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By G. W. Tracy

The material balance equation has been used for many years by engineers to determine reservoir performance. The use of this equation in general has been twofold: first, to determine the oil-in-place in a reservoir; and second, to predict the future performance. The Schilthuis form of the material balance equation, or one equivalent to it, has been used by many of the engineers. The use of the Schilthuis form in predicting future performance has proved to be laborious in that one generally must make several estimates at each step of the trial and error calculation before arriving at a check of the oil-in-place. A method is presented for expediting the calculations. The Schilthuis form of the material balance has been rearranged into a more useable form. In using the material balance to predict the future performance of a reservoir, it has become common practice to estimate the incremental oil production for each step of the calculation which corresponds to a given pressure reduction. Instead of estimating the incremental oil production, the method outlined in this paper better lends itself to estimating the instantaneous gas-oil ratio. A check of oil-in-place is more easily accomplished by estimating gas-oil ratio since it is less sensitive to small inaccuracies. This method incorporates the same self-checking feature inherent in the Schilthius form. DEVELOPMENT OF SIMPLIFlED EQUATION In the development of the simplified equation, the Schilthuis form of the material balance equation will he used. Substituting in Equation 1 for and rearranging terms In Equation 2, the cumulative oil production (n) is multiplied by a factor which is uniquely a function of pressure. Also, the cumulative gas production (G) and net water influx are also multiplied by factors which are a function of pressure alone. These factors are called and are defined as follows: Using these factors, Equation 2 becomes The equation in this form is easier to manipulate mathematically than any of the previous forms which, have been used. Sources of data for the pressure factors are a bottom-hole fluid analysis and the ratio of initial gas cap volume to oil volume in the reservoir. AID IN DETERMlNING THE ORIGINAL OIL-IN-PLACE Each of the curves and +, have a similar shape. Each is infinite at the bubble point pressure. As lhe pressure is reduced below the bubble point, the

Jan 1, 1956

Records of coal in Colorado begin only a few years before the Civil War. In 1859 Macomb reported beds of lignite on both sides of Galisteo Creek, and in the foothills of the Placer Mountains, a place where an outburst and overflow-of trap had changed the lignite into bright, hard anthracite.1 The Union Pacific Railroad sent Joseph T. Hodge to investigate the coal deposits in the Rocky Mountains, close to the projected line, in the fall of 1863. He was told of coal on South Boulder and Rock Creeks, and that somewhere on Lodge Pole Creek it was being worked for supplying fuel for stage stations; a bed was also reported seven miles north of the stage road between Laporte and Latham. It was only in the vicinity of Denver that coal mines were being worked to any extent; these openings were on Coal Creek about 22 miles north of the town, said to have been opened in. 1860. The coal was used by the smiths with ,difficulty and slacked badly on exposure., Some coke was made from one of the seams, the coke being preferred to the raw coal by smiths. Another district was opened along South Boulder Creek, about two and a half miles from the base of the Rocky Mountains, two mines being worked to supply the Denver market.2 Hayden reported a large bed of coal at Golden in 1861 and of having seen a similar one in 1862 about 65 miles east of Pikes Peak, and in 1866, he saw large beds on Rock Creek 16 to 19 miles from Golden. In 1867 he saw the Belmont or Marshall's mines opened in 1863 on South Boulder Creek, which he said was the finest exhibition of coal in the state. The next one was the Murphy mine, on Ralston Creek, five miles north of Golden. A mine was also being worked near Canon City at that time.3 The coal at Golden was being worked in 1864.4 In 1867 the coal mined at Golden was being used in a firebrick' works. At Canon City and other places on the waters of Arkansas River, coal was being mined for use in the valley towns, bringing $5.00 per ton at the mines.5

Jan 1, 1942

By Jacob T. Wainwright

AS a means for increasing the efficiency in modern blast-furnaces by supplying to them blast of a much higher temperature than is now possible, the writer offers as a suggestion a modification in the construction of regenerative hot-blast stoves. Stated briefly, the plan proposed is to pre-heat both the gas and the air for its combustion in a manner similar to that generally adopted in Siemens openhearth furnaces. After thus carrying the temperature of the stove to a point much higher than that common in hot-hlast stoves, the cold blast passes through it. Without entering into the details relating to the reversing valves and the system of flues, the general plan may be outlined as follows, referring to the accompanying drawings: The valves are so placed in heating up the stove that the blast-furnace gas enters at B, Fig. 1, and the cold air for combustion at A. Ascending in flues, F and E, respectively, combustible gas and air meet and mix in the combustion-chamber, I. Flowing through K, they descend through the flues, G and H, escaping through the chimney. In this manner the walls of the combustion. chambers, I and L, are highly heated, and the right-hand side of the stove is carried to a higher temperature. By reversing the valves, blast-furnace gas enters at C and cold air for combustion at D. Both are pre-heated in their ascent through the flues, G and H. They burn in the combustion-chamber, L, and the hot gases of combustion, flowing through K, I, E and F to A and B, heat the left-hand side of the stove. In this manner the stove is carried to a temperature greater than that of those now generally in use, in which air and gas are burned without preliminary pre-heating. In the plan proposed, that side of the stove will, of course, be relatively cooler through which cold air and furnace-gas last passed in its ascent to its combustion-chamber. After having sufficiently heated the stove in the manner outlined, the cold blast is admitted through all the flues, A, B, C and D. It ascends through the highly-heated regenerative material to the chambers at the top and descends through the flue, P, Fig. 2 (dotted

Jan 1, 1889

By R. E. Tate, L. J. Herman

We have had occasion to produce wire of Np-237 in small diameters for use in some chemical experiments. Since the mechanical metallurgy of neptunium has not been investigated extensively, it seems desirable to report our successful extrusion technique. Because of the neptunium activity and its attendant health hazard the experimental work was done in glove boxes and related equipment also used for Pu-239. At room temperature a phase neptunium' is a hard (Dph -355) orthorhombic metal of high density (p = 20.45 g per cu cm). a neptunium transforms2 to tetragonal ß neptunium at about 280°C and this in turn transforms to bcc y neptunium at about 577°C. The y phase melts at about 637°C. A temperature of 340° to 345°C was selected for the extrusion, this temperature being a compromise be- tween a possible advantage of working with the presumably more plastic cubic y phase above 577°C and the risk of having the neptunium react with the alloy steel die to form the low-melting Fe-Np eutectic. A 0.75-in.-long, 0.26-in.-diameter ingot of good-purity* Np-237 was extruded by the direct *C = 230 ppm, Pu = 200 ppm, thirty-five metallic elements below limit of detection by spectrographic methods. process through flat-face orifices to form several sizes of wire ranging from 0.010 to 0.030 in. in diameter. Molybdenum disulfide was used as the die lubricant. The extrusion was done in a vacuum of about 10-4 torr to reduce reaction of the neptunium with atmospheric gases. British workers3 at Harwell have extruded neptunium under similar conditions. The force required to extrude 0.010-in.-diameter wire at the rate of 4 in. per min was 6000 lb, as measured with an electrical load cell. Wire 0.020 in. in diameter was extruded with a force of 4700 lb at a rate of 2 in. per min, and wire 0.030 in. in diameter was extruded with a force of 4000 lb at a rate of 1.3 in. per min. An extrusion constant, c, can be computed from the measured forces, P, for the equation4 P = c log-A/a where A/a is the extrusion ratio or the ratio of the cross-sectional areas of the container and the

Jan 1, 1965

By Nathaniel Arbiter

In attempting to assess the contributions of Antoine Gaudin to the profession which he illuminated for almost a half-century, we will need to examine a very broad canvas. He was active in three significant areas: as a teacher; in research, both through his own endeavors and those of his students; and as a consultant to the mining industry and to the Government. Beyond these specific contributions, there was the major personal influence he had on scores of students, friends, and colleagues in the profession. If a single measure of the man's contribution is to be found, it will be the extent and direction in which he influenced the practice of his profession. To find this we should examine the state of miner- al processing when he began his activities in the 19201s, the progress which has taken place over the past half-century, and the part his activities played in this advance. However, there is a provocative and broader examination which I have chosen to make instead. This is to examine the past century in mineral processing through the lives of three men who, by common agreement, stand on the heights, both in teaching and in their contributions to industry: Robert H. Richards, Arthur F. Taggart, and the man whose memory we honor this evening, Antoine M. Gaudin. Their careers, by coincidence, cover just a century. This is also AIME's first century, and the first century of mineral industry education in the United States. In fact, mineral processing itself on any significant scale in the country encompasses only a century and a quarter. BEGINNINGS OF PRACTICE IN THE U.S. Before the 1840’s, U.S. mining, except for coal and iron ore, was on a small scale and was confined to the eastern states, with processing practically nonexistent. The 1840's saw the beginning of Michigan native copper production, including ore dressing; the 1850’s, iron ore production in Minnesota; and the 1860’s, lead production and processing in Missouri. But the most explosive event was the California gold rush after 1848, which not only brought tens-of-thousands of fortune hunters to the West, but also catalyzed broad mining activities and processing within the following decades. This was not only in California but, after the first fever of the gold rush subsided there,

Jan 1, 1976

By Arthur Notman

DURING the past fifteen years there has been a great change in the methods of treating employ-ment and discharge throughout industry. Perhaps nowhere has this change come more abruptly than in the metal mining districts of the West. In 1909, when I went to work for the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Bisbee, their operations were roughly arranged accord-ing to shafts in seven divisions, each employing from 100 to 250 men underground, and the mechanical department employing some 250 men, mostly on the surface. The underground divisions were each in charge of a foreman who had under him a night foreman and from two to four shift bosses on' each of two shifts. These foremen reported to the underground superinten-dent and he in turn to the superintendent of the mine department. The mechanical department was in charge of the master mechanic who reported to the superintendent of the mine department. RUSTLING A JOB IN THE OLD DAYS It was customary for men seeking employment to "rustle" the division foreman at the shaft during the lunch hour or at the close of the day shift and the master mechanic at the shops. There was no real attempt at interviewing the applicants for underground work. They simply filed in and out of the foremen's office-50 to 150 strong-in ten or fifteen minutes. If the foreman needed men, and he generally did; to replace those that he and the shift bosses had removed during the morning, he picked out those he knew or strangers who took his' fancy. The former in many cases were chosen for negative reasons rather than positive. In selecting the latter, the foreman felt that if they failed to show ability promptly, he could replace them the next day, and often did so. Even if these foremen had been skilful and well trained in the art of selecting men, it would have been impossible under the pressure of other duties to exercise that skill and experience in so doing. The conditions in the mechani-cal department were little better. About all that can be said in favor of such a method was that with a sur-plus of labor it "got by." The labor shortage brought about by the war disclosed its fundamental weakness.

Jan 6, 1923

By H. E. Doerr

The writer has been unable to find much information relative to tests made to determine the effect of forging on the specific density of steel. The opinion, however, among men engaged in the business, seems to be that forging greatly compresses or consolidates the steel. While such is doubtless the case with spongy or porous steel, the following experiments indicate that there can be little or no change in the density with steel initially free from cavities. Ten ingots of basic open-hearth steel cast as shown in Fig. 1 were used in the experiments. All the specimens were 0.53 carbon with all other elements the same, the analysis being determined from drillings taken midway between the center and outside of the upper end, as shown in Fig. 2. The specimens were selected from over one thousand ingots so that the tests could be comparative for the work done in forging only, but no two of the ingots were cast in the same heat. Each ingot remained in the mold approximately 30 min., when it was removed and sir-cooled. About 12 hr. later, when the temperature had been reduced to approximately that of the surrounding atmosphere, the head was discarded and the ingot heated in an oil furnace to approximately 2250" F. (1235" C). Approximately 1 min. was required to forge under the steam hammer to 1 1/4 in. (31.75 mm.), rough diameter, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 2. All ingots were allowed to air-cool after forging. Cylinders 1/2 in. (17.7 mm.) in diameter and 1/2 in. high were then turned from the forged and unforged parts of the ingots and numbered. The ten pairs of specimens were submitted to Louis E. Endsley, Professor of Railway Mechanical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh; A. N. Talbot, Professor of Applied Mechanics, University of Illinois; L. Z. Slater, chief chemist, Scullin Steel Co., St. Louis, Mo. NO information was furnished as to which specimens were forged or unforged and each laboratory used the same specimens, submitting the average of three independent determinations, a tabulation of which is shown in the accompanying table in which the laboratories are designated by the letters A, B, and C. While there is considerable difference in the individual determinations for a number of the specimens, the averages

Jan 1, 1920

By H. C. Miller

The energy stored in the compressed natural gas absorbed in or otherwise associated with the oil in reservoir sands is usually the most important factor in oil recovery. It is recognized that hydrostatic pressure and gravity may aid materially in the drainage of oil, but in the early life of the majority of fields the principal source of propulsive energy is the expansive force of the gas associated with the oil. Since gas is admittedly the most important factor in the production of oil, its control so as to produce the maximum amount of oil with the minimum amount of gas will be reflected in increased oil recovery from reservoir sands. Controlling the gas means regulating its expansion so that the velocity of flow of oil through the channels in the reservoir sands is neither so great that frictional resistance becomes excessive nor so slow that the gas, because it can travel more rapidly than oil through the irregular passageways in the sands, will by-pass and reach the well without. doing useful work in bringing oil from the sands. Oil and gas flow from the reservoir sands to the well because of differences in pressure. The rate of flow is dependent upon the differential pressures existing in the sands and in the well. By altering the amount of back-pressure maintained on the well this differential pressure can be regulated and changed from a maximum (well flowing "wide open") to a minimum when there will be no flow. Oil and gas flow through the irregular channels in reservoir sands at different rates mainly because of the fact that one is a liquid and the other a gas. Therefore, because oil and gas have different characteristics of flow, application of back-pressure, changes the rates of flow with relation to one another so that wide variations in gas-oil ratios are possible. Obviously, the formation gas energy will be utilized most efficiently when a unit of gas delivers the maximum amount of oil to the well. Determination of Necessary Back-pressure The amount of back-pressure that should be maintained against the producing sand in order that the minimum amount of gas will be produced with each barrel of oil can be determined only by actual field tests made

Jan 1, 1929

By Ronald R. McNaughton

The most recent group of papers on the general subject of lead smelting were published in AIME Transactions, vol. 121, in 1936. The lecture deals with changes which have taken place in the Past 30 years in this industry. The subject matter covers the essential steps of charge preparation, sintering, blast furnacing, dross treatment, refining, and slag fuming together with the subsidiary or associated activities of analytical procedures, dust and fume collection, maintenance, and hygiene. IN 1936 the AIME published Transactions, vol. 121, entitled "Metallurgy of Lead and Zinc". In the preface to this volume the chairman of the Committee on the Reduction and Refining of Lead and Zinc, Carle R. Hay ward, said in part: ... since the World War few papers of major significance have appeared on the production and refining of lead and zinc, although many improvements in technique have been made, which have attracted little attention because they were merely developments of existing practice. Other changes of a more radical nature have also been made, but... they have been given little publicity. It seems appropriate, therefore, at this time that the AIME should sponsor a volume on lead and zinc metallurgy... . That the publication of this compilation was timely is attested by the rapidity with which the surplus stock was depleted. It has now become a collector's item. Although a comprehensive monograph on the occurrence, extraction, refining, and uses of zinc was published by the American Chemical Society in 1959,' one could almost repeat Professor Hayward's words to describe the present situation in the literature of lead reduction and refining. So it is my intention today to discuss briefly some of the changes and improvements which have taken place in the metallurgy of lead in the interval since the publication of vol. 121. The lead blast furnace, which made its appearance in America about 1870, is still dominant in the reduction field. However there are other reduction methods in use today in special situations. In those rare circumstances where the material to be treated is very high grade, consideration might be given to the Bolidens electric furnace method2 or the Lurgi self-fluxing process3 or possibly to the rotary ore hearth. Each of these latter three processes makes use of the roast-reduction reactions with the result that fuel require-

Jan 1, 1969

By J. C. Motz

Introduction The variations in crushing plant design seen during the past 30 years provide a valuable source of information and experience from which one can select the optimum arrangement for a specific requirement. The purpose of this paper is to examine some specific equipment configurations as they relate to operating efficiency, plant availability and final product size in the form of mill feed. Due to the varied ore properties, physical space limitations, size of ore body and financial resources, there is no single crushing or grinding flowsheet that is best. Since energy costs have risen dramatically during the recent past, it became obvious that significant savings are possible by selecting equipment and a circuit which offers low power requirements balanced with low wear metal and installed equipment costs. Relatively clear and measurable are the metal and maintenance costs and the ever increasing cost of energy. Metal costs in the form of crusher liners have not quite doubled in the last 20 years, while power costs have increased by a factor of four or five, depending on the region considered. Estimates made only a few years ago on the increased cost of energy are obsolete in view of the recent unstable conditions. Since power is therefore becoming the largest cost area, it behooves us to investigate potential cost saving methods in the form of lowering the KWH/Ton of crude. Crushing To reduce run-of-mine to mill feed requires reduction in a series of stages. The physical size and power requirements of a crusher capable of reducing hard rock vary depending on the application. Extended experience in most crushing plants show that a minus 19MM (3/4 in.) rod mill feed can be and is being produced in three stages of crushing. In the majority of cases, the last crushing stage is closed circuited using anywhere from 19MM (3/4 in.) to 14MM (9/16 in.) slotted openings on the sizing deck. In some copper concentrators, the mill feed is all passing 13MM (1/2 in.) using three stages of crushing and 14MM (9/16 in.) square openings on the closed circuit screens. It was felt by some that crushing to this fine size is only possible if the ore is friable and is relatively soft in comparison to the harder ores. Our results show that some of the copper ores are as hard as taconite and are crush-

Jan 1, 1982

By T. G. Madgwick, A. Beeby Thompson

FoR more than 2500 years, natural gas issues in the Surakhany district of the Apsheron peninsula were the object of pilgrimages by fire worshippere and Hindoos from Burma and India. Even as late as 1890, Hindoo priests conducted ceremonies in a temple at Surakhany, which probably replaced a more ancient one; but later, the visits of the pilgrims were prohibited in order to check the spread of Asiatic diseases in that region. For centuries, limited supplies of oil have been abstracted from shallow excavations in the Caspian oil belt and dispatched into the interior of Asia and elsewhere for medicinal and industrial purposes. Statistics show a yield of 37,400 bbl. in 1863, but only since 1869 has there been serious development; in that year the yield was 203,000 bbl. At that time, hand digging was supplanted by drilling, and the enormous wells that resulted from tapping sources hitherto beyond the reach of operators completely demoralized the industry for a time, owing to inadequate outlets for the products. The early activities in this area were greatly hindered by annoying taxation, monopolies, imperial land grants, etc., but when these were revoked or adjusted, in 1877, the industry sprang into prominence and, between 1898 and 1901, the Baku fields produced practically one-half of the world's supply of oil. Within a few miles of Baku lie the two richest oil fields in the world; viz., the Balakhany-Saboontchy-Romany and the Bibi-Eibat, the latter constituting almost a suburb of the city. For many years the gasoline obtained in the refineries of the Baku area was burned in pits, being considered an undesirable product, and until 1870 the residue also was destroyed, its value as a fuel not being recognized. Kerosene was the main product sought by the refiners. It was shipped across the Caspian Sea and up the Volga to the industrial centers of Russia. Only on the completion of the Baku-Batoum railway did the Baku oil fields secure important commercial communication with the outside world through the medium of the Black Sea. The first tank steamer was successfully launched on the Caspian in 1879, by Messrs. Nobels, for transporting oil in bulk instead of in barrels. In 1905, an 8-in. pipe line to Batoum was completed; this was capable of transporting to seaboard 8,000,000 bbl. of kerosene per annum.

Jan 1, 1921

By Kennedy, Joseph E.

MANY things must be considered in coming to a decision as to what type of crushing and grinding equipment is to be used for preparing run-of-mine ore for concentration, amalgamation, flotation, or cyanidation. This paper is intended in no sense as a thorough discussion of these various factors, but rather contains a few observations based on a wide experience in the manufacture and application of milling machinery. One important governing factor is the tonnage to be dealt with. In large plants treating several thousands of tons in eight hours, a large jaw or gyratory crusher of substantial construction is standard equipment for reducing ore to 8 or 10 in. or finer. In open-pit work, using power shovels with 4- or 5-yd. dippers, a jaw crusher should have a receiving opening of 48 by 60 in., or 60 by 84 in., so that dynamite or hand sledging will not be required for breaking to a finer size before primary crushing. The coarsely broken ore is then conveyed by a belt to vibrating screens, the oversize from which is again conveyed by belts to secondary crushers having openings of 12 or 14 in., the product from which is conveyed to storage. From storage, the material goes to a finishing gyratory for reduction to 1/4 in. or finer.

Jan 1, 1936

By William B. Plank

ENGINEERING students to the number of 73,269 had been enrolled in United States and Canadian schools on Nov. 5, 1945, but, as shown in the following tables, even this sizable number will not greatly remedy the 150,000 deficit reported by Vannevar Bush, director of the U. S. Office of Scientific Research and Development, to exist in the engineering and scientific man-power supply. These figures were received in advance from the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, and are given in detail in the January 1946 issue of the Journal of Engineering Education. Although the enrollment on Nov. 5 was an increase of 76% over the low of 41,632 in 1944-45, it was still 36% below the peak enrollment in 1941-42 of 115, 228. These figures include both undergraduate students and graduate students in the schools of the United States and Canada and are therefore comparable. As was to be expected, almost half of this enrollment is in the first or freshman year and 25% of the total are veterans. Also, 1,850, or about 2.5%, are women. A measure of the seriousness of the engineering graduate supply in these two countries is indicated by the trend of the number of first degrees that have been conferred during this period of scarcity:

Jan 1, 1946

By Bradley Stoughton

PROMINENCE has been given lately in engineering circles to the question whether an organisation with manifold interests can be as effective as one with a single aim, especially if that single aim be the furtherance of affairs of moment and the welfare of engineers in general. In its earlier days, the A. I. M. E. was forbidden by its constitution to engage in non-technical public affairs, but the members altered the constitution in this respect, in the year 1912, in response to the growing demand that engineers be more human in their interests and that the engineering societies represent them in this respect. Since that time, the activity of mining engineers in public affairs has been growing rapidly, and we are happy that the Institute has been able to render very valuable economic services. Doubtless the greatest public service rendered by engineers in a recent great emergency was the work of the Naval Consulting Board, without which the U. S. Navy would never have been able to enter promptly into service upon our entrance into the war, ,and both Navy and Army would have been a long time without the munitions that came at an early date. We can never forget that this Board was established through the direct activity of the then President of the A. I. M. E., with the hearty cooperation of other national organizations.

Jan 1, 1920

By D. Hnrrington

THE Dust Symposium was attended by approximately 100 persons, nearly all of whom remained from the starting hour (2 p. m.) until the use of the auditorium was demanded for another meeting at 5:30 p. in. In calling the meeting to order, D. Harrington made a few remarks as to the importance of the health dust problem in mining as well as in general industry and expressed gratification that the subject is now out in the open and that mining people are desirous of ascertaining the facts. B. F. Tillson acted as chairman of the meeting. The milling executive who desires to know what to do to prevent his workers from being unduly exposed to the dust hazard can get much out of the paper by D. E. Cummings, who has been doing much work in mines trying to keep -the dust in the air within safe limits. His recommendations indicate that the main protection of the worker in mines is by adequate ventilation, supplemented by the extensive use of water in drilling, as well as in water curtaining to condition air both in regard to dust content and to temperatures. Blasting was shown to be one of the chief causes for dust and it was recommended that whenever feasible all blasting should be delayed to the end of the working shift.

Jan 1, 1935

By E. M. Wise

The practice of adding moderate quantities of nickel to a variety of bronzes has been employed by foundrymen for many years with several objects in view. In some instances it was desired to harden the alloy; in others it was to increase the fluidity or to improve the solidity of the castings, or to refine their grain. These important matters have been considered in detail by Pilling and Kihlgrenl and by numerous other workers cited by them, and with the exception of the first will not be considered in the present communication. The possibility of reducing the cost of bronze by replacing a portion of the tin with nickel received attention some years ago by Burgess and Woodward12 and, as will be shown later, offers attractive savings in cost under present conditions. The age-hardening characteristics of the nickel bronzes of appropriate compositions have been known for some time and were mentioned by Price, Grant and Phillips3 and discussed by Wise4 in connection with their paper. These matters are further considered in recent patents15 and are becoming of commercial importance in the production of high-strength castings. The equilibrium relations existing in the high-copper region of the copper-nickel-tin system have been carefully studied by Eash and Upthegrove,6 and in somewhat less detail by Veszelka.7 The observa-

Jan 1, 1934

By Ernest M. Spokes

For bituminous and lignite coals the economic picture continued to improve as it has each year since the low of 1961, with production at 480 mil- lion tons in 1964 compared with 1963's 459 million tons. The anthracite industry produced 16.3 million tons in 1964 and 18.3 million tons in 1963. The industry is looking toward a further expansion; among the new developments will be a mining wheel producing 3 million tons of lignite per year in South Dakota. It is expected that electric power generation will continue to provide the market for most of the increase in consumption, with exports second in importance in the expansion. Improvements in methods of mining and transporting coal underground and in strip mines, and the cooperation of carriers in finding ways to reduce transportation costs to distant markets, have made possible these expansions. Research continues to reduce costs of mining, transportation, steam generation of electric power and production of steam for space heating and manufacturing processes, to retain some markets and expand others. Other research seeks to expand markets by developing fuel from coal which will be more attractive than competing fuels, by reducing sulfur and other sources of air pollution. Public relations efforts of the industry are bearing fruit in a greater acceptance of coal as a modern fuel.

Jan 2, 1965

By T. S. Fuller

VARIOUS phases of the embrittlement of solid copper containing oxygen by the action of reducing gases at high temperatures through the work of many experimenters are familiar to readers of metallurgical literature. In 1900, Heyn1 recorded observations of copper being heated in hydrogen with the development of fine cracks, the result of the formation of steam within the metal through the action of hydrogen on the copper oxide usually found in copper. Archbutt,2 in 1905, published the results of experiments, showing that all oxygen can be removed from copper by heating to redness, for several hours, in hydrogen. Intercrystalline cracks and extreme brittleness developed. Archbutt attributed the brittleness to the reduction of oxides present in the copper. Bengough and Hill,3 in 1910, encountered the now well-known embrittlement at the outset of their investigation and stated in their paper: It soon became evident that the effect of any heat treatment depended largely on the presence or absence of reducing gases in the atmosphere of the furnace, as well as on its temperature. Hence it became necessary to adopt a somewhat elaborate scheme of heat treatment. The authors found embrittlement in separate experiments due to both hydrogen and carbon monoxide and concluded that: "The gases ruin the alloys after being heated to about 650° C. in their presence."

Jan 2, 1926

By J. S. Diller

In 1827, chromite was discovered near Baltimore by Isaac. Tyson, Jr., who initiated the mining of chrome ore and later (1845) the manufacture of chromium compounds in this country. From 1828 to about 1560 the United States, supplanting Russia, supplied chromite for most of the world. Chrome deposits were found also in California, and the Tyson Company shipped ore to Philadelphia by way of Cape Horn. In 1848, J. Lawrence Smith, an American in the employ of the Porte, discovered large bodies of chromite in Asia Minor. They were developed in 1865 and became the chief source of the world's supply for a number of gears. The discovery of the large high-grade bodies in New Caledonia., and later in Rhodesia, with other foreign sources, gives at present an abundant supply for all demands. For a number of years before the great war. the United States produced only a few hundred tons of chromite annually, for local use, but during the war the demand for domestic ore resulted in a production of more than 82,000 long tons of crude ore in 1918, and it was demonstrated that the United States has reserve deposits equal to a war demand of several years' duration. Now that the war is over, the country is con-serving its domestic supplies by employing higher-grade but cheaper ore from foreign countries.

Jan 9, 1919

The committee appointed .by W. R. Ingalls, president of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America, to nominate candidates for the' annual gold medal of the Society consisted of E. G. Spilsbury, J. E. Johnson, Jr., and Bradley Stoughton. This committee recommended Mr. Schneider of the Creuzot Works in France for achievements in ferrous metallurgy, which recommendation was approved by the Society. From the report of the committee, the following facts relative to Mr. Schneider's career are taken: Born in 1868, Charles Eugene Schneider undertook the management of the Schneider establishment in 1898, after the death of his father, Henri Schneider. Under his enlightened management, the Schneider establishments have been considerably extended, their activity being not only directed to increasing production, but also to spreading more and more their scope for action in all branches of industry-in metallurgy, mechanical and electrical construction, shipbuilding, artillery and ammunition, and in public works. During the 10 years preceding the war, the number of employees in these establishments, and without counting those of the more numerous subsidiaries, increased approximately 50 per cent. While giving to peace industries all the attention necessitated by the progress in science and the continual improvement in industrial methods and products, Eugene Schneider, with a perspicacity that recent events have justified in a striking manner, especially directed his

Jan 3, 1919