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By E. DeGolyer

WAR has wrought sharp and sudden changes in the pattern of the oil industry. The most obvious and most striking of such changes have been in the fields of transportation and refining. A third of the world's total oil production formerly started to market, tanker-borne, over the waters of the Gulf and Caribbean. Most of this oil went to our North Atlantic ports, supply points for the world's greatest consuming center. This tremendous traffic, disrupted by the loss of tankers as a result of requisition for military purposes and by the activity of enemy submarines, has had to be substituted largely by such lines of supply as could be improvised without loss of too much time. No single solution for this gigantic problem has been found nor is it likely to be entirely solved for some time to come. It has been solved in part, however, by rearrangement, reversals, and patching up of existing pipe-line systems; by overland transport of crude and products in tank cars on a scale never before attempted; by barging over inland waterways; and through the construction at long last of the "big-inch" line, the first leg of which is just being put into operation as far as Norris City, III. The tank-car traffic alone, reaching a peak of deliveries of 856,710 barrels per day into District 1 during the week ending Sept. 19, 1942, and accomplished at an expense of millions of dollars in extraordinary transportation costs, defrayed by the Defense Supply Corp. and by the mobilization of tank cars from all over the nation, is a story worth the telling but by some of those who directed it.

Jan 1, 1943

By Edwin Dudley Martin

DURING the past twelve years the iron and steel industry has made a major advance through the development of the continuous wide strip rolling mill. So far-reaching have been the results that not only has a better product been sold at a lower price but this improvement in quality has permitted manufacturers of products using steel to make important savings in the cost of fabrication. The net result has been a better product at lower cost to the consumer without reduction in either employment or of wages paid within the industry. That is why the iron and steel industry is proud of its attainment. Being a basic industry of strategic importance, such an advance in technology has had its effects on our internal economy, our standard of living, and our industrial power as a nation in both peace and wartime.

Jan 1, 1939

By V. V. Clark

WHEN a district is more or less primitive, and a trained mining engineer attempts single- handed to prospect it according to old standards, he generally fails. He has not the ability to live out in the open alone for months at a time and carry on with enthusiasm and determination like the old-time prospector. But the same engineer, placed in an organized group where modern prospecting methods are employed, is immediately put on his mettle and his chances of winning are greatly increased. Marsman Investments, Ltd., with headquarters in Manila, has at the present time, Sept. 4, 1937, six prospecting parties in the Netherland East Indies. Three of these groups are combing their assignments for lode mines, studying structures, developing and reaching out into veins and zones with diamond drills. The other three are searching for placer mines with pans, pits, and Empire drills. I am in charge of one group seeking commercial gold placers on the Island of

Jan 1, 1937

By D. M. McFarland

IN mining, quarrying, and construction, drilling and blasting have an important influence on the operations that follow. If the fragmentation of material being disrupted is inadequate, loading and transportation equipment will not operate at or near full capacity. Any operator faced with this difficulty should not be satisfied until he is convinced by a careful study of his methods of drilling and blasting that no improvement can be made. Rock in a certain quarry in Ohio seemed to defy any grade of explosive or means of detonation that the explosives industry had to offer. The average result of a blast was that a great part of the burden would be pushed out from the face in a number of large sections that would jokingly be referred to as "boxcars." These were no credit to the explosives man and a costly problem for the quarry company. Such blocks retard shovel operation as they have to be uncovered and subjected to secondary drilling and blasting which, if extensive, is an expensive operation. It was an attempt to improve the fragmentation obtained in primary blasts that led to the development of milli-second-delay electric blasting caps. The reasoning that prompted the trial was that even with wide spacing of the drill holes it seemed that the burden was separated too quickly from the face by the cutting action of the explosives from hole to hole. If the time of firing of the holes could be regulated so that

Jan 1, 1948

By B. M. Larsen

NEVER having actually tried to engage in the systematic education of anyone, and having little direct knowledge of the practical problems and limitations in the field of education, I can pose only as a "nonexpert" in this field, one whose ideas are to be regarded as personal opinions. The necessity for compromise between educational ideals and the practical limitations of time, money, and mental capacities of both student and teacher is evident in the preparation of an end product that we may regard with a reasonable degree of conviction as a professional engineer. We need to do so many things. The engineering student must have a clear understanding of the basic sciences; he should develop manual skills and co-ordination; he should speak and write the language with simple clarity and directness; he should gather knowledge of a special field; and, he should be educated for living in a broad ..

Jan 1, 1948

John Birkinbine, Philadelphia, Pa.: We have in the Institute two Dudleys—Dr. Charles B. Dudley, who has so thoroughly studied the chemical composition and physical behavior of rail-steel, and Dr. P. H. Dudley, whose investigations and

Jan 1, 1900

By Peter K. Strangway

During 1973, a 20,000 net ton (18 100 metric ton) formcoke test was carried out at Inland's 26.5-foot (8.08-meter) hearth diameter on NO. 5 Blast Furnace. The formcoke briquettes were produced from Elko1 coal by FMC at their pilot plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The briquettes were shipped to Inland in open railroad cars and most of them were placed in an outside storage field until a sufficient amount was available for the actual blast furnace test. The test consisted of three phases: an initial four-week base period; the actual 33-day formcoke test period; and a final three-week post-test base period. During the formcoke test period, the regular coke skip loads were gradually replaced with skips of formcoke until, after a three-week period, the replacement ratio reached 80%. The furnace operated smoothly and quality hot metal was produced. The burden remained permeable and it was possible to maintain wind rates 9 of over 100,000 scfm (47 Nm3/s) without significant blast pressure increases. Dusting from the formcoke was not a problem either in the stockhouse or in the top gas. The formcoke briquettes maintained their original shape and density as they descended through the furnace. When the 80 percent replacement level had been reached, the inwall temperatures became higher than normal (about 2000 ºF (1090 ºC)) and followed an unusual steady pattern. In addition, the top gas temperature became higher than normal, and the hot metal analyses and temperatures began to fluctuate unacceptably. In general, it is felt that the high inwall temperatures were a result of channeling of the hot furnace gases along the stack walls. This channeling appears to have been promoted by a change in distribution of the burden in the top of the furnace which, undoubtedly, was caused by the increased increments of formcoke. Since it was felt to be unsafe to operate the furnace for an extended period of time with the inwall temperatures at the high level, a decision was made to remove the formcoke from the furnace. When this was done, the inwall temperatures returned to normal. Once the inwall temperatures had returned to normal, the remaining 3,800 net tons (3450 metric tons) of formcoke were used in the furnace at a nominal 40% replacement level for five continuous days. The furnace operated smoothly during this period, and the results were representative of satisfactory furnace operation with partial replacement of regular coke with formcoke. The test was successful in proving that formcoke can replace up to about 50% of the regular coke in a large furnace operating at high wind rates. However, additional work will be required to develop acceptable charging practices for using higher levels of formcoke replacement.

Jan 1, 1977

By Edward W. Parker

I. INTRODUCTION. AT the Seventy-sixth meeting of the Institute, held in New York, N. Y., February, 1899, I presented a, paper on this subject entitled, Coal-Cutting Machinery,' which has become somewhat out of date, in view of the decade's development in this feature of the coal-minim industry. It should be explained that the present paper is limited to the use of mining-machines in bituminous mines. Practically all of the anthracite mined is ?shot from the solid," no undercutting being done. Anthracite-mining is therefore not considered in the statistics or other references. The statistical record as compiled by the United States Geological Survey shows that in 1898, the year preceding the presentation of my former paper, there were 32,413,144 short tons of coal undercut by the use of machines. In 1907 the machine-mined coal-product amounted to 138,547,823 short tons. In sympathy with the general decrease in coal-production during 1908, the output of machine-mined coal decreased to 123,183,334 short tons, but the proportion of machine-mined coal to the total output, nevertheless, showed an increase, from 35.1 per cent in 1907 to 37 per cent in 1908. In 1898 only 19.5 per cent. of the total product was undercut by the use of machines. The number of undercutting-machines in use in the bituminous mines of the United States has increased from 2,622 in 1898 to 11,144 in 1907, and to 11,569 in 1908. The total production of bituminous coal in the United States in 1908 was almost exactly double that of 1898, while the machine- * Published by permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey. 1 Trans.. xxix.. 400 to 4,59 (1899).

Sep 1, 1910

By Alan M. Bateman

POSSIBLE postwar trends of the more important world minerals will be determined in part by their present world position and by the acts and forces that have operated during the war period, so it is desirable first to review briefly what has been happening in the foreign field of metals and minerals. When we first entered this war we of the mineral profession were all acutely conscious of our lack of strategic minerals and other materials, which had to be imported in great quantities-minerals such as manganese, chrome, tin, mercury, nickel, and antimony. But we realized also that we had to acquire vast quantities of those minerals of which we had thought we were bountifully supplied. Our assumed domestic abundances turned out to be woefully deficient, and demands also arose for new minerals never before produced in large quantities. Some threescore minerals entered the strategic list of our imports. Ores from new sources had to be sought, developed, and transported. Tonnages in the millions of such bulk materials as zinc, lead, copper, chrome, and manganese flowed to feed our war efforts. Sparsely distributed minerals such as tin, mercury, antimony, tungsten, cobalt, mica, and corundum had to be lured from their rock lairs in greatly increased quantities to feed the hungry maw of war industry, and the rare minerals such as tantalite, columbite, beryl, and quartz crystals had to be developed and procured in quantities never before dreamed of. New uses such as radio and radar created demands for many minerals formerly thought of only as adornments of museum collections and not as pressing industrial minerals. Such minerals were never before mined in quantity.

Jan 1, 1945

By Eugene McAuliffe

HAVING reached the status of an octogenarian plus, I suddenly decided to take a trip to Great Britain by airplane, before the possibility of hardening of the arteries made such a program too precarious. Of thirty June and July days spent in the islands, five were spent in the south of Ireland, or Eire as the politicians like to call their country. On June 15 I arrived in Glasgow where a day was spent with old friends before moving on to Edinburgh, where the Institution of Mining Engineers was billed to hold its summer session. I had received a cablegram before leaving New York inviting me to attend the sessions which I accepted with avidity, spending three most enjoyable and informative days with old friends and the officers of the Institution, Douglas Hay, president; Ian McDermid, secretary; and members of the council.

Jan 1, 1947

By Robert T. Gdagher, Allison Butts

EDUCATIONAL trends as reflected in curricular changes are of interest and importance in engineering educa¬tion both as matters of record and as considerations for the future. The data on which the evidence of this report is based were obtained by sending questionnaires to all schools in the United States granting the undergraduate degree in mining engineering, metallurgy, or metallurgical engineering. The questionnaire had two parts, one inquiring as to the general nature of revisions made or planned, and the other asking for information on specific courses added to or dropped from the curriculum, or given more or less time than formerly. The frequency with which curricular changes are made, even in normal times, is notable. Although it was expected that the period since 1939-40 would show numerous revisions, it was somewhat surprising to find that of 62 mining or metallurgical curricula in existence in 1939-40 and reported in the present survey, 58 had been revised or are shortly to be revised, 52 having already been changed during this period. Moreover, approximately half of the mining schools that have already revised their curricula, and probably a similar proportion of the metallurgical schools, are about to make further important changes.

Jan 1, 1948

By E. M. Wise

WHEN man became dissatisfied with the mere utilization of physical force and began to use weapons, he made a definite stride forward. At first he used sticks, animal bones and stones, often rudely shaped to some particularly lethal form. These devices, while crude, were moderately effective. How- ever, some of the brighter men of the tribe found that certain particularly heavy "stones" were somewhat ductile and could be hammered into more effective weapons than those previously known. Later, probably through the misuse of one of these weapons to stir the campfire, it was found that heating softened and perhaps actually melted the material. The process of annealing had been discovered! Smelting the more easily reducible metals was in all probability one of those fortuitous accidents which was followed up by thoughtful researchers who ultimately developed the technique of mixing various ores to produce bronze and even some of the nickel content alloys. The resulting products were at first lumps of more or less ductile material which could be hammered to shape, and were thus incidentally hardened by this process. The hardening of metals by alloying and cold working remained for many centuries the only known methods for improving their properties.

Jan 1, 1931

By AIME AIME

AN enthusiastic crowd, cheerfully confident that the upturn in the oil industry has arrived, gathered in Los Angeles on Sept. 29 for a Petroleum Division meeting arranged by the Southern California Section. The assembly room of the California Oil and Gas Association was the place of meeting. H. Norton Johnson was in the chair for the morning session, with about eighty members and guests present. Four papers were presented before lunch and a fifth, on electrical coring, was withdrawn as the work on which it was based is still confidential. Joseph Jensen read his contribution on the "Kettleman Hills Middle Dome Unit Plan" and, as he had an active part in framing the plan, his outline and discussion of it was authoritative and informing. J. H. Woods asked concerning the operation of the casing-head gasolene plant under the plan and was informed that one company would operate the plant and royalties would be paid participating companies

Jan 1, 1933

By F. S. Norcross

DEVELOPMENT of the manganese deposits of Cuba is a matter of importance not only to those involved in this industry on the Island but to the United States steel industry and to our Nation as a whole. For years our domestic resources of manganese have been wholly inadequate, but the recent Cuban development points the way toward solution of this strategic mineral problem.

Jan 1, 1939

By William F. Boericke

RESEARCH in the modern refractories laboratory has two practical ends in view-to develop refractory materials for the metallurgist that will meet particular operating difficulties more effectively and to ?manufacture these refractories at a cost sufficiently low to make their use economical to the metallurgist. At the research laboratories of E. J: Lavino and Co., at Plymouth Meeting, Pa., the technical staff, under Dr. Gilbert E. Seil, is giving principal attention. to an. exhaustive investigation of the following factors in refractories:

Jan 1, 1931

By W. E. Wrather

SERIOUS consideration was given by the Petroleum Division to a wide variety of subjects, during six busy sessions at the Annual Meeting. Beginning with a joint session on engineering research and production engineering, Tuesday afternoon, conducted by E. A. Stephenson and H. C. Fowler, problems of petroleum technology, domestic and foreign production, proved oil re- serves, economics, and stabilization were mooied almost without interruption until nearly everyone was "talked out,' and the meeting was adjourned at the end of the annual Petroleum Division dinner, late Thursday night.

Jan 1, 1933

By TSUYEE PEI

I FEEL greatly honored and appreciate this opportunity to be able to say a few words about that rather perplexing subject, silver. The constant decline in the price of this metal has now reached the stage where it is of much concern and the cause of serious discussion among the leading financiers, economists, and statesmen of the world. Further- more, it is significant that this subject is so important that almost every day one can read articles pertaining to it in the newspapers and trade publications. Being essentially a banker, and not an economist, I do not claim to be an authority on the silver question. These remarks are merely some of my observations in, regard to the many puzzles which-I came across in my recent studies of this very important question.

Jan 1, 1931

By Benjamin F. Tillson

THE past seven years, and 1937 in particular, have witnessed the return of New Jersey iron mining to a place of importance. Following the World War period, little mining was done for several reasons. The properties were operated by small merchant furnaces whose demand was not sufficiently large to warrant large-scale methods with their attendant low operating costs. Under those conditions, the ore produced could not compete with that from the Great Lakes. However, when on Nov. 1, 1.929, the Alan Wood Steel Co., of Conshohocken, Pa., leased the Scrub Oak and Washington properties at Mine Hill and Oxford respectively, they made radical changes in the mining and milling processes which greatly reduced the cost of production and pointed the way to a renewed interest in mining in New Jersey. The following factors have been advanced as influencing the reopening of New Jersey mines:

Jan 1, 1938

By Goerge F. Weaton

Since 1909, when an agreement between Minnesota's Tax Commission and the University of Minnesota's School of Mines was worked out, it has been the annual responsibility of the School to evaluate and classify the iron ore deposits within the State. These unique duties of an academic institution have provided School officials with an excellent view of the past, present and probable future of the mining industry in Minnesota as the average grade of iron ore (excluding taconite) * diminishes while at the same time it competes with beneficiated taconites and foreign high-grade ores for use in America's eastern blast furnaces. SYSTEM OF EVALUATION In the latter part of November of each year, the Mining Division of the Department of Taxation makes a preliminary study of the active mines which the Department wants the School of Mines to review. These are discussed with the engineers of the Ore Estimate Division of the School of Mines and with the mining companies. After these discussions, a list of the mines of each of the major operating companies is submitted to the Ore Estimate Division of the School of Mines with the request that these properties be reviewed by them as of the next assessment date (May 1st). At the same time, a letter is sent to the mining companies requesting that they submit to the Division their own estimates on the selected mines operated by them, together with all computations, drill records, maps and cross-sections. The mining companies are re- quested to send in this information during the first half of the year, and, as far as is possible, they have always complied with this request promptly. Much of this information received by the School of Mines is of a confidential nature and is treated as such.

Jan 1, 1965

By Franklin Bache

THERE seems to be in the public mind, and even in the minds of some coal-operators not experienced in mines subject to dust-explosions, a feeling that there has been something mysterious at the bottom of a number of recent American colliery-explosions. It has been declared in cases of accidents in mines regarded as particularly well equipped, in which every preventive precaution was said to have been taken, that the explosions were incomprehensible, and resulted from causes beyond the present knowledge of the practical coal-operator. But it is safe to say that no explosion has taken place which could not be explained by reasons well understood by most operators. The LT. S. Geological Survey Test Laboratory, recently inaugurated at Pittsburg for the reported purpose of investigating scientifically the matter of explosions in mines, will discover no new explanation of explosions. It call, however, co-ordinate the previous investigations of similar boards in England and on the Continent; and it may do a vast amount of good by promulgating widely, and in a form comprehensible by the most unlettered miner, certain facts and obvious deductions that cannot but have an effect in reducing the number and extent of the mine-disasters which, in the last few years, have been so terrible in frequency and magnitude. The only possible sources of explosions of any magnitude in coal-mines are : (1) explosives stored in quantity in the mine; (2) gases generated or liberated in the mine; and (3) coal-dust. Combinations of any of the three may, of course, take part in the result. The danger of any great loss of life from stored explosives alone is very remote. The simplest ordinary precaution forbids the presence, in one place underground, of any considerable quantity of explosives, and it would require an

Aug 1, 1909