October 8, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

737

COLLIERY MOTOR TIPPING WAGONS.

Collieries are adopting motor tipping wagons of the
latest type for speedy and efficient work. The Hulton
Colliery Company own two Albion 2-ton tipping wagons.
These new pattern motor vehicles have a hand operated
tipping gear, and have all the improvements introduced
from time to time during the past 14 years in the Albion
motor. The dimensions of the body of this new and
very useful motor wagon are 8 ft. long and 5 ft. wide.
The tailboard is hinged at top, to swing out when tipped.
The Albion Motor Car Company Limited, Scotstoun,
Glasgow, specialise in both hand operated and hydraulic-
ally operated tipping wagons, the latter being used for
vehicles of 4 tons capacity. One of the special patented
features of the Albion for economy is the Murray
governor, by which the maximum speed of the vehicle
can be fixed at any pre-determined speed. It is there-
fore not in the power of the driver to race the wagon
home after the delivery of his load.

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Other colliery firms making use of Albion tip wagons
are :—Wm. Dixon Limited, coal masters, Glasgow; the
Staveley Coal and Iron Company, Chesterfield; J.
Waldie and Sons, Edinburgh; Wm. Charlton, The
Colliery, Wark-on-Tyne. The Albion Motor Car Com-
pany are contractors to the War and India Offices, and
the Colonial Governments. It is calculated that the
life of an Albion motor engine is from 10 to 12 years,
or from 150,000 up to 170,000 miles. A wide range of
vehicles is manufactured at Scotstoun. In addition to
tipping wagons, various classes of lorries are supplied,
also railway, contracting, brewery, and delivery vans.

SOUTH WALES INSTITUTE OF
ENGINEERS.

An ordinary general meeting of the South Wales
Institute of Engineers was held at the Metal Exchange,
Swansea, on Tuesday, September 28, Principal E. H.
Griffiths, M.A., F.R.S., Se.D., LL.D., the president,
in the chair.

The following new members were elected :—A. E. L.
Jones, engineer, Morriston, Glamorganshire; B. F.
Kerridge, colliery manager, Port Talbot; Daniel K.
Morgan, Ystradgynlais, Swansea Valley; Morgan E.
Rees, engineer, Morriston; S. II. Thompson, engineer,
Llansamlet; and Mather Henry Thorne, engineer and
slate mine manager, Rua Padrao, Vallongo, Portugal.

Engineers and Tunnelling Companies, R.E.

The Secretary (Mr. Martin Price) read a letter from
the War Office, stating that the Army Council would be
glad to receive the recommendation of the institute of
members or non-members suitable for appointment
to temporary commissions as second-lieutenants for
employment with the tunnelling companies of the Royal
Engineers. Preference would be given to candidates
between the ages of 25 and 35.—The President said he
trusted .that those members who did not feel in a position
to make personal application, would communicate with
Him if they knew of any gentlemen qualified to perform
the suggested duties. He might add that a special
committee had been appointed by the council of the
institute to consider the qualifications of applicants, with
the object of recommending to the Army Council only
those candidates in whom they had complete confidence.

The South Wales Coal Field—Part HI.

Discussion was resumed on Part III. of Mr. H. K.
Jordan’s paper on the South Wales coal field.

Mr. Clarence A. Seyler said, in spite of the large
amount of attention which the subject had received, they
were still as far as ever from solving the problem of
the natural history of coal. They had reached, it
seemed, no decision on the vexed question of the drift
and in situ theories, nor attained to a clear idea of the
geological conditions under which coal was laid down.
Equally at fault were they in regard to the physical
and chemical forces which had changed the original
vegetable matter into coal, and the cause of the extra-

ordinary progressive change from bituminous coal to
anthracite. Mr. Jordan had accumulated data which
would be of great importance to the future investigation
of these problems. Of particular interest was his dis-
cussion of the original limit of deposition or margin of
the coal field, which he referred to as a shore line.
Mr. Jordan would add greatly to their indebtedness if
he could sketch, however roughly, the probable dis-
tribution of land and water during the period when the
coal was being deposited If this could be done, they
could then consider the possible relations between such
a shore line and the direction of anthracitisation.
It was in this direction that research should be made for
the causes of the phenomenon. A correlation between
anthracitisation and the amount of mineral matter had
been pointed out, which had led to the abandonment
of the idea that the change was subsequent to the deposi-
tion. He (the speaker) was afraid he could not view
favourably the suggestion that’the mineral matter pro-
tected the vegetation from change, in the absence of









more direct evidence. But the fact of the correlation
was extremely suggestive, even though it be not one of
direct cause and effect. He (Mr. Seyler) suggested two
possible ways in which the phenomena might be con-
nected. The first was natural selection of the vegetable
matter by the sorting action of water. The original
material contained two classes of derived cellulose. The
woody fibre contained ligno-celluloses, and the cuticular
portions consisted of adipo-celluloses with which were
associated resins, fats, and waxes. The latter were all
very rich in hydrogen, and had a smaller specific gravity.
There was evidence, lately obtained, that coal itself con-
tained the altered products of these two classes—the
resinoid constituent predominating in the bituminous
coals, and being still recognisable by its solubility in
pyridene and its action upon a photographic plate. If
geologists could give the right conditions for the dis-
integration of the vegetable matter, and its transport
over a wide area of relatively still water, the idea that
they could have a progressive selection of the lighter
and more bituminous constituents seemed very attrac-
tive. Being lighter, they would be carried further, and
the coal thus become gradually more bituminous. At
the same time, the mineral matter, assuming it to con-
sist chiefly of clay, would, owing to its fine state of
division, also be carried out and be deposited with the
bituminous particles. Thus they should get the main
features of the change from the anthracite to bitumin-
ous coal. The second possibility was natural selection
of the two constituents by survival of that which was
more resistant to decay. The adipo-celluloses, resins,
fats, and waxes were the most resistant of organic
materials to decay. Suppose a deposit of vegetable
matter laid down on the in situ theory by the slow
invasion of brackish water upon a huge forest area.
The portions first attacked would be subjected longest
to the action of decay, and would be therefore richest
in the most resistant material, and would constitute
the bituminous margin of the subsequent coal field.
Even here the sorting action of a slow current of water
moving in a constant general direction might aid in the
selection of the material already partly differentiated by
decomposition, and at the same time cause the mineral
matter to drift out to the bituminous margin. It was
for the geologists to say whether the evidence pointed
to conditions under which selection by either or both
of these methods would be possible. Of these condi-
tions, the position of a shore line in relation to the
direction of anthracitisation was important.

Mr. H. K. Jordan said the question of anthracitisa-
tion was a subordinate point in his paper. His efforts
were chiefly directed to clearing up the correlation of
seams throughout the coal field of South Wales, and the
chapter in Part I. on the formation of anthracite was
a collateral or subsidiary point. It was a subject that
was very little understood. It was true, he suggested—
it was merely a suggestion—in Part I. in the chapter
on the formation of anthracite, that the impurities in
the coal had a protective influence, and thus rendered
anthracitisation more slow—that they protected it from
decomposition. He had yet to hear an answer to his
question : “ What is the explanation of the fact, which
must be admitted, that the percentage of ash diminished
•in the coal going westward from Brynmawr to
Carmarthenshire, while, with it, you have a decrease in
the volatile matter? ” Until this was answered satis-
factorily he could not see that his suggestion could be

put on one side. Mr. Seyler had asked him to describe
the relative areas of land and water. This was a subject
he had not gone into, but he thought it would depend
upon what coal measures were under consideration.
The lower measures of South Wales and Bristol did not
extend beyond the line which he had indicated, but
the Pennant series which overlaid the lower series had
a larger area of deposition. Consequently, the relative
area of sea and land would be entirely altered. But the
whole question required a great deal of consideration,
and he should not like at the present stage to commit
himself to any definite statement on the point raised
in Mr. Seyler’s interesting remarks.

In closing the discussion, the President warmly
praised the paper, which he said was a most admirable
example of scientific method independently carried on
over many years.

Utilisation of Coal By-Products.

Consideration was next given to the following papers,
which were taken together :—“ The Products of Dis-
tillation,” by W. J. Atkinson Butterfield, M.A., F.I.C.,
A.M.Inst.C.E.; “ Coke Oven By-Products,” by Thomas
G. Watts, B.Sc.; and ‘‘The Coal Trade and Allied
Industries,” by R. H. Greaves, M.Sc.

Mr. Butterfield wrote, stating that he had heard
that the briquetting of coke breeze was either being
undertaken, or about to be undertaken, at several gas
works, with a view to securing a better return for this
by-product, and meeting the great demand for fuel nt
a reasonable price at the present time.

Mr. H. T. Wales spoke of the importance of
measures being promptly taken to make this country
more self-contained in the matter of the valuable by-
products of coal than it had been in the past. He
said that during the last few years several by-product
plants had been installed in the South Wales coal field,
and were now at work, but there was room for many
more. In the immediate neighbourhood of Swansea
there were large quantities of coal of a suitable kind for
by-products, but the plant for this purpose should be on
a considerable scale, involving a large outlay of capital.
Owing to difficult physical conditions underground,
individual collieries could only produce relatively small
outputs; and this appeared to be a clear case, as had
been pointed out, where co-operation would be advan-
tageous. If several collieries joined together to erect
by-product recovery plant of a sufficient size to ensure
profitable working, there would be a considerable
increase in the selling value of the output of each of
the collieries so combined.

Mr. C. A. Seyler said the three papers made very
sorry reading so far as the past was concerned in regard
to this matter. He agreed that the chief cause of this
country’s lagging behind in the development of these
highly important industries was the lack of appreciation
of the scientific work of their own countrymen on the
part of British works proprietors and capitalists. He
also agreed that another cause lay with university-
trained men, who could not see beyond their laboratory
table, and with the technical colleges in specialising
too soon. Unlike the Continental capitalist, the British
capitalist had not imagination enough to spend money
where he did not see an immediate profit.

The President said all their energies in South Wales
seemed to have been devoted to getting coal, rather than
finding out how best to use it. He supposed it was
because they got their coal too easily. It was not
because we had not the ability that other countries
were ahead of us in the utilisation of coal by-products.
On the whole, the greatest advances in chemistry were
not due to the Germans, but were due to the English and
French. But in this country, the universities did not
go sufficiently into the workshop and the market place;
practice and theory were too much separated by water-
tight compartments.

Mr. Thos. G. Watts, one of the authors, said it was
most difficult to get the majority of works proprietors
to understand the value of the laboratory, and there were
very few industries in South Wales at which a chemist
was engaged. For his part, he was amazed at the
enormous opening there was for any chemist who had
the time and money for research in connection with th?
coke oven industry. In South Wales the coke oven
industry was many years behind Germany. Few
persons had an idea of the waste that was going on in
the coal field. He had carried out experiments in th?
direction of coal washing, and he was astonished at
the quantity of coal that was accumulating on the
rubbish tips from some South Wales collieries. With
regard to by-products, they had only a market for crude
tar or, where they distilled, pitch, anthracene, and
creosote oil. Nobody seemed to require refined pro-
ducts ; and they would find that the majority of the
South Wales coke ovens were not even distilling from
tar, but were selling it to distillers. Many improve-
ments could be introduced into the sulphate practice at
South Wales coke ovens, and the time would come when
the production of sulphate of ammonia by foreign
countries would so absorb the market that unless we
improved the quality of our product we should not have
a look in.

Mr. R. H. Greaves, another of the authors of the
papers, referred to the use of coke oven gas for lighting
purposes and the production of electrical energy. In
these respects, he showed that Germany had enormously
outpaced England. With regard to public lighting
with coke oven gas, he referred to the early adoption of
this method at Middlesbrough, adding that in South
Wales at present nothing had been done in this direction