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THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

Mai ch 20, 1914.

Notes from the Coalfields.

[Local Correspondence.]

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

Glamorgan Council and Colliery Assessments—Merthyr
Union to engage an Expert Valuer—Mining Instruc-
tion in Monmonthshire: a Protest—Re-opening a
Rhipnney Pit—Permitted Explosives : Anthracite
Men and the Home Office—The Prospect at Sen-
ghenydd—Systematic Testing of Shackles—Mineral
Railway Bills Blocked—Rhymney Company’s New
Offices—Water Supply in the Coalfield. -

Mr. J. J. Smith, chairman of North’s Navigation
Collieries (1889) Limited, presiding at the twenty-sixth
ordinary general meeting, commented upon the outlay
which had been incurred in order to fulfil the require-
ments of the new Coal Mines Act, 1911, which necessi-
tated the fitting of the winding engines with appliances
for the prevention of overwinding accidents and exten-
sive alterations in connection with the new regulations
for ventilation of the collieries. Other measures which
the Government had introduced had also added to the
cost of working. The National Insurance Act cost the
company £3,582 during the year, in addition to £7,652
paid under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, whilst
local rates absorbed £14,190. The output of the collieries
for the year was 1,194,514 tons, being an increase of
109,800 tons over the previous year. In order to ascer-
tain the extent of valuable seams of coal believed to
exist under the company’s freehold properties, the
directors have sanctioned the expenditure of a small
amount in order to prove these. The progress at St.
John’s pits has not yet fulfilled the hopes and expecta-
tion of the board, the difficulties met with taking a
longer time to surmount than was anticipated. The
electrification of the collieries was now complete, with
the exception of providing some duplicate parts to avoid
interruption of work in case of accidents or breakdowns.
The rescue station was also complete. Notwithstanding
the high level of wages, there was, said the chairman, a
good deal of unrest among the men, the demand for a
minimum wage for surface workers being one of the
claims put forward. Whatever might be said in favour of
the principle of a minimum wage, there is certainly no
reason why this should be extended to colliery surface-
men as distinct from men working above ground in other
industrial enterprises.

The Glamorgan Council have approved a recommen-
dation that the assessment committees of the various
unions in the county be invited to a conference upon
the principles of rating ; and it is probable that when
the gathering takes place the different tonnage weights
adopted as a basis of assessing collieries will be con-
sidered, the Neath committee having raised this point.
There has been a general rise in the assessments ; and
one penny rate willl yield £15,505 as compared with
£14,445 previously. It was urged that the Local
Government Board should be asked to introduce a Bill
for securing uniformity of valuation, one case being
cited where houses in one street but different unions,
though of the same rental, were assessed in one case at
£11 15s. and in the other at £6 10s.

The assessment question at Merthyr continues to be
a subject of very keen discussion, it having come before
the Board of Guardians on Saturday last, upon the
proposal that the Board would sanction the Assessment
Committee’s engagement of a valuer to revalue the
colliery properties in the Union. The chairman of the
Assessment Committee, in submitting the motion, stated
that there had been a good ’ deal of agitation on the
subject, and the committee first thought of revaluing
all the colliery properties, but eventually decided
to adopt the principle of a sliding scale, on the
lines of tbe agreement operating at Pontypridd. The
colliery owners, however, who were invited to a con-
ference, declined to accept that principle, pointing out that
since that agreement was drawn up in 1903 there had
been legislation and other causes seriously affecting the
cost of production, and they stated that their industry
was not now in a position to bear any extra burdens.
This being so, the Assessment Committee had decided,
instead of dealing with the matter as a whole, to take it
piecemeal with the aid of an expert; their only desire
being that the assessments should be fair and
equitable, capable of being sustained in a court of law,
if necessary.

The position of affairs was extremely serious, he
added, for a feeling had grown up that all was not well
in regard to the valuation of colliery property.
Inequalities of a very serious kind existed in the
union, and they ought not to take a single step without
being properly advised, for unless they were careful
they might stop the working of the older properties.

During the discussion it was suggested that Merthyr
Union should invite Pontypridd and Bedwellty unions
to co-operate with them. One speaker stated that tbe
Pontypridd Union had been negotiating for 18 months
in order to get a higher basis than they now had. It
was stated that no change in assessment has taken place
in the last 15 years.—The proposal was sanctioned.

It has been decided to convene a conference of the
miners of Monmouthshire in order to make a protest
against the action of the County Council in regard to
mining instruction. At a meeting in Ebbw Vale on
Saturday, it was stated that whilst the Monmouthshire
Council paid only one mining lecturer, there were in
Glamorgan 15 lecturers in. the different branches of
mining. As a matter of fact, Glamorgan has not so
many lecturers as stated, but it has assistant teachers to
that number ; and the contrast between the two counties
is striking, seeing the great and growing importance of
Monmouthshire in respect of mining.

Rhymney Iron Company have been reopening the old
Mardy Pit at Rhymney, and have reached the Pour-feet
seam. It is understood that the colliery will be fully
equipped in up-to-date style, electricity being utilised ;
and that a renewed lease of prosperity is in sight for the
old town.

On behalf of the Home Secretary, Mr. Redmayne,
H.M. Chief Inspector, received at the Home Office, on
Saturday, a deputation from the anthracite miners.
Mr. J. James (miners’ agent), with Mr. Lewis Price
(Pantyfynnon), submitted the men’s request for reten-
tion of certain kinds of explosives upon the permitted
list in coal and rock; and also made objection to the
Order which compels workmen to carry out unused
explosives at the end of each shift. They also impressed
upon the inspector a demand compelling colliery owners
to provide, store, and distribute all explosives used in
mines free of cost to the miners. Mr. Redmayne, in
regard to the latter demand, stated that this could be
done only by new legislation, and not by Home Office
regulation. With regard to the other matters, the
representations made will be submitted to Mr. McKenna.

With regard to Senghenydd Colliery, the scene of the
great explosion, Mr. Hubert Jenkins (tbe men’s agent)
stated to a meeting of miners, on Monday, that he had
made enquiry as to what was being done in regard to
exploring the main west level, now bashed in, and where
it was thought the fire might be still smouldering. He
had been informed that before any bashing was inter-
fered with, stone walls would be erected on the sides of
the main headings adjacent to the enclosed area; con-
crete would be put into the roof; the whole of the
timber extracted, and all the cavities filled up. He was
quite satisfied that the management were taking the
utmost precautions.

Eight men are reported to have had a narrow escape
in Broadoak Colliery, Gorseinon, when a sudden inrush
of water occurred in part of the lower workings.
A pony was drowned. Operations continue in the
upper workings.

The Western Valleys miners are urging the Federation
executive to secure a systematic testing of shackles
throughout the coalfield.

A feature in Parliamentary proceedings during the
past week or two has been the blocking of local railway
Bills by South Wales members who wished to secure
better service for their constituents—by workmen’s
trains, improved stations, new “ halts,” &c. This
effective weapon of the “ block ” seems to have been
very freely resorted to, and in a number of cases
material concession to the demands has had to be made.

Northumberland and Durham,

An Up-to-date Rescue Station—Mr. Bzirt’s Illness—The
Coke Industry.

Recently we commented upon the fact that the South
Moor Collieries Company and the Hedley Group of
Collieries had more than fulfilled the requirements of
the Mines Act.

The rescue station is situated at Hustledown, right in
the centre of the collieries owned by the company. It
consists of a motor garage, pump-room, apparatus
room, and large room for the storage of instruments,
stores, &c. Directly attached are the bathrooms,
lecture-room and fire-station. A fan-house is connected
to the gas chamber and gas-testing rooms. Adjoining
is the superintendent’s seven - roomed house. The
station is thoroughly equipped with 15 complete sets of
oxygen rescue apparatus of the Meco type, which can be
worn either with helmets or mouthpieces; nine oxygen
revivers ; electric hand - lamps ; and an electrically
driven oxygen pump. The whole of the buildings are
illuminated and heated by electricity. Other apparatus
includes a small Sirocco fan, an Oldham gas-tester and
apparatus for measuring and testing gas samples.

It is pleasing to note that no less than 80 men have
now been completely trained, and another batch is being
trained by Mr. Thomas Makepeace, the superintendent.
Besides being a rescue station, the building is peculiarly
well adapted for theoretical and practical instruction in
all branches of mining work and will, no doubt, be a
great boon to men sitting for certificates. A splendid
system of electric signals, bells and telephones connect
all the mines with the station. A striking feature of
the affair is that practically the whole of the collieries
are worked with naked lights, and thus the Collieries
Company might well have been excused had they not
gone to such enormous expense.

Last Friday night Mr. G. H. Raine, late fore-overman,
Gordon House Colliery, Even wood, was presented with
a beautiful marble timepiece and a pair of handsome
bronze ornaments on the occasion of his leaving the
colliery to take up the position of managing director of
the Raby Park Colliery. Mrs. Raine was at the same
time presented with a gold brooch.

A Backworth shifter named William H. Thompson
was prosecuted at Whitley Bay recently on a charge of
having been in front of a tub on a gradient of more
than 1 in 12. The evidence showed that the defendant
was sending a full tub down an incline, and was assisted
by a putter. He got in front of the tub to ease the
sprag when the tub got amain and ran to the bottom of
the incline, smashing two tubs and breaking a man’s
leg. The defendant was fined 20s. and 12s. 6d. costs.

Mr. R. Dawson, engineer at Barrington Colliery, one
of the Bedlington Coal Company’s pits, has been
presented with a purse of gold and a silver-mounted
walking stick suitably inscribed, on the occasion of his
retirement after 46 years’ service.

There is a good list of entries for the annual compe-
titions in connection with the Durham Mines Inspection

District Ambulance League this year. The following is
a list:—Ayton, Blackball (2), Black Prince, Bowden
Close, Cornsay, Dean and Chapter (2), Easington (3),
East Hetton, Eppleton (2), Frosterley, Hamsterley,
Houghton (2), Kimblesworth, Leasingthorne (3), Mains-
forth, Malton, Murton, New Brancepeth (2), . New
Herrington, North Skelton (2), Pelton (2), Sacriston,
Seaham (2), Sherburn Hill, Shi]don, Shotton (2), Silks-
worth (2), South Brancepeth, South Moor (4), South
Skelton, Upleatham, Ushaw Moor, Waterhouses,
Wingate (2) and Wooley.

At a presentation to Mr. Wm. Foster, late engineer
of the Shotton Colliery and now engineer of the
Easington Colliery, it was stated that during the
10| years Mr. Foster was at the Shotton Colliery the
daily output had risen from 550 to 2,200 tons.

Most of the workmen who were given a fortnight’s
notice at the Thistleflatt Colliery have been reinstated,
and those who have not yet found employment will
probably do so when the extensions to the firm’s brick-
yard are completed.

Mr. R. A. Howe, who has recently been appointed
manager of Messrs. Strakers and Love’s Brancepeth and
Oakenshaw collieries, is very popular in that district
already. He was appointed in succession to Mr. G.
Nelson, who is now at Brandon under the same firm.
Mr. Howe is a son of the late Rev. M. Howe, for many
years vicar of Howden-le-Wear, and married a daughter
of the Rev. A. L. Humphreys, vicar of Thornley. His
apprenticeship as a mining engineer was served at
Brancepeth, after which he was manager of Willington
Colliery.

We are pleased to learn that the Right Hon. Thomas
Burt, M.P., who last week completed his fortieth year
as a member of the House of Commons, is now conva-
lescent from his recent serious illness.

It is announced that Messrs. Pease and Partners are
shortly to lay down large plants in South Durham for
the extraction of sulphuric acid and other valuable
by-products from the coal which are lost in smoke by
the old beehive methods of coking. All over Durham,
county these huge by-product coke ovens are to be found
nowadays. At Consett, such a venture by the Consett
Iron Company has been peculiarly successful, for they
have erected their Otto ovens very near their large iron-
works and by the side of their own railways. So well
has the supply of coke been maintained for the con-
sumption of the huge furnaces, and so well has the
chemical side of the enterprise turned out, that the
Consett Iron Company have added a second range of
ovens to those originally laid down. One great difference
between the two sets is the vast amount of labour saved
at the new range. After the oven is “ rammed ” and
cleaned, the coke falls upon an incline of flat sheets, and
by its own weight slides down to the conveyors, and is
eventually filled into trucks without being handled. At
the old plant men are employed at the face of the ovens
cooling and filling the coke into barrows, and other men
wheel them to the trucks. Messrs. Bolckow, Vaughan
and Messrs. Strakers and Love have also been very
successful in wresting the by-products from coal during
the process of coking. One of the most valuable
products is an expensive fertiliser, which is shipped in
large quantities to Japan. The growing motor trade
offers a large field for the sale of benzine. Messrs.
Bolckow, Vaughan, indeed, claim to have produced a
very refined spirit for motor engines.

At Brandon Colliery, Mr. J. W. Taylor, M.P., made a
presentation to Mr. J. Bell, one of the oldest mechanics
of Messrs. Strakers and Love, who is retiring after many
years’ service under that firm.

Cleveland.

A New Coal Washery at the Clarence Ironworks.

A coal washery, incorporating many interesting con-
structional features, has recently been contracted for
the Clarencce Ironworks, Middlesbrough, of Messrs.
Bell Brothers Limited. The structural portion below
the eaves gutter level is to be built entirely of reinforced
concrete, and the roof, frames for screen and floor for
the shafting are to be carried by steel framing. The
whole of the framing is of a somewhat complicated
character. The machinery which will be used will be of
great variety in size, type and weight, many of the
machines being very heavy, and some of them producing
heavy vibrations, and economical operations demanded
that the machines should be so disposed that the coal
should be worked by gravity from one operation to the
next. The bucket elevators and other transporting
appliances will be of minimum length. The dressing
plant will have a capacity of 70 tons of coal per hour,
and it is the intention to produce from the raw coal
sizes ranging from 0 to 120 millimetres, suitable for
coking with 6T contents of ashes, and sizes from 0 to
10 millimetres, of which 45 per cent, will be less than
2 mm. In this installation there will be a coal-washing
plant with a charging pit for the raw coal, a breaking
plant, and drainage and storage bunkers for the
washed coal, a crushing plant, and a storage tower for
the finished coking coal in close proximity to the
coke ovens. In the washing plant the raw coal up
to 40 to 50 millimetres, elevated from the raw coal
supply pit, will be broken and washed in fine-grain
sifting machines. This pure mixture of coal and water
will flow into the drainage bunkers having 3,000 tons
capacity, divided into 20 cells of 150 tons each.
Arranged at the top of the bunkers will be overflow
channels, and inside each cell there will be two specially
constructed vertical draining columns, designed to
accelerate the draining of the wet coal. The flow from
the former and latter goes into the settling tank and
sumps respectively for re-use, or may be let off to waste.
The bottom of the bunkers wifi have heavy cast iron