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By J. J. Forbes

First - aid training is an essential part of safety programs in the mining industry , but it is only a means to an end ; first -aid training will not eliminate accidents , but unquestionably it is of considerable value in any accident prevention program . Numerous features should be incorporated in any efficient , well - developed safety plan ; in addition to first -aid training safety work , to be reasonably effective , should include the establishment and maintenance of a safety organization , safety competitions between mines or sections of mines , safety- inspection committees , accident - investigation committees , safety meetings of mine officials , safety bulletins and posters , employees ' safety publications , Holmes Safety Chapters (which provide for monthly safety meetings of all employees ) , and numerous other activities looking to safe operation of mine or plant . These features are supplementary to the fundamentals of safety-- adequate and effective supervision and discipline . Years of experience , however , have demonstrated that first - aid training is a good accident -prevention auxiliary and should be made an integral part of every company's safety program . Many safety-organization plans have failed because they have been based upon the assumption that the supervisory force should be given full authority and responsibility for achieving safety and eliminating accidents and that the workers , who are most vitally concerned , are nonessential . First -aid training causes the employees to feel that they have a personal and full participation in the safety program and is now available so readily that no individual or organization has any valid excuse for not having it . Early investigations made with a view to bettering health and safety conditions among the employees in the mineral industries demonstrated the need of prompt care of injured employees because , under the difficulties inherent in the occupation , seemingly unimportant wounds , when not treated promptly, became infected and caused permanent disability and even death . Many seriously injured persons , brought out of mines and plants by fellow workers who were ignorant of the approved methods of giving first aid or of safe means of transportation

Aug 1, 1934

By Harlan A. Walker

This paper on the mines of El Potosi Mining Co. is one of a series being prepared by the United States Bureau of Mines on mining practices, methods, and costs in the various mining districts of North America. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the helpful suggestions and criticisms offered by the management, together with the assistance of the mining staff in preparing maps and drawings and of C. L. Thornburg, mine geologist, in preparing the section on geology.

Jan 1, 1934

By G. R. Hopkins

According to reports received by the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, as of January 1, 1934, there were 591 completed refineries in the United States, an increase of 86 ever the total reported at the beginning of 1933 and the largest total ever recorded. It should be noted that the 1934 total, although large, probably does not include more than half of the "pot-still" plants of 1 barrel to 50 barrels daily capacity which have sprung up within the last 2 or 3 years and about which very little information is available. However, the combined operations of these snail refineries are of negligible importance as altogether they refine less crude than one plant of average size. Of the completed plants, 454 were operating on January 1, 1934 and 137 were shut down. In addition, 13 refineries were under construction on January 1, 1934. Compared with the previous year these data indicate a marked increase in the number of operating plants, little change in the number of inoperative plants, but a decline in' the number being built. The material gain in the number of operating plants resulted primarily from the construction off approximately 25 refineries, averaging about 100 barrels capacity in the Kooky Mountain district, as well as from the addition of about 20 plants in the East Texas field.

Jan 1, 1934

By G. R. Hopkins

For several years prior to about the middle of 1928 both the number and capacity of natural-gasoline plants showed a steady increase; this resulted from a material gain in the supply of casinghead has due to the discovery of a number of flush fields with relatively high gas-oil ratios. From 1928 to date some form of proration has been continually in force, with a consequent curtailment in the supply of wet gas. This decline in available gas and a severe decrease in prices, due largely to the increasing competition of light refinery products, has eliminated virtually all of the weaker units during the last 5 years, with the result that the number of plants declined from 1,155 on January 1, 1928 to 19035 on January 1, 1930, to 909 on January 1, 1932, and then to 859 on January 1, 1934, The struggle of the small high-cost producers to exist is illustrated further by the trend in the number of shut-down plants, which has increased from 36 on January 1, 1930 to 100 on January 1, 1932 and to 128 on January 1, 1934. The increase in the number of plants prior to 1929 resulted in a material gain in the total capacity, but the decline in number between 1929 and 1932 was not followed by a corresponding decrease in capacity, as gains resulting from the construction of a few very large plants overbalanced the loss due to the dismantling of a large number of small ones. However, the low prices of 1932 and 1933 supplied little incentive for new construction, and the total capacity declined in approximately the same ratio as the number. Thus the total capacity declined from 11,387,000 gallons daily on January 1, 1932 to 13,060,000 gallons daily on January 1, 1934, Of the latter 9,181,000 gallons (91 percent) represented the capacity of the operating plants and 679,000 gallons (9 percent) the capacity of the idle plants.

Jan 1, 1934

By D. J. Parker

This report is based on data collected in and about the Liberty mine of the Liberty Fuel Co. by D. J. Parker and W. W. Kessler on December 13 and 14, 1933. An important phase of an examination to determine the general condition of a mine with respect to safety is the collection of dust samples from rock- dusted areas. Definite conclusions, based on intelligent interpretation of the analyses of such samples, can be reached only when the general condition of the mine is known. A similar examination and report were made on this property in January 1930 by D. J. Parker and R. I. C. Manning. Since that time much has been done by the management to improve safety conditions in this mine. The changes made will be noted in the course of this report. The mine is in Spring Canyon at Latuda, Carbon County, Utah, and is served by a branch line of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad about 7 miles long and connecting to the main line near Helper, Utah. The writer desires to express his sincere appreciation for the many courtesies and helpful cooperation extended by Superintendent George Schultz and Mine Foreman F. W. Koelling.

Nov 1, 1934

By A. U. Miller

Since coal -mining records have been kept , reports of all mining States show that each year the lives of many workers have been sacrificed in the production of coal , and Illinois has contributed its share , Illinois reports for the 50 years 1882 to 1932 , inclusive , show that 6,673 men were killed -- 6,121 underground , 340 in the shaft , and 212 on the surface . Of the fatalities underground , 3,116 were caused by falls of roof or sides , 1,111 by haulage , 630 by explosives , 577 by gas explosions , 139 by electricity, and 548 by other causes ; 166 of the shaft fatalities were caused by falling down the shaft , 143 by the cage , and 31 by other causes ; 108 of the surface fatalities were caused by railroad cars , 46 by machinery , and 58 by other causes . Most of those engaged in mining are still of the opinion that it is an extremely hazardous occupation and that it is practically impossible to operate without accidents ; however , students of safety in mining now believe that with the proper attention to accident prevention mining may be conducted with little , if any , greater accident rate than that of other supposedly hazardous industries . There is no mystery connected with accidents in mining ; reports show that the majority are due to two main causes , falls of roof and sides and haulage . Mining companies in Illinois , as well as in other States , have proved in the past few years that the hazards of mining , like those of other industries , can be controlled to a large extent and the mines operated with few if any accidents , provided a great enough effort is made by employer and worker . Although the past accident rate of Illinois may compare favorably with that of other mining States it is higher than it should be ; the fact that 6,673 men (an average of 133.46 per year) were killed in and around the mines of the State between 1882- and 1932 indicates that accident prevention should receive more consideration in the future than in the past .

Nov 1, 1934

By J. R. Thoenen

This circular is part 2 of the third subject (entitled "Excavation") of a series summarizing; the technical problems involved in the production and preparation of sand and gravel. Part 1 discussed the use of power shovels, draglines, and excavator cranes. This paper discusses the use of the power scraper, slackline cableway excavator, and hydraulic monitor, and part 3 will discuss the use of various types of dredges. Subsequent papers in the series will discuss the use of haulage equipment, the application of both excavating and haulage equipment to various types of deposits, and operating costs. THE POWER SCRAPER The power scraper is a younger member of the various forms of gravel excavators. It is a mechanized enlargement of the slip scraper and other scrapers which depend upon animals for power and has a greater range of operation from a single set-up than any other excavation unit except the slackline cableway excavator.

Jan 1, 1935

By C. V. Brennan

This paper, describing the various mining methods and practices at Britannia mines, Britannia Beach, British Columbia, is one of a series covering mining practices, methods, and costs in the mining districts of the United States and Canada. The Britannia property has been operated continuously for 30 years, and in that time many diverse methods have been used in exploiting the various types of orebodies worked. Under normal conditions mining methods include surface gloryholes, shrinkage stoping, shrinkage with powder drifts for primary breaking, horizontal cut-and-fill, horizontal and inclined square-setting, and timbered and open rills, the three latter systems being combined with close filling. The Britannia method of mining, a large-scale retreating shrinkage system usually combined with powder drifts for primary breaking, has been developed and applied here very successfully. Each block of ground as developed is studied as a separate problem, and the mining method, or combination of methods best adapted to the work in hand is applied thereto. Operating at, capacity, the series of mines produces 7,000 tons of ore per day.

Jan 1, 1935

By Charles F. Jackson

Waste filling has been employed for many years for supporting the walls of stopes and preventing failure and subsidence of the surrounding and overlying rock formations, and its effectiveness for this purpose has long been recognized. It is used for permanent support in ground where timbering (including square-setting) is inadequate for more than temporarily supporting the walls of the excavations. It should be rioted, however, that effective as a good, solid fill may be in resisting heavy side pressure and direct weight, its usefulness for supporting large areas of back and preventing breaking and movement of the overlying rocks is limited. Even the strongest and most uniform rocks will break if the unsupported span becomes too great; and since filling cannot be packed tightly against a horizontal back there is always a possibility of the back breaking and consequent subsidence if the maximum self-supporting span is exceeded. Planes of separation, such as bedding and fault planes, slips, and joints, are common in all rock masses; these may occur above the stoping area where their presence cannot be ascertained by observation. If too much reliance is placed upon filling for the support of a large horizontal area of back (as contrasted to support of vertical or steeply inclined walls) large masses of rock may break along a. plane of weakness, compress the fill, and leave an open space into which caving of the overlying rocks may continue until the space is filled. In this paper the term "waste filling" includes any filling material other than ore - waste mine rock, rock from surface quarries or opencuts, sand and gravel, mill sands, or slags from smelting operations.

Jan 1, 1935

By Oliver Bowles

"Asbestos" is not the name of a distinct mineral species but is rather a commercial term applied to fibrous varieties of several minerals. The origin and significance of names applied to asbestos by early writers are discussed in the section devoted to sources of supply and terms employed in ancient times. VARIETIES The most useful variety of asbestos is chrysotile, a fibrous serpentine the composition of which is expressed by the formula H4Mg3Si209. Chrysotile is characterized by a strength and flexibility that permit the use of the longer fibers for spinning. The bulk of the world production of both long and short fibers, is of this variety.

Jan 1, 1935

By William O. Vanderburg

[This circular is one of two papers on the tungsten industry in the United States end contains general information on the subject. The second paper which will be issued in the near future deals with the methods ailed costs of mining and milling tungsten ores. These two papers are abstracts from the general bulletin on tungsten which will be issued at some future time Modern civilization and progress depend largely on tools wherewith the forces of nature are brought under control and directed toward human comfort. These tools are made chiefly from metals derived from the earth's crust. During the present century powerful tools have been made available through the development of ferrous and. nonferrous alloys containing such elements as molybdenum, vanadium, titanium, tantalum, and tungsten, which were little used before 1900. One of the most important of these so-called rare elements is tungsten; its use ins alloys for high-speed cutting tool is partly responsible for the era of mass production. So widespread has the use of alloys become that the period may be termed an "Alloy Age".]

Jan 1, 1935

By F. W. Horton

This paper covers the salient features of the occurrence and mining of sheet mica in the United States and the preparation of mica for market; presents the results of a study of the physical properties of domestic and foreign micas, which the author hopes may he of interest to every mica user, as it definitely answers many questions as to the suitability of various minas for particular purposes; and discusses mica-trade conditions and the future outlook for the domestic mica industry. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author takes pleasure in acknowledging his indebtedness to J. R. Thoenen, of the United Stator Bureau of Mines, under whose guidance the work reported herein was performed, and to Frank L. Hess, also of the Bureau, for information on the geological and mineralogical characteristics of mica-bearing pegmatites.

Jan 1, 1935

By C. H. Johnson

The Big Jim mine of the United Eastern Mining Co. is at Oatman, Mohave County, Ariz. Oatman is in the foothills on the western side of the Black Mountains, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet. It is on a paved highway about 30 miles west of Kingman, the principal distributing; center for mining supplies in the district, and 25 miles from Topock, en the Colorado River. Both latter towns are stations on the Santa Fe Railroad; Oatman has no roil connection. Mining conditions are typical of western Arizona; water is scarce, no mine timber is available locally, and the winters arc mild and the summers hot. The supply of a killed labor is usually adequate, but in 1933-34 it w not more than sufficient for the restricted operations. Wages have been $4.00 to $4.50 for miners. Electric power was supplied from Kingman and cost about 2.6 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Jan 1, 1935

By Chas. F. Jackson

This paper is a tabular compilation of data contained in a series of information circulars dealing with mining methods and costs at a large number of mines in the United States and some foreign countries. There circulars have been published from time to time during the years 1929 to 1934 inclusive. From time to time, as enough data became available in these circulars, other circulars and. bulletins have been published in which the data bearing upon different phases of nine operation were summarized, discussed, and analyzed. The present paper is a compilation of data on costs of drifting and crosscutting contained in earlier circulars, .designed to assemble this information in a convenient form for reference without attempting lengthy discussion of details of drifting and crosscutting practice. For such details the reader is referred to the circulars on individual mines.

Jan 1, 1935

By J. R. Thoenen

This circular is part 3 of the third paper (entitled "Excavation") of a series summarizing the technical problem; involved in the production and preparation of sand and gravel. Part 1 discussed the use of power shovels, draglines, and excavator cranes. Fart 2 discussed the use of power scrapers, slackline cableway excavators, and hydraulic monitors. This circular discusses the use of the hydraulic, clamshell, ladder, and dipper dredge. Part 4 to follow will discus the use of haulage equipment, and subsequent parts will discuss the application of both excavating and haulage equipment to various types of deposits. HYDRAULIC DREDGE Judged by the number of installations and the tonnage produced, as recorded in part 1 of this circular, the hydraulic or pump dredge is the most popular type of underwater sand and gravel excavator.

Jan 1, 1935

By F. S. Crawford

It has been said that safety promotion passes through four stages--the band-playing, the machine-guarding, the protective equipment, and finally the educational stage; the last is the most important in the development of the safety program. It has been estimated that only 15 percent of accidents can be pre- vented by machine guarding and protective equipment; the other 85 percent must be stopped by the safety efforts of the individual workers and their supervisory officials, and one of the fundamentals of safety work is the education of workers to develop safety consciousness or safety mindedness. One way of educating men to think about safety is by the use of posters. Safety engineers at the Calumet 2 Hecla mines in Michigan have been conduct- ing a safety contest among the men by the use of posters of an unusual type in addition to those usually employed to illustrate bad practices and to display the number of days without a lost-time accident. The first requisite for the success of the safety poster is a good artist or draftsman; in the poster contest instituted at the Calumet & Hecla mines two sheets were prepared illustrating various conditions in the slope workings, including a large number of unsafe practices. The object of the contest was to get the men to think about safety through criticism of the unsafe conditions displayed on the posters. The following notice accom- panied the posters:

Feb 1, 1935

By W. J. Fene, G. W. Grove

An important activity of the Safety Division of the Bureau of Mines , in its efforts to reduce accidents , is the safety inspection of mines . Inspections are made at the request of the operators and are not connected with the inspections by the various State departments of mines . The operating management is furnished with a confidential report of the results of the Bureau's inspections , with recommendations for elimination of the hazards found . These mine - safety inspections include a study of mining practices , conditions , and equipment and in some cases the sampling and analysis of mine air and coal dust . The Bureau of Mines has no regulatory powers , therefore the recommendations made in these reports are merely suggestions , and operators are not required to adopt them . Mine inspections are a check on safety standards , methods , and practices and are essential to any accident -prevention program . A foreman or superintendent may be sincere in his efforts to operate a mine safely and believe that he has done everything possible to attain this end . However , experience has shown that because of his familiarity with the mine and the consequent " nearness " of its various features many unsafe conditions may be , and in most cases are , overlooked ; an inspector , particularly an outsider who is trained to look for hazards , can point out the unsafe conditions overlooked by the foreman or superintendent . Some companies employ safety engineers who make regular inspections of their mines , report substandard conditions and hazards found , and make recommendations for correcting them . Unless these recommendations are carried out the inspections have little value . In making recommendations , due consideration should be given to the feasibility of carrying them out ; the management may and very often does consider a recommendation impracticable because of the

Mar 1, 1935

By Bertrand L. Johnson

The major elements essential to plant growth are nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. These three constituents of the soil are removed relatively rapidly by growing crops and consequently are the main constituents of commercial fertilizers. Scientific studies, however, have progressively revealed the fact that a number of other plant foods, many of which are not necessarily supplied in commercial fertilizers, are necessary to assist plant growth and fruit production and that soils deficient in certain of these minor elements may be made much more productive by adding them. The farmer looks to the miner to furnish most of the elements requisite to plant growth, which have to be supplied through the medium of fertilizer additions. It follows that the mining industry should keep an eye upon developments in the fertilizer industry and in the results of soil studies as a possible outlet for mineral products. The important industries engaged in the production and marketing of the three principal pant nutrients have already been described in Bureau of Mines publications .3 The present paper discusses the commercial implications with respect to other elements that are now employed as soil additions.

Jan 1, 1935

By D. Harrington

Every few weeks United States newspapers of 25 or 30 years age ran scare-heads telling of some mine disaster, which was a first-page attraction for a day or two and then was forgotton until another disaster occurred a few weeks later. Interspersed with these disasters were the so-called sniping mine accidents, causing the death of one or two mine workers. The summation of all types of mine fatalities usually exceeded 3,000 a year. In the period 1906-10, inclusive, there wore 84 major explosion disasters (or about 17 per year) in united States coal mines; the fatalities resulting from those disasters numbered 2,388 for the 5-year period. These frightful catastrophies helped to cause the total number of fatalities in our coal mines for the 5 years (including the fatalities from major explosions) to reach the enormous total of 13,288, an average of 2,658 per year. In addition, some hundreds of other typos of mining accidents swelled the annual fatality list to upwards of 3,000. This admittedly deplorable condition created so much Nation-wide comment that Congress was impressed with the necessity of having something done by the Federal Government with a view to trying to halt at least sonic of the excessive loss of life in our mines; in consequence, the Bureau of Mines was created and began to function in July 1910.

Jan 1, 1935

By D. H. Zellers

Since its inception the United States Bureau of Mines has fostered the development of portable mine lamps. Although there is still much to be desired with respect to illumination in coal and metal mines and the replacement of open lights has been slow the Bureau has been given credit for assisting materially in the development and introduction of the safe and efficient portable mine-lighting equipment available today. Much of the work conducted by the electrical section of the Bureau entails approval tests of various types of electrical equipment, including lamps; to be used in atmospheres that may contain methane or coal dust in explosive proportion. If a can lamp meets the requirements-for safety, efficiency, and adequacy, as published in Schedule 6B,4 it is approved and is generally known as a "permissible" lamp. The terms "approved" and '"permissible' often are used interchangeably. The manufacturer must put an approval plate on each approved lamp, showing it has mot the schedule requirements. The approval plate is not a guarantee that the lamp is safe. However, if the lamp, once in service, has not had any parts changed or improperly assembled or if carts that wear out or depreciate have been properly replaced it should still, be safe, efficient, and adequate for the service intended. Virtually all electric cap lamps in service today in the United States and a great many that have been sent to foreign countries bear the approval plate of the United States Bureau of Mines. Although many explosions have been attributed to open lights none has been charged against the permissible cap lamp. Nystagmus, a disease of the eye attributed to working under insufficient illumination, is practically unknown among; American miners, although it is quite prevalent among European miners.

Jan 1, 1935