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By James E. Lawver, James L. Wright

This paper describes the design of a cell used to measure the electrical conductivity, or the reciprocal resistivity, of granular materials. It also establishes a quantitative relationship between the electrical conductivity and the electrical separation of selected mineral samples. It is estimated' that the free world produces about 13 million tons of mineral concentrates a year by electrostatic or electrodynamic methods. At least 95% of these concentrates are produced by corona discharge type machines that separate minerals by exploiting the differences in their electrical conductivity. But, what is meant by the electrical conductivity of a mineral? How large a difference in the electrical conductivity of two mineral species is necessary to effect a separation? Just what is the role of conductivity in electrical separations with regard to capacity and selectivity? There is a considerable amount of information in the literature on both the mechanisms of conduction and the values of the electrical conductivity of pure single-crystal mineral specimens. In addition, some insight into the role of mineral conductivity can be obtained by referring to a Bureau of Mines publication' in which 95 minerals have been grouped as conductors or insulators as a function of temperature. The classification was made on the basis of the percent of weight that reported as "conductors" in an electrical separator. But, as is often the case in the mineral industry, practical application leads theory — and there is little useful information in the literature giving any kind of quantitative relationship between electrical conductivity and electrical separations. The problem is a bit complex because electrical conductivity per se — which can be rather easily measured on large, single grains — is not sufficiently informative to permit quantitative predictions of the separability of the mineral system. Practical "high-tension"* separations are made at such feed rates that the band of minerals on the rotor is multilayered in thickness. Thus, the effective conductivities of minerals as seen by a high-tension machine include particle-to-particle contact resistance, which is often a controlling factor in making a separation. This is particularly true when the mineral grains are coated with slime or with a dielectric surface film. From a high-tension separation viewpoint, one is actually concerned with the time required for corona-charged grains to lose enough charge so that the centrifugal force acting on the particles exceeds the image force holding the grains to the rotor. This calculation requires a knowledge of the effective mineral conductivity s. (The conductivity of the metal rotor is sufficiently greater than that of the minerals so that it need not be considered in charge decay calculations.) The charge density at time t can be approximated by the relaxation equation.3 where t 5 charge density at time t r, - charge density when t = 0 cr e total electrical conductivity £ = permittivity The time required for the charge density to fall to l/e of its initial value is called the relaxation time and is numerically equal to €/n. AS defined here, u is the conductivity of an element of homogeneous grains making contact with each other and with a grounded rotor. This paper deals with the design of a conductivity cell used to measure a, or its reciprocal p, the electrical resistivity. CELL DESIGN Initial test work was performed with a cell recommended by ASTM.4 Since the reproducibility with the ASTM cell was not satisfactory, it was decided to

Jan 1, 1970

By L. J. West, R. M. Perrry

This chapter describes the rock mechanics studies performed for a high cut at a nuclear power station in Pennsylvania. Two units presently are being constructed on the Susquehanna River. When these units are completed, they will generate approximately 2100 MW of electricity. It was necessary to excavate about 1 million cu yd of rock to prepare the site. This excavation resulted in a high cut on the west and north sides of the station area with a maximum height of about 200 ft. The location of the high cut with respect to the plant facilities is shown on Fig. 1. The recommended slope angles ranged from 1 ½ (horizontal) to 1 (vertical) for the upper residual soil to ½ to 1 for the deeper competent rock. Because of the significant height of this cut and the fact that the slope is immediately adjacent to the proposed nuclear facilities, extensive stability analyses were performed prior to, during, and after excavation to evaluate the steepest angle at which the slopes could be safely cut. The studies consisted of evaluating both qualitatively and quantitatively all apparent factors which could affect the stability of the slopes. These factors include the strength of the material, the zones of weak material which are present along the planes of schistosity, the prominent joint systems, the ground water, and postulated seismic effects. FIELD AND LABORATORY STUDIES A comprehensive program of field explorations was performed to evaluate the geologic characteristics of this site. This program consisted

Jan 1, 1970

By J. R. Emery, D. F. Coates

"FOUR PAPERS ON CEMENTED BACKFILL were given at the Annual General Meeting of The Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in 1970:Weaver, W. S., and Luka, R., ""Laboratory Studies of Cement-Stabilized Mine Tailings"".Pasieka, A. R., Beattie, H. F., and Espley, G. H., ""Cemented Hydraulic Backill within the Falconbridge Group of Companies"".McLeod, P. C., and Schwartz, A., ""Consolidated Fill at Noranda Mines Limited (Geco Division)"".Clement, W. P., and Sokoloski, R., ""Pumping Cemented Backfill"".These four papers give the impression of a development in mining technology that has been substantially completed. Somewhat over ten years ago, The Inter-national Nickel Company of Canada, Limited and Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited started experimenting with the addition of Portland cement to mill tailings to produce improved backfill and cheaper floors for scraping. Shortly after, the Canada Cement Company Limited (now Canada Cement Lafarge Ltd.), with full support of the two mining companies, started an extensive research program to provide the technologic-al data necessary to exploit what was obviously going to be a significant development in mining technology."

Jan 1, 1970

By Pierre Dosmond

In ore mining technology, the loading and hauling operations are undoubtedly the area where the most spectacular progress has been made during the last twenty years. I shall draw some examples from the Eastern France iron ore mines which I how well and whose production of 62 million tons for 1962 and 1963 constitute a worthwhile experience worldwide. The iron ore deposits of Lorraine are of sedimentary origin. They contain many mineralized horizons with workable seams situated from 330 to 830 ft. in depth. The dip of these seams is generally less than six percent. Their thickness varies from 6 to 23 ft. All seams are not workable throughout the whole area of occurrence, but in some mines there are five mineable seams in the same vertical section, with from 5 to 20 ft. of barren ground intervening between them. The iron content of the mineral varies from 28 to 36 percent. Specific gravity of the ore is 156 lb. per cu. ft. m place and 100 lb. per cu. ft. blasted. Reserves of iron ore in the Lorraine region are estimated at six billion tons with an iron content of more than 28 percent. These mines operate by means of rooms and pillars process, with pillar robbing; the final recovery is very good and averages 90 percent. Some years back, competition from richer, imported ores incited these mines to make constant efforts to increase their productivity and reduce mining costs, thus placing them in a leading position in mining technology, as evidenced by the dramatic evolution of their output per manshift (Figure No. 1).

Jan 1, 1970

By H. E. Cline, E. F. Koch, J. L. Walter

It has been postulated and, in a few instances shown, that some kind of dislocation structure will be present at semicoherent interfaces to accommodate small lattice mismatches. In the present study of the NiAl-Cr eutectic, regular arrays of interface dislocations are observed at the boundary between the chromium-rich rods and the NiAl-rich matrix. The networks were examined by transmission electron microscopy and selected area diffraction. The rods and the matrix have a crystallographic relationship in which all directions and planes of the two phases are parallel. The dislocation networks are cmposed of a<100> dislocations lying on the intersections of the cylinders with (100) planes. Dislocations forming hexagonal rather than square arrays are also observed at certain areas of the network. The morphology of the network is consistent with the interpretation of mismatch being accommodated by interface dislocations in the cylindrical geometry. The measured spacing between dislocations was used to calculate an apparent lattice mismatch between the phases (˜0.35 PCt)interface network energy (-140 ergs per sq cm), and network strengthening (-10,000 psi). It has been proposed by Frank and Van der Merwe1 that dislocations should be present at the boundary between two semicoherent crystallographically related phases. The role of the interface dislocations would be to reduce the internal stresses, caused by the mismatch in atomic spacing across the interface. Such dislocations have been observed at the interface between expitaxially grown films and Substrates.2-4 Interfacial dislocations have also been observed at precipitate-matrix interfaces.&apos;-&apos; Directionally solidified eutectics have been shown to have semicoherent phases1&apos; and would, therefore, be expected to have interfacial dislocations as found by Weatherly at a lamellar fault in A1-A12Cu.11 The NiAl-Cr eutectic appeared to be a promising system to examine because both phases are cubic, the lattice mismatch is small, and the phases are crys-tallographically related. Furthermore, the eutectic is easily thinned for transmission microscopy. Indeed, interfacial dislocations were observed and this report describes the nature of the dislocation networks in the boundary between the NiAl-rich ma-trix-phase and the fine chromium-rich rods.21 I) EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Ingots, 3/4 in. in diam and 6 in. long were made by melting in vacuum and casting under argon using 99.9 pct pure material. The composition, in at. pct, was 33 pct Ni, 33 pct Al, and 34 pct Cr. The ingots were then placed in A1203 crucibles on a water-cooled base, melted by means of induction, and withdrawn from the hot zone at the rate of 1 in per hr under argon.* * T his material was first directionally solidified in this laboratory by E. R. Stover Slices were taken perpendicular to the growth direction of the directionally solidified ingot for metallography and for transmission electron microscopy. The electron transmission samples were thinned mechanically, then thinned electrolytically in A-2 electrolyte* *A-2 electrolyte: 62 ml perchloric acid, 700 ml ethanol, 100 ml butylcellosolve, 137 ml distilled H20. until a hole appeared in the foil. 11) EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS A) Optical Microscopy. The microstructure, viewed on a plane perpendicular to the growth direction, is shown in Fig. 1. The structure consists of cells or colonies of parallel chromium-rich rods in the NiAl matrix. The cells occur when there are impurities present12 or, in a ternary eutectic, if the composition is slightly off the eutectic composition. The axis of the chromium-rich rods is parallel to the growth direction except near the cell boundaries. Here the rods may assume angles to the growth direction; however, examination shows that the crystallographic relationship between the rod and the matrix remains the same. Fig. 1 includes cell boundaries where the rods formed at a large angle to the growth direction. The variation of rod position across the cells made it possible to Fig. 1-Structure on plane perpendicular to growth direction. Rods near cell walls are at large angle to growth direction. Magnification 315 times.

Jan 1, 1970

By Nilsson C

Man has always been and will always be part of his environment, in ,a good, bad or indifferent manner. Until quite recently, this environment has been the atmospheric boundary layer above the land masses, and to a limited extent the air-sea interface of the oceans. Since the days when he lived in caves, he has built up a wealth of observations on these two environments,-with ever-increasing scientific precision which unfortunately until quite recently was completely insufficient for modern capabilities of data analysis. Consequently, in a sense, he has left in his wake thousands of years of missed, opportunities for making exact observations and increasing his understanding. The data of the past are lost and he has to be satisfied with what he can assemble from now on when his environ- ment, largely as a result of his actions, is exhibiting more and more rapid variations in time; in other words, time series of observations of phenomena are required, the length of which is critical for most purposes of analysis.

Jan 1, 1970

By Kurt F. Weitz

"The number of materials that can be classified as fillers covers an extremely wide range: this paper outlines those fillers of the industrial mineral type that find extensive application in the paint and plastics industriesIn the paint industry, mineral fillers are known as extender pigments. Extenders are added to paint and plastic compositions to (1) lower the cost and (2) rein-force or modify the physical properties of a composition.Commonly used extenders are classified according to chemical type and discussed in terms of the change in physical properties that they impart to a paint or plastic film. Available cost reductions and data on the consumption of extenders in the Canadian paint industry are also included."

Jan 1, 1970

By Douglas D. Donald

The financial analyst&apos;s job is to make an objective appraisal of the investment opportunities which exist within the various industries under his supervision within the context of the economic model provided by his firm and the a climate of investor sentiments. Industry analysis is critical. When a major investment trend develops, usually the stock of all companies within the specific industry react in the same direction. I should emphasize here, however, that an investment trend is influenced by the economic outlook, but economics is not the only determinant - investor psychology and arbitrary political factors may be of equal or greater importance. Part of our job is to recognize trends early and determine whether they are valid. Following industry analysis, the analyst must examine the specific companies within that industry since some companies usually react more violently than others to industry trends, whether they be favorable or adverse. To simplify the process of evaluating an investment opportunity, it is convenient to isolate three types of factors which have a bearing on every sort of business although the degree of influence of each factor may vary from industry to industry. These categories are, 1) independent or external factors insofar as they are beyond the control of corporate management, 2) interdependent factors insofar as influence may be exerted by industry-wide action, and 3) dependent factors covering the area of internal decisions which are basically under the control of the individual corporate managers. Although the title of this paper, "The Corporate Use of Cash Flow," is only one segment of the third category, it may be useful to continent on the first two categories as well. The independent factors may be either economic or governmental. The economic factors include cyclicality which may be very high in the case of the basic commodity industries or relatively low as in the case of utilities. Underlying growth rates, another independent factor, may range from the business equipment industry with an annual growth rate of 14% through the electric utility industry with a growth rate of about 7% per year to the

Jan 1, 1970

By D. O. Hobson, P. L. Rittenhouse

We have recently found that many lots of Zircaloy-2 and -4 tubing tested in tension deform to cross section shapes that are "polyhedral" rather than circular. The noncircular cross sections seem to result from a circumferential variation in plastic proper -ties and, therefore, in texture. We examined the diffracted X-ray intensity from (OOOl), {1010), {ll20}, and {1011} planes parallel to the tubing surface around the entire circumference. Tubing that deformed to a circular cross section showed <5 pct variation in diffraction intensity around the circumference from any of these planes. Greater intensity variations were found for all the tubing materials that developed non-circular cross sections during deformation. In each instance the number of intensity maxima and minima was consistent with the number of sides of the &apos;polyhedral" cross section. THE effects of crystallographic texture on the mechanical properties of zirconium, zirconium alloys, and other anisotropic hexagonal materials such as titanium and hafnium have been intensively studied. If the natural crystallographic anisotropy of these materials could be controlled by selected fabrication operations, a material could be produced with a texture, or preferred orientation, in which the maximum strength directions are in the stress directions of the structure. The permissible stress levels of the structure could then be increased. Rittenhouse and Pickle-simerl have shown that highly textured Zircaloy-2 plate can vary from 52,000 to 70,000 psi in tensile yield and from 62,700 to 122,000 psi in compressive yield strengths as a function of specimen orientation. Similar texture effects have been observed in Zircaloy tubing, whose mechanical properties differ depending upon whether the tubing has basal poles predominantly radial or tangential and upon the mode of testing. These same texture effects might be troublesome if the texture in the tubing is not uniform around the tube walls. This paper is concerned with the effects of nonuniform texture on the strain behavior of commercial Zircaloy tubing. BACKGROUND Previously, various lots of commercial Zircaloy tubing were tested under selected stress conditions as part of a program to determine the four quadrants of the yield locus. One of the testing procedures was uniaxial tension and it is the influence of texture variations on the tensile deformation behavior of the tubing that is of interest here. The effect of texture on the strain behavior in tubing is very apparent from a uni-axial tensile test.2 This behavior is illustrated schematically in Fig. 1 for three different tubing textures: 1) basal poles predominantly in the radial direction; 2) basal poles predominantly in the tangential direction, and 3) basal poles equally distributed between the radial and tangential directions. In the first example most of the grains are oriented for prism slip to operate to allow axial lengthening and diametral reduction of the tube. Reduction in wall thickness requires {1122} twinning, a more difficult operation than slip.* In the second example, the texture is such that *The singleCrystal analogy will be used quite often in this paper when strong texturesare being discussed. The textured material is assumed to react as if it were a single crystal aligned in the same orientation and under the same stress system as the predominant texture._____________________________________________ prism slip operates to give axial lengthening and wall thinning. Diametral reduction requires twinning and again should be more difficult to accomplish. A specimen with basal poles equally distributed between the radial and tangential directions should exhibit about equal diametral and wall strains.* Table I shows the *Diametral strain is accomplished by a combination of circumferential and longitudinal strains. But, for the purposes of this paper, it will be considered as a strain causing a change in the length of a specified diameter.__________ strain behavior of two lots of tubing with different textures. The first tube has a texture with basal poles equally distributed between the radial and the tangential directions. The ratio of true thickness strain to true diametral strain is almost unity. The second tube has a predominantly radial basal pole texture and it is apparent that most of the total strain has occurred by diameter reduction, just as one would predict. There is over three times as much diametral strain as thickness strain. RESULTS We found that specimens from certain lots of commercially fabricated tubing did not retain round cross sections during uniaxial testing. Instead, the speci-

Jan 1, 1970

By F Kelly

"A central composite experimental design was used to determine empirical relationships between the operating variables of a ball mill and the characteristics of the ground products. The independent variables selected for the study were the work index and size distribution of the feed material, the feed rate and the pulp density. The measured responses included product size distribution, product surface area, viscosity of pulp discharge, weight of dry solids in mill, mill time constant and emitted sonic vibrations. The ball mill was operated continuously in open circuit during each experimental run.Multivariable regression techniques were used to derive linear empirical models from the experimental results. Of the four factors studied, the grindability of the feed material significantly affected every measured response. The size distribution of the ground product was affected significantly by the feed rate and the size distribution of the feed, but not by the pulp• density. Feed throughput capacity and pulp density were significant to the viscosity of the pulp discharge, the weight of solids in the mill and the mill time constant. Significant first-and second-order models are given for the above relationships. The relation-ships between the characteristics of the sonic vibrations of the operating mill and the various dependent variables have not as yet been established."

Jan 1, 1970

By John E. Husted

Universities have education as their primary purpose. This appears to be an innocuous statement with simple meaning. In an age of conflicting semantics, however, cords and meanings are often lost or changed. The term education is often broadly expanded to encompass any form of learning process, or the accumulation of knowledge, and even to the beneficial application of knowledge to man&apos;s problems, hence one find that education in universities is not solely the formal process of texts, lectures, recitations, and testing by a batch process known as class room teaching. Despite critics of education batch is spelled with an "a", instead of an "o" - at least we hope so If one defines teaching as causing to learn, then the learning objectives may necessitate a variety of approaches within the teaching concept and research is among those favored at the graduate and some undergraduate levels. Research has been among the glamour words and certain fields such as oceanography and space science have had more than their share of glamour. Unfortunately, industrial mineral research has not had the competitive drawing power of enamoring students of the "note" generation in terms of glamorous accomplishment. Research today usually requires sophisticated equipment and such equipment is expensive, both for initial purchase and operation. Again, administrations, be they industrial, government, or academic, usually require

Jan 1, 1970

By James H. Russell

Alkalized alumina (an active form of sodium aluminate) has been considered as a sorbent for the removal of sulfur dioxide from industrial flue gases. Four rate equations, each based on a different mechanism, were compared with the results of thin-bed sorption tests. It was found that each equation agreed with the experimental results, within experimental variance, over most of the range of sorption studied. First-order rate equations were generally satisfactory in explaining both sorption and regeneration. It is concluded that the equations developed are adequate for the design of commercial fluidized beds for the sorption of SO2 from industrial flue gases and regeneration of the alkalized alumina.

Jan 1, 1970

By George Gauci

INTRODUCTION The Broken Hill orebody was discovered in 1883. The richness of the deposit encouraged rapid development of the field and within fifteen years ten mining companies were operating. By 1940, several companies located in the centre of the field with limited reserves, had ceased operation. These leases have been acquired by Broken Hill South Limited and North Broken Hill Limited. The four companies currently operating in the field are, in order of increasing production rate:¬- Broken Hill South Limited (BH South) North Broken Hill Limited (North BH) The Zinc Corporation, Limited (ZC) and New Broken Hill Consolidated Limited (NBHC) The tonnages treated by each company since the present plants have been in operation are shown in Figure 1. The leases are located as shown in Figure 2, and an aerial view of Broken Hill showing the spread of the City on each side of the line of lode is shown in Figure 3. The present treatment plants date back to the early 1930&apos;s when the BH South plant was built. The North BH and ZC plants were built in 1939 and NBHC&apos;s in 1952. The three plants built before 1940 have similar crushing and grinding flowsheets. NBHC differs in that it includes rod mills with consequent differences in fine crushing equipment.

Jan 1, 1970

By Fred H. Lippold, Wm. H. Wolf

Methods of fair payment for excavating, supporting, and concrete lining tunnels have been sought by various owners for years. Tunneling techniques have changed with the development of equipment-from the hand-mucking operation to the machine mucker and, most recently, to machine-boring; from tunnel supports using timber sets to steel sets to rock bolts and, most recently, to shotcrete support; and from hand-placing the concrete lining using wooden forms to pumping or pneumatic placing using steel forms. As tunnel construction techniques advanced, so did methods for payment for the work performed. The recent development of tunnel-boring machines, or "moles," is precipitating another change. These changes have led to some difficulty in providing proper payment for the various items of work for different types of tunnels. As a major construction agency engaged in water-resources development in the western states, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has long been aware of the need for clarification of payment provisions in tunnel construction. The Bureau has some 150 miles of tunnels completed on its projects and about 50 miles of tunnels under construction. In this construction, the Bureau has benefited by the advance made by contractors in improving the techniques of tunnel excavation. To assure that the Bureau has an up-to-date approach to payment provisions, the Chief Engineer recently established a "standard" method of payment for all types of tunnels. It is believed that this new method of payment will be equitable for all contractors bidding on various types of tunnels using the diversity of methods of excavation now available to them. These payment provisions provide for different quantities for excavated tunnels using the blasting technique or using machine-boring techniques. In this way, the contractors have a choice in excavation methods and an equal opportunity to be low in their bids. We believe this will be an incentive to all contractors to be as progressive as the development of new equipment economically allows.

Jan 1, 1970

By Volkmar Niemitz

Approximately 30 miles east of Chicago on the southern shores of Lake Michigan stands Bethlehem Steel&apos;s newest fully integrated steelmaking facility - the billion dollar Burns Harbor plant. The initial phase of "green field" construction that began in 1963 was directed to the creation of high quality finishing facilities. In late 1964 the 160" plate mill came "on stream" followed closely by Sheet and Tin and Hot Strip facilities. Unit train shipments of slabs primarily from the Lackawanna plant located near Buffalo constituted the input materials for the new mills. In 1967 a hot metal facilities program was announced for Burns Harbor that at its completion would make the plant fully integrated. Incorporated within the program were: 1. A new high performance 50" x 96" slabbing mill complete with a battery of soaking pits. 2. A two vessel Basic Oxygen Furnace Shop. 3. (1) battery of 6 meter high Coke Ovens with attendant coal handling facilities. 4. A 3800 feet long vessel loading & unloading dock. 5. The first conveyor belt fed Blast Furnace in the United States. 6. An extensive materials handling system for receiving, stocking and reclaiming from storage the raw materials for the Blast Furnace and Coke Ovens operation. The intent of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the functions and components of the materials handling system noted above.

Jan 1, 1970

By J. J. Frawley, W. J. Childs

Experiments were carried out to induce grain refinement during solidification by applying vibrational energy (freq 20 kc) to small specimens of bismuth, tin, and bismuth-tin alloys. The results show that if the intensity of the applied sound -field is not great enough to fragment the growing dendrites of a pure metal, no grain refinement is observed and the pain size of the dynamically nucleated specimens is the same as the grain size of a specimen statically supercooled the same amount. Bismuth specimens did not show any grain refinement; whereas, the tin specimens did show grain refinement. This phenomenon is the result of the difference in growth habit between the bismuth and tin dendrites. The bismuth-tin alloys showed grain refinement and, in addition, the segregation pattern was changed. THE solidification process is a change in phase requiring the nucleation of the solid phase from the liquid and the growth of this solid phase at the expense of the liquid phase. Since many physical properties and also the integrity of a casting are dependent on the solidification process, understanding and controlling this process are very important.&apos; A good example in the controlling of a cast structure using heterogeneous nucleation theory is the reduction of grain size in aluminum castings by nucleation catalysis.2 This mechanism of nucleation catalysis has been explained by Turnbull.3 Another technique for grain refinement, which has received much attention but the mechanism has not been fully understood, is to vibrate the solidifying melt. Vibrations can be applied to the melt either by vibrating the mold directly or by introducing a vibrating rod into the melt.4-13 Three mechanisms have been proposed to explain this phenomenon: 1) The mechanical fragmentation of the original dendrites that grew into the melt. These crystals or fragmented dendrites act as new growth sites. 2) The nucleation of new grains in the liquid by the generation of very high pressure pulses caused by cavitation in the liquid. 3) The remelting of the dendrite arms during the solidification process. This mechanism is operative only in alloy systems and would be enhanced by stirring or mechanical vibration. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the mechanism that will increase the number of grains when mechanical energy is introduced into a solidifying melt. APPARATUS The unit used to generate the ultrasonic vibrations was manufactured by the Redford Co., and is similar to the one used in ultrasonic soldering. Fig. 1 is a sketch of the major components used for generating ultrasonic vibrations. The crystal transducer assembly consisted of four lead zirconate ti-tanate piezoelectric crystals in an aluminum holder. An acoustical horn, which was fabricated from stainless steel, was attached to the holder by a set screw. The resonant frequency of this unit was 20,000 cycles per sec. A Pyrex crucible, 4 in. in diam and 4 in. high, was contained in a hole in the top of the horn. The piezoelectric crystals changed volume when excited by an electric signal, thereby generating a sound signal which passed through the horn. The crucible was coupled to the horn by a liquid silicone oil. The purpose of the couplant was to transmit the soundwaves from the horn to the crucible. Without the couplant, much of the sound energy would be lost. The energy transmitted was sufficient at the resonant frequency used, so that acoustical cavitation always occurred in the molten metal. The presence of acoustical cavitation was detected by the characteristic hissing sound emitted from the liquid. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The influence of ultrasonic vibration on the grain refinement of bismuth, tin, and bismuth-tin alloys was studied. These metals were chosen because of their low melting temperature and the relative ease with which they can be thermally supercooled. The following procedure was used for obtaining large amounts of supercooling. Pure bismuth (99.999+), which was received in bar form, was mechanically broken into pieces small enough to be accommodated in a 50 ml beaker. About 200 to 300 g of bismuth and a few grams of SnCl2 as a flux were placed in the 50 ml beaker and melted by induction heating. The melt was held for 20 min at

Jan 1, 1970

By H. D. B. Wilson

THIS PAPER has resulted from a preliminary draft of a background paper prepared anonymously for the Science Council's Special Study of the Solid-Earth Sciences in Canada. The draft was circulated to eighty-four Canadian geologists; forty-eight of these responded with criticisms of the draft. All critical re-marks were considered carefully and most have been incorporated in the final paper in an attempt to balance the author's bias, although this bias undoubtedly still appears. Indications of support for a particular statement or section were also helpful, because many of these contradicted criticisms and enabled the author to judge the consensus. Thus, all criticism could not be incorporated because the referees did not agree. It is interesting that some remarks were con-sidered overstatements by some and too bland by others. The most perplexing critical comment was one which suggested a new author was needed, and went on to name the existing author as the most likely candidate.

Jan 1, 1970

The effects of detonation of downlines and downline-booster systems on lodse-poured charges of 94% porous prilled ammonium nitrate/6% fuel oil (AN/FO) were determined. Detonation stability was indicated by the initiation-failure pattern of detonating fuse witness lines located at intervals along the charge. Steel tubing was used as the confining medium. Charge diameters (d) varied between 2-21/32 and 8.1/8 in. and specific charge weights (w) of downlines between 4.0 and 93.2gr/ft. The axes of charge and downline were colinear. The minimum value of w required to cause initiation of AN/FO increased with d. When initiated by a downline only, the charge&apos;underwentlowòorder detonation. When downline-booster systems are used, the detonation wave in the downline cuts all equatorial planes in the charge before the detonation wave in the surrounding AN/FO. If the downline itself does not cause initiation, therefore, the explosive ahead of the main detonation wave is crushed, and hence desensitised, by the radially-expanding compression wave and gases generated by the downline. In a given equatorial plane, the fraction gftharge undergoing detonation decreases with an increase in the booster-plane distance. The longitudinal limit of nation increases significantly with d, but surprisingly little with a decrease in w. In the presence of a downline, the blasting performance of AN/FO charged _

Jan 1, 1970

By Richard F. Zaffarano

The Bureau of Mines compiled information for the nonspecialist about natural gas liquids recovery from hydrocarbon streams in natural gas processing plants. Attention is directed to the impact of the technology of processing and the quality of gas processed in view of the increased availability of natural gas for processing. Significant changes in product and market trends within the natural gas processing industry are highlighted. Fixed capital-plant costs for grassroots, refrigerated-oil absorption and conventional adsorption schemes, adapted from published studies, are presented giving ranges of cost estimates for medium-sized plants. Marketed products of the natural gas processing industry are briefly discussed in relation to automotive air pollution problems and approaches to their control.

Jan 1, 1970

By Immo H. Redeker

This is a final progress report on a cooperative project conducted by three private feldspar companies,** North Carolina State University, and the federal Bureau of Mines. The object of the project was to reduce the feldspar tailings disposal problems at the flotation plants in the Spruce Pine area of North Carolina. The initial phase of the project revealed that high tonnages of saleable feldspar and quartz were lost in the tailings and the three feldspar companies are now concentrating their efforts on feldspar recovery, either by reclamation from the tailings as suggested by the Asheville Minerals Research Laboratory or by improvements in metallurgy in the existing plants.

Jan 1, 1970