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By F. K. Pence

THE reduction of the firing of clay wares to a science has been one of the most difficult problems of modern ceramic engineering. The number of factors involved in the treatment of these wares has been such a complicated composite of the chemical and the physical properties that, according to the old practice, results depended rather on the art of the operator than on any scientific data available. The combined influence of the chemical and physical properties of clay minerals renders it difficult to apply the data obtained in one operation to the forecasting of details to be applied in another. In maturing clay-ware bodies by the application of heat, the chemical reactions involved are, in general, incomplete. The object frequently is to secure a certain physical quality, as density, color, or strength, rather than any particular chemical composition or development: This is more generally true of the so-called crude clay products. In the case of certain more high-grade wares, as the porcelains, it is necessary to reach the temperature required to bring about a certain molecular development or crystalline structure; but even here, time and temperature are at work and must be considered jointly. The conditions attending the firing of clay wares has led to the use of certain devices in the measurement of the progress of the firing process whereby the influence of the various burning factors on the clay composition under fire is indicated. In the simplest application of this practice, samples of the ware itself are so placed as to be drawn for observation at various intervals during the burn. Although the appearance is affected by the quick cooling treatment, by experience, this practice is successfully used, particularly in the brick industry. The settle of the setting of brick, as measured from the top of the kiln may also serve as a guide in the firing operation. Another example is found in the stoneware industry, where the practice of arranging test pieces made of the same composition

Jan 9, 1919

By Sir Robert Hadfield

Table 1 gives the composition of the specimens listed by the author. The details of test procedure and the results of the tests on mechanical, magnetic and electrical properties and cor-rodibility of the alloys are published in full in a paper by the same author, "Alloys of Iron and Manganese Containing Low Carbon," presented before the Iron and Steel Institute (of Great Britain) and published in full in their Proceedings for 1927, to which reference should be made. After reporting these tests the author gives the following discussion of results:] The studies here reported do not indicate that any of the series has really valuable or useful qualities for industrial applications, though the demands of industry are so varied that it is unsafe to prophesy that no special use will be found for a given material. The non-magnetic property of manganese steel is due to the association of Fe and Mn, but carbon has also an effect, enabling non-magnetic qualities to be obtained with a much lower percentage of Mn than would otherwise be the case; for example, 16 per cent. Mn is necessary for alloys practically free from carbon, while with 1 per cent. C nonmagnetic alloys may be obtained with as little as 7 per cent. Mn. Carbon, however, is the prime cause of the development of magnetic qualities by heat treatment. (Sec section 8 of the paper referred to above.) These Fe-Mn alloys show a resistance up to 87 microhms per c. c., but. as there are other alloys which have a resistance as high as 130 microhms per C. c., this does not provide any new feature of value. The most marked feature of the series studied is the brittleness in the range 3 to 10 per cent., with a maximum of brittleness at 7 per cent. Material with this percentage, while possessing quite appreciable hard-

Jan 1, 1927

By Alexander L. Field

In the light of the experimental data on equilibrium for the reaction C + FeO = Fe + CO in molten steel recently obtained by Kinzel and Egan,l it is necessary to revise current theories regarding the nature of equilibrium between carbon and FeO in the basic open-hearth furnace. According to the measurements of these investigators the equilibrium constant m for the above reaction for a pressure of dissolved CO equal to 1 atm. is equal to 0.0005 at 1550" C., when concentrations of carbon and FeO are expressed in percentages by weight. Their work also shows that, with the pressure of CO fixed at 1 atm., not only is the product of carbon and FeO constant, but carbon and FeO are each independently constant—a circumstance which might have been predicted from theoretical considerations. At 1550" C., carbon is constant at about 0.025 per cent. and FeO at about 0.020 per cent., with the pressure of dissolved CO equal to 1 atm., the product of these two constants being equal to the originally mentioned constant of 0.0005. Available data on the dissolved FeO content of samples taken from the metal bath at practical slag-metal equilibrium prove that this FeO content is determined solely by temperature and the effective FeO content of the slag. The distribution constant r at 1550" C., as determined by Herty, Gaines, Larsen, Simkins, Geruso and Watkins2 is equal to 0.0086. A slag would have to contain 0.020 = 2.3 per cent. effective 0.0086 FeO or less in order to prevent the metal from containing more dissolved FeO than that required for equilibrium with CO at 1 atm. pressure. Such low percentages of FeO are never found in basic open-hearth slags at the completion of a heat when rate of carbon drop has become practi-

Jan 1, 1930

By F. E. Lucas

This paper is offered with considerable diflidence, since some of the statements made may not agree with the opinions of other members of the Institute. What I give is the result of some years of experience in the operation and construction of coke-ovens, and observation of plants in America and Europe. Although my title is " The Manufacture of Coke," I have found it impossible to do justice to the subject without touching on a number of points which, while not strictly involved in the making of coke, yet are of paramount importance from an economic standpoint. There are, indeed, many points of interest, on each of which a separate paper of considerable length might be written, but the scope of my paper will permit me only to touch lightly some of them, in the hope that what I say will promote a full discussion on the whole question. Those of us who are interested in the manufacture of coke are under an obligation to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, which has opened its meetings to the discussion of this subject. I do not believe that there is any question to-day more worthy or more in need of discussion. When geologists and mining-men tell us that, at the present rate of consumption, our coal-fields will be exhausted in a few generations, me should welcome any means that will conserve these deposits as far as possible, and give us the greatest amount of heat or power from every ton mined. I shall try to show that much can be done in this direction through the by-product coke-oven, and that it should stand second to none as an economic factor in the industrial world. I shall here deal exclusively with the by-product oven, except for the comparative statement I hare prepared, showing the saving to be effected by coking in by-product instead of beehive orens. It should be borne in mind that this comparison

Jan 1, 1913

By Foster Fraas

Most commercial electrostatic separators utilize the electrical property of conductivity, but although based on the same principles, they are constructed in a variety of forms, a common one being the simple roll type. Some information obtained during an investigation of that type of separator, and which indirectly is applicable to other types, is presented here. In Fig. I material discharged from hopper 6 is fed onto grounded rotating roll 2. Electrode 3 is at a high electrical potential with respect to roll 2, and any conductive particle in contact with roll 2 therefore acquires an electrical charge of such polarity that, when present in the electrical field, the force on it is in the direction of electrode 3. A detailed description of the charging by conductance as utilized in electrostatic separators may be found in a previous publication.' As a result of this force, the path of the projected particle is changed in increasing amounts in the direction toward region C as the magnitude of the charge is increased. With the dividing edge 4 the projected particles may be divided into two fractions —those in region C designated as "deflected" or"deflectant"and those in region B designated as "residue." When material is passed over the roll only once, a complete separation is seldom obtained, therefore most commercial separators contain several roll-separator units in series, and some practical machines use as many as I2. In this paper a "pass" means the passage of material over a single-roll unit. The procedure is to repass either residue B with a low potential on electrode 3 or deflectant C with a high potential on 3. Most electrostatic separations follow a flowsheet of roughing and cleaning either the concentrate or the tailing, or both. In a specific instance, a dry, heated mixture of wet cleaned chromite and garnet from an

Jan 1, 1943

By Foster Fraas

Most commercial electrostatic separators utilize the electrical property of conductivity, but although based on the same principles, they are constructed in a variety of forms, a common one being the simple roll type. Some information obtained during an investigation of that type of separator, and which indirectly is applicable to other types, is presented here. In Fig. I material discharged from hopper 6 is fed onto grounded rotating roll 2. Electrode 3 is at a high electrical potential with respect to roll 2, and any conductive particle in contact with roll 2 therefore acquires an electrical charge of such polarity that, when present in the electrical field, the force on it is in the direction of electrode 3. A detailed description of the charging by conductance as utilized in electrostatic separators may be found in a previous publication.' As a result of this force, the path of the projected particle is changed in increasing amounts in the direction toward region C as the magnitude of the charge is increased. With the dividing edge 4 the projected particles may be divided into two fractions —those in region C designated as "deflected" or"deflectant"and those in region B designated as "residue." When material is passed over the roll only once, a complete separation is seldom obtained, therefore most commercial separators contain several roll-separator units in series, and some practical machines use as many as I2. In this paper a "pass" means the passage of material over a single-roll unit. The procedure is to repass either residue B with a low potential on electrode 3 or deflectant C with a high potential on 3. Most electrostatic separations follow a flowsheet of roughing and cleaning either the concentrate or the tailing, or both. In a specific instance, a dry, heated mixture of wet cleaned chromite and garnet from an

Jan 1, 1943

By Robert Abbott

THE influence of various elements in retarding or accelerating the absorption of carbon during the process of carburization is fairly well known. In general those elements which forth carbides accelerate the absorption, while those which do not retard it. It has sometimes been wrongly stated that those elements which raise the temperature of the critical range increase the absorption, while those which lower this temperature decrease it. Silicon is a notable exception to this rule, for its influence is to raise the critical range but to lower the absorption of carbon. Some elements which do not form carbides have no apparent influence upon the absorption rate. Carbon itself retards the absorption rate. With a view to obtaining more exact data upon the subject the following experiments were undertaken : 208 steels of different chemical composition were selected to represent most of the types of modern constructional steels. Specimens 3 in. in diameter and in. in length were weighed to milligrams. They were then packed in the special carburizing box shown in Fig. 1, and kept in .the furnace for 10 hours at a temperature of 900° C. A duplicate experiment was conducted at 1,000° C. At equal' intervals of time the box was rotated in the furnace so that. two complete revolutions were made in the 10 hours. This precaution was taken to neutralize as much as possible any effect of unequal heating. At the end of the 10 hours the box was allowed to cool in the furnace with the doors open. The specimens were then weighed again and the increased weight (carbon) determined. In. the following table are given the analyses of the various steels, together with the. increased weight of .carbon expressed in milligrams.

Jan 10, 1913

By Samuel Wyer

Over 8,000,000 people in the United States depend on natural gas for their cooking, heating and lighting service. This service has been made possible only by the investment of large amounts of capital in transportation lines connecting the gas wells to the various communities, thus combining a hazardous mining operation with a public utility service. The effect that making these lines " common carriers" will have on the present and future service to these 8,000,000 or more people is of far reaching ethical and economic importance, and deserves careful consideration. As an introduction, it must be conceded that: 1. Natural gas, although a mineral and obtained by a mining operation-with more uncontrollable and uncertain features to cope with than exist in the mining of coal or other minerals-when served to the public becomes a public utility service. 2. The governmental power to regulate all public utilities in the interests of the public cannot be successfully disputed. 3. Mere suggestion of inconvenience to the utility is wholly irrelevant, as it cannot be considered or allowed to influence in making a defense against governmental regulation. Unfortunately it is not generally appreciated that: 1. Legislative enactments are not necessarily laws, and cannot abrogate economic laws or alter engineering facts. 2. There is a clear distinction between "common carrier" and "public utility," although the terms are frequently confused. ' "A common carrier is one who undertakes for hire to transport persons or goods, or both, from place to place for all persons indifferently, the term implying indifference as to whom shall be served, and an equal readiness to serve all who apply, in the order of their application." On the other hand, property becomes a "public utility" only "when for a particular purpose the public have a right to resort to the premises and make use of them."

Jan 5, 1914

By G. R. Fritterer

Investigators in the field of temperature measurement have long sought a thermoelectric couple fulfilling the following requirements: 1. It should be useful up to and including high industrial temperatures; i. e., 1000 to 1800 C. 2. Its thermoelectric variation with temperature should be linear and be maintained after heating to high temperatures for long periods of time. 3. It should be reproducible; i. e., different couples of the same elements should have similar calibration curves. 4. Its thermoelectric power should be large so as to allow the industrial use of rugged recording instruments. 5. Chemical reactions with, and physical changes within the elements of the couple should not alter its calibration. No thermocouple proposed to date exhibits simultaneously all of these characteristics, whereas the couple about to be described fulfills all requirements to a satisfactory degree. New Thermoelectric Materials A thorough survey of the literature on thermoelectricity revealed that present-day thermocouples could not meet the specifications mentioned above because their thermoelements are metallic. Metals have a marked tendency to deteriorate chemically and their melting points limit their use to low temperatures. Refractory substances, however, are usually resistant to chemical attack and are quite stable at high temperatures. Hence a survey of refractory substances having thermoelectric possibilities was made. One class of thermocouples considered was that in which carbon and a carbide of some metal or nonmetal were the thermoelements. Previous investigators neglected to study this field but certain recommendations were made by them for the use of couples in which carbon served as one element. These proposals are listed in Table 1. The couples suggested are unsatisfactory because of their low thermoelectric powers, the low melting points of their metallic elements, etc. The

Jan 1, 1933

Joseph K. Stone, Jr. (Kaiser Engineers, Oakland, Calif.)—I would like to compliment the authors on their clear presentation of the results of their study of the pneumatic processes. We hope that the Inland Management decision to make this information available to all will induce others to release additional valuable fundamental data which they have accumulated in the field. There are two points upon which we would like to comment. In the discussion of Table VII it was indicated that the "oxygen consumptions were about the same as has been reported for other oxygen steelmaking processes". This conclusion is apparently based upon the consumption of 2100 cu ft per ton shown in Table VII. The data in Table IV also permits calculation of 2520, 2280, 2250 and 2700 cu ft per ton in heats 1 to 4, respectively. These figures are in the same general range as those reported for the Kal-Do and Rotor Processes using Thomas iron, but considerably above the following figures for four of the operating L-D Process Plants while using iron which is similar to American basic iron: Donawitz 1760 cu ft per ton Adapted from Cuscoleca' LinZ 1900 cu ft per ton Trenkler & Hauttmann2 Dofasco 1850 cu ft per ton D. O. Davis:3 In addition to the differences between the consumption of gaseous oxygen in the Inland operation and in the L-D Process, there is another closely related difference. The L-D plants for which data are cited are using approximately 1 pct ore while the authors' process used about 7 pct of sinter. Assuming 65 pct Fe in the sinter, the difference amounts to 400 to 500 cu ft

Jan 1, 1959

By J. C. Danko, R. D. Stout, A. H. Holtzman

The deformation characteristics of pearlite have been studied by light and electron microscopy.1,2 In the electron-microscopic work, deformation was found to take place by 1) ferrite slip which is parallel to the lamellae, 2) slip transverse to the lamellae with both cementite and ferrite deforming, and 3) ferrite-cementite interfacial slip. The transverse slip gives a step-like appearance to the lamellae in light microscopic work. It was thought that spheroidization of deformed pearlite would commence at the regions of maximum cementite deformation, the "stepped" areas. Although there is no possibility for seeing slip in the microstructure if the specimen is polished after deformation, the step-like appearance of the lamellae clearly indicates the transverse deformation. Thus, the areas of cementite deformation are apparent after polishing and the effect of deformed areas on spheroidization may be studied by the usual metallographic techniques. This note reports the result of a metallographic investigation which substantiates that spheroidization begins in the "stepped" areas. An AISI 1080 steel was normalized, re-austeni-tized at 1040°C, and isothermally transformed at 700 ± 4°C for 4 hr. Cubes, 5 mm to a side, were compressed between parallel plates to strains of 20, 40, and 50 pct. After deformation, specimens were heated to 600, 650, and 700°C; withdrawn at increasing time intervals and examined metallo-graphically for the percentage and distribution of spheroidite. The percentage of spheroidite was determined by lineal analysis. A micro structural region considered as spheroidized was one in which a lamellar skeleton was not distinguishable. Table I gives the times necessary for 95 pct spheroidization for each condition of strain and annealing temperature. Fig. 1 shows the microstructure of coarse pearlite compressed 20 pct, then polished and etched. Here the lamellae form a step by bending at two

Jan 1, 1959

Correlation between Metallography and Mechanical Testing By H F MOORE (Henry Marion Howe Memorial Lecture Trans, vol 120 11,000 words ) The lack of effective correlation between metallography and mechanical testing from the days of Reaumur to the present is noted, and two general problems of such cor¬relation are stated (1) the correlation of qualitative test results with quantitative, and (2) the correlation of average results with maximum or minimum results Some correlation has been achieved, notably in the field of heat-treatment and in the study of elastic strength of metals Correlation is in the process of being developed in several other fields, including the quantitative study of the effect of grain size of metal on mechanical properties, of grain size and type of crystalline structure on the sensitivity of metals to weakening at holes, notches and other "stress raisers," and in the study of the starting phases of spreading, "fatigue" cracks Correlation of mechanical test results and metallographic study is needed in the study of such problems as the various theories of failure of metals, the meaning of and tests for service ductility of metals, and the relative damaging effect of defects inherent in metals, such as minute cracks and segregation, as compared with the damaging effect of "imposed" stress raisers, such as screw threads, sharp shoulders, etc The neces¬sity for more correlation of metallography and mechanical testing during student days is emphasized, and also the need of a better understanding on the part of engi¬neers of the significance and limitations of metallographic apparatus and results and of X-ray diffraction This should be matched by a better understanding on the part of metallurgists of the significance and limitations of mechanical tests of metals, of testing machines and strain-measuring apparatus

Jan 1, 1937

By A. S. Yue

It was deemed desirable to obtain an understanding of the vacuum desulfurization process. McKechnie1 has reported that the sulfur content of nickel- and cobalt-base alloys is reduced in vacuo. Keverian and Taylor2 have observed that vacuum melting causes desulfurization of iron-carbon-silicon alloys. Garnyk and samarin3 have desulfurized transformer steel by vacuum treatment. Experiments were conducted in order to investigate the desulfurization of liquid iron under reduced pressures, and to establish the effect of some alloying elements, and various crucible materials. A vacuum-induction furnace of 50-lb capacity was used. The charge was Armco iron. Silicon was added as 90 pct ferrosilicon, carbon as electrode graphite, and aluminum as high-purity aluminum metal. Magnesia and silica crucibles were used, their inside diameters were 5 1/2 and 5 3/8 in., respectively. The temperature was measured with an optical pyrometer and it was held at 1600 1 15°C. Samples were withdrawn with quartz tubes of 6 mm ID, without disturbing the furnace atmosphere. Pressures were measured with an alphatron gage. The experimental results are shown in Fig. 1. They indicate that: 1) Sulfur can be removed from liquid iron alloys by vacuum treatment; 2) The desulfurization is enhanced by the presence of silicon, carbon, and aluminum, all these elements increase the activity of sulfur dissolved in liquid iron;4 3) The pronounced effect of silicon indicates that probably a volatile silicon sulfide is formed, Alcock and Richardson5 have observed a similar phenomenon; 4) The same rate of desulfurization was obtained when the metal was contained in either magnesia or silica crucibles. Dr. J. Keverian has contributed many discussions and recommendations. M. S. Sutliff has helped in conducting the heats. The permission of General Electric Co. for this publication is gratefully acknowledged.

Jan 1, 1960

By Foster Fraas

MOST commercial electrostatic separators utilize the electrical property of conductivity, but although based on the same principles, they are constructed in a variety of forms, a common one being the simple roll type. Some information obtained during an investigation of that type of separator, and which indirectly is applicable to other types, is presented here. NUMERICAL RELATIONSHIP In Fig. I material discharged from hopper 6 is fed onto grounded rotating roll 2. Electrode 3 is at a high electrical potential with respect to roll 2, and any conductive particle in contact with roll 2 therefore acquires an electrical charge of such polarity that, when present in the electrical field, the force on it is in the direction of electrode 3. A detailed description of the charging by conductance as utilized in electrostatic separators may be found in a previous publication.1 As a result of this force, the path of the projected particle is changed in increasing amounts in the direction toward region C as the magnitude of the charge is increased. With the dividing edge 4 the projected particles may be divided into two fractions -those in region C designated as "deflected" or " deflectant " and those in region B designated as "residue." [ ] When material is passed over the roll only once, a complete separation is seldom obtained, therefore most commercial separators contain several roll-separator units in series, and some practical machines use as many as 12. In this paper a "pass" means the passage of material over a single-roll unit. The procedure is to repass either residue B with a low potential on electrode 3 or deflectant C with a high potential on 3. Most electrostatic separations follow a flowsheet of roughing and cleaning either the concentrate or the tailing, on both. In a specific instance, a dry, heated mixture of wet cleaned chromite and garnet from an

Jan 1, 1942

By Frederick Tickell

PETROLEUM engineers are displaying considerable interest in those fundamental properties of matter and energy that control the phenomena of oil and gas production. The subject is a difficult one to investigate by laboratory experiments for two reasons: (1) it is impossible to reproduce in the laboratory the scale of forces and dimensions that exist in the underground reservoir; (2) if we attempt to scale down the dimensions we are unable to reduce all proportionally. It is as if we tried to construct a model blast furnace for the reduction of iron ore, and reduced all lineal dimensions. We should find that the interstices between the miniature chunks of ore would not .permit rapid transfer of gases, that combustion and heat transfer would not take place as in the full size furnace and that, in short, the contraption would not work. Just so, when we attempt to make a reduced scale oil field we find we must have, not only miniature reservoir and miniature wells, but "miniature" sand, oil, gas, etc. Much valuable work, however, has been done along these experimental lines and more will no doubt follow, but investigators should bear this point in mind and strive to attain dimensional homogeneity and dynamical similarity in order that their conclusions may be translated into terms applying to the oil reservoir. As Gibson says,1 "These conditions are attained when all terms of the physical equation have the same dimensions, . . . when all corresponding particles of the two systems trace out similar paths and when the velocities are such as to make all corresponding forces acting on two such particles in the same ratio. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the mechanics of fluid movement as it pertains to the oil pool and to point out the complexity of the laws of fluid delivery under the conditions often found.

Jan 1, 1928

By A. J. Jacobs, G. Katz

MANY of the studies of intermetallic compounds containing uranium were performed during the early 1940's under the aegis of the Manhattan Project. Subsequently, much of this work was declassified and published after 1949. In some instances this early work, completed with relatively impure materials, represents the only source of X-ray diffraction powder data available in the literature. In the case of the intermetallic compound U,Fe some discrepancies in the powder pattern exist in the literature. Since this compound has been prepared in this laboratory, it is believed that the publication of the indexed powder pattern would help clarify the conflict in the literature. In studies of the U-Fe system, Gordon and Kauf-mannl and Grogan and Clews2 independently reported the intermetallic compound U,Fe in 1950. The crystal structure was described by Baenziger, Rundle, Snow, and Wilson3 in 1950. It is isostructural with U,Mn, U,Ni, and U,Co and crystallizes in a body-centered tetragonal lattice. The lattice constants determined by Baenziger et al. are: giving an X-ray density = 17.7 g cm-3 for 4 mol per unit cell. The compound used in this study was prepared by melting a stoichiometric mixture of the constituent metals in an argon-arc furnace using a nonconsum-mable tungsten electrode. Before the argon of 99.98 pct purity was introduced into the furnace, it was passed through CaC1, to remove water vapor and afterwards through a stainless steel tube containing calcium turnings heated at 600°C for the removal of nitrogen and oxygen. The purity of the uranium used was better than 99.9 pct and that of the iron was 99.97 pct. Before and during melting a zirconium getter was used to further purify the argon atmos-

Jan 1, 1962

By H. M. Howe, E. C. Groesbeck

That the quiescence of a liquid while it is solidifying should favor the formation of columnar crystals, normal of the cooling surface, is seen readily on considering the mechanism of solidification. First, each particle of any composite liquid, whether it be an aqueous solution or a molten metal, in solidifying splits up into two parts, different in composition and hence in fusibility. One part is infusible at the existing temperature, and hence solidifies, and in general attaches itself to the inclosing walls of metal which have already solidified; A, Fig. 1. The other part is fusible at the existing temperature and hence remains molten. In the case of carbon steel, the part of each drop which actually solidifies is poorer in carbon than the drop itself was before it began to solidify, and this impoverishment of the solidifying half-drop enriches the other half-drop in carbon, and thus makes it unfreezable at the existing tern- By this mechanism there arises during solidification a "littoral" or shore layer of liquid B, Fig. 1, bathing the already solidified walls, and more fusible than either those walls or the great remaining central mass of liquid or " deep sea " C, from which it separates them. It is essential that we grasp clearly this conception of a fusible littoral molten layer coating the already solidified walls and separating them from the deep sea. Meanwhile heat is flowing rapidly outward through these walls, its escape cooling them, so that if any given particle of the deep sea metal could get past this littoral layer and come into contact with the solid walls, it would in turn solidify, and like its predecessors would split up in solidifying into a less fusible half-drop which would attach itself to those . walls and a more fusible one which would remain molten. Thus we see

Jan 1, 1920

By Robert R. Abbott

The influence of various elements in retarding or accelerating the absorption of carbon during the process of carburization is fairly well known. In general those elements which form carbides accelerate the absorption, while those which do not retard it. It has sometimes been wrongly stated that those elements which raise the temperature of the critical range increase the absorption, while those which lower this temperature decrease it. Silicon is a notable exception to this rule, for its influence is to raise the critical range but to lower the absorption of carbon. Some elements which do not form carbides have no apparent influence upon the absorption rate. Carbon itself retards the absorption rate. With a view to obtaining more exact data upon the subject the following experiments were undertaken: 208 steels of different chemical composition were selected to represent most of the types of modern constructional steels. Specimens 2 in. in diameter and 9 in. in length were weighed to milligrams. They were then packed in the special carburizing box shown in Fig. 1, and kept in the furnace for 10 hours at a temperature of 900' C. A duplicate experiment was conducted at 1,000° C. At equal intervals of time the box was rotated in the furnace so that two complete revolutions were made in the 10 hours. This precaution was taken to neutralize as much as possible any effect of unequal heating. At the end of the 10 hours the box was allowed to cool in the furnace with the doors open. The specimens were then weighed again and the increased weight (carbon) determined. In the following table are given the analyses of the various steels, together with the increased weight of carbon expressed in milligrams.

Jan 1, 1914

By L. H. de Wald, J. Walter Scott

It is usual practice in the copper industry to use open horizontal molds for casting tough-pitch copper wire bars.' A wire bar cast in this manner is partly characterized by heavy wrinkles and a comparatively deep skin of oxide on the top of the bar, corresponding to the open side of the mold. On the theory that the rough, high-oxide surface might have an adverse effect on the rolling and drawing properties of a wire bar and might account for some of the irregularities of mill behavior, several bars which had been planed to remove the wrinkled surface were processed into wire. These bars responded to mill treatment more satisfactorily than did the regular wire bars. Realizing that machining the surface of one face of each bar would not be commercially feasible, it was decided that casting the metal into a vertical mold and cropping off the pouring end would accomplish approximately the same result. Several wire bars of commercial size (250 Ib.) were so cast and processed into wire for comparative test with bars cast in the usual horizontal molds. It is the purpose of this paper to present the results obtained from this investigation, in which commercial bar sizes and processing technique were used throughout. The results show that in general copper wire bars cast vertically are superior to those cast horizontally. Experimental Procedure A horizontally cast bar and a vertically cast bar were obtained from each of several regular reverberatory furnace heats of copper which had been refined and poled to tough-pitch metal in accordance with usual methods.' Both bars were cast from the same part of the melt and within five minutes of each other, in order to produce as nearly as possible, in each case, wire bars of identical composition.

Jan 1, 1930

By A. D. Rich

THE term "bleaching clay" or "bleaching earth," as used in the oil industries, refers to clays that in their natural state, or after chemical or physical activation, have the capacity for adsorbing coloring matter from oil. There are three common types of bleaching clays: fuller's earth, activated clays, and activated bauxite. Fuller's earth, or naturally active clay, is prepared from bentonites that possess natural activity. It is not activated commercially; in fact, earths of this type ordinarily do not respond satisfactorily to acid activation. Fuller's earth is prepared in pulverized as well as granular form for use in the contacting and percolation processes, respectively. Acid-activated clays also are of bentonitic origin. The basic raw clay, however, is of a type that has a very low natural activity but is highly activable by treatment with mineral acid. Commercial acid-activated clays generally possess several times the decolorizing power (bleaching efficiency) of the best quality of fuller's earth. The former are prepared commercially only in the pulverized grade because of the difficulties in obtaining a satisfactory granular product, and hence are used only in the contact process. Activated bauxite is made by heat-treating bauxite ore, which in its natural state has very little natural activity. The commercial product is prepared in granular form for use in the percolation process on petroleum oils. For the most part, bleaching clay is used commercially in the decolorization of animal, vegetable and petroleum oils, fats and waxes. It is applied in two ways: (1) by the percolation method and (2) by the contacting method. Percolation refers to the passage of oil through a bed of granular clay whereas contacting refers to direct agitation of oil and pulverized clay followed by removal of the clay from the oil by filtration. In either case, the decolorizing effect is obtained by inti-

Jan 1, 1949