October 20, 1916.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

757

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J. W. BAIRD AND COMPANY,

PITWOOD IMPORTERS,
WEST HARTLEPOOL,

YEARLY CONTRACTS ENTERED INTO WITH COLLIERIES.

OSBECK & COMPANY LIMITED,
PIT-TIMBER MERCHANTS,
NEWCASTLE-ON-T YNE.

SUPPLY ALL KINDS OF COLLIERY TIMBER.
Telegrams—“ Osbecks, Newcastle-on-Tyne.”

*** For other Miscellaneous Advertisements see Last
White Page.

(follimi Suaulian

AND

Journal of the Coal and Iron Trades.

Joint Editors—

J. V. ELSDEN, D.Sc. (Bond.), F.G.S.

HUBEBT GBEENWELL, F.S.S., Assoc.M.I.M.E.

(At present on Active Service').

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1916.

The London coal trade continues in good demand,
but arrivals are diminishing, particularly railborne
qualities. Collieries are declining further orders,
and meanwhile order books both for merchants and
collieries are overfull. Unscreened coals are pressed
upon the market, but depot merchants refuse
them on account of the difficulty with loaders and
carmen.

The Tyne and Wear market has been hampered
by abnormal tonnage shortage and suddenly in-
creased freights. Lancashire is experiencing a
still greater demand, and a steady enquiry for
shipments has set in. Activity is reported in
Yorkshire and Derbyshire, but in South Wales
a quiet state of affairs is reported, although tonnage
arrivals are satisfactory. Quotations in Scotland aie
advancing.

Outward coal freights are rising sharply, especially
for the Mediterranean, in anticipation of the publi-
cation of the new limitation scheme.

A syndicate which includes Lord Rhondda is said
to have acquired control of the Gwaun-cae-Gurwen
Colliery Company Limited, in Carmarthenshire.
The annual coal output is 500,000 tons. His lord-
ship has also acquired an important interest in a
shipping company.

A meeting of the South Wales Conciliation Board
was held on Monday. The request of the miners’
representatives for a joint audit to ascertain the cost
of production was refused.

The Board of Trade has granted the application of
the Forest of Dean Joint Minimum Wage Board for
an increase in the standard price, which has been
raised from 5s. to 6s. 6d.

A ballot is being taken among about 9,000 men
in the Derbyshire coalfield as to ceasing’ work in
consequence of a dispute regarding a dismissal.

On Friday, October 27, the freedom of the city
will be presented to Lord Rhondda in the City Hall,
Cardiff, by Mr. Lloyd George. The gathering will
be of a national character.

The Miners’ Phthisis Prevention
Miners’ Committee, appointed in 1912 by
Phthisis. the Government of the Union of

South Africa, has issued a voluminous
general report covering its labours to the end of
last year. During that period there have been held
43 meetings of the general committee and 95 of the
sub-committees. The report now before us is a
valuable addition to the literature of a subject which
is of importance far beyond the confines of the
mining industry of South Africa. To the colliery
worker the interest of this subject has, as is
known, lately assumed a prominent position in
connection with the stone dusting question, and we
propose to examine this report in its relation to this
subject rather than in its bearing upon the health of
the metalliferous miner on whose behalf the enquiry
was instigated.

The first point which arrests attention is the view
that is taken by the Committee with regard to the
influence of quantity of dust inhaled. It is shown
that the mucous membrane lining the air passages
furnishes a protective mechanism against the entry
of foreign particles which is adequate so long as the
quantity of dust inhaled is not excessive. But when
more rock dust is inhaled than the subject can deal
with by natural means, mischief may result, and, if
persistent, may ultimately cause a chronic state of
lung disease. The quantity of inj urious dust which
air can carry without being dangerous has not yet
been definitely, determined, and is probably only to
be ascertained by experience, but the Committee has
adopted a tentative standard of 5 milligrammes per
cubic metre of air as the limit of permissible dust,
this figure being supposed to represent the average
amount of siliceous dust under 70 microns* in
diameter present in the air of a Johannesburg street.
We should, however, think it quite probable that
this quantity of permissible dust would vary greatly
in different individuals. With regard to the meaning
to be applied to the term “ injurious dust” the report
gives some valuable information derived from various
observations of silicotic lungs. Thus the ash of such
lungs differs from that of a healthy lung in a marked
degree. The ash of the lungs of infants contains no
silica; but adult lungs, even in a healthy state, appear
to acquire this substance in direct proportion to age,
and the amount may rise, in the case of silicotic
lungs, to nearly 50 per cent. Of ash, other than
silica, the diseased lung carries more alumina than
the healthy lung, showing that part of the silica has
probably been inhaled in the combined form of
felspar or some other aluminous silicate. There is
also a notable diminution of lime in the diseased
lung, and a striking increase of phosphoric oxide,
which latter is believed to be an accompaniment of
the production of fibroid tissue.

Dr. Watkins-Pitchford has carried out some
interesting observations on the situation, outline and
dimensions of mineral particles visible by polarised
light in sections of silicotic lungs, and these are
detailed in an appendix to the report. Nearly
70 per cent, of the particles appear to have a
diameter less than one micron. All the particles
seem to be less than 13 microns in their longest
diameter. The situation of these particles, some of
which were found within the cells and others lying
free amongst the cells, suggested the view that the
latter had been conveyed by phagocytes, and Dr.
Watkins - Pitchford shows how the process of
natural cure may possibly proceed. It is to be
noted that the Committee has arrived at the conclu-
sion that radiographic examination affords evidence
of the degree of silicosis present in the lung, provided
that the skiagrams are taken in the proper manner;
and in this way the various stages of silicosis can be
distinguished in the Jiving subject. This method of
examination appears to be one ^capable of further
study in the investigation of miners’ phthisis, and
especially in the examination of patients undergoing
curative treatment in hospitals, since it appears
likely to afford a means whereby the progress of
healing might be able to be recorded.

Unfortunately it does not appear to have been
possible to ascertain to what extent these doubly-

* 100 microns = ^joinch = T*j millimetre.

refracting particles consisted of uncombined silica, or
whether any of them could be identified as felspar.
From the point of view of stone dusting in coal
mines it is important to find out, if possible, to what
extent silicates are to be considered injurious. It is
generally assumed that it is only free silica that is to
be so regarded, and it would have been interesting
to know whether the South African experiments
support this view. In this connection an int^reting
reference is made to data by Dr. Wells in his work
on “Chemical Pathology,” published in 1907. It is
there stated that Woskressensky found silicates in
all of the 54 lungs he examined, except in two from
infants. Thorel states that the lungs of a worker
in soapstone contained 3*25 per cent, of ash, of which
2 43 consisted of soapstone. It is significant that
soapstone is one of the softest of silicates, and the
least likely to cause injury by inhalation.

The Committee has carried out experiments with
the solution of calcium chloride and glue, advocated
by Mr. Belger, of the Armstrong College, and the
conclusion has been drawn that this solution possesses
undoubted advantages as a dust retainer in certain
cases, such as in those airways where the air is below
the point of saturation.

The great value of this report lies in the admir-
able summary which is given of numerous researches
bearing upon the question. A large portion of the
report deals exclusively with the conditions in South
African mines, and with the precautions appropriate
to that industry. This, however, has a direct
bearing upon the conditions under which ganister
mining is carried on in English coalfields, in which
case the rock is quite as siliceous as the South
African quartzite, and no less dangerous to the
miner.

Mr. R. A. Chattock, city electrical
Compulsory engineer and manager of the

Fuel Birmingham Corporation Electric
Economy. Supply Department, has added his
influence to the advanced fuel
economy school. In his presidential address delivered
to the Birmingham Association of Mechanical
Engineers, he urges the need for a more rapid
progress in the application of the principles laid
down by the British Association, and other fuel
economy committees. He is impatient with the
apathy of fuel users in regard to this question, and
he thinks, with Prof. Bone and others, that some
kind of compulsion is called for in order to accelerate
the conversion of the public to the doctrine of the full
and economical use of our fuel resources.

While, however, fuel economists undoubtedly have
a strong case, and one that is intimately related to
the national interest (especially at the present time),
it would, we think, be necessary to examine this
question very closely from every standpoint before
going so far as Mr. Chattock suggests. His plan is
to accomplish the practice of economy either by the
direct control, by the Government, of the whole coal
supply of the country, or, alternatively, by putting a
tax upon users of coal who consume it in an
uneconomical manner. This tax, he suggests, might
be utilised for financing schemes for the erection of
large power stations. It is difficult to see how the
first alternative could be made effective in practice,
without adopting a general system of coal tickets
throughout the country. Upon such a plan the
requirements of consumers would probably have to
be expressed in heat units ; and licences to purchase
equivalent quantities of coal would, we suppose,
be issued somewhat on the same system as the
petrol licences now in vogue. It would then be the
business of the consumer to see that he got the heat
units out of the coal allotted to him. Such a
proceeding, it is needless to say, would be far beyond
the capacity of any Government Department, and
would not be tolerated by the people of this country.
We may dismiss it as altogether outside the domain
of practical politics.

The second alternative requires a closer examin-
ation. It is to put a tax, not on coal, but on the
waste of coal. The notion seems, at first sight, to be
a good one. Waste is a vice, and to tax national
vice can scarcely be considered a hardship. But it
would be extremely difficult to apportion such a tax.