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By A. C. Losekamp, R. M. Fincel, J. B. Conway

TANTALUM like several other metals exhibits a great affinity for or reactivity with certain gases. Tested in atmospheres which are not completely pure this metal becomes contaminated by certain impurities (notably nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen) with a resultant change in various properties. Well-known are the drastic changes in hardness, ductility, and electrical resistivity. Also previously recorded are the distortions of the lattice1,2 accompanying the increased content of oxygen and nitrogen in tantalum. This pronounced affinity for certain gases along with the significant property variations thereby produced makes it necessary to observe additional experimental precautions in making various property determinations with tantalum. Some recent measurements of the linear thermal-expansion characteristics of tantalum have made this point quite emphatically. Failure to observe the greatest precautions in reducing the contaminating influence has led to some extremely distorted results. Not only does such operation lead to different heating and cooling curves during the thermal-expansion measurements, but upon cooling to room temperature the sample is found to have suffered a permanent (actually semipermanent since the specimen can be returned to its original length by a 3-hr degassing treatment in vacuum at 2300°C) elongation. In addition, subsequent heatings will not follow the initial heating curve unless the expansion measurements are based on the actual specimen length at the beginning of the heating cycle. These thermal-expansion measurements were made by positioning the specimen horizontally at the longitudinal midpoint of a 20-in.-long, 4-in.-diam resistively heated tungsten tube furnace. The specimens were in the form of 20-mil sheet formed into a sharp U-shape about 0.3 in. in width and 0.3 in. in depth. Fiducial marks in the form of 0.010-in. holes drilled at either end of the 2.5-in.-long sheet specimens were viewed by a paired filar micrometer telescope system mounted on an Invar bar on the top of the furnace. Tests were made in helium with temperatures measured by a Pt/Pt-lORh thermocouple to 1000°C; above 1000°C temperature was measured by means of an optical pyrometer sighted into a black-body hole drilled into the specimen-holding fixture in the vicinity of the specimen. Previous tests with black-body holes drilled in a 0.25-in.-diam rod specimen had confirmed the temperature uniformity between specimens and specimen-holding fixture in this furnace. A typical thermal-expansion curve for arc-cast tantalum in helium is shown in Fig. 1 for the case where no attempt is made to remove all the impurities from the cover-gas atmosphere. The initial heating curve appears smooth and has a shape characteristic of all metals. However, it is known that the sample begins absorbing impurities at temperatures above 1000°C which are sufficient to distort the lattice and lead to specimen lengths which are somewhat larger than would be obtained in the absence of contamination. During the cooling cycle the expansion curve is seen to be significantly different from the heating curve. This is due to the impurity content causing a semipermanent (i.e., permanent until the impurities are removed by vacuum degassing) deformation which will not allow the speci-

Jan 1, 1965

Prior to any detailed discussion, I'd like to say that Dr. Aplan has made direct hits on two important considerations: 1) The most demanding need in Fine Coal research is to develop improved methods of sulfur reduction. 2) The areas of particle (impurity) liberation and froth flotation hold real near-term promise as techniques for improved sulfur removal. Digressing for a moment, I thin kwe can all remember the time when the biggest problem facing coal research was simply defined - "No money!" In the mid 70's we suddenly found ourselves dealing with a product worth five to seven times the value it carried in the mid60's. All of a sudden, we're talking about a high-profile, high- value commodity. The coal industry still hasn't made the complete psychological adjustment - especially in the operating areas (prep plants included). We have a valuable material at hand which is, in' many cases still being processed as though it were a two or three dollar per ton item. Simply put, I think that while the industry has made some major strides during this transition, a stronger commitment of attitude (and finances) needs to be made toward deeper definition of beneficiation work. Back to specifics - Dr. Aplan has really highlighted three areas where strong research efforts are needed. 1) Liberation processes - not limited to mechanical comminution - must be more fully studied.The industry certainly needs a better handle on value returned (improved ability to beneficiate) for dollars spent on improved liberation. 2) Flotation processes probably hold the most promise for near- term improvement in fine coal beneficiation technology. Dr. Aplan’s.

Jan 1, 1979

By Irwin H. Cornell

BRIEFLY stated, the history of the St. Joseph Lead Co. is the story of how a group of men, working for ten years as officers without salaries and stockholders without dividends, developed a small mine in Missouri into what became a large and prosperous corporation. Their courage and faith in the scattered surface deposits of lead coupled with the management's engineering vision and sound financial judgment should prove an inspiration to present-day mining operators and investors. In 1717, John Law's company, known as "The Company of the West," was formed in France and letters patent were granted, for a period of 25 years by Louis XV, for exploration in the Mississippi River Valley. One of the underlying purposes of the expedition, headed by Mr. Renault and Mr. La Motte, a French metallurgist, was development of the lead mines in the area now known as Southeast Missouri.

Jan 1, 1947

By B. Post, D. Moskowitz, F. W. Glaser

Lattice parameters of various hafnium compounds, two borides, a carbide and a nitride were determined. Some physical properties were measured and comparisons with the properties of the corre-sponing zirconium compounds were drawn. A LTHOUGH borides of transition metals have A been extensively investigated in recent years, there are few references in the literature to borides of hafnium. This is not surprising, in view of the extreme scarcity and great cost of the purified metal. Becker' reported the existence of a boride, carbide, and nitride of hafnium; he listed the formulas as HfB, HfC, and HfN. However, in his work no mention was made of chemical analyses of the reaction products. In this paper results of a study of various hafnium compounds, including borides, carbides, and nitrides, are reported. It was expected, of course, that these compounds would closely resemble their zirconium analogues, which have previously been extensively investigated. Three borides of zirconium are known: ZrB,² ZrB,² and ZrB212.4 In addition, one carbide, ZrC,5 and one nitride, ZrN,5 have been reported. It should be noted that ZrB and ZrB12 are stable phases only in relatively high-temperature regions, unlike ZrB2, which is stable from room temperature to its melting point." It was felt that hafnium would yield corresponding borides, carbides, and nitrides with similar stability ranges. Experimental Procedures and Results A quantity of hafnium metal that was better than 97 pct pure, with zirconium as its major impurity, was furnished by the Argonne National Laboratories. The boron powder used was approximately 96.5 pct pure. In general, the procedure involved mixing the metal and boron powders in the desired proportions, and subsequently hot pressing them. The resulting specimens were analyzed chemically and phases present were identified by X-ray diffraction methods. A Philips Norelco Geiger counter spectrometer was used for identification of components and for measurement of lattice constants. Filtered copper radiation was used for all X-ray work. Electrical resistivity and density measurements were carried out at room temperature. The stable diboride, HfB2, will be described first. Stoichiometric quantities of boron and metal were heated to approximately 2000°C during hot pressing. The reaction product was shown by X-ray diffraction methods to be isomorphous with ZrB2 (space group Dlgh; P6/mm). Values of lattice constants of HfB2 compared with those of ZrB2 are shown in Table I. The calculated density of HfB2 is 11.2 g per cc, compared with a measured (pycnometric) value of 10.5 g per cc. HfB2 specimens prepared under a wide variety of conditions (including variations in initial Hf-B ratios) showed only insignificant variations in lattice constants, indicating a very narrow range of homogeneity. Like ZrB2,7 HfB2 is an excellent electrical conductor. The resistivity at room temperature of hot-pressed samples, approximately 85 pct dense, is 12 microhm-cm. This compares favorably with the electrical resistivity of 10 mi-

Jan 1, 1954

By Frank G. Breyer

THE .following developments in the zinc field during 1935 are listed in the order of their importance. Each will he amplified in later paragraphs. In the field o f Metallic Zinc: (1) Construction of further continuous vertical retort smelting capacity in the United States and Germany. (2) Expansion of fractional distillation capacity in the United States. (3) Great expansion in the zinc-base die-casting industry in the United States and abroad. (4) Wide acceptance of heavy galvanizing by the steel industry. (5) Construction of the first commercial wire electroplating plant for putting on heavy coats of pure zinc. (6) Firm establishment and appreciable expansion of the practice of using zinc dust as a reducing agent in the organic chemical industry.

Jan 1, 1936

By J. Kucera, J. Vreštál

DIFFERENT authors1 ' have been engaged in meas-uring the vapor pressure of pure cobalt. The results of their measurements satisfy the expected temperature dependence of vapor pressure and are in mutual agreement, with the exception of the results by De Dyk Man and ~esmejanov.~ The latter authors, by using the effusion method, have achieved considerably higher values than other workers. By using the isotope exchange method they obtained much lower values than other authors. The determination of thermodynamic functions of the binary Ni-Co system was carried out, as far as we know, only by De Dyk Man and Nesmejanov.4 This determination was based on extremely low values of vapor pressure over pure cobalt obtained by the isotope exchange method. Therefore we considered it useful to repeat these measurements. Furthermore, the reliable values of thermodynamic functions should complement the migration characteristics, the inner magnetic field data obtained by Miissbauer effect measurements, specific heat data, and the K effect and positron annihilation characteristics that have been achieved for the Ni-Co system in the Institute of Metallurgy of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Brno.5-9 The measurements in this paper were performed by the isotope exchange method. In this method, as has been shown by analysis,10-'3 the vaporization rate, w, can be calculated from the relation w = k/1oSw [1] i0Sw) [1] where L, is the activity per unit mass of the source, S is the area of evaporation, k is the tangent at the point t = 0 to the curve giving the radioactivity de-pendence of the target vs annealing time, t, and wis the probability for the tracer atom condensation on the target surface. The value for cc. can be obtained from the equation w = a + 2P(l-a) [2] where P is Clausing's coefficient and a is the condensation coefficient. In the present work the cylinder shaped containers for annealing the samples were used, characterized by the ratio 1:d = 1.06. Here 1 is the length and d the diameter of the container. For this ratio P = 0.514 and w =0.5, and w is independent of the condensation coefficient. The vaporization rate is related to the vapor pressure p by the relation where R is the gas constant, T is the absolute temperature, and M is the molecular weight of the component investigated. Measurements of the vapor pressure of the i component over the pure metal, p!, and the alloy, pi, at the given temperature and composition enable one to calculate the thermodynamic activity of this component from the equation ai=pi/pi [4] is and the activity coefficient ri=ai/xi [5] xi where xi is the molar fraction of the investigated alloy component. EXPERIMENTAL Evaporization rate measurements were carried out with pure cobalt and eight different Ni-Co alloys, which were kindly delivered by the Centre National de Recherches Me'tallurgiques Liege, Belgium. The composition of the alloys is given in Table I. The cobalt used in these alloys contained the following impurities: 0.016 wt pct Fe, 0.014 wt pct Cu, 0.01 wt pct Mn. Other elements were present in much lower concentrations. From the melts, samples in the form of small cylinders of 12 mm in diam were ma-chined. The thickness of the targets and sources was 2.5 and 1.2 mm, respectively. The lower thickness of the sources was chosen to make their over-all ac-tivity as low as possible. Sources were activated in

Jan 1, 1970

By F. O. Garrabrant

Power is furnished to the Climax Molybdenum Co. by the Public Service Co. of Colorado over two 100,000-volt lines to a bank of three 3333-kva. transformers 100/13.8 kv. These transformers are so designed that with the addition of forced cooling their capacity may be increased 331/3 Per cent at 12,000-ft. altitude. Under present conditions, these transformers are operated at 140 per cent of their rating with forced air cooling. On the secondary side of this bank there is a 15-kv., 1200-amp. Westinghouse oil circuit breaker provided with automatic reclosing relays allowing three successive short circuits before lockout. From this breaker 13.8-kv. power is transmitted to a central switching station (Fig. I) where all circuits radiate to the different operations of the property. Each circuit is protected by a 23-kv., 600-amp. oil circuit breaker with by-pass and isolating disconnecting switches.

Jan 1, 1947

By H. B. FERNALD

THE first year to which the Revenue Act of 1936 has applied is now passed. It is appropriate to try to give some calm thought to the plan of Federal income taxation as now imposed and what it will mean to the business and industry of the country if this plan of taxation is continued unchanged. Whether or not we like to pay these taxes is beside the point. Taxes are high and may be expected to be high for many years. The important question is whether the taxes to be imposed will destroy or injure business enterprise and development, and, in so doing, lower the standards of employment, living, comfort, and welfare of our people. The power to tax is the power to destroy. That destruction may come suddenly as a cyclone, or slowly as dry rot. What, if any, features are there in the present plan of Federal income taxation that have these destructive tendencies? A few of the points follow that seem to call for consideration.

Jan 1, 1937

By Ilmar Stöckel, Gösta Harlin, Agne Rustan

INTRODUCTION This chapter is a continuation of the studies by Rustan and Stockel (1979, 1980) on techniques for automating ventilation in Swedish mines and construction works. The studies have been financed by the Swedish Board of Technical Development. As a result of the studies it has been recommended that a good solution to diesel exhaust emission would be automatic, step by step control of the fans near the working place. Diesel vehicles are the major polluters underground in the mines. Therefore, we have suggested that diesel vehicles regulate the fans The goal of the continued study has been to find a way for active diesel vehicles to start and stop gallery fans at both intake and return air. In this paper different methods for activating fans are discussed. The best methods are chosen and tested in the mine. In this study we have found that change of temperature is an inexpensive and effective way to start and stop crosscut fans in sublevel caving and radio signals seem to be an attractive system for starting and stopping gallery fans . This work has been done in close collaboration between LKAB in Kiruna and the University of Luleå, Divisions of Electronics and of Mining and Rock Excavation. An advisory group for the project has been established with ventilation experts from the mines, representatives of the local mine workers' unions, and authorities from the local offices of Governmental Inspection of the Workers Safety. VENTILATION SYSTEM STUDIED In the project the ventilation system at LKAB in Kiruna was studied. The mining method used is sublevel caving with 9-13 m slice height. The air above ground is heated in winter by hot water and the main fans push the air down to a main distribution level along the 4000 m long and about 100 m wide ore body. From the distribution level, air is taken through shafts down to the sublevels, where it is pushed through the levels by local gallery fans on both the intake and return sides, Fig. 1.

Jan 1, 1981

By M. I. Jacobson, M. L. Hammond

The solid solubilities of high-purity silver, aluminum, chromium, copper, and iron in zone-refined beryllium have been determined. Diffusion couple sandwiches of beryllium with aluminum, copper, and silver foil and diffusion couples of beryllium with two-phase alloys in the Be-Cr. Be-Fe, and Be-Ag systems were analyzed by electron beam micro-probe techniques. This paper describes the material used, the experimental methods for preparing the diffusion couples and the alloys, the analytical techniques, and the results obtained. The results are compared with those of previous investigators who used materials of lower purity. ~NVESTIGATORS of beryllium phase diagrams have often been hampered in their interpretations of certain phase boundaries because of the relatively low purity of the beryllium used. This has sometimes resulted in the appearance of three phases in the regions where only two should exist. Advances in purification methods, specifically zone refining, have made available beryllium that is considerably purer than the material previously used for phase diagram studies. The primary object of this investigation was to reex-amine portions of the beryllium-rich end of the binary systems of beryllium with silver, aluminum, chromium, copper, and iron to determine more accurately the limits of terminal solid solubility. The five elements—silver, aluminum, chromium, copper, and iron—include some which are commonly found as the major impurities in beryllium, some of which are being used as solid-solution alloying elements, and some of which are used in ductile matrix alloys. They are thus of considerable importance to physical metallurgists who must work with beryllium but who must rely on the present inaccurate or incomplete diagrams. The determination of more reliable diagrams would aid researchers concerned with the problems of alloying, heat treatment, and ductility. MATERIAL The beryllium was acquired from the Franklin Institute in the form of a single-crystal, 6 in. long by 1 in. in diam, zone-refined in three passes from Pechiney SR-grade beryllium bar. The principal impurities, as determined by mass spectrography at Battelle Memorial Institute, are shown in Table I. Vacuum-melted copper, silver, and aluminum, and electron-beam zone-refined iron were obtained from the Materials Research Corp. in the form of 1/2-in.- diam bars. Iodide chromium was obtained as flakes from the Chromalloy Corp. Analyses supplied with these metals are shown in Table 11. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Preparation of Diffusion Couples. Two types of dif-fusion couples were used in this study. For the copper, silver, and aluminum systems, the couples were sand-

Jan 1, 1969

By A. Poll, J. E. Stantan, L. J. Jolley

THE basic problem in the generation of water gas from carbonaceous fuels and steam is the supply of the heat of reaction, and in general the source of this heat is the combustion of a further quantity of carbon with oxygen. Existing and proposed processes for complete gasification differ in the methods employed for transferring this heat to the fuel, and involve one or other of the following alternatives: 1. Use of a steam-oxygen mixture as the gasifying medium, so that the combustion and gasification reactions are combined. 2. Alternate passage of air and steam through a fixed bed, as in conventional water-gas production. 3. Cyclic passage of fluidized fuel through combustion and gasification zones. 4. Intense preheating of steam and of a portion of the gas made, and recirculation of this mixture through the fuel bed. 5. Supply of heat to the fuel bed through an externally heated wall. Except for the conventional water-gas process using large coke or low- volatile coal, only processes in the first group, operating with steam and oxygen, have proved practicable with fuels other than brown coals and lignites. A possible exception, which has not so far reached a commercial scale, is the moving-burden process developed by Imperial Chemical Indus- tries, Ltd. The cost of industrial oxygen is so high that its use can probably be justified only if it is attended by substantial savings in other directions; for instance, the use of cheap fuel. In the United Kingdom, no very cheap solid fuels are available, and it is unlikely that an oxygen-gasification process could compete economically with conventional production of blue water gas from coke. Hence particular interest attaches to all possibilities of making water gas without using oxygen, if any possible saving in fuel or other costs is involved. The cheapest and most abundant coals in the United Kingdom are the low-rank noncaking bituminous coals in small and ungraded sizes, typically those from the East Midlands coal field, and-fines of high ash content produced in coal-cleaning operations. A process capable of gasifying

Jan 1, 1953

By Albert Sauveur

Jan 1, 1924

By Albert Sauveur

Jan 1, 1924

By Frances Hurd

WHEN 60:40 brass is heated to 825° C., given a drastic quench to obtain the beta solid solution, and reheated, various changes take place in the structure. Reheating at 200' C. causes a fine, granular, sorbitic structure to appear which has been considered alpha solid solution. These particles coalesce at higher temperatures of reheating, and at 470° C., the alpha forms twins. A further study of these transformations was considered worth investigating.

Jan 1, 1927

By R. V. Ramani, G. W. Luxbacher

The approach proposed in this paper is, as stated by the authors, an update of methods well discussed in the literature. The authors are to be congratulated for their excellent effort in quantifying a difficult problem with realistic cost data. Economic analysis of the components of a mine ventilation system is complicated by both the dynamic nature of the system and the uncertainty as to the time when system changes occur. We wish to address three specific areas of this paper which require further consideration: shaft designed air capacity, shaft location, and economic criteria used within the analysis. With regard to ventilation shaft size optimization, the system complexities are illustrated in the quantity flow through the shaft. Obviously, the capacity chosen by the designer is a static parameter while the utilized capacity is usually a dynamic variable over the life of the shaft. The designed capacity may be used for a short or a long period, and this may occur during the beginning, middle, or near the end of the shaft life, leading to different operating costs at different times. Operating costs, as shown by the authors' Eq. 8 are more dependent on air quantity than any other single factor (quantity cubed as compared with other factors to the single power); hence, extreme accuracy in the assessment of some of the other factors discussed by the authors may be secondary to the quantity estimation. Incorporation of a variable usage factor for air quantity over the life of the shaft in this optimization problem deserves some consideration. Although the authors have chosen to examine optimum ventilation shaft sizing, it must be remembered that optimization of the whole system-is the primary objective of any optimization process; unit optimization of such items as shafts may not complement the overall process. We have discussed this subject in some detail in another paper in this Transactions volume (Luxbacher and Ramani, 1979). While the recommended process by Wang, et al. can be used in shaft sizing, the shaft operating conditions (pressure head and air quantity) are intertwined with the shaft location within the mine infrastructure:

Jan 1, 1980

By J. O. Nelson, C. J. Altstetter

Single crystals of hcp cobalt, 3 mm in diameter and up to 35 cm long, were grown using an electron-beam, zone-melting technique. The martensitic-phase transformation was studied in single-crystalline and polycrystalline specimens by making length-change measurements as a function of temperature under various elastic compressive stresses. Upon thermal cycling, single-crystalline or polycrystalline specimens repeatedly transformed almost entirely on the same variant of close-packed plane provided the maximum temperature did not exceed 600°C. Cycling to 1000°C resulted in transformation on more than one {111} variant. This behavior is termed multivariance. The multivariant transformation occurred very rapidly at an M, temperature 2° to 6°C lower than the M, of a transformation which would result in a single-crystal product. Elastic compressive stresses (up to 253 g per sq mm) tended to lower the A, and raise the M, temperatures, decreasing the width of the temperature vs dilatation hysteresis loop. The transformation habit plane and transformation shear direction of an as-grown single crystal were not grossly affected by elastic compressi?ie stress. This was evidenced by similar dilatations on the temperature us dilatation loops joy specimens with and without compressive stress. A dislocation mechanism is proposed to explain the observed results. IT has been shown that, on heating, cobalt transforms martensitically from the hcp to the fcc phase.' The transformation habit plane is (0001)hcp || (lll)fcc and the transformation shear direction is (1010)hcp || (112)fcc. The transformation involves a shear of 1g°28', which may be achieved by a shearing of a/6(112) of every two planes with respect to the plane beneath, thus changing the ABABAB stacking of hcp to the ABCABC stacking of fcc. Associated with the phase change is a 0.3 x 10"3 contraction in the habit plane and a 4.2 X 10"3 expansion perpendicular to the habit plane resulting in a 3.6 x X volume increase on heating.' On cooling, an identical volume decrease takes place. The temperature at which the fcc phase begins to form on heating (A,) is reported as 430°C, and the temperature at which the hcp phase begins to form on cooling from an elevated temperature (A&) is reported as 390oC1,3 Consequently, temperature vs dilatation plots have the form of a hysteresis loop. If heating or cooling is reversed during a transformation, a smaller hysteresis loop results. Upon heating, the transformation is always complete; whereas, fcc is often retained at room temperature as a metastable phase entrapped in the polycrystal-line hexagonal matrix.1,4,5 Two obstacles in the theory of the allotropic-phase transformation of cobalt have been: 1) a detailed knowledge of the product nucleus, and 2) a plausible method of propagation of the transformation. Bilby,8 christian, 7 and seeger 8,9 have suggested a "pole mechanism" as a means of propagation of partiai dislocations from plane to plane. A pole dislocation and a Shockley partial come together at a node. The a/6(112) Shockley partial rotates about the pole dislocation effecting the transformation shear. The pole dislocation must have a 2a/3(111) screw component which causes extension of the transformed region by two atomic planes with each full rotation of the Shockley partial. Bollmannl0 suggested, on the other hand, that transformation propagation occurs due to the stress fields of intersecting (111)-type stacking faults. As faults intersect, a stress distribution is set up about their intersection which is in turn reduced by the emergence of another fault on the second nearest plane. This process continues with the final result of a complete phase transformation. In view of the similarities between deformation and transformation in cobalt, the effect of stress on the transformation would, hopefully, yield valuable information concerning nucleation and propagation. In the present work single-crystalline and polycrystalline specimen length changes were measured as a function of temperature at various compressive loads. PROCEDURE Several orientations of single crystals of hcp cobalt in lengths up to 25 cm were grown by electron-beam floating zone melting from 99.95 and 99.999 pct, 3-mm-diam cobalt rod as supplied by Johnson

Jan 1, 1964

By G. L. Spencer

There is no question as to the importance of the part played by the retort in modern zinc smelting. A satisfactory retort should have properties that will result in resistance to slagging action and fire cracks, and have no tendency, or at least only a small tendency, to soften and bend under furnace heat. The life and cost of a retort also are extremely important factors. The trend in zinc smelting during the past few years has been toward longer retorts and .higher charge density. This is caused by the fact that the diameter is limited to 9 or 10 in. because of heat penetration difficulties in larger sizes. Consequently, increasing the length of the retort and density of charge offers the only practical means of increasing the amount of zinc produced per retort. The stiff-ness of a retort perhaps is the most important factor, as slag accumulates in the bottom of a retort which has sagged and very quickly cuts through, often ruining the retorts below. The development of the high-silica retort is a result of the demands made by the trend toward heavy charges. Materials Used for High-silica Retorts The materials used in the manufacture of high-silica retorts at East St. Louis are fireclay, grog and silica flour. Analyses are given in Table 1. The fireclay comes from the St. Louis district. The grog consists of clean firebrick culls, and the silica flour, a very high-grade material, is purchased in the form of a flour that has been ground through 140 mesh.

Jan 1, 1931

By J. J. Mulligan

Introduction Coal is found in every major geographic region through-out Alaska and in two offshore areas. Since about 1852, more than 100 small mines have opened and closed. In 1981 and 1982 production was almost entirely from one mine in central Alaska. Clearly, the utilization of Alaska's abundant coal resources presents political, economic, and technical problems that are far from solution. Location and Physical Features Figure 1 illustrates the geographical and geological similarity between Alaska and the western US. Alaska's Arctic region generally resembles Wyoming and the Dakotas. The Brooks Range is an extension of the Rocky Mountains. The central region of Alaska between the Brooks Range and the Alaska Range bears a general resemblance to the basin and range country of the western US. The southcentral and southeastern regions have a similar resemblance to the Sierra Nevadas and the West Coast. The Arctic, the central, and the southcentral regions have major coal fields. The southeast region has scattered occurrences. The topographic, climatic, and economic characteristics of each are different. These differences have a large effect on practical mining methods. Description of Alaskan Coal Coal deposits known in Alaska are almost all of Cretaceous or Tertiary age, much younger than the Carboniferous coal deposits of eastern and midwestern states. Consequently, most Alaskan coals have a higher moisture content and a lower heat value. Most Alaskan coals also have a much lower sulfur content. Low volatile bituminous, and anthracite coals occur in Alaska, but most Alaskan coals range downward in rank from high volatile bituminous to subbituminous and lignite. Alaskan coals are similar to coals of the northern Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. Arctic Region Northern Alaska Coal Fields Northern Alaska coal fields are by far the largest group of coal deposits in Alaska (Fig. 2). Coal-bearing rocks extend from the foothills of the Brooks Range about 160 km (100 miles) northward to within about 80 km (50 miles) of the Arctic coast. The principal known occurrences are between the Colville River and the western coast. However, coal has been found eastward almost to the Canning River and westward under the Arctic Ocean. The northern Alaska coal fields are in a series of Cretaceous rocks that suggest a deltaic depositional environment. The beds tend to occur in series of up to eight or nine beds totaling 6-9 m (20-30 ft) of coal. However, beds 6-12 m (20-40 ft) thick have been reported, and beds 1-3 m (3-10 ft) thick seem to be relatively common. Including thin seams, coal in some places makes up about 10% of the stratigraphic section. However, no area has been explored in sufficient detail to block out any large body of reserves or to make reliable estimates of the total resource. Observation points in drill holes and along river and stream banks are few and far between. Coals in northern Alaskan fields tend to range in rank from bituminous, where moderately folded and faulted in the foothills, to subbittuminous in the gently folded rocks under the coastal plain. Coals toward the eastern extremities of the coal fields may be of Tertiary age and lower in rank, but the same general correlation between degree of folding and increase in rank can be expected. Some higher rank coals in the foothills belt are known to have coking properties but most, and possibly all, require

Jan 1, 1984

By A. E. Bellis

THE CHAIRMAN (ALBERT SAUVEUR, Cambridge, Mass.).-Any information likely to throw light on the constitution and proper treatment of high-speed steel in order to obtain maximum results, should surely he welcomed. All users of high-speed steel, I believe, will agree with the authors that, in order to obtain satisfactory results, it is not sufficient to heat all brands of high-speed steel to one and the same temperature; apparently very slight differences of chemical composition seem to call for marked differences in temperature. I think that all of us agree that a properly treated piece of high-speed steel should have a fine austenitic or polyhedral structure and that an appreciable quantity of free carbide may be present in the case of very high tungsten steels. What we seem to lack is a satisfactory method, quick and reliable, of ascertaining when the proper structure has been obtained. I think Mr. Bellis' paper is a step in the right direction. To the untrained eye, however, it is not an easy matter to select from some of his photomicrographs the one representing the best structure; for instance, in the case of steel A, we wonder why temperatures of 2,250 and 2,300 do not yield the same results, seeing that both structures are apparently alike, and the same might apply to some of the other samples. I have no doubt, however, that the experienced observer is capable of detecting structural differences that are not made plain here and by which he is able to select the proper quenching temperature. COLIN G. FINK, East Orange, N. J.-On page 68 the authors say that the use of a barium chloride bath to eliminate this difficulty has the disadvantage that the surface of the tool becomes decarbonized." I would like to ask whether they actually found that the surface was decarbonized, or whether they base this conclusion on softening alone? A. E. BELLIS, Springfield, Mass.-No, we have never demonstrated that it was a decarbonization, it is just the softening of the steel. The addition of ferrocyanide to the ferrochloride bath has been suggested. I think that is not altogether satisfactory, because the ferrocyanide bath changes composition very rapidly at these high temperatures, and it would be just a question of luck whether or not it had too much or too little ferrocyanide in the bath giving equilibrium with the carbon content.

Jan 4, 1917

THE man who forgot to mail the letters his wife gave him was for once justified at Tulsa, for envelopes, scratch paper and tablecloths were all in demand and through the two days of the meeting of the Petroleum Division, pencils were busy everywhere sketching out diagrams, drawing curves, figuring, or just taking notes. Those attending took the serious papers seriously, and discussion was wide-ranging but pointed. Despite the highly technical character of the papers presented, the chairmen had never to call for discussion; it was only necessary to say the paper was open for it. Both days the meetings lasted until after five in the afternoon, and it was enthusiastically voted to advance the meeting hour on Friday, in order to give more time. In all, ten papers, abstracts of which appeared in MINING AND METALLURGY for October, and copies of all but two of which were available in print, were presented in the two days, and no more could have been handled to advantage in that time. All but one of these dealt with problems of production engineering. That, the opening paper, was a general review of demand, supply and price in 1928, by Campbell Osborn, in which he argued for the price control of production and showed how the economic conditions determined development. J. Elmer Thomas presented a carefully prepared review of the same data, but came to somewhat different conclusions as to trend, and J. E. Pogue pointed out that in recent years it has been the manufacturing rather than the producing industries that have been notably profitable. These and other discussions were too long to be reported here, but will be printed in full later.

Jan 1, 1928