May 14, 1915. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 1029 A COAL-HANDLING PLANT AT CAMDEN TOWN. It may be recalled that in the issue of the Colliery Guardian of October 24, 1913, was published an illus- trated description of a new type of coaling plant which had then lately been put to service by the London and North-Western Railway Company at Crewe. In the accompanying photographs we are enabled to illustrate a further interesting innovation in the coaling of locomotives which has been adopted by Mr. C. .L Bowen Cooke, the chief mechanical engineer of the London and North-Western Railway Company, in close proximity to the. locomotive sheds at Camden Town. This installation was designed, erected, and manufac- tured by Messrs. Fraser and Chalmers Limited, of Erith, Kent. It is designed with a view to coaling loco- motives quickly, to measure the coal as it is put on board the tender, and to handle the coal without pre- paration of any kind, that is to say, to convey any size of coal direct from the trucks to the engine.” An underground hopper is arranged, into which the coal is dumped direct from the wagons. The wagons are end-door type, and are emptied by raising the end opposite to the door by means of hydraulic rams. Bottom door wagons may also be used, and the coal .1 “ . s. L Fig. 1.—Coal Handling Plant at Camden Town. Fig. 2.—Hydraulic Tipping Gear. discharged direct to the hopper. The underground hopper has a capacity of about 15 tons, and the coal is taken from this hopper by a chute direct to the con- veyor. The flow of coal is controlled by a quadrant valve, which can be regulated to give the required opening for any size of coal. The conveyor consists of a series of measuring hoppers, each holding one-third of a ton. The speed of the conveyor is 30 ft. per minute, so that the measuring chambers pass the mouth of the hopper, and are filled at the rate of about eight per minute, which gives a capacity of about 160 tons per hour. It is, therefore, evident that the coal is placed on the engine tender at the rate of about 2| tons per minute, and at this rate the largest locomotives can be coaled in under three minutes. The total height the coal is lifted is 35 ft., and the horizontal distance from the hopper to the top tumbler is 82 ft. 7 in. The buckets are of mild steel, and are carried on a mild steel chain. Each bucket is sup- ported by four links, composed of 44 in. by |,in. plates and rollers 9 in. diameter, with a 2 in. tread. All rollers are bushed with solid drawn steel bushes. The tumblers are of cast iron, and are five-sided. Two are arranged at the top, and two at the bottom. The conveyor is driven at its head end by a 15-horse power motor, and this is the only power required on the whole plant. The motor is connected to the driving tumblers of the conveyor by worm and spur reduction gear, and screw take-up gear is provided on the lower tumblers for taking up the slack on the chain. The hydraulic gear consists of two cylinders and rams, one at each end of the hopper. These are com- pactly arranged undergrourfd near the hopper, and are operated by levers on the surface. Two men look after the plant; one arranges for the handling of the full trucks to the hopper and the tipping of the same, and the other attends to the loading of the engines. On a plant where fewer engines have to be dealt with, one man could probably look after both operations without any trouble. Previous to the introduction of this plant the coaling at Camden Town was done by hand, the Camden Town sheds being designed for the simultaneous accommoda- tion of eight to 10 locomotives. Ordinarily, over 100 locomotives are coaled daily, while during holiday times this number has been greatly exceeded. The staff required for the purpose was, therefore, considerable. Compared with the previously existing coaling sheds, the plant takes up very little room, so that it results in a saving of space, wages, and time. The charge for power used is very small indeed. The time now spent in coaling is less than the time taken to shunt an engine on to the turntable, turn it, and move it away, and the engine is completely coaled without loss of time while it is waiting its turn at the turntable. In other words, the engines can be coaled and turned in no more time than it takes simply to turn them. Russia's Coal Problem.—At a meeting of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, held in Petrograd from April 8 to 21, the engineer Linsky gave a lecture on the coal wealth of Russia and its rational exploitation. After calling atten- tion to the part coal has to play in the growing industry of Russia, the lecturer said that to place the industry of pro- duction and consumption of coal on a business basis .is accompanied by great difficulties; and it is these difficulties that have caused the present scarcity of coal in the country. In Russia, he said, where there are 35,000,000 dessiatines (Id. =2*7 acres), the preponderating element of production is anthracite, with a relatively limited supply of long flame coal, the reserves of which are estimated at 109 milliards of poods. He proposes, that the long flame coal should be kept for purposes for which it may be necessary; and that for industry generally only anthracite, the reserves of which are so immense, should be used. He thinks it will be necessary after the war to use English coal largely, notwithstanding the opinions of many people that have recently been expressed, requiring all facilities to be afforded to Donetz coal, in order that it may be used in the distant parts of the Empire. He justifies his view in that, in the first place, Cardiff coal is cheaper; and, in the second, by using English coal .the Donetz coal is conserved. He made reference to what, in his opinion, is an anomaly : the Moscow region, being near the deposits of long flame coal, uses anthracite, whilst other regions situated near anthracite mines use long flame coal. He reads the cause of the coal famine in the unsatisfactory organisation of production, and the uneconomical and miscalculated consumption of the coal. He insists on the introduction of technical improve- ments in mining, particularly the use of motors of a high coefficient of useful power, the improvement of the condi- tion of the workmen, a coal protection committee whose duty would be to supervise the economical and rational use of coal in industry. For this last-named purpose, he recom- mends the use of vertical watertube boilers giving 90 per cent, of the useful powder of the fuel. Finally he recom- mends the use of economisers. BOOK NOTICES. Reid’s Handy Colliery Guide for Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire. 252 pp.; 4 in. x 6j in. 1 map. New- castle: Andrew Reid and Company. Price, 2s. 6d. This little guide is well known to those engaged in the mining industry in the North of England. It con- tains a list of colliery owners, collieries, agents, managers and engineers in the three counties, and these also repeated separately and arranged alphabetically. There are also lists of fitters, mines inspectors, etc. The remainder of the volume is occupied by the text of the various Acts and Regulations, and by a few pages of useful data and statistics. The war and the struggle for markets gives an added interest to the well-known Directory of the Merchants, Manufacturers, and Shippers of the World, the 1915 edition of which has just been issued by Messrs. Kelly’s Directories Limited. The book contains over 3,600 closely printed pages (on the vast majority of which as many as 400 names are to be found). It is intended for the use of all merchants all over the world, and the headings throughout are given in English and French, and further also in the commercial language of the country to which any particular section refers. The information given relates to 20,000 foreign and colonial cities and towns, and there are a quarter of a million trade classifications given under them. The indices consisting of 320 pp. give some 150,000 references, and are so complete that by the use of the first index the pages relating to any individual place can be ascertained in a moment, and by the use of the “ Index to trades,” a merchant carrying on any particular trade at any particular place can be found with equal facility; and this, too, by both the English and the foreign merchant, as the latter has for the purpose only to make use of the indices to trades given in French, German, and Spanish. With practically the exception of the w’ork, other than that in Russia, done from Hamburg (where Messrs. Kelly’s office has been seized by the German Govern- ment), and of that in Belgium, in the great industrial towns of the North of France, and in Turkey, the whole of the pages of the present edition of the directory have been duly corrected. This is a feat, in view of the difficulties under which the work of compilation has had to be carried out. Messrs. Kelly’s Directories Limited also issue the 1915 edition of the Customs Tariffs of the World, which extends to over 1,182 pp. in double columns. The arrangement of the work is so simple that with the help of the general index, and of those given at the com- mencement of the different countries, the duty on a particular article levied by any particular country can be ascertained in a moment. The book is therefore a really invaluable one for export and import' merchants and manufacturers. Tariffs' are subject to constant alterations and amendments, and no year passes without some being wholly’ re-modelled. Messrs. William Hodge and Company announce the early publication of a supplement to The Law of Contract During War, by Prof. W. F. Trotter, bring- ing the law up to date. Although of a supplementary nature, the volume will be complete in itself, as it contains a revised and enlarged statement of the whole law. The 49th Annual Report of the Cardiff Incorporated Chamber of Commerce is in itself an interesting survey of a particularly troublous period. In addition to the coal trade and freight market, such topics as pitwood, dock accommodation, allocation of tips, the French patente licence, the Royal Commission on Railways, commercial education, etc., the “ triple bond,” and the moratorium, etc., are included. The report, as published at Is., is accompanied by numerous tables, and should be useful both as a record and as a work of reference. Mr. Effingham Wilson, of 54, Threadneedle-street, E. C., has just published, at the price of 6d. each, pamphlets containing tables showing the deductions of income-tax at various rates from dividend and interest payments and rents. The tables show not only the amount to be deducted, but also the net amount after such deduction has been made. In conjunction with Mr. Effiingham Wilson, Messrs. F. C. Mathieson, of 16, Copthall-avenue, E.C., have just issued the ninth edition of their Stock Exchanges 10-year Record of Prices and Dividends. This covers the period from 1905 to 1914, and shows the highest and lowest share prices in each year of a very large number of companies dealt with on the London and provincial exchanges, together with the dividends paid and the capital issued. The volume, which is a sheet- anchor to the investor, is sold at 10s. The Barrow Steel Works will be put under Government control on Monday next. During this, week the mills are stopped and the machinery is undergoing the necessary changes in order that a big production of the munitions of war can be carried on, and the works will be transferred from a commercial business to producing munitions of war only. The Bessemer plant will cease operations, and the wire works will be closed,. Partnerships Dissolved.—The London Gazette announces the dissolution of the following partnerships :—T. B. Percy, W. Odam, R. W. C. Barber, and A. Yeo, engineers, at Martin-street, Plymouth, under the style of Stark and Com- pany; G. O. Gnapp and R. A, Stopford, motpr engineers and agents, at Clifford-street, Liondoh, under the style of G. Cecil Gnapp and.Company; F. C. Grund, W. H. A. Butterfield, A. E. Frost, and T. B. Batchelor, electrical engineers and manufacturers, at Turnpike-lane, Hornsey. Middlesex, under the style of the Coleraine Manufacturing Company, as far as concerns T. B. Batchelor.