THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

AND

JOURNAL OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADES.

Vol. CX.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1915.

No. 2861.

North Staffordshire Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.

THE ANNUAL MEETING.

The 43rd annual meeting was held at the Central
School of Science and Technology, Stoke-on-Trent, on
Monday, Mr. John Gregory (president) in the chair.

The following gentlemen, having been previously
nominated, were elected:—Member, Mr. Ernest
William Oswald, Assam Railway Company, India;
associate member, Mr. Sam Harry Lee, Sankey,
Warrington; associate, Mr. Samuel Lockett, Silverdale,
Staffs; student, Mr. M. de Mendonca, Olhao, Portugal.

Annual Report.

The Secretary (Mr. A. J. B. Atkinson) read the
annual report of the council, which stated that the
membership at July 31 last was : Hon. members, 3;
ordinary members, 103; associate members, 15;
associates, 23; students, 20—total, 164, the same as
last year. The income and expenditure account showed
a balance at the bank at the end of the year of
.£94 Is. Id., as against £138 13s. 2d. last year, but
extra expenditure during the year in connection with the
library amounted to £51 Is. 4d. From the building
account £600 has been paid to the mining department
of the Central School of Science and Technology, bring-
ing the total paid on this account to £1,100. The
balance remaining is £654 12s. 4d., while the capital
fund account stands at £48 8s. lid. After referring
to the fact that, owing to the war, the institute’s pro-
gramme had been curtailed during the year, the council
went on to express regret at the death of Mr. John
Heath, who had been a member of the institute since
1874. Up to the end of July, 18 members were known
to have joined his Majesty’s Forces, and the council
regretted to record the death of Second-Lieut. R. G. F.
Goss. They congratulated Second-Lieut. C. J. Cadman
on being mentioned in despatches. The council
expressed gratification at the grant of the Royal
Charter to the Institution of Mining Engineers. The
report added that Mr. J. Morrison had been appointed
hon. librarian, and had been engaged in putting the
books in order and preparing the catalogue, which was
now in the hands of the members. Upwrards of 300
bound volumes had been added during the year, and
the books in the library had now been valued at £752.

The report, together with the statement of"accounts,
was adopted, on the proposition of the President, who
remarked that the finances were satisfactory, consider-
ing the sum spent on the library, which, of course, was
an unusual expenditure.

Election of Officers.

The ballot for the election of officers resulted as
follows :—President, Mr. John Gregory; vice-presidents,
Dr. J. Cadman, Mr. Frank Rigby, and Mr. W.
Statham; treasurer, Mr. A. Hassam; secretary, Mr.
A. J. B. Atkinson; council, Messrs. J. R. L. Allott,
W. Barber, F. E. Buckley, G. H. Greatbatch, A. S.
Heath, N. R. H. MacGowan, W. Saint, W. G. Salt,
W. Tellwright, T. Yates, R. C. MacGowan, and T. T.
Mawson.

Mr. E. B. Wain proposed a vote of thanks to Mr.
Gregory for his services as president during the past
year, and hoped that before the end of his second year
of office they would be able to meet under happier
auspices.

Mr. F. E. Buckley seconded the proposition, which
was heartily accorded.

Presidential Address.

Mr. Gregory acknowledged the vote of thanks, and
thanked the council and members for electing him
president for a second year. Referring to the war, he
mentioned with deep regret the death in action of two
of their members, Lieut. R. G. F. Goss and Lieut.
H. R. G. Davies, and said they were proud that so
many of their members were serving with the Forces.

Proceeding, the president remarked :—

.The response of the North Staffordshire miners to the

national call for men is also a most gratifying feature to
dwell upon, and I propose to give you a fewT figures indicat-
ing the extent to which the appeal for recruits from the
local collieries has been met, and I am the more desirous
of doing so as, by an unfortunate error, the official report
of the Departmental Committee appointed to enquire into the
conditions prevailing in the coal mining industry due to
the war gave the percentage of men enlisting from the
North Staffordshire coal field up to the end of February
last as only 9’7 per cent, of the total number employed,
against a percentage of 18 for the whole of England. It
has since been officially stated that the correct figures for
North Staffordshire should have been 22’6 per cent., and in
justice to the district I would emphasise the fact that the
North Staffordshire record is one to be proud of. Since the
report was issued, men have continued to join the Colours,
and to-day the total who have enlisted from the district
exceeds 30 per cent, of the number employed in July 1914.
I would particularly commend those miners who, on the
shortest notice, went straight from their work in the pit
to the front for special service, and it is most gratifying
to learn from the military authorities that their work there
has been invaluable.

It is impossible for an industry to be depleted of men
to the extent I have indicated without a serious falling off
in production, and when that industry is the foundation
stone on which practically every other industry in the
kingdom is dependent, it will be recognised that the mainten-
ance of our coal supplies at the highest possible level is
the most pressing problem the mining engineer of to-day
has to solve. It is reasonable to suppose that in other
districts the further depletion of labour experienced in North
Staffordshire has been felt, and the annual shortage for
the kingdom, which the Committee in February estimated
at 36,000,000 tons, will be greatly increased. Various sug-
gestions for maintaining the output at the highest possible
figure have been considered by the Coal Mining Organisation
Committee, and, I may venture to say, at every individual
colliery in the kingdom, but engineering skill cannot work
miracles or devise means of replacing the loss of upwards
of 250,000 men in an industry so largely dependent for
results on skilled manual labour.

The one great improvement that can be adopted is not
an engineering problem at all, but rests with the workmen
who remain in the pits. It is an indisputable fact that the
production of coal is very much less than it need be if
every man made up his mind to attend work on all possible
occasions. Statistics from the local collieries, which it
is not necessary for me to quote here, go to show that,
although many of the workmen by attending their work
regularly are doing as much for their country as their
brothers who are actually fighting her battles, a very
large number do not seem yet to have realised how important
it is that not a day should be lost or an effort spared to
produce every ton of coal it is possible to raise, if we are
to keep up the supply of munitions that can alone bring
us a lasting peace.

The temporary suspension of the Eight Hours Act was
considered by the Coal Mining Organisation Committee, but
the only recommendation they saw fit to make was that
owners and workmen should confer together on the matter.
Although, perhaps, little, can be hoped for in the way
of a general extension of working hours, a considerable
advantage would be obtained in North Staffordshire, without
giving away any principles, if contractors in charge of
working places were allowed to work -an extra hour or so,
when necessary, in order to get their places ready for coal
drawing, a custom which worked well prior to the passing
of the Act. A similar concession with regard to coal-cutter
attendants would often make a considerable difference in
the amount of coal drawn.

The increased use of coal-cutting machinery is already
accepted as one of the few ways in which mechanical
engineering can help the situation, but it is not always
possible to adapt machines to hand-worked faces, and in
some parts of the district the steepness of the measures
prevents their adoption altogether.

Perhaps, next to the loss of workmen through enlistment,
the immediate effect of the war has been most seriously
felt in the difficulty of getting supplies of all classes of
stores, and particularly of timber. Fortunately, in many

cases where foreign timber has been unobtainable, English
timber has successfully taken its place, and in some districts
steel joists and tubes, and even reinforced concrete posts,
have been tried. I do not know of any experiments with the
latter having been carried out in North Staffordshire, but, if
so, it would be most interesting if the results were com-
municated to the institute. If, during the year I have
held office, there has been no striking development in the
art and method of mining, it is probably due to the fact
that the time and energies of the engineers in control of our
collieries have been so fully occupied in adapting them-
selves to novel and changing conditions. What the future
has in store for us I am not sufficient of a political economist
to predict, but victory must have its price, and not all of
the brave fellows who have left the mine for foreign service
will return to us. It, therefore, behoves us to make the
most complete and careful preparations, so that when the
time comes for building up the national credit, and repair-
ing the ravages caused by the war, we shall be in a position,
even though our ranks are thinned, to provide all industries
with what is due to them—the breath of life.

Organisation of Mining Industry.

Mr. T. Campbell Futers, M.I.M.E., of Newcastle-on-
Tyne, read a paper on “ The Organisation of the British
Mining Industry.”

After quoting figures to show the great strides made by
Germany in the production of coal, iron, and steel, since
1885, Mr. Futers asked what could be done to ensure Great
Britain regaining her position in the world’s commerce.
This depended on three things—technical education, capital
organisation, and the better discipline and a higher pro-
ductive effort on the part of the workers. Turning to the
second consideration, was the British mining industry suffer-
ing from want of capital? For the new collieries just
opening out, there was probably no difficulty in obtaining all
the capital required, but to the older mines, with their
limited outputs in competition with the newer developments,
further capital expenditure would undoubtedly make all the
difference in many cases between loss and profit. In others
just merely existing it would prevent them from being
closed, and would open out again other mines which, for one
reason or another, had already been prematurely closed.
Coal was a valuable asset, and not a single ounce ought to
be left below ground that could be won at anything like a
reasonable cost. Further, one result of the war would be
the shortage of labour; hence, it would become necessary to
economise labour to the utmost extent in order to set free
the maximum of labour available for the actual work of
coal getting. Machinery required capital. How could this
capital be obtained? They had seen how capital was
easily obtainable in Germany from the banks, owing to the
confidence established by the formation of syndicates.
Bankers in this country would also be only too glad to
advance capital if they could be equally assured, but they
would hesitate, no doubt, to do so to the same extent as
in Germany. It had occurred to him that capital could be
obtained from the banks, and the banks at the same time
be amply secured, by the establishment of a mutual
co-operative scheme supported by the colliery proprietors, con-
tributing a small tax on output. The idea was to form a
co-operative trading company, with, say, a capital of
£500,000 to commence with, which could be obtained in the
first instance from the banks, secured by the guarantee of
the collieries forming the association by a tax on the output.
A tax on an output of 120,000,000 tons per year of 0’25d. per
ton would produce this amount in four years, by the end
of which period the scheme should be established on a sound
financial basis. This sum would be placed to the credit of
the association, and paid in monthly or quarterly instal-
ments by the various collieries. The business handled by the
association would comprise every description of mechanical
plant, coke ovens, by-product plant, slinking shafts, and
contracting work generally. No part of the capital would
be invested in engineering works, with the exception,
perhaps, of small experimental plant for the purpose of
developing and exploiting new ideas or inventions. There
would be, say, five departments—mechanical engineering,
coke oven and by-product work, mining engineering,
secretarial and commercial, and chemical research. The
working of the association might be best described by taking
an example. Suppose, for instance, that a colliery company
required a coal-washing plant. An engineer would visit
the colliery, and designs would be prepared of suitable
and efficient plant of a suitable character to obtain the
very best results, regardless of cost. An estimate of the
total cost would be prepared. This would be submitted to