copper smelting was essentially an activity of the Rocky Mountain area, recommended the project be, in effect, underwritten by the Fund, and the directors approved an appropriation for this purpose. Invitations were extended to high executives of the various-companies interested to send representatives to an initial meeting to be held at Salt Lake City, May 26-27. The response was enthusiastic. Twenty-three metallurgists representing 12 different plants were present to discuss the comprehensive-program relating to construction and operating phases of reverberatory smelting. It was understood that the record was not to be included in the regular publications of the Institute but that it would be prepared for private distribution among the participants and the officials of their companies. That the exchange of views and experience was no less instructive and stimulating than it was frank, full and informal is indicated by the following transcript of the minutes of the meeting.

Jan 1, 1930

By Franklin R. Carpenter

Pyritic smelting, so-called, as practiced in the Black Hills is pyritic smelting only in the sense that Dr. John Percy uses the expression in his " Metallurgy of Silver," where he describes a process for smelting dry silver-ores in connection with iron pyrites, to form a regulus. The ores treated by this process in the Black Hills are very siliceous, averaging about 74 per cent. of silica, from 10 to 20 of iron oxide, 4 or 5 of alumina, and from 2 to 4 of lime. In 1889, while Dean of the South Dakota School of Mines, I took up the question of their smelting. There were neither copper- nor lead-ores in the Hills; hence pyrite and pyrrhotite, of which there are large deposits, were employed to form a regulus. This mixture of pyrite and pyrrhotite, besides being absolutely barren of gold and silver, carried an average of 30 per cent. of silica. The only basic material available as a flux for the great excess of silica in the ores and in the pyrite was a dolomitic limestone. Moreover, the local coke gave 24 per cent. of ash, 60 per cent. of which was silica—as unpromising a set of conditions as can well be imagined. We had before us the examples of Mr. W. Lawrence Austin, of this Institute, who had experimented at Toston, Montana,"

Jan 1, 1901

By C. M. Smith

HOWARD N. EAVENSON, acting for the last time as president of the Institute, presided at the annual business meeting on Tuesday afternoon at 4 o'clock. He spoke briefly of his visits with Local Sections last fall, and read a scholarly address on "Mineral Fuels and Civilization," scheduled for early publication in these columns. Karl Eilers presented the Treasurer's report, showing last year's income to be $134,967.44, compared with expenses of $133.266.51. Comparable figures for 1933 were $121,689.90 and $115,462.60. The Institute's peak income was in 1923 about $208,000. Newell G. Alford read the report of the Membership Committee showing 750 new members elected and placed on the rolls in 1934, compared with 328 in 1933. Losses by resignation last year were 81, compared with 262 in 1933; and 691 were suspended for non-payment of dues, compared with 747 the year before. Total membership, including 579 Student Associates, was 7742 at the end of 1934. Applications for membership have been coming in freely the last few months.

Jan 1, 1935

By T. M. Allen, W. H. White

THE Greenwood-Grand Forks area of southern central British Columbia, known as the Boundary District, has a long history of mining exploration and production. At the turn of the century this was the premier copper mining camp in the British Empire, its total production amounting to some 20 mil- lion tons. Most of this ore came from the great Granby mines at Phoenix, but the Motherlode mine at Deadwood camp, 6 miles to the west, and several mines in Summit camp, 5 miles north of Phoenix, made important contributions. The large deposits were exhausted in 1918 and the district since has seen only desultory exploration and salvage operations. The orebodies are mineralized skarn zones in limestone members of a thick series of Upper Paleozoic sedimentary and volcanic strata. Chalcopyrite is the primary ore-mineral. Copper carbonates and silicates occur sparingly in outcrops, but the oxidized zone generally is very shallow. Much of the surface is mantled by glacial drift which in most places ranges in thickness from 2 to 15 ft. In some of the hanging valleys, however, the glacial drift may be as much as 100 ft thick and may assume drumlin-like forms.

Jan 1, 1954

By Edward Sampson, Allan B. Griggs

SURVEYING of many holes drilled by the U. S. Bureau of Mines in the Metaline district has shown surprising deviations. The holes start in the Ledbetter slate (Ordovician) and pass into the underlying gently dipping Metaline limestone (Cambrian) at varying depths, locally in excess of 1000 ft. All holes start vertical, but one had deflected as much as 35° at a depth of only 300 ft. One hole was found to be deflected 70° at a depth of 1000 ft. These deviations were not indicated to the drillers by any action of the rods or machines. Analysis of the survey data in the light of the observed geology indicates that the holes deviate most in the Ledbetter slate and scarcely at all in the Metaline limestone. The upper part of the "limestone"' in most holes is a massive rock strongly altered by hydrothermal action and essentially homogeneous. The slate is only obscurely bedded but has a cleavage, varying from slight to strong, which is unrelated to bedding. Drill holes have deflected to become nearly perpendicular to the cleavage. Several plans and cross sections are submitted showing the behavior of various holes.

Jan 1, 1946

By R. C. Edwards, Will Mitchell, T. G. Kirkland

THREE years ago, when the Process Research Laboratory at Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co. sought a remedy for the increasing cost of disposing of great quantities of spent sands from foundries, R. C. Edwards developed a continuous inclined paddle scrubber which removed a substantial amount of the charred coatings from the grains with a surprisingly small amount of degradation of the sand itself.1 The satisfactory results obtained on foundry sand, using this piece of equipment in conjunction with classification, suggested that a similar procedure could probably be applied to the cleaning of other sands, such as those required by the glass and chemical industries. This paper describes the flowsheet and the results of tests performed on impure natural sands. The four materials tested were silica sands obtained from widely separated geographical areas. Three of the sands tested contained various amounts of iron oxide and the fourth an excessive amount of calcareous bonding material. The iron oxide was present predominantly in the form of grain coatings, which were scuffed by the paddle scrubber, and in all cases a product was manufactured which would meet one of the sets of specifications imposed by the glass industry' The Edwards paddle scrubber used in these tests consists of a rubber-lined steel cylinder 18 in. in diam and 48 in. long, mounted on a frame so that its slope can be varied 5 ° to 35º from horizontal. This variable slope permits controlled flow of material through the machine. Rubber paddles rotate inside the cylinder and are secured to a center shaft 2 in. square, which extends through the entire length and is turned at both ends so that it can be supported by sleeve bearings centrally fixed in the end plates of the shell. At the upper or feed end it extends through the bearing on the end plate into a sheave, to which the motor drive is connected by means of Texrope transmission. The four sets of paddles mounted on the shaft, two in each set, are made of rubber belting, 1/4 in. thick, 9 in. wide, and 16 in. long. The two paddles in each set are secured on opposite sides of the square shaft, but in the same longitudinal position along the shaft axis. In other words, the two paddles in the set operate 180° apart. Each successive set is mounted 90º from the preceding one. One end of each paddle is bolted to the square shaft and the other weighted by a steel bar, 1x1 ½ x9 in. long, which is attached about 1/ 2 in. from the outer tip of the paddle. By centrifugal force at proper shaft speed, these weights force the paddle surface to rub smoothly against the rubber lining of the cylinder. During operation, the sand forces its way between the paddle face and the surface of the cylinder, providing the necessary abrading action as the pulp flows by gravity down the length of the cylinder. The capacity of the machine is limited by the amount and the hardness of the coating material and by the quality of product desired. The degree of scrubbing is governed by the retention time in the scrubber, which in turn may be changed by varying the feed rate, water content of the feed, and

Jan 1, 1952

By T. K. Matthews

Minerals are mined as a one-time crop, and the processing of one ton of ore results in there being one ton less to be recovered from the deposit. Although some minerals occur in greater abundance than others, they are to a greater or lesser degree exhaustible. Depletion Allowances One of the distinctive features of the mineral industries is the allowance for depletion. The depletion allowance is a much maligned and misunderstood principal of our tax structure. Although imperfect in design, it has nevertheless served as a constructive incentive for the development and expansion of the minerals industry.

Jan 1, 1969

By R. F. Shurtz

The problem of estimating the precision of systematic samples from a mineral deposit is attacked by interpolating the quality, or other attribute measured, by using Fourier approximation. Such approximation using trigonometric functions yields a particularly simple expression for the variance of the mean value of the attribute sampled. The increasing volume of publication in which the science of statistics has been applied to the problem of predicting the quality of an ore deposit from sets of samples taken from it might lead one to believe that engineering judgment can be replaced by statistics. There is, in fact, an implicit application of the principle of indifference or of "no advance knowledge" which has been discredited in modern statistical theory and practice. These pages will show that it is not always advantageous, efficient, or safe to apply this principle. This problem will be dealt with by using series of orthonormal functions to describe the distribution of the quality of ore in space as contrasted with the more commonly used distribution of quality as a frequency function. Mining engineers are rarely well acquainted with the use of such series or of the functions comprising them. These uses are commonplace in the fields of communication and information theory and it is not surprising that applications taken from these fields should be found appropriate for the analysis of the information contained in a set of samples from an ore deposit. It is hoped that presentation of the following basic, but incomplete, results will generate wider interest in this method and a fuller development of it as well as of the necessary computational techniques. FUNDAMENTAL PREMISES Random variables in the strictest sense are not very common in mine sampling. The sets of samples are almost always taken systematically and are, hence, not subject to all the laws governing random events. Therefore, unless there is indeed random experimental error in the determinations of quality, the treatment of systematic samples of n members as though they were random samples of n members often leads to calculation of confidence limits for the mean quality which are larger than they should be with the result that unnecessary additional sampling is done. The reason for this will emerge in the following discussion leading to Eq. 24 and its generalization. In order to inquire into such questions on a rigorous basis and at the same time avoid arithmetic complications that would obscure the concepts involved, a one dimensional distribution of quality will be assumed. The quality, Q, in suitable units is expressed as a function of the distance, x, along some straight traverse of the deposit. Such a function

Jan 1, 1967

By C. A. Worner

THE meeting of the Petroleum Division at the Annual Meeting of the Institute maintained the high standard set in previous years, and attendance of member: of the Division was at a new high. The impact of the war was evident not only in the tone of many of die papers but also in the presence at the meeting of many of our members now serving in the armed forces of our-country. Ken interest was manifested in all papers presented and the discussions which followed developed many additional facts of interist and importance. The first activity of the Division was the joint meeting of the Papers and Programs and the Publications Committees on Monday afternoon; at which time definite plans were formulated for a simplification and co-ordination of the work of the committees.

Jan 1, 1944

By W. H. Justice

Cycling operations have been successfully conducted in the La Gloria Zone for eight years. The cycling of this zone is now virtually completed. It is proposed that this report shall review the cycling operations of this reservoir so that the industry can more accurately evaluate the cycling process as a production method. The La Gloria project is one of the largest cycling operations in the State of Texas. The gas rights in the field are unitized in three operating units. By mutual agreement Magnolia Petroleum is the designated operator of the project for the 12 operators owning the gas rights. The La Gloria Corp, is the owner and operator of the cycling plant. The development and operation of the field are under the direction of an Operators Committee comprised of a representative of each operator. The Operators Committee is assisted by an Engineering and Geological Sub-Committee. The La Gloria gas field is situated approximately three miles north of Fal-furrias, Tex., and lies principally in the extreme south end of Jim Wells County, with its outer limits extending into the north end of Brookes County, Tex. It is a simple elliptically-shaped dome which has a closure of 350 ft. The field encompasses a surface area of 5,500 acres. The gas reserves are found in 20

Jan 1, 1950

By Joseph W. Leonard, T. S. Spicer

INTRODUCTION Reasons for Thermal Drying The continuing increase in the percentage of minus %-inch coal produced as a result of the increased use of mechanical mining methods has, over the years, tended to shift considerable portions of the work of producing saleable coal to the fine coal cleaning section of the preparation plant. Because a given weight of fine coal will contain substantially greater surface area than an equivalent weight of coarse coal, it follows that, when subjected to wet cleaning processes, the fines will absorb and retain consider- ably more moisture than coarser fractions. Increased moisture pickup in the finer sizes complicates fine coal cleaning since beneficiation may not be limited to the removal of ash and sulfur but often must be expanded to include the additional step of thermal drying to remove excessive moisture. Thus, water which provides the medium for cleaning fine coal is in itself detrimental and, like ash and sulfur, reduces coal quality. Removal of surface moisture by drying is done for one or more of the following 1 reasons: (1) To avoid freezing difficulties and to facilitate handling during shipment, storage and transfer to the points of use; (2) to maintain high pulverizer capacity; (3) to reduce heat loss due to evaporation of surface moisture from the coal in the burning process, thus increasing heating efficiency; (4) to improve the quality of coal used for special purposes, such as in the production of coke, briquettes, and chemicals; (5) to decrease transportation costs; and (6) to facilitate dry coal-cleaning processes. Because benefits to coal transportation and utilization are the most common reasons for thermal drying, the following sections will examine these areas in greater detail. Benefits to Transportation Initial benefits from drying are the reduction of shipping costs from the mine to the point of utilization since more coal can be concentrated into a given weight of product when worthless moisture is removed. Non- combustible~ such as water and mineral matter in railroad shipments of coal are billed the same as coal at $3.32 per ton, according to the recent average costs. Savings of 10 to 20 dollars from drying on the shipment cost of each 50 to 60 tons of coal contained in a typical railroad car is common. Savings on coal shipments from individual mines which result from coal drying can be expressed in terms of hundreds of thousands of dollars and more each year. For example, a reduction of shipping charges of only 5 percent on one million tons per year would mean a savings of 166,000

Jan 1, 1968

By P. A. Laxen, H. R. Spedden, A. M. Gaudin

WHEN a mineral particle is fractured, bonds between the atoms are broken. The unsatisfied forces that appear at the newly formed surface1 are considered to be responsible for the adsorption of ions at the mineral surface. A knowledge of the mechanism and extent of ion sorption from solution onto a mineral surface is of interest in the development of the theory of flotation.2,3 Study of the adsorption of sodium from an aqueous solution on quartz offers a simple approach to this complicated problem. The availability of a radioisotope as a tracer element meant that accurate data could be obtained.4,5 Three main factors which appeared likely to affect the adsorption of sodium are: 1-concentration of sodium in the solution, 2-concentration of other cations in the solution, and 3-anions present in the solution. Hydrogen and hydroxyl ions are always present in an aqueous solution. By controlling the pH, the concentration of these two ions was kept constant. The variation in the amount of sodium adsorbed with variation in sodium concentration was then determined under conditions standardized in regard to hydrogen ion. The effect of concentration of hydrogen ions and of other cations was also measured. A few experiments were made to get a preliminary idea on the effect of anions. The active isotope of sodium was available as sodium nitrate. Standard sodium nitrate solutions were used throughout these experiments except when the effects of other anions were studied. It was found that sodium adsorption increased with sodium-ion concentration, but less rapidly than in proportion to it. Increasing hydrogen-ion concentration, or conversely decreasing hydroxylion, brings about a comparatively slight decrease in sodium-ion adsorption. Increasing the concentration of cations other than hydrogen or sodium decreases somewhat the adsorption of sodium ion. It would appear as if the kind of anion is a secondary factor in guiding the amount of sodium ion that is adsorbed. Materials and Methods Quartz The quartz was prepared as in previous work in the Robert H. Richards Mineral Engineering Laboratory4 except for the refinement of using de-ionized distilled water for the final washing of the sized quartz, prior to drying5 To minimize the laborious preparation of quartz, experiments were made to determine whether the sodium-covered quartz could be washed free of sodium and re-used. The experiments were successful as indicated by lack of Na' activity on the repurified material and by its characteristic sodium adsorption. Table I gives the spectrographic analyses of the quartz used. The quartz ranged from 16 to 40 microns in size, averaging about 23 microns (microscope measurement), and had a surface of 1850 sq cm per g (lot I), 2210 (lot II) and 2000 (lot III) as determined by the Bloecher method.6 Radioactive Sodium Method of Beta Counting for Adsorbed Sodium: Na22, the radioisotope of sodium, possesses convenient properties.7 It has a half-life of 3 years, thus requiring no allowance for decay during an experiment. On decay it emits a 0.575 mev ß radiation and a 1.30 mev ? radiation. The decay scheme is illustrated in the following equation: [Y Nam S. - 'Net 3 years] The ß radiation is sufficiently strong to penetrate an end-window type of Geiger-Mueller counting tube. This, in turn, makes it possible to use external counting, a great advantage in technique. Furthermore, it permits the assaying of solids arranged in infinite thickness, while assaying evaporated liquors on standardized planchets. The equipment used was standard and similar to that employed by Chang8 The original active material was 1 ml of solution containing 1 millicurie of Na22 as nitrate. This active solution was diluted to 1000 ml. Five milliliters of this diluted active solution was found to give a quartz sample a sufficiently high activity for accurate evaluation of the sodium partition in the adsorption measurements. Also, 1 ml of final solution gave a sufficiently high count for precision on the liquor analyses. The sodium concentration of the diluted active solution was 1.2 mg per liter, so that 6 mg of sodium for 60 ml of test solution and 12 g of quartz was the minimum amount used. The active solution was stored in a Saftepak bottle. Procedure for Adsorption Tests: The method consisted of agitating 12 g of quartz with 60 ml of solution of known sodium concentration for enough time to establish equilibrium between the solution and the quartz surface. The quartz was separated as completely as possible from the solution by filtering and centrifuging. The activity on the quartz and in the equilibrium solution was measured and the partition of the sodium was calculated from the resulting data. The detailed procedure for the adsorption test is set forth in a thesis by Laxen5 In brief, it included the following steps: 1-Ascertainment of linearity between concentration of Na22 and activity measured. 2-Evaluation of factor to translate activity on solid of infinite thickness in terms of activity on an evaporated active film of minute thickness, on the various shelves of the counter shield. 3-Taking precautions to avoid evaporation of water during centrifuging.

Jan 1, 1952

By C. A. Heiland

For a long time it has been known that it is possible to deduce conclusions about the physical constitution of the interior of the earth from the records of natural earthquakes obtained by stationary seismographs. In view of this fact it is surprising how late, relatively speaking, geologic prospecting by seismic methods has been taken up, although the first suggestion was made 40 years ago—that travel-time curves of artificial explosions might be used for the study of the change of the velocity of seismic waves as depth. Further suggestions of practical applications of artificial explosions for geologic purposes were made by Belar12 by von dem Borne,3 by Benndorf and by Galitzin,5 but it was not .until 1919 that Mintrop obtained a patent on the seismic prospecting method which he has applied commercially on a large scale ever since. Dr. Mintrop came to this country with his method at about 1923. Since that time, several American oil companies have developed seismographs of the mechanical type for the vertical component similar to that of Mintrop's (Humble Oil Co., Dr. Ricker). Other consulting geophysical companies designed other types of seismic devices, the simplest of them for the recording of the first impulse being the geophone (McCol-lum Geophone Co.). The galvanometric recording method as first proposed by Galitzin is being used (Geophysical Research Corpn.?) and use is being made even of the piezoelectric properties of crystals for portable seismographs (F. Rieber). There is such an enormous variety of all kinds of portable seismographs, vibrographs, accelerographs, etc., that it is difficult to decide just what kind is preferable. Unfortunately, nothing has been published as yet about American designs of portable seismographs, except the Wood-Anderson torsion-seismometer. After Mintrop's design of portable seismographs, other constructions were made

Jan 1, 1929

By C. A. Heiland

For a long time it has been known that it is possible to deduce conclusions about the physical constitution of the interior of the earth from the records of natural earthquakes obtained by stationary seismographs. In view of this fact it is surprising how late, relatively speaking, geologic prospecting by seismic methods has been taken up, although the first suggestion was made 40 years ago- that travel-time curves of artificial explosions might be used for the study of the change of the velocity of seismic waves as depth. Further suggestions of practical applications of artificial explosions for geologic purposes were made by Belar,2 by von dem Borne,3 by Benndorf4 and by Galitzin,5 but it was not until 1919 that Mintrop obtained. a patent on the seismic prospecting method which he has applied commercially on a large scale ever since. Dr. Mintrop came to this country with his method at about 1923. Since that time, several. American oil companies have developed seismographs of the mechanical type for the vertical component similar to that of Mintrop's (Humble Oil Co., Dr. Ricker). Other consulting geophysical companies designed other types of seismic devices, the simplest of them for the recording of the first impulse being the geophone (McCollum Geophone Co.). The galvanometric recording method as first proposed by Galitzin is being used (Geophysical Research Corpn.?) and use is being made even of the piezoelectric properties of crystals for portable seismographs (F. Rieber).. There is such an enormous variety of all kinds of portable seismographs, vibrographs, accelerographs, etc., that it is difficult to decide just what kind is preferable. Unfortunately, nothing has been published as yet about American designs of portable seismographs, except the Wood Anderson torsion-seismometer. After Mintrop's design of portable seismographs, other constructions were made.

Jan 1, 1928