94

THE COLLIEEY GUAEDIAN.

January 9, 1914.

the coming spring. It was reported at the beginning of
this week that Lord Ellesmere was increasing the
number of ovens at his Brackley collieries, Middle
Halton, near Bolton, where one of the largest batteries
of ovens in Lancashire has been installed.

The Wigan Coal and Iron Company Limited are now
engaging sinkers in connection with the new collieries
they are about to sink at Westleigh, a few miles from
Wigan, in which district they already have extensive
pits. The shafts will be about half a mile in depth, and
various valuable seams of coal will be tapped.

The development of the Oatwood and Countess Lane
Collieries, Radcliffe, near Manchester, by the Clifton
and Kersley Coal Company and the BrynnHall Colliery
Company respectively, has given a fillip to the coal-
mining industry in the Radcliffe district, where it had
been in a decadent state for some years. Over 1,000
men and youths are now employed at these pits.

The Co-operative Wholesale Society of Manchester,
which embraces over 1,400 retail societies, with nearly
1J millions of members, is, it is again reported, about to
take into consideration the advisability of acquiring
collieries of its own, with a view to supplying certain
retail societies which deal in coal, with its own products.
Over a score of co-operative societies in Bolton and
Manchester areas alone are coal merchants.

This week the Partington Iron and Steel Company
Limited have commenced the manufacture of steel
at their extensive new works on the Ship Canal at
Irlam, 10 miles from Manchester, the rolling mills being
now in full working order. Up to the present, the
manufacture there has been restricted to iron, cargoes
of ore having been brought to the works vid the Ship
Canal. It is expected that close upon 300 more men will
shortly be started at these works.

On the occasion of the distribution of medals,
diplomas and course certificates in connection with the
Wigan and District Mining and Technical College on
Thursday., January 15, 1914, at 7.45 p.m., the Right
Hon. Reginald McKenna, K.C., M.P., Home Secretary,
has consented to give an address.

Yorkshire.

Another Home Office Prosecution—Unwatering Old Work-
ings—Safety Hooks at Small Collieries—Matches in
the Pit—The Thorne Sinking—The New Wheatley
Rescue Station.

It is rumoured that the Home Office are about to
institute proceedings against a well-known South
Yorkshire colliery company.

At Ripley, on Saturday evening the directors of the
Butterley Company Limited entertained to dinner in
the Town Hall all the managers, under-managers and
deputies of their collieries, to the number of 110.

Members of the Yorkshire branch of the National
Association of Colliery Managers, at their monthly
meeting at Leeds on Saturday, when Mr. Frank H.
Waterhouse presided over a good attendance, discussed
the problem of unwatering old workings which it was
proposed to reopen or which constitute a danger to the
development of new workings. This important subject
was introduced in a paper by Mr. Cecil Hinchchffe,
describing the tapping arrangements he had successfully
carried out in connection with old waterings at Middle-
ton Colliery. These collieries, he explained, consist of
four working shafts, the seams being fairly shallow and
very thin. Coal had been worked in the district for
more than a century, and during this time two of the
shallow seams had been worked out over the whole area
of the estate. To the deeper seams about 30 shafts had
been sunk; some of them were still open, and all
formed means of inlet for surface water. In conse-
quence the old workings were full of water up to the
natural drainage level. While the deeper shafts were
being sunk, cast iron tubbing was put in which success-
fully tubbed off the water from the old workings, and
the water-level behind the tubbing had been from 14 to
22 feet below the top ring ever since. About J mile to
the east of the newer pits was an old colliery, the New
Hall Colliery, which closed down in 1884. Some of the
tubbing was then taken out of these shafts, which
allowed the water to go down and flood the whole mine.
It was, therefore, considered necessary to leave a very
large barrier of coal against the old mine to prevent the
water getting into the newer workings. This barrier,
according to the old plans of the colliery, was 17 chains
in width at its widest point and 5 chains at its
narrowest. With an average thickness of 3 ft. 6 in., the
area of the coal left was estimated at about 795,000 tons.
There are also pillars in the New Hall workings equal in
area to 30 acres, and there are also 157,000 tons in these
old workings. The time arrived when the manage-
ment considered it desirable to thin the barrier of coal,
and Mr. Hinchcliffe described in detail the method by
which he proved the pressure of water behind the
barrier, by means of a Burnside safety boring apparatus.
Two headings were driven, 6 ft. wideband 22 yards apart,
to a distance of 12 chains. A hole was bored, but
entered the roof when 33 ft. in. A second hole was
then started, and with two men working the boring
machine an average rate of 30 ft. per shift of eight
hours was bored, up to 100 yards in length, when the
rods became very heavy, and consequently the rate of
boring was not quite so fast. Boring was continued
until the hole was 702 ft. in, when it was abandoned.
Being satisfied that they could safely extend the
headings, this was done to a further distance of
2J chains, and another hole was bored, and the old
workings tapped at 95 yards. The watei' here showed
a pressure of only 27 lb. on the gauge—representing a
vertical head of 70 yards in these shafts.

A three-throw, single-acting pump, with 12 in. rams,
capable of delivering 500 gallons of water per minute,

against a head of 489 ft., was installed. This pump was
electrically driven by a 150-horse power motor. The
headings formed the water lodge and sump for the
water from the borehole. After the pump had been at
work only a few weeks the crank shaft was shorn in
two, and the pump had to stand eight weeks, during
which time the whole of the water was shut off, and
they were not troubled with water accumulating in the
mine.

In the course of the discussion, Mr. R. Sutcliffe
favoured the device of forcing out the water by air.
Mr. J. R. Wilkinson described a somewhat similar
undertaking of his own, which worked out at a cost of
about 63 d. per foot.

The Northfield Colliery Company Limited, Henry
Westwood, the agent, and Squire Broadbent, the
manager, were summoned at the Ossett Borough Court
on Monday for breaches of the Coal Mines Act, 1911,
by failing to place safety hooks on a rope at the Great-
field Colliery, and failing to provide adequate protection
for the gauge glasses on the boilers. Mr. West wood
pleaded guilty to a technical offence, and said he had a
misconception of the clauses of the Act affecting the
safety hook, believing that one was not necessary at a
small colliery like Greatfield, because it was an utter
impossibility, unless done deliberately, for the cage to
be overwound with a 3 ft. drum. In regard to the
protectors, he said that when he purchased the boilers
it was arranged that all the fittings should be provided,
but the protectors were omitted. When the omission
was pointed out the fault was immediately rectified.
The manager pleaded not guilty and asked that the
summons against him should be withdrawn on payment
of costs, on the ground that he pointed out to Mr.
Westwood that the hooks should be provided, but Mr.
Westwood disagreed. The magistrates dismissed the
cases against the manager, and fined Mr. West wood £1
and costs in each case, and the company a like amount.

The fitting-up of the new mines rescue station at
Wheatley, built to serve the collieries around Doncaster,
will be completed and the station will be in working
order in a few weeks’ time. For some time past careful
tests have been carried out with various kinds of appa-
ratus at Bentley Colliery, with a view to finding out the
best to adopt. This work has been under the super-
vision of Dr. Haldane, assisted by Mr. Winmill, the
chemist appointed by the local coalowners. Their con-
clusions will be submitted in a report, and upon this
will no doubt depend the class of apparatus which will
ultimately be decided upon. As soon as this has been
done, and the fitting-up completed, squads of men will
be sent in from the various collieries to receive instruc-
tion in rescue and restorative work at the hands of Mr.
McGaskell, late of the London Fire Brigade, the newly-
appointed instructor. A motor car will be kept ready
at all times to transport a rescue team in any direction
desired.

In order to deal with the increased mineral traffic
the Great Northern Railway Company have just built
at their Doncaster plant works a new type of mineral
engine. It is of the super-heater pattern, and the
diameter of the leading wheels is 3 ft. 2 in., and of the
coupled wheels 4 ft. 8 in. The engine weighs 76 tons
4 cwt., and the tender 43 tons 2 cwt., making a total
weight of 119 tons 6 cwt. The boiler has a pressure of
170 lb. to the square inch, and the cylinders are 21 in.
by 28 in.

The committee representing the West Riding County
Council, who recently enquired into the application of
the Adwick-le-Street Parish Council for urban powers,
however, resolved to recommend that such be granted
to this rising colliery district. It will bs remembered
there was strong opposition to the proposal on the part
of the local colliery companies and others.

The past year has been a rather disappointing one for
the little town of Thorne, near Doncaster. Business
has not flourished as was the case ere the pumping and
sinking were suspended at the shafts of Messrs. Pease
and Partners’ great colliery at Thorne Moorends.
Progress is being made with the freezing, but it is a
lengthy and protracted process. Mr. Greener, who has
managed the operations during the several years since
the coal underlying the parish was proved to be present
in paying quantities, is taking up the management of the
firm’s collieries in county Durham, and Mr. Percy Ryle,
who has hitherto held the position of under-manager at
Thorne, has been appointed to succeed him.

A suggestion made by a Pontefract magistrate a few
weeks ago to obviate the taking of matches into mines
appears to have borne good fruit. It was stated at the
West Riding Court on Saturday that the display of a
notice at the Ackton Hall Colliery embodying the
magistrate’s suggestion that colliers should sew their
pockets up had resulted in an almost complete immunity
from the offence in question. The notice had been
posted at the pithead. A bye workman, who neglected
the precaution, was summoned last week for having one
match in his pocket. He pleaded it was an accident,
and was fined 10s. and costs, which probably means that
he wih now become a convert to the no-pocket brigade.

Derbyshire and Notts.

Colliery Hire—Mansfield Railway.

Owing to a gob fire of somewhat large dimensions
having broken out along a main road, work has been
suspended at the Hucknall No. 2 Colliery.

The Mansfield Railway Company, who have raised
the whole of their £328,000 share and loan capital
authorised in 1910, and who have already constructed
and opened for traffic a portion of the railway then
authorised, have deposited a Bill to obtain further
powers from Parliament next session. The company
now propose to form a new junction at Kirkby with the
• Great Central Railway main line to London. The

junction, which is in substitution for the one authorised
in 1910, will be effected at a point opposite the Kirkby
South Junction signal box. Branch lines are also
proposed to be constructed to Clipstone Colliery and
Rufford Colliery, and a junction effected at Edwinstowe
with the Chesterfield to Lincoln line of the Great
Central Railway. The Bill also proposes to ask Parlia-
ment to confirm the purchase of 6 acres of land acquired
apparently by agreement, and power is also sought to
raise £160,000 additional share and loan capital, of which
£40,000 will be raised by the issue of debenture stock.
Power is also sought to pay interest out of capital during
the construction of authorised works. The aggregate
amount to be so expended is not to exceed £15,000.

The Midlands.

Old Boys’ Dinner at Walsall—Mines Drainage during
December.

The eleventh annual dinner in connection with the
South Staffordshire Mining Schools Old Boys’ Society
took place at Walsall on Saturday night, and was
largely attended. Mr. James Biddle (Cannock) presided.
—Mr. S. L. Thacker referred to the erection of the new
mining institutes at Hednesford and Chasetown, which,
he said, had consolidated the work carried on for very
many years past in mining and its allied sciences, and
they also marked a further step towards the co-ordina-
tion of secondary education, which must be for the
ultimate benefit of the mining community of the
district.—Mr. J. Hunter (Cannock), in proposing “ His
Majesty’s Inspectors,” mentioned that recently three
members of the society had been appointed, out of 70
or 80 candidates, as sub-inspectors of mines.—Mr. W.
Charlton (County Council lecturer) expressed gratifica-
tion at the developments which year by year went
on in connection with the mining schools. At the
present time it could be claimed that their scheme for
mining education began with the boys as they left the
elementary schools and led up to the higher teaching
given probably by the mining school in connection with
Birmingham University.

Reporting to the South Staffordshire Mines Drainage
Commission on the works of the Tipton district, Mr. E.
Howl states that the rainfall for five weeks was 1*37 in.
The pumping had been 10,417,400 gallons per 24 hours,
compared with 10,043,900 the previous month and
10,748,000 in the corresponding period of last year. The
Moat new engine, with the assistance of the Gospel Oak
Mond gas-driven plant, was dealing with the water
without the Moat old engine. In regard to the Old Hill
district, Mr. W. B. Collis reports that owing to the
small rainfall the water at the pumping engines had
been very moderate in quantity and easily dealt with,
but there was constant expense in “ mudding and
scurfing.”

Mr. Joseph Graham, who for the past nine months
has been engaged as manager of the Holly Bank Coal
Company’s Hilton Collieries and Brickworks, is taking
over the general management of all their mines and
properties in the Essington district of South Stafford-
shire. Mr. Graham, who belongs to Great Broughton,.
Cumberland, has had a large experience of extensive
collieries in different counties, and his promotion puts
him in full control of four modern and well-equipped
collieries employing nearly 3,000 workmen.

Scotland.

Firemen and Managers—Rescue Work—Developments in
Past Lothian and Stirling—The Housing Question
—Home Office Proseczition at Hamilton—The Cadder
Disaster.

Some indignation will doubtless be felt by colliery
managers throughout Scotland at the statement made
by a Cambuslang fireman at a social gathering held the
other night under the auspices of the Cambuslang
branch of the Scottish Colliery Firemen and Shot-firers’
Association. The speaker in question declared that it
was a remarkable fact that while the association was of
great assistance to managers, firemen were being bullied
by the managers. He maintained that even in the
Cambuslang district, firemen were compelled to act as
“ cleek hunters ” and to perform the duties of roads-
men. It is more than likely that this statement will
meet with a considerable amount of criticism from the
members of the Scottish branch of the National Asso-
ciation of Colliery Managers.

One of the first firms in Lanarkshire to introduce
rescue brigades at their collieries in Motherwell,
Wishaw, &c., is the Glasgow Coal Company. The
“ Draeger ” equipment has been purchased, and teams
■representative of all the collieries owned by the company
have been at practice of late under the eye of a
competent instructor.

The East of Scotland is leaving the West behind with
the development of the coalfields, and that development
is not confined to Fife alone. Some time ago Messrs.
James Nimmo and Co. put down bores in Port Seton,
East Lothian, to the Four-feet seam, and it is satis-
factory to note that coal has now been proved to
practically reach the surface at the hill near Riggonhead.
Boring has also been continued to the Diamond seam on
West Seton Farm, and it is expected that ere long there
will be important coal developments in that district.

The Manor-Powis Coal Company have met with
singular success in sinking through all the seams in
the new and extensive coalfield near Causewaybead,
Stirling. In view of the results obtained by the sinking
and boring, the company has secured a lease of an
adjoining field extending to nearly 1,000 acres. This
extension will bring the total area of the leasehold up to
close on 1,600 acres, and the operations will provide
work for many hundreds of miners for fifty years at
least.