584

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

September 17, 1915.

Dr. Haldane, in reply, thanked the institution most
heartily for the great honour it had done him. He did
not recognise himself in Sir Thomas’s portrait. He had
done his best, and Sir Thomas had very much
exaggerated any claims he possessed to their gratitude.
He felt that there were other members of the institu-
tion to whom the medal might have been more fittingly
presented on this occasion. He took it, however, that
in selecting him for the honour, the institution wished
to signify that it was grateful to those connected with
pure science for such efforts as they were able to make
to help, so far as was possible, the mining profession in
solving the almost everlasting questions which the
mining engineer was constantly confronted with in his
work. His own experience of mining had shown him
how difficult and puzzling these questions were. They,
men of science, only contributed a little here and there
towards the solution of these problems, but it was a
great pleasure to them to contribute what they could,
and nothing gave them greater pleasure than to see
practical application of their purely scientific work. A
great deal of scientific work lay on the shelves of
libraries before it was practically applied. But when
by any chance the application of this work could be
seen by the man who had done it, it was in every case
an enormous pleasure. One had seen scientific men
almost as pleased as children over some comparatively
simple application of some of their pure scientific ideas.
It was also a great pleasure to them to find themselves
brought into personal contact with the men who were
doing the country’s work and the work of humanity
in other spheres than the somewhat narrow one to
which they, scientific men, were confirmed. Their
connection with practical affairs not only gave them
many interesting problems to solve, but also reacted
very markedly in stimulating them to purely scientific
work : it presented problems and suggested solutions
which they had never thought of before. He might
illustrate this from his own experience in connection
with mining work. One of the first questions which
brought him into connection with mining work had
reference to the composition and the effects on men of
blackdamp. In this work he was fortunate enough to
have the co-operation of Dr. "W. N. Atkinson, now chief
inspector of mines for South Wales, a former president
of that institution, and one of the ablest men he had
ever met. What interested him perhaps was the effect
of blackdamp on breathing. He remembered the
cautious way in which they tried the effects of black-
damp. Dr. Atkinson brought him to an old dip in an
ironstone mine, a very steep incline of about 1 in 2 or
1 in 3. This was full of blackdamp up to the top, and
the quantity of course increased as they went down.
They wanted to get the effects on breathing and on
lamps at the same time. They had to be very cautious
about the way they went down the dip, because if they
had tumbled over they would have rolled into air where
there was no oxygen at all. This was before the days of
birds and mice. They started at the top with an ordinary
oil flame and a hydrogen flame, and he (Dr. Haldane)
had an electric lamp with which to watch the colour of
Dr. Atkinson’s face. He knew that as long as his face
was not blue they would not tumble over suddenly.
Quite at the top of the dip the ordinary oil flame went
out owing to the state of the air. As the oxygen went
down the hydrogen flame got longer and longer, and
they began to pant more and more, so that it was
rather a comfort to him when at last that flame also
went out, and they thought they had gone far enough.
At that time they were both panting tremendously hard,
and they were glad enough to get back. He had
previously known that the panting was due to carbon
dioxide in the air, this being one of the constituents of
blackdamp, but an interesting thing was that the pant-
ing increased out of all proportion to the increase in the
percentage of carbon dioxide. With 3 per cent, there
was very little panting, so little that it was hardly
noticeable, but when the percentage got to a little more
than 5, the panting was extreme. This great increase
suggested the means by which ordinary breathing was
regulated, and it led to the discovery of the fact that
ordinary breathing was so regulated as to keep the per-
centage of carbon dioxide in the air of the lungs at
about 5’7 per cent. They could easily get a sample of
the air in the lungs and analyse it. If the percentage
went the least bit above that they got great panting,
and if it went below, natural breathing stopped for the
time until the percentage collected again. This regu-
lation, which was quite unknown at the time, was of
such a nature as to keep exactly 5’7 per cent, carbon
'dioxide in the air of the lungs. This law was far worse
than the Home Office regulations, because it worked
both ways : they must keep it exactly 5’7 per cent.—
neither more nor less. If they washed too much carbon
dioxide out of the body they might kill themselves from
asphyxia. This was a very interesting physiological
regulation which was suggested by going into the bad
air and watching the effects, and it was a very funda-
mental one. The discovery had probably given rise to
more physiological literature during the last four or five
years than many others. His point was that it was the
actual practical work of going in among blackdamp that
led to the purely scientific discovery. Apart from
scientific work, he had learned to understand and esteem
the work of those engaged in the great mining profes-
sion. The friendships he had formed with members
of that profession were among the things which he most
valued in life. He should value that medal not only as
a high personal honour, but as the gift from friends to
one who deeply valued their friendship. (Applause.)

The President said he could assure Dr. Haldane that
there was not a single word in his speech which had
not been very carefully checked by the censor. It was
submitted to a party of physiological and chemical
friends, who came to the conclusion that he had left out
a great deal that they would like to put in, but he had
to tell them that they could only barely indicate a very

small fraction of the enormous work which Dr. Haldane
had done, not only on behalf of the mining community,
but on behalf of science generally, the results of which
would accrue for many years to come.

The Charter.

The President went on to propose ‘ ‘ That this meet-
ing approves of the first by-laws to be made under the
charter of the institution, which have been adopted by
the council.” He said that for many years there had
been an attempt to raise the question of obtaining a
royal charter, but it only reached its final and successful
phase through the accelerating influence of their last
president, Sir William Garforth, during the second of
his three terms of office. Sir William had received the
loyal help of the different institutes scattered throughout
the country. He did not think Sir William would
like him to discriminate between the seven, but, at the
same time, he was sure that the other six would be
quite willing to support him in mentioning specially the
public-spirited attitude of the North of England Insti-
tute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. (Applause.)
They readily accepted the system, and agreed to a
capital fund, which resulted in their having to pay a
bigger fraction than any others. They were already in
possession of a royal charter, and yet they were glad that
the rest of the institutes might come in and share the
privilege, so that one could say honestly that they had
shown a clean, healthy public spirit. That had given
’him an additional feeling of the healthiness of the
mining community in this country, the feeling that one
gathered in dealing with mining men in India. One
should mention on that occasion the attitude of the
institutions of mining and metallurgy. Previously the
two bodies had been in competition, and had frequently
trespassed on one another’s domains, but now they had
agreed to define and limit their spheres of influence, and,
instead of competing with one another, they were now
in co-operation, determined to maintain the high stan-
dard of technical competence, and keep up the profes-
sional etiquette which would mark out the British
engineer in every part of the world. For the advantage
which the institutions had thus gained they were
indebted to the happy possession at a critical time of
two public-spirited presidents, who were able to
subordinate their parochial interests to the greater
interests of the mining community and the profession
generally which they adorned.

There were few changes of the by-laws which were
not obviously necessary, and the natural outcome of a
new organisation : all of them had been accepted by the
seven institutes, by whom they had been considered on
various occasions independently. They had also
received the approval of their distinguished legal adviser,
Sir Frank Crisp, and, in principle, they had been
accepted by the Privy Council. The principal changes
of importance occurred in the objects of the institution,
stated in the first paragraph, which now read : “ For
the advancement of the coal and iron mining and allied
industries, more particularly in relation to stratified
deposits.” That supplemented the statement made by
the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, which was
now confined to the mining of minerals other than coal
and the metallurgy of metals other than iron. To fall
in line with, the standard adopted by other principal
metropolitan institutions, it was proposed to raise the
age for full membership to 30, providing, of course, a
grade of associate membership for those who were below
that age. Formerly the federated institutes had power
to elect members themselves to be not only members
of their own institutes, but of the federated institutions.
Under the new constitution this was reserved for the
council, which would be composed of representatives in
strict proportion from the different institutes. All these
principles had been explained to the Privy Council, and
were so arranged that they fell in line with and supple-
mented the constitution drawn up by the Institution
of Mining and Metallurgy. The two institutions had
received their charter on exactly the same day, so that
they were not, as stated in the annual report, merely
sisters, but twin sisters. He therefore had much
pleasure in bringing the resolution forward, and he
asked the permission of the meeting to sign the bv-laws
and rules.

Mr. Lupton proposed as an amendment that the con-
sideration of the by-laws be adjourned to another meet-
ing. He did not think that that body should be asked
to approve by-laws which it had not seen. He gathered
from the chairman’s remarks that some important
matters were contained in the by-laws. One was that
a man must be 30 years of age before he could become
a member of the institution. Well, he was a member
long before he was 30, and he considered it a great
hardship to be prevented from joining simply because of
age : one man at 21 might be far more capable than
another at 45. He thought they might adjourn the
consideration until the by-laws had been circulated and
printed. There was too great a tendency nowadays to
tie up their institutes with rules and by-laws.

The President pointed out to Mr. Lupton that the
by-laws and rules had been circulated through the
different institutes, and had been returned by them
as approved. What steps were taken among the insti-
tutes to circulate them was a matter which that meet-
ing could not enquire into, nor could they enquire
whether Mr. Lupton or anybody else had attended the
meetings of the local institutes for that purpose. Under
the charter, unless the by-laws were passed within six
months of the date of the charter, the charter would
fall through, and that was the only general meeting
which was available for the purpose.

The amendment was not seconded, and the resolu-
tion was carried, only Mr. Lupton dissenting.

The meeting then passed on to the discussion of papers.
A full report will appear in next week’s Colliery
Guardian.

TRADE AND THE WAR.

Enquiries in official circles are said to have shown that the
restrictions with regard to the consumption of liquor
imposed as a result of the work of the Central Control Board
(Liquor Traffic) have had a marked effect in all the districts
which have been dealt with by that authority. The evil,
however, has by no means disappeared.

The high values now placed on shipping property have
been shown very plainly at the public sales of steamers
held in London last week. The prize steamer ” Emil,” of
2,991 tons, built at Newcastle in 1904, was sold for 1-58,300,
which represents more than £19 per gross ton. Just two
years ago she was sold by a British firm to her late German
owners for £28,000. The Danish steamer, “ Lucy
Anderson,” of 1,052 tons, built at Newcastle in 1904, was
soil to a British buyer for £26,400, or as much as £25 per
gross ton.

A Special Munitions Tribunal sat at Sheffield on Saturday
to enquire into a complaint against Charles Horton and Sons
Limited, brass founders, Sheffield, that they had given
employment to a man named Furness who had not obtained
a leaving certificate from his previous employers. The com-
plaint was made by Benton Brothers Limited, brass founders,
Rodley Lane Foundry. Defendants were fined £5, and
ordered to pay £2 2s. towards the cost of the case.

The St. Pancras Borough Council has acted upon the
suggestion of the Board of Trade that the stocks of coal at
the electricity works should be increased in order to reduce
the demand upon the pits and the transport companies to a
minimum during the winter. The Council has purchased
1,000 tons of Nuneaton double-screened nuts at 22s. 6d. a
ton, delivered from Messrs. Facer and Company, and 1,000
tons of Newdigate nuts at 22s. 7d. per ton delivered from
Messrs. J. H. Beattie and Company. Purchases in
replenishment of stock have been made as follows :—1,000
tons Newdigate beans at 21s. a ton; 500 tons fin. Hucknall
at 19s.; 2,000 tons double-screened Newdigate beans at 21s.;
and 1,000 tons double-screened nuts at 22s. 6d.

Reference to the lack of coal in Turkey has been made in
a letter of an Austrian residing in Constantinople to a friend
in Salonica. He states that the war industry is chiefly
hindered by the shortage of coal, which is beginning to
manifest itself in a most alarming manner. For a long
time, he says, private factories have not made use of coal,
but have had to fall back on wood and other substitutes,
which greatly diminish the output. Coal has been requi-
• sitioned from all sources. The steam tramways and the
funicular, as well as the other local trains, have had to be
stopped.

The advisory committee of the Newcastle Chamber of
Commerce has received the following official intimation in
response to earlier representations :—In view of the peculiarly
“ prompt ” nature of the coal trade between British and
French ports, it has been decided that names of steamers
need not appear in applications for licences to export coal to
France and French possessions, or be subsequently sent to
the War Trade Department, and will not be inserted in
licences for shipment of coal to ports in France and French
possessions. It must, however, be understood that all
licences, except general licences, are valid for one shipment
only. The above-mentioned relaxation of the requirements
of the Coal Exports Control Committee in no way restricts
the power of the Customs for any reason to refuse clearance
to a particular vessel; and shippers should in all cases submit
to the local Customs the names of vessels by which they
propose to make a shipment as soon as they are known to
them.

A spirited and outspoken address was delivered by the
Minister of Munitions last week to the members of the Trade
Union Congress at Bristol, in which he appealed to the
workers not to put any obstruction—such as restrictive rules
and regulations—in the path towards victory. He said the
members represented one of the most powerful forces in the
life of the country, and without their help the cause was
lost. They only had to read the story of the last 12 months
to realise how much organised labour meant. The recent
onslaught on the Russian army had only been made possible
by the organised labour of Germany working without stint
or strife and without restriction for many months. At the
present moment 80,000 more skilled men and 200,000
unskilled men and women were required. If every skilled
workman in the kingdom was employed, there would still be
a deficiency of labour for the task in hand, so that unskilled
labour must not be barred by the unions. Another direction
in which the trade unions could help was by suspending
during the war all practices and customs which had the
effect of preventing men turning out as much work as their
skill and strength would permit. If this was done they
could increase the output in some cases by 30 per cent., and
in other places by 200 per cent. Another point was to have
no stoppages in essential work during the period of the war.
The Government were carrying out their part of the recent
bargain made with the unions, but, on the other hand, the
latter in far too many cases were not carrying out theirs.
He gave illustrations of cases in which work had been
restricted by trade union obstruction.

A new Proclamation relating to trading with the enemy
points out that doubts have arisen regarding the position
under the Proclamation in force It states that the
expression “ enemy,” notwithstanding anything in the
previous Proclamations, is declared to include and to have
included any incorporated company or body of persons
(wherever incorporated) carrying on business in an enemy
country or in any territory of the time being in hostile occu-
pation.

In his monthly message to the members of the Boiler-
makers’ Society, written this time from ” Somewhere in
France,” Mr. John Hill, the general secretary of the society,
refers to his visit to the trenches, and says officers and men
asked him how it was that required munitions had not
arrived. He was asked, “ What about the engineers’ and
miners’ strikes?” and to this question Mr. Hill admits he
could give no answer satisfactory to them. It was no use
telling them how much employers were blameworthy : their
conviction was that no personal gain or loss justified the
slightest delay in producing munitions, and that workman or
employer responsible for such delav should be shot as a traitor
to his comrades and brothers in the trenches.

Immingham Coal Exports. — The coal exported from
Immingham during the week ended September 10 consisted
of 685 tons to Dunkirk. The total for the corresponding
period of last year was 31,038 tons foreign.