136 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1206 



Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific 

 and IndListrial Eesearcli, the Imperial Insti- 

 tute, the ISTational Physical Laboratory, and 

 the Chemical Society. 

 It is recommended: 



1. That in dealing with the problems of 

 the chemical trade action should be taken so 

 far as possible in the closest collaboration with 

 representatiyes of the trade. 



2. That the Association of British Chemi- 

 cal Manufacturers should be considered as 

 representative of the chemical trade as a whole 

 with certain branches excepted. 



3. That a standing committee should be ap- 

 pointed. This committee, which should be 

 fully representative of all the interests con- 

 cerned, would establish a permanent link be- 

 tween the Ministry and the trade. 



4. That a departmental organisation should 

 be set up in the Ministry of Eeconstruction 

 to deal with chemical questions. 



IRON ORE IN 1917 



The iron ore mined in the United States in 

 191Y amounted to about 75,324,000 gross tons, 

 compared with 75,167,672 tons in 1916, an in- 

 crease of 0.2 per cent. The figures for the 

 two years are so nearly the same, however, 

 that when the final returns are received from 

 all the producers the actual quantity mined in 

 1917 may prove to have been less than that 

 mined in 1916. The shipments from the 

 mines in 1917 are estimated at 75,649,000 

 gross tons, valued at $236,178,000, compared 

 with 77,870,553 tons, valued at $181,902,277 in 

 1916, a decrease in quantity of 2.9 per cent., 

 but an increase in value of 29.8 per cent. 

 The general average value of the ore per ton 

 at the mines for the whole United States was 

 therefore $3.12 in 1917, as compared with 

 $2.34 in 1916. The stocks of iron ores at the 

 mines apparently decreased from 10,876,352 

 gross tons in 1916 to 10,560,000 tons in 1917, 

 or 2.9 per cent. 



To obtain these statistics preliminary 

 figures received from producers of nearly 95 

 per cent, of the normal output of iron ore were 

 compiled under the direction of Ernest F. 

 Burchard, of the United States Geological 



Survey, Department of the Interior, and were 

 supplemented by estimates covering the re- 

 mainder of the output. 



About 85 per cent, of the ore mined in 1917 

 came, as usual, from the Lake Superior dis- 

 trict, which mined about 63,904,000 gross tons 

 and shipped 64,275,000 tons, these quantities 

 representing a very slight increase and a de- 

 crease of 3.2 per cent., respectively, compared 

 with 1916. The shipments of iron ore by 

 water from the Lake Superior district, ac- 

 cording to figures compiled by the Lake Su- 

 perior Iron Ore Association, amounted in 1917 

 to 62,498,901 gross tons. It thus appears that 

 the iron-mining industry in the Lake Superior 

 district has been able to bear the strain of the 

 war demand but not to duplicate the great 

 record of ore shipments made by the district 

 in 1916, which amoimted to 64,734,198 gross 

 tons. The slight falling off, it is understood, 

 was due to less favorable weather for shipping 

 early and late in the season of 1917 rather 

 than to inability of the Lake fleet to handle 

 the ore mined. 



The South mined and shipped more than 

 8,100,000 tons of iron ore, the bulk of which 

 was produced in the Birmingham district, 

 Ala., but the iron mines of Georgia, Tennessee, 

 ISTorth Carolina, and Virginia contributed 

 about 1,400,000 tons to the total. 



The ISTortheastern States — New Jersey, "New 

 York, and Pennsylvania — increased their pro- 

 duction slightly as compared with 1916 and 

 shipped to blast furnaces approximately 2,- 

 446,000 tons of ore. This quantity, however, 

 represented decrease of 4.1 per cent, as com- 

 pared with the shipments in 1916. 



Colorado, ISTew Mexico, and "Wyoming, the 

 principal iron ore producing States in the 

 West, are estimated to have mined and shipped 

 approximately 666,000 tons of iron ore, com- 

 pared with 717,660 tons in 1916, a decrease of 

 7.2 per cent. 



Other States, such as California, Connecti- 

 cut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, 

 Nevada, Ohio, Utah, and West Virginia, in 

 which there are small iron-mining operations, 

 are estimated to have shipx)ed about 144,000 



