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By David B. Reger

Sharp declines of initial production of both oil and gas occurred in West Virginia during 1943. There was only a small decrease in the number of ncw wells, but these wells did not show the quantities of oil and gas that might have been expected. The same situation prevailed both as to routine drilling in old pools and as to exploratory wildcat wells. Out of 42 wildcats drilled, 19 resulted in small commercial gas wells, and 2 in small commercial oil. No new oil pools were discovered, but the proved limits of several old pools were considerably extended, giving 4200 acres of newly proved oil territory. Three new gas pools, resulting from discoveries made in 1942 and former years, came into definite activity. The newly proved gas territory in these and in various extensions of old pools is 39,000 acres or more. It is doubtful whether the newly proved reserves of either oil or gas will balance current withdrawals. The account of operations, as gathered from trade journals and other reporting services, shows that 696 new wells were drilled, resulting in 82 oil wells with 919 bbl. of daily new production; 475 gas wells with 454,735,000 cu. ft. of daily open flow, and 137 dry holes. Also, 57 old wells were drilled to deeper sands, with 3 bbl. and 11,484,000 cu. it. of added production. On the new wells, the oil average was 11.2 bbl. per well per day, and the gas average was 957,337 cu. ft. per well per day. On new wells the ratio of dry holes to completions was 19.68 per cent. On deeper drilling the ratio of failures was 14.03 per cent. The greatly decreased average initial gas-well production in 1943, as compared with 2,270,406 CU. ft. per well in 1942, is directly attributable to the abrupt decline of completions in the Charleston gas field, which reached its peak in 1942. Production of oil for the year was estimated by the U. S. Rureau of Mines as 3,349,000 bbl., as compared with 3,574,000 bbl. in 1942. Production of natural gas for the year is estimated by the author as 210,000, 000,000 cu. ft., compared with the U. S. Bureau of Mines final figures of 215,193,-000,000 cu. ft.* in 1942.

Jan 1, 1944

By David B. Reger

Sharp declines of initial production of both oil and gas occurred in West Virginia during 1943. There was only a small decrease in the number of ncw wells, but these wells did not show the quantities of oil and gas that might have been expected. The same situation prevailed both as to routine drilling in old pools and as to exploratory wildcat wells. Out of 42 wildcats drilled, 19 resulted in small commercial gas wells, and 2 in small commercial oil. No new oil pools were discovered, but the proved limits of several old pools were considerably extended, giving 4200 acres of newly proved oil territory. Three new gas pools, resulting from discoveries made in 1942 and former years, came into definite activity. The newly proved gas territory in these and in various extensions of old pools is 39,000 acres or more. It is doubtful whether the newly proved reserves of either oil or gas will balance current withdrawals. The account of operations, as gathered from trade journals and other reporting services, shows that 696 new wells were drilled, resulting in 82 oil wells with 919 bbl. of daily new production; 475 gas wells with 454,735,000 cu. ft. of daily open flow, and 137 dry holes. Also, 57 old wells were drilled to deeper sands, with 3 bbl. and 11,484,000 cu. it. of added production. On the new wells, the oil average was 11.2 bbl. per well per day, and the gas average was 957,337 cu. ft. per well per day. On new wells the ratio of dry holes to completions was 19.68 per cent. On deeper drilling the ratio of failures was 14.03 per cent. The greatly decreased average initial gas-well production in 1943, as compared with 2,270,406 CU. ft. per well in 1942, is directly attributable to the abrupt decline of completions in the Charleston gas field, which reached its peak in 1942. Production of oil for the year was estimated by the U. S. Rureau of Mines as 3,349,000 bbl., as compared with 3,574,000 bbl. in 1942. Production of natural gas for the year is estimated by the author as 210,000, 000,000 cu. ft., compared with the U. S. Bureau of Mines final figures of 215,193,-000,000 cu. ft.* in 1942.

Jan 1, 1944

By Persifor Frazer

MR. Theodore D. Rand has made some interesting observations on the serpentines of Chester and Delaware counties, Penna., in which he suggests that the outcrops of this rock are detached from each other, and that while a comparatively narrow belt, running nearly east and west, mill include them all, the strike of each outcrop differs considerably from the direction of this narrow belt; and that it results that these isolated exposures exist on the map, as it were, in echelon, the easternmost end of each lying northwest of the western extremity of its neighbor. As he elsewhere remarks, this is important, if established, and the writer spent a day or two recently on the ground in the study of this phenomenon. One thing would seem to follow from such a state of facts, viz., that this serpentine at least must have been of secondary origin, for it is difficult to conceive of a rock which occurs intercalated in numerous horizons of a different formation, and agreeing with the latter in bedding, unless the former were an altered product of the latter. It is true that one might account for it by the supposition of an original unconformable deposit, which had been broken by a number of faults and distorted by throws to the northwest; but this hypothesis would do violence to the observed facts relating to the measures along with which the serpentine occurs, and in which no such distortion has been observed. * Thus for determining, by evaporative test, the calorific power of a coal, the ultimate constitution of which is known, it is requisite, that, besides the quantity of coal consumed and the weight of the water evaporated, the temperature and chemical composition of the escaping gases, or gaseous residue, shall be quantitatively determined, the same as solid residues of ash and unconsumed fuel. In observance of such requirements, the Heizversuchstation of Munich has been in operation since 1879. This consists of a permanent boiler plant, constructed on the principle of the calorimeter, with special provision for avoiding errors from loss of heat—snch, namely, as arise from radiation and conduction, and from the varying proportions of water in steam.—Muck. Steinkohlen-Cliemie, 1881, 146. See Proc. Min. and Geol. Sect., Acad of Nat. Sci., 1850 and 1881, pp. 9 and 28.

Jan 1, 1884

By F. R. Brotzen, J. Taranto

SEVERAL investigators have computed stacking-fault concentrations from X-ray diffraction data.'-' The method generally employed relates the line shift to the stacking-fault probability. In this investigation platinum filings of 99.99 pct purity screened to -325 mesh were studied after having been subjected to various annealing treatments. The lines were measured on a General Electric XRD-5 spectrogoniometer using CuK, radiation. The centroid of the broad reflections was determined by the method proposed by pike.' The stacking-fault probability was calculated by the formula given by Warren and warekois,3 with the assumption that all stacking faults were on the (111). Various high-angle reflections were used, but most data collected refer to the shift in the (400) reflections. When the filed platinum powder was annealed at 1200°C for 20 min the stacking fault concentration was too small to be detected. The stacking-fault probability in freshly filed specimens, as determined by the line shift relative to the annealed specimen, was about 0.016, Fig. 1. If the faults would be created only by extended dislocations, the dislocation density in the filed specimen would be about 3X1012 cm-2. The average stacking-fault width of about 21 which was used in this computation, is that given by Thornton and Hirsch.7 The mechanism by which stacking faults are annihilated during annealing is not yet fully understood. The isothermal results obtained do not seem to support the simple hypothesis of a first-order decay. On the other hand, the analysis by Kuhlmann, Masing, and Raffelsieper8 for the loss of dislocations during recovery agrees much better with the experimental data of this investigation. This analysis yields an activation energy of 29 ± 8 kcal per mol for the disappearance of stacking faults in cold-worked platinum during annealing. Even if one takes into account the lack of accuracy inherent in this X-ray method, the activation energy found is substantially less than that of self-diffusion in platinum, i.e., 61.6 kcal per mol.9 The results therefore suggest that processes other than dislocation climb, which involves the activation energy of self-diffusion, are responsible for the loss of stacking faults in platinum during annealing. The broad reflection lines became sharper early in the recovery process, Fig. 1. The sharpening occurred well before the stage during which stacking faults disappear. This lends support to Nowick's10

Jan 1, 1962

By A. P. Cohen, D. W. Fuerstenau

Methods of accounting for the feed size in analyzing the size distribution shift during comminution have been discussed in a number of papers.1,2,3 Based on experiments which charles2 performed with single Pyrex specimens, Schuhmann4 pointed out that the size modulus of an assembly of particles should be determined by the energy expended per unit volume (or mass), independent of the size of particle being comminuted. In this same paper, Schuhmann derived the Charles energy-size reduction relationship by considering that complex comminution operations can be considered to be the summation of many individual comminution events, each of which must be governed by Were 6wi is the mass of a particle receiving the impact, 6Ei is the energy delivered to the particle, ki is the size modulus of the product resulting from the impact, a is the distribution modulus of the assembly of particles, and A is a constant. Recent experiments on the compression loading of Pyrex spheres ranging in size from 1/8 to l-in. diam have shown that the size modulus of the fragments is determined by the strain energy at fracture per unit mass, independent of sphere diameter.' The objective of the present investigation has been to determine experimentally whether the size distribution of the product from such a complex comminution process as rod milling is determined only by the energy expended per unit mass independent of feed size. Samples of each Tyler sieve fraction ranging from 4x6 to 48x65 mesh were prepared from crushed Brazilian quartz crystals. One kilogram of each fraction was ground at 60 pct solids in an 8x9 1/4-in. mill containing 17.5 kg of rods (26 rods, 5/8-in.; 10 rods, 3/4-in.; and 5 rods, 7/8-in. diam). In each test, the mill was run at 77 rpm for 15 min. Size distributions were determined by a wet-dry sieving technique. Table I presents the size distribution of the products obtained by grinding each of the size fractions. Because the size distributions are so nearly alike, they are plotted in Fig. 1 by shifting each size distribution for the different feed sizes one screen fraction to the right. Thus, the lowest point in each size distribution represents 400 mesh and each of the other sieve sizes must be shifted accordingly. A single regression line was calculated by combining the data for the six tests, excluding the coarsest feed and the two finest feed fractions. 6 This regression line, which is given by (Y \0.88 where y is the cumulative percentage of material

Jan 1, 1962

By G. B. Gould

THE softening temperature of coal ash, as determined in the labora-tory, has been used for years as an indication of the tendency of coal to form clinker and slag. It has not, however, provided an index of unfail-ing and complete reliability for forecasting the relative performance of different coals, even in the same plant and under the same conditions of operation. A large amount of investigation has been done in attempts to account for this, but practically all of this has been in the direction of studying the chemical constitution of coal ash. Much has been learned, but without much progress toward a better practical application of knowledge to the selection of coal. There has always seemed to be an important factor that eluded discovery. It has long been recognized that the ash-softening temperature as determined in the laboratory had one weakness, in that it represented the temperature at which a thorough mixture of the whole ash of the coal would melt, the mixing having taken place before the heat was applied. This does not, of course, simulate what takes place in practice. With certain exceptions, which will be noted later, almost all of the investiga-tions that have been made, especially the chemical studies of coal ash, have likewise dealt with a mixture of the whole ash in the coal. The present investigation differs from these fundamentally in its approach to the problem. It started from the observation that some clinkering and slagging obviously takes place in a boiler furnace at tem-peratures below the laboratory-determined ash-softening temperature of the coal. Knowing that coal as it is shipped to market is a hetero-geneous mixture of diverse mineral substances, each of which may act independently of the others in the initial stages of clinker and slag formation, it seemed logical to investigate separately the softening tem-perature of the ash in physically separable portions of the coal, and to determine the relative quantities of ash contributed by each portion.

Jan 1, 1940

By A. M. Nicholas

WheN attempting to lift mill pulp containing a considerable percentage of wolframite, in an ordinary bucket elevator, difficulty was encountered from the tendency of the tungsten minerals to settle, on account of their high specific gravity. Lifts not exceeding 20 ft. (6 m.) could be accomplished without particular difficulty, because there was insufficient time for consolidation of the heavy minerals in the bottom of the bucket; but with higher lifts, the heavy tungsten minerals would settle so solidly that when the bucket turned over at the top of the elevator the contents could be only partially dumped. In this case it was necessary to lift the material a distance of 34 ft. (10m.); hence some means had to be adopted to prevent settling, at least to such an extent that the material could be dumped from the buckets. To reduce the carrying time to a sufficient extent would have required a belt speed of 475 ft. (144.7 m.) per minute, which was not feasible. It was decided to try, by vibrating the belt about midway of its span, to keep the material sufficiently agitated during elevation to prevent settling. Underneath the rising side of the belt was placed a 12-in. (30.48-cm.) idler pulley, 18 ft. (5.5 m.) up in the total lift of 34 ft. The idler pulley was set eccentric by % in. (19 mm.) and it was hoped that the vibration thus imparted to the belt, running at a speed of 280 ft. (85 m.) per minute, would prevent settling in the buckets. It was found that the pressure of the belt on the idler, due to the small inclination of the elevator, was not sufficient to overcome sliding on the idler, and the agitation was insufficient to accomplish the desired purpose. The idler was then connected to the drive shaft of the elevator through an intermediate pulley, gearing down to a speed of 20 r.p.m., so that a positive vibration was imparted to the belt; this imparted enough motion to the belt to prevent settling and the contents of buckets dumped satisfactorily. Protecting Elevator Belts When elevating, from the crusher, a rock which was very sharp and abrasive, considerable difficulty arose from cutting of the belt under-

Jan 1, 1918

By J. Norman Bulkley

Discussion of the paper of J. NORMAN BULKLEY, presented at the New York meeting, February, 1916, and printed in Bulletin No. 110, February, 1916, pp. 355 to 373. GRAHAM BRIGHT, E.. Pittsburgh, Pa.-On p. 265 mention is made of a change from steam hoist to electric hoist. The arrangement mentioned, of using a geared motor, and having the gearing and counter-shaft in a separate, self-contained unit, and then connecting that to the hoist by means of a flexible coupling, is very good. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to change a geared hoist over to an electric hoist. 'In that case the motor could be either direct-connected to the countershaft or geared to the countershaft, making a double-reduction gearing. Trouble has been experienced with this method on account of the hoist not being designed for electric drive. It may be of a rather light construction which will not stand the forces obtained by steam operation, the maximum being determined by the steam pressure which can be obtained in the cylinder. With motors of hoisting types, torques, can be obtained, which are so far in excess of anything that the steam engine could give, that this sometimes results in disaster when a motor is applied to a hoist of that type. If the operator gets a little careless, he may overstrain the hoist, And cause damage, so that this question should be looked into when changing from a steam hoist to an electric hoist. The hoist should be rugged enough to stand the torques which may be attained by careless operation, in which case, instead of using a three-bearing motor, with a pinion between two of the bearings, it is much better to arrange for a two-bearing motor, arranging for a coupling through a flexible coupler. In another place trouble is mentioned as due to the vibration of a geared hoisting motor. That can be overcome by supplying a flexible coupling between the motor and the hoist proper. You will find, if a flexible coupling is furnished, that the motor troubles will largely disappear. K. A. PAULY (communication to the Secretary*), Schenectady, N. Y. -This paper is deserving of careful consideration by all interested in general electrical mining problems and the recommendations made should be given weight because of the author's long experience in dealing with various problems encountered from the beginning of mine electrification.

Jan 5, 1916

By Howard N. Eavenson

The information contained in the following paper was collected at the request of the U. S. Coal Commission, and is published with the permission of that body and of the various companies furnishing the data. For obvious reasons, the names of the companies are not given. No data were obtained from states south of Virginia or west of the Mississippi River. The data about the amount of labor, in man-hours, required in producing a ton of bituminous coal have been collected with the idea of showing what is being done at some well-managed plants, and not to show the average amount required by all mines, which undoubtedly is considerably higher than the average of the figures shown.* Almost all of the figures were supplied by the various companies in reply to a questionnaire; when they were obtained from other sources the company was asked to verify them. On account of the amount of work required, the data were only requested for one or two months for each plant, and the figures represent in each case a month when the car supply was good and the work was practically steady. In the case of most of the West Virginia and Kentucky mines, these conditions were best met in May and June, 1922. The mines for which the figures are given are arranged by states and as to whether the mine operates under union or non-union or open-shop conditions. The union mines listed are generally considered to be as well-managed as are the non-union ones. The production per month in a few cases includes the amount of slate which is loaded and hauled out of the mine, as of course this requires nearly as much labor per ton as does the coal. These cases are noted. The number of days worked includes only the total time in which the tipple operated; not the number of days on which the mines operated. This makes the output per day appear slightly higher than it should be in

Jan 1, 1924

By T. F. Witherbee

In a paper read at the Lake Superior meeting, August, 1580, an account was given of the successful use of Rendrock. and Monaky powder upon a .scaffold- and salamander in the furnace. On April 5th, 1881,' the same trouble called for like treatment, which, though not so immediately successful, was on the whole more instructive than the first trial, and points, I trust, to a reasonably sure remedy for all such difficulties. Up to December 4th, 1880, foundry and mill iron were made from Old Bed and Sew Bed magnetite, and Kearney red hematite, when a return was made to Bessemer iron, from an inferior quality of New Bed ore as compared with that used during first blast. January lath, 1881, New Bed, Chateangay, and East-shaft, a newly-opened Bessemer deposit of Messrs. Witherbee, Sherman $ Co., were first used, and continued up to February 13th, on a fuel charge of 80 per cent. anthracite and 20 per cent. coke, the product on the three ores being about 10 tons more per day than on New Bed alone. From this time until March 11th all coal was used, and New Bed, Chateaugay, and East-shaft ores, up to February 224 and from that date Chateaugay and New Bed, the product falling off 9,8, tons per day as a result of not using coke. It is fair, however, to state that the furnace was not in good condition during this period, being over-burdened, and the New Bed ore was, temporarily, uncommonly poor, for reasons of no particular interest here. It required to properly flux it at least 140 per cent. of limestone; and 101 per ent. was actually used. March 11th, all Chateaugay ore aid 80

Jan 1, 1882

By P. E. Doherty, R. S. Davis

Sub boundaries and micropores, as well as certain other imperfections, may be revealed in aluminum by the formation of pits on the surface during cooling from elevated temperatures. The pits are attributed to the condensation of vacancies from supersaturated solution. This "vacancy pit" phenomenon has been used as an etching technique for studying the structure of aluminum specimens grown from the melt. Three fundamental structures were studied: stria-tions, cells, and dendrites. Two types of striations, as well as a crosswise structure are reported. Mic-roporosity is observed to occur in the cell walls on freezing. Subboundaries between primary, secondary, and tertiary branches are observed in dendritic growth. A special case is cited in which cellular growth suppresses the formation of striations. SMALL, well-defined pits have been observed to form on the surfaces of electropolished aluminum specimens during cooling from elevated temperatures.' This phenomenon was attributed to the condensation, from supersaturated solution, of vacancies at particular points on the surface. It was shown that the amount of cooling required for the formation of pits increased exponentially with decreasing holding temperatures in a way that was consistent with the thesis that a critical supersaturation of vacancies was required for the pits to form. Pits do not form in the vicinity of certain imperfections, namely, subgrain or normal graind boundaries, phase boundaries, certain surface irregularities, and pores. The width of the pit-free region increases with decreasing cooling rate. This observation suggests that the imperfections in question are effective sinks for vacancies and that the pit-free region around them is material that is not sufficiently supersaturated with respect to vacancies to nucleate the surface pits during cooling.

Jan 1, 1962

By F. R. Hensel

THE absorption of oxygen by molten metals is a quick and convincing method to determine the metallurgical characteristics of various types of furnaces.1 The investigation was restricted to the use of coreless induction furnaces. A major variable in induction furnace practice is the frequency and its influence was studied by comparing melts made in a 5000-cycle and a 60-cycle induction furnace respectively.2 The authors are not aware that such a comparative study has been made before and therefore present this paper in the belief that the results will be of general interest. ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR DETERMINATION OF OXYGEN IN NICKEL An analytical procedure for determining NiO by a quick and simple, laboratory method has been worked out in collaboration with Dr. Herty, of the Pittsburgh Station of the Bureau of Mines. It was found that Dr. Herty's aluminum method as used for the. determination of FeO in iron and steel was very suitable for use with nickel if instead of hydrochloric acid a 10 per cent solution of nitric acid is used for bringing the metal into solution. Essentially this method involves deoxidizing the nickel-oxygen alloy with aluminum (2Al + 3NiO = Al203 + 3Ni) and determining the resulting Al203 by a residue analysis. The original oxygen content can then be calculated from the amount of Al-20,. The method as suggested by Dr. Herty3 is referred to in the present paper as method B. A slight modification of method Bled to the application of method A, a description of which is given below according to F. W. Beiter?:3

Jan 1, 1932

By H. J. Wasson, E. B. Hopkins

Throughout 1928, production of oil from Venezuela steadily increased, and at the close of the year, the output was at the rate of nearly 400,000 bbl. a day. The total for the year was approximately 106,500,000 bbl., representing an increase of about 66 per cent. over the 63,000,000 bbl. produced in 1927. Venezuela now stands next to the United States as the second largest oil-producing country in the world; and there is abundant evidence to suggest that this relationship will endure for a number of years. Reserves were notably increased in the Lake shore fields, and the potential output of the Maracaibo Basin is much greater than the current production. In spite of this, the percentage of production increase was comparatively moderate, and the rate of this increase continued to fall off slightly, as has been the case for the last three years. This does not suggest that further annual increases in Venezuelan output will not materialize; only that the rate of these increases appears to be on the decline, and that with every succeeding year the future tendency will be in the direction of a stabilized level of output. The following table shows the production trend of the country since 1925: 1925 increase over 1924, 132 per cent. 1926 increase over 1925, 80 per cent. 1927 increase over 1926, 75 per cent. 1928 increase over 1927, 66 per cent. Many factors will work to prevent a reversal of this trend, but the principal ones are strong ownership in large-acreage units, and the probable indisposition of the world market to absorb a more rapidly increasing Venezuelan output at prices profitable to the producers. The distress oil element is not a factor in Venezuela; also, any unforeseen jump, such as results in the United States from the discovery of a Seminole or a deep sand at Long Beach, or Santa Fe Springs, is impossible in Venezuela, on account of lack of means for transporting a sudden surplus of oil, and the slowness with which additional transportation equipment in the form of shallow-draft tankers can be obtained.

Jan 1, 1929

By O. U. Bradley

The extent of losses, due to evaporation, sediment, and water, in crude oil stored in steel tanks, is a very interesting question, and particularly so at this time, when every reasonable measure should be employed to eliminate all possible losses of this important natural product. Available information on this subject is incomplete; e.g., during the development of the Cushing Field, considerable surplus oil was stored in steel tanks, but from time to time, owing to changes in weather, some losses by evaporation and short storage room on the leases, these tanks were topped out, thus rendering inaccurate any system designed to determine the average rate of evaporation or other losses of the oil over a given period. Furthermore, the losses, as shown by the records at the time, as a result of hasty gages, failed to take into account the temperature and gravity of the oil. Losses may be classified roughly as occurring from evaporation, presence of sediment and water, and leakage. The coefficient of expansion and contraction of crude oil, in relation to temperature conditions, is of material importance; also, the rate of evaporation is dependent upon the gravity of the oil, as the escape of the lighter hydrocarbons in fresh Cushing oil, of from 40 to 42 gravity, on a warm day is considerable, and from available records of temporary storage, it is safe to assume that a loss of 1 to 11/2 per cent. in volume will easily occur in light crude oil of Cushing grade over a period of 6 months, including the summer season. The presence of sediment, water, and other impurities, in the oil will also cause more or less deterioration in quality, particularly when the fresh production is run direct from the gage tanks, or from the wells on the lease to steel storage, as is often the case when an oil field is being rapidly developed. The bad oil will settle to the bottom of the tanks and may be determined by thiefing and running a centrifuge test on the sample. The amount of water in the oil depends entirely on the conditions under which it is produced. Sometimes in large producing wells, with heavy gas pressure, some water may come in with the oil, particularly if the well has been drilled to the top of a water sand. Under these conditions, cut oil is often produced, which, if not settled out, is carried over into the steel tanks. The losses by leakage in steel tanks are difficult to determine, for

Jan 1, 1920

By H. M. Warrren

IN the past, steam engines were used in practically all cases for driving the machinery, in and about an anthracite breaker, and hence little or no accurate data were available as to the power requirements for starting and operating the individual machines, which make up the complete equipment. It was impossible to segregate the power necessary to drive each individual machine, first, because the equipment was driven in groups, and second, because it was impracticable to obtain graphic, integrated, or instantaneous records of the horsepower used. As a result of these conditions, it was found, when individual electric motors were applied to the various machines, that more accurate and complete data were needed in order to provide motors of the proper power and design for the particular services to be rendered. In order to obtain the desired information, the writers made and collected a number of tests, from time to time, on the individual motor drives in- electrically operated breakers, and as these tests have been of great value, it occurred to them that a paper giving the results might be of service to other engineers interested in similar installations. Table I shows the .results of these tests. All the motors tested were of the three-phase, 60-cycle, 440-volt, induction, squirrel-cage type, except a few, which, on account of size and starting conditions, were of the wound-rotor type. The instruments used in making these tests were: An integrating watt-hour meter, a graphic ammeter, and a graphic voltmeter. These instruments were connected in each motor circuit, and a record of a day's run of 9 hours was obtained from each machine. From these tests, the running light load, the average all-clay load, and the instantaneous peak readings in amperes, volts, and kilowatt input, were obtained. By means of the characteristic curves obtained from these motors at the factory, the power factor, the efficiency, and the horsepower output were calculated for each particular test. Starting tests were made by the brake-arm method, in which the torque in pounds was measured directly on a spring balance.

Jan 2, 1916

By F. C. Miller

The metallurgical fuel of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico has been a Veiny tardy member in the caravan of western industrial progress. The history of western coke has naturally been closely related to the development of the metallurgy of iron and steel and the precious metals, in the State of Colorado. It was at Leadville, with a population of 300 in 1877, that the Sentinel was published by Richard S. Allen. The Sentinel gave very full accounts of the various mineral discoveries at the new town of Leadville, which found their way to the more widely circulated journals of the East, and attracted the attention of many people. At the close of 1878, a census slowed a total of 5040 persons. The first smelter was established in 1877, at Malta, two miles from Leadville, by A. R. Meyer, but was not successful. It was succeeded by the Harrison Reduction Works, in 1878. The La Plata began with one furnace in June, 1878, and in 1879 had four furnaces in active operation. These furnaces used charcoal for fuel, and, because of hot tops, suffered a tremendous loss in lead and silver. This difficulty was overcome by the erection of 50 single-bank 10-ft. beehive ovens at Crested Butte, Colo., in 1880. The slack coal sent to these ovens was very pure, and yielded a coke carrying as little as 4.5 per cent. ash. Among the pioneers in the Leadville district were Grant, Eddy, James, Billings, Eiler, and Dickson. To these men the West owes the present expansion of its mining industry, and the erection of metallurgical processes for the treatment of precious metals. On Mar. 1, 1876, Pueblo was connected to the Atchison, Topeka & Sank Fe by the Pueblo & Arkansas Valley branch. The first smelter was erected in Pueblo by Mather and Geist. This modest plant grew into the immense Pueblo Smelting and Refining Co., now a part of the American Smelting and Refining Co. Coke for these small furnaces was made from unwashed Engleville coal, in 186 single-bank 12-ft. ovens at El Moro, in the Trinidad district, and it was not uncommon for the percentage of ash to exceed the percentage of fixed carbon in the coke. On Jan. 23, 1880, the Colorado Improvement Co. consolidated

Jan 1, 1920

The following paragraphs have been extracted from a recent publication of the U. S. Department of Commerce; Miscellaneous Series, No. 65, " German Trade' and the War, " which portrays the industrial, commercial and economic conditions of Germany, at the present time, and has been compiled largely from sources published in Germany. Iron and Steel The Krupp company, the greatest of the German munition works, was faced at the outbreak of the War with the disappearance of its great international business, but this was amply compensated by orders from Germany and her allies, and the activity of the company has been greatly extended. The general meeting of December 1914, voted an increase in the capital to 250,000,000 marks. The gross profits of the company, amounting to 61,900,000 marks in 1912-13, have been more than doubled during the war. The gross profits were 128,260,000 marks in 1914-15 and 143,360,000 in 1915-16. Large sums have been written off; 10,000,000 marks have been placed in the pension fund during the war, and 5,000,000 were appropriated for workmen's dwellings in 1915. Thirteen million marks have been devoted to war assistance in the last three years. The assets of the company were valued at 967,000,000 marks at the end of 1916. For the year 1916-17, the company paid a dividend of only 10 per cent., but set aside 85,425,000 marks for depreciation. The Bismarckhütte in Upper Silesia, capitalized at 16,000,000 marks, with a bonded indebtedness of 7,907,500 marks in 1913-14, reported 3,912,000 marks of net revenue from operation for that year. During the three years of war the revenue increased successively to 8,077,000, 11,805,000, and 16,994,000 marks. While the capital remained unchanged, and the bonded indebtedness was but slightly reduced, the dividends paid during the last four years were increased from 9 per cent. in 1913-14 to 15, 25, and 30 per cent. during the war. During the year 1916-17 the amount written off, chiefly on the works and plant account, was 10,553,000 marks, or nearly as much as the total set aside during the three preceding years. The turnover for that year reached a sum many times the amount of the capital. At the end of 1916 the company's shares were quoted at 275, as against 144 at the end of 1913.

Jan 8, 1918

By Wilson B. Emery

The Hidden Dome gas field, situated in Washakie County, Wyoming, was discovered Sept. 26, 1917. Subsequently five additional gas wells were completed and a large reserve was developed. For a number of years this field completely supplied the domestic market at Basin and Greybull, as well as the refinery at the latter town, and it is still supplying gas in small amounts to this market. Production is obtained from the sands of the Frontier formation at depths ranging from 1000 to 1500 ft. The original rock pressure was 725 Ib. and initial production ranged from 4,000,000 to 28,000,000 cu. ft. per day per well. Porosity of the sand, determined from the size of the productive area and the amount of gas recovered, is over 18 per cent. Area and Management It is estimated that the productive area is about 640 acres. Its outline is indicated on Fig. 5, on which are also shown the locations of holes drilled on the structure and the area of unit operation. The unit area is owned by the Ohio Oil Co. and development and operation have been by this company. No productive well has been completed outside this area. The entire area was Government land filed on under the placer mining law. Results of Unit Operation With six producing wells, or an average of one to each 160 acres, the pool is completely developed. Location of the wells was made with respect to structural conditions plus the requirement that at least one well be drilled on each 160-acre placer claim. Perhaps a somewhat more uniform spacing of the wells might have been accomplished and one well eliminated, but it must be borne in mind that the holes, on account of their shallow depth, were not expensive and that the object was to develop as reliable a reserve as possible. There is no cause to suspect that these holes have not adequately drained the reservoir and there is every reason to think that any additional wells, which might have been drilled under diversified ownership and operation, would have been an economic waste. Unit operation by a competent company has not only resulted in the elimination of loss of gas through careless development and operation

Jan 1, 1930

By C. Stansfield Hitchen

The paper describes the application of the logarithmic wedge sector method of quantitative spectrography to the estimation of commonly occurring minor impurities in crude and refined tin. Both arc and spark methods of emission were employed and with the former a new device was used to overcome difficulties arising from the low melting point of the metal. The impurities investigated included antimony, arsenic, bismuth, copper, iron, lead, and zinc, their concentrations lying, in general, between 0.01 and 0.50 per cent. The results obtained show that the method may be usefully employed for the estimation of bismuth, copper, iron, lead, and zinc, in amounts ranging from 0.50 per cent to well below 0.01 per cent. Arsenic and antimony, however, could not be estimated in amounts less than 0.03 and 0.07 per cent respectively. Out of a total of 116 estimations by arc and spark emission, in 96 the errors were less than 5 per cent of the total quantity of the element present, whereas in the remaining twenty, the errors lay between 5 and 25 per cent. Spectro-analytical data for the several impurities studied are given in the form of tables, and curves correlating line-intensity with concentration have also been included. DISCUSSION (R. G. Waltenberg presiding) D. M. Smith, London, England (written discussion).—I am interested in Dr Hitchen's account of his investigations on the application of spectrographic methods to the assay of tin and congratulate him on his valuable contribution to the literature on the subject of quantitative spectrum analysis. Some of the results obtained in the course of investigations carried out for the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Assn., although obtained under somewhat different experimental conditions, may be of interest in connection with this paper. Arc and spark spectra of standard samples of tin containing various known amounts of antimony, bismuth, cadmium, copper, lead, silver and arsenic have been investi-

Jan 1, 1933

By Herbert H. Uhlig

A STUDY of passivity in chromium-iron alloys holds considerable interest, both because of the present-day practical importance of the stainless steels, and because of the scientific importance attached to the mechanism of their corrosion resistance. Upon the discovery of the passive chromium-iron alloys in 1912, it seemed logical to attribute the observed phenomenal corrosion resistance to a thin, continuous, protective reaction product on the surface. The product was thought to be Cr2O3 or a similar oxide containing both chromium and iron. This mechanism seemed likely in view of Michael Faraday's conjecture that passive iron is not reactive in concentrated nitric acid because of an oxide on the metal surface.† Since 1912, data have accumulated that permit a further exploration into the nature of passivity and provide a new approach to the problem. A summary of the facts lends considerable weight to a mechanism based not on physical protection of an oxide or similar compound, although such compounds may be present on the surface, but to a change in tendency of surface metal atoms to react chemically. This change in reaction tendency is ascribed to chemisorbed films that effectively satisfy residual valence forces of the metal surface, but do not appreciably disturb the positions of metal atoms in the lattice. In other words, formation of a new lattice such as that of an oxide is not a necessary condition for this type of passivity. The decreased reaction tendency of the metal by reason of chemisorbed films can thereby account for low reaction rates of the stainless steels in many media, as well as a noble galvanic potential as is observed. Substances capable of adsorbing on the stainless steels, and hence accompanying the property of passivity, are typically oxygen, nitrites or chromates, but are not in any sense limited to these. Other elements and compounds can also chemisorb, and therefore may also play a major part in the mechanism of passivity in specific media. The mechanism of passivity based on chemisorption or activated adsorption begins with the interpretation Langmuir proposed for his experiments concerning adsorbed oxygen on tungsten.1 He found that adsorbed oxygen was tightly bound, remaining on the tungsten surface above temperatures at which WO3 rapidly volatilizes. The oxygen in such a state did not readily react with hydrogen even at

Jan 1, 1947