TITLES AXD ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 97 



ROCK PRODUCTS AND THE WAR 

 BY G. F. LOUGHLIN 



i Abstract) 



As the subject "war minerals'' has been generally used to designate war- 

 scarce minerals, attention has naturally been focussed on these, and it i? 

 doubtful if many realize how indispensable a part such common things as 

 stone, lime, clay, sand, and gravel have played in winning the war. 



Limestone was by far the most important of these, 95,000,000 short tons of 

 it being used in 1917. Of this quantity more than 25,000,000 long tons were 

 used for furnace flux, 26,000,000 short tons for crushed stone, 23,000,000 short 

 tons for Portland cement, and 7,500,000 short tons, either raw or burned, for 

 chemical use in a great number of industries, most of which were essential in 

 time of war. Besides meeting the greatly increased demand for chemical use, 

 limestone and dolomite supplied special demands formerly supplied by im- 

 ported materials. Most important of these was the substitution of dead- 

 burned dolomite for Austrian maguesite. 



Quartzite, whose principal product was ganister or silica brick for refrac- 

 tory use, increased in output 50 per cent in 1916 and 51 per cent in 1917. 

 Sandstone was also used for lining Bessemer converters, and consolidated sand 

 and gravel took the place of special grades of European sand and flint grind- 

 ing pebbles. 



Of the igneous rocks vesicular basalt replaced a German basalt formerly 

 used in paper-making machinery, and granite gave promise of being success- 

 fully used in proposed nitric-acid towers, plans for whose erection were can- 

 celed soon after the signing of the armistice. Mica schist for refractory use 

 increased output from 40,000 tons in 1917 to 150,000 tons in 1918. 



In short, our rock products have been sufficient to meet the war require- 

 ments, and bring us to realize more strongly than ever that abundance and 

 diversity of these accessory, as well as the primary, mineral resources is 

 essential to our industrial independence. 



Presented in full extemporaneously. 



MANGANESE ORE AS A WAR MINERAL 

 BY D. F. HEWETT 



(Abstract) 



Although it was widely realized early in 1917 that only proper use of avail- 

 able ships would permit maximum military effort by the Allies, plans to con- 

 serve ships by restricting imports of minerals, such as manganese, pyrite, and 

 chrome, were only put into effect after eleven months of war. Studies of these 

 industries were submitted by several governmental bureaus to the organiza- 

 tions directing war activities, between June and September, 1917, but final 

 action to restrict imports was taken in March, 1918, by the Committee on 

 Mineral Imports and Exports of the Shipping Board, formed in January, 1918. 

 Restrictions were accomplished by using the licensing power of the War Trade 

 Board, at first conferred in June, 1917, to control trading with the enemy. 

 VII — Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 30, 1918 



