June 19, 1914.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

I4U

Extensions are contemplated at Lord Vernon’s Boynton
Collieries, and drifting operations are being undertaken.
Chain coal cutters have recently been introduced to work a
thin seam of coal, for which there is an excellent demand
for locomotive purposes.

Notts and Derbyshire.

Forthcoming Royal Visit.

During the visit of the King and Queen to Nottingham-
shire and Derbyshire on June 24 and 25, several persons
connected with the mining industry will be presented to
• their Majesties. The Boy al party will motor through Wel-
beck, Creswell, and Clown. At the latter place representa-
tives of the Derbyshire Miners’ Association, viz., Mr.
Barnet Kenyon, M.P., Mr. Erank Hall, Mr. James Martin,
and Mr. William Sewell, will be presented to the King and
Queen. The party will then proceed to Bolsover and Mans-
field, where Sir Arthur Markham, M.P., will be presented.
At the Crown Earm colliery village directors of the Bolsover
Colliery Company—Mr. B. M. Knowles, Mr. J. P. Houfton,
and Mr. W. H. Carter—and representatives of the Notts
Miners’ Association—Mr. J. G-. Hancock, M.P., Mr. C.
Bunfield, Mr. W. Carter, and Mr. L. Spencer—will be
presented.

The Hucknall Colliery Company’s new colliery near Wel-
beck is making rapid headway. One shaft is down about
400 yds., and coal is anticipated at a depth of 630 yds. The
engine houses, fitting shops, offices, etc., are practically com-
plete. Two hundred sinkers are employed, and it is
expected that coal will be turned in about four months’
time.

Mr. Erank Hancock, a former student of the Nottingham
University College, and at present a lecturer in mining at
the college, has been appointed manager of an important
colliery owned by Messrs. Cammell, Laird and Company
in South Wales. Mr. Hancock, who is to be succeeded by
Mr. J. G. Garrett, of the Wigan Mining and Technical
College, is the eldest son of Mr. J. G. Hancock, M.P., agent
of the Notts Miners’ Association.

Mr. J. W. Harris, B.Sc., A.I.C., a student of the Notting-
ham University College, and lately research assistant to
Prof. Kipping, has been appointed chemist to the Shire-
brook Colliery Company, Notts.

The Midlands.

Higher Education in the Goalfields — New Colliery at
Overseal.

In connection with the North Staffordshire Miners’
Higher Education Movement, the object of which is to
broaden the knowledge of the men living in the villages of
the local coalfield, the third annual meeting was held on
Saturday at the Mining School, Stoke-on-Trent, under the
presidency of Mr. J. T. Stobbs. Mr. E. S. Cartwright, one
of the joint secretaries, submitted the report, showing an
extension of the work in the year 1913-14, the 21 centres of
the previous year having increased to 24. It had been
intended to avoid any further extension of the work during
1913-14, but the demands for classes had been so urgent that
they could not be overlooked. The movement was now at
work not only in the mining villages, but also in the
Pottery towns, and, since the past year, in purely rural
centres. At the 24 centres courses of lectures ranging from
six to 24 per course were given, and the subjects comprised
historical, industrial, economic, and literary matters. In
addition educational addresses were given by Oxford lec-
turers. There were over 300 in average attendance, an
increase of 30 on the previous year. In some classes there
was great variation in attendance, owing to the fact that some
students worked on the two-shift and others on the three-
shift system. The work of the session had been very satis-
factory. Commenting on the difficulties of the movement,
the secretary said many of the students found that their
educational gap of 10 or 12 years had made even the reading
of a serious book a very slow and laborious matter, and the
writing of essays an almost insuperable barrier. Mr.
Jenkins, librarian, reported that the movement possessed
500 books of its own and had the loan of 100. The state-
ment of accounts showed that the expenditure was only £46
11s. 8d., or less than £2 a centre. Mr. Cartwright remarked
that it was the cheapest educational work that was being
done. Officers were elected, including Mr. J. T. Stobbs as
president, Mr. Herbert Owen as treasurer, and Messrs. E.
S. Cartwright, G. Addison, and G. Payne as joint secre-
taries.

An excursion to the Colliery and Mining Exhibition at
Manchester was on Monday made by over 40 members of
the North Staffordshire Institute of Mining and Mechanical
Engineers and the North Stafford branch of the National
Association of Colliery Managers. Among those attending
were Messrs. E. B. Wain, A. M. Henshaw, J. B. L. Allott,
and W. Saint.

It is announced that the Moira Colliery Company are
opening a new colliery in the Overseal district, and it is
expected that 400 additional men will shortly be employed.
Already a number of men have been imported from Shrop-
shire into the district, but the housing problem is rather
acute, no new cottages being built, whilst numbers of the
old ones have been closed as unsatisfactory.

Kent.

Harbour for Birchington—Sinking at Westbere Court.

It is stated the South-Eastern and Chatham Bailway have
placed a large order with the Snowdown Colliery for Beres-
ford coal. The output at Snowdown Colliery is on the
increase, and last week there was a record output of 1,100
tons, the previous best having been 950 tons, and the coal
is commanding a good price. The working of the coal is
now being done in two shifts, instead of one shift as here-
tofore.

With reference to the projected harbour on the Thanet
coast, it is now stated that the site selected is in the vicinity
of Birchington. According to the latest information, the
syndicate of influential men in connection with this project
have purchased 500 acres of land and foreshore between
Birchington and Sarre. The scheme has the support of the
various colliery companies and syndicates, as well as the
South-Eastern and Chatham Bailway, the idea being to con-
nect up the whole of the coalfield with the new Thanet coal
harbour. This is further emphasised by the fact that the
East Kent Light Bailways Company are seeking further
powers for the construction of four new lines. The first

will run from a point on the existing authorised system at
Wickhambreaux parish, in a north-easterly direction along
the bank of the Little Stour Biver, and then turning north
through Chislet parish (crossing the South-Eastern Bail-
way’s Ashford-Canterbury-Bamsgate branch and the Kent
Coast branch of the London Chatham and Dover Bailway)
into the parish of St. Nicholas-at-Wade, ending half a mile
from Coldharbour sluice. The second spur will leave the
first in Chislet parish westwards to join up with the South-
Eastern Bailway’s Ashford-Canterbury-Bamsgate branch;
the third will run from the first at St. Nicholas-at-Wade
eastwards, through Chislet parish, to a junction with the
Kent coal line of the London Chatham and Dover Bailway
on Twelve Eoot dyke; and the fourth will leave the first in
Chislet parish, and run west to join the Kent coast (London
Chatham and Dover Bailway) near Twelve Eoot dyke. It
will be seen by the above that the railways are all in the
neighbourhood of the proposed harbour, and that the lines
connect up the whole system. The order also asks for
power to construct or purchase wharves, quays, etc., adjoin-
ing the termination of the first line mentioned above.

Preparations are being made to commence sinking in the
vicinity of Westbere Court, where the boring on that site
has just been completed. The surface work in connection
with this is well in hand, while the East Kent Light Bail-
ways will shortly connect up the site with the South-Eastern
and Chatham Bailway main line near Grove Kerry Station.

Enquiries are being made in the district for suitable sites
for manufactories.

Scotland.

Mineral Support in the Motherwell District : Hydraulic Pack-
ing Impossible—Is a Bottomer a Miner?

So great has been the colliery development in Mid and
East Lothian that a new system has had to be adopted by
the North British Bailway Company in dealing with the
colliery wagons. A control area has been formed with a suite
of rooms, a large telegraph and telephone system, and a
model railway on a broad bench, which is a replica of all the
sidings and main lines to Edinburgh, and the numerous coal
shipping cranes at Leith Docks. It includes all the new
branch lines just laid to secure more rapid service to Leith.
At a glance the position of all the coal trains is seen, and
their progress expedited. Among the collieries served are
Newbattle, Arniston, Bankpark, Bankton, Vogrie, Preston
Links, Biggonhead, Wallyford, Prestongrange, Carberry,
Eleets, Oxenford, Limeylands, Billyford, Meadow, Woodhall,
Penstone, Burghlee, Boslin, Niddrie, Whitehall, Polton and
Dalkeith.

A well attended meeting of Lord Hamilton’s feuars was
held in Motherwell last week to consider the question of
damage to property through mineral workings. Mr. D. H.
Macdonald, of the Brandon Bridge Building Company, who
presided, said that the feuars on the Coursington Estate of
Lord Hamilton were faced with nothing less than a disaster,
as he was informed that should the coal stoops presently
supporting the surface be removed, there must be very severe
wreckage to properties, and, in some cases, utter destruction.
The present position as he understood it with regard to Cour-
sington Estate was that the Wishaw Coal Company,who were
the mineral tenants, had driven roads all over the area of
the coalfield, and were now about to begin, at the furthest
point from the pit, to remove the stoops. Before doing so
they offered the owners of property an opportunity to purchase
the coal left in, and when he told them that the cubic area of
the stoops was three or four times greater than that of the
roads, they would have some idea what it would cost to
purchase the coal, not only immediately underneath a pro-
perty, but for a distance of about 150 ft. all round it. A
similar problem had been settled quite recently on the
adjoining estate of Braidhurst, where Miss Addie had every
magnanimously adjusted matters with the mineral tenants so
that the stoops might be left in. If such an arrangement
could be effected by Lord Hamilton, it would meet the
perplexing situation which had arisen. The outcome of the
meeting was that a representative deputation was appointed
to interview Lord Hamilton.

The agitation above referred to has drawn from Lord
Hamilton of Dalzell, one of the principal landowners in the
district, an important public statement. His lordship says
the ever recurring agitation in Motherwell must necessarily
be a serious drawback to the development of the town, and
for that reason he had striven at considerable expense to
find a remedy which would be economically sound, and
which would not unduly interfere with the working of the
coal on which the prosperity of the district depends. He had
not, however, found a solution that is more beneficial than
that carried out by his father, and continued by himself—
viz., to keep down the feuing rate so as to discount normal
risks, to restore the damage where through some unfore-
seen circumstances it has proved abnormal, and to require
from his mineral tenants that every precaution should be
taken in working to avoid causing damage. The remedies
suggested at various times by those who desire to deal with
this question, by legislation or otherwise, are (1) to adopt
the Continental system of hydraulic packing of the wastes;
(2) to leave in the coal; and (3) to pay full compensation,
or to take over the buildings at their value. He was so
anxious.to have the hydraulic packing system adopted under
Motherwell that he sent a skilled adviser and one of the
colliery managers to the Continent to study the matter, and
on their return the greatest expert on the system in England
was consulted, and he spent some time in Motherwell and
made a careful inspection. It was part of his remit to say
what concessions should be given to the tenants to encour-
age them to adopt the system, but owing to the fact that
there was no suitable packing material on the spot, and no
water other than gravitation water available, the tenants
would not adopt hydraulic packing even supposing they
received the coal for nothing. There could hardly be two
opinions that 'as much coal as reasonably can be taken out
should be worked. If the capital expenditure be deducted,
the value of the surface may be taken at £240 per acre, and
to support an acre of surface the royalty value of the
minerals would be £1,145 (the taxes of this sum would be
£472), and the labour paid in winning the coal at 5s. per
day would represent £13,750. In other words, before £1 of
royalty can be produced £12 to £17 would have to be spent
in winning the coal, and each £1 of royalty produces 6s. 4d.
to the local rates and 2s. 8d. to the Imperial taxes. If the
payment of full compensation on buildings to be taken over
were to become law, two classes would benefit chiefly—the
unscrupulous contractor and the unscrupulous lawyer. The
result of the law of compensation for accidents, etc., well
illustrates the probable effect. It is overlooked by some that
minerals bear a large proportion of the assessments of the

local authority, for which no service is received because none
is required. The Middle Ward gets £52,284, or over a
fourth of their income, from minerals, and Dalzell Parish
Council receives over £5,000, or more than a sixth of their
income, from the same source.

A case of interest has just been decided by Sheriff-
Substitute Crawford, Airdrie. David M‘Kay, pit bottomer,
14, Hozier-street, Tannochside, Uddingston, sued Messrs.
Archibald Bussell Limited, coal masters, Tannochside, in
terms of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1906, for pay-
ment of £1 weekly for having contracted nystagmus while
in their employment. Defenders held that the disease was
not due to the nature of pursuer’s employment. In the
hearing of the case the question arose as to whether a pit
bottomer was a miner, and in deciding in favour of the
pursuer for the amount craved, Sheriff-Substitute Crawford
finds that till two years ago for the performance of his
work the pursuer used a Glennie safety lamp, but that for
the past two years the pit bottom has been lit by an oil
flare, and that the conditions of the pursuer’s work were
such as are found to produce miner’s nystagmus. In a
note the Sheriff-Substitute adds :—“ The only question in
this case is whether the pursuer was, during the last 12
months in which he worked with the defenders, engaged
‘ in the process of mining,’ and points out that while a
surface workman would never describe himself as a miner,
a pit bottomer certainly would, and there could be no doubt
that in common practice the term miner is not exclusively
applied to those who actually work at the face. The
pursuer was a workman in a mine, exposed to all the con-
ditions favourable to the contraction of this miners’
disease.”

INFLUENCE OF ELECTRICAL RESISTANCES ON
THE IGNITING CAPACITY OF THE SPARK.

By Dr. J. Meunier.

[communicated.]

The researches of Prof. Thornton on the compara-
tive inflammability of pit gas and air by the electric
spark have contributed novel and curious results to this
question, which is by no means exhausted.

Below certain limits of intensity and voltage electric
currents furnish sparks incapable of igniting gaseous
mixtures. This fact has been recognised by a large
number of experimenters. Alternating currents are far
less apt to set up explosive ignition than direct cur-
rents. The results given by Prof. Thornton are practi-
cally very exact, but apply solely to the special
conditions under which his work was conducted; and in
summarising his experiments no mention is made of
the diameter of the wires used.

There can be no doubt but that the electrical ignition
of an explosive gaseous mixture depends on the high
temperature attained by the spark, though this is not
always the sole cause; but by working with a wire of
sufficiently small diameter, a high temperature spark
can be obtained with a very weak current, whereas with
a thicker wire the temperature is much lower. Follow-
ing this line of reasoning, it will be evident that if
practical limits exist below which ignition is no longer
produced, there is no theoretical reason why these limits
could not be lowered. This statement is borne out by
the following fact. By taking silver wires of a diameter
of 0-1 millimetre, that is to say, about the thickness of
a hair, Prof. Couriot (of the Ecole Centrale, Paris) and
the author ignited a mixture containing 9-5 per cent of
pure methane (from St. Etienne pit gas) with 83 per
cent, of methane. The spark used was so tiny as to be
visible with difficulty, and the electric current was far
weaker than the limit (continuous) currents employed
by Prof. Thornton.

Prof. Couriot and the author therefore remain con-
vinced that, in experiments on the effects of sparks, it
is essential to take into consideration not only the elec-
trical resistance inherent in the conductor on which
the spark is produced—which resistance is in relation
to the amperage and voltage of the current—but also
the resistance due to parallel shunt. This is a subject
which was fully dealt with by Prof. Couriot and the
author in a paper published in the Genie Civil in 1906.

This principle has been strikingly confirmed by Prof.
Thornton’s experiments, that worker having found that
when using a single or “ simplex ” circuit, mixtures
containing 8 per cent, of firedamp could be exploded by
currents of lower amperage and voltage than when
duplex ” or parallel shunt currents were employed.
Hence parallel derivation tends to give increased
security.

THE TIN-PLATE TRADE.

Liverpool.

There is no improvement to report; indeed, the position
looks worse, if possible, than a week ago; 12s. is now being
freely quoted for I C 14 x 20, and squares and odd sizes
have been done at 12s. 3d. basis. But even at these figures,
no large volume of business is reported, buyers not being
disposed to book ahead to any extent. Quotations for
shipment over the rest of the year may be called :—Coke
tins, IC 14 x 20 (112 sh. 108 lb.), 12s. to 12s. Ud. per box;
I C 28 x 20 (112 sh. 216 lb.), 24s. 3d. per box ; I C 28 x 20
(56 sh. 108 lb.), 12s. 6d. 12s. 7|d. per box; I C 14 x 18|
(124 sh. 110 lb.), 12s. 3d. to 12s. 4|d. per box ; I C 14 x 191
(120 sh. 110 lb.), 12s. 3d. to 12s. 4|d. per box; I C 20 x 10
(225 sh. 156 lb.), 17s. 3d. to 17s. 6d. per box; IC squares
and odd sizes, 12s. 41d. basis for usual specifications.
Charcoal tins are in poor demand, although quotations are
down to 14s. per box, and upwards according to tinning.
Coke wasters are in moderate demand, and are quoted:—
C W 14 x 20 11s. 7|d. per box, C W 28 x 20 23s. 6d. per box,
CW14 x 18| Ils. to Ils. l^d. per box (this size is scarce for
prompt delivery), C W 20 x 10 14s. 6d. per box—all f.o.b
Wales, less 4 per cent.