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By Herbert J. French

ALLOY steels have become essential to industry in meeting the rigid requirements on materials imposed by our, advanced technology. In comparison with the total ingot capacity of the steel industry, the volume of alloy steels is relatively small although for many years annual alloy-ingot tonnage has, been in seven figures. However, the monetary value of the alloy-steel production is exceedingly high and the benefits derived from the products are relatively great. The trend in total ingot production since 1932 has been generally upward with only two major interruptions. That of the year 1938 was due to a decrease in general business activity whereas that of 1946 resulted largely from work stoppages. Traditionally, the tonnage of alloy-steel ingots produced was in the neighborhood of 5 to

Jan 1, 1948

By W. A. STERLING

IN the opencut iron mines of the Mesabi Range in Minnesota, the trend in mining is in the development of mining equipment and mining methods which will move surface overburden and ore-bearing materials with less labor and at a cheaper cost. This is a must for most of the independent operators. Their reserves of direct-shipping ore are extremely small and their operations are being conducted in small, or intermediate pits, with a high stripping ratio in the outer fringes, or shore lines of older pits. and in ore bodies passing from direct shipping to the washing and the intermediate, or retreat ore state. The trend is toward deeper stripping, longer and steeper hauls, and the necessity of moving a total of from three to five or six tons of overburden and ore material for each ton of shipping-grade ore produced. This naturally calls for greater production, with larger shovels, or draglines. cheaper drilling and blasting costs through the drilling of larger-diameter blastholes, and cheaper haulage through the use of trucks of larger capacity and more extensive use of belt-conveyor systems. This trend is notable both in stripping and mining.

Jan 1, 1948

By Lysle E. Shaffer

INCREASING attention has been given in the last decade to the possibilities of mine leasing in the West. The practice as described in this article does not refer to the leasing of entire properties for corporate operation. It is intended to deal rather with the advantages and problems incident to leasing portions of properties to individuals who themselves, individually or in groups, do the actual mining and transportation of the ore. These individuals are sometimes called "leasers" and sometimes called "tributors." The contracts under which they work set up an independent relationship of lessor and leaser, between themselves and the mineowner or operator. This relationship has many advantages to both sides over those created by the ordinary relationship of employer and employe. From the standpoint of the owners there is no liability on independent contractors for industrial injuries, social security taxes, unemployment taxes, or the manifold restrictions of the Federal Labor Relations and Wage Hour Acts and similar state acts where they exist. As the leaser's income depends on the quantity and quality of ore produced, there is a distinct incentive for maximum production of a good grade of ore. This in turn promotes careful mining of the areas under lease. Ordinarily in mining, labor cost is a high percentage of the total cost of operation. Under a leasing system, even if the leasers be allowed to retain half of the gross values that they produce, and the owner or operator gets half, in the case of marginal ore bodies this is ordinarily more than the lessor would realize if the property were worked by day labor. In some instances mineral deposits under a leasing system may become ore, whereas under a day-labor system they would

Jan 1, 1948

By Evan Bennett

ALMADEN is Arabic for "the mine." The definite article is properly used, for no mercury mine in the world compares with it for richness and volume of ore, produced and potential. After more than twenty centuries of exploitation, intensive throughout the last lour, ore from Almaden is about five times as rich as that of its closest competitor. We drove to the mine one April afternoon, across Don Quixote's plains of the Mancha, up the bleak, arid valley of the Rio Valdeazogue where we passed tenth century Moorish workings and their ruined castles. At dusk, we came to the Hacienda de Castilseras, a large farm where Almaden miners work their land on off days. Then we drove through the whitewashed, well-ordered town to the Castillo de la Direccion where we were challenged at the iron gate by two picturesquely costumed Guardias Jurados.

Jan 1, 1948

By James K. Richardson

STATISTICAL evidence shows that continued efforts made by Government and industry to make mining safer during the last two decades have had most favorable results. In the copper-mining industry an accident frequency of 146 per million man-hours worked in 1925 dropped 71 per cent by 1945 to 43. This downward trend was relatively consistent except for a high period in 1937 which was probably due to a resumption of large-scale operation with many untrained miners. The iron-mining industry showed a similar trend, but at the relatively lower accident frequency of 66, which dropped to 24 in 1945. The close relationship between the steel and iron-mining industries may be one reason for the lower accident frequencies, because the steel industry is noted for its greater recognition of the fact that safe working conditions are an important part of labor-management relations.

Jan 1, 1948

By C. J. Bauer

WHEN the pipe lines from the Middle East to the Mediterranean are completed, the Middle East supplies will relieve the strain on Western Hemisphere petroleum resources, part of which are now shipped for Eastern Hemisphere use. A sketch of the world petroleum situation as it appears today and in the immediate future will help in understanding the future place of Middle East oil supplies. Anticipated 1951 world demand is slightly under four billion barrels. To meet this requirement, crude output and refinery runs throughout the world (including Russia) must be increased about two million barrels per day above the average of 1947. This increment, together with pipe lines, tankers, and other facilities, will require in excess of ten billion dollars of new capital in the next four years. We are, therefore, looking forward to the greatest expansion program in the history of the industry.

Jan 1, 1948

In the spring of 1944 the Congress passed Public Law 290 (58 Stat. 190, 30 U. S. C. Sec. 321) "authorizing the construction and operation of demonstration plants to produce synthetic liquid fuels from coal, oil shales, agricultural and forestry products, and other substances, in order to aid the prosecution of the war, to conserve and increase the oil resources of the Nation, and for other purposes." Section 2 reads: "In order to carry out the :purpose of this act, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized- (a) to conduct laboratory research and development work, and, with pilot plants and semi-works plants, to make careful process engineering studies, along with structural engineering studies, in order to ascertain lowest investment and operating costs necessary to determine the best demonstration plant designs and conditions of operation;

Jan 1, 1948

By Leo H. Duriez, James V. Neuman

THE Bayard property of the united States Smelting Refining and Mining Company is in south central Grant County in southwestern New Mexico about fifteen miles east of Silver City and one mile west of Santa Rita. The present holdings cover a belt roughly one mile wide by ten miles long, lying west of, and adjacent to, the holdings of the American Smelting and Refining Co., Kennecott Copper Corp., Empire Zinc Co., and Peru Mining Co. The area extends from the village of Bayard on the south to a point three miles northeast of Fierro. The property is a part of the well-known Central mining district which has been New Mexico's leading copper-zinc producer for many years. The property is segregated into three sections, the Bullfrog, Hanover Bessemer, and the Shingle Canyon sections. Of these, the Bullfrog section covers the area between the towns of Bayard and Hanover and includes the Bullfrog No. 1, Bullfrog No. 2, Slate, Hobo,

Jan 1, 1948

By Frank Rieber

EVERYONE is familiar with the story of the poor Indian and his leaking tepee. He couldn't repair the leak while it was raining, naturally. And when it wasn't raining, where was the incentive? Even if this traditional Indian was apochryphal, his counterparts are certainly alive today, and operating on a world-wide scale. - A recent issue of the Wall Street Journal, for example, carried an impassioned letter from an old cocoa planter, who wants the world to know why the price of cocoa has gone skyrocketing. For years, he says, British and American interests have bought cocoa at the cheapest possible price and, incidentally, from growers willing to sell at that price. Between them, they didn't put enough money back into the business, either to fight disease in the cocoa groves or to plant new cocoa trees. Until new trees are planted and come into bearing, we will be paying exorbitant prices for our cocoa, and getting less of it.

Jan 1, 1948

By G. H. LeFevre

THE Metal Sales Department, with offices in New York, is responsible for the sale of the Company's products, with the exception of gold and coal. At present the department handles the sales of lead, zinc, silver, antimonial lead, , cadmium, bismuth, arsenic trioxide, and tellurium; gold is shipped direct to the United States Mint and coal is marketed by United States Fuel Company's own sales organization. The department keeps in close touch with the metal markets and collects information on marketing conditions, which it makes available to other departments of the Company. The electrolytic lead produced at the U. S. S. Lead Refinery, Inc., is a high-uality product marketed as corroding grade under the "U. S. S.-ELECTRO" brand. It is largely sold to manufacturers of paints, pigments, lead oxides, and storage batteries.

Jan 1, 1948

By AIME

WE produce Charles Van Ormer "Charlie" Millikan as living proof that man need not make a loud noise to be heard. His quietly affable, analytical, and soft-spoken manner in the face of all problems belies his ability to "get tough" when the situation demands it. As a chief engineer with many responsibilities for the success of a large producing company there must have been many occasions to tempt Charlie to excitement, but there are few, if any, who can say they saw him yield. He has an abiding faith in the benefits of hard and persistent work and will not admit the existence of a problem that cannot be reduced by it.

Jan 1, 1948

By C. E. Barnett, G. R. Durland

LUMINESCENT materials have been used in an increasing variety of ways in recent years. Such uses range from the screens on which the picture or image is presented in television and other cathode ray tubes to fluorescent lamps, fluorescent effects in decorative, theatrical, and display lighting, and the many applications of phosphorescence in paints, textiles, paper, and plastics. During the war the screens for a radar set or the "night-seeing" devices were not fundamentally different from those in other cathode ray tubes, but nevertheless they presented special problems for the phosphor manufacturer. It was essential that the "pips" on a radar screen continue to glow after the exciting beam had swept on, but this afterglow would be ruinous to a television screen. In the image tube used for seeing at night with infrared instead of visible light, electrons emitted by an infrared-sensitive receiving surface were amplified and converted to visible light after striking a fluorescent screen. The small size of the screen caused special problems in reducing the grain size of the phosphor to obtain adequate resolution. Other devices used phosphor surfaces which could be stimulated directly by infrared radiation to emit visible light. Energy was stored in the phosphors by prior excitation with short-wave-length radiation, and the stored energy released on subsequent exposure to infrared radiation. Maps, navigational charts, bombing manuals, and computers of various sorts were printed on fluorescent paper or lettered with fluorescent inks. Fluorescent markings excited by small ultraviolet lamps were used on airplane instrument dials. A large amount of research was done to determine the best color for the emitted light and other properties for the fluorescent materials, and on the best methods for their fabrication into the items listed above. Phosphorescent materials found wide use during blackout restrictions to mark safe passageways, to delineate traffic hazards, to identify packages, and to mark tools and other items of equipment.

Jan 1, 1948

By Charles Will Wright

MINERAL production in almost all European countries suffered a sharp setback because of the war. Plants were damaged, transportation facilities disrupted, and labor dispersed and demoralized. Since the war, due to lack of confidence and economic stability, there has been little incentive to rebuild and expand the mineral industries even though a big demand at high prices exists for mineral products. Most mining and metallurgical companies in Europe hesitate to invest their capital because of the tendency towards nationalizing industry, high taxes, and low output of labor, as well as the deficiency of mine supplies and equipment within their countries. In short, they do not have faith in the future, and for these same reasons and fears most of the mining companies in America will not risk capital investment in Europe. In Europe, including the United Kingdom, free enterprise has been losing ground and as a result the foundation of their economic welfare is being undermined. American mining interests willing to take the initiative could help in counteracting this influence if a way were found for them to co-operate with the European producer without too great a risk.

Jan 1, 1948

By D. M. McFarland

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

Jan 1, 1948

By George Mixter

MINING, in contrast to manufacturing, deals with a wasting asset. That which is taken out of the ground is gone, the property is depleted to that extent, and will eventually become exhausted of profitable ore. So the life of a mining company is dependent upon the ability of its management to develop improved methods to permit extraction at a profit of the lower-grade ores which remain, to extend by intelligent exploration the limits of its known ore bodies, and to find and acquire new properties to take the place of those that, for one reason or another, are no longer operated. Its history is a story of constant change, of the working out of properties here and the acquisition and development of properties there, to maintain the vitality of the whole. It is a story of estimating with the tools and the knowledge available the location and extent of hidden ore bodies and of devising the means of extracting

Jan 1, 1948

By AIME

NEW YORK'S largest hotel, the Pennsylvania, will be filled with mining and oil men and metallurgists the third week of February when some 3000 AIME members, their wives, and guests will gather for the Institute's 1948 Annual Meeting-its 166th general meeting. Except for the usual Sunday afternoon and evening sessions of the Mineral Industry Education Division at the Columbia University Men's Faculty Club, the big assembly will be under one top and members will not this year have to consult compass and map to find their next session. Possibly enervated by the stupendous effort of the Anniversary Celebration last spring and the plethora of highly successful fall meetings, the various committees have been a trifle slow in arranging their social and technical programs, but in mid December as we go to press there is already much to report indicative of substantial fare and high interest. The definite timetable schedule will appear in the February M&M.

Jan 1, 1948

By Charles Will Wright

THE economy as well as the living standards of a country depends largely upon adequate supplies of raw materials at reasonable prices. Geological and climatic conditions responsible for the occurrence of commercial minerals and the growth of raw agricultural and forest products are so varied in different parts of the world that no country can be self-sufficient. The world is rapidly shrinking because of improvement in transportation facilities, but populations are steadily increasing and so are the needs for a greater production of raw materials and for their more equitable distribution. Too many barriers between nations prevent free access to the main sources of supply of the raw materials vital to neighboring nations and it is just such barriers that are often the cause of friction and even war. The International Trade Organization is doing a commendable job in helping to. break down barriers and to reduce friction, and we should now find ways to facilitate access to these sources of supply and encourage more efficient and greater production of the raw materials so urgently needed throughout the world. This cannot be done by individual selfish governmental agencies, influenced as they are by politics, nor by socialistic governments attempting to nationalize industries. It can be done efficiently only by the free individual through private enterprise properly protected against adverse governmental action. This protection can be supplied by the World Bank.

Jan 1, 1948

By M. D. Hassialis

THE object of a technical paper is to communicate new technical knowledge, the paper being the vehicle of communication and the existence of new knowledge its reason for being. It follows that the development of information worthy of communication, the criterion being novelty, is prerequisite to exercising the privilege of communication. The act of communication is achieved when the reader perceives the nature of the new knowledge, i.e., when he understands it. A paper achieving this objective is an acceptable technical paper. Development of new knowledge has as one of its purposes the increase of the existing state of knowledge and the enjoyment of the benefits derived therefrom. Technical knowledge is a collection of facts so ordered as to make apparent, relations existing between the facts. When the interrelations have been exposed the facts have been interpreted or explained Three broad, overlapping categories of technical papers may be recognized: papers consisting of (a) a report of facts, (b) an explanation of facts, or (c) a combination of a report and an interpretation. Ideally a technical paper should belong to one of the last two categories but current practice is to accept papers belonging to any of the three categories. Based on a small sample drawn from the scientific and engineering literature, the relative frequency of the three types is a: b: c:: 20:1:14. If the sample be limited to engineering literature, the ratios become a:c::2:1; type (b) being nonexistent. This large departure from the ideal is a consequent of the

Jan 1, 1948

By Kirtley F. Mather

FROM almost every point of view, petroleum was "strategic mineral number one" during the World War that ended in 1945. Even the spectacular advent of the atomic bomb in the final days of the conflict did not displace it from its position of prime importance, although within a few years uranium will almost certainly be the "number one" material in the minds of military strategists, if it is not even now in that position. But both as fuel and as raw material for chemical industries, petroleum will hold the center of the stage for many years to come. Hardly any other substance illustrates so fully the manner in which science and technology may be combined to achieve the utmost success in contributing to human efficiency and comfort. Fundamental to any understanding of the problems implied by my topic

Jan 1, 1948

By Lysle E. Shaffer

TEACHING engineering students how to write and speak effectively -is one of the greatest problems facing the technical schools today. No phase of engineering education has received more criticism, and rightly so, for the criticism is justified. Year after year we continue to graduate men that are indifferent to the use of a tool they will need every day of their lives. Our young engineers cannot write a clear, concise report, and their business letters are a disgrace to the profession that takes pride in precision. The problem is not new. The remark ascribed to Sir James Barrie, that "The man of science appears to be the only man who has something to say, just now-and the only man who does not know how to say it" is as uncomfortably true today as it was thirty years ago. The records of meetings of engineering educators and the transactions of the engineering societies show that the inability of the engineer to communicate his ideas has been discussed for years. Engineering educators, prodded by industry, have recognized that the problem exists, but they have not solved it. Instead they continue to expose the student to composition and rhetoric, hustle him through English and American literature, and then blame his high school because he does not know enough English grammar to write a clear sentence. We must face the fact that the graduate is not going to reflect on the high school, but on his college. If the high school has shirked the job, the responsibility for correction rests on the faculty of the professional school.

Jan 1, 1948