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By J. L. Gregg, J. L.

RECENTLY there has been considerable interest in the production and use of extra hard alloys composed primarily of tungsten and carbon. Dr. Hoyt's recent paper1 gives a good description of these alloys and describes their performance when used as tools. There are a number of these alloys on the market sold under various trade names, and it is the purpose of this paper to describe the results of an investigation of the structure of five of these alloys by means of microscopic and X-ray methods. The samples studied were in the form of small tools or wire-drawing dies, which were either purchased or supplied as samples. They were in some cases not supplied by the original makers but were furnished by the agents in this country, and we wish to call attention to the fact that they may not be truly representative of the materials supplied under the various trade names. No performance data are given and no inference as to the inferiority of one alloy as against any other is made. K. Schröter2 recently described methods for polishing alloys of this type for microscopic examination and has presented photomicrographs of several alloys. However, he did not identify their constituents or describe methods for their identification.

Jan 1, 1929

By R. F. Shurtz

The problem of estimating the precision of systematic samples from a mineral deposit is attacked by interpolating the quality, or other attribute measured, by using Fourier approximation. Such approximation using trigonometric functions yields a particularly simple expression for the variance of the mean value of the attribute sampled. The increasing volume of publication in which the science of statistics has been applied to the problem of predicting the quality of an ore deposit from sets of samples taken from it might lead one to believe that engineering judgment can be replaced by statistics. There is, in fact, an implicit application of the principle of indifference or of "no advance knowledge" which has been discredited in modern statistical theory and practice. These pages will show that it is not always advantageous, efficient, or safe to apply this principle. This problem will be dealt with by using series of orthonormal functions to describe the distribution of the quality of ore in space as contrasted with the more commonly used distribution of quality as a frequency function. Mining engineers are rarely well acquainted with the use of such series or of the functions comprising them. These uses are commonplace in the fields of communication and information theory and it is not surprising that applications taken from these fields should be found appropriate for the analysis of the information contained in a set of samples from an ore deposit. It is hoped that presentation of the following basic, but incomplete, results will generate wider interest in this method and a fuller development of it as well as of the necessary computational techniques. FUNDAMENTAL PREMISES Random variables in the strictest sense are not very common in mine sampling. The sets of samples are almost always taken systematically and are, hence, not subject to all the laws governing random events. Therefore, unless there is indeed random experimental error in the determinations of quality, the treatment of systematic samples of n members as though they were random samples of n members often leads to calculation of confidence limits for the mean quality which are larger than they should be with the result that unnecessary additional sampling is done. The reason for this will emerge in the following discussion leading to Eq. 24 and its generalization. In order to inquire into such questions on a rigorous basis and at the same time avoid arithmetic complications that would obscure the concepts involved, a one dimensional distribution of quality will be assumed. The quality, Q, in suitable units is expressed as a function of the distance, x, along some straight traverse of the deposit. Such a function

Jan 1, 1967

By A. W. Peake, F. O. Prior

Considering the great advance in the development and application of electricity, it is not strange that eventually a big field for its use has been found in oil-field operations. So far as is known, the first electric drive in oil-field operations was in the Russian field of Baku in 1900. The first application in this country was made by the South Penn Oil Co. near Folsom, West Va. in 1903. In 1916, electric power was first used in the Burma fields of India for drilling and pumping. Between 1916 and 1922, The Empire Gas & Fuel Co. made the first large electrical installation in the Mid-Continent fields. But although the first application was made 27 years ago, it is only within the last 10 years that oil companies have begun to look upon its use with much favor. Within the last few years, there has been a steady increase in the use of electricity in the oil fields. The first application of electricity for oil-field operations in Wyoming was in the Lander field in 1919; the second was in 1924 in Salt Creek; and the third, and last to date, was made by the Continental Oil Co. in the Big Muddy field during 1926. Lander Field The electrification of oil-field operations in Wyoming was initiated by J. W. Steele, superintendent of the Producers & Refiners Oil Corpn., in the Lander field in 1919. At that time, 32 wells were being pumped from five band-wheel powers, with oil engines as the prime movers. Eight barrels of fuel oil were used for power per day and at the price of 90 c. per bbl. the fuel bill was $36 per day. It was decided to try a 15 to 35-hp. oil-field motor on one of these powers. Electric power was generated with steam at the old Wind River refinery station. This test was so successful that in 1920 all five powers were equipped with 15 to 35-hp. oil-field motors, the power being obtained from the Sinks Canyon hydroelectric station. Four of these powers pumped wells at an average depth of 1450 ft., and the fifth pumped wells at an average of 2100 ft. In 1920, the average production per day from the 32 wells was 325 bbl. The power bill on the

Jan 1, 1928

By J. Th. Erb

Oil is found in commercial quantities in the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Tarakan and Ceram. The oil deposits of the Dutch East Indies and Sarawak are with one exception of Tertiary origin and as a rule are bound to anticlinal structures. The number of layers varies in most fields and in some of them asmuch as 14 oil-producing levels have been established. The crude oil varies rather much in composition. Some of it, particularly from North and South Sumatra, has a gasoline content up to 50 Per cent. Borneo produces mainly wax oil, while the Tarakan oil can be used directly as liquid fuel. In Java both wax and wax-free oil are produced. ' In all important fields installations have been erected to treat the wet gas. The lean gas is used for gas-lift purposes, Marietta process, and as fuel for boilers and motors, either in the fields or in the refineries. Formerly only percussion systems (Canadian, Californian and a drilling system devised especially for the purposes of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Concern) were applied in the Dutch East Indies, but in recent years the rotary system has been predominant and good results have been obtained with it. The deepest producer has recently been struck in South Sumatra at a depth of 1624 m. (5328 ft.), with a daily production of about 350 cu. m. crude oil. The crude is brought by an extensive system of trunk lines to the refineries, of which one is in North Sumatra (Pangkalan Brandan), two arc in South Sumatra near the town of Palembang, two in East ,Java (Tjepoe and Wonokromo), one in East Borneo (Balik Papan) and one in Sarawak (Miri). Production The principal producing concerns in the 'East Indies are: De Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, the producing subsidiary of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Concern; Sarawak Oilfields Ltd., one of the

Jan 1, 1929

By Alfred H. Bell

Drilling activity in the eastern interior coal basin, which includes Illinois, southwestern Indiana and western Kentucky, decreased greatly in 1931. Only 521 wells were drilled as compared with 1438 in 1930.' The decline in oil production (Fig. 1) was due partly to the failure of new production to make up for the natural decline of the old wells and partly to artificial curtailment of production to meet a decreased demand. During the year prices trended sharply downward until July, after which they made a partial recovery (Fig. 2). The average price of Illinois crude, which is the same as that for southwestern Indiana, was $0.852 per barrel in 1931 as compared with $1.616 in 1930, or slightly more than one-half. The cost of drilling has declined only slightly. The 25 per cent curtailment of production which was adopted by agreement of the southeastern Illinois operators on Sept. 1, 1930, ended on June 3, 1931. It was effective for five months in 1931 as compared with four months in 1930. The outlook for 1932 is for drilling activity in the whole area to continue at about the same rate or to decrease somewhat unless it is stimulated by a substantial rise in crude oil prices or by the discovery of extensive new productive territory. Discoveries of new productive areas and new sands during the year were few. A new gas area was discovered early in the year in Busseron township, Knox County, Indiana, in which the producing sand is in the Pennsylvanian at depths of 630 to 730 ft. The wells had a total initial open-flow capacity of 7 or 8 million cubic feet per day but are shut in for lack of marketing facilities. An exceptionally large gas well which was drilled in Gibson County between Oakland City and Francisco reached a total depth of 1490 ft. and produced from the Brown sand of Chester age. The initial open-flow capacity was reported as 13 million cubic feet per day. In western Kentucky a number of extensions to oil and gas-producing areas are reported. The most active drilling campaign was in Hart County, where 124 wells were drilled, most of them in the

Jan 1, 1932

By James Terry Duce

The gross production on the Island of Sahreirl during 1944 was approximately 6,700,000 U. S. bbl. No additional wells were drilled in the field during the year, but a number that were plugged off during the critical days of the war were brought back on production. This work is continuing. The construction of the extension of the refining plant was continued during the year and the new crude still was started in November. In Arabia, the production for the year 1940 was 5,074,838 U. S. bbl. Four wells were completed in Dammam field and all were commercial producers. Production for 1941 was 4,310,110 U. S. bbl. Seven more commercial producing wells were completed in Dammam field, and Well No. I at Abqaiq was complcted at 6180 ft. and was also a commercial producer. In 1942 production was 4,530,492 U. S. bbl. Abqaiq No. 2 was drilled to 5785 ft. but was left standing because of mechanical difficulty. The 1943 production was 4,868,- 184 with one well drilled, Abqaiq No. 3 completed at 6488 ft. and a commercial producer. Total production in Arabia for the year 1944 was around 7,800,000 U. S. bbl. and at the close of the year was running at approximately 40,000 bbl. per day. The small refinery, built in 1939, at Ras Tanura was in operation in the fall and a new refinery is being constructed. Only three wells were completed during the year—the El Jauf well in Northern Arabia (completed at 10,974 ft.) which did not bring in commercial production and Wells No. 4 (completed at 6270 ft.) and No. 5 at Abqaiq (completed at 6751 ft.), which were brought in as substantial commercial producers. Production for the year was entirely from the Dammam field. In this field, some of the wells that had been plugged off early in the war were brought back in production and this work is continuing. At the close of the year, one well was drilling in the Abqaiq field and an additional well was drilling at Qatif, the latter being a wildcat. Neither of the wells in question had reached producing horizons on the first of January.

Jan 1, 1945

By P. Duwez, C. B. Jordan

The phenomenon of the change of volume of pressed powder compacts upon sintering is well known in the field of powder metallurgy. Depending upon the metal or metals involved and the pressure used in forming, a compact may, in the course of time of sintering at a given temperature, expand mono-tonically, contract monotonically, or first show a volume change of one sign followed by a change of the opposite sign. It is clearly desirable to have accurate knowledge of the magnitude and sign of the change in dimensions to be expected in any given case, both from the point of view of direct usefulness in the fabrication of parts by powder metallurgy, and from the longer range viewpoint of elucidating the fundamental mechanism of metallic sintering. The present study was therefore undertaken as a first step in acquiring systematic and reasonably quantitative knowledge of the change in density of metal powder compacts during sintering. For practical reasons, copper was selected as the material to be studied first, and its densification followed as a function of temperature and time of sintering in hydrogen and in vacuum. Experimental Procedure The copper powder used was that designated by the manufacturer (Metals Disintegrating Co., Elizabeth, N. J.) as MD-151. This powder was sifted through Tyler standard screens to separate the fraction having particle size range between 200 mesh and 325 mesh, and this fraction was used in all the subsequent work. Compacts weighing about 10 g were then pressed in a 1 in. diam round die, using a pressure of 20,000 psi throughout. Sintering was carried out in commercially built electric furnaces in which the resistance windings are so disposed as to produce a nearly uniform temperature along the axis of the furnace for a length of about 18 in. centrally located. In order to be able to sinter in a controlled atmosphere, a 2 in. stainless steel tubing was inserted in the furnace. Each end of the tube was cooled by a water jacket about 7 in. long, and closed with a rubber stopper. The hydrogen used for one series of specimens was purified as described in Ref. 1. For the other set, a pressure of about 0.5 mm Hg was maintained during sintering by a Welch Duo-Seal Pump. The specimens were heated on square trays made of stainless steel. In placing specimens in the trays, a thin even layer of powdered aluminum oxide was first sprinkled on the bottom of the tray. A copper guard disk about half the thickness of the specimen was then placed in the tray and covered with a second layer of alumina. The actual specimen was then set on the guard disk, and a final coat of alumina sprinkled over the specimen. This technique was evolved for sintering the specimens in such a way as to reduce the influence of unknown extraneous factors to a minimum. If the specimen is placed directly on the tray and sintered, it is found that the resulting shape is that of a frustum of a cone, rather than a section of a right circular cylinder, since friction with the tray prevents the bottom of the specimen from contracting at the same rate as the top. In the arrangement used in these experiments, the guard disk provided a support which shrank at the same rate as the specimen, and the alumina powder reduced to a minimum friction between guard disk and tray, and between specimen and guard disk. The procedure followed in sintering consisted of bringing the furnace to the required temperature, and then inserting the specimen into the central heated portion of the furnace tube in one of the two atmospheres used. At the end of the heating period, the specimen was cooled by bringing it into a portion of the furnace surrounded by a water jacket. These manipulations were carried out without opening the furnace, by means of rods which were attached to the trays and operated through a sliding seal in the rubber stopper. The progress of densification of the copper compacts was studied at 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, and 1800°F. At each of these temperatures, a specimen was allowed to sinter for each of the following time intervals: M, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 hr. The thickness and diameter of each specimen were measured with micrometers before and after sintering, and each was weighed on an analytical balance after sintering. Results The techniques described in the preceding section were found to give satisfactory results. The specimens were not detectibly warped after sintering, and were usually of uniform diameter (that is, truly round) to within 0.001 in., a very few showing a variation in diameter of ±0.002 in. All specimens were found to have the same diameter

Jan 1, 1950

By Carl M. Fellman

LABOR disputes caused considerable turbulence in the coal mining industry during 1946. As an outcome of these disputes, a definitely fundamental change in safety procedure was instituted: establishment of safety regultions for coal mines through the agency of agreements between the miners' union and the agency or agencies operating the coal mines. Although a temporary plan at present, the future will determine the. extent to which it may become permanent. Notwithstanding the turmoil in the industry extending through much of the year, the safety record for the first eleven months of 1946 was the best in the history of the industry for that period. The fatality rate for 1946 is lower than in any other year in the history of coal mining in the United States. This follows a pattern inasmuch as new low coal-mine fatality records were also made in 1945, 1944, and 1943. The five-year period 1942 to 1946 inclusive has a coal-mining fatality rate far lower than any other five-year period in the history of the industry. It is significant that this period exactly coincides with the operation of Federal coal mine inspection which got under way early in 1942.

Jan 1, 1947

By E. T. Dumble

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) THE history of the several petroleum deposits of Texas and Mexico, or of the sediments in which they now occur, if the deposits are not indigenous to such sediments, is known in a general way only, but it nevertheless casts strong light on the conditions surrounding them and is of great importance in the search for and exploitation of then. The petroleum deposits of Texas are separable into two main divisions: 1. The deposits of northwestern Texas, which are directly connected with the Oklahoma fields to the north, and have no representatives at all in the Mexican area. 2. The deposits of the coastal area, which extend into Louisiana on the east and connect with those of the Mexican coast to the south. Early in the Pennsylvanian period a series of bituminous shales and limestones were laid crown over a broad area in Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. These are known as the Bend series in Texas, the Caney shales in Oklahoma, and the Fayetteville beds in Arkansas. Following their deposition an uplift occurred, forming the Lampasas geanticlinal, which runs northeastward from the old Paleozoic land area of the Llano region toward Red River. The Bend series is petroliferous in places and has furnished a few producing wells on each side of the Lampasas uplift. This uplift forms the barrier and. dividing line between the two divisions of the Texas petroleum deposits. To the west of it, in waters which were the southern extension of the interior continental seas, in connection with the sediments and coal beds of the Pennsylvanian and Permian, great quantities of petroleum were deposited either as oil or as "potential petroleum." These sediments have been subject to very slight disturbance, and only very gentle folds. are found, with no signs of volcanic action in any part of the area. The conditions, therefore, indicate that the greater part, if not all, of the oil in this area is indigenous to the beds in which it is found.

Jan 8, 1915

By B. C. Craft

The outstanding event of the year 1932 in this area was the intensive drilling activity in the Zwolle field of Sabine Parish, Louisiana. More new development work was undertaken and completed than during the previous year. This was due in part to the increased price of oil and in a Includes 19 parishes: Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Catn-houla, Claiborne, Concordia, DeSoto, Grant, Lincoln, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Ouachita, Red River, Richland, Sabine, Union, Webster. B H. K. Shearer: Oil and Gas Development in South Arkansas, North Louisiana and Mississippi in 1931. Trans. A. I. M. E. (1932) 98, 159. a Includes 14 counties: Ashley, Columbia, Dallas, Drew, Hot Springs, Lincoln, LnFayette, Little River, Miller, Ouachita, Pike, Sevier, Scott and Union. * H. K. Shearer: Oil and Gas Development in South Arkansas, North Louisiana and Mississippi in 1931. Trans. A. I. M. E. (1932) 98, 159. part to the fact that production is below local market demands. Exploration during 1932 resulted in the discovery of a new oil field and a new gas

Jan 1, 1933

By K. P. Sinha, J. F. Schatz, T. F. Borschel, S. Demou

Triaxial creep behavior of oil shale was investigated in the laboratory at simulated in-situ conditions. A range of temperature and stress conditions were chosen to represent those within the inter-chamber pillars of a modified in-situ retorting operation. Oil shale in grades up to 60 gallons per ton have been tested. Experimental data and a constitutive model have been presented here.

Jan 1, 1982

By Lewis Reeve

As part of a program of investigation of the properties of electric arc welds carried out in the laboratories of the A. 0. Smith Corporation, considerable work has been done on the determination of the oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen content of different types of weld metal, employing for this purpose the so-called "vacuum fusion method." It is the purpose of this paper to describe certain improvements that have been introduced in this method of determining the gas content of metals, with particular references to the steel specimens examined in this investigation. The method and apparatus used at the beginning of the investigation were essentially those of the Bureau of Standards as described by Vacher and Jordan.' Later a number of changes were introduced which resulted in more rapid evacuation of the graphite crucibles employed and which enabled larger volumes of gas to be dealt with than could be handled conveniently in the Bureau of Standards equipment. In addition, the analyzing of the gases evolved from a melt in the same apparatus as collected was abandoned in favor of analysis outside the equipment using standard methods of gas analysis. The time required for gas analysis in the apparatus itself, as described by the Bureau of Standards, was found to be considerable, and during this time the rest of the equipment was tied up, preventing its use for the analysis of further steel samples. As a result of the modifications introduced, the time required for the analysis of a steel sample for gas content was reduced from about 8 hours to less than 3 hours. Subsequently, the whole procedure of melting the sample and collecting the gases evolved was modified so as to enable a distinction to be drawn between the easily reducible oxides such as iron oxide and the more stable oxides such as silica and alumina. At the same time evidence was obtained indicating the probable existence in the steels of other nitrides than those of iron alone and making possible their quantitative etermination.

Jan 1, 1934

By R. Taggart, G. R. Purdy

DURING a study of the tempering of ß-quenched alloys of cobalt in titanium, parallel lines were observed crossing certain faces of retained-ß crystals in the early stages of tempering, Fig. 1. The lines closely resemble stress-induced martensite' or substructures attributed to clusters of faults in titanium-nickel2 and copper-silicon3 alloys. The markings were observed only in intensely etched quenched and tempered alloys having compositions ranging from 4.5 pct* Co (the composi- formed by the lines was reproduced upon repolishing and reetching. Close metallographic examination indicated that the markings were troughs, Fig. 2, and that the characteristic surface substructure persisted within the troughs. The occurrence of the troughs was associated with the age hardening reaction due to the metastable u) phase (previously reported in titanium-cobalt alloys by Raub and Beeskow4 and indicated in this work by the broadening of 0 diffraction peaks and by hardnesses approaching 600 Dph). The troughs

Jan 1, 1961

By R. C. Corson

Modern microprocessor systems make it possible to use several variables to anticipate changes in the process and to react with responses before upsets can be magnified by the process or by control action. Through tighter control, "insurance" can be eliminated from process set points without affecting product quality. In actual operation with a traveling grate furnace this control philosophy has produced savings of up to 20% in fuel consumption and 8% in fan power usage while producing a more consistent quality product.

Jan 1, 1984

By John V. Beall

The forecast of continued growing demand for phosphate, chiefly for fertilizer, has caused a world-wide rush for deposits by a variety of companies many of which have never before mined phosphate rock. The newcomers are diversifying into this growth industry on the strength of certain capabilities. Among these are the availability of investment capital, mining or processing know-how and marketing experience. Product tie-ins have motivated some into the search. Companies with excess sulfuric acid or potential for making it are in this category. This acid is the most commonly used for dissolving phosphate rock to make phosphoric acid. Base metal smelting companies are prime candidates in this field with by-product acid from roasting processes. Producers of "sweet" natural gas, such as those in Louisiana and Texas, have a potential for recovering low cost hydrogen from excess gas production for the manufacture of ammonia, the main source of nitrogen for fertilizer. "Sour" gas producers, such as those in the Canadian fields, are making sulfuric acid that is combined with western U.S. phosphate to make fertilizer materials. The presence of one or two steel companies in the look-see for phosphate deposits is based on by-product ammonia from coke-oven gas.

Jan 10, 1966

By D. Harrington

During the past few years, there has been a trend toward the use of rock-dusting, rather than relying on humidifying, or the use of water, to limit or prevent explosions in the coal mines of the United States. This is partly because British coal mines have adopted rock-dusting and, at least in a sense, have condemned the use of water. Moreover, during the past few years, particularly in the latter part of 1922 and in 1923 and 1924, several explosions with heavy loss of life occurred in coal mines of the United States that were known to have more or less extended sprinkling, or humidifying, systems. The sentiment created by these disasters quickly caused a distrust of explosion-prevention methods requiring use of water and simultaneously caused more or less of a stampede into rock-dusting. Much of the wholesale condemnation of watering methods was without adequate knowledge, or at least without adequate consideration, of local conditions in each case, and rock-dusting was adopted largely without sufficient knowledge of how to rock dust safely or correctly. However, mines that had been using watering methods and had suffered these recent serious disasters (notably Dolomite, Dawson, and Castle Gate) instead of abandoning the use of water when operations were resumed after the disaster, greatly extended their watering systems. At the same time they took other precautions as to electricity, ventilation, blasting, etc., and supplemented the watering system with rock-dusting where the latter was likely to be the more effective. The trend toward rock-dusting during the past year or two (succeeding the recent mine disasters) is very similar to the rapid movement toward watering, or humidifying, methods, about 1910 to 1912, after a series of disastrous mine explosions. The Phelps-Dodge Corpn., which operates a large property at Daw-son, N. M., after an explosion in its No. 1 mine in February, 1923, decided that it is dangerous to have all its "explosion-prevention eggs in one basket" and so adopted what may now be termed the Western coalmine explosion-prevention system, in which both rock-dusting and watering are used, supplemented by other up-to-date mining methods and practices; such as exclusive use of modern electric safety lamps, with magnetically locked flame safety lamps for testing purposes; use of

Jan 1, 1925

By Richard Moldenke

So far as the quality of the product is concerned, the history of the production of pig iron for foundry purposes is one of constant retrogression. The steps in this deterioration began with cold-blast charcoal pig iron, then anthracite iron, coke iron; then gradually warm to hot-blast coke iron, with the charcoal furnaces also heating their blast to get greater tonnages, and finally the present-day hot-blast coke irons with scrap additions to the ordinary burden that, according to one European report, have gone as high as 65 per cent. Parallel with this quality retrogression is the enormous increase in furnace tonnages from about 15 to over 1000 tons per day in excep tional instances of modern practice. The key to this situation is economic pressure. The effect is a growing differentiation between furnace production for gray iron and malleable foundries and for the production of commercial steel. As the foundry is often compelled to draw upon the pig irons made for steel purposes, for economic reasons, whereas the steel industry does not draw upon foundry pig irons proper, the situation is resolving itself into one of grave consequence for the life of the gray-iron castings industry, and hence the intensive present-day feeling in foundry circles for rigid specifications to govern the quality of pig irons sold for foundry use. In the discussion of a paper on the use of scrap in the blast furnace held recently in the Institute, a very pertinent remark was made by one of the participating furnacemen, who confessed that "the things found wrong by the foundryman with his iron were beyond his depth." It may be added that those things are also beyond the depth of most foundrymen who, however, know from their results that they are getting poorer castings today with many pig irons than they did with those same brands in former years. Under the former fracture buying, the foundryman at least could select the strongest metal, as judged by the sledge, from various brands of similar fracture and pig section, and his results proved

Jan 1, 1927

By A. A. Scheil, S. I. Hoyt

In technological studies on steel considerable emphasis has been placed on the identification of the foreign inclusions, testimony of which is adequately given in the metallographic literature covering methods for their identification. The outstanding accomplishment in this field is the scheme devised by Campbell, Comstock and Wohrman for identifying various oxides, sulfides, silicates and other constituents by systematic etching tests and microscopic examination.' The time involved in carrying out this procedure has led to attempts to secure quicker methods, or at least to shorten the time required to secure essential information. An example of this is the use of dark field illuminatin,2 but when this was tried out by the authors it was found that cavities and pits on the polished surface appeared bright on a dark field and could not be distinguished from small glassy inclusions. Still another means is the Leitz Ultropak, an instrument equipped with optical units for the illumination of the specimen by reflected light to secure an effect similar to dark field illumination. The structures are made visible in exceedingly sharp details by utilizing the inherent properties of the samples, such as refractive index, absorption coefficients and reflection powers. We have had no experience with the Ultropak, but a recent paper by Benedicks and Löfquist3 describes methods for determining the refractive index of (Fe, Mn) O and MnS by the use of this equipment. Presumably this method would be subject to about the same limitations as dark field illumination, though the, feature added by Benedicks and Löfquist appears to offer great promise in inclusion identification.

Jan 1, 1935

By A. A. Scheil, S. I. Hoyt

In technological studies on steel considerable emphasis has been placed on the identification of the foreign inclusions, testimony of which is adequately given in the metallographic literature covering methods for their identification. The outstanding accomplishment in this field is the scheme devised by Campbell, Comstock and Wohrman for identifying various oxides, sulfides, silicates and other constituents by systematic etching tests and microscopic examination.' The time involved in carrying out this procedure has led to attempts to secure quicker methods, or at least to shorten the time required to secure essential information. An example of this is the use of dark field illuminatin,2 but when this was tried out by the authors it was found that cavities and pits on the polished surface appeared bright on a dark field and could not be distinguished from small glassy inclusions. Still another means is the Leitz Ultropak, an instrument equipped with optical units for the illumination of the specimen by reflected light to secure an effect similar to dark field illumination. The structures are made visible in exceedingly sharp details by utilizing the inherent properties of the samples, such as refractive index, absorption coefficients and reflection powers. We have had no experience with the Ultropak, but a recent paper by Benedicks and Löfquist3 describes methods for determining the refractive index of (Fe, Mn) O and MnS by the use of this equipment. Presumably this method would be subject to about the same limitations as dark field illumination, though the, feature added by Benedicks and Löfquist appears to offer great promise in inclusion identification.

Jan 1, 1935

By A. H. Bell

The general principles of the gas-lift will not be described in this paper. Only specific details that have not been fully discussed in previous papers, or results that do not fully coincide with conditions previously described, will be dealt with. The principal points to be emphasized and for which supporting data are furnished are as follows: 1. Gas-lift installations usually have comparatively high efficiencies as compared with standard pumping equipment, when reduced to a basis of barrels produced per horsepower installed. 2. Advantages of high-pressure plants from the standpoint of operating efficiency and for the application of the gas-lift early in the life of flowing wells. 3. Evidence of increased ultimate yield through conservation of gas by the gas-lift. 4. Possibility of development of new equipment to increase efficiency of the gas-lift. 5. Indications of the advantages of repressuring as a means of stabilizing gas-lift wells and as a means of increasing ultimate yields. TyPes of Installation The gas-lift installations of the more important companies in California have been of the central-plant type wherever field conditions would permit. This has resulted in greater flexibility and lower installation costs per well than could be obtained with individual well units. In general discussions of the gas-lift method of production, the installation costs are frequently referred to as being too high for economical operation. If the field conditions are carefully analyzed and the plant designed with the idea of obtaining high operating efficiencies, the installation cost per well can be lowered sufficiently to compare favorably with individual well-pumping units, when the operating advantages are considered. Much greater production per horsepower can be obtained with the gas-lift than is possible with pumping equipment. Table 1 shows the unit sizes and costs of gas-lift installations of three companies in the Los Angeles basin. The cost of walking beams, rods,

Jan 1, 1928