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By AIME AIME

IN nonmetallic circles, probably no one is better known than Oliver Bowles, another of Canada's notable gifts to the American mining industry. The University of Toronto granted him B.A. and M.A. degrees in geology and mineralogy after he worked his way through that institution. He then spent some time in northern Ontario, and came to the States where he taught petrography and mineralogy at the state universities of Michigan and Minnesota from 1909 to 1914. Since then he has been with the U. S. Bureau of Mines, being honored with a Ph.D. from George Washington University in 1922. Since coming with the Bureau, the nonmctallics have been his field-particularly stone, slate, lime, cement, and

Jan 1, 1936

By Emil Gathmann

STEEL as it is poured, or teemed, into the mold for forming the ingot may be broadly separated into two divisions; i.e., effervescing or gassy steel, also termed evolution steel, and non-effervescing or killed steel, also termed solution steel. Between these primary divisions there are various types having the characteristics of both divisions but really not belonging to either; such steels are termed semi-piping, rising, or wild, as the type may be. True unkilled, or effervescing, steel should contain large volumes of gases, which are evolved while the metal is being teemed, or cast from the ladle nozzle into the mold, and while the temperature of the steel is being reduced prior to the solidification or freezing of the steel, the upper portion, or top, of the ingot remaining liquid due to the evolution of gases until an ingot skin of considerable thickness has been formed. These gases consist principally of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, and ammonia. It is generally understood that nitrogen gases are the first evolved and form the skin blowholes, at times troublesome, in the forming solidifying ingot. Ingots made of effervescing steel will always contain a large number of blowholes. Such blowholes are not deemed objectionable in various products if they occur well within the interior of the ingot where they will not be subject to oxidation upon the ingot's cooling and subsequent re-heating and rolling or forging. Very little top or bottom discard is taken from this type of ingot as pipes, or large shrinkage cavities, at the upper portion of the ingot do not usually occur, the difference in volume between the liquid and the solid steel (6 to 10 per cent.) being compensated for by the innumerable blowholes distributed throughout the body of the , ingot. Of the 40,000,000 tons of steel made in the United States during the year 1919, at least 35,000,000 tons of ingots were made of gassy or semi-gassy steel. Killed, or solution, steel is termed true piping steel from the characteristic pipe or shrinkage cavity that usually occurs in the uppermost central portion of the ingot.

Jan 8, 1920

By W. J. Joslin

The frontal-advance equation can determine how the fluid withdrawal rate and subsurface operating pressure influence oil recovery from pressure-maintained reservoirs having characteristics favorable for efficient vertical segregation. For effective vertical segregation in formations having low dip angles, the requirements are: thick, massive sands, low viscosity oil and high vertical permeability with few discontinuous shale members. This approach has been successfully applied to the LL-370, which is a massive Eocene sandstone reservoir containing crude with an average gravity of 26" APT, a dip of only 3" and vertical permeability of ½ darcy. The average gas cap saturation was calculated for various rates of vertical gas-oil contact movement corresponding to a wide range of reservoir producing rates. This method also evaluated the effect of different pressure maintenance levels on oil recovery. Applicability of this procedure for calculating the present oil saturation in the LL-370 gas cap has been substantiated from field performance, where the oil saturation was computed by comparing oil recovery with the gas cap volume vacated. INTRODUCTION During the natural depletion history of the LL-370 reservoir, located in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, excellent vertical segregation resulted in the formation of a thin gas zone over a substantial portion of the oil-productive area. Subsequently, gas injection forced this thin gas-saturated zone slowly downward, reducing the oil saturation in the gas cap to a low value. The oil recovery has been raised considerably above earlier predictions where vertical segregation effects were under-estimated. In order to determine the maximum efficient producing rate and optimum operating pressure for this reservoir, a vertical gas frontal-advance analysis has been made through application of the fractional flow equation. LL-370 RESERVOIR CHARACTERISTICS The reservoir consists of a truncated monocline of massive. highly-permeable Eocene sandstone, called the B-b formation, covering an area of more than 13,500 acres. The original oil in place was 2.17 billion STB. Internal non-sealing faults subdivide the structure into four blocks called the B-6-x.6, 10, 11 and 13, which are effectively bounded by major faulting on the flanks, an unconformity updip to the west, and an immobile aquifer to the southeast. The producing formation occurs at an average depth of 5,250 ft subsea and has a closure of more than 1,500 ft. A typical producing section has a net oil sand thickness of 170 ft. Scattered throughout the section are a few randomly-positioned shale lenses which increase in thickness and areal extent downdip. The reservoir rock and fluid properties vary with depth. The permeability and produced oil gravity are 1600 md and 28" API at the top, compared to 300 md and 18° API at the water-oil contact. The productivity of updip wells is, therefore, much higher than the reservoir average. The reservoir oil was originally saturated at the crest, grading to a slight degree of undersaturation at the water-oil contact. There was no original gas cap; and material balance and the field performance indicate no water influx. Except for the northern B-6-x.6 block, the fluid and rock properties have already been published.' Average LL-370 reservoir properties are shown in Table 1. RESERVOIR PERFORMANCE UNDER NATURAL DEPLETION Fig. 1 shows production performance from 1939 to date. Early development was gradual, with 30 wells pro-

Jan 1, 1965

By J. B. Austin, R. H. H. Pierce

IN developing a consistent picture of the thermal expansion of the commercial chromium steels, which cover a range of, carbon contents, it is desirable to know the expansion in the limiting case of the binary, carbon-free, iron-chromium alloys. We have, therefore, determined the thermal expansion of a series of five special alloys, ranging in chromium content from 3 to 10.5 per cent, with not more than 0.03 per cent carbon, over a temperature range extending beyond the transformation region; this low carbon content enables us to draw reasonably reliable conclusions as to the behavior of the carbon-free system. Moreover, the measurements serve to determine the beginning and the end of the alpha-gamma transformation; and they emphasize once more the fact that a transformation temperature determined by any method in which the specimen is .cooled at an appreciable rate is apt to be seriously in error, particularly if the metal contains a transformation-retarding element such as chromium or managanese. The lag, or undercooling, observed at the ?-a transformation is explained in terms of the influence of temperature on transformation velocity; the rather unusual shape of the ? loop is attributed to a change with temperature and with composition of the distribution of chromium between the alpha-iron and gamma-iron solid solutions. The exact composition of the alloys which were obtained through the courtesy of Dr. W. Rohn, of the Heraeus Vakuumschmelze A-G., is given in Table 1. Determinations of the linear thermal expansion and of transformation temperature were carried out in the vacuum dilatometer previously described,1 using a rate of heating and of cooling of 3.0° to 3.5° per minute unless otherwise stated. Magnetic susceptibility, which was measured in studying the rate of transformation, was determined with a magnetic balance, which also has. been described.2

Jan 1, 1935

By MARCELS CHLUMBER

BY the term making an "electrical log" the authors designate an operation conceived for the purpose of determining electrically the characters of formations traversed in drilling, the determination being carried out by means of measuring the electrical resistivities of the rocks along the uncased portions of drill-holes. As in the case of an ordinary core record, this process connotes a geological studs of the strata, and for that reason it is given a similar designation. The paper is divided into three parts, of which the first deals with the resistivities of rocks in general, since it is through this electrical parameter that they are to be characterized. The second deals with the technique, and the third with the description of practical applications of the electrical logs.

Jan 1, 1929

By Andrew A. Blair

It is now well known that certain pig-irons give a considerably smaller percentage of sulphur when determined by evolution-methods than when determined by oxidation-methods. The most striking examplcs of such irons are those made either wholly or in large part from New Jersey magnetites containing more or less titanium. It is never safe to use an evolution-method on such iron; for it is quite common that the sulphur result by evolution is only one-half or even one-third as great as that obtained by oxidation. For this reason, evolution-methods should be discarded, except in the analysis of pig-irons known to contain the sulphur in a state of combination from which it is evolved as sulphuretted hydrogen on treatment with hydrochloric acid. A good example of an iron containing, in the residue, sulphur insoluble in hydrochloric acid having come to our attention, it was determined to try to isolate a suspected insoluble sulphide. A large piece of high-silicon gray-forge iron was accordingly selected as the most promising material to work on. This piece was dissolved slowly, through several months, in dilute hydrochloric acid, aided by the electric current, yielding a soft graphitic residue. The object of dissolving a mass of iron, instead of drillings, was to prevent the crushing, by the drill, of any insoluble crystalline compound that might be present. The first step in the preparation was to break up the graphitic material and put it through bolting-cloth of 157 meshes to the linear inch. This was done by crushing the mass under the fingers on the bolting-cloth fastened over the top of a beaker, while a stream of water from a wash-bottle washed the finer portions through the cloth. The suspended matter was allowed to settle. It was then transferred to a platinum

Jan 1, 1902

By Nicholas J. Grant, Klaus M. Zwilsky

EVER since the unusual high temperature creep resistance and structure stability of SAP (Sintered Aluminum Powder) and similar aluminum-alumina alloys were reported,'," there has been a need to determine whether other metal-metal oxide (or other hard stable particle) alloys, not so ideal as the Al-Al 2 O 3 system, would show similar high temperature strength and stability. Of the many possible methods of obtaining a metal-metal oxide alloy,a one that offers many practical and theoretical advantages is the simple mechanical blending of metal powders with hard stable particles, followed by pressing, sintering, and hot extruding. With this purpose in mind copper powder and silica and alumina were selected for experimentation because these materials are readily available, cheap, reliable, and lend themseives te the simplest processing and testing. Starting Materials—Two sizes of electrolytically deposited copper powders were used, a —200 mesh powder referred to as A powder in this investigation and a —325 mesh powder referred to as C powder. Silica was added in the form of pure Potter's flint from which a —10µ fraction had been separated. Alumina of the a variety was used in two size ranges. The first was a —10µ fraction separated from a coarser aggregate, the second a commercial product of 0.3µ average diam manufactured by Linde Air Products. Preparation of Powders—Five-hundred gram batches of A copper with 1, 3, and 10 volume pct of each of the three oxides mentioned above were prepared, as well as C copper containing 1, 3, and 10 volume pct of —lop silica. Powders were weighed out carefully and blended by ball milling in air for 24 hr. Since this treatment resulted in surface oxidation of the copper, the charge was hydrogen reduced at 260°C for 5 hr. The next step consisted of hydrostatically compacting the powder into a shape suitable for the required hot working. For this purpose a slug about 11/2 in. in diam and 31/2 in. in length was produced by placing the mixed powders into a rubber sleeve, holding in a perforated steel canister, and rubber stoppering at the ends; the assembly was then subjected to a hydrostatic pressure of 50,000 psi. The air was evacuated from the assembly prior to pressing in order to prevent

Jan 1, 1958

By Roswell H. Johnson

The principle of sliding or graduation in royalties is accomplished either by the block, period, cumulative, or class method. The block method calls for a very low royalty rate on all oil produced up to a certain amount. This amount would normally be that which is believed to suffice to repay the cost of the well. A higher rate would be charged after the well is making a profit. This method, common in many industries, is peculiarly inadaptable to any industry such as this where the productivity per day of the units gradually and inevitably decreases. This, for reasons given later, is because it forces an early abandonment of the well and so offends against conservation. In the period method, the royalty rate is changed by some definite amount when the well produces less than a specified quantity per day or other given unit of time. While simple to explain, it operates badly because a great deal is made to depend upon a small reduction in production, whereas the reduction as a matter of fact declines rather erratically owing to the exigency of lease management, connecting of tankage, and vagaries of the gaugers. These disadvantages are obviated by the cumulative method. In this method, all the production less than a certain amount per week has one rate of royalty, or none at all, and the oil produced in excess of that amount pays an additional rate of royalty. In the long run the calculation is probably no greater than with the period method, for simple tables will be published and printed in the oil papers that can be cut out, enabling quick readings to be made. Even without the table the calculation is easy with the few royalty rates, two or three, which would be used. In this method, the amount paid in royalty declines gradually, rather than suddenly as in the period method. The following reasons might be advanced for the adoption oi cumulative royalties: 1. To distribute the burden in accordance with the capacity to pay. This principle is a unique one in business, although familiar in taxation. This is because it does not distribute reward in proportion to efficiency.

Jan 1, 1916

By H. S. Gipson

A process that has come to be known locally as "multistage stabilization" has been developed in the Haft Kel field of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. in southwest Iran, for the recovery of casinghead gasoline. It consists in releasing the dissolved gases from the crude by stages, a practice common in many fields, but which, so far as is known, has nowhere been carried to the extent to which it is employed in Iran. It has been in use there for nearly nine years, during which time some 200 million barrels of crude have been handled by the process. This process of gasoline retention consists in preventing the greater part of the casinghead gasoline hydrocarbons (the butanes and pentanes) from ever leaving the crude, instead of allowing them to be vaporized and then recovered from the lighter gases by the usual compression or absorption processes. Its efficiency is fully equal to that obtained by the absorption process; its disadvantage is that it increases the quantities of ethane and propane in the crude sent to the refinery, but with the growing demand for propane this drawback is vanishing. When casinghead gasoline is recovered as a separate liquid in the Iranian fields, it is blended with the crude, as the only outlet is through the refinery, and the crude-oil pipe line offers the cheapest means of transportation. It is under these conditions that the retention of the butanes and pentanes in the crude by multistage stabilization is a most attractive process, possessing as it does the following advantages: (1) extreme simplicity, (2) low first cost, (3) easy installation! (4) practically 100 per cent operating-time efficiency, (5) no operators required, (6) no water or other services required, (7) negligible maintenance, (8) once established, very little routine testing is necessary. The one essential for reasonably efficient multistage stabilization is that the flowing pressures of the wells should be relatively high; i.e., they should not be less than about one-third the saturation pressure of the crude in the reservoir. This is a very general statement, of course, and much depends on the type of crude and its temperature.

Jan 1, 1940

By H. S. Gipson

A process that has come to be known locally as "multistage stabilization" has been developed in the Haft Kel field of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. in southwest Iran, for the recovery of casinghead gasoline. It consists in releasing the dissolved gases from the crude by stages, a practice common in many fields, but which, so far as is known, has nowhere been carried to the extent to which it is employed in Iran. It has been in use there for nearly nine years, during which time some 200 million barrels of crude have been handled by the process. This process of gasoline retention consists in preventing the greater part of the casinghead gasoline hydrocarbons (the butanes and pentanes) from ever leaving the crude, instead of allowing them to be vaporized and then recovered from the lighter gases by the usual compression or absorption processes. Its efficiency is fully equal to that obtained by the absorption process; its disadvantage is that it increases the quantities of ethane and propane in the crude sent to the refinery, but with the growing demand for propane this drawback is vanishing. When casinghead gasoline is recovered as a separate liquid in the Iranian fields, it is blended with the crude, as the only outlet is through the refinery, and the crude-oil pipe line offers the cheapest means of transportation. It is under these conditions that the retention of the butanes and pentanes in the crude by multistage stabilization is a most attractive process, possessing as it does the following advantages: (1) extreme simplicity, (2) low first cost, (3) easy installation! (4) practically 100 per cent operating-time efficiency, (5) no operators required, (6) no water or other services required, (7) negligible maintenance, (8) once established, very little routine testing is necessary. The one essential for reasonably efficient multistage stabilization is that the flowing pressures of the wells should be relatively high; i.e., they should not be less than about one-third the saturation pressure of the crude in the reservoir. This is a very general statement, of course, and much depends on the type of crude and its temperature.

Jan 1, 1940

By John V. Beall

Monotonous flood planes flanked either side of the road as we drove in the embassy car from the airport to downtown Seoul. We crossed the brown waters of the Hann River, meandering over mud flats. A great, gnarled tree bore beautiful fall colors of gold. "That is a Ginko Tree, the oldest living fossil, probably a hundred million years old;" said Jean W. Pressler. Compared to other cities of the Far East, the traffic in and around Seoul was sedate. Few motorcycles or bicycles, and little superfluous horn tooting. "This is the best season in Korea. We have long beautiful springs and falls," said Pressler, chief of the mining branch of USAID, and he continued with a briefing on the country.

Jan 8, 1969

By Hugh H. Waesche

Of all the military services, the Signal Corps is the most concerned with piezoelectric minerals because of its function as a supply service to the strategic and tactical military forces. Consequently this paper is written from the point of view of one associated with that organization. The Signal Corps is responsible for the research, development, and supply of communications, radar, and components to the using services of the Department of the Army and to some extent the Other branches of the National Defense Department. Their work therefore includes the study of the sources* characteristics, and application of quartz and other piezoelectric materials. These materials have become a vital consideration in strategic planning and are essential for efficient tactical operation by all the Armed Forces. The Signal Corps at the beginning of world War 11 Was respon-sible for both Army Ground and Air Force electronic equipment. Since that time this Army service organization has probably done more in the development of frequency control devices using piezoelectric materials than any other group. The U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Minerals yearbook of 1945, shows that during the four war years, 1942 through 1945, 9,598,-410 Ib of quartz crystal were imported for all uses and of this total, 5,168,000 lb were consumed to produce 78,320,-000 crystal units for electronic application. Other government records confirm these data which conclusively show that approximately 53 pct of the crystalline quartz imported was consumed in the production of electronically applied quartz crystal units. It may be assumed that some effort was made to maintain a stockpile over demands for all purposes. and this would mean that the actual percentage of quartz used electronically was considerably over the 53 pct figure. These data only emphasize that electronic application of crystalline quartz was the greatest requirement, and per- haps the actual value in this application to national defense is many times greater in importance than is apparent on first inspection. Current electronic research and development programs of the Armed Forces are planned around the fundamental use of piezoelectric minerals for frequency control and this at present, at least, means quartz. Definition and Early Development The word piezoelectricity is formed from combination of the Greek word "piezein". meaning "to press," and "electricity." It is that property shown by numerous crystalline substances whereby electrical charges of equal and opposite value are produced on certain surfaces when the crystal is subjected to mechanical stress. It appears to be intimately associated with the better known property, pyro-electricity and in fact, the two may be manifestations of the same phenomeuon. This property was discovered by Pierre and Jacques Curie in quartz, tourmaline, and other minerals in 1880 while studying the symmetry of crystals. The converse effect, that is, mechanical strain in the crystal when placed in an electrical field, was predicted by the French physicist, G. Lippman, in 1881, and verified by the Curies almost immediately. As has been the case with many discoveries of similar character in the basic sciences, not much attention was paid to this property for man)- years except as an entertaining curiosity. Between 1890 and 1892 a series of papers was published by W. voigt in which the theoretical physical properties were put into mathematical form. The first practical application of piezoelectricity occurred during World War I when professor P. Langevin of France used quartz mosaics to produce underwater sound waves. The same mosaics were used to pick up the sound reflections from submerged objects which were in turn, amplified by electronic means and used to determine the distances to such objects. This device was intended for use as a submarine detector but development was not completed in time for war service although it was used later for determining ocean depths. About the same time, A. M. Nicholson, of Bell Telephone Laboratories, developed microphones and phonograph pickups using Rochelle salt crystals. A major step in the application of piezoelectric quartz came in 1921, when professor W. G. Cady, of wesleyan university, showed that a radio oscillator could be controlled by a quartz crystal; from that date, this use of quartz has increased steadily, reaching its peak in world war 11 as is shown by the figures previously given. Essentially all American electronic equipment for communication, navigation, and radar, utilized quartz crystals for the exacting frequency control required. Crystalline Minerals with piezoelectric Properties QUARTZ Hundreds of piezoelectric crystalline materials are known, most of which are water soluble. Of these, quartz appears to be without a peer for electronic frequency control. Unfortunately, the quartz must be of superior quality. It must be free of mechanical flaws, essen-tially optically clear, free of both Brazil and Dauphiné twinning and must be, for average uses, over 100 g in weight. Because of these stringent requirements, raw quartz of the quality desired is of rare occurrence. In addition to quartz, several other naturally occurring crystalline materials are known to have the piezoelectric property and could perhaps be substituted for quartz in some applications. These

Jan 1, 1950

By Hugh P. Tiemann

The desirability of employing the centigrade scale for the measurement of temperatures is becoming more and more recognized in this country, particularly in view of the fact that this scale is used almost exclusively in technical papers and publications—exclusively in those published in French or German. There are, however, a large number of factories and laboratories which still employ the Fahrenheit scale. It therefore frequently becomes necessary to convert one into the other and the accompanying chart (Fig. I) has been found very convenient for this purpose. The formulas for conversion follow: (1) °F. = 9o /5+ 32 (2) oC = 5 (oF - 32 ) (1) 100° C X 9 900/5 =180 .'. 180 + 32 = 212° F. 5 (2) 5 (212° F - 32) = 5 X 180 =100o C 9 9

Jan 1, 1916

By G. W. Healy

Activities of oxides in the ternary FeO-MnO-SiO system are calculated from data on the binaries, using the Gibbs -Schuhmann method. These activity data are used, together with thermodynamic relations, to calculate the contents of oxygen, silicon, and manganese in liquid iron, and the composition of the corresponding oxide phases in equilibrium with it. Excellent agreement was found between calculated and experimental metal compositions, indicating that thermodynamic methods, such as those presented, can supply useful data on slag-metal equilibria, and are therefore capable of wider application. When molten steel containing oxygen is treated with a deoxidizer, the product of the reaction is composed of the oxides of the deoxidizing elements together with more or less iron oxide. This assemblage of oxides is presumably very close to equilibrium with the melt since it is formed directly from elements dissolved in it. Therefore, it is likely that metal analyses corresponding to a given oxide phase composition are calculable with considerable precision where sufficient information is available on activities in both phases. The present study was made to test this hypothesis in the case of deoxidation by silicon and manganese. Here experimental data on the relationship among oxygen, silicon, and manganese in the metal phase are available, as are activity data for the MnO-SiO2, FeO-SiO2, and FeO-MnO binary systems. A further objective was to demonstrate in a specific example how gaps in the data may be filled by judicious interpolation, and how the Gibbs-Schuhmann method is applied to obtain activities in ternary systems. The rigorous derivation of the latter, requiring considerable facility in handling partial differential equations, tends to mask the real simplicity of the method, and repel the very engineers and experimenters who would benefit the most from its use. I) GENERAL PROCEDURE Deoxidation of steel with silicon and manganese results in the formation of two phases, metal and oxide. The number of components is four—Fe, Mn, Si, and 0. The phase rule then gives the number of degrees of freedom: If temperature and pressure are fixed, 2 deg of freedom remain. Consequently, it suffices to fix the concentration of two of the components of the system for all the concentrations to be determined and, at least in principle, calculable. The practical problem is then to discover a straightforward method of calculation with a minimum of trial and error solutions. The type of reactions to be dealt with are like the following: Si (in steel) + 2 O(in steel) = SiO2(in oxide phase) The standard free energy of this reaction is readily obtained from the literature, so that the equilibrium constant can be calculated by the expression: Since the metallurgist is concerned with percentages rather than activities, a real solution requires information that will permit activities to be converted to concentrations. This information is fairly adequate for the elements dissolved in molten steel, but is not available for the FeO-MnO-SiO2 oxide system. Therefore, the first step in this study was to find the relation between activity and concentration for the three oxides making up the system. The next step was the calculation of slag and metal compositions that are in equilibrium with one another. As shown by the phase rule, it is sufficient to assume the values of two composition variables in order to calculate the rest. But which two are picked makes a vast difference in how difficult the calculation turns out to be, so that it is necessary to make preliminary trial of several routes to find the easiest one. A convenient method is to begin with the slag, and to pick FeO concentration and that of one of the other oxides. Starting with the relation between oxygen dissolved in the liquid steel and FeO in the slag permits a good first estimate to be made of the oxygen content of the steel in equilibrium with FeO, because the iron content being fairly close to 100 pct, Fe has an activity close to unity. Using this first estimate of oxygen activity, approximate values of the manganese and silicon contents of the melt are readily calculated from the appropriate equilibrium constants. A minor correction for the depar-

Jan 1, 1963

By W. T. Lundy

THE forms in which sulphur is commonly found-native sulphur, sulphides of many metals and sulphates-are widely distributed throughout the world. The two first mentioned are the principal sources of sulphur. Substantial amounts of sulphur in some form are recovered from gases from industrial plants and from gases from smelters treating other minerals. In recent years, plants have been installed in the United States to recover sulphur in elemental form from sour gases."' The amount of sulphur so produced is small at the present time but undoubtedly will increase in the future. The recovery of sulphur from gases is not covered in this chapter, which is confined to: (1) native sulphur deposits of Texas and Louisiana; (2) those of Italy; (3) other scattered deposits of native sulphur; and (4) pyrites deposits found in many countries of the world.30 Sulphur, a nonmetallic element, occurs normally in well developed bipyramidal or tabular crystals of the orthorhombic system, as well as in stalactitic and earthy masses. The mineral has a distinctive yellow color, which may be dark and discolored by impurities; the streak is white; the luster is resinous; and the fracture is conchoidal to uneven. Sulphur is translucent to opaque; has a hardness of 1.5 to 2.5, a specific gravity of 2.05, and an atomic weight of 32.06.16 The molecular weight of the solid is expressed by the symbol SS and that of the liquid and vapor ranges from S2 to S8, depending on the temperature. Sulphur melts at a temperature between 2340 and 248°F, depending on its crystalline state, to a liquid of dark amber color, the boiling point of which is 832°F. The viscosity near the melting point is about that of water and increases to 50,000 times that of water at a temperature of 380°F, subsequently falling rapidly to a low figure at the boiling point. Crystallization changes slowly from rhombic to monoclinic above 205 °F and in cooling the transformation is reversed. The mineral is a very poor conductor of heat and electricity; it is insoluble in water and nearly all acids and is soluble in cold carbon bisulphide and carbon tetrachloride. It ignites in air at a temperature of 478°F, burning with a distinctive blue flame with evolution of sulphur dioxide.47

Jan 1, 1949

By D. A. Koss, R. O. Gordon

Changes in the ultrasonic attenuation in steel specimens have been observed during tensile tests. Samples of AISI 1020, 1045, and 1095 steel quenched and tempered to a spheroidized condition have been used. Both attenuation and microstrain measurements fail to reveal preyield dislocation motion in the as-tempered specimens. Upon reapplication of the load to samples in the strain-aged condition there is a large preyield attenuation increase but no observable micvostrain up to 90 pct of the flow stress. These and other observed changes can be related to changes in the free disloca-tion density and the average dislocation segment length. The results show that the increase inflow stress in the strain-aged condition is caused by increased fric-tional stresses rather than by dislocation pinning. Strain aging is found to proceed through three distinct stages. The second of these follows the t2,3 law and is characterized by an activation energy of 20 kcal per mole. RECENT years have seen substantial progress in the understanding of the sharp yield-point phenomenon in metals; the influence of solute atom pinning of dislocations, of dislocation multiplication, and of the stress dependence of dislocation velocity on the stress-strain curve has been investigated. Evaluation of the relative importance of these factors in the various metals and alloys is not complete, however, because observation of the stress-strain curve alone is not sufficient to determine the yield mechanism. In the experimental study of the sharp yield point it would be desirable to be able to directly observe the dislocations in a bulk specimen. Ideally, the observations should be made during deformation because of the rapidity of recovery processes in lightly strained metals. While direct observation of dislocations under these conditions is not possible, certain physical properties sensitive to the dislocation structure can be observed while a test specimen is undergoing deformation. Of these properties, one of the most useful is the ultrasonic attenuation. The total observed attenuation, a, is due to a number of causes: acoustic diffraction, scattering by inhomogeneities in the structure, heat flow, magnetostriction, and dislocation damping. Satisfactory measurements of the absolute a are difficult to make because all of these factors cannot be evaluated in any given specimen, but changes in a due to changes in the dislocation contribution alone can be reliably observed by appropriate technique. Because dislocation damping is sensitive to small concentrations of long, free dislocation segments, observation of acoustic attenuation due to dislocations is particularly useful in the study of the early stages of plastic deformation. In the experiments to be described, acoustic-attenuation measurements have been made on steel samples as these were pulled through their yield in tension. While many details of dislocation-damping phenomena in the bee metals remain obscure, the main characteristics of this type of internal friction are established. At low strain amplitudes and at frequencies well below that of dislocation resonance (the conditions of these experiments) the dislocation contribution to a is given by1 where A is the density of freely oscillating dislocation segments, L is the average segment length, B is the damping constant for a moving dislocation, w is the frequency, O is an orientation factor, C is the dislocation line tension, and t is a numerical factor relating average segment length to the distribution of lengths. Because of its fourth-power dependence on L, a is highly sensitive to changes in dislocation free segment length such as might arise from unpinning, recovery, jog formation, or dislocation intersection. The above equation is not valid near the resonant frequency of dislocations, but the segment length in steel is believed to be much too short to cause over-damped resonance near 10 Mc; this will be discussed later. In the present experiments plastic-strain measurements with a sensitivity of 2 x 10-5 were also made during the early stages of loading in order to detect preyield strain. The general plan of the experiments is to observe

Jan 1, 1967

By Emil Gathmann

Through wide experience at numerous mills in the United States I have found that there is a decided difference of opinion among the producers of steel as to what constitutes commercially sound steel. Some metallurgists insist upon having, for certain grades of steel, a so-called "open steel," i.e., one which contains numerous blowholes of varying sizes, and consequently but little volume of true pipe, although a central intermittent shrinkage cavity often extends well down into the ingot. Such blowholes and pipe are expected to weld up during rolling or forging, because their surfaces are not oxidized. Even if this be admitted, included slag particles and a high degree of segregation are bound to be present in the product of such ingots. Blowholes are the result of an oxidized heat, and all heats, unless made or finished in the electric furnace, are oxidized more or less. Subsequent deoxidation, or rather degasification, either in the ladle or in the mold, or in both, is necessary to reduce or prevent blowholes. As is well known, a greater yield of billets or sheets is secured from the ingot by allowing the formation of blowholes, but this is undoubtedly obtained at the expense of the quality of the product. Decided segregation of carbon, phosphorus, and sulphur, as well as small included slag particles, undoubtedly exists throughout the greater portion of all so-called open steel, and cannot be removed by cropping. The first requisite for sound, homogeneous steel ingots and blooms is therefore, in my opinion, so to treat the steel in the furnace, ladle, and mold that "piping" steel is produced. The line of demarcation between harmful and so-called "harmless" blowholes is practically impossible to define. Is it not, therefore, the better and safer practice to use means for the elimination of blowholes and correspondingly reduce the segregation and allow the formation of a well-defined shrinkage cavity or pipe at the upper end of the ingot? With the relatively cheap deoxidizers available at the present time, e.g., ferro-silicon, aluminum and titanium, there is no commercial reason why all steel should not be thoroughly degasified. A degasified steel being provided, the method of freezing or solidifying the liquid steel into an ingot, and the subsequent working into blooms and thence into various products, is of great importance in reducing the crop or scrap portion of the steel, due to segregation and pipe. How to ac-

Jan 1, 1916

By Scott Turner

IT has been considered that the training of an engineer is too often vocational training; that it is a pity all engineers cannot have had a period of liberal training before taking up' pure engineering. Offhand, the so-called liberal courses should bring more ready adaptability to deal with the unexpected, to face with assurance situations which have had no parallel in one's experience, and to move without hesitation under conditions which were heretofore unknown to one, than the specialized course in mining engineering. We hear increasing talk as to the necessity of making the engineer articulate and bringing him into public life. The social implications, and responsibilities of engineering are pointed out, as of equal importance with the prodigious marvels of engineering ingenuity. You often read of this as the logical result of the in¬creasing consciousness of the engineer as to his rela¬tive position in our modern industrial civilization. , Some wag has noted that man is the noblest work of God, but that man is the only one who has said so. Perhaps engineers are the only claimants as to the necessity of their going in for public life and service; at any rate, some liberal educators' still maintain that a well-rounded general education is the better training.

Jan 1, 1930

By Schneider, W. G.

IT is not my purpose to burden you with many statistics. The charts herewith should be considered merely as indicating the trend. I believe' that is what is really of interest to us. It is difficult, if not impossible to forecast with any assurance future developments, because of possible new mines, competitive materials, curtailment' or increase in the use of the metal in certain markets, and many other factors that have a vital bearing on any industry. Fig. 1 shows United States smeltet output of copper, starting with 1845. It is estimated that in 1928 the smelter output of copper will be about 1,010,000 tons. Between 1895 and 1905 it increased about 200,000 tons, and between 1905 and 1915 about 240,000 tons. Between 1915 and 1925 the increase was about 140,000 tons. This is an average increase over 30 years of about 190,00Q tons per ten-year period. At the present time the indications are that this demand for increased production will continue. As to whether or not we have the supplies or facilities to maintain this increase or a greater one, remains to be seen. Provided it is possible for United States smelters to increase their production, they should be producing at the rate of about 1,210,000 tons or more per year by 1935.

Jan 1, 1928

By George H. Ashley

The present critical state of the supply, distribution, and utilization of coal and the necessity for pooling and zoning coals calls renewed attention to the lack of any fully adequate classification of coal. In the past coals have been classified as anthracite, semianthracite, semibitumi-nous, bituminous, subbituminous coals, and lignite, and a few special types, such as splint coal and cannel coal. But under the term bituminous coal are included a great variety of coals differing markedly both physically and chemically. The term subbituminous coal covers as great a range of chemical differences. In order to distinguish these varieties of bituminous coals it has been customary to designate coal by names derived from the place where mined, or by the name of the bed from which it is mined. Thus, in the market reports, coals are quoted as Pocahontas coal, New River or Sewell coal, Moshannon coal, Ohio coal, Williamson County coal, Jellico coal, and so on indefinitely, no limit being set as to the boundaries of the area to which a given name is applied. Nor is there any scale by which the coal from one place may be compared with the coal from some other district or some other bed. On the one hand, coals from the same district may be quite distinct and sell at very different prices or coal from the same bed may differ greatly in different districts; on the other hand, coals from different states may be so similar physically and chemically that one could replace the other in practical use without any appreciable difference in service. The following classification, arrived at after a careful review of a large number of systems of classification and of all of the recognized characteristics of coal, brings together all coals that so nearly resemble each other physically, chemically, and in heating qualities that any coal of a given type could replace any other coal of the same type and grade in use. Thus, if coals A and B are classed as of the same type and grade they have, so far as known to the writer, approximately the same heating value when burned under the same conditions, and the same character, length of flame, and properties affecting transportation and stocking; and if of the same grade, approximately the same percentage of impurities.

Jan 1, 1920