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IT is necessary that all men who wish to bring things to a certain end should think of the agents needed to attain this. Now whichever one of the above processes you wish to use you must consider the nature of the material and see whether it is disposed to render what you wish to extract. Then you must see whether you have the other agents sufficiently powerful and proportioned to attain this result, for if the things were not in harmony your work would be vain and very laborious. Therefore, if you should wish to make waters or oils by way of distilla-

Jan 1, 1942

By W. G. Matteson

I. Introduction...................................................... 436 (a) Extent of the Gulf Coastal Plain. (b) History of Important Gulf Coast Oil Pools. 1. Corsicans, Tex. 2. Spindletop, Tex. 3. Sour Lake, Tex. 4. Jennings, La. 5. Saratoga, Tex. 6. Batson, Tex. 7. Humble, Tex. 8. Caddo, La. 9. Vinton, La. 10. Naborton, La. 11. Red River, La. 12. Edgerly, La. 13. Goose Creek, Tex. 14. Damon Mound, Tex. 15. New Iberia, La. (c) Favorable Features of the Gulf Coast Pools. 11. General Topography and Physiography of the Gulf Coastal Plain.....440 111. General Stratigraphy of the Gulf Coastal Plain West of the 90th Meridian......................................................441 IV. Structural Types and their Characteristics.........................446 (a) hnticlinal Structure. (b) Structure of Salt Domes. 1. Domes of the Coast Prairie. 2. Domes of the Wold Region. 3. Recapitulation of Dome Structural Characteristics. V. Methods of Surveying and Prospecting............................. 454 VI. The Development of Salt Domes................- .................458 VII. Origin of Salt Domes...............4.............................461 (a) The Volcanic-plug Theory of Hager. (b) The Contemporaneous Sedimentation Theory of Norton. (c) The Theory of Upward Pressure Exerted by the Force of Growing Crystals, as Developed by Harris. VIII. Source of the Oil in the Gulf Coastal Pools.........................465 IX. Petrolific Value of the Salt Domes of the Wold Region..............467 X. Future Outlook.................................................. 467

Jan 1, 1918

By J. A. Herrick

Jan 1, 1879

By William P. Blake

The late Dr. Ebenezer Emmons of Albany, one of the geologists of the Survey of New York and the author of The Taconic System, brought to notice as early as 1838" a peculiar concretionary and lamellar form of phosphate of lime, to which he gave the name Eupyrchroite, from the Greek words for fire and color, with the pefix

Jan 1, 1893

By A. Simkovich, C. W. McCoy

THE relationship among chromium, carbon, and temperature during the oxidation period of stainless steel melting was developed by Hilty et a1 1-3 whose studies were confined to plain chromium stainless steels. The simplified version of their relation is given by the equation:

Jan 1, 1962

By J. E. Nesset, J. A. Finch

A model of the fully-loaded condition of particle accumulation on the matrix of a high gradient magnetic separator is developed. The model accurately predicts the build-up profiles reported recently by Friedlaender et al. A powerful development from the model is that loading (volume of accumulated material per unit volume of matrix) is uniquely defined by a dimensionless group, called the loading number, NL. From direct measurements, NL proved superior to the dimensionless group proposed by Watson as a measure of loading. The fine size limit of hematite recovery is examined using NL.

Jan 1, 1980

By D. B. Crouch, D. A. Poulter

The engineering and metallurgical assessment of the McLaughlin Project ore body concluded that an open-pit mine and cyanide leach mill process would be feasible, producing both waste rock and residual mill tailings. As a part of the planning and permitting process, site selection studies were conducted for the tailings and waste rock disposal. The site selection process began with a regional identification of potential disposal sites and proceeded through 1) regional screening, 2) elimination of sites with obvious fatal flaws, 3) qualitative ranking of site evaluation criteria, 4) quantitative ranking of sites, 5) field investigation, 6) evaluations of field data, and 7) selection of preferred sites. Based on this approach of site rankings and field evaluations, tailings and waste rock disposal sites were selected and recommended for the preliminary design phase of the permitting and project development process. The site selection study provided the documentation necessary to justify the use of these sites for waste disposal and enabled Homestake Mining Co. to anticipate and integrate environmental concerns with agency requirements into the planning process.

Jan 1, 1986

By John T. Norton

N order to attempt to arrive at a better under-Jl standing of the whole basic problem of sintering, these remarks will serve as an introduction for discussion that is included and will, perhaps, help to isolate specific questions which need to be answered or to suggest some definite avenues of investigation which should be followed. To bring some sort of logical order into the presentation, I will consider the various types of interaction between the metal to be sintered and the atmosphere which surrounds it, depending upon whether the phenomena are essentially chemical or physical in nature. For example, when the only necessary criterion for the satisfactory sintering of a certain powder is the removal of an oxide skin, then the problem of choosing a suitable atmosphere is primarily chemical; however, if a special surface condition as a consequence of the oxide skin removal is necessary for particularly effective sintering, then the problem becomes a physical one. Of course, the two aspects overlap considerably, but it may be possible to make a distinction in principle if not in practice. The chemical characteristics of the phenomena will be emphasized, since these are the better known. Metal-gas reactions involved in sintering are controlled primarily by the thermodynamics of the processes involved. In which direction will a reaction go and how far before it stops? The answer is to be found in the magnitude of the free energy change associated with the reaction. If a constituent is to be removed from the specimen as completely as possible or if a constituent is to be formed in the specimen as completely as possible, then one chooses conditions which are far from equilibrium so that the reaction is driven toward completion. On the other hand, if the composition is to be maintained at a desired value, then conditions are adjusted as closely as possible to the equilibrium point. This aspect of the problem is susceptible to quite precise analysis, provided, of course, that the significant reactions can be recognized and the required thermodynamic data are available. Conversely, if one asks how fast the reaction goes or how far it proceeds in a given time, the answer is frequently much more difficult to answer in quantitative terms. Yet the rate-con trolling factors of the reactions may be of primary importance in the success of a particular operation, especially where competing processes are at work. Both equilibrium and rate factors must be understood if a clear picture is to be obtained. For instance, in a process for carburizing titanium dioxide, is the difficulty of obtaining a stoichiometric Tic due to a true limitation of the equilibrium or simply to a very slow rate of reaction? An example of this appears in the work of Kalish and Mazza.' They showed that the oxygen content of sintered iron compacts was lower when sintered in pure hydrogen than in the case where the hydrogen was diluted with either argon or nitrogen. The equilibrium oxygen content of the iron would be the same in the two cases, since it is determined by the ratio of the partial pressures of water vapor and hydrogen and this pressure ratio is unchanged by dilution. The rate of oxygen removal, however, under the conditions of a constantly replaced furnace atmosphere, depends upon diffusion and thus upon the concentration of hydrogen in the furnace atmosphere. Possibly the clearest way to illustrate the interplay of these two factors is to consider in more detail some of the typical metal-gas reactions. Adsorbed Gases It is common experience that fine metal powders with their very large surface areas often contain large quantities of gas. This gas, which results from exposure to air or perhaps from some step in the

Jan 1, 1957

By Edward Capillon

THE problem of scrap is probably of greater importance inn the production of gold, silver and other precious metal alloys than is the case for base metals and alloys. Remelting of gold and silver scrap in the shop is always a costly process because it involves losses by oxidation of the base metals in the alloy with a consequent increase in the percentage of precious metal. This is most marked in the case of alloys containing the low-boiling and easily oxidized metals zinc and cadmium. Since it is. not generally feasible to assay every shop remelt it follows that the possibilities of lost values are large. So-called rolled gold and silver plate is made by soldering or welding the precious metal alloys onto base, metal. Such plate when defective must be sent to the refinery to recover the gold and silver values, thereby involving additional expense in the form of refining charges. It is obvious therefore that gold and silver alloy scrap is an important item in manufacturing cost and must be reduced to a minimum. The amount of scrap resulting from poor metal will depend on a number of factors in the manufacturing operations, not least among which is the melting and casting practice. The notes which follow are a summary of experiments performed at various times to determine what variables in melting and casting are influential in the production of sound alloys.

Jan 1, 1930

By Arthur L. Hall

The purpose of this symposium is to challenge industry to better air classification, and as a first step toward fulfillment, to spotlight three fairly recent, aerodynamically designed, highly efficient air classifiers. This discussion does not intend to imply that present practice is bad. Actually, when present air separators are used for the jobs for which they were originally designed, they give high production and uniform operation, with a minimum of maintenance. The customers of nonmetallic mineral pigment producers, however, are making increasing demands for finer products, such as 99.9 pct -20µ, which appears to be beyond the economic capabilities of standard air separators industrially used over the last 10 to 30 years. Here is an actual example. A 10-ft diam pebble mill is in closed circuit with a conventional 12-ft diam centrifugal air separator, grinding 20-mesh wollastonite to a series of fine grades up to 99.97 pct - U.S. No. 325 mesh (44µ). Fig. 1 shows variations in fineness of mill discharge (or air separator feed), recycle for regrinding (or air separator tails), and product as measured by a wet rotating sieve test. For example, when the mill is turning out a product 80 pct -325, the mill discharge or separator feed is 30 pct -325, and the coarse tailings or recycle is only 5 pct -325. Hence 25 pct of the 30 pct available is accepted as product. This is efficient separation, and the ratio of recycle to feed is only about 2: 1. How- ever, to make a product testing 99.97 pct -325 the separator feed is 62 pct -325 and the coarse tailing 60 pct -325. In this case the recycle ratio is about 13: 1 and the economic limit to produce fineness has been substantially reached with this given equipment and process arrangement.

Jan 10, 1957

By Gerald Greene

Tan various lead producers have given the subject of lead drosses much attention in recent years but the problem of their economical treatment is yet to be solved. Formerly the copper in the furnace feed was removed from the furnace in the form of matte. The speiss at that time consisted principally of the iron arsenide. The practice today is to roast off most of the sulfur and the copper in the feed forms a dross in the furnace, which is removed from the furnace with the lead. This material is poured into the drossing kettles and allowed to cool down to but slightly above the freezing point of lead. The copper dross, containing almost all of the arsenic and part of the antimony, is skimmed off and treated in a small reverberatory furnace at most plants. This is essentially a liquation process. The skimmed dross contains from 70 to 80 per cent lead, and much of this lead is liquated out. The products from this treatment are: (1) impure lead, (2) speiss and (3) matte. The speiss from the reverberatory furnace was studied in this research. The literature on the subject is of very little assistance, as almost no work has been done on the problem of establishing the exact identity of the various phases present. One author(1) states that speiss consists of a series of isomorphous compounds of the general formula FexAsy in which the Fe may be replaced by Ni, Co, Cu, Pb, Ag, Au, Pt, Zn, Cd and the As replaced by Sb, S and Bi. Hofman(2) states that the iron arsenide present is Fe5As.

Jan 1, 1935

By Frank Armstrong

ALL the mining machinery of the Penn Iron Mining Co. has been operated by electric power for several years and when another shovel for stockpile loading was required the advantages of an electric shovel were naturally considered. After considerable study, serious objections suggested themselves the use of a shovel operated directly by electrical apparatus by reason of the complicated control, severe service on the motors FIG. 1.-ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC SHOVEL FIG:. 2-THE SHOVEL AS IT WAS OPERATED CINDER CONSTRUCTION. THE FIRST YEAR. and the heavy surges of current required from the line. It was finally decided to construct an electro-hydraulic shovel using water under pressure to perform all the necessary operations except that of propelling, for which a separate motor was best suited. A car body with boom, dipper handle and dipper of late design, but without any of the steam machinery, was purchased. A motor-driven centrifugal pump, a pressure tank, an air tank, a small air compressor and water cylinders with plungers, pistons and valves, were installed in place of the; steam equipment. Fig. 1 shows this shovel under construction and Fig. 2 shows it as it was operated during the first year, the summer of 1914. The large tank at the back of the car, in Fig. 1, carried air under

Jan 2, 1916

By L. G. Huntley

In view of the recent advance made in the knowledge of the nature and conditions accompanying the occurrence of oil and gas, and of the recent activity in drilling in Wyoming, Montana, and western Canada, a discussion of the probabilities of obtaining production in such a reservoir as the Dakota sand in general, and in particular districts, is thought by the author to be timely and likely to result in more intelligent operating in certain parts of the territory underlain by this sand. In Canada particularly it is thought that these general considerations have equal if not more significance in a consideration of the oil and gas possibilities of the formations than have the various local conditions. Age and Nature of Deposition of the Dakota Sand The Dakota is distinctive in that it is known to form a generally continuous sheet of sand underlying the greater part of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North and South Dakota, Montana, and large areas in Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. It does not seem to have been laid down in more or less isolated lenses, as has been the case with most oil-sand horizons. Except in northern Alberta, the Dakota sand contains fresh-water fauna, having been deposited very uniformly over these wide areas in shallow water with prevailing strong currents. In northern Alberta marine and brackish water conditions prevailed. In this district it forms the basal member of the Cretaceous sediments, directly overlying beds of Devonian limestone along a great unconformity in the Athabasca River valley and eastward. In southern and western Alberta it is underlain unconformably by the Kootenay shales (Lower Cretaceous), and by Jurassic and Carboniferous rocks. In the United States in South Dakota it was in places deposited upon Cambrian quartzites, and in other places directly upon the granite. In the State of Dakota, and in the

Jan 1, 1916

By Frank Harwood Riddle

Products made from the ores of the sillimanite group, and synthetic substitutes for them, have unique properties, and service tests prove that they are playing, and will continue to play, a major part in improvements in metallurgical processes. Also, they are examples of how comparatively useless, rare, or "museum" minerals have been made available in commercial quantities. Until research developed uses for them, the minerals had been observed only in small, scattered masses, or crystals. Improvements in ceramic processes and compositions have come about very gradually. In the last 10 or 15 years, several outstanding developments have been made. Of greatest interest to the mining and metallurgical engineers are those affecting the composition, necessitating the mining of new minerals, and improvements in ceramic products used in metallurgical processes. Sillimanite and Mullite Sillimanite (Al2O3.SiO2), then known as Fibrolite, according to Dana,' was first reported in 1792. In 1796, cyanite (Al2O3.SiO2) was first described.2 In 1873, Behrens published results of his microscopic study8 of porcelain. He showed that it contained what appeared to be crystals, which dissolved less readily than quartz and glass in hydrofluoric acid. Hussak4 described the presence of needlelike crystals as occurring in some instances in small amounts in certain porcelains. In 1908, Plenske and Zoellner both studied porcelain structure.5 Plenske observed that "sillimanite" might be present in masses of exceedingly minute grains which apparently were amorphous. Zoellner advanced the theory that the needlelike crystals were formed by a molecular change in the clay,

Jan 1, 1932

By P. J. Dean

This Paper contains a comprehensive survey of the known electron-hole radiative recombination mechanisms in the family of III-V compounds. Because of space limitations, the luminescence properties of each III- V compound are not reviewed separately and exhaustively. Instead, the different known types of recombination processes are discussed in turn and exemplified with reference to the III- V compound in which they were first recognized, or are best understood. Electron-hole recombinations usually occur predominantly at impurities or lattice defects either introduced de1iberately or inadvertently present, but radiative intrinsic interband electron-hole recombinations, which occur in perfect crystals, have been observed. Recombination processes which involve the participation of impurities or lattice defects ("extrinsic" recombinations) considered include transitions in which a) free carriers recombine with carriers trapped at impurities ("free to bound" transitions) , b) electrons bound at donor impurities recombine with holes trapped at acceptor impurities ("donor-acceptor pair" recombinations), C) excitons bound to charged or neutral donor or acceptor impurities recombine radiatively (both "resonance" and "two-electron" "bound exci-ton" transitions have been observed), d) excitons bound to neutral donor or acceptor impurities recombine non-radiatively (an example of an "Auger" recombination), and e) excitons bound to impurities with the same number of valence electrons as the host atom which they replace ("isoelectronic " traps) recombine radiatively. In addition, Auger recombination processes involving one or more free carriers have been observed. These extrinsic processes all involve impurities which are present as point defects. Some apparently well-authenticated examples of the recombination of excitons bound to complex impurity-lattice defect centers including nearest-neighbor donor-acceptor pairs are also discussed. Identificalions of the transitions involved in stimulated emission from the direct gap III-V compounds are briefly reviewed. Although the examples of these recombination mechanisms are selected from the III-IV compounds ia this review, these processes have quite general relevance in semiconducting crystalline solids; irrdeed most of them have also been identified in the 11- VI compounds and elernental semzconductors. THE development of crystal growth and purification techniques in recent years and concurrent advances in the understanding of physical processes in solids has accelerated the development of a wide variety of solid-state electronic devices of proven utility. These de- vices are generally used for switching or amplifying operations in electrical circuits. Most solid-state circuit elements are very photosensitive. This photo-sensitivity is generally undesirable and the single-crystal chip forming the active portion of the solid-state device is mounted in an opaque container. The photosensitivity is made use of in phototransis-tors and photodiodes, which are among the most sensitive detectors of electromagnetic radiation particularly in the near infrared.' In these devices, light is converted into electrical power. The solid-state lamp utilizes the inverse effect, namely the conversion of electrical power into light. There is an increasing tendency to use single-crystal diodes rather than the earlier electroluminescent cells in which the active material is present as a powder embedded in a suitable dielectric.' The radiation is emitted at a rate far in excess of the thermal equilibrium rate for the frequencies and temperatures involved; i.e., luminescence occurs. The development of practically efficient solid-state lamps is at an early stage compared with solid- state circuit elements or even photodetectors. Considerable progress has been made in recent years, however.3 The present review is devoted to a survey of the radiative recombination processes in the semiconducting compound crystalline solids formed from elements in groups I11 and V in the periodic table. These materials exhibit the full range of known recombination processes in solids. In fact many of these processes were discovered in 111-V semiconductors. Nonradiative recombination processes, which control the lutninescence efficiency, are also discussed. Luminescence is efficiently excited in semiconductors through processes which produce large excess concentrations of free electrons and holes in the energy bands of the crystal. Transitions induced by lattice defects or impurities usually predominate in the recombination process. By contrast, luminescence in the conventional fluorescent lamp is excited by optical absorption at the luminescent impurity center itself (the activator) and/or at a second type of impurity center (the sensitizer). This latter type of photoluminescence process, occurring in doped ionic crystals with wide band gaps, is outside the scope of this review.4 I) ENERGY BAND DESCRIPTION OF ELECTRON STATES IN CRYSTALS The energy band description of the energy states available to an electron in a crystal forms the basis of our understanding of the empirical division of crystalline solids into metals, semiconductors, and insulators in accordance with their electrical and optical properties.' Nonmetallic crystals have a finite energy gap between the highest energy band which is

Jan 1, 1969

By H. T. Matson, G. Allan Wallis

In the Northern Rhodesia copper fields the size of the orebodies and the exceptionally consistent values over great distances made it possible to outline the ore with drill holes spaced at 1000-ft. intervals; in some cases, 2000-ft. intervals. Owing to the fact that the size of the deposits made it very evident that much outside capital would have to be called in to develop them and, owing to the wide spacing of the holes, it was essential that the sampling of drill holes be as accurate as possible, so that outside examining engineers could adopt the results as trustworthy within the limits of accuracy of the drilling method. With this object in view, the field staffs of the Selection Trust group of companies have studied for the past three years, and are still studying, drill sampling in a very thorough manner, and for this reason it is felt that these notes may be of interest to engineers or students who are, or in the future may be, in charge of drilling operations. The orebodies in this field lie in shales and sandstones, more or less indurated, in the lower strata of the Roan series, and the copper mineralization is in the form of sulfides predominantly, with some oxidized copper minerals. These interested in the geology and history of the area can find full details in a recent paper by Anton Gray and Russell J. Parker.' In some formations core recovery was good—between 90 and 100 per cent.—and where any difficulty occurred in recovering sludge, as in fissured ground, this was not insisted upon; but the samplers' difficulties, both practical and theoretical, do not commence until core recovery drops and sludge recovery becomes important, for if core is being ground up it is recoverable only as sludge, and naturally the sludge sample, which theoretically should contain only the material cut from the annular ring around the core, is being salted, in a sense, by the ground-up core. In the perfect core, where 100 per cent. core is recovered as well as 100 per cent. sludge, the two samples can be treated separately, as in the case

Jan 1, 1931

By P. Ramachandraraa, T. R. Anantharaman

THE technique developed by Duwez, Willens and Kle-ment' for rapid solidification of molten alloys in small quantities by ejecting them on to a highly conducting substrate with the aid of a shock wave has come to be known as "liquid quenching" or "splat cooling" in literature and has already been applied to alloys of many binary systems.' The very high cooling rates of the order of l060 to 1080 per sec obtained in this technique and the consequent drastic undercooling of the melt have led to such striking results as formation of new amorphous and crystalline metastable phases and extension of solid-solubility limits in many alloy systems. The cooling rates in these experiments can, however, be neither accurately measured nor effectively controlled and hence the occurrence of either more than one metastable phase or appreciable differences in constitution in splat-cooled alloys of the same composition cannot be ruled out.3 In fact, workers in two laboratories have reported formation of two different cubic metastable phases in liquid-quenched Au-Si alloys containing 17 to 20 at. pct si.4,5 The present note deals with some new and interesting results obtained in a Ag-21 at. pct Ge alloy and a Au-27 at. pct Ge alloy subjected to the liquid-quenching treatment at different cooling rates. Two alloys of nearly the same composition had earlier been rapidly solidified by the standard "gun technique" in the same laboratory and shown to solidify in nonequilibrium structures, viz., an hcp phase (a = 2.987Å;c =4.718Å) in the Ag-Ge system6,7 and both hcp (a = 2.885Å; c = 4.754Å) and tetragonal (a = 11.627A; c = 22.491Å) phases in the Au-Ge system.3 Apart from different substrates (copper and stainless steel), different melt temperatures (50º to 500°C above the liquidus), and different capillary sizes (0.4 to 1.5 mm diam) in the "gun technique", slower cooling rates of the order of l050C per sec were also obtained in the present work by replacing the substrate by water at room temperature in a modification of the technique due to Olsen and Hultgren.8 No attempt was made to measure the cooling rate in any experiment. The products varied from fine powder (>40 pct by wt—200 mesh) obtained by quenching in water to thin flakes and foils (11.0 sq mm to 4.0 sq cm) produced by splat cooling. They were subjected to the Debye-Scherrer method of X-ray examination in each case. In case of the Ag-Ge alloy, in addition to the expected metastable hcp phase,6 a coexistent tetragonal phase (a = 5.093,Å; c = 7.009Å) was detected in some experiments. Eight weak X-ray reflections from this phase could be identified, two of them being the same as reported earlier.7 With increase in the cooling rate, the dominant hcp phase seems to be first accompanied by traces of silver or germanium and then either homogeneous or mixed with traces of this new tetragonal phase. The splat-cooled Au-Ge alloy showed generally the expected hcp and tetragonal phases,3 but sometimes traces of germanium were also present. Further, two new tetragonal phases with the following lattice param ters could be clearly identified in samples quenched

Jan 1, 1970

By Reed W. Hyde

SOME information has been published on the sulphur dioxide concentration of gases from Dwight-Lloyd machines sintering lead ores but most of this relates to the customary practice in which the charge is relatively high in lead and is sintered in two passes over the machine. It is thought, therefore, that the following observations on sintering in one pass a low-lead, low-sulphur charge may be of interest. The data were obtained in sintering lead sulphide flotation concentrates mixed with minus 20-mesh oxide ore, the mixture carrying 16.8 per cent Pb and 5.3 per cent S. No returns were used because of the limited amount of sulphur available as fuel, but the mixture pelletized readily to make a satisfactorily permeable bed on the sintering machine. As there was a possibility that the SO2 might be utilized, a series of runs was made to determine the concentration of S02 in the gases at different points along the wind box, and the effect on this concentration of changes in the wind-box vacuum. Several runs each were made with vacuums (as measured in inches of water at the wind box) of (1) 2 to 1 1/3 in., (2) 4 to 3 1/2 in. and (3) 6 to 5 1/8 in. The averages of the determinations from each series are platted on the graph (Fig. I). The vertical scale shows the percentage by volume of SO2 (as determined by the Reich method), and the horizontal scale shows the time expressed as percentage of the total sintering time. Sintering was considered to be complete when no S02 could be detected in the gases. In all cases the depth of bed was 4 ½ in. and the weight of dry charge per square foot of hearth area was 45.2 lb. Other data are given in the table. The volume of gases corresponding to the several points along the wind box at which S02 determinations were made could not be measured, but has been calculated from the S02 content and sulphur elimination on the assumption that the volume is uniform throughout the sintering period. This is not strictly true, as with a given vacuum the volume will usually drop slightly toward the middle of the period and increase toward the end. However, this assumption is a reasonable approximation. Several interesting features are brought out by these data. In general, the published data on S02 concentration in sintering under ordinary conditions show a high S02 concentration in the early stages followed by a rapid decrease in concentration and with relatively little SO2 in the gases from the last half or third of the operation. In other words, the greater part of the sulphur elimination is obtained in the first third or half of the period. In these runs, the 6-in. vacuum, which approximates the usual operating condition, gives a curve that follows this customary pattern. Maximum S02 concentration is obtained 2 ½ min. after

Jan 1, 1942

By K. B. Nowels

The attainment of efficient flooding to a large extent depends upon a knowledge of fluid movement through porous media and the pressures used in controlling this movement. Little has been understood con-cerning the fundamental principles involved in the forced drive of water-flooding and an attempt will be made to present some data which may be of interest. Considerable data and technical information pertaining to natural and artificial water-flooding have been presented in the past by Torrey, Umpleby, Fettke, Panyity and others. Their papers have thoroughly covered the description of past and present-day methods of oil recovery by flooding in the Bradford field, especially an article by Torreyl in the Petroleum Engineering Handbook. A bibliography of papers devoted to watcr-flooding, published in Mr. Torrey's article, is appended to this paper. No attempt has been made, therefore, to describe the installations and procedure necessary in flooding, thus permitting the writer to deal exclusively with the mechanics of water movement in flooding operations and its relationship to well spacing. Artificial water-flooding will probably always be the most successful in oil fields described by Herold as being under "capillary control"" and will probably be useless in fields naturally under hydraulic or volumetric control. The natural water drive in an oil field under either of these two controls may give efficient recoveries, as a result of the regulated encroachment of edge water. Such a "natural flood" resulting from the influence of edge water must not be confused with the term as used in this paper, however. Any reference to "natural flood" will here refer to the old method of flooding formerly used in the Bradford field. This was discovered largely by accident and utilized the hydrostatic pressure created by a column of water standing in a watered-out oil well in forcing the oil to an adjacent producing well. The same principles are involved in either natural or artificial flooding, and the latter method simply

Jan 1, 1933

By C. S. Smith, W. M. Williams

THE quantitative study of grain shape in three dimensions has been a difficult one from the practical standpoint. Experiments on grain shape have usually been based on indirect observations of two-dimensional metallographic samples or on grains separated by intergranular corrosion or fracture. The latter method was used in particular by Deschl in 1919 in observing the shapes of ß-brass grains which had been separated with mercury. The similarity in detail of shape and packing that exists between bubbles in a soap froth and metal grains was noted by Desch who remarks that: "Surface tension has an. important share in determining the form of the crystal grains in a solidifying metal and such grains have a tendency to assume the shape of foam cells." More recently the relation between grain shape and grain growth has been studied by Harker and Parker.' The importance of surface tension forces in determining microstructure has been discussed by Smith," and an analysis of the topologi-cal rules that apply to such structures has been made by the same author.' Biologists have made valuable contributions to the general problem of shape and form in an assembly of space-filling cells subject to surface tension forces. Particular mention must be made of the extensive researches of Lewis5,8 on botanical and anatomical tissues, and Matzke and Nestler,7,8 who have made painstaking studies of bubble shapes in different kinds of foam. The present paper introduces a new method of studying individual grains in particular alloys—a method which may well find use in other metallurgical researches, and which seems also to be applicable in biological problems. Metal Grains in Three Dimensions The individual grains in a piece of metal or the bubbles in a soap froth must satisfy two conditions —they must be in juxtaposition so as to fill space and their interfaces must conform to the laws of surface tension. If a further restriction is imposed, namely, that only one type of polyhedron be used, then the sole possibility is an assembly of "minimal" tetrakaidecahedra," each polyhedron having eight doubly-curved hexagonal faces and six plane quadrilateral faces, the angles between adjacent faces being 120". Such cells could be stacked on a body-centered cubic lattice and would be quite stable. For many years it was believed that soap bubbles actually possessed the shape of this ideal body, and the hypothesis was the starting point for several investigations on the shapes of soap bubbles, biological cells, and metal grains. These investigations have shown, what might have been obvious in the beginning, that if the condition of symmetry is relaxed the tetrakaidecahedron is almost never found. If we retain only the rule that all contacts should be in local surface tension equilibrium and that the assembly should fill space, metal grains may then take a nearly infinite variety of shapes and no single one may be regarded as an archetype. These two conditions, which are fully discussed in one of the previously mentioned papers,' lead us to think of a typical grain in an annealed metal as having the following characteristics: 1—A grain may have any number of faces, but usually between nine and eighteen. The faces (each of which is, of course, shared by two grains in the assembly) may have any number of edges, but usually between four and six. Pentagons are by far the most frequent. 2—In the assembly of grains each edge is shared by three faces and by three grains. Each vertex is a point shared by four grains, six faces, and four

Jan 1, 1953