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By G. B. Gould

FROM the very inception of the price-control experiment in the bituminous-coal industry, the problem of price differentials was of major importance. In fact, assuming that there will be no legal or Govern- mental obstacles to price control, the successful maintenance of the present or any other method designed to control bituminous-coal prices will depend upon the discovery of some satisfactory way to determine these differentials in price, among: individual mines and groups of mines. Being of organic origin, bituminous coal is a commodity that presents an almost infinite variety of qualities. It is inevitable, therefore, that a work- able price-control system must attempt

Jan 1, 1935

By HARRISON W. CRAVER

LIBRARIES are universally recognized as essential to modern civilization. In a world that gets most of its learning through the printed word, storehouses of print are a vital necessity. In this regard engineering differs in no way from the other learned professions, but until recent times the library needs of engineers have received rather scant attention. When the engineering profession was more of an art and less of a science than it is today, when each problem was solved more through the results of experience than by applying scientific principles, literature was less helpful. The engineer of today, however, is aware that his activities rest upon a scientific foundation and consequently comprehensive books dealing with more limited fields are now being published. Another difficulty for the operating engineer in the past was that the published works on engineering were written chiefly for use as college texts. A third obstacle to the development of engineering libraries has been the lack of librarians with experience in engineering.

Jan 1, 1938

By Edward C. Morse

The metallurgical history of Republic has been completely reviewed in a paper presented at a previous meeting of the Spokane Local Section by Professor Thomson;' therefore, the present paper will be confined to matters directly pertaining to the San Poil mill: When I came to Republic last fall to look over the situation there was a plant in operation successfully treating the tailings from one of the earlier mills in the camp. I refer to the mill of the Rathfon Reduction Co. This mill was operating in accordance with modern cyaniding practice, and I was given to understand that the work was very satisfactory and profitable, else it would not have been continued as long as it was. At that time I obtained much metallurgical information of value from Harry W. Newton, Superintendent of the mill of the North Washington Power & Reduction Co. I took a number of samples from the San Poil mine, with the view of determining if Mr. Newton's experience with the ores from the other mines applied to the San Poil ores. I made a large number of tests under a variety of conditions, and found that it was possible to extract as high as 98 per cent, of the values from San Poil ore by the laboratory-tests when the ore was pulverized to 200-mesh and treated with a solution of a strength of 5 Ib. of KCN to the ton. A fairly strong solution was required because of the proportion of silver in the ore, which makes it, from a metallurgical point of view, practically

Jan 1, 1913

By F. W. Schremp, J. W. Chittum, T. S. Arczynski

This paper describes a laboratory study of causes of external casing corrosion and the test work that led to the use of oxygen scavengers to prevent this attack. External casing failures are classified as water-line, casing-casing, collar and body failures. A corrosion mechanism based on principles of differential oxygen availability is developed that is consistent with facts known about each kind of failure. The field use of oxygen scavengers is depicted as a direct result of the laboratory study. A part of the paper is devoted to reporting on the field use of hydra-zine to control external casing corrosion. Results of field measurements made over a period of several years are presented as evidence of the efectiveness of the hydrazine treatment. The first conclusion reached is that the use of hydrazine materially reduces the cathodic protection requirements for treated wells. This result is interpreted to mean that a reduction is taking place in the amount of corrosion on the casing. Results indicate also that hydrazine shows its greatest usefulness within the first 12 to 18 months after a well is completed when pitting corrosion is likely to be most active. INTRODUCTION According to surveys sponsored by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers,' the cost of repairing casing leaks caused by external corrosion may exceed $4 million per year. In addition, well damage and lost production resulting from casing leaks probably costs the petroleum industry an additional $5 to $6 million per year. Concern about the cost of external casing corrosion led to an extensive laboratory study of factors causing this external corrosion and to the development of a new approach to its prevention. This paper presents a discussion of various causes of external casing corrosion, details of laboratory studies and the results of the field use of an oxygen scavenger in well cementing fluids to prevent the external corrosion of oil-string casing. Measurements on test wells over a period of several years show that cathodic-protection current requirements are greatly reduced when hydrazine is used in cementing mud. Reduction of current requirements can be interpreted to mean that removal of oxygen by hydrazine has greatly suppressed corrosion cells on the external surface of the casing and thereby, has reduced corrosion. To date, hydrazine has been used by the Standard Oil Co. of California in more than 200 well completions. KINDS OF CASING FAILURES A survey of a large number of casing leaks disclosed four types of external casing failures — water-line, casing-casing, collar and body failures. These types are identified largely by their location on the casing. Water-line failures are found just below the surface of water or mud in the casing annulus. Casing-casing failures occur on the oil string just below the shoe of the surface string. Collar failures are found in the threaded ends of casing joints where they are screwed into casing collars. Body failures may occur at any point on the body of a casing joint. Ex- amples of each kind of failure have some of the general characteristics that are shown in Fig. 1. Water-line failures usually result in the circumferential severance of an oil-string casing. The corrosive action causing a water-line failure usually is sharply defined and is limited to a short length of the casing. Casing-casing failures usually are accompanied by pitting corrosion distributed around the oil-string casing for distances up to 100-ft below the shoe of the surface string. Casing-casing failures may also sever the casing. Collar failures seem to start on the first thread at the bottom of recesses between collar and casing joint. Corrosion proceeds across the threads by what appears to be a normal pitting mechanism. Both casing and collar are severely attacked. Body failures are the result of highly localized pitting at any point on a casing wall. Besides the pit that perforates a casing, a large number of other pits usually are found along one side of the casing joint. The pits occasionally are filled with corrosion products consisting largely of oxides and sulfides.' Frequently, the mill scale is largely intact on the rest of the casing. Examination of a casing failure does not always reveal the cause of the failure. Frequently, the necessary details are destroyed when the failure occurs. For example, formation water flowing through a perforation at high velocity may enlarge the hole and destroy any remaining evidence of the cause of the failure. One way to obtain undistorted information about a failure is to study the nature of other pits on the casing in the vicinity of the failure. A study of such pits frequently suggests that they are characteristic of an attack resulting from the differential availability of molecular oxygen.

By Glenn Allen

SAN FRANCISCO Mines of Mexico, Ltd. owns and operates an extensive group of claims in the San Francisco del Oro-Santa Barbara district, about 15 miles southwest of Parral, Chihuahua. The property comprises the mines, aerial tramways, flotation mill, power plant, shops, offices, assay and testing laboratories, modern hospital, water and sanitary system, quarters for miners, mechanics and operators, a well housed colony for Mexican staff employees and residences for foreigners. Each colony has a club house and mess and tennis courts. The employees have constructed a nine-hole golf course. In other words, the property is self-contained and completely integrated for production of lead and zinc concentrates from complex sulfide ores.

Jan 1, 1930

By NEWTON B. KNOX

IN Bolivia, mining is still the principal economic activity, as it was before and during the Spanish Colonial period. Tin, tungsten, antimony, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, sulphur, and a little bismuth are produced. The Andes mountains are divided into two main ranges in Bolivia; the Western range marks the border with Chile and the Eastern range forms the backbone of the country; in the North it drops rather abruptly eastward, to the plains of the Beni, whereas in the South it splits and is separated from the Chaco flatlands by a series of folded mountain ranges. In general the mineral deposits are found within the Eastern range or in the hills that rise from the high plateau between the ranges - really parts of the Eastern range partly submerged by recent sediments. The mineral belt is thus over 500 miles long and about 100 miles wide and includes most of the principal centers of population and the most important means of communication. The region is mountainous and the roads are bad; furthermore labor is a serious problem, for the land is poor and the agricultural population is never far from hunger. The floating supply of miners is limited and soon exhausted in any emergency like the present.

Jan 1, 1945

By Ralph D. Parker

A STRIKING testimonial to the value of safety was contained in an ad- dress given in May, 1936, by A. R. Young, vice-president of the United States Steel Corp.: In the period from 1906 to 1935 we have spent $24,860,540 on safety work. By comparing the cost of "prevented" accidents by the cost of settling similar accidents, we found that we had made a saving of $117,224,238. Even if those figures are 50 per cent wrong, at least we got back every dollar we paid for safety and another with it. I don't think anyone has to blush before his board of directors for an investment of that kind.

Jan 1, 1937

By George A. Lamb

AMONG the main interesting developments in the coal market have been the changes that have taken place between the consumer groups. Important signs of these changes began to appear many years ago, but in a modest way, and were apparent only to the few fuel experts making broad statistical determinations. It is doubtful, however, that any of these experts appreciated the significance of their early findings, and perhaps none had the imagination to consider how extensive these changes might be eventually with respect to solid fuels sales and distribution. (Reference here will be principally to bituminous coal.) Railroad Fuel Major changes in coal use did become pronounced after World War II, and it did not take an expert to see what was taking place and how serious the impact was likely to be. First, was the case of the steam and diesel locomotives. The railroads had been considered the best coal customers; they were steady and large purchasers and usually paid a better price than most others. Railroad fuel provided the basic mine realization and it often was the source for operating cash during general market slumps. It was the outlet for 20 pct of the bituminous coal production, as much as 110 million tons in 1946.

Jan 2, 1957

By Benjamin C. Craft

A review of development in North Louisiana during 1936 centers around the Rodessa field, in Caddo Parish. Continued extension of the

Jan 1, 1937

By Nathaniel Herz

The use of zinc dust for precipitating the pecious metals from cyanide solutions is well established now in many places, and has many advantages over the shavings method of precipitation. Although much work has been done o,n methods of testing zinc dust, as yet. no absolutely positive test has been devised to determine the value of the material. Certain facts are known, but often it happens that results on a working scale are not as expected from the laboratory tests. The purpose of this paper is to record some obscrvations made while testing a large variety of zinc-dust samples in the laboratory. W. J. Sharwoodl has described standard analytical methods, which have been followed, with the changes noted. The regular determinations include zinc oxide, by solution in ammonia and ammonium chloride, lead, and precipitating efficiency. In some cases cadmium was determined by a method similar to that described by J E Clennell.2 I will discuss the precipitating-efficiency test in detail. The procedure is as follows: "A solution of potassium silver cyanide is prepared by dissolving 10 grams of silver cyanide (AgCN) and 5 grams of 99 %' potassium cyanide in a little water and diluting up to 1000 cc. It is then adjusted by addition of a little more XCN or AgCN until the solution indicates from 0.12% to 0.15% free KCN by titration with standard silver nitrate. The titration is best made by using a 10-cc. or 20-cc. sample, adding 1 CC. of 2 % potassium iodide, and a slight excess of ammonia, as the end point is then sharper. Or 15 grams of pure crystallized XAg(CN)2 may be dissolved in a liter of water and 1.5 grams XCN added. " Weigh out 0.5 gram zinc dust into a 300-cc. beaker. Add a few cubic centimeters of watcr and stir until zinc is well mixed, then pour in 250 cc. of the prepared solution, stirring vigorously. See that all lumps are broken up, and continue stirring for fully five minutes. Stir occasionally (at least every 10 minutes) until the end of two hours from the addition of the solution. Then filter upon an 11-cm. filter, wash precipitate thoroughly, sprinkle with test lead, wrap it carefully in the paper, place in a scarifier with about 20 grams test lead, burn paper cautiously in muffle, scorify five minutes, cupel at low temperature and weigh silver. Milligrams silver obtained from 0.5 gram zinc X 0.0606 = percentage precipitating efflciency."³

Jan 1, 1916

HUDSON MAXIM, Brooklyn, N. Y.-Immediately after the creation of the Naval Consulting Board, Admiral Strauss, Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy, told members of the Board that the most important problem for the scientists to solve was erosion in large guns. The Navy, for years, had been working on the problem with marked suceess, but there was much yet remaining to be accomplished. As Chairman of the Committee on Ordnance and Explosives of the Naval Consulting Board, I communicated with several experts in the manufacture of steel, principal among whom was Prof. Howe. He generously agreed to help in every way possible, and the work that he has done and the time that he has spent upon it can he appreciated only by reading his paper. Prof. Howe asked for some rings. from a, certain 14-in. gun which Admiral Strauss had mentioned in particular, and in which, he had informed us, at each shot the bore of the gun, was enlarged about 0.001 in.,' and that after a relatively small number of rounds it was considerably eroded. It has puzzled scientists for a long time to account for the peculiar erosive effect produced by the powder gases in a gun, arid: what Prof. Howe has done in his paper is worthy of Sherlock Holmes. He is a veritable Sherlock Holmes of science.

Jan 4, 1918

By George F. Becker

A Nere record of Emmons's professional career would very inadequately represent the man. That he was eminent mc know, and our successors will realize in due time; but they must depend upon us for knowledge of a singularly ~vholesome, modest, unselfish personality, and of a character that did honor to a profession in which trustworthiness is indispensable. Those members of the Institute who met Emmons are his friends, and I never knew .one of these who was not the better for that friendship. Emmons was born in Boston, Mar. 29, 1841, the son of Xathaniel H. and Elizabeth (Wales) Emmons, and was named Samuel Frankliri after an ancestor who was of the sarne family as Benjamin Franklin. He took the degrcc of Bachelor of Arts at Harvard in 1861, and soon afterwards went abroad to complete his education. From 1862 to 1864 he attended the courses at the fieole Impkriale des Mines at Paris, Elie de Beaumont arid Daubrke being among his professors. The year 1864-1865 he spent at Freiberg under Cotta and other famous teachers; after which he spent another year in traveling through Europe. Like many other renowned geologists, he approached his ultimate profession from its economic side, and was thus from the first imbued with a sense of high responsibility in the promulgation of scientific opinions or conclusions. With hypotheses which were interesting merely because they were ingenious or even plausible, he would have nothing to do. In 1867 he joined the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel at its organization under Clarence King, serving at first as a volunteer, but soon receiving a regular appointment. This expedition was the first one of purely geological character sent out by the United States government. As Emmons has shown in his admirable presidential address on " The Geology of Government Explorations," its work was founded on a com-

Jan 1, 1912

By E. J. KENNEDY

THE annual dinner-dance was held in the large ball room of the Commodore hotel Wednesday evening. A total of 577 were seated at the dinner, over which President Eavenson presided as chairman and toastmaster. In introducing George C. Stone, the James Douglas Medalist, W. R. Ingalls outlined the former's association with the zinc industry. He said, in part In designing and building Palmerton, Stone erected a metallurgical monument and won the title of chief engineer of the New Jersey Zinc Co., with transferal to its New York office in 1900. There lie held forth in dignity, efficiency, and with appreciation until his retirement from active service in 1929. After a few years lie was diverted from the position of chief engineer for his company to the superior one of chief metallurgist and that gave to Stone his next big chance.... This was the conception of a research department and the ability to persuade his directors to adopt it. I shall not pretend to summarize the great things that afterward developed. I shall mention only the institution of the manufacture of lithopone in this country, the charging of the Wetherill furnace with briquets, the mechanicalization of the Wetherills, the accomplishment of continuous distilling, and most recently the introduction of reflux-refining.

Jan 1, 1935

By Ta M. Li

How do you convert a copper-zinc resource into a viable economic mining operation? This problem, unlike most, was complicated by the additional presence of a sub-arctic climate, highest labor costs in the world, low-grade copper-zinc values, depressed market prices, and a complex mineralization.

Jan 12, 1977

By C. S. Barrett, O. R. Trautz

Previous investigations have shown that lithium is body-centered cubic from near its melting point to the temperature of liquid air.1,2,3 Nevertheless there was an incentive to search again for a transformation at low temperatures: C. Zener4.5 has remarked that the low value of the elastic modulus (C11 — Cl2)/z of body-centered cubic metals and alloys implies a rapid increase in free energy with decreasing temperature, which would favor the occurrence of a transformation; also the shear movement to which this modulus applies is one that can transform a body-centered cubic structure into a slightly distorted face-centered cubic structure. It was confirmed that lithium does not transform spontaneously at liquid nitrogen temperature, but it was found that a transformation can be induced at this temperature by cold working the metal,6 and at slightly lower temperatures a different transformation occurs spontaneously. Transformations were also found in solid solutions of magnesium in lithium. The Nature of the Transformations Before presenting a detailed treatment of the technique used and the specific data obtained, it would be well to give a brief survey of the general characteristics of the transformations. A new crystal structure begins to form spontaneously in a specimen when it is cooled below a critical temperature. In lithium the structure appears to be close-packed hexagonal; in theLi-Mg alloys most of the diffraction lines (but not all) are near those for hexagonal lithium. The transformation proceeds as the temperature is lowered and soon stops if the temperature is held constant or raised. The course of the transformation on cooling is indicated by the curve at the lower left of Fig -I. This curve is drawn in stepped fashion because the transformation goes by discrete steps with audible clicks. Because of the similarity to the decomposition of austenite into martensite in steels, it seems appropriate to designate the beginning of the spontaneous transformation on cooling as the Ms point. On heating to room temperature after the low temperature treatment only the usual BCC structure is found. On heating, the low temperature modification begins to disappear at a temperature which will be designated as Ac. The transformation on heating is halted when the rise in temperature is halted. The temperature must be raised 40 to 50°C above Ac before the reversion is complete—an interval which is sensitive to the rate of heating and to the time of holding at temperatures above Ac. This behavior on heating thus has similarities also to the formation of martensite in the cooling of steels.

Jan 1, 1949

By William S. Springer

A NEW preparation plant has been put in - operation to treat coal from the recently opened Concord mine, located about 15 miles west of Birmingham, Ala., by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., a U. S. Steel subsidiary. The mine produces metallurgical grade coking coal from the American seam for use as coke in the company's blast furnaces at the Fairfield and Enseley works. The capacity of the operation is 1000 tons of run-of-mine per hr, approximately half of which is delivered to the by-product coke plant at Fairfield after beneficiation to metallurgical grade. The remaining portion of the mine run is rock and refuse removed during preparation. No boiler coal or other fuels are produced by this mine. Preparation of the coal is done both under- ground and on the surface. The underground primary crushing station removes some tramp iron, and screens and crushes the oversize, most of which is rock, to protect the main slope conveyor. The surface plant consists of a crushing and screening plant, large blending bins, a two- process washing plant, a water clarification and

Jan 1, 1950

By L. S. Cates

THE war is now behind us. We in the mining industry feel a just pride in the part that our industry and our men and our products played in defeating the enemy on the fighting fronts around the world. In five years of mobilization and actual combat, our mines and oil wells produced over 3 billion tons of coal, a billion tons of petroleum, 500 million tons of iron ore, 21/4 million tons of lead, 31/2 million tons of zinc, 5 million tons of copper, 14 million tons of bauxite, 17 million tons of sulphur, 68 million tons of salt, and 3 million tons of potash. It was an unparalleled performance. But what of today? Why the present low production and high costs? Among the black clouds in the mining sky none are so black as that presented by the labor situation. We know it is the result of the legislation and the interpretation of that legislation in the past ten or fifteen years. Since the passage of the Norris-LaGuardia Act in 1932, we have had nothing but a succession of laws, regulations, and decisions that have intensified the strength of the unions and made the operators of the mines and the sources of their financing prartirally impotent

Jan 1, 1946

By C. S. Barrett, O. R. Trautz

PREVIOUS investigations have shown that lithium is body-centered cubic from near its melting point to the temperature of liquid air1,2,3 Nevertheless there was an incentive to search again for a transformation at low temperatures: C. Zener4,5 has remarked that the low value of the elastic modulus (11 - C12)/2 of body-centered cubic metals and alloys implies a rapid increase in free energy with decreasing temperature, which would favor the occurrence of a transformation; also the shear movement to which this modulus applies is one that can transform a body-centered cubic structure into a slightly distorted face-centered cubic structure. It was confirmed that lithium does not transform spontaneously at liquid nitrogen temperature, but it was found that a transformation can be induced at this temperature by cold working the metal,6 and at slightly lower temperatures a different transformation occurs spontaneously. Transformations were also found in solid solutions of magnesium in lithium. THE NATURE OF THE TRANSFORMATIONS Before presenting a detailed treatment of the technique used and the specific data obtained, it would be well to give a brief survey of the general characteristics of the transformations. A new crystal structure begins to form spontaneously in a specimen when it is cooled below a critical temperature. In lithium the structure appears to be close-packed hexagonal; in the Li-Mg alloys most of the diffraction lines (but not all) are near those for hexagonal lithium. The transformation proceeds as the temperature is lowered and soon stops if the temperature is held constant or raised. The course of the transformation on cooling is indicated by the curve at the lower left of Fig I. This curve is drawn in stepped fashion because the transformation goes by discrete steps with audible clicks. Because of the similarity to the decomposition of austenite into martensite in steels, it seems appropriate to designate the beginning of the spontaneous transformation on cooling as the Ms point. On heating to room temperature after the low temperature treatment only the usual BCC structure is found. On heating, the low temperature modification begins to disappear at a temperature which will be designated as Ac. The transformation on heating is halted when the rise in temperature is halted. The temperature must be raised 40 to 50°C above Ac before the reversion is complete-an interval which is sensitive to the rate of heating and to the time of holding at temperatures above Ac. This behavior on heating thus has similarities also to the formation of martensite in the cooling of steels.

Jan 1, 1948

By Edward H. Robie

THE registration badges gave out, there were not enough programs, the Pioneer Hotel's rooms were insufficient, and some hundred applicants for banquet tickets had to be turned down at the Institute's Regional Meeting in Tucson, Nov. 1-5. Minor inconveniences these, however, occasioned by the fact that, optimistic as they are in Arizona, about half again as many partook of the week's activities as were expected. For this, the local program committee can be blamed-both the technical and social features were too attractive in quantity and quality. Seriously speaking, though, the Institute has probably never had a more successful Regional Meeting than this one. It being the first that has been held in Arizona in 22 years, no effort was spared to make it the distinctive gathering that it was.

Jan 1, 1938

"The Washoe Smelter is situated about two miles east of the City of Anaconda. The smelter site includes about 240 acres and peculiarly adapts itself in topography to the efficient handling of material. By reason of its being on a hill side it is possible to make the level of delivery of the product of one building the level of the charge floor of the next succeeding one.THE ORES: The ore treated comes principally from the Butte district and is hauled by the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific railway, a distance of twenty-eight miles, in trains of fifty 50-ton bottom-dump cars to the railroad yards at East Anaconda. At this point these trains are• split up according to their destination,—that is, as to whether they go to the concentrator and sampling mill ore bins, or to the storage bins. In each case they are made up into trains of eight or sixteen cars, according to the size of engine to be used, and are carefully weighed before delivery to their respective bills.Some idea of the magnitude of the works may be obtained from the following figures:Amount of ore that can be treated in 24 hours…12,000 tonsLime rock from adjacent quarries…2,300 tonsCoke used…500 tonsCoal for reverberatory use…500 tonsCoal for power use…50 tonsWater, per minute, 35,000 gallons.Men employed in and around Anaconda, 3,000. Monthly payroll for above, $300,000.00."

Jan 1, 1913