Erbruary 13, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

359

Some valuable evidence was given
The before the Kailway Commission last
Autocracy week by Mr. B. P. Wilson, whose
Of Railways, knowledge of the selling branch of
the West Yorkshire coal trade is
unequalled. The whole burden of it was to show
that in the present method of adjusting the differ-
ences between railways and traders there is always
a balance in favour of the large corporation —fortune
ever favours the large battalion. Mr. Wilson gave
several instances of this; whereas the companies
impose claims for demurrage against the trader in
the most arbitrary fashion, the private wagon owner
has great difficulty in making the railway responsible
for delays to the trader’s trucks. This differential
treatment finds expression in other branches of the
diversified business in which the modern railway is
allowed to engage, for shipowners have been known
to declare that railway-owned steamers get better
clearance than those owned by others.

It is just the same thing that has made it so
difficult to arrive at a satisfactory method of settling
disputes, for in every form of tribunal that has been
devised the wealth of the railway companies has
given them an undoubted advantage over the trader.
If, as Mr. Wilson suggests, we could shed all legal
representation, we believe that fairer conditions
could be established, and much unwarranted expense
saved at the same time. His example of the con-
ciliation boards in the coal industry and the arbitra-
tion committees that have been appointed in connec-
tion with the London Coal Exchange and some of
the more important chambers of commerce was very
happy, for these have proved that disputes can be
methodically and satisfactorily settled without the
help of the lawyers.'

The point will no doubt appeal to the Commission,
but we are not sufficiently sanguine to anticipate that
the railway companies will surrender a tactical
advantage without a struggle.

Cases not infrequently arise in which
Colliery the efficiency of colliery plant has a
Plant direct bearing upon legal liabilities
Efficiency, under a contract or other agreement.

As an example, we may cite the
question of “ washed slack” as supplied for coking
purposes. What is really meant by “washed slack ” ?
Is it slack which has passed through a coal-washer,
or slack containing less than a certain percentage of
ash? The two definitions are by no means synony-
mous; but agreements for the supply of “washed
slack” are generally vague as to the ash c entent
permissible under the contract, and the quality
of slack supplied in too many cases depends
solely upon the efficiency of the coal-washer.
Now the efficiency of a coal - washer depends
upon many circumstances, which may be classified
under three heads—viz., the construction of the
machine, the conditions under which it is worked,
and the nature of the coal itself. Taking the last
first, there have been cases in which an attempt has
been made to wash coal containing dirt of the same
specific gravity as the coal itself, or even lighter.
Obviously such a coal could not be improved in a
commercial sense by washing. Coals differ so largely
in composition and character that washing plants
of various types will produce very different
results in particular cases, and to obtain the
greatest efficiency it is necessary to know accurately
the nature of the coal to be employed. Is this fact
properly realised when selecting coal-wrashing plant ?
To judge from cases which occasionally come before
the courts in one form or another, colliery managers
not infrequently trust entirely to the reputation of
the manufacturer without troubling too much about
the suitability of the plant. The manufacturer
supplies a plant in perfectly good faith, and this
plant is subsequently expected either to do work for
which it was never properly adapted, or to work in
a way which hopelessly impairs its efficiency. In
the case of coal-washers, it is perhaps on the ques-
tion of capacity that many of these appliances fail to
work properly. Without any but a vague idea of
the limit of capacity consistent with efficient working,
coal is put through the machine at rates far greater
than its proper capability, and the result is necessarily

The average value of coal, coke and manufactured
-•fuel exported from the United Kingdom during
January was 14s. l‘3d. per ton, as compared with
13s. 7’5d. in January 1913, and 12s. 04d. in
January 1912.

Of the total exports of coal during January, the
mean value of the large coal exported was 15s. 8*5d.;
through-and-through (unscreened) coal, 12s. 8 8d. ;
and small coal, 10s. 9’8d. The average value of all
'kinds of coal exported was 13s. 11’3d., an increase of
•0-6d. as compared with the preceding month. Other-
wise divided, it fetched the following values :—Steam
coal, 14s. l’5d. ; gas coal, 12s. ll*4d.; anthracite,
16s. 2’3d. ; household coal, 13s. 6*2d. ; and other
sorts of coal, 12s. 3-3d. The value of the coke
exported was 17s. 3*5d. per ton, and of the manufac-
tured fuel 17s. 5-3d. per ton.

A general meeting Ol the Mining Institute of
-Scotland will .be held at Edinburgh to-morrow
(Saturday).

Several interesting papers are to be read at the
general meeting of the North of England Institute
of Mining and Mechanical Engineers at Newcastle-
•on-Tyne on Saturday, 14th inst.

The South Staffordshire and Warwickshire
Institute of Mining Engineers meets on Monday
next, when two important papers will be read.

A general meeting of the Institution of Mining

• and Metallurgy will be held on Thursday next.

The Wigan magistrates have now decided that two
shafts do not constitute two separate mines at the
Maypole Colliery, and have dismissed the summons
issued at the instance of the Miners’ Federation for
not allowing checkweighmen proper facilities to
-carry out their work.

The King’s Bench Divisional Court, on Tuesday,
•dismissed the appeal in the case of Fairbanks v.
.Florence Coal and Iron Company, which raised a
.question as to the application of the minimum
wage.

At the resumption on Friday last of the Home
' Office enquiry into the Senghenydd disaster, evidence
was taken as to the electrical system, Prof. Thornton,
Mr. 0. P. Sparkes and Mr. Fobert Nelson being the
.’Chief witnesses. The remainder of the enquiry has
.been remarkable for the statements made by a
fireman named Davies, and Thornton, a miner, as to
the presence of explosive mixtures in the mine of
which they were aware, but regarding which they
made no report.

Sir Edward Clarke, the independent chairman of
the Minimum Wage Board for South Yorkshire, has
given his award on the application for an increase
by the miners’ representatives. The award grants
. an advance of 6d. per day, raising the minimum to
7s. 3d. Since the award was issued the coalowners
have raised the question as to the standard upon which
the minimum has been based, as, since the original
award, three advances of 5 per cent, have been
granted by the Conciliation Board.

The Northumberland Miners’ Association have
made an application for a general advance in wages.
With respect to the application for an increase in the
wages of surface workers, the local coalowners have
tnow intimated that they cannot improve upon their
..previous offer of 3s. a day.

Another meeting was held on Saturday between
\the representatives of Northumberland coalowners
. and miners to carry further, if possible, the negotia-
tions for the re-establishment of some form of
conciliation in the county for the regulation of
wages. Sub-committees have been appointed to go
into the question of the rates of rise and fall of the
sliding scale.

Mr. Brace, in the House of Commons last night,
raised the question of accidents in mines in an
amendment to the Address, and outlined the scheme
of the Miners’ Federation. In his reply, the Home
Secretary refused to adopt the policy of inspection
advocated, and said he could give no promise of a
long Bill carrying out any material number of the
suggestions. He added that he was introducing a
short amending Bill to the Coal Mines Act, dealing
with certain specific points that had arisen from the
«Cadeby accident.

unsatisfactory. While it is admitted that the most
economical way of using either coal-washing or any
other plant is to run it continuously at its full capacity,
it is quite a different thing when it becomes a
question of overloading and straining the machine.
The remedy for this condition of things, which may
involve a colliery in considerable losses, is the
exercise of greater care and discrimination in the
selection of plant, with the assistance of technical
advice where necessary for the purpose of drawing
up specifications of plant for special circumstances.

In the case of collieries, it is unfortunately true
that special conditions are nearly always present.
Plant of bad or even unsuitable design only results
in inefficiency and final breakdown, with losses out
of all proportion to the extra cost of a more carefully
drawn specification in the first instance. Nor are
coal-washing plants the only examples of this false
economy. They are to be found also in other
departments—notably in coke - oven installations,
conveyors, and many other kinds of appliances. The
high maintenance costs of many collieries are in
some cases the direct result of a mistaken policy in
selecting plant not wholly suitable for the conditions
to which it is applied. It is in little details that
efficient working lies. Price alone should never be
the whole consideration in the purchase of colliery
plant.

The lecture given by Prof. H. B.

Caaldust Dixon on Monday last, at Manchester
Explosions. University, afforded him an oppor-
tunity of stating in plain language
the present position of the coaldust question, which
is all the more welcome on account of the fact that
the lecturer is a member of the Explosions in Mines
Committee.

So far as actual facts are concerned, there is
nothing to record beyond what has already been
published in the Eskmeals Keports and elsewhere,
but Prof. Dixon was able to emphasise certain points
to which, we think, sufficient prominence has not yet
been given, and upon which there may be both
misconception and misapprehension.

In the first place, let us dwell upon the cautious
attitude which the lecturer assumed towards the
efficacy of stunedust in checking coaldust explosions.
“ Such safety as is attained,” he said, “ must be
regarded as relative and not absolute. It is, perhaps,
impossible to make a dusty coalmine as safe as a
mine which contains no coaldust at all.” Lest this
pronouncement should be thought unduly pessimistic,
it is only fair to add that Prof. Dixon is convinced
that the dangers of an explosion will be greatly
diminished by the use of incombustible dust. We
go further, and would add that the advantages
derivable from the use of this expedient will
probably be directly proportional to the care and
intelligence bestowed upon the method in which
it is applied in individual collieries ; and, con-
versely, inversely proportional to the rigidity of
statutory regulations that may ultimately control
it; for nothing can be more fatal to intelligent
action than inelastic rules, such as tend to reduce
humanity to the status of automatic machines.
With regard to the limitations of stonedust,
we are only now on the threshold of knowledge. No
one can read Prof. Dixon’s conclusions without
realising how unwise it would be at the present
time to lay down any fixed proportions, such as 1 : 1,
as representing statutory requirements in every
dusty mine. The proportion, as the lecturer says,
must depend upon the circumstances of the mine, and
no reliance must be placed upon zones or barriers.
The treatment must be uniform throughout.

With regard to the kind of stonedust we have also
yet much to learn. The Eskmeals experiments have
not, so far, been conclusive on this point, although it
would appear that dusts of low specific gravity are
more effective than heavy dusts in the case of mild
inflammations.

Just at the present moment, when the attention of
colliery managers has been specially directed to the
question of stonedusting by the Home Secretary’s
Memorandum, any information upon this subject will
be greedily sought after, and it is to be hoped that
no time will be lost in pushing this investigation to a
conclusion, not only by the vigorous prosecution of