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By Arthur S. Dwight

We author of this historical chapter will perhaps be criticized for limiting his subject to the history of the blast furnace in lead smelting, and especially to the part it played in the great custom ore-smelting business which for three decades or more was the means of opening up vast mineral treasures and practically dominated the mining industry in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States, in Mexico and in Canada. The men of that era shared the romance and the thrills of mining, and bore their part as pioneers in the building of the great West. The present writer was too young to participate in the first of the three decades mentioned, but immediately thereafter came under the apprenticeship of some of the men who had worked out the early metallurgical problems of the industry, became personally acquainted with most of the others of that group, heard the tales of early experiences, successes and failures, the gossip of the frontier and mining camps, from all of which there remain embedded in his mind clear impressions of the outstanding personalities of that time. That is the background against which the fifty years of intimate contact with the mining and smelting business and his own experiences as metallurgist stand out in his memory, and it is hoped that the gentle reader may understand and approve his desire to rescue from comparative oblivion the fundamentally valuable results accomplished by these fathers of the industry. It will be the purpose of this chapter first to narrate the general history of the growth of the industry; second, to pay tribute to some of the pioneer metallurgists, and third, to discuss some of the salient points of the metallurgical practice at different periods, to illustrate the technical progress of the art. The series of eight Annual Reports of Rossiter W. Raymondl,† U. S. Commissioner of Mining Statistics from 1869 to 1876, contain most of the available information about the early smelting operations in the Rocky Mountain region, and much is in the early volumes of the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. The monograph by S. F. Emmons2 though not published until 1886, contained an elaborate description of the smelting works operating in 1879. Otto H. Hahn3 wrote a valuable paper in 1883, on smelting prac-

Jan 1, 1937

By Galen H. Clevenger

Equipment for treating lead ores was added in 1905 to a copper plant which the United States Smelting Refining and Mining Co. had built in 1902 at Midvale, Utah, about 12 miles to the south of Salt Lake City. By 1906 the lead section of the plant had been rounded out and consisted of a 90-ton gravity concentrator, fifteen hand-rabbled reverbera-tory roasting furnaces, six blast furnaces, a briquetting plant for handling flue dust and fine ores, a regulus furnace for concentrating the low-grade matte made in the blast furnaces, and a baghouse. The copper section was later abandoned and the plant has been operated for many years exclusively as a lead smelter. Some 45 years had elapsed at the time this plant was built since the first attempts to smelt lead ores in the West, and lead smelting had become a large and profitable industry but fundamentally little that was really new had been developed, which could be embodied in a plant built in this period. Principles and tools to work with had remained much the same as those borrowed earlier from European practice. Capacities had been increased and there were mechanical improvements but hand charging was still in vogue and there was little attempt to recover suspended particles carried out with the furnace gases, beyond settling in flues, which usually was only partly effective for recovery of the coarser particles. Satisfactory roasting and preparation of the fine components of the charge were still partially solved problems. The Midvale plant of 1906 may be regarded as more or less typical of the smelting plant of this period for treating complex western lead ores as distinguished from the recovery of lead from the simple lead ores to the eastward. The operation of a concentrating mill directly in conjunction with a lead smelter was, however, not common practice. The ores treated in this plant have from the beginning come from mines owned and operated by the company or have been custom ores purchased in the territory tributary to the plant. The treatment of custom ores is an important service to the small producer who does not have sufficient tonnage to warrant a plant, and serves to increase the tonnage of the operator of large properties, thereby helping to reduce

Jan 1, 1937

By G. L. Oldright, Virgil Miller

It is well known, in metallurgical circles, though less recognized in the technical press, that there have been remarkable increases in the capacity of the blast furnace in the last five .years. In places this capacity has been almost doubled. This paper will brief the experimental work carried on during more than five years with the direct assistance of the technical staffs of three lead smelters treating three distinctive types of feed. The first is the custom smelter of the International Smelting and Refining Co. at Tooele, Utah1, with a multiplicity of ores; the second, the Kellogg, Idaho, smelter of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating CO.2, treating an exceedingly rich lead charge, such as is now being made more and more as the practice of concentration is improved; and the third, the smelter at Trail, B. C., owned by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Limited3, which treats highly zinciferous charges and later recovers zinc from the slag. In comparing operations at these three smelters it must be clearly recognized that the objectives in smelting differ through differences in economics. Many operations are not, then, strictly comparable. There have also been decided improvements in operation since all of the smelters were examined, though this was but a relatively short time ago. The general factors that govern speed in smelting and the loss of metals in the smelters examined will be stressed. (For details of operation the reader is referred to the original papers.) This paper will then be an examination of the fundamentals of operating units in a search for improvements, and not a description of three great lead smelters. Capacity of Blast Furnace Assuming a well prepared and self-fluxing charge to start with, enough coke must be added: (1) to melt the charge, particularly the slag-forming

Jan 1, 1937

By Philip S. Morse

THE Australian lead-smelting plants began to use charges carrying high zinc percentages somewhat earlier than was common with American plants. When lead smelting first started in Australia the immense deposits of oxidized lead at Broken Hill were available but later these oxidized ores became exhausted and were replaced by sulfides. This was before the days of flotation and these sulfides when concentrated carried about 1 per cent. of zinc to 6 per cent. of lead. The works of the Sulphide Corpn. at Cockle Creek was perhaps the pioneer in high-zinc slags but the Port Pirie plant of the Proprietary Co. was a close and very able second and has continued the work to the present time. The Cockle Creek lead furnaces remained in operation until shortly after the war when most of the Broken Hill companies combined and took over the Port Pirie plant to treat their concentrates. As it was the practice both at Cockle Creek and Port Pirie to carry 20 per cent. or more of lead on the charge, it was found that under these conditions of large amounts of zinc in the charge, good roasting was absolutely necessary and matte production was unwise. The Hunting-ton-Heberlein system of roasting was introduced and later the Dwight & Lloyd process. In this way, by roasting the sulfide portions of the charge as thoroughly as possible and making no matte, a method of smelting was developed where the slag over long periods carried as high as 20 per cent. ZnO without serious furnace troubles, and slags carrying even up to 33 per cent. ZnO have been reported. The zinc slags were not very different in appearance from the ordinary slags produced in American practice except that they gave off more smoke and fume on tapping. The slag usually ran hot and freely, coming from the tap in a full stream. Normally there was little crust on the sides of the furnace and the tuyeres gave no trouble though they were always rather dark. At the works of the Sulphide Corpn. it was the custom, on account of the labor situation, to shut down the furnaces during the Christmas holidays, thus giving a campaign of about 12 months. The furnaces at the end of the run usually showed no crust on the sides, though crusts always occurred at the back and front ends. A furnace campaign of 22 to 23 months has been made at this plant where both sides of the

Jan 1, 1929

By H. R. Hanley, D. F. Walsh, C. Y. Clayton

Lead-refining practice at the Bunker Hill differs to some extent from that of other United States refineries using the Parkes process, in that the Bunker Hill has reverted to a custom used years ago of making two kinds of skims, or crusts, in the desilverizing kettles. Also, this was the first refinery to adopt the liquation process for silver skims as developed in Australia. Both of these ideas were brought to the attention of the operator by H. S. J. Sommerset, in the summer of 1924, while he was visiting metallurgical plants in the United States, when he was general superintendent of the Broken Hill Associated Smelters Pty., Ltd., of Port Pirie, South Australia. Since Mr. Sommerset's visit, United States patents on the liquation process have been issued to George Kenneth Williams, of Port Pirie, South Australia. At the Bunker Hill, the lead bullion is conveyed from the blast furnaces to the refinery in brick-lined cast-steel pots, each having a capacity of 5 tons, by a 20-ton electric crane, to which is suspended a Fairbanks-Morse suspension-type scale on which the gross, tare and net weights are obtained. The bullion is poured from the small bullion pots into either one of two kettles of 105 tons capacity, and when a kettle is entirely filled the heavy dross is removed by skimming it into a 5-ton pot suspended by the crane. The crane operator becomes proficient in the manipulation and a kettle is skimmed in a very short time. After the kettle is skimmed clean the bullion is pumped to a kettle of the same size alongside, where the bullion is cooled until it has almost frozen. By using two kettles for the drossing operation, one to accumulate the bullion where the heavy dross is removed, and then pumping to a clean kettle comparatively free of hangings, etc., it is possible to reduce the copper content much lower than if only one kettle is used in the operation. The average yearly analysis of bullion is given in Table 1. During July, August, September, and October, when a considerable quantity of high-grade silver ore from the Yukon Territory is smelted,

Jan 1, 1930

By R. F. Stilwell

There are three things that all coal consumers look for when they burn coal: (1) suitability for their particular requirements and burning equipment, (2) uniformity of shipments, and (3) quality as expressed by heating value and other chemical and physical tests. Suitability, or proper application, is determined generally from previous buying experience. It is a function of (1) the reliability and integrity of the shipper and distributor, (2) of a certain coal field or seam and of (3) uniformity and quality. Quality is limited by the location and geology of the seam and mine, the mining and preparation methods and equipment and the knowledge and ability of the personnel. Uniformity of shipments is in many ways the most important factor in coal selection. Lack of uniformity in chemical quality, size consist and treatment cause most of the customer complaints that arise from faults of the coal shipper. Lack of uniformity destroys suitability and quality standards, causing a large customer turnover, and greatly increases sales expense and reduces the net return to the operator. Oil and gas fuels are more uniform in quality than solid fuels, and there will be more gas and oil competition for coal markets after this war than before, because the size of their market is a direct function of the dimensions of their pipe lines, which have been greatly increased during the war. Present mechanical coal-cleaning equipment based upon gravity concentration has gone a long way toward giving us a coal of uniform ash content. The chart in Fig. I, by Hebley,1 shows the greater uniformity of the ash content of washed coal as compared with that of raw coal. Wide variation in the nature and amount of ash in the coal feed to the washer leads to a coal of non-uniform ash content. Mechanica1 cleaning equipment does not understand such terms as ash-softening temperature, coking properties, size consist and sulphur content. Unless the feed to the washer is uniform, the washed coal probably will not be uniform. Table I shows the ash, sulphur and ash-softening temperature of two mines in the Pittsburgh bed, both raw and washed, loaded over the same tipple; also No. 3 and No. 4 Pocahontas seams, both raw and washed, loaded from the same preparation plant. It is obvious that they must be blended or loaded separately if a uniform product is to be obtained. Why Is Blending Necessary? It was natural for the operators of captive mines producing by-product coals to recognize the necessity for blending raw coals of different quality and coking characteristics. They have had many years of experience with blending high, low and medium volatile coals at their oven plants. They have found that careful blending gives a coke of more uniform quality and better structure. Coals that could not be

Jan 1, 1947

By R. F. Stilwell

There are three things that all coal consumers look for when they burn coal: (1) suitability for their particular requirements and burning equipment, (2) uniformity of shipments, and (3) quality as expressed by heating value and other chemical and physical tests. Suitability, or proper application, is determined generally from previous buying experience. It is a function of (1) the reliability and integrity of the shipper and distributor, (2) of a certain coal field or seam and of (3) uniformity and quality. Quality is limited by the location and geology of the seam and mine, the mining and preparation methods and equipment and the knowledge and ability of the personnel. Uniformity of shipments is in many ways the most important factor in coal selection. Lack of uniformity in chemical quality, size consist and treatment cause most of the customer complaints that arise from faults of the coal shipper. Lack of uniformity destroys suitability and quality standards, causing a large customer turnover, and greatly increases sales expense and reduces the net return to the operator. Oil and gas fuels are more uniform in quality than solid fuels, and there will be more gas and oil competition for coal markets after this war than before, because the size of their market is a direct function of the dimensions of their pipe lines, which have been greatly increased during the war. Present mechanical coal-cleaning equipment based upon gravity concentration has gone a long way toward giving us a coal of uniform ash content. The chart in Fig. I, by Hebley,1 shows the greater uniformity of the ash content of washed coal as compared with that of raw coal. Wide variation in the nature and amount of ash in the coal feed to the washer leads to a coal of non-uniform ash content. Mechanica1 cleaning equipment does not understand such terms as ash-softening temperature, coking properties, size consist and sulphur content. Unless the feed to the washer is uniform, the washed coal probably will not be uniform. Table I shows the ash, sulphur and ash-softening temperature of two mines in the Pittsburgh bed, both raw and washed, loaded over the same tipple; also No. 3 and No. 4 Pocahontas seams, both raw and washed, loaded from the same preparation plant. It is obvious that they must be blended or loaded separately if a uniform product is to be obtained. Why Is Blending Necessary? It was natural for the operators of captive mines producing by-product coals to recognize the necessity for blending raw coals of different quality and coking characteristics. They have had many years of experience with blending high, low and medium volatile coals at their oven plants. They have found that careful blending gives a coke of more uniform quality and better structure. Coals that could not be

Jan 1, 1947

By Corliss R. Kinney

Since the first atomic bomb exploded over Japan, a great deal of speculation has been published about the use of atomic energy instead of coal for the production of power. Atomic energy, in time, may displace coal for this purpose, but atomic energy will not displace coal in supplying chemical raw materials to the rapidly expanding carbon-chemicals market. Modern civilization demands large quantities of carbon compounds and the logical source of many of these is coal. Consequently, many progressive operators are considering the possibilities of the utilization of coal as a chemical raw material as never before. Furthermore, the demand for clean, smokeless, and ashless fuels will continue to increase and the only way to handle coal under those conditions is to take it apart, just as crude petroleum is taken apart. One can readily imagine where the petroleum industry would be now if it had insisted on selling customers only crude oil, perhaps emulsified with a little salt water to correspond to the moisture and mineral matter in raw coal. The time seems to be coming at an accelerated Dace when mine operators will find that competing for a highly selective fuel market by producing a larger tonnage at smaller cost will be less profitable than to increase the value of a smaller tonnage many fold by producing something more valuable to industry and civilization than raw coal. For example, about 750,000 tons of carbon black selling for $50 to $60 per ton was produced in the United States in 1945. This tonnage is insignificant compared with the total production of coal in the United States, but a very tidy tonnage, together with the coal necessary to operate the process, for any mine operator fortunate enough to obtain a method of producing a better carbon black from coal. From the point of view of tonnage, the manufacture of coke of various kinds and its by-products is at present the most important source of carbon chemicals from coal. Nearly 20 per cent of the coal mined in this country is used for this purpose. A large proportion of the coke is used for the production of iron and steel, but even in this operation a considerable part of the coke is used for a chemical purpose; that is, the reduction of the ore to metallic iron. In addition, large quantities of coke are used in manufacturing many important products that find their way into the market. Possibilities of Acetylene One of the important chemicals manufactured from coke is calcium carbide, from which many products are made. One of these is acetylene. This hydrocarbon can also be manufactured from natural gas or from waste oil-refinery gas and these industries will probably offer competition for the manufacture of acetylene. Coke-oven gas can be used for making acetylene and should receive consideration

Jan 1, 1947

By Corliss R. Kinney

Since the first atomic bomb exploded over Japan, a great deal of speculation has been published about the use of atomic energy instead of coal for the production of power. Atomic energy, in time, may displace coal for this purpose, but atomic energy will not displace coal in supplying chemical raw materials to the rapidly expanding carbon-chemicals market. Modern civilization demands large quantities of carbon compounds and the logical source of many of these is coal. Consequently, many progressive operators are considering the possibilities of the utilization of coal as a chemical raw material as never before. Furthermore, the demand for clean, smokeless, and ashless fuels will continue to increase and the only way to handle coal under those conditions is to take it apart, just as crude petroleum is taken apart. One can readily imagine where the petroleum industry would be now if it had insisted on selling customers only crude oil, perhaps emulsified with a little salt water to correspond to the moisture and mineral matter in raw coal. The time seems to be coming at an accelerated Dace when mine operators will find that competing for a highly selective fuel market by producing a larger tonnage at smaller cost will be less profitable than to increase the value of a smaller tonnage many fold by producing something more valuable to industry and civilization than raw coal. For example, about 750,000 tons of carbon black selling for $50 to $60 per ton was produced in the United States in 1945. This tonnage is insignificant compared with the total production of coal in the United States, but a very tidy tonnage, together with the coal necessary to operate the process, for any mine operator fortunate enough to obtain a method of producing a better carbon black from coal. From the point of view of tonnage, the manufacture of coke of various kinds and its by-products is at present the most important source of carbon chemicals from coal. Nearly 20 per cent of the coal mined in this country is used for this purpose. A large proportion of the coke is used for the production of iron and steel, but even in this operation a considerable part of the coke is used for a chemical purpose; that is, the reduction of the ore to metallic iron. In addition, large quantities of coke are used in manufacturing many important products that find their way into the market. Possibilities of Acetylene One of the important chemicals manufactured from coke is calcium carbide, from which many products are made. One of these is acetylene. This hydrocarbon can also be manufactured from natural gas or from waste oil-refinery gas and these industries will probably offer competition for the manufacture of acetylene. Coke-oven gas can be used for making acetylene and should receive consideration

Jan 1, 1947

By R. M. Murray

Although blister copper has been produced at the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company's works since 1896, it is only during the past five years that electrolytic refining has been undertaken locally, this having been done previously at customs refineries, at first in the United States, and afterwards at Port Kembla, New South Wales. Left to right: smelter building, converter building, blower building (in which converter-generators are housed), tank house and anode dock. Wire-bar furnace building in background at center. Possessing a hydroelectric power plant capable of generating power considerably in excess of the requirements of its mines and works at the time, the company was in a favorable position to undertake its own refining work, provided this advantage was not offset by the high cost of coal, which would have to be imported from the mainland, and provided also that the capital cost of the plant would not be unduly large in regard to the relatively small amount of copper to be treated. A study of these several conditions led to the adoption of a high-density plant using blister-copper anodes and equipped with an electric boiler to provide any

Jan 1, 1934

By Francis N. Flynn

Many excellent papers, descriptive of the milling and smelting of every kind of commercial ores, the refining of virgin metals, the casting into various shapes demanded by the trade, the rolling into shapes best suited to the factory machinery and the making of composition alloys to suit every requirement have been issued by the many technical societies dealing with non-ferrous metals. It is a wonderful collection of papers, of which the mining and metallurgical engineers may well be proud, but strange as it may seem, metallurgists in general appear to take the stand that when they have delivered suitable alloys to the foundry and rolled products to the factory their duty to write papers has ceased, at least in so far as the A. I. M. E. is concerned. Still we read in the daily papers that the mining companies are absorbing metal-manufacturing industries. The purpose of this paper is to describe the reclaiming of non-ferrous scrap metals at manufacturing plants, taking as an example the automobile industry. Collection and Disposition of Scrap Until about five years ago, much of the factory scrap, with little or no preliminary treatment, was sold to secondary-metal smelters. Of late years the factory salvage department has become an important part, of the plant in reclaiming everything of value and incidentally does much of the work formerly done by the smelters. Like most good things, it is sometimes overdone, and much work is done at the factory with inexperienced men that could be done much better by experienced skilled labor at the custom smelting plants. Employees of the salvage department collect the waste products in all departments at the source and in that way avoid much contamination. Every reasonable precaution is taken to keep the scrap clean. It is hand-sorted, cut, burned, magnetized, concentrated, separated or compressed, as the case may be, preparatory for re-use in the plant or for selling to others.

Jan 1, 1930

By P. J. Potter

Practically all tin-base babbitt metals used in engine bearings are made to customers' specifications, which are many and varied. The copper ranges from 3 to 8 per cent. and the antimony from 4 to 13 per cent.; generally, the babbitt with lower copper content will contain from 4 to 8 per cent. antimony and that with higher copper will have from 7 to 13 per cent. antimony. The allowable lead content varies from 0.20 to 2.00 per cent. If a solder is used as a bonding material instead of tin, the resulting material in the finished bearing will have a higher lead content, but it would not be enough to bring the lead above specifica-tional limits. Impurities such as iron, arsenic and bismuth should be determined in the tin before using to insure a uniform and high-grade product. These points must be considered when segregating and grading the waste that comes from the finishing operations on lined bearings. Classification of SCRAP Because of the extremely rigid nature of most of the specifications for bearing linings it is necessary to use the purest of materials as a base for all compositions. The problem of handling secondary metals is confined almost entirely to the recovery of drosses, spills and turnings incident to the manufacturing operations. As a matter of convenience the waste or scrap may be divided into 10 grades, as follows: 1. Tin from pots where tinning operation is carried out. 2. Tin and babbitt spatters from babbitting operation. - 3. Tin skimmings combined with burned zinc chloride. 4. Borings and reamings. 5. Gates from die-cast bushings and bearings. 6. Drosses from die-cast pots, babbitt foundry pots, and pots in babbittiug room. 7. Babbitt with small amount of bronze from machining operations. 8. Babbitt and bronze borings. 9. Scrap bronze-back babbitt-lined bearings. I 10. Scrap die-cast bearings and bushings. A few of these grades of salvaged material have compositions that make it possible to determine beforehand where they may be used to

Jan 1, 1930

By H. M. St. John

Like every present-day manufacturer, the brass foundryman is faced with the necessity of reducing the cost of his finished product without impairing its appearance or quality. He must use every economy that the progress of art and science puts at his disposal and should also be alert to profit by any peculiarity in his own situation or the nature of his product that may give him an exceptional advantage. Much can be accomplished by the adoption of labor-saving equipment and improved methods of melting, molding and handling. Control of pouring temperature, study of defective castings and their causes, laboratory control of molding sand and core mixtures, the use of less expensive alloys, all contribute to the desired end. Assuming that the composition of the alloy is already as inexpensive as the character of the casting will permit, still further savings can be made by the intelligent purchase and utilization of the metals needed to produce the desired analysis. Functions of Secondary and Virgin Metals in Casting Brass It is no longer a general assumption among foundrymen that quality castings must be made from an "all virgin" mix. If suitable secondary metals can be obtained more cheaply it is wasteful to use any larger proportion of virgin metal than is required to produce castings of the desired properties. To follow such a course, however, imposes upon the foundryman a heavier obligation than was formerly the case, to make sure by test and inspection that his castings really are of the desired quality. So long as he used the most expensive grades of metal and his melting practice was reasonably correct he was not obliged to give much thought to the quality of the metal in the castings. If he is to use secondary metals he must, in order to retain the confidence of his customer, examine these metals very carefully before use, exercise scrupulous control over his melting and pouring conditions and examine his castings closely. These statements apply more particularly to the jobbing foundry. The foundry department in a manufacturing plant is in a somewhat

Jan 1, 1930

By W. B. Boggs, J. N. Anderson

An account of the operation of the Noranda smelter covering the period from December, 1927, when the smelter started, until December, 1929, was given in a paper published by the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy early in 1930.' The object of the present paper is to review matters of interest in the original paper and to describe the present construction and operation of the smelter, with particular reference to the reverberatory-furnace practice. The Noranda smelter was built by Noranda Mines, Ltd., from the designs of A. E. Wheeler, consulting metallurgist of New York, for the reduction of ores and concentrates from the Horne mine and to treat, on a custom basis, ores and concentrates from other mines in the Rouyn district. The smelter is at Noranda, about 330 miles directly north of Toronto. Construction work was started in June, 1926, and copper was first produced in December, 1927. The smelter was built throughout as two duplicate units, each with a rated capacity of 500 tons of ore per day. Operations were started with one unit and after several months it was found that one unit alone could smelt 1000 tons of ore a day. At that time there was only one hoisting shaft, No. 3, and its hoisting capacity and the capacity of the original crushing plant were insufficient to supply ore for the two units at the increased tonnage. Accordingly No. 4 shaft was sunk and a new crushing plant provided to handle the ore hoisted there. Operating two units at capacity also required the installation of two more converters to treat the additional quantity of matte produced. This work was completed in the latter part of November, 1929, and since then both smelter units have been operating continuously. In 1928, a mill to treat 500 tons a day of concentrating ore was completed. Since then the concentrator capacity has been increased twice, and at present 2000 tons a day of ore are being concentrated. The layout of the surface plant of the mine, concentrator and smelter is shown in Fig. 1 and the general plan in Fig. 2. The smelter is shown in more detail in Fig. 3. The original hoisting shaft, No. 3, is now used only for handling men, supplies and waste rock, and the original crushing

Jan 1, 1934

By John Howe Hall

One's first thought, upon being chosen to deliver the Henry Mario Howe lecture, is of pride at being selected for this post of honor, but ther succeeds immediately a deep sense of the Obligation thereby incurre to give of one's very best in order to make a contribution worthy of hir in whose memory these lectures are given. One who had the goo fortune to be associated with Henry ill. Howe, upon sitting down t prepare such a paper as this, irnrnediately falls to musing upon thc day when his face and his footfall were familiar from constant association, an recalls with singular vividness his active figure, his mobile, alert face, an his keenness in penetrating to thc corc of the subject under discussior Like Dr. Mathews, I was a young man when I first worked under hi direction, now nearly a quarter of a century ago, and in those early day he oft,en seemed a hard taskmaster—a man whose standards it woul never be possible for me to meet. I well recall his insisting upon m proving for the third time the truth of a conclusion which I had brc unwilling to submit to him until it had been confirmed by two carefull planned experiments. To my impatient protest that thc third .demor stration he asked for was but a repetition of the second, with differer samples, he replied, "Yes, that is true, but the inherent improbability ( your conclusions is so evident that I can not accept them until you prov your case again." "Shall I ever do a thing well enough to suit him? I thought. Looking back today upon many similar incidents, 1 suspect that h never expected me to attain the excellence he preached, and held up t me and to himself as a model, but knew out of the fullness of his experienc. that in no other way could he so impress upon me the necessity in researc of the patient, never-failing attention to detail and to accuracy tha distinguished his own work. How painstaking he was in the preparation of his many books an professional papers, as well as in his experimcntal work, was ncvcr s

Jan 1, 1929

By E. H. Kelton

The purposes of this paper are to describe the use of adjustable cut and draw tools as a control test of drawing properties and to point out that no other well-known test or combination of tests determines this quality in zinc and zinc alloys. Rolled zinc has been used for making drawn articles, particularly battery cans, for many years. The development of rolling treatments satisfactory for these purposes followed the usual course of trial and error experimentation depending upon cooperation with customers to determine what type of material was suitable. A quick test of drawing quality was highly desirable, of course. Scleroscope hardness and temperll having no apparent relation to drawing quality, were used simply to check the duplication of rolling treatment and grade of metal. The dynamic ductility1 test, on the other hand, was believed to be so like the drawing operation as to provide a reliable index and came to be taken as the criterion of good drawing properties. Faith in this test was strengthened by the fact that metal having the highest ductility was more satisfactory for operations, such as the manufacture of battery cups, that required several redraws. No distinction was made at that time in specifying metal as to whether it was to be subjected to simple cut and draw, redrawing or forming operations. It developed, however, that in some grades of metal the highest ductility did not coincide with the most satisfactory quality when the material was used for a single draw. When zinc-base alloys, with their wider ranges of effective rolling treatments, came into increased use, their dynamic ductility and drawing quality appeared to have no connection whatever. Furthermore, comparisons of known drawing quality with other physical properties of the metal, including tensile strength, elongation and dynamic cold bends, were fruitless in yielding any clear relationship. Almost any test value produced in one piece of metal could be duplicated by another rolling or annealing treatment with attendant different drawing characteristics.

Jan 1, 1934

By K. D. McBean, W. H. Hannay, B. A. Stimmel

The electrolytic plant at Trail, B. C., was erected by the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Ltd., for the treatment of zinc ores and concentrates, particularly those of the Sullivan mine at Kimberley, B. C. It began operations in 1916 at a rated capacity of 60 tons of cathodes per day, which has been steadily increased to the present production of 400 tons per day. The Sullivan has furnished the greater part of the zinc so far produced, although notable tonnages of customs zinc concentrates have been treated. The maximum yearly tonnage of customs concentrates, 25,000 tons, was treated in 1926. Practically no customs concentrates hale been treated since 1929. The total bar zinc production to the close of 1935 was 1,092,782 tons. The zinc mineral in the Sullivan ore is marmatite of somewhat variable composition, ranging between 6ZnS.FeS and 8 ZnS.FeS. Practically all the zinc ores tributary to this plant are marmatites; and the iron content of the zinc mineral varies considerably. The formation of zinc ferrite during roasting is now a matter of common knowledge, so the possible extraction from any zinc concentrate is largely a function of the iron content; the progress made in concentration is reflected directly in zinc-plant recovery. The Trail plant operafes on the low-acid system, as do all the other major plants on this continent at present operating, except the electrolytic plant of the Sullivan Mining Co. at Kellogg, Idaho. The new Magdeburg plant, in Germany, occupies an intermediate position between high and low acid. Plant operation at Trail will be treated in this paper under five main sections: roasting, leaching and purification, electrolysis, cadmium recovery and melting. The oxide section of the plant, treating zinc fume from re-treatment of lead blast-furnace slag, is practically a separate zinc plant; this is necessary because of the presence of fluorine in the smelter zinc fume. Cadmium is recovered electrolytically from the purification residues of both the sulphide and oxide leaching plants.

Jan 1, 1937

By W. G. Woolf, E. R. Crutcher

The electrolytic zinc plant of the Sullivan Mining Co. is in Government Gulch, at Silver King, Shoshone County, Idaho, in the Coeur d'Alene mining district, about one mile from the Bunker Hill smelter and about three miles from Kellogg. The Sullivan Mining Co., which owns both the zinc plant and the Star mine, is itself owned jointly by the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concentrating Co, and the Hecla Mining Company. The Tainton high-density, high-acid process is used at this plant, therefore some parts of its flowsheet differ markedly from those of electrolytic plants using the low-density process. While it is a custom plant and has treated a variety of zinc concentrates originating from various sources in a number of states, it has obtained its main supply of zinc concentrates chiefly from the zinc-bearing ores of the Coeur d'A1ene mining district, of which the principal important sources have been the Bunker Hill and Star mines. Thus the main feed has been zinc concentrates obtained from complex lead-zinc-silver ores. For the year of 1935 the concentrates had the following composition: water, 9.5 per cent; Zn, 50.6; Pb, 3.3; Fe, 9.4; S, 31.0; Cu, 0.2; insoluble, 2.9. Flowsheet The concentrates are delivered to the plant in railroad cars, which discharge into storage bins directly under the track. Bottom-dump cars are dropped directly into the bins while a slip scraper, pulled by an air tugger hoist, is used to empty box cars. There are five storage bins for concentrates, each of approximately 300 tons capacity. At the bottom of each bin there are individual belt feeders that discharge onto a common conveyor belt, which in turn discharges to another belt that carries the concentrate onto a weightometer belt for weighing. Immediately after the weighing, the crushed oversize return from the roasters is added to the load on the belt and then the ground-up sweepings, lumps and roaster cleanings. An electromagnet at the end of this conveyor removes tramp iron from the feed. The belt discharges to a set of 30 by 12-in. rolls, which break up lumps or frozen chunks of concentrate, etc. Beneath the rolls there is a screw conveyor, which conveys the roll discharge to a

Jan 1, 1937

By George F. Weaton

Although an almost continuous campaign had been carried on by various experimenters since 1885 to find a commercial process of smelting zinc by electrothermic means, no commercial success was attained in the United States. The St. Joseph Lead Co., appreciating the theoretical possibilities of such a process, such as the ability to construct units of large capacity, quality control, and the possibility of treating complex and refractory ores, decided in 1926 that the process was worthy of further investigation, and in that year, at one of its southeast Missouri plants, began the development of the electrothermic zinc-smelting process according to the invention of the late Earl C. Gaskill. Late in 1929 the process reached a stage of commercial significance, and in 1930 the erection of a modern electrothermic zinc smelter was begun, at Josephtown, Beaver County, Pa. The site is 3 miles from Monaca, which is on the main line of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, and a spur of the railroad has been constructed to the plant site. The site borders upon the Ohio River, which is navigable for 600 to 800-ton barges. This district was selected for the plant after an economic survey involving such questions as cost and availability of electric power, reduction fuel, transportation facilities, and the transportation charges on raw and finished materials, labor conditions, and taxes. The initial unit of the plant was designed to treat daily 120 tons of 58 per cent zinc sulphide concentrates from the company's mines in St. Lawrence County, New York. The plant equipment is housed in seven modern steel-frame buildings, and includes: Roasting and Acid Plants 3000-ton concentrate storage. Two Nichols-Herreshoff 21 ft. 6-in. diameter, 12-hearth roasters with usual cast-iron airshaft supporting chromium-alloy rabble arms and rabbles. SO2 gas purification system consisting of: One double-compartment hot-dust Cottrell precipitator. Cast-iron sinuous air-contact gas cooler.

Jan 1, 1937

By Gerald Sherman

In the southern field of the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, many of the coal seams dip at angles of 40" to 50" from the horizontal. For transportation purposes, "tunnels" are driven across the coal measures and, occasionally, "rock gangways," beside the seams and parallel with them. The use of gangways driven in country rock appears to be increasing, as they avoid the maintenance of long gangways in coal, which eventually are driven to the colliery boundaries, and permit mining from a number of intermediate blocks without interference. The rock consists of slates or sandstones of moderate hardness, which may range into very hard, highly siliceous, fine-grained conglomerates. In this distinctly bedded formation, the direction of the heading, whether parallel with or across the structure, makes it necessary to distribute the drill holes in a different pattern to break the ground, but does not change loading conditions. In 1932, practically all the mucking was done by hand, and it was the established custom to use four men on two drills for drilling and breaking the ground, and five for loading it out. A driver and mule was needed in addition, to assemble the rock cars at a siding or branching track in the rear, pending their final disposal. This might occupy the driver's whole time, or if the length of haul were short, he might be able to do other useful work. It was thought possible in 1932 to reduce the cost of driving such headings in rock by mechanical loading, and to investigate this subject a scraper loader was used in a section of tunnel then being driven. Operations while driving 195 ft. of this tunnel using a scraper loader were carefully observed. Time studies were made of the loading, and records made of the routine of breaking ground, but not in such detail. Tunnels or gangways in the colliery are 7 ft. high above the rails, by 10 ft. wide, which requires a minimum of 8 ft. in height, broken to allow for rails and ties. This cross section is of sufficient size to permit the use of any one of several types of power loaders, but for this demonstration it was found most convenient to use a scraper loader.

Jan 1, 1937