Michigan Technological University - Keweenawan Yearbook (Houghton, MI)

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The Department of MINERAL Se ING L DR

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Se ee ae soiage nclenReaR ena = ties eS

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Professor Manderfield was born in Hub- bell, Michigan on March 25, 1900. He received a B.S. degree at Michigan College of Mines in 1921 and a degree in Metaliurgical Engineering from the same school in 1925. From 1923-24 he was a research engineer for the Anaconda Copper Company. In 1925 he became Associated Professor of Metallurgy and Ore Dressing; until 1935 when he became the professor and head of the department. In 1940 when the new Mineral Dressing department was formed professor Mander- field was appointed head. The Professor belongs to the Engineering Education, and Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Associations, as well as the Lake States Mining Institution. He has been the author of a number of private consulting reports as well as several made public. Notable of these are “Low Grade Ore of Michigan Iron Districts,” “Na- tive Copper Ore Dressing,” and his latest, which is co-authored with Messrs. Tolonen ond Jasberg, is “Concentration Characteris- tics of the Low Grade Iron Ores of Michi- gan. N. H. MANDERFIELD MINERAL DRESSING In the beginning there were no mineral dressers. started with. And all the while keeping the miner As time went on, however, some of the men felt that making little ones out of big ones could be reduced to a science. The whole world agreed to this, easily seeing that this would be easier than making big ones out of little ones. Finally, mineral dressing came to Michigan Tech. There it was given its own department, allowed to grant degrees, and then kicked down into the base- ment of McNair Hall. Ever since, students have dis- appeared into the depths only to appear four years later their eyes glowing with knowledge and their clothes smeiling of pine oil. Typically the miner comes up from the ground, heaves large piles of rocks of various sizes and dimensions at the mineral dresser, and departs. The latter now has the choice of crushing, or grinding, or any of the other things that is common practice, in order to come up with something better than he | 26] on one end cand the metallurgist on the other, pleased with the job. And the thought enters his head, “Why didn’t | go to that liberal arts school.” Sprinkling the crushed ore with exotic smelling reagents, the engineer boils and bubbles the ore. Bubbles float in the air around the flotation ma- chines making everything rather moist in the process. Wheels whirl, whistles blow, and out comes the finished concentrate. All that remains is to figure where to dump the worthless material that made up ninety-nine per cent of the original. Industry rolls on, confident that the raw materials so necessary to its existence will be supplied. The world of business knows that the ore of the great ranges will be taken from the earth and processed into concentrations suitable for modern furnaces. For the mineral! dresser is at work—in the mills, in the laboratories, and ... in the basement of McNair Hall.