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By AIME AIME

L. C. GRATON, professor of geology in Harvard University, addressed the New York Section on April 24 on-his impressions of the Rand. His beautifully clear and concise address was delivered without notes, so that what follows is merely a resume of the principal points made. The world is apparently coming to the end of ore discoveries easily made, yet we need metals at a steadily increasing rate. If surface discoveries are to decline, then we must find other ores or use less metals. The probable chances of finding ore are greater in the centers of big production than in new districts, as proved statistically. It is unsafe to say that a field is worked out. Therefore, deep mining holds possibilities and is an interesting study that will progressively gain in importance. The origin of the gold in the banket of the Rand has been a geologic football for a long time. Of the various theories, two have survived: 1. Infiltration into permeable conglomerate beds from deep-seated sources; 2. the placer hypothesis, which holds that gravel beds originally had the gold in them. At present, the second theory is accepted by the majority, as a result of the studies by the Union Geological Survey and by E: F. Mellor which were published about fifteen years ago.

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

A MODERN copper reduction works has both a genera1 chemical laboratory for control work and a research laboratory for the study of improvement of present processes and better working-up of by-products. The division of work in the general laboratory would naturally differ in different plants. The following statement to the writer from a chemist in one of the works will give a good idea of the type. of work in the general laboratory :

Jan 1, 1929

By H. W. Gillett

BATTELLE Memorial Institute is an endowed in stitution for scientific research in metallurgy, fuels, and allied fields, established by the will of Gordon Battelle, 2nd, as a memorial to his father, Colonel John Gordon Battelle. Before I tell you more of what Battelle Memorial Institute is, I want to go back a bit and tell you why it is. Colonel Battelle began his services in the iron and steel industry in Wheeling in 1866 and in 1883 came to Ohio, where he successively engaged in the iron and steel industry in Cincinnati, Piqua and Columbus. The family had been prominent in Ohio affairs since 1788, when Gordon Battelle's great-great-grandfather came from New England to settle in Marietta. He was one of the pioneers and a member of the famous "Ohio Company."

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

ON March 14, the University of Tulsa was accepted as a member of the North Central Association of Colleges, which ranks Tulsa among the leading universities of the country. A. G. OIiphant recently donated to the new school of petroleum engineering a splendid collection of books on geology, valued at $25,000. Waite Phillips, an oil producer and chairman of directors of The Independent Oil & Gas Co., donated $150,000 for a petroleum engineering building

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

OUR own Institute of Metals and Iron and Steel divisions cooperated with the Iron and Steel Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Welding Society, and the American Society for Steel Treating in a busy week at Cleveland. The morning sessions were held at the Hotel Cleveland and the afternoon ones at the Auditorium, where the metallurgical exhibition under the auspices of the American Society for Steel Treating not only occupied the arena of the Auditorium but completely filled the huge adjacent Annex. In the intervals of sessions the members thronged the exhibits but in the evenings the local attendance was so great that if the crowds had been any larger it would have been difficult to see the exhibits. With so many firms, both producers of metals and of equipment accessory to their production and use, it would be impossible to mention them -all and unfair to single out a few, since no two individuals' judgment would coincide as to relative interest and importance. In any case an exhibit is a thing to be seen rather than described, and these were well worth seeing.

Jan 1, 1929

By Andrews Allen

WE all remember when, a few years ago the preparation of coal was nothing but a matter of having somebody at the face or somebody in the railroad car pick out the impurities; also the sizes were generally' made" over a bar screen. Anything that was black was coal; and the only matecia1 picked out was the slate or rock-impurities that could be distinguished by eye or by hefting. This was all right as long. & coal could be sold at. a good price. After all, we are all in business to -make the most money honestly out of a certain acreage of coal and a certain plant. For this purpose what is required is the greatest possible recovery of marketable coal and the highest market price.

Jan 1, 1929

By Arthur Zentner

THE essentials of the electrolytic zinc process, as now used in commercial plants, date back to work done by Letrange in 1881. He used sulfuric acid to leach roasted sulfide and ,oxide ores, purified his solution very much as we do now, and electrolyzed the purified zinc sulfate solution. Ten years later Hoepfner developed a process using chloride solutions, and built three plants. One in England operated until 1924 in one of the works now merged in the Imperial Chemical , Industries, Ltd. Ashcroft built a plant in 1898 in the Broken Hill district of Australia. He used both chloride and sulfate solutions.. While his work failed, the aid his published results have been to later workers has made him an outstanding contributor to the de- velopment of the electrolytic zinc process. A good deal of work was done in the following years, aiming to electrolyze zinc chloride solutions and fused zinc chloride. Quite a bit of work on sulfate solutions was also done in the last years before the war. With the outbreak of the war, metal demand and rise in metal prices provided the stimulus which resulted in the remarkably rapid commercial development of electrolytic zinc. In this last period of development, all the work brought to commercial fruition has been with sulfate solutions. The high-density process, or the Tainton process, is used, as you know, in the Sullivan electrolytic zinc plant at Kellogg, Idaho, and will be used in the Evans- Wallower plant now being built at East St. Louis. The low-density process is used by the other plants now operating in the United States and other countries. There are now in operation and under construction four electrolytic zinc plants in the United States, two in Canada, two in Italy and one each in Australia, Rhodesia, Poland, Norway and Germany.

Jan 1, 1929

By G. D. TRANT

HOT metal is commonly transported from the blast furnace to the open hearth by one or the other of two general methods: (1) by hot-metal ladles, usually in conjunction with a stationary mixer, or; (2) by means of mixer-type ladle cars, taking the place of both the hot-metal ladles and the stationary mixer. In both cases, the use of transfer ladles for charging the metal into the open-hearth furnaces is necessary. The American Rolling Mill Co. at its Middletown division, adopted hot metal practice on. June 2, 1928. The pig iron is produced' in a .blast furnace about 11 miles from the open-hearth furnaces, and is trans- ported in Pugh-type mixer cars having a capacity of 150 gross tons each. Three cars are in service and handle the delivery of hot metal to the pig machine and the open-hearth furnaces. The capacity of the blast furnace is 550 tons and casts are made every four hours.

Jan 1, 1929

By J. E. Lamar

THAT Illinois is an important mineral producing state is well known. A value of over $237,000,000 for the mineral products in 1926 indicates the magnitude of the industries. Coal mining is the largest mineral industry, and the value of its product was about 63 per cent of the total mineral production of the state. Oil and gas constituted about 8 per cent and the non-metallic minerals about 29 per cent. This 29 per cent represents the production of a varied group of mineral industries of wide geographic distribution through the state.

Jan 1, 1929

By J. B. NEALEY

THE common method of shale mining, drilling, shooting and steam-shovel loading, is fast giving place to a comparatively new method which is purely mechanical. This machine is known as the shale planer and takes a cut from a very large face, 50 ft. or more in height. As shale deposits are usually stratified, the quality varying with the stratification, a very uniform product is obtained with this planer, for its "cut" is across the entire face, vertically. This planer was designed and built some 15 years ago by J. M. Powell, president of the Indiana Drain Tile Co., Brooklyn, Ind. Unevenness in mixing the material from the different layers in the shale deposit of this company was causing considerable fluctuation in the firing- shrinkage and color of the ware produced, thus lowering the quality. Some method of maintaining a uniform proportion was vital and this planer was therefore devised. Its capacity was approximately 175 tons daily: cut, mixed and loaded.

Jan 1, 1929

By R. W. Smith

IN the manufacture of portland cement, the basic and fundamental essential is a limestone uniformly rich in calcium carbonate and carrying less than 3 per cent magnesium carbonate. In searching for such a deposit, also having in mind quantity of rock, accessibility and quarrying facilities, the Pacific Coast Cement Co. discovered and developed its present quarry at View Cove on the east coast of Dall Island, Alaska. Dall Island is about 100 miles west of Ketchikan and 650 miles north from Seattle. It is 70 miles in length and 5 to 10 miles in width. The climatic conditions are much more favorable than would be expected. The temperature ranges from zero to 70 degrees. The precipitation is considerably more than at Seattle, although there was less snow during the last season than at Seattle. The island is rugged and mountainous; the vegetation is moss and grass and a large portion is timbered with spruce, hemlock and cedar. Some of this timber has market value. The limestone quarry is about 30 miles north of the extreme southern end of the island. The company acquired 240 acres which contain limestone of remarkable uniformity, the percentage of calcium carbonate being about 95. It is estimated that there is ample recover- able rock on the holdings to supply the cement plant at its maximum capacity for well over 100 years.

Jan 1, 1929

By John Hays Hammond

IT was but a few years ago that the mining engineer, and his confreres, the civil, mechanical and electrical engineer, were stigmatized by politicians of the parish? pump variety as advance agents of unprincipled exploiters of backward countries. Today he is recognized as a most important missionary of civilization in opening up new territory to contribute its mineral wealth and incidentally its other resources for the needs of mankind. An engineer, it is now conceded, is not only a benefactor of the world at large, but is a primary factor in the betterment of conditions of the inhabitants of those countries developed by his skill and indomitable courage-for courage is requisite in pioneering and his indefatigable industry. The engineer will, I believe, become a real "Ambassador of Good Will," when the slow-consenting academic mind realizes as it must that beneficent deeds are more enduring and more convincing than mere gestures of professed amity.

Jan 1, 1929

By K. S. TWITCHEEL

THE different lines leading out from the vocation of a mining engineer are,' perhaps, the most' varied of all the professions. The expedition sent by Charles R. Crane of New York 'as a gift to the Imam Yahia, king of the Yemen, Arabia, was probably unique. Mr. Crane made a visit, in January,1927, to the Imam Yahia at Sanaa, capital of the Yemen. He was received with the utmost cordiality and respect, as his friend- . ship for the ,Arab world is famous; He was 'greatly impressed by the desire of the Imam to develop his country. The Imam stated that he had heard that there were minerals in his country and that he would like to secure engineers to advise him about them and other natural resources.. This seemed such a practical idea, and so greatly appealed to Mr. crane, that he offered to furnish an engineering 'expedition. Naturally the Imam gratefully accepted. This expedition was to study (as far as possible in 'the limited time) the natural resources of the ,Yemen, advise the Imam of what these consisted, and make suggestions regarding the most practical methods for their development. As agriculture is always such a fundamental part of a country's wealth, I first went to Indio, California, to study water-well drilling and the date industry, and eventually arrived at Hodeidah, the principal Yemen seaport, on Oct. 21, 1927.

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

THE program of government drilling, conducted jointly by the U. S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines, has demonstrated the presence in Texas and New Mexico of potash-bearing beds of considerable importance. Information regarding the ex- tent and location of the potash deposits as presented at the non-metallic sessions was of great interest to many engineers. These subjects will be covered in greater detail in later paragraphs. The first session, with about 50 in attendance, convened at 10 a.m. on Feb. 18, with Oliver Bowles, chair- man of the Committee on Non-Metallic Minerals, pre- siding. The first paper was on "Soapstone Mining In Virginia," presented by C. W. Ryan of Lynchburg, Va. The nature and extent of the soapstone deposits of Nelson County were described in some detail. In origin, the soapstone is undoubtedly related to a basic peridotite rock though its mode of formation is some- what uncertain. This main soapstone deposit occurs in three veins, the western, middle, and eastern, the middle vein being of greatest economic importance. Methods of stripping, quarrying and milling the rock were described and the uses of soapstone were enum- erated. In discussing this paper, C. P. Berkey, of Co- lumbia University strongly favored the theory of igneous origin of the soapstone and the need for further detailed geological study. J. L. Gillson of Cambridge, Mass., stated that the Vermont and New York talc deposits were always associated with characteristic minerals, such as, a chlorite of one particular variety, siderite, amphibole, magnetite, and biotite. C. H. Behre of Cincinnati, Ohio, raised the question of parallelism in the soapstone structure and Mr. Ryan stated that such parallelism was in evidence in some parts of the deposits. H. A. Wheeler of St. Louis, Mo., also took 'part in the discussion.

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

FREDERICK WORTHEN BRADLEY, the newly elected president of the Institute, may be said to be the prototype of the men who have built up the great mining industry of the West. He was born in Nevada County, Cal., on Feb. 21, 1863, and studied mining at the University of California from 1882 to 1884, as a member of the Class of 1885. He was in contact with the mining industry from his earliest years and in his reminiscences which we published last month, he told of meeting Thomas Mein and H. C. Perkins in 1877. Beginning as assayer and roustabout at the Eagle Bird mine, in Nevada county, Mr. Bradley was a deputy mineral surveyor in 1886 and 1887 and superintendent of the Spanish mine from 1885 to 1890. There he made a record of mining gold ore at 65 cents per ton that was not only astounding in that day when modern large scale mining had not yet been developed but is still a mark to shoot at. As a result he was called in 1890 to be assistant manager of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan and was made manager in 1893. In 1897, he was elected to the presidency of the company, a position he still holds. H. C. Perkins and D. O. Mills, the largest stockholders in the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Co. took over the Tacoma smelter in 1898, feeding it with concentrate from the Coeur d'Alene and Douglas Island mines but also doing a gen-era1 smelting business. Mr. Bradley was put in as president of the Smelting company, and held that position until the plant was sold to the American Smelting Securities Co. in 1905.

Jan 1, 1929

By AIME AIME

THE second session on geophysical prospecting at the February meeting of the Institute was a discussion of the mining law and the bearing of the new method of search on location of claims and assessment work thereon. Allen H. Rogers was chairman of the meeting, which he opened by reviewing the present law and the proposed changes. W. R. Ingalls commented (by letter) on the Arentz bill, as introduced into the House of Representatives in 1921 and the need for revision of the present mining law. L. W. Douglas explained (by letter) the bill that he introduced and which has been passed by the House. SAMUEL S. ARENTZ, Nevada: It is my opinion that if the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers is to sell this proposition to the people in the West, they have to sell it to the lawyers, because, after all, they are heard loudly when it comes to speaking in Congress. One man tells the other, "This thing is a vicious piece of legislation"; it might not be, but they will pass it on if it affects them. If the Institute would impress on the people affected that we need a re-codification of the mining law and that such is necessary along certain lines; that things have changed during the past decade or two, so today instead of doing our prospecting alone through the sinking of a shaft, through a discovery that may be seen, we are now moving on to more modern means of discovery through geophysics, through the churn-drill, through geology, through geological inference, I think we could get somewhere.

Jan 1, 1929

By MERLE HOWARD GUISE

WHEN I was a boy I walked into Fairbanks in 1905. I was but a soft chechako, and arrived with blisters covering my feet, as a result of "mushing" the 400-mile trail on foot. Because of them, the display windows of the trading posts were first to catch my eye-dog and horse collars, harness and sled parts! And because of my enthusiasm for things adventurous, I looked long upon the prospectors' gold pans, shovels, rifles, camp equipment, and what not. Today those windows are filled with motor car accessories, tires and repair parts; yes, even thermos bottles and vacuum cleaners! There were many chance meetings with little parties of prospectors in my youth, and it always set my blood to tingling. Sometimes it was a 70-year-old sun-baked son of the Arizona desert, wrangling his stubborn, faithful jenny away from some outfitting store, at others a shovel-ended poling b0at in northern Canada, \vith the partners and the dogs towing upstream along the bank, or an old sourdough, with tug-rope around neck and hand on the spruce sapling gee-pole, mushing along behind his two or three old, plodding malamutes, dragging a little Yukon sled piled high with rusty sheet-iron stove, pick and shovel, cross-cut saw and axe, rifle, bales of dog salmon, and other paraphernalia. These meetings envisioned the panning of old creek beds and draws in the search for as yet undiscovered pay-channels; they meant the toughest kind of work sinking a hole to bedrock in some far-away valley of promise; they suggested wood fires to thaw the frozen muck and gravel and crude windlass and hand-made tub to hoist the water and the mud; but loudest of all they spoke of Adventure.

Jan 1, 1929

By Frederick M. Becket

AFTER all the chronology that has been given, what is the present status of chromium steels? For the purpose of this discussion the different types of chromium steels can be divided into three classifications-those containing relatively low , percentages of chromium, say 5 per cent or less; the medium-chromium steels containing up to about 18 or 19 per cent chromium; and the steels containing still higher percentages of chromium, and some of the special alloys. Chromium has some unique effects in steel, so it is well to make a few generalizations. The affinity of chromium for carbon is great and the metal is unique in the manger in which it supplements and enhances the effects of carbon. Chromium retards -considerably the thermal transformations on cooling and exerts an opposing influence both on the absorption and precipitation of the carbides in steel. These statements make it easy to understand the fact that chromium .steels are capable of producing a hardened product at a much slower rate of cooling than is, true of plain carbon steel, and that chromium carbide or -the mixed carbides of iron and chromium do not contribute to brittleness to as great a degree as does iron carbide.

Jan 1, 1929

By L. D. Ricketts

AN older man looks back, perhaps wistfully, on a long and rather active experience, and possibly a popular and brief glimpse of some contrast between past and present may hold your attention for a few brief moments and prove useful. In the late nineties an engineer was .called on to de- sign and build two copper ore concentrating mills of 400 tons average daily capacity. There were larger mills than this at Washoe and elsewhere, but a 400 ton' mill was a large one as mills went over thirty years ago, and one might say a large mill of those days could crush a ton of copper ore in 216 seconds. In the mills I refer to steel construction and the conveying belts were introduced into the copper industry and rein- forced concrete came shortly after. Since then we in the West have ever been faced with a constantly de- creasing tenor in the grade of our copper ores and a constantly increasing demand for our product, and we have therefore been obliged to call for far larger castings and finished machines than were formerly used. The mechanical engineer has also enabled us to accomplish notable economies in power generation and distribution. Ore handling and crushing have been simplified and through the introduction of reagents to induce physical or chemical reactions, or both, our older methods have been vastly improved or even supplanted by new and better ones and our recoveries greatly improved.

Jan 1, 1929

By PALMER H. TYLER

WHEN the Mid-Continent Section of the A. I. M. E. met at the roof garden dining room of the Tulsa Club on Monday evening, May 13, most of the members present came prepared with a credulity-stretching yarn of some sort or other, gathered from actual experience. Perhaps it was not realized at the time that such anecdotes would eventually burst into print, but while the excellent dinner was appeasing the inner man the word was passed around that informality and spontaneity of expression would characterize the meeting, with the result that the shackles of convention were eventually cast aside and the meeting waxed better and better until the hour grew ,late, and the chairman, L. G. E. Bignell, originator of the idea, brought to a close what was agreed to be a profitable and entertaining evening. The ball was started rolling by Paul Ruedemann of the program committee, who offered the following:

Jan 1, 1929