March 3, 1916.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

425

Beamshaw, and was about 4 ft. thick. It was a damp seam,
and was not supposed io be fiery. Naked lights were used
in other parts of the pit.—Geo. Hewitt, dataller, said he
worked near to the heading on October 15 (two days before
the explosion). His lamp did not burn as free as usual,
the flame showing a pale yellow colour, indicating the
presence of damp. He had never seen gas in that level
before the accident, but he had since. He had never
known an outburst of gas in that seam before.
—Mr. Jas. Mellors, inspector of mines, stated he
visited the colliery on October 20, and found the
cutting machine close to the heading, but the cable and
the plug had been detacked from the machine. The switch-
box door was slack, and in that state would permit of a flash
coming from it. In such a state it could not prevent open
sparking. In his opinion, the explosion was due to tlie
ignition of gas caused by flame from the flash from the cutting
machine. On that day witness tested for gas, and found
rather more than 11 per cent. He did not agree that the seam
could b'e regarded as a non-gaseous seam, but it was not
regarded as a fiery mine. Mine gas was occasionally met
with. There was a difference between a non-gaseous and a
fiery mine.—Mr. Herbert Danby, inspector of mines, said
that on November 5 he found the electric cable consisted of
three sizes joined together, and the only protection was a
breaker on the surface. This was insufficient to cut off the
pressure automatically. He also found a slight defect in the
proper fitting of the cover on the coal cutter.—Mr. Hewitt,
for the defence, submitted that the charges were not. so
serious as had been indicated. The owners had exercised
every precaution for safety, and the unfortunate accident
occurred in the Beamshaw seam, in which there was seldom,
if ever, any trace of gas. He argued the Act provided, in
the absence'of the manager, the duties devolved on the under-
manager, and if Mr. Gichard’s interpretation of the Act
strictly applied, a colliery could not be carried on. In regard
to the’ delay in giving notice, the man left in charge endea-
voured to communicate with the under-manager, and eventu-
ally got in touch with the managing director, who was in
London. The latter immediately came, and prepared the
notice, but it was too late to telephone the message that
night. As soon as a responsible person could be got to the
pit notice was given. The Act had to be reasonably inter-
preted according to the circumstances. There was not .a
colliery in any district in which an inspector trained in
technicalities could not go and put a finger on some irregu-
larity in common with the three or four hundred require-
ments of the Act. The old inspectors used to assist the
management to overcome difficulties, but the, present
inspectors had not the time, and were, like the managers,
overwhelmed with reports, signatures, and red tape, instead
of allowing time for the more practical part of mining to bo
attended to. It was a perfect scandal the tim,e that was
being wasted by colliery managers in obedience to red tape
when they should be employed in looking after the welfare
of the mine. Managements of collieries did not lose sight
of the claims of humanity. There was no evidence, against
his clients, he submitted, and he would not call any witnesses,
but asked for the consideration of the Bench.—Mr. Raley, on
behalf of the under-manager, said Cross was away at the
time of the accident for a reasonable cause, and the accident
was not due to any dereliction of duty on his part. After
consultation, the chairman (Mr. J. T.'Field) said they con-
sidered the cases proved, and that there had not been proper
supervision of the pit. The manager and under-manager would
be fined £10 and £5 and costs respectively for not exercising
daily supervision of the mine. The owners and manager
would be fined 40s. each for not sending notice of the accident
forthwith, and on the other charges the defendants would
have to pay the costs.

Lancashire and Cheshire.

Colliery Companies and the Great Shortage of Labour-
Proposed Boring Operations.

At a meeting of the Swinton and Pendlebury District
Council held last week, the clerk read a letter from the Lanca-
shire Electric Power Company, announcing that from
January 1 the price of current would be advanced in accord-
ance with the advance in the cost of coal, as provided for in
the agreement for supply. The company stated that the
figure given might have to be adjusted at the end of the-year
if delivery of the coal contracted for was not obtained, and
higher prices had to be paid for other coal.

At a meeting of the Droylsden local tribunal, on Friday
last, an application was made for the exemption of a deputy
weighnaan at the Bradford Colliery. A representative of the
firm .stated that.they would be unable to. fill the man’s place.
Already they had taken on all the cripples in the neighbour-
hood. They had one-armed and one-legged men working
on the surface and in the pits, and one of the underground
men had lost an eye. An extension of two months was
granted.

One of the unsuccessful appeals in Manchester for exemp-
tion from Army service was that of a “ traveller and colliery
machinery inspector and installer ” to be treated as a starred
man, on the ground that his wTork was important in the
interests of the country. He stated that 50 per cent, of the
coal mined in this country and over 90 per cent, of that in
the United States was cut by the labour saving machines of
the firm of which he was the sole skilled representative for
Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and North Wales.

The Tyldesley District Council has decided to ask the
Local Government Board to approve a draft by-law dealing
with a nuisance caused by the emission of dust from works’
chimneys. The inspector of nuisances has reported on an
interview he has had with a representative of the Astley
and Tyldesley Collieries Limited on the same subject, and
the Health Committee has appointed a deputation to wait
upon the Chief Inspector of Mines for the district to place
before him the views of the Council and the Medical Officer
of Health.

At ia meeting of the Ghorley Town Council last week it was
reported that consideration had been given to an application
by Messrs. Wall and Company, of Wiigian, for permission to
put down trial boreholes to prove the ground for coal under
Common Bank Farm. The Corporation Committee con-
cerned with the matter had agreed to grant the necessary
permission subject to the following conditions :—That the
applicants pay all damage to the occupier; that they render
weekly reports on the boring and strata, and at the conclu-
sion furnish copy of the chart relating to the whole of the
borings; that they pay a sum to be mutually agreed upon
for the permission to bore, whether coal is found or not; and

that the permission granted for the making of the boreholes
is not to prejudice the power and right of the Corporation to
lease such coal (if any) either to the applicants or any one
else as they may think advisable.

Notts and Derbyshire.

Lower Grade Fuels and Power Production.

Mr. H. V. Senior, of Messrs. Ruston, Proctor and Com-
pany Limited, Lincoln, lectured to the members of the
Nottingham Society of Engineers recently on “ The
Development of Power Production with Suction Gas
from Low-Grade Fuels.” Mr. Senior, referring to the gas
producer, stated that we in England had made the greatest
progress with its development, producers of English manu-
facture being in use at well-known works in Germany. Speak-
ing of fuel economy, Mr. Senior said that now coal in Great
Britain was increasing so rapidly in cost, it behoved all
power users to consider the economical application of cheap
fuels, as, apart from the high cost of coal, it was a matter of
the greatest importance that the coal resources of the country
should be used with the greatest care. To reduce the cost of
power meant production at less cost, and this should not be
lost sight of if we were to succeed in capturing German trade.

The Midlands.

South Staffordshire Monthly Drainage Deports.

A miner’s plea that his allowance coal had not been
delivered to time was successful, at the Rowley Regis police
court last week, in obtaining the discharge of his daughter,
who was summoned for coal stealing, from the Ramrod
Colliery, belonging to Messrs. P. Pitt and Company.

Exceptionally heavy pumping figures are recorded in the
monthly reports of the engineers to the South Staffordshire
Mines Drainage Commissioners. Mr. Edmund Howl (Tipton
district) reports that the rainfall during the last four weeks
had been 3-90 in. The pumping had been 11,335,400 galls,
per 24 hours, as compared with 10,704,600 galls, for January,
and 11,918,300 galls, in the corresponding period last year.
This represents an increase of 630,800 galls, per 24 hours
compared with January, and a decrease of 583,000 galls,
compared with a year ago. At the Moat Pound the water
had increased by 200,000 galls, per day, and it was now
necessary to work Gospel Oak Mond gas-driven plant to
assist Moat new engine. The old engine had not worked
during the month, while the water at Tibbington by-pit
of Empire Colliery had now reached the thick coal. The
Bradley engine had averaged five strokes per minute for the
month, being one stroke per minute less than full speed.
The new engine at 'Deepfields was working full speed, and
it had been necessary to work the old engine. At the Park
Lane Mond gas-driv'en plant it had been necessary to shorten
the bottom lift rods owing to subsidence at pit top. The
underground level men had been engaged in cleansing and
examining at the Bradley south level, and in cleansing
bottom level at Moat engine. The surface drainage engineer
(Mr. S. B. Priest) reports that some clearing had been done
on the Stowheath and Deepraoore courses, and the raising
of Boggy Arm course where swagged by mining on down-
stream side of Gospel Oak-road had been continued. The
embankment on Foundry Brook was being raised where
sunk by mining, and the repair of mining damage on Old
Dock and Sheet End courses had been continued. The
piped course at No. 26 Saltwells had been completed, while
No. 28 Saltwells course had been cleared. Mr. W. B. Collis
(engineer for the Old Hill district) reports that the water
at the Windmill End pumping engine had increased some-
what during the past month, but it had not been necessary
to work the Buffery pumping engine. The Salt wells and
Waterfall-lane pounds stood at their usual level.

Kent.

Tilmanstone Colliery output of coal was well over 1,700
tons last week. The amount of coal raised here continues
to be steadily on the up grade.

The Chislet Colliery Company, who are sinking pits near
Canterbury, have given notice of a further call of 2s. 6d.
per share, payable by the 6th inst. This will make 15s. per
share paid. The sinking work at the colliery continues to
make good progress, now that the additional plant has been
erected.

The Snowdown Colliery deep sinking is now down to
2,192 ft. The strata being easier, 22 ft. were sunk last week.
The pit is bricked to 2,153 ft., and the work is going on
very satisfactorily. From the Beresford seam 2,500 tons of
coal were raised last week’. Additional miners from the
West country have arrived, and strengthened the numbers
employed at the colliery.

Scotland.

Colliery Finance in 1915—Suggested Government Production
Control—Railway Congestion and- Coal Exports—Wire
Rope Guides on Pit Cages—Upkeep of Electric Safety
Lamps.

At the annual meeting of Messrs. John Watson Limited,
Mr. John Strain, M.Inst.C.E., chairman of the company,
said the prices realised for the company’s products during-
1915 showed a considerable increase over 1914. The work-
men in consequence had had steady work, and four increases
of wages during the year, amounting in all to an increase
of 42| per cent, over the 1888 basis, their wages now being
118| per cent, over that standard. The revenue of the year
had been charged with £1,725 for war subscriptions, house
rents, and coal to dependants of workers with the Forces.
The outlook for the present year was uncertain. They were
faced on the one hand with the necessary Government control
of coal exports, and with coal prices for the home markets
controlled by Act of Parliament, .and, on the other, by
uncontrolled wages increases to workmen, .and by an element
that bulked larger than ever before in their calculations of cost
—viz., the ever-increasing cost of stores and materials of all
descriptions. They estimated that pitwood alone, taking’
present prices, would cost them this year £60,000 more than
it did in either of the two years prior to the war ; while
other materials were on the average costing about double
what they did before the war. The pit wood question had
become a serious one, both as regards supplies and prices,
and was one that the Government should, without delay,
attempt to deal with. The supplies of pit wood prior to the
war had been drawn chiefly from Norway, Sweden, and
Russia, but sufficient quantities could not at present be
obtained from these sources. There were, however, large
areas of growing timber throughout Scotland suitable for

pit wood, which, generally speaking, the proprietors’were
quite willing to sell, but experience had shown that it was
impossible to cut down this timber in sufficient quantities
to meet the large requirements of the coal trade, owing to the
dearth of labour and the want of adequate transport
facilities. If the Government could set up efficient
machinery which would provide the labour required for
cutting, together with the necessary transport facilities, there
would, in his opinion, be sufficient supplies of pit wood
obtainable in this country to carry them through the war,
and at lower prices than were now being asked.

As the result of an accumulation of gas, an explosion has
occurred in Queenslie Gallery, Shettleston, belonging to the
Steel Company of Scotland. Four men who were working
in the vicinity were burned about the face and hands.

The royal burgh of Dunfermline is in the happy position of
being the owners of the coal fields within their boundaries,
and they draw royalties for the mineral. The revenue for
the year from Townhill Colliery was £2,401 10s. 9d. ; Muir-
cock'hall, £505 7s. 9d.; Kingseat, £77 14s. 3d. The total
royalties represent a decrease from the preceding year of
£1,211 15s. 6d.

The committee of the Glasgow Corporation concerned with
prices of coal to small consumers have received replies from
a number of members of Parliament in favour of Govern-
ment control of the production and supply of coal during
the war. It was decided to ask these members to take up
the matter at the earliest opportunity, and to ask coal agents
to meet the committee on an early date regarding complaints
which had been made that coal owners were obliging
merchants to contract for six months’ supplies from January
at January prices.

Presiding over the annual meeting of the Glasgow and
South-Western Railway Company last week, Sir James Bell
stated that while they had carried less coal from their local
collieries—the lessened output being due to so many miners
having enlisted—the total tonnage of coal carried over the
railways showed a substantial increase. This was due
principally to the fact that a number of ports on the East
Coast were closed, and to some extent to the congested con-
dition of traffic at Glasgow Harbour. On that account a
much larger quantity of coal was sent to Ayrshire ports from
collieries in Lanarkshire and Fifeshire and in the Lothians.
Mr. A. Macdonald pointed out that extra traffic and shortage
of labour had greatly congested the transport of goods, and
said that much of the congestion could be avoided if the
whole of the wagons were transferred to a trust composed
solely of those to whom the wagons belonged, each user
to pay to this trust the agreed-upon hire for the use of the
wagons. The export of coal was another cause of congestion,
and as a remedy he would suggest the re-imposition of the
tax upon export coal or the forbidding of its export
altogether.—The chairman, replying, stated that the question
of the pooling of wagons was at present under the considera-
tion of tlie Scottish railway companies.

The council of the Scottish branch of the National Associa-
tion of Colliery Managers have recommended Mr. N. A.
Wilkie, Cardenden (Fife Coal Company) for the post of
president. In room of Mr. James Kirkpatrick, Bothwell,
who, owing to pressure of other work, desires to be relieved
of the position of secretary and treasurer, the council have
unanimously recommended Mr. Wm. Colvin for the post. Mr.
Colvin is the inspector in Fifeshire for the Scottish Mine
Owners’ Mutual Insurance and Defence Association.'

At a meeting of the Scottish branch of the National Asso-
ciation of Colliery Managers, held in Glasgow on Saturday,
Mr. Wm. Ross, of Auchengeich Colliery, Chryston, read a
practical paper on ” The Use of Wire Rope Guides for Pit
Cages.” The author said that he supposed that the reasons
for the non-adoption of wire rope guides in rectangular shafts
were attributable to the possibility of an increased cost for
shaft upkeep, and the fear of danger to the persons employed
about the shafts. A further reason was that the buntons
which were required to support the barring in a rectangular
shaft provided also a ready means of support for some form
of rigid guide, either wood, iron, or steel. In a circular or
elliptical shaft, the advantages to be gained by the adoption
of wire rope guides, as compared with any form of rigid
guides, were, chiefly, the freedom from obstruction in the
shaft—thereby affording the greatest possible area for venti-
lation, and incidentally providing a means of egress and
ingress which, in the event of an explosion, would not be
readily damaged—and the reduced cost of upkeep in the
shaft, as compared with one which was equipped with rigid
guides and the necessary cross supports. The disadvantages,
as they appeared to the writer, lay in the fact that the ropes
were more or less flexible, and that, as a consequence, they
did not supply such a positive guide as rigid ones of wood
or steel. There was also a difficulty in providing for load-
ing and unloading the cage at a mid-working, inasmuch as
it had to be brought into a rigid guide to steady it suffi-
ciently for this purpose, and the drawback in this connec-
tion was now accentuated since the use of “ keps ” had been
prohibited by the Mines Act under such circumstances.

Mr. John George, Cambuslang, at the same meeting,
replied at considerable length to the points raised in the dis-
cussion of his paper, “ The Electric Safety Lamp.” Mr. J.
Balfour Sneddon, of Mid-Calder, had suggested to.the author
in the course of the discussion that he should supply an
estimate of the probable cost of working an installation of
electric lamps. This was somewhat difficult, because circum-
stances. greatly altered cases, and while one installation might
cost a stipulated figure, another of the same size might
involve heavier maintenance charges. The undernoted were
some of the reasons which influenced this difference in the
cost of upkeep :—(1) The instructions as supplied by the
electric lamp manufacturers were not always carried out; (2)
the lampman might not be altogether capable, and where
this was the case the charges would be materially increased ;
(3) colliery companies might be attempting to work the lamp
without being in possession of the requisite accessories; (4)
cabins with limited accommodation had the effect of
increasing maintenance charges; and (5) the accumulator acid
in use might not be of the quality desired. Again, a great
deal depended on how the miners used or abused the lamps,
while the underground conditions, in each case, .required to
be carefully considered. In making a comparison between
oil and electric lamps, it had to be borne in mind that the
working cost of electric lamps during the first six months
was practically negligible, whereas the oil lamp consumed
its full quantity of oil from the first day it was put into
operation.

Intimation has been received that the Home Office intend
to anpeal against the judgment of Sheriff Shennan, Hamilton,
in the Cambuslang mining case, which was reported in these
notes last week.