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By Edgar C. Bain

A NUMBER probably a sizable group of person with a dominant interest in metals maintain contact with the developments in ferrous metallurgy by reading week by week, as time permits, some four or five periodical devoted in considerable part to this field. It seems possible that some of these, like ourself, find it difficult to see the net results of the development day by day in clear perspective, The impression sometimes seems blurred by the uninterrupted succession of so many accounts, or out of focus from the very impact of so many reports of new things enthusiastic, well written, and understandable though they usually are. It is at times almost as though one were trying to observe, from a fastmoving vehicle, objects all too near at hand. Or perhaps this impression is merely a manifestation of our individual hyperopia ; in which case we should content ourself with an observation that it would be more satisfactory on the whole to discuss in 1941 the metallurgical advances of 1930-35 than those of

Jan 1, 1941

By Homer G. Turner

Coals, other than anthracite, have been so thoroughly studied under the microscope during recent years, that we now know what kinds of plants and what parts of plants form the bulk of lower rank coals from peat to bituminous coal. The microscope has also shown the state of preservation of such vegetation as well as the nature and distribution of products of plant decay. These and further details have been ascertained mainly through the employment of two methods of attack, section cutting and maceration. Anthracite has failed to respond to these methods, so well adapted to the study of lower rank coals and, therefore, has been neglected by investigators to such an extent that there is much doubt as to its microscopical characteristics. The object of this paper is to lift anthracite from its realm of obscurity by demonstrating the wealth of microscopical detail that is revealed when reflected light is used on a properly polished and etched surface and, further, to show the relationship between anthracite and bituminous coal. Technique The method adopted in this investigation is similar to that described in an earlier paper.' Because of slight modifications recently made, the process is again described. It consists, briefly, of etching a polished surface of coal with heat. Although pieces of various sizes and shapes are used, blocks of coal about 2 or 3 cm. square take the most uniform polish and are large enough to be handled with ease. Larger pieces can be used if one has the equipment for polishing them and they rnay be desirable when one wishes to study some particular form that extends for some distance through the coal. Large surfaces, however, require greater care in polishing and etching; for this reason, they are not recommended for ordinary work.

Jan 1, 1925

By N. I. Fisher, J. Shepherd

Statistical studies have been carried out on structural geological data collected across a large zone of roof failure 600 m (1968 ft) wide and at least 800 m (2642 ft) long in the Greta coal seam at Aberdare East Colliery. Two swarms of hundreds of minor, normal faults with throws commonly between 3 and 300 mm in the room and pillar workings are broadly coincident with roof failure. The faults have been classified into dip slip and oblique and strike slip types. Roof conditions have been classified into good; troublesome with subclasses scaly, heavy, gutter falls and wide, flat-roofed falls; and severely failed with subclasses very heavy roof, gutter falls and dome falls. Troublesome conditions are defined as those in which the height of the fall is less than or equal to 0.3 m, and severely failed conditions as those in which the fall height is greater than 0.3 m. Comparison of faults, roof condition and mining rate on a shift basis indicates that faults and roof failure are much more important than machine breakdowns in reducing mining rate. The effect of faults on roof conditions has been quantified using a concept called the "zone of influence," a rectangular area around a fault in which the fault has potentially deleterious effects. The spatial comparison of fault "zones of influence" with areas of roof failure wing Spearman's rank correlation coefficient shows that, while normal dip slip faults do not appear to be associated with roof failure, oblique slip and strike slip faults appear to be associated with roof classed as severely failed. The "zone of influence" of an oblique slip fault may extend up to 3 m on each side of it in the headings and up to 1.14 m in the cut-throughs. The fault "zone of influence" has geomechanical implications for the design of mine openings and Possibly represents the maximum length of a cantilevered roof beam likely to fail during mining, owing to a fault. Roof conditions could Possibly be predicted in blocks of &gin coal if the type of fault could be identified in oriented drill cores.

Jan 1, 1979

By Thomas W. Yardley

In many years' experience as a maker and purchaser of cast-iron coated pipe, I have never met with any standard form of specifications for such. Each water-works company, employing a hydraulic engineer, has, under his direction, prepared complete specifications for the particular conditions required; but I cannot find that any two are alike; and each foundry, in bidding for the supply of such pipe, makes the price to cover the conditions' required. I, therefore, have the honor of offering to the Institute a form of specifications for cast-iron coated water-pipe, that may be found useful to water-works companies and others requiring pipe of this kind. The conditions are all reasonable, and can be carried out by makers without additional cost, and with advantage to the purchaser. Section 1 gives the kind of pipe, with its general characteristics. Section 2 specifies that neutral pig-iron shall be used, since such iron possesses the strength required, and is uniform in its shrinkage. Section 5, requiring makers to give the brands of pig-iron used

Jan 1, 1890

By W. M. Myers

Certain minerals possess inherent color and other properties that make them suitable for the pigmentation of paints, mortar, plaster, concrete, face brick, and other materials. Their production is one of the most ancient of mineral industries and their use by primitive man is well known. These natural pigments have some economic factors in their favor, particularly wide geographic distribution, low cost of production, ease of preparation, chemical stability, and permanence in use so that they continue to form the basis of a small but useful industry. When used in paints such pigments act as a filler and supply body and opacity in addition to color. Natural mineral pigments are prepared for the market by the comparatively simple operations of washing, grinding, blending, and calcining. Any one, or all of these processes may be applied to a single pigment. The development of synthetic pigments and the use of by- product materials have introduced competition with the products of nature and are having a growing influence on the economic position of the mined minerals.

Jan 1, 1949

A full account of the wonderful Arizona meeting will be published in the December Bulletin. For the strenuous, interesting, and altogether happy week, we express our hearty thanks to those marvels of energy and thoughtfulness, the members of the local committees in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. In this number we publish the discussion resulting from the technical session on "Flotation." Because of the timeliness of the subject, this session's discussion was transcribed first and sent to the contributors, and, thanks to their promptness in revising, we are able to print it in this issue.

Jan 10, 1916

By S. A. Ford

I WOULD like to call the attention of our Bessemer steel manufacturers to a few facts in regard to the action of the manganese in. the Spiegel with the oxide of iron in the blown iron. The oxygen is united with the iron as a magnetic oxide, as Gautier asserts, and this oxide is reduced to a protoxide by one-atom of the manganese uniting with one atom of the oxygen of the magnetic oxide of iron. This oxide of manganese and the protoxide of iron thus formed unite with the silica which has been formed by the oxidation of the silicon in the pig iron. Mr. Snelus and others

Jan 1, 1881

By William I. Busenbark, Elmer C. Newman

At Bingham Canyon, the world's largest open-pit copper mine, annual grease consumption is in the neighborhood of 109 000 kg (240,000 lb), all of which was 544 (120-16) purchased, warehoused, and distributed in 54-kg (120-1b) and 180-kg (400-1b) drums. While perhaps a menial and mundane chore, grease distribution shows on the ledger as a significant expense item. To improve labor and cost performance, Kennecott maintenance engineers undertook a study to find the most direct method for moving multi purpose grease (MPG) from the refinery to the point of final consumption. What they found was a direct vendor system for hulk grease so simple and flexible that long-established drum distribution is being phased out in favor of the newer method throughout 75% of the operation.

Jan 9, 1977

By C. J. Beevers

Tlze influence of zirconium hydride precipitate mprphology on the fructure of Zr-H alloys tested at strain rates of 10- sec at 20° and - 196°C and at strain rates of -500 sec.-1 at 20°C has been inves-tigated. The critical stage in the embrittlement of these alloys was the fracture of the zirconium hyhide precipitates to form large interval cracks at a stress of 25,000 10 137,000 psi. In specimens con-temping up to 100 ppm H the preciptates existed as isolafed platelets in the zirconium matrix and their fracture as enhanced by low temperature (—196°C) and high strain rate (-500 set-f) loading. These resl~lts lead to the conclusion that the rate of strain hardening of the zirconium metal controls the frac-tzrm of the hydride platelets. Increased hydrogen contents of 500 to 2000 ppm resulted in an increase in the 1)volume fraction and size of precipitates and crlso led to crack propogation in the hydride at both 20 and —196C at the low strain rates (10'* sec-'). Quenching led to refinerment of hydride precipitate size and reduced the degree of embrittlement at — 196°C; this effect is attributed to the absence of fracture of the fine precipitates. The formation of zirconium hydride precipitates has been shown to be the cause of hydrogen embrittlement of zirconium.' Several investigators'-" have studied the problem in broad outline, demonstrating that impact-loading conditions, testing temperatures below room temperature, and increasing hydrogen content produce increased brittleness. For example, Muehlenkamp and schwope2 showed that the transition temperature for notched impact tests was raised from 150" to 350°C on increasing the hydrogen content from 45 to 490 ppm. The degree of embrittlement is also controlled by the morphology of the zirconium hydride precipitates. The solubility of hydrogen in zirconium decreases from 600 ppm at 550°C to 10 ppm at 20"C,~ so that the form of the zirconium hydride precipitates (ZrH2) can be modified by varying the cooling rate through the Zr-aZr + ZrH2 phase boundary.= Forscher showed that quenching a specimen containing 35 ppm H from above 315°C resulted in a reduction in area of 70 pct at -196"C, whereas slowly cooling from above 315°C resulted in a ductility of half this value. The role of the hydride precipitate in the fracture process has been examined by Young and schwartz6 and more recently by westlake.' From metallo-graphic observations on slowly cooled Zr-H alloys they have suggested that cracks are nucleated in the hydride precipitates by the interactions of twins in the zirconium metal with the hydride. The experiments reported in this paper show that crack propagation in the zirconium hydride precipitates is the critical stage in the embrittlement of Zr-H alloys. The factors influencing fracture of the hydride precipitates and crack propagation in the zirconium metal will be related to the problem of embrittlement. EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES The zirconium used in these experiments was produced from an ingot of vacuum arc-melted iodide zirconium forged down to 1 in. diameter at 800' to 850°C. The 1-in.-diameter bar was surface-machined and cold-swaged to 0.375 in. diameter. After a vacuum anneal at 800°C for 1 hr the hardness was 60 to 70 Vdh. The total impurity content was approxi-

Jan 1, 1965

By Tuncel M. Yegulalp, Peter G. Zambas

In planning an underground room-and-pillar mine, the selection of the shaft or portal location and the orientation of the main haulage arteries is of paramount importance, particularly in view of the high dependence of the cost of truck haulage on the proper definition of these parameters. In an effort to facilitate this selection a computer program was written which, by relating the truck characteristics to the areal configuration of the property or ore body, derives the volume-weighted total fuel and time requirements for hauling ore from every panel within the property to a specified portal or shaft location through a predetermined gridwork of haulage drifts. By varying the size and orientation of the gridwork and the location of the portal or shaft access, an infinite number of configurations can be investigated. The results of this analysis can be plotted to indicate the optimum conditions.

Jan 1, 1974

By H. W. Gillett

Unlike most previous Howe lecturers, I had not the good fortune to be associated with Henry Marion Howe, nor to be directly one of his students. Yet, through his writings, he has been my teacher, as he has of all American metallurgists. Instructive as his writings are—I use the present tense because Howe thought so keenly and reasoned so surely, seeing clearly, as if by intuition, what was hazy to lesser minds, that his writings are still vital—it is not those books and papers, nor even the minds he trained in his classes, that were his most outstanding service. It was the spirit of Howe in his approach to the problems of metallurgy, his broad-mindedness and fairness, his recognition of the need for theories and hypotheses to explain metallurgical phenomena, his willingness to use them as servants, as well as his questioning attitude—his refusal to accept them as masters—that comprise his greatest service. This most thoroughly warrants the honor the Institute pays each year to his memory. These traits I so respect and honor in any man that I glory in this opportunity to do reverence to him in whom they were so notably united. Howe's Discussion of a Creep Problem I have often wished that Howe were still with us to turn his keen insight upon the problems of the use of metals at high temperatures, a field much studied but still very hazy. Indeed, 53 years ago, in a paper1 before this Institute, Howe stated a problem closely allied to some that still perplex metallurgists and engineers dealing with the high-temperature field. Howe was intrigued by a report2 from another old master, Robert Henry Thurston, on the behavior of annealed vs. cold-drawn iron wire, and in order to broaden the foundation for metallurgical generalization, Howe made experiments of his own on copper and silver. In these tests by Thurston and by Howe, the wires were rapidly loaded to determine the

Jan 1, 1939

APRIL 10-Officially, spring comes to the Great Lakes on March 21 as it does elsewhere in the country but in the Superior district continued snow and freezing until late in March have caused citizens in Duluth to place their bets on April 15 for the first ore vessels if the ice breakup is left to Mother Nature. North and west of Duluth and near the eastern end of the Mesabilies the little town of Aurora, population 1100. As the little v-nosed snowplow, pride of the community, shuttled back and forth clearing Aurora's few sidewalks, the crowd in Bradich's Cafe were more interested in the impending high school state championship basketball tournament in Minneapolis than in the outcome of Erie Mining Company's petition for water rights for their proposed 10 million ton taconite concentrating plant. Such a plant would employ 4500 workmen, and at the prevailing ratio of 10 people for every mine worker in Minnesota, this would mean a 45,000 increase in population for Aurora and the vicinity in the next few years. Downstate fishermen are alarmed at the flurry of activity by the mining companies in pushing plans for large scale recovery of iron from taconite. Inconvenience to these gentlemen will be inconsequential when compared with the vast increase in payrolls for range communities. Oliver is pushing the construction of a fine ore agglomeration plant at Virginia which will give them valuable experience for projected taconite processing. Oglebay, Norton & Co. is ready to go at Beaver Bay, north of Duluth, as the right of way for a railroad from Babitt to Beaver Bay is secured as well as permission to dispose of tailing into Lake Superior at the site of the proposed concentrating plant. This company is also doing research in agglomeration at Ashland, Ky., in cooperation with other interests. The financing is yet to be worked out. Of the four possibilities for agglomerating taconite concentrate-sintering, pellitizing, nodulizing and briquetting-the prospects for pelletizing appear the most favorable., It seems likely that 60 cents per ton can be saved by this process over sintering because only 1 to 2 pct of coal is required as compared with 7 pct for sintering. One reason for the lower coal consumption is that the chemical transition of magnetite to hematite which transpires in the pelletizing process is exothermic.

Jan 5, 1950

By H. J. Maguire

(Presented by invitation at a meeting of the Spokane Local Section, Feb. 17, 1912.) THOSE familiar with mill-practice understand the work required of an average bucket-elevator, but I wish to call special attention to the wear on the buckets. I have been studying in what manner the life and service of the bucket might be improved, and I feel that an adjustable lip, attachable to each bucket without the aid of rivets, will be of material advantage. For illustration, consider the feed-elevator of a typical mill in the Cur d'Alène district. The ore is carried by water in a launder from the feed-rolls and dumped in the "boot" of the elevator, directly in front of the ascending bucket. Middlings from the return-rolls are similarly handled. Under this condition the bucket not only carries the ore, but also picks it up, and this latter requirement determines the life and service of the bucket. It might be said that it would be better practice to convey the feed to the elevator and dump it directly into the bucket, but at one mill at which this plan was tried the results were disappointing and the rubber belt was badly worn. The wear of the bucket is confined to the lip and the corners which have to pick up the material. When the lip on a corner of a 7- by 12-in. malleable cast-iron bucket is worn down about 3 in., the bucket is of no further value as a carrier and has to be replaced. The worn bucket, containing about three¬quarters by weight of the metal of the original bucket, has a scrap value of about 10 per cent. of that of a new bucket. To the cost of the bucket, however, should be added the time-cost of replacing the old bucket by a new one. This time-cost is considerable when the loss per hour, to cease operating the mill, is about $200. It is out of the question to put lips on a bucket unless the latter was originally fitted with this device. For if it is attempted to fit lips upon buckets not originally provided with

Sep 1, 1912

By Frank C. Appleyard

Southwest of the town of Saltville in western Virginia is Plasterco, a small village that has been a source of gypsum production since 1815. Boasting the deepest underground gypsum mine in the world, Plasterco has been the site of mining operations by United States Gypsum Co. for more than half a century. And although its own ore supply is dwindling, Plasterco's position as a source of gypsum and gypsum products has been ensured by the recent opening of the nearby Locust Cove mine, one of U.S. Gypsum's newest projects. In the early days, production of gypsum at Plasterco was very small, the primary use of the mineral limited to that of "land plaster"-ground gypsum spread on the land to sweeten the soil. Initial mining was confined to surface outcrops containing gypsum, but the construction of a local plaster-producing calcining plant in the late 1800's coupled with al- most total depletion of the surface rock spurred the start-up of underground operations.

Jan 3, 1965

By Douglas A. Anderson

We have instrumented well-controlled free-face blasts with six- component borehole strain gages, in order to determine the complete strain tensor as a function of time due to explosive loading. The strain tensors have been diagonalized to determine the principal strain time-histories, and further processed to determine the octahedral shear strains as a function of time. Principal strain time-histories, when compared with a computer model, indicate the arrival of various direct and reflected phases. Strong shear strains coincide with the expected arrival time of shear waves. These shear waves are probably instrumental in the fragmentation of confined rock due to explosive loading, and should be incorporated in models of the fragmentation process.

Jan 1, 1984

By F. A. Forward, J. Halpern

A new process for extracting uranium from ores with carbonate solutions is described. Leaching is carried out under oxygen pressure to ensure that all the uranium is converted to the soluble hexavalent state. By this method), alkaline leaching can be used successfully to treat a greater variety of ores, including pitchblende ores, than has been possible in the past. The advantages of carbonate leaching over conventional acid leaching processes are enhanced further by a new method which has been developed for recovering uranium from basic leach solutions. This is achieved by reducing the uranium to the tetravalent state with hydrogen in the presence of a suitable catalyst. A high grade uranium oxide product is precipitated directly from the leach solutions. Vanadium oxide also can be precipitated by this method. The chemistry of the leaching and precipitation reactions are discussed, and laboratory results are presented which illustrate the applicability of the process and describe the variables affecting leaching and precipitation rates, recoveries, and reagent consumption. THE extractive metallurgy of uranium is influenced by a number of special considerations which generally do not arise in connection with the treatment of the more common base metal ores. Perhaps foremost among these is the very low uranium content of most of the ores which are encountered today, usually only a few tenths of one percent. A further difficulty is presented by the fact that the uranium often occurs in such a form that it cannot be concentrated efficiently by gravity or flotation methods. In these and other important respects, there is evident some degree of parallelism between the extractive metallurgy of uranium and that of gold and, as in the latter case, it has generally been found that uranium ores can best be treated directly by selective leaching methods. It is readily evident that this parallel does not extend to the chemical properties of the two metals. Unlike gold, which is easily reduced to metallic form, uranium is highly reactive. It tends to occur as oxides, silicates, or salts. Two ores are of predominant importance as commercial sources of this metal: pitchblende which contains uranium as the oxide, U3O51 and carnotite in which the uranium is present as a complex salt with vanadium, K2O-2UCV3V2O5-3H2O. These ores may vary widely in respect to the nature of their gangue constituents. Some are largely siliceous in composition, while others consist mainly of calcite. Sometimes substantial amounts of pyrite or of organic materials are present and these may lead to specific problems in treating the ore. Further complications may be introduced by the presence of other metal values such as gold, copper, cobalt, or vanadium whose re- covery has to be considered along with that of the uranium, or whose separation from uranium presents particular difficulty. In general, there are two main processes for recovering uranium in common use today.'.2 One of these employs an acid solution such as dilute sulphuric acid to extract the uranium from the ore. A suitable oxidizing agent such as MnO, or NaNO, is sometimes added if the uranium in the ore is in a partially reduced state. The uranium dissolves as a uranyl sulphate salt and can be precipitated subsequently by neutralization or other suitable treatment of the solution. The second process employs an alkaline leaching solution, usually containing sodium carbonate. The uranium, which must be in the hexavalent state, is dissolved as a complex uranyl tricarbonate salt, and then is precipitated either by neutralizing the solution with acid or by adding an excess of sodium hydroxide. The latter method has the advantage of permitting the solutions to be recycled, since the carbonate is not destroyed. This is essential if the process is to be economical, particularly with low grade ores. With each of these processes, there are associated a number of advantages and disadvantages and the choice between using acid or carbonate leaching is generally determined by the nature of the ore to be treated. In the past, more ores appear to have been amenable to acid leaching than to carbonate leaching and the former process correspondingly has found wider application. With most ores, acid leaching has been found to operate fairly efficiently and to yield high recoveries. One of the main disadvantages has been that large amounts of impurities, such as iron and aluminum, sometimes are taken into solution along with the uranium. This may give rise to a high reagent consumption and to difficulties in separating a pure uranium product. Excessive reagent consumption in the acid leach process also may result

Jan 1, 1955

By E. B. Mayo

David LeCount Evans (Consulting Petroleum and Mining Geologist, Wichita, Kans.)-—Not only E. B. Mayo but also W. C. Lacy, who apparently urged the preparation of this analysis, is to be commended. Regional thinking of this type is needed to assure future success in the never-ending search for new mineralized and petroliferous districts. As is usually the case, here is a regional study that will be read by the mining geologist alone. It is ironic that several of the trends established in this study have suggested themselves in northern mid-continent, detailed, and regional studies. These, where established, have offered new keys to petroleum exploration and have provided a possible basis for unraveling a number of broad generalities. The oil geologists, active in Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma, would find much food for thought in Mr. Mayo's projections. To be more specific: 1) The parallelism between E. B. Mayo's Texas Lineament and the Amarillo Uplift, the Wichita Complex and the Arbuckle Complex of the Texas Panhandle and Southern Oklahoma is viewed with interest and appears especially significant when compared with the similar northwest trend of the Central Kansas Uplift, a major trend of production. 2) Considering the various northeast zones of Fig. 2, and with particular reference to Mayo's C-C, the Jemez Zone is on direct line with one of several northeast-southwest controls which the present writer has been using with some success in Kansas subsurface correlations. Considering zones of shearing, with no apparent vertical displacement, but suggesting strike-slip movement, because of the staggered effect on other features which cross such trends, Mayo's philosophy presents regional possibilities for lines of weakness, considered to this time of only local significance. 3) And, finally, in an area as distant from the Southwest as central Kansas, the north-south trends of the Fiarport-Ruggles anticline, the Voshel-Hol-low Nikkel-Burrton structures, the Dayton to Stut-gart trend, the north, slightly east trend of the Ne-maha structural complex, and others all seem to approach the north-south alignments, a through f, of Mayo's Fig. 3. Mayo's employment of structural intersections to pinpoint crustal weakness, to localize igneous activity and its accompanying mineralization is not, perhaps, a new concept, but it is a 1958 model, produced by tools improved from the ever-increasing accumulation of geological observations. The use of intersecting trends in petroleum geology is not a new idea, since much production in earlier days was encountered via the straight line projections of established trends to centers of intersection. A tragedy in this age of specialization is that iron curtains have been raised between groups, all seeking raw materials, all acolytes at the altar of structural geology, but all smugly content in and protected by the ivory towers of petroleum geology, engineering geology, mining geology, and geophysics. Mayo presents basic ideas which can stimulate mid-continent structural thinking and, in the case of cen- tral Kansas. he provides a key to replace the broad and overworked simple monoclinal, sinkhole-dotted, Karst topography credo, which is not finding its share of new oil in a state where the declining discovery ratio is disconcerting. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists would do well to add E. B. Mayo to its list of Distinguished Lecturers. Evans B. Mayo (author's reply)—In reply to David LeCount Evans' comments, it is pleasing to learn that some of the elements discussed in my paper may interest petroleum geologists as well as mining geologists. This should not be surprising, however, because the lineaments make up the framework of the continent, and the oil-bearing sediments must reflect to varying degrees adjustments of basement blocks along their boundaries. A further possibility that petroleum geologists must have considered is that the slow escape of heat from buried lineaments and their intersections has aided the separation of oil from the sediments and started the migration into traps. Regarding the specific points listed by Evans, the following are suggested: 1) The branch of Texas Lineament marked 1' (Fig. 3) is thought to extend eastward through the Capitan Mts., New Mexico, through the long Tertiary dikes east of Roswell, and beyond via the Matador and Electra ranges of the Red River Uplift, Texas. Its further continuation might be the eastern flank of the Ouachita Fold Belt. The Amarillo-Wichita-Arbuckle zone of uplifts appears to continue east-southeastward the Spanish Peaks belt (3-5, Fig. 3). The northwest-trending Central Kansas Uplift would not belong to the above set, except insofar as the Central Kansas Uplift is traversed by west-northwest folds, possible continuations of the Uinta belt (5-5, Fig. 3). 2) The possible continuations into Kansas of the Jemez zone are new to me and are most welcome suggestions. 3) Most of the nearly north-south Kansan structures mentioned by Evans are unfamiliar to me, but the Nemaha Uplift itself appears to be part of a very pronounced structure traceable from the Cerralvo Fault Zone, south of the Rio Grande, through the Bend Arch, Texas, and the Nemaha Uplift, into the Pre-Cambrian of Minnesota (?). This nearly meridional zone is crossed and broken by the Rio Grande Embayment and by the Red River-Wichita Syntaxis. Petroleum geologists realize the economic importance of these features. Perhaps it is inevitable that some papers of general interest be buried in the journals of specialized groups. Moreover, papers dealing with regional, or lineament, tectonics and its applications to exploration for economic mineral deposits are as yet few in the American literature. The opportunity to advance this field is open to all those who are not ultra-conservative and who have a lively curiosity, plenty of patience, and not too many business restrictions. In conclusion, much appreciation is extended to D. L. Evans for his comments.

Jan 1, 1960

By Y. A. Chang

Phase relationships in the system Cr-Si have been established based on the melting point, X-ray, metallo-graphic, and DTA studies. The three intermediate phases, Cr3Si, Cr5Si,, and CrSi,, melt congruently at 177V ± I@,Cr3Si, 1680"i 20°, and 1490" *20°C, respectively, while the fourth intermediate phase CrSi, melts peritectically at 1413" i 5°C to Cr5Si3 and a melt containing 51 at. pct Si. The temperatures and compositions of the four eutectic isotherms occurring in this system are given below: DTA and metallographic evidences indicate that Cr5Si, undergoes a phase transformation at 1505" i20°C. The high-temperature form of this phase could not be retained by the quenching techniques used in this study. TECHNOLOGICAL interest in the developing of composite systems, consisting of Sic on the one hand as a fiber-reinforced material and metallic substances such as chromium, nickel, or Cr-Ni alloys as a binding agent on the other hand, stimulated the present investigation of phase relationships in the binary system Cr-Si. Earlier works concerning this system have been evaluated and summarized by ansen and Anderko.' Their phase diagram was based mainly on the works of Kieffer, Benesovsky, and schroth2 and Kurnakov.~ According to these authors, the three intermediate phases Cr3Si, CrSi, and CrSi, all melt congruently at approximately 1730°, 1600°, and 1550°C. However, they did not agree on the compositional stability of the fourth intermediate phase between Cr3Si and CrSi. Later Parthe, Nowotny, and schmid4 determined the structure of this phase to be tetragonal T-1 type using the single-crystal method, and concluded that this phase had a formula of Cr5Si3. Since the compilation of Hansen and Anderko,' a new phase diagram for the system Cr-Si has been proposed by Elliott5 based on the works of Goldschmidt and rand,' Guseva and ~vechkin,~ and Trusova, Kuzev, and Ormont8 and the earlier works quoted by Hansen and Anderko.' According to this proposed phase diagram, all four intermediate phases have large ranges of homogeneity and all melt congruently. More recently, Svechnikov, Kocherzhinskii, and yupkog studied the system Cr-Si by the DTA-method. According to their findings, the three intermediate phases, Cr3Si, Cr5Si3, and CrSi,, melt congruently at 1700°, 1720°, and 1475"C, respectively, while the fourth intermediate phase, CrSi, melts peritectically at 1475°C to Cr5Si3 and a melt containing 50 at. pct Si. The temperatures and compositions of the four eutectic isotherms were found to be: In view of the discrepancies existing in the literature concerning the system Cr-Si, it was decided to rein-vestigate the phase relationships in this system. EXPERIMENTAL a) Starting Materials. Chromium disilicide and chromium or silicon powders were used in the present study to prepare the melting point and DTA samples. CrSi, was obtained by directly reacting cold-pressed elemental powders in an atmosphere of Hz at a temperature of about 1250°C. Chromium powder, purchased from Stark Chemical Co., had the following impurities in ppm: Fe, 200; Mg, 1000; and 0, 250; while silicon powder, purchased from the Welded Carbide Co., had the following impurities in ppm: Ca, 700; and Fe, 3500. b) Melting-Point Determination and Differential Thermal Analysis. Cylindrical melting-point samples of approximately 13 mm in diam and 30 mm in length with a rectangular groove in the center were prepared by hot-pressing of well-mixed powder mixtures in graphite dies. Before the melting-point determination, the hot-pressed samples were ground on a sand paper to remove any minute surface contamination of graphite. A small hole of 1 mm in diam, drilled on the center portion of the samples, served as a blackbody cavity for the temperature measurements. DTA samples approximately 13 mm in diam and 15 mm in length were prepared in a manner similar to the melting-point samples. Melting points were determined using the Pirani technique under a helium atmosphere of 40 psi. The design, performance, and operation of this apparatus have been described in detail by Rudy and ~ro~ulski.'~ The temperature measurements were carried out with a calibrated disappearing-filament-type micro-pyrometer. The measured temperature was corrected for losses from the quartz window of the melting-point furnace and for deviations from blackbody conditions of the observation hole. The procedure for temperature correction has also been previously described." The DTA method of Heetderks, Rudy and Eckertl' was also used to check any phase transformations of selected alloys in the system Cr-Si. It was not possible to make remated runs on the same sample once melt-

Jan 1, 1969

By A. P. Young, L. I. Marsh

HE relationship between microstructure and *- fracture is of interest in many metals and alloys. This relationship is sometimes established by examining the fracture surfaces and the flat surfaces near the fracture path in tensile samples. However, it is often difficult to tell from examining the fractured sample whether the fracture is intergranular, intra-granular, or a mixture of both. Also, it is often of interest to follow the progress of slip, twinning, or crack formation along the fracture path before fracture occurs. The ambiguity concerning the type of fracture generally can be resolved if the area along the path of ultimate fracture can be photographed at inter-

Jan 1, 1959

By B. B. A. Luzzat

ALUMINUM is today the most widely used of the nonferrous metals. The technical literature on the aluminum smelting process is, nevertheless, very meager, so that anyone interested in the subject cannot rely on more than a couple of dozen publications.' The patent literature is equally scarce; most patents refer to the production of alumina from aluminum-bearing ores, while not more than a few score significant patents deal with the electrolytic reduction of alumina, which is the real core of the aluminum smelting industry. The "reduction phase" is, from a technical and a scientific point of view, much more interesting than the "alumina phase", which, in effect, is only a combination of such well-known chemical operations as dissolving, precipitating, filtering, drying, and calcining. The electrolytic reduction of alumina, on the other hand, has features which do not appear in any other metal smelting operation. Some of them are of great technical and scientific interest even for those not directly engaged in the production of aluminum. The purpose of this paper is to describe in some detail the basic facts and developments of the reduction phase of aluminum smelting. Two Aspects of the Electrolytic Process The raw material for the reduction process is alumina (Al2O3) . Its purity in general runs as high as 99.50 pct or more. Small differences in the chemical composition generally do not affect the reduction process.* Of more importance are the physical prop- erties of the alumina, since they affect not only its rate of solution in the molten bath but also its heat insulating power.† In the following pages, un- less otherwise stated, it is assumed that a standard "Bayer" alumina is used. The reduction process, by which alumina is broken down into its components, may be roughly defined as its electrolysis in molten cryolite. The oxygen separates at the anode, and the aluminum at the cathode, which forms the bottom of the electrolytic cell. The electrolytic cell (or pot) where the process is carried out is a strongly reinforced steel box. The

Jan 1, 1951