January 2, 1911.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

39

The book is well and profusely illustrated, many of
the figures being full-page plates. The first part of the
book, up to p. 134, is taken up with the outlines of
anatomy, physiology and first-aid treatment. The
subjects of transport and the work of voluntary aid
detachments is exhaustively treated, but the space given
(pp. 135-216) is hardly justified. A large portion of this
section is taken from the Journal of the Royal Army
Medical Corps.

The subject matter throughout is accurate and clearly
written, with the exception of some remarks on treat-
ment. The treatment advocated is not always definite
enough from the first-aid point of view, and the reader
is told that one of many courses may be taken. For
example, in the treatment of bleeding (p. 72) :—

“ Bleeding from a cut vein may be arrested by any
of the following methods	”

“ Bleeding from an artery may be arrested, according
to the severity of the bleeding, by one or other of the
following methods:— . . ”

The fundamental importance of pressure in the treat-
ment of bleeding is not insisted upon enough. Bleeding
must be arrested by pressure, and this advice should be
clearly given in large print. In the treatment of burns,
the use of carron oil is still advocated. All oils, when
kept for any time, are apt to become dirty and rancid,
and, as a consequence, unsuitable for the treatment
of wounds. The modern treatment of burns consists in
the application of a solution of picric acid, which can be
kept pure for an indefinite time.

There is a very useful chapter on the after-treatment
of ambulance cases. The last part of the book is
occupied by remarks on the St. John Ambulance Asso-
ciation, by a translation of the Geneva Convention, and
by a chapter on the organisation and management of
ambulance classes. The book is concluded by a series
of test papers on first-aid.

The book can be confidently recommended to advanced
students, to all secretaries of ambulance classes, and to
all interested in voluntary aid detachments. From the
point of view of the mining profession, the book is a
little disappointing.

“Mechanical World” Electrical Pocket Book for 1914.

311 pp., 129 pp. 4 in. by 6 in. Manchester and
London : Emmott and Co. 6d. net.

This popular and inexpensive annual has been con-
siderably improved, much of the matter having been
rewritten and expanded. The section on electricity in
coal mines is up-to-date, and quite good.

The Year-Book of the Scientific and Learned Societies
of Great Britain and Ireland. 1913. vi. + 380 pp.
5J in. by 8J in. London : Charles Griffin and Co.
Price 7s. 6d. net.

To many scientific workers this annual, giving as it
does a record of the work done in science, literature
and art during the previous year, is indispensable. With
the complete set of 30 volumes, many a library could be
cut down to half its size or less.

History of the Salt Union. By A. F. Calvert. 5 in
by 8J in. xxxviii 4- 286 pp. London : Effingham
Wilson. Price 5s. net.

The British student of trusts has few opportunities
near home of prosecuting his researches, consequently a
detailed account, such as this, of the rise of a union
endowed with monopolistic powers, is of singular
interest. The Salt Union was formed in 1888 with the
frank intention of controlling the salt supply. The
subsequent history of the union has very far from
justified the early optimism of the promoters, and the
significant feature of Mr. Calvert’s work is his exposure
of the unsound methods of valuation and finance upon
which the combination was founded. He extends his
attack to the present policy of the board—notably in
the agreement with Messrs. Brunner, Mond and Co.
The body of the book, perhaps, has the demerit, from
the popular standpoint, of being too documentary, but
this method, which is intentional, has the merit of
allowing the union to damn itself out of its own mouth
—the strongest mode of criticism—and of adding
considerably to the historical value of the book.

Business Prospects Year Book, 1914. Edited by Joseph

Davies and C. P. Hailey. 5 in. by 7J in.; xiv.
+ 235 pp. Cardiff : The Business Statistics
Company. Price 10s. net.

The authors of this acute little annual believe that
the coal trade will again experience a prosperous year
in 1914, that the average market price will be slightly
lower than in 1913, but higher than in any other year
since 1907 ; wages at the collieries will be maintained at
a high rate, but work will be more irregular than it has
been since 1911; and colliery companies will—owing to
their contracts—-make exceptional profits, which means
that many in the coal trade will read the forecast with
infinite satisfaction.

. The book covers a wider ground than that conserved
for the coal trades, dealing with prospects in the iron,
copper, tin, tinplate, oil, shipping, cotton, rubber
industries, &c., and constitutes, as a whole, an accurate
statement of prevailing conditions. The price is rather
high.

WORKING OF THE GOAL MIMES ACT
DURIMG 1912.

In Part II. of his General Report on Mines and
Quarries, Mr. R. A. S. Redmayne, H.M. Chief Inspector
of Mines, deals briefly with the experience so far gained
in the working of the Coal Mines Act, 1911, which came
into force on July 1, 1912, with the exception of certain
provisions, the operation of which was delayed until
subsequent dates. He says the work involved in com-
plying with the Act has been very great, especially in
respect of old and backward collieries, and a great strain
has been imposed on the managers, due not only to the
far-reaching effects of this Act and the Orders arising
therefrom, but also from the fact that it came into force
about the same time as the National Health Insurance
Act and the Minimum Wage Act, all being Acts which
require the close and almost continuous attention of
colliery officials.

The majority of the provisions of the Act having been
in operation only for six months, it is too early to draw
conclusions as to the extent to which these provisions
have been instrumental in preventing accidents and
improving the health of the persons engaged in the
industry.

Firemen, Examiners, and Deputies

There were 48.775 candidates for certificates, of whom
45,794 passed—20,624 obtaining the full certificate.
It will, of course, ba realised that the number of persons
who obtained the certificate is far from being an
accurate criterion of the number of firemen, examiners
and deputies employed in the United Kingdom, for
many persons who did not occupy the position were
applicants for the certificate, e.g., young men desirous of
attaining to the position, mining apprentices and under-
ground officials other than firemen.

The scope and meaning of the proviso to section 65 as
to inspections during continuous shifts having been mis-
apprehended in some quarters, Mr. Redmayne thinks it
is desirable to call attention to the Home Office view of
the matter. The proviso was inserted in the Act in
accordance with the recommendation of the Royal Com-
mission on Mines, who intended it to be in substitution
for, not in addition to, the general recommendation of
two inspections a shift, and this is the interpretation
which the Home Office puts upon the section. In this
case a report of each inspection must be made in the
manner required by section 64, and the proviso must
only be regarded as applying where shifts change at or
near the face so that work is carried on without any
interval. The less stringent requirement in the case of
continuous shifts is of course justified by the fact that
as the face is continually advancing there is not the
same danger as where the working place has been left
for a period; also that the outgoing men are able to
inform the incoming men of the actual state of the
working places.

The points raised were:—•

1.	Must a deputy make two inspections during each
of his shifts where there is a succession, or continuity
of shifts, or

2.	Is it sufficient that each working place and all
parts situated beyond the meeting stations, &c., be
inspected every five hours ?

With regard to these points it is sufficient that each
working place and all parts situated beyond the meeting
stations, &c., be inspected in the manner provided by
section 64 every five hours.

3.	Is it permissible for an overman, or other official
superior to the deputy, to make inspections during
shifts in place of the deputy, provided he enters the
result of such inspection in a deputies’ report book ?
The deputy’s inspection is in addition to any inspec-
tion that may be made by the overman. The words {( a
similar inspection” in section 65 must be understood to
mean an inspection by a fireman, examiner or deputy as
in section 64, and by section 14 a person employed as a
deputy cannot (with certain exceptions) be employed on
duties other than his safety duties in his district. The
intention of the Act is that a deputy’s district should be
of such a size as to allow him to get round twice during
the shift. (In one sense, of course, an overman is an
examiner, but the term “examiner” is used in the Ac^
pi that sense in which it is applied in the Bristol district
to deputies.)

4.	Must both inspections in each shift, or all three
inspections in the fore shift, be made by the same
deputy ?

The answer to this is that there is nothing in the Act
to prevent a change of deputies during the course of the
working shift.

Searching of Workmen for Matches.

In the Newcastle district, up to the end of the year,
no uniform scheme of searching had been established,
and in some of the other districts the managers either
did not fully understand that the search had to be a

daily search, or had adopted different systems. Steps
have since been taken to institute a uniform system on
the lines indicated above in all the coalmining districts.

Mr. Redmayne has been informed by the inspectors,
colliery managers and others that the result of the
searching has been to find that the cases of men having
in their possession the prohibited articles have been far
more numerous than was anticipated. In many cases
there can be little doubt that men have quite inad-
vertently carried the matches, &c., on their persons and
without any intention of making use of them in the
mine. But the fact is disquieting and points to the
great necessity of the daily search being rigorously and
carefully carried out.

Ventilation.

Sampling the Air of the Mine.—This necessitated a
great deal of work, and although 1,836 samples were
taken between July 1 and December 31, the work was
by no means completed by the end of the year.
Although generally the analyses have shown that the
mines in the different districts throughout the United
Kingdom are well above the standard required by the
Act, there were some cases in which this was not so.
The work of sampling has undoubtedly already resulted
in good.

Arrangements for Reversing the Air Currents.—At
mines to which section 31 (3) of the Act applies, this
requirement came into operation after January 1, 1913,
and at a number of mines compliance with the require-
ments was secured by altering the fan casing, so that the
fan while continuing to revolve in the same direction
will draw in fresh air at the centre and eject it from the
periphery over the casing into the upcast, and so act as
a forcing instead of an exhausting fan; but in many
cases extensive structural alterations have had to be
made, and in others entirely new fans have had to be
erected. Many collieries, especially in Scotland and in
South Wales, had not completed—some had not even
commenced—the work necessary for compliance with
the Act in this respect by the date named. In the
majority of these cases either the necessary work would
take longer than the time allowed or the management
could not obtain delivery of the fans from the makers.
In cases where it could be clearly shown that real
difficulties existed in the way of complying with the
Act within the time named, the divisional inspectors
have met the owners in a reasonable spirit and granted
an extension of time wherein to comply. In nearly
every case the means provided for reversing the air
current have been a fan or fans. In a very few cases a
waterfall in the shaft has been found to be adequate,
but in others it has been tried and found inadequate. In
some cases, notably in the smallermines of the Southern
division, steam jets have been placed in the upcast shaft;
and when the divisional inspector has been satisfied by
experiment that the apparatus was efficient, he has
allowed its use.

In this connection Mr. Redmayne adds that, as cases
have come to his knowledge in which the management
of the colliery appear to have been in doubt as to what
the Act actually requires, the means to be provided
must fulfil these conditions : (a) they must be capable
of being put into operation immediately ; (b) they must
be such as will allow of the reversal of the air-current
in the roadways of the mine as well as in the shafts ;
(c) they must be adequate for the purpose—that is to
say, they must be such as will allow of the reversal of
the current taking place within a reasonable time.

It has sometimes been suggested that the reversal of
the air-current would tend to dislodge the fine coaldust
accumulated in the roadways of the mine, and carry it
towards the shaft; but Mr. Johnstone remarks that he
has “ made careful enquiries about this, and in no case
had the alteration of the direction of the air the slightest
effect on the dust.” This statement is based on the
results of many experiments with the reversal of the
air-current at collieries in his division, particulars of
which were kindly sent him by the colliery agents.

Surveyors.

Nine hundred and twelve managers’ certificates have
been endorsed,, and 898 certificates given by the
inspectors to surveyors already employed.

The Care and Treatment of Unimals

For the first time in the history of mining, a census
of animals employed underground has been taken, with
particulars respecting the death-rate from injury and
disease, and cases of injury and ill-treatment. The
result of this census is set out in a table which has
already appeared in the Colliery Guardian.

Mr. Redmayne thinks it is very satisfatory to note
how small is the number of cases of ill-treatment,
namely, only 0*33 per cent, of the total number of
animals employed.

A general difficulty has been experienced in procuring
a suitable eye-guard for the horses and ponies, for while