May 8, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1027

Scotland.

Monarkite ” : Question in Parliament—Mining at the
H eriot-Watt	College—Ambulance Work in the

Lothians—Annual Meeting of Students' Federation—
Sunday Labour in the Mines.

In the House of Commons on April 30, Mr. Duncan Millar
asked the Home Secretary whether his attention had been
called to the fact that objection was being taken by the
miners to the use of the new explosive Monarkite, wThich is
being provided by some of the coal owners in Lanarkshire,
on the ground that a part of the charge nearly always
remains unexploded, and that it gives off unhealthy fumes;
whether he was aware that among the instructions issued
along with this explosive was one to the effect that after
every blast a careful examination should be made in case
any cartridge, or piece of cartridge, should remain unex-
ploded ; whether it was now provided under the new Begu-
lations issued under the Coal Mines Act, 1911, that no
explosives should be used in which part of the charge remains
unexploded; and whether, in these circumstances, he would
take steps to prevent the use of this particular explosive in
future until it complied with the new regulations. Mr.
McKenna, in reply, said the inspector in charge of the divi-
sion reported that, with the exception of an anonymous com-
plaint which did not mention any particular mine, no com-
plaints had been received in regard to this explosive, and
that at a recent inspection of a mine where it was in use in
the district from which the complaint came, it was found to
be working satisfactorily, and the men had no complaint to
make of it. No regulation to the effect suggested had been
issued under the Act, but no explosive was placed on the
permitted list until it had passed the prescribed tests at the
Home Office testing station and been found to explode in a
satisfactory manner. The explosive in question duly passed
these tests.

The distribution of class medals and prizes to students of
the Heriot-Watt College took place in the hall of George
Heriot’s School, Edinburgh, on Tuesday, the 28th ult. Lord
Provost Inches occupied the chair. The Lord Provost
referred to the new chemical laboratories, which he said were
spacious and well equipped to enable various kinds of
chemical work to be carried on. There was not only every
facility for the study of pure chemistry, but there was a
large space devoted to technical chemistry and also arrange-
ments for assaying and metallurgy. Another department
of the college which was showing progress was the depart-
ment of mining. Some little time ago the governors
approached the University Court, and suggested to them the
establishing of a degree in mining, as Edinburgh was
becoming more and more an important centre of the mining
industry. To this proposal the University Court had
assented, and the detailed scheme for a degree, in which the
teaching in mining would be carried on in the Heriot-Watt
College, was now being drafted. With a view to still
further meeting the requirements of this department, the
governors had set aside the Castle Brewery, which they pur-
chased in the Grassmarket, with a view to providing a
mining laboratory, and it only remained now for some
generous donor to come forward to assist the governors of
George Heriot’s Trust and the education department in find-
ing the money for a laboratory which would be devoted to
the subject of coal mining—a laboratory in which it was
proposed not only to carry on specialised scientific instruc-
tion, but to provide the special instruction now required by
the Home Office. Mr. Harrison said that for the extension
of the mining department a sum of £10,000 was required.

Under the auspices of the Lothians Mine Workers’
Ambulance League, of which Lord Murray of Elibank is
the hon. president, and in the presence of a large and repre-
sentative gathering, the final round of the second annual
competition took place on Saturday last. This year there
were 45 entries for the competition, which was decided in
the St. Cuthbert Parish Church Hall, King’s Stables-road,
Edinburgh, and for the final round the following eight teams
competed : Loanhead Colliery, Nos. I. and II. teams; Pres-
tonkirk Colliery, Nos. I. and II. teams; Boman Camp Shale
team, Armadale Colliery, Greenrigg Colliery, and Brox-
burn Shale team. The arrangements for the examina-
tion were carried out by Mr. Alexander Morrison, C.A.,
secretary of the Edinburgh Executive Committee of the St.
Andrew’s Ambulance Association; while the general arrange-
ments for the competition were under the care of the execu-
tive committee, of which Mr. H. J. Humphrys, H.M.
inspector of mines, is honorary secretary. The result was
that Preston Links Colliery team No. I. won the shield with
297 marks out of a possible 300, Preston Links Colliery team
No. II. coming second with 252 marks. In addition to the
shield there are eight sets of gold and silver badges pre-
sented by the league. At the subsequent proceedings,
presided over by Air. AValker, who intimated that apologies
for absence had been received from Lord Strathclyde, Sir
Jarvaine Baillie, Mr. B. A. Muir, and Mr. B. G. M.
Prichard, the shield and the badges were presented to the
respective winners by Lord Murray of Elibank. His lord-
ship referred in terms of warm appreciation to the splendid
way in which Mr. AValker, divisional inspector of mines for
Scotland, and Mr. Humphrys, inspector of mines, looked
after the affairs of the league. He went on to say how
glad he was to hear that negotiations were taking place with
the view to organising a national ambulance competition for
Scottish mines, and he hinted that there was even the sug-
gestion of having an international competition.

Presiding at the half-yearly meeting of the Dunfermline
Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Thomson Smith, coal master,
remarked, with regard to the coal trade, that the shipments
from Scotland were something like 300,000 tons down as com-
pared with the last three months of 1913, the decrease in
Eife alone being 150,000 tons. Legislation had been very
heavy on the mining industry during the last few years, and
it was causing the coal masters to feel the bite keenly. The
Coal Mines Act of 1911, in particular, was telling very
heavily against profits, which at the moment were almost
infinitesimal. Something would have to be done to keep a
hold of the coal trade of the country. Becently they had
lost more than one order of considerable size to Germany. It
was to be hoped those responsible for the present industrial
unrest would realise that there was a line to go beyond which
spelt suicide.

The Federated Institute of Scottish Alining Students held
their annual meeting at Cowdenbeath on Saturday, and were
hospitably entertained by the Fife Coal Company Limited.
In the course of the day visits were paid to the Aitken and
Mary pits of the Fife Coal Company, while opportunity was
taken to inspect the Fife Alining School in Cowdenbeath and
the -splendidly equipped mining rescue station immediately

Immingham Coal Exports. — During the week ended
Friday, May 1, the exports of coal from Immingham, as
shown by the official returns, totalled 11,268 tons foreign
and 3,520 tons coastal, as compared with 29,500 and
8,310 respectively during the corresponding week last
year. The individual shipments were :—Foreign : To Fred-
rikshald, 1,279 tons; Hamburg, 3,931; Harlingen, 773; Oxe-
losund, 1,643; Biga, 2,797; and Sondersborg, 845. Coastal :
To London, 2,020; and Portsmouth, 1,500 tons.

The Illumination Test for Gas. — During the past few
days a Committee of the House of Lords, of which Lord
Clinton is chairman, has had to consider the question of
the illumination test to which gas companies are at present
subject. The London Gas Light and Coke Company in a
Bill asked that this test should be abolished, and that the
calorific test alone should be applied. This was opposed by
the London County Council and other local authorities, who
asked that though the penalties might be abolished the
illumination test itself should be retained for the purposes
of information. The committee, adopting this view,
decided to abolish the penalties and to retain the test. They
recommended further that under the calorific standard gas
should have a value of 540 British thermal units gross, with
an allowance of 7j- per cent, for lapses or errors.—On Friday
consideration was commenced on the Bill of the Liverpool
United Gas Light Company, which also desires to substi-
tute a calorific standard for an illuminating standard. They
further desire that the company be freed from liability for
sulphur impurities other than sulphuretted hydrogen. Mr.
Lloyd, for the promoters, said the committee’s decision on
a calorific standard given on the Gas Light and Coke Com-
pnay’s Bill would clear a great deal of the ground, for,
although it differed in many respects from the Gas Light
Company’s Bill, he did not ask the committee to go behind
their decision as to the gas standard. In olden days the
great object was to have a high illuminating power, but
that no longer was desired. No other place in the country
was required to give gas of 20-candle power measured by
the No. 2 burner. Edinburgh once did, but it was reduced
to 14-candle power, and there were places where it was as
low as 12-candle power. The Liverpool standard involved
the use at great cost of cannel coal, of oil, etc., and all this
really fell on the consumers. In regard to the clause for
the substitution of the calorific standard for the prescribed
illuminating power, they were prepared to accept the decision
of the committee in the case of the Gas Light and Coke Com-
pany’s Bill, which provided for a calorific standard of 540
British thermal units, with 7J per cent, reduction. If their
lordships allowed the Liverpool company to have the same
calorific standard as the Gas Light and Coke Company, that
would be equivalent to changing the Liverpool statutory
illuminating standard from 20 to 14-candle power, which
would really meet the needs of consumers. An agreement
was reached on Tuesday, by which there will be a new
calorific standard of 550 British thermal units, with a
margin of 5 per cent.

adjoining. At the rescue station interest was aroused in a
new device designed by Mr. Joseph Parker, B.Sc., Principal
of the Fife Mining School, for adjusting the supply of
oxygen as desired, and in a new smoke helmet designed by
Capt. Stevenson, of the Fife Mining Bescue Corps. In the
course of the day Mr. C. C. Beid, Cowdenbeath, addressed
the students on mining problems. They all knew, he said,
that the seams near the surface throughout Scotland were
gradually being exhausted, and that the mining of the future
must be conducted at greater depths. The upper seams
which remained were all of thinner section. Indeed, seams
which were being worked were only 15 in. thick, and if
mining operations were to be continued in some districts they
would have to work even thinner seams than these. These
problems called for greater ingenuity on the part of future
colliery managers, as at the greater depths most of the
present conditions would be changed. They would have to
face the perplexing problems of roof pressures and occluded
gases. . How were they going to meet them? In recent
years it was true they had introduced machinery to assist
in production, but that had been carried out at enormous
cost, and besides if they installed machinery they must have
men to work the machines. Conveyors and coal cutters were
now used in the mines, but, as they were well aware, with
only a limited amount of success. Indeed, conveyors were
not successful on the whole in Scotland, and he believed that
was due to imperfect organisation. These, he maintained,
were problems which mining students who hoped to be the
managers of the future should not hesitate to grapple with.

Hamilton Established Presbytery are anxious, if possible,
to reduce to a minimum the amount of Sunday labour in
mines within the bounds. With that object in view they
propose holding conferences with the masters and men for the
purpose of eliciting the facts, and to secure, by means of a
re-arrangement of shifts, or whatever'way may be deemed
best, a curtailment of Sunday labour. It is also proposed
to consider the necessity of amending some of the recent
legislation which is said to increase Sunday work.

In Stirling Sheriff Court on Friday, Peter Harvey, wind-
ing engineman, Denny,was charged with a contravention of
the Coal Mines Act, by having left the handles of his
engine, contrary to the regulations, while winding in No. 3
Herbertshire Colliery, Denny, on March 31. It was
explained by the Fiscal that on the day in question accused
left his engine while a cage was rising and went to a
controller situated about 30 yards away, the result being
that the reverse lever came up. A modified fine of 20s. was
imposed.

Ireland.

At a recent meeting of the Castlecomer Board of Guardians
a letter was read from the proprietor of the coalfields in that
district complaining of the insufficient supply of labour avail-
able for the proper development of the Firada mines, of
which he possesses the colliery rights. It is stated that
Irish coal from Castlecomer is to be largely used in a new
paper-making industry recently opened at Clondalkin, in
county Dublin.

MINING AND OTHER NOTES.

The annual dinner of the Concrete Institute will be held at
the Connaught Booms, Great Queen-street, Kingsway,
London, AV.C., on Thursday, May 28, at 8 o’clock precisely.
The 50th ordinary general meeting will be held at Denison
House, 296, Vauxhall Bridge-road, Westminster, S.W. (close
to Victoria Station), on Thursday, May 14, at 7.30 p.m.,
when Air. John A. Davenport, M.Sc. (Viet.), B. Eng.
(L’pool), Assoc. M. Inst. C.E., A.M.I. Meeh E., M.C.I., and
Prof. S. W. Perrott, M.A.I. (Dubl.), M. Inst. C.E., M.C.I.,
Professor of Engineering at Liverpool University, will read
a paper entitled “ Sand and Coarse Material and Proportion-
ing Concrete.”

The arrangements of the Junior Institution of Engineers
for May include the following May 15, at 39, Victoria-
street, 8 p.m., lecturette by Mr. W. AC Treeby on “ A Few
Notes on the Design of Surface Condensing Plant.” May
16, North-Western Section, ramble round Buxton. Alay 18,
meeting at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Victoria-
embankment, 8 p.m., paper on “ Static Transformers : the
Design and Application,” by F. B. Peters (Durham Bursar,
1912-13). May 21, North-AVestern Section, meeting at Java
Cafe, 26, Corporation-street, Manchester, 7.45 p.m. ; paper
on “ Pattern Making,” by T. B. Schofield. May 29, last
Friday evening gathering at 39, Victoria-street, for present
session.

The Home Office have issued a circular letter to collieries
engaged in sinking, calling special attention to Mr. W.
Walker’s report on the accident at Bufford Colliery in
February 1913, and to the recommendations contained
therein. Mr. AValker, it will be remembered, made recom-
mendations in regard to the factor of safety for ropes, chains,
hooks, etc., used for winding; the use of “ D ” links, or
double hooks, in preference to “ clivvies ” when water is
being raised; the design of “ clivvies ”; the provision and
protection of ladders; the use of overwinding appliances
when the shaft reaches a depth of 100 yds.; the voltage and
protection of electric lamps; the provision of duplicate wind-
ing engines, that, in the event of the first engine for any
reason becoming unavailable, persons may still be reached
and raised to the surface; and the provision of “ kep ” beams
in the headgear. On two points the recommendations are
covered by statutory requirements in the Act or Begulations.
As regards the others, Begulations have not so far been made
under the Act to require compliance with the recommenda-
tions, but the Under-Secretary desires owners to give them
careful consideration, and adopt them as far as practicable.

Messrs. Hurst, Nelson and Company Limited ask us, in
view of erroneous reports having been circulated with regard
to the extent of the destruction caused by the fire at the
Glasgow Bolling Stock and Plant Works, Motherwell, on
April 27, to let it be known that the fire was confined almost
entirely to the carriage-building shops, and that temporary
arrangements are being made to carry on car and carriage
work until the buildings destroyed bv fire are rebuilt.

As already mentioned in the Colliery Guardian, the Mining
Association of Great Britain is endeavouring this session to
get special protective clauses inserted in individual private
Bills in order to modify the effect of the recent Howley Park
decision. In the case of the Mansfield Bailway Bill, which
came before a House of Lords Select Committee last week,
the Mining Association asked for clauses enlarging the pre-
scribed limit in respect of lands required for a new railway,
and also depriving the railway company of all compensation
in respect of injury outside such enlarged limit. The
enlargement of the limit was agreed to, but the Committee
refused to alter the general law as to compensation. It was
stated in evidence that a similar point would be raised on
the Midland and the Great Western Bills.

Mr. Frederick Brittain, of Sheffield, Yorkshire, senior
partner in the firm of Brittain and Company, steel and file
manufacturers, who died January 24 last, aged 78 years,
left estate of the gross value of £17,575, of which £12,017
is net personalty.

At the Boyal Institute of Public Health, Bussell-square,
AV.C., a course of lectures on “ Industrial Hygiene ” is to
be given shortly by Prof. Sir Thomas Oliver, M.A., M.D.,
LL.D., F.B.C.P., F.B.S.Ed., Prof, of Medicine in the
University of Durham College of Medicine (Newcastle-upon-
Tyne). The first lecture on Wednesday, May 27, will deal
with the rise and progress of factory legislation; the second
on Thursday, May 28, with various injurious occupations,
and the effects of fumes, dust, and gas; Lecture No. 3 on
Wednesday, June 10, will be devoted to coal mining and its
risks to life and health; Lecture No. 4 on Thursday, June
11, to gold mining and diseases of the lungs; Lecture No. 5
on Wednesday, July 8, to ankylostomiasis; whilst the sub-
ject of the final lecture on Thursday, July 9, will be on
“ The Passing of great Industries, or how dangerous trades
have been rendered comparatively harmless occupations.” A
fee will be charged for the course of one guinea. The lec-
tures will be delivered in the lecture-room of the institute at
5 p.m.

A series of experiments has been carried out lately by
Prof, von Pfungen, of Vienna, on the variations of skin resis-
tance to the passage of electric currents through the human
body. Prof, von Pfungen has been able to prove that habits
of strict sobriety appreciably lessen the danger of a fatal
injury. A galvanometer of great sensitiveness was employed
to record the variations in resistance, the current passing
through the body of the subject from one hand to the other.
Bepeated experiments proved conclusively that nervous
excitement of any kind lowered the protective power of the
skin to a remarkable extent, while in cases of acute hysteria
the resistance was reduced to a minimum.

The directors of the Great Northern Bailway have pur-
chased five or six acres of land about a mile to the south of
their station at Hitchin, for the erection of offices for part
of the head office staff. Engine works and repairing sheds
are also to be set up. When these are finished the intention
is to transfer the carriage works from Peterborough to
Hitchin.

Grimsby Coal Exports. — The exports of coal from
Grimsby during the week ended Friday, May 1, as shown
by the official returns, were as follow :—Foreign : To
Dieppe, 350 tons; Esbjerg, 277; Gefle, 1,486; Gothenburg,
2,160; Kallundborg, 201; Alalmo, 298; Bouen, 1,280; Stav-
anger, 635; Trelleborg, 1,971; and Ystad, 4,384—total,
13,042. Coastal: To London, 97 tons; and Southwold,
133—total, 230 tons. During the corresponding week last
year the totals were 32,555 tons foreign, and 985 tons coastal.