Search Documents

By Donald E. Cummings

Measures appropriate for the control of the silicosis hazard in mining cannot be formulated precisely, but sufficient knowledge1-l9 has accumulated during the past quarter century to permit the suggestion of useful, though partly empirical, rules for its alleviation. The industrial hygienist today recognizes that the peril incurred by the inhalation of harmful dust is a function of two variable factors—the degree of harmful exposure and the specific susceptibility of the exposed individual to pulmonary injury. Control of the danger arising out of prolonged contact with pernicious airborne particulate matter is consequently best exercised by influencing both of these recognized variables. Obviously the problem has two broad aspects—one, medical; the other within the province of the engineer. I—Factors Comprising Degree of Individual Susceptibility Thorough investigations conducted among miners who have labored for years in the presence of recognized silicosis hazards usually reveal an impressive difference in the injury incurred by men whose exposure to dust has been nearly identical. After a quarter century underground, one individual is short of breath and incapacitated with miners' complaint, while a fellow workman suffers no pulmonary embarrassment and is in good health. Physicians ascribe this oft-observed difference in reaction to individual susceptibility and express a universal regret when they deplore the fate that chose to make the predisposed youth a miner rather than a farmer. To trust the health of miners to fate at the present time is even more unfortunate, because many of the factors that influence man's susceptibility to dust are known, and can be accurately determined by competent medical methods. Among the most important factors comprising susceptibility to injury by dust are the anatomical peculiarities of the individual's respiratory mechanism, his physiological response to the inhalation of dust, his previous dust, exposure, the existence of pulmonary infections or other pathological processes in his lungs, his age,

Jan 1, 1940

By Zay Jeffries

IT HAS been known for centuries that iron and steel could be hardened by cold hammering and that the metal could be restored to the normal condition by heating to a red heat and cooling either rapidly or slowly with nearly pure iron and slowly with steels containing considerable carbon. The art of tempering steels is also very old. When a medium- or high-carbon steel is quenched from a cherry-red heat, the hardness is increased; this hardness can be reduced by heating to various temperatures below the lower thermal critical point, which is near 700° C. The present paper will not consider these old and well-known changes in iron and steel below the thermal critical range but will confine itself to the more unusual changes, some of which have been studied recently. Stromeyer,1 for example, in 1886, reports that both working steel and heat treatment of steel in the blue-heat range are highly injurious. Recently, however, some metallurgists believe that the straightening of warped steel forgings at a blue heat produces a beneficial effect on the metal.2 The Engineering Division of the National Research Council has constituted a committee on Physical Changes -in Iron and Steel Below the Thermal Critical Range, which has the following personnel: R. R. Abbott, H. C. Boynton, William Campbell, J. V. Emmons, F. B. Foley, H. J. French, H. M. Howe, Zay Jeffries (chairman), F.C. Langenberg, J. A. Mathews, P. D. Merica, A. H. Miller, J. H. Nelson, G. A. Reinhardt, W. E. Ruder, H. F. Wood: This committee is studying several aspects of the physical changes in iron and steel. The results, reported in the literature and obtained by recent experimentation, will be given; this will be followed by a general theoretical discussion of the more important

Jan 2, 1920

By Donald E. Cummings

Measures appropriate for the control of the silicosis hazard in mining cannot be formulated precisely, but sufficient knowledge1-l9 has accumulated during the past quarter century to permit the suggestion of useful, though partly empirical, rules for its alleviation. The industrial hygienist today recognizes that the peril incurred by the inhalation of harmful dust is a function of two variable factors—the degree of harmful exposure and the specific susceptibility of the exposed individual to pulmonary injury. Control of the danger arising out of prolonged contact with pernicious airborne particulate matter is consequently best exercised by influencing both of these recognized variables. Obviously the problem has two broad aspects—one, medical; the other within the province of the engineer. I—Factors Comprising Degree of Individual Susceptibility Thorough investigations conducted among miners who have labored for years in the presence of recognized silicosis hazards usually reveal an impressive difference in the injury incurred by men whose exposure to dust has been nearly identical. After a quarter century underground, one individual is short of breath and incapacitated with miners' complaint, while a fellow workman suffers no pulmonary embarrassment and is in good health. Physicians ascribe this oft-observed difference in reaction to individual susceptibility and express a universal regret when they deplore the fate that chose to make the predisposed youth a miner rather than a farmer. To trust the health of miners to fate at the present time is even more unfortunate, because many of the factors that influence man's susceptibility to dust are known, and can be accurately determined by competent medical methods. Among the most important factors comprising susceptibility to injury by dust are the anatomical peculiarities of the individual's respiratory mechanism, his physiological response to the inhalation of dust, his previous dust, exposure, the existence of pulmonary infections or other pathological processes in his lungs, his age,

Jan 1, 1940

By James Aston

A proper consideration of this subject is not confined to the technical channels of production and metallurgy. It concerns an industry, and should cover economic aspects which are of material importance in any program of development. The discussion may logically be treated under three subdivisions, as follows: (1) manufacture, (2) characteristics related to quality of material; (3) adaptability and exploitation of product. Manufacture of Wrought Iron The manufacture of wrought iron is the most ancient art of the ferrous metal industry. The eighty years or less of existence of processes identified with our modern "Age of Steel" is a relatively brief interval compared with the several thousand years associated with the production of wrought iron by man. From the primitive early methods of production, manufacture for many centuries followed the line of direct reduction. There were developments as experience was gained through the years; but man's needs for a strong, ductile, forgeable product were met by reducing the ore to metallic iron in a single-stage operation. Following the development several centuries ago of what has become our modern blast-furnace operation, manufacture of wrought iron was gradually transformed into a two-stage method of first producing cast iron and then refining this to the desired degree of forgeability; the forerunner in principle of today's scheme of manufacture of steel. The product retained the essential characteristics of highly refined base metal with iron-silicate slag incorporation, which were associated with the material resulting from direct reduction methods. Cort's invention of the puddling process in 1784 is a landmark in wrought-iron manufacture. It consisted essentially in adapting a coal-fired reverberatory furnace to the refining operation; thus lifting the industry out of the slough of

Jan 1, 1935

By D. H. Newland

On the bulk basis New York's contribution to the production of oil is small, representing, as it does, a bare half of one per cent of the annual total for the United States. Yet it has more importance than is implied by such a statement. Petroleum includes a variety of organic compounds, some more and some less valuable. It would be a fairer estimate of the situation to say that New York in recent years has produced around 10 to 12 per cent on the average of all Pennsylvania grade oil, the supply of which is strictly limited and the demand steady even in times of overproduction of other grades. One may not infer from this that New York and other Appalachian states enjoy an independent position in the market with a price structure uninfluenced by that of the Mid-Continent, Gulf or California fields. On the other hand, the recent market demoralization in the South and West brought about by uncontrolled production caused prices to drop to a point where the life of the local industry was seriously threatened. The current cost of producing oil in New York under the methods of water-flooding, by which most of the output is now obtained, has been estimated by competent authority at not less than $2.50 a barrel. The

Jan 1, 1934

By Henry Howe

(New York Meeting, October, 1913.) The Equilibrium. Position of A 1.-Some of the most important data on this subject are collected in Table I. Definition of Ae 1-Just as we call A 1 of rising temperature Ac 1, and that of falling temperature Ar 1, so we may give the symbol Ae 1 to the equilibrium position of A 1. Preliminary Assumptions.-In deciding what weight to assign the various data, and indeed what data are to count, three assumptions should be made. These are: 1. The corollary from the phase rule, that the temperature of Ae 1 is constant and independent of the carbon content, though, of course, it may be changed by the presence of other elements. 2. That because neither in heating nor in cooling can the transformation begin before the temperature reaches Ae 1, though it may be delayed by lag till after the temperature has passed beyond Ae 1, therefore Ae 1 should be at or below the observed beginning of Ac 1 and at or above the observed beginning of Ar 1, and, a fortiori, it should be at or below the observed maximum of Ac 1, and at or above the observed maximum of Ar 1. It may be necessary to take these maxima into consideration in view of the experimental difficulty of detecting these beginnings.

Jan 6, 1913

By Y. P. Chugh, Rajiv Singh

This paper presents the feasibility analyses of terrace pit mining a single seam for depths beyond 33 m (110 feet) in a hypothetical model mine and at an operating mine in southern Illinois. One or two shovel- truck benches near the surface and a large dragline for the last bench are considered for overburden stripping in the proposed mining scheme. Mining and reclamation operations are integrated and reclamation efforts are minimized by proper spoiling techniques. The proposed mining scheme was optimized using the OPMHS (Open Pit Material Handling Simulator) model developed by Penn State. Equipment selection and economic analyses were also conducted using the simulation model. The effect of pertinent variables such as thickness of the coal seam, annual production, initial capital requirements, size of haul trucks, selling price of coal and expected rate of return were analyzed on the feasibility of terrace pit mining. Sensitivity analysis charts for the effect of these variables are presented in the paper.

Jan 1, 1983

By J. L. Schroeder, W. G. Talman

EXPERIENCE has shown that certain known natural conditions and other indefinite characteristics combine to make a mining area vulnerable to mountain bumps. Some of the known conditions are heavy overburden, an overlying stratum of strong non-elastic rock, a structurally strong coal seam that does not crush easily and yet is the weakest stratum in the series, and a floor stratum of more than ordinary firmness. The indefinite characteristics could include resistance of top or bottom of a coal seam to lateral flow, effect of immediate top and bottom strata, nature of the coal seam, and other factors about which very little is known. It is in this area that exhaustive study is needed to achieve positive control of the dreaded mountain bump hazard. In the Gary district, West Virginia, two of the five operating mines have areas known to be vulnerable to mountain bumps.These are the No. 2 and 6 mines, which are working the Pocahontas No. 4 coal seam. In this area the seam is overlain at a zero to 10-ft interval by the massive Eckman sandstone, which is about 100 ft thick in the vulnerable areas. Total overburden, consisting of shale, coal seams, and sandstones, ranges from 700 to 1400 ft where bumps have occurred (Fig. 1). The coal seam is 4 to 8 ft thick and has a weak columnar structure of very soft and spongy or woody coal. The immediate top is either the Eckman sandstone or hard shale, both of which provide generally good roof conditions for mining operations. The bottom ranges from medium to hard gray shale. The incidence of bumps in the Gary district dates from about 1930 and can be correlated to some degree with the increased rate of extraction attained with mechanical mining. During early years of operation at the No. 2 and 6 mines, most of the work was development and under comparatively light cover. As overburden became heavier, together with an increasing percentage of coal coming from pillar extraction, mountain bumps began to occur. Before 1945 they were much less severe than in later years, and because there were no injuries or fatalities, no records were kept. But by 1951 the incidence of bumps had increased to such extent that it became evident a mining system would have to be designed to eliminate or at least minimize these occurrences. Drawing on experience with modified versions of old systems and certain characteristics peculiar to the Pocahontas No. 4 coal seam, the district mining engineer, Martin Hayduk, outlined the essential factors for bump control in the Gary district. These control factors indicated: 1) The highly stressed area, which lies within the limits of convergence effects, moves at approximately the same rate as the retreating pillar line. 2) There is a decided softening of the periphery of blocks which is greatest and deepest on the gob side. 3) Blocks less than 45 ft wide never have been known to bump in the Pocahontas seams. Fig. 2 shows the mining plan based on these observations—a thin-pillar system with a minimum of secondary development. It was recognized from the start that the Hayduk system had certain limitations. When pillar work backed up to an inevitable surrounded block it was no longer applicable; also, burnt bottom and/or unknown factors reduced the system's effectiveness in certain headings. Since there was no way to eliminate the loaded block, it was decided to experiment with auger drilling to attain controlled release of this stored-up energy. The decision to auger was made after consideration of three separate plants, which were: 1) To cut the solid block into pillars of maximum size by driving away from the fracture line and at such a distance outby that development

Jan 1, 1959

By S. A. Mersol, C. T. Lynch, F. W. Vahldiek

The room-temperature microhardness of as-grown and annealed MoaC single crystals was measured on the (0001), {2110), and1012) planes using Knoop and Vickevs indenters at loads ranging front 25 to 1000 g. The orientatimz dependence of hardness with respect to crystal axes was also studied. The average random hardness of as-grown crystals was determined to be 1520 kg per sq nm. Annealing to 2000°C decreased. the average hardness by 150 units. An increase in hardness after annealing at 2200 ;C was noted. Optical and electron microscopy revealed slip and twin traces on all planes studied, as produced by mi-cvohavdness indentations. Basal (0001)(2i10) slip was determined to be the primary slip system and was substantiated by electron transmission microscopy. A secondary {1010)(2110) slip was produced by mi-crohardness indentations. The lattev also produced twinning- of the {10i2)[0001] type, as proven by electron diffraction. Electrical resistivity and elastic-modulus anisotropy were found and correlated with hardness anisotropy and Mo2C crystal structure. Elastic-modulus values were obtained by microhard-uess and ullrasonic methods. Bonding mechanism of Mo2C is discussed. ROOM-TEMPERATURE microhardness indentations are useful for studying hardness anisotropy, slip, and twinning in brittle materials. Slip has previously been produced in this manner in and WS~~.~ Recently, the authors5 reported slip of the {10i0)(11~0) type produced by high pressure and microhardness indentations on hexagonal TiBz (c/a = 1.066) single and polycrystals. This slip system was also reported by French and ~homas' and Taka-hashi and ~reise~ for hexagonal WC (c/a = 0.976) crystals. These results suggest that prismatic rather than basal slip is favored in hexagonal nonmetallic materials having a c/a ratio considerably less than the ideal (1.633). Buerger precession and cylindrical X-ray rotation patterns were previously' taken on cleaved sections of the Mo2C single crystals studied in this work. Th~y were found to be hexagonal MoaC with a. = 3.0233A, co = 4.7344A, and C/O = 1.5660. The latter ratio is close to that of the beryllium metal (c/a = 1.57), which slips primarily on the (0001) plane: but also slips on the (1010) planes.'0 ~irconium" (c/u = 1.59) and titanium12 (c/o = 1.59) deform mainly by slip on nonbasal planes which contain a close-packed direction. This is due to the fact that for these two metals the initial resolved shear stress for slip on the (10i0) prismatic planes is lower than that on the (0001) plane. The prominence of basal rather than prismatic slip in metals of high c/o ratios is shown by cadmium (c/a = 1.89), zinc (c/a = 1.86), and magnesium (c/a = 1.62) which deform mainly by basal slip. However, in case of the latter, by stressing magnesium crystals in tension or compression parallel to the basal plane, slip on (10i0) planes can also be produced.13 Several hardness values for polycrystalline Mo2C are reported in the literature: Biickle ' and Samsonov'~ give a value of 1800 and 1479 kg per sq mm, respectively, at a 100-g load; and Kieffer and Benesovsk~'~ report a value of 1950 kg per sq mm at a 50-g load. ~ott'~ reports a Vickers hardness value of 2000 kg per sq mm, with the load unspecified. A Rockwell A hardness value of RA = 88 has also been reported.'' In the present work, for comparison with single-crystal Mo2C hardness values, a Khnloo value of 1600 It 150 kg per sq mm was found on 99.6 pct pure and 99 pct dense hot-pressed Mo2C. This work was undertaken partly to explain the considerable differences in hardness values reported for polycrystalline Mo2C. EXPERIMENTAL The Mo2C single crystals investigated were prepared by a Verneuil-type process using an electric arc by the Linde Co. of the Union Carbide Corp.lg The largest specimens grown were boules 7 mm in diam by 40 mm in length. The crystals had an average density of 9.04 g per cu cm, with a Mo + C content of 99.8 wt pct. The major impurities were: 100 ppm each Na, Zr, and Ca; 85 ppm 0, 55 ppm Fe, and 10 ppm each Cr and Ta. The crystals were found to be carbon-poor, the average carbon content being 5.73 wt pct (stoichiometric value is 5.89 pct). The molybdenum content was found to be 94.08 pct, which is nearly stoichiometric. Electron-microprobe traverses of selected specimens were done with a Phillips-AMR microanalyzer. Thin-film and carbon replicas were used to prepare electron micrographs. This work was done with a JEM-6A electron microscope. Prior to optical and electron-optical studies, specimens were mounted in Lucite and polished on a vibratory polisher using diamond-paste grades ranging from 9-1 p and Linde A powder for up to 48 hr. Dilute nitric acid was used for thin-section polishing and chemical etching for 1-15 min. Electrical-resistivity measurements at room temperature were taken with a Rubicon bridge, using gold contacts. For hardness measurements, a Tukon Microhardness Tester Type FB with Knoop and Vickers indenters was used. Measurements were taken at loads ranging from 25 to 1000 g; however, the 100-g load was chosen as the standard load. All measurements were taken at room temperature. Indentations of cracking classes 1 and 2 only were considered for hardness determinations.20)21 (There are six cracking classes, ranging from "class 1" for a perfect inden-

Jan 1, 1967

By B. M. Larsen, T. E. Brower

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY BY "thermochemical factors" we refer to those variables which affect the net heat which must be put into the bath in order to make a heat of steel from any given set of charge materials. This is admittedly only one phase of the production rate problem. The whole problem includes also consideration of rate of charging, flame radiation intensity, rate of optimum fuel input obtainable without undue damage to the furnace structure and any variations in conditions such as stirring, slag volume or viscosity which affect the rate at which heat can flow down and away from those exposed surfaces where the heat is first received from the flame. Because a given type of charge in a shop is often considered as being nearly constant in both physical and chemical characteristics from one heat to another, and because such a state of affairs may be thought of as resulting in a reasonably constant net heat requirement, this requirement is usually neglected as an invariable, inevitable matter, about which nothing can be done. With normally variable charge, and variable percentages of limestone and cold pig, however, the net heat requirement can be subject to very appreciable change; it may also be affected by such things as the currently popular procedure of blowing oxygen into the bath, To bring the general problem of production rate into better perspective, therefore, it seems worthwhile to try to evaluate the net bath heat requirement and the amount by which it may change through variation in different factors. Because our calculated values of net heat are admittedly uncertain, we have tried to check them in part by statistical data on actual production rates over rather large groups of commercial heats. The results of calculation of net heat requirements in a wide range of actual commercial practices may first be summarized briefly. We find a wide range between the extremes of different practices, as would be expected, with duplex practice (essentially blown metal plus hot metal) having essentially a zero net heat requirement, an all-cold charge practice somewhat over 1 million Btu per ton of steel and a high hot metal practice about 0.75 million Btu per ton. Over the commercial range of scrap plus hot metal practice, increasing the percentage of hot metal from 40 to 78 pct, with other factors nearly constant, decreased the net heat by only some 5-10 pct, The net heat is increased by about 1.2 pct for each I pct of the metallic charge present as cold pig. Calculated values of oxygen supplied by air varied from about 25 up to 60 lb per ton of steel, and in a 60 pct hot metal practice, an increase from 32 to 52 lb oxygen from air decreased the calculated net heat from 0.88 to 0.74 million Btu per ton. Use of pure cold oxygen to substitute for about one half of the total charge ore (about 28 lb oxygen replacing 145 lb ore per ton of steel) decreased the

Jan 1, 1948

By Hugh Steele, Brower Dellinger

U. S. mining trends for 1956 continued steadily U+ S. uphill, technique and equipment advanced with the pull, and exploration and development of once mined districts attracted more attention than new areas. Expansion of the Ambrosia Lake district in New Mexico more than doubled known uranium ore reserves, and production began from several of the large new ore discoveries. In Canada the up trend was more spectacular, especially in exploration and development. To combat increasing problems arising from high labor costs, taxes, low grade orebodies, and dwindling discoveries, manufacturers and mining companies have continued to introduce new techniques and new products-reamer bits for enlarging small holes drilled by jacklegs, whup d'whups for drift mucking, Cryderman machines and over-the-head small crawler-type machines for shaft mucking, the 20-ton TL 220 four-wheeled tractor trailer unit for underground haulage, inertia-type dust collectors, roof bolting in conjunction with chain link fencing for wall support, wooden roof bolting using compression support of ground for wall support, and new one-use carbide bits.

Jan 2, 1957

By Earl Hunner

IT is common knowledge that the iron orebodies of the Mesabi range lie nearly horizontal and are of trough or blanket-like types. These orebodies are from a few feet to several hundred feet thick and vary from a few acres in extent to the size of the largest one, at Hibbing, Minn., which is over 1 mile wide and 3 miles long. They are covered with sand, boulder and clay overburden and occasionally, shallow depths of ledge material, varying in total depth from about 20 to 200 ft. Large areas are not capped with overlying ledge material; the top of the ore lies directly underneath the surface material. Because of the comparatively great tonnage of ore, open-pit mining has made tremendous strides since the first open-pit ore was shipped from this range by the Merritt brothers, from the Mountain iron mine in October, 1892, and along with the great development of open-pit mining on the Mesabi range has gone a tremendous change in the character of equipment used.

Jan 1, 1930

By R. Dawson Hall

WHAT are the opportunities for the services of engineers in the coal mines? The best answer perhaps can be made by detailing the present lines of development in the bituminous coal mining regions. They are just at the beginning of a period that can be conservatively termed revolutionary. A few glimpses of new possibilities in economic mining that will reduce the cost of bituminous coal at the mines by at least one half have convinced almost everyone that a change must shortly come about. The cost of housing has become such a burden, especially in mountainous regions, that development which demands the hiring of more men and constructing more houses would not be profitable. The introduction of mechanical aids to mining, transportation and dumping suggests a way of obtaining a large tonnage with the same or a smaller number of men with no further house construction. At the same time the restriction of immigration has made it increasingly difficult to obtain men inured to hard labor. Modern civilization is not productive of muscular energy and at the same time it provides men who are not indisposed to the use of the mental effort required to direct the physical forces now available for the replacement of such energy.

Jan 1, 1924

By V. D. O’Leary

The Anaconda Co. has two economic uses for the drainage water from its underground mines in the district of Butte, Mont. One is the precipitation of copper, which the company has been accomplishing at the Leonard precipitating plant for many years, and the other is the leaching of the Berkeley pit discard, where millions of tons of leach material have accumulated. The acidic mine drainage water is an ideal leaching medium for the latter purpose, but the solids and colloidal material suspended in the water must be removed before it can be applied to the low-grade Berkeley leach dump. For this reason, it is important for Anaconda to have an efficient means of cleaning mine drainage. Such a means has been found and tested at one mine and is now to be incorporated in a new central pumping station the company is planning at the 3900-ft level of the Kelley mine. This plant is to be activated in early 1967 and will replace the antiquated four-lift High Ore mine pumping plant which was designed and installed before tailing backfill was adopted. The new plant will feature eight pumps with a total capacity of 8000 gpm in a single lift against a total dynamic head of 4100 ft. For the most efficient and economical operation of the plant it is imperative that all possible mud be removed from the drainage water before pumping.

Jan 9, 1966

By N. A. Parlee, A. E. Lord

Measurements of the solubility of lead in liquid iron were made at 1550°, 1600°, 1650°, and 1700°C using two different methods, i.e., 1) liquid iron-liquid lead equilibration and 2) liquid iron-lead vapor equilibration. LEAD was long considered insoluble in liquid iron1. Today steels containing 0.15 to 0.35 pct Pb are used. One laboratory has found a solubility of about 0.5 pet in the 1600°C range. Recently Miller and Elliott2 gave 0.60 pct as the result of one determillation at 1540°C. Because these findings resulted from the

Jan 1, 1961

By Albert J. Phillips

When brasses containing from 61 to 62.5 per cent. copper are very rapidly cooled from temperatures near their melting point to below 0" C., unusual results are obtained. These results are quite unexplainable from a consideration of the old copper-zinc constitutional diagram but they can be satisfactorily explained by means of the diagram revised by Genders and Bailey1 (Fig. 1). Experiments on a 60/40 Brass If an alloy containing 60 per cent. copper is heated to any temperature between approximately 760' C. and its melting point, it will consist entirely of beta. Upon slowly cooling, alpha will start to separate just below 760" C. Since this alpha will contain nearly 65 per cent, copper, the beta will be impoverished by its separation. As the temperature decreases the composition of the separating alpha will approach approximately 61 per cent. and the beta in contact with the alpha will maintain an equilibrium composition approaching 54.5 per cent. copper. If the rate of cooling is extremely slow, especially at the lower temperatures, stable equilibrium will be established by diffusion through the alpha and beta so that eventually 85 per cent. of the alloy will consist of alpha containing 61 per cent. copper, while 15 per cent. will be beta containing 54.5 per cent. copper. With a faster cooling rate diffusion cannot keep apace and the constituents will be cored, the alpha varying from 65 to 61 per cent. copper and the beta from 60 to 54.5 copper. In this case the amount of alpha will be less than 85 per cent. and the beta will be increased correspondingly. The general structure thus obtained is illustrated in Fig. 2. When a more rapid rate of cooling is effected by quenching in water, the alloy is retained largely in the beta form. However, the crystals of beta are usually outlined with dark fringes which at high magnifications are found to be very fine alpha-beta structures almost martensitic in appearance. The separation of this fringe can be greatly suppressed

Jan 1, 1930

By G. Gutierrez, D. A. Elgillani, M. C. Fuerstenau

The zero-points-of-charge of apatite, calcite, and fluorite are pH 6.4, 10.8, and 10.0, respectively. Scheelite is negatively charged above at least pH 3. In this article, the flotation responses of these minerals in the presence of potassium oleate and sodium silicate are described and compared with electrokinetic data. Colloidal silica appears to be the species principally responsible for calcite depression, while silicate anion is the species responsible for fluorite depression. Additions as high as 1 x 10-3 mole/liter silicate have no effect on the flotation responses of apatite and scheelite. Selective flotation of nonmetallic minerals is difficult to achieve with fatty acids or soaps by themselves. As a result, specific reagents are added to aid these separations, and one of the reagents commonly employed for this purpose is sodium silicate. Flotation separations of various calcium-bearing minerals such as fluorite from calcite1-3 and scheelite from calcite2,4 and apatite,2,5 for example, almost always involve the use of sodium silicate. The mechanisms by which sodium silicate functions as a depressant are still not understood, probably for a number of reasons. For one thing, the dissolution process of sodium silicate is complex, giving rise to a number of ionic and colloidal species.' Moreover, the type and concentration of these species depend on the ratio of Na2O to SiO2, the concentration of sodium silicate, and the pH of the system.' At the present time, it is not known which species, colloidal silica or silicate anion, is responsible for depression. If colloidal silica is the species that is adsorbing, then adsorption must occur by electrostatic attraction between the colloid and the mineral surface. Silicate anion, on the other hand, may adsorb either physically or chemically. The objective of this paper is to determine first the active species of sodium silicate and then the conditions under which this species will adsorb and function as a depressant. EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS AND METHODS Pure samples of apatite (Durango), calcite (Iceland-spar), fluorite, and scheelite were used in this investigation. Pure potassium oleate was used as collector, while reagent-grade HC1 and KOH were employed for pH adjustment. The sodium silicates used were samples obtained from the Philadelphia Quartz Co. In one series of experiments, various sodium silicates containing different ratios of SiO2 to Na2O were added to calcite systems. These sodium silicates contained SiO2-to-Na2O ratios of 3.75 to 1, 3.22 to 1, 2.40 to 1, and 1.60 to 1. All other experiments were conducted with the sodium silicate containing the ratio of 3.22 to 1, which is the one that is normally used in industry. Flotation experiments were conducted with 21/2-g charges of 48 x 150-mesh material in conductivity water with an apparatus and technique described previously. Electrokinetic experiments were conducted with both a Zeta Meter and streaming potential apparatus. Particle size was 48 x 65 mesh for the streaming potential experiments. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The first series of experiments involved flotation of scheelite in the absence and presence of sodium silicate. As shown in Fig. 1, flotation response was not affected with even the relatively high addition of 1 x 10-3 mole per liter sodium silicate. Interestingly though, no flotation was effected below pH 6 with this collector addition. The responses of apatite to flotation under these same conditions are given in Fig. 2. Similarly, no depression was obtained in basic media under these conditions. Similar experiments were conducted with fluorite, and in this case, depression was noted above about pH 11 with 1 x 10-3 mole per liter sodium silicate (Fig. 3). When calcite was floated with these same levels of addition of sodium silicate, essentially no flotation was possible above pH 7 (Fig. 4). The effect of collector addition with a constant addition of sodium

Jan 1, 1969

By John F. Abel

Personal gain seems to be the most powerful incentive to economic progress. One of my first exposures to this phenomenon was the comparison between company stopes and leaser's stopes in a vein gold mine. The company stopes were 4 to 6 ft wide, whereas the leaser's stopes were so narrow that in some places one could not turn around. The company leased only that ground it felt was marginal to mine with day's- pay miners, but by skillful, careful and energetic mining, the leasers managed in most cases to make money for themselves and the company. The Hurting Truth This capitalist system, which puts a premium on successful risk taking, is under attack. Not that it hasn't been under attack all along. What hurts and angers us at this time is that the attack comes from the children of the system-its youth. Such blasphemy should, of course, be eradicated, root and branch. Or should it? Are we hurt in part because some of the things they say are true?

Jan 1, 1970

By E. T. Dumble

THE first specimens of this material which came under my notice, as found in the State of Texas, were sent to me by Mr. J. C. Melcher, of Fayette county, soon after the organization of the State Geological Survey. I wrote him concerning it, and had the locality and manner of occurrence described, but 1 had no opportunity to visit and examine the deposit until the present field-season. Later, specimens were collected by Dr. Penrose and myself on a trip made by boat down the Rio Grande, from Eagle Pass to Hidalgo, in June, 1889. At the time of collection I marked the substance "Albertite," doubtfully, but, on examination, it proved to be nearer Grahamite. The geological horizon of the two occurrences is Tertiary. The first locality mentioned is in the upper part of the beds called by us Fayette beds, and provisionally correlated with the Miocene, or Grand Gulf of Hilgard's Mississippi section, while the latter is in the lowest strata of the Eocene which are exposed on the Rio

Jan 1, 1893

By Gail Moulton

THE oilfields in Illinois are located principally along the LaSalle anti-cline in the southeastern part of the state. The oil produced comes most largely from beds of Pennsylvanian and Mississippian age, but there is an increasing important production from deeper horizons, as will be noted under new development. The oil is largely of paraffine base, and has an average specific gravity of about 35° Baume. The rank of Illinois as an oil producer has dropped from third since 1913, when its production was exceeded only by that of California and Oklahoma, to eighth in 1923. This has been the result of failure to find new pools of considerable size to offset the declining production of the old wells and of the greatly increased production of some of the other states. The noteworthy features of petroleum production in Illinois during 1924 are: the low rate of decline for the state as a whole; the smaller percentage of dry holes; and the larger average initial yield of the new wells.

Jan 3, 1925