April 23, 1915.	THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.	865

have again returned to the disturbed state from
which during recent weeks they had shown signs of
recovering. The Lancashire house coal trade appeared
to be slackening, and prices are less firm. The
demand in Yorkshire is still very strong, and, fortu-
nately, traffic and labour conditions have improved.
No change in the position of the Derbyshire market
is noticeable, rhe demand continues to exceed the
supply A slightly easier tone is to be found in the
Cardiff market, and Admiralty orders are reported
to be less urgent. Trade in Scotland is brisk, and
prices firm.

Mr. J. Drummond Paton, at a meeting of the South
Staffordshire and Warwickshire Institute of Mining
Engineers, on Monday, read a paper dealing with
hydraulic stowing, in which he urged coalowners to
adopt modern methods in the development of their
seams.

An interesting discussion on substitutes for timber
supports took place, on Saturday, amongst the
members of the Midland Counties Institution of
Engineers.

The Government have prohibited the export of
anthracite coals to certain European countries. On
Wednesday, the Admiralty received a deputation of
Swansea shippers, who urged the partial removal of
the prohibition.

It is understood that the Home Office enquiry into
the conditions of the coal mining industry, under-
taken with the double object of setting free miners
for enlistment and maintaining the production, has
now been completed.

Mr. Runciman in the House of Commons on
Tuesday gave figures showing the output of coal
during February and March. He stated that the
decreases, as compared with the corresponding
months last year, were respectively 11'9 per cent,
and 10'8 per cent.

The South Wales Miners’ Federation have decided
to discontinue the levy of 6d. per week towards the
Prince of Wales’ Fund.

According to Mr. Runciman, the Government have
already taken steps to act upon two of the recom-
mendations contained in the report of the Retail Coal
Prices Committee.

The South Yorks Coal Trade Association have
resolved that the advances in prices of coal for home
consumption should not, in new contracts, exceed
5s. to 6s. per ton above the prices prevailing before
the war.

The Home Office have just issued a report of an
investigation made by Dr. Wheeler at Eskmeals into
the subject of electric signalling in mines.

Several papers of interest to the coal trade were
read at a trade conference, opened at Cardiff on
Tuesday for the purpose of advancing the claims of
South Wales as an industrial centre.

The Miners’ Federation met on Wednesday and
Thursday to agree on the policy to be pursued to
secure a 20 per cent advance inAvages to cover the
increased cost of living. The President of the Board
of Trade, at his own request, met the men on the
first day and suggested that they should try locally
to obtain the advance. When this was put to the
meeting on Thursday, it was defeated. A resolution
advocating a national strike was also lost, and it was
decided to ask the Government to convene a national
conference between the representatives of owners and
miners. The conference will meet again to-day
(Friday).

A deputation representing the coal owners met
the President of the Board of Trade yesterday
(Thursday). The owners subsequently passed a
resolution recommending the coal owners in various
districts to consider the question of the prices of coal
for home consumption, with a view to moderating
them.

During the last few weeks abuse has
The War been showered upon the workers
Bonus. without much regard to justice or
policy; we need have no hesitation,
however, in denouncing the action of the hot-heads
amongst the South Wales miners, who have
threatened to strike unless their demand for a 20 per-
cent. war bonus is conceded, as altogether unworthy

of their class. Not that this line of action is likely
to commend itself to the majority; but it cannot be
ignored that in these bombastic threats, which are
the product of Ruskin College, the Miners’ Federa-
tion discern their opportunity. They know that the
Government cannot allow a stoppage to take place
at the present time, and visions of nationalisation
begin to acquire tangible shape in the minds of
Mr. Smillie and his confederates. Even should this
design fail, the miners’ leaders may hope by such
means to force the employers to accept the principle
of settlement on national lines.

If they succeeded in either direction, what would
the miners achieve ? The opposition of the owners
to general conventions is not based upon prejudice,
nor upon any mercenary consideration, but is due to
the knowledge that the variation in the. natural and
industrial conditions prohibits such a course ; where
attempts have actually been made in the past to settle
urgent questions on a national basis, it has always
been found necessary, sooner or later, to revert to.
negotiation on a sectional basis. A conspicuous
example is afforded by the Minimum Wage Act..
The Government in that case found it necessary in
the end to establish a number of joint boards greatly
in excess of the number of conciliation boards then
existing for the adjustment of wages questions, and
in the case of several of these joint boards supple-
mentary awards had to be made for groups of
coliieries which it was found impossible to bring
under the general district scale. This disparity,
which is always to be observed between the export
districts and those engaged in the manufacturing
and domestic branches of the trade, has been greatly
accentuated by the war, owing to the dislocation of
the means of transport. Thus it will be seen that
the Miners’ Federation gain nothing more than a
succes (Vestime in bringing all the owners together at
one table. It would only result in a waste of time
and labour, and in any case, whatever may be said
for national settlement as a doctrine, this is not the
time to raise the question.

Then as regards State control. Let us look at it
from the standpoint of the men ; for them it is but a
change of taskmasters. The Prime Minister, at
Newcastle, stated that 217,000 mitiers had enlisted
since war began—20 per cent, of the total number
—and nearly 50 per cent, of the miners of
mditary age. There has been, as he said, an
influx of some 70,000 men from other industries,
but many of them are quite inexperienced and
unskilled, and the shortage of men in actual
numbers is still 14 per cent., with the result there
has been a decline of about 12 per cent, of the
normal output, while the demand has risen above
the normal level. This is a solid fact that has to be
faced, and the difficulties cannot be dissolved by
juggling with wages and the cost of living, or by
asking the Government to try their prentice hand as
managers of collieries. The only remedy lies in
more strenuous work. The recommendations of the
Retail Coal Prices Committee, two of which the
Government are said to have adopted, only touch the
fringe of the question and, if they affect the miner at
all, do so adversely from the material standpoint.
Active intervention must assuredly convince the
Government that the first remedy lies in suspending
the Eight Hours Act. You cannot chide artisans for
only working 69 hours per week, and, at the same
time, prohibit miners from working more than 48.
It appears that Sir Richard Redmayne’s committee
have nearly approached the completion of their
labours, and we are curious to know what their
judgment on this point may turn out to be,
for the temporary suspension of the Eight Hours
Act is so obvious a measure that it cannot be
burked in favour of other palliatives the practical
effect of which it is impossible to anticipate.
It may be observed that in the case of the large
proportion of pit workers employed upon a tonnage
basis, the opportunity to work overtime at once
places in their grasp the means of meeting the
increased cost of living. The war has altered the
ratio between work and pleasure for all of us.

The question of money wages will not be ignored
by the employers, but they may justly resent the
imposition of fresh and onerous conditions such as

those contained in the new wages agreement proposed
by the South Wales Miners’ Federation and the
abrogation of the existing organisations for dealing
with wages. New methods of adjusting wages can
very well be left for consideration until the task that
lies directly in front of us has been accomplished,
and if the miners persevere on their present lines,
we cannot evade the impression that they are anxious,
as Mr. Vernon Hartshorn has threatened, to make
capital while, and because, the supply of labour is
short.

The Home Office report just issued
Electric on battery-bell signalling systems is
Signalling the result of an investigation carried
in	out at Eskmeals by Dr. R. V.

Mines.	Wheeler, and is, in fact, an amplifi-

cation of previous experiments under-
taken as a result of the Senghenydd explosion in
1913. The object in view was to obtain a system of
bare-wire signalling free from the danger of
igniting firedamp. The details of the invesntigatio
are given in another column. The result is claimed
to be satisfactory, and a safe method of electric
sierialling’ is believed to have been evolved. This
interesting research is a further confirmation, if
such were necessary, of the great value of the Home
Office Experimental Station, and is a striking proof
of. our contention that the utility of such an establish-
ment has not by any means become exhausted.

The most important part of the conclusions arrived
at as a result of these investigations is that to which
Sir R. A. S. Redmayne calls special notice in a covering
communication issued at the instance of the Secre-
tary of State—viz., that the types of electric bell in
prdinary use in coal mines are unsafe mainly on
account of their being “over-powered”—that is to
say, they give too much current. All the bells
tested, when used with a battery of 10 wet Leclanche
cells, giving 15 volts, gave a current at the break-
flash on short-circuiting close to the bell considerably
in excess of the minimum current necessary to ignite
a methane-air mixture. This excess of current is not
due to the voltage so much as to self-induction, and.
arises from the large number of coils of wire on the
bell-magnets. This self-induction largely increases
the intensity of the spark at the “break” of the circuit.
. But, on the other hand, if the self-induction of the coils
is reduced by taking away one of the bobbins, or by
diminishing the number of coils, the current passing
is increased by the reduced resistance of the circuit,
so that in certain conditions what is gained
in one direction may be lost in another. This danger,
however, is easily overcome by the use of wet
Leclanche cells instead of dry cells. Ten wet cells of
the above type only give a current when short-
circuited of about 1’4 amperes at 15 volts, whereas
10 dry cells gave over 12 amperes under the same
conditions, and even two such cells gave more than
4 amperes, a current in excess of that required to
ignite firedamp.

Thus it appeal s as if. the dry cell should disappear
from use in signalling circuits in mines: and from
Dr. Wheeler’s report it would seem that the
standard battery should be not more than 10 wet
Leclanche cells of quart size.

Then, as to the bell itself, the report suggests some
modification of existing forms. As previously stated,
the self-induction can be diminished by using only a
single bobbin, or by reduction of the number of coils ;
but with the above standard battery there may be so
little margin of current that the extra resistance of a
long circuit might suffice to render the bell inoperative.
An experiment was tried in a Durham colliery,
however, with a single bobbin bell, wound with
brass wire, and at 1,620 yds. the bell rang strongly,
being still distinct but more feeble at 1,910 yds.
Probably the most suitable way to deal with the
bells now in use will be found to consist in the
introduction of a non-inductively wound resistance
coil in series with the magnet coils. Owing to the
fact that most bells appear to be so greatly “ over-
powered ” there should be usually a large margin of
resistance available for reducing the current to a safe
limit.

Dr. Wheeler gives some useful information upon
this point. For example, in the case of an ordinarjr