138

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

July 17, 1914.

agreement been in force at the date of the hire-purchase
agreement shall be ascertained and the appropriate
amount shall be allowed annually for the remainder of
the term of the hire-purchase agreement. Provided
that, where the depreciation allowance in respect of
such wagons has been calculated on the aggregate
amount payable under the agreement, the total of the
amounts allowable as hire under this clause shall be
deducted from the said aggregate amount in computing
future allowances for depreciations.

Should satisfactory evidence of the initial value of the
wagons at the date of the agreement not be available,
such value may be computed from the aggregate amount
payable under the agreement on the basis of a 5 per
cent, interest table.

7.	Where any wagons are the subject of hire-pur-
chase agreements current at the date of this agreement
and allowances have been made in any previous year in
respect of the payments under such agreement other-
wise than in the form of depreciation, the aggregate
amount of such allowances shall be deducted from the
aggregate amount allowable under this scheme as
“ hire ” in respect of such agreement, and the balance
only shall be allowed in equal annual amounts spread
over the remainder of the term of the agreement. Pro-
vided that any adjustment of the capital value on which
the depreciation is allowable, rendered necessary by the
operation of this clause, shall be made as provided in
clause 6.

8.	The cost of reconstruction and all renewals of parts

Mechanical Charging Cars for Coke Ovens.

By A. THAU, Coke Oven Manager, Llwynypia, Glam

(Continued from page 79.)

While the hand charged coke ovens were, as a rule,
provided with three charging holes, most of the newly
built ovens which are charged by a mechanical lorry are
provided with four charging holes and the charging cars,
being built correspondingly, have four coal hoppers. The
four hoppered car offers the advantage of hoppers of
smaller capacity, so that the weight of the coal in each
hopper is reduced, and the coal in the lower parts of the
hoppers is not pressed together to the same extent as in
cars with larger hoppers. Further the coal heaps in the
ovens have less taper, and levelling is thus done in a
much less time than with the three charge-hole ovens.

A four hopper charging car made by the Humboldt
Engineering Company, Cologne, Germany, is shown in
fig. 6. The machine does not differ considerably from
the previously described ones. Similar to fig. 3, the
driver’s cabin is placed on the girder frame and contains
motor, gearing, switches, controller and brake. The
machine is carried by one long shaft which is geared with
the motor, while the other two wheels hold short shafts
similar to the ones described in fig. 4. The bottom slides
of the hoppers are actuated by four horizontal handle

collectors are placed on top of the drivers’ cabin, and
the trolley wires are suspended from the girder work of
the collecting main. On each side of the cabin on the
bridge are the two levers for operating the hopper slides.
By pressing the levers against the hopper shells, they
are fastened there by catches, and the slides remain
open. The half of the bridge towards the collecting
main is covered in this instance by a perforated plate to
prevent people standing on the bridge from being caught
and injured by the projecting girders of the collecting
main while the car is travelling. Underneath the bridge,
to the right of the driver’s cabin, the iron casing is seen
protecting the motor and gear. They are accessible by a
sliding door in front of the box.

Another four-hopper car, made by the same firm, is
shown in fig. 10. In the construction of the coal storage
bunker outlets it is often difficult to provide sufficient
space between two rows of outlets to clear the protruding
driver’s cabin of the charging cars. For this purpose,
and where an existing coal hopper is utilised and does
not allow sufficient area for a normally built car, the
machine, as shown in fig. 10, is designed and differs

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shall be allowed as repairs, except so far as they consti-
tute an extension, enlargement, or other similar improve-
ment of value.

9.	Where such reconstruction and renewals are allow-
able under this scheme they shall be allowed, notwith-
standing that the cost thereof may not have been debited
in the company’s accounts against revenue.

10.	Where “ dead-ends ” are converted into “ spring-
buffers ” the total cost of such conversion shall be
allowed, less <£5 per wagon, which latter sum shall be
treated as the capital value of the improvement, such
sum to be added to the value of the wagons for the
purpose of computing the annual allowance for depre-
ciation.

11.	This scheme shall take effect for 1913-14 and for
years preceding where appeals are now awaiting settle-
ment, and in calculating the assessable liability shall
be applied to each of the five years or other period on
the average of which the said liability falls to be
computed.

12.	The rate of depreciation when agreed upon shall
apply to all wagons, whether the subject of hire-purchase
agreements or not.

Collieries may now enter into agreement with the
local surveyor of taxes mutually to accept the above
provisions. The allowance for depreciation has not
been settled, but lies with the Commissioners. The
Surveyor of Taxes has been instructed by the Board of
Inland Revenue to assent to an allowance of 5 per cent,
on the written down value.

bars, which reach to the back of the hoppers, and are
there connected to four corresponding levers which
operate the slides.

Fig 7 shows the four-hopper car of Messrs. M^guin
and Company, Dillingen-on-Saar, Germany, which differs
from the one described in fig. 4 only by the arrangement
of the hoppers. These are arranged on both sides of the
driver’s cabin, and are of such a shape that the sides are
as steep as possible. The two outer sides of the end
hoppers are vertical. Drive, slides and general arrange-
ments are identical with the construction of the same
firm described in fig. 4.

In a similar way is fig. 8 arranged, representing the
four-hopper machine of the Schalker Eisenhutte at
Gelsenkirchen. The hoppers are made of welded plates,
and rounded off. The two outer hoppers are of larger
capacity than the two middle ones, which are placed on
both sides of the driver’s cabin. On one side of the car
a bridge is arranged right along the hoppers, and the
cabin reaches right through, across the machine, to the
end of the bridge. On each end of the cabin a separate
controller and foot brake are arranged, so that the driver
can always see the track immediately in front of him
when travelling in either direction. The motor is
enclosed in a sheet iron box, and thus protected from gas
or fire escaping from the charging holes. A machine of
this description has been made for the Lothringen
Colliery in Germany, and is seen on top of the ovens in
fig. 9. It shows plainly the four hoppers with round
edges, and the driver’s cabin in the middle. The trolley

mainly by the arrangement of the driver’s cabin and by
the shape of its hoppers. The four hoppers are con-
nected close together in a similar way to the Humboldt
machine, fig. 6. The hoppers are riveted, and not
rounded, as in the previous machine. The two outside
hoppers are the larger ones, and have one vertical side
each on the outside. The two middle hoppers are
smaller, and have at right angles to the oven very steep
sides to enable the coal to fall easily, while the other
two sides are of a much greater angle, and give the
hoppers a very broad shape at right angles to the oven.
This arrangement was necessary to give the car sufficient
capacity with a minimum of height. On three sides the
machine is surrounded by a bridge to make the top of
the hoppers accessible and to operate the four levers
connected to the bottom slides. The driver’s cabin is
placed on one end of the machine, preferably in the end
opposite the collecting main. The bridge to operate the
slide levers and the end bridge, which is covered in and
serves as the driver’s cabin, are placed immediately on
the girder frame of the machine, while the bridge on the
third side of the machine is placed nearer to the top of
the hoppers. Under this latter bridge the motor and
gearing is placed, while the controller and foot brake are
placed in the centre of the cabin, in the end of the
machine. The machine is considerably lower than the
previously described ones, but naturally is very much
broader.

All these machines are designed with the intention of
being worked by one man, and while, in most cases,
this is possible, there are a great number of plants
where the conditions are such that the coal will not leave
the charging hoppers of the cars readily, and extra labour
has to be applied to poke the coal out of the hoppers.
In most cases the contents of moisture and the fineness
of the coal are the chief reasons for the coal sticking, and
in some instances to ensure the smoothest possible side
plates of the hoppers, they have been lined with zinc
sheeting: but with some coals even this has not the
desired effect, and cars with mechanical appliances have
been built to loosen and discharge the coal without
manual labour.

Such a machine is shown in fig. 11, as made by Messrs.
M6guin and Company, Dillingen-on-Saar, Germany.
While the whole arrangement is identical with the three-
or four-hopper machines before mentioned, a further
shaft, A, is placed on the bottom frame of the machine
on the side of the hoppers opposite to the motor and
crears. The gearing differs from the previously described
machines, inasmuch as a second motion shaft is provided
with a bushed and loosely arranged sprocket wheel B:
also the gear wheel C driving the travelling shaft of the