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By Herbert F. Miller

For a long time I have believed that the gas- and brick-costs of open-hearth furnaces using prodncer-gas could be greatly decreased by a change in the design of the port, which would materially reduce the first-cost of the furnace, the rebuilding-cost, and the repair-cost. The defects of the present type of such furnaces, which has clone duty for so many years, may be studied in Fig. 1, in which A A are the two air-uptakes, B is the gas-uptake, and C the end of the gas-port. In the present type of furnace, C is practically 011 the edge of the bath and therefore combustion begins to take place at that point, but has no effect until the gas passes from 5 to 10 ft. into the hearth. As the furnace grows older, C moves back by reason of the burning or falling down of the arch. The furnace reaches its highest efficiency when C has moved a certain distance, but is still near enough to the bath for the overhead layer of air to hold the gas down on the bath, and far enough back to permit combustion to take place at some distance from the bath. This latter fact means that the temperature is sufficient to melt steel at the edge of the port. From this time on, the furnace decreases in efficiency. What is the reason ? As C moves further hack, the gas is released from the gas-port at a point where there is little or no overhead layer of air. The result is that the gas floats along the roof, with the air mostly underneath it. Why the air does not stay over the gas is readily seen in Fig. 1. The lines of draft naturally run parallel to the length of the furnace. The air-uptakes being on the sides and the gas-port in the middle, most of the air will naturally be drawn along the sides of the furnace and the layer of air will be thinnest over the gas, where it is most needed.

Jan 1, 1914

Albert R. LEdoux, New York, N. Y.—I can add a little to the information which has been given, by saying that it has been our business for some years, among other things, to inspect outgoing copper from some of the works here in the East, and to find out why there are variations not only in the conductivity of the wire-bars, but also in the character of the cathode-copper shipped; and we have found two things: These impurities which have been mentioned are largely upon the surface of the cathode. Samples taken of the inside, even of the nodules or " berries " which grow on the outside of the cathode, show that they do not contain more impurities than the denser material in the interior. In other words, it is a superficial deposit or contamination. There is still another reason for impurity in some of the copper which finds its- way to the manufacturers, namely, carelessness in the handling of molds or in casting. We have found copper which was comparatively pure, as far as the copper itself was concerned, but contained, mechanically intruded in the interior of the ingots,

Jan 1, 1913

By Rush Greenslade

The oil and gas lease is the basic contract of the oil and gas industry; it is the foundation stone upon which the producing industry, particularly, is based. As the industry is precarious and highly speculative, the foundation contract should be of the utmost integrity and certainty. But right there an anomaly exists; the oil and gas lease is the most obscure, most uncertain, doubtful contract in the realm of law today. That is a condition that must be considered when taking oil and gas leases, and when buying, selling, and holding them. It may fairly be asked why should this industry rest upon so insecure a foundation. Why should not the oil industry rest upon the contract that is the basis of all industry, the warranty deed? There are many contributing reasons, but the principal one is business expediency. The Anglo-Saxon idea of ownership of land is that every land owner owns from the center of the earth to the sky—all that is above and all that is below—consequently the oil and gas are owned by the person who owns the surface. That idea is not exactly true with reference to oil and gas, for many states have adopted the doctrine that oil and gas are like wild animals; they are fugacious and migratory and belong to the man that traps them. But, except for that doctrine, we believe that oil and gas are owned by the owner of the surface, wherein we differ from the Latin-American countries where the mineral rights are owned by the government. The United States was settled largely by homesteading. The owners of land were, in the main, farmers, who did not have the means or the faith to drill for oil or gas. The operators or speculators did not want to buy the land on the mere possibility of finding oil; hence a compromise resulted by which the land owner gave the speculator or the operator what he called an oil and gas lease, or a right to go upon his land and drill for oil and gas. What is supposed to be the first oil lease placed on record reads as follows: Agreed this 4th day of July, a.d. 1853, with J. D. Angier of Cherrytree township in the county of Venango Pennsylvania that he shall repair up and keep in order the old oil springs on land in said Cherrytree township, or dig and make new springs, and the expense to be deducted out of the proceeds of the oil, and the balance, if any, to be

Jan 1, 1924

By Kurt Stock

The grades of spelter demanded by the consuming industries were not definitely established until the American Society for Testing Materials undertook to fix specifications, based on the varying percentages of the common impurities (lead, iron, and cadmium) as follows: Total, Not Leap, Iron, Cadmium, Over. Per Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. Cent. A. High grade.................. 0.07 0.03 0.05 0.10 B. Intermediate................ 0.20 0.03 0.50 0.50 C. Brass special................ 0.75 0.04 0.75 1.20 D. Prime western............... 1.50 0.08 The question which grade was the best for certain purposes and why was left unanswered. The conservatism of the zinc-smelting industry and the unwillingness of the spelter-consuming industries to engage in research work prevented the full benefits being obtained that such standardization promised. The custom smelters, producing spelter in pigs or plates, found it impossible to adhere closely to the established limits on account of the variety of ores treated; and the smelters with long-established and known brands, or those manufacturing their metal into marketable products, like sheet zinc, did not have to abide by the newly established grades based on chemical percentages. Smelters engaged in the smelting of custom ores had occasional complaints about the quality of their metal, as some of the consumers, especially brassmakers and some galvanizers, used the rigid standards of the A. S. T. M. as a basis for obtaining redress from zinc smelters whenever some of their work was faulty. Indirectly, much good resulted from such complaints; for while the brassmakers and galvanizers, on the whole, did not know what was wrong, the metallurgists in charge of zinc smelters were induced to abandon their conservatism and study the influence of impurities in spelter from the point of view of the consumer. For some of us, spelter gradually ceased to be considered merely spelter; it

Jan 1, 1925

By Rush N. Hosler

This paper was prepared for the purpose of answering some of the many questions as to why, in the construction of Pennsylvania's Coal Mine Schedule Rating Plan, various factors were, or were not, taken into consideration. Much has been written about merit and schedule rating of industrial risks from an actuarial viewpoint, therefore this phase of the question is taken up only so far as may be necessary in presenting the practical application of the plan now in use. Companies writing fire insurance, about 30 years ago, were the first branch of insurance to use schedule rating; the values assigned their items were largely a matter of judgment. In 1913, the Industrial Commission of Wisconsin evolved the first schedule rating plan to be applied to industrial risks under compensation insurance. Pennsylvania, in 1916, with the inception of its Compensation Act, was the first state to apply the principles of schedule rating to coal mines. A definition of the term "schedule rating" submitted by the writer in a brief to the Safety Committee of the United States Coal Commission is as follows: Schedule rating, as applied to compensation insurance, is an instrument to measure the hazard of known causes of accidents to which employees are exposed in industry and thereby determine an insurance rate commensurate with said hazard. It was first applied to Coal Mining in 1916 in Pennsylvania.' In other words, for a mine operator to insure his employees for injury under the Workmen's Compensation Act, it is necessary that he pay a certain premium based on his payroll. If all mines were assessed the same premium, it would be unfair for the mine with low natural hazard, good safety conditions, and good accident experience to pay the same premium as a mine with bad conditions and experience, therefore schedule rating was introduced.2

Jan 1, 1925

By George Otis Smith

The Secretary of the Interior in his recent report to the President has defined the new public-land policy, which is in fact "but a new application of an old policy." His words may be more acceptable on this subject of land classification than the repetition of phrases which have served some of us for several years. Secretary Lane says of the past: 1'Congress has always been most generous as to the disposition of the national lands.... There was land for all, and it was the government's glad function to distribute it and let those profit who could.... And this generous donor was not so petty as to discriminate between kinds of lands, the uses to which they could be put, or the purposes which those might have who got them. Land is land, save when it contains minerals; this was roughly the broad principle adopted. To classify was a task too difficult or not worth while. The lands would classify themselves when they arrived in individual ownership. And so the door was opened for monopoly and for fraud." Of the reaction and the evolution of a new policy, the Secretary con. tinues: • ' " A reaction was inevitable. If lands were to be withdrawn from public service, why might not the government do the withdrawing itself? The old philosophy that land is land' was evidently unfitted to a country where land is sometimes timber and sometimes coal; indeed, where land may mean water—water for tens of thousands of needy neighboring acres. For the lands of the West differ as men do, in character and condition and degree of usefulness. We had not recognized this fact when we said 'land is land.' Lands fitted for dry farming and lands that must forever lie unused without irrigation; lands that are worthless save for their timber; lands that are rich in grasses and lands that are poor in grasses; lands underlain with the non-precious minerals essential to industry or agriculture; lands that are invaluable for reservoir or dam sites— these varieties may be multiplied, and each new variety emphasizes the fact that each kind of land has its own future and affords its own opportunity for contributing to the nation's wealth.

Jan 1, 1915

By A. H. Kline, E. B. Zimmer, Zay Jeffries

It is well known that many properties of a given metal vary with the size of grain or cell. For most industrial purposes, where high ultimate strength and high elastic limit are desired, the manufacturer tries to produce a fine-grained structure. For some purposes, for example in transformer iron, a coarse-grained structure is desirable. The terms fine-grained and coarse-grained are used only in a relative sense. For example, a fine-grained cast copper might have grains 100 times larger than coarse-grained high-speed steel. Similarly, a finegrained steel rail might have grains or cells 100 times larger than coarsegrained wire, which was made of steel from the same heat. In some metals, the change in grain size is more appreciable khan the changes in any of the properties determined by the tensile test. Furthermore, in metals which have been annealed or subjected to high temperatures, grain size may prove to be a better indication of the life of the metal in use than the tensile test. One of the authors was able to supplant the tensile test with grain-size determinations in the control of metal for a specific use, the latter determination being more indicative of the life of the metal part than the tensile test. A grain-size determination with a tensile stest is, of course, more valuable than either singly. At present there is a decided dearth of data on actual grain-size determinations in metals, and consequently a corresponding lack of ability to interpret the determinations after they are made. It would be desirable to have correlation made between grain size and properties of metals, comparing thousands of determinations. In this way, grain-size determinations might be interpreted in much the same manner that tensile tests are now. Several Methods of Measuring Grain Size One of the chief reasons why more grain-size measurements have not been made is the excessive work involved in making a determination.

Jan 1, 1916

By Henry M. Howe

What should be the chief aim of a metallurgical laboratory ? Before answering this, let us ask, What should be the chief aim of metallurgical instruction ? Taking a definite case, that of the iron blast-furnace, should we chiefly teach the methods of bosh- and tuyere-cooling, of storing and assembling materials, of removing the iron and cinder, of firing boilers and cleaning stoves ? Or should we aim chiefly to lay clear and bare the nature of the reactions which occur in the blast-furnace, the reason why changes in the rate of driving, in the blast-temperature, in the composition of the cinder, cause their known effects ? Shall we chiefly describe or explain ? Shall we teach chiefly the looks or the reasons ? Put thus, the question admits but one answer. Hours of labored description at a technical school give a less true and clear view of actual metallurgical operations than a brief visit to metallurgical works. If in my teaching 1 take the far more laborious course and lay so very great stress on explanation and so little on description that I seem to err on that laborious side and not to give description enough, the student will quickly make up for my lack of description in his first weeks in the works; he will there learn quickly and easily what I could have described only obscurely and with labor. Details of practice are learned easily and retentively in the works, but with difficulty and slowly at school. With the principles, and especially the chemical principles of metallurgy, the reverse is true. The works have little facility for teaching them; the school has every facility. The place then for explaining, for teaching principles, is the school. But,

Jan 1, 1900

By J. H. Pratt

In a recent paper* on the origin of corundum associated with the peridotites of North Carolina, attention was called to the constant occurrence of the mineral, chromite, in these rocks. The field-data obtained during the preparation of that paper have been used largely in the present paper. During the past summer the general occurrences of chromite have been carefully studied, and those in North Carolina have been especially examined in the field. It is purposed to give, in this paper, the reasons why the chromite should be regarded as having been formed at the same time with the peridotites, having been held in solution by the molten mass of the peridotite, and crystallizing out among the first minerals as the mass began to cool. This theory is essentially the same as that advanced by me for the origin of the corundum associated with the peridotite rocks, and a similar line of reasoning has been used to substantiate the theory proposed. Investigations concerning the igneous origin of some of the ores have been materially aided, during recent years, by the skillful experiments of Morozewicz and Lagorio,§ and by researches that show us, more clearly, why we should regard a fused mass of rock as a liquid, having similar properties to an ordinary solution. These experiments have shown that a molten basic glass, similar in composition to the basic magnesian rocks, dissolves alumina readily, and that upon cooling, the first minerals to separate out are corundum and spinel.

Jan 1, 1900

By C. E. Nighman, R. S. Foster

The following is a description of the methods used in rescuing men and extinguishing the underground fire at the Pennsylvania mine, Butte, Mont. , This fire, which cost the lives of 21 men, began about 9 p.m., Feb. 14, 1916, at or near a ventilating fan on the 1,200 air-shaft station. This shaft at that time was downcast, while the main hoisting shaft was upcast. Owing to the proximity of the fire to the air shaft, the air in the latter soon became heated, and as the fan on the level was not running— the power having been cut off shortly after the outbreak of the fire—the air shaft became upcast to the 300 level. At this point a blanket of cold air from the surface caused the smoke and gases to be drawn in on that level and carried down again through the workings to the 1,200. A short time after the discovery of the fire, water was turned down the air shaft through a series of pipes around the collar of the shaft, which caused the smoke to recede below the 300, so that within 2 hr. it was possible to search that level for the missing men. From the above it will be apparent why the air shaft was upcast instead of downcast, as under normal conditions, and why men were suffocated at considerable distances from the seat of the fire. The smoke and gases that came up the main hoisting shaft did not diffuse through the workings to any extent. There are doors on all levels in the connections to the main hoisting and air shafts, but in the confusion and running around many of these doors were left open, and this undoubtedly caused the smoke and gases to spread more rapidly than they would otherwise have done. It was necessary for most of the men on the various levels to pass close to the air shaft in going to the hoisting shaft, and when they encountered the smoke and gases in that vicinity a number turned back and climbed down with the direction of the air currents and were then suffocated, while all those who passed through the pall of smoke to the main shaft were saved. There were 220 men in the mine that night, and all but 25 were hoisted to the surface within 30 min. after the discovery of the fire. Of the 25, five went out through the Tramway mine, and one through the Moun-

Jan 1, 1918

By Benjamin Talbot

The problem of segregation and cavities in steel ingots is a subject which has given and is still giving metallurgists, engineers, and operators matter for serious consideration. This question has come more into prominence lately in the United States, due largely to the desire of railroad engineers to secure a better rail than they have obtained ill the past, as the service they demand is increasing in severity; and no doubt manufacturers will be able to meet what is required of them. The rails here are as good as those made in other countries, but the conditions of service and the extremes of climate are more Revere and consequently more breakages occur. Various reasons have been advanced to explain why rails may not be as good in quality to-day as in the past. Some engineers consider that modern methods of manufacturing, designed chiefly to obtain large output, tend to reduce the standard of excellence of more deliberate methods. Others think that 4-ton ingots are worse than those of 2 tons. Again, it is stated that the 100-ton heat in one ladle is too large, and is a step in the wrong direction in casting. My experience upon the question of the size of the ingot is that in rolling rails of from 85-to 100-lb. sections, the range of ingot is only practically such that the difference in the size does not help in the question of segregation, cavities, or blow-holes. I call attention to two ingots from work done at Pencoyd, Pa., 16 years ago. These ingots were bottom-poured, cast at the same time from the same center-runner, the one being 20 by 24 in. and the other 13 by 16 in. in size. The steel was acid open-hearth, and contained C, 0.43; P, 0.062; S, 0.069 per cent. At the same place in each ingot where seg-

Jan 1, 1914

By Frederick F. Sharpless

The term "segregation," as here used, means the separation of certain natural resources into groups, consisting of one or more members, with the idea that when thus segregated, each group may be more easily and effectively administrated. We may, for example, consider surface rights as distinct from underground rights, and stop there; or we may go further, and deal separately with timber, water, and agricultural rights, or, going underground, we might deal separately with such groups as precious and base metals, clay, oil, gas, etc. The present paper contemplates only the separation so far as practicable, for administrative purposes, of surface from mineral rights. " Classification," in this paper, has reference to the groups into which the government has divided, is dividing, or will hereafter divide its natural resources; first, into the broad classes of mineral and agricultural lands; and, second, into coal, oil, phosphate, brine lands, etc., the central idea being the separation into natural groups for the purpose of simplifying administration and for the purpose of encouraging maximum development and minimum waste. The two subjects are in some respects quite distinct, but as my argument develops, I think it will be obvious why they are discussed in the same paper. In the pursuit of our professions as mining engineers, geologists, or operators, we are continually confronted by conditions with which our present mining laws or regulations are incompatible. It may be a conflict, hardship or injustice, a piece of favoritism, or of unnecessary red tape; or we may see lack of development in a promising locality, and wonder what is the reason. Often we can see where a modification, slight or radical, in the laws would have obviated the difficulty without doing harm to any of those immediately concerned. Such alterations as individuals could intelligently suggest would be based on a relatively small number of situations occurring in their experiences. The published replies to the queries formulated by the various committees on mining law appear generally to reflect personal experience. Concerning a few points, there is a marked uniforhity of opinion, while on other points opinions

Jan 1, 1915

By R. Dawson Hall

The stresses in the simplest structures are often those we find most difficult to analyze. The most complex condition in mine stresses is found in simple tunnels where the roof, the sides, and the floor are a monolith. The functions of the parts are like the parts themselves not distinct and spccialized, and the problems to be solved are like those in a metal structure with riveted joints or a redundancy of bars. This difficulty explains perhaps why the condition has not been treated. But just because it cannot be discussed in its entirety is no reason why it should be treated as an action of parts with spccialized functions as a roof beam with supports and a foundation. The problern cannot be ignored on the ground that it is not of sufficient importance to warrant careful consideration, because conditions of complete monolithism, of which the tunnel is the type, are found materially unchanged in room-and-pillar and in longwall work. This unity between roof, sides, and floor, which to the coal miner is a difficult conception, really deserves a scientific appellation, and perhaps holoid (from holos, whole, and eidos, form) will serve the purpose as well as any other. In a simple tunnel the roof, the sides, and the floor form integral parts of one and the same structure, and the distortion of one cannot be conceived without a consequent strain in the others. Thus when the roof of the tunnel droops by reason of its weight, the upper parts of the sides are drawn in becausc they are integrally connected with the roof and must approach each other whenever, by the sagging of the roof, the distance between any two points in it is diminished. (See Fig. 1.) Thc sides in their turn operate on the floor of the holoid structure, producing a tensile stress. The writer has always been impressed with the value of soap as a means of illustrating the action of mine stresses. With that idea in mind' a cake of naphtha soap measuring 43/8 by 2¼ by 19i in. was taken and a tunnel was made through it 13/4 in. long, 21/2 in. wide and 1¼ in. high. (See Fig. 2.) A load was then placed at the mid-span of the tunnel. Eventually, the upper bar, or "roof," broke at the

Jan 1, 1916

By H. R. Barnhurst

It would be a difficult matter to trace from the beginning the very few improvements made in the burning of fuels prior to 1860. Donbtless the crossing of the sticks of wood in building a mood fire early appealed to our savage ancestry as a means of expediting its effectiveness for their crude culinary purposes. Stones and andirons came later in assisting the admission of air to the under part of the fuel bed, while beacons and cressets, utilized metal bars as supports for the same purpose. It is probable that Tuba1 Cain owed his success to the use of bellows making possible the use of mixed fuel and charge upon a hearth. With the development of working in cast iron, grate bars came in, and they are still with us doing duty in every household and almost every art where heat is a factor. Little was done beyond these crude methods prior to 1860. With the advancement of knowledge came the fuel-gas producer, a natural child of the retorts employed in supplying illuminating gas. It is only within the last 15 years that the conclusion became general that complicated systems for saving heat would not remedy deli-. ciencies in its primary development, and within that time there has been great advancement in the means of producing initially a fire of high effciency, so that to-day we are moving rapidly toward both high development and high absorption, with the resultant of high efficiencies. In studying the subject of the availability of pulverized coal as a fuel, it may occur to ask, why has this not come up earlier? This, question would be naturally prompted by recalling the fact that Thomas Crompton's English patents upon his methods were issued to him nearly 40 years ago. A conclusive answer to this, however, is that Crompton at that time had very crude facilities for making what was at best a very imperfect pulverization of the coal, arid the expense of preparation mas very great. He does not seem to have been aware of the advantage of a thorough drying of the coal in the

Jan 1, 1914

By Arthur F. Taggart

A general awakening of interest among mill men concerning the mechanical efficiencies of their crushing machines is evident from a perusal of the recent files of mining publications. Considering the large part of the power bill which must be debited to the crushing department, such interest is natural. When, however, the articles on the subject are read, the only statement upon which the writers agree is that fine grinding consumes a large amount of power, and that the machine which, from a concentration standpoint, offends as a slime producer is, for that reason, a serious offender in wasting power. When the mill man attempts to find a method for measuring the power wasted, or to compare the efficiency of one machine with that of another for the same work, he is confronted with a choice of methods which lead to conflicting results. There are two reasons why the work of crushing is not more generally understood. In the first place, experimental data are difficult to obtain; and in the second place, before these data can be put in general form certain assumptions must be made. A difference in these assumptions by different investigators has led to conflicting conclusions. This conflict has resulted in the proposal of two laws. The first of these is the so-called Rittinger's law, which is variously stated as follows: "The work of crushing is proportional to the reduction in diameter."—R. H. Richards: Ore Dressing, p. 304 (1903). "The work required to crush rock is very nearly proportional to the reciprocals of the diameters crushed to."—A. Del Mar: Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. xciv, No. 24, p. 1129 (Dec. 14, 1912). "The work done in crushing is proportional to the surface exposed by the operation, or better expressed for this purpose, the work done on a given mass of rock is proportional to the reciprocal of the diameter of the final product, assuming that all the mass has been reduced to one exact size, which is only theoretically possible."— A. 0. Gates: Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. xcv, No. 21, p. 1039 (May 24, 1913). ' ' " Of this law as variously stated above H. Stadler says (Grading Analyses and Their Application, Author's Reply to Discussion, Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, vol. xx, p. 426 [1910-111):

Jan 1, 1915

By Albert Sauveur

Jan 1, 1924

By Albert Sauveur

Jan 1, 1924

By Henry M. Howe

The transformation which steel undergoes in slow cooling, from the condition of austenite whelk above the transformation rage into that of pearlite plus either ferrite or cementite below that range, is subject to great lag. This transformation is essentially the pearlitizing of the austenite. Indeed the hardenillg of steel is due to this lag, which is made so great by extremely rapid cooling that a very large part of the transformation itself is restrained, so that the rapid cooling catches the metal in an only partly transformed state, that of martensite, and under favorable contditions even in an almost wholly untransformed state, as in the cases of Maurer's austenitic manganese steel. Hadfield's austemtic. manganese steel, 25 per cent. nickel steel, and other anstenitic alloy steels, arc austenitic even after slow cooling. It has long been known that this lag increases (1) with the rapidity of cooling, (2) with the presence of certain retarding elements, notably manganese and nickel, and (3) with the temperature from which cooling starts. The present inquiry touches the last of these influences, but incidentally it throws light on the first also. This influence of higher heating ill increasing lag manifests itself in different ways which, though they may at first seem unrelated, are in fact hut different aspects of one and the same thing. Thus, among heatings to different high temperatures, all of them above the transformation range: the higher the temperature to which the steel is heated (1) the lower is the temperature at which the transformation occurs in cooling slowly down, (2) the shorter is the time occupied in the actual cooling from above the transformation range to the room Temperature under given external conditions, Whether of slow or

Jan 1, 1914

By Horace V. Winchell

The laws here referred to are those which define the status of the prospector for mineral deposits in the soil or beneath it, establish his methods of procedure, protect him in his possession while searching for the subterranean treasures, and give him assurance of title when all required conditions have been fulfilled and valuable minerals discovered. Regulations for the operation of mines and the safety and health of mine employees are likewise subjects of Federal and State legislation, but are not within the scope of the present program. Various features of our present laws will be discussed in detail by able students of the subject, and specific remedies will be proposed for the most glaring defects. It is my purpose to present in this paper a summary review of the reasons why revision is needed and demanded by the great majority of those in daily contact with the industry. Reason Number One The first objection to the continuance of the present law is that it was not planned by its framers and the Congress which passed it to apply to many of the kinds of mineral deposits, nor to the mining conditions, which are controlled by it to-day. In 1866, under the title, "An Act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes," was surreptitiously smuggled into existence our first mining law (14 Stats. at Large, Chap. 262, p. 251). This law provided that "whenever any person or association of persons claim a vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar or copper, having previously occupied and improved the same according to the local customs or rules of miners in the district where the same is situated," etc., a patent might be granted an certain conditions. This was evidently an Act intended to validate claims already initiated, and to accord Federal recognition to mining locations made in

Jan 1, 1915

By W. McA. Johnson

The object of this paper is to describe the several necessary characteristics of the zinc-retorting charge and to show how by certain improved methods, the large excess of coal, over that theoretically required, can be reduced, thereby effecting an increase in the smelting capacity of a retort plant as well as other economies. In the southwestern zinc works a charge of roasted zinc ore with a side mixture of carbonates and silicates, analyzing on the average 50 per cent. Zn, is mixed with 55 or more per cent. of its weight of a mixture of coal and coke analyzing 60 to 70 per cent. fixed carbon. The ore is of varying fineness and the coal and coke are usually crushed in a semi-moist condition through a 3/8-in. screen. With ores of a slaggy nature, this coal proportion is increased, sometimes to as much as 100 per cent. of the weight of the ore. With carbonate ores, or where anthracite screenings with higher carbon content are cheap enough, the percentage of reducing agent is cut to 45 per cent. or even somewhat lower. The average charge per retort for a monthly run of a plant on ore, as distinguished from retorts on blue-powder, ladle-skimmings and other between-products, runs from 60 to 66 lb., with a mean of 63 lb. for the Southwest with standard retorts of 8 1/2-in. inside diameter and 50 in. long inside, using roasted sulphide ores. Conditions will change these figures, but 40 lb. of ore per cubic foot of retort space is, I believe,'an average in the better-operated plants. Since the rise in the price of spelter, the tendency has been to overcharge. To remove the slag that is formed when retorts are overcharged, extra men are put on to "gum-chisel" the retorts to prevent "set" furnaces and "butchered retorts." Taking the above conditions as premises, we find that from four to six times the amount of coal necessary for the reduction is used, as is evidenced by the fact that the residues analype as high as 35 per cent, fixed carbon. There are good reasons why this excess of fixed carbon must be used and perhaps these can be best explained by a description of the metallurgical requisites of a zinc charge. We may enumerate these as follows: 1. High reducing power, especially at the end of the shift, to reduce any carbon dioxide to monoxide and bring about a good condensation

Jan 1, 1918