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By R. E. Cech

Particles -3 to 30 µ diam of a 29.5 pet Ni, 70.5 pet Fe alloy after being melted and solidified while falling through a hydrogen atmosphere were found to contain a distortion-free body-centered-cubic phase. In most particles, the amount of body-centered-cubic phase approaches or equals 100 pet. It was shown by a series of experiments that this phase forms directly from the liquid. It is pointed out that a mechanism previously suggested in recent papers on the theory of the liquid-solid transformation can account for the solidification of body-centered-cubic phase in a temperature range where face-centered-cubic is the stable phase. IN the course of an operation to produce powders for a study of the martensitic transformation in Fe-Ni alloys, an unexpected phenomenon was observed. Powders of a 29.5 pet Ni alloy, which has a subzero M, temperature, were found to contain considerable amounts of a body-centered-cubic phase at room temperature. The experiments to be described were designed to elucidate the mode of formation of this unexpected phase. Experiments and Discussion An alloy containing 29.5 wt pet Ni, balance iron, was vacuum melted from high purity electrolytic iron and carbonyl nickel shot and solidified in the crucible. The metal was converted to oxide, ground to 100 pet <37µ, pressed to a cake, and homogenized 20 hr at 1350°C. To insure homogeneity the grinding, pressing, and homogenizing heat treatment was repeated a second time. The oxide was then ground to 100 pct <37µ and hydrogen reduced at 500°C. The reduced powder was given a spheroidizing treatment to produce spherical cast particles. The treatment consisted of dispersing the particles in hydrogen and allowing them to drop through a vertical hydrogen furnace set to a temperature higher than the liquidus of the alloy. This operation, commonly known as shotting, has been described more fully elsewhere.&apos; The powder produced by this method was found to contain approximately equal parts of body-centered-cubic and face-centered-cubic phases. A magnetic separation technique, previously described,&apos; was applied, and it was found that particles were either completely face-centered-cubic or nearly completely body-centered-cubic. The microstruc-

Jan 1, 1957

IN comparing the living conditions of the worker or peasant of the past with those existing today, his-torians might point out many strange contrasts. From the Doomsday Book we learn that at the time of Wil-liam the Conqueror the 1,375,000 inhabitants of Eng-land and Wales owned less than 1000 horses and 5000 oxen. Even as recently as 1871 when England and Wales had a population of 31,845.000, the total number of horses in the country was estimated at 1,110,000. Compare the necessary drudgery of labor in those days with conditions in Canada today where a population of less than ten million people own 3,500,000 horses. Re-member that there is also a turbine installation in` this country of more than four million horse-power, besides steam boilers and locomotive and automobile engines which reduce the traction and hand labor of the farm and factory. Frequently, poetic license has glossed over the poverty and hardship of the common people in the "good old days," and the imagination has created an idyllic world, far from being justified by the condi-tions which actually prevailed. Simon Patten&apos;s de-scription of the Middle Ages as "A Thousand Years Without an Ice Box" came nearer portraying the true situation. No one is likely to forget that the discovery of America was an incident in Europe&apos;s attempt to find a short route to the Indies, but the fact is usually for-gotten that the summer diet in Europe in 1400-an ice-less age-was such that spices were more precious than gold. Though the glamor of the Indies may never sur-round the modern refrigerator, certainly the modern housewife is likely &apos;to feel that the applied art called "cookery? may attain to higher levels with the assist-ance-6f such an adjunct. Those who have spoken slightingly of the uniformity of the modern apartment and have eulogized some of the exceptional hand-made furniture which has been bequeathed by former generations, have failed to com-pare modern house furnishings with those in the typical peasant&apos;s hovel. Machine-made furniture, though with-out particularly good lines, contrasts quite favorably with the pile of rags in the corner, and the poorest gas or oil stove is better than an open fire on a dirt floor. The scientist&apos;s application of the theories of physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics .to practical prob-lems has brought about a series of kaleidoscopic trans-formations in agriculture, industry and commerce. Large scale production, improved means of communica-tion and the prevailing higher standard of living are terms which imply a very human meaning when in-terpreted as actual changes in individual living. Though the student and the teacher may deprecate the influence of commercialism upon science, humanity as a whole has received great benefits from the close relationship which has developed between science and industry, and industry in turn has done much for science through the building and endowment of laboratories and by supply-ing funds to maintain research workers.

Jan 11, 1927

By H. N. Mead

In a reservoir when gas comes out of solution and rises, additional pressure is created because of the change in position of this gar in the bounded volume. If this pressure effect is not taken into account as a pseudo-influx ill mate rial balance calculations on reservoirs in which there is evolving gas, an error is introduced that is directly proportional to the length of oil column and amount of gas evolved and inversely proportional to the reservoir pressure. In reservoirs with small oil column this pseudo-influx is of little importance. The larger the oil column the more important the effect becomes. The most important application, however, will be for reservoirs with declining pressure in which increasing water entry has been indicated by material balance calculations. It could be that this indication is the result of the cited pseudo-influx and not water entry at all. This paper attempts to explain this phenomenon in relation to material balance calculations and prevents an approximate method of determining tile pseudo-influx. INTRODUCTION Only recently has the pressure-volume relationship of gas rising in a liquid appeared in engineering literature, although its effect has been discussed for several years—especially among engineers engaged in drilling operations. The writer published a paper in 1957 in which this phenomenon was examined in relation to blowouts in drilling wells.&apos; Also, in 1957 Stegemeier and Matthews&apos; authored a paper in which the relationship was presented with respect to pressure build-up tests when shutting in producing wells. In this paper the effect will be called "pressure inversion" which is descriptive of the phenomenon. Fundamentally, the effect just mentioned is the result of changing the position of a quantity of energy contained within the gas itself (as a result of its compression) within the bounded volume in which the gas exists. If the gas were allowed to expand "beyond all bounds" there could be no pressure inversion effect. This is because all of the energy contained within the gas as a result of compression would have been re- PRESSURE INVERSION A phase that has not been discussed in the literature is the effect of pressure inversion upon material balance calculations in reservoirs in which the reservoir pressure drops with reservoir withdrawal and is below the bubble point. This action releases solution gas which, after the critical gas saturation has been reached, will tend to rise and collect at the top of the reservoir. The pseudo-influx caused by this effect could be great enough in reservoirs of large oil column and high permeability to render invalid any analyzer studies made on them — if pressure inversion has not been taken into account. Most suspect would be those reservoirs with large oil column in which increasing water entry has been predicted but the bottom wells have not yet produced water. Example 1 Simply stated, this phenomenon exists in oil reservoirs because of the difference in density and expansibility between gas and oil. For example, if a bubble of gas exists at the bottom of a 1,000-ft column of oil having a gradient of 0.30 psi/ft with the pressure at the top of the column zero, the bubble of gas will be compressed to a pressure of 300 psi. If temperature and the combined volume of the oil column and the gas bubble remain constant, as the gas bubble rises in the oil column it will have the same volume and consequently the same pressure at any point. Under these conditions when thc bubble reaches the top of the oil column, the pressure will be approximately 300 psi at the surface and approximately 600 psi at the bottom of the oil column. If it is assumed that the oil is incompressible the pressures will be exactly 300 and 600 psi, respectively.

By D. L. Wood

INTERNAL oxidation of alloys has been investigated by Rhinesl,2 and by Meijering and Druy-vesteyn. Rhines showed that dilute Cu-A1 alloys can be internally oxidized without forming an external scale by annealing in an oxygen partial pressure equal to the decomposition pressure of Cu2O. The oxygen is supplied at the outside surface at a rate sufficient to maintain saturation of the surface with respect to oxygen. Oxygen diffuses inward and, at the interface between the subscale and the alloy, oxygen meets the solute and reacts to precipitate its

Jan 1, 1957

By C. P. Sandberg

INTRODUCTION. NOTWITHSTANDING the growing importance of this subject, no work specially devoted to it has hitherto been published. Having had to inspect during the last twenty years nearly a million tons of iron and steel rails for various countries, I have obtained experience of what rail manufacturers can practically execute, as well as of what railway engineers practically require. Bearing these two points in mind, I have from time to time published observations with a view to unite both interests, -that of the producer and that of the consumer,-and to reduce the specifications and the forms of sections to standards, or types, in order to facilitate the execution of the works and to improve the construction of permanent way. The Swedish government railways, as well as private companies owning railways in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, have during the time above mentioned consulted with me and intrusted to me their rail inspection. I therefore owe to these countries much of the opportunity which I have enjoyed of gaining experience and position. Next to Sweden, America is the country which has most liberally favored me with its confidence in placing these matters in my hands. Through circumstances not under my control there has been little exportation to, and less work done by Europe for, America during the last six years ; but the recent revival of the rail trade has been the more gratifying to me, seeing that almost all the importers of American rails are still specifying for the Sandberg rail sections and inspection. It is therefore with .feelings of gratitude that I now beg to lay before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and I hope, through that body, before the American railway world, the results of some experience which I have gained in the execution of work for their country, and which therefore belongs rightfully to

Jan 1, 1881

By A. D. Hughes

A relatively small area in Malaya, about 200 miles long by 40 miles wide, is the most important source of tin in the world. Some tin is recovered in other parts of the peninsula. Of the tin mined, 98 pct is recovered from alluvial deposits. From 1935 to 1941 the average annual world production of tin was 190,000 tons. The average annual production from Malaya during the same period was 62,000 tons or about one third of the total. Other producing countries, in order of importance, were the Netherlands East Indies 34,000 tons, Bolivia 30,000, Belgian Congo, Nigeria, Siam, Burma, China, and a few others with smaller amounts. The serious shortage of tin during the war period was due to the fact that the Japanese were occupying Malaya, Netherlands East Indies, Siam, Burma, and China which, together, formerly were producing 65 pct of the world supply. Because of the importance of tin in the world economy, and because of the fact that little is generally known in this country regarding the methods of recovering the tin in Malaya, it is believed that a short description of the industry, as carried on there, may be of interest to many of the readers. In addition you may be interested in the effect of the Japanese occupation, subsequent recovery of the properties and conditions existing at that time. The Malay Peninsula lies at the southeast tip of Asia. Singapore, a British colony, is situated on a small island at the southern end of the peninsula. It is a city of nearly a million population, an important world port, the site of a large British naval base and of one of the tin smelters. The Federation of Malaya consists of nine states, plus Penang, Malacca, and other small areas formerly part of the Straits Settlements, and it now covers the entire peninsula. The civil administration is controlled by the British. A constitution was adopted recently after reaching agreement with the Malay Sultans of the various states, who retain control of religious matters. The Capital is at Kuala Lumpur, a city of about 200,000 population, 250 miles north of Singapore and about half way to Penang. The country covers an area of 51,000 square miles, an area about equal to that of Florida and about one third that of California. It has a population of about seven million consisting of Malays, Chinese, East Indians, and a relatively small number of Europeans. The principal products are tin and rubber. There are over three million acres of planted rubber. The country is not self-supporting agriculturally as about one third of the necessary food supplies is imported. Rice is the principal food of the Asiatic population and some of the recent unrest is caused by a shortage of rice and the consequent high price. Good highways have been built through the settled part of the country. A railway, Government owned, extends from Singapore northward through the entire peninsula. The climate is tropical but health conditions are good for a tropical country. I was in Malaya from 1939 until January 1942, during the time of the simultaneous air attacks on Pearl Harbor, Manila, Hongkong, and Singa-

Jan 1, 1950

By George Holderer

THE Enos Coal Mining Co. owns an area underlaid by coal, of approximately 5000 acres. This property is situated 9 miles from Oakland City, in the southern part of Indiana. The mine has been in operation 5 years, during which time some 350 acres have been stripped, and stripping is now proceeding at the rate of about 100 acres per year. TOPOGRAPHY These coal lands consist of gently-rolling agricultural fields which in times past were farmed for wheat. There is no timber and but very little brush to contend with. The overburden varies from 10 to 60 ft. in depth. A thin bed of slate overlies the coal, followed by limestone, which varies from 3 to 15 ft.; this, in turn, is followed by sandstone, slate, shale and clay. There is a very wide variation in the thickness of all of these beds. The coal has an average thickness of 5 ft., and is a good grade of high-volatile bituminous. MINING OPERATIONS Briefly, the sequence of operations is: drilling holes with churn drills; blasting with L. 0. X.; stripping overburden to, uncover coal and, finally taking up the coal, which is sent to a tipple for cleaning and sizing. In order to show what is being accomplished by the use of L. 0. X., results will be shown from May to November, 1926, inclusive, and compared to the same period in 1925. No work was done in No. 1 pit during May, 1925, hence all figures are unduly low for this month.

Jan 2, 1927

By Franklin G. Pardee

WARTIME depletion of the reserves of iron ore in the Lake Superior region of the grade and character now being shipped down the Lakes was serious. The time has come to take stock of the resources that remain in order to plan our future program of supply for our blast furnaces and protect, as far as possible. the tremendous investment made in the Lake Superior iron mining industry. Hugh M. Roberts and William H. Crago have estimated the reserves of the Lake Superior region in the United States at two billion long tons. These reserve figures are of direct-shipping ore and those concentrates produced by methods now in commercial use or those methods that may be expected in the near future. In their estimate they have assigned 392 million long tons to the Michigan ranges (all reserves in long tons) : 112 million tons for the Gogebic. 140 million tons for the Menominee, and 140 million tons for the Marquette.

Jan 1, 1948

By F. C. Sturges

By definition the word "grout" means a thin mortar, or a kind of plaster or cement, and "grouting" means to fill up or finish with grout. The words "cement," "plaster" and "mortar" mean a substance that is used in a soft state which subsequently hardens. Thus, grouting is the filling of void space with a substance that hardens. Construction cements are the most common substances used, either by themselves or in mixtures, but the term grouting is applied quite correctly when other substances such as plastics and certain chemicals are used. Also, the use of the term grouting to cover the filling of voids with materials that do not actually become hard, such as the flotation tailings used in grouting in the southeast Missouri lead district, should be considered correct, as some stiffening does take place and, anyway, it is a better descriptive term than any substitute. Engineers are interested in grouting because some of the materials with which they must work contain voids, and certain conditions can be improved if these voids can be filled with something solid and permanent. Grouting is done to accomplish several purposes: I. To stop the passage of fluids and gases, 2. To cement materials together to make them stronger, and 3. To prevent consolidation of materials by filling void space with something solid as a replacement for the air and water that could be forced out under load. The construction industry uses grouting extensively for all three purposes. Grouting is used to stop water percolation under and around dams. It is used to control water flow in tunnel driving and in shaft sinking. It is used to improve foundation conditions under civil engineering structures by permanently filling void space and thereby reducing settlement, or by cementing broken rock together and increasing its supporting strength. The oil and gas industry does a lot of grouting, primarily to stop the passage of gases and fluids. The search for oil at increasingly greater depths has meant greater investment per well, and the oil industry has spent large sums on development of improved drilling methods. This

Jan 1, 1949

By M. F. Goudge

LIMESTONE surpasses any other rock or mineral in the number and diversity of its uses and in the quantity consumed fur industrial purposes. Either in the raw state or when calcined to lime it enters directly or indirectly into the manufacture of a great variety of products and its sphere of usefulness is continually expanding. The term "limestone" as here employed includes all varieties from high-calcium limestone, consisting almost entirely of the mineral calcite, to the highly magnesian variety, largely dolomite. Lime is also discussed .because lime is simply calcined limestone and often the material may be used in either the calcined or natural state. Limestone has been of service to man since prehistoric times but only in the last hundred years has it become one of the most important raw materials in industry. In every industrial country it comprises the greater part of the total stone produc-

Jan 1, 1937

By E. C. Pechin

THE Lucy furnace, owned by Messrs. Carnegie, Kloman & Co., and located on the Alleghany River, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, is a splendid modern furnace, 75 feet high, and 20 feet bosh. She had been working well on low grade ores of about 50 per cent., producing daily 68 to 75 tons. There was on stock 500 tons of Republic ore, one of the purest and best of the Lake Superior ores, averaging over 68 per cent. of iron, which had been procured for the purpose of making a trial for Bessemer iron. This was charged by itself, and Mr. Skelding, the founder, reports that he did not succeed in getting a single cast when it came down, before the furnace chilled from the hearth to the top of the boshes, some 25 feet. Every effort was made to save her, without avail, and the disagree-

Jan 1, 1874

By Edmund C. Pechin

The Lucy furnace, owned by Messrs. Carnegie, Kloman & Co., and located on the Alleghany River, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, is a splendid modern furnace, 75 feet high, and 20 feet bosh. She had been working well on low grade ores of about 50 per cent., producing daily 68 to 75 tons. There was on stock 500 tons of Republic ore, one of the purest and best of the Lake Superior ores, averaging over 68 per cent. of iron, which had been procured for the purpose of making a trial for Bessemer iron. This was charged by itself, and Mr. Skelding, the founder, reports that he did not succeed in getting a single cast when it came down, before the furnace chilled from the hearth to the top of the boshes, some 25 feet. Every effort was made to save her, without avail, and the disagree-

By D. H. Davis

HAND picking was the earliest form of coal preparation, first practiced to improve the outward appearance of the coal being loaded and to remove any pieces that might appear objection- able to the buyer. It is still extensively practiced on the plus 1-in. sizes and particularly on the plus 4-in. and larger sizes. The percentage of ash reduction that can be obtained by hand picking depends entirely upon the amount of free impurity occurring in the coal. In a particularly dirty seam, where a considerable quantity of rock occurs with the coal as mined, hand picking produces sizable reductions in ash. If the coal is prepared clean at the working face hand picking is a final check; in some cases, on the smaller sizes, it is practiced only to show that an effort is being made to prepare a clean product. Because of the variety and different methods of handling coal, the early plants were not always adapted for efficient hand picking. At most mines an attempt is made to remove the visual impurities at one or more of the following places in the surface plant? (1) in the tipple during screening; (a) on picking band, belt, or shaking conveyors;*(3) during the loading of the coal as it goes into the railroad car. Whatever the physical arrangements of the plant may be, the usual practice is to run the coal over the screen, picking table or boom at such a rate that each piece of impurity is exposed to the view of the picker. Coal should be uniformly sized and spread out on the table so as not to exceed one particle in depth. The flow should be even in tonnage and the speed of travel should be from 30 to 60 ft. per minute and not exceed 80 ft. per minute. The dirtier the coal, the slower the speed required for a fixed number of pickers. Actually, picking capacity depends on the number of particles per minute that can be picked out and rejected. The percentage of impurity removed is determined by this and the average weight of piece rejected. Handling a mixture of sizes from nut to the largest lump over the same picking table or conveyor is not conducive to efficient separation by hand picking because the lump hides the smaller

Jan 1, 1943

By J. H. Moran, E. E. Finklea

The pressure build-up technique is a recognized method of determining permeability from conventional drillstem tests. In this paper an effort is made to extend such techniques to the interpretation of data obtained from the wireline formation tester. Such a study is necessary because of the differences, for this case, in the magnitude of the flow parameters (rate of flow, amount of recovered fluids) and in the flow geometry (flow through a perforation vs flow across the face of the wellbore, etc.) involved in the solution of the equations of flow for compressible fluids. The perforation is replaced by a spherical hole, and the effect of the borehole is neglected, so that the flow can be considered to be radial in a spherical co-ordinate system. Arguments are presented to justify this idealization. Assuming single-phase flow, general relations between pressure and flow rate are developed for a homogeneous medium. The study is then extended to permeable beds of finite thickness. It is shown that the early stages of pressure build-up tend towards spherical flow, while the later stages tend towards cylindrical flow. The thinner the bed, the more quickly flow approaches the cylindrical model. The prevalence of thin beds in practical work makes this analysis quite important. Cases involving permeability anisotropy are treated. INTRODUCTION From wireline formation tester operation, two types of data are obtained: (1) the nature and amount of recovered fluids, and (2) the pressure history recorded during the test. A number of papers have been written dealing with the interpretation of formation production on the basis of the recovered fluids.&apos;.&apos; In general, the methods described have been quite accurate for both high- and low-permeability formations. The present paper will deal with an analysis of the pressures observed. An analysis of the pressure build-up curves obtained in hard-rock country has already been attempted on the basis of the formula proposed by Hor-ner. Although this approach has met with success in many instances, some questions have been raised as to its validity. It is the aim of the present study to place the analysis of pressure build-up in the formation tester on a firmer basis, from which more detailed methods of interpretation can evolve. Because of the great differences between the operation of the wireline formation tester and the conventional drillstem test, modifications are necessary in the interpretation. The major difference relates to the flow geometry. Once the flow geometry has been established other features such as multiphase flow, skin effect, afterflow, etc., well described in the literature, can be introduced. It will be assumed that the mechanical operation of the formation tester is already known to the reader.6 t will suffice here merely to state that the tester provides the means for taking a relatively small sample of the fluid immediately adjacent to the borehole, and for recording the subsequent pressure response. In comparison with conventional drillstem tests, the time required for a satisfactory pressure build-up response is much shorter, because of the relatively small quantity of fluid withdrawn by the wireline tester. This feature is highly desirable in the case of low-permeability formations. For an analysis of the pressure response within the formation, three simple flow geometries are considered— linear, cylindrical and spherical. The spherical and cylindrical flow geometries are most pertinent to the formation tester; therefore, they will receive the major emphasis. Since the configuration of the borehole and the perforation made by the tester complicate the flow geometry, it is necessary to allow for them in the drawdown response. However, because of the volume of formations contributing to the pressure-response, the details of the perforation shape are unimportant in the build-up period. Since relatively small amounts of fluid are withdrawn from the formation, in contrast to a conventional drill-stem test, a study of the "depth of investigation" and the significance of drawdown as well as build-up data will be included. Because the "depth of investigation" will be shown to be rather large, the effect on the build-up curves of the finite thickness of the permeable bed is considered. It is this consideration that leads to the importance of cylindrical flow geometry. Also included is a discussion of permeability anisotropy and its effect on the interpretation of the tester results. The pressure curves recorded by the formation tester will follow two general patterns, depending upon whether the formation is of high or low permeability. Fig. I (a and b) schematically illustrates these two responses. In Fig. 1(a), the high pressure recorded during fill-up of the tool is essentially the pressure differential across the choke in the system. In Fig. l(b), the flow rate is

By W. L. Maxson

GRINDING is one of the major problems in present-day milling practice, and in many cases, it represents one of the main items of expense. It becomes necessary from time to time, to compare grinding practice in one plant with that in another plant, and in making such comparisons, it would be very desirable were there available accepted standards of grinding resistance for the materials involved. Such a set of grinding constants would also be of considerable value in planning new grind-ing installations. There have been some tests published, notably those of Lennox,1 which have been generally cited as a basis for such comparisons. Most of the tests made have been based upon open-circuit grinding, in which a weighed sample of the ore was crushed to pass a certain mesh, and was .then ground under certain conditions, either wet or dry. Grinding was continued until a certain desired fineness was attained, and the compari-sons based on the grinding time, or the samples were all ground for a certain specified length of time and comparison based upon the screen analysis of the products. Such methods have been acceptable where the ore was to be ground in open circuit. However, in modern milling practice, many grinding problems involve closed circuits wherein the oversize returns to the mill and a large circulating, load builds up. A method of testing that does not take the circulating load into consideration might yield results quite different from those to he expected in practice, because the minerals in the ore that offer maximum resistance to grinding will accumulate in the circulating load up to an equilibrium value. Thus the nature of the ore charge in the mill at any instant may differ greatly from that of the new feed, with a consequent error in the rate of grinding determined by such a method.

Jan 1, 1933

By M. E. Wadsworth, W. H. Dresher, W. M. Fassell

HIGH temperature-high pressure techniques have long been used to great advantage in the organic chemical industry, the petroleum industry, and the paper industry. Only recently, however, have these methods been used to extract metals from their ores on a commercial scale. The Chemical Construction Corp., together with interested producers of nickel and cobalt, has done much to develop methods of producing nickel and cobalt powders by the use of high temperature-high pressure techniques.&apos; The Howe Sound Co. is currently operating a plant near Salt Lake City in which the new Chemical Construction Corp. technique is applied to cobalt-arsenic sulfide concentrates. In this method the concentrates are leached in a dilute solution of sulfuric acid under air pressure at a high temperature. Near Edmonton, in Alberta, Canada, the Sherritt Gordon Co. is also using the new method in conjunction with its ammoniacal leach process.&apos; National Lead Co., at Fredricktown, Mo., is operating a process similar to that of Howe Sound. In spite of the rapid growth of high temperature-high pressure hydrometallurgical processes, there has been very little work done on fundamental principles involved in this type of process. Conse- quently the literature lacks any significant data in this field. Oxidation of pyrite,3 sphalerite,4 galena," and recently molybdenite" in alkaline solutions has been reported to some extent. This investigation was initiated, therefore, to broaden the application of high temperature-high pressure hydrometallurgy and also to contribute some insight into the basic mechanisms of oxidation in an aqueous medium under these conditions. In addition to the immediate consequences of these processes much valuable information remains to be learned about fundamental reactions when they are carried out at temperatures and pressures slightly higher than those normally encountered. Leaching of molybdenite by alkaline solutions under oxygen pressure has recently been reported in the Russian literature by E. S. Usataya,6 ho found that leaching rate increased with an increase in the pH of the solution—the strongest effects being observed at a pH of 10—and also with an increase in temperature. Usataya also has reported the formation of a protective film on the surface of the molybdenite when the leaching solution was weakly alkaline, neutral, or acidic. He believes that this oxidation process explains the migration of Mo++ in the oxidation zones of molybdenite ore deposits and the subsequent impoverishment of the ores. Equipment: The high temperature-high pressure reaction unit used in this work was especially designed for kinetic studies of this nature, emphasis being placed on accuracy of measurement and precision of control. As details of the unit&apos;s construction and operation have been discussed elsewhere,&apos; only basic features and principles of operation will be discussed at this point.

Jan 1, 1957

By Guy W. Jordan, David P. Hale

High-iRon cements have a number of advantages over cements carrying little or no iron. The presence of iron in Portland cement aids in the manufacture of the cement and also imparts certain advantageous physical properties to the finished product. In manufacture, the presence of iron lowers the fuel consumption, increases the ease of proper"burning, and lessens the destructive action of the charge on the kiln refractories. In the finished cement the presence of iron reduces the expansion and contraction, adds strength, adds increased resistance to"freezing and thawing, and increases the resistance of the cement to sea "or sulphate waters. [" During the past few years the construction of numerous dams through- "out the Southeast by the Tennessee Valley Authority has stimulated the "production of high-iron cements. At present a great number of specifica- "tions call for an iron cement, and the industry is supplying this demand "with a Portland cement carrying approximately 5 per cent iron oxide. "Several manufacturers are now making practically all of their cement "of this type and a number of others manufacture it as a special cement "over short periods to meet demands from the Tennessee Valley Authority "and other buyers. " The recent increase in the use of iron in Portland cement has created "a market for iron products that previously was nonexistent. The chief "sources of supply for the cement manufacturers at present are iron sand, "iron sinter and slag, and ocher. The Copperhill mining district, Ten- "nessee, supplies both iron sinter and slag for use in cement. The Carters- "ville district supplies iron sand, ocher, and some iron resulting from the "magnetic separation of iron from barite. The advantages of these "products vary according to the chemical properties of the raw materials "and the methods of handling used by the different manufacturers. Where "the iron is to be handled by conveying belts and in hopper cars, the iron"sand and sinter and slag are preferable. Where the silica content must "be raised, the iron sand is doubly advantageous because it supplies both

Jan 1, 1942

By David P. Hale, Guy W. Jordan

High-iRon cements have a number of advantages over cements carrying little or no iron. The presence of iron in Portland cement aids in the manufacture of the cement and also imparts certain advantageous physical properties to the finished product. In manufacture, the presence of iron lowers the fuel consumption, increases the ease of proper"burning, and lessens the destructive action of the charge on the kiln refractories. In the finished cement the presence of iron reduces the expansion and contraction, adds strength, adds increased resistance to"freezing and thawing, and increases the resistance of the cement to sea "or sulphate waters. [" During the past few years the construction of numerous dams through- "out the Southeast by the Tennessee Valley Authority has stimulated the "production of high-iron cements. At present a great number of specifica- "tions call for an iron cement, and the industry is supplying this demand "with a Portland cement carrying approximately 5 per cent iron oxide. "Several manufacturers are now making practically all of their cement "of this type and a number of others manufacture it as a special cement "over short periods to meet demands from the Tennessee Valley Authority "and other buyers. " The recent increase in the use of iron in Portland cement has created "a market for iron products that previously was nonexistent. The chief "sources of supply for the cement manufacturers at present are iron sand, "iron sinter and slag, and ocher. The Copperhill mining district, Ten- "nessee, supplies both iron sinter and slag for use in cement. The Carters- "ville district supplies iron sand, ocher, and some iron resulting from the "magnetic separation of iron from barite. The advantages of these "products vary according to the chemical properties of the raw materials "and the methods of handling used by the different manufacturers. Where "the iron is to be handled by conveying belts and in hopper cars, the iron"sand and sinter and slag are preferable. Where the silica content must "be raised, the iron sand is doubly advantageous because it supplies both

Jan 1, 1942

By John W. Cahn

The spinodal has long been regarded as a limit beyond which a homogeneous phase could no longer be metastable. But only recently has it become apparent that a phase beyond the spinodal would decompose by simple diffusional clustering mechanism quite different from the nucleation and growth mechanisms encountered for metastable phases. The theory of spinodal decomposition, which is based on the diffusion equation modified by thermodynamic requirements , is phenomenological, and each parameter can be measured by independent thermodynamic or diffusion experiments. The details of the theory have been carefully verified in a number of simple systems. It appears that the spinodal mechanism is commonly encountered in clustering reactions in solids and glasses. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION The understanding of the earliest stages of precipitation in alloys has been the subject of three prior Institute of Metals Lectures. In 1932 Paul ~erica&apos; reviewed the puzzling evidence that hardening of duralumin is completed before precipitation of CuAlz takes place and suggested that hardening occurs when the copper atoms "assemble in random groups on lattice positions of the duralumin, not of the CuAlz lattice". He called these random groups knots. This modification of his dispersion hardening theory seemed to fit all the facts, but Merica worried that the required diffusion "is just the reverse of what we deem normal; although quite spontaneous, it proceeds uphill, if you please". The reality of Merica&apos;s knots was quickly confirmed by Guinier&apos;s&apos; and preston&apos;s3 X-ray work and these knots are today known as G.P. zones in their honor. Theoretical justification for uphill diffusion was also quickly provided by Becker and Dehlinger~ who noted that the diffusion coefficient could be negative in certain regions of phase diagrams. The boundaries of such regions could be described by a 90-year-old thermodynamic concept first described by ~ibbs&apos; in 1877 as a limit of metastability for fluid phases, which by 1890 had received the name spinodal (see Appendix A). Spinodal in fluids is as old as nucleation theory. Both appear for the first time in the same paper by Gibbs who called the spinodal the limit of metastability. For the first 50 years, nucleation theory was forgotten and the spinodal was extensively treated in every good thermodynamics textbook.81Q The idea was simple and logical and it was accepted as part of a rigorous thermodynamic development of metastable phases, and for a while it was extensively investigated theoretically.

Jan 1, 1969

By W. L. Austin

THE advance made in recent times in this branch of metallurgy is indicated y the attention the subject is receiving from important American copper-producing companies. Reference to the files of publications devoted to the mining industry discloses that some 20 American companies are actively investigating the amenability of their ore, or other material, to leaching methods, and that plants of varying capacities up, to 10,000 tons per day are under construction or are projected. Several leaching works are in commercial operation. It has been frequently pointed out that no method of leaching is universally applicable, for the reason that each ore differs in some particular from apparently similar ore found elsewhere, and also because local conditions are rarely the same even where the ore closely approximates in character that being worked at some other point. For this reason the older companies are approaching the matter in a conservative manner, experimentally determining for themselves the salient features in each instance. In considering a leaching proposition three factors at once fix the attention: (1) disengaging the metal from mineralized forms in Which it is found in nature; (2) recovering the metal in a commercial state after it has been dissolved; (3) the apparatus best adapted to carrying out the several operations.

Jan 8, 1914