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By Lyon F. Terry

SPEED-UP of production of crude oil and its products, accompanied by rising prices and the organization of the industry on a war basis, featured the economic aspects of petroleum in 1941. Early in the year American tankers were urgently requested by the British to replace losses and offset slower transit under convoy. Some forty American owned tankers were first assigned to Britain and an additional forty-odd ships were transferred during the summer. This threatened to reduce our transportation facilities from Gulf ports to the Eastern seaboard below requirements, especially should sinkings have increased and the British needed more ships. Co-ordinator Ickes began preparations for restricting gasoline consumption in the Eastern district and plans were formulated for the construction of an emergency trunk pipe line from Texas to New York and Philadelphia refining centers, and for a gigantic tanker-building program. Sales of new oil-heating units in the East practically ceased. The companies were urged to transport as much oil as possible by tank car and by October 140,000 barrels of oil per day were reaching the East Coast district by rail, sufficient to meet 8 per cent of total requirements. But British sinkings from July through October decreased 63 per cent compared with the four months ended June 30, Britain began the return of tankers, the construction plans were dropped, and the threatened shortage was thus averted.

Jan 1, 1942

By A. W. WALKER

All branches of production engineering showed steady and definite progress during 1941. Most of it has been of the slower and more conservative type rather than the sensational. To a large degree the changes have been influenced by the expanding war economy, and this tendency will probably be even more marked during the coming year. The stress of the times is placing more emphasis on the principles of engineering and conservation, with the object of obtaining the greatest possible recovery with a minimum waste or expenditure of equipment. Also available material supplies are often being turned to new uses.

Jan 1, 1942

By Bruce W. Gonser

TIN is not yet classed as a rare metal, but it has taken a long stride in that direction in the last ten months. It is now in Group 1 of the War Production Board's critical list, along with such company as magnesium aluminum, and nickel. This is in sharp contrast with the position a year ago when the supply well exceeded demand, and tin was used when feasible in place of really scarce metals. The geographical sources of tin production in recent years are shown in Table 1. Preponderance of former production in southeastern Asia, particularly Malaya and the Netherlands Indies (but all now controlled by the Japanese). is entirely too marked to be funny. Of the 1940 known world production of 237,000 long tons nearly all was controlled by the United States, Great Britain, and their friends. Now their supply is from countries that produced only 28 per cent of that amount. This excludes China and Australia, which because of shipping difficulties and local consumption, cannot be expected to export much tin. In spite of some expected increase in production, therefore, the supply is, and will continue to stay for at least several years, way below that desired for even normal uses. Although deliveries to consumers in the United States alone

Jan 1, 1942

By Ernest J. Stocking

ENGINEERS are the key men in our war program today. Upon the technical knowledge and skill of the engineer and upon his administrative and executive abilities rests the entire success for the production of vital materials of the war. Naturally the work load of the engineering examining unit of the U. S. Civil Service Commission has increased greatly since our active participation in the war. At present, over 550 separate requests for certification of eligibles are received by the engineering unit per week. These represent more than a fourth of the total requests received for personnel by the Commission's central office at Washington and represent a recruitment work load of three to four times that carried by the whole Commission previous to January 1940. These requests represent a minimum of a thousand vacancies to be filled each week, while an average week will produce, at present, approximately 1400 vacancies and a weekly maximum may approach well over 2000 vacancies.

Jan 1, 1942

By Arthur Connolly

WHEN scientific literature was lacking or meager, research necessarily meant laboratory investigation above all else. Today, scientific literature has attained tremendous proportions, and the volume increases at a much faster rate than it is digested and efficiently utilized. For that reason the present-day research worker should spend much more time in the library, and correspondingly less in the laboratory, than is the general custom. Library research would overcome two serious errors often made by scientists: duplication of work described completely and failure to appreciate inventions described almost verbatim in the literature. To emphasize these failings that often occur in present-day research, consider a hypothetical scientist as he conducts his search from inception to the stage where it is made available to the public by patent or other publication.

Jan 1, 1942

By George H. Anderson

A CHAPTER of appealing interest was added to the industrial history of the Southwest early in June, when the War Production Board gave final approval to the erection of a blast furnace, a battery of coke ovens, an ore-beneficiation plant, and other facilities for the production of pig iron in northeastern Texas, just north of the East Texas oil field. For many years the people of Texas and adjoining states have cherished the ambition and desire that eventually an iron and steel industry drawing upon local mineral resources would be established to serve Southwestern markets. The existence in this vicinity of valuable deposits of iron ore, limestone, and coking coal has been known in a general way for many years, and efforts have been made from time to time to use them in the production of iron. The present development promises to bring to realization the dreams of the men who have visualized what the establishment of this basic industry would mean to the region.

Jan 1, 1942

By Charles H. Behre

KEYNOTE of the mining geology sessions was the preparation for an extensive war with all that this implies as to the need for strategic minerals, both metallic and nonmetallic. Nevertheless the sessions also included many papers of less urgent, more theoretical interest. The stress of wartime production had the effect of giving an unusually full and rich program, the longest in recent years, with sessions continuing virtually throughout the meeting. Some papers dealt with geophysical prospecting as applied to mining geology; others were concerned with the grand strategy of mineral reserves and thus involved the industrial minerals; such "borderline" subjects were presented before sessions held jointly with the Geophysics Committee or the Industrial Minerals Division.

Jan 1, 1942

By Andrew Meyer

As a producer of gold and platinum, Colombia is most emphatically an important country. Last year it produced 656,000 oz. of gold-twice as much as any other country in South America, in fact accounting for a third of the production of that continent. In platinum, world data for 1941 are not available, but in 1939 Colombia exported 39,000 oz., apparently ranking fourth among the world's producing countries, being exceeded only by Canada, Russia, and the Union of South Africa. Colombia was always a mining country. Centuries before the Conquest, Indians mined gold, copper, silver, salt, and emeralds. The Spaniards simply intensified mining. The Bank of the Republic states that from 1493 to 1940 52,177,427 oz. of gold was produced by Colombia, and official Chocó statistics show that about $60,000,000 worth of platinum was mined between 1908 and 1941. These figures are impressive indeed considering that only rich pockets and surface showings were mined by the ancients.

Jan 1, 1942

By AIME AIME

In the uniform of his country for the second time, Harry Phillip Stolz. Chairman of the A.I.M.E. Petroleum Division, holds a commission as Lieutenant-Commander in the Naval Reserve and is attached to the office of Inspector of Naval Petroleum Reserves in California. During World War I he left his studies at Stanford University to join the Army and was granted a commission as Second Lieutenant of Infantry. He remained in the Army Reserve until 1938 when he resigned to accept a commission as a member of the Naval Petroleum Reserves Advisory Board. Born in San Francisco Jan. 29,1899, where his father had lived since 1880, he was in that city during the turbulent year of 1906 where the city was ravaged by fire and earthquake.

Jan 1, 1942

By H. L. Tedrow

FACED with a scarcity of labor in its operations at Alma, Colo., the London Mines and Milling Co. has been employing women for several months in its sorting and crushing plant. The results so far obtained indicate that women can be used successfully and to good advantage on a number of various jobs around the surface plant of an ordinary mine. Eight women are now employed as sorters to pick waste out of the ore as it passes by them on a sorting belt. After a short period of breaking in they have become adept at their work and are doing better work than that formerly done by the class of labor obtainable. They are continually warned and instructed, particularly from the standpoint of safety and their physical strength.

Jan 1, 1942

By George W. Powel

IN the nation's effort to raise its magnesium metal supply to meet the ever increasing demand, the Government is relying not only on standard established practice but has extended its support to developments not so well proved-at least, not commercially proved. Within the past few months considerable progress has been made, not only in the definite output of metal but in the exploitation of new processes, the successful adaptation of which should, in a reasonably short time, assure an adequate supply of magnesium. Recent months have also witnessed a reshuffling of the favored methods as well as of the likely raw materials, with the mineral dolomite gaining in interest over its richer but less abundant competitor, magnesite, while the lowly sea water appears to be losing ground to the higher magnesian brines of Michigan and western Texas. Every month sees a new alignment and there are signs that still newer methods or raw materials will be in use before the industry finally stabilizes itself.

Jan 1, 1942

By AIME AIME

THOUGH the dust-control systems in the crushing plants and other buildings at Morenci do not differ materially from similar installations in other large copper reduction works, it is probable that in few other plants has as much attention been paid to the dust problem. Possibly the most striking feature of the Morenci installation is the manner in which the necessary equipment has been built into the various structures, and the absence of unsightly pipes, ducts, and fan houses. That this result has been attained is due, in no small part, to the basic conception that the control of the dust in a milling plant should be an essential part of the process itself and not something to be tacked on later after the plant is in operation. The control systems were designed and developed along with the general plant construction program and when the first car of ore was dumped into the crusher the dust-control equipment was ready.

Jan 1, 1942

By AIME AIME

WILBER JUDSON is one of that fairly large group of mining engineers that graduated at an Eastern college, worked his way up in various jobs in the West and in the Latin-American countries, and finally came to New York as an administrative officer of a large mining company. Since coming to New York he has been a loyal friend and counselor of the A.I.M.E., and is now serving a second term as one of its Directors, his first term covering the period 1935-1938. Mr. Judson was born in the capital city of Michigan on July 26, 1880. Probably it was his roving spirit rather than professorial urging that was responsible for the fact that four colleges were responsible for his education: Northwestern, University of Michigan, Harvard (S.B., 1901), and the Michigan College of Mines (graduate study). In his first ten years of professional work he might have been found serving as mine foreman at Catamarca in the Argentine, as superintendent of the Inter Ocean mine at Sunshine, Colo.. as foreman for the Cerro Prieto, Magdalena, Sonora, as superintendent of the Hudson Iron Co. in New York, or as manager of the Dolores mine in Chihuahua for the Mines Co. of America, or in Spain, or in Panama.

Jan 1, 1942

By A. P. Svenningsen

DURING the work at the test mill in Morenci, it was determined that a suitable feed for the ball mills could be made by a single pass through a short-head cone crusher. These crushers did not require a closed circuit delivering only a screen product to the mills, such as is the practice in some concentrators. By no means does this mean that the practice in these other concentrators is wrong, but just that the Morenci ore can be most economically crushed and ground in this manner. Therefore, the design of the secondary crushing plant was simply a problem of taking 25,000 tons of ore per 16 hour day from the primary crusher, this ore ranging in size from fine particles to 10 or 12 in., and reducing it to minus 3/4 in. Inasmuch as outages must be contended with in any crushing plant, it was assumed that the crusher would operate at full capacity for approximately only twleve hours per day, which is three-quarter capacity for the 16-hour shift. With this in mind, it was necessary to design a crushing plant which would average approximately 1600 tones per hour for the 16-hour day, or 2000 tons per hour for slightly over 12 hours per day.

Jan 1, 1942

By Paul F. Kerr

QUARTZ of a certain kind, is one of our strategic minerals, and Brazil is probably the one important available source. Crystals of quartz of suitable size and perfection for piezoelectrical application are rare; their most outstanding use is in radio work. Clear quartz, or "crystal," free from twinning, cracks, foreign particles of other disturbing lines of growth, and gaseous or liquid inclusions, is cut into plates which provide excellent control of frequency in broadcasting. The squares or rectangles are less than a millimeter in thickness and ordinarily on the order of 1 in. along each side. They are cut at definite angles with respect to the axes of the crystal, and ground with opposite surfaces parallel. Each small slab must be a section of one crystal, uniform throughout in atomic alignment. The thickness of the chip controls the frequency of a broadcast and it is most important to have the plates oriented and ground with utmost precision. Opposite surfaces are parallel to within 0.001 mm. and expansion or contraction due to the temperature is limited to one part in a million.

Jan 1, 1942

By JOHN R. SUMAN

COMMENCEMENT exercises this year have a peculiar significance because the graduating students are entering upon their life's work at the most critical time in the history of the United States. We are engaged in a great struggle the outcome of which is none too clear even to the best informed students of international affairs. We are starting late in a vicious world conflict where it is generally recognized that our adversaries have distinct superiority over us in armament on the land, on the sea, and in the air. We have the gigantic task of building up our armed forces and armament and at the same time supplying our allies with equipment which they must have. We can do this job if we are given sufficient time, but there is a possibility that the war will be over before we are ready. Few realize the seriousness of this situation. If this fight is to be won-and we dare not try to visualize the future of this country if it is lost-all dissension and bickering between Congress, capital, labor, and agriculture must cease. When and where voluntary co-operation proves inadequate for the successful conduct of the war effort, laws must be enacted or strengthened to achieve our purpose.

Jan 1, 1942

By AIME AIME

WHEN the War Production Board issued its order which will end the use of iron and steel in more than 400 familiar civilian articles, the list of those products formed a fascinating and homeric catalogue of the things we use. Articles for which iron and steel may not be used after a 90-day "tapering-off" period are as workaday as office machinery and as frivolous as cocktail shakers. Mostly they are smaller items-the smallest probably are phonograph needles but in the aggregate they will save tremendous quantities of the metal most needed to win the war. In total war there are no trifles. Interesting proof of this lies in the fact that by eliminating manufacture of blackhead squeezers we shall save 110,000 lb. of steel a year. Out of this steel we might have made four 155-mm. field pieces. We might have made a thousand 3-in. trench mortars, 4400 0.30-caliber machine guns, 55 16-in. shells, 110 200-lb. aerial bombs, or three 15-ton tanks with something left over to arm them.

Jan 1, 1942

By AIME AIME

OVER-ALL operations of the oil industry, as measured by production of crude oil and consumption of products, are almost exactly of the same magnitude as a year ago. Does this mean that the great oil industry has been undisturbed by the war? Has this industry, so vital to the prosecution of the war and to the maintenance of our way of life, been unaffected in its operations? No indeed - changes within the industry are great. It has been called upon to revamp its trans¬portation methods so as to move about one fourth of the total amount of crude and refined products by railroad tank car instead of by ocean-going tankers. Its fundamental internal economy, based on maximum gasoline yield from a barrel of crude, has been relegated to memories of the past. Rationing of oil products, which has been forced upon us in face of an abundant supply, is not only disagreeable medicine but is in itself completely disruptive to the marketing end of the-business.-

Jan 1, 1942

By AIME AIME

UNDER the auspices of the Institute's Committee on Industrial Preparedness, a symposium was arranged for the Annual Meeting on the subject "Ores, Metals, and the War," with many well-known Government men and industrialists participating. Wilfred Sykes, president of the Inland Steel Co., of Chicago, presided, with C. K. Leith and Clyde Williams as vice-chairmen, Mr. Williams presiding over the latter part of the meeting. On the Auditorium stage in the Engineering Societies Building was a formidable corps of "experts," with an audience of several hundred to hear what they had to say and to ask questions.

Jan 1, 1942

By Lord Marley

ACTIVE participation by the United States in the war acted as a stimulant on the Annual Institute Meeting in New York rather than a retardant as feared. Attendance was about 10 per cent under the all-time high reached last year, but considering the number of men who could not possibly come because of active military service and the additional number who are devoting their whole time and effort to turning out vital war materials, the registration was really greater than might have been expected. But all in all the Institute put on a show that taxed the capacity of the Engineering Societies Building as well as the capacity of the visitors to find time to attend everything that promised to be of interest.

Jan 1, 1942