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By George M. Enos, Robert J. Anderson

This paper gives a summary of tests made on the accelerated electrolytic corrosion of the tin brass, 70:29:1 copper-zinc-tin (admiralty metal), of different grain sixes in various electrolytes. There has been great difference of opinion as to the effect of grain size on the corrosion rate of brass, particularly in condenser-tube practice, but so far as is known no information has been published on the subject. It has been assumed, on the basis of the amorphous-cement theory, that fine-grained brass would corrode more rapidly than coarse-grained because the amorphous phase is more soluble than the crystalline and there is more cement per unit area exposed in the fine-grained material. In previous work on the corrosion of metals and alloys in acid mine waters from coal mines,1,2 it was found that the grain size, within a restricted range, had practically no effect on the corrosion of the brass 70:29:1 copper-zinc-tin: In the tests made, samples of three grain sizes were included; viz., 0.025, 0.035, and 0.075 mm. diameter (1600, 817, and 177 gr. per sq. mm., respectively), and the average losses on exposure to the most acid of three waters were 7.07, 6.80, and 6.72 mg. per sq. cm. per day (24 hr.), respectively. No distinguishing features were observed on microscopic examination of the corroded samples. In two other mine waters, the corrosion losses were substantially the same for the respective samples. These tests were -incidental to other tests and were not sufficiently comprehensive to warrant drawing definite conclusions. In further work with the accelerated electrolytic corrosion test, as developed recently in the Bureau of Mines, tests were made

Jan 1, 1924

By T. D. Thomas

CONTENTS PAGE T. D. Thomas-Misfires in Anthracite Coal Mines 3 W. H. Forbes-Misfires in Bituminous Coal Mines 12 A. W. Worthington-Misfires in Non-metallic Mining (Limestone) 18 Misfires in Anthracite Coal Mines BY T. D. THOMAS,* LANSFORD, PA. (New York Meeting, February, 1929) IN THIS paper, major attention is given to misfires in mines where electric multiple shot-firing is the system used. Misfires are sometimes caused by one action or condition and at other times by a combination of two or more. They may be divided into two classes: (1) those caused by workers in the mines, (2) mechanical or manufacturer's causes. The second cause will be discussed first. MISFIRES CAUSED BY FAULTY DETONATORS The important part of an electric blasting cap, to the user where multiple shot-firing is done, ass in the steep-pitch, thick-vein, anthracite mines, is the bridge wire. In single shot-firing this factor is not apparent, but in mines where multiple firing is done any variation in the resistance of the bridge wire, where full or even rated battery capacity is required, will most likely cause a misfire The reason for this is obvious. If the resistance in the bridge wires is not the same, some of the detonators will fire because of their greater comparative resistance. Variance in resistance of bridge wires is caused by a slight difference in the diameter of the bridge wire, also to a difference in the composition of the bridge wires. Again, where the bridge wires have become rusted, there will be a variance in resistance. About the year 1922, one of the large coal companies was greatly alarmed by the number of serious and fatal accidents caused by misfires. The general manager issued an order that these accidents must be greatly reduced, and if possible, entirely prevented.

Jan 1, 1929

By W. C. Weslow

AN extended program devoted to the development of a matrix for holding diamonds of a size and. kind not heretofore generally used is being carried on by the Carboloy Company, and this paper describes the part of the development that affects mining and its allied industries. Labora-tory and field work so far has indicated the following: 1. Tungsten carbide and cobalt form the most desirable known matrix material for the holding of diamonds for drilling work. 2. Industrial bort diamonds in sizes and of a class not generally heretofore acceptable and therefore less expensive can be successfully held in this cemented carbide matrix. 3. In exploratory drilling, the combination of bort diamonds, impreg-nated throughout a matrix of tungsten carbide and cobalt, when fabri-cated onto drilling crowns, is an indicated economic substitute for drilling crowns in which the diamonds are set by hand, mechanically or by casting. 4. This impregnated type of drilling crown or bit has definite possi-bilites of revolutionizing the drilling of blast holes, particularly in the harder formations. This will be brought about by the development of high-speed light-weight rotary equipment using an impregnated diamond bit to replace the percussion drill now in general use. (The development of this rotary equipment is well past the laboratory stage at this time.) 5. That the use of a rotary bit is a preventive measure in the fight against silicosis. The development of this product was started by G. F. Taylor at the Research Laboratories of the General Electric Co. It was early recog-nized that it had possibilities in the drilling field and the present product is the result of considerable experimental work with other powdered metals as well as with tungsten carbide and cobalt.

Jan 1, 1940

By T. D. Yensen

In the investigation of the magnetic properties of iron-nickel alloys,' it was found necessary in order to make the alloys forgeable, or malleable, to add small quantities of some other element. Iron-nickel alloys have been known for nearly a century, but have been made in commercial quantities only since 1885. Their remarkable mechanical properties were disclosed by Riley in 1889 and from that time on a large amount, of research work has been done both to discover new properties and to correlate the results obtained.2 Lately the Bureau of Standards has collected the published data in a special circular" giving in compact form an account of the properties of the iron-nickel alloys. It also contains a clear historical sketch of the development as well as a selected bibliography. The chief difficulty with the development of iron-nickel alloys was that the "pure" alloys do not forge readily. The addition of small amounts of manganese, however, made the alloys forgeable, and manganese has therefore come to be regarded as a necessary constituent of nickel steels. The present paper shows to what extent manganese is needed for various nickel contents and also what is the effect of other alloying elements on the forgeability. It also touches upon the cause of forgeability but refers to other sources for more exhaustive treatises on the subject. The alloys were prepared by melting electrolytic iron and electrolytic nickel with or without other alloying elements in the desired proportions in a magnesia crucible in a vacuum furnace under a pressure of 1 mm. mercury. The ingots, weighing about 2 kg., were allowed to cool in vacuo. If pipes or blowholes were present, the ingots were cut in such

Jan 1, 1922

By Y. Wong

The quality and quantity of secondary deposits, which include tailings streams and tailings dams, are increasing around the globe. The tailings are already mined, available and liberated to such an extent that the recovery of a valuable product is highly economical in terms of CAPEX & OPEX. The most widely used process for the recovery of these valuable ultra-fine haematite iron particles is the Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separation technique, originally developed by Dr. Jones over 55 years ago. Many of the original machines are still working today. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the capabilities in terms of grade and yield of using sophisticated magnetic separation modules. All results and figures are obtained from test works, design- and engineering works. Two types of tailings have been identified for processing. Firstly, tailings that have already been deposited in a Tailings Storage Facility, and secondly, live tailings streams from an existing wet iron ore beneficiation plant. In both cases, the technical and practical results are shown along with relevant flow sheets and plant layouts. Finally, this paper highlights the total predicted power- and water consumptions, capital requirements and projected operating expenses. The results show that the operating costs are significantly lower than the mining and processing operations which are required for an equivalent amount of iron ore. The recovery % of iron depends on various factors but is within the 30–50% range, at an equivalent grade to the mainstream product. Another significant benefit is that the magnetic separation process is water positive, meaning that water is released rather than added in the process. The processing of secondary deposits will therefore result in an overall reduction in operating costs, an increase in product yield from a plant, extend the mine life and offer environmental benefits by reducing the tailings footprint and water usage.

Jan 1, 2016

By T. D. Yensen

In the investigation of the magnetic properties of iron-nickel alloys,' it was found necessary in order to make the alloys forgeable, or malleable, to add small quantities of some other element. Iron-nickel alloys have been known for nearly a century, but have been made in commercial quantities only since 1885. Their remarkable mechanical properties were disclosed by Riley in 1889 and from that time on a large amount, of research work has been done both to discover new properties and to correlate the results obtained.2 Lately the Bureau of Standards has collected the published data in a special circular" giving in compact form an account of the properties of the iron-nickel alloys. It also contains a clear historical sketch of the development as well as a selected bibliography. The chief difficulty with the development of iron-nickel alloys was that the "pure" alloys do not forge readily. The addition of small amounts of manganese, however, made the alloys forgeable, and manganese has therefore come to be regarded as a necessary constituent of nickel steels. The present paper shows to what extent manganese is needed for various nickel contents and also what is the effect of other alloying elements on the forgeability. It also touches upon the cause of forgeability but refers to other sources for more exhaustive treatises on the subject. The alloys were prepared by melting electrolytic iron and electrolytic nickel with or without other alloying elements in the desired proportions in a magnesia crucible in a vacuum furnace under a pressure of 1 mm. mercury. The ingots, weighing about 2 kg., were allowed to cool in vacuo. If pipes or blowholes were present, the ingots were cut in such

Jan 1, 1922

By Roger C. Parsons

"The problems presented by ice formation and interference with processes, structures and mechanical operations in the mining industry can be expected to increase sharply as more of our mineraI needs are supplied from the far north. A process of rapid ice destruction is presented which lends itself to the effective removal or penetration of ice. Suggestions are offered for applying the system to problems related to mining activity in cold environments. The system can be readily adapted to large-scale operation, the reactant components being transported in crystalline form and volatilized on site.IntroductionThe number of operational mines in northern environments, relative to the number of mines in the temperate zone, will increase in the years ahead. This is not surprising, because:(a) in the past, those mines closest to centres of commerce had minimum transport charges and hence were more economic to develop;(b) great centres of commerce were far removed from northern environments;(c) the exhaustion of ores and lowering of grades in temperate zones now offset to some degree the extra transport costs applied to northern ores;(d) the abundance of excess energy in the north in the form of oil, gas and hydropower attracts mining as a means to justify its development; (e) assuming that the frequency of mineral occurrence north of the 52° N latitude is no different than south of it, there are many deposits waiting to be developed.As a result of current and projected activity in northern environments, we are faced today, and will be increasingly so in the future, with mining problems rarely encountered before-problems related to below-freezing temperatures. Engineering activity in permafrost regions will increase as new mining ventures are developed north of the 52° N latitude, roughly coinciding with the -1.1 ° C isotherm in Labrador, the upper temperature boundary for permafrost."

Jan 1, 1982

By R. W. Kraft, L. D. Graham

The process of' spheroidization, or more properly coarsening, of Al-CuAl,eutectic alloy specimens with various initial microstructures was studied by quantitative metallographic and X-ray diffraction techniques. By measuring the rale at which specimens with a very fine dispersion of phases (produced by quenching molten droplets of the alloy in water) coarsened it uias determined that the rate-controlling mechanism for coarsening was diffusion, probably of aluminum in the aluminum-rich phase. The lamellae in specimens with a high degree of microstructural and cr-ystallog/uphic anisotropy (produced hy unidirectional solidification of ingots) thickened during heat treatment by recession of the CuAl, platelets from jaulted regzons, yet the specinlens retained a very high degree of. anisotropy after prolonged heat treatments at a temperature within 8°C of the eutectic temperature. In such specimens the crystallographic orientation relationship between the phases remained constant and no change in the crystallographic substructure occurred. Based on these observations a model was developed for the coarsening—or rate of' thicken-ing—oj- the lamellar structures which predicts that the rate of decrease of interface area is proportional to the square of lamellar interface area. Experiments with degenerate and very coarse lamellar microstruc -tures preduced by extremely slow unidirectional solidification) indicate that initial microstructure is a most important factor governing the final micro-structure after heat treatment. The particle size and shape of dispersed phases are important parameters affecting the properties of a wide variety of two-phase materials. As is well-known, varietythe dispersed-phase particles tend to coarsen at appropriately high temperatures because the interface energy of the system is reduced by the concomitant reduction in interface area. The phenomenon of

Jan 1, 1967

By R. D. Pehlke, J. V. Gluck

A study was made of the effect of small additions of metallic solutes on the thermodynamic activity of zinc in dilute solution with molten bismuth in the range 450o to 650°C. The experimental measurements were made in a multielectrode galvanic cell using. a fused LiCl-KCl electrolyte. The activity of zinc in binary solution exhibited a strong positive deviation from Raoult's law and obeyed Henry 's law to at least 0.050 mole fraction. The ternary addition of lead, gallium, or indium increased the activity of zinc. Cadmium or tin additions slightly decreased the zinc activity. Copper, mercury, silver, or antimony caused moderate decreases, while gold strongly decreased the zinc activity. The results are expressed in terms of Wagner's interaction parameter ejZn and a second-order cross-interaction parameter. The interactions for copper, gold, silver, and antimony showed a linear dependence with reciprocal absolute temperature, while the other interactions were essentially independent of temperature over the experimental range. Since tin and antimony decreased the zinc activity, the hypothesis of a purely periodic variation with atomic number was rejected. A semiquantitative explanation was possible with a free-electron model when relative electronegativities were used to express changes in the electron/atom ratio caused by the solute addition. Random solution and quasi-chemical models correctly predicted the majority of the interactions for which binary data were available to apply them. A knowledge of the thermodynamic interactions in liquid (and solid) metallic solutions is of considerable theoretical and experimental interest in the formulation of quantitative thermodynamic relations for metallurgical processes. The approaches to defining the interactions may be either phenomenological (i.e., "What mathematical function adequately describes observed behavior and permits extrapolation to new situations?") or theoretical, such as a specific model

Jan 1, 1968

By H. R. Manouchehri, A. Weh

"High voltage electric pulse comminution (SELFRAG) relies on inducing electrical breakdown that occurs when the resistivity of a dielectric is insufficient to completely block all transfer of electricity while the conductivity is not high enough to fully accommodate the flow of electricity without considerable changes to the crystal lattice. The technology is based on introducing the electrical discharges into solids immersed in water and placed between two electrodes. The technology has received significant attention since investigations have revealed the potential for fully fragmenting particles or pre-weakening rocks in order to reduce the energy consumption in comminution practices, improve liberation and potentially increase the recovery in mineral processing. Mineralogical analysis of samples showed possible liberation at coarser sizes by high voltage breakage in comparison with conventional mechanical comminution.This study explored the potential of implementing SELFRAG to treat the Sandvik’s Mittersill mine tungsten ore (scheelite) for recovery improvement. Accordingly, standard SELFRAG tests were conducted on four samples from the tungsten process plant to evaluate the energy-breakage relation and potential to liberate the value minerals at coarser size fraction for recovery improvement. The size reduction of the ore after processing with SELFRAG revealed that size deportment occurs at 0.4, 0.2, and 0.1 mm, which indicated potential liberation of gangue and target minerals at respective sizes. In comparison with conventional milling, the difference is the deportment of values into 0.4 mm sizes, which was, to some extent, confirmed by SEM liberation analysis. However, more tests are needed to proof the concept. The study has indicated that, despite consuming more energy in comparison with conventional mechanical comminution, there are promising prospects in liberating the values at coarser fraction and improve recovery by making use of SELFRAG. The energy consumption can be reduced through customized generator and equipment setup, which must be further investigated."

Jan 1, 2016

By Oscar E. Harder, H. A. Grove

It is now just a quarter of a century since Fred W. Taylor§(23) pub-lished his classical paper On the Art of Cutting Metals, describing his researches in which he, in cooperation with Maunsel White, had developed what is essentially the modern method of heat-treatring high-speed steels. Regarding this research, Dr. Sauveur,(22) in his address on Steel Wizards, Past and Present, at the annual banquet of the American Society for Steel Treating in Philadelphia in 1920 said, "The discovery of high-speed steel, or if you prefer, of the treatment imparting high-speed properties to certain steels by Taylor and Maunsel White I am inclined to consider as our one epoch-making contribution to the metallurgy of steel." It was at about that same time (1900) that Taylor exhibited high-speed steels, heat-treated by the improved process, at the World's Exposition in Paris and attracted much attention by showing that the steels would operate at such feeds and speeds that the tips of the tools were visibly red hot. This observation must have started metallurgists to wondering regarding the relative hardness of the various steels at red-heat temperatures. Considerable work has indeed been done in an effort to measure the hardness of high-speed steels and related materials in the red-heat range, using various methods. The result's, however, have been only partly satisfactory, owing to experimental difficulties. The present investigation had as it's immediate inception an address by J. V. Emmons, of the Cleveland Twist Drill Co., to the Columbus Chapter of the American Society for Steel Treating in 1931, in which he deplored the fact that comparatively little was known with regard to the hardness of high-speed steels at elevated temperatures, in spite

Jan 1, 1933

By Scoble M, Peck J

This paper reviews the instrumentation and monitoring of blasthole drills and electric mining shovels at a surface coal mine in western Canada. The drill monitoring component involved the development and implementation of microprocessor-based hardware on Bucyrus-Erie 45R and 60R drills. Over a two year period 3800 metres of blasthole drilling were monitored The drill data was subsequently correlated with core and geophysical logs towards identifying unique and reproducible ranges of performance parameter data for the different rock types penetrated. Using this technique, the geology of the study area benches was characterized in detail. Once these same benches had been blasted, the performance of a P&H 2800XP shovel was monitored as it worked through the blasted ground. In this regard, the influence of different digging conditions on shovel performance were identified in a range of blast and geological environments within the study area. The precise nature of these environments was confirmed by a correlation with the interpreted drill monitored data and muckpile size distributions obtained from a digital photo-analysis study. The excavation of 500 000 bcm of waste was thus monitored and a digging index derived which reflected variations in muckpile diggability. The paper concludes by proposing an integrated monitoring approach which, as a first step, uses interpreted drill data for explosive loading. This capability would permit greater accuracy in explosives loading ie. charge placement within higher strength lithologies, while avoiding weaker units. The performance of an instrumented shovel would then be monitored as it works through the resulting muckpile. Interpretation of the shovel performance data would determine the overall quality of the blast in terms of a digging index (DI), providing an indication of the relative digging effort and the effectiveness of the blast design.

Jan 1, 1990

By William L. Fink, L. A. Willey

Since so many different curves have been published for the solid solubility of zinc in aluminum, it seems desirable to definitely establish the correct curve by two or more independent methods. The curve published in part I1t was based entirely upon X-ray measurements because the other methods employed at that time were not satisfactory. The present paper (the seventeenth of this series on high-purity aluminum alloys) describes the determination of the solid solubility of zinc in aluminum by the measurement of electrical resistivity at temperature and by microscopic examination. Since the publication of our part I in 1932, an investigation of the solubility relations in the aluminum-zinc system has been reported by Schmid and Wassermann2, who obtained their solubility results from lattice-parameter measurements on heat-treated and quenched specimens. The diagram that they published is shown in Fig. 1. In this investigation they also found by X-ray measurements that the parameter of the gamma phase changed continuously with zinc content and at such a rate that it would be identical with that of the beta phase at 60 atomic per cent zinc. It was concluded therefore that the beta and gamma phases, from the point of view of structural relationship, are one single phase. They also suggested a gap of immiscibility between 270" and 350" C. The complete boundary in this region could not be determined satisfactorily by the method employed and therefore was not shown in their diagram. Aluminum-zinc Alloys Materials Used.—Electrolytically refined aluminum3 was used in preparing the alloys for the work reported in this paper. Chemical analysis showed the following impurities: 0.004 to 0.005 per cent silicon, 0.006 to 0.008 per cent iron and 0.005 to 0.006 per cent copper. Also,

Jan 1, 1936

By C. P. Sandberg

Notwithstanding the growing importance of this subject, no work specially devoted to it has hitherto been published. Having had to inspect during the last twenty years nearly a million tons of iron and steel rails for various countries, I have obtained experience of what rail manufacturers can practically execute, as well as of what railway engineers practically require. Bearing these two points in mind, I have from time to time published observations with a view to unite both interests,—that of the producer and that of the consumer,—and to reduce the specifications and the forms of sections to standards, or types, in order to facilitate the execution of the works and to improve the construction of permanent way. The Swedish government railways, as well as private companies owning railways in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark,.have during the time above mentioned consulted with me and intrusted to me their rail inspection. I therefore owe to these countries much of the opportunity which I have enjoyed of gaining experience and position. Next to Sweden, America is the country which has most liberally favored me with its confidence in placing these matters in my hands. Through circumstances not under my control there has been little exportation to, and less work done by Europe for, America during the last six years; but the recent revival of the rail trade has been the more gratifying to mo, seeing that almost all the importers of American rails are still specifying for the Sandberg rail sections and inspection. It is therefore with feelings of gratitude that I now beg to lay before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and I hope, through that body, before the American railway world, the results of some experience which I have gained in the execution of work for their country, and which therefore belongs rightfully to

Jan 1, 1881

By D. R. Spink, G. L. Rempel, C. O. Gomez Bueno

"A morphological and chemical study of the Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (GCOS) fly ash has been carried out. Extensive scanning electron microscopy, as well as light microscopy, showed that the GCOS fly ash consists of two fractions, one composed of unburnt or partially burnt irregular-shaped carbon particles and an ash fraction composed of transparent and opaque, often coloured, glassy spherical particles-some of them cenospheres (hollow spheres) and the others plerospheres (hollow spheres packed with smaller spheres). Microcrystals (0.1 to 0.3 um long) growing on the inner and outer surfaces of some of the spheres were also noted and found to contain more Fe, Ti, Ni and V than the spheres.The carbon-free GCOS fly ash particle size follows a lognormal distribution, with a geometric median particle size (by count) of3.8um and a geometric standard deviation of 1.84. IntroductionCanada's current energy situation strongly suggests that oil from the Alberta tar sands deposits will probably be recovered more extensively in the future. Today's commercially proven technology to recover oil from the Athabasca tar sands, as practised by Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (GCOS), involves two major operations, namely: separation of the bitumen from the sand and upgrading of the bitumen to refinery oil; the production of significant amounts of petroleum coke and sulphur during the bitumen upgrading process. The bulk of the petroleum coke is burnt in boilers to fulfill the energy requirements of the entire operation. The boiler ash, which contains appreciable amounts of metals, such as vanadium, nickel, titanium, iron, aluminum and other elements, is collected in the boiler hoppers and cyclones of the petroleum coke-fired steam generation plants. Thus, as well as representing a petroleum resource, the tar sands represent a resource for vanadium and possibly other metals providing that metal recovery processes can be developed."

Jan 1, 1980

By C. P. Sandberg

INTRODUCTION. NOTWITHSTANDING the growing importance of this subject, no work specially devoted to it has hitherto been published. Having had to inspect during the last twenty years nearly a million tons of iron and steel rails for various countries, I have obtained experience of what rail manufacturers can practically execute, as well as of what railway engineers practically require. Bearing these two points in mind, I have from time to time published observations with a view to unite both interests, -that of the producer and that of the consumer,-and to reduce the specifications and the forms of sections to standards, or types, in order to facilitate the execution of the works and to improve the construction of permanent way. The Swedish government railways, as well as private companies owning railways in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, have during the time above mentioned consulted with me and intrusted to me their rail inspection. I therefore owe to these countries much of the opportunity which I have enjoyed of gaining experience and position. Next to Sweden, America is the country which has most liberally favored me with its confidence in placing these matters in my hands. Through circumstances not under my control there has been little exportation to, and less work done by Europe for, America during the last six years ; but the recent revival of the rail trade has been the more gratifying to me, seeing that almost all the importers of American rails are still specifying for the Sandberg rail sections and inspection. It is therefore with .feelings of gratitude that I now beg to lay before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and I hope, through that body, before the American railway world, the results of some experience which I have gained in the execution of work for their country, and which therefore belongs rightfully to

Jan 1, 1881

By Morris Cohen

IT has been known for several years that in certain age-hardenable alloys precipitation of finely divided particles occurs simultaneously with the changes in physical properties; while, in other alloys, these changes take place prior to, or without any, precipitation. . The silver-copper alloys are generally considered to be the classical example of the first group, and the aluminum-copper alloys (duralumin) are typical of the second group. The two types of aging are explained by the precipitation theory and the knot theory respectively. ? It is well recognized now that these theories do not conflict with each other; the one used for a given aging system depends upon which way the alloy in question happens to age-harden. However, previous work on the aluminum-copper alloys1,2 has shown that if the aging temperature is raised sufficiently the hardening will be accompanied by actual precipitation. In fact, it is quite probable that all of the so-called knot-hardening alloys will harden by precipitation at elevated temperatures. Therefore, a combination of the knot and precip-itation theories is necessary to give a complete picture of the age-harden-ing of these alloys, and indicates that knot formation and precipitation are not independent processes. To test the generality of this concept, it is necessary to show that the alloys that commonly harden by precipitation will harden prior to precip¬itation if the aging temperature is sufficiently lowered. For this reason, it would be well to carefully re-examine the aging characteristics of the silver-copper alloys at aging temperatures somewhat below those used by previous investigators. If hardening can be detected prior to precipi¬tation in these alloys, it will lend great weight to the idea that knot forma-

Jan 1, 1936

By Magnus Troilius

SINCE the discussion on steel rails in America has forcibly drawn attention to the value of chemical analysis, if not as a necessary stipulation, at least as a guide to control the usual mechanical tests, some doubt has been thrown upon the accuracy of the analytical results obtained by different chemists. To any one having the least acquaintance with chemistry, it is quite clear that if exactly similar results are to be obtained from the same borings of steel, exactly the same methods must be used by the different analysts. Hence the necessity (if complications are to be avoided) of establishing what I may call standard or normal methods, to be used both by the inspectors and by the chemists at the works. Remembering that the application of chemistry to steelrail inspection is yet in its infancy, it is of great importance to possess a perfect acquaintance with the best methods in use. Being myself a grateful pupil of Professor Eggertz, of the School of Mines in Sweden, it occurred to me, two years ago, that I could not do better than start a laboratory of my own, and engage one of his pupils, Mr. Troilius, for the purpose of analyzing the steel borings from mechanically-tested rails, so that I might thus obtain without delay thoroughly accurate determinations. Moreover, in order to carry on the operations in perfect accordance with the methods used at the steel works in England and Germany, where I had to control the manufacture, I deemed it desirable to allow Mr. Troilius to go through a course of training at these works; and I gladly seize this opportunity of expressing my grateful acknowledgments to several works in England and in Germany for affording every facility for such an exchange of information as mas found necessary in arriving at the best analytical methods to be used.

Jan 1, 1882

By R. W. Winson

Asbestos is the generic name given to a group of fibrous mineral silicates found in nature. They are all incombustible and can be separated by mechanical means into fibers of various lengths and cross sections, but each differs in chemical composition from the others. The commercial grades of asbestos consist of a spectrum of lengths and sizes and are not definitive as are most organic fibers. It is generally recognized that there are two main groups of asbestos. The first only contains the fibrous serpentine called chrysotile and comprises about 94% of the world production of asbestos. The second group contains five minerals in the amphibole series+rocidolite, amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite, and actinolite. The latter two have no commercial importance. Properties Physical The structures of asbestos fibers have been studied intensively over a number of years. X-ray diffraction patterns have been used as a means of identification and classification. Low angle X-ray scattering techniques have shown that chrysotile fibers are "hexagonally close packed" and parallel to each other, having cross-sectional diameters varying from 18014 to 300A units, while the amphibole fibers are many times larger in cross section. Electron micrographs of the more common types of as- bestos are shown in [Figs. 1-4]. [Fig. 1] illustrates the softness and flexibility of chrysotile which make it suitable for textile-type products. For a number of years there was considerable controversy over the exact nature of chrysotile fiber, but the photographic evidence in [Figs. 5-7] clearly show that it is tubular in structure. The curvature is the result of the mismatch in the dimensions of the silica [Si,O,l and brucite [Mg(OH),] layers which are on the inside and outside, respectively, of a double sheet. This curvature had been predicted by Pauling (1930) years ago based on the molecular dimensions of the two component structures.

Jan 1, 1975

Investigations of the Mineragraphic Section; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, have included most of the known stannite-bearing ores in Australia, and have revealed several new occurrences of this relatively uncommon mineral. They provide information about its paragenesis, and its possible effect on tin recovery, that may be of general interest.Several of the investigations used in the preparation of this paper, were made in the first instance by pr. F. L. Stillwell or in collaboration with him.CASSITERITE-SULPHIDE ORES IN NORTH-WEST- TASMANIA Stannite is a minor component of most of the cassiterite sulphide ores of north-western Tasmania. These include the orebodies of Mount Bischoff, the Cleveland mine, Moina, the Stanley River district, Renison Bell, and the Heemskirk-Zeehan district, and form a well defined metallogenetic provence which is related to the Devonian granites of this part of Tasmania.In these ores mineralisation began. with deposition of cassiterite, a little wolfram, and quartz, topaz and tourmaline. With falling temperature, deposition of cassiterite ceased and arsenopy-rite, pyrite, and especially pyrrhotite, formed in abundance, tending to give massive sulphide ore. A little chalcopyrite; stannite, sphalerite and native bismuth accompanied the pyrrhotite. Deposition of quartz ceased after the pyrrhotite, was formed, and the later-formed nonsulphide gangue consists chiefly of carbonates and fluorite. With, the advent of the carbonates the pyrrhotite was altered to fine-gained intergrowths of marcasite and pyrite. Excess iron from the pyrrhotite entered the intergrown carbonate, or was precipitated as magnetite. Some solution of the cassiterite occurred at this stage, the tin being redeposited chiefly as stimnite replacement rims around the residual cassitellrite grains. Varying, but small, amounts of sphalerite, galena, tetrahedrite and silver minerals were depoSited at this stage, bringing the mineralisation to a...

Jan 1, 1951