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By J. H. Russell

THE great number of wells being drilled in the Gulf Coast creates a great demand for and an opportunity to improve the methods of drilling wells and of producing oil from them. Some improvements have been made, but in the present strenuous drilling campaign at Spindletop, the quickest methods of drilling and completing wells are much too slow. Therefore, not a great deal of thought has been given to any new methods. However, one can not help but compare the method and equipment used in the present-day drilling campaign at Spindletop with those of 1901. The differences in equipment and methods are staggering and the present-day operators can hardly imagine how the old operators ever were able to drill a well. The "Old Timers" explain the reason as being that "Men were men in those days and not much machinery was necessary." Yet the development in 25 years of thought and study has brought about a great improvement in equipment and in methods. I believe there has been a great deal more thought given to the development and improvement of drilling equipment and methods and to the completion of wells than has been given to the actual production operations.

Jan 11, 1926

By W. A. Backofen, A. T. English

The kinetics of re crystallization were determined metallographically for a 3-1/4 pcl Si-Fe rapidly compressed at temperatures of 710° to 911°C, and held for various times at the working temperature. As in re crystallization following cold wwk, the time for re crystallization was reduced by increased temperature and strain. Nucleation occurred chiefly at grain edges, although other pre-existing interfaces, notably inclusions, also served as nucleation sites. The importance of intragranular nucleation to grain refinement in hot working is pointed out, together with some possible techniques by which nucleation might be induced within the grains. The observed isothermal growth rates are quite accurately described by the equation G = 4 x 10-'/t (cm per sec), independent of temperature and strain at all but the shortest times. Changes in G during recrystalliza-tion can exceed two orders of magnitude. It is argued that release of stored energy associated with lattice defects cannot adequately explain the time dependence. A suggested alternative involves processes of solute segregation and desegregation in the unrecrystallized matrix and at the moving boundary, respectively. EFFORTS to improve hot-working practice are hampered by an incomplete understanding of the fundamental metallurgy involved. Research directed at establishing the required basic foundation falls into two categories, the first concerned with measurement of mechanical properties under the conditions of high temperature and strain rate which characterize such processing, the second focused on structure and its relation to the deformation conditions. Rossard,' Rossard and Blain,2 and Hardwick and Tegart have conducted many high-speed, high-temperature torsion tests on various metals. One of their objectives was interpretation of stress-strain curves in terms of the structures of specimens rapidly quenched following interruption of twisting. They showed that appreciable hardening occurred in the early part of the test, and that this hardening reflected the concurrent development of an increasingly dense substructure within the grains. The detailed nature of this substructure was observed to depend on the ease of polygonization which, at least in fcc metals, varies with the stacking-fault energy.= By holding specimens after interruption but before quenching, the nucleation and growth of new grains could also be studied. Some success has been realized in relating the microstructure of hot-rolled steel to its temperature:strain rate:strain history with such testing.' The same general observations have been made by others investigating rolling4f5 and drop-hammer forging.~-~ Incident to these experiments, some efforts were made to determine the kinetics of re-crystallization as well as the velocity of the migrating boundaries. The results have been largely qualitative, owing to difficulties of interpreting hardness measurements5 and microstructures. The work described here was undertaken to obtain more quantitative information from tests on a material having suitable metallographic properties, and, in this way, to provide further insight into the fundamentals of this practically most important kind of deformation processing. I) MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES Materials. Electrolytic etching of a Si-Fe alloy reveals dislocations and substructure in unrecrystallized grains.8'9 This unique characteristic makes possible a precise determination of the extent of recrystallization. For that reason, it was the material selected for all experiments in the present work. The two particular alloys that were used are identified in Table I. A major difference between "A" and "B" is the number of inclusions, as noted in the table. Most of the experiments were made with material "A". It was received as hot-rolled plate 1 in. thick, sawed to 2-in. widths, hot-forged at 1200°C to 5/8-in. rounds, and finally annealed in a mechanical vacuum at 1000°C for 24 hr. The result was substructure-free grains of mean diameter 0.05 cm.*

Jan 1, 1964

By J. C. Rengel

Why and how the nuclear industry entered the electric power generation business is discussed in terms that nuclear energy was an undoubtedly additional energy resource and that it had promise of becoming a virtually inexhaustible generating power if breeder reactors could be devised. The growth of nuclear power, its total generation capacity, are related to the need of increasing energy requirements. The use of atomic energy for power generation will grow if it can compete economically with other fuels. The rate of growth, the time scale and direction of technical development is dependent on ore supplies. It is predicted that by 1980, 50% of all new power installations will be nuclear stations. INTRODUCTION Ten years ago, the nuclear industry was virtually unborn, the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 had just been signed, and peaceful applications of atomic power was little more than a phrase. Serious discussion of the practical application of nuclear energy to electric utility installations in the West was highly unlikely. The questions: Why and how did the nuclear industry enter the electric power generation business at all?; What is the predicted growth of nuclear power?; What technological changes do we predict?; How will the above changes affect the utilities? will in part be answered by this paper. WHY NUCLEAR POWER? The only justification for the West as for any other section of the country for atomic power is economics. Whatever energy source will provide the lowest generation cost will prevail; the only electric utilities which have shown an interest in nuclear power are those to whom it means lower generation costs. It is true that the Government sponsored the development of this technology long before there was any evidence of better economics; but a Government must take a very long-range view and it is the only type of organization that can afford to look more than twenty or thirty years into the future. The Government looked at projections such as shown in Fig. 1, which shows various rates of energy consumption, and matched these against estimates of fossil fuel resources. This showed that we will exhaust our low-cost fossil fuel supplies within 75 to 100 years and our total known fuel supplies within 150 to 200 years. The decision to invest in nuclear energy rested, therefore, on two arguments: a) It was undoubtedly an additional energy resource; and b) It has promise of becoming a virtually inex-haustable resource if breeder reactors could be devised if, while generating power, the reactors would produce more fissile materials than they consumed. This decision produced an unexpected bonus: nuclear power became competitive with fossil power much earlier than had been expected and, as shown in Fig. 2, forced the coal industry to take a hard look at its own position. I believe that the drop of coal prices shown here is the direct result of the entry of nuclear power into the energy supply business. At this point, it ought to be explained why and under what conditions nuclear power can be cheaper than fossil power. Fossil fuel cost to the utility is composed of two factors: a) Mining; and b) Transportation. As a result, the cost of fossil fuel to the utilities varies from 126, 106 Btu to 306, 106 Btu and higher. Nuclear energy is highly concentrated and the transportation factor becomes insignificant. Today the cost of nuclear fuel to the utility ranges between 156

Jan 1, 1967

By Reinhardt Thiessen

UNDER sulfur in coal, is usually understood that form of sulfur which is combined with iron and known as pyrite. It occurs in the form of halls, lenses, nodules, continuous layers, thin sheets, or flakes, both in horizontal planes and vertical cleavage fissures. But pyrites also occur as very fine microscopic particles, or nodules, disseminated through the compact coal. This form has had but very little consideration. Finally, there is sulfur in coal in an amicroscopic form (not visible with an ordinary microscope), probably combined with the organic matter that exists -in tile coal. This form has had considerable attention from a scientific standpoint, but has probably not been recognized enough on the economic side. One or the other, or both, of these two latter forms may comprise the larger part of the sulfur content of coal, especially after it has been washed or otherwise prepared for use.

Jan 9, 1919

By Stuart A. Bengson

It is extremely difficult to revegetate disturbed sites and mineral wastes in an arid environment because of sporadic and undependable rainfall. Thus, irrigation is often a must for starting seed germination and vegetation. Quite aside from the harsh climate, mining disturbances by themselves cause various adverse conditions for a revegetation program. The problems of revegetating a harsh soil, for instance, are often compounded by the steep slopes of mine wastes. Since these steep slopes intensify the droughty conditions by rapidly draining away soil moisture and accelerating runoff, supplemental irrigation may be the only solution for establishing vegetative cover on the slope.

Jan 8, 1976

Those familiar with the war in France at first hand know that in these last two years the weight of the suffering has fallen upon the families of the well-to-do classes; those who before the war lived in comparative ease and comfort, with every prospect of educating their children as their parents and grandparents had been. Thousands of the men in these families have been killed, "officiers d'élite," and the small pensions accorded the widows permit them only to house and feed their children HELÈNE JOURNÈS. and give them a common-school education. The pension for a lieutenant's widow is $245 a year; for 'a captain's, $345; for a colonel's $575; and so on. At present, it requires three francs a day to provide food for one person in cities, and conditions are not improving. The American Ouvroir Funds, 681 Fifth Ave., New York City, has tried for nearly two years to have individual Americans give individual children a "bourse," or purse, as it is called, of from $150 to $250 a year, so that they may enter such educational institutions as the Lycées, the Polytechnique, Beaux Arts, St. Cyr, etc. The war relief societies of these military schools furnish photographs and histories of children under their care and on their lists.

Jan 12, 1918

By Eugene Guccione

For at least a decade, the energy crisis was accurately predicted by a small number of industry people who were ignored until last year, when they suddenly found themselves accused for their "lack of planning" and "greed." With the worsening shortage of natural gas and oil, the current scramble is for alternate energy sources-which means: a big rush into coal and uranium mining. (Some big plans are also on the drawing boards regarding geothermal steam, oil shale, tar sands, and even solar energy. But developing such new industries from scratch would be difficult enough even in a healthy economic climate-which is not exactly what the country currently enjoys.)

Jan 8, 1974

By Ferit Gurses

Extensive coal and lignite deposits exist in Turkey. Bituminous coal is the nation's principal mineral resource; important not only as fuel for the industrial development of the country, but also as a means of obtaining foreign exchange. Of the electrical power generated during 1939, 82.8 per cent was derived from coal.' It is anticipated that the lignite deposits will be one of the major sources of power for the electrification of the country. Bituminous Coal The locations of the four principal bituminous-coal2 basins are indicated on Fig. 1. The Eregli-Zonguldak basin lies on the Black Sea northwest of Ankara; the Canakkale basin lies near the junction of the Dardannelles; the Trakya basin is in European Turkey northwest of the Bosphorus and the Erzurum basin lies far to the east. The Eregli-Zonguldak basin is the most important of the four. This coal basin was discovered in 1829 but did not arouse interest until 1848; up to 1865, its annual production had not exceeded 50,000 metric tons. In 1865, during the Sultanate, working of coal mines was started by the Navy department, and the annual production was 61,145 metric tons. In 1908, the Minister of Commerce and Agriculture was authorized to develop the whole coal basin. Production reached 264,397 metric tons in 1910, and during 1915-1922, preceding the revolution, the total produc- tion of the basin was' 2,676,043, or an average of 334,000 metric tons annually. The period of national revolution that followed was marked by a steady increase in coal production in Turkey, although world production decreased, because of the crisis of 1929-1932, about 52 per cent. ARea and Geology of the Coal Basin The geology of the Eregli-Zonguldak area is not yet completely known. The basin begins -at Gungazi, to the west of Eregli, and extends to Sogutozu, a distance of about 106 miles. The coal beds, however, appear only in places and the overlying Cretaceous strata hide them elsewhere. This area includes the most important centers, such as Kandilli, Alacaagzi, Teflenli, Kozlu, Gelik (see Fig. 2). The geological sequence of the district is correlated with the Cretaceous of the Balkans; which is, in turn, a prolongation of the Alpine zone. Geological surveys made by G. Ralli, R. Zeiller and P. Arni3 show that the Eregli-Zonguldak formations fall into three natural divisions. Series a, The Alacaagzi in the district of that name (Fig. 2), is of the Culm stage. The strata strike generally east-west and dip about 30" south. This series appears also around Kandilli and Camli, with a steeper angle of dip, but the deposits there lack regularity. The Alacaagzi stage appears also farther east, to the south of Kozlu and Gelik. The Alacaagzi series contains 15 seams of an average thickness of 2 ft. of good coal. Series b, the Kozlu, best represented in Zonguldak, Kilimli, Catalagzi, and between

Jan 1, 1944

By Ferit Gurses

Extensive coal and lignite deposits exist in Turkey. Bituminous coal is the nation's principal mineral resource; important not only as fuel for the industrial development of the country, but also as a means of obtaining foreign exchange. Of the electrical power generated during 1939, 82.8 per cent was derived from coal.' It is anticipated that the lignite deposits will be one of the major sources of power for the electrification of the country. Bituminous Coal The locations of the four principal bituminous-coal2 basins are indicated on Fig. 1. The Eregli-Zonguldak basin lies on the Black Sea northwest of Ankara; the Canakkale basin lies near the junction of the Dardannelles; the Trakya basin is in European Turkey northwest of the Bosphorus and the Erzurum basin lies far to the east. The Eregli-Zonguldak basin is the most important of the four. This coal basin was discovered in 1829 but did not arouse interest until 1848; up to 1865, its annual production had not exceeded 50,000 metric tons. In 1865, during the Sultanate, working of coal mines was started by the Navy department, and the annual production was 61,145 metric tons. In 1908, the Minister of Commerce and Agriculture was authorized to develop the whole coal basin. Production reached 264,397 metric tons in 1910, and during 1915-1922, preceding the revolution, the total produc- tion of the basin was' 2,676,043, or an average of 334,000 metric tons annually. The period of national revolution that followed was marked by a steady increase in coal production in Turkey, although world production decreased, because of the crisis of 1929-1932, about 52 per cent. ARea and Geology of the Coal Basin The geology of the Eregli-Zonguldak area is not yet completely known. The basin begins -at Gungazi, to the west of Eregli, and extends to Sogutozu, a distance of about 106 miles. The coal beds, however, appear only in places and the overlying Cretaceous strata hide them elsewhere. This area includes the most important centers, such as Kandilli, Alacaagzi, Teflenli, Kozlu, Gelik (see Fig. 2). The geological sequence of the district is correlated with the Cretaceous of the Balkans; which is, in turn, a prolongation of the Alpine zone. Geological surveys made by G. Ralli, R. Zeiller and P. Arni3 show that the Eregli-Zonguldak formations fall into three natural divisions. Series a, The Alacaagzi in the district of that name (Fig. 2), is of the Culm stage. The strata strike generally east-west and dip about 30" south. This series appears also around Kandilli and Camli, with a steeper angle of dip, but the deposits there lack regularity. The Alacaagzi stage appears also farther east, to the south of Kozlu and Gelik. The Alacaagzi series contains 15 seams of an average thickness of 2 ft. of good coal. Series b, the Kozlu, best represented in Zonguldak, Kilimli, Catalagzi, and between

Jan 1, 1944

By L. J. M. Smits

A theoretical equation is developed describing membrane potentials of shaly sands as a function of the cation-exchange capacity per unit pore volume of the rock and saturating water salinity. This equation is based on the same simple physical model as that employed earlier7 describing the electrical conductivity of shaly sands. Experiments conducted with NaCl solutions showed that the equation is obeyed, except in the case of saturated salt solutions where minor deviations were observed. A possible explanation is given for this discrepancy. As the clay content and the porosity of shales may vary appreciably, shale membrane potentials also vary. It was found that membrane potentials of shales can be calculated accurately with the aid of the same theory. Consequently, changes in membrane potentials can be accounted for by simple measurement of cation-exchange capacities per unit pore volume of both shales and shaly sands. Charts are given to facilitate interpretation of the electrochemical part of the SP in terms of cation-exchange capacities and the salinities of mud filtrate and formation water. INTRODUCTION A spontaneous potential (SP) log is a record of the way in which the electrical potential of a sonde varies as it passes down a borehole. Such variations frequently reflect rock texture, e.g., permeable beds intercalated in an impermeable series often are indicated by a sharp change in potential. Nowadays it is recognized that SP logs may be interpreted in terms of formation-water salinity and formation shaliness. The four sources of the SP are illustrated in Fig. 1. El and E4 represent streaming potentials generated by the flow of mud filtrate through mud cake opposite permeable formations and through shale, respectively. An extensive review of the literature on the evaluation of these streaming potentials is given by Lynchl and will not be discussed here. The remaining part of the SP generally is called the electrochemical potential, which is divided into two parts: a membrane potential across the shale (E3, Fig. 1) and a membrane potential in the permeable sand at the diffusion boundary between formation water and mud filtrate (E2, Fig. 1). It was found by wyllie2 that the membrane potential across the shale, E3, is the most important contribution to the electrochemical potential, the shale acting as a semi permeable membrane. When the sand is clean it does not influence the diffusion process, so E2 equals the value of the so-called liquid-liquid junction potential observed when the two solutions diffuse freely into each other. When the sand contains clay, however, this interferes with the diffusion process and affects the diffusion potential generated. The greater the proportion of clay, the stronger this effect will be. Wyllie,3 Doll4 and Poupon et al.5 took this effect into account theoretically, starting from a physical

Jan 1, 1969

By E. C. Wright

FOR many years the cost of making pig iron and steel in the Birmingham district has been about the lowest in the United States. The close proximity of the important raw materials such as coal, iron ore, limestone, and the large available scrap supply made it possible to assemble all of the important ingredients necessary for steel-making with only nominal costs for transportation. Both iron ore and coal were being mined in this district at one time for about $1 per ton from underground operations. At that time mining wages were low everywhere and the labor rate in the South was considerably below that of other mining districts. This situation persisted until the emergence of labor unions as an economic and political force, emigation of southern labor to northern plants, and continued growth of industry in the South in the years following the depression of 1932. Since that time union organizing of miners and steel workers throughout the nation has increased labor costs in mining and steelmaking. This influence has been felt particularly in underground mining operations since the proportion of labor cost to total cost is still high. The previous advantage in basic labor rate in the South has been almost entirely eliminated by the equalization of labor rates in basic industries by national unions.

Jan 12, 1950

By K. Hanumantha Rao, A. Nayak, . K. S. Narasimhan, S. N. Mahapatra

Selective flocculation studies carried out with iron ore tailings generated at Kudremukh iron ore plant indicate that a concentrate containing 63% iron can be obtained from the tailings containing 34% iron with around 60% recovery. This opens up the possibility of recovering most of the iron lost in the tailings generated at 2 kt/h (2200 stph) while processing 22 Mt (24 million st) ore per year. This would mean that the productivity could increase by around 50%. In these studies, it has been established that caustic degraded tapioca starch is a most effective agent for selective flocculation. While potato starch after caustic degradation can also be used, neither the parent starch nor the amylopectin compound is as effective.

Jan 1, 1986

By Reger, B. David

FOR many years, the belief that the so-called "Clinton" sand of Ohio might produce. oil and gas, if it could be reached, has been prevalent in West Virginia. To test this theory, many hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent and several extremely deep wells, including the deepest boring of the world, have been sunk at various points. With the exception of one well now completed through the sand and the possible exception of another still in progress, all of these wells failed to reach the goal, either through failure of funds or through drilling accidents. REVIEW OF DEEP DRILLING The subject of deep-sand oil and gas in West Virginia has already been discussed by the author1 and by White.2 In these papers, it was shown that the Upper and. Middle Devonian shales, lying between the Berea oil sand (basal Mississippian) and the Oriskany sandstone (Lower Devonian), thicken steadily from eastern Ohio across northern West Virginia and Pennsylvania; but it was stated that the same rate of thickening did not occur in that part of West Virginia south of the Great Kanawha River and in the adjoining portion of Kentucky. In spite of this great eastward thickening, the fact that both the Oriskany and "Clinton" sands, the latter of which is equivalent to the White Medina of New York, exist in great thickness all along the Appalachian Mountains farther east, was held as proof of their probable presence in the deep Appalachian basin.

Jan 3, 1925

By E. M. Frizzell

Introduction In 1956, the first mobile crusher was installed in a limestone quarry in Hover, Germany. These early mobile crushers solved the problem of wet and soft ground conditions that did not permit the use of haulage trucks due to the high cost of building and maintaining the haulage roads. Quarry operators also wanted to take advantage of continuous belt conveyor haulage systems and the resulting cost savings. European mines, particularly the coalfields, are in soft materials that allow use of bucket wheel excavators and their following continuous haulage system of belt conveyors. Quarry operators, with this background knowledge of belt conveyors in mining, easily accepted the conveyor concept, once in-pit mobile crushing solved the problem of size reduction of mine-run-rock required for conveyor application. Four years after the initial mobile crusher installation, the first report published on the subject appeared in the December 1960 issue of Mining Engineer (Kochanowsky, 1960). With this early background and basis for direction, mobile in-pit crushing and conveying have increased to more than 74 installations. The capacity, type of crusher, and material being processed appear in Table 1. These data in Table 1 indicate that experience to data has been heavily influenced by limestone installations of less than 1 kt/h (1102 stph). Most of these installations were directly fed by a mine face excavator because of the limestone quarry ground conditions. Crusher Configurations Crushers systems developed to date have varying mobility capabilities. These range from fully mobile units that are used continuously in this mode to fixed, permanently located in-pit crushers. The following terms are presented to help distinguish the range of mobility within the configurations of "mobile" crusher systems planned or now in use. Mobile Crusher The crusher works at the mine face, is directly fed by an excavator, and moves in unison with the excavator on its own transport mechanism as the mining progresses. An example is the unit delivered in 1976 to Yamama Cement Co. in Reyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Jan 1, 1986

By William P. Blake

The attention of travellers, upon the desert bordering the Great Colorado of the West, is often arrested by broad stretches of pebble-covered plains, or mesas, glittering in the sunlight from the myriads of polished surfaces, giving, at a distance, the appearance of a sheet of water. It is not alone the well-rounded, polished surface of these pebbles which commands attention, but, in addition, their nearly black or darkbrown color; and, above all, their uniform distribution in a level sheet, covering the plain in a continuous layer or pavement like a vast mosaic without sand or soil. Hundreds of square miles along the lower Colorado, especially in Yuma county, Arizona, and on the borders of the Colorado Desert in California, are thus covered. It is evident that the former cxtent of such pebbly plains was much greater than now, for the continuity of the mesa is broken into by the numerous dry arroyos or " washes " formed during exceptional showers or deluging rains. In some places there is an underlying bed of pebbly conglomerate, a mixture of pebbles and sand; in others the pebbles rest on a sandy, earthy foundation. The rounded pebbles are distinctly alluvial in origin, and pertain to the ancient Colorado drainage system; but it is not comprehensible that such regular layers of polished pebbles could have been left by subsiding floods or river action. Attention was early directed by me to these remarkable plains, first examined in 1853, when exploring for the United States and seeking a practicable route for a railway to the Pacific coast.* The cut and polished surface of the pebbles

Jan 1, 1904

ALTHOUGH the committee appointed by the President of the American Iron and Steel Insti-tute, to consider the twelve-hour day work in the steel industry and report conclusions and recommenda-tions, has made a very careful and painstaking study of the facts and figures developed, it is not yet ready to make what it would designate a final report. Apparently the underlying reason for the agitation which resulted in the appointment of this committee was based on a sentiment (not created or endorsed by the workmen themselves) that 'the twelve-hour day was an unreasonable hardship upon the employees who were connected with it; that it was physically injurious to a large percentage of the employes; and that it interfered with family associations essential to the welfare of the children; that for these reasons it was, in a sense, opposed to the public interest. TWELVE-HOUR DAY NOT NECESSARILY INJURIOUS Whatever will be said against the twelve-hour day in the steel industry, investigation has convinced this committee that the same has not of itself been an injury to the employes, physically, mentally or morally. Whether or not, in the large majority of cases, twelve-hour men devote less time to their families than the employes working fewer hours is perhaps questionable. A part of the manufacturing of iron and steel is necessarily continuous. Therefore, practically, there must be two shifts of twelve hours or three shifts of eight hours. The workmen, as a rule, preferr the longer hours because it permits larger compensation per day. It is asserted with confidence that there is less phys-ical work, as a total per day, and less fatigue from the work of the twelve-hour day in the steel industry, than pertains to the large majority of the eight-hour men. This is because in the former case there are more rest periods during the twelve hours on duty.

Jan 6, 1923

By R. E. Gilmore

This paper is a revision of a former paper published in mimeograph form by both the Canadian and American coal classification committees, and is now presented for the purpose of acquainting those interested with the present status of coal classification in Canada. The classification employed for "Customs purposes" is detailed, and the classification schemes from which the customs classification was derived are reviewed and discussed. The activities of the Canadian coal classification committee, namely, the Associate Committee of Coal Classification and Analysis of the National Research Council, is also reviewed. Reserves, Production and Uses of Canadian Coals The total coal resources of North America are estimated to be 69 per cent. of those of the world, and of this portion, the distribution is 52 per cent. for the United States and 17 per cent. for Canada. Accordingly, Canadian coal resources amount to approximately one-third of those of the United States, and one-sixth of those of the world. As for the geographical distribution, the bulk of the known coal deposits are in the extreme eastern and western portions of the country. Employing the usual, more or less loosely defined, designations for the different classes and subclasses of coal, the distribution of the Canadian coal resources, according to provinces, is as follows: Maritime Provinces: Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Bituminous and semibitu- minous coals. Ontario (northern part).............................Lignite. Saskatchewan, (and Manitoba)....................... Lignite. Alberta and British Columbia........................ Lignites, subbituminous, all kinds of bituminous, semibituminous and semianthracite coals. Of the total reserves, roughly 92.5 per cent. is credited to the noncok-ing lower rank subbituninous and lignite groups, the bulk of which are

Jan 1, 1930

By Walter M. Stephen

MODERN developments in alloy steels have been so rapid and diverse that engineering practice has scarcely had time to re-appraise all items of past experience wherein conclusions became axiomatic under conditions that no longer apply. A case in point is the wet screening of abrasive ores within the fine range still looked upon as belonging exclusively to classifiers. By virtue of the development of stainless steels (18 per cent Cr, 8 per cent Ni), it is no longer true that classifiers are more economical than screens in closed circuit with large-tonnage ball or rod mills at 65 or even 100 mesh, provided a selective overgrind of the higher-gravity constituents of the ore is not desired. Wet screening of ores is a highly corrosive as well as an abrasive operation, because of the inevitably high degree of oxygenation of the water. Screen cloth of ordinary or spring-steel wire almost at once becomes pitted arid covered with a film of corrosion products, which causes rust-blinding of fine-mesh screens and offers high frictional impedance to the flow of ore particles. On the other hand, the well-known properties of stainless steel enable it to maintain a bright surface, and so to eliminate blinding either by ore particles or by corrosion products. That a large-tonnage mill grinding hard ore to 65 mesh can be operated economically in closed circuit with screens instead of classifiers has recently been demonstrated at the Copper Cliff concentrator of the International Nickel Co.; in the test to be described, a 6 ½ by 12 ½ -ft. Marcy rod mill ground from 625 to 820 tons of ore per day to approximately 65 mesh, operating in closed circuit with three 4 by 5-ft. Hum-mer screens, without any classifier. Stainless-steel cloth gave an indicated life of several months. There was no difficulty with blinding, yet dilution and spray water could be controlled so that screen undersize averaged not less than 40 per cent solids. In contrast, ordinary carbon steel was pitted and blind with rust within 40 hours.

Jan 1, 1938

By Albert Wright

VEINS of asphalt fill and seal vertical fault fissures at the surface of a large domal structure near Bejucal, Havana Province (about 19 miles south of Havana), so this structure was chosen, by Barnabas Bryan, for the drilling of a well on the theory that oil had risen from below the Cretaceous and had entered the porous sands of the Upper Cretaceous, which outcrop in three places within a radius of 12 miles. The asphalt in these fault fissures, he contended, had sealed them and thereby prevented further dissipation of the oil. Furthermore, he found, in the asphalt, specimens of sand and lime that were indications of its upward migratory character. Ralph Arnold, who discovered the Upper Cretaceous sand saturated with oil in the outcrop near Mariel, in Pinar del Rio Province, has compared the Bejucal structure with the Santa Maria field in California. The surface rock of the structure is Oligocene limestone and shales, thin, bedded and well stratified. This formation has, heretofore, been assigned to the Eocene with a thickness of 3000 ft. and locally called the Nazareno formation. Paleontologic examination of well cuttings, however, has disclosed Oligocene fossils at a depth of 1142 ft. and Upper Cretaceous fossils at a depth of 1541 ft., leaving approximately 400 ft. of very parenthetical Eocene. Whether there is any Eocene in this structure has not been determined.

Jan 3, 1925

By P. P. Goudkoff

UNDER the name of the Russian Far East we understand the territory occupied by the Amur, Maritime, Sakhalin and Kamchatka Provinces, the total area of which is about 918,000 square miles. The mining industry took its first step in the Russian Far East in the second half of the 19th century, and until the end of this century was restricted to gold placer mining. In the last years of the 19th century, the extraction of coal and lignite was begun, and in 1910-11 the exploitation of silver-lead-zinc mines. The conditions of the Far Eastern mining industry during the last few years may be outlined by the following figures. Annual production of gold mines was about 54,000 lb., valued at $13,000,000. During the period of 1910-15 a considerable increase of placer-gold mining by mechanical processes took place; in 1910, by means of dredging and excavators, 500 lb.. of gold were obtained; in 1914, 2740 pounds. Annual output of coal; lignite and. silver-lead-zinc ores was: 1911 1920 Bituminous and semi-anthracite coal, long tons 270,000 316,000 Lignite, long tons 66,000 205,000 Silver-lead-zinc ores, long tons 28,400 94,500 In other branches of mining in the Far East, only the quarrying of building stone and clay may be men-tioned, the total yearly output amounting to about $500,000 in value. The principal gold mines are in the Amur Province, in the systems of the Zeia and Bureia rivers, and in Kamchatka Province, near the town of Okhotsk. The above-mentioned tonnage of coal and lignite was extracted from the mines in the Maritime Province, near Vladivostok. The only silver-lead-zinc mine worked was that of Tetiukhe, near the Tetiukhe Bay, 240 miles northeast of Vladivostok. The ores of this mine were exported to Germany, Belgium, and Japan, partly raw, partly calcined.

Jan 6, 1922