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By W. E. Hess

AT the Vesta mines of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. on the Monongahela River, 35 miles south of Pittsburgh, JCM Joy continuous miners and 6-SC shuttle cars are used for pillar extraction in the Pittsburgh seam. The entire output of the mine goes into coke production for blast furnace operation. Because this coal, which has high metallurgical qualities, is close to the place where it is ultimately used and because supplies with these properties are being rapidly depleted, complete recovery is essential wherever possible. With the introduction of the continuous miner into the Vesta mines, therefore, it was necessary to plan a project which would facilitate development and provide for future total recovery. Use of continuous miners under varying conditions has necessitated changes with regard to roof action, method of development, method of pillar attack, and innovations in mining. In the following pages these changes will be discussed. Prior to the introduction of continuous miners the Pittsburgh seam at the Vesta mines averaged 72 in. of mineable coal, overlain with 12 to 16 in. of draw-slate, which weathers on exposure to air and is not firm enough to be held in place. Immediately overlying the drawslate is a wild or rooster coal, very irregular in thickness, varying from 12 to 30 in. Above the rooster coal the strata consists predominately of shales or lime shales and sandstone. Just before the introduction of continuous miners in the Vesta mines, however, a definite change took place in the character of the roof structure overlying the coal seam, see Fig. 1. Thickness of laminated roof immediately overlying the rooster coal varies with localities and introduces a problem in roof control. In fact, a set of eight main entries being developed in Vesta NO. 4 mine entered an area with so difficult a roof structure that management considered abandoning the section altogether. In this locality the roof consisted of thin alternate layers of roof coals and shales, with an occasional irregular seam of slick slate, the whole being laced with slips, and the coal itself being cut by clay veins and spars. In an effort to overcome some of the difficulties, roof bolting was introduced in 1949. This made it possible to recover coal from an area which otherwise would have been economically unmineable. There have been very few roof bolt failures. When conventional machines were replaced by continuous miners there were changes in the development of butt entries. By these changes it was hoped: 1—to speed development, 2—to provide as much solid coal as possible for the machine on retreat, 3—to avoid the necessity of crossing entries already driven, 4—to facilitate ventilation, 5—to provide a roadway for shuttle car haulage which would eliminate the necessity of running through doors or curtains, 6—to provide better roof control by increasing the distance between the center lines of entries, and 7—to provide more coal when the machine was in position to load.

Jan 1, 1956

By M. L. Skow

Large tonnages of the manganese ores found in Aroostook County, Maine, are refractory to conventional mineral-dressing techniques and to the common chemical- extraction procedures. The Maple Mountain-Hovey Mountain ores are typical of this type. Because the most promising method of recovering the manganese from these ores has been a chloridizing roast in which the ground ore is in contact with gaseous hydrogen chloride, preliminary batch tests were made with a fluidized bed. On the basis of these tests, it was concluded that fluidization, with careful control of operating conditions, could be employed for this cloridization and warrants further study. Selective volatilization of the iron at 600° C. was unsuccessful. An operating temperature of approximately 950° C. was necessary for a practicable rate of volatilization of manganese chloride. Hydrogen chloride contents of 10 to 100 percent of the fluidized gas gave essentially equivalent manganese recoveries with an 80- minute retention time, For shorter periods reaction was more complete with the higher hydrogen chloride concentrations. At the 80-minute retention period the lower hydrogen chloride concentrations volatilized somewhat less iron and also improved the physical operation of the process. Fluidization gave results superior to comparable tests on chloridization in a fixed bed.

Jan 1, 1956

By E. C. W. Perryman

IN spite of the large amount of work which has been carried out on the recrystallization of aluminum and its alloys, there has been no complete investigation of the recrystallization characteristics of A1-Mg alloys. The most complete investigation is that reported by Bungardt and Osswald' who, working with commercial-purity materials, found that the temperature both of beginning and of complete recrystallization increased with magnesium content up to about 2 pct Mg, then decreased with a further increase in magnesium up to 5.0 pct, and thereafter increased again. Michaud and Segolz working with 99.93 pct A1 also found the temperature of beginning of recrystallization to decrease as the magnesium content increased from 2.13 pct to about 4.5 pct. Chossat3 using aluminum of 99.99 pct purity found that 0.12 pct Mg had no effect but that 0.4 pct Mg increased the recrystallization temperature by about 30°C. That no effect was found for 0.12 pct Mg does not agree with the later results reported by Demer and Beck4 who found that 0.025 pct Mg in 99.99 pct A1 increased the time for complete recrystallization and furthermore increased the activation energy for the recrystallization process. Kratz" using 99.997 pct A1 found that 0.5 pct Mg increased both the temperature of beginning and of complete recrystallization by 100°C. Chadwick and Hooper" working with commercial-purity material found that 1 pct Mg increased the temperature of complete recrystallization by about 40 °C for cold reductions in the range 17 to 72 pct. With smaller amounts of cold work produced by stretching (10 pct strain), they found no significant effect of magnesium. The latter result agrees with that obtained by Williams and Eborall' who found no effect of 2 pct Mg on the recrystallization temperature of commercial-purity aluminum strained 10 pct or less by stretching. Experimental Procedure Material Used: The chemical analyses of the materials used throughout this investigation are given in Table I. Fabrication: The alloys were cast in iron molds which had been washed thoroughly with alumina. After scalping, the ingots were annealed for 16 hr at 450°C, pressed, annealed at 450°C for 16 hr and hot rolled to 0.25 in. After hot rolling, the slabs were alternately annealed and cold rolled to 0.036 in. Cold-rolling reductions between intermediate anneals were kept at about 30 pct and a high intermediate annealing temperature of 450°C was used so as to obtain, as nearly as possible, similar starting grain sizes for the different materials. All intermediate anneals were done in a salt bath and were followed by cold-water quenching so as to retain all the magnesium in solid solution. The final cold reductions investigated were 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 pct. The initial grain sizes, that is, the grain size before the final cold reduction, were all very similar. Annealing Procedure: Specimens, 1 in. sq, were cut from the 0.036 in. sheet and annealed in a salt bath, the temperature of which was controlled to k2"C. Separate specimens were annealed for different times at 350°, 375", 400°, and in one or two cases at 415°C and after annealing were quenched in cold water. The time taken for a specimen to reach temperature was approximately 5 sec. Metal-lographic examination after annealing showed that no precipitation of Mg+413 occurred during cooling. Procedures Used for Determining Recrystallization Characteristics: All specimens were electrolyti-cally polished and etched by the method described previously1° and polishing was continued until about 0.002 in. had been removed from each side of the specimen. Using this technique, the smallest recrys-tallized grain which could be observed with cer-

Jan 1, 1956

By Lloyd Williams

1. Reserves have been estimated for three coal beds in Bledsoe County, Tenn.: Morgan Springs, Lantana, and Sewanee. The Richland and Nelson beds occur in Bledsoe County also, but there was not enough information on them for making an estimate of reserves. 2. Known measured and indicated reserves for all beds, based on a minimum thickness of 14 inches and on 1,800 short tons per acre-foot of coal in place, are estimated at 43 million tons as of January 1, 1954. Of this total, 22 million tons represents coal 28 inches and more thick. Areas in the beds were omitted from the estimate because available data relative to the bed characteristics were insufficient for making an estimate conforming with the definitions of measured and indicated coal adopted for this study. Should future drilling or development prove reserves in these areas, such reserves should be added to the total estimated reserves deter-mined by this investigation.

Jan 1, 1956

By Ralph H. Whaite

To assist the anthracite industry obtain technical data on pneumatic packing, the Federal Bureau of Mines imported a pneumatic packing machine from Germany and installed it in a mine of a cooperating company in the Northern anthracite field of Pennsylvania. This report covers the second in a series of experiments in applying pneumatic packing for controlling strata movement (subsidence) above mine workings in the Pennsylvania anthracite region. The first experiment2/ was begun in January 1950, in a section of the mine where about 50 percent of the original coal remained in the form of pillars; since the company did not plan to mine the pillars in this particular area, pneumatic packing of the chamber voids was done for test purposes only. During this initial test the machine was operated on 204 shifts, and 652,400 cubic feet of breaker refuse material (22,834 tons) was packed into the voids of 16 chambers. The work was completed in December 1951.

Jan 1, 1956

By W. Rostoker

Single isothermal sections were constructed for the titonium-rich corners of the systems Ti-Fe-O, Ti-Cr-O, and Ti-Ni-0 with a view to locating the shape and disposition of the ternary intermediate-phase fields for the compounds isomorphous with Fe3W3C. IN a previous note,' it was reported that a group of ternary intermediate phases existed which occurred in the general composition range Ti,X,O-Ti&O where X was one of the following elements: copper, nickel, cobalt, iron, or manganese. In two instances, binary intermediate phases occurred (Ti²Cu and Ti²Ni) which appeared to be isomorphous. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the phases could be indexed on a cubic lattice whose cell edge was of the order of 11 kX. Karlsson2 stated that the line extinctions and line intensities indicated that these phases were isomorphous with Fe³W³C and therefore belonged to the space group Oh. This author also noted that no unique phase of this type occurred at the composition Ti,Cr,O. This latter statement was accepted as true at the time the previous technical note was written.' However, work continued along these lines and that reported here has shown that a phase isomorphous with Fe³W³C does exist in the vicinity of the composition Ti³Cr³O but not at or near Ti4 Cr²O. The lattice parameter of this phase was found to be 13.01 kX. Metallographic examination of both as-cast and annealed specimens of these supposed ternary oxide phases disclosed structures which were far from single phase in many instances. It was considered a point of some interest to locate more positively the composition coordinates of the single-phase fields. To this end, single isothermal sections for the systems Ti-Fe-O (1000°C), Ti-Cr-0 (1000°C), and Ti-Ni-0 (900"C) were constructed. Phase relationships were studied by both X-ray diffraction and metallotrra~hic methods. Allovs were prepared as 10 g buttons by melting in a noncon-sumable electrode, water-cooled copper crucible arc-melting furnace using a helium atmosphere. Oxygen was introduced quantitatively by the use of weighed amounts of TiO² or TiO. Iodide titanium and the purest available alloying metals were used. All results are discussed in terms of the nominal composition of the melts. Previous experience with making oxygen-rich alloys had shown that oxygen losses were not significant if a homogeneous melt was produced. Weight-loss measurements were used to check loss in metallics during melting. Anneals were conducted in evacuated Vycor bulbs, and annealing times ranged from 24 hr at 1000 °C to 48 hr at 900°C. To achieve equilibrium in certain sluggish alloys, seven-day anneals were used. Debye-Scherrer powder patterns were taken in a 14 cm diam camera using filtered CuK radiation (K² = 1.541232 kX; K., = 1.53739 kX). Specimens were prepared by crushing and screening previously annealed buttons. In general, the X-ray diffraction results were used to identify the major phases, while the metallographic examinations were more useful in indicating the number of phases present. By the use of the combined results and general fundamental rules governing ternary equilibrium, it was possible to construct isothermal sections in good detail. In some instances where auxiliary lattice-parameter data were available, it was possible to lay down tie lines and to locate more positively corners of three-phase fields. Isothermal Section of the System Ti-Fe-O at 1000°C The binary systems Ti-O³ and Ti-Fe4 have been published. Binary phases, TiO, TiFe, and TiFe2, are likely to be encountered in the titanium-rich corner of the system. The structures are NaCl (Bl), CsCl (B2), and MgZn, (C14) types, respectively. Although preliminary X-ray diffraction studies indicated the presence of a ternary phase in the composition range Ti,Fe,O-TiJ?e,O, metallographic examination of two specimens at these compositions revealed the presence of other phases. Thirty-eight alloys were used to delineate the phase boundaries of the isothermal section illustrated in Fig. 1. The five almost single-phase ter-

Jan 1, 1956

By Carl Belser

This report on tungsten in Ouray, San Juan, and San Miguel Counties, Colo., is one of a series describing results of studies on the tungsten potentialities in Region III, Bureau of Mines. The San Juan tungsten deposits occur in an area of 250 square miles, centering near the common corner of Ouray, San Juan, and San Miguel Counties (fig. 1). Field work supporting these studies was done in May 1954. Bureau of Mines reports prepared from investigations made during World War II and under the Defense Production Act of 1950 were reviewed.

Jan 1, 1956

By H. C. Vacher, C. J. Newton

EXTENSIVE investigations in the field of residual strain measurement by X-ray diffraction have been made by Bollenrath, Hauk, and Osswald,1 by Smith and Wood,2'3 by Greenough; by Rosenthal and Norton." and many others. Since X-ray strain measuremeits apply only to those crystals of the test body which are of the proper condition and orientation to diffract and since the residual strains revealed may be accompanied by either body or tex-tural stresses, there has been considerable disagreement among investigators with respect to the validity of conclusions in this field. Although the experi-mentors have employed a variety of loading schemes, surface preparations, and X-ray wave lengths, the observations almost invariably have been made only on the outer surfaces of the specimens. The present note is not to be construed as an exposition of a new method of stress analysis by X-ray strain measurements on sections but as a presentation of some results which point to interesting possibilities for further experiments with sections. The two test rods used in this study were of ingot iron annealed at 910°C. The initial length of the gage section was 2 in. and the diameter was 0.415 in. Cross-sections were cut from the ends of the annealed rods to provide strain-free material. The tensile rod was axially loaded the desired amount in a commercial testing machine. A 1 in. portion of the gage length was cut from the other rod and was subjected to compression in the same machine. Details of this plastic straining of each rod are given in the upper half of Table I. A half-cylinder piece about 1/4 in. long was obtained by making a short longitudinal plane cut containing the axis of the rod near the center of the gage length. From adjacent material a disk about 1/8 in. thick was cut to provide the cross-section specimen. Later another section was cut from this same region with an angle of 30" between the normal to its surface and the axis of the test rod. A cross-section and a longitudinal section were cut from the compression rod in a similar manner. All of these as well as the strain-free cross-sections were mounted in Bakelite and used as specimens for the following X-ray strain measurements. During the course of the study, it became apparent that the condition of the surface of a specimen was a highly critical factor. One of the annealed strain-free specimens as a control was subjected to about 24 hr of polishing with fine alumina, interrupted about every 2 hr for etching with 1 pct nital. Its lattice parameter was determined at intervals from measurements on back-reflection X-ray diffraction patterns, which were calibrated with diffraction from tungsten powder. The parameter gradually approached the value found in the literature for strain-free iron and remained there, within the limits of the experimental error. This determined a long polishing and etching procedure which was adopted for all the specimens and which gave X-ray results from the surfaces believed to be representative of each specimen as a whole. A large number of back-reflection patterns were made with cobalt and chromium radiation, all at normal incidence. Except for some preliminary stationary exposures made to monitor the removal of cold work from the surfaces, each exposure was made with the specimen slowly translating and the film slowly rotating. In appropriate cases a thin layer of a standard metal powder, tungsten with cobalt radiation and silver with chromium, was dusted over a film of vaseline on the surface of the specimen to serve to calibrate the X-ray patterns. After the preliminary work, four films were made,

Jan 1, 1956

By Worner H. K

The paper briefly summarises the work of the Titanium Research Section in the Metallurgy Department of the University of Melbourne and mentions the development of a new electrolytic process for titanium production. This process utilises the "hot-spot" cathode technique and titanium carbide anodes. An introduction is given to three further papers on titanium metallurgy to be presented to the Institute.INTRODUCTIONThe unique combination of strength, lightness and corrosion resistance possessed :by titanium and its, alloy has made them of great interest to engineers. However, high cost, difficulties of production and limited knowledge of techniques of application restrict their usage at present almost exclusively to high priority armaments.The cost of the metal is divided between extraction and processing and much research has been carried out to devise new and cheaper methods for winning the metal from its ores. Processing costs will be reduced when production volume increases.Extraction research is proceeding rapidly overseas and Kellogg (1955, p. 72) reports that 'at least seventeen companies in the U.S.A. are interested in titanium production. Of these, two are producing the metal by a modified Kroll process, three are building Kroll plants and the remainder are in various stages of research activity. The Horizons Corporation alone is contemplating electrolytic extraction and is building a pilot plant. Steinberg et aI. (1955, p. 252, p. 332) have reported the early work done by the HorizonsCorporation on electrolysis of potassium fluotitanate and titanium monoxide in fused salt electrolytes. Of these two, the former appears to be the more attractive process.

Jan 1, 1956

By S. F. Reiter, W. R. Hibbard

A survey of the effect of heat treatment on the room temperature hardness of Fe-Mo alloys has been made. Constant strain rate tensile tests were performed between room temperature and 1800°F. These data were analyzed to determine the effect of temperature and composition on the strain hardening coefficient and strain rate sensitivity. Constant load creep-rupture tests were made on these alloys and the results related to composition and structure. A relation between the high temperature strength of the precipitation hardened alloys and the volume of precipitate has been observed. IN view of the extensive use of ferritic materials at elevated temperatures, it is surprising to note the limited amount of information relating the variables of plastic deformation, i.e., composition, structure, temperature, stress, strain, and strain rate. Hollomon and Lubahn' showed how the several variables of plastic flow might be treated analytically. No data were available on carbon-free iron and its alloys in a form suitable for this analysis. Several German investigations2-" constitute most of the experimental work relating high temperature properties to the constitution of these types of materials. In order to obtain new data, the iron-rich alloys of the Fe-Mo system were selected for detailed investigation for the following reasons: 1—Some of the important effects of molybdenum on the mechanical properties of iron have already been studied.' , 821 2—By suitable heat treatment of selected alloys, it is possible to study strengthening effects of four types: AT -a transformation, B—substitutional, C—precipitation, and D—dispersion of hard inter-metallic compound. Materials and Treatment Four-pound ingots were vacuum cast, employing the same melting schedule previously used.? The raw materials were electrolytic iron and lamp-grade molybdenum. The ingots were forged to l/z in. sq. rod and one portion swaged to 0.350 in. diam rod for the production of 1 15/16 in. long button-head specimens. The button-head specimen blanks were solution treated for 16 hr at 2100°F in hydrogen of —70°C dewpoint and then water quenched. They were subsequently plunge ground to the standard 0.160 in. diam test bar. Micrographs of the solution treated alloys are given in Figs. la through Id. The higher molybdenum alloys contained large equiaxed ferrite crystals similar to those in Fig. Id. A portion of the % in. rod was hot rolled to 0.100 in., sandblasted, and cold rolled to 0.020 in. Strip tensile specimens having a 0.020x0.200 in. cross-section and a 2.25 in. gage length were machined from the sheet. The alloys containing molybdenum were subsequently annealed 1 hr at 1560°F. The iron strip was annealed 4 hr at 1300°F in wet hydrogen. The resultant structures are shown in Fig. 2a through h. The ASTM grain sizes were 1 to 3 as solution heat treated or 3 to 4 as annealed. The chemical analyses of the alloys are given in Table I. Carbon contents were obtained after the heat treatments in hydrogen. Alloy 15.9 pct Mo was tested as a cast alloy.'

Jan 1, 1956

By R. W. Balluffi, R. Resnick

NUMEROUS investigations of chemical diffusion in a brass have been made and the results are collected in several places.1-3 This work has been mainly concerned with the determination of the chemical diffusivity as a function of composition and temperature. In 1947 Smigelskas and Kirken-dall&apos; showed that zinc and copper diffuse at different rates in face-centered-cubic brass, and since then, a number of efforts have been made to determine the intrinsic diffusivities of zinc and copper in this alloy.1, 5-9 Horne and Mehl8 in particular have recently determined the intrinsic diffusivities as functions of temperature and composition using sandwich-type couples and inert markers. Inman et al." also have determined the intrinsic diffusivities in homogeneous alloys using tracer techniques. When the present work was started, no information of this type was available. Consequently, measurements of the intrinsic diffusivities were made as a function of temperature at a constant composition of 28 atomic pct Zn with vapor-solid diffusion couples where the zinc was diffused into the diffusion couple from the vapor phase. The application of these couples to the study of diffusion in a: brass has been described previously.0,7 The temperature dependence of the intrinsic diffusivities was found to follow the relation D, = A, exp(-Hi/RT) and the values of Hzn, and Hcu, were found to be closely the same. It is emphasized, however, that the chemical dif-fusivity (D = N1D2 + N2D1) is a composite diffusivity and does not necessarily follow this exponential form. It is usually found to do so within experimental error for substitutional alloys because the heats of activation of the intrinsic diffusivities generally are not greatly different.&apos;" Also, at the onset of this work, there was no information available concerning possible unequal diffusion rates of individual components and the existence of a Kirkendall effect in alloys with other than face-centered-cubic structures. Since then, two reports indicating a Kirkendall effect in body-centered-cubic ß brass have appeared. Landergren and Mehl" have published a note describing Kirkendall diffusion experiments with sandwich-type couples. Inman et a1.9 also find a Kirkendall effect in this alloy using the tracer technique. In the present work, several aspects of the Kirkendall effect in ß brass were further investigated using vapor-solid couples. Two different couples were used, one in which the zinc was diffused into the specimen from the vapor phase and the other in which the zinc was diffused out of the specimen into the vapor phase. Briefly, the existence of a Kirkendall effect is confirmed and it is found that Dzn/Dcu = 3 at about the 46 atomic pct composition in this alloy at 600°, 700°, and 800°C. As a result of the unequal diffusion rates of zinc and copper, volume changes occur and subgrain formation is observed in the diffusion zone. In addition, significant porosity is produced by the precipitation of supersaturated vacancies. Diffusion in this alloy is therefore outwardly similar to diffusion in a brass where these effects are also observed, a Brass Experimental Methods—The use of vapor-solid couples in studying diffusion in a brass has been described in previous articles.6,7 The method briefly consists of sealing a copper specimen with Kirkendall markers initially placed on its surface in an evacuated quartz capsule along with a large zinc source of fine a brass chips and then diffusing the zinc into the specimen through the vapor phase. The zinc concentration at the specimen surface rises rapidly enough to a value near that of the a brass source so that the surface concentration may be regarded as constant during diffusion. Under these boundary conditions, values of the chemical diffu-sivity may be obtained by applying the Boltzmann-Matano analysis to the concentration penetration curve, and the intrinsic diffusivities may be obtained from Darken&apos;s5 equations when the velocity of marker movement is known. The diffusion specimens were made from OFHC copper in the form of disks 3.2 cm diam and 0.5 cm thick with faces surface-ground parallel to within +0.001 cm. Markers in the form of fine alumina particles <0.0002 cm diam were placed on the specimen surface. These specimens were then sealed in quartz capsules along with enough a brass chips of a 30.0 atomic pct Zn composition to keep the source concentration from decreasing by more than 0.3 atomic pct Zn as a result of the loss of zinc to the specimen during diffusion. The quartz capsules which were initially evacuated to a pressure of

Jan 1, 1956

By C. A. Hope, H. B. Wishart

THE number and severity of surface imperfections on rolled slabs, assuming the reception of uniformly good quality heats from the open hearths, depend upon a number of conditions associated with heating and rolling of steel in the primary mills. While there are other elements that have an effect on surface quality, rather than make this paper too lengthy the discussion of mill processing variables will be limited to three factors in order to illustrate their effect on slab surface quality: 1—amount of reduction between ingot and slab, 2—slab finishing temperatures, and 3—influence of roll changes. Measurement of the percentage of surface removed by scarfing on the flat surfaces of the slabs was used for evaluating quality in this study. A study of this nature must be made on slabs that are inspected and conditioned under uniform conditions and standards. In order to be certain that steel of the best possible steelmaking quality was received at the rolling mills, a low carbon deep drawing grade of rimmed steel, made for sheet mill application and manufactured under carefully controlled open hearth practices, was selected. Use of this particular steel thereby reduced the steel quality factor as a possible source of variation. The measure of slab surface quality is the amount of surface removed by scarfing during yard conditioning and is expressed as percentage of surface removal. This percentage was estimated by experienced personnel to uniform standards and it should be noted that these percentage figures are representative only for the grade selected and under the rigid inspection standards to which the slabs were subjected. Surface removal is a matter of concern because the imperfections, if undetected, often are the cause of poor surface quality in the finished product and their removal, by conditioning, add to the total plant costs. The data was collected at various times over a period of six months and, with normal weekly fluctuation in the level of quality, it is to be expected that for any period of sampling there will be some variation in the plotted results. The type of defect that is responsible for most slab conditioning at Gary Steel Works is a light angular surface break. This defect is usually interconnected to form large defective areas and occurs mainly on the bottom half of the slab on both sides. This type of defect is illustrated in Fig. 1, showing a bottom portion of a slab; while a close-up of an area of the same slab where the surface breaks were found is given in Fig. 2. The large dark areas are heat patterns, results of hot stacking and cooling. Independent of these light breaks, but sometimes associated with them, are larger and deeper isolated breaks. However, most of the surface removal occurs from conditioning the large areas of small breaks. There are also occasional scabs of varying degrees of severity but these are relatively infrequent. The slabs are generally free of rolled-in scale. Ingot to Slab Reduction vs Quality Some ten years ago at Gary Steel Works, the minimum slab ingot thickness was 30 in. Subsequent operating and other quality features indicated the desirability of using an ingot of reduced thickness with the result that a series of molds that would produce a 22 in. thick ingot with various widths was adopted as standard. A minimum number of the thicker mold sets are still used. From the standpoint of quality difficulties from pipe and segregation, the smaller ingots are an improvement. From a quality surface viewpoint, the slab product from the thin molds requires approximately twice the surface removal as the slab product from the thick molds. This is shown in Fig. 3 where the percentage of surface removal is plotted against slab product rolled from

Jan 1, 1956

By G. J. Harmsen

is shown that in any isotropic porous medium there is a fixed ratio, : , between the numerical valrles of the total pore perimeter per unit of cross-section and the specific surface area per unit of bulk volume. The consequences of this fact on the use of the concept "hydraulic radius" in the case of porous media are examined. The validity for consolidated sands of Kozeny&apos;s rela- tionship and of the formula derived by Carman for capillary rise are discussed. INTRODUCTION In the course of time several quantities and relations have been put forward in order to describe the texture of a porous medium and the flow of fluid through it. Among these relations the so-called Kozeny formula and a formula for capillary rise, for both of which Carman&apos;,&apos; has given a derivation, will be specially considered here. These relations are of a semi-empirical nature and the derivations must be considered to have a heuristic significance only. For unconsolidated mate-

Jan 1, 1956

By K. K. Kershner

To meet an increasing demand for high-purity cobalt, the Bureau of Mines has conducted investigations for producing this metal. Cobalt having a purity of 99.95 percent or higher is needed to determine heats of formation, corrosion resistances, phase diagrams, and other basic properties of the element and its compounds. This grade of cobalt may be used for preparing radioactive metal. As a result of its investigations a detailed procedure, which is of practical significance to the production of high-purity cobalt, has been developed by the Bureau for purifying cobalt solutions and for electrolytic deposition of the metal. Cobalt metal, which had a purity of 99.99 percent with reference to metallic contaminations, was deposited electrolytically. Qualitative spectrographic analysis showed only traces of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, nickel, and zinc.

Jan 1, 1956

By J. Washburn

Two simple types of dislocation distribution were introduced into zinc crystal specimens and the effect of each on the stress-strain curve was investigated. Quantitative results were obtained for simple edge dislocation arrays and for an array of screw dislocations lying in the slip plane. A CCORDING to present knowledge, the disloca-tions present in large annealed metal crystals can be divided into two somewhat arbitrary groups: 1—single dislocation lines distributed more or less at random or forming elements of a three-dimensional network in which the distance between adjacent dislocations is of the order of 10 2 to lo-&apos; cm and 2— widely separated planar arrays of edge dislocations forming dislocation walls or small angle boundaries within which adjacent dislocation lines are spaced at much smaller distances (lo-&apos; to 10- hm). The former can be considered as a dislocation interpretation of the mosaic crystal proposed by Darwin and Ewaldl, &apos; 40 years ago to account for anomalously high integrated intensities of X-ray diffraction maxima. Small angle boundaries, although now known to be present in most single crystals used for mechanical testing, were not generally recognized by the early workers. This was partly due to the fact that only recently have improved X-ray and metal-lographic techniques been available for checking the macroscopic perfection of crystals."" It has long been known that changes in growth conditions and in annealing procedure, which might logically be expected to cause variations in the structural details of both the dislocation network and of dislocation boundaries, produce marked variations in some mechanical properties such as yield strength." However, no quantitative experimental correlations between changes in dislocation distribution and changes in mechanical properties have yet been made. Such a correlation has been difficult to obtain because, even when great care is exercised to keep the histories of a number of single crystal specimens identical, it usually has not been possible to avoid considerable variation in macroscopic per- fection.&apos; The number and orientation of dislocation boundaries vary from specimen to specimen. This has probably been an important contributing factor to the large scatter in the results of most mechanical measurements on pure single crystals. Some recent experiments"% ith single crystals of zinc have shown that the presence of dislocation boundaries in a specimen can increase its resistance to deformation by slip. With polycrystalline aluminum and nickel, there is also evidence that dislocation boundaries within the individual grains of the aggregate can increase the resistance of the material to plastic deformation, either as measured by tension tests at room temperature or by creep tests at higher temperatures.&apos;" " Although the foregoing observations seem to have established the fact that substructure can have a strengthening effect, the test conditions were too complex to give much information concerning the mechanism. In the foregoing cases, a network of intersecting boundaries having various orientations and boundary angles were present. Before their apparent strengthening effect can be understood, it will be necessary to isolate and study separately the effect of a number of variables: 1—boundary angle, 2—boundary orientation with respect to the active slip direction, 3—number of boundaries, 4—intersections of boundaries, 5—detailed structure of the boundaries, and 6—interaction of impurity atoms with dislocations in boundaries. The object of the present work was to study the effect of dislocation boundaries on flow stress under the following simple experimental conditions: 1— substantially pure shear deformation and 2—boundaries of controlled angle, orientation, and number. In this way, it might be possible to distinguish the important variables from the relatively unimportant ones. Experimental Procedure Stress-strain curves of hexagonal metals are generally nearly linear even out to very large strains."

Jan 1, 1956

By M. W. Cox, V. F. Hollister

EXPLORATION for metallic mineral deposits is carried on by those special adaptations of methods which the explorer believes will yield most economically or satisfactorily the particular answer sought. In this project the usual methods of geologic observation, recording, and interpretation, when combined with magnetic geophysical methods and geochemical soil sampling, led to disclosures of appreciable zinc mineralization where none was visible in surface exposure. Since 1945 considerable work has been done with geochemical prospecting methods, chiefly in determining the presence and distribution of various elements existing in minor amounts in rocks, soil, vegetation or waters of mineralized areas. Such work, in which the U. S. Geological Survey has taken the lead, finds a ready place in the field repertoire of the exploration geologist as a supplement, not a substitute, for other methods. The Chollet project was carried out in 1951 by the American Smelting & Refining Co. near its Van Stone mine in northern Stevens County, Wash., in the area shown in Fig. 1. The Van Stone mine is located in the Onion Creek drainage of the Selkirk Mountains, midway between the towns of Colville and Northport, Wash., and some twenty airline miles west of the Metaline mining district. Its zinc-lead orebodies, currently yielding about 1000 tpd of ore, occur as bedding replacement deposits in the middle Cambrian Metaline formation near an intrusive granodiorite contact. The target of exploration at the Chollet prospect was a similar geologic environment along the intrusive contact about 5 miles west of the mine. Geographic Setting The Chollet ground covers a north-facing slope at 3000 to 4000-ft elevation. Second-growth jack pine and tamarack with some hemlock and yellow pine make a thick forest cover. A heavy under-forest of alder, willow, and lesser shrubs occupies the draws, see Fig. 2. Grassy slopes appear at higher elevations. The lower slopes are underlain by a thick blanket of glacial till and alluvium so that outcrops are scarce; however, perhaps 50 pct rock exposure prevails at higher elevations. This part of northern Washington annually receives about 25 in. of precipitation, which largely falls as snow in the winter months. Summers are dry with occasional rainy periods. General Geology The Van Stone mine and the Chollet prospect lie along the southern margin of a westerly extending lobe of the Kaniksu batholith, one of the series of granodioritic masses that are intrusive into Cretaceous and older rocks in northern Washington and southern British Columbia. The margin is composed of complexly deformed Paleozoic sediments ranging in age from the lower Cambrian Maitlen phyllite on the east, through middle Cambrian Metaline formation (limestone and dolomite), to Ordovician Ledbetter slate on the west. In general the formations strike N10 to 50E and dip steeply northwestward, although dip reversals and minor folding occur. This general rock distribution is shown on Fig. 3. In this area the Metaline formation, which is the host rock for mineralization, appears to be of about 4000-ft thickness that can be conveniently divided into the same three units defined by Park and Cannon&apos; for the Metaline area. The basal part consists of 1000 ft of interbedded white limestone, argillaceous limestone, and gray silty argillite. The middle part, approximately 1500 ft thick, consists of fine-grained black, gray, and white dolomite. This unit also contains minor interbedded limestone. The upper part is a gray massive limestone about 1500 ft thick that grades upward into slaty limestone and slate capped locally by a thin black jas-peroidal dolomite which is either the uppermost member of the Metaline formation or the basal member of the overlying Ledbetter (Ordovician)

Jan 1, 1956

By D. B. Smith

DURING the summer of 1953, test work commenced at the Sullivan Concentrator with a view to the modification of filtration practice by the inclusion of wet cyclone classification of the lead concentrates, with separate filtration of the underflow and overflow products. Formerly, practice was conventional and the equipment employed comprised one 50-foot diameter thickener ?with the underflow routed via a 20-foot stock tank to two 8-foot by 12-foot Oliver filters. Heating of the filter feeds to 40° C. and the use of mechanical slappers on the filter drums ?have both been standard features of Sullivan practice for years. Both of these have been retained. Currently (February, 1956), lead concentrates are being classified into sands and slimes by 12-inch cyclones with the underflow, at 75 per cent solids, being fed to No. 1 Oliver filter. The overflow is thickened to 75 per cent solids and filtered separately by a No. 2 Oliver filter . The tonnage split is approximately two of underflow to one of overflow. The overflow contains 75 to 80 per cent of the total minus I 500 mesh slimes in the feed.

Jan 1, 1956

By C. B. E. Douglas

The following analysis was stimulated by a previous article on evaluation of the water problem at Eureka, Nev., which describes a method using formulas especially devised to calculate flow potential of extensive aquifers characterized by relatively even porosity and permeability throughout. The present discussion submits that the method was unsuitable for solving the kind of problem occurring at Eureka, where the amount of water available, rather than the flow potential, may have been the vital factor. IN an interesting article on evaluation of the water problem at Eureka, Nev.,1 W. T. Stuart describes how a difficult water problem, or one phase of it, may be evaluated by means of a small scale test. Test data are plotted by a method rendering, under certain conditions, a straight-line graph that can be projected to show how much the water table will be lowered by pumping at any specified rate for a given time. A formula is then used to determine the size of opening, or extent of workings, necessary to provide sufficient inflow to enable pumping to be maintained at that rate. At first glance this might seem the answer to a miner&apos;s prayer, but a word of caution is in order. It may not be the whole answer. Moreover, results obtained by the method described are reliable only for conditions approximating those assumed. Even where conditions do not meet this requirement, however, it may be possible to draw helpful inferences from the results, perhaps enough to facilitate another approach to evaluation of a problem. The two formulas Mr. Stuart used, the Theis formula and the one developed from it by Cooper and Jacob, were given field checks a number of years ago in valley alluvials by the Water Supply Div. of the U. S. Geological Survey and found to be reliable when the aquifer is very large in horizontal extent and sufficiently isotropic for the test well and observation wells to be in material of the same average permeability as the saturated part of the aquifer as a whole." Extensive valley alluvials, sands, and gravels can be evaluated in this way, and there are even cases in which the method could apply to porous limestones, such as flat beds of very large areal extent that have been submerged below the water table after extensive weathering. These are sometimes prolific sources of water for towns and industries. It is necessary for them to have been above the water table for some geologically long period of time in a fairly humid climate before submergence because the necessary high porosity and permeability, and large reservoir capacity, are the result of weathering, that is, of solution by the carbonic acid (H,CO3) in rainwater formed by the absorption of CO, from the air by raindrops, and this dissolving action must cease when all the H2CO3 has been consumed by re- action with the carbonate to form the more soluble bicarbonate. Consequently this weathering process is largely restricted to a zone that does not extend much below the water level, and submergence is necessary after the weathering to provide large reservoir capacity and good hydraulic continuity. On the other hand, water courses tend to form along faults and fractures in limestone, and to become enlarged by solution, well below water level when, as often happens, fresh meteoric water is circulated rapidly through them to considerable depth by hydrostatic pressure, as through an inverted syphon. Although the reservoir capacity of such water courses is relatively small they may extend far enough to tap more prolific sources. Cavities, and sometimes caves of considerable size, are found in limestones where the acid formed by the oxidation of sulphides has attacked them. This action can take place as deep below water level as surface water is carried by syphonic or artesian circulation, because the oxygen it carries in solution will not be consumed until it reacts with some reducing agent, such as a sulphide. Moreover, the formation of acid and solution of limestone in this way is not confined to the immediate vicinity of the sulphide. Oxidation of pyrite, for example, results in formation of acid in several successive stages, each taking place as more oxygen becomes available, as by the accession of fresh water into the circulation at some place beyond the sulphides. When the acid thus formed attacks the limestone, CO, is liberated and the ultimate effect of the complete oxidation of one unit of pyrite will be the removal of six times its volume of limestone as the sulphate and bicarbonate, both of which are relatively soluble. The reaction may be continued or renewed along a water course far from the site of the sulphides, where the small electric potential produced by contact with the limestone helped to start the reaction. Mr. Stuart refers2 0 caves in the old mining area in the block of Eldorado limestone southwest of the Ruby Hill fault at Eureka, Nev., and to the cavities encountered in drillholes in the downthrown block on the other side of the fault. Although he interprets these cavities as evidence that this formation was sufficiently isotropic (evenly porous and permeable) to give reliable results by the method he describes, they may, in fact, be entirely local conditions. There is reason to think they were probably formed

Jan 1, 1956

By J. L. Weeks

THERMAL conductivities of several samples of uranium and uranium alloys were determined using an apparatus previously described.&apos; The value previously reported for uranium,&apos; 0.035 cal per sec per cm per "C at 70°C, is in error due to the failure of a thermocouple during the determination on uranium. The defective thermocouple was detected after a reanalysis of the data obtained during the run and since has been replaced. Subsequently, runs on several samples of uranium show the thermal conductivity of uranium to be 0.069 cal per sec per cm per &apos;C at 70°C. The accuracy of the determinations was checked by measuring a sample of synthetic sapphire whose thermal conductivity was previously reported and found to be in agreement with other values."-" The values given in Table I are believed correct to % 3 pct or 0.003 cal per sec per cm per "C, whichever is larger. The samples were provided by J. H. Kittel of the Argonne National Laboratory, Metallurgy Div. References J. L. Weeks and R. L. Seifert: Apparatus for the Measurement of the Thermal Conductivity of Solids. Review of Scientific Instruments (1953) 24, pp. 1054-1057. J. L. Weeks and R. L. Seifert: Note Regarding the Thermal Conductivity of Synthetic Sapphire. Journal American Ceramic Society (1952) 35, p. 15. :&apos; J. Francl and W. D. Kingery: Thermal Conductivity: IV, Apparatus for Determining Thermal Conductivity by a Comparative Method; Data for Pb, Al2O3, BeO, and MgO. Journal American Ceramic Society (1954) 37, No. 2, Part 11, pp. 80-84. (Part 11: special issue on thermal conductivity.) &apos; W. D. Kingery, J. Francl, R. L. Coble. and T. Vasilos: Thermal Conductivity: X, Data for Several Pure Oxide Materials Corrected to Zero Porosity. Journal American Ceramic Society (1954) 37, No. 2, Part II, pp. 107-110. (Part 11: special issue on thermal conductivity.) Edwin Ruh: New Jersey Ceramic Research Station, Rutgers University. Private communication.

Jan 1, 1956

By R. V. Horrigan

High purity ZrC14 (25 to 200 ppm of metallic impurities) can be readily prepared in simple apparatus by thermal decomposition of alkali chlorozirconate fused salts at 500° to 600°C and at atmospheric pressure. Suggested phase diagrams for the systems NaCI-ZrC14 and KCI-ZrCI, are presented. ALKALI chlorozirconate compositions — anhydrous fused mixtures of ZrCl4, NaC1, and KC1— are manufactured commercially and are used by the magnesium industry to introduce zirconium into magnesium alloys. Zirconium refines the grain size and improves the physical properties of many important magnesium alloys. In the course of working with chlorozirconate compositions of high ZrCl4 content, it was noticed that these salts decomposed progressively itwaswith increasing temperature to yield considerable amounts of a ZrCl4 sublimate of high purity together with a solid chlorozirconate residue. Further research led to: 1—improvements in the

Jan 1, 1956