ACTIVITIES AND PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF MINES' ERNST M. COHN and HARRY PERRY U. S. Bureau of Mines, Washington, D. C.
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Bureau of Mines conducts scientific, technologic, and economic investigations concerning conservation, mining, preparation, treatment, and utilization of minerals. I t is concerned also with promoting health and safety in the mineral industries. Being charged by law with the dissemination of information on its activities, the Bureau has a broad program of publicizing its findings; part of this program consists of distributing its own publications, which range from brief public announcements through printed booklets. In this paper, its activities are reviewed and types and contents of publications are discussed.
carbonization and gasification; and conversion to fluid fuels by the coal-hydrogenation and FischerTropsch processes. Studies of flames and combustion have ranged from the purely scientific realm to work on the interchangeability of fuels in domestic burners. Objectives of the Bureau's research on petroleum and natural gas are improvements in methods of producing, transporting, storing, and utilizing petroleum and natural gas and their products. Work in thermodynamics and petroleum chemistry is concerned with pure organic sulfur, nitrogen, and halogen compounds which are made available as calibration standards to industry and to research groups; and analysis, stability, ACTIVITIES and combustion of fuels. I n addition, continual The decision of Congress to establish the Bureau of surveys give current information on the properties of Mines in 1910 resulted largely from a series of disas- motor, aviation, diesel, and jet fuels. trous coal-mine explosions; and the Bureau's work, Through Bureau efforts, helium was converted from especially in health, safety, and coal-mining methods, a laboratory curiosity to a major commodity. The continues to reflect the original intent of Congress. Bureau operates the only known large-scale plants for Major emphases in these fields have been on inspection its production and has developed new iudustrial and of coal mines; enforcement of the Federal Mine Safety medical uses for this gas. Act; and training and education of miners, supervisors, In the field of metallic resources, geophysical prosmine foremen, and management in safe mining prac- pecting has beeu studied and data have beeu published tices and rescue and first aid. A large part of the on mineral deposits in various parts of the United program concerns such mining problems as control of States. Programs have been carried on in testing, fires and roof falls, testing and approval of equipment beueficiation, and metallurgical treatment of ores. for use in coal mines, and seismic studies of ground Conservation has been aided by development of immovements in mines. proved mining, drilling, and blasting practices, by The Bureau has done intensive research on ventila- development of methods for reclaiming metals lost tion; addition of warning agents to natural gas and in mineral dressing, and by finding uses for what were compressed air; eliminations of hazards from static originally waste products. Thermodynamic data of electricity; properties of solid explosives, of dispersed metals and their compounds have been obtained and organic and metallic dusts, and of gas-air mixtures; critically evaluated. The properties of many uonand water and stream pollution. Other subjects of metallic minerals have been studied, and new and impossible interest in medicine as well as iudustrial health proved uses have beeu developed for a number of them. include flammability limits of gas (including anesConsiderable time and effort are spent on the collecthetics); information on industrial hygiene, injuries, tion of statistics of minerals, metals, and fuels indusaccidents, and safety; health hazards from dust, vapors, tries. I n addition to being the only source of statistical and mists; disposal of radioactive waste; and laws on information on many commodities, these reports incompensation for occupational diseases. dicate the effect of technologic developments on ecoTo carry out its responsibilities in increasing effi- nomic and production trends as well as usage patterns, ciency and conserving the resources of solid fuels, the and guide the Bureau and other organizations in the Bureau, in collaboration with technical societies, has selection of immediate and long-range research. developed and improved standard methods of sampling, The Bureau cooperates with other federal agencies clessifying, and analyzing coal. Investigations have in furnishing technical advice to foreign countries and been made of mining, cleaning, and preparing coal; collecting technical, economic, and statistical informa' Presented before the Division of Chemical Literature at the tion on foreign mineral resources. From its inception 128th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Minneapolis, the Bureau has worked closely with industrial, academic, and government institutions on problems of September, 1955.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
mutual interest. Arrangements with many universities have provided for graduate fellowships a t the Bureau. METHODS OF DISSEMINATING INFORMATION
tiou, U. S. Bureau of Mines, 4800 Forbes Street, Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania, or through one of the 180 subdistributing centers. Some of the topics covered are natural resources of individual states, mining methods, metallurgical processes, chemistry, fuels, automotive engineering, and various aspects of safety. Last year 63 different films, financed by industry, were shown to an estimated 30,000,000 people. "Motion Picture Films of the Bureau of Mines" is published a t oue- or two-year intervals and contains iuformation on the subdistributing centers, on regulations for borrowing films, and on the subject material of each film. Copies of this publication are available a t the above Pittsburgh address or from the Bureau of Mines, Washington 25, D. C.
Except for results of work that is classified in the interest of national defense, information gathered by the Bureau on other than a confidential basis is easily available. Press releases call attention to significant progress of Bureau projects, advise the public of the a~ailabilityof particularly timely publications, or point out significant changes in the Bureau's functions or organization. Trends in its policies appear in records of Congressional hearings and in annual reports of the Secretary of the Interior. These also contain reports by the Director of the DESCRIPTION OF BUREAU PUBLICATIONS Bureau, which are reprinted separately and distributed Since its establishment, the Bureau has maintained by the Bureau of Mines. Reports on Congressional hearings frequently contain statistical and technical a number of its own publication series. It can thus data furnished by the Bureau that are used to deter- make available its findings more quickly and in more detail than would be possible in scientific and trade mine broad national policies in minerals and fuels. Films in the Bureau's library of 16-mm. sound motion journals. Table 1, prepared from two "Lists of Pubpictures are loaned through the Graphic Services Sec- lications of the Bureau of Mines," shows titles, num-
Publications of the Bumau of Minee
--Number issuedaTitle Sales publications Bulletins Technical Papers (discontinued) Economic Papers (discontinued) Mineral Resources (discontinued) Minerals Yearbooks Monographs Handbooks Miners' Circulars (discontinued) Schedules Data Books Miscellaneous Free publications Annual Reports of the Director, Bureau of Mines Annual Reports of the Mine Inspector for Alaska Miscontinued) Charts Map Handbooks Miscellaneous Reports of Investigations Information Circulars Periodical Reports Foreign Minerals Surveya Mineral Market Reports Injury Statistics Cooperative Publications Manuscript Reports
1910-48
1949-68
Typical contents Orieinal scientific and technical data, reviews. biblioaraphies, - . . Ameritin standards (ASA) Same as above and including speciJications, manuals, papers on law, econornios, and accounting (now Bulletins, except as revised) Economics and statistics (now Bulletins) Economies and statistics inow MineraliYearbooks)
lns&uction markals on safety, efficient use of equipment, explosives, law, government specifications, and codes Health and safety education (now Bulletins except as revised) Bureau of Mines reauirements and fees for ~ermissibilit,~ tests on mining equipment .and explosives Typical analyses of bituminous coals and locations of mines in the United States (wartime project) Lists of Publications of the Bureau of Mines, Fact,s About Coal (popular account) ~
Contributions to Annual Reports of the Secretary of t.he Interior
First aid, smoke densities, properties of mine gaaes Geographic distribution of 1928 production of certain ores Federal Mine Safetv Code for Anthraoite Mines of the U. S. P a r t s I and 11) Facts About Manganese (popular account) Original scientific and technical data, reviews, bibliographies Reviews specifications health and safety, bibliographies, law, econokcs, statistics. industrial vmctiees Economics Bhd statistics Mineral resources and production in foreign countries Economics and statistics
All phases of Bureau's interests Mineral mining
In some caaes the highest number in one of the Lists of Publications was used, although publication of a few lower numbers had been delayed. 6 Not counted.
VOLUME 33, NO. 7, JULY, 1956
hers, and typical contents of the various classes of Bureau publications. The "Minerals Yearbooks" and the related Mineral Resources, Mineral Market Reports, Foreign Minerals Surveys, Economic Papers, most Periodical Reports, Mineral Trade Sotes, and a number of Information Circulars contain statistics on production, stocks, imports, exports, distribution, and consumption of minerals, metals, mineral fuels, and chemical raw materials; and size, employment, productivity, economic and technologic trends, and safety records of industries in these fields. The four largest classes of publication are Reports of Investigations, Information Circulars, Technical Papers (discontinued), and Bulletins. Their technical contents range from literature surveys and bibliographies to detailed accounts of Bureau projects that took many years to complete. In Table 2 we have selected a few publications to illustrate this range. AVAILABILITY OF BUREAU PUBLICATIONS
TABLE 2 Representative Technical P u b l i c a t i o ~of the Bureau of Mines Tuve ". Literature survey
Bibliography General
Bureau of Mines publications
Annual report
Number
Bulletin 368 Bulletin 478 Information Circular 7521 Information Circulas 7528 Bulletin 537 Bulletin 485 Bulletin 484 Bulletins 467-8 Bulletin 528
Sz~biecl
Static electricity Dust Minerals
Air conditioning Air pollution
Coal hydrogenation Helium Oil shale patents Latest %-yew compilation on coal Teohnical Paper 705 Health and safetv Information Circular Coal washing " 7531 Information Circular Oil shale 7534 Information Circular Petroleum and nat771 7 ural gas (1953) Information Circular Coal (1953) 7699 Report of Investiga- Explosives and tions 5006 flames (1952) Reports of Investi- Synthetio fuels gations 5118-19 (1954) Bulletin 488 Isosynthesis (trenslation) Technical Paper 718 Fischer-Tropseh (translation) Mine safety (interBulletin 489 national confer-
The only conlplete compilation of material published in the Bureau series of publications is the monthly Foreign report pamphlet, "Kern Publications, Bureau of Mimes," available free of charge from the Publications Distribution Section, Bureau of Mines, 4800 Forbes Street, Pittsburgh 13, Pennsylvania. Twelve pamphlets are combined into annual indexed listings which, in turn, I. G. FarhenindusInformation Circuare gathered into quinquennial ones and, finally, into trie (war-time lars 7375-6 investigation) a cumulative listing. The two presently available Theoretical metalscientific Bulletin 542 "Lists of Publications of the Bureau of Mines" com- Original and technologic lurg?r prise publications from July 1,1910 to January 1,1949, work Bulletin 402 Crushlng and grindand those from January 1, 1949 to January 1, 1954; ing Bulletin 148 Recovery of petrothese lists are for sale by the Superintendent of DocuIC.llrn .--... ments, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington Natural gas and peMonograph 3 troleum 25, D. C. Monograph 5 and Coking of coal The Publications Distribution Section a t Pittsburgh Bulletin 536 Analysis of coal and Bulletin 492 also honors requests for free publications that are still coke in stock, and the Superintendent of Documents fills Flammability of Bulletin 503 orders for the Bureau's sales publications (see Table 1). gases and vapors Mine atmospheres Miners' Ciculas The Publications Distribution Section, Bureau of Mines, U. S. Department of the Interior, Washington 25, D. C., maintains mailing lists for all types of free sale or distribution may be consulted a t a number of publications, in toto or by groups, for which a steady libraries mentioned in the "Lists of Publications of the demand exists. Publications no longer available for Bureau of Mines."
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY DIRECWRY OF GRADUATE RESEARCH PREPARED by the A. C. S. Committee on Profesaional Training, this second edition provides information on the faculties, publications, and doctoral theses in departments of chemistry and chemical engineering a t U. S. universities. I t includes: all institutions which offer Ph.D. in chemistry or chemical engineering, instructional st& of each institution, research undertaken at each institution for past two years, and alphabetical index of over 20W individual faculty members and their sffiliation as well as alphabetical index of 151 schools. The 446page paper-bound volume is available for $2.50 from Special Publications Department, -4merican Chemical Society, 1155-16th Street, N. W., Washington 6, D. C.
