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By Thomas W. Dawson

The H. C. Frick Coke Co. has used belt conveyers for handling coal for the last eighteen years but, until recently, only for small tonnages and over short distances. The first installations were outside the mines for distributing coal to various parts of plants. A belt conveyer was put in service at Colonial No. 4 Mine in November, 1906, to carry coal from the main hoisting shaft to a storage bin serving two blocks of beehive ovens on the other side of the valley; it was in constant service until the Colonial No. 4 ovens were abandoned less than a year ago. This conveyor was in an overhead gallery that spanned our sidings and yard tracks and the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was a crude installation, from the viewpoint of present conveyor engineering practice. It had no mechanical feeding device, the coal simply ran through a gate in the side of a bin on to the belt; but one belt on this conveyor lasted eleven years. This conveyor is about 300 ft. long center to center of pulleys. It operated at a speed of 250 ft. 'per min-and carried about 400 tons per day. On this basis, the belt life of eleven years means that not over a million and a quarter tons was carried by the belt. whi1e: this is not a large tonnage, the cost per ton was much less than by any previous method in use for supplying coal to ovens located at a distance from the main shaft. The next belt conveyor was installed at Bridgeport Mine in 1907. It carried about the same daily tonnage as the first, delivering from the hoisting shaft to a coke-oven bin. Very few data were kept on this conveyor. It also operated until the coke ovens at the plant were put out of blast and the coal taken to the Clairton byproduct plant by river. In 1916, work was started to equip the Bridgeport, Palmer, Gates, and Ronco mines to load their entire output on the river for transportation to the Clairton byproduct plant, which was then being built. These mines were all operating at that time and had a large area of coal available for river shipment. The Monongahela Railroad was located between the hoisting shaft and the river at each of these plants and, therefore, had to be crossed at each location to deliver coal to the river. After careful study, it was decided to transport this coal from the hoisting shaft to the river at each of these plants by belt conveyors.

Jan 1, 1925

By Graham MacFarlane

The largest area of high-grade cannel coals known in America is doubtless found in eastern Kentucky. Notwithstanding the popular belief to the contrary, there is no reason to doubt that these eastern Kentucky cannel-fields, following the general rule, will be uncertain and treacherous. But, taken in the aggregate, their extent is very great. The principal service to which cannel coal can be put is enriching illuminating-gas. The electric light has, to a certain extent, created a demand for better gas, and has increased the market for gas-enrichers. Before the discovery of rock-oil, coal-oil was distilled from cannel coal and cannel shale. This business was getting fairly started when the cheaper rock-oil, or petroleum, overcame it, and the great distilleries went into disuse and ruin. Now, again, the chief competitor with cannel coal is oil, namely, the cheap oil of Lima, Ohio. Under proper treatment the vile odor of this oil can be removed.

Jan 1, 1890

By R. V. Wheeler, W. Francis

Of the methods that have been used for studying the chemical composition of coal, attack by reagents has not, in general, yielded much information. Most of the reagents used have been strong oxidants such as nitric acid or Schulze's solution. The use of a milder oxidizing agent, such as air at low temperatures, enables progressive changes in the character af the coal substance to be studied and thus helps toward an understanding of its constitution. British bituminous coals frequently have a banded structure. These bands (of four types) can be separated one from another and have been found to possess markedly different chemical characteristics, even when taken from contiguous portions of the same lump coal. It has been found convenient to give each of the ingredients of banded coal a distinctive name, more or less descriptive of its appearance, and the study of the chemistry of bituminous "coal" in England has resolved itself into a study of each ingredient separately. The coal chosen for this work was taken from the Top Hard seam at East Kirkby colliery, Nottinghamshire, a detailed chemical analysis of which has been recorded by Baranov and Francis.' The banded structure was well marked and the bands could readily be separated. The research was confined to the brilliant vitreous bands (vitrain), the dull hard bands (durain) and the "sooty partings" main); for previous work had shown that the fourth type, to which the name clarain has been given, is intermediate in character, chemically, between vitrain and durain. The method of experiment was, briefly, to draw a slow current of moist air through weighed samples (50 gm.) of the three ingredients, vitrain, durain, and fusain, in the form of powder (through a 60-mesh and on a 90-mesh sieve) contained in glass tubes which could be maintained at a constant temperature during prolonged periods. After passing through the coal, the air bubbled into a measured volume of

Jan 1, 1925

By William L. Fink, E. H. Dix, L. A. Willey

The results of a preliminary investigation of the aluminum-iron-manganese system showed that small amounts of iron (0.10 per cent) substantially reduce the solid solubility of manganese in aluminum. This is clearly shown in the photomicrographs of three alloys, Figs. 1 to 3. Fig. 1, of an alloy containing 1.04 per cent manganese after a heat treatment at 626° C. for 45 hr., shows only solid solution. This alloy contained less than 0.008 per cent iron. Fig. 2 shows the abundance of a constituent (which undoubtedly contains aluminum, manganese and iron) in an alloy containing 1.00 per cent manganese and 0.11 percent iron after a solution heat treatment at 625" C. for 63 hr. For comparison, Fig. 3 is included to show the relatively small amount of constituent (FeA13) in a similarly heat-treated aluminum alloy containing 0.10 per cent iron but no manganese. These data necessitated a reconsideration of the binary aluminum-manganese diagram that was previously presented,' inasmuch as the alloys used in that work contained from 0.02 to 0.05 per cent iron. This paper is the fourteenth of a series from the Research Laboratories of the Aluminum Company of America reporting the results of investigations of equilibrium relations in aluminum-base alloys of high purity. The purpose was to determine the phase relations in aluminum with aluminum-manganese alloys containing the smallest amount of iron that could be realized with the purest material available at the present time (less than 0.01 per cent iron). Since the previous publication from these laboratories, five investigations of the aluminum-manganese system have been reported. Krings and Ostmannz assigned the formula MnA14 to the compound at the aluminum end of the syst,em, and found a eutectic between this compound and aluminum at 649" C. and 3 per cent manganese.

Jan 1, 1933

By N. O. Johnson, J. Boyer, D. H. Sargent, R. B. Frahme

Although the Western bentonite industry has grown rapidly, it is facing major challenges to sustained growth. The fundamental penalty of costly overland transportation to both domestic markets and to US seaports is of increasing importance; as both substitute materials and foreign bentonites present more formidable competition in the historic market areas of drilling muds, foundry sands, and iron ore pelletizing; and as foreign demand grows more rapidly than domestic demand. The Western bentonite industry is facing these challenges by altering its transportation patterns, by upgrading of products, and by emphasizing customer service and stringent quality control.

Jan 1, 1980

By N. O. Johnson, J. Boyer, D. H. Sargent, R. B. Frahme

Although the Western bentonite industry has grown rapidly, it is facing major challenges to sustained growth. The fundamental penalty of costly overland transportation to both domestic markets and to US seaports is of increasing importance; as both substitute materials and foreign bentonites present more formidable competition in the historic market areas of drilling muds, foundry sands, and iron ore pelletizing; and as foreign demand grows more rapidly than domestic demand. The Western bentonite industry is facing these challenges by altering its transportation patterns, by upgrading of products, and by emphasizing customer service and stringent quality control.

Jan 9, 1979

By D. Dever, E. S. Fisher

Measurements of the temperature dependence of the elastic moduli in single crystals of hep ruthenium, rhenium, cobalt, dysprosium, and erbium were carried out for various temperature ranges so as to investigate the correlation, suggested by prior work, between the shear anisotropy ratio, A = C44/C66, and the occurrence of the hcp — bee phase transformation. These measurements confirm the suggestion that A has a positive temperature dependence in that group of hcp metals that undergo thermally induced transfornzations to the bee structure and a negative or zero temperature dependence in the other hcp metals. It appears, from indirect evidence, that the hcp -fee transformation in cobalt is preceded by a highly negative temperature dependence of A. These results indicate that elastic anisotropy is an important factor in determining the temperatures at which martensitic phase transformations occur. Two possible roles for elastic anisotropy are proposed: 1) the shear-modulus ratio within the habit planes must be nearly similar for the two phases and 2) a large anisotropy decreases the stress necessary for the movement of the transfornzation dislocations. FUCHS' calculations of the elastic moduli in the alkali metals have shown that the high shear-anisotropy ratios, c/c', in certain bee metals and alloys are the result of large negative contributions to c' = (c11 - c12)/2 arising from the nearest-neighbor repulsive forces.' On this basis, and following Zener,2 the association between high c/c' ratios and the martensitic phase transformations that occur upon cooling certain bee metals is explained as a unique characteristic of the bee structure. Recent measurements of the elastic moduli in hcp titanium and zirconium show, however, that a high elastic anisotropy also exists in these hcp structures at the temperatures at which they transform to bee upon heating3. If there exists a direct and consistent correlation between the elastic anisotropy in close-packed structures and the occurrence of transformations to the bee phases then there is evidently a need to re-examine the conclusions of Zener theory. Elastic anisotropy may also be the result of the effects of temperature on the stability of the low-temperature close-packed structures or it may play an important role in the mech- anism of the martensitic transformations. The present measurements were aimed at establishing the phenomenological correlation between elastic shear anisotropy in hcp structures and the thermally induced hcp —bee transformations that occur in the majority of the twenty-three hcp metals, as shown in Table I. Prior to the present work the temperature dependence of the anisotropy ratio, A = c44/c66, was known at various temperatures for nine of the metals listed. The data showed a negative temperature dependence of A for cadmium, zinc, magnesium, and cobalt, which do not transform to bee, and a positive temperature dependence of A for thallium, zirconium, titanium, hafnium, and yttrium. The correlation was, however, ambiguous in that these two groups of metals are also separated with respect to the c/a ratios as noted in Table I. There remained the possibility that the temperature dependence of A is a function of c/a and not consistently associated with the transformation. The measurements of the elastic moduli in rhenium and ruthenium, in which hcp —bee transformations do not occur, were needed to help decide this question. The studies of dysprosium and erbium were undertaken to determine whether the correlation holds for the heavy rare earth metals.

Jan 1, 1968

By AIME

AS with Phil Kraft, referred to on this page last month, travel has always held a great fascination for Raymond Frank Baker and for that reason he determined to become a geologist. He had heard that geologists travel and that was what he wanted to do. Now as chief geologist for The Texas Co. his early wish has been fulfilled-he spends almost one third of his time journeying' from one oil field to another. Mr. Baker was born in New Haven, Conn., on Jan. 11, 1892, and went through the public schools in New Britain. A stalwart New Englander, he attended Yale and in 1912 received a degree in civil engineering. For a year following this he worked as a civil engineer for the New York Central Railroad, but his early urge to travel widely could not be satisfied here. So in 1913 he re-entered Yale and until 1916 studied mining and economic geology. He had a little taste of field work, which later became so enjoyable to him, in the summer of 1915 when he worked with the U. S. Geological Survey as a geologic aid. In 1916 he made his first contact with The Texas Co. when he entered their Tulsa office as a geologist. This early career was interrupted by service in the

Jan 1, 1947

By Charles R. Austin, Carl H. Samans

In an earlier serics of studies on 18-8 stainless steel at 600º, 700º, and 800ºC.l one pretreatment was used throughout; viz., 15 min. in hydrogen at 950°C., followed by an air quench. Several manufacturers of this alloy since have expressed doubt as to the suitability of the temperature employed, recommending instead the more customary Strauss treatment as promising superior results. In this subsequent investigation on the effects of the temperature of pretreatment several interesting points have arisen, which are described in this paper. Previous work on our equipment had shown a marked difference between alloys of "similar chemical composition" that had been manufactured by different companies. Accordingly, one mill-bar length was selected from which to prepare all specimens. It could then be assumed that any marked differences in creep characteristics would be due to effects resulting from variations in the pretreatment of the alloy. The material was furnished by the Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Co. in the form of 5/16-in. dia. rod, finished by air cooling from a mill anneal at 1950°F. (1066°C.). It was analyzed only for the elements shown: carbon, 0.07 per cent; chromium, 18.73; nickel, 9.46; manganese, 0.40. Three pretreating temperatures were chosen, the specimens being held for 15 min. in hydrogen at either: (1) 1150°C., to conform to the recommended Strauss treatment; (2) 950°C., to compare with the results of previous tests; or (3) 75Q°C., to initiate precipitation of carbides in the material before testing. As the test cross sections were only 1/8-in. dia., air cooling followed the annealing treatment. These treatments permitted two direct comparisons: (1) between the 1150" and 950°C. treatments to indicate the effect of grain size when all carbides were probably in solution at the start of the test; and (2) between the 950" and 750°C. treatments to indicate the effect of carbide "nucleation" for similar grain sizes.

Jan 1, 1940

By Carl H. Samans, Charles R. Austin

In an earlier serics of studies on 18-8 stainless steel at 600º, 700º, and 800ºC.l one pretreatment was used throughout; viz., 15 min. in hydrogen at 950°C., followed by an air quench. Several manufacturers of this alloy since have expressed doubt as to the suitability of the temperature employed, recommending instead the more customary Strauss treatment as promising superior results. In this subsequent investigation on the effects of the temperature of pretreatment several interesting points have arisen, which are described in this paper. Previous work on our equipment had shown a marked difference between alloys of "similar chemical composition" that had been manufactured by different companies. Accordingly, one mill-bar length was selected from which to prepare all specimens. It could then be assumed that any marked differences in creep characteristics would be due to effects resulting from variations in the pretreatment of the alloy. The material was furnished by the Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Co. in the form of 5/16-in. dia. rod, finished by air cooling from a mill anneal at 1950°F. (1066°C.). It was analyzed only for the elements shown: carbon, 0.07 per cent; chromium, 18.73; nickel, 9.46; manganese, 0.40. Three pretreating temperatures were chosen, the specimens being held for 15 min. in hydrogen at either: (1) 1150°C., to conform to the recommended Strauss treatment; (2) 950°C., to compare with the results of previous tests; or (3) 75Q°C., to initiate precipitation of carbides in the material before testing. As the test cross sections were only 1/8-in. dia., air cooling followed the annealing treatment. These treatments permitted two direct comparisons: (1) between the 1150" and 950°C. treatments to indicate the effect of grain size when all carbides were probably in solution at the start of the test; and (2) between the 950" and 750°C. treatments to indicate the effect of carbide "nucleation" for similar grain sizes.

Jan 1, 1940

By Charles Austin

IN an earlier series of studies on 18-8 stainless steel at 600°, 700°, and 800°C.1 one pretreatment was used throughout; viz., 15 min. in hydrogen at 950°C., followed by an air quench. Several manufacturers of this alloy since have expressed doubt as to the suitability of the temperature employed, recommending instead the more customary Strauss treatment as promising superior results. In this subsequent investigation on the effects of the temperature of pretreatment several interesting points have arisen, which are described in this paper. Previous work on our equipment had shown a marked difference between alloys of "similar chemical composition" that had been manu-factured by different companies. Accordingly, one mill-bar length was selected from which to prepare all specimens. It could then be assumed that any marked differences in creep characteristics would be due to effects resulting from variations in the pretreatment of the alloy. The material was furnished by the Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Co. in the form of 5/16-in, dia. rod, finished by air cooling from a mill anneal at 1950°F. (1066°C.). It was analyzed only for the elements shown: carbon, 0,07 per cent; chromium, 18.73; nickel, 9.46; manganese, 0.40. Three pretreating temperatures were chosen, the specimens being held for 15 min. in hydrogen at either: (1) 1150°C., to conform to the recom-mended Strauss treatment; (2) 950°C., to compare with the results of previous tests; or (3) 750°C., to initiate precipitation of carbides in the material before testing. As the test cross sections were only 1/8 -in. dia., air cooling followed the annealing treatment. These treatments per-mitted two direct comparisons: (1) between the 1150° and 950°C. treat-ments to indicate the effect of grain size when all carbides were probably in solution at the start of the test; and (2) between the 950° and 750°C. treatments to indicate the effect of carbide "nucleation" for similar grain sizes.

Jan 1, 1940

By S. Kobayashi, A. E. Armenákas, C. Mylonas

Earlier work1-4 has shown that commercial mild steels under static loading at the lowest natural operating temperatures fracture in a brittle manner only when damaged by a suitable history of straining. Notched and then compressed plates have fractured in subsequent tension at loads as low as 10 pct of the limit load and precompressed smooth bars at a subsequent extensional strain as low as 0.01. The comparison of the average net fracture stress with the flow limit stress was shown to be an excellent criterion of brittle or ductile behavior of mild steel structures when only loads and general stress levels are known. The present investigation shows that the deformation at fracture is a far more sensitive measure of brittleness than the fracture stress. Both criteria, deformation and stress, are used to determine the amount of uniform precompression of two mild steels, ABS-B and Project E-steel, resulting in brittle fracture under the strong constraint of a subsequently machined severe circumferential groove. The fracture stress equaled or exceeded the theoretical flow limit Ól = 2.680., ('based on the elevated yield stress at each prestrain) up to prestrains of about 0.20 and then fell off to about 1 at prestrains of 0.60. Yet a prestrain of only 0.05 reduced the elongation at the shoulders by a factor of about 4. The total plastic elongation of a region surrounding a sharp notch in prestrained steel deternines whether or not fracture will be initiated in large structures, hence is a direct and realistic measure of the remaining ductility and provides an excellent test of the material's resistance to embrittlement. ALMOST all engineering structures of mild steel which failed in service in a so-called "brittle" manner exhibited appreciable local plastic deformation (more than 1 pct) and a mixture of "cleavage" and "shear" fracture surfaces. Furthermore, the peak local stress in an advancing crack is always high. Such simple criteria as pure cleavage, absence of plasticity, or fracture stress, so useful in other fields, are insufficient to characterize brittleness in engineering structures at ordnary temperatures. The "brittle)' behavior of engineering structures is caused by the limited ductility at cracks or notch regions, as shown by recent work at Brown University summarized and extended in Refs. 1 to 4. It was also shown that the local ductility of mild steel may be catastrophically reduced by a suitable strain and temperature history similar to those which may occur in real structures. Localized yielding begins at the notch roots at low loads but is contained by surrounding elastic regions. The plastic strains are hence small. They increase slowly with the load up to the flow limit or limit load for an ideally plastic material. Unrestricted plastic flow then occurs. At such strains the real material locally st rain-hardens and fractures. With work-hardening materials no flow limit exists, and the transition from low to high plastic strains is gradual but increases more rapidly at loads close to the flow limit of an equivalent perfectly plastic material. When the available ductility is sufficient for reaching the limit load, the behavior is normal or "ductile". With insufficient ductility, fracture will occur at a low load and will be defined as "brittle". Accordingly the sufficiency or not of the ductility at a notch is reflected in the magnitude of the fracture load or average net stress as compared with the limit load or flow limit. The application of this criterion gave surprising results. Service failures under semistatic loading occurred mostly below the limit load, hence were "brittle". On the contrary all static tests with undamaged commercial mild steels reached the limit load in spite of the deepest notches and temperatures below Charpy impact transition (say about -30°F or higher). Notched bars showed no brittleness even under fully dynamic axial loading up to 1.5 x107 psi per sec at -23°F and about 2.5 x l06 psi per sec at -ll0°F, but broke in a brittle manner at -200°F and l03 psi per sec.' To propagate a fracture at low load, experimenters had to trigger it by superimposing a strong dynamic impact at a notch cooled by liquid nitrogen as in the Robertson5 or Esso tests.' Once started the cracks would run through warmer regions of smaller stress. Obviously the ductility of the apparently undamaged commercial steels was "sufficient" in the laboratory tests but not in the service fracture, where it must have been reduced by some embrittling procedure of fabrication or service. These conclusions were confirmed by the achievement of low static stress (brittle) fracture initiation in unwelded steel after a local reduction of ductility by simple prestraining. Symmetrically notched plates of undamaged mild steel cooled below the Charpy V-notch transition range were tested in central static tension: Undamaged plates withstood loads of limit intensity, but when subjected to prior in-plane com-pressive prestraining perpendicular to the notch axis and to accelerated aging, the plates fractured completely or partially at very low static loads, as low as one-tenth of the flow limit.2-4 However, damage could not be easily related to the strongly variable prestrain around a sharp notch. To obtain easier strain measurements, it was decided to use axially precom-pressed bars and bent bars. Final testing was done by

Jan 1, 1970

By YANG TSANQ WOO

THE method of making coke that has been adopted at the Kaiping and other collieries in northern China resembles, to some extent, the familiar bee-hive oven process of the United States, except that a kiln with permanent sides is used instead of a closed oven, and the products of combustion are drawn off at the bottom, In building coke-kilns in China, two circular holes, 8 ft. 6 in. in diameter at the bottom and 13 ft. in diameter at the top, are excavated in the ground, both being .connected at the bottom by a flue as shown in Fig. 1. The sides and bottom of the kiln are lined with fire-bricks, and covered with a layer of fire-clay, and a rectangular opening, 6 in. by 8 in., connects the bottom of each kiln with the main flue. Around the edge of the hole, and overlapping the lining, is a wall of fire-brick extending .2 ft. 6 in. above the level of the ground. An open space 5 ft. wide is left in this wall, through which the coal is carried into the kiln and the resultant coke removed. This space, of course, is bricked up during the time that the coking operation is being carried on. The wall is pierced with nine flue-openings uniformly placed around the circumference, each intervening space in the wall being strengthened with a brick buttress, as is shown in Figs. 2 and 4. The floor of the kiln, as well as the main flue, is lined with fire-brick. Before charging the coal, it is first placed in shallow bamboo sieves, 2 ft. in diameter, and immersed in a trough 10 ft. long, and 3 ft. wide, fed with pit-water; in which it is washed by hand. Fig. 3 shows the manner in which the washing is done. From 25 tons of good " dust" coal, 22.5 tons of washed coal are obtained. When ready to charge the coal into the kiln a temporary cone-shaped flue of fire-wood and lump coal is first built to a

Nov 1, 1905

By B. Egeberg

BRITANNIA metal is a white alloy consisting primarily of tin and antimony, the tin greatly predominating. The alloy usually contains a small amount of copper and occasionally very small amounts of one or two, other metals, such as bismuth, zinc, and lead. It is capable of being cold-rolled, it takes a high polish, and it is fairly noncorrosive; properties which make it a popular metal for many household and traveling utensils. Britannia metal is similar in many respects to pewter and has largely replaced pewter in the arts, but it should not be confused with that alloy, because pewter is essentially a tin-lead alloy, while Britannia is a tin-antimony alloy. In view of the fact that so little has been published concerning Britannia metal, the authors feel justified in presenting the results of their investigation, particularly since the behavior of this alloy under cold rolling and heat treatment differs so greatly from that of other metals and alloys. The old craftsman, engaged in the making of ornaments or tableware, heated the cold-rolled sheet metal or his finished product to a straw color corresponding to about 375° F., claiming to produce thereby a harder and more rigid article. The fact that possibly led him to this heating was that a reheated article or sheet made from Britannia metal has a distinct metallic ring when struck a sharp blow, whereas an unheated article or sheet has a leady, dead note. No doubt he has associated the metallic ring with a greater rigidity and strength, and justly so, as will be seen later.

Jan 1, 1928

By John W. Stevenson

In gassy coal mines, abandoned worked-out areas are natural reservoirs that may contain air- methane mixtures. The quantity of such mixtures is continuously increasing or decreasing as atmospheric pressure falls or rises. This is in accordance with Boyle's Gas Law, which states that the volume of a perfect gas varies inversely with the absolute pressure. In large, open gob areas without a bleeder ventilation system, atmospheric pressure is a static force acting in all directions. Changes in atmospheric pressure may occur rapidly or slowly, but any change will result in a change in the quantity of gob air-methane mixtures.

Jan 6, 1968

INTRODUCTION The meaning of cash flow has already been defined as after-tax earnings available for use by the corporation or business. It is therefore apparent that a significant part of mineral economic evaluation is concerned with correct and accurate computation of taxable income under existing tax laws, and the proper treatment of tax allowances and deductions. The various methods of depreciation, depletion, and amortization are all means whereby the investor can earn back or recover, before taxes are imposed, the investments made for purposes of doing business or for the production of income. Each of these three types of tax deduction are applied to different investment items such as property, equipment, buildings, research, etc. The cost of buildings, equipment, machinery, and transportation equipment are representative of capitalized business costs that must be recovered by depreciation over the life of the asset. The property investment costs of acquiring natural resources such as minerals, oil and gas, and standing timber are examples of investment costs that may be recovered by depletion. Several other capitalized business costs, such as research expenses and trademark expenses, may be recovered by amortization. The term "capitalized" means that the in- vestment cost is not deducted as an operating expense in the year that it is incurred, but is spread out over a period of years through depreciation, depletion, or amortization deductions according to lawful schedules. Of course, any capitalized cost can only be deducted once. The other costs of doing business which are not capitalized, such as labor and operating costs, are said to be "expensed," i.e., they are written off for tax purposes in the year they occur. DEPRECIATION Depreciation, according to US tax law, is a deduction from taxable income permitted as a "reasonable allowance for the exhaustion, wear and tear of property out of its use or employment in a business." The original cost of the property is the usual basis for determining depreciation. Since depreciation write-off is applied over the useful life of the asset, the first step is to determine the estimated useful life or its allowable depreciable life. These two lives may or may not be the same. No average life is applicable to all types of depreciable assets under different conditions or in different types of business. It is the taxpayer's responsibility to determine the useful life of the asset according to his own operating conditions and experience, within the guidelines set by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Class Life Depreciation Range (ADR) System permits the taxpayer to choose from a range of depreciable lives at 20% below or above the present guideline life. The second step required in calculating depreciation is to determine an estimated salvage value for the asset. The salvage value is an estimate, made at the time of acquisition, of the amount of money which can be realized by the sale of the asset at the end of its useful life. The four depreciation methods most widely used in the US are: (1) the straight-line method, (2) the declining balance method (double declining balance), (3) sum of the years - digits method, and (4) units of production method. Straight-Line Depreciation Method The straight-line depreciation method is the simplest for calculating depreciation. The depreciation for each year is determined by subtracting the estimated salvage value from the first cost of the asset and dividing the result by the years of life. The method gives equal annual deduction over the depreciable life. Salvage value equal to or less than 10% of the first cost may be ignored. [first cost - salvage Straight line = years of life ] Declining Balance Depreciation Method Declining balance depreciation, or double declining balance (DDB) as most frequently applied, is used for accelerating depreciation in the early years of the asset and is the fastest depreciation method allowed by the US Internal Revenue Service. The declining balance

Jan 1, 1980

By M. E. Wadswort, A. S. Peck

Infrared data disclose that phenacite reacts with oleic acid to form a chemisorbed oleate monolayer on the mineral surface. The absorption band characteristic of the antisymmetrical C = 0 oleate structure appears at a spectral wavelength of 1623 cm-'. Chemisorption also results in the displacement of OH- and silicate from the mineral surface. Infrared absorbance at 1623 cm-1 is correlated with float-ability at different pH for -60-mesh phenacite particles. Phenacite, Be2SiO4, is an ore mineral often associated with quartz, microcline, and chrysoberyl in pegmatites and mica schist. Experimental phenacite beneficiating processes have been confined principally to the flotation of low grade ores occur-ing in several mountain ranges of Utah and Nevada. The U.S. Bureau of Mines ' has recently reported on the separation of phenacite from ore deposits of Mount Wheeler, Nev. Infrared techniques were previously applied by the authors to characterize the role of sodium oleate and oleic acid in the flotation of several non-sulfide minerals.23 A parallel study was projected to the flotation of the orthosilicate mineral phenacite with oleic acid. Infrared spectra provided a 'molecular fingerprint' of the mineral surface and permitted identification of the reaction mechanisms. Infrared data were complemented with flotation and chemical tests. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES The experimental procedures used in this investigation, for which data are presented in graphical or spectral form, are described in chronological test order. Phenacite crystals from Mt. Antero, Colo., were obtained from Ward's Co., Monterey, Calif. The crystals were fragmented in a porcelain mortar to -60 mesh and then pretreated with 0.5 molar HC1 for 15 min to remove iron. Then, the mineral particles were washed free of acid with distilled water and dried. Part of the dried material was ground to a fine powder with a Fisher Grinder using an agate mortar and pestle. Next, the powder was placed in a graduated cylinder and mixed with 500 ml of distilled water. The mineral in suspension was decanted from the settled fraction after 5 min, and the colloidal suspension was used for adsorption tests in which a high specific mineral surface area was required for adsorption and infrared analysis. Conditioning was performed in 50 ml glass centrifuge tubes for both infrared and flotation test determinations. Twenty ml of colloidal suspension was used for the infrared adsorption tests. One and a half g of deslimed -60-mesh HCl pretreated phenacite was added to 20 ml of distilled water for flotation conditioning tests. Six mg of oleic acid was used for each infrared adsorption test, and 0.2 mg of oleic acid was used for the flotation conditioning tests. HCl and NaOH were used for pH modification. The pulps were stirred at a speed of about 1500 rpm for 3 min. Then, the solids were separated out and either dried at 50°C or immediately transferred to a float cell. The pH of the residual liquid was determined with a Beckman Zeromatic pH meter. The flotation procedure is described as follows: 1) A 325-1111 glass micro-float cell was filled with distilled water. 2) Conditioned mineral was placed in the cell and the pulp was aerated through the glass fritted bottom at 7 psi pressure. 3) Floated mineral was skimmed from the cell with a glass slide until flotation ceased. (The end point was reached in all tests in less than 2 min.) 4) The flotation products were dried, weighed, and the recovery was calculated. Samples for infrared analysis were made into mulls using either oleic acid or series 13-21 Halocarbon oil obtained from Halocarbon Products Corp., Hacken-sack, N.J. The mulls were placed between two sodium chloride windows. A characteristic phenacite infrared band at 1868 cm-' was used as an internal standard for quantitative determinations in which absorbance at this position was quantified by the baseline-tangent method4 and related to absorbance at 1623 cm-'. The ratio obtained by dividing absorbance at 1623 cm-' by absorbance at 1868 cm-' was defined as an absorbance quotient for use in graphical presentation.

Jan 1, 1968

By Stuart M. Buck, J. H. Bramwell, Edward H. Williams

The Southwest Virginia Improvement Company began operations in the Bluestone Flat-Top coal-field, situated in Tazewell County, Virginia, in the fall of 1881. In May, 1883, the company had built 200 coke-ovens, and by March, 188-1, had 9000 feet of entries, exclusive of air-ways, in the Nelson or Rig coal-bed of this district (which here averages eleven feet in thickness), and had extracted 200,000 tons of coal, representing an area of about twenty acres. About this opening has grown the recently incorporated city of Pocahontas, and the completion of the New River branch of the Norfolk and Western Railroad to this point enabled the company to make large contracts for supplying coal and coke, so that it was deemed necessary, on account of the limited area developed, to work the mine day and night to fill orders. At 1.30 Thursday morning, March 13th, the inhabitants of Pocahontas were awakened by a violent shock, and within a few minutes all knew that the East mine had been the scene of an explosion of so general a nature that, of the 114 men at work, not one had escaped. The daily papers gave more or less distorted accounts of the number of victims, the scenes in and about, the mine, and the probable cause of the disaster. At the request of the company, the President of the American Institute of Mining Engineers appointed the undersigned a committee of three to investigate the matter, and the committee thus constituted presents the following report, accompanied by a copy of the testimony taken daring the investigation, for preservation in the archives of the Institute. Pocahontas was reached on Thursday, April 24th, and left on Friday, May 2d. During this interval the committee made repeated visits to the mine, especially to the points, of most importance, examining it carefully in every part; and summoned a number of witnesses, twenty-six of whom appeared and testified. The mine had been left in the same state as when the bodies were

Jan 1, 1885

By Leslie Burris, J. C. Hesson

The diffusivity of uranium in liquid cadmium has been measured as a function of temperature by the capillary -bath technique. The diffusivity measurements were made at 4509 500°, 575º, and 650°C, over which temperature range the diffusivity of uranium varied from 1.3 to 2.3 x 10-5 sq cm per sec. The diffusivity of uranium in cadmium was less than that predicted by the Einstein-Stokes equation. VERY little information is available on the diffusivity of uranium in liquid metals. Bonillal has reported a single measurement of the diffusivity of uranium in bismuth. Measurement of the diffusivity of uranium in cadmium was undertaken, not only to supply data in an area in which a dearth of information exists, but also because of a need for this physical property measurement in connection with mass transfer studies now underway in the U-Cd system at Argonne National Laboratory. The capillary-bath method used in this work has been successfully used by other workers2"4 to obtain diffusivities in liquid metal systems. Although considerable experimental technique is required to obtain reliable diffusivity measurements, the basic information required is only that of temperature, capillary tube length, the initial and final compositions of the alloy in the capillary tube, and the composition of the bath into which the solute element is diffusing. From these measurements, diffusivities may be calculated using Fick's law. The diffusivity equations are presented in the Appendix. Equations which are often used to predict diffusivities in dilute solutions5 are the Einstein-Stokes equation: D= (kT)/(6pµr) and the Eyring equation: D = (?,kT/?y?zp), where D= diffusivity (sq cm per sec), k = Boltzman's constant, T= temperature ("K), p = viscosity (poises), r = radius of diffusing molecule or species (cm), and A,, Ay, and A, are the diameters of the diffusing molecule in the three axial directions. For round molecules, the Eyring equation gives values which are 37r times larger than the Einstein-Stokes equation. In this work, the experimental values were compared to the Einstein-Stokes equation. Experimental values of diffusivities in liquid metal systems usually lie between those predicted by the Einstein-Stokes and Eyring equations. The viscosity values for cadmium were obtained from the Liquid Metals Handbook.6 EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS AND PROCEDURE The general procedure employed consisted of rapidly immersing in a molten cadmium bath containing a negligible amount of uranium a capillary

Jan 1, 1963

By R. C. Philp, Allan Gibb

INTRODUCTION. THE term matte is applied to smelting-products so extremely diverse in composition and physical properties that it appears impossible to devise any generic formula to represent, chemically, the manner in which the varied proportions of the almost unlimited possible constituents combine with each other. Mattes produced in copper-smelting, in distinction from those produced in smelting-operations in which the recovery of copper is secondary to that of other metals, cover a narrower range in composition. The copper-content of such mattes vary from 20 to 80 per cent., and even this range is much smaller in general practice since it is found advantageous, when possible, to produce mattes with about. 50 per cent. of copper in the first operation. Further, it is unusual that arsenic or antimony occurs in copper-ores in sufficient proportions to form arsenides or antimonides in such quantities that they will separate out from the furnace-products, as is common in lead-smelting. Generally, the mattes produced in copper-smelting are composed mainly of copper (usually greater than 35 per cent.), iron and sulphur, the remaining elements being usually in proportions sufficiently small to allow of their treatment as impurities, rather than as essential constituents of the mattes. In modern practice of smelting copper-ores in blast-furnaces the tendency is to approach pyritic smelting as nearly as pos¬sible, the furnaces being low and the air supplied being largely in excess of that required for complete combustion of the carbonaceous fuel. Hence the atmosphere of the blast-furnace thus used is usually oxidizing or Dearly neutral? and, as a consequence, the reduction of metallic iron that was a necessary evil of former practice is of unusual occurrence in operations where the main object is the recovery of copper. Hearth-accre-

Nov 1, 1905