Bisbee daily review., 1909-07-04

reSS ana thereDy gain experience, even at the expense of such waste as I above indicate. rather than stand still and do nothing. in the hope of more favorable conditions being brought about by Providence rather than by our own efforts.
 Never Throw Away SIaq or Taiiincs
 Certain lessons. however, the above recital of experience teaches. One of them is. never throw away anything that contains material of any value, even thought it may seem to be value less. The time inevitably comes when, through improved conditions or better methods. what was waste to one generation becomes of value to another. Most of the filling of the old stopes in the Copper Queen mine and in the Old Dominion mine has al ready been retreated. In the case, therefore of sulphide ore. which is too lean to handle. it should be stored underground rather than exposed to the weather at the surface. I am not sure whether we are justified in bal. lasting our railroads with the slags which we are making now-lean as they are. One cannot see how 0.5 per cent copper and little gold and sil- yer can possibly be recovered to any advantage. and yet the future may re. veal secrets which will convert such impossibilities into possibilities The slags from the iron blast fur naces. which were deemed valueless a generation ago. are made into hy raulic cement today.
 We all recognize the waste that has resulted in the past from washing away gold tailings. which often ran several dollars in gold to the ton Had they been impounded, the miner als now, through weathering. would be in the fittest possible condition for cyaniding, and would give up to this process their residual values to within trifle of their contents. The same rule of preservation should be applied to the tailings from copper works. The sulphides, no matter how small theil percentage. slowly decay, and give of their copper as soluble sulphate. which can be precipitated on scrap iron at a very inconsiderable cost If the local ity be such that these waste materials can be stored, care. and some outlay If necessary. should be expended il pftscENtlltU-
 Waste In Domestic Life.
 There seems, however, to be a fas cination in contemplating loss rather than saving, and while we cannot ex aggerate the follies of waste, it is nct fair to the profession to overlook the efforts that have been consistently made within the last three-quarters oi century. and are still being made. tc eliminate waste. One of the anomo lies, however, of the problem is tha, the accused mining and technical en gineers compose the only section oi the public which really appreciates the cost of waste and tries to save.
 The recovery of heat units in oul domestic fireplaces and furnaces is fai less than the recovery of heat iron coal burned under our best boilers when measured as power generated in our steam engines. And the waste in our kitchens and at our tables in wolves a greater national loss than the waste in our coal mines. In the one case the people at large are making no effort to minimize 1t. while every technical man of repute is putting his best endeavors into devising mean. of getting the highest efficiency but oi natures forces, with a view to turr natures resources indirectly to th, greatest good for the greatest number
 If we look backward to what ha, happened within our own day and ex perience, We may justly feel some re sentiment at the harsh criticism whicf Is now being so generally aimed by the press and the public at technical men And this is partly true likewise of the strictures so indiscriminately passed upon the corporations which are in strumental in developing the country, natural wealth.
 Advance Tn Iron Manufacture.
 In the middle of the last century less than one-haif of the iron made ir this country was smelted with anthra cite, and the balance with charcoal oI charcoal and coke. The devastation Of the forest was awful Pearse give: the consumption of wood in Berkl county. Penn, in Ilaking 1e,000 ton: of charcoal iron in 1928, 1929 and Is3I at 250,52S cords. To secure thil amount about 5000 acres of the finesi forest land in the country must hay, been stripped. In England, wher,
 most of the iron was made with coks as fuel, at the same date. and unti 1875. there were consumed from q 10 3I cwt, of coke per ton of pig iron In 1875, when the Whitwell stove wa, introduced to heat the blast, the ouan tity Of fuel consumed was reduced b, [3 or cwt By improved mecnanica and metallurgical appliances that con sumption in the Middlesborough dis i, trict Is now lowered to 22 cwt.
 This saving of fuel in the blast fur mace has. in this country as well a, in Europe. been effected through thu sieepless activity of metaliurgists an, engineers, by modifying the size an, shape of the great iron stacks. in creasing and regulating the tempera ture and the pressure of the blast, ant ty the introduction of appliances fo utilizing the waste heat The differ ence between the 37 cwt. of cok
 formerly needed to make a ton of pil iron and the 22 cwt. now consumed multiplied by the number of tons O [ pig iron made in the United State in 1906. represents a saving (assum Ing 1.75 tons of coal as required t make ton of coke) of approximatel, 30,000, 900 tons of coal.
 6essemer and GayIey
 The progress along this line in blast furnace practice has been steady an,
 wonderful, and has eliminated in tn
 ingenious device of James Cayley which still further economtzes fue
 by freezing the blast before admittinI it to the stove in order to eliminat !, moisture, and thus supply the stacI with a gaseous element of as constan and reliable composition as the soli' clements of fuel and ore.
 The advances in blast-furnace pra< tice in the direction of fuel-savfng hav
 been great But they are not a startling or .. picturesque q the econ