212 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. January 23, 1914. 1121. Apparatus for charging coke ovens and the like. J. J. Allen. 1134. Conveyor for use when coaling ships. P. H. Suisted. 1139. Tubbing for lining shafts and the like, and the jointing thereof. F. E. Walker. 1143. Supports for electrical conductors or other purposes. Callender’s Cable and Construction Company Limited and C. W. Kay. 1188. Manufacture of briquettes and apparatus therefor. J. Armstrong. 1209. Manufacture of bricks, blocks, and the like articles. R. Parry. 1274. Manufacture of bricks, building-blocks, and the like. W. Weiler. 1283. Device for measuring the amount of methane or other inflammable gases in air. Acoumulatoren- Fabrik Akt.-Ges. 1290. Insulated electrical conductor for signalling in mines and similar places from any point on length of conductor. W. Harrison and F. J. Rae. 1303. Treatment of ammoniacal liquors for the purpose of removing objectionable matter from their effluent. A. Rollason. 1319. Support of electrical conductors. C. Hamilton. 1353. Mouthpiece for breathing-apparatus. Maschinen- fabrik “ Westfalia ” Akt.-Ges. 1368. Concentration of ores. A. H. Higgins and Minerals Separation Limited. Complete Specifications Accepted. To be published on February 5, 1914. 1912. 16539. Means for lubricating the bearings of railway vehicles and the like. Elsdon and Galle. 26312. Portable breathing-devices for use in impure air. Morgan and Wills. 28782. Safety means for pit shaft and other scaffold workers when such accidentally slip at work. Hanley. 1913. 711. Method or process for treating combustible oils, tar, and pitch. Steadman. 1092. Manufacture of manganese-bronze, or manganese- brass and similar alloys. Heusler and British Mining and Metal Company. 1117. Gas-producers. Whitfield. 1118. Gas washers or tar extractors. Whitfield. 1185. Brakes for railway wagons and the like. Smith, Edwards, and Steward. 1609. Hammer-drills. Holman and Holman. 1610. Rock drills. Holman and Holman. 2161. Engine-valve gear. Sigler. 3672. Process and apparatus for the gasification of fuels containing volatile constituents. Timm. 4484. Brake apparatus for railway and like vehicles. Spencer. 7936. Valve-gear for pumps. Cockburn and MacNicoll. 8684. Manufacture and production of nitration products from coal tar. Cosway and United Alkali Com- pany. 9790. Apparatus for producing artificial respiration. Simonis. 10128. Arrangement for automatically stopping pneumatic tools. Ateliers Leonard Rocour (Soc. Anon.). 10997. Furnace fire-bridges. Prim. 11905. Means of equalising or balancing electric currents, applicable to rotary converters. Railing and Garrard. 12990. Rotary engines or pumps. Christoph and Preiss. 13086. Manufacture of explosive charges for mining and military purposes. Ciseasen. 14397. Drilling apparatus. Walker and Murphy. 14597. Appliances for ensuring the safety of lift cages in case of breakage of the hauling ropes. Innerd and Young. 14630. Making of spigot and socket joints, particularly applicable to fireclay stoneware, earthenware, and like pipes. Harvey. 15033. Brake mechanism for railway and like vehicles. Gresham. 15439. Process for briquetting fuel by adding dry paper pulp flakes. Reinold. 15638. Hydraulic packing. Vulcan-Werke Hamburg und htettin Akt.-Ges. 21717. Air-compressors. Craig. 23555. Apparatus for quenching coke. Berlin-Anhaltische Maschinenbau Akt.-Ges. 23805. Pulverising apparatus. Granger. 25799. Furnace for use in hardening, annealing and tempering steel tools of all kinds and like pur- poses. Acres (Blankertz). 1914. 45. Turbines, centrifugal pumps and the like. Jerrard (Jerrard and Jerrard). Complete Specifications open to Public Inspection before Acceptance. 1913. 19302. Ore concentrators. Weatherley. 1914. 134. Electric safety lamp for mines. Kranshaar. 226 Electric furnaces. Rennerfelt. Any of the following publications may be obtained on application to this office at the price named post free. Consular and Trade Reports : British Guiana, 1912-13, 4|d. ; Southern Nigeria, 1912, 5|d. ; Jamaica, 1912-13,4|d.» Germany, Samoa, 1912, l|d. ; British Honduras, 1912, 3d. Ceylon Mineral Survey Report, 2d. Dominions Royal Commission : Evidence taken in Australia, Part 1, 3s. 4d. ; Part 2, 3s. 5d. SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION OF COAL IN MINES : Minutes of E vidence, Eighth to Tenth Days, 8|d. Census of Scotland, 1911, Report, Vol. 3, 3s. 4d. Labour Gazette, January 1914, 2|d. Standard Time-Rate of Wages in the United Kingdom, October 1, 1913, 9d. Royal Commission on Railways.—The Royal Commission on Railways has held further sessions. Mr. John Lamb, Assistant Under-Secretary for Scotland, described the pro- cedure under the Act of 1899, which offered an alternative to the ordinary private Bill procedure by Committees in Parliament. Mr. H. A. Stewart, one of the Light Railways Commissioners, also gave evidence. He said the expression "light railway’’had never been defined. A light railway or a tramway with which the commissioners had to deal meant a cheap form of rail traction, mainly promoted for local purposes. He saw no reason why the system of local enquiry should not be applied to heavy railways. He had heard Sir Charles Scotter say that the London and South- Western Railway Company had saved .£100,000 by the use of the light railway procedure. The cost of the Light Railway Commission was less than .£4,000 a year. On the following day the Commission began hearing the evidence of traders. The first witness was Mr. C. E. Musgrave, the secretary of the London Chamber of Commerce and secretary to the Timber Trade Federation of the United Kingdom. The most usual subjects of dispute between railway companies and traders, he said, were rates of classification, delays in delivery, loss and pilferage, owners’ risk, delay in settling claims, and demurrage charges. The opinion of 90 per cent, of members who had replied to a question on the subject was that either the Board of Trade or some other authority should have power to determine reasonable working rates. While there was a general desire to have some further machinery, it took two shapes, one being that the powers of conciliation should be more methodised, and the other that there should be some judicial element. He suggested that there should be a separate tribunal. There might be an absolutely commercial arbitration on certain defined points, the Board of Trade nominating one of the members, the traders another, and the railway companies a third. There might also be a panel from which commercial arbitrators could be taken to decide each case, according to its nature. That tribunal should be permanent and always ready, and, subj ect to points of law, its decisions should be final. As to the principle of State ownership or nationalisation of railways, there had been 95 unconditional negative answers and 21 affirmative answers. It was said that there was great delay in Germany with regard to goods traffic, and that everything had to give way either to military or passenger requirements. It was felt that there was less possibility of getting complaints adjusted under Government departments than there was under companies working for profits. The principle of amalgamation was businesslike so far as it made for efficiency, economy, and greater facilities, but the tendency was to reduce competition between companies, to increase rates, and to make it more difficult for traders to get reasonable protection and reasonable facilities. Certain safeguards would require to be inserted in the Bill to ensure that the public got the full benefit of the change. Mr. L. A. Martin, a director of Messrs. Henry Tate and Sons Limited, sugar refiners, and deputy chairman of the council of the London Chamber of Commerce, also gave evidence. Mr. Martin said he favoured a business tribunal such as the previous witness had advocated, and added that disputes between railway companies and traders were really so simple that such a body would not require judicial powers. PDBLIGATIOKS RECEIVE®. Royal Railways with Uniform Rates. By Whately C. Arnold. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co. Limited. Price 6d. Debentures and Other Charges. By Herbert W. Jordan. London : Jordan and Sons Limited. Price 6d. Mathiesons’ Highest and Lowest Prices. London: C. Mathieson and Sons. Price 2s. 6d. Inventor’s Adviser on ’ Patents, Designs and Trade Marks. By Reginald Haddan. London : Harrison and Sons. Pocket Book for Miners and Metallurgists. Compiled by F. Danvers Power. London : Crosby Lockwood and Son. Durham Coalfield Map. London : The Business Statistics Company Limited. Iowa Geological Survey (Vol. 22). C. Keyes. "The Objections of the University of London Graduates’ Association to the Scheme Proposed by the Royal Com- mission on University Education in London,” price Id.; " Peru To-day ” (Vol. 5, Nos. 5 and 6), August and Sep- tember, price 5d.; " The Engineering Magazine ” (Vol. 46, No. 4), January, price Is.; " Le Mois Scientifique et Industriel ” (No. 172), December, price 2 fr.; "Annales des Mines” (Tome 5, No. 1); "The Mining Magazine” (Vol. 10, No. 1), January, price Is.; "Annual Report of the Geological Survey Branch of the Mines Department of New Zealand for the Year ending May 31, 1913”; " Transactions of the Institution of Engineers and Ship- builders in Scotland ” (Vol. 57, Part 3) ; "Proceedings of the South Wales Institute of Engineers ” (Vol. 29, No. 6), price 2s. 6d.; "The Journal of the Western Society of Engineers” (Vol. 18, No. 9), November, price 50cents. Shunting and Siding Rent Charges and Private Owners’ Disabled Wagons.—Paragraph 7 of the Railway Companies’ Regulations as to Private Owners’ Wagons which, we are informed, were settled at a conference in 1908 between representatives of the railway companies and of the following associations—namely, the Mining Association of Great Britain, the Association of Private Owners of Railway Rolling Stock, the Carriage and Wagon Builders and Financiers’ Parliamentary Association, and the Incorporated South Wales and Monmouthshire Coal Freighters’ Associa- tion, and Mansion House Association on Railway and Canal Traffic &c.,—provides as follows :— " 7. When wagons for the purpose of repair are required to be shunted into and out of railway companies’ sidings and/or into and out of premises in the occupation of private wagon repairers, a charge of 6d. per wagon will be made for such services, except where a higher charge is now made, in which case such higher charge shall be the maximum charge under these regulations. " Siding rent will be chargeable to the owner, or his agent in respect of standing room for any wagon detained at a station or siding for repairs at the rate of 6d. per wagon per day, which will be calculated from the expiration of three days • exclusive of the date of the advice note, Sundays and Bank holidays, from the time the wagon is placed at the disposal of the owner or repairer, and to terminate when the wagon is labelled for despatch after repair.” It was part of the arrangement that the charges, the subject of this regulation, should be settled as from July 1, 1908. Certain firms, however, subsequently refused to pay the charges, and proceedings were accordingly instituted by the Great Central, the Great Northern, the Great Eastern, the Great Western, the Lancashire and Yorkshire, the London and North-Western, the Midland, and London and South-Western railway companies in county courts in various parts of the country to recover the outstandings from a number of leading firms, who were selected for the purpose of testing the principle. It has, however, become unnecessary to apply for judgment, as the firms named have now settled the past outstandings and the costs of the proceedings, admitting liability for the charges in question. h a 0 66 Forge and Foundry. Gold Medals- Paris, 1878; Melbourne, 1881. Siemens Open Hearth. First=class Medals— Paris, 1885; London,1862. BAFETY ' FITTINGS, Notice Plates, -- APPLY - PROTECTOR LAMP LIGHTING CO. LTD., ECCLES. Steel Pit Girders & Colliery Rails a Speciality; also BigMass Bar Iron for Couplings, &c. IRON & STEEL BARS, ANGLES, TEES, CHANNELS, GIRDERS, PLATES & SHEETS, STEEL BILLETS, BLOOMS & SLABS. Enquiries to— ™ THE SHELTOW IRON, STEEL & COAL CO. LTD., Or 122, Cannon Street, London, E.C. Telegraphic AddressShelton, Stoke-on-Trent.” Tel. No. 11 and 253. | Telegraphic Address : “ Sheltonian, London.” Tel. No. 886 Bank. THE SOTTH WALES COALFIELD. PART II. By Henry K. Jordan, F.G.S. (Past President and first Gold Medallist of the South Wales Institute of Engineers). This Paper, which deals with the western part of the Coalfield, has just been published by the South Wales Institute of Engineers. It consists of 81 pages of printed matter with Sections and Diagrams. The large drawings are issued separately and comprise 1. A Horizontal Section across the anthracite region of Llandybie and Pant-y-ffynnon, and via the Dulais Valley to the sea at Swansea. It is drawn to a scale of six inches to one mile, is 8 ft. in length, mounted on linen, and geologically coloured. 2. Comparative Sections of the Lower Measures in the following areas — (A) Neath Valley. (E) Ammanford. (B) Swansea Valley. (F) Loughor Valley. (C) Brynamman District. (G) Gwendraeth District. (D) Amman Valley. (H) Gwendraeth District. These are drawn on one sheet, about 35 by 30in., mounted on linen, a scale of 200 ft. to 1 in. 3. A Map of Swansea District, on a scale of 6 in. to one mile, showing the outcrops of the coal seams. A limited number of the above are for sale, and may be obtained from The Secretary, The South Wales Institute of Engineers, CARDIFF. Price ^81 Is., Postage Extra. ” The South Wales Coalfield,” Part I., by Mr. H. K. Jordan, published in 1908, price £2.2s., dealt with the eastern half of the Coalfield, and may be obtained from the Secretary.