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By S. F. Radtke

The properties and characteristics of lead and zinc have made these metals useful to man in many ways since the days of antiquity. Despite their long history of use, however, these metals have proved to be extremely resilient and responsive to modern needs. New alloys and compounds continue to be developed, adding to the growth of these metals. Consumption data is given for 1969 and compared with one and two decades ago. Trends in major markets also are cited and explained. Uses for lead and zinc which have come into prominence within the past few years are described and explained, with emphasis on the role played by the industry's cooperative research program. Current efforts in the research phase are discussed, with details given on major efforts for both metals, including new alloys, process developments, applications research, finishes, coating, paints and pigments, batteries and fundamental research. A forecast is given of promising new areas and a projection made on a longer term of new applications that may emerge from current research.

Jan 1, 1970

By W. B. Gogarty

With the use of polymer solutions in secondary recovery operations, the need has developed to understand the mobility control mechanism. This study investigated mobility control by considering both permeability and rheological effects. Experiments used a high molecular weight, partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide polymer. Flow studies took place in reservoir and Berea cores having zero oil saturation. Effective size of the polymer flow unit was inferred from Nuclepore filter tests. Clay studies indicated the particle size capable of decreasing the core permeability. Flushed permeabilities measured the approximate core permeabilities with flowing polymer solutions. These permeabilities were considerably lower than original values. With mobility data and the flushed permeability, maximum effective viscosities were determined for polymer solution flow in a core. Effective viscosities showed that rheological properties play an important part in mobility control with polymer solutions. The study showed that permeabilities decrease and stabilize with polymer flow. At the lower permeabilities, high shear rates exist in the cores. Because of the pseudoplastic character of the polymer solution, the high shear rates caused low effective viscosities. This condition pointed to the inefficient use of the potentially high viscosity of the polymer solution at low shear rates. INTRODUCTION In the oil industry, a great deal of interest is being shown in the use of polymer solutions for secondary recovery and a number of polymer floods are being performed in the United States.1 Some of these floods have become commercial while others have been reported as failures. A number of floods are still in progress and remain to be evaluated. With the advent of polymer flooding, the need developed to understand the mobility control mechanism in porous media. Rheologically, the polymer solutions behave as pseudoplastic fluids. Investigators have studied the rheology for this type of non-Newtonian fluid in porous media?-6 Results have also been reported on the ability of polymer solutions to decrease mobility.7-10 Some investigators indicated that polymer solutions show a different rheological behavior in cores than on the viscometer.7,8 This study is representative of an initiatory investigation on mobility control with polymer solutions. Some effects are considered on a qualitative basis. Mobility control is considered from the standpoint of both permeability and rheology and, to the extent possible, permeability and rheological effects are considered separately. Results show that mobility control occurs from a reduced permeability caused by polymer retention and an effective viscosity determined by the average shear rate in the core. In this respect, rheological behavior is as important in mobility control as permeability. PROCEDURES A high molecular weight, partially hydrolyzed, polyacrylamide polymer was used in the investigation. Solutions of various concentrations were made with this polymer in different types of water. Some solutions used distilled water and others used tap water. The tap water contained approximately 500 ppm dissolved solids. As used in this paper, concentrations in ppm refer to parts by weight solute to one million parts by weight of solvent. In the tap water, calcium and magnesium accounted for from 60 to 80 ppm of the solids, the remainder being mostly sodium chloride. All solutions contained a bactericide, and anti-oxidants and antiprecipitants were added to the tap water. Capillary and concentric-cylinder* viscometers determined the rheological properties of solutions. The capillary viscometer is described elsewhere.6 Berea and reservoir sandstone were used as core materials for this investigation. Cores were 1 in. in diameter by approximately 2 to 3 in. long. Prior to mounting, the Berea cores were heat-treated for 3 hours at 850F. This treatment decreased the water-sensitivity of the clays in the cores. The reservoir cores were cleaned with solvent and

By John A. Baker

S EVERAL FACTORS have brought about a vastly greater interest in the gold-mining industry in the last two or three years. Outstanding is the fact that there is an open market at a fixed price for all that can be produced. a condition that holds for no other commodity. Costs of production have decreased greatly, owing to lower prices of supplies and equipment and lower wages. Improved metallurgical processes and equipment are also available. To big new gold district is being opened up but virgin ground is being prospected with some success in many of the more remote parts of the world and right here in the United States many old properties are being reopened 111 the light of present condition<, tailing dumps are being re- worked, and profitable leases taken on abandoned property. Many of the men who are becoming interested in gold are mining engineers whose experience has all been with base metals heretofore: some are engineers with no mining experience; some are not engineers at all but men who cannot find profitable employment in their usual field of activity and are attracted by the age-old lore of the yellow metal. Some are business men with a little money and an idea that under present conditions gold mining offers a safer investment for it than most other kinds of business. It is to those more or less inexperienced new- comers in the gold-mining industry that this article i4 ad dressed. Those who are connected with the large gold mines or who have had rears of experience with the small ones will find in the following pages little or nothing of interest but it is hoped that the newer generation of small mine operators, on whom the healthy growth of the industry depends so much, may find here some helpful hints.

Jan 1, 1932

By B. M. Larsen, K. Heindlhofer

Jan 1, 1945

By Paul M. Tyler

MARKETWISE the year 1935 was rather a good one for most of the rare and minor metals; as a class they climbed out of the depression much faster than the common metals. The diamond market, too, was better than it had been for years, attributable only in part to investment buying, as there was a genuine pick-up in consumer demand. Wars and rumors of war tended to speed up purchases of certain metals, but consumption for peaceful purposes was the principal factor. Significant was the important role played by new industrial uses. New discoveries during the year were disappointingly few, considering the broad extent of this research frontier. Scientific developments were far from being at a stand-still, of course, but the dominant note was the cashing in on research consummated in former years. With even a moderate upturn in general business a surprising number of laboratory ideas donned overalls and found jobs in industry.

Jan 1, 1936

By H. B. FERNALD

THE interesting and carefully developed formula which Professor Bucky presents for answering the question of whether proposed new equipment will give a net return on investment equal to or greater than that on present equipment starts with an assumption that the management may make this relative return a determining factor in its decision whether or not the new equipment should be provided. I do not question that in some cases the management may take this position, but I would point out the error involved in so doing. The proper test is not a comparison of the return on new as compared with the return on old investment, but is rather a comparison of the return on a particular new investment as compared with the return which would be obtainable from some other new investment which now might be made. Then I would point out that I believe Professor Bucky is in error in using as a factor in his computations the item of unamortized cost of old investment. The financial advantage to be derived from a new investment does not depend on the extent to which we may in the past have written off the cost of old equipment, nor does it even depend upon what was the original cost of that old equipment. Even the salvage or resale value of the old equipment will only enter into the picture to the extent that the present salvage or resale value differs from the ultimate salvage or resale value otherwise to be obtained, after due allowance for the interest factor.

Jan 1, 1930

By J. R. Cahoon, W. V. Youdelis

In a recent publication by Flemings and Nereo, equations for the calculation of the solute distribution in castings were developed, and the solute distributions for unidirectionally solidified A1-4.5 pct Cu ingots cast under various thermal conditions were calculated. The equations derived by Flemings and Nereo for the dendrite "expansion" and "steady-state" zones are essentially equivalent to those previously published by Kirkaldy and Youdelis, 16 for, although the flow velocity cooling rate, and temperature gradients appear in the fundamental differential equations, calculation of the solute distribution requires that the above be explicitly related to the assumed or measured solid-liquid mass distributions during solidification. In the treatment of Kirkaldy and Y-oudelis the mass distributions are simply assumed or measured without any prior and explicit association of the mass distributions to a velocity parameter. The treatment of Flemings and Nereo permits solidification conditions more complicated than the simple unidirectional case to be considered (although in principle the treatment of Kirkaldy and Youdelis could also be extended to include the more general solidification case); however, we note some limitations in the treatment of Flemings and Nereo, and the purpose of this discussion is to point these out and also to indicate those points of similarity in the mass distribution models used which make the two treatments equivalent. Both the Kirkaldy-Youdelis and Flemings-Nereo treatments consider a zone of dendrite "expansion" followed by a "steady-state" zone. However, Flemings and Nereo have failed to consider a zone of "collapse" which begins at the base of the first dendrites to reach the top of the ingot. The omission of this zone of "collapse" results in too high a value for the solute concentration in the latter portion of the ingot to solidify and the conservation of total solute is not possible. In the zone of "collapse" the solute concentration rapidly decreases, which may be accounted for as follows: consider a mushy zone of length X,, shown schematically in Fig. 11 (a), which develops at the chill face and then moves as a steady-state configuration along the length of a solidifying ingot. The solute distribution in this zone, when it first attains the steady state, is shown qualitatively in Fig. 11(b). The segregation is positive (above Co) in the region ab because this region contains primary dendritic solid, ranging from kco to kcE in composition (where k is the partition coefficient and CE is the composition of the eutectic liquid), and liquid metal near eutectic composition. The segregation is negative (below Co) in the region bc because it contains primary dendritic solid only slightly above kco in average composition and liquid metal only slightly above Co in composition. As the zone X, moves as a steady state

Jan 1, 1969

By Louis E. Reber

Jan 1, 1922

By HENRY M. PARKS

THE total production of all metals in Oregon to date is estimated at $160,000,000; ~115,000,000 from eastern Oregon and $45,000,000 from the western part of the state. In 1916 the metal production of the state was approximately $4,000,000, while the present annual production has dwindled to a little less than $1,000,000. Western Oregon The state of Oregon contains several metal-bearing areas, widely scattered in different regions. More than half of its coast is fringed with a belt of auriferous sands which sometimes are rich in fine gold. A second mining field, the chief producing one of western Oregon, is situated in the southwestern part of the, state and includes Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Coos and Curry counties. It may be considered as the northern extension of the gold and copper belt of California. A third region in western Oregon is that on the western slope of the great Cascade range in the Bohemia, Blue River, Quartzville, North Santiam and Ogle Creek districts-from the Siskiyous on the south almost to the base of Mt. Hood near the Columbia River on the north.

Jan 1, 1925

By H. W. Gillett

Unlike most previous Howe lecturers, I had not the good fortune to be associated with Henry Marion Howe, nor to be directly one of his students. Yet, through his writings, he has been my teacher, as he has of all American metallurgists. Instructive as his writings are—I use the present tense because Howe thought so keenly and reasoned so surely, seeing clearly, as if by intuition, what was hazy to lesser minds, that his writings are still vital—it is not those books and papers, nor even the minds he trained in his classes, that were his most outstanding service. It was the spirit of Howe in his approach to the problems of metallurgy, his broad-mindedness and fairness, his recognition of the need for theories and hypotheses to explain metallurgical phenomena, his willingness to use them as servants, as well as his questioning attitude—his refusal to accept them as masters—that comprise his greatest service. This most thoroughly warrants the honor the Institute pays each year to his memory. These traits I so respect and honor in any man that I glory in this opportunity to do reverence to him in whom they were so notably united. Howe&apos;s Discussion of a Creep Problem I have often wished that Howe were still with us to turn his keen insight upon the problems of the use of metals at high temperatures, a field much studied but still very hazy. Indeed, 53 years ago, in a paper1 before this Institute, Howe stated a problem closely allied to some that still perplex metallurgists and engineers dealing with the high-temperature field. Howe was intrigued by a report2 from another old master, Robert Henry Thurston, on the behavior of annealed vs. cold-drawn iron wire, and in order to broaden the foundation for metallurgical generalization, Howe made experiments of his own on copper and silver. In these tests by Thurston and by Howe, the wires were rapidly loaded to determine the

Jan 1, 1939

By T. Sterry Hunt

Jan 1, 1891

By W. D. France, H. l. Burghoff

FABRICATORS of copper and copper alloys have contended with the problems of reconversion during the past year in endeavoring to return to the full-scale production that is demanded of them. The problems have not been easy, for the industry, like so many others, has had to deal with strikes of long duration, and material shortages, particularly in the raw materials, copper, zinc, lead, and tin. Despite all these obstacles, it was possible to gear production to new peacetime records during the latter part of the year. This was made possible not only by the use of multiple shifts of personnel, but also by the improved production equipment, the development of which had been stimulated by wartime necessity. The work of installing new and better equipment is still continuing, and virtually every company is engaged in improving or planning to improve its processes.

Jan 1, 1947

By R. E. Radabaugh, J. M. Brown, J. S. Merchant

The Gilman district is on the northeast flank of the Sawatch Range in central Colorado. It has yielded a total of 10,000,000 tons of ore having a value of over $250,000,000. Paleozoic sediments intruded by a Tertiary quartz latite sill and unconformably overlying Precambrian intrusives and metasediments comprise the country rock of the area. The sediments strike northwesterly and dip 8° to 12° northeasterly. Structures in the Precambrian are related to the Homestake shear zone of the Colorado mineral belt. Only minor folding and faulting occur in the sediments. The principal ore bodies are massive sulfide replacement deposits in carbonate rocks. They consist of long, pipe-like mantos in the completely dolomitized Mississippian Leadville Limestone and funnel-shaped chimneys of copper- silver ore cutting across the Mississippian and Devonian strata. Mineralization is continuous from the chimneys into the mantos. The principal ore bodies are roughly in the shape of a four-tined fork which points up dip. Smaller manto deposits occur in the Cambrian Sawatch Quartzite, and fissure veins are present in the Precambrian rocks. The principal minerals in the mantos are marmatite and galena in a gangue of pyrite and manganosiderite. The chimneys consist of a central core of pyrite with erratically distributed chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite, freibergite, and occasional galena with a shell of zinc ore on the outer margin. Both the chimneys and the mantos are surrounded by imperfect shells of manganosiderite and sanded dolomite. The mineralization is of Laramide age. Hydrothermal alteration affects all rock units to varying degrees. Clay mineral alteration halos occur around the ore bodies. Hydrothermal solutions have developed sanded rock, rubble filled channels, and banded zebra textures, principally in the Leadville Limestone. Structural control of the ore bodies is not well defined. Both the location of the district and the chimneys are probably related to basement structures. The mantos are largely controlled by stratigraphic factors and a pre-Pennsylvanian karst topography in the Leadville Limestone, which were modified by hydrothermal activity, and by weak zones of northeasterly trending faults.

Jan 1, 1968

By J. R. Dawson, A. B. Kinzel

THE purpose of testing is to determine whether the material in question is identical in all essential respects with similar material which has given satisfactory service. The most common method of securing such information is to select samples as representative of the entire material and subject them to destructive tests. As the welding industry grew, service data were accumulated and tests of welds took on new significance. New tests were devised and old tests modified so as to be more pertinent to welding. Moreover, in some cases the generally accepted procedure of testing by sampling is not accorded the same degree of confidence when applied to welds as in the usual applications. Thus, in instances where great hazard would be involved should the material fail, means of non-destructive testing have been sought with favorable results. Accordingly, tests used today may be divided into two groups, destructive and non-destructive tests.

Jan 1, 1930

By G. F. Loughlin

THE matter of grading Indiana oolitic limestone has been under a cooperative study by the Supervising Architect&apos;s office, the U. S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Standards, and the former Indiana Limestone Quarrymen&apos;s Association. As the criteria for grading are necessarily based on a number of geologic and related factors of which those quarrying and using the stone had only imperfect appreciation, the first part of the report is a very elementary account of the origin, structure, and the chemical and physical properties of tie stone, and their relations to durability and utilization, and serves as a foundation for the second part, which discusses grading and pro- poses limits for grades established by the quamymen. Salient features of Part I of a report that has been prepared are the variations in uniformity of stone due to cross bedding, and local uncomformities; the relative prominence of weathering effects on the coarser uneven grained surfaces, and its apparent absence on fine, uniform grained surfaces, although the amount of weathering is the same on each; the attributing "crow feet" (stylolites) to solution under pressure, and the explanation that, whereas the thinnest "crow feet" have no noteworthy effect on weathering quality or strength, the thicker ones are likely to weather out rapidly and to promote splitting; the influence of fracturing on the oxidation of the original gray or "blue" to buff color above the ground water level; the interpretation of chemical analyses and the pointing out that both the gray and buff colors are due mainly to organic

Jan 1, 1929

By Charles P. Berkey, Joseph H. Sinclair

This paper describes the results of a visit to the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador, in January and February, 1921. On account of the complicated folding and faulting of the rocks and the peculiar occurrence of petroleum, field work was possible on only a few of the many geological problems and the results here published are only a contribution to the solution of the general problem. We know of nothing published on the geology of the district, except one account, in Spanish and German, by Theodor Wolf. The Santa Elena peninsula, the most important headland of the coast of Ecuador, lies two degrees south of the equator. The chief town, Santa Elena, is about 75 miles west of Guayaquil, the main seaport of Ecuador. The nearest developed oil field is the Zorritos of northern Peru, 120 miles south across the Gulf of Guayaquil. If newspaper reports are true, viz. that the Anglo-Ecuadorian Oilfields, Ltd., has recently brought in a 700-bbl. well on the coast of the peninsula near Ancon, the district may become important in the production of petroleum. At the time of our visit, the best way to reach the peninsula was by a steamer of the Pacific Steam Navigation Go., southward from Panama and northward from Guayaquil. About once a week, one of these steamers anchored 1/2 mile off shore near the village of Salinas, an important cable station. An alternative route, in the dry season, is by automobile from Guayaquil. In February, 1921, a railway bed had been graded part way between Guayaquil and Salinas, but this was detcriorating rapidly because of lack of funds to continue construction or to keep in repair that portion already completed.

Jan 1, 1923

By Charles P. Berkey, Joseph H. Sinclair

This paper describes the results of a visit to the Santa Elena Peninsula, Ecuador, in January and February, 1921. On account of the complicated folding and faulting of the rocks and the peculiar occurrence of petroleum, field work was possible on only a few of the many geological problems and the results here published are only a contribution to the solution of the general problem. We know of nothing published on the geology of the district, except one account, in Spanish and German, by Theodor Wolf. The Santa Elena peninsula, the most important headland of the coast of Ecuador, lies two degrees south of the equator. The chief town, Santa Elena, is about 75 miles west of Guayaquil, the main seaport of Ecuador. The nearest developed oil field is the Zorritos of northern Peru, 120 miles south across the Gulf of Guayaquil. If newspaper reports are true, viz. that the Anglo-Ecuadorian Oilfields, Ltd., has recently brought in a 700-bbl. well on the coast of the peninsula near Ancon, the district may become important in the production of petroleum. At the time of our visit, the best way to reach the peninsula was by a steamer of the Pacific Steam Navigation Go., southward from Panama and northward from Guayaquil. About once a week, one of these steamers anchored 1/2 mile off shore near the village of Salinas, an important cable station. An alternative route, in the dry season, is by automobile from Guayaquil. In February, 1921, a railway bed had been graded part way between Guayaquil and Salinas, but this was detcriorating rapidly because of lack of funds to continue construction or to keep in repair that portion already completed.

Jan 1, 1923

By K. A. SPENCER

THE production of soft coal from strip mines in the United States has shown a remarkable growth in the last sixteen years, increasing from one and one-quarter million tons in 1914 to approximately twenty-two million tons in 1929. This is a growth of approximately 1660 p& cent, as compared with a growth of approximately 20 per cent in the underground mines for the same period. But even with this marked in- crease the total tonnage produced by open-face mining represents only 4 per cent of the nation&apos;s soft coal tonnage.

Jan 1, 1931

Jan 1, 1909

By M. E. V. Plummer, F. E. Beamish, J. C. Hole, J. M. Kavanagh

Prior researches have shown that the iron-copper-nickel content of platinum concentrates may be reduced by carbon to form a collecting alloy for the platinum metals in a manner exactly analogous to the formation of the lead fire assay button. The nature of the iron-copper-nickel alloys with the platinum metals has been investigated. Palladium and probably some of the other platinum metals form solid solutions with this alloy. ONE of the greatest known reserves of the platinum metals is to be found in the nickel, copper, iron sulphide deposits of Northern Ontario. The very large tonnage of copper-nickel ore processed makes the Sudbury district a significant world source of the platinum metals, the latter being recovered as byproducts in the electrolytic refining process for copper and nickel. Chalcopyrite, pentlandite, and pyrrhotite are carriers of the platinum metals;&apos; these minerals contain from 0.03 to 2.0 ppm of the noble metals. The analysis of the above ores for the platinum metals necessitates an initial concentration of the minute quantities present in the ore. The method usually employed involves the extraction of the noble metals by molten lead with or without small proportions of silver. The lead is then separated from the precious metals by cupellation, a process which involves absorption by the cupel and volatilization of lead oxide, leaving the precious metals collected in a silver bead on the surface of the cupel. The collection by lead is probably achieved by a process of dissolution followed by some degree of segregation in the lead alloy since the cold button is seldom uniform in composition. With silver-lead alloys this process of liquation has been used to re- cover pure lead since, during the cooling period, crystals of pure lead separate and silver becomes concentrated toward the center of the solid.&apos; Platinum and gold liquate in a manner similar to silver which may account for the successful recovery of platinum by fire assay even though it is considered insoluble in a solid lead medium. 3 In the case of iridium the liquation process may be a disadvantage in that the iridium may appear in the outer areas of the button and thus be lost mechanically during the handling processes. In any case the deficient alloying characteristics of lead for the platinum metals encouraged attempts to find an improved collecting alloy, and by analogy with aqueous extractions, preferably one in which solid solutions would be readily formed. Since, beyond a certain minimum solute to solvent ratio, the formation of a solid solution is accompanied by a lattice distortion, one would expect some relationship between the atomic diameters of any two metals and their tendency to form a solid solution. In one survey5 the hypothesis was put forward that when the atomic diameter of the solute differs by more than about 15 pct from the solvent, the "size factor" is unfavorable and the formation of a solid solution is restricted. On the other hand, when the atomic diameters are within this limit the size factor is favorable and solid solutions are readily formed, e.g. the transition metals of Group VIII having similar radii form solid solutions over wide ranges of composition.6 Even with a favorable size factor, elements having different crystal structures cannot form a continuous series of solid solutions. Cell dimensions alter as the concentration of the solute increases, causing a

Jan 1, 1962