504

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

March 7, 1913.

the water was still rising, the colliery proprietors having
given up tanking at the adjoining pits. The Park Lane
gas-driven plant had worked at three-quarter stroke per
minute faster than the previous month, but the water had
only just started to sink again. Some of the increased
water at Park Lane was, no doubt, attributable to overflow
from the disused limestone workings.

We understand that the first seam of coal was struck at
Tilmanstone Colliery, in East Kent, on the 28th ult.

At Wolverhampton last week a Light Railway Commission
granted an Order transferring to the London and North-
Western Railway ^Company certain powers conferred upon
the Wolverhampton and Cannock Chase Railway Company,
which was promoted by a number of principal colliery
, owners. So far nothing has been done to carry out the
necessary works, owing to insufficiency of funds. It is now
proposed to join up with the London and North-Western
Railway Company’s existing Cannock branch line, thus
saving about £20,000 in expenditure. The company are
considering the running of special trains for colliers, but
the main objective of the new line will be the conveyance
of minerals.

In connection with the meeting of the British Association
at Birmingham on September 10 to 17 next, Dr. H. F.
Baker, F.R.S., has been appointed president of Section A
(mathematics and physics); Prof. W. P. Wynne, F.R S.,
of Section B (chemistry) ; Prof. E. J. G-arwood, Of Section C
(geology); the Rev. P. H. Wicksteed, of Section F
(economics) ; Mr. J. F. Aspinall, M.Eng., of Section G
(engineering); and Principal E. H. Griffiths, of Section L
(education).

The directors of the North-Eastern Railway have decided
to appoint as chief engineer for docks Mr. Charles Watson,
at present the company’s district engineer at Newcastle.
Mr. T. M. Nowell, whom Mr. Watson will succeed, has been
appointed engineer to the Mersey Docks and Harbour
Board.

At the Durham Assizes last week, Mrs. M. E. P. T. Smith,
of Colepike Hall, Lanchester, claimed upwards of £2,000 for
damages by subsidence and failure to supply water from
Messrs. Ferens and Love, owners of the Cornsay Colliery.
The jury awarded a total of .£976, and, as £1,000 had been
paid into Court, judgment was entered for the defendants
with costs subsequent to the payment into Court.

At the annual meeting of the Great Western Colliery
Company, Mr. J. McMurtrie, the chairman, stated that the
expenditure on rates and taxes had now reached the
enormous sum of £14,593 per annum, being equal to a
dividend of 3 per cent, on the paid-up capital of the
company. The rate in the pound, which in 1889 stood at
4s. 6d., and in 1911 at 8s. lid., had now reached the total
of 10s. lOd. in the pound, a rate which he ventured to think
was not equalled in any mining district of England.
Workmen’s compensation and insurance included the first
half-year’s payment under the National Insurance Act
amounting to £1,579, being at the rate of £3,158 per
annum.

At the general meeting of the New Sharlston Collieries
Company, Mr. John Varley, the chairman, stated that the
National Insurance Act had cost over £600 since it came
into operation, and during the current year the burden
would be from £1,300 to £1,500.

Messrs. Andrew Barclay, Sons and Co. Limited, locomotive
makers and makers of winding engines and colliery plant
generally, have appointed Mr. Arthur Russell, of Wigan, to
act as their representative in the important colliery districts
of South Yorkshire, Derby, and Nottingham. Mr. Russell,
who is well acquainted with this district, returns to it after
an absence of three.to four years, during which he has
added considerably to his already large experience.

On Wednesday, March 12, at 8 p.m., at the Institution
of Electrical Engineers, Victoria Embankment, a paper
will be read before the Junior Institution of Engineers on
the subject of “ Water, Heat, Steam : The Effects of Heat
upon Water, and a Consideration of Water Movements in
Steam Boilers,” by Mr. Arthur Ross, F.I.C., F.C.S. The
paper will treat with the behaviour of water (1) when
heated at atmospheric pressure; convection; conduction ;
steam; spheroidal water; (2) in a boiler working a high
pressure; when lighting up boiler; when steaming lightly;
when steaming hard; the effects of hindering free discharge
of steam; priming. These points will help in the explana-
tion of: grooving; pitting and corrosion; the effect of
zinc plates.

It is stated upon good authority that the Shireoaks
Colliery Company intend to sink a pit between Kiveton
Park and Shireoaks, and are providing for an output of
2,000 tons per day. An early commencement is reported to
be likely, as negotiations are well advanced.

Another step towards providing places of worship for
miners in the new South Yorks coalfield was taken on
Saturday, when Archdeacon Sandford dedicated a church
room at Highfield for the use of the miners engaged at
Brods worth Colliery. There are at present 1,500 inhabitants
in Highfield, and no place of worship. The village is built
upon model lines, and is entirely the property of the
colliery company, whose workmen only are allowed to
reside in the houses. It is expected there will shortly be
quite 500 houses in the village, but this depends entirely
upon the rate at which the colliery develops.

At a dinner held at the Hand Hotel, Chirk, Mr. R. Yates
was, on the 8th ult., presented with a pair of field glasses
by the officials of Brynkinallt Colliery in recognition of his
services in preparing them for Government examination.

Amongst the contracts recently closed by Messrs. Ed.
Bennis and Co. Limited, Little Hulton, Bolton, are the
following: — The Ashington Coal Company Limited,
Ashington (two Bennis furnaces for hand firing); the
Chatillon Commentry, France (two Bennis coking stokers
on chassis, twelfth repeat order); the Mines de Dourges
Electric Station, France (16 Bennis high-duty smokeless
and gritless coking stokers and self-cleaning compressed-air
furnaces, second repeat order); Henry Bessemer and Co.
Limited, Bolton (two Bennis high-duty smokeless and
gritless coking stokers and self-cleaning compressed-air
furnaces for a reheating furnace, repeat order); the Earl
of Dudley’s Baggeridge Colliery, Gospel End, Sedgeley, near
Dudley (six Bennis stokers and self-cleaning compressed-
air furnaces) ; the Rother Vale Collieries Limited, Treeton,
near Rotherham (two Bennis furnaces for hand firing);
the Anthraduff Smokeless Fuel Company, South John-
street, Liverpool (one Bennis coal elevator) ; the Rio Tinto
Company Limited, London (for Spain) (Bennis coal-
conveying plant with shoots, driving gear, steelwork, &c.).

Mr. Edgar Dudley, F.S.I., one of the inspectors of the
Local Government Board, held an enquiry at Doncaster
recently into the proposal of the Corporation to spend
£70,000 upon a street widening scheme, the enquiry having
been necessitated through a desire to put into force the
Land Clauses Acts with respect to the purchase of lands
otherwise than by agreement.

At the Victoria Station Hotel, Nottingham, the fifteenth
annual dinner of the Derby and Nottingham Branch of the
Coal Trade Benevolent Association was held on the 26th ult.
The president, Mr. Frank E. Seely, occupied the chair. The
subscriptions last year were £199 Ils, and the donations
£147 2s.,including £100 from the Bolsover Colliery Company,
the total receipts amounting to £367 12s. 6d. The relief
granted amounted to only £31 12s. 6d.

The A.E.G. of Berlin have just produced a series of
cinematagraph films showing the process of manufacturing
electric cables from start to finish, and are prepared to lend
these films for lectures to technical societies and institutions.
The A.E.G. have prepared an explanatory lecture to accom-
pany the exhibition of the films, and, if necessary, they are
willing to send an expert to deliver a special lecture.
Application for the loan of these films should be made as
early as possible to The Electrical Company Limited,
Charing Cross-road, London, W.C., who are the British
representatives of the A.E.G.

The Wombwell Main Company Limited, of Barnsley,
have placed an order with Simon-Carves Limited, of
Manchester, for a complete by-product coking plant of
50 ovens with the latest process of direct recovery of by-
products, and a 75 tons per hour Baum coal washing
plant. The Simon-Carves process for the recovery of the
tar and ammonia, which has been in successful operation
for several months past, has been taken up by many
leading collieries, in some cases replacing the older wet
process. It is claimed for this system that the salt produced
is perfectly white, and no noxious liquor is produced.

At a meeting of the Yorkshire branch of the Association
of Mining Electrical Engineers at Sheffield on Saturday,
the paper on electrical cables for shafts of mines, which
was recsntly read by Mr. E. Kilburn Scott before the
London branch, was discussed. Mr. E. R. Condor, of
Sheffield, was appointed local examiner for the examinations
of the association, which are to be held on March 8 and 15.
It was decided to hold monthly excursion 'meetings during
the summer.

The Home Secretary has appointed Mr. W. Walker, his
Majesty’s divisional inspector of mines for the Scotland
Division, to hold a formal investigation under section 83 of
the Coal Mines Act, 1911, of the causes and circumstances
of the accident which occurred at Rufford Colliery on
February 7. After opening premises at Sutton-in-Ashfield,
to be used as a Liberal club, Sir Arthur Markham referred
to the disaster, and said it was his intention to give
evidence at the enquiry. He was the author and originator
of the law on the Statute Book regarding the question of
winding. Therefore a particular obligation fell upon him,
especially as the men were in his constituency. During the
passing of the Coal Mines Bill, went on Sir Arthur, an
agreement was arrived at between the owners and the
Miners’ Federation of Great Britain, in which it was agreed
that overwinding apparatus should be provided on all
shafts, so that in the event of an overwind the engine
would automatically stop, but the two bodies also resolved
that this should not come into effect until 1915. He
denounced that agreement at the time as a damnable and
unholy alliance, again that day he repeated those words.
He thought it was monstrous that three years should elapse
before every winding gear should be so fitted.

In reply to an enquiry in the United States House of
Representatives last week, Mr. Nagel, Secretary for
Commerce, reported that the anthracite miners were
receiving 4,000,000 dols. per annum more in wages as the
result of the strike last spring. The companies’ receipts
had increased by 13,000,000 dols., the price of coal whole-
sale having been advanced by 26 cents per ton.

In the rapidly developing coalmining district of South
Elmsall and South Kirby, two elementary schools of the
latest type, each capable of accommodating over 1,000
scholars, were formally opened on Saturday. Both schools
are of the class with which the West Riding authorities
first experimented at Maltby. Instead of the system
formerly in vogue—a central assembly hall with class* rooms
branching therefrom—they are designed on the quadrangular
system. Each is designed to accommodate 320 boys, 310
girls and 390 juniors. At the opening, Aiderman Dunn
gave some interesting statistics of the work of the West
Riding Authority to cope with the sudden and vast develop,
ment of that great coalfield. During the past eight years,
he said, they had opened 110 new schools, providing
accommodation for 39,097 children, in addition to enlarge-
ments which furnished 4,616 school-places. Of this total of
43,713 places, over 25,000 had been provided in the new
colliery districts in the neighbourhood of Doncaster.

A plea for the better technical education of the miner was
made by Mr. George H. Winstanley, the president of the
National Association of Colliery Managers, in a lecture he
gave to the members of the Yorkshire branch, at Leeds, on
Saturday. While raising the standard of the manager,
there was a risk of overlooking the question of the training
and qualifications of the workman, on whom, after all, the
safety of the mine very often largely depended.

At a meeting of the council of the Huddersfield Chamber
of Commerce held last week, the president reported that
Mr. W. Dale Shaw, Mr. A. V. Priestley, and himself had
had an interview with the general manager of the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company (Mr. Aspinall).
Mr. W. Dale Shaw, who at the interview dealt with delays
to mineral traffic, said that during the last two months and
a-half the traffic had been uniformly congested, and delays
had taken place every day. Something would have to be
done with regard to the present state of affairs, which was
more serious than many people had any idea of. The
colliery proprietors were short of empty wagons, and
manufacturers and dealers were short of coal, owing to
nothing but the railway companies’ lack of transit facilities.
The loss in siding expenses and wagon hire had been
fearful. One member stated that it took an average of
10 days for a wagon to go to a colliery and come back.
Empty wagons were sometimes three and four days in
going from Marsden to Leeds. It was agreed to invite
traders to furnish details of complaints, and to place them
in tabulated form before the Board of Trade.

COAL. IRON AND ENGINEERING COMPANIES.

Alley and Macllellan Limited.—The report states that,
including balance brought forward, the profits amount to
£18,263; interest and directors’ fees absorb £2,668, and the
directors have applied £800 towards depreciation of
property, plant, machinery, &c. They have further trans-
ferred £4,000 to reserve, and recommend a dividend on the
ordinary shares at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, less
tax, leaving £1,729 to be carried forward.

Barrow Haematite Steel Company Limited.—The report
for last year states that the profit amounted to £91,817,
from which is deducted interest on debenture stock, £27,000
depreciation, and £15,000 written off expenditure on exten-
sions and improvements, leaving a net profit of £33,936, to
which is added £10,328 brought forward. The directors
recommend the payment of the year’s dividend on the first
preference shares, two years’ dividend on the second
preference shares, carrying forward £12,003. There is still
one year’s second preference dividend owing.

Boswell (Thos.) and Co. Linited.—This private company
has been registered, with a capital of £3,000 in £1 shares,
to carry on the business of file and steel manufacturers and
merchants, &o. First directors: Mrs. E. Boswell (perma-
nent) and G Boswell (managing director). Qualification,
£100.

British Insulated and Helsby Cables Company
Limited.—The directors recommend a final dividend of 6s.
per share, making, with the interim dividend already paid,
10 per cent, for the year. They propose to place £99,000 to
reserve and depreciation, leaving about £74,000 to carry
forward.

Brown Bayley’s Steelworks Limited.—Mr. Robert
Armitage, M P., presided at the annual meeting on the
1st inst. After making due allowance for any doubtful
debts, the year’s trading showed a net profit of £32,851,
which, with the balance of £11,484 brought forward from
the previous year, gave a total of £44,336. Of this amount
the directors distributed in July last £7,500 as an interim
dividend of 5 per cent., leaving a balance standing to the
credit of profit and loss account of £36,836. The directors
proposed that £10,000 be added to the reserve fund for
extensions. They also recommend the payment of a further
dividend of 10 per cent., making 15 per cent, for the year,
which will absorb £15,000, carrying forward £11,836.
Dividend warrants to be posted on March 13. Lord Ernest
Hamilton had joined the board in place of Mr. J. H. Barber,
deceased. The report was adopted, and a final dividend,
making 15 per cent, for the year, was declared.

Commercial and Engineering Development Company
Limited.—This private company has been registered, with
a capital of £1,000 (500 ordinary shares of £1 each and
10,000 deferred shares of Is. each), to carry on the business
of engineers, manufacturers, &c.

Coventry Colliery Company Limited.—This company
has been registered, with a capital of £60,000 in £1 shares,
to carry on the business of colliery proprietors, to acquire
leases giving the right to bore for or work coal and other
minerals underlying lands in Warwick and elsewhere, and
to adopt an agreement with Paul Grusser. Signatories
include, C. S. Giddins, Abchurch House, Sher borne-lane,
i E.C.; W. J. A. Drake, Abchurch House, Sherborne-lane,