1086

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

May 21, 1915.

company be increased to £1,500,000, and that the proposals
for the acquisition of the outstanding Port Talbot shares
on the basis of an equivalent exchange at face value should
be approved and carried out. The present intention was
that three of the Port Talbot directors, namely, Mr. B. V.
Vassar Smith (chairman of Lloyds Bank, and of the
Gloucester Wagon Company), Mr. E. L. Evan-Thomas
(director of the Gloucester Wagon Company), and Lord
Quenington, M.P. (director of Lloyds Bank, and of the
Gloucester Wagon Company), should join their board. The
chairman then moved the necessary resolutions approving
of the amalgamation, the increase of the capital to
£1,500,000 by the creation of 650,000 additional ordinary
shares of £1 each, and of the 'alterations of the articles of
association.—The resolutions were unanimously agreed to.

BengalCoal Company Limited.—The company announces
a profit for the half-year ended April 30 (including carry
forward) of Bs. 14,70,000. The dividend recommended is
at the rate of 50 per cent, per annum; Bs. 4,45,000 is
reserved for depreciation and mines development, and
Bs. 2,00,000 carried forward.

Blake Boiler, Wagon and Engineering Company Limited.
—The profit for the year ended March 31 last amounted to
£9,156 12s. 4d., which, with the balance brought forward
from last year, makes the available total £14,195 17s. 6d.
Out of this amount -it is proposed to appropriate £600 for
directors’ fees, and £125 3s. 4d. for preference dividend to
December 31 last. It is recommended that, of the balance
of £13,470 14s. 2d., there should be set aside £2,556 Is. 3d.
for depreciation, £50 9s. 9d. written off expenses in con-
nection with the issue or registration debentures,
£4,509 Ils. 3d. distributed as a dividend of 7J per cent,
on the ordinary shares, £1,000 carried to reserve, and v
balance of £5,354 11s. lid. carried forward to next year’s
account.

Bradford Coal Merchants and Consumers’ Association
Limited.—The profits for the year ended March 31 were
£14,872, and £2,165 was brought forward. Administration
expenses absorb £1,613, and a dividend of 4 per cent, is
proposed on the ordinary shares, adding £1,000 to the
reserve fund, and carrying forward £2,592.

Brunner, Mond and Company Limited.—On the ordinary
for year ended March 31 of 25 per cent., less tax, which is
21 per cent, below last year; £50,000 is placed to suspense,
and £109,000 carried forward, as against £106,900 carried
forward last year.

Carlton Main Colliery Company Limited.—The report for
the year ended March 31 states that there was. for the year
ended March 31, 1914, a balance of undivided profit of
£36,462 5s. 5d., and that the net profit for the year ended
March 31' last, after writing off £41,083 for depreciation,
was £128.413 3s. 2d., making together £164,875 8s. Jd.
There is deducted the interim dividend paid on the “A”
preference shares on September 30, 1914, £2,812; 17s. Id.,
and the interim dividend on the ordinary, shares paid
November 30, 1914, £29,520, together £32,332 17s. Id.,
leaving a balance of £132,542 Ils. 6d. available for disposal.
On April. 1.last a final dividend was paid on the “A” pre-
ference shares, ' absorbing £2,687 9s. lid., leaving the
amount for ■ disposal £129,855 j Is. 7d., out of which the
directors recommend the payment of a final dividend of
15 per cent, (making, with the interim dividend, 20 per
cent.’ for the year), on 540,000 shares fully paid for the
whole year, and on 54,000 shares fully paid as from May 29,
1914, making a total of £88,930 16s. lid., and to carry
forward £40,924 4s.. 8d. 'No debentures'fell due for repay-
ment during the..past year, but the directors have, at the
request of the. holders, redeemed £600, which would not
mature for some time.,

Cory (William).arid Son Limited.—Final of 6 per cent.,
less tax, on the’ordin ary shares, making 10 per cent, for the
year ended March 31, and at thejate of 10 per cent, per
annum on the employees’ shares in respect of the same
period.	\

Dickson and Mann Limited.—The directors intimate the
payment of a dividend of 3 per cent, on the 6 per cent,
cumulative preference shares for the half-year to March 31,
1915.. After deducting £300 for depreciation, and placing
£3,000 to reserve account, the. balance of £761 is carried
forward.

Dorman, Long and Company Limited. — The directors
have decided to pay, on the 14th proX., an interim dividend
of 3 per cent, (free of income-tax) for' the half-year ending
March 31.

Electric Construction Company Limited.—The directors
recommend a dividend at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum
on the ordinary shares for the 12 months ended March 31.

Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company
Limited. — The following dividends are recommended :—
On the “A” preference shares, at the rate of 2J per cent,
(less income-tax), for the half-year ended March 31, 1915,
making 5 per cent; for‘the year; on the “B” preference
shares at the rate of 3 per cent, (less income-tax) for the
half-year ended March 31, 1915, making 6 per cent, for the
year; on the ordinary shares at the rate of 12J per cent,
(less income-tax), ' making with the interim dividend
already paid, 10 per cent, for the year, and a further Is.
per share by way of bonus (also less income-tax).

Mirrlees Bickerton and Day Limited.—The report for the
year ended March 31 states that the net profit, after provid-
ing for depreciation and directors’ fees, is £15,608, to
which falls to be added £2,036 brought forward, making
£17,644. The directors recommend a dividend at the rate
of 7| per cent., less income-tax, on the ordinary share
capital, placing £5,000 to the reserve fund, and carrying
£1,730 forward.

National Explosives Company Limited.—Interim dividend
of 5 per cent., payable June 1.

Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company Limited.—Profits
for 1914, 415,164 dols.; from previous year, 527,886 dols.,
which, with the profits for the year, and 150,000 dols. trans-
ferred from general reserve, makes 1,093,050 dols.; 34,409
dols. paid on account of sinking fund, 76,169 dols. added to
the special reserve funds for general depreciation, etc.,
86.605 dols. .expended for improvements and betterments
and written off, and 3,629 dols. transferred to the insurance
reserve fund. After providing for the above, and for
interest and other charges, including dividends of 3 per cent,
on the common, and 4 per cent, on the preferred stock, for,
the first two quarters of the year, 57,466 dols. remains at
credit of profit and loss account. The company has sold its
output of iron ore for the year. principally in Europe, and
on August' 1 had about. 120,000 tons mined and ready for
shipment. As further shipments were impossible, the ore
mines have since been idle.

Parkgate Iron and Steel Company Limited.—The directors
in their report for the year ending March 31 last, state that
the profit for the year, after providing for income-tax and
depreciation, is £66,642 17s. 6d., to which is added the
balance brought forward from last year, £11,413 3s. 4d.,
making £78,056 0s. lOd. There is deducted the interim
dividend of 9d. per share, paid in December last, £15,000,
and the directors transfer to reserve fund £25,000, leaving
a disposable balance of £38,056 0s. lOd. It is proposed to
distribute this balance as follows :—Further dividend of
Is. 9d. per share, making a total of 2s. 6d. per share, or
12| per cent, for the year, absorbing £35,000, and to carry
forward the balance of £3,056 0s. lOd.

Pease and Partners Limited.—Final dividend of 12s. per
share on the ordinary shares, making 10 per cent, for the
year; also a dividend of 20s. per share on the deferred
shares, being at the rate of 10 per cent, for the year.

Rodez Coal Company Limited. — On the motion of the
British Bank of Northern Commerce Limited, Mr. Justice
Astbury, on the 14th inst., appointed a receiver and
manager of the above company.

Stanley Brothers Limited.—The 19th annual report of the
directors for the year ending December 31, 1914, states that
in the coal trade, results, were most unsatisfactory. In the
spring of the year an average profit was made, but after
war broke out costs went up very considerably, while average
prices did not materially advance, and were not high
enough to compensate for this disadvantage. The trading
profit for the year, after making provision for doubtful
debts was £15,391	16s.	4d., less depreciation

(£7,61.1 Ils. lOd.) and less interest on debentures
(£4,760 7s. lid.), leaving a balance of 3,019 16s. 7d., to
which has to be added the balance brought forward from
1913, £10,573 17s. Id., making a total of £13,593 13s. 8d.,
out of which has been paid interim dividend on the pre-
ference shares at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, less
income-tax, £3,661 6s. lid., leaving an available balance
of £9,932 6s. 9d., which it is now proposed to apportion as
follows :—To pay a further dividend on the preference
shares at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, less income-tax
(paid April 1, 1915), £3,547 8s. 2d.; to carry forward to
next year, £6,384 18s. 7d.	*

Steel Company of Canada Limited. — The net profits,
after expending 341,587 dols. for repairs, maintenance, and
improvements on plant and machinery, were 539,811 dols.
Interest on bonds is 521,138 dols., and the cost of under-
writing bonds of the Steel Company of Canada Limited,
issued during 1914, was 104,475 dols. Dividends paid on
preferred stock are 227,370 dols., making a deficit for the
year of 313,172 dols. While reserve funds have been
increased by 53,640 dols., nothing has been written off for
depreciation. The directors did not feel warranted Mn
paying the dividends on the preferred stock for the third
and fourth quarters of the year.

Whitehaven Haematite Iron and Steel Company Limited.
—The directors report for the year ended-March 31 states
the profit to be £8,928. They have appropriated £4,400 for
the purpose of depreciating the fixed assets, a dividend of
5 per cent, on the ordinary shares absorbs £2,452, and, the
dividend on the preference shares having been paid, £1,934
is carried forward to next year, the directors expressing their
regret at being unable this year to add further to the
reserve fund.

NEW COMPANIES.

Duffryn Tawe Collieries Limited. — Private company.
Begistered office, 32, Fisher-street, Swansea. Begistered
with a capital of £5,000 in £1 shares, to carry on the busi-
ness of colliery and quarry proprietors, miners, manufac-
turers of patent fuel, etc., and to adopt an agreement with
the Duffryn Tawe Collieries Company. Subscribers J.
Thomas, Dunwold Villa, Coedcae, Pontardawe, colliery
overman; O. Jones, Cwmnantllwyd Farm, Pontardawe,
colliery fireman. The first directors not named. Qualifi-
cation, 250 shares.

Industrial Appliances Limited.—Private company. Begis-
tered office, 3, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, W.C. Begistered
May 13. Ironfounders, civil engineers, mechanical engi-
neers, electrical engineers, manufacturers of machinery and
tools of all kinds. Nominal capital, £2,000 in £1 shares.
Directors B. E., Smith,.8, Queen-street, Cheapside, E.C.,
accountant; S. J. Harding, Fairoaks Lodge, Bromley,
journalist.

Instone (S.) and Company (Paris) Limited. — Private
companv. . Begistered office, 22, Billiter-street, London,
E.C. Begistered,.with a capital of 4,000 in £1 shares, to
carry on the business of coal merchants and exporters,
brokers, and agents for the sale of coal, coke, and patent
fuel, shipbrokers and shipping and forwarding agents, ship-
owners, managers of shipping property, engineers,, timber
merchants, shippers, and importers, etc. First directors :
S. Instone (chairman), T. Instone, M. P. Davis, and A.
Instone. Qualification, £100. Bemuneration, £150 each
per annum.

Mirfin (Thos. H.) and Company Limited.—Private com-
pany. Begistered May 10. To acquire business and
undertaking of Thos. H. Mirfin and Company, now carried
on at the Morley Steel Works, Denby-street,' Sheffield; and
to carry on business, of steel and iron manufacturers and
merchants, forgers, filters,’ founders, etc. Nominal capital,
£2,000' in £1 shares. Qualification of directors, £40.
Directors, also subscribers (for one share each) :—T. H.
Mirfin, Morley Steel Works, Denby-street, Sheffield: j. B.
Davies, Morlev Steel Works, Denbv-street, Sheffield, W.
H. Shepard, Frant Steel Works, Sheffield, steel manu-
facturers.

Nantdyrus Colliery Company Limited.—Private companv.
Begistered .with a capital of £2,000, in £1 shares, to carry
on the business of colliery proprietors, coke manufacturers,
miners, smelters, etc. First directors E. Hurford, J. P.
Cadogan, and W. Jones. Qualification, £250.

This list of new companies is taken from the Daily
Register specially compiled by Messrs. Jordan and Sons
Limited, company registration agents, Chancery-lane, E.C.

. Grimsby Coal Exports.—The official return of the quan-
tities of coal exported from Grimsby during the week ended
Friday, May 14, is as follows To'Copenhagen, 1,245 tons *
Dieppe, 590: Esbierg, 350: Gefle, 1,828; Halmstad, 99;
Haugesund, 287; Karlstad, 292; Malmo, 499; Norrkoping’
1,320;. Banders, 2.164; and Botterdam, 516—total, 9,190
tons, all foreign. The totals for the corresponding week of
last year were 15,333 tons foreign and 105 tons coastwise.

ABSTRACTS OF PATENT SPECIFICATIONS
RECENTLY ACCEPTED.

3888 (1914). Improvements relating to the Utilisation of
Peat. M. A. Adam, of 57 and 58, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,
London, W.C., and Wetcarbonizing Limited, of 3, Dean
Farrar-street, Westminster, London, S.W.—Belates to
dewatering peat and its utilisation (inter alia for the pro-
duction of solid or gaseous fuel, chemical substances of value,
such as ammonium compounds, tarry matters and their
derivatives, waxy bodies, and the like), by means involving
heat treatment, such as wetcarbonisation aided or not by
other agencies, such as acids or appropriate metallic com-
pounds. Processes of this kind are set out in—among
others—Patents Nos. 10834/03, 4684/11, 17610/11, 17427/12,
and 25146/12. According to the invention, the peat which
has been treated, and after being reduced to the condition
of a more or less solid cake by an ordinary dewatering pro-
cess, of which filter pressing is typical, is subjected to an
electric current, and simultaneously to an appropriate pres-
sure in a space of gradually decreasing volume. The process
may conveniently be carried out in a filter press of the
known kind, in which . when the cakes are formed they
are subjected to compression for further dewatering, the pro-
cess when so carried out permitting of securing more quickly,
and at a lower pressure, the result which could be secured

by simple pressure (see, for instance, patent No. 4684 of
1911). In certain experiments on a peat of an average degree
of decomposition a moderate pressure only in excess of the
cake-forming pressure, and with this a relatively low voltage,
gave the best results, and reduction of a filter press cake
from 68 per cent, water content to some 55 per cent, water
content (a condition of relative hardness and dryness of
advantage for gasification with by-product recovery), was
found quickly to take place for an energy consumption small
in relation to the energy available in the peat so treated.
In carrying out the process in one form, therefore, the cus-
tomary filter presses are replaced by filter presses, as referred
to, with collapsible chambers and provided with electrodes
in each chamber to pass current through the cakes when
formed. Cakes of wetcarbonised peat are allowed to build
therein in the usual way, say, by application of fluid pressure
of some 100 lb. per sq. in., the peat having been cooled to a
lukewarm condition before entering the filter press. When
the cakes have formed, the current is applied (say, at
50 volts, and at a current density of some 50 amperes per
sq. ft.), and the cakes are squeezed (say, at a pressure of
250 lb. per sq. in.) for such time as is determined by the
electric energy to be so employed or the degree of dryness
desired. The accompanying diagrammatic drawing indicates
a press of the kind referred to. (Four claims.)

5955 (1914). Improvements in Bell and like Audible Sig-
nalling Apparatus. G. Dalen, of Stadsgarden 18, Stockholm,
Sweden.—Belates to audible signal apparatus of the kind
comprising one or more exchangeable receivers containing
carbonic acid or other gas under pressure. In apparatus,'
acording to the invention, the receiver or receivers is or are
connected with a cylinder, the piston of which actuates a
clapper or hammer striking a bell. In one construction a
gas supply conduit for the gas under pressure opens into a
chamber associated with the cylinder, communication of the
chamber with the cylinder being closed when the piston is

ft

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in one of fits end positions, the arrangement being such that
when the pressure of gas in the chamber reaches a certain
a mount,communication between the chamber and the .cylinder
is opened, and the piston is moved by the gas until ports in
the cylinder are opened, through which ports the gas escapes,
and the piston consequently commences its return stroke,
the gas supply conduit being provided with a throttling
device, which controls the admission of fluid to the chamber,
and consequently determines the intervals between the
strokes of the piston. Fig. 1 of the accompanying illustrative
drawings diagrammatically shows in vertical section a buoy
with receivers containing carbonic acid, and apparatus for

o