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By George W. Maynard

IN the course of an examination of some of the California hydraulie mines in November last, I visited the property of the Gold Run Ditch and Mining Company, near Dutch Flat, Placer County. This is one of the most important and extensively worked mines in the district. The gold occurs in the characteristic blue gravel, which averages 175 feet in thickness, the lower 40-60 feet being made tip of cement gravel, which resists the action of water, and can only be loosened by blasting. The specimen which I have the pleasure of laying before the members was presented to me by Mr. I. L. Gould, the intelligent superintendent of the mines, who informs me that he found it in the old river channel, about twelve feet above the bedrock. The flattened water-worn nugget of gold, about the size of a kidney-bean, is imbedded in blue cement gravel, around which quartz has crystallized. When found the projecting portion of the nugget was enveloped in quartz, the core of gravel and gold having only been discovered after breaking the lump of quartz. On the quartz there is a shell of cement. The specimen is a remarkable confirmation of the theory of the deposition of quartz from solution. DISCUSSION. DR. T. STERRY HUNT, in commenting upon this occurrence, remarked that it is in accordance with what we already know of the recency of some of the quartz of this region, and cited the microscopic

Jan 1, 1880

By Andrew S. McCreath

The manufacture of pig iron for conversion into steel by the Bessemer and open-hearth processes, is now one of the most important industries of the United States. It is necessary that iron intended for this purpose should be very pure, and especially must it be comparatively free from phosphorus. Great care must therefore he exercised in the selection of proper ores, flux, and fuel. Only such ores as are practically free from phosphorus can be used, and pure fuel is as much a necessity as pure ores; though hitherto iron men have paid comparatively little attention to this point. During the course of my work as chemist for the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, I' had occasion to examine some of the bituminous coals of the State fix phosphorus, and the results obtained are so interesting that I venture to present them to the notice of the members of the Institute. The coals are arranged in geological order according to the different beds, and the table shows the percentage of phosphorus in the coal and also in the coke. The greatest number of specimens have been selected from the Pittsburgh bed, because it is the principal coal-bed of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and most of the mineral fuel which is mined along the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers, to be used in the coke ovens of the Connellsville region and in the blast furnaces and mills of Pittsburgh and its vicinity, and to be shipped to Western and Southern markets, comes from this bed. It will be noticed that many of the specimens examined contain

Jan 1, 1880

By R. W. Raymond

[NOTE.-This paper was presented at the Pittsburgh meeting in a partially completed form, and I fully expected to obtain, before the period of its publication, both the data and the leisure required for its completion. The hygiene of collieries was to have been separately considered, and the sanitary conditions of various metallurgical industries connected with mining were to receive an extended discussion, while at the same time the points treated in the paper as presented at Pittsburgh were to have more ample illustration from American and European sources. Delay in obtaining expected information, and the continuous pressure of professional work, have prevented hitherto the execution of this plan ; and I can now publish only a portion of what I had designed to contribute to the subject. In the meantime this portion, but slightly changed, has been included as a chapter on the Hygiene of Metal Mines in a work entitled Hygiene and Public Health, edited by Dr. A. H. Buck, of New York. An excellent chapter on the Hygiene of Coal Mines, contributed to the same work by Mr. Henry C. Sheafer, of Pottsville, affords me an opportunity to supply one of the deficiencies above alluded to. Mr. Sheafer's chapter contains much material in the way of explanations not required by professional readers; and he moreover devotes a considerable space to the explosive gases, falls of roof, and other causes of accidents to life or limb-a branch of the subject not belonging strictly to hygiene. I therefore make extracts only from his treatise.-R. W. R] IT is convenient to divide mines, with reference to this subject, into two classes, collieries and metal-mines. Subterranean quarries, rock-salt mines, etc., present no conditions requiring them to be separated from the latter class.

Jan 1, 1880

By Rossiter W. Raymond

THE lead-mining industry of Missouri, as of other parts of the Mississippi basin, appears to have been paralyzed by the shock of competition with the mines of the States and Territories further west. It is difficult for establishments working galena ores, too poor in silver to pay for extracting it, to compete with the producers of the argentiferous carbonates of Utah and Colorado, who look upon their lead as a byproduct of little value, and are satisfied if it pays the charges of transportation, or the loss in smelting for silver. But simultaneously with this depression in the lead-mining of the Mississippi States, the development of new zinc deposits has caused a notable revival in the mining of zinc ores. There has recently been a sudden and strong rise in the price of spelter, which, though probably to a large extent temporary in character, has given important encouragement to prospectors and miners. Apart from the general recovery of business in the United States from the prostration of the past six years, the cause of the advance in spelter has been the falling off in production, resulting from the shutting down of several leading Western works,-the Martindale and Carondelet works, at St. Louis, and the Consolidated Company in Kansas. At the same time, the principal works at La Salle, Ill., were undergoing repairs, and produced less than usual, while the sheet-mill of Matthieson & Hegeler, at that place, was running as usual; so that this concern, ordinarily a large producer, entered the already depleted market as a buyer. These causes are in their nature transitory, and it is quite likely that spelter will be superabundant in a few months. Having lately received from a well-informed Missouri corres¬pondent some samples of the zinc ores and a general account of the ore deposits of Southwest Missouri, I have thought that it might interest the Institute to examine these specimens, and to hear such brief statements concerning the region as I am able, upon good authority, though without the aid of any personal investigation on the spot, to give. The zinc-bearing territory in Southwest Missouri appears to be very extensive; that is to say, zinc ores have been mined during the last year at various points throughout a district extending from the eastern edge of Kansas, west of Joplin, to a line some 50 miles east

Jan 1, 1880

By J. C. Platt

1 desire to call the attention of the Institute to what is believed to be a new improvement in 'the construction of journal-bearings, having for its object the reduction of original cost as well as cost of renewals. In an ordinary railroad car we find the space between the top of the axle and the top of the box is filled with a "brass," weighing from seven to ten pounds. Of this amount of metal a comparatively small portion is subjected to the wear which it is intended to meet. The balance is, practically, a filling material, which from habit has long been constructed of the same metal. The Defreest bearing is made of three parts, namely, a malleableiron back, a bronze bearing-piece, and between them a filling-piece of sheet lead. The bronze takes the wear of the axle, the iron fills up the space and acts as a backing to the bronze, and the lead, being soft, adapts itself to the inequalities in the surfaces of the iron and bronze castings, thus insuring a uniform bearing on all points, and making it unnecessary to bore out the iron or turn off the bronze to bring them to a perfect contact at all points. These three park are joined together by two soft brass rivets, with counter-sunk heads, to prevent separation in handling. A groove is cast in the iron, and a corresponding rib on the bronze, to prevent the latter from turning with the axle when in place. In renewals it is ordinarily necessary simply to drive out the rivets and renew the bronze and lead. The iron part is not subjected to much wear and should last for years. It is evident that the first cost of these journals, and also the cost of renewals, must be much less than the old form. This difference amounts, at the present price of materials, to $9.60 for an eightwheel car, in first cost, and $4.72 for renewals. These bearings have been in use, and found to do what is claimed for them.

Jan 1, 1880

THE first session of the Institute was held on Tuesday evening, September 16th, in the William Molson Hall, of McGill University, Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, Chairman of the Local Committee of Arrangements, in the chair. Dr. Hunt introduced Monsieur S. Rivard, Mayor of Montreal, who spoke as follows : GENTLEMEN: We welcome you with pleasure to our city, and we are proud to find that you have deemed it worthy of your visit. I understand that your association was founded in 1871 with some thirty courageous members, and that so valuable has it been esteemed, and so attractive was it found, that nearly one thousand have now enrolled their names as members and associates. But we must regard your profession as dating back to the stone age and mingling therewith ; how remote that is none of us can tell. Much of civilization is due to the discovery of metals, and the magnitude of our works to their widespread abundance. If you have not accomplished what the alchemists aimed at, which was to turn the ruder materials into gold, you manage, by your subtle skill, to turn stones into gold value. Europe has long since been-dug into and perforated with shafts and galleries in search of metals, and great wealth, and power, and comfort have arisen there-from ; but by an increase of knowledge, and more than European enterprise and energy, America is following rapidly in the race, and by means of natural advantages of a geological character has out-stripped the Old World. We are pleased to see you, gentlemen, as an evidence of the unity of this continent. Maps may have various delineations, but the veins and arteries of commerce and the nerves of science knit all together into one social organism with the same vital functions. We live here on the margin of the world, and can claim but a modest share in. the great works of modern times, but such as we have that can interest you we gladly offer for your observation.' Our Victoria Bridge may he considered appropriate, for without mining engineers to precede the civil and mechanical, no bridge would be there to-day. In truth, the same may be said of all works of metal, and of all that are executed by tools and machinery made of metal. The Mont

Jan 1, 1880

By W. C. Kerr

When Agassiz and his party of geologists commenced their exploration of the interior of Brazil and the Amazon region, one of the first and, to the last, one of the most novel and striking phenomena which met them everywhere was the great depth of decomposed or partially decayed rock in situ, which mantles, and for the most part conceals, the underlying strata. The same facts strike all geological observers from the North who happen to penetrate the middle and southern latitudes of the Atlantic States. In North Carolina, e. g., the entire middle and western regions, outside of the Quaternary clays, sands, and gravels of the East,—that is, all that portion of the State occupied by the Archæan and Mesozoic rocks,—show everywhere this peculiarity, so new to those accustomed to glaciated surfaces. Not only do the hills and slopes, the mountain chains and

Jan 1, 1880

By H. S. Munroe

The native copper of Lake Superior occurs in the form of fine grains and scales, disseminated in small percentage through the copper-bearing rock ; and in large and small masses, from a few pounds to several hundred tons in weight. Formerly the bulk of the copper came from the mines of Ontonagon and Keweenaw counties, producing mass copper. At present these mines furnish less than one-tenth of the total product, and fully one-half of this is from a single mine. The masses are usually found irregularly distributed in nearly vertical fissure veins, and require much dead work; in sinking, drifting, and stoping for their development. The risk and expense attending the working of these mines have made them, with few exceptions, anything but profitable.

Jan 1, 1880

By William Kent

ABOUT a year ago, the writer had occasion to assist Mr. John L. Gill, Jr., of the Pittsburgh. Car-wheel Works, in making a trial of his new testing machine. A piece of Bessemer steel, of about .34 carbon, was used as a test-piece, turned to a sectional area of one square inch for a length of five inches between shoulders, and pro¬vided with large round heads, which were fitted to what is called the " Wade grip." Measurements of elongation, accurate to , 1/10000 of an inch, were made by a special apparatus containing two micrometer screws, with electric contact attachment. The machine was operated by hand-power. Readings of elongation were taken at each increment of 2000 pounds stress per square inch, up to 44,000 pounds, the elongation corresponding to the latter figure being .0088 inch. The elongations up to this point remained almost exactly proportional to the stresses, the strain diagram, as shown on the Plate, from the origin to the point A, being a straight line (the deviation of no observation from the straight line being greater than .0002 inch). There being no indication of an approach to the elastic limit, the attendant at the hand-wheel and scale-beam was told to proceed as usual and move the poise forward 2000 pounds, or to 46,000, and turn the wheel until the beam was balanced. Noticing that the beam did not rise in the usual time, and that the elongation was increasing rapidly, the writer called to the attendant to stop turning the hand-wheel and to push the poise backwards until the scale-beam balanced. Instead of balancing at between 44,000 and 46,000 pounds, as was expected, it balanced at 40,000 pounds, and the elongation had increased to .0343 inch (or more than four times that recorded at 44,000 pounds), as plotted at the point B, the dotted line between A and B showing the supposed course of the strain diagram between these two points. Immediately upon recording the elongation the writer said to Mr. Gill, who was standing alongside: "This phenomena is without a parallel in my experience, and I know of but one way to account for it. The piece must actually be broken in its interior, through a flaw or weak portion of the metal. The test-piece is now equivalent to a tube, with

Jan 1, 1880

By John A. Church

Jan 1, 1880

By J. M. Hartman

ONE of the most important subjects to the blast-furnace engineer is a thorough knowledge of the conditions affecting the temperature in the different portions of the furnace. All efforts to decrease the consumption of fuel and improve the working of the furnace must be based upon it, and I may, therefore, be permitted to place before you the results of my observations, and detail the conclusions to which they have led me. Tracing the thermic conditions from below upwards we have at the bottom of a blast furnace making No. 3 iron a temperature of 2900° F., which increases slightly to a point a little below the tuyeres. In the immediate vicinity of the tuyeres the temperature is somewhat lower, owing to the entering blast ; but a short distance above the tuyeres, where all the oxygen of the blast has been converted into carbonic acid, the highest temperature in the furnace must be attained. This carbonic acid is, however, almost as soon as formed, converted by the glowing coal into carbonic oxide, a process which absorbs heat, reduces the temperature, and provides the active agent for the reduction of the iron ores. In its ascent the hot carbonic oxide gradually parts with its heat, first melting the descending iron and earthy materials, which drop down to the hearth of the furnace. The limit of this zone of fusion is rather sharply defined, and the temperature above this zone suddenly decreases. In its further ascent the hot gas drives off the carbonic acid from the limestone, which causes a further absorption of heat, and finally the gas escapes at the top, at a temperature of about 250° F. if the furnace is working well. These changes of temperature 1 have attempted to represent graphically,

Jan 1, 1880

By Thomas M. Drown

IN a communication to this Institute at the Baltimore meeting, February, 1879,* on the "Determination of Silicon in Pig Iron and Steel," the method recommended was the treatment of the metal with nitric acid until action had ceased, and then evaporating with sulphuric acid until the nitric acid was nearly or quite driven off After filtration of the siliceous and carbonaceous residue, and washing with hot water and hydrochloric acid, a silica was obtained, on ignition, which was quite pure. Since this paper was read before the Institute, we have had large experience with the method, and * Transactions, vol. vii, p. 346.

Jan 1, 1880

By Joan M. Hartman

ON May 19th, 1857, an English patent was granted to E. A. Cowper for heating air or other gases under pressure by means of a regenerator inclosed in an air-tight iron case, having between the regenerator and case a lining of brick. This patent provided for heating the stoves by a separate fireplace, or by gas direct from the blast furnace. A number of forms of interior arrangement of the brickwork are shown in the drawings; also hollow poppet valves with hollow stems, and a pipe inside of the stem for circulating the water; the valve seats have coil cast in them for water circulation to keep them cool; slide valves, with snake coil cast in the discs, are shown, and the use of cold air for cooling the valves is also described. The combustion-chamber of these stoves was central, and openings were provided at the top and bottom to get into the stoves. These Cowper stoves are all circular in section. November 10th, 1865, an English patent was granted to Thomas Whitwell for regenerative stoves for heating air or gas, provided with cleaning openings at the top and bottom capable of being closed with firebrick plugs and doors. The drawings show a rectangular stove inclosed in an iron case. The interior brickwork has numerous up-and-down passages through the stove, but there is no claim on the interior construction. March 3d, 1868, an English patent was granted to Charles Cochrane for a slide valve to be subjected to high heats. The disc of this valve was hollow, and had a circulation of water through it by the two hollow steins that operated it. The valve-seat was detachable and had a coil cast in it, through which water circulated. The valve and seat were placed on an incline to the body to cause the valve-disc to lie on the valve-seat. A cap was placed on the bottom of the body to get at the interior readily. January 5th, 1870, an English patent was granted to Siemens, Cowper and Cochrane for the construction of regenerators in fire-brick stoves, with numerous vertical passages of sufficient size to allow a brush to pass through and clean them. These passages had slight projections on the sides to turn the air over and over as it passed through. A claim also covered the use of horizontal passages connected at each end alternately, and the use of blasts or jets of air,

Jan 1, 1880

By John A. Church

In May, 1878, I had the honor of presenting to the Institute, at the Chattanooga meeting, some observations upon the heat of the Comstock Lode, and since then the subject has attracted some attention and criticism, in the course of which, L have observed errors of apprehension which I beg leave to correct now. Mr. John Arthur Phillips discussed it before the Geological Society, his paper being printed in the Quarterly Journal for August, 1879." His criticism is based upon that part of my paper in which I quote a number of analyses of the mine waters, to illustrate the fact that the heat does not come from the oxidation of pyrite. I pointed out that these waters contain only an insignificant proportion of sulphuric acid, and not enough to account for even one per cent. Of

Jan 1, 1880

By William Hamilton Merritt

In this paper, which I have the honor to submit to the Institute, it is my intention to treat especially of that part of the North Staffordshire field which converges to a long tongue in the neighborhood of Congleton, and which includes the villages of New Chapel, Ford Green, Norton, Biddulph, Bradley Green, Gillow Heath, and the immediate vicinity. My object-is not so much to give a minute description of the geology or systems of mining and smelting, as by a general review, some idea of the extraordinary facilities for the production of excellent iron, which have enabled this district to maintain its position more successfully than any of its rivals against the late depression in trade. The North Staffordshire coal field has the Cheshire and Laucashire fields some thirty-five miles to the north, those of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire forty miles to the east, those of South Staffordshire and Shropshire, about thirty miles to the south, and the Denbighshire and Flintshire fields some forty miles to the west. It is highly probable that the coal continues under the new red sandstone to the Western and Southern fields as the dips on both sides, and absence of large faults, make it impossible to come to any other conclusion. In a section of this coal field, from Chatterly to Whitfield, thirtytwo workable seams of coal are shown, of an aggregate thickness of 130 feet, varying from 2 feet 6 inches to 7 feet, and thirteen seams of ironstone, 24 feet, averaging from 2 to 4 feet. All of these seams have been minutely described in a paper by Mr. Charles J. Homer, read in 1875 before the British Iron and Steel Institute. In the northern part, to which I especially wish to direct your attention, the beds lie in a V-shaped basin, the underlying millstone grit and Yoredale rocks rising and forming escarpments on either side of the valley containing the coal. Throughout this district, at the outcrop of the coal, there are indications of old workings. A shaft 4 to 5 feet in diameter reaches the coal at about 14 yards from the surface, and from it the coal has

Jan 1, 1880

By J. A. Herrick

FOR a long time, especially in Europe, heavy pieces of forgings, such as cannon, armor plates, marine shafting, etc., have been steadily augmented in size, more particularly since steel has been substituted for wrought iron. To keep pace with these forgings several, very large hammers have been, from time to time, erected. The most powerful and thoroughly appointed of all now in operation is that designed and built by Messrs. Schneider & Co. at their works at Creusot, and it is the design of this communication to give to the members of the Institute a concise description of this remarkable piece of mechanism, which I have taken from an article published in the Annales Industrielles. This hammer is rated nominally at 80-tons power, but its capacity is, in reality, far greater, as will be seen by the comparative figures given later. The complete plant, comprising the hammer, the cranes, the furnaces, and the building which shelters the whole, is distin-

Jan 1, 1880

By Robert H. Richards

Very little has been published recently on this subject in the mining journals or proceedings of societies. The attention of experts has been diverted perhaps by the demands for pan amalgamation of refractory ores. Yet free milling ores occur in many localities, and it may be interesting to have on record some data as to details of running a small test-mill, especially as details of results do not seem to be accessible to stndents and investigators. Küstel, in 1863, under battery amalgamation, dismisses the subject by stating that "amalgamation on copper-plated platforms, troughs, and other copper fixings" is " very imperfect, and mostly abandoned." J. Arthur Phillips says, in 1867, under placer mining : " A well-amalgamated copper plate is considered as effective for

Jan 1, 1880

By William Bent

THE dynamometer herein described is a modification of the one invented by Mr. Samuel Batchelder, of Boston, nearly forty years ago, a description of which may be found in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1843, vol. xxxii, p. 277, and in the Scientific American of August 31st, 1878. The modification consists in providing a method of making an automatic record, and of indicating more minute variations of the power transmitted. The improved dynamometer was designed by the writer in 1877, and was built a few months since by the Class of 1879 of the Stevens Institute of Technology. The accompanying cut, taken from the Annual Announcement of the Stevens Institute, represents the dynamometer without the recording attachment. It consists, as shown, of two stout cast-iron frames, held together by bolts in bearings, in the top of which frames run two shafts, each carrying a pulley at its outer end and a bevel gear-wheel of 45° at its inner end. One of these shafts is the driving-shaft, connected by belt to the engine or other prime mover; the other is the driven shaft, connected by belt to the machine driven. The power is transmitted from one shaft to the other through two other bevel-wheels of 45° gearing with the first, the shaft common to them and on which they run freely being at right angles to the axis of the two shafts first mentioned, and carrying at one extremity a heavy pendulum. The bevel-wheels being connected, as shown, and the power being applied to the driving-wheel, the two intermediate wheels with their common shaft have a tendency to revolve around the driving-axis, which tendency is a measure of the force transmitted, and is resisted by the moment of the weight of the pendulum. In the Batchelder dynamometer the four bevel-wheels and their shafts are used, but

Jan 1, 1880

By James P. Kimball

By the term weathering of coal is meant the process of deterioration to which under various circi~mstances it may be exposed at ordinary temperatures, both from outward agencies on the one hand, and on the other hand from its own constitutional qualities. This process involves along with some minor qualitative changes certain quantitative changes resulting in a gradual and limited reduction in the quantity of the organic elements, and relatively a corresponding increase of its inorganic or mineral constituents as represented by its ashes, and often in an increase of the absolute weight of the coal. In common with many mineral substances, coal absorbs oxygen

Jan 1, 1880

By John Birkinbine

In the spring of 1878 the Pine Grove Furnace, located in Cumberland County, Pa., was blown in after lying idle for several years. The fnrnace was constructed in 1770, and for over a century it has been in almost continual operation. The plant consisted in 1877, when the writer was first called there, of a stone stack 32 feet in height, inclosing a shaft and boshes, the latter being 8 feet in diameter. The blast was supplid by two wooden blowing-tubs discharging into a third, having a floating piston sustaining a box weighted to give the desired pressure, the power being furnished by a waterwheel. A small 18-pipe hot-blast stove heated the blast. The furnace was remodelled during the winter of'77-78, and a Weimer blowing-engine with a blowing-tub 5 feet in diameter and 2 feet stroke, and the necessary boilers, were substituted for the wooden tubs and water-wheel. The stack was raised and enlarged, and provided with a bell and hopper having a central drop. Water dam and tymp were added, and general repairs were made. The hot oven, however, was not increased. The furnace had always been operated with charcoal as fuel, and its reconstruction was made with a view to continue the use of charcoal, but provision was made for ample blowing capacity should other fuels at any time be employed. Although liberal arrangements had been made in cutting wood, the stock of charcoal supplied in 1878 was insufficient for the increased requirements of the remodelled plant, and notwithstanding the purchase of some 80,000 bushels from an adjacent idle furnace, there war: riot enough to keep the furnace in constant blast until a new supply could be obtained, particularly as the season was unusually backward. Instead of following the established precedent of many charcoal furnace managers, i. e., blow out every February, it was detemined to continue in blast, using coke as fuel. Accordingly, when the charcoal stock was exhansted, on March 22d, 1879, Connellsville coke was substituted, the change of fuel being made at once; that is, the coke charges followed immediately upon the last charcoal charges. After working a few days, the strike in the Connellsville coke region cut of the supply, and anthracite coal was obtained, a mixture of the two fuels being employed. The strike continuing,

Jan 1, 1880