January 31, 1913. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 239 His Honour Judge Ruegg last week began his enquiry with reference to the draft regulations under sections 57 and 86 of the Coal Mines Act, 1911, relating to the hours of employment of winding enginemen. Amongst those who appeared for the owners were Sir Thomas Ratcliffe-Ellis, Messrs. Evan Williams, H. E. Mitton, W. G. Phillips, Reginald Guthrie, W. C. Blackett, J. T. Forgie, Jesse Wall work, J* McMurtrie, H. W. Hughes and others. Repre- sentatives of the National Federation of Colliery Enginemen and Boilermen were also heard. The owners ask that the date of operation shall be changed, that exemptions shall be made in the cases of small collieries, during the illness of the enginewinder, and at week-ends. On January 24, in a Divisional Court of the King’s Bench, Justices Ridley and Lush heard the appeal of Edward Richards v. the Wrexham and Acton Collieries Company from a decision of the county court judge in the Wrexham and Llangollen County Court, and raised an inter- esting point in connection with the Minimum Wage Act as to the pay of coal loaders or fillers. The court below held in favour of the plaintiff as to the amount of wages, but held that the collier with whom the filler worked and not the colliery company was the employer. The appeal was now allowed and j udgment entered for the plaintiff. Leave to appeal was given. According to the Conciliation Board agree- ment, the wage rate for the South Wales coalfield will be open to revision on Saturday, when either side is entitled to give notice for a reduction or increase of wages. Both owners and men have been considering the advisability of, revising the rates, but their final decisions will not be made known until to-morrow. The House of Commons, on Wednesday, con- sidered the Report of the Trade Unions Bill, which was ordered for third reading. The Industrial Council again took evidence this week on the subject of agreements in the coal trade. The witnesses included Messrs. Brace, Straker, Robertson and Harvey, on behalf of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain ; and Messrs. Joseph Shaw and Gascoyne Dalziel, as representing the South Wales coalowners. Last Friday at a meeting of the South Wales Institute of Engineers, Prof. Elliott, the new president, delivered his address, which he devoted to the question of the nation’s fuel supplies. In an accident near Huddersfield this week two lives were undoubtedly saved by means of breathing appliances worn by members of the Altofts brigade. The Home Secretary desires to call attention to a clerical error in the print of the draft general regulations which have been issued under the Coal Mines Act, 1911. In paragraph (9) of Regulation 82 the signal should be 4 and not 5. The thirteenth annual conference of the Labour Party was opened in London on Wednesday under the presidency of Mr. G. H. Roberts, M.P. A meeting of the Conciliation Board for the Federated mining districts in England and North Wales was held in London on Wednesday. The meeting was occupied with the revision of the list of representative collieries selected for the taking of the average selling prices of the area. The Home Secretary has appointed Mr. Ross Baxter, Mr. James Evans, Mr. Thomas Lloyd Evans, Mr. Robson Leonard Layfield, Mr. Andrew McArthur, and Mr. David Morris to be inspectors of horses under the Coal Mines Act, 1911. In the Chancery Division, on Wednesday judgment was delivered by Mr. Justice Neville No. of experiment. Schott and Gen, Jena (letter E). Schott and Gen, Jena (without letter). Fractured after 1 Not fractured. Character of fracture. Fractured after Not fractured. Character of fracture. Min. sec.* Min. sec* 1 0 45 — Vertical crack. — 1 — 2 0 38 — Do. 2. 0 — Vertical crack. 3 2 50 — Numerous cracks. — 1 —- 4 1 20 — j Cracks, thus X — 1 — 5 3 20 — j Do. — 1 j — 6 1 2 ’ —■I. i Vertical crack. — 1 — 7 2 30 — Do. — 1 i — 8 2 16 — I Do. — 1 1 — 9 2 22 — Do. —— 1 — 10 2 17 Do. — 1 1 * From the commencement. in an action against the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners’ Federation and the Miners’Federation of Great Britain, claiming to restrain them from applying their funds for Parliamentary purposes, and an injunction to restrain them from expelling its members from the Federation. His lordship, after expressing strong disapproval of the conduct of the officials, granted the applications asked for. In the House of Commons yesterday, the Railways Bill was read a second time, and referred to a Committee of the whole House. The Chancellor of the Exchequer promised that an investigation should be made into the grievances of traders, and the effect of the Bill upon the competition between rail and sea- borne traffic. The President of the Board of Trade stated that the Bill would only enable the railway companies to increase rates so far as to reimburse them for the net increase in the cost of labour due to the schemes promoted by the Government. In the last article it was stated Lamp that two descriptions of test—(1) by Classes, tempering, (2) by heating—were determined upon by the French Committee in their investigation regarding the relative resistance of special qualities of glasses for use with miners’ safety lamps. Also the nature of the tempering test was described and the comparative results of its action upon the Jena glasses and the glasses commonly in use in the French coalmines were recorded.* The object aimed at in the second, or heating test, was to secure a much more regular and fiercer heating of the entire surface of the glass than was possible with the Belgian method. The glass was accordingly placed over, and in the axis of, a “ bee Berzelius annulaire ” (a description of triple Bunsen burner), 45 mm. diameter, capable of giving an annular flame 55 mm. diameter at the outlet of the burner. The glass rested on a metal cylinder having a less diameter if the column of flame was not intended to touch the glass, or an equal diameter if the column of flame was intended to lick completely the inner surface of the glass. A thick ring of asbestos was inserted between the glass and the metal cylinder in order to prevent the former being heated by conduction. The glass to be tested was surmounted by a second similar glass so as to increase the draught and secure regularity in the column of flame. By raising or lowering the support of the glass which was being tested, and by reducing or increasing the flow of gas, the column of flame could be made to approach more or less closely to the inner wall of the glass. The experiments made with this apparatus are described as follow :—f * The two previous articles appeared in the Colliery Guardian, December 27,1912, and January 24,1913. f Annales des Mines (France), tome xiii. 3"e liv. de 1908. (a.) Heating for 5 minutes with a. flame 20 mm. diameter, then for a further 5 minutes with a flame 37 mm. diameter, a space of 6 to 7 millimetres being allowed to intervene between the flame and the surface of the glass. The Jena glasses experimented with in this manner always remained uninjured. On the other hand, the ordinary glasses showed three ruptures in 10 experiments during the second period—at 50 sec., 1 min. 35 sec. and 2 min. 50 sec. respectively, from the commencement of heating with the 37 mm. flame. (6.) Heating for 5 minutes with a flame entirely filling the glass, which was placed in the apparatus cold, 8 mm. above the orifice of the burner, the pressure of the gas measuring 50 mm. water-gauge, at a few centimetres before its entrance into the burner. With this arrangement the inner surface of the glass under examination became red hot in about 4 minutes from the commencement. The ordinary glasses were all broken about 5 seconds after exposure to the flame, very often flying in pieces with explosion. The results obtained with the Jena glass are given in the above table. I The J6na glass, therefore, behaved consider- ably better than the ordinary glasses, especially those marked a Schott & Gen ” (without letter). The ability of this glass to withstand variations of temperature is probably due to its peculiar composition, which is essentially silico-borate of soda slightly alkaline, with the addition of a little oxide of lead and oxide of zinc, and which gives it a relatively low coefficient of expansion. M. Chesneau, however, states that while the report of the committee was in the press, the Schott factory placed on the market safety lamp glasses bearing the mark “ Schott & Gen, Jena,” inscribed in a circle of 18 mm. diameter, which possessed a resistance notably inferior to those recorded above. These glasses broke after a mean exposure of 32 seconds from the com- mencement of heating by the second method (b). The J6na glasses have a slightly yellow tint. Later in the same year (1908), the French Commission carried out similar experiments with special lamp glass for fiery mines submitted by the Cristalleries de Baccarat.* The composition of the Baccarat glass is as follows :— Parts. Sand........................ 75 Bicarbonate of soda........ 13 Carbonate of magnesia...... 9 Oxide of zinc .............. 6 Red lead ................... 50 This formula corresponds to ordinary lead glass, but contains an additional proportion of magnesia and zinc, with a view to increasing the elasticity of the glass. The glasses were of the usual dimensions— viz., 60 mm. high, 60 mm. in diameter, and 5 to 6 millimetres in thickness. Each glass bore the customary mark of the Baccarat establish- * Annales des Mines (France), tome xiii., 5me liv. de 1908.