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What is experience worth? Representatives from the Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Societies discussed the question as part of the 1970 Annual AIME Meeting held in Denver, Colo. the week of February 15. Petroleum engineer-consultant, Michel T. Halbouty of Houston, Tex. offered his own clarification of present-day employer-employee relationships in engineering as a whole. "Longevity does not equal experience on the job. Further, when employees are considering salary increases and promotions, job performance is considered all the time; experience two- thirds of the time and length of employment one- half the time." He added, "worth is really what the employee can get for it and experience is essential to survival." Halbouty also noted that salary and responsibility is a function of man's value to his company and is about "as discrediting as grey hair." As far as the engineer is concerned, he reported, the company's ability to pay is, in large measure, not considered. From the company's viewpoint, however, the employee is expected to learn his first year on the job. His second year, he is expected to make his presence felt, Should he require three years to orient himself he might soon be looking for another job. The petroleum engineer pointed out that when the employee wants to know why the salary scale tends to plateau off in later years, most employers react by recognizing that employees "flatten themselves rather than the company flattening them."

Jan 1, 1970

By T. M. Dr. Drown

(Read at the Philadelphia Meeting, February, 1878.) ZINC is, as is well known, very brittle at a temperature of about 210° C. (410° F.), and may then be readily pulverized in a mortar. By sifting it may be obtained of uniform grain. I have been accustomed to prepare products passing through 40, 60, and 80-mesh sieves, and also by bolting through a fine handkerchief. The principal analytical uses to which I have hitherto applied this material are to the reduction of iron directly from the ore by heating it with the pulverized zinc, and the reduction of ferric to ferrous compounds in solution. In the first case the pulverized ore, 0.5 gram or less, is intimately mixed with about ten times its weight of the pulverized zinc (the finer the zinc the better), in a porcelain crucible, and this mixture is covered with about the same amount of zinc. The crucible is then heated at the top of the flame of a Bunsen burner, at a dull red heat, for about ten minutes. The crucible should not be covered. When cool, the crucible, with its contents, is placed in a flask treated with hot dilute sulphuric acid, and brought quickly to a boil. The zinc and reduced iron are dissolved in a few minutes and the flask is then tightly corked and allowed to cool. When cool, the iron is directly titrated by potassium permanganate.

Jan 1, 1878

By Leland O. Erdahi

Many problems have surfaced in our economy during this decade, and the mining industry has certainly had its share: huge capital outlays for environmental controls, volatile markets, double-digit inflation, inadequate capital markets, political uncertainties-plus shortages of energy, manpower, supplies, and equipment. All these and other problems have left their visible marks on the economy of our industry. Solutions are slow in coming; perhaps, in some instances, there are no right answers. However, it appears that many companies are using joint ventures to an increasing extent in efforts to reach partial solutions to some of these problems. A joint venture does present an economic alternative that should be examined-especially when trying to answer questions arising within the current economic context. The dictionary defines "venture" as an undertaking involving chance, risk, or danger. The word was originally applied to hazardous undertakings involving delivery of cargoes to distant ports and subsequent disposition of the merchandise, but it is now applied to any project of limited scope and temporary duration. When two or more entities join in such a project, it becomes a joint venture, and this is the context in which I have used the term. Joint ventures may be formed for exploration, for development of a new ore body, or for expansion of an existing operation. Each requires different approaches for negotiating and drafting the agreement governing the conduct of the joint venture.

Jan 9, 1975

Man is born on Mother Earth without knowledge or skills. Soon he finds physical needs for food, clothing, shelter, exercise, and relaxation. His personal needs are self-expression, new experiences, and amusements, while his social needs have been classified as work, status, security, friendship, companionship, and love. He finds himself infinitesimal in comparison to the whole. Often- times when he feels smug, he is actually riding for a fall. And nothing is much worse than frustrated man. The postwar world does not provide the Utopia of peace and prosperity of which man had dreamed. In fact, it seems that the sacrifices and waste of that great struggle are being lost in the morass of stupidity, selfishness, and cupidity which unfortunately are still the most conspicuous traits of the human race. Perhaps it is too soon to expect the blessiilgs which are supposed to appear in a peaceful world, and man's thought is clouded with a pessimism engendered by the conflict itself, in which all activities tend to enhance his pessimistic nature. Must man submit that it is a law of nature for nations to go to war? The war has demonstrated that when faced with a common danger, peoples differing in antecedents, language, forms of government, and resources can unite for a time, pool their skills and abilities, and emerge victorious from a contest unparalleled in magnitude, ruthlessness, carnage, waste, and cost. This has been accomplished by great individual and national sacrifices, the

Jan 1, 1950

By Julian Kennedy

When it was decided to erect these furnaces the company also decided to use the Cowper type of stoves. It was, however, desirable to improve upon the plan of the stoves then in operation, to avoid, if possible, some defects which had shown themselves in them. The stoves now in use at Furnaces " A," " B," and " C " are of the well-known type of Cowper stove, having a circular combustionchamber placed at one side of the stove, and a regencrator with crescent-shaped section, resting at the bottom oil cast-iron glatings, which are supported in turn by cast-iron girders, the products of combustion passing up the chamber, down through the flues of the regenerator, and thence to the chimney. The objection to this shape of stove, that the gases would not pass down the parts of regenerator lying beside and behind the combustion-chamber—the horns of the crescent, as it were,—did not apply to the newer form of stoves, with combustion-chamber having a straight wall next to the regenerator; but. there were other defects, the principal ones bring the small size of the openings through the regenerator and the material used for supporting it. The small passages (4" X 4") soon choked up, and when a part of them became entirely closed, not only was the effective heating surface greatly diminished, but as the remaining opening were not sufficient to absorb the heat

Jan 1, 1882

By Byron W. Cheever

In the Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute for 1881 (vol. ii., page 379), will be found an article upon this subject. The analyses there reported mere of samples taken from an ingot made especially rich in impurities and then cast in a sand-mould in order to give the elements a better chance to redistribute themselves, on account of the steel solidifying more slowly than when cast in an iron mould. Wishing to ascertain how much, if any, segregation takes place when the steel is cast in the ordinary way, I placed the subject in the hands of Mr. W. J. Olcott, a graduate of the Michigan University, who has carefully collected and analyzed samples taken from different parts of ingots and billets. In this undertaking he found himself somewhat embarrassed on account of being distant from steel-works, and therefore unable to supervise the selection of samples. He found, however, a competent and willing aid in the person of E. F. Wood, M.E., chemist of the Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Company, Limited, who has spared no pains in collecting the desired samples and furnishing drawings and descriptions of the ingots from which the samples were taken. The following are the results obtained: Ingot No. 1. This ingot was about 5 feet long and 13 X 131/4 inches at the point of fracture, which was 2 feet from the bottom. The samples

Jan 1, 1885

By C. G. Dunn, J. L. Walter

COULOMB' and Coulomb and Lacombe2,3 have recently discussed secondary recrystallization in soft iron (99.5 pct Fe). They found that the appearance of this phenomenon was dependent on both the presence of impurities and the thickness of sheet specimens. They concluded that impurities such as carbon, sulfur, and oxygen in the soft iron stabilized the matrix structure and allowed growth of a few grains of specific orientations. They also found that secondary recrystallization ceased when the final thickness was small and attributed this complete inhibition of growth in thin sheet to the restraining action of thermal grooves. When purer iron (99.99 pct Fe) was used, normal grain growth but not secondary recrystallization was obtained. On the other hand it is known that the necessary stabilization of the matrix structure for secondary recrystallization in high-purity silicon iron probably does not depend on impurities but more likely results from the specimen thickness effect of Beck et al.,4 according to evidence and ideas advanced by Walter and Dunn,5,6 and Detert.7 Furthermore, Mullins8 has indicated that if a gas-metal surface energy difference exists across a grain boundary equal to or greater than about 3 pct of the grain boundary energy, then such a grain boundary should not become stuck. Similarly, Walter and Dunn have estimated that any increase in restraining force due to increased thermal grooving with decrease in

Jan 1, 1962

By H. E. Stauss, G. Sandoz

AN increase in the value of magnetostriction1 * is known to result from the annealing of some ferromagnetic alloys in a magnetic field. Similar increases may be anticipated in the value of the magnetostriction of alloys that are of interest because of their normal high values. Two were selected for trial, 87 pct Fe-13 pct Al(Fe,Al) and 69 pct Co-31 pct Fe, the latter being used as a representative of the Co-Fe alloy series. The influence of a magnetic field present during annealing is explained by the domain theory of magnetism." The field orients the domain vectors in its own direction when the alloy is at or below the Curie temperature, and holds them there until the metal is cold. During cooling the interaction stresses between neighboring grains are largely relaxed. Interaction stresses will reappear, however, if the state of magnetization of the specimen is changed in any way, and will be larger the more the new state of magnetization differs from the one existing during the magnetic anneal. In this connection the 180" reversal of a magnetization vector is not considered a change because a simple reversal does not tend to produce a change in shape of a magnetized region. When the field existing during the anneal is removed after the metal is cold, the domain vectors can turn back only to the nearest crystallographic directions of easy magnetization because return to random

Jan 1, 1953

By Sergio G. Jarpa

A mining project is, at one and the same time, capital intensive and highly risky. Besides, because of its usual long projected life, the operating cost is more difficult to predict and offtentimes exceed, during the life of the project, the first investment manifold. The objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of cost-capacity relationships as used in the chemical industry to mining operations and, when necessary, to develop new ones. With the aid of a computer library program available at the Computation Center of the Pennsylvania State University, the total investment in mining equipment was determined to vary exponentially with production capacity, and the scaling exponents for each class of equipment, i.e., drills, shovels, trucks and earth moving equipment, as well as for the total operation were calculated. Since the scaling exponent for the whole mining operation happened to be equal to 0.94, it was concluded that more significant economies of scale are achievable in processing plants than in mining operations. From the operating cost point of view, unit material cost was found to decrease more rapidly than unit labor for the same increases in production capacity. The analysis of cost centers revealed that drilling and blasting, which are materials-intensive operational stages, were the most favorable in achieving significant economies of scale. Hauling unit cost, on the other hand, decreased only slightly when production capacity increased.

Jan 1, 1977

GERARD B. ROSENBLATT,* Salt Lake City, Utah (written discussion?). -Mr. Eschholz attacks this problem from what appears to me to be the proper angle. He does not limit his viewpoint to the attainment of ideal results under conditions approximating laboratory practice, but rather discusses actual commercial conditions that must be maintained in large-scale operations, where continuity of service without expert attendance is one of the prime considerations. I am of the opinion that Mr. Eschholz has not given sufficient consideration to the commercial possibilities of what he describes as System B, the use of low-tension a.-c. industrial or lighting circuits for supplying power to Cottrell treaters through the medium of a step-up transformer and a synchronously driven rectifier, without the use of motor-generators. It is true that, to date, few installations on a large scale have used this system, but I believe that when the conditions of power supply are suitable, and when proper precautions are taken, this system can be used successfully and to advantage. where at present it is considered necessary to use motor-generator sets. In the average commercial Cottrell installation of any size, the motor-generator set is used for two purposes: (1) To isolate the industrial supply circuit from the Cottrell circuit. (2) To. afford, an easily operated and smooth system of control for the Cottrell treater voltage With proper engineering, both of these objects can be accomplished without the use of motor-generator sets.

Jan 10, 1918

WALTER N. CRAFTS,* Toronto, Canada (written discussion?).-During the forging of 9.2-in. shells -for the United States Army, it was noticed that better results were obtained in certain instances when test bars had been held sometime before pulling. An investigation, therefore, was made by our metallographer, Mr. F. M. Arnold, to determine the effect of seasoning. The forging consists of a single operation, piercing a solid cast blank. The test sections were cut from the walls by an oxyacetylene flame, one piece from the nose end and one from the base on the opposite side. The test pieces were not heat treated in any way and the tests and seasonings were carried on at normal atmospheric temperatures. The specifica-tions were as follows: Standard 2-in. test bar, 0.505 in. in diameter; elastic limit, over 19 long tons, or 42,500 lb.; ultimate stress, 39.6 to 49.1 long tons, or 87,500 to 110,000 lb. per sq. in.; elongation, over 13 per cent. As a preliminary test two heats were selected; BP555, which was tested and reported failed on elongation on Aug. 20; and B01771, which was tested and reported failed on Aug. 24. On Aug. 29, retests were cut and machined from the same shells and held till Sept. 3 (5 days) when they were pulled. Both sets of results are given below.

Jan 12, 1919

By W. A. Vine

WHEN a hole is made in a stressed solid, such as rock pierced by mine openings, equilibrium of the solid is destroyed. To re-establish that equilibrium the stress condition in the rock surrounding the opening becomes rearranged. This rearrangement may or may not develop local stresses in the vicinity of the opening which exceed the elastic strength of the rock. Since stability of the opening depends, therefore, on the strength of the naturally occurring rock surrounding the opening, this rock is an engineering material of construction, and all rock affected by the associated opening or system of open- ings may be considered a structure. The term invert is chosen to describe the formation of the structure —built from the inside, as it were, and a consequence of mining rather than an entity built for a purpose. By definition, an invert structure is formed when openings are made underground and is composed of that material on the solid side of a rock-air interface wherein the stress condition is affected by the associated opening or system of openings. The shape of an invert structure is never clearly defined; the skin of the structure may be mapped, and even described, but the boundary of the structure within the solid rock mass must be arbitrarily set. The name geomechanics is proposed to describe a branch of scientific knowledge which will encompass principles and working hypotheses for behavior and design of invert structures. It is foreseen that study

Jan 1, 1956

By Edward Perry

IN the exploration of a copper deposit by drilling, obvious advantages are to be gained from a distinction between primary and secondary ore.1 Perhaps the chief of these is the aid which such a distinction renders in determining where a given hole should stop. The copper assay, often a sufficient guide, cannot always be exclusively relied upon. Primary ores may extend downward indefinitely and may fluctuate in value independently of depth: if primary ores are consistently lean for a considerable vertical distance, there is little reason to expect that, still deeper, they will increase to the commercial grade; on the other hand, rich primary ores may persist uninterruptedly downward or may come in again below a lean interval. Secondary ores, however, have a comparatively limited vertical extent; in a large way enrichment decreases with depth and finally gives out. It follows then, that when a hole descends from profitable ore into ore of less than the commercial minimum, the practical significance of the situation depends upon whether this decrease results from a decrease in secondary enrichment or is a variation in primary content: if the copper of the ore passed through has been chiefly secondary, little is gained in the average case by extending the hole much below the point at which the commercial limit is reached; but, when copper is chiefly primary, due weight must be given to the possibility that, still deeper, the ore may again improve.

Jan 2, 1916

By Ray Schmidt

When your committee approached me for a talk on "Mechanics of Secondary Metals Collection," I replied that this subject would probably not be very interesting to a group of engineers and requested permission to dwell on the Westinghouse Salvage Setup. I will attempt to avoid duplicating the points covered by Mr. Bliven. The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. has main manufacturing Divisions in 25 cities and 9 different states, scattered throughout the country, as well as Naval Ordnance Plants in two midwest cities, and a Merchant Marine Turbine Plant, and two special War Production Plants in Eastern cities. You can, therefore, see that we must have a well rounded pro- gram with the entire respect and sponsorship of the various Division Managements. That was not so easy to get. Management has been a great deal like the general public in the past. I am sure most of you can remember the not very ancient day when each town had a ragman who had a horse and wagon and went through the streets of the town, from door to door, picking up what scrap he could accumulate. He was known as a junk man, and indeed, with the exception of the very last few years, the attitude of manufacturing management was: "We have a job to do. We have a product to manufacture. We don't have time to bother with the junk business."

Jan 1, 1943

By R. H. Lynn, T. C. Craig

During the year 1933, in the Texas Panhandle, 113 oil wells were completed, adding 33,337 bbl. to the daily potential of the field. The field potential on Jan. 1, 1933, as determined by the Texas Railroad Commission, was 149,260 bbl., with a daily allowable production of 41,000 bbl. The potential was raised gradually, until on July 16, 1933, it reached 155,344 bbl. with a daily allowable of 55,000 bbl. This potential and allowable was maintained over a period from July 16, 1933, to Sept. 8, 1933, when the potential was reduced to 136,893, with a daily allowable of 43,727 bbl. Since Sept. 8, 1933, there has been a gradual increase, until on Jan. 1, 1934, the field potential reached 159,740 bbl. with a daily allowable of 42,000 bbl. Of this amount 26,429 bbl. arc "marginal oil" and 2682 bbl. are exempt on account of water. Deepening of Wells During the year 64 wells were deepened, increasing their total oil production 9631 bbl. per day. Of this amount the Gray County granite wash contributed 9256 bbl. from 57 wells. It has been found in many places that the granite wash carries an additional oil pay from 50 to 75 ft. below sea level. The majority of the wells that were .drilled during the early development in Gray County encountered their oil above sea level. When the wells producing from the upper horizon have become unprofit-

Jan 1, 1934

By J. M. Clark

For some years past, those interested in the development of the increasingly important mining industry of Canada, havc urged the adoptioi~ by the Dominion Parliament of a federal mining-law, which would have the force and stability of statutory enactment. At present, placer-mining in the Yukon Territory is governed by the Yukon Placer Mining Act. All other mining under federal jurisdiction is governed by Orders in Council and Ministerial Iiegulations. In the earlier stages of development, it is perhaps a matter of neces~ity that these important matters should be so dealt with; but it is now felt that the time has come when mining-rights in the extensive regions under federal control should be put on a permanent basis, and that any changes required from timc to time should be made only after full and open discu~sioii in Parliament. A short sketch will suffice to indicate how vast and varied the interests affected really are. When the Dominion of Canada mas constituted by the Inlperial Statute known as the British North America Act of 1867 (which into force by proclamation on July 1 of that year), it comprised only the present Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nora Scotia, and New Brunswick; but provision was made for the inclusion of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Rupert's Land, and the North West Territories. Subsequently Rupert's Land and the North West Territories were acquired, the Crown Colonies of British Columbia and

Jan 1, 1912

By A. F. Frederickson

A MINERAL can best be defined as a phase,' where the term "phase" is described as a homogeneous,* physically distinct, and mechanically sep- arable portion of a system. If one phase develops from another, certain nuclei must first be available.2.394 The manner in which new material is added to these nuclei, and the subsequent structural and other characteristics of the phase, is often markedly influenced by factors other than its temperature, pressure, and gross compositional environment. Rates of growth, presence of impurities, the availability or lack of oxygen, the pH of the system, and percentage of completion of the often determine which modification will develop. Many transitional phases develop when a relatively insoluble precipitate is formed from solution. Different modifications are formed, depending on the speed and percentage of reacting solution added. Some of these "forms" are stable and do not "age" or transform into the so-called stable modifications. These modifications are difficult to treat in terms of equilibrium diagrams for the simple reason that these minerals do not represent an equilibrium situation described by only two (temperature and composition) or three terms (when pressure is considered). Many crystals exist as stable or meta- stable phases in nature in environments much different from those indicated by certain equilibrium diagrams. Cristobalite octahedra grow on zeolite needles in vugs, diaspore develops from a medium that does not appear to have been subjected to high pressures and temperatures, authigenic feld-

Jan 1, 1952

By R. J. Mechin

IN the early part of 1934, the St. Joseph Lead Co. purchased from the Kadco Corporation three dust-removal units, two suitable for raise work, and the other for drifting operations. The equipment was installed at the Balmat mine, in St. Lawrence County, New York. The Kadco dust-control system can be briefly described as one in which hoods, through which the drill steel is drawn, control the dust at the drill hole, the dust is conveyed through rubber hose or pipe to a collector, where it is removed from the air stream, and the air is then available for recircula-tion in the working place. As during the last few years a number of studies had been completed for the purpose of determining whether or not the dust was effectively removed by the Kadco system, and as the dust counts taken in these tests apparently indicate that it was, the St. Joseph Lead Co. was only inter-ested in obtaining data to show the efficiency of drilling, expressed in terms of minutes per foot drilled, when -using Kadco equipment, in comparison with the former method of drilling dry in a raise and drilling wet in a drift. Comparative dust counts were taken at Balmat, however, by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. to show the difference in the dust content of the air in which the operators worked when drilling dry, wet, or with the Kadco equipment.

Jan 1, 1935

By S. C. Lindsay, D. J. I. Evans

With each year that passes hydrometallurgical processes are being more widely used to recover base metals from ores and concentrates. Generally these processes involve liquid-solid separation of metal-bearing liquors from barren residues. This may be done by countercurrent decantation, thickening and filtration, or filtration or centrifuging only. Choice of method is governed by chemical and physical characteristics of the pulps; cost of labor, power, materials, and waste disposal; and even by the amount of capital available when building plans are under way. Since all these controlling factors change with time and location and with technological advances, the separation method must be re-evaluated when new plants or expansion programs are contemplated. At the Sherritt Gordon refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, an ammonia pressure leaching process recovers nickel, copper, and cobalt from the nickel concentrate produced at Lynn Lake, Manitoba.' Pregnant liquors are separated from the barren leach residues in a thickener-filter liquid-solids circuit. The decision to use this type of separation was based on a summation of economic factors during the pilot plant and design stages. Although countercurrent decantation was not incorporated in the refinery flowsheet, the problems solved in thickening the leach residues and the experience gained in operating the commercial plant are pertinent to countercurrent decantation, particularly where it is applied to slow-settling leach slurries or slurries having a relatively high vapor pressure of a valuable, obnoxious, or poisonous vapor.

Jan 1, 1960

By E. P. Barrett

THE high-frequency laboratory induction furnace with a rotating liquid crucible enables research workers to conduct certain investigations heretofore very difficult or impossible to realize because vessels are not obtainable that are capable of resisting the physical conditions or the chemical actions to which they are subjected. Applications for patents covering commercial uses of centrifugal liquid crucibles were filed in the United States in 1919,1 in France in 1925, in the United States and Germany in 1926,2 and in France in 1927.3 In 1928, Schuette and Maier,4 of the Bureau of Mines, reported the construction of a whirling table beneath a high-frequency induction furnace. SHAPE AND SIZE OF CENTRIFUGAL LIQUID CRUCIBLES When a vessel containing a liquid is rotated, the inner surface of the liquid takes the shape f a paraboloid under the simultaneous action of centrifugal force and gravity. The internal dimensions of the paraboloid rotating liquid crucible are governed by the diameter of the container and its speed of rotation. Melted Wood's metal was poured into cylinders 2 ½ in. in diameter, which were rotated at 180, 300, and 468 r.p.m. When the metal was solid, a slurry of plaster of Paris was added, and rotation continued until the plaster had set. Fig. 1, a photograph of sections f the cylinders, shows the effect f speed f rotation of the containers upon the shape f the inner surface f the rotating liquid crucibles.

Jan 1, 1938