May 8, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1017

Portable Steam Hoist, by Dunlop Bell,
cylinders 7in. by lOin. stroke, lift 4 tons direct off barrel, boiler
insured for 1001b. w.p., on wheels: smaller ditto, 6in. by 10in.; sale or hire.
—C. F. DAVIS, 18, Billiter-buildings, London, E.C.

or Sale, 200/250 New Specification ten-

ton WAGONS, for immediate delivery.—Apply, Bos 5658, Colliery

Guardian Office, 30 & 31, Furnival-street, Holborn, London, E.C.

TUBES & FITT^GS, IRON AND STEEL.
Tubes Cor Gas, Water, Steam, and Compressed Air.

Electric Tramway Poles, Pit Props, High. Pressure Steam Mains, &o>
JOHN SPEUGM LTD., Globe Tuba Works, Wednesettkt

J. W. BAIRD AND COMPANY

PITWOOD IMPOBTBES,

WEST HARTLEPOOL,

TRAB.LT COKTBACTS BNTHB.ED UNTO WITH COLLIXBIBB.

OSBECK & COMPANY LIMITED,

PIT-TIMBER MERCHANTS,

NBWOA8TLE-ON-TINE.

SUPPLY ALL KINDS OF COLLIERY TIMBER,.

TeLKGEAMS—*° OSBSOKa, NaWOABTLX-OK'-TYH-g!,”

*3* For other Miscellaneous Advertisements see Last Whiii
Page.

AND

Journal of tha Coal and Iron Trades.

Joint Editors—

J. V. ELSDEN, D.Sc. (Loud.), F.G.S.
HUBERT GREENWELL, F.S.S., Assoc.M.I.M.E.

LONDON, FRIDAY. NAY 8, 1914.

During April 5,445,728 tons of coal, coke and
manufactured fuel were exported from the United
Kingdom, of a value of £3,744,643, as compared
with 6,605,214 tons, valued at £4,670,153, in April
1913, and 1,527,508 tons, valued at £1,005,298, in
April 1912.

The total of exports for the first four completed
months of the year was 23,680,027 tons, valued at
£16,482,705, as against 24,633,615 tons, valued
at £17,026,192, and 14,651,035 tons, valued at
£9,175,088, in the corresponding periods respectively
of 1913 and 1912.

Lord Merthyr contradicts the rumour of his
resignation from his official association with the
Bute interests in Cardiff, to which reference is made
on page 1025 of this issue.

The London coal market shows no change with
regard to the demand for either household or manu-
facturing qualities. The market is very depressed
and prices are falling. Stocks are accumulating in
every direction.

On the Tyne, the prompt market has been alter-
nately active and quiet during the past week ; whilst
on the Wear it was fairly steady. Both in Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire there is an easy tone. In
Derbyshire, while most descriptions maintain their
strength, there has been a gradual weakening in the
demand for house coal. Quietness characterises the
Cardiff coal market, owing to restrictions of output.
The Scottish coal trade has been steady.

The formal proceedings in the case of the prosecu-
tion by the Home Office of the Lewis-Merthyr
Consolidated Collieries Limited, owners of the
Universal Colliery, Senghenydd, and of Mr. Shaw,
the manager, were opened at the Caerphilly Police-
court on Tuesday, and adjourned sine die. There are
21 indictments, four against the company and
17 against the manager.

The ninth annual conference of the Baltic and
White Sea shipowners was opened in London’on
Wednesday. Mr. W. I. Noble, in his presidential
address, dealt with the scheme for the lajdng-up of
freights.

The annual meeting of the National Association
of Colliery Managers will be held at Newcastle on
Thursday next.

In the King’s Bench on Wednesday the appeal of
Laws v. the Consett Iron Company, from the decision
of magistrates at Durham, was dismissed. The
company had succeeded in obtaining damages against
Laws and others for alleged breach of contract, and
the present case involved the right of the magistrates
to decide under the Employer and Workmen Act,
1875. The question as to*whether certain 1 i cavilling ’ ’
rules afforded protection to the men was also raised.

The Kailway and Canal Commissioners on Monday
gave judgment in the test cases brought by a number

of traders against the Great Eastern, Midland, and
London and North-Western railway companies
affecting railway rates to Manchester, Sheffield,
Liverpool, Swansea, Plymouth, York, &c. The
Commissioners decided in favour of the railway
companies.

The annual meeting of the Northumberland Miners’
Council commences on Saturday, 16th inst.

The Durham Coal Trade Conciliation Board has
decided that miners’ wages in the county shall be
reduced by 2| per cent.

Owing to the trade in house coal slackening in the
Dean Forest district, it has been decided to reduce
the price of fuel Is. a ton, and the wages of the men
5 per cent. The steam coal workmen also suffer the
same reduction.

A resolution demanding the nationalisation of
mines and minerals, introduced by Mr. ,E. Smillie,
was passed by the Scottish Trade Union Congress
last week.

The council of the South Wales Miners’Federation
will re-consider on Saturday the request of the
banksmen to hand in notices.

The miners on strike in the Ebbw Vale, some
6,000, have decided to return to work pending
negotiations. The dispute was due to the abnormal
places question and alleged breaches of the Minimum
Wage Act.

A meeting of the members of the Manchester
Geological and Mining Society will be held at
Queen’s Chambers, 5, John Dalton-street, Man-
chester, on Tuesday next, at 4 p.m., when the
following paper will be read :—“ Modern Develop-
ments in Hydraulic Stowing, and Suggestions for
Application of same in British Collieries,” by Mr. J.
Drummond Paton. The council will meet on the
same day at 3 p.m.

The report on the electricity supply
London’s of London, which has been prepared
Electricity for the London County Council by
Supply and Messrs. Merz and McLellan, is a
the Coal	voluminous and interesting docu-

Trade.	ment. If it is inconclusive, the

reasons may be sought for in the
complexity of the problem, from both an engineering
and a financial standpoint. At the present time
there are in the London area no less than 65 autho-
rities—apart from traction undertakings—supplying
electricity from 70 generating stations upon
49 different systems, and using as many as 585
engines. Many of these were designed for needs
that have outstripped them, and in these days, when
the economy of large units is fully recognised, the
disadvantage of employing separate units so low as
50-horse power must be obvious.

In seeking to put the house in order, however,
there are several points that must be duly considered.
In the first place, there is the question of proprietor-
ship, the appeasement of monopolies, and the safe-
guarding of public interests, with a keen memory
of Water Board finance ; this is a matter rather for
the politician and the accountant, and Messsrs. Merz
and McLellan wisely say very little about it. Once
again, there is the cost of the change ; two possible
ways of effecting important economies in the pro-
duction of electricity in London are considered:
(1) the extension of eight or 10 of the best existing
generating stations and the gradual abandonment
of the others; and (2) the gradual concentration of
production of electricity for all purposes on sites down
the river and well away from the centre of the city.
The latter alternative is approved, but it would mean
scrapping at least £8,000,000 worth of plant and
machinery, much of it good and efficient, and a
further initial outlay of from six to seven millions.

How is this large expenditure to be compensated
for ? Not by achieving ideals of mechanical efficiency,
for these do not always pay in practice. What is a
thing of beauty to the engineer, is not always a
constant joy to the shareholder or ratepayer. Having
discounted all the economies in production due to
centralisation, the lessened fuel cost, &c., it is
recognised that the development of the demand on
lines favourable to such an undertaking is essential.
This means an improvement of the diversity and

load factors, the importance of which Mr. Merz has
done more than anyone else in this country to
enunciate. But here we come to the very special
character of the problem as it affects London, which,
as the report observes, is “ the largest urban
community in the world.” London, however, whilst
its domestic needs are enormous, has no heavy
industries to fall back upon, high rents, rates and
wages having combined to banish all such enter-
prises from the Thames. Thus there is no analogy
to be derived from the power schemes that have been
so successfully developed in the North of England
and elsewhere; these have either had the advantage
of an abundance of power in the first instance, or the
custom of great industries working under a steady
load, which have themselves been able to contribute
their quota of prime energy ; so that both classes of
undertaking stand very much on the same footing.
It is fully realised to-day that the waste heat station
is a prime factor in the success of the North of
England scheme and some of those which have come
into being on the Continent.

The electricity supply of London can only be to
a small extent regenerative. Messrs. Merz and
McLellan apparently look for their improved load
factor to the domestic user ; they anticipate that there
will, in the near future, be a demand for current
equal to more than 20 times the present output of
the lighting undertakings, if the price charged for
current can be reduced to a sufficiently low figure,
the increase being derived mainly from the use of
cooking and heating appliances. The report here is
not very convincing ; it is not clear that this branch
of service would materially improve the existing load
factor, and it is very doubtful whether the public
will accept these amenities with enthusiasm. As the
Engineer remarks :

The use of the gas fire is by no means universal,
and it has made progress more by the enormous
exertions of the gas companies than by any spon-
taneous desire on the part of the public. But would
those who use it give it up readily for something
untried? We doubt it, unless the electricity supply
4i board,” or whatever it may be called, finds itself in
a position to sell current at a rate that would compete
with the equivalent price of gas, not as it now is, but
as it will be when threatened with competition.

For public lighting purposes, gas has before now
been 44 beaten to the world,” only to rise phoenix-like
from the ashes; and there is still much prejudice for
the open grate.

The matter is naturally one that affects the coal
trade. In 1912, 16,083,198 tons of coal were brought
to London (7,894,780 tons by rail, 29,686 tons by
canal, and 8,158,732 tons by sea), and owing to the
strike the total was some 1J million tons below the total
for 1911. If we include the whole of the riverside
area, the imports would be materially increased.
The realisation of this proj ect would, of course, make
very little difference to the coal trade in the long run,
for coal would still be necessary. It may be
observed that the authors of the report advocate that
the central generating station should be located a
long way down the river, chiefly because
of the lower cost of fuel. They have
even given consideration to the possibility of genera-
tion on the coalfields, and of locating the station near
the Kent coalfields. It is pointed out quite justly,
however, that there is a point at which increased
transmission costs absorb any saving in carriage,
except for loads at high-load factor. It is not quite
clear what type of generator is designed; when a
similar project was thrown out by Parliament some
years ago, the use of huge turbo-generators was
predicated, and the abundance of water to be
obtained from a site at Barking was urged as one of
the principal advantages of the scheme. Now, how-
ever, Messrs. Merz and McLellan speak of the
possibility of by-product recovery, which seems to
indicate the use of gas engines. Hitherto, however,
the employment of internal-combustion engines for
driving dynamos of high capacity has been beset
with many difficulties of a mechanical nature.

Without entering further into these rather inchoate
subjects, it may be remarked that in some ways the
scheme has very positive advantages. In these days
of general strikes, increased facilities for coal storage