UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
BIG FIELD FOR MINERS
Course in Mining Department Proves Good Training
A. C. TERRILL.
Increasingly mining engineers are becoming managers, executives and operators. Modern mining methods have so reduced the element of risk that much of our mining is like great manufactures industries. From the beginning of the mining engines to the coming many of the captains of these industries.
A conspicuous example of this is Mr. D. C. Jacking, who worked his way through the Missouri School of Mines not so many years ago.
Mines have been in the year, the Utah Copper Company, which owes its existence to his initiative and of which he is one of the chief owners, produced $25,000,000 worth of copper at a profit of $16,000,000. Together the company, which his management played a part, produced $10,000,000 worth of copper. The success of the Utah Copper Company with such low grade ore, carrying, as it does, very little over one per cent of copper, has given great impetus to the launching of similar projects. In addition to its furnishing enormous ore, much needed and giving employed by the thousands of men, a company like the Utah Copper does mining a great service by perfecting methods and improving practice.
Science, invention and engineering skill are so rapidly transforming processes that the mining profession must strongly emphasize the underlying sciences and fundamental principles. On these will be based the better process.
tice of the future.
In a recent address, President Phillips of the Colorado School of Mines, said:
"It is not a problem in any well conducted mining school, east or west, to graduate men who are competent to assume the duties of superintendent or forur-mament it is a problem how to train young men to think.
MINING METHODS CHANGE FAST "The training in such highly specialized matters as mining, ore dressing, and metallurgy, is largely of a more or less proprietary nature to forecast the future and to provide against its demands. Processes and methods that are now in use may or may not be as important ten years, or even five years, hence as they are now. Machines now running into the sector are applications (commercial air and of the electric current may effect conditions now held to be practically unassailable. Flotation of ores may bring such competition to standard concentrating devices as to impair their efficiency. Current tendencies in order to be aware that what is now is not likely to be five or ten years hence."
The record of the graduates of the University of Kansas is an inspiring one. The large number of responsible positions already held by the men in division II have continually proven the value of the technical training given at K. U.
The location of the State University at Lawrence makes trips to the Joplin district and the mines, mills and smelters of southeast Kansas, to the northern Kansas, to the central Kansas, and to the long-wall coal mines at Lansing and Leavenworth a very easy matter. Oil and gas wells, cement plants, clay works and stone quarries can be easily found where forms form a valuable part of a course.
At Thanksgiving time, a week's trip with students was made to the Joplin, Web City, Galena and Tulsa schools, leaving Lawrence at 8:40 in the evening, the party was able to wake up in Joplin, Mo., the next morning, so that the question of time necessary to reach that goal was practically unplugible.
Within a few weeks we shall have electric car connection with Kansas City, and it will be still easier to reach the city from our car in lansing. Leavenworth and other points.
HAVE EFFICIENT LABORATORIES
NEW EFFICIENCY improvements in the equipment of the K. U. mining and ore-dressing laboratories, and the strengthening of the many other departments of the University which mined engineer.
Haworth Hall with a large extension containing the on-demand labbing
A large number of new books have been purchased for the mining library this year and the usefulness of the library is greatly increased by Miss Spencer, the efficient librarian in charge. When you visit the library in Haworth Hall, ask Miss Spencer to tell you where she has been left by the men who have been graduated from the University of Kansas mining department during the seventeen years the department has been in existence. The wide range of subjects covered, the amount of research and practical experience they represent, the skills they show you why we believe in our mining department. From a number of the graduates, you will find two theses. One was submitted at the completion of the four years' course leading to a degree of B. S. in mining engineering. The other is the engineering work at the expiration of a period of three years in practical mining engineering work of an important nature after the securing of the first degree. A fourth, entitled the man to an E. M. degree.
In addition to the books purchased for the mining library this year, we have received the large and valuable library of one of the mining graduates, Blackmar, class of 1908. We felt that his books would mean most to his Alma Mater. They are to be placed on separate shelves and suitably labeled and we are very grateful to Mrs. Blackmar for making this disposition of her husband's library. This is the book of his work, and we trust it will be many years before another is taken from the group.
Just inside the main entrance to the building, you will be sure to notice a large case filled with cups won by the winning team. I played, I was told that there were only one or two more in the whole engineering department. This significant remark followed: "The miners are the ones on the Hill, but they are the livest."
The records of one of the largest mining schools in the country show that out of 460 graduates since 1879, all but sixteen are still living. Either mining engineering is an unusually safe pursuit or the man who enters the profession is above the average physically.
The mining students here at the University are a fine type and it is a pleasure to work with and for them. The too big is a personal contact between students and instructors in a small department which helps both student and teacher. For undergraduate work, the small class is not always possible, but, as long as the instructor sation for the less extensive equipment usually found under those conditions. If equipment and instructors are strong, the small class is much to be preferred. The Kansas University School of Mines Institute grow but, it is hoped, will not outgrow the close relationship now possible.
MINERS ARE ATHLETIC
"Daddy's Boys" Have a Whole Case Full of Trophies in Haworth Hall
SHERWIN F. KELLY
In the spring of the year, as ever one knows, the Engineers have their big "day," with a parade, track meet and a dance in the evening. Also, we presume, every one has observed that the Miners take a prominent part in the construction, witness the curse in the case to your left as you enter Haworth Hall.
Well, to begin at the beginning namely the parade. Last year the Miners made quite a hit with their burlesque on mine rescue work Painted cheesecloth on a framework, mounted on a truck, served to drill holes in the mine walls and intervals in the course of the parade, a loud explosion, followed by clouds of smoke, emanated from this strange tunnel-mouth. Immediately weird figures with fencing helmets over their faces, and tins cans strapped to their backs, dashed intrepidly into the mine, where they lumbered, limp and injured miner. He was soon revived, however, by a "pull motor," consisting of a hose and board balanced on a saw horse, the board valiantly "pumped" by these same rescuers. The whole affair was heralded by handbills proclaiming the terrible danger "about to befall the other engineers that afternoon at the track meet.
the prophecies those others pretended to meet with scoffing. But—the Miners cleaned up with a score of 49 points. They won nine out of ten track events, not entering the tent at all. In the four field events they took a second and a third. All this was done in a play by the spectacular and inter-school relays too, they walked off with all the cups offered.
Also, we pray you remember, that next Engineers' Day comes March thirty-first. Just stick around and watch the Miners. As we have said before, they work in our courses, we may fool you, and do no thing. Then again, we may not.
The team that did this excellent work was composed of: Ted Crum, Leand Fiske, Foster Gary, Earl Kress and Glenn Allen.
The Miners have won three of the four field meets held, losing the fourth.
Go take a look at those cups, they are worth it.
Oceanography at Columbia
Professor of Geology: "What does the sea contain besides sodium chloride?"
Future Economic Geologist: "Fish."
Startling advance in silver-lead smelting practice. 187 per cent recovery maintained for three consecutive months at the Dead Dog Mineral Depot, L.A. Note - Competent assayer seeks position. Note - Competent assayer seeks position.
MINING HAS ROMANCE
Thrill and Force of Struggle With Nature Attracts Strong Men
A. C. TERRILL.
Interesting because of its variety,
fascinating because of its romance,
thrilling because of its achievements,
being will always attract strong men.
Many of the world's great pioneers were miners. Risking everything they plunged into the unknown often into death.
No desert was too hot, no mountain too high, no north too cold, no foe too fierce, no work too hard—still they pressed on until no frontier is let.
Today we travel in their paths in ease and safety. The treasures they won have purchased both the necessities and luxuries of our lives. "The good old days" never were; they've just arrived.
But there are pioneers of the present, as well as of the past, and in their ranks still stands the miner, a miner—a mine with a trained mind.
Once he prospected with a crookie stick; now he uses Diamond drills, making the earth look like a pepper box. Before he used a pick and shovel, now he runs a fire of dredges on the earth. In the good old days, his concentrator was a pan; today it is a great mill carefully designed for a specific ore. It has an aerial tram to the mine and a railroad to the smelter. Before, he produced wagonloads of ore; now he rocked a "cradle" or fed a "long tom"; now he tears down mountains, them reduces to flour, and makes them into a thin batter. This he seasons with a few drops of oil and "calure and beats it at 200°C." He paints the copper works a H A B P motor runs each shaft of beater blades. Then he calmly turns gravity upside down, skims the heavy copper sulphides off the top and draws the lighter worthless minerals out of the smelt. A fiery furnace, a high smoke stack, and deed to the lands of all the "smoke farmers" for miles around, and he is happy. Any worth less things which have escaped flotation in the pulp now float on the surface of the mine. He works, in the converter, a tank of acid, an electric current and ou comes the purest copper the work need, ask, 180,000,000 lbs, of it in a year from a single mine, whose proof its were $15,000,000 last year. THe Jacking, a mining engineer, trained in our sister state, Missouri.
One of the men most in the public eye today is Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, a young mining engineer, who, with one band guides great mining enterprises all over the world while with the other he feeds a starving nation.
One of our own mining graduates, Millard K. Shaler, of the class of 1904, famous for his geology and mining work in the Belgian Congo, is now Secretary of the Belgian Relief Fund with offices in London.
A mining engineer is "essentially a man of action, an executive, an administrator, not a mere scientific man," and he must know the road with his coat off, leading men and initiating and directing measures of usefulness to the whole people. He is the man who uncoveres important details that puts them at the service of mankind."
If he be a true engineer, you will find him "inspiring public confidence, not alone in what has been achieved, but in the personality of the individual who is responsible for the achievement, but in the personality of the individual who is responsible for the achievement," and this combination with brains, the highest-priced, best-paid rental product in the world."
His frontier has gone, but his microscope opens up new worlds. In the laboratory he picks things apart, and puts them together in a new form.
A useful substance added to the list, a new process evolved, or an old one improved, a higher extraction or a lower cost enlarges the tonnage of the output, enriched, increases the output and makes work for more mining engineers.
The work of the mining engineer is hard, but has many compensations. If travel and adventure make him happy, mining will leave little to be desired. Like the prospector of old he can hug the phantom of hope in mining, but the "no always the same hope, but the How always the com summer will see more prospecting than has been seen in many years. With the great demand for tungsten, vanadium, molybdenum, bismuth, radium, platinum and the rare earths (used for gas mantles) coupled with the extraordinarily high prices being nailed for oil, copper, zinc, antimony, aluminum and other compounds mined, the trained mineralogy and geology should find prospecting resultful.
The last twenty-five years have been marked by an enormous increase in the output of our mines, wells and quarries. Already Uncle Sam is the
greatest miner in the world and he is striding ahead. Many of the mining engineers turned out from our schools, some of them from Kansas, have gone into the employ of the United States Geological Survey, but many have moved to post graduate school and the greatest employment bureau in the world. Many of our most eminent engineers and teachers have graduated from the Survey into the out-side world. The research and field work of the United States Bureau of Mines is of great importance to employment to many miners.
Mining engineers also are well paid as U. S., Mineral Land Inspectors.
as U. S. Mineral Land Inspectors. The great Mellon Research Institute at Pittsburg, Pa., and other similar institutions in the U.S. offer nigh excellent positions for graduates. Work in the increasing number of research laboratories in the U. S. will train many valuable mining engineers for the future mining of the
If salesmanship suits his taste, the graduate can find employment with a mining machinery firm. More and more comes the demand for salesmen who need to be ready engineers are being taken into the Allis-Chambers and other mining machinery plants to be taught as are hundreds of electrical engineers at the General Electric and Westinghouse tapsipes, some will remain to test and design machinery, some to test ores and plan mine, mill and smelter plants, some will become knights of the grip and go on the road to represent their company. Some will go on to work in the mining industry, some will go into business for themselves.
Miners who prefer buying and selling mining property will find a lucrative field. Competent mining engineering, economic geology, cost factors, sampling methods and mining and corporation law will largely replace other types of men in this class of miners as the supply will meet the demand.
The mining profession has recently taken on a new interest through a nationwide movement to reduce accidents and to improve the living and working condition of the workman. Mining engineering not only has management responsibilities, but also responsibility. Human efficiency now receiving remarkable embasis.
Many strong organizations are back of this work to promote safety and sanitation, social service, and the Americanization of the foreigner.
The mining engineer is being called upon to help in this work which lends a human interest and importance to the industry, a special benefit because of its many opportunities.
The chance to win fame and fortune without making others poorer has always been offered by mining. Now comes the call for mining engineers who can improve men as well as methods, inspire higher ideals and cultivate character. To earn dividends is no longer enough. "Help your fellowman" is the slogan of the new conscience in American industry.
In the mining camps of the east and in the coal fields all through the country are great numbers of foreign mines that can teach them and they can teach us.
Americanization means the use of the English language throughout the nation and a common interpretation of American citizenship. "If we do our part in the true spirit of brotherhood, we will be more responsible for learning and using the language of this country; for becoming literate; for becoming efficient citizens and lovingly supporting the best ideals and traditions of America in return for the rights we deserve to all residents of this country."
In our own state, a great many unnecessary accidents occur yearly among the 12,000 foreign coal miners in England. English. Still more of them do not understand the means by which safety may be secured, and continue practices by which they either blow into the blasts or drivers who set off the blasts they have taken.
An intelligent use of the right kind of explosives by the miner with proper attention to the dust problem on the part of the operator would eliminate a large percentage of the accidents now so common.
The miner crowds his work to se-
cure more tons per day. That means
more dollars, so he takes a chance.
Twelve dollars for two hours' work
temps the shot flier. He yields and also takes a chance—a greater one. The owner wants more fonds—more dollars—so he lets it go. Someone is there. The dollars do not do any good now. "Accidents will happen." Yes—but—
There is needed a better understanding between employer and employee. A mixing of the milk of human kindness with the business of dollar-making will save many a life—and many a soul.
Send the Daily Kansan home.
Yale student taking final exami-
nation on Geology. Q, "What is a volcano-
A. "A heap of rock and ashes with a little creator on top."
Slimes
Useful formulae from an engineer's note-book; $2 + 2 = 4$.
Compressed air can be used to remove smoke from the face after blasting. Turn on the air after disconnecting the drill.
"Why I Raise My Boy to be a Soldier"
By a Swiss mother in this week's
Ladies' Home Journal
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