March 30, 1917.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

631

STEAM ENGINES.

A/Todern	Horizontal Cross - compound

IVl Engine, by'Hayward Tyler, cylinders 16 in. and 26 in. diameter,
32 in. stroke, complete governor and flywheel, in good condition: price £350.

Horizontal single cylinder Engine, by Hick Hargreaves, cylinder 18 in.
dia., 36 in. stroke, Corliss valve; £275.

Horizontal single cylinder Engine, by Midland Railway Co., cylinder 18 in.
dia., 26in. stroke, h<?aVy flywheel; price £120.

High speed vertical compound engine, by Rob?y, cylinders 11J in. and
20 in. diameter, 8 in. stroke. 140 lb. w p.. 120-b.h p.; low price.

• JOHN FREDK. WAKE, DARLINGTON.

Wnted, to Hire, 500 ten- or twelve-
ton WAGONS, in good running order.—Write, Box 6708,
ColUerp Guardian Office, 30 & 31, Furnival-street, Holborn, London, E.C.4.

QK/A-kw. Turbo - generating Set for

SALE, 400 volts, 50 periods, 3-phase alternating current,
160 lb. steam, with exciter.

HELLEWELL &' CO., Royal Exchange, Manchester.

STEAM CRANES.

Z?f\-ton Steam Stationary Crane, steel

V \./ jib 70 ft. long: fine condition.

10-ton Steam Travelling Derrick, by Morgan, stpel jib and mast; £575.

5-ton Steam Derrick Crane, by Butters ; £210.

JOHN FREDK. WAKE, DARLINGTON.

MAXAr#

For BELTS, ROPES, & WIRE ROPES. w'w

MAXA LTD., 43, Cannon St, London, EC. J V

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 TIMBEB.

Telegrams—“Osrecks, Newcastle-on-Tyne.”

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

AND

Journal ot ths Coal and Iron Trades.

Joint Editors—

J. V. ELSDEN, D.Sc. (Lond.), F.G.S.
HUBERT GREENWELL, E.S.S., Assoc.M.I.M.E.

(At present on Active Service}.

LONDON, FRIDAY. MARCH 30, 1917.

The London coal trade continues brisk. Supplies
are coining forward more regularly.. Depots report
a steady business.

All the markets report quiet business, discounts
for immediate delivery, and a general tendency to
accumulate stocks at the collieries. Some of the pits
are working short time. Insufficient tonnage has
cramped the Tyne and Wear markets. A better
supply of wagons improved matters in Yorkshire,
but forward business is practically nil. Trade in
Cardiff has a dull and easy tone, although neutral i
vessels are» offered more freely. Anthracites are
plentiful in Swansea. Prices are comparatively firm
in Scotland, and a fair amount of business is passing
in the Lothians.

A Government White Paper gives a return of the
estimated quantities of coal raised in the United
Kingdom each quarter of the past year. The output
for the year 1916 amounted to 255,846,000 tons,
compared with 253,179,000 tons in 1915.

In the House of Commons Mr. Boberts, in reply
to a question, said that a memorandum dealing with
the financial arrangements between the Government
and the colliery owners had been agreed upon, but
he could not at the<present time give full information.
It was not proposed to change wages or the system
under which they were paid.

' According to statements in Parliament, “the Coal
Controller is now considering whether, it is not
possible to confine the consumption of coal to the
districts in which the coal is produced,” in order to
relieve the railways.

The Monmouthshire and South Wales Coke Oven
and By-Products Works Association held its first
annual meeting last week. Mr. H. Bramwell-was
elected chairman for the ensuing year.

It was agreed at the meeting of the Welsh Coal
Board that the miners should take two days’
holiday at Easter instead of three.

A paper on “ The Utilisation of Low Grade Fuels,”
by Prof. J. W. Cobb, will be read at a meeting of
the Midland section of the Coke Oven Managers’
Association in the University, Leeds, to-morrow
(Saturday), commencing at 3.30 p.m.

Sampling

Delivered
Coal.

Last week we referred to the question
of a scientific specification for coal
contracts, and we noted incidentally
that one of the great difficulties in

the way of the general adoption of
this method lies in the fact that the seller is thereby
placed, to a large degree, in the hands of the buyer’s
chemist, upon whose accuracy in analytical work the
amount payable for every consignment will, in most
cases, depend. In fact, the only possible check
that the seller could have would be an independent
analysis of his own. This would lead to an expense
out of all proportion to the results that would follow,
because every seller, by the nature of his business,
has many buyers, and to analyse every consignment
would be impracticable without a regular staff of
chemists, and an adequate equipment in laboratory
appliances.

In most ■ cases, however, the analytical results
obtained by a properly qualified chemist could be
accepted without hesitation, provided that the
analysis represented a fair sample of the coal. It is
equally important for the colliery manager to know,
as accurately as possible, what is the analysis of his
coal as delivered. Very many coal analyses now
doing duty as representing the composition of
particular coal seams do not by any means give
the average composition of the coal in bulk.
Probably in the .majority of cases particularly
favourable lumps of coal have been selected for the
purpose, and no small part of the colliery manager’s
objection to sell coal by analysis is due to his con-
viction that it would be difficult to supply in bulk
coal corresponding to the quality represented by the’
analysis. It comes then to the definition of a bulk
analysis of coal. What, in fact, is meant by the

analysis of a particular seam ? Obviously the proper
answer to this question is that the analysis of a seam
is one which represents the average quality of the
coal as delivered.

The next question is the way in which this can be
ascertained., In the United States, where particular
attention is being paid to the commercial aspect of
coal analyses, the method of sampling delivered coal
has been minutely discussed in “Bulletin 116,”
written by Mr. G. S. Pope for the Bureau of Mines.
We have recently given the substance of this work,'
in which the author describes in detail the method of
sampling delivered coal as carried out in the United
States for all coal purchased by the Government.
Mr. Pope tells us that in order to obtain adequate
information respecting the quality of the various
seams mined in the United States, members of the
Geological Survey and of the Bureau of Mines have
visited more than 2,500 coal mines. From each
mine from two to eight or more samples were taken,
according to circumstances, and these were subse-
quently analysed. Samples of the same coals were
taken from the coal wagons in order to determine
the average quality of the commercial shipments,
which, upon analysis, always proved to be of lower
quality than the selected mine samples. The dis-
crepancy was most marked in regard to the ash
content. This, of course, is only what would be
expected, and it bears out the remarks made above
upon the absolute worthlessness of analyses of
selected samples as indicating the quality of com-
mercial deliveries. It was noticeable, too, that the
United States authorities found a higher moisture
content in the mine samples than in the bulk
deliveries.

Are we, therefore, to conclude that analyses of
mine samples have no value at all ? The answer to
this question depends largely upon the ultimate
object of the 'analyses. It may be conceded that
coal analyses have two distinct uses. In the first
place, there is the scientific value. For this purpose
it is necessary to know as much as possible about
the general character of the coal substance, the
degree of uniformity of the seam, and its suitability
for particular purposes. In the second place, there
is the purely utilitarian point of view taken by the
purchaser, who is concerned only to know how much
heating value, or gas content, as the case may be,
he may fairly expect to get per ton of coal delivered
at his works. The Coal Research Committee is
understood to have in view a chemical survey of the

coals seams of this country. It will be necessary,
therefore, for that body to determine beforehand in
in’what manner they will proceed to carry out this
great work. Are they going to determine the
chemical composition of mine samples, or of com-
mercial shipments ? Or, are they contemplating the
adoption of the United States methods, involving the
determination of both ?

It is not, perhaps,. generally realised that the
chemist takes, as the basis of his experimental work
in the laboratory, only about one gramme of finely
powdered coal, and upon the results so obtained
depends his report upon a whole consignment of
many tons. In order to secure a representative
sample, therefore, which will even approximately
give the analytical value of any single delivery, it is
clear that the greatest care must be taken in the
selection of portions from every part of the consign-
ment. All of these must be intimately mixed
together, crushed and fractionated, until a small
laboratory sample is obtained which differs as little
as possible from the average coal in the consignment.
This is the kind of analysis which both the seller
and the buyer require to possess. It is upon an
analysis of this nature that the seller can rely with
some measure of safety in sending in his tender; and
it is only on the analysis of samples prepared in this
way that the buyer can be assured that he is
receiving his proper value.

What we have said above is so axiomatic that its
repetition'would seem to be superfluous. But, obvious
as it is, this fact is still persistently ignored in this
country; and there are comparatively few cases in
which published analyses can be taken as any safe
criterion of the commercial value of a consignment
of coal in bulk.

In the midst of the distractions of the

The war, there is ample evidence of the
Industrial existence of a keen desire amongst our
Outlook. leadersof industry to turn to profitable
ends the experience which has been
gained during these three great years of conflict. But
few of those who are following the present trend of
thought, and who have the patience to wade through
the mass of literature bearing upon the industrial
position of this country, can say with any degree of
satisfaction that our future path is clearly indicated
or our policy is unmistakably marked out. The real
truth is that thinking people are perplexed by the
multitude and diversity of the remedies that have
been proposed for the shortcomings of our pre-war
methods. There has been too much dogmatic
assertion of personal prejudice and too little im-
partial sifting of evidence. Every fad and mental
obsession has been pushed to extravagant conclusions,
and there is a grave danger that in the mental
confusion thus created the country may lose sight of
the golden truth. What we seem to need is a clear
and impartial statement of facts, and the deduction
therefrom of simple and well-defined principles*
There are many so-called facts now being paraded as
self-evident truths, which are not facts at all, but
rather fallacies tending to distort judgment and to
point to wrong conclusions. One of the most
insistent of these is the assertion that, as compared
with the Germans, the British nation is wanting in
business acumen. We are told that the phenomenal
success of Germany in the last half-century has been
due to all sorts of factors, amongst which it is usual

to make special mention of tariffs, organisation,
specialisation, education, industrial banks, cartels,
low railway rates, canals, export bounties and other
things; emphasis being placed upon one or the other
according to the particular shade of opinion held by
the exponent. The fact seems to be altogether
ignored that what has proved advantageous to
Germany is not necessarily applicable to ourselves.
We also have advanced enormously, by methods of
our own, during the same period. If our progress
has been relatively less conspicuous, this is greatly
due to the fact that before the Franco-German war
of 1870, Germany, as a commercial nation, did not
exist. No one will deny that the methods pursued
by that country achieved a striking success ; but this
very rapidity of growth has brought its Nemesis—