April 23, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

875

Newport Harbour Board has had the returns for March,
which showed material increase in the imports of iron ore
as compared with the corresponding period of last year, but
.pitwood, on the other hand, had a decline of nearly 3,000
loads. Deals and timber, however, were very much higher.
Goal exports were down by 62,500 tons, the total last month
being only 343,870 tons. With regard to the entrance of the
Alexandra Dock, the dredging committee having failed to
reach agreement with the Dock Company, it was stated that
arbitration proceedings would be resorted to.

The subject of pit head baths is discussed in the second
annual report of the South Wales Garden Cities and Town
Planning Association, of which Mr. David Davies, M.P,
(proprietor of the Ocean Collieries), is the president. It is
stated that the association has given active support to the
movement, and that one of the most useful gatherings was
held at Trealaw, under the joint auspices of the association
and the Rhondda district of the Miners’ Federation. This
meeting was addressed by Mr. David Davies, M.P., and
also by Mr. W. Brace, M.P. (president of the Federation),
and other of the miners’ leaders. The report states : “ The
experience of all who have been engaged in advocating this
reform is that the system-is not at all understood. More
important than lectures and newspaper correspondence would
be the installation of model systems at a few’ collieries in
different parts of the coalfield. The Ocean Company are now
providing a pioneer installation at their Treharris collieries.
Ballots to ascertain the attitude of the men had been taken
at a few collieries, but'the requisite two-thirds majority has
not yet been obtained.”

For their South Wales works and collieries, Messrs. Guest,
Keen and Nettlefolds have just made four appointments,
necessitated by the death of the late Mr. William Evans,
general manager. Mr. Howell R. Jones becomes general
manager of the Dowlais works and collieries and the
Cyfarthfa undertaking. He has hitherto been colliery agent
for both Dowlais and Cyfarthfa, was trained at Dowlais
works, and served as assistant manager to the late Mr. W.
H. Martin. In 1901 he was appointed agent to the Cyfarthfa
works and collieries, and when these were taken over
by Messrs. Guest, Keen and Company in 1902, he retained
that position until 1909, when he took the position he is
now vacating. Mr. Jones is succeeded as colliery agent by
Mr. Tudor Davis, formerly of Nixon’s Collieries, where he
was manager of the Navigation undertaking for 10 years,
subsequently manager of the Albion Colliery, and has been
manager of Messrs. Guest Keen’s Abercynon undertaking
for five years. A few months back he became assistant
agent to Mr. Howell Jones, and is now agent for the whole
of the Dowlais and Cyfarthfa collieries. Mr. Tudor Davis
distinguished himself in rescue work during the Senghenydd
explosion. He takes a deep interest in ambulance instruc-
tion, and also in the County Council mining classes. At
Cardiff, Mr. A. K. Reese becomes general manager of the
Dowlais Iron and Steel Works adjoining the docks. Trained
in America, Mr. Reese came to Cardiff in 1902, and since
1906 has been works manager at Cardiff under the late Mr.
William Evans. Mr. T. Faenor Jones has been appointed
manager of the Dowlais Iron and Steel Works at Dowlais.
He is a brother of Mr. Howell Jones, and comes from the
Wishaw Steel Works, Glasgow. He was for some years at
Cyfarthfa and Dowlais, having been away in Glasgow for
only two years.

One of the oldest, if not actually the oldest miners’ leader
in the country is Mr. Thomas Halliday, now 80 years of age.
Mr. Halliday lives in Cardiff, and it is proposed to raise
funds for a testimonial. He was the first vice-chairman of
the Miners’ National Union, and afterwards president of
the Amalgamated Association of Miners. So far back as
1857 he worked in trade union interests amongst the collieries
in South Wales, and was very active in the great strikes of
1871 and 1875, helping subsequently to draft the sliding
scale which regulated the wage rate till 1898.

At Cardiff on Tuesday, an important conference of
employers, chemists, and others wTas opened, to consider.the
claims of South Wales as an ideal centre for the establish-
ment of industries. The conference, which has been
arranged jointly by the Technical Schools Committee and the
Development Committee of the City of Cardiff, took place
at the South Wales Institute of Engineers, Mr. J. Stanfield,
the chairman of the Technical Schools Committee, presiding.
—Prof. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S., in opening the proceed-
ings, said coal must be their main object of attack. He
believed it would be their national duty, at an early date, to
enquire into the great questions of the ownership and true
use of coal He saw no reason why not only the dye industry,
but' chemical industry generally, should not be more
developed in this district. The first proposal was that they
should revise their entire education system, and insist that
it be made to fit the needs of life. Secondly, stock should
be taken of their coal; not so much of its quantity as of its
quality; that they should find out what is in it, and what
can be made of it.—Mr. Thos. G. Watts, B.Sc., of the Great
Western Colliery Company Limited, gave an interesting
paper on “ Coke Oven By-products.” He said the date of
the introduction of by-product ovens into Wales was some 20
years after their introduction into England. The delay in
Wales was probably due more to the low volatile matter
pertaining to South Wales coal, and the consequent difficulty
in carrying out the process. The total number of by-product
ovens in the coalfield was only 694, representing, roughly,
some 1,725,000 tons of coal carbonised annually. The coke
produced, however, was of a very fine quality, and the
absence of any necessity to either compress the coal before
“ charging,” or to adopt special methods of quenching in
order to produce a coke of good appearance and texture, had
assisted in the popularity of the by-product oven in the dis-
trict. The possibility of heating ovens with “ producer
gas ” made from a proportion of the coal at works where
the volatile matter in the coal was below the figure generally
considered necessary for by-product ovens (a process which
was as yet only under consideration) would perhaps extend
the number of plants. The plant must be sufficiently large
to reduce the cost of production if by-product coking was to
be made a really profitable undertaking. Having been
appreciated in the later plants, by-product coking may be
made a most profitable undertaking. Experience in that
district seemed to point out an easy advantage in the selec-
tion of vertical-flued, ovens. South Wales coal, he said,
exhibited several peculiarities in their transference into coke.
One of the chief was the high temperature required for com-
plete carbonisation. South Wales coals also exhibited a
transitory expansion during the coking period, and therefore
the existence of long lengths of brickwork, having no
strengthening ties, an impossibility in a horizontal flue, was
liable to give way under the stresses of an expanding charge.
There were quite suitable clays in England, and perhaps
also in Wales, despite the assertions to the contrary. The

question of suitable clays should, therefore, be taken up, and
. their availability noted. Speaking of the by-products, Mr.

Watts observed that at the Rowell Duffryn Colliery Com-
pany’s by-product plant at Bargoed, the surplus gas which
was derived from their ovens was used almost entirely for
the production of electrical power by gas engines. A small
proportion was, however, sold to Bargoed for town’s illu-
mination. This question was dealt with by the Rhondda
Urban Council and the Glamorgan Colliery Company, with
reference to the surplus gas from the ovens at Llwynypia,
but the negotiations were abandoned. This gas was offered
to the Council at 7Jd. per 1,000 cu. ft. The estimated
amount to be supplied was 2,000,000 cu. ft. dailv. The
retail price of gas by the Council was 4s. 3d. per 1,000 cu. ft.,
leaving an apparent margin for expenses and profits of
3s. 6-}d. per 1,000 cu. ft. The abandonment of the Rhondda
scheme was a retrograde step, and the subsequent period of
uselessness which befel this surplus gas was much to be
deprecated. The total sulphur present in coking coal in the
district amounted to an average of over 1 per cent. Practi-
cally 0-80 per cent, remained in the coke, leaving the balance
of over 0-20 per cent, in the gas. In only one plant, that,
of the Powell-Duffryn, was this sulphur recovered, although
there was more than sufficient in all coals if totally
recovered, to supply sufficient sulphuric acid for the sulphate
plant. . Recovery in a form suitable for the production of
sulphuric acid by absorption in iron oxide was inexpensive,
and it was much to be deprecated that further steps have not
been taken in this direction. Very little work in connection
with the recovery of cyanides from the gas and from waste
liquors had been done in this country. The demand for
cyanides made the process well worth considering. It was
a moot question whether the distillation of tar should be
carried out at the coking plant or transferred in tanks to
tar distillers. An analysis of a representative tar gave the
following results :—Ammoniacal liquor, 2-60 per cent.;
90 per cent, benzol, 0-05 per cent.; 50 per cent benzol, 0*12
per cent.; solvent naphtha, 1-25 per cent.; naphthalene,
6-80 per cent.; creosote and middle oil, 16-00 per cent.;
anthracene oil, 11-66 per cent.; anthracene paste, 16-44
per cent.; pitch, 45-08 per cent. In practice, the yield of
pitch was somewhat higher, the distillation being stopped
earlier. There was practically no yield of phenol. There
was no valid reason why the large output of anthracene
which would emanate from the coalfield, were the production
organised, should not be centrally treated and converted into
alizarin, much in the same way that a portion of the benzol
yields of the Lancashire coalfields were at the Clayton ’
Aniline Conipany’s Works, in Manchester, converted into
aniline. Something should be done, if only in the direction
of experiment, to bring about a more satisfactory state of.
affairs.

Northumberland and Durham.

Tyne Shipments—The New Miners' Member—Developments
at East Rainton.

At the Tyne Improvement Commissioners’ meeting held
at Newcastle last Thursday, it was report that during the
month of March 1,298,218 tons of coal were shipped from
the Tyne, as compared with 1,760,410 tons in March last
year, a decrease of 462,192 tons. In the same month, 24,031
tons of coke were shipped, as compared with 24,768 tons in
the corresponding month of last year, a decrease of 737 tons.
In the first three months of this year 3,440,289 tons of coal
were shipped from the river, as compared with 5,068,858
tons during the first three months of 1914, a decrease of
1,628,569 tons.

Charles Fishburn, a driver at Elemore Colliery, was
smartly punished by the Durham County magistrates last
week for having kicked a pony twice in the mouth and thrice
in the abdomen, loosening one of the animal’s teeth and
raising lumps on its body. He was fined £3.

The fact that two shot firers working in Sherburn Hill
Colliery were not in touch with each other was primarily
responsible for the accident whereby Joseph Smith lost his
life there recently. A shot was being fired in-bye and
another out-bye at about the same time. Smith took shelter
when he knew that the former was going off, and resumed
his journey after the explosion. He was quite near the
place at which the out-bye shot was when it exploded, blow-
ing in the back of his head. It transpired that Robert
Carroll, the shot-firer out-bye, had mistaken the report of
the in-bye shot for his own. The jury agreed that the acci-
dent was due to an error in judgment, and recommended
an arrangement between shot-firers when shots were being
fired in the same headway or at about the same time.

Aid. Samuel Galbraith, who, it is expected, will be elected
unopposed for the Parliamentary seat rendered vacant by the
death of Mr. J. Wilson, was born in Ring Neil, county
Down, Ireland, in 1853, and has spent a lifetime of associa-
tion with mining work. During his 21J years’ service as
checkweighman at Browney, the colliery was never once
before the Joint Committee on the question of disputed wages
—a fact which bears excellent testimony to the tactful dis-
charge of bis duties. He turned the “ crake ” for “Tommy”
Ramsay, one of the pioneers of the Durham Miners’ Asso-
ciation, and took part in the settlement of the 1868 strike.
From 1883, Mr. Galbraith was selected in alternate years
a member of the executive committee, and was afterwards
appointed to the Federation board. In 1900 he succeeded
Aid. House as Joint Committee secretary, and in 1911 was
made treasurer of the Association, but became financial
secretary more recently. He attended the first International
Congress of miners in Belgium, and has since taken part
in many similar meetings. His excellent work as a county
councillor soon promoted him to the rank of aiderman, and
he has for a considerable time been an active justice of the
peace for the county.

Saturday afternoon witnessed the opening of a block of
12 homes which have been built in connection with the
Durham County Aged Mine Workers’ Homes Association,
at Ebchester. The homes, which comprise two rooms apiece,
with scullery, pantry, self-contained yard, and small gardens
back and front, have been built by the contributions of the
workmen at Chopwell, Hamsterley, Derwent, Medomsley,
Hunter, and Westwood collieries, together with the sub-
scriptions from the mine owners and the leading residents of
the district. The opening ceremony was performed by Mr.
F. 0. Kirkup, chief mining agent for the Consett Iron
Company, who, in a speech, said it was now some 16 years
since the Aged Miners’ Homes Association first started this
scheme, and there were now 500 of these homes in various
parts of the country, all occupied by old miners.

The Lambton and Hetton Collieries Limited, who have
important mines in the county of Durham, are about to
embark upon a scheme which will considerably develop the
collieries in the East Rain ton district. Recently they pur-
chased the Moorsley and Hazard collieries from the North

Hetton Colliery Company, and it is proposed to construct a
railway from the Hazard Pit to the Nicholson Pit, in order
to connect the East Rainton group of collieries with the
Lambton group. Large sidings will also be laid down at
the Nicholson Pit, whence the coals will be taken on to the
Lambton Railway for quicker transit to the shipping
centres. In addition, a new bridge will be erected over the
Durham highway, and the old Londonderry level-crossing
will be done away with. The engineers for the scheme are
Messrs. D. Balfour and Son, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and
the contractors are Messrs. G. Simpson and Company, also
of Newcastle.

Mr. Thomas Mann, under-manager to Messrs. Strakers
and Love at their Willington Colliery (Sunnybrow), has
been appointed under-manager of South Hetton Colliery.

It is stated that the Blue Bell Pit, one of the Backworth’
group of collieries, usually employing about 500 men, is to
be permanently closed down, as being practically worked
out. No. unemployment will result, however, as all the dis-
placed miners can be absorbed by the other pits of the same
group.

Work at Netherton Howard Colliery was resumed last
Monday, with about 70 hewers drawn from Netherton Hall
Pit, belonging to the same company. Normally, over 200
hewers are employed at the Howard Pit, but there is such
a shortage of minors at present that the re-start that has
been made was the best that could be done under the
circumstances.

Cleveland.

Quarterly Iron Returns.

According to the quarterly returns of the Middlesbrough
Chamber of Commerce, there were at the end of March
within the port of Middlesbrough 46 blastfurnaces in opera-
tion out of 77 built, as compared with 52 in operation and
77 built a year ago. The returns show that during the
first quarter of the year the production of pig iron in
Middlesbrough was 552,000 tons, 322,000 tons of which was
Cleveland iron, and 230,000 tons haematite, spiegel, basic,
and other special irons. For the previous quarter the output
was 594,000 tons, of which 322,000 tons W’as Cleveland,
and 272,000 tons haematite, etc., and for the first three
months of last year the make was 630,000 tons, 330,000 tons
being Cleveland, and 300,000 tons haematite, etc. Imports
of foreign ore to Middlesbrough last quarter reached 388,330
tons, as compared with 325,629 tons during the previous
quarter, and 519,045 tons during the first quarter of 1914.
The total vahm of goods other than coal and coke exported
to foreign and colonial destinations from Middlesbrough
during the quarter was £1,488,627, as compared with
£2,478,511 for the first three months a year ago, or a decrease
of £989,884.

Yorkshire.

Coal Under Doncaster—Progress at Barmboro'—Yorkshire
Owners’ Decision as to Contract Prices.

The^Doncaster Corporation is giving notice of its intention
to apply to the Local Government Board for approval to the
alienation by way of lease to the Right Hon. Earl Fitz-
william, of the Barnsley seam of coal lying under its land
situate in Doncaster, in the parish of Cantley, and Kirk
Sandal, and which is the subject of an agreement dated
March 25, 1915, between the Corporation and the Earl.
The amount.involved is 1,500 acres or thereabouts, and the
lease is to be for the term of 105 years from June 1, 1908.
A copy of the memorial to the Local Government Board
and of the agreement can be seen at the offices of the town
clerk.

It is reported that good progress is now being made at
the new colliery at Barmboro’, near Doncaster, and that
already something like 200 tons of coal per day is being
wound, which will be rapidly increased as the opening out
process develops. Both shafts are down to the Barnsley
seam, and have been for some time. Sinking is now being
continued to the Parkgate seam. Here, as elsewhere in the
county, miners are scarce, and are becoming increasingly so
throughout Yorkshire. The logical effect is smaller outputs,
and, in view of the great demand for coal, higher prices all
.round. The call for men for the making of munitions of
war, or for enlistment in the great second Army is daily
becoming more and more insistent, and the pits are suffer-
ing, and are likely to continue to do so.

An accident occurred last week at the Wath Main Colliery,
resulting in the death of a pit sinker, named John Avery,
who was engaged in the sinking of the new drift. It appears
he was charging a shot hole, when a misfire detonator,
which was in it, exploded, and blew off a portion of his face
and his right hand.

Members of the South Yorkshire Coal Trade Association
met on Monday at Sheffield, to consider their position with
regard to the outnut of coal and prices. The following reso-
lution was unanimously adopted :—“ The present position
of the country renders it necessary that coalowners should
use their best endeavours to control advance in the prices of
all coal for home consumption, so as to keep the figure within
reasonable limits consistent with the circumstances of pro-
duction, and therefore the. advance on expiring contracts
should not exceed 5s. or 6s. per ton on the prices prevailing
before the war.” The meeting represented practically the.
whole of the coal output of the district. The bulk of the
coal obtained in the South' Yorkshire pits is sold on yearly
contract, and -the “ free ” coal equals only about 10 per cent,
of the output, and many pits have none to s^are. Some
merchants are asking for bigger supplies than are available,
and to obtain them offer inflated prices : hence the present
difficulty. The resolution, said an official, was intended to
put an end to the absurd competition for supplies. “ If the
public are exploited after this,” he said, “ the public will
know where to place the blame.”

Lancashire and Cheshire.

The committee of the Hulton Colliery Disaster, Relief
Fund met in Bolton on Thursday, April 15, under the
presidency of the Mayor (Aid. J. Seddon), to consider the
question of increasing the payments during the war to
widows and women treated as widows. After discussion,
the following resolution was adopted:—“In view of the.
rise in the cost of the necessaries of life since the commence-
ment of the war, and until otherwise determined by this
committee, the weekly allowance hitherto paid to widows
and persons dealt with in the class of widows, be supple-
mented by a war 'bonus of 2s.” The honorary
secretary of the West Stanley Disaster Fund wrote
asking the committee if they could see their way to make a
contribution to that fund, and the committee passed a reso-
lution deferring consideration of the request until, after the
publication of the. report of the committee appointed at a