THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

AND

JOURNAL OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADES.

Vol. CIX.	FRIDAY, JANUARY 1.5, 1915.	No. 2820.

Coppee Plant at Coedely Colliery.

AN UP-TO-DATE INSTALLATION IN SOUTH WALES.
(With Supplement Plate.)

The pre-eminence of South Wales steam coal, which
has been the dominant factor in the industrial organisa-
tion of the Principality up to comparatively recent
times, prevented what may be called the subsidiary
potentialities of the coalfield from receiving full
recognition. This is no longer true. A few enter-
prising firms, notably the Powell Duffryn Company, so
long ago as the early nineties were impressed by oppor-
tunities afforded by the increasing demand for the
valuable derivatives of coal.

The problem here has presented an aspect somewhat
different from that which it presents in some other
coalfields, such as South Yorkshire and Cumberland,
where careful selective treatment has been a sine qua
non before the requirements of these markets would be
satisfied. But when it was found in South Wales that
the collieries that had providentially laid out their
capital in a combination of screening, washing, coking,
and by-product plant, were showing far better financial
results than their neighbours, and it was realised that

of the large Welsh collieries, the pits have had to be
sunk in narrow valleys, leaving but little suitable space
near the pit head for heapsteads and other surface plant.
The demand for ground space is considerably increased,
where coke ovens, washeries, and purification plant
have also to be accommodated.

The plant at Coedely is designed to deal with 140,000
tons of coal per annum, producing about 103,000 tons
of coke, 7,500 tons of tar, 1,500 tons of sulphate of
ammonia, and 300,000 gallons of benzol. In the general
design and arrangement the Coppee Company, who have
had the advantage of being able to deal with the matter
as a whole, have almost achieved the ideal, whilst
individually the plant is representative of the best
modern practice. As stated already, the site was an
open one, so that neither management nor contractors
were hampered by limitations of space ; it was therefore
possible to dispose the plant to the best advantage for
a continuity of operations, and at the same time provide
for future extensions without destroying that continuity.

housing of wagon tipplers being steel structures lined
with brick. The main building is roomy and particularly
well lighted. An elevator raises the coal from the
unwashed coal pit to the top of the washery building
and delivers on to the screens, which are of the four-
tray double-balance type, driven from a centre crank,
make the following sizes :—

Nuts, 2 in. to 1| in.;

Beans, 1J in. to f in.;

Peas, | in. to J in.;

Small, J in. to f in.;

Dust, 1 in. to 0 in.

The screens are entirely cased in, and the dust which
falls through the last screen can either be washed or
delivered by means of a shute into the dust coal bunker,
from where it can be either mixed with the washed
small coal or alternatively be loaded into wagons for sale.

From the screens the nuts and small coal are taken
separately by means of wrought iron troughs and water
to their respective washing boxes. The nut boxes, five
in number, are of the ordinary single box type. The
washed products are conveyed by trpughs and water to
the draining screens, where they are drained and after-
wards allowed to descend into their respective storage
bunkers, each of 70 tons capacity. The lowering of the
nuts into the bunkers is done by means of spiral shoots

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this prosperity could only be traced to this branch of
business, the example was quickly followed, and some of
the installations now erected or in course of erection in
South Wales, both as regards magnitude and efficiency,
are unsurpassed by those to be found in any other
coalfield.

A typical modern plant is that which has been
designed and erected by the Coppee Company (Great
Britain) Limited, at the Coedely Colliery of the Welsh
Navigation Steam Coal Company Limited. The latter,
which is an offshoot of the Ferndale enterprise of
Messrs. D. Davis and Sons Limited, was formed in 1906
and absorbed by the parent company in 1911. The
colliery covers 2,400 acres, is situated in the Ely valley,
and lies between Tonyrefail and Llantrisant, in Glamor-
ganshire ; eventually an output of 1,250,000 tons per
annum is contemplated.

The seams worked are of good quality, and are very
suitable for by-product coking. It may be here
stated that the pit is well served by railways, and
the site, furthermore, is capacious, an important con-
sideration in designing a plant of this nature. At many

General View of the Coedely Plant

From an inspection of the plant it is at once evident
that the initial cost of the installation has not’been the
paramount consideration. Capital outlay has been
regarded as of secondary importance to the labour costs
of working. The general lay out of the plant is shown
in fig. 1 on the accompanying supplement.

For the following details of the plant we are indebted
mainly to the Coppee Company. Photographs showing
various features of the installation are also given in the
supplement plates.

Screening and Washing Plant.

During developments the coal from the screening
plant is brought to the washery in trucks and tipped by
means of duplicate electrically driven wagon tipplers
into the unwashed coal pit which feeds into the boot of
an elevator. New screening plant, however, is shortly
to be put into service at the colliery, when the coal will
be conveyed therefrom to the washery by endless
belt and the tipplers will then be used for foreign coal
only.

The washery, which has a capacity of 80 tons per
hour, is a solid brick structure the exterior bunkers and

which allow the coal to slide from the draining screen
into the bunkers without breakage. The nut bunkers
are suitably arranged so as to be capable of loading
washed nuts into railway wagons on the washed coal road.
The shale from the washing boxes is conveyed by means
of an elevator, which raises it to the shale bunker, from
where it is charged into the buckets of the aerial rope.
The feldspar washers, six in number, are of the double
box type. In the first compartment the heavy shale is
deposited, from whence it is removed direct to the shale
hopper. The material deposited in the second com-
partment may contain a certain percentage of coal, and
this is further treated in a special feldspar rewashing
box. The washed coal is delivered by means of troughs
and water into a series of seven draining bunkers
having a total capacity of about 700 tons.

Normally all coal below fin. is coked, the remainder
being loaded direct into trucks, but provision is made
for passing the whole or any portion of the washed coal
into the coking, plant if required.

The washery is driven by a 75-horse power motor.
Water for the washery is taken from an elevated tank,