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By J. B. Newsom

DURING July and August, 1931, the Bloomington Limestone Co.,. at Bloomington, Ind., ran a single wire saw on ledge No. 2 at Maple Hill quarry. The ledge was hard rock, much harder than the average Indiana limestone. It was opened at two ends for a depth of about 20 ft., leaving a 130-ft. section between. During the tests 21 cuts were made in this ledge, to an average depth of 10.42 ft., for a total effective cutting area 028,445 sq. ft. The actual area sawed was about 20 per cent higher, as we did not level down in the center, preferring to cut deeper on the ends. The various cuts were carefully, logged, and the results plotted. A study of these results is interesting, as it enables a forecast of probable future costs to be made, and also because it points out the limitations of wire saws, and the lines development should logically take. Some of the inferences to be drawn are discussed below. Best Length of Cut.-No. trouble was due to length of cut, except that we could not easily level down a long cut, and it is probable that longer cuts, say up to 200 f t., can be made. Obviously, longer cuts will result in a higher sawing rate, in square feet per hour if- they do not cause stoppages. Working Higher Ledges.-The cuts averaged 10.42 ft. high by 130 ft. long. A study of several logs indicated that during only about 15 per cent of the cutting time was the saw cutting to its full efficiency; that is, during about 85 per cent of the time the saw was bedding in at the ends and not cutting well in the center, or the ends were below the floor line and only part of the wire was doing effective cutting. This does not mean that the wire was cutting to only 15 per cent of its capacity, but it means that during about 85 per cent of the time part of the cutting was being wasted. If higher ledges had been worked, the wire would have cut to its full efficiency a large part of the time, as it would have had a greater distance; to saw after it had bedded in to the ledge before the ends went down below the floor level. The exact saving to be expected cannot be calcu-lated, but it would be large, if really high cuts were made.

Jan 1, 1932

The income of the Institute is derived from dues, subscriptions to MINING AND METALLURGY and sale of publications. These sources are fortunately supplemented by the interest from invested funds now amounting to over $500,000, a considerable portion constituting endowments for especial purposes. Aside from the medal funds the principal endowments are the James Douglas Fund for support of the Library, the Rocky Mountain Fund and the Seeley W. Mudd M.emoria1 Fund. The income from the two last named is available for the support of research and a variety of other purposes. It is allocated by the Board of Directors upon recommendation of standing committees in each case. An active effort is being made to increase the endowments of the Institute, it being felt that unusual opportunities exist for research and public and professional service through the organization and at a minimum of expense.

Jan 1, 1932

By T. W. Guy

DuRing recent years, tremendous strides have been made in the economical use of coal. This has resulted in, and to some extent has been a result of, making the fuel specifications more and more rigid. For this reason, all producers have found it necessary to improve their preparation materially, both as to sizing and the elimination of impurities, either by more effective preparation underground or at the tipple and cleaning plant, or both. This cause and its effect in all producing fields seem likely to continue for several years at least. The splendid inherent qualities of the Pocahontas and New River coals are known all over the world, but their good reputation is only partly due to inherent qualities, and to natural conditions which generally favor loading coal comparatively free from impurities; it is due in large measure to the care and skill used, either with or without the aid of mechanical devices, to ship products consistently low in ash. The first coal from the West Virginia smokeless fields was mined and shipped near Quinnimont, on New River, in 1871, while the first shipments from the Pocahontas field were in 1883. The development of both fields progressed rapidly. At first activities followed the main lines of the Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk & Western railroads, and were extended later as branch lines were built from these roads. The Virginian R. R., about 1907, opened up the Winding Gulf territory, which has since become a large producer of smokeless coals from the Pocahontas and the New River measures. Early Cleaning Methods In the early days, the tipples were simple wooden structures, with bar screens for separating the fines from the lump coal. All cleaning was done by the miners at the face, or by pickers in the railroad cars. Gates were provided in the chutes by which the flow of coal could be stopped when necessary while the pickers raked the surface of the coal in the car and picked out the impurities. A large percentage of the fine coal or slack was used for making coke at the mines in beehive ovens. The

Jan 1, 1932

By Irwin Roman

The literature of geophysics as applied to the discovery of mineral deposits has been very extensive during the past few years,' but there seem to be few references to the use of the method of least squares for obtaining better interpretations of the observed data.2 There seems to be a general reluctance among geologists and engineers to acquire the technique of least squares, in spite of the fact that a thorough knowledge of the theory is not necessary for the use of the method.

Jan 1, 1932

By J. E. Gill

Introduction During the past summer, detailed geological mapping was extended to cover the entire group of 31 claims owned by Waite-Ackerman-Montgomery Mines, Ltd., and considerable new information was revealed by development and exploratory work underground. These new facts provide a more complete view of the lithology and structure of the area than has heretofore been available. They also necessitate revision of certain interpretations presented last year by Peale (l), and have served to straighten out some of the problems suggested by Porritt (2). The purpose of this paper is to outline in a broad way the relations as now understood and to discuss in detail certain points which should be of interest to members of the Institute. Maps and records by the mine staff have been freely used in arriving at the interpretation presented in the following pages. The writers are especially indebted to Mr. R. V. Porritt, the mine manager, with whom many of the problems touched upon were discussed on the ground and whose intimate knowledge of the geology of the underground workings aided greatly in testing various hypotheses. The writers have profited greatly, also, from close association with Dr. W. F. James during the course of the work. Permission to publish the included data has very kindly been given .by the management.

Jan 1, 1932

Jan 1, 1932

By Arthur Phillips

THE study of anisotropy in metals has been greatly stimulated in recent years by the rapid development of X-ray methods for determining the crystallographic relationships of wrought and annealed materials. Prior to this time the knowledge regarding the directional properties of commercial alloys consisted almost exclusively of observations of a practical nature made during the fabrication of metal objects, supplemented by a limited number of mechanical tests on specimens cut at various angles to the direction of working. Such observations clearly indicate that the common methods of cold-working metals cause both a crystallographic and a mechanical fibering varying in character and degree according to the nature and extent of the deforming process. Even after annealing, following certain not too well known combinations of reductions and anneals, a preferred orientation may exist, thereby constituting a residual fiber effect sufficiently pronounced to manifest directional properties. With the application of the X-ray the experimental horizon was extended chiefly because the study of anisotropic metals promised to offer direct and quantitative evidence regarding the involved mechanism of fragmentation and plastic flow. As a natural consequence the intensive studies in this direction have yielded a vast accumulation of data of ultimate potential value. Unfortunately, however, as is commonly the case in entering a virgin field of experimentation, many of the data cannot be molded into complete and coherent form because of the many unrelated conditions of the experimental projects. Again, the results of the study of single crystals have been rather naturally but at times indiscriminately applied to polycrystalline metals. Furthermore, sweeping statements have been made regarding the behavior during working and annealing of metals and alloys, entirely on the basis of similarity in lattice arrangement. There is abundant reason for believing that relatively small concentration variables, differences, in magnitude and distribution of applied stresses, and the character of associated annealing treatments may in some cases greatly influence the mechanics of flow and consequently largely determine the final structural characteristics of the metal.

Jan 1, 1932

By E. S. Moore

Although nickel was in use in alloys long before the Christian era, the metal was not discovered until 1751, when Cronstedt recognized it in niccolite from Sweden. The Chinese apparently used a nickel alloy, known as "pahfong" thousands of years ago and Persian coins dating farther back than 200 B.C. consist of a copper-nickel alloy similar to some of those now in use in coins. The pure metal was first prepared about 1775 and the metal was refined for commercial purposes some years later. The nickel industry did not attain much prominence until the ores in New Caledonia were discovered. Exports of ore from that country began in 1875 and since that date there has been an ever-increasing world output of nickel and a great expansion in the uses of the metal except during short periods of commercial and industrial depression. Previous to 1875, for a number of years, Norway was the chief producer, although the metal was mined also in Sweden, Finland, Italy, Germany, Austria, France, China, the United States and other countries. With the discovery of nickel deposits in the Sudbury district, Ontario, a new factor was introduced into the nickel industry and Sudbury has since become the overwhelmingly dominant feature in the world's nickel markets. Although nickel was first discovered in Canada as early as 1848 near the north shore of Lake Huron and nickel-copper sulfides were found in 1856 by surveyors working close to the present location of the important rnine at Creighton, in the Sudbury field, it was not until 1883 that any importance was attached to this field. In that year copper sulfide attracted attention where the main line of the Canadian Pacific railroad was being projected across Canada to the Pacific coast. Mining began near this discovery in 1889 but in the meantime operations had begun in 1886 in other parts of the field and by 1890 about 100,000 tons of ore had been raised. In the Sudbury field, as in Norway and at the old Lancaster Gap mine in Pennsylvania, the ore was first mined for its copper content and difficully in the refining of the copper led to the discovery of the important proportions of nickel in the ore. No. 3 property of the International Nickel Co., now known as the Frood, the greatest deposit in the

Jan 1, 1932

By J. R. Gill

Introduction The property and plant of the Falconbridge Nickel Mines, Limited, is situated about 13 miles northeast from Sudbury, in Falconbridge township, near the eastern extremity of the southern Nickel Range. As early as 1899 or 1900 some work was clone on this property by the late Thos. A. Edison, when a shaft was sunk through 80 feet of overburden to within a few feet of the ore-body. At this point quicksand was encountered, which made it impossible to continue with the equipment at hand. As a result, the activities of the Edison party ceased in this section. There was no further progress until 1915 and 1916, when an extensive diamond-drilling campaign, carried out by the E. J. Longyear Company, located the ore-body that is now being worked. The property was acquired by the present operators in 1928, and in September of that year active mining development was commenced. Features Influencing Design Of Plant Early in 1929 plans were prepared for a smelter and the necessary crushing and sorting plant. In spite of the general trend towards the reverberatory furnace as a smelting unit, it was decided to erect a blast-furnace plant. The limited tonnage to be treated, of course, influenced this decision to a great extent. However, it was known that, with the proper procedure, extremely favourable results, both economic and metallurgical, could be obtained in blast furnace smelting. The possibility of very low slag losses, the simplicity of operation by the elimination of roasting plant, fuel plant, etc., the ability to handle coarse feed, and the lower initial cost, were considered factors in favour of the blast furnace. Notwithstanding the fact that we might be called on to treat a certain amount of concentrate, it appeared that the blast furnace was the proper unit for the contemplated operation.

Jan 1, 1932

By C Gunther

A preceding paragraph treats of the irregular manner in which ore deposits occur and the complex factors that control their distribution; the occurrence of metals in oreshoots in individual deposits is equally irregular, and the factors that control such segregation are equally complex. While the dimen¬sions of oreshoots in individual deposits may not be foretold with any degree of accuracy, the occurrence of ore in shoots is not accidental, but is controlled by laws some of which are understood. Any one familiar with permutations and combina¬tions who stops to consider the variety of factors that control ore deposition, and their varying relative importance, will admit that the science of economic geology must advance greatly before the occurrence of oreshoots may be predicted accurately in advance of exploration. The segregation of minerals in any oreshoot must be referred to some condition, or combination of conditions, local to the oreshoot as compared with the remainder of the deposit of low¬grade or barren minerals. Among the localizing factors that have been recognized are, in filled fissures, the amount and distribution of open spaces available for ore deposition, and in replacement deposits, the degree of brecciation giving access to the replacing solutions; the intersection of veins with other veins, dikes, sheeted zones, or porous strata; the impounding of solutions by impervious strata; and the differing precipitative influences of enclosing rocks. A large proportion of important and well ¬defined oreshoots, especially in deposits of deep-seated origin, are not assignable to any of these factors. While a knowledge of the character of oreshoots in general is important, a knowledge of the behavior of the known oreshoots

Jan 1, 1932

By R. Clare Coffin

The production of oil in the Rocky Mountain district, including southeastern New Mexico, increased from 33,048,630 bbl. in 1930 to 34,325,163 bbl. in 1931. This increase was due to production in New Mexico, which exceeded the 1930 figure by approximately 5,000,000 barrels. Total production by fields is given in Table 1. Exploration during 1931 resulted in the discovery of a new oil-producing horizon in the Big Muddy field in Natrona County, Wyoming, and ' the discovery of a new gas pool in the Powder Wash structure, Moffat County, northwestern Colorado. Gas was discovered also in the Frontier sands of the Bunker Hill dome, Carbon County, Wyoming, but no test has yet been made by which to determine the significance of this discovery. All other exploration which resulted in increasing the known reserves of oil and gas in the district was confined to drilling in partly outlined fields where known limits of production were extended. During the year two major gas pipe lines were completed in western Montana, and one in southwestern New Mexico was extended into Arizona. One new project involving the marketing of natural gas from Wyoming fields included the conversion of an existing oil line to a gas line to serve towns in southeastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Colorado The decline of 132,501 bbl. in the production of oil in the Colorado fields during 1931 from the figure of 1930 is due to the natural decline of existing wells, partly offset by the increased production in the Greasewood area. New exploration was limited largely to northeastern Colorado, where attempts were made to find oil in areas adjacent to the Grease-wood field. Powder Wash, Moffat County.—The Ohio Oil Co. is to be credited with the discovery of a gas field in the Power Wash structure in Moffat County, Colorado. The initial well drilled in sec. 5-11-97 encountered a sand at a depth of 2152 ft. which produced 34,188,000 cu. ft. of gas on an open-flow test. The rock pressure was reported as 630 Ib.

Jan 1, 1932

By Jr. Herty

As the problem of inclusions in steel has become increasingly important, more and more attention has been paid to the source of the oxide inclusions in steel. In killed steels the oxide inclusions are traceable to the reaction of deoxidizers with the iron oxide dissolved in the steel during the refining period of the open-hearth heat. In a large class of steel known as "rimming steel" the action of the steel during solidification depends entirely on the gas evolved, and this evolution in turn is controlled by the amount of iron oxide in the liquid steel in the mold. It is therefore of great importance to be able to determine the amount of iron oxide dissolved in steel and to devise methods for the control of iron oxide in any class of steel. The object of the present investigation was to obtain a true value of the oxygen con-tent of liquid steel. If the steel has not been deoxidized, the greater percentage of the oxygen is present as iron oxide in solution.

Jan 1, 1932

By Samuel Frantz

THE purpose of this paper is to relate briefly the development of magnetic separation and its extension from the separation of iron into its present use in the nonmetallic field, to suggest possible future exten-sions of its field of usefulness and its possible cooperation with other separating methods. The engineering design of separating machines, and statistics as to the number of machines in operation, types, their location and production are outside the scope of this paper. Specific data will be given, however, on certain selected applications. A large part of human endeavor consists in separating one thing from another; the good from the bad, the desired from the undesired. In fact, a philosopher might plausibly claim that separating things into categories and choosing between them is the object of thought itself. In dealing with matter, separation is nowhere more inherently necessary to attain our objects than in mining and metallurgy. Both our desire and our ability to make separations are results of the physical differences between things. Gross separations such as removing ore from worthless rock or coal from slate are usually made visually and depend upon form and color, which are physical properties. When the desired and the undesired things are intimately mixed, however, it becomes impractical to select visually even if the individual particles are readily recognizable to the eye, and some automatic way of making the particles separate themselves on the basis of their own inherent differences in physical properties must be resorted to. Some of the physical properties which have been used as a basis of separation are: color, shape, hardness, size, density, elasticity, surface properties (surface tension in contact with liquids, etc.), electrical conductivity, dielectric constant, and magnetic susceptibility. Differences in these properties are used in the following methods of separation: color sorting, sifting, settlement in air and in liquids, floatsink methods, flotation, electrostatic and magnetic separation.

Jan 1, 1932

By H. D. Hunt

This paper which describes the milling practice of the Miami Copper Co. is one of a series being prepared by the United States Bureau of Mines. LOCATION The mine, concentrator, and other surface plants of the Miami Copper Co. are located near the town of Miami in the Globe-Miami mining district of Gila County, Ariz.

Jan 1, 1932

By G. E. McElroy

Changes in existing airway and fan-installation conditions offer the most common opportunities for effecting economical operation of mine-ventilating systems, but the largest possibilities for securing this result lie in the original design of the main airways for efficient service. Formulas, and charts for their graphical solution, are presented herewith for the determination of the elements of airways design when the conditions of service are known or may be roughly approximated. Although the analyses are made with particular reference to metal-mine airways, there is no essential difference between main airways in metal and coal mines, and the methods presented are applicable to both. Little attention is paid to designing airways for maximum economy in the ventilation of metal mines. Most of the openings used as main airways are originally designed and used for transportation and other operating purposes. Even where openings are made primarily for ventilation, the possibility of their future use for other operating purposes, or even custom alone, usually results in the selection of a size and shape similar to those of existing openings. Natural conditions, such as heavy ground, often seriously limit the size of opening that can be maintained without excessive expense; and various operating factors, such as velocity limitations on traveling roads, often dictate size requirements in excess of those required for economy in ventilation only. In metal mines the main airways are, as a rule, too small rather than too large for economic service, with the general result that the quantities in circulation are often less than the mine's proper requirements over long periods, even though excessive amounts of power are applied in an effort to remedy conditions. Increasing the area of an airway increases the cost for excavation and lining practically proportionately but at the same time affects a very rapid decrease in power requirements. The balancing of these two factors of the expense to give a minimum total yearly operating cost for ventilation is mainly a matter of proper original design of the main airways of the mine, since the large volumes handled through these parts of the system involve large power costs and thus present opportunities for effecting large savings through proper design. Many of the factors

Jan 1, 1932

By John R. Reigart

The Tri-State district, as its name indicates, is composed of portions of three States, the southeastern corner of Kansas, the northeastern corner of Oklahoma, and an adjacent strip of Missouri east of these portions of Kansas and Oklahoma. An area approximately 40 miles long in a northeasterly-southwesterly direction, and 30 miles wide at right angles thereto, containing minable occurrences of ore at widely scattered locations, comprises the district. However, what has been and is the main productive area, is a strip about 35 miles long and 10 miles wide, which begins at Miami, Okla., as its southern extremity and runs in a northeasterly direction through Commerce, Picher, and Hockerville, Okla., Baxter Springs and Galena, Kans., and Joplin, Webb City-Carterville and Carthage, Mo. Almost the entire present production comes from the area between Commerce and Baxter Springs.

Jan 1, 1932

By V. A. James

The new electrolytic copper refinery situated at Copper Cliff, Ontario, has been in operation for over a year and a half. This plant is operated by the Ontario Refining Company, Limited. The associated companies behind the enterprise are the International Nickel ?company of Canada, Limited, the American Metals Company, Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, Limited, and Ventures, Limited. The plant was an outgrowth of the rapid development of copper resources in the nickel-copper ores of the Frood and other great mines in the Sudbury district, and of the desire to have all primary production units grouped together as compactly as possible. Starting anode furnace operations in June, 1930, and electrolytic refining on July 1st of that year, after a record-breaking construction programme completed in only fifteen months, the plant soon settled into its stride and the usual starting-up difficulties were .rapidly overcome. The rated capacity of the plant, namely, twenty million pounds of refined copper per month, has, of course, never been reached, due to depressed business conditions and latterly to the world copper agreement limiting production. It may be said, however, that the present installation has proved its ability to produce in excess of its rated capacity, and with relatively minor additions to plant and equipment that capacity can be doubled. Owing to the severity of the winters, when temperatures of from 20 to 40 degrees below zero are to be expected, the building of this refinery involved a number of problems in insulation, layout, ventilation, etc., which were rather unusual in copper-refinery construction.

Jan 1, 1932

At its meeting on February 21, 1933, the Board of Directors passed the following resolution defining and expressing the policy of the Institute with respect to official participation or action in controversial matters: WHEREAS, the Board of Directors at its last meeting passed the following resolution: "The Board of Directors, having been appealed to by several Local Sections for advice concerning the attitude and policy of the Institute relating to the endorsement of candidates for public office, the following statement of policy is formulated;

Jan 1, 1932

By William Fink

ZINC is one of the effective elements introduced to enhance the strength of aluminum. This strengthening is principally attributable to the high solid solubility of zinc in aluminum and the pronounced variation of solubility with temperature. Consequently an accurate determination of the solid solubility curve is desirable. The solid solubility relations have been studied by numerous investigators. Shepherd' first established the existence of a solid solution region at the aluminum end of the diagram (y phase) by specific volume and microscopic determinations. Bauer and Vogel2 published a constitutional diagram which showed the limits of solid solubility as determined by thermal and microscopic methods. Hanson and Gayler3 presented the aluminum-zinc diagram which is now most generally accepted (Fig. 1). Chill-cast samples were given thermal treatments designed to obtain equilibrium conditions, quenched, and microscopically examined.. The solubility was placed between 15 to 20 per cent at 600 C., 20 to 22 per cent at 140° C. and 36 to 38 per cent at 270° C. Sander and Meissner4 decidedly modified the limits of they phase field of Hanson and Gayler's diagram by using similar methods on chill-cast specimens annealed for a shorter period of time. Tanabe,5 utilizing dynamic hardness, electrical conductivity and dilatometric measurements of specimens at temperature, obtained values comparable to Hanson and Gayler's at room temperature, but appreciably lower at higher temperatures. Nishimura6 concluded from age-hardening results of aluminum-zinc alloy chill castings, which had been quenched from 400° to 500° C., that the solubility of zinc in aluminum at room temperature is less than 5

Jan 1, 1932

By N. A. Ziegler

A certain amount of interest has been indicated recently in the resistance to oxidation at high temperatures of iron-aluminum alloys (rich in iron). Hautmanl published a paper in which some interesting results are given. According to his paper, only alloys containing at least 8 per cent aluminum indicate a marked improvement in their resistance to oxidation. At about this aluminum content, however, alloys become brittle, which considerably reduces their commercial value. About two years ago the author performed a series of experiments, the results of which are presented here. A series of iron-aluminum-carbon alloys was prepared by melting electrolytic iron, aluminum and high-carbon iron alloy in an induction vacuum furnace.2 The list of these alloys is given in Table I. Each alloy was forged in the ordinary way to All carbon determinations were performed by " Yensen " method. [N. A. Ziegler: Recent Developments in Analysis of Carbon in Iron and Iron Alloys. Trans. Amer. Electrochem. Soc. (1929) 56, 231.1

Jan 1, 1932