622

THE COLLIEKI GUAKD1AM.

March 20, 1914.

methods of firing shots, and to mitigate the risk attached
to haulage and shaft accidents. Provision is also made
for improved ventilation in the mine, and working places
where firedamp is present to a greater extent than 2'5
per cent, are deemed to be dangerous, and it is not
permissible for men to be employed in an atmosphere
charged with firedamp to this extent. Steps have to be
taken for the prevention of coaldust, and it is now
necessary for all colliery owners to provide a sufficient
supply of ambulance requisites at convenient places in
the mine; and the organisation of rescue brigades is com-
pulsory in all the colliery districts, not only for the
purpose of saving life in eases of explosions, but
recovering the bodies and helping to put into proper
order working places that have been destroyed through
the ravages of the explosion. Facilities have been
increased for investigating a mine after an explosion,
from the fact that it is now necessary for colliery
proprietors to be able to reverse the ventilating current
by means of their machinery on the surface.

According to this Act, coalowners are obliged to pro-
vide proper' sanitary conveniences for the use of the
men near the pit bottom and at central places along the
roadways, and a clause in this Act enables the work-
people under certain conditions to be provided with
baths and washing and drying accommodation on the
surface, the cost being defrayed jointly by the employers
and the workmen.

The time is yet too short to prophesy what the
benefits will be as a result of this Act of Parliament,
but, as far as legislation goes, it is certainly a great
step in the right direction.

But the occurrence of accidents and the prevalence
of disease peculiar to the coalminer will not depend
altogether upon legislation. One cannot but feel that
the long death-roll year by year, and the tremendous
number of non-fatal accidents are, in some instances—
perhaps a large number—due to the fact that the human
factor enters into these occurrences. Just as it is
impossible to free a nation from drunkenness by Act. of
Parliament, so it is, and will be, impossible to free the
collier’s life from risk to injury in the same way.
Carelessness or callousness on the part of either the
workman or his employer may result in the greatest
disasters, and, as already pointed out, it is a significant
fact that if one estimates the number of deaths and
non-fatal accidents, not as a percentage of the total
number employed, but in relation to each million tons
of coal brought to the surface, we find that in the last
10 or 12 years no improvement has taken place in this
respect.

Time will show what effect the recent Act of Parlia-
ment will have upon the health of the miners, but even
if the results are as disappointing in the future as they
have been in the past, we should not regard ourselves as
at the end of our resources. Something must still be
done to reduce the yearly death-roll and the large
number of non-fatal injuries.

It might be necessary to have a more thorough and
systematic inspection of mines, in order that all the
provisions which have been made with the object of
diminishing these accidents should be strictly observed,
so as to reduce the number of falls of roof, haulage
accidents, and the various other accidents which at the
present time are regarded as incidental to the miner’s
daily work, and to see that the law is carried out to the
very letter.

It may be necessary to consider whether the mining
engineer who has the sole management and control of
any given pit is, in view of modern science, sufficiently
trained to deal with all the problems with which he may
be brought into daily contact. Medical men are inclined
to believe that their own profession covers as much if
not more ground in the realm of knowledge than any of
the other learned professions ; but the competent mining
engineer is daily brought in contact with problems of
geology, of chemistry, of physics, of engineering, of
electricity, as well as of the commercial side of his
business ; and perhaps the time has come for the heads
of the mining profession to realise that specialisation in
mining may be the means of not only working the pits
to a greater financial benefit, but also of diminishing to
a very large extent the number of injuries which daily
take place.

Greater advantage should be taken of the facilities
for special training given at such universities as
Birmingham and Sheffield, and it seems incredible
that, in view of the importance of the profession of
mining engineering, so comparatively few students pass
through these institutions for the purposes of education,
although he was happy to say that the numbers now
increase year by year.

We have seen that the only hope of diminishing the
number of cases of miners’ nystagmus is by improving
the illumination of the mines, and in the author’s opinion
it should be obligatory on the part of colliery owners to
supply a better illumination along the roadways and at
the working face, so that the incidence of this disease
in the future may be materially diminished. Expenses
will undoubtedly be incurred by the inauguration, say,
of electrical lamps in addition to the ordinary safety
lamp, but he was confident that the owner will be
well repaid for his money, not only because of the
improved health conditions of the workers, but also
because the men will be able to see what they are doing.
It is obvious that they would be able to do their work
very much better in a good light than in the wretched
light to which they are subjected at the present time,
and this again would undoubtedly tend to diminish the
number of accidents. Another suggestion was that
there should be compulsory medical examination of all
applicants for work at mines who (1) had worked in
European mines or (2) in the tropics or colonies, with a
view of preventing British coalmines from becoming
infected with ankylostomiasis. It is only through such
sources that our mines can become infected, and

every possible means should be taken to prevent such
an occurrence.

He had already shown that Great Britain is the only
European country where there is no legislation to
regulate the temperature at which men work in coal-
mines, and thought that this country should be brought
into line with the other principal European countries,
and employment forbidden in workings where the wet-
bulb thermoter reading is so high as to be injurious to
health. He was not going to lay down what the limit shall
be. That should be a matter for full consideration;
but when one realises that the Lancashire weaver, the
Staffordshire potter, and the colliers in France, Germany
and Belgium are protected against working in tempera-
tures which are recognised by scientists to be injurious
to the health, it is not unreasonable to suggest that
legislation should do at least as much for the coalminer
in this country.

Conclusio .

In conclusion, Dr. Shufflebotham said: “So much
for legislation. Something further can be done, and
that by the medical profession. It seems strange that
industrial diseases should have been neglected in the
medical schools of this country, and by the vast
majority of the leaders of the profession, and that
the researches in this branch of medical science have
been left to individual effort. There are thousands
of medical men working in the industrial districts of
England who have never received any training in the
medical schools on the diseases which they may be
called upon at a moment’s notice to diagnose and to
treat. Young medical men who go straight from the
hospitals to practise in these districts undoubtedly fail
in many instmces to realise what these industrial
diseases are, and their experience, the experience of all
medical men in those diseases, is gained at the expense
of the patient. I do think that a great deal could be
done to improve the health conditions of coalminers,
and other workers too, if instruction were given at the
universities and medical schools in this important branch
of medical science. When one thinks of the tens of
thousands of pounds that have been expended in this
country upon tropical diseases (with very good results),
one cannot but realise how industrial diseases have been
neglected, and feel how imperative it is that this matter
should have greater attention, and that young men who
know that they are going to practise in these industrial
districts should have opportunities of making themselves
conversant with those diseases and conditions with
which they will be brought into daily contact.”

MACHINE-FIRING AT THE BEDWAS PIT.

In a recent paper an interesting account was given by
Mr. E. L. Hann, consulting engineer, of the sinking and
equipping of the Bedwas Colliery, situated at about
half-a-mile east of Bedwas Station. This colliery, when

I?

.■

r.-r

v.' ','av:

Lancashire Boilers, equipped with Bennis Stokers, at the
Bedwas Colliery.



completed, promises to be one of the best equipped in
the kingdom. Great care and attention were bestowed
on the fitting-up of the boiler-house. The position of
the boilers is immediately behind the boiler-house, and
they are covered by a roof of slate.

In addition to the water-tube boilers at this colliery,
there is a set of six Lancashire boilers. Each of these
boilers has a diameter of 8 ft. 6 in. and is 30 ft. long.
The corrugated flues, which are of the extended type,
have a diameter of 3 ft. 5 in. Efficient superheaters are
fitted to the boilers, the heat from the waste gases being
utilised by a large set of economisers. The draught is
induced by a fan at the base of the chimney.

It was in August 1912 that one Lancashire boiler was
fitted, by way of practical test, with the latest type of
“ Bennis ” gold medal sprinkler stoker and self-cleaning
compressed air furnace. The trial stoker on the

Lancashire boiler was installed under direct guarantee
to produce an over-all efficiency of 73 per cent., or an
efficiency, with boiler and superheater only, of 68 per
cent., and also to consume, if required, not less than
30 lb. of fuel per square foot of grate surface per hour.
Various tests were taken by the company’s engineer,
and as the guarantees were always fully performed,
Edward Bennis and Co. Limited, of Little Hulton,
Bolton, were favoured with further instructions to fit
up the remaining five Lancashire boilers with their
machines.

The fuel is fed to the hoppers by shoots leading from
overhead storage bunkers, which are loaded direct from
the opening at the bottom of the railway wagons. The
ashes are removed by means of a tray conveyor,
immediately into wagons, and thence to the ash tip.

We here give particulars of a test taken in the
presence of the engineer to the colliery company, and a
representative of Edward Bennis and Co. Limited on
October 2, 1913 :—

The Bedwas Navigation Colliery Company Limited.

System of Firing : Bennis stoker and self-cleaning
compressed air furnace.

No. of boilers ........................ 1

Type of boiler......................... Lancashire.

Size of boiler ........................ 8 ft. 6 in. x 30 ft.

Heating surface of each boiler ........ 1,084 sq. ft.

Grate surface of each boiler........... 41 sq. ft.

Nature of draught...................... Induced.

Temperature of feed-water entering
boiler ................................. 84 degs. Fahr.

Steam pressure by gauge................ 156 lb per sq. in.

Factor of equivalent evaporation as from

and at 212 degs. Fahr, (boiler and
superheater) ........................ 1’2935

Class of coal.......................... Fine slack.

Calorific value of coal per lb., as fired ... 11,149 B Th IT.

Coal burnt per ooiler per hour ........ 1,325'2 lb.

Coal burnt per sq. ft. grate surface
per hour ............................... 32 42 lb.

Total quantity of water evaporated .... 50,264 lb.

Water evaporated per boiler per hour ... 8,377 lb.

Water evaporated per sq. ft. boiler heating
surface per hour........................ 7'73 lb.

Water evaporated per lb. of coal....... 6 32 lb.

Total heat supplied to water per lb. of
coal ................................... 7896 7 B.Th.U.

Total equivalent evaporation .......... 65,018 lb.

Equivalent evaporation per boilerper hour 10,836 lb.

Equivalent evaporation per sq. ft. boiler
heating surface per hour ............... 10'0 lb.

Equivalent evaporation per lb. of coal. ...	8'176 lb:

Excluding
economiser.

Total thermal efficiency obtained ...... 70'83 per cent.



Summary of Results.

Coal burnt per sq. ft. grate surface

per hour ............................. 32'42	lb.

Water evaporated, asfromand at212degs.

Fahr, per sq. ft. boiler heating surface

per hour ............................ 10 01b.

Water evaporated as from and at 212 degs.

Fahr, per lb. of coal ............... 81761b.

Total thermal efficiency obtained ..... 70 83 per cent.

In conclusion, it seems desirable to add that “ Bennis ”
plant entails merely nominal and negligible cost for
repairs, while if the results of its operation be epitomised
in a sentence, it might run thus : “ Cheap steam without
smoke, under comfortable conditions.”

It is announced that the King and Queen will open the
Hull new joint dock on Friday, June 26 next. The dock is
the joint undertaking of the North-Eastern and the Hull and
Barnsley railway companies, and has been constructed at a
cost of two millions sterling.