The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-11-11
Bubble Force
Makes Billions

Of copper production, and therefore of
the electrical industry, is very largely
dependent on the same forces that are
at work in the soap bubble"
Professor Taggart declared that the
demand for specialists in ore dressing
with expert knowledge of the design
and operation of the Eewildering array
of machinery now employed has be-
come so insistent that school curricula
must be altered to offer the necessary
preparatory courses.
'Ore dressing is an indispensable
link between mining and metallurgy in
present-day practice in the extraction
of metals from the EARTH" said Pro-
fesSor Taggart. 1T consists in non
chemical concentration of the valuable
part of an ore into a bulk much
smaller than that of the original ore,
and at the same time rejection as
waste of the worthless portion.
Until about fifteen years ago most
mills were small as compared with
present-day standards and the ores
were relatively high grade. The ore
treatment problem was a simple one,
and as result the technical as well
as the executive direction of the ore
dressing plant could be and was Incl
dental to the direction with which the
concentration was built.
"The services of a specialist in con-
centratiOn were considered unneces-
sary. With the development Of the
large, low-grade, disseminated copper
, deposits, the Importance of ore dress
ing took sudden jump. These depos-
its contain only from twenty to forty
pounds of copper per ton of ore. The
ore bodies as originally discovered con-
tanned from 2000O,000 to 100000, 900
tons each of such ore. For economical
working of such deposits elaborate
concentrating plants, capable of han
ding from 5000 to 10000 tons of ore
per day We're necessary.
SkilIfuI Work for Profit.
These plants required the most
skillful direction possible if a profit
was to be made from their operation,
and demand for specialists in con
centratiOn Immediately arose. Within
the last seven years the successful ap-
! plication of processes of froth flotation
| to the treatment of these lowgrade
to six pounds more copper per ton than
was formerly possible.
"The advent of flOtation called for a
mill man of much broader scientific
education than the old concentration
processes required. A flotatiOn mill
man needs a working knowledge OF
the newest branch of physical chemis
! try, viz, colloid chemistry, and should
also have some acquaintance with or
ganic chemistry. Coincident with tbs
advent of tlOtatiOn in milling there has
been a revolution in the methods OF
grinding ores preparatory to concen
tration. In the old concentration
| processes it was impossible TO treat
very finely ground ore economically.
Hence all grinding was done witt
the end in view Of producing as little
slime as possible. FlOtatiOn, however
works best on finely pulverzed ore
Hence it was necessary, on the intro
duction of flotation. to devise method,
of grinding different from those ut tina
time in use, such methods being aimed
at producing slime. This resulted II
the introduction of grinding machinery
of an entirely different type. In con
nection with the new grinding and flo
tation machinery there was necessarily