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By Joseph C. Buchen

IN principle, production of salt from sea water is a simple operation. Sea water is trapped in ponds, the sun and wind cause evaporation of the water, and what is left is principally salt. Commercial production of solar salt, however, requires a careful consideration of many factors. Obviously, sufficient evaporation must take place throughout the making season to produce an economically adequate crop. Other factors are density of soil, contour of ground, height of ground above sea level, minimum dilution from fresh-water streams, and distance from market. Unfortunately, in the United States the localities of greatest evaporation, allowing for the other factors, are not the most suitable for the manufacture of sea salt by solar evaporation. The south end of San Francisco Bay most

Jan 1, 1937

By David C. Jonson, W. Bruce MacKenzie, Arthur A. Bookstrom, Vaughn E. Surface, Neil K. Muncaster, Stewart R. Wallace

In mid-Tertiary time a wet silici-alkalic magma penetrated the Precambrian rocks of what is now the Tenmile Range of Central Colorado and formed the Climax Stock. The stock is a composite one and was intruded in four separate irruptions, each giving rise to a major hydrothermal event. The first three of these produced large stockwork ore bodies that cap and flank the tops of their respective source intrusives; the fourth, and last, yielded almost no commercial mineralization. The ore bodies and their related zones of alteration are circular to ring-shaped in plan and arcuate in section. The different phases of the stock are so positioned with respect to each other that many of the circular and arcuate zones of mineralization and alteration overlap or are juxtaposed. Evidence of a time separation between the different ore bodies is found in certain dikes that were intruded between periods of mineralization and are well mineralized in one ore body but are barren in another. If it is assumed that the parent magma at Climax contained 10 per cent "water," that the "water" contained 0.1 grams per liter of molybdenum, and that the processes of extraction were 100 per cent efficient, then approximately 10 cubic miles of magma would be required for the formation of each ore body. The volume requirements, taken in conjunction with the cross-sectional areas of the different phases of the stock to explored depths, suggest to the authors that each magma chamber was columnar, extended to a depth of thousands of feet, and was connected with a much larger master reservoir. The repetition of similar intrusive, structural, and hydrothermal events, indicates periodic tapping of this reservoir. A regular chemical evolution of the parent magma is suggested by the systematic change in metal ratios and differences in the sites of deposition, relative to the source intrusive, in each of the four separate igneous hydrothermal stages. The preparation of ground was due to changes in magmatic and/ or hydrothermal pressures within the igneous-hydrothermal columns; small, repeated, up and down movements of the rock enclosing the tops of the columns formed the stockwork fractures into which the mineralizers penetrated. The forceful emplacement of each successive phase of the Climax Stock resulted in a slight doming and rotation to the westward of the earlier-formed geologic features. Postore normal displacement along the Mosquito fault is estimated at about 9000 feet. Part of one ore body was cut by the fault and lies at depth below the Paleozoic sedimentary strata on the hanging wall. On the footwall side of the fault, subaerial erosion and glaciation removed a large part of one ore body and uncovered the top of a second.

Jan 1, 1968

By HUGH E. McKinstry

OPENING the sessions of the Mining Geology Committee, the program on postwar mineral controls drew a larger attendance than any other session of the entire meeting. In view of its general interest, the papers of this session, or a substantial portion of them, are printed elsewhere in this issue. Whether control of mineral resources can help to promote peace, how controls could be applied and to whom, are questions so far-reaching that naturally no pat answer was agreed upon. In fact the discussion took on something of the flavor of a debate between those who favor strict control and those who felt that attempting to ration nations in peacetime would defeat its own ends. Discussion from the floor emphasized the difficulties in administering any international control and the $64 question, that no one cared to answer, asked by a courageous young lady who was induced to mount the rostrum for the purpose, was whether the United Nations should exchange mineral controllers to police each other.

Jan 1, 1944

By AIME AIME

No democracy such as ours, can ever be prepared for war, because we could never conceivably be the aggressor. The aggressor prepares in secret, designs his new tactics, and invents and makes new equipment and selects the time to strike. If a democracy prepare done year and the war came later, all that it had one would have to bed one over. All that England has today in the way of effective armament has been invented, designed, made, and the crews trained since the war began, because the totalitarian aggressor introduced new types of equipment and new techniques.

Jan 1, 1941

By Stanley C. Herold

TWENTY-FIVE years ago no distinction was made between water wells and oil wells except in the nature of the fluid produced. Water wells usually showed no decline in their rate of production; when oil wells showed decline something in the manner of handling them was considered wrong. Both water and oil were believed to be subject to the same physical laws in their underground movement toward the wells. Today a sharp distinction is made between them. Whereas water exists alone in the porous formations at depth, oil is usually accompanied by gas. This mixture does not behave as a liquid alone. It is a frothy, seething mass of foam which approaches and enters the wells. Different physical laws come into play. Twenty-five years ago attention was directed entirely to the well itself; today the well is accepted as a mere hole in the ground, a hole to be equipped properly for efficient service, yet without any value whatever unless it is backed up by a sufficiently prolific reservoir. Then, we were concerned with wells alone, 3000 ft. in depth; now commercial wells and their reservoirs are 10.000 ft. deep. Petroleum engineering concepts have necessarily therefore undergone a change in this last quarter century. What are they today?

Jan 1, 1937

By AIME AIME

A LUSTY baby of the Institute, the Coal Division, showed that it had acquired a full set of teeth and was capable of man's work at the Division meeting at Fairmont, W. Va., on March 26 and 27. At this second of a series of field meetings, the first of which was held in Pittsburgh last fall, the industry in the East was represented from top to bottom and good humor and enthusiasm were the predominant notes. West Virginians are always good hosts and this meeting would have proved the statement to any inclined to doubt it. The spacious auditorium of the Fairmont Hotel was arranged for the technical sessions, the hotel being headquarters for the meeting. About a hundred and twenty-five representatives were registered and in attendance when Thomas G. Fear, chairman, opened the morning session at 10 o'clock Mr. Fear first introduced Howard Eavenson, vice-chairman of the morning program, who, as chairman of the Coal Division, had labored long and cheerfully to make the meeting successful. Mr. Eavenson talked briefly on what the organization was doing, pointing out that these field meetings were designed to bring the members into closer touch with the parent Institute and give the younger engineers in the field a better opportunity to participate in the work the Institute is doing. He congratulated the various committees for their work in promoting the meeting.

Jan 1, 1931

By AIME AIME

A SYMPOSIUM on current. conditions in Mexico, particularly in the oil and mining industries, was a most successful feature of the May meeting of the New York Section of the A.I.M.E. Heath Steele, vice-president of The American Metal Co.. Ltd., with an intimate knowledge of Mexico gave the principal address, and asked that his analysis of the present situation he regarded neither as an endorsement of Mexico's policy nor as the criticism of a disgruntled operator. To explain the .attitude of the great mass of the Mexican people towards recent developments, he first described briefly the political, social, and religious beliefs and customs of tile Mexican Indian. In spite of their contact with foreigners these beliefs and customs have remained unchanged throughout many generations. The old communal spirit and the idea of common ownership of the land still persist especially in the rural districts and villages; the old custom of a council for local self-government is reflected in the present-day labor committee. Mr. Steele discussed in order land oil, and mines.

Jan 1, 1938

By AIME AIME

EITHER the 2300 people who came to the Annual Meeting were in a better frame of mind or they were resigned to their fate, or it was a better meeting than usual. Whatever the reason, at the 1nstitute?s 148th meeting the attendance was better than ever before, things went more smoothly than in some previous years, and complaints appear to have been almost entirely absent. Patience was sometimes reauired but. almost without exception, it was forthcorning the well-known recession seems to have given many members enough leisure time to come to the meeting without depriving them of the tangible wherewithal to come.

Jan 1, 1938

By H. W. Gillett

Unlike most previous Howe lecturers, I had not the good fortune to be associated with Henry Marion Howe, nor to be directly one of his students. Yet, through his writings, he has been my teacher, as he has of all American metallurgists. Instructive as his writings are—I use the present tense because Howe thought so keenly and reasoned so surely, seeing clearly, as if by intuition, what was hazy to lesser minds, that his writings are still vital—it is not those books and papers, nor even the minds he trained in his classes, that were his most outstanding service. It was the spirit of Howe in his approach to the problems of metallurgy, his broad-mindedness and fairness, his recognition of the need for theories and hypotheses to explain metallurgical phenomena, his willingness to use them as servants, as well as his questioning attitude—his refusal to accept them as masters—that comprise his greatest service. This most thoroughly warrants the honor the Institute pays each year to his memory. These traits I so respect and honor in any man that I glory in this opportunity to do reverence to him in whom they were so notably united. Howe's Discussion of a Creep Problem I have often wished that Howe were still with us to turn his keen insight upon the problems of the use of metals at high temperatures, a field much studied but still very hazy. Indeed, 53 years ago, in a paper1 before this Institute, Howe stated a problem closely allied to some that still perplex metallurgists and engineers dealing with the high-temperature field. Howe was intrigued by a report2 from another old master, Robert Henry Thurston, on the behavior of annealed vs. cold-drawn iron wire, and in order to broaden the foundation for metallurgical generalization, Howe made experiments of his own on copper and silver. In these tests by Thurston and by Howe, the wires were rapidly loaded to determine the

Jan 1, 1939

Joseph W. RichaRds, South Bethlehem, Pa. (communication to the Secretary*): The hold experiment of Mr. James Gayley in drying the blast used in the Isabella furnace has attracted the attention of the whole metallurgical world, and has given rise to a wide discussion of the reasons for its great success. Mr. Gayley and the capitalists who backed him in his work deserve congratulations on the success of the venture, not only because it succeeded, but because they have been rewarded far beyond the maximum that could be expected from theory or probability. To state the case in its simplest terms, all that could have been predicted was: (1) that the removal of the moisture from the blaet would result in the saving of the heat required for its decomposition, representing from 3 to 5 per cent. of the heat-value of the coke used; hence about that quantity of fuel might be saved; (2) that the furnace would be somewhat more independent of variations in the weather; (3) that the campaign would be a little hotter; and (4) that the speed of the blowing-eugines would be decreased, at least in amount proportionate to the reduction in temperature of the air led to them. I do not think anyone anticipated a much larger output per day. The results actually attained were: (1) the furnace made an increase of 24.86 per cent. in the output of pig-iron per day; (2) it consumed 19.6 per cent. less coke per ton of pig-iron made; (3) the blowing-engines were run 15.8 per cent. slower; and (4) the saving in power made up for the power required to run the refrigerating-plant. In addition, the blast was hotter; the waste-gases cooler, because of their smaller volume; and there was a greater proportion of carbon dioxide to carbon

Jan 1, 1906

By AIME AIME

T HE 121st meeting of the Institute held in New York City, February 16 to 19, 1920, was a great success despite vicissitudes of weather of unusual severity. On account of tremendous snowstorms, only two members of the Canadian contingent arrived, and several of our members from the west arrived thirty hours late. Two weeks prior to the meeting, the heaviest snowstorm in 34 years wrecked the surface transportation in New York; and it was only by special dispensation that arrangements were effected, with the New York Street Cleaning Department to clear away 39th street in front of this building so that vehicles could reach the curb. The total registration of members and guests was 1138.

Jan 1, 1920

CALAMINE is one of the semiminerals that have great similarity to the metals. It is a very heavy mineral earth of a yellowish color. It is found in Germany near the lead mines and in Italy in a mountain between Milan and Como. It is also found, as I have heard, in other places, as at Fosini in the territory of Siena. I believe that it is almost certain that some exists there because there are many other kinds of minerals there- about, although none is mined there in these times. But this does not mean that it could not be mined or that there is not some there that is real. Someone says that he med to melt what he could find with copper [36v]

Jan 1, 1942

By Robert W. Hunt

No matter how perfectly sectioned or skilfully manufactured the rails used may have been, or with what care the road-bed may he maintained, legitimate results from these important factors cannot be secured unless proper attention is bestowed upon the joint-fastenings. In this country, splice-bars of various patterns furnish the practically universal joint. Other forms have been used, and are now being experimentally tested, but the typical American rail-joint consists of angle-plates or splice-bars. At the same time, it is true that scarcely a railroad engineer is satisfied with his joint. He may consider it the best of which he has knowledge, but at the same time he is well aware of many of its weak points.

Jan 1, 1890

By W. C. Phalen

E. G. SPILSBURY; New York, N. Y.-I would like to emphasize what Mr. Phalen says in his paper regarding the possible utilization of the waste acids in the West for the acid concentration of phosphate rock, and to call attention to the fact that this is already being done by Mr. Laist at Anaconda, who is producing concentrated phosphoric acid from these low-grade rocks. During the last year, he has not been able to carry this along to the extent he, had expected, owing to the tremendous demand which they have had for all the acid they can produce, so instead of having a. surplus of acid, as was expected, they are really short of this material for their electrolytic copper and zinc work.

Jan 4, 1917

By Allen L. Hatch

Perhaps the greatest challenge to the non-ferrous extractive industry, aside from discovery and cost reduction, is the continuous effort toward the total recovery of metals. This is-and must continue to be-a joint endeavor on the part of the miner and the smelter, the first to trend constantly toward that form of concentration most amenable to the smelter and the latter to upgrade technical efficiency on the product delivered. What follows will be a smelter's-eye view of the relative value of gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc as they each are contained in copper, lead and zinc concentrates. The variety of combinations is obviously of such a magnitude that it will be necessary to restrict the observations to fundamental concepts.

Jan 1, 1966

By John V. Beall

As Mother Nature arranged it, the hottest potential mineral target in the country today, the Stillwater complex had to occur in a spectacular natural setting-the north margin of the Bear Tooth Mountains of Montana. What more appropriate backdrop for the August 17-18 field hearings of Senator Frank E. Moss (D-Utah). His subcommittee, on Minerals. Materials and Fuels, heard 37 witnesses ponder the value of minerals vs esthetics or other uses of federal lands. On August 17, four Army Hueys swept the senatorial party, the press, Forest Service Officers and such distinguished witnesses as Montana Governor Forrest H. Anderson over the Custer-Gallatin National Forests, besting the thin air of 10,000 ft p1us, they set down on Iron Plateau.

Jan 1, 1971

By H. S. Strouth

JAMAICA-bauxite and gypsum-but what else? J Does the Caribbean island have anything more to offer in the form of mineral wealth? One answer may be iron ore deposits which show enough promise to warrant exploitation in the near future by a company associated with Standard Ore & Alloys Corp. In addition, Jamaica is reported to have gold, silver, platinum, copper, lead, zinc, manganese, cobalt, and a great many nonmetallic minerals. Of these, only platinum has not been produced commercially in the past. Right now, Jamaican bauxite is getting most of the publicity, but not too long ago other mining operations were in progress. Lack of proper interest, insufficient roads, and scarcity of venture capital forced those mining properties to suspend production.

Jan 7, 1954

By E. C. Winegartner, A. A. Ubbens

The company attempting to sell coal to large utility plants is faced with a confusing array of quality parameters and specifications which are often poorly understood by both the utility company and coal supplier. While these specifications are placed on the coal by the utility company, many of them originate with the boiler manufacturer who must guarantee that his product will perform satisfactorily on the design coal. A proper understanding of these parameters by both the coal supplier and utility company can lead to a better understanding of their mutual problem. This paper brings together most of the parameters in common use today and attempts to show what the parameters mean to the boiler designer, particularly in the area of boiler slagging and fouling.

Jan 1, 1977

By C. L. Dake

RESIDUAL deposits occur both as products of weathering and as products of hydrothermal decay. PRODUCTS OF WEATHERING That climatic conditions affect greatly both the rate and the results of weathering, is shown. in temperate, polar, arid, and tropical regions, each of which will be considered separately. Weathering under Temperate Climates The decomposition of any rock is accomplished by the removal of the more soluble bases, and a concentration of the relatively insoluble oxides of iron, aluminum, and silicon. By reason of its some-what greater solubility, silica is much more subject to removal than iron and alumina. The two important residual end products of weathering are sands and clays, the former consisting essentially of quartz, and the latter of kaolin and limonite.1

Jan 5, 1915

By W. E. C. Eustis

During the last year I had occasion, on behalf of our New York copper works, to send to various chemists samples, intended to he accurate, of material which we were buying and selling, and I was astonished to find what differences were reported. After talking over the probable reasons for this with a number of chemists and metallurgists, it was suggested that it would be of real use and some scientific interest to send samples to the different chemists, and take such care in making up the samples that we could feel sure that each chemist had as nearly identical a sample as it was possible to make. After some consideration it was determined to send a mixture which should carry about 50 per cent. copper, and

Jan 1, 1883