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(Under this heading will be published notes sent to the Secretary of the Institute by members or other persons.) The governing body of the Imperial College of Technology, London, S. W. (Royal School of Mines), will shortly proceed to the appointment of a Professor of Metallurgy. This important Chair has been filled in the past by such eminent metallurgists as John Percy, Sir William C. Roberts-Austen, and others. Inquiry has been received at the office of the Institute for an engineer to examine a mica, deposit in one of the New England States. The position of converter blower at. a side-blow Bessemer steel casting plant is vacant.

Jan 4, 1913

By Emil Gathmann

INTRODUCTION. IN presenting this paper I will attempt to answer certain questions proposed at this meeting and describe and illustrate methods of producing sound steel in an economical and hence commercial manner, which are adaptable to the production of practically all steel manufacturers, by readily effected rational changes in the methods of casting, cooling, and subsequent handling of the ingots. In some of the high-grade mills of America, where it is essential to obtain perfectly sound billets or blooms, it is the practice to discard from 35 to 40 per cent. of the crop- or pipe-end, and even with this excessive discard, secondary pipe or shrinkage-cavities are frequently discovered during subsequent working of the blooms and billets into their various manufactured products. The usual discard of from 10 to 20 per cent. from the crop-end of the ingot, which is made by the present generally employed methods of form and solidifying of the castings, certainly does not give the slightest assurance of the saleable product being physically sound or chemically homogeneous. I am aware that in the past there has been and at the present time there still is a decided difference of expert opinion as to what constitutes physically sound steel.

Jan 4, 1913

Attention is called to the changes in officers of the Committee, whereby Albert Sauveur becomes Vice-Chairman, and Herbert M. Boylston, Secretary. Three new members of the Committee have been added, as follows : J. Esrey Johnson, Jr., William Kelly, William R. Walker. The death of Dr. F. WV. C. Schniewind is a severe personal blow to the members of the Committee, as well as a loss on the technical side that will be hard to fill. During the absence of Mr. Kirchhoff in Europe the activities of the Committee will be under the charge of Professor Sauveur.

Jan 4, 1913

By James Kemp

(New York meeting, February, 1913.) IN the study of ore deposits water plays a very prominent part. The small group of igneous ores involve it least, but in all the rest it is an invariable feature. The ground-water, therefore, is perhaps as appropriate a subject for discussion before a session of the American Institute of Mining Engineers as any topic which might be selected. The theme is if anything the more appropriate, because two very important contributions to it have already appeared in the Transactions. The great essay in 1893 of Franz Posepny,1 systematized and classified the subject, and was doubtless not without its influence in leading to the presentation in 1900, by C. R. Van Hise, of an important contribution entitled Some Principles Controlling the Deposition of Ores.2 We all recall the discussions of 10 or 12 years ago, and the interest in these themes which then prevailed in the Institute. They are collectively accessible in the separate edition wisely assembled by Dr. Raymond, and now to be supplemented by the Emmons Volume. Views have been progressing in the past decade or more, and new evidence has been brought to light. A general summary and concise statement may, therefore, not be without interest.

Jan 4, 1913

By Leonard Waldo

(New York Meeting, February, 1911.) THE recent and rapid development of the physics of engineering materials at temperatures as low as that of liquid air and as high is that of the electric are, has drawn renewed attention to the absence of tables, properly printed and spaced, for the convenient and accurate translation of temperature from centigrade to Fahrenheit scales and vice versa. It is to be noted that the Fahrenheit scale is the almost universal usage in foundries and shops in the United States, though the laboratories of the same works employ the centigrade notation. The growing use of the electric furnace in Germany and France calls for much American citation all in centigrade high temperatures, and while the arithmetical calculation is simple, it becomes burdensome when often repeated. I have been surprised at the numerous reprints of Table I. from centigrade to Fahrenheit degrees, first privately printed for personal use, which have been made by works, blue-prints, test-books, and technical journals, and I hope that Table II., from Fahrenheit to centigrade degrees, will be equally useful.

Jan 4, 1913

Changes have been made in the Bulletin, Section I., for this month ; Personal and Employment columns have been added, and a Forum, in which will be included letters and discussions of general interest to members of the Institute ; live news and new matter have been inserted near the front; lists of officers and committees are placed next to the technical section, while standing matter and other information which is interesting chiefly when sought for, has been segregated as much as possible. Members are urged to co-operate with the Editor by sending in news items of themselves and others, and by giving some of their spare time to this department each month.

Jan 4, 1913

Discussion of the papers of Benjamin Talbot. E. A. Beck, Emil Gathmann, Sir Robert A. Hadfield, and P. H. Dudley, presented at the New York Meeting, February, 1913, and printed in this Bulletin (No. 76, April, 1913). CHAIRMAN JAMES F. KEMP :-I call upon Prof. Albert Sauveur to open the general discussion on the subject of sound steel ingots. ALBERT SAUVEUR, Cambridge, Mass. :-I believe that I have the privilege, this instant, of opening one of the most important, significant and far-reaching discussions ever held before this Institute. I believe that our talk this morning will be heard far and wide, not only on this side of the water, but also on the other side. Everywhere, in short, where steel is manufactured. I welcome the opportunity of expressing my mind in regard to the production of sound steel ingots, a subject about which I entertain some very decided opinions. I shall not attempt to discuss the relative merits of the various processes that have been described. I shall, on the contrary, confine myself to a general consideration of the important questions before us. So intensely do I feel regarding the production of sound steel ingots that I have put my remarks on paper in my desire to present my Views.

Jan 4, 1913

NEW MEMBERS. The following list comprises the names of those persons who became members during the month of March, 1913 BAECHTOLD, CHARLES A., Engr 9G Liberty St., New York, N. Y. BRANTLY, JOHN E., Instructor in Geology Tuscaloosa, Ala. CADDY, JAMES P., Net., ,Lake View & Star, Ltd Fimiston, West. Australia. LONERGAN, PHILIP J., JR., Prof. of Mining, Government University, Peking, China. MCKANNA, EDWIN A., Min. Engr P. 0. Box 834, Oklahoma City, Okla. MACDONALD, ANGUS W., Supt. Labor Dept., Dominion Coal Co., Ltd., 21 Queen St., Sydney, N. S., Canada. TSUBOI, Yoshio, Min. and Met. Engr., Kosaka Mine, Fujita Co., Akita-ken, Japan.

Jan 4, 1913

By Frederic Dewey

(New York Meeting, February, 1913) This old and well-known method of determining, silver is, in bullion work, so far superior to the furnace-assay that it is looked upon with reverential awe by many, if not by most, users, and its-ease of execution, with proper equipment, commends it highly where much commercial bullion work on silver is required. The method is so thoroughly well known that a, description of it here may seem to be unnecessary, but many thousands of determinations are annually made by it in the U. S. Mint Service and its practice is there reduced to an art. This is necessary both for the sake of economy of time, acid because high-grade work with it requires constant practice. It is useless for a person who uses it only occasionally to expect to attain high accuracy with it, without spending more time upon a determination than is warranted in a busy commercial laboratory. It is always employed in the Mint service whenever possible, but its chief field is in the determination of silver in standard silver (ingots and coin), which is 900 fine in silver and 100 fine in copper, and I shall first briefly outline its use on this metal and then take up various points in detail, especially as related to the accuracy of the results obtained.

Jan 4, 1913

Discussion of the paper of Frederic P. Dewey, presented at the Cleveland Meeting, October, 1912, and printed in Bulletin -No. 70, October, 1912, pp. 1075 to 1101. EDWARD KELLER, Perth Amboy, N. J. (communication to the Secretary *) :-Mr. Dewey, in his paper, offers a liberal addition of new data to those already to be found in the technical literature on this subject. However, now as before, the work issuing from the U. S. mints and assay-offices conveys the impression that systematic sampling in those institutions is more or less a secondary consideration, the chief attention being given to the principle of producing approximately homogeneous bars; recourse being taken to remelting or refining the bullion. This practice has been definitely rejected in the realm of copper-bullion sampling, for the reason that in such operations there are always unaccounted losses. Does not the same objection hold true for gold-bullions; although, perhaps,in a lesser degree ? Differences of opinion would seem justified on the following statements made by Mr. Dewey: 1. "Only two classes of alloys can form homogeneous bars-those that are solid solutions, and the eutectics."

Jan 3, 1913

By Albert Sauveur

(New York Meeting, February, 1913.) IT is delightful to read a technical paper like that of J. E. Johnson, The Effect of High Carbon on the Quality of Charcoal-Iron, presented in October, 1912, at the Cleveland meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.1 The clear, simple, and straightforward manner in which he describes his experiments and results makes you feel as if you had been, so to speak, at his elbow during the course of his investigations, while his method of procedure is so rational that you can fairly anticipate each step in the logical sequence of the tests performed. The following notes suggested by Mr. Johnson's paper are presented here in the hope that they may help, if only a mite, towards the final solution of a problem of considerable scientific and industrial importance.

Jan 3, 1913

Discussion of the paper of N. V. Hansell, presented at the Cleveland Meeting, October, 1912, and published in Bulletin No. 72, December, 1912, pp. 1497 to 1,517. C. Q. PAYNE, New York (communication to the Secretary*) :-Mr. Hansell has presented in his paper a very interesting and valuable summary of the various methods of enriching iron-ores which have been developed during recent years. Particularly striking in this connection is the high degree of enrichment of the concentrates from magnetic iron-ores which is now commercially feasible. Magnetic concentrates containing from 6 7 to 139 per cent. of metallic iron, showing an efficiency of 90 and even 95 per cent. in. their separation, are not now uncommon. Such results exceed those obtained by gravity methods of treatment of all copper-, lead-, and zinc-ores, and are only equaled in the cyaniding of gold-ores and in the flotation treatment of certain copper-ores. It is of interest to note that the-type of magnetic field which is employed in securing these results, in the Gröndal (wet) and the Ball & Norton (dry) systems of treatment is the same in each case : viz., a field of alternating north and south poles. The credit for developing this simple and useful field, which has found so wide an application both in this country and abroad, is due to two American inventors and engineers, Clinton M. Ball and Sheldon Norton. At the same time, it should be noted that part of the improvement in the grade of the magnetic concentrates, especially in the case of the wet treatment of finely mineralized ores, is due to a well-devised scheme of mill-treatment, whereby a rough concentrate is usually obtained as an intermediate product, which is then recrushed and reseparated in obtaining final clean products.

Jan 3, 1913

By Henry Howe

(New York Meeting, February, 1913.) THE transformation which steel undergoes in glow cooling, from the condition of austenite when above the transformation range into that of pearlite plus either ferrite or cementite below that range, is subject to great lag. This transformation is essentially the pearlitizing of the austenite. Indeed the hardening of steel is due to this lag, which is made so great by extremely rapid cooling that a very large part of the transformation itself is restrained, so that the rapid cooling catches the metal in an only partly transformed state, that of martensite, and under favorable conditions even in an almost wholly untransformed state, as in the cases of Maurer's austenitic manganese steel. Hadfield's austenitic manganese steel, 25 per cent. nickel steel, and other austenitic alloy steels, are austenitic even after slow cooling. It has long been known that this- lag increases (1) with the rapidity of cooling, (2) with the presence of certain retarding elements, notably manganese and nickel, and (3) with the temperature from which cooling starts. The present inquiry touches the last. of these influences, but incidentally it throws light on the first also. This influence of higher heating in increasing lag manifests itself in different ways which, though they may at first seem unrelated, are in fact but different, aspects of one and the same thing. Thus, among heatings to different high temperatures, all of them above the transformation range, the higher the temperature to which the steel is heated (1) the lower is the temperature it which the transformation occurs in cooling slowly down, (2) the shorter is the time occupied in the actual cooling from above the transformation range to the room temperature under given external conditions, whether of slow or

Jan 3, 1913

By F. L. Grammer

THE analyses given in Table I. were made several years ado at my request at a plant using Lake ores. The, are of two furnaces, one making basic, the other Bessemer pig-they gave 6 casts each in 24 hr., also two flushes of cinder between each cast. They- are offered simply for the sake of reference as, so far as I know, it is unusual to find so frequent fall analyses made and none are on record. The variations iii manganese-content in the first and second flushes on the basic furnace are interesting, if no more than a freak-the first flash being invariably higher in manganese. The iron-content of the two slugs from an. average of 12 flushes shows: Basic. Bessemer. Per Cent. Per Cent. Total iron 2.55 1.70 Combined iron 0.72 0.52 Free iron 2.13 7.15

Jan 3, 1913

By James Finlay

(New York Meeting, February, 1913) AT first blush one is tempted to say that iron-mines are like any other mines, and that principles governing mining-property in general will apply to them. But there are certain considerations which seem to repay reflection. Gold and copper are more or less independent of transportation. The proof of this is that those metals are profitably mined and shipped from the remotest corners of the earth. Their value is determined by the cost of production on the ground. This is quite true of gold, not quite so true of copper, not at all true of iron. If New York were a fishing-village and Chicago' a swamp, Calumet & Hecla might still be a bonanza. The main element of its value is the 60 lb. of fine copper per ton which it produced for years. But the Mesabi Range is absolutely dependent upon the industrial activity in the United States. Iron-manufacture in Europe would give it no value whatever. If Chicago and New York had a population of Peruvians or Hindus, the Hull-Rust mine would be as worthless a bit of landscape as any tundra in Alaska. I have discussed these facts more or less casually and dimly in my book on the cost of mining and in my report to the Tax Commissioners of Michigan1 I shall try here to bring them out in more detail. I have already referred to some differences in the problem of mining as between the more precious metals, e.g., gold, and the less precious and more abundant minerals, like iron and coal; but it is interesting to note that the literature of the eco-

Jan 3, 1913

By S. Whinery

I am indebted to L. E. Bryant, of Danville, Ky., President of the Virginia Mining Co., operating coal-mines in Scott county, Tenn., for the following information relating to the existence of the Clinton iron-ore under the NW. slope of the Cumberland Plateau in Kentucky and Tennessee. During the past 15 years quite an important oil-field has been developed in a region having Wayne county, Ky., as its center, and a large number of wells have been drilled in that and adjacent territory in the search for oil. Many of these wells have been carried to considerable depths below the recognized oil-bearing horizon, and one of them was drilled by Mr. Bryant at Pine Knot, a station on the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific railroad, a few miles north of the point where that road crosses the Kentucky-Tennessee State-line. The elevation of

Jan 1, 1913

By J. F. Kemp

CONTENTS. [ ] I. INTRODUCTION. 1. Situation.-From Monterey in the State of Nuevo Leon, the Sierra Madre mountains stretch away to the southeast and present a steep front to the northeast. The Monterey and Mexican Gulf railway, which connects Monterey with Tampico, follows their general line with its road-bed a few miles out from the foothills. At a distance of 100 miles from Monterey it passes through the town of Linares, and from Linares one can see far away to the southeast the peaks of another group of mountains

Jan 1, 1913

By Albert E. Greene

Processes for the removal of phosphorus from iron or steel are steadily assuming greater importance in view of the abundance of high-phosphorus iron-ore and the diminishing supply of pure ore. In the present methods of removing phosphorus by the basic open-hearth or basic Bessemer process, or even by electric processes, complete control over the metallurgical conditions is either impossible or has not yet been realized. The removal of phosphorus has so long been accomplished along certain well-defined lines, that when the electric furnace made its appearance metallurgists adhered to the same old reactions used in the older processes and failed to appreciate and take advantage of the new forces at their disposal. One object of the present paper is to set forth more clearly the metallurgical reactions by which phosphorus can be removed from iron, and to show the necessity of controlling the conditions, and particularly the temperature, by means other than combustion in the furnace-chamber. Invariably, the commercial removal of phosphorus has been accomplished by oxidation. The reactions involved in oxidation of phosphorus in general consist, first, of the formation of P2O5 and second, the combination of this oxide with lime, forming calcium phosphate, which latter is held in a slag high in iron oxide. In the present-used processes, the phosphorus is never removed without the assistance or presence of considerable quantities of iron oxide. The oxygen for removal of phosphorus in the basic open-hearth process comes largely through the medium of iron oxide and furnace-gases, but not

Jan 1, 1913

By Joseph W. Richards

The Ashio copper-mine of the Furukawa Mining Co. is situated 18 miles from Nikko, and 109 miles north of Tokyo, near the center of Japan. The mine-waters are run over scrap-iron, whereby most of the copper is precipitated as cement-copper, leaving iron sulphate with some copper sulphate in solution. After using in the wet concentrating ore-dressing plant, the waste water contains clay and ore-slimes. The only avenue of disposal of this water is the Watarese river; but as this flows through valleys in which the water is used for irrigating the rice-crops, it is necessary to purify and clarify the water before discharge. The water amounts to from 600 to 700 cu. ft. (from 17 to 20 cu. m.) per minute, and averages about 0.00028 per cent. of copper, representing more than 18 tolls of copper per month. The water carries H2SO4, FeSO4, Fe2(SO4)3, CuSO, and other metallic sulphates in solution, and clay, ore-fines, slimes and basic iron sulphates as suspended matters. To purify and clarify the water, precipitation by milk of lime has been used, in three different ways, as follows: I. First Method, Copper not Recovered. Milk of lime was run into the water, and the mixture run through six settling-ponds, and then through a sand filter into

Jan 1, 1913

Jan 1, 1913