February 12, 1915. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 347 EXPORTS OF COAL, COKE, AHO MAHUFACrURED FUEL FROM THE UNITED K1HCDOM During January 1913, 1914 and 1915. To January, 1915. January. Coal—Small. Coal—Through- and-through (unscreened). Coal—Large. All coal. Quantity (tons). All coal. Value (£). Tons. £ Tons. £ Tons. £ 1913. 1914. 1915 1913. 1914 1915 Russia — — — — • 1 226,040 239,004 ■ 161,499 169,350 Sweden 58,695 31,250 30,097 16,659 174,144 116,451 305 905 286 488 201 915 1 CIA Norway 70,075 31,901 11,000 6,733 129,260 81’307 UUuW vu 215,012 217,682 i/Ov 210,335 131’667 At/Oj34,obO 119,941 Denmark ... . 57,080 31,179 52,150 31,779 99,554 64,334 259,464 246,017 208 784 1 65 071 160 289 1 97 9Q9 Germany 668,’406 553*433 IUUjV 4 A 27d 00Q QR1 ziRI 14/ ,4V4 Netherlands 28,850 15,932 56,680 32,251 45,848 29,636 l 202^422 127’412 131 378 4 *7R 41.4 77 QI Q Belgium ! 197^220 178’849 Al) LjUl O 109,824 104,387 / /,O1V France 550,481 317,025 359,880 * 212,289 473,600 371,816 1,150,552 1,235,642 1 383 961 726 508 781 708 Qfil IQ/i Portugal, Azores, and Madeira 18,386 9^811 16,235 9,388 35,313 28,589 ' ’142'590 ’130,’778 •IjUuUjvUl 69,934 99,777 4 O.l, 4 VO 96,565 47,788 Spain and Canaries 38,715 23,824 60,064 35,126 60,571 50,004 361,473 345,621 159 350 266 591 252 903 1 AQ 051 Italy 60,43 > 25^382 101,351 60,174 308,099 254,858 82R387 790*605 469 886 DO I QjA (A A Austria-Hungary , 137’555 ‘ 1 vv, Wv 72,842 000,000 94,140 49,048 Greece 3,126 2,047 4,556 2,492 15,906 12,674 40,831 46,291 23,588 28,984 34,712 17,213 Roumania - - — . 8,334 5,116 Turkey 16,772 40’219 14 470 27 500 Algeria 22,718 13,549 34,006 22,087 42,503 35,622 1 130’731 131’274 99 227 85*242 90 748 71 95Q Portuguese West Africa 9,437 5,693 ! 23^827 20’9U t/t/j Ciu 4 9,437 20,846 16,’307 /1,430 5,693 Chile 103 174 — — 5,121 4,353 i 66,004 35,398 5,224 58,598 29,062 4,527 Brazil 931 939 5,287 3,304 60,266 54,438 i 139,911 118,531 66,4^4 122,457 107,784 58,681 Uruguay 3,402 2,592 881 616 45,409 39,738 i 78,351 56,523 49,692 64 414 48 311 AO QAd Argentine Republic 6,582 4,220 172,018 147^520 319’409 354’770 178’600 256 031 306*154 151 71A Channel Islands 897 661 1,144 724 5,299 3,572 13,273 12M31 7’344 9,385 UvUjAuT 8 888 101, /4U A, OJ 7 Gibraltar ... 7,798 3,998 4,857 2,902 17,614 14,026 ■ .36,794 32,481 30*269 24,622 24,429 20 Q9/S Malta 2,334 1,289 49 36 8,903 7,609 66,616 35,686 11,316 48’653 24 887 ^jv,V4O Egypt (including Anglo-Egyptian Sudan) 6,942 4,134 26,647 16,078 116,076 94,769 1 314,420 315,182 149’665 227,207 241’755 114,981 Aden and Dependencies — — — — 10,254 8,680 ' 11,153 12,079 10,254 9,348 10,870 8,680 British India 329 256 — — 8,596 7,212 ' 4,773 1,837 8,925 3,398 1,338 7,468 Ceylon — — ■ 6,604 5,515 24,376 38,539 6,604 20,025 33,239 5 515 Other countries 12,780 7,460 224 157 46,771 39,092 1 95,051 110,311 59,775 ' 77,077 87’401 46’,709 Anthracite 97,078 83,891 — — 99,925 94,149 298,308 269,871 197,003 244,697 218,533 178,040 Steam 750,937 386,039 221,559 135,705 1,681,191 1,300,123 4,417,993 4,231.381 2,653,687 3,034,066 2,989,264 1,821,867 Totals Gas 42,291 23,199 506,348 297,065 40,808 31,737 901,364 885,713 590,077 522,411 573,761 352,001 Household 12,949 8,928 65,707 45,715 145,726 131,714 78,656 91,943 89,017 54 643 w Other sorts 46,804 25,566 46,638 25,718 98 91 306,927 276,091 93,540 190,816 169,476 51,375 Total 950,689 527,623 774,545 458,488 1,887,729 1,471,815 6,070,318 5,794,770 3,612,963 4,083,933 4,040,051 2,457,926 Total (January 1914) 1,368,259 740,230 1,194,706 760,659 3,231,805 2,539,162 — — — — — — Total (January 1913) 1,399,714 775,171 1,230,306 718,136 3,440,298 2,590,626 — — — — — — Coke — — — — — — 107,095 124,256 92,597 101,722 107,434 68,555 Manufactured fuel — — — — — — 196,739 169,945 64,038 158,648 148,208 53,781 Total of coal, coke & manufactured fuel — — — — — — 6,374,152 6,088,971 3,769,598 4,344,303 4,295,693 2,580,262 debentures already created, Kent Collieries Limited is to.be ait liberty to create an issue of further debentures not exceed- ing in the aggregate L500,000, and interest thereon. These additional debentures are to carry interest at 5 per cent, per annum, payable half-yearly. They are to rank with the original debentures. The company will also create a note issue for £315,000 bearing interest at 7 per cent, per annum. This issue is to be secured by the deposit with trustees of £630,000 of the original and new debentures-, fully paid. The notes will be issuable in multiples of £1. The whole of this note issue will be offered for subscription at par to the company’s share and debenture holders, and the Channel Collieries Trust Limited agree to accept allotment of so much of the note issue as is not taken up by the share and debenture holders. In consideration of this agreement, the Channel Collieries Trust are to receive an underwriting com- mission of 10 per cent, upon the amount of the note issue. This scheme should provide ample funds for the completion of the colliery, which at present has two shafts connected down into the Two-feet seam. Work at the Chislet Colliery, near Canterbury, continues to progress, both as regards the sinking and the surface equipment. Even better results would have been obtained but for the fact that there have not been as many sinkers available as could have been put on the work. The Channel Colliery Trust’s boring at Swiingate on the eastern cliffs, some two and a-half miles from Dover, is steadily proceeding, and the results attained are reported to be of an encouraging character. Scotland. Rescue Station to be Erected at Lesmahagow—Home Office Prosecution at Hamilton : An Exhausted Pit and the Mines Act. The coal masters of. Lanarkshire have obtained a piece of ground adjoining the village of Lesmahagow for the erec- tion of a cdlliery rescue station. The station will be fully equipped for its purpose as specified in the Coal Mines Act. On Friday last, in the Hamilton Sheriff Court, an impor- tant mines prosecution was disposed of. The complaint was at the instance of the Procurator-Fiscal, with the con- sent of the Home Secretary, and the respondents were Brand and Company, coal masters, Lanarkshire; Walter Robertson Fleming, coal masters’ agent; and Charles Houston, colliery manager, Over Dalserf Colliery, Netherburn. Included in the charge were 20 specific irregularities at the above colliery dealing with failure to keep plans, measurements, attach back stays, and to use a code of signals, together with insufficient supply of refuge holes, insufficient height of pony roads, and matters affecting the 'electrical apparatus. An objection to the relevancy of the complaint was stated, but this was repelled by Sheriff Shennan. For the defence, Mr. Henderson, agent for the respondents, urged that the omissions were largely due to the fact that the mineral field was practically exhausted and the colliery finished. Every- thing complained of by the mines inspector at the time of his visit had been attended to, and the terms of the statute fully complied with. He quite admitted there was a duty to comply with the pro visions of the Act without being called upon to do so by the mines inspector. At the same time, having regard to the conditions of the.workings 'in the pits, the absence of accidents, and the fact that not one of the charges was of a serious nature, he thought the necessity of observing the provisions of the Act in future had been fully emphasised by the present proceedings. He suggested, therefore, that the ends of justice would be served by the Court imposing, if not a nominal, certainly a small penalty. The Fiscal said the complaint indicated that the manage- ment of the colliery had been practically in active violation of the statute. There had been wholesale neglect, and he thought it was necessary to urge—ais had been admitted by the agent for the defence—that the management of a colliery were not to rely on the inspectors coming to inform them what they should do in order to comply with the Act. Mines inspectors were not so numerous, and it was a physical impossibility for the inspectorate in Great Britain to take such responsibilities upon themselves. The managers of a colliery had a burden on themselves, and were bound to make themselves acquainted with the statutory requirements, so that the mine would be maintained and worked in con- formity with these. Sheriff Shennan said the owners, agents, and managers of a colliery had no right to wait until the mines inspector came to say what was to be done. They had a duty put upon them, and, strictly speaking, the inspector would be entitled to report them for prosecution as soon as he knew of any breach. His lordship did not know that he had anything to add to the statement of the law as regards the liabilities of managers and owners which he had made in former cases. What, of course, did impress one in the present case was that there were a good many of what might be called trivial breaches, which perhaps might have been winked at had it not been that the total number of breaches, serious and comparatively trivial, made in the aggregate a rather serious charge against the firm. As regards the first complaint, he could quite understand the taking away of the working plans from a colliery might be done, to a certain extent, innocently, but it was well to have it laid down definitely that the management were not entitled to remove their working plans except under force majeure. The absence of the ventilation plan was rather a bit of slackness, and the impression one got from the whole case was—and he was not saying that he was not without sympathy from the commercial point of view for the way in which the management acted—that they wanted to spend just as little as was possible in bringing the colliery up to date, in view of the fact that it had only a short life. That might be quite proper from a business point of view, but the Act of Parliament had laid it down quite .clearly that no colliery was to be worked except in strict harmony with the provisions, and he was afraid that the only result of the law as it now stood was that if a colliery came near its death, and it did not pay to bring it into conformity with the pro- visions of the Act, then the colliery must just be shut down. He did not think the Act contemplated that the colliery was to be allowed to go on for a few months, until it was worked out, in compliance with anything but the strict provisions of the statute. To a certain extent people in the position of the respondents just took the risk, and any fine which might be imposed by the Court might leave lit distinctly profitable for them to take that risk. If in the future he came across any case in which he found the parties were really calcu- lating to make sufficient to pay the fine, he would certainly impose the full penalty. In the present instance he would impose a penalty of £20 on the owner, and £5, or 10 days imprisonment each, on the agent and manager. The fine on the owner, he added, would, of course, be recovered by civil diligence. It is' given out that the Fife Coal Company’s new colliery at Kinglassie is to be closed meanwhile. The colliery was sunk about six years ago, and employs close on 500 men. It is fully expected, however, that the men will all find employment in the company’s Bowhill Colliery, where the number of employees has been considerably reduced by the enlistments in that district. At a meeting of the East of Scotland branch of the Asso- ciation of Mining Electrical Engineers, held in the Fife Mining School, Cowdenbeath, a practical paper on “ The Utility of Surface Earthing on Armoured Systems ” was read by Mr. Wm. Webster, Lochgelly. Mr. Webster said that in a recent paper read and discussed before another branch of the association, an elaborate and expensive system of earthing was fully described and strongly advocated by the author. He (Mr. Webster) had also in mind a large colliery plant in Scotland, where the earthing system con- sisted of four large iron plates sunk in coke pits, one at each corner of the generating station. In connection with that particular system, too, suitable testing apparatus was provided to enable periodical tests of the resistance between the plates to be made. These were examples of modern earthing installations which were put in without due regard being paid to the duties they would be called upon to per- form. In bis paper he intended to question the utility of these elaborate surface installations on completely armoured systems. To his mind the laying out of elaborate earthing systems suggested the possibility of a large leakage account which ought not to be allowed,to pass in any system. As a matter of fact, it constituted a danger even where the earthing was perfect. Personally, he should like to draw attention to the use of leakage trip gear for the prevention of dangerous leakage currents. WTiere these were installed the insulation of the system would require to be kept in a- higher state of efficiency, and the danger from shock, fire, and the ignition of gas or dust would be reduced to a minimum. The paper gave rise to an interesting discussion, which was taken part in by Messrs. B. W. Peters, J. Gillespie (Messrs. Siemens Brothers, Glasgow), Doig, N. A. Wilkie (branch president), and others. At a joint meeting of the Scottish branches of the National Association of Colliery Managers and the East of Scotland branch of the Association of Mining Engineers, consider- able interest was taken by those present in a demonstration of four types of visual indicators. In the course of the general discussion which followed, Mr. John McLuckie, colliery manager, Larkhall, remarked that it was perfectly evident the designers of the majority of these indicators were trying to meet more than the law actually demanded. As matters presently stood, he could not see the sense of the signals “4 ” and “ 5,” as laid down in the signalling code. Hitherto these had always been used as cautionary signals, and he thought they should be continued as such. He had heard some managers arguing that the signals “ 4 ” and “ 5 ” as presently set forth in the code were intended as signals to raise and lower men steadily. Such, however, was not the case, and, in his view, some strong representa- tions should be made to the Chief Inspector of Mines, so as to have the phraseology of the Act altered from “ the following signals are for otherwise than with persons,” to “ the following signals are for persons or otherwise.”