424 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. August 21, 1914. 7. Inhalation of mineral dusts which contain free silica is associated with an excess of phthisis; an excess which bears a direct relation to the amount of free silica present. 8. In general dusts appear to be more injurious as their chemical composition differs from that of the human body, or from the elements of which the body is normally composed. From this it appears that the presence of free silica is not the only question bearing upon the influence of dust upon the health of the miner. It is suggested by Dr. Legge that it may be useful to investigate this question by means of X rays. It is found that, even where tuberculosis is absent, radio- graphs of workers’ lungs occasionally show shadows indicating fibrosis, and this means of investigation may prove valuable in connection with this question. In connection with dust there is also an indirect interest in the year’s record of dust explosions in factories. There were nine carbonaceous dust explo- sions in the United Kingdom in the year 1913. The dusts concerned included starch, gum, shoddy, malt, cork, coal and oil-cake. A remarkable explosion of paper dust in France is also referred to. It is stated that the degree of inflammability of paper dust is the same as that of very finely-powdered Lievin coal, containing 30 per cent, of volatile matter. It will be remembered, in this connection, that Dr. Wheeler has carried out at Eskmeals a series of tests on the degree of inflammability of various organic dusts, the results of which have, of course, a general bearing upon the theory of dust explosions in coal mines. This report covers so wide a field of industrial activity tha,t it is not possible to refer here to many things which have a distinct, if indirect, bearing upon colliery workings. Apart from boiler explosions, accidents from transmission machinery, electrical accidents, and other occurrences connected with the conditions under which all modern industries are conducted, there is also much of interest in regard to a number of dangers lurking perhaps in unsuspected quarters, including coke ovens, benzene factories, and other places where dangerous gases are present. The Summary of Progress of the Progress in Geological Survey for 1913, which Coalfield has just been published, refers inter Geology. to work done amongst carboni- ferous rocks in the Midlands, North Wales and Scotland. In the Midlands work has been chiefly carried on south of Nuneaton. Perhaps the most important result is the continued failure to establish the position of the top of the carboniferous succession in this district. It had previously been thought that the base of the permian might be fixed, as in South Staffordshire, by conglomerate beds, which in the latter area lie about 900 ft. above the base of the Keele beds. In Warwickshire, however, although conglomerate bands occur, they exist at various levels and become untrustworthy as indices of any definite horizon. They do not even indicate any unconformity. Of the whole thickness of red beds here, amounting, it is estimated, to about 2,500 ft. in thickness, only the lower part, with a thickness of perhaps 1,000 to 1,200 feet, can be definitely correlated with the Keele group of North Staffordshire. This part is marked by three separate bands of Spirorbis limestone. In North Wales particular attention has been given to the Buckley fireclays which lie above the Hallin Kock. These beds, in the neighbourhood of Buckley, have three separate outcrops repeated by faulting, and probably extend beneath the drift over a wider area. This group, in the opinion of the Survey, indicate a partial, local and temporary anticipation of upper coal measure conditions at a stage still represented farther south by middle coal measures. At Flint these middle coal measures had already suffered considerable denudation before the Upper coal measures were deposited upon them. Several seams of coal have thus been lost to this area, and at the old Dee Green Colliery what are presumably the lowest coals of the district are raised just below the base of the red measures. This unconformity is possibly still more pronounced farther east. This fact, and also the proof obtained by the Survey that the Hawarden grits underlie marine beds of the same age as the Holywell shales, and are therefore of millstone grit age, are of some importance in regard to the economic value of portions of this coalfield. There is also another point which serves to indicate that the Cheshire side of the Dee estuary cannot be included in the area of possible coal reserve. This is the proof afforded by the Heswall boring that productive coal measures are absent in this area. Dr. Strahan discusses in some detail the evidence afforded by this boring, which was carried down through the bunter sandstone to a depth of 3,362 ft. from the surface, to what is believed to be millstone grit, without penetrating a single coal seam. Dr. Strahan considers three possible explanations of this. It may be due to a fault cutting out all the productive measures, or it may be the result of a denuded anticline beneath the trias, or it may be an unconformable overstep, whereby the upper red rocks are brought over the Holywell shales. In any case, the result is highly important from the point of view of the extension of the North Wales coalfield beneath the red rocks of Cheshire. While referring to this question of borings we may notice also a report by Messrs. Cantrill and Pringle on a boring for coal at Heming- ton, Somerset. This boring was made 2| miles east - south - east of Badstock. It was carried to a depth of 1,200 ft., traversing jurassic, lias, rhoetic and keuper marl, below which it pene- trated 864 ft. of coal measures without proving any workable seam of coal. The boring appears to show evidence of much disturbance of the strata by over thru sting, leading to an abnormal thickening of the grey measures. It is believed that this boring ends far above the Pennant grit which must crop out, under the mesozoic rocks, well to the south-east of the position assigned to it on the map. We are glad to call attention to these two cases as indicating the great practical value of the information which such borings may afford. The Hemington boring was abandoned in 1910, and before the Geological Survey was able to examine the cores a great deal of information had been lost by weathering of the samples. It is a good example of the importance of giving the Survey early access to any works of this kind. With regard to Scotland, work has been carried on in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire. The result has been to throw much light on the correlation of certain coal seams of these two areas. It is pointed out that while all the upper coals in the Hamilton district are practically exhausted, the Hurlet coal has been but little worked in the Paisley area, where a promising locality is beneath the Paisley race- course. An attempt has indeed been made to reach this coal, and a seam was got, but the Survey thinks that this was the Hollybush seam, and that the Hurlet coal lies intact below. A similar error occurs on the Survey map, where the so-called “ Hurlet ” limestone and coal at Paisley is really the Hollybush seam. ___________________________ THE BY-PRODUCTS TRADE. Tar Products. — The market for most products is naturally firm, benzols in particular being strong. There is not much change in pitch, but carbolics are dearer, crystals being unquotable. Solvent naphtha also is dearer. Nearest values are :— Benzols, 50’s to 90’s, any fractionation........ 1/2 to 1/3 ........ Do. North „ „ „ ........ 1/ Toluol .................................... /Il Carbolic acid, crude (60 per cent.) .......... 2/ to 2/3 Solvent naphtha (as in quality and package)... 1/1 Crude ditto (in bulk) ...................... /4| Creosote (for ordinary qualities) __........ /3J- Pitch (f.o.b. east coast) .................... 35/to 35/6 Do. (f.a.s. west coast) .................... 33/to 34/ Tar ......................................25/3to29/3 [Benzols, toluol, creosote, solvent naphtha, carbolic acids, usually casks included unless otherwise stated, free on rails at maker's works or usual United Kingdom ports, net. Pitch f.o.b. net.] Sulphate of Ammonia.—Prices continue firm, and the outlook satisfactory, but naturally trade is much unsettled so that there is little chance of forming reliable opinions of the market as a whole. Closing prompt prices are :— London (ordinary makes) .......... <£10/18/9 ......................... Beckton ........................... <£10/10 Liverpool .................................. <£11 Hull............................... <£10/17/6 Middlesbrough..................... <£10/12/6 Scotch ports ....................... <£11/2/6 to <£11/5 Nitrate of soda (ordinary) per cwt. ... 11/3 [Sulphate of ammonia, f.o.b. in bags, less 2j per cent, dis- count; 24 per cent, ammonia, good grey quality; allowance for refraction, nothing for moil] TRADE AND THE WAR. With regard to the threatened shortage of pit timber, we understand that there are available in the hands of large contractors in London, large supplies of sawn scaffold poles used for concrete flooring. Owing to changes in methods of construction these are no longer being used for the purpose for which they were intended. It is announced that the Mining Association of Great Britain is to send a deputation to the Government to urge that timber shall be imported from Canada. In view of the cessation of imports from Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the fact that there are many articles hitherto imported from these countries of importance, if not of necessity, to British manufacturers, information is invited by the Commercial Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade from importers of such articles, as to their precise nature and quality, in order that steps may be taken to ascertain whether similar goods might be produced in this country, and, if so, where; or, if not, from what neutral sources they could be obtained. The recent taking over of the railways by the State by an Order in Council made under the Regulation of the Forces Act must necessitate certain financial adjustments as between the Government and the companies, and an announcement on this subject is awaited with interest by railway stockholders. We understand that while no agree- ment has been actually signed, the Government and the railway companies have come to an understanding on the question, and that the State compensation to the companies will take the form of a guarantee of dividends for the current half-year at rates calculated on normal earnings. An organised campaign is to be made to secure for British trade the markets, in the colonies or neutral foreign countries, which, until the war, were largely in the hands of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Colonial Secretary of State for the Colonies telegraphed on the 15th inst. to some of the more important colonies not possessing responsible government to remind them that it is of the utmost importance to have information up-to-date respecting the principal imports into each colony from Germany and Austria and as to the products of each colony hitherto exported to those countries. The Secretary of State has further desired that he should have by the earliest oppor- tunity particulars as to the leading lines of articles of trade with Germany and Austria, illustrated by samples in the same way as arranged in 1895. As regards neutral foreign countries the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has undertaken to send a similar request to his Majesty’s Consuls in all places where such an enquiry is likely to have a useful result. The present intention of the Secretary of State for the Colonies is that, as soon as the samples from different parts of the Empire and from neutral countries are collected the traders and manufacturers of the United Kingdom shall have an opportunity of inspecting them in a central exhibition, possibly at the Imperial Institute. The Board of Trade are moving on the same lines. The Commercial Intelligence Branch of the Board of Trade (73, Basinghall-street, E.C.) are issuing to manufacturers and merchants, trade associations and chambers of com- merce, monographs giving information with regard to possible foreign and colonial developments in certain important trades carried on by them or in their respective districts. The trades dealt with in the first series of monographs are cutlery, iron and steel wire, hollow ware (enamelled or tinned), woollen and worsted piece goods, and cotton hosiery (stockings and socks), electrical machinery and appliances. As bearing upon the prospects of the American export trade it should be pointed out that most of the coal exported from America is carried in English bottoms. What America’s new registration act will add to the shipping is uncertain in the meantime. American coal exporters, who have been sending considerable coal into the Mediter- ranean and to South America, will be compelled to shut off shipments until some arrangement for transportation can be made. There is a rumour, however, that several large contracts for shipment to South America have been made. These have been made at $3 to $3T5 f.o.b. vessels at Hampton Roads. One concern is said by the Black Diamond to have covered by making vessel contracts with lines that say they are in position to take the coal and carry it to destination. During the year ended June 30 last, 16,083,101 tons of bituminous coal were shipped from the United States, in addition to 900,672 tons of coke. The great bulk went to Canada. Mr. Herbert Samuel, as chairman of the Cabinet Committee for the prevention and relief of distress, has received from Messrs. Rickett, Smith and Company, Messrs. George J. Cockerell and Company, and Sir Arthur Markham, M.P., an offer to place at the disposal of the Government 350,000 tons of coal to be delivered in London during the autumn and winter, at the price of 24s. north of the Thames, and 25s. south of the Thames. This offer is subject to the proviso that Sir Arthur Markham's pits are able to work, and that the railways and other means of distribution are able to handle the coal. It is also stipulated that not more than 10,000 tons will be required in any one week, and that not less than 5 cwt. will be delivered to any one place. The Government, it is officially announced, have gratefully accepted the offer, and will avail themselves of it should the circumstances require. The members of the Washington House of Representatives and the Senate have agreed to an amendment to the Panama Canal Act opening the United States coastwise trade to foreign-built vessels admitted to the American Registry within the next two years. We understand from Messrs. Crompton and Company Limited, Arc Works, Chelmsford, that 150 men from their works have been called to the colours to serve in the present war. Messrs. Crompton are very busy on Govern- ment orders and are working night and day' to expedite delivery, which is of national importance in the present crisis. Every effort, however, is being made to meet the requirements of customers in the most expeditious manner under the circumstances. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has appointed Sir George Paish to assist the Treasury in dealing with economic and financial questions arising out of the war. Sir George Paish, who has been joint editor of the Statist, one of the leading financial papers in the country since 1900, has retired from that position in order to devote his whole attention to his new Governmental duties. He has for some time been giving the Treasury the benefit of his vast experience of financial matters.