ABSTRACTS 



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 this issue. 



PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.— The preparation of -pure iron and iron 

 carbon alloys. J. R. Cain, E. Schramm, and H. E. Cleaves. 

 Bureau of Standards Scientific Paper No. 266. Pp. 26. 1916. 

 As previous work on the iron-carbon diagram is unsatisfactory be- 

 cause of the great variation in the materials used, it was thought desir- 

 able to produce at the Bureau of Standards a series of alloys of great 

 purity to form the basis of a redetermination of the diagram. The 

 general method pursued consisted in melting electrolytic iron with 

 sugar carbon in magnesia crucibles. The electrolytic iron was pre- 

 pared from ingot iron anodes in a chloride bath with or without the use 

 of porous cups. The operation of melting the iron with carbon gave 

 great trouble at first, because the ingots obtained were full of blow- 

 holes and contained considerable quantities of impurities. These 

 difficulties were overcome by melting in a vacuum furnace, and making 

 the crucibles of especially pure magnesia, made and calcined with great 

 care at the Bureau of Standards. A satisfactory procedure was finally 

 worked out and a series of alloys prepared of the composition Fe + C = 

 99.96 per cent. H. E. C. 



GEOLOGY. — Mount Shasta — some of its geological aspects. J. S. 



Diller. Mazama, 4: December, 1915, 11-16, illustrations and 



maps. 



Stress is laid on the geologic basis for differentiating the Cascade 



Range and the Klamath Mountains' from the Sierra Nevada and Coast 



Ranges. Mount Shasta is a mass of hornblende and hypersthene 



andesites rising more than 10,000 feet above its base of Paleozoic and 



Mesozoic rocks. It is bordered on the east by later basalts and 



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