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By Melvin P. Silverman

The literature on methane-oxidizing bacteria is reviewed in regard to (1) the growth and isolation of cultures by special techniques; (2) the distribution of these organisms in nature and descriptions of individual species; (3) the physiology of methane-oxidizing bacteria as influenced by temperature, light, pH, aerobiosis versus anaerobiosis, and carbon and nitrogen sources; and (4) the biochemistry of methane oxidation revealed by studies with intact cells and subcellular systems. Present practical applications of methane-oxidizing bacteria are limited to prospecting for natural gas and petroleum deposits. Desirable areas for future research are discussed as well as some possible applications such as (1) the removal and/or early detection of methane gas in coal mines by intact culls or enzyme preparations; (2) the generation of electrical energy by microbial fuel cells using methane as fuel; (3) the growth of methane-oxidizing bacteria on methane fur their food value; (4) the purification of hydrocarbon gas mixtures using methane-oxidizing or other alkane-oxidizing bacteria; and (5) the synthesis of methane from mixtures of H2 and CO or H2 and CO2 by methane-forming bacteria.

Jan 1, 1964

By W. Rall, A. J. Birkle

The effect of fast-neutron irradiation on the micvo strcture of a common reactor pressure-vessel steel, A212 Grade B, was studied using thin-foil transmission electron microscopy. The dislocation density of the irradiated material is considerably greater than that of the nonirradiated control material. Annealing studies indicated that dislocations and hardness ill the irradiated material annealed out—as docs the radiation-induced embrittlement according to other- investigators— at temperatures STEELS in nuclear reactors are affected by neutron irradiation. In the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) A302B and A212B steels commonly specified by designers for reactor vessels, between 650° and 800°F. However, the dislocations and hardness in control samples cold-worked to 9 and 70 pct did not anneal out readily, and a high dis -location density was observed, even after a 1-hr anneal at 850°F. Based on the hypothesis that cllrster defects, rather than the increased dislocation density, are primarily responsible for mdicltiotz-iudziced e)nbriftlen7ent, reconzmendations are made for reducing the susceptibility to such ernbrittlement. exposures at a temperature of 550°F or lower to neutron dosages encountered during a 20- to 30-year life (-3 X 10'' nvt, >1 mev) may increase the nil-ductility transition temperature (NDT) as much as 300" or 400".'9 Therefore, to prevent brittle failures in reactor structures, extreme caution is required to reduce thermally induced stresses during all reactor shutdowns and startups when the temperature is below the NDT of the pressure vessel.

Jan 1, 1964

By G. Asai

The Bureau of Mines has been engaged in a program to increase the utilization of chromium by providing samples to individuals and institutions requesting chromium for research investigations. This report consists of a tabulation of the disposition of chromium samples distributed from July 1953 through June 1961; 109 requests for chromium were answered by providing chromium as electrolytic plate, powder, or wrought forms. The demand for samples reached a peak in fiscal year 1959 and declined to a relatively low level in fiscal year 1961. The largest number of requests came from individuals engaged in mechanical property studies; there were also many requests from those concerned with vaporized metal and physical properties studies. Most noteworthy application for chromium was the experimental use of the radioactive form, Cr61 in radiotherapy of cancer.

Jan 1, 1964

By Evan Just

Government aid, regulation, and participation in the mineral industry are not new; they date back to the time when man first adopted communal living. Even in primitive tribal life, the obtaining of arrowhead or ceramic materials, washing of gold, or mining of copper were specialized activities, under tribal sponsorship. Later, when kingdoms, dynasties, and hierarchies developed, titles to mining properties were held by the sovereign or the state, work usually being done by slaves. Title acquisition through denouncement developed in Europe in the late Middle Ages and spread to the Western Hemisphere with the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Denouncements still recognized the rights of the sovereign in the requirement to pay royalties, which practice continues in many places today. Thus, anyone who views government participation in mineral activity as "encroachment" has no historical perspective. Only in a few countries and for a few generations have private interests enjoyed the right to exploit mineral deposits without the specific consent of the sovereign or without payment of royalty. Governments and the mineral industry have been linked together by other factors. Governments have had special interest in metals and minerals as stores of value and for armaments. Spanish conquests in the New World were energized by the lure of gold and silver. Pursuit of gold led to the American seizure of California in the days of the Forty-niners. The strategic importance of minerals in our own times has called for special steps to stimulate production in national emergencies and to prevent the enemy from acquiring mineral supplies. Our export controls to deny certain minerals to unfriendly countries, purchases for Government stockpile, and subsidies for domestic production are examples. Production regulation by state governments of oil and gas has become a well established routine. In brief, the mineral industry has never lacked aid, regulation, and participation by governments. The entrepreneur who wishes to explore for or develop minerals must deal with governments in most areas before he can begin, because mineral rights are reserved by them. He can proceed through discovery and de-

Jan 1, 1964

George B. Brennan, Secretary-Treasurer, Imperial. Coal Company, Denver, Colorado, opened the third session of. the Sixtieth Regular Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute at 8:30 a.m., and introduced the first speaker of the morning with the following remarks: It is a pleasure to welcome you here this morning. We are indeed fortunate to have such excellent speakers this morning, some of the outstanding people in the mining industry. I know I express the feelings of the entire RMCMI when I say thanks to these excellent speakers for all of the time and trouble they have taken to prepare such talks and come here to give these presentations of some of the more modern developments with which we in the coal mining industry are concerned. The first speaker this morning is going to give a paper on a subject which has only recently caused one or two of unfortunate accidents. It hadn't, prior to this, been considered such a serious problem. However, the. Bureau of Mines is hot on the trail to insure there will be answers to this previously somewhat unrecognized difficulty.

Jan 1, 1964

By I. J. Polmear

Earlier work revealed that small amounts of silver (< 0,l at. pct) may exert a marked effect on the structure and aging characteristics of certain a1loys based on the Al-Zn-Mg system. Silver additions have now been made to other age-hardening aluminum alloys, and significant effects have been observed in the Al-Mg system and in several Al-Cu-Mg and Al-Mg-Si alloys. Similarities exist between the behavior of alloys from all four systems, notably that in each case silver stimulates nucleation of an intermediate precipitate which forms when the alloys are aged in the medium temperature range (-120" to 220°C). The mechanism for this effect is uncer- IT has been shown that small additions of silver (<0.1 at. pct) may have a marked effect on the structure and age-hardening characteristics of tain although it is suggested it originates in a preferred affinity between magnesium and silver atoms. There is evidence to indicate that the effects of silver are unique to that element. It is suggested that silver atoms interact with vacancies during low-temperature aging of Al-4 pct Cu and certain Al-Cu-Mg alloys. Silver had little effect on Al-8 pct Zn aged at any temperature. Preliminary observations indicate that silver may have interesting effects on the strength properties of Al-Mg alloys, md a the commercial Al-Cu-Mg alloys designated as 2024 and 2618. many alloys based on the Al-Zn-Mg* system.1"&apos;*

Jan 1, 1964

By Paul C. Lingo

The title of my talk today might lead you to two logical conclusions: The industry is faced with a problem that requires a solution and after discussing the problem I will offer a solution. The first conclusion is painfully accurate. One need only look at the accident statistics to be aware of the problem. During the eight-year period 1954 through 1962, the United States Bureau of Mines reports that falls of rock and coal accounted for 1,435 of the 2,516 fatal injuries that occurred in underground bituminous coal mines. Some improvement was made during 1962. For the first time since records have been kept, falls of rock and coal accounted for less than 50 per cent of the underground fatal injuries. The 105 deaths recorded in 1962 indicate that a great amount of work remains to be done in this area. As to the second conclusion, let me assure you at the outset that I have no panacean solution; however, I do propose to discuss some aspects of the problem and some possible methods of solution. What methods of solution are now, or have been employed in attempting to solve the problem? More specifically, what methods have you and your associates used? Has it been an orderly well thought out approach to the entire problem, or has it been a somewhat piecemeal approach which tackled the immediate problem and left the total problem for another day? Perhaps a new approach may be in order.

Jan 1, 1964

By R. S. Barneyback

Not much more is known about concrete today than was known to the Romans. For all the research only better tools have resulted to measure the quality of the materials that go into it." In this paper "some of the materials for lightweight concrete and their characteristics are considered and effort is made to indicate their effect on the end result — a structure of lightweight concrete." Lightweight concrete had noble beginnings. It is believed that the first specification for lightweight concrete was written by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the early years of his reign, 117-138 AD. Hadrian, was an engineer by trade and an Emperor by adoption. He took considerable interest in the structures sponsored during his reign, even to the point of working out the structural details and preparing working drawings for some of the more prominent works in the vicinity of Rome. In order to reduce the dead weight of the 140 ft diam dome of the Pantheon he specified that the lightweight structural concrete members supporting this concrete and tile composite dome were to be fabricated from a concrete containing pumice and scoria. Still standing after 18 centuries of abuse, this structure has been described as the master effort of a great structural genius, the ultimate achievement of Roman engineering skill.&apos; The Romans were the first to employ many concrete techniques we think of as modem innovations. Some unnamed superintendent noted that when a carefully measured amount of pigs blood was measured into each batch of concrete during mixing, the concrete was more durable and exhibited much better resistance to freezing and thawing climates. He no doubt, attributed this success to the appeasement of one of the gods who in return provided protection for the building containing this sacrificial offering in its walls. It is known today that the blood-entrained air in the concrete tends to make mixtures more workable, resistant to moisture penetration and more resistant to frost damage.

Jan 1, 1964

By J. McCreedy

The Ontario Division of The International Nickel Company of Canada, Limited, operates five underground mines and one open pit on the rim of the Sudbury Basin located in the Province of Ontario, 230 miles northwest of Toronto. Four of the mines, Frood-Stobie, Creighton, Murray and Garson, lie on the South range of the Basin within a 10-mile radius of the City of Sudbury; the fifth mine, Levack, is on the North range, about 30 miles northwest of the city. The ores are mined primarily for nickel and copper, the principal minerals being pentlandite and chalcopyrite. Other elements recovered from the ores in varying quantities are platinum, palladium, ruthenium, iridium, rhodium, cobalt, selenium, tellurium, iron, sulphur, gold and silver. In 1962, the total underground ore production was over 10,800,000 tons which was mined mainly by blasthole and caving methods with the remainder by cut-and-fill, square set, and undercut-and-fill techniques.

Jan 1, 1964

By Charles White Merrill

Money is one of the most pervasive elements in human life. The compensation for a workman&apos;s daily efforts is expressed as a wage and is measured in money. What an individual may consume depends largely on his income which also is expressed in terms of money. If he would start an enterprise its size would be determined in large part by the amount of money available for capitalization and its success would be measured in net income expressed in money. In short, the most widely used common de- nominator for comparing merchandise, real property, jobs, enterprises, gross national product, or personal success is money. Despite this use of money by almost everyone past infancy to express his appraisal of the innumerable values he sees around himself, the complexity of the device called money makes its nature and workings a mystery to most users. Some of the difficulty in understanding money results from the fact that it has three distinct but interrelated functions: (1) a medium of exchange, (2) a unit of account, and (3) a store of value. In many statements about money the discussion moves from one function of money to another without the speaker or the listener recognizing the changes. For example, the housewife says "We took the money we had saved up to make the down payment and after twelve monthly payments the television will be ours." When this housewife spoke of "saving up the down payment" she referred to money in its function as a store of value; when she spoke of "the down payment" she was using money as a medium of exchange; and when she referred to the "monthly payments" she spoke of money as a unit of account. Another cause of confusion in understanding money is its paradoxical nature in that it represents both the power to produce and the power to consume. For example, when the rich uncle dies one nephew may regard his inheritance as an opportunity to buy a farm and leave the ranks of the wage earners to become an independent producer, whereas the other nephew may regard his portion as the means of living in complete leisure as a pure consumer.

Jan 1, 1964

By S McQuitty

The metallurgical treatment of Falconbridge ore re-quires an extremely fine grind of the pyrrhotite portion ? for maximum liberation and recovery of nickel. This paper describes the operation of a grate discharge pebble mill in closed circuit with cyclones regrinding 25 to 30 tons per hour of sulphides to approximately 90 per cent minus 325 mesh. The consumption of the screened ore grinding medium is of the order of 2.5 pounds per kw.-hour, or less than 1 per cent of the tonnage of re-ground sulphides. IN RECENT years, there has been a considerable interest in pebble grinding in the uranium industry, and a number of installations have appeared. However, the use of sulphide ore pebbles as a grinding medium has so far been relatively limited. There has also been some question as to their suitability for the very fine grinding of sulphide concentrates. This paper describes the preliminary results of a commercial operation involving the

Jan 1, 1964

By Linda Lee, R. E. Reed-Hill, C. R. Smeal

Four fcc metal surfaces, etched to make them responsive to polarized light, have been studied with an electron microscope. Jones&apos;prediction that these surfaces are grooved has been verified. Optical-goniometer measurements made on commercially pure nickel indicate that the groove walls are poorly defined (100) facets. Surface mientations close to either 4001 or {ill).- show no extinctions on the polam&apos;zid-light microscope. An explanation is offered for this orientation dependence. It has also been deduced that polarized-light extinctions on a grooved cubic-metal surface should not be used directly in crystallographic-orientation determinations. The nature of the etching solutions that produce these surfaces is considered. A cubic-metal surface may be made responsive to polarized light in two basic ways."&apos; In one, an anodic film, believed anisotropic, is formed on the surface. A plane-polarized-light beam, at normal incidence, should be reflected from this type of film with an ellipticity that varies with grain orientation. Under crossed polarizers of a polarized-light microscope, each grain may be distinguished from its neighbors by a difference in reflected-light intensity. An alternate treatment,&apos; more generally applicable to cubic metals and of principal concern here, involves etching of grain surfaces. The characteristic features of this surface were first deduced by Jones3 from light-microscope observations. She concluded that, in general, grain surfaces were furrowed so that light was reflected from two parallel sets of etched facets. A grooved surface produces elliptical polarization of a plane-polarized beam because the beam does not strike groove walls at normal incidence. Jones also observed that the furrows must have faces inclined to each other by approximately 90 deg, since the light returns along the incident path, and that a grooved surface should show four maxima and minima of reflected-light intensity during a 360-deg stage rotation of the polarizing microscope. Positions of maximum extinction were predicted to occur when groove axes were parallel to either polarizer or analyzer vibration directions. Because of the limited resolving power of Jones&apos; optical microscope, her deductions were primarily indirect. Proof of the correctness of her conclu-sions, as demonstrated by the electron microscope, will be given as well as evidence concerning the crystallographic nature of the etch furrows and the types of etching solutions that produce them. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE During a comprehensive study of hot plastic deformation in nickel and nickel alloys, an etch was evolved that produced a surface with an excellent polarized-light response on Nickel 200 ("A" Nickel). The etching solution and associated metal-lographic procedures are given in Table I. In evaluating this etch, a study was made of the topological features of the etched surface and their relation to the underlying crystalline structure. As part of this investigation, large crystals (2 mm average diameter) were grown in a 1-cm-sq Nickel 200 specimen. After the surface was etched, the crystallographic orientations of ten grains were determined by the standard back-reflection Laue technique of Gren-inger.4 Maximum extinction positions during a microscope stage rotation were also measured for the ten grains. Groove-wall positions on the surfaces of the ten grains were measured with a two-circle optical goniometer. The technique was essentially that of Barrett and Levenson.5 Several grain surfaces were photographed with a Philips Model 100A electron microscope. All specimens were replicated with collodion, or collodion backed with formvar and chromium shadowed at 18 to 20 deg. The basic material was Nickel 200. However, an electron-micrographic study was also made of surfaces developed by polarized-light etches on other fcc metals (90-10 a brass, Monel 400, and lead). All etching procedures are given in Tables I and 11. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Fig. 1 shows typical electron micrographs of three different fcc metal specimens and an optical micrograph of a fourth. All photographs show a grooved structure corresponding closely to Jones&apos;3 predictions. Also, as noted by Jones, extinctions were always observed when groove axes were either parallel or perpendicular to the microscopes&apos; vertical cross hair. The symmetry of the grooves, with respect to the twin boundaries in Fig. 1, implies that furrows have a crystallographic basis. The coarse-grained Nickel 200 specimen was used to study this basis. Facet Orientation. The poles of the ten Nickel 200

Jan 1, 1964

By R. A. Matuszak

In recent years, a new concept in the control of electrically powered excavators has come into existence. The new type of control system has come to be known as "static" control. The use of the name "static" to describe this system is somewhat misleading since this term refers only to one of the many advantages of this very important advance in excavator control systems. In 1959, the first truly "static" control for Ward-Leonard equipped electric excavators was designed, developed and placed in service. The control system, originally intended only as a more modern electronic type of alternate to the tried and proven rotating amplifier control system then in use, has since proven to be much more.

Jan 1, 1964

By W. G. Diamond

Lightweight aggregates have become increasingly important to the construction industry. From 1953 to 1960, the quantity of the aggregates used in concrete block, precast and prestressed concrete, and monolithic structures increased about 92 percent. The present study was conducted in Bureau of Mines Area IV which encompasses the South-Central States of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. This is an administrative area and does not delimit a market area or imply an economic unit. Because of the increasing importance of metropolitan areas in evaluating economic growth, significant data showing relationships between growth of the metropolitan areas and the lightweight aggregate industry are included.

Jan 1, 1964

By Jean Howard

ThE formation of the (100) [001) texture in 3-1/4 pct Si-Fe strip was first reported by Assmus ef a1.l in 1957. Since then much experimental work has been carried out with a view to establishing the mechanism involved. The papers cited above state that the (100) [001] texture was developed in strip rolled from material melted and cast in vacuum. (The impurity content of the ingot is reported as 0.005 pct.) The present note records that similar results can be obtained in material processed by powder metallurgy. A processing schedule is described.which enables the texture to be formed in strip up to 0.010 in. thick, but there seems no reason why this should not be achieved in thicker strip, provided that large grains are developed after sintering. The materials were prepared from Carbonyl Iron Powder Grade MCP (particle size 5 to 30 p) of the International Nickel Co. (Mond) Ltd. The powder contains about 0.15 pct 0, 0.01 pct C, 0.004 pct N, <0.002 pct S, $0.005 pct Mg and Si, and 0.4 pct Ni— that is, it is substantially free from metallic impurities other than nickel, which is thought to be unimportant in the present work. The silicon powder was 99.9 pct purity, or material of transistor quality (ground in pestle and mortar). The mixed powders (3-1/4 pct Si to 96-3/4 pct Fe) are heated in hydrogen at 350" and 650°C to deoxidize the iron before sintering loose at temperatures between 1350" and 1460°C (depending upon the ultimate thickness of strip required) for up to 24 hr. The object of the high-temperature sinter is to develop a large grain size at this stage. Alternatively, the loose sintering can be done at a lower temperature followed by rolling or pressing and then annealing at temperatures between 1350" and 1460°C. Both methods produce large grains, which remain large throughout the process. The compact is then hot-rolled to approximately 1/8 in. with high-temperature interstage anneals if necessary. This step is taken to avoid intercrystalline cracking which would occur if the material of such large grain size were cold-worked. The bar is then annealed at 1050°C and reduced to its final thickness by approximately 50-pct reductions and 1050°C interstage anneals. Throughout the process the dew point of the hydrogen furnace atmosphere is maintained at about -40°C. Samples were annealed in hydrogen at various temperatures and times. Secondary recrystalliza-tion to (100) [001] was developed on the thinner material (i.e., up to 0.002 in.) by annealing in hydrogen at 1050" to 1200°C with a dew point of - 40°C or in vacuum (10-5 Torr) at 1050°C. With the thicker materials (i.e., up to 0.010 in.) the best results were obtained by annealing in hydrogen at 1200°C with a dew point of - 55°C. Complete secondary recrystal-lization to (100) [001] textures was obtained. Above these temperatures secondary recrystallization to (110) [001] tended to develop. The final annealing of samples was normally carried out with the samples placed between recrystal-lized alumina plates, but some experiments were performed with the samples suspended so that their surfaces were not in contact with anything except hydrogen, and these were equally successful in developing secondary crystals. An approximate determination of the proportion of material (before secondary recrystallization took place) having crystals with the (100) or (110) planes in or near the rolling plane showed that 11 pct of the sample had (100) and 16 pct (110). The method used for the determination is described below. A sample was annealed at a temperature just below the secondary recrystallization temperature and etched to reveal the (100) planes. The approximate area covered by crystals having (100) or (110) in or very near the surface was measured on the screen of a Vickers projection microscope. This was repeated for twenty positions chosen at random and a mean of the results calculated. The main hindrance to developing the secondary crystals in the thicker materials was the difficulty of obtaining a large enough initial primary grain size before secondary recrystallization. This was overcome by increasing the particle size of the silicon powder used. During the course of the work, it had been observed that the larger the grain size after sintering the more likely it was that the material would be successful in developing secondary crystals at a later stage. An experiment was therefore carried out to determine whether the material with the larger grain was more successful in developing secondary crystals due to the large grain produced at the sintering state per se or whether it was due to the greater reduction of silica brought about when the sintering temperature was raised in order to increase the grain size. A comparison was made between two compacts, one of which was made with silicon powder of 60 to 100 mesh, the other with silicon powder which was finer than 200 mesh. F?r this experiment, use was made of a phenomenon previously observed that the larger the particle size of the silicon powder employed in making a compact, the larger is the grain size of the compact. The silicon powder was ground

Jan 1, 1964

By R. A. Wood, R. I. Jaffee, H. R. Ogden, D. N. Williams

CERTAIN titanium alloys when quenched to retain the 0 phase at room temperature show extensive transformation of 0 to martensitic a during deformation. Alloys of this type are usually characterized by low tensile yield strength, a large spread between yield strength and ultimate strength, and high uniform elongation. A previous investigation of this phenomenon concluded that the principal contribution of the martensitic transformation was to increase the amount of deformation prior to fail-

Jan 1, 1964

By J. Wade Watkins

One potential peaceful application of nuclear explosives is stimulating the production of liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons from essentially nonproductive deposits of petroleum, natural gas, oil shale, and tar sands. Within the United States the appreciable difference between producible proved reserves and ultimate reserves and resources of hydrocarbon deposits is of such magnitude that much petroleum, natural gas, shale oil, and bitumen will not be produced unless significant technological progress is made in production techniques. The shattering effect of contained nuclear explosives and, to a lesser extent, the heat produced, have been considered as stimulative forces when the thickness, depth, and nature of such deposits permit considering the use of nuclear devices. Mechanical production problems would be less in an oil or gas reservoir than in an oil-shale or tar-sands deposit. Also, tar-sands resources in the United States may not be adequate to warrant serious consideration of applying nuclear-explosives stimulation. Gas reservoirs should present the least- radioactive-contamination problem. The technical feasibility of using nuclear explosives cannot be evaluated fully at present. Additional information is needed on the effects of pressure, heat, and radioactivity on the solids and fluids of hydrocarbon deposits, the nature and extent of induced fractures in different rock media, and the possibility of isolating and confining or removing radioactive contaminants. Final technical feasibility can only be determined by a field test. If technical feasibility is established, economic feasibility will depend upon the comparative cost of producing hydrocarbons by nuclear explosives and by conventional means. It is probable that an economic comparison would favor nuclear stimulation only where devices of relatively high yield could be used practicably and safely.

Jan 1, 1964

By L. A. Panek

Research on roof bolting has developed significant information with respect to the functions that can be performed by properly installed bolts and the methods that can be used to ensure that effective installation has been achieved. The present paper brings together results that are pertinent to the design of a bolting system for reinforcing horizontally stratified mine roof with vertical bolts. The design approach is based on the use of bolts to decrease the maximum bending stress within an arbitrary sequence of roof strata (see Fig. 2) in which the only loads are the weights of the individual beds. The use of rock bolts to achieve other objectives, such as to stabilize a fractured rock mass on the periphery of a mine opening,3 is excluded from consideration herein. Reinforcing effect of bolts consists of a friction effect and a suspension effect in combination. "Friction effect" refers to reduction of bending in a stratified roof due to clamping action of tensioned bolts, which compress the strata, thereby creating frictional resistance to displacement along planes of stratification. (The flexure of a sequence of strata is necessarily accompanied by horizontal displacement of each bed with respect to its neighbor, along mutual surfaces of contact.) Although the sliding of the beds tends to exert a shearing effect on the bolts, tests show that this has negligible influence on the bending stresses, probably because the bolts are so far apart. "Suspension effect" refers to the transfer of part of the weight of the weaker or thinner strata to one or more thick strata, which occurs when strata with differing tendencies to deflect are constrained to have equal deflection. The term "suspension" is used irrespective of whether the thin strata are above or below the thick strata, because tests show that the supporting effect of the flexurally more rigid roof strata is for practical purposes independent of their position in a bolted sequence of strata. An earlier paper4 dealt with a bolted unit in which all strata had equal flexural rigidity; bolting could develop a friction effect but no suspension effect. The present paper deals primarily with a bolted unit in which all strata do not have equal flexural rigidity, so that bolting can develop both a friction effect and a suspension effect. The reinforcing effect of the bolts was determined by a combination of experimental and theoretical stress analysis.4&apos;6&apos;7 The experimental method consisted of loading a model by rotating it in a centrifuge to simulate the gravity forces exerted about an underground excavation. Models were made from two different limestones, although the results are independent of the material because the elastic constants were taken into account in the data analysis. Electric resistance strain gages were bonded to the highest and lowest members of the bolted unit to determine the outer-fiber bending strains at the center and at the supports. The quantitative results presented herein are based on tests of 56 different models, which included a range of values for the structural parameters. Each model was tested several times, with different combinations of spacing and tension of the bolts. DESIGN EQUATIONS The effects of friction and suspension on the flexure of a bolted stratified roof can be expressed by the following equations, which give the maximum bending stress, the deflection, the friction effect, the suspension effect and the transferred load for any (the i-th) member of the bolted unit in terms of the structural parameters:

Jan 1, 1964

By J. S. Ross

The significance and role of industrial minerals in Canada differ from those in the United States, The smaller Canadian industry has recently become well diversified and self-sufficient in most commodities, However, it depends on exports, principally to the United States, for much of its market, Imports are small, but imports of several basic products manufactured from industrial minerals are large. This nation is a leading world producer of asbestos, gypsum, sulphur, nepheline syenite, titania slag, potash and barite. It has reserves in asbestos for at least 30 years enough potash to supply the current world&apos;s needs for 2,000 years and sulphur reserves for 40 years of current world demand, One of the ilmenite deposits contains enough titania to supply the current world demand for at least, 25 years.

Jan 1, 1964

By G. W. Healy, J. C. Schottmiller

Molten silicates were found to exist in the Cr-Si-0 system at temperatures above 1450°C. one atom of oxygen is readily removed from CrzOs in the presence of Si02 at 1700°C, forming a silicate melt. Steam-hydrogen ratio measurements made at this temperature indicate that the free energy of the reaction: Cr20s(c) + Hz = 2CrO (in Si02 -saturated melt) + H20 is approximately 5600 * 1500 cal. A deep-blue chromous silicate, probably Cr2Si04, forms from these melts at about 1400" to 1500°C, and is characterized by.its distinctive X-ray diffraction pattern and optical properties—distinct pleochroism and high refractive indices. THE question of the state of oxidation of chromium in slags has vexed metallurgists for many years The experiments of Koerber and Oelsenl suggested the probable presence of divalent chromium in silica-saturated slags equilibrated with high-chromium melts. Hilty and coworkers2 had also found chromium at lower valency, as Cr304, in inclusions formed from oxygen-saturated Fe-Cr melts with as little as 10 pct Cr. In both cases, disproportiona-tion of the lower oxide to CraO3 and chromium was found to occur to a greater or lesser extent, depending upon the rate of cooling from the high temperature. The work on Cr304 was sufficiently detailed for chipmans to derive its thermodynamic properties, but Oelsen&apos;s experiments in the silicate system were not extensive enough since most of his runs were made with slags containing large amounts of manganese oxide in addition to iron and chrome oxide and silica. The present study describes experiments carried out to map out an approximate liquidus diagram in the CrzOs, "CrO", SiOa portion of the Cr-Si-0 system, and to measure the partial free energy of solution of oxygen in the system. EXPERIMENTAL 1) Approximate Melting-Point Determinations. Preliminary trials showed that when an equimolar mixture of Cr20s and SiOa was treated with hydrogen in the temperature range 1500" to 1600°C, copious amounts of steam were evolved, and a low-melting liquid formed which could be quenched to a blue, crystalline, material having a distinctive X-ray diffraction pattern. It was found that the identical material could be produced by heating intimately mixed, finely divided Cra03, Cr, and SiOa, held in a tungsten crucible, under purified argon. Thus, it was possible to prepare mixtures containing any desired proportions of chromium, silicon, and oxygen, pel-letize them, heat to temperature in the furnace shown in Fig. 1, and observe, after cooling, whether the pellet remained unchanged or showed signs of incipient, partial, or complete melting. 2) Free Energy of Solution of Oxygen. This was studied by measurement of steam-hydrogen ratios for the reaction: H20 (gas) + O (dissolved in charge) + Ha (gas) The experimental method chosen was to prepare a

Jan 1, 1964