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By A. S. Richardson

THE recent installation of a high-pressure propeller type fan at the Moose shaft of the Anaconda Copper Mining Co. at Butte, Mont., is of interest on account of novelty of design and also because an appreciable saving was made over the cost of a reversible centrifugal fan such as is ordinarily used where a high pressure is required. The lower cost is due solely to the fact that by means of controls 'on the power supplied to the three-phase, alternating-current, induction. motor, directly connected to the propeller it is possible to reverse the direction of rotation of the propeller and thus reverse the direction of air flow. The extra air ducts and reversing doors required for this purpose with centrifugal fans are not necessary, and their elimination greatly reduces these construction charges, which form a great part of the total expense. The Badger State mine for which the Moose shaft is used as the main outlet air course is now being-developed to the 4100-ft. level. The old centrifugal fan, formerly used at the collar of the shaft, was installed 15 years ago at a time when most of the stoping was being done above the 2400-ft. level, and when the temperature of the rock was much lower than it is now on the bottom levels recently opened. The old fan, therefore, became inadequate to maintain desirable ventilation conditions, on account of the increase in resistance to air flow incident to the greater depth of the mine workings and because a much larger volume of air is required to offset the higher rock temperatures. Propeller, or disk, fans commonly used in the ventilation of mines are not suited to high-pressure work, but economies in the cost of their installation have long been recognized. In South Africa use has been made of a number of propellers placed in series along a common shaft, the number of propellers used being varied with requirements for meeting different conditions of mine resistance, but the mechanical efficiency is described as being low. In Butte, experimental work was done by the writer along similar lines under somewhat different conditions, but with poor results as to both pressure capacity and mechanical efficiency. Tests were also made of two different types of propeller fans of moderate size, which were said by the manufacturers to be suited to high-pressure mine ventilation.

Jan 1, 1932

By C. A. Stetefeldt

The iron-ore deposits worked by this Company occur in lenses 200 to 1000 feet long and 5 to 80 feet wide, and stand at an angle of from 65' to 75, with a vertical height of 250 to 500 feet, other lenses occurring below. A number of the deposits were first worked as open pits, which in some cases were carried to the depth of 150 feet, when, owing to the weakness of the walls, underground mining was adopted. While the ore was being removed from the open pit, shafts mere in several instances sunk into the foot-wall, the intention being to mine the ore with breast-stopes of an approximate height of 20 feet, followed by underhand-stopes of the same height, leaving floors between of the necessary thickness to support the walls, or to effect the removal of the ore by means of what is known as the stall system. As the work progressed, however, it was found that the walls (which are of chlorite) were too weak to permit the working of breast-stopes 20 feet high, there being frequent heavy falls of ground from the hanging and, in some instances, from the foot. The plan of following breast-stopes with underhand-stopes was, therefore, abandoned. By working breast-stopes only, but little more than one-half of the ore could be removed, and that only at an excessive cost, the ore being so hard that power-drills with 3 1/8-inch pistons . and 6-inch stroke, working under 60 pounds of compressed air, are able to drill but 8 feet in ten hours as a yearly average, while from 6 inches to 2 feet is a common result of ten hours' drilling. It was plain that some other system of mining must be adopted, and it was proposed to sink by levels of 75 feet, carrying in the cross-cuts from the shafts and working out the ore each way from the shaft from foot to hanging, and from 15 to 20 feet in height. When this has been done, drift-sets consisting of caps and legs are set up the whole length of the opening and connected with the cross-cut; the necessary openings for ladder-ways and chutes or mills are timbered from

Jan 1, 1893

By L. L. Newman

PUBLIC UTILITY GAS PRODUCTION IN 1802, William Murdock first used retort coal gas to light his house and the Boulton and Watt plant where he was employed. For the next three quarters of a century coal served as the principal raw material for the manufacture of city gas for general distribution. Coal continued to hold its predominant position for another half century after Prof. Thaddeus C. Lowe developed the first practical method of enriching water gas with cracked-oil vapors in an integrated operation. This position, however, was no longer maintained through the medium of direct carbonization of coal in retorts but as a result of using anthracite or coke as the generator fuel in carburretted water-gas machines. The early water-gas machines were extremely crude and the consumption of both oil and generator fuel was very high. However, the cost of installation was considerably lower than for any coal-gas system having the equivalent gas-making capacity, the labor involved was small, and the water-gas machine could be started up and shut down quickly. It thus proved very useful as standby equipment and in taking peak loads from the coal-gas plants. The flexibility of the water-gas machine, furthermore, made it possible to change the candlepower of the gas readily to suit the required conditions. Later, when calorific value replaced candlepower as the standard of gas quality, the water-gas machine was found to be equally flexible in keeping the city gas under complete and convenient control. No basic improvements were made in the Lowe carburetted water-gas process until 1898, when means were added to provide for regular reversals of the flow of steam through the fuel bed. By judicious proportioning of the quantities of up-run and down-run steam, it became possible for the operator to control the hardness and position of the clinker to a degree that previously had been unattainable. Also in 1898, the first by-product coke plant in America to supply city gas was built at Everett, Massachusetts. Later many other by-product plants, of greatly improved design and capacity, were built, but not primarily for city-gas production, chiefly because of the relatively high investment cost per unit of gas made. Cheaper plant construction has been the subject of serious study, and some progress is expected, but other factors, such as plant life,

Jan 1, 1953

By Leonard D. Jaffe

IN recent years, the advantages of tempered martensite as a microstructure for steel parts have been well established. For parts that must not fracture brittlely when loaded at high rates, at low temperatures, or under conditions of combined stress, tempered martensite is especially desirable. One of the factors that determine whether a steel part will have a martensitic structure after heat treatment is the hardenability of the steel. Despite the large amount of recent research, there are still many unsettled basic questions concerning hardenability and its relation to chemical composition, and, indeed, considerable disagreement among investigators in the field. Much of the uncertainty that beclouds the existing knowledge of hardenability arises from the fact that hardenability is still a wholly empirical concept, and has not been quantitatively related to the more fundamental knowledge of isothermal decomposition of austenite. Hardenability is, essentially, a measure of the time required for small percentages of austenite to decompose, during continuous cooling, to pearlite, bainite, proeutectoid ferrite, or proeutectoid carbide. In the practical heat-treatment of steel, also, the decomposition of austenite is usually not isothermal but rather during cooling, or, in general, is not at a single constant temperature. Thus, both hardenability and practical heat treatment involve anisothermal decomposition of austenite. In a previous publication1 the author and his collaborators outlined the principles that govern the relations between isothermal and anisothermal decomposition of austenite, and reviewed the experimental information available in 1945. To avoid repetition, familiarity with that article (Paper 1) will be assumed, and attention given primarily to work carried out or published since 1945. The method generally employed was explained in Paper 1: anisothermal transformation is studied through investigation of the effect of holding austenite at one temperature upon its subsequent decomposition at another temperature. Both temperatures are below the stability range of the austenite. This paper is confined to studies in which only a small amount of transformation occurred at the first temperature. This is the only case of importance in practical heat treatment when an essentially martensitic structure is sought. MATERIALS AND PROCEDURE It was necessary to use different steels for the studies involving proeutectoid ferrite and for those involving proeutectoid carbide, because the two constituents have not been found to form in the same steel. Several steels were tried and rejected

Jan 1, 1947

By Robert K. Warner

When a new mine is opened, and often when an operating mine must adapt itself to physical or economic changes, a mining system must be selected in complete detail. In the past the plan chosen was usually the product of the local staff alone, however limited the training and experience of that staff might be, which often resulted in the introduction of methods that were familiar to the staff, but not so well suited to the conditions as others unknown to the local men. A new management, noting the difficulties with the existing layout, might make modifications or complete changes, so that many mines in their history have seen a whole series of mining systems, each somewhat laboriously grafted on to its predecessor. This should not be interpreted as a condemnation of the older staffs for sticking to the tried systems, such as open square-sets in the early days at the Homestake, because they knew it would work after a fashion, nor does the statement apply to the technically trained, and usually broadly experienced staffs of most present-day properties. The older miners did not have the variety of tools and methods, nor the present freedom of transfer of information as to what the other man is doing, and so did the best they could under the circumstances. Finally, the higher grade of the ores made the choice less vital. The ever-increasing need to mine low-grade orebodies, with a fixed or even lower price for the metal produced, has caused an increasing need for low-cost mining. In most new mines this has simplified the problem of selection by eliminating from consideration all of the high-cost systems, but it has also complicated the choice by the necessity for refinement in detail and a close adjustment of the plan selected to all the conditions at the property. In these low-cost problems any textbook division of mining systems as applied to "beds, veins or masses" avails little as a guide. It should be realized at the outset that to be successful under modern competitive conditions a system of mining must be worked out with elaborate detail, with careful time scheduling and control of the various elemental operations, and that after it is introduced it must be run with a large amount of technical direction.

Jan 1, 1934

By J. R. Long, E. L. Anderson, R. S. Dean, F. S. Wartman

TITANIUM has been estimated to comprise about 0.65 per cent of the earth's crust and ranks fourth in abundance among the metallic elements suitable for engineering uses. In spite of this, applications of titanium for structural purposes have not as yet been developed. Its commercial exploitation has been largely confined to the chemical industries and the production of paints and pigments; no doubt because of the difficulties that lie in the way of preparing the pure ductile metal. Published reports, however, indicate that ductile titanium can be prepared and possesses some unique properties. This, together with the occurrence in this country of several important titaniferous deposits, has led the Bureau of Mines to investigate processes for the production of metallic titanium, 'methods required for its fabrication, and the properties that may be produced in this interesting metal. METHODS OF PREPARING METALLIC TITANIUM Many early investigators claimed to have isolated metallic titanium; but in the light of present knowledge, it seems that they really had produced various mixtures of carbides and nitrides that have a metallic appearance but are brittle, hard, and unworkable. The first metallic titanium pure enough to be malleable when cold was produced by Hunter1 in the early part of the twentieth century. Kroll,2 van Arkel,3 and Fast,4 subsequently confirmed the facts that pure titanium is a ductile metal and that small amounts of impurities were responsible for previous reports of brittleness. When heated, titanium reacts chemically with various gases, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen; if the volume of gas thus absorbed is too great, the metal becomes brittle and unworkable. The principal difficulty in making ductile titanium is prevention of such contamination, and the success of a given process may be judged by the completeness with which it solves this difficulty in a practical manner. Of the gases mentioned, hydrogen is the least objectionable, since its absorption by the metal is completely reversible and, although dimensional changes occur and absorption of hydrogen embrittles the metal, the gas may be removed readily by heating in a high vacuum for a short time. On the other hand, the absorption of oxygen or nitrogen results in the formation of permanent 'solid solutions of the oxide and nitride, which cannot be decomposed by the strongest reducing agents2 with sufficient completeness to restore the inherent ductility of the metal. Because of

Jan 1, 1946

By William Metcalf

It is the object of this paper to oppose unnecessary changes, and the introduction of new and confusing terms. From the earliest times of which we have ally record on the subject, iron has been divided into general classes. Whether iron was first known in the form of wrought iron or of steel, is a matter of no importance; but at the time when cast iron first became a prominent article of commerce, wrought iron and steel were old products— steel, at that time, being generally made from wrought iron by the process of cementation. As steel was then properly defined as iron containing more carbon than wrought iron, so cast iron was appropriately defined as iron containing more carbon than steel. Until the year 1776, when Huntsman first began the manufacture of a new kind of iron by melting wrought iron and steel in crucibles, the above definitions were all that could be desired. At first, probably, owing to imperfect appliances, only a highly carburized iron was melted in crucibles, and this led to its being called cast steel. If our ancestors had found a name for this material not involving the use of the word steel, we would have been saved the trouble of the present discussion. As the arts developed, new uses were found for steel, and the products of the crucible were varied, until at the present day it is quite common to find steel containing no more carbon than average wrought iron, and other steel containing nearly or quite as much carbon as some cast iron. All of these various products of the crucible have retained, or received, the name cast steel, usually abbreviated to the simple word steel, without caus-ing any confusion among producers or consumers in regard to terms or their meaning. In 1865, twenty-one years ago, the Bessemer process was introduced ; this was followed in a few years by the Siemens-Martin process, and the products of both were at once, and have ever since been, called steel, from the fact that they were identical in chemical and physical properties with crucible cast steel. At the present time, then, we have three subdivisions of cast steel, viz.: Crucible cast steel, Bessemer cast steel, and Siemens-Martin,

By Robert Warner

WHEN a new mine is opened, and often when an operating mine must adapt itself to physical or economic changes, a mining system must be selected in complete detail. In the past the plan chosen was usually the product of the local staff alone, however limited the training and experi-ence of that staff might be, which often resulted in the introduction of methods that were familiar to the staff, but not so well suited to the con-ditions as others unknown to the local men. A new management, noting the difficulties with the existing layout, might make modifications or complete changes, so that many mines in their history have seen a whole series of mining systems, each somewhat laboriously grafted on to its predecessor. This should not be interpreted as a condemnation of the older staffs for sticking to the tried systems, such as open square-sets in the early days at the Homestake, because they knew it would work after a fashion, nor does the statement apply to the technically trained, and usually broadly experienced staffs of most present-day properties. The older miners did not have the variety of tools and methods, nor the present freedom of transfer of information as to what the other man is doing, and so did the best they could under the circumstances. Finally, the higher grade of the ores made the choice less vital. The ever-increasing need to mine low-grade orebodies, with a fixed or even lower price for the metal produced, has caused an increasing need for low-cost mining. In most new mines this has simplified the problem of selection by eliminating from consideration all of the high-cost systems, but it has also complicated the choice by the necessity for refinement in detail and a close adjustment of the plan selected to all the conditions at the property. In these low-cost problems any textbook division of mining systems as applied to "beds, veins or masses" avails little as a guide. It should be realized at the outset that to' be successful under modern competitive conditions a system of mining must be worked out with elaborate detail, with careful time scheduling and control of the various elemental operations, and that after it is introduced it must be run with a large amount of technical direction.

Jan 1, 1933

By John Birkinbine

In the spring of 1878 the Pine Grove Furnace, located in Cumberland County, Pa., was blown in after lying idle for several years. The fnrnace was constructed in 1770, and for over a century it has been in almost continual operation. The plant consisted in 1877, when the writer was first called there, of a stone stack 32 feet in height, inclosing a shaft and boshes, the latter being 8 feet in diameter. The blast was supplid by two wooden blowing-tubs discharging into a third, having a floating piston sustaining a box weighted to give the desired pressure, the power being furnished by a waterwheel. A small 18-pipe hot-blast stove heated the blast. The furnace was remodelled during the winter of'77-78, and a Weimer blowing-engine with a blowing-tub 5 feet in diameter and 2 feet stroke, and the necessary boilers, were substituted for the wooden tubs and water-wheel. The stack was raised and enlarged, and provided with a bell and hopper having a central drop. Water dam and tymp were added, and general repairs were made. The hot oven, however, was not increased. The furnace had always been operated with charcoal as fuel, and its reconstruction was made with a view to continue the use of charcoal, but provision was made for ample blowing capacity should other fuels at any time be employed. Although liberal arrangements had been made in cutting wood, the stock of charcoal supplied in 1878 was insufficient for the increased requirements of the remodelled plant, and notwithstanding the purchase of some 80,000 bushels from an adjacent idle furnace, there war: riot enough to keep the furnace in constant blast until a new supply could be obtained, particularly as the season was unusually backward. Instead of following the established precedent of many charcoal furnace managers, i. e., blow out every February, it was detemined to continue in blast, using coke as fuel. Accordingly, when the charcoal stock was exhansted, on March 22d, 1879, Connellsville coke was substituted, the change of fuel being made at once; that is, the coke charges followed immediately upon the last charcoal charges. After working a few days, the strike in the Connellsville coke region cut of the supply, and anthracite coal was obtained, a mixture of the two fuels being employed. The strike continuing,

Jan 1, 1880

By T. A. Richard

We rejoice that the world-war is ended. We are proud of the part played by the English-speaking peoples—all doing equal honor to the traditions they share in common. One of the compensations for the calamity of the past four years is the fact that the Briton and the American, striving together in the cause of human liberty, have learned to understand and to respect each other. The mother country entered the fight resolutely at the beginning, while yet unready to meet the carefully prepared onslaught of the enemy; then the sons from the overseas dominions rallied to the old battle-cry eagerly and effectively; and last, but not least, the stepsons came from across the Atlantic, speaking the same speech, playing the same game, and fighting in the same clean way. It was a great foregathering of those that use the language of Shakespeare and idealize the principles of liberty for which the friends and associates of Shakespeare stood sponsor three centuries ago.' At a time like this it is pleasant to dwell upon the fact that the liberal Englishmen who organized the Virginia company were the pioneers of self-government on the American continent. The Virginia Assembly, convoked in 1619, was the first example of a domestic parliament to regulate internal affairs on this side of the Atlantic.2 The Governor of Virginia, Sir Edwin Sandys, had been a pupil of Richard Hooker at Oxford and from that political teacher he and his friends had imbibed the idea of combining civil liberty with constitutional order. To this group of large-minded Englishmen, the American colonists owed their liberal charters and their successive triumphs over the royal prerogative. Let it be noted that the American colonists had to deal with James II and George 111, the two smallest minds in the list of British kings. Another historical note, more pleasant to record, is the connection between the two principal groups of American settlers. In 1608, when the Pilgrim fathers, William Brewster and John Robinson, led their Separatist congregation to Holland and there prepared the expedition to America, they were assisted by Sandys and the Virginia Council, who were willing to share their privileges with them. When the Pilgrims set sail in 1620 they had the promise, obtained by Sandys from King James, that they should have freedom of worship,

Jan 1, 1920

By Harold B. Janzen, M. A. Nobles

Campbell and Martin1 described a new exploratory logging tool which was developed as the result of a new concept of the phenomenon that takes place when a porous formation containing mobile hydrocarbons and irreducible interstitial water is invaded by mud filtrate. They postulate that invasion will create a bank of interstitial water between the flushed zone and the undisturbed formation. This postulate was confirmed by Wyllie.' Thus, if R,, is greater than R, and mobile hydrocarbons are present, the resistivity profile with increasing radii from the borehole is high:low:high, as shown in Fig. 1. If mobile hydrocarbons are absent, the bank of interstitial water is indistinguishable from the undisturbed formation and the resistivity profile, when R is greater than R,, is high:low, as shown in Fig. 2. The zone containing the bank of interstitial water and residual oil was named the "low zone". Campbell and Martin conducted extensive electrolytic wedge and resistivity analog model studies to select a logging system that would reflect the presence or absence of the low zone. The system they selected was that of a family of lateral curves. The model studies indicated that the presence of a low zone could be detected in approximately 60 to 70 per cent of the producing sand reservoirs with a family of lateral curves provided that the sonde effectively occupies 90 per cent of the diameter of the hole. These studies were conducted with D, = 5d. The presence or absence of the low zone is best determined by a plot of the apparent resistivity vs spacing as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. A dip or inflection in the profile that repeats at successive depth intervals is considered diagnostic. To reduce the shunting effect of the hole and mud, a sonde of insulating material that is surrounded by a series of flexible rubber bumpers was designed. The bumper efficiency is considered to be the ratio of the bumper diameter to the hole diameter. Field tests conducted by Campbell and Martin on 10 wells with a tool that provided for station readings indicated that dips or inflections could be detected in 19 out of 25 known producing zones. INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT Halliburton developed a logging system to simultaneously and continuously record eight lateral curves. The instrumentation is described in the literature.' The original logs made

By E. G. Gaylord

A BRIEF review of the oil conditions in California for a few years prior to 1923 is desirable for a clear comprehension of the development during that year and the results of the development. California's oil production during the five years preceding 1922 had been running from 100,000,000 to 115,000,000 bbl. annually. Crude oil stocks in storage had been declining steadily from 1915 to 1919, when there was a slight increase. They continued to decline through practically all of 1920, when they were drawn on to the extent of 11,350,000 bbl., leaving 20,930,000 bbl. on hand. In 1921, with production approximately 10,000,000 bbl. greater than the previous year, crude-oil stocks increased until, at the end of the year, there were 33,289,000 bbl. on hand. It would seem, therefore, that at the end of 1921 the so-called Pacific Coast province could absorb between 100,000,000 and 105,000,000 bbl. of oil per year, any in excess of this amount going into storage, not being, able to compete in other markets with oil outside the state. During 1922, daily production increased from 316,000 bbl. at the beginning of the year, to 500,000, at the end. This increase was the result entirely of production from the new fields, in the Los Angeles basin. In fact, considerable oil from the older fields of the state was shut-in beginning with March, 1922. As of 1922, the past development of the oil industry of California had been, in a general way, quite regular. As the need grew for more oil, pioneer drilling was increased, resulting in the discovery of new fields here and there. The good prices for crude oil that prevailed during the later part of the War and into 1921 had stimulated an extensive wildcatting campaign by California's larger oil corporations, as well as by smaller independent oil companies and by individuals. Many wildcat wells in California have required, two or three years for their completion, consequently the intensive wildcatting, which might be said to have started in California in 1917 and continued into 1922, found its greatest results with, the discovery of three very productive fields which, for all practical purposes, might as well have come in simultaneously.

Jan 3, 1924

By J. R. Long, E. L. Anderson, R. S. Dean, F. S. Wartman

Titanium has been estimated to comprise about 0.65 per cent of the earth's crust and ranks fourth in abundance among the metallic elements suitable for engineering uses. In spite of this, applications of titanium for structural purposes have not as yet been developed. Its commercial exploitation has been largely confined to the chemical industries and the production of paints and pigments; no doubt because of the difficulties that lie in the way of preparing the pure ductile metal. Published reports, however, indicate that ductile titanium can be prepared and possesses some unique properties. This, together with the occurrence in this country of several important titaniferous deposits, has led the Bureau of Mines to investigate processes for the production of metallic titanium, methods required for its fabrication, and the properties that may be produced in this interesting metal. Methods of Preparing Metallic Titanium Many early investigators claimed to have isolated metallic titanium; but in the light of present knowledge, it seems that they really had produced various mixtures of carbides and nitrides that have a metallic appearance but are brittle, hard, and unworkable. The first metallic titanium pure enough to be malleable when cold was produced by Hunter1 in the early part of the twentieth century. Kroll,~ van Arkel,~ and Fast,4 subsequently confirmed the facts that pure titanium is a. ductile metal and that small amounts of impurities were responsible for previous reports of brittleness. When heated, titanium reacts chemically with various gases, such as hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen; if the volume of gas thus absorbed is too great, the metal becomes brittle and unworkable. The principal difficulty in making ductile titanium is prevention of such contamination, and the success of a given process may be judged by the completeness with which it solves this difficulty in a practical manner. Of the gases mentioned, hydrogen is the least objectionable, since its absorption by the metal is completely reversible and, although dimensional changes occur and absorption of hydrogen embrittles the metal, the gas may be removed readily by heating in a high vacuum for a short time. On the other hand, the absorption of oxygen or nitrogen results in the formation of permanent solid solutions of the oxide and nitride, which cannot be decomposed by the strongest reducing agentsz with sufticient completeness to restore the inherent ductility of the metal. Because of

Jan 1, 1946

By R. P. McLaughlin

In most branches of the mining industry it is a well-recognized fact that care must be taken to protect the mineral deposit from undue physical injury. It is comparatively easy to grasp this idea when the mineral is a solid and the lives of workmen depend directly upon the care with which it is removed from its natural position, but when the product is a liquid drawn up from pools several thousand feet beneath the surface of the ground through openings only a few inches in diameter, it requires some imagination to picture underground conditions and the changes which must often occur. The development of the petroleum deposits of California has been attended by numerous accidents, the results of which are readily noticed at the top of the wells and in the profit and loss accounts of the operators. Determination of the cause of these accidents has been the subject of considerable study, which naturally has fallen upon men familiar with technical methods. The greatest damage to the oil deposits of California has resulted from water finding its way into the oil-bearing sands, and it is the purpose of this paper to set forth briefly this phase of the oil industry. Much of the material here presented has previously appeared in publications issued by the California State Mining Bureau, which, under the direction of State Mineralogist Fletcher McN. Hamilton, has investigated the subject and taken steps toward improvement of conditions. The writer, having been in charge of this branch of the Bureau work, has gained considerable knowledge of existing conditions. Generally speaking, the oil-bearing formations of California are soft, unconsolidated sand beds, separated by clay strata, which are also soft. Some of the sand beds carry water instead of oil. All of the beds are more or less separated, probably being of lenticular shape. Very few of the beds in the oil fields lie flat or undisturbed over any great area. Folding and tilting are common, and faulting also occurs in some of the fields. The accumulation of oil is not confined to any single structural feature, such as the anticline, but occurs in many other structural features. Water-bearing strata occur in practically every oil field in the State. Complete data are not at hand for a comparison of the damage

Jan 1, 1916

By William Marsh Baldwin

TWO of the most useful and important equations available to the metallurgist for the study of plastic deformation of metals are the Huber-von Mises-Henckyl-~ and the St. Venant7-10 equations. Huber-von Mises-Hengky Equation The Huber-von Mises-Hencky equation answers the question: When does plastic flow occur in metal that is subjected to a multi-axial stress? It occurs, according to this equation, when the three principal stresses,t UI, u2, and u3 satisfy the equation: (<ri - <r2)2 + (<r2 - <rsY + (ff! - <r3)* = 2Ki [i] Here K is the yield strength of the material as determined in an ordinary tensile test. If the quantities ul, 52, andas are assigned to the coordinates of a Cartesian three-dimensional system, this expression describes a cylinder whose axis of symmetry is inclined at equal angles to the three coordinate axes4s6 (Fig. I). The radius of this cylinder is .\/%K. For the purpose of simplicity, it is sometimes advantageous to ascribe the values al/K = sl, az/K = s2, UD/K = SJ to the three coordinate axes instead of the principal stress alone. In this case, Eq. I becomes (*i - s*)1 + (s2 - S3)2 + (si - SiY = 2 [2] and the radius of the cylinder becomes \/%. In the latter method of representation, a point lying inside the cylinder indicates that the metal will react elasti-cally, whereas a point lying on the cylindrical surface indicates that the metal will behave plastically. Some of the geometric features of this cylinder are worthy of study. Let us inquire first as to what interpretation may be placed upon what we will choose to call the "circles of latitude" of the cylinder (L in Fig. I) and the "meridians" of the cylinder (M in Fig. I). Circles of Latitude Circles of latitude are formed by allowing a plane, passing perpendicular to the cylinder axis, to intersect with the cylinder. Any point, P, on this circle is presumed to have the coordinates sl, SZ, and s3. The coordinates of the point resulting from the intersection of the plane and the cylinder axis will be a, a, and a (since the cylinder axis is equally inclined to the three coordinate axes). L?t US now pass a line through the point on the circle and the point on the axis.

Jan 1, 1946

By F. R. Archibald, F. C. Jackson

The. prospect of winning aluvinum from clay was recorded almost a century ago at a time when the metal was no more than a curiosity.$ As the industry developed, and it has probably developed faster than that of any other metal, the expanding need for raw materials was adequately met by the ample supplies of bauxite ore. As with the other metals older in industry, however, lower grade ores have gradually entered the raw-material field through improvements in ore dressing, insufficienoy of high-grade ore supplies, favorable geographic location, or national necessity for domestic supply. So with aluminum, or alumina, which has been established as the requisite intermediate, the time may have come when a satisfactory process, with favorable location and suitable raw materials, can hold a sound place both in metallurgy and economics. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the Ancor process and its proposed application in treatment of clay in a plant now under construction at Harleyville, South Carolina, by the Defense Plant Corporation. Development of the AncoR Process The Ancor process has developed through successive stages of laboratory investigation, pilot-plant demonstration using neph-eline syenite and pilot-plant demonstration using kaolin-type clay from South Carolina, and is now in preparation for unit trial on an operating plant basis using the latter material. The laboratory studies were carried out over a number of years in the laboratory of the American Nepheline Corporation in Rochester, N. Y., and for the same company in the ore-dressing laboratory of Beattie Gold Mines, Que. Ltd. at Dupar-quet, Quebec. Both companies are associated with Ventures Ltd., Toronto, and its associated American companies. The work was originally undertaken with a view to recovery of alumina and alkalies from nepheline syenite as an adjunct to the American Nepheline Company&apos;s established business in the glass and ceramic trades, but as a process developed the possibility of application to clay and other aluminous raw materials became apparent and the laboratory studies were broadened to include these as well. Under the more pressing impetus of wartime needs and possibilities, pilot-plant operations were undertaken at the Canadian Bureau of Mines Ore Dressing Laboratories in Ottawa, and for purposes of demonstration under joint sponsorship of the Canadian Bureau of Mines, The American Nepheline Corporation, and The Aluminium company of canada Ltd. Upon completion of this program, of

Jan 1, 1944

By C. M. Nickerson

In times of overproduction such as the operators have been struggling against for the past several years it is the practice of the oil industry to shut in certain wells in order to reduce the flood of oil. The purpose of this paper is to present certain variations in production of oil wells when the offset wells are shut in. The scope of the study has been confined to California fields, and more especially to those of the San Joaquin Valley. The accepted definition of a shut-in well is a well where production has been suspended by closing in the casinghead arid tubing or by cessation of pumping. The immediate effect of such a procedure, of course, is to reduce the oil production from the lease, which is the result desired. However, it appears that certain types of wells vary widely in production of oil, gas and gasoline after adjacent wells have been shut in, which variation has a very material effect on the ultimate recovery of oil from the property. The increase or decrease in the oil production itself may not be of sufficient volume to occasion comment, but wide fluctuations in the gas and gasoline recovery under the changed conditions arc of the utmost importance in the future recovery of oil. The scope of this paper includes: (I) the effect on producing oil wells of shutting in offset wells, the wells being studied in three groups arranged according to their relative stages of depletion; (2) probable source of excess gas and the effect on the ultimate recovery of oil; (3) suggested procedure when wells are shut in; (4) methods that could be employed to prevent undue migration of gas from the shut-in area; and (5) the need for future studies of the situation. Three Classes of Producing Oil Wells For the purposes of this paper producing wells in California have been arranged in three groups according to the age of the well, or to the relative stage of depletion of the producing zones. The first group consists of those wells with a high fluid level, or in other words those wells whose fluid levels are a considerable distance above the top of the perforations. This type of well is in the flush period of its life and ordinarily produces

Jan 1, 1929

By C. H. Frick

Before presenting the main topic, as indicated by the title, this paper will give some of the high-spot history of the anthracite industry. Introduction The earliest recorded use of anthracite was in the year 1762, when a company of Connecticut pioneers discovered anthracite near the present city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In the early days of the industry, the coal was used only in large pieces, the smaller pieces being discarded to waste piles. As the output of the industry increased during the nineteenth century, uses were developed for somewhat smaller sizes down to and including pea coal. Early in the twentieth century, sizes smaller than pea, such as No. I and No. 2 buckwheat, were developed and used. Accumulations of piles from current mining operations were still increasing; that is, the smaller sizes were still being discarded. It was not until after World War I that preparation of the so-called steam sizes began commercially. This was largely No. 3 buckwheat, which is screened through a 3/16-in. round-hole screen and over a 3/32-in. or a 1/16-in. round-hole screen. Use of Smaller Sizes The earliest recorded experience in burning the small sizes of anthracite for steam production, other than in a previous small experiment, was in the year 1913, when a size known as "boiler fuel" was introduced—a mixture of rice and barley (No. 2 and No. 3 buckwheat). At that time, there was still no method known for burning the still smaller sizes. At the present time, various sizes down to and including No. 5 buckwheat are being prepared (Table I) from current mining and bank-reclaiming operations. The sizes of No. 4 and No. 5 buckwheat and smaller are generally being used for steam production in large boilers. The Pennsylvania Power and Light Co., following World War I, used 680,000 tons of anthracite per year, burned largely on stokers for production of steam, whereas for the year 1943 it used 1,940,000 tons of stoker sizes and 400,000 tons of smaller sizes for grinding and burning in pulverized form. This company has taken a very large part in the research and development of ways and means of burning these smaller sizes of anthracite, including the grinding of the very small sizes. This paper is particularly concerned with the latter feature.

Jan 1, 1949

By A. H. Lindley, R. Shorr, Frazier M. Stewart, F. Crerie

The mineral industry, so important to industrial development, faces a major challenge in creating the most effective financial structure to provide funds essential for seeking, evaluating, developing, and extracting minerals. The acquisition of funds for mineral development and plant erection do not differ greatly from fund-raising in nonmineral ventures because risks are essentially comparable. High-risk exploration funds, however, are more difficult for the mineral industry to acquire. With the world&apos;s ever-increasing appetite for minerals, the internally generated cash of major oil and mining companies cannot be expected solely to maintain the world&apos;s mineral supply. The augmented costs, risks, and difficulties of exploration have been shared increasingly by the smaller independent operator and by private and public participation drilling programs within the petroleum industry over the past 30 years. Only recently has the mining industry awakened to the need for utilizing exploration and development funds derived from sources other than established mining and banking circles. Almost from its inception, the oil industry was forced to drill deep holes through overburden without the aid of a mineral "outcropping" which required geological, and in subsequent years, geophysical interpretation. The poorly financed, nontechnical prospector, who depended on a mineral outcrop, was not to play an important role in oil exploration as he did in mining. Because of the high cost of drilling and the demands for technical judgment to locate an exploration drill hole, corporate and sophisticated private funds generally financed oil discoveries. When external funds were subsequently required, these financially sophisticated explorers would turn to the banking community from which came numerous ingenious innovations, taking cognizance of existing tax laws. Like the oil explorer, the miner is now faced with probing below the surface, relying solely on regional geology and geophysical anomalies. The day is gone, for practical purposes, when the prospector discovers a deposit from a mineral outcrop. There is little doubt that the mining industry will now follow the course taken by the petroleum industry in acquiring external funds if it is to meet the future raw material requirements of the world. The oil industry has been able to attract bank funds more readily than the mining industry after a mineral discovery has been made because: (1) with few exceptions, an oil discovery can be placed into commercial production and will generate cash at much less expense and time than a mine; and (2) generally, costs of oil production, the value

Jan 1, 1976

By C. Chiou, D. P. Seraphim

The effect of clustering on the superconducting properties of Al-Zn alloys has been studied by the ballistic induction techniques. The superconducting critical temperature, T,, changes when zinc-rich clusters are formed. The change in T, depends on the concentration and may be positive or negative, but always correlates with an effective decrease in the solute concentration of the alloy. Reversion after clustering effectively returns a 5 at. pct Zn alloy to the quenched state. These methods might be use&lly extended to the Al-Mg system, where X-ray data are difficult to obtain. In very dilute Al-Zn alloys, as in other tin,&apos; indium, aluminum,2 or tantalums base solid solutions, there is a decrease in the superconducting critical temperature, Tc, roughly proportional to the temperature independent resistivity, i.e., -0.2°K per pS2cm. With increasing solute concentration, the T, generally reaches a minimum and then increases4 to a value well above that for the pure solvent. The change of T, with solute concentration follows an empirical formulation involving two constants which correlate with the scattering cross section of the impurities. As will be shown below, the Al-Zn alloys more concentrated than 1or2at. pct do not follow the empiricism, probably because they are unstable even when rapidly quenched.5 However, it seems possible to study at least the later stages of solute clustering by precise measurements of the 1&apos;, following various thermal treatments. A few experiments on quenched alloys, aged alloys, and tests on reversion are reported here. The heat treatments selected for obtaining the quenched and aged states were mainly deduced from the work of Dash and Fine.6 For the quenched state, specimens were homogenized at 480°C, quenched to -160°C, and immediately transferred and mounted in liquid nitrogen. Measurements on the superconducting properties and residual resistivities were then made at helium temperatures, after which the specimens were aged at room temperature for 3 to 5 hr, i.e., much longer than the time required for clustering to be essentially completed. The superconducting properties and residual resistivities were once again examined. To reach the reverted state of the A1-5at. pct Zn alloy, the aged specimen was heated for 5 min at 200°C and then tested as above.

Jan 1, 1963