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By D. H. Newland

New York has a small but not insignificant place in the oil and natural gas industries of the United States. It has had a continuous record as an oil producer since 1872, with an aggregate yield of about 104,000,000 bbl. The reported output for 1935 was 4,237,000 bbl., a gain of more than 10 per cent for the year and a total that has been exceeded only in the early period of flush production half a century ago. The industry has been steadily building up since 1920 with the successful practice of the water drive, which has given a new lease of life to pools that had been practically drained of oil recoverable by pumping. An additional output of 2000 bbl. or more per acre is being procured by this method. Altogether the fields in New York State cover about 55,000 acres. Their limits are well defined and it is unlikely that they will be extended in the future, although there is some prospect of finding additional supplies by deeper drilling. The oil from New York is all classed as Pennsylvania grade, for which the recent price has been about $2.50 a barrel. It is refined at Olean, Wellsville and Bolivar, in the oil district, and partly in Pennsylvania refineries. Exploration for natural gas, outside of the established districts, was considerable during the year. Altogether 59 wells were drilled, distributed over 13 counties, of which 33 were listed as producers and 26 were dry. At the close of the year, 13 wells were in process of drilling. The 33 producing wells had a combined estimated flow of 278 million cubic feet per day. The best results were obtained from exploration in Allegany County, where out of eight wells drilled to the Oriskany sandstone five were successful and showed a combined open-flow capacity of 107 million cubic feet. The Oriskany sandstone was encountered at a depth of 4500 to 4900 ft. In Steuben County, next east of Allegany County, two out of seven wells to the Oriskany proved productive, and one of these, in the town of Greenwood, on the Watkins structure, was probably the largest that has so far been opened in the state, with a reported yield of 35 million a day. In the central part of New York interest was awakened by the activity shown in exploring for gas in the Trenton limestone, in Camden, Florence and Rome townships, Oneida

Jan 1, 1936

By D. H. Newland

New York has a small but not insignificant place in the oil and natural gas industries of the United States. It has had a continuous record as an oil producer since 1872, with an aggregate yield of about 104,000,000 bbl. The reported output for 1935 was 4,237,000 bbl., a gain of more than 10 per cent for the year and a total that has been exceeded only in the early period of flush production half a century ago. The industry has been steadily building up since 1920 with the successful practice of the water drive, which has given a new lease of life to pools that had been practically drained of oil recoverable by pumping. An additional output of 2000 bbl. or more per acre is being procured by this method. Altogether the fields in New York State cover about 55,000 acres. Their limits are well defined and it is unlikely that they will be extended in the future, although there is some prospect of finding additional supplies by deeper drilling. The oil from New York is all classed as Pennsylvania grade, for which the recent price has been about $2.50 a barrel. It is refined at Olean, Wellsville and Bolivar, in the oil district, and partly in Pennsylvania refineries. Exploration for natural gas, outside of the established districts, was considerable during the year. Altogether 59 wells were drilled, distributed over 13 counties, of which 33 were listed as producers and 26 were dry. At the close of the year, 13 wells were in process of drilling. The 33 producing wells had a combined estimated flow of 278 million cubic feet per day. The best results were obtained from exploration in Allegany County, where out of eight wells drilled to the Oriskany sandstone five were successful and showed a combined open-flow capacity of 107 million cubic feet. The Oriskany sandstone was encountered at a depth of 4500 to 4900 ft. In Steuben County, next east of Allegany County, two out of seven wells to the Oriskany proved productive, and one of these, in the town of Greenwood, on the Watkins structure, was probably the largest that has so far been opened in the state, with a reported yield of 35 million a day. In the central part of New York interest was awakened by the activity shown in exploring for gas in the Trenton limestone, in Camden, Florence and Rome townships, Oneida

Jan 1, 1936

By Carl Samans

IN their recent complete review of the subject of age-hardening,1 R. F. Mehl and L. K. Jetter classify the main types of precipitation-hardening alloys under two headings, depending upon the nature of the precipitate and the character of the precipitation. In the alloys falling under the first heading, which display "continuous precipitation" and are typified by the aluminum-copper alloys, "precipitation seems to occur without much regard to grain boundaries and apparently at much the same rate at every point," although an acceleration in regions plas-tically deformed has definitely been established .2 In the second type of alloys the precipitation is "discontinuous," as in the copper-silver system for example, and "seems to start in restricted regions, primarily those contiguous with the grain boundaries, and to spread inward in an advanc-ing wave." The reasons for the occurrence of these two greatly different types of precipitation are unknown, as are those for many other reactions that take place in the solid state. In the present paper only the first or "continuous" type of precipita-tion will be dealt with, for which a complete crystallographic mechanism has been worked out for the process of precipitation from a supersaturated solid solution of copper in aluminum. Based upon this mechanism, an explanation of the various property changes found experimentally will be developed in the second paper of this series. In later papers "dis-continuous precipitation" in copper-silver alloys will be explained, and an effort will be made to rationalize the two processes and types of precipitation.

Jan 1, 1940

By Frederic P. Dewey

The improvement in leaching introduced by the Russell process has stimulated the development of processes for refining lixiviation-sulphides. In the early days several processes for dealing with the sulphides were proposed, and some of them were tried more or less ; but the business finally settled down to sending the sulphides to the smelters, although this was known to be both troublesome and expensive. In 1891 Mr. C. A. Stetefeldt* introduced at the Marsac mill, Park City, Utah, an unpatented process, built up out of the general fund of information available. It consisted in matting the sulphides, grinding, roasting, grinding again, and dissolving the copper out in diluted sulphuric acid, then melting the silver and crystallizing the bluestone. It did not yield fine bullion, hence the bullion had to be refined as well as parted; besides, there was some loss. This process was thoroughly tried at the Marsac refinery and then a year's run was made, the net result of which was that it did not prove sufficiently better than the sending of the sulphides to the smelters to warrant its substitution for that practice. In 1893 the Dewey-Walter Refining Company undertook the refining of the Daly sulphides in the Marsac refinery by the sulphuric acid process, upon which two United States patents ? have been issued to the writer. Naturally, difficulties were encountered in starting a new process, and most of 1893 was taken up in getting it into smooth working order; but in 1894 a run was started, in which all the regular sulphides produced by the

Jan 1, 1897

By Ziebell, Howard A.

THE Washington magnesite deposits, located in the hilly and mountainous northeastern part of Washington, occur as massive lenses in a sedimentary series made up of dolomite, shale, and quartzite, into which basic dikes have intruded. The ore pattern resembles a series of disconnected chain links extending approximately 25 miles in a south-west direction. Magnesite in this district is all crystalline and closely associated with dolomite, talc, serpentine, and basic dike rock. All deposits which have been developed are near the surface so that quarry-bench mining has been possible. For over twenty years hand sorting magnesite ore at the quarry face was standard practice. Ore cars were hand trammed on 30-lb rail systems which led from the face to ore passes or raises for the magnesite ore and to the waste dumps for disposal of the rejected waste material. This system was somewhat modified by the use of Dempster Dumpster trucks. The ore was, however, still sorted by hand from the calcium and silica bearing waste rock. Power equipment. consisting of one 3/4-yd electric shovel, was

Jan 1, 1949

By A. E. Schuetz, A. E. Roswell, W. R. Hibbard

THE drawn wire texture of body-centered cubic iron,' tungsten,' and molybdenum~ as been determined to be a [110] direction parallel to the wire axis. The purpose of this study is to extend the available information on body-centered cubic wire textures to other metals and alloys. Wires were produced using hand wire rolls and dies as given in Table I. In addition, attempts were unsuccessful to draw wires from chromium, vanadium (Vanadium Corp. of America), and tungsten (Cleveland Tungsten Inc.). Although it is known that wires can be made from these materials, suitable techniques were not readily adaptable. Where necessary, wires were polished and etched to form flat ribbons 0.005 to 0.007 in. thick, and transmission X-ray patterns were taken using molybdenum radiation with the specimen tilted 0 degrees from the perpendicular toward the beam to critically cover the wire axis. Analyses were made of (110), (002), and (112) reflection circles. In all cases reflection maxima indicated the texture to be a single [1101 deformation fiber, as illustrated by Fig. 1 for molybdenum. In the case of the hot-worked ß brass, a second texture, [loo], was also found, but this is believed to be the result of recrystallization since it has been reported for re-crystallized molybdenum wires' and it was not present in the cold-drawn ß brass. The difference in drawability between the 51.92 pct Cu ß brass and the 62.5 pct Cu ß brass (containing some grain boundary a due to incomplete quenching) is quite striking, since the latter could be cold worked readily while the former had to be hot worked to avoid cracking. Summary The deformation texture of drawn body-centered cubic wires of ß brass, iron, molybdenum, niobium, and tantalum is essentially a single [110] fiber as predicted by theory.' Acknowledgment The authors wish to thank the suppliers of the metals listed in the text, and the Grant-in-Aid from the Research Fund of the Society of the Sigma Xi and Scientific Research Society of America which made possible the purchase of X-ray equipment.

Jan 1, 1952

By Roshan Bhappu, Laszlo Dudas, Herman Maass

Introduction Chemical and mineralogical constitution play a very important role in the processing of ores because they dictate the method, either physical or chemical, for extracting the mineral or metal. Similarly, the mineralogical nature of the ore, especially the grain size of the valuable minerals, is very important in its processing. The fineness of the grain may be such that physical separation pro- cesses may be eliminated in preference to chemical techniques. In the past, very little attention has been devoted to the geo- logical and mineralogical occurrences which may be potential sources of ores by both the geologist and mineral processing engineer. On the one hand, geologists have devoted less attention to lower grade, complex mineral deposits, and, therefore, may have inadvertently curtailed an exploration 2rogra.m. On the other hand, the metal- lurgists have neglected to study in detail the geological environ- ments and mineralization of potential ores with the view of deter- mining the critical parameter that could assist in economically processing complex submarginal deposits. In the final analysis, a chemical processing technique converts the valuable metals to a mobile state under conditions similar to those which deposited originally in the host rock. The relationship between ore-genesis and chemical processing is close when the process of mineral or metal deposition in a particular ore deposit is understood--putting the metal in solution by reversing the process of deposition is re- latively easy. For this reason, some researchers and educators have been stressing the importance of ore-genesis, geochemistry, mineral equilibria, and ionic equilibria in studying and explaining the

Jan 1, 1974

By Gilbert Cady

EXTENSIVE Sampling of coal in Illinois during the past 10 or 12 years by the State Geological Survey, in cooperation with various organizations, such as the U. S. Bureau of Mines, the University of Illinois, and the Illinois Cooperative Mining Investigations, has made possible the delineation of two areas of low-sulfur coal in the southern part of Illinois. The sulfur content is less than 1.25 per cent., so that, if otherwise suitable, these coals can be employed for metallurgical uses and for the manufacture of water-gas and retort gas. One of these areas is small and lies in Jack-son County, near Murphysboro, the other is much larger and includes a large part of the famous Franklin County field. A small area of No. 2, or Murphysboro, coal has been worked for many years near the town of Murphysboro, Jackson County, Ill. In two mines, at least, the coal has a sulfur content of less than 1.25 per cent. It is doubtful, however, whether this field will ever be a source of large tonnage as the total area underlain by low-sulfur coal in workable thickness is probably less than 15 sq. mi. (24.14 sq. km.), and a large part of it has already been worked out. The location of the area of low-sulfur coal in the Franklin County field is shown in the accompanying map. The small area underlain by the Murphysboro low-sulfur coal is shown near the town of that name in the central part of Jackson County. The larger area lies in the west side of Franklin County, extending also about 6 mi. (9.65 km.) south into Williamson County, about 4 mi. (6.43 km.) west into northern Jackson and western Perry County, and northward an undetermined distance into Jefferson County. All but the northern limit of the area is fairly well defined by sampling in numerous mines. The inner cross-lined area is underlain by coal having less than 1 per cent. sulfur, the outer boundary surrounding the area Underlain by coal having less than 1.25 per cent, sulfur.

Jan 7, 1919

By L. D. Jaffe, D. C. Buffum

EARLIER the authors and coworkers had pre sented data on isothermal temper embrittlement of an SAE 3140 steel?' In that work, however, attention was concentrated on embrittlement at 575°C and below. Preliminary measurements showed that embrittlement at 675 °C was much mote rapid than would be expected from the data at the lower temperatures: and indicated the need for further work above 575°C. The possibility of an upper nose in the time-temperature embrittlement diagram above 575°C was pointed out. Procedure The same heat of SAE 3140 steel was used as in the previous work, and experimental methods were the same. All blanks were austenitized 1 hr at 900°C and water, quenched. Groups were then tempered 1 hr at 675"C, water quenched, and given embrittling treatments for times of 5 min to 240 hr at 675" to 600 °C, as shown in Table I. Other groups, after the temper and quench, were embrittled 48 to 1440 hr at 550°C. Another series was tempered 240 hr at 675"C, quenched, and held for various times at 650" to 375°C (Table 11). For comparison, a series was tempered for these same times at 700°, 675", and 650°C (Table 111). The Ae, temperature for this heat of steel had been determined as approximately 690°C;1*a the treatments at 700°C were introduced to determine the effects of tempering in a range where a little austenite would fonn. A large number of other treatments, involving holding at two temperatures in succession after the temper, and occasionally slow cooling or heating, were also studied. These treatments are listed in the tables. Austenitizing was done in air; all subsequent treatments were in salt. Blanks were always water quenched after the last treatment. The heat-treated blanks were machined to standard V-notch Charpy specimens. A transition curve for each group was obtained by breaking the specimens at various temperatures on a 217 ft-lb impact machine having a striking velocity of 16.8 fps, and plotting the observed percentage of fibrous fracture vs the test temperature. From this plot, the transition temperature was taken as the lowest temperature at which the fracture appeared 100 pct fibrous; its accuracy is estimated as +5"C. Generally, hardness was measured on every bar. Since a decrease in hardness itself seems to decrease the transition temperature somewhat, a correctiona of —0.28"C per Bhn was applied to permit comparison of the transition temperatures on a uniform basis of 24 Rc. The transition temperature and hardness results are given in Tables I through VI. Where overlap of earlier work1.' occurred, data were combined.

Jan 1, 1958

By A. L. Holley

The existence of iron ore and anthracite coal in the neighborhood of Providence, R. I., baa long been known, chiefly as a geological fact; that these materials, so near to each other and to tidewater, are of such a good quality and are present in such large quantity, as to have seriously raised the question of establishing blast furnaces there, was a surprising fact to me; and I have thought that the few notes I have lately gathered on the subject would be of interest at this partly New England meeting. The coal field referred to has an area of above 400 square miles, and is found throughout the belt of transition rocks extending from Newport Neck to Mansfield, Massachusetts. It underlies the cities of Providence and Newport, and the towns of Middletown, Portsmouth, Jamestown, Warwick, Barrington, Cranston, North Provi-

Jan 1, 1879

While coal has been found in numerous counties in this state, it has only been produced commercially in a few of them. Production data are more than usually meager, and little data could be derived from the railroad reports of tonnages carried. All data is given in Table 65.

Jan 1, 1942

By Kendall E. Born

PRoduction of crude oil in Tennessee during 1938 was slightly more than 41,000 bbl., an increase of about 5000 bbl. over 1937. The production by counties and by fields is shown in Table 1. The increased production has resulted from continued activity in the Upper Cumberland district, especially in Clay County. The "Mississippi lime" production in Scott and Morgan Counties continued to show a further decline with a 1938 production of 12,379 bbl. as against 14,644 bbl. during 1937. Small scattered production from some half dozen wells in Clay, Pickett, and Fentress Counties, on which there are no accurate figures, is estimated at 500 bbl. during the year. The only natural gas marketed off the lease in Tennessee during 1938 was in Morgan County, where a small amount was furnished for the town of Sunbright and immediate vicinity. The gas occurs with the oil in the Boone Camp field and small amounts were put on the line from the near-by Coon Hollow and Seabolt pools. Developments There were 88 wells spudded in during 1938, of which 10 were drilling or only temporarily shut down on Dec. 31, 1938. Eighty wells were completed during the year; 16 produced oil and 3 were gas wells of undetermined quantity. The total footage drilled on 1938 completions was 63,385 ft. Flush production during the year totaled 850 bbl. per day. The more important wildcats are listed in Table 2; the distribution of oil and gas tests drilled during the year, according to physiographic divisions, is given in Table 3. Cumberland Plateau There were no completions in the producing pools in Scott and Morgan Counties. The decline in production in these areas has been steady for the past several years. In an effort to revive production, present plans include a repressuring program in the Boone Camp field in Morgan County early in 1939. There was one completion in Morgan

Jan 1, 1939

By Kendall E. Born

PRoduction of crude oil in Tennessee during 1938 was slightly more than 41,000 bbl., an increase of about 5000 bbl. over 1937. The production by counties and by fields is shown in Table 1. The increased production has resulted from continued activity in the Upper Cumberland district, especially in Clay County. The "Mississippi lime" production in Scott and Morgan Counties continued to show a further decline with a 1938 production of 12,379 bbl. as against 14,644 bbl. during 1937. Small scattered production from some half dozen wells in Clay, Pickett, and Fentress Counties, on which there are no accurate figures, is estimated at 500 bbl. during the year. The only natural gas marketed off the lease in Tennessee during 1938 was in Morgan County, where a small amount was furnished for the town of Sunbright and immediate vicinity. The gas occurs with the oil in the Boone Camp field and small amounts were put on the line from the near-by Coon Hollow and Seabolt pools. Developments There were 88 wells spudded in during 1938, of which 10 were drilling or only temporarily shut down on Dec. 31, 1938. Eighty wells were completed during the year; 16 produced oil and 3 were gas wells of undetermined quantity. The total footage drilled on 1938 completions was 63,385 ft. Flush production during the year totaled 850 bbl. per day. The more important wildcats are listed in Table 2; the distribution of oil and gas tests drilled during the year, according to physiographic divisions, is given in Table 3. Cumberland Plateau There were no completions in the producing pools in Scott and Morgan Counties. The decline in production in these areas has been steady for the past several years. In an effort to revive production, present plans include a repressuring program in the Boone Camp field in Morgan County early in 1939. There was one completion in Morgan

Jan 1, 1939

By C. W. A. Newey

I would like to make the following points in connection with the studies of the deformation of NiAl reported in the recent paper by Wasilewski, Butler, and Hanlon. 1) Much of their paper is concerned with demonstrating that slip occurs on either {110)(001) or {100)(001) systems. In their discussion they state "the existence of (001) as the basic slip direction can thus be considered established." This fact was established by the earlier studies of Ball and Smallman.32 Ball and Smallman also concluded that the slip plane was of the type (110) and they showed that cross slip or pencil glide on orthogonal (110) planes could produce macroscopic slip on planes of the (001) zones, e.g., (100). Wasilewski et al. refer to this paper by Ball and Smallman but not in connection with the slip system determinations. 2) Wasilewski et a!. eliminate the possibility of (111) slip in NiAl on dubious grounds. Their statement that ('the very high yield strengths of the (100) oriented crystals", in which (001) slip is constrained, "immediately ruled out the possibility of {110)(111) slip" cannot be accepted unequivocably; it would be reasonable if the crystals were completely brittle but they are not, as Wasilewski et al. and others33734 have shown. Their elimination of the possibility of (111) slip in a crystal compressed along [227] is misleading since there is no obvious reason why (111) slip should occur in a crystal of this orientation. In fact, from an analysis of the macroscopic surface markings on deformed (100) stoichiometric crystals, Pascoe and Newey34 have deduced that slip occurs on systems of the type {211)(111) and {321)(111). 3) Polycrystalline NiAl is known to undergo general deformati~n.Having emphasized that general deformation is impossible if only (100) slip occurs, it is a pity that Wasilewski et al. do not attempt to account for the disagreement between theory and their experimental results. Of course, (111) slip can provide the additional independent systems required for general deformation.

Jan 1, 1969

By W. E. C. Coxe

AT the meeting of the Institute in Philadelphia, in June, 1876, it was my pleasure to read a paper on the "Manufacture and Endurance of Iron Rails." I then spoke of some trial rails which had been placed in the down track of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, over which passed, in addition to merchandise and passengers, most of the heavy coal traffic of that company. One of these rails, made at the Philadelphia and Reading Rolling Mill in 1870, and then placed in the track, was removed in 1876, after having carried about 55,000,000 gross tons, and was on exhibition at the Centennial Exhibition. A piece of this worn rail, twisted cold, was also shown there. One of the same series of rails was allowed to remain in the track until 1878, and short sections of this rail, as well as one not worn, to show its original shape, are presented for your inspection. A comparison of the two will show that the top of the head or tread has worn down 3/16 ths of an inch during its nine years of service. It carried in that time 67,000,000 gross tons of freight, passengers, cars, and engines. This rail was made in the usual way of manufacturing iron rails at the Philadelphia and Reading Rolling Mill. The head was made from puddled iron bars, piled, heated, and rolled into bars, 4 1/2 and 3 inches wide by 1 inch thick, these bars, breaking joints, were made into a pile in section 9 inches square, heated and rolled into slabs 9 inches wide and 2 inches thick; the balance of the rail-pile was made of 4 1/2 and 3-inch bars, rolled from two-thirds old rails and one-third puddled iron, the

Jan 1, 1880

By W. E. C. Coxe

At the meeting of the Institute in Philadelphia, in June, 1876, it was my pleasure to read a paper on the "Manufacture and Endurance of Iron Rails." I then spoke of some trial rails which had been placed in the down track of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, over which passed, in addition to merchandise and passengers, most of the heavy coal traffic of that company. One of these rails, made at the Philadelphia and Reading Rolling Mill in 1870, and then placed in the track, was removed in 1876, after having carried about 55,000,000 gross tons, and was on exhibition at the Centennial Exhibition. A piece of this worn rail, twisted cold, was also shown there. One of the same series of rails was allowed to remain in the track until 1878, and short sections of this rail, as well as one not worn, to show its original shape, are presented for your inspection. A comparison of the two will show that the top of the head or tread has morn down 3/16ths of an inch during its nine years of service. It carried in that time 67,000,000 gross tons of freight, passengers, cars, and engines. This rail was made in the usual way of manufacturing iron rails at the Philadelphia and Reading Rolling Mill. The head was made from puddled iron bars, piled, heated, and rolled into bars, 41/2 and 3 inches wide by 1 inch thick, these bars, breaking joints, were made into a pile in section 9 inches square, heated and rolled into slabs 9 inches wide and 2 inches thick; the balance of the rail-pile was made of 41/2 and 3-inch bars, rolled from two-thirds old rails and one-third puddled iron, the

Jan 1, 1880

By A. Spilners, M. Simnad

The rates of formation of the different oxides on molybdenum in pure oxygen at 1 atm pressure have been determined in the temperature range 500° to 770°C. The rate of vaporization of MOO, is linear with time, and the energy of activation for its vaporization is 53,000 cal per mol below 650°C and 89,600 cal per mol at temperatures above 650°C. The ratio Mo03(vapor.lzing)/MoOS3(suriace) increases in a complicated manner with time and temperature. There is a maximum in the total rate of oxidation at 6W°C. At temperatures below 600°C, an activation energy of 48,900 cal per mol for the formation of total MOO, on molybdenum has been evaluated. The suboxide Moo2 does not increase beyond a very small critical thickness. At temperatures above 725°C, catastrophic oxidation of an autocatalytic nature was encountered. Pronounced pitting of the metal was found to occur in the temperature range 550° to 650°C. Marker movement experiments indicate that the oxides on molybdenum grow almost entirely by diffusion of oxygen anions. USEFUL life of molybdenum in air at elevated temperatures is limited by the unprotective nature of its oxide which begins to volatilize at moderate temperatures. Although the oxide/metal volume ratio is greater than one, the protective nature of the oxide film is very limited. Gulbransen and Hickman' have shown, by means of electron diffraction studies, that the oxides formed during the oxidation of molybdenum are MOO, and MOO,. The dioxide is the one present next to the metal surface and the trioxide is formed by the oxidation of the dioxide. Molybdenum dioxide is a brownish-black oxide which can be reduced by hydrogen at about 500°C. Molybdenum trioxide has a colorless transparent rhombic crystal structure when sublimed, but on the metal surface it has a yellowish-white fibrous structure. It is reported to be volatile at temperatures above 500" and melts at 795°C. It is soluble in ammonia, which does not affect the dioxide or the metal. In his extensive and classic investigations of the oxidation of metals, Gulbransen2 has studied the formation of thin oxide films on molybdenum in the temperature range 250" to 523°C. These experiments were carried out in a vacuum microbalance, and the effect of pressure (in the range 10-6 yo 76 mm Hg), surface preparation, concentration of inert gas in the lattice, cycling procedures in temperature, and vacuum effect were studied. The oxidation was found to follow the parabolic law from 250" to 450°C and deviations started to occur at 450 °C. The rates of evaporation of a thick oxide film were also studied at temperatures of 474" to 523°C. In vacua of the order of 10- km Hg and at elevated temperatures, an oxidation process was observed, since the oxide that formed at these low pressures consisted of MOO, which has a protective action to further reaction in vacua at temperatures up to 1000°C. Electron diffraction studies showed that, as the film thickened in the low temperature range, MOO8 became predominant on the surface. Above 400°C MOO, was no longer observed, MOO, being the only oxide detected. The failure to detect MOO, on the surface of the film formed at the higher temperatures does not militate against the formation of this oxide, since according to free energy data MOO3, is stable up to much higher temperatures. At the low pressures employed, this oxide would volatilize off as soon as it was formed. Its vapor pressure is relatively high and is given by the equations" log p(mm iig) = -16,140 T-1 -5.53 log T + 30.69 (25°C—melting point) log p(mm He) = -14,560 T-1 -7.04 log T+1 + 34.07 (melting-boiling point). Lustman4 has reported some results on the scaling of molybdenum in air which indicate a discontinuity at the melting point of MOO, (795°C). Above the melting point of MOO,, oxidation is accompanied by loss of weight, since the oxide formed flows off the surface as soon as it is formed.5,6 Qathenau and Meijering7 point out that the eutectic MOO2-MOO3 melts at 778C, and they ascribe the catastrophic oxidation of alloys of high molybdenum content to the formation of low melting point eutectics of MOO3 with the oxides of the melts present. Fontana and Leslie -explain the same phenomenon in terms of the volatility of MOO,, which leads to the formation of a porous scale. Recent unpublished work by Speiser9 n the oxidation of molybdenum in air at temperatures between 480" and 960°C shows that the rate of weight change of molybdenum is controlled by the relationship between the rates of formation and evaporation of MOO,. They have measured the rates of evaporation of Moo3 in air at different temperatures and estimated an activation energy of 46,900 cal. This compares with the value of 50,800 cal per mol obtained by Gulbransen for the rate of sublimation of MOO, into a vacuum.

Jan 1, 1956

By Jonathan Ludlow, Paul J. Guay

Based on two studies that were funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the authors provide an overview of the benefits expected from mining deeper webs on United States longwalls. The first study, completed in November 1979, identified the limits and potential gains from taking deeper webs with presently available equipment. The second on-going study discusses the conceptual design and benefits of a future system for taking very deep webs.

Jan 1, 1981

By G. W. White

Over the past several years, the steady progress of gas lift from a mysterious art into a developing science has been traceable through the many fine papers that have appeared in Journal of Petroleum Technology. Consequently, this magazine has rightly become a standard for the serious students of gas lift all over the world. The following discussion is offered in a sincere attempt to accurately present certain topics covered in the subject paper in the light of acknowledged state of the art procedures. INSTALLATION DESIGN The first point to be questioned is the author's installation design, beginning with Eq. 6. The use of 1,200 psi in the spacing equation instead of the 1,275 psi noted as available seems, at first glance, to be a simple arithmetic error. Upon further examination, it appears evident that both this 75 psi plus the 100-psi safety factor must be subtracted from available kickoff pressure because of conditions imposed by the characteristics of the ASC valve (see Fig. B-1). Pressure-charged valve design is incorrectly penalized by spacing the first valve using only 1,100 psi. The use of such a high back-pressure makes it appear that a typical ASC installation would require no more valves than a comparable conventional valve installation. Using a value of 100-psi tree pressure, the well could be valved to 11,000 ft very conservatively with seven pressure-operated valves, but would still require 11 ASC valves. The use of 400-B/D spacing gradient for a 140-B/D rate is not an accepted practice using precharged valves. The author would have done well to note the advantages to be gained by reducing the 500-psi tree pressure, which is clearly explained by Beadle, Harlan and Brown.' In Step 1 of Part III of the continuous flow discussion, the author incorrectly applies the Poettmann and Carpenter curves.2 Item 2 is an incorrect statement. An excellent reference on this point is the paper by Baxen-dell and Thomas.' VALVE MECHANICS The next topic relates to the mechanics of precharged valves. Eq. 2 for the ASC valve can be used to describe the condition of equilibrium, wherein the valve is closed with opening pending. When this equation is used to determine relative values of casing, dome and tubing pressure with conditions approaching the transition value, some strange results are obtained. The following uses the author's symbols and values given on page 689. Fig. B-1 shows the condition that exists at the moment an ASC valve has been uncovered during the unloading process (Condition I). The obvious result is a locked condition. The basis for the curve is shown on the figure which includes 1,000 psig casing pressure to uncover the valve. If injection gas is not bled off the casing until the pressure is decreased by an amount exceeding the stabilizer discharging valve pressure, upward adjustment of the casing pressure is mandatory for the valve to open and unloading operations to continue. In Condition I the dome pressure exceeds the casing pressure by 20 psi, and the tubing pressure required to open the valve is 1,212 psig. This tubing pressure would not exist under the assumed conditions. In Condition I1 the casing pressure is increased to the dome pressure, and the tubing pressure required to open the valve is 1,102 psig. It is apparent that the casing pressure must be increased to a value exceeding the dome pressure before unloading operations could continue. In Condition I11 a maximum casing pressure of 100 psi (stabilizer charging valve set pressure) above the dome pressure is reached, and the tubing pressure required to open the valve is 549 psig. The author's statement after Eq. 5 that "the minimum tubing pressure required to open an ASC valve is equal to the casing pressure at depth less the transition pressure of the valve" is incorrect except for Condition I11 only. Otherwise, the equation is invalid.

Jan 1, 1965

Jan 1, 1932