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By Louis Ware

At the beginning of the present war, the United States faced the need to multiply its production of magnesium metal almost roo times within the shortest possible period. Urgently needed for construction of military aircraft, incendiary bombs, and other war uses, magnesium was at the top of the list of critical war materials. Up to that time only one Producer, employing Only One process and using One raw material in a single plant, represented this country's entire Production capacity. It was immediately desirable to plan a numher of plants located strategically over the Count'Y and to expand an industry more rapidly and to a greater extent than ever before had been attempted in so short a time. In '939 this American producer, the Dow Chemical .9 was making about 7 million Pounds of magnesium metal. It utilized as a raw material brine containing magnesium chloride, which was pumped from wells in Michigan. The logical ap-preach to certain increased production was to employ the same process on the same raw material in other sections of the United States. In Europe and other countries, different processes had been used and different raw materials were being utilized, but all of the skill and knowledge for production in this country was that of using the Dow type of cell and magnesium chloride as a raw material. The Government was testing other processes, but none then had been proved commercially feasible. Development OF New Process The International Minerals and Chemical Corporation had available a large quantity of magnesium ,chloride at Carls-bad, New Mexico, contained in the end liquor produced from its potash plant sillce the buildng of the plant in 1941 It was the only company mining commercially a magnesium ore and having anything like this quantity of magnesium chloride liquor. The magnesium ore, langbeinite, was being mined from the 800-ft. level for its content of potassium sulphate. This ore, a potassium magnesium sulphate, was reacted in a base exchange plant with potassium chloride to produce potassium sulphate, the discharge liquor having a high content of magnesium chloride. Three potash-producing companies are in the Carlsbad area, but only International has developed and is commercially producing the potash-magnesium ores. The lower, or No. 4, veil, in that area is potassium chloride ore, and is continuous through all the properties. The langbeinite, or No. 2, vein is minable at the International property, but occurs sparsely, if - at in other areas being mined in that vicinity. It is understood that most of the mag. nesium produced] by Germany comes from magnesium and magnesium-potassium ores obtained from potash mines. It was logical for International to pro-pose to make available this magnesium material and to offer its technical staff to design, construct and manage a magnesium plant for the account of the Government. The plan that finally was adopted by the

Jan 1, 1944

By C. E. Berner

Since 1933, the Coal Mine Rating Schedule in Pennsylvania has provided credits in the Workmen's Compensation insurance premium rates for the use of safety hats, goggles and shoes. In that year, the worth of such protective clothing had just been well established and satisfactory articles were being made by a number of manufacturers. Standards for these three items of safety clothing' were written in the Rating Schedule and have been little changed through the years. The credit in the premium rate for a bituminous mine is $0.14 for hats, $o.08 for goggles, $o.08 for shoes. In order to earn such credit, it is necessary that all the employees in the particular mine be equipped with safety hats, goggles or shoes, as the case may be. In fact, it is not unusual for mines to qualify in all three categories, thus earning a rate reduction of $o.30 per $100 of payroll. These credits have been a decided stimulus to the use of safety clothing, and at present insured bituminous mines are credited as follows: Hats........ 63 per cent, or 22,600 employees Goggles..... 28 per cent, or 10,000 employees Shoes....... 44 per cent, or 15,800 employees Of course, many other employees wear these protective articles but they are in mines that are not fully equipped and so are not given the rate credit. The growth in use of this equipment has not been spectacular but it has been steady, as shown in Table I. An interesting thing about this is that it covers virtually all of the small and medium-sized bitumi- nous mine operations in Pennsylvania. A number of large operations are included, but many large mines are self-insured. It is difficult to keep alive interest in safety work in the smaller mines: first, because employment of safety engineers is out of the question and the one or several mine officials employed are often concerned only with production; second, because the life of many small mines is brief, so that safe conditions although established do not last long. Conditions as to safety in mines of this class rest chiefly with inspectors of state mine departments and of casualty insurance companies. Many millions of tons of production come from these mines, so that

Jan 1, 1944

SLAG composition, slag constitution, reactions in slag, and reactions between slag and metal-in other words, the physical chemistry of slags-are matters of great importance to the open-hearth operator, whether or not he makes use of any detailed knowledge of them. Although this is a relatively young branch of the science of steel- making, much progress has been made; however, much remains to be learned, and many of the statements that can be made at present are probably--or even certainly-subject to future change. Nevertheless, the physical chemistry of slags is sufficiently developed to provide a reasonably secure basis for real understanding of steelmaking reactions. FUNDAMENTALS OF SLAG CONTROL By way of introduction, some time is spent in this chapter on effecting an easy transition from some of the more "practical" manifestations of slag to discussions couched in the more formal language of physical chemistry. This necessitates a certain amount of repetition, but it is felt that the purpose of the chapter is best served in this way. Reactions in the metal phase have products that find their way into the slag and are important components thereof; they are discussed in detail in the preceding chapter. Some substances distribute themselves Between slag and metal in definite fashion, and others are found only in the slag. Their reactions are a large reason for this chapter. Limitations of Slag Control. The open-hearth process is essentially oxidizing and cannot be otherwise operated. (Oxygen gradients in the furnace, the mechanism of oxygen inflow, and similar subjects are discussed in Chapter XIX.) As shown in the calculations of material and heat balances for the charge (see Chapter XV), from 25 to 50 lb. of oxygen will flow from air or combustion gases into the charge or molten bath during the heat for each ton of liquid steel

Jan 1, 1944

By P. W. Ramsey, E. J. Boyle, E. A. Anderson

ONLY a few zinc-rich alloys are in commercial use today, and these depend largely upon solid solution effects for their desirable properties. Typical examples are rolled alloys containing about I per cent of copper, with or without additions of elements such as magnesium,1 and die-casting alloys containing about 4 per cent of aluminum with small amounts of magnesium and sometimes copper.2 A number of elements are capable of forming alloys with zinc, which do not enter into solid solution except in limited degree. The present paper considers one such system, zinc-titanium, in which alloys having potentially useful properties in the rolled form were found. ZINC-TITANIUM SYSTEM The zinc-rich portion of the zinc-titanium diagram, as determined by standard methods in this laboratory,3 is shown in Fig. I. The portion of the diagram of significance in the present work extends from 0 to about 0.5 per cent titanium. Gebhardt4 places the eutectic at 0.45 per cent, but the evidence in favor of the composition given in Fig. I is considerable. The solid solubility of titanium in zinc is very low indeed and possibly places these alloys in a somewhat different category from the commercial alloys previously mentioned. ALLOY PREPARATION All of the alloys used in this work were prepared with titanium metal of 98.9 per cent purity. In most cases high-purity zinc (99.99 per cent) was used but sufficient work was done later to show that zinc of about high-grade composition would yield approximately equal results. Best practice in alloy manufacture seemed to be to prepare a zinc-titanium hardener by adding about 4 per cent of titanium metal to molten zinc and holding under a boric acid cover, with frequent stirrings, at 750°C. until the titanium had dissolved. The desired titanium content could readily be obtained in the final alloy by adding the calculated amount of this hardener. The alloys proved to be quite stable in composition, unless overheated, and, with reasonable temperature control, required no cover or flux to prevent loss of titanium content by oxidation. HOT-ROLLING TESTS Three alloys containing, by analysis, 0.05, 0.12, and 0.23 per cent titanium were selected for preliminary study. Slab cross sections revealed a marked grain refinement* (Fig. 2) in the two alloys of highest titanium content. Cast unalloyed zinc has a columnar grain structure similar to that shown for the alloy of lowest titanium content but without the scatter of small equiaxed grains at the center.

Jan 1, 1944

By Walter Miller

During the second year of America's active ia in the war the inain objectives of the petroleum-refining industry were again to provide the four most important product needs for war: 100-octane aviation gasoline, toluene for T.N.T. production, high-quality lubricating oils for the needs of aviation and the armed forces, and petroleum chemicals for synthetic rubber manufacture. All other materials supplied by the petroleum industry took an inferior priority ranking, depending on the degree of essentiality. To accomplish the above objectives the industry initiated and carried on a building program during 1942 and 1943 which will put those two years down in petroleum-refining history as the greatest construction years of all time, a record which will hold for decades to come. Led by an estimated total of $ 900,000,000 going into 100-octane and contributory plant investment, it is easy to picture a total of two billion dollars and more going into additional refining-industry plant investment during 1942 and 1943, most of it privately paid for, but a substantial part covered by R.F.C. Government money financing. Some of the new plants will not be completed until 1944, but a large proportion of the program was finished and put into operation, adding substantially to the output of the four principal products during 1943- lne most important and spectacuiar activity of the refining industry is of course the 100-octane gasoline program necessitated by the fact that nearly 90 per cent of the requirements of the United Nations is being furnished by the United States. Recent P.A.W. figures mention $goo,-ooo,ooo as the cost of the construction looking to increasing the output of this all-important munition. Thirty-four major plants have been completed, 11 of them during the last quarter of the year. Thirty-eight more will be completed and put into operation during the first four or five months of 1944. Twenty-two additional plants authorized during 1943 are already well under way and scheduled for production late in 1944. Early in 1942 the aim was to treble the capacity for making 100-octane gasoline then existing; later, plans were to make it five times as great, to match the increased warplane building program; and toward the end of the year the sights had been set at a still higher but unannounced target, representing six to seven times the early 1942 figure. Comparative figures issued at the end of 1943 enable one to guess a program by the middle of 1944 of eight to nine times the former production, with an ultimate production in 1944 of eleven or more times the early 1942 output. It became obvious in 1943 that building of new units would be materially slowed because of delay in getting construction materials and that they would reach operation at considerably later dates than

Jan 1, 1944

This investigation was planned to determine:1. The precipitation-hardening properties of the copper-nickel-phosphorus alloys; and2. The influence of arsenic and bismuth, singly and together, on the mechanical properties of these alloys.It was carried out in conjunction with an investigation, previously published in these Prooeedings on "The Influence of Various Elements on the Mechanical Properties of Copper containing a small percentage of Bismuth," and also formed part of a study of the influence of bismuth, nickel and phosphorus on the properties of commercial arsenical-copper.The first part of the present investigation arose out of a discovery some years ago of precipitation-hardening in phosphorus-deoxidized coppernickel boiler tubes, containing approximately 2% nickel and 0·03% phosphorus, supplied to an Australian Railways Department. At that time there was little information available on precipitation-hardening in copperrich copper-nickel-phosphorus alloys, but at the end of 1935 a short paper on the subject was published by E. C. Rollason and T. G. Bamford(2) and at the beginning of 1940 a comprehensive account was published by D. K. Crampton, H. L. Burghoff and J. T. Stacy.(3) Although the investigation carried, out independently by the present author was not as comprehensive as that of Crampton, Burghoff and Stacy, the results are in agreement with those of the American as well as of the British authors; hence, only a summary of this aspect of the work is needed here to establish a basis for a study of the influence of bismuth and arsenic.PREPARATION OF TEST PIECESAll alloys were melted under charcoal in plumbago crucibles in an oil-fired furnace and were poured out of contact with air into oil-dressed moulds to give billets either 7· 5 in. long X 0.83 in. diam. X 1·3 lb. weight or 12 in. long X 1·125 in. diam. X 3·3 lb. weight depending on requirements (the larger size was used, for example, in establishing the annealing characteristics of the precipitation-hardening alloys). The raw materials were electrolytic copper of the composition described in the previous paper(I) 6% copper-arsenic, 14% copper-phosphorus, 1:7% copper-bismuth, and Mond nickel in the form of "shot." The method of producing test pieces from these billets and the annealing treatments ana tests to which the pieces were subjected have been described in the previous paper.

Jan 1, 1944

By H. A. Schwartz, W. Kenneth Bock

In this paper it is shown that when the tensile strength of a given steel in various states of heat-treatment is plotted against its elongation, a straight line results. The equation of this straight line can be computed with considerable accuracy from its chemical composition. The appropriate equations are given. The logarithm of the slope of the tensile-strength locus is shown to be proportional to the cumulative effect of the total alloy addition and the vosition of the line to be directly proportional to the cumulative effect of the alloy content. It is further pointed out that heat-treatment is more effective than composition in determining yield ratio. The latter enters mainly by its effect on hardenability, which is briefly discussed. Reduction of area and Brinell number are given some incidental attention. The data are applicable only to steels that have been normalized and/or quenched. The steels, if normalized, may or may not have been tempered. If quenched they must have been tempered at or above 4oo°C. (75o°F.). Introduction Cast steels vary in composition and frequently are used in various states of heat-treatment. It is obviously important to be able to predict the compositions that might accompany specific engineering properties by suitable selection of heat-treatments. For cast steels, which are of necessity produced heat by heat in accordance with the particular requirements of the castings to be poured, there has been, happily, much less tendency to standardization than for rolled products, whose destination is not necessarily known when particular ingots are made or rolled. It is of distinct advantage to the steel foundry-men to be able to make steel of given properties, using alloys that can be recovered from scrap, or most conveniently or cheaply bought, rather than a particular formula adopted in the interest of standardization. The heat-treatment appropriate to securing a given result in a given steel is well known to be closely related to composition. For example, molybdenum steels are not much softened by tempering except at rather high temperatures. Highly alloyed steels are "air-hardening," and on cooling in air behave like carbon steels that have been quenched. With these matters, we do not concern ourselves in this paper, although we recognize their importance. The entire picture evidently will be very complex and can be brought within accurate understanding only if our knowledge of test results can be coordinated in terms of general principles.

Jan 1, 1944

By Joseph E. Pogue, F. G. Coqueron

Prior to 1934, published information covering expenditures by oil companies for properties, plant, and equipment and the residual investments in the various segments of the petroleum industry was not readily available. This paper presents an analysis of the funds invested by a selected group of oil companies during the years 1934 through 1942, based on an extensive study of the individual records of 30 oil companies. The sources, disposition, and characteristics of the capital employed by this group of companies are traced through a series of combined statements and appropriate charts, covering financial and operating data. The analysis of these statements not only constitutes a record useful for comparative purposes but also serves as a basis for a number of broad conclusions, as follows: 1. The petroleum industry generates the capital needed for its expansion almost entirely from its own operations and is therefore a singularly self-contained economic unit. 2. The long-term debt contained in the financial structure of the industry is small relative to the total capital employed, is less than the net working capital, and has increased but slightly during the period under review. 3. The capital expenditures of the group of 30 oil companies for 9 years amounted to 6.1 billion dollars, 58.3 per cent of which went into crude-oil producing facilities. The trend of this segment of expenditures has been downward since 1937. In 1942, expenditures for refining facilities increased sharply and for marketing facilities declined drastically. 4. The net working capital of the group increased 380 million dollars over the period, and the industry is in a favorable position of liquidity. The ratio of combined current assets to current liabilities was 3.21 at the close of the period. 5. The net income of the group displayed an upward trend for the period but with rather sharp cyclical fluctuations. 6. In 1942, Government funds entered the industry for the first time in substantial amounts and were utilized for the provision of war facilities needed for emergency use. 7. The group has paid out a relatively low percentage of net income in the form of dividends. For the period the average was 55 per cent of net income. 8. The rate of return on invested capital for the group averaged 6.4 per cent for the

Jan 1, 1944

By Jan Law

Problems of oil recovery are attacked from the approaches dictated by the two strikingly dissimilar complexes that comprise an oil reservoir—the fluid complex and the interstitial complex. Knowledge of the fluid complex, due to labors in the fields of fluid mechanics and physical chemistry, has far outdistanced knowledge of the interstitial characteristics of the sand complex. This paper is concerned with the latter and applies the technique of statistics to petrographic facts—namely, porosity and permeability—dealing with what might be called petrometry. Statisticians have long worked within the problem of reconstruction of a universe oi variables by means of samples that comprise a small percentage of the universe from which the samples were drawn. Core-analysis data comply with the requisite of random sampling as stipulated by theoretical statistics. A basic concept of statistics employs t.he following substitution: 1. The results of sampling are arranged as a frequency distribution. 2. The observed frequency distribution is compared with a mathematically precise distribution. 3. If a sufficiently good agreement is found between the two, the precise distribution is substituted in all subsequent operations involving characteristics of the sampled material. This mathematically precise distribution is also known as the normal curve, curve of error, the probability, the Gaussian, and the bell-shaped curve and is describable with but two figures. Further, these two figures, the arithmetic average and the standard deviation, are subject to mathematical manipulation. This paper demonstrates that, in some cases in the Dominguez field of Southern California, if sufficient core-analysis samples are taken over not too great a thickness of sediments, the resultant permeability and porosity assemblages give satisfactory agreement with ilormal curves. It is shown that the indications are strong that oil wells wherein a satisfactory agreement is found are predictable as to productivity. Since the predictions are made by employing the laws of chance that are operative within sedimentation, it follows that the mechanism by which the predictions were made is a basic concept of reservoir mechanics. Therefore, tentative examples are given of the application of normal curves to the solution of problems of primary and secondary recovery. Nature of Permeability Frequency Distributions Core-analysis data are made available as a tabulated depth vs. permeability profile. The nature of the distribution of permeability values within a given strati-graphic interval may be approximated from an array constructed with samples plotted in the order of their appearance with depth (accession number) against their permeability value in millidarcys. A wide variation in the nature of the distribution of K (permeability) values for

Jan 1, 1944

PRECEDING chapters on thermochemistry, and the reactions in and between metal and slag phases in the bath of the furnace tend to emphasize the equilibrium or "static" conditions in the furnace and process, such as the total amounts of heat from fuel combustion or from certain bath reactions, the concentration relationships between slag and metal at the steady state for certain reactions, and the like. Such data are obtained essentially by means of the logic of thermo- dynamics, which helps to determine the energy change between initial and final states in a process as well as to define its equilibrium or steady-state condition, but which is not concerned with the rate of change in the process or with the mechanisms or path followed between initial and final states. These questions of just "how it works" and "how fast" belong to the kinetic aspect of any process; their answers are helpful in speeding up or slowing down and thus controlling intelligently its operation, and also to understand certain natural limitations which are especially important in many high-temperature processes. The kinetic aspects of interest here comprise mainly (1) the flow of gases through the furnace system, (2) the flow of heat in the system, and (3) the mechanisms and rate factors in the various chemical reactions. A really adequate discussion of the first two subjects would require at least three or four times the space available here; it has been tried, therefore, in this and the next chapter to outline but a few fundamentals necessary to an intelligent approach and to indicate some of the conditions of heat and gas flow more or less peculiar to the open hearth, since several good general discussions on these subjects may be found in the literature.(1) For the designer of open-hearth furnaces, the principles of gas flow are of paramount importance.(2,3,4,5) They are also important to the operation of the process, however, at least to the extent of a general qualitative picture of the movement of gases in the system, which is all that is attempted here.

Jan 1, 1944

By Frederic Benard

The treatment of Balbach-Thum slimes at Copper Cliff by the Ontario Refining Co, is of interest because it differs considerably from methods usually employed for the recovery of fine gold from parting-plant slimes. Owing to the comparatively high percentages of palladium and platinum, wet methods are used to remover the greater proportion of these metals before electrolytic refining in the Wohlwill cells. The Plant The platinum-metals department, Wohlwill room, and gold-melting room extend along the north side of the silver refinery and are separated from the parting plant by a glass partition (Figs. 1 and 2). The platinum-metals department resembles a laboratory built on a large scale, with the various pieces of equipment laid out on terraces to facilitate handling. Because of the corrosive nature of the solutions, chemical stoneware is used throughout. Elevation of acids is accomplished by means of Mariotte bottles. On the top level are three steam-jacketed stoneware kettles of 50-gal. capacity, also a packed tower. One kettle is used for digesting the slimes while the remaining kettles are used for precipitating the gold. The dissolver is equippcd with a treated concrete hood, which is connected to the flue system. Gases are drawn off through the packed tower by means of a 6-in. stoneware exhaust fan. A 15 per cent solution of sodium carbonate is continually circulated through the tower. On the intermediate level are two suition filters, one for removing silver chloride and the other for the gold sand. The filter medium consists of an asbestos pad covered with a filter paper on which is a layer of twill. On the bottom level are two rectangular cementation tanks, 24 by 48 by 24 in. deep, and a suction filter used for removing the platinum-metal concentrates. The circulating pump for the packed tower is also here. Suction is provided by a vacuum pump having a capacity of 8 cu. ft. at 20-in. vacuum.

Jan 1, 1944

By Frank S. McKenna, Myron A. Pugacz, Clarence E. Jackson

THE notched-bar impact test has proved worth while in certain applications as a test for control of the quality or the heat- . treatment of steel. In view of the serious thought that even so simple a test as the tensile test, has evoked during the past years, it is not surprising that the notched- bar impact test should have inspired much experimental work. The correlation of the great number of data has not been successful, although steady progress has been made toward a better understanding of this test. Progress has been made, especially, in the isolation of the effects of the many variables that control the results. The stress system imposed on a specimen with a notch is so complicated and un- predictable that no simple evaluation of the test has been possible. Because of this uncertainty, many engineers hesitate to use the notched-bar impact test, and this attitude may well continue until a better understanding of the effects of the variables in the test are available. Without doubt, any additional data that may be presented should be accompanied by as complete a description of the details of test as possible, so that it may be added to the general fund of information that is to serve as the basis for the theory of the notched-bar impact test. The many factors that may control the test results have been pointed out repeatedly. The importance of the effect of the type and dimensions of the specimen has been recognized. Most of the work reported by American investigators has been limited to small- size (Charpy) specimens tested as a simple beam; two types of notches (Fig. I) have been commonly used. Considerable data have also been presented by many investigators using a small specimen tested as a cantilever beam; this commonly being called the Izod test. Here, however, a shear component of stress makes the stress system even mare complex than that present in the simple beam type of test, hence a critical analysis is difficult. Much work has also been reported by investigators using the tension type of specimen. A second variable that must be con- trolled is the testing temperature. An indication that the tests were performed at room temperature is not sufficient, since in many steels a variation of a few degrees in the actual testing temperature may be sufficient to give an entirely different range of results. Other factors. such as the com- position and condition of the material being tested and the speed of test, should also be considered. Many investigators have contributed data and theoretical discussions on the problems encountered in notched-bar test-

Jan 1, 1944

By C. D. Rubert, W. J. Parton

LARGE quantities of fine anthracite with associated impurities are discharged with the waste water from the coal-cleaning plants in the Pennsylvania anthracite region. Furthermore, for many years this fine material has accumulated and formed silt banks. The difficulty of removing the impurities from the fine material and the lack of adequate markets are responsible for the waste of this material. In view of a larger demand for fine coal, mainly for pulverized fuel, the Lehigh Navigation Coal Co. Inc. decided to investigate the froth flotation process for recovery of fine coal from these waste solids. A test plant was constructed and operated for six months during 1942 in order to determine the practicability of recovering coal from the waste water of a cleaning plant (breaker) by froth flotation, and to obtain operating data for designing a commercial plant if the results were favorable. PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION Before the pilot plant was constructed information was obtained by field and small-scale laboratory tests to serve as a guide in the design and operation of the pilot plant. Size and ash analyses of a representative sample of the material discharged in the wash water from a cleaning plant are given in Table I. [ ] The refuse content increases progressively as the size of the particles decreases. The larger particles (+35 m.) are low in ash content and could be marketed without cleaning. Since these solids are discharged from the breakers with 90 to 95 per cent water by weight, the first step in the recovery of the coal was that of reducing the quantity of water so that water in excess will not have to be handled. Furthermore, it was found that the removal of most of the minus 200 mesh high-ash material was desirable to permit the most efficient flotation of the coal. Classification tests were run and showed that a hydroseparator overflow rate of 12 ft. per hour was sufficient to eliminate much of the minus 200-mesh material while allowing the coarser material to settle and be thickened.

Jan 1, 1944

By R. H. Marshall, J. Welchner, E. S. Rowland

This paper presents results on an extension into the realm of high-carbon steels of some work recently published1 on the effects of time at temperature, quenching temperature and prior structure on the hardenability of one 0.20 and four 0.40 per cent carbon alloy steels. It was shown at that time that unless the conditions of time, temperature and prior structure are substantially the same in performing the hardenability test as in conducting hardening of parts in production, the correlation of hardenability information with the hardness and properties of production parts is often not of satisfactory accuracy. The general effects of these variables on the austenitic grain size, distribution of excess carbides and critical cooling rate have been known for many years and one or more have been investigated by Shepherd,2,3 Davenport and Bain,4 Digges,5,6 Digges and Jordan,' Post and associates8 and Roberts and Mehl,9 to mention only a few. There has been no systematic investigation, however, into the quantitative variations produced on the hardenability of commercial high-carbon steels by changes in these factors of time, temperature and prior structure. Procedure A plain carbon hypereutectoid steel, S.A.E. 52100 and Graph-Mo, a molybdenum-bearing high-carbon steel containing some graphite, were chosen for this investigation. The chemical analyses of these electric-furnace steels are given in Table I. The procedure used was exactly that reported previously,' hence the details will not be repeated here. Normalized (165o°F.) and spheroidized prior structures were utilized on all steels with hot-rolled and quenched (I600°F. oil) prior conditions added for the plain carbon steel. The end-quench test developed by Jominy10 was sclected for use in this investigation and, with the noted exceptions, the American Society for Testing Materials standard procedure was followed. The effect of time at temperature was examined at intervals of o, 10 and 40 min. and 4 hr., and a few 16-hr. tests were run. Salt-bath heating of the specimens was employed to control and minimize the

Jan 1, 1944

1. Healthy and active Local Section or¬ganizations are vital factors in promoting the vigor and growth of the Institute. 2. Activity on the part of Local Sections should be recognized and stimulated by appropriation of funds from the Insti¬tute's treasury; and these appropriations should be as large as is consistent with the relative needs for other activities. 3. As between different Sections, the amount of such appropriations should be based primarily on the extent of activities as reflected in the number and character of meetings held and the attendance of the members at such meetings. 4. In making a request for funds for any year, the officers of a Local Section should submit a report on the printed form approved by the Directors at their meeting on November 19, 1937. 5. A standing Committee on Local Sec-

Jan 1, 1944

Jan 1, 1944

THE solid nonmetallic inclusions that are present to some extent in all commercial steels have been variously designated. In early references they were usually called slag inclusions, and. this terminology is still retained to some extent. On the premise that all nonmetallic matter produced in a metallurgical process is slag, this can be justified. We have come to think of slag, however, in a more restricted sense, and calling these particles slag inclusions is further objectionable because it fosters the erroneous concept that they are actually incorporated portions of furnace slag. Rarely is this true. The term sonims (coined from solid nonmetallic impurities) was proposed many years ago but never came into common use. In general the term "nonmetallic inclusions" seems to be satisfactory and adequate. NATURE AND CONSTITUTION OF NONMETALLIC INCLUSIONS From the standpoint of origin, inclusions fall naturally into two classes: (1) those that occur as a result of reactions taking place in the body of the molten or solidifying metal and (2) those that result from the mechanical incorporation of refractories or other materials with which the steel comes in contact. The former are by far the more numerous and have been called indigenous, natural, or native inclusions. The latter are by their very nature sporadic in occurrence and have been called exogenous, accidental, adventitious, or foreign inclusions. They are often referred to as the "slag stringer" type, though here also the material is not likely to be furnace slag. Substances Found in Inclusions. Nonmetallic inclusions are composed principally of oxides and sulphidea but carbides and nitrides sometimes play an important role. In the case of indigenous inclusions the reactions by which these particles are precipitated from the molten or solidifying steel may be caused by (1) oxidation such as may occur during refining or during tapping and teeming, (2) deoxidation by added alloys, (3) change in equilibrium constants as the steel cools to the freezing temperature, (4) decreased solubility with lower

Jan 1, 1944

By L. B. Herring, Harold Decker

The South Texas area, discussed herein, represents districts 2 and 4 of the Texas Railroad Cominission and extends from Jackson, Lavaca, and Gonzales Counties on the northeast to the Rio Grande River, comprising a total of 26 counties.$ The present boundaries of this district do not coincide with those of earlier reports published in the annual volumes of Petroleum Development and Technology. The war, in its various ramifications, determined and controlled all the phases of the oil and gas industry. Priorities for material and governmental subsidies determined all new operations. New Pools In our opinion, the combine' quantity of crude and distillate reserves added in '943 approached Or possibly exceeded the amount produced. Thirty-five new pools were added to the area' Of these, five have significant reserves and ten offer possibilities of containing consequential reserves. The largest proven reserve discovered during the year was the Slick pool, on the DeWitt-Goliad County line. This is also the most important Wilcox discovery to date in the area. The most significant extension was at Willimar, Willacy County. Other important extensions were developed at Agua Dulce, Seeligson, and Odem. Except for the Porter field, in Karnes County, the Laredo trend, which produces lrom the Jackson and Yegua, proved very disappointing, and this pool is o:C secondary importance. The Scott and Hopper pool, Brooks County, has only orie well, but offers excellent possibilities of becoming an important discovery. It represents at this time the major Frio discovery of the year. The Hobson pool, Karnes County, is not a major reserve, but can be classed as important in that it produces at a shallow depth from the Wilcox. This proves that the potential area of production for this zone occupies a broad trend. Gas and Condensate During the year construction was begun on only one recycling plant, this being in the Sejita field, Duval County. Several others were colltemplated, but no actual operations were begun. The most important development in recycling was the rebuilding of old plants to allow for the fractiona-tion of isopentane, n-butane, isobutane, and propane. Heretofore all pentanes plus have been marketed as cLdistillate,n only a minor portion of the butanes being isolated and sold for fuel purposes. All these new the except propane, are considered vital to the war effort and propane is being marketed as fuel gas. In other instances propane is being isolated and then pumped back into the gas reservoirs for storage. It is anticipated that the demands for this product will increase in the future. Drilling in the Wilcox trend during the year showed the existence of valuable gas

Jan 1, 1944

By H. l. Burghoff, J. S. Porter

THIS paper presents the results of an investigation of the effect of cold-working and annealing treatments upon the occurrence of preferred orientation in annealed brass wire. The subject has received less consideration than has the same phenomenon in annealed brass sheet or strip, and perhaps very properly so in view of the obvious and undesired results obtained in the forming or drawing of strip having preferred orientation, which results are in contrast with the lack of any spectacular visual evidence in wire. The factors of cold-working and annealing that control preferredness in strip are naturally expected to function similarly in wire. Indeed, one might expect the condition to be commoner in annealed wire, because the severity of the cold-working between anneals in commercial practice is usually much greater for wire than for strip. For example, a wire that is to be finished in the annealed condition on a diameter of 0.040 in. is commonly subjected to a final reduction of 96 per cent between the last two anneals, the large reduction being accomplished in the successive drafts of a multiple-die machine. Wire for rivets, for instance, on 0.125-in. diameter, although given a slight reduction of about 10 per cent after the final anneal, may have been given a prior reduction of 75 to 80 per cent. Barrett1 states the fiber axis of annealed 70-30 brass wire to be [111] with some indication of [100] as a secondary fiber axis. Croft and Sachs2 have reported briefly on some differences in brass wire with random and with preferred orientations. They showed statistical plots of the twin-band angles with respect to the wire axis or direction of drawing as observed on an axial plane. They also pointed out that the resistance of the wire to corrosion-cracking when externally stressed and exposed to a mercurous nitrate solution decreased as the degree of the preferred orientation increased. MATERIAL AND PROCEDURE All the wire for the investigation was processed from one. portion as cut for extrusion from a cast billet of the following analysis: 70.13 per cent copper; 0.01 lead; 0.01 iron; 0.02 nickel; 29.83 zinc (by difference). The billet section, 8 in. in diameter, was extruded hot to 3/4 -in. diameter, after which it was processed by alternate cold-drawing and annealing treatments as indicated in Fig. I. The earliest anneals in process were at about 1100°F. and the next to the last reductions by drawing were 58 per cent. The diameter of the finally annealed wire was 0.132 in. Semifinal anneals were at 800°F., 950°F. and 1100°F. and reductions of 47.5, 74, 83.5 and 89.5 per cent were employed in drawing to 0.132 in. The final anneals were at 875°F., 1050°F. and 1250°F. and were

Jan 1, 1944

By C. O. Tarr, G. V. Smith, R. F. Miller

METALLURGISTS have long recognized that the Fe3C type of carbide is not a stable phase in steel and that, given sufficient time, it will decompose with formation of graphite, at least at temperatures below about 2050°F.1 This slow graphitization has never been of much concern to users of hypoeutectoid steels, for in such steels it occurs only during prolonged exposure at elevated temperature. In 1935, Kinzel and Moore2 reported complete graphitization of the carbide of a 0.1 5 per cent carbon steel that had been in senrice for about 26,000 hr. at a temperature of about 1100° to 1200°F. In discussing this paper, both Mathews and Sauveur reported graphitization of slightly hypereutectoid steels. In an extensive investigation of graphitization of high-purity iron-carbon alloys, Wells1 produced graphite at 7o0°C. (1290°F.) in an alloy containing as little as 0.13 per cent carbon, and showed that graphite may precipitate either directly from austenite or from decomposition of Fe3C, also that the rate of graphitization tends to increase with increase of temperature, at least up to a certain point, and with the presence of graphite nuclei. Jenkins, Mellor and Jenkinson,3 studying the structural changes in carbon steels ranging from 0.17 to 1.14 per cent carbon during stress-rupture tests at elevated temperature, obsenred graphite in an aluminum-killed 0.40 per cent carbon steel after fracture in 4340 hr. under a stress of 17,900 lb. per sq. in. at 840°F. and in many of the steels after stress-rupture test at 1200°F. Unstressed samples of 0.60, 0.86 and 1.14 per cent carbon steels graphitized almost completely in 360 hr. at 1200°F., while samples of 0.90 and 1.10 per cent carbon steels were somewhat graphitized, and steels containing 0.24, 0.40 and 0.57 per cent carbon showed no sign of graphite. Their results indicate that graphite precipitates the more readily the higher the carbon content, though this tendency is influenced to some extent by deoxidation practice, and that graphitization is accelerated by plastic deformation. In a recent study of the graphitization of 0.4 and 0.6 per cent carbon steel strip, made by M. A. Hughes,4 it was found that at 1200°F. graphite appeared after 72 hr. in aluminum-killed but not in silicon-killed steel, and that the rate of graphitization was increased by slow cooling from 1600°F. and by cold-working prior to annealing. In creep tests of normalized o. I 5 per cent carbon steel killed with 2.5 lb. of aluminum per ton, at the U. S. Steel Corporation laboratory at Kearny, spheroidization and some graphitization were found after 3000 hr. at 1000°F. under a stress as low as 15m lb. per sq. inch.

Jan 1, 1944