June 29, 1917.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1211

of which the equivalent of over 41s. per ton was paid,
although the market value at the time wms equal to
about 31s. To indicate the difference in price of the
several classes of coal available at Manila, it may be
mentioned that the market rates, ex ship, during the
early months of 1914 were equal to : Australian, 23s. to
26s. per ton; Japanese, about 20s. to 23s. ; and Chinese,
17s. 9d. per ton—these prices including an import
duty of about Is. per ton.

Manila is situated on the west coast of the island of
Luzon, and is the principal port and general distri-
buting centre of the Philippines. The extent of ship-
ping dealt with at the port during the year 1913
amounted to a total of 673 vessels which entered—
representing a net tonnage of 1,721,000—and 668
vessels—with a total net tonnage of 1,791,000—cleared.
Of these totals, 351 British vessels entered, with a
combined tonnage of 788,500, and totalling 827,250 net
tons cleared. The bulk of the trade in British vessels
is with the United States of America, China, the
United Kingdom, and Australia. As regards the
shipping facilities at Manila, there are deep-water
quays in the harbour, and about 30 ft. depth of water
alongside the piers; also vessels with a draught of 15 ft.
can go alongside the wharves in the river. Coal
bunkering is effected by labour, and mostly from
lighters varying in capacity from about 75 to 200 tons.
One of the largest coal depots at the port receives
about 5,000 to 7,000 tons per month, of which about
25 per cent, is landed and stacked in piles of about
3,000 tons capacity, the balance or greater quantity
being discharged from colliers into lighters, and then
delivered direct to steamers’ bunkers. Very little coal
is re-handled from the shore piles for bunker supplies.

A noteworthy coal-handling equipment at Manila is
that at the United States naval station, where, along-
side a deep water wharf, there is a line of elevated
storage bunkers surmounted by cranes of the American
straight-boom steeple type, which operate with grabs,
the distribution of the coal being effected by auto-
matic (gravity) cars on inclined narrow-gauge tracks.

Before concluding the remarks about Manila, it is
perhaps opportune to note that, although the coal for
bunker supplies is entirely imported, there are coal
resources available in the Philippine Islands. So far,
however, no great success has been met with in the
development of these resources, owing to the facts that
the most easily accessible coals are generally of inferior
quality, skilled labour is scarce, and faulty seams and
falls frequently occur. In 1909 the output reached a
maximum, about 30,000 tons, but has declined, until
now little, if any, coal mining is carried on. The
known resources of the Philippine Islands, however,
are reputed to be about 36 million tons of bituminous
coal and about 31 million tons of lignite. The coal
measures so far proved which have met with the most
success are those situated at Cebu and Batan. Further
prospecting will probably lead to the opening of new
seams, and difficulties attending the working of exist-
ing mines will doubtless be overcome, since the profit-
able utilisation of the supplies would result in a con-
siderable inland demand for the railways and.manufac-
turing purposes. The nature of most of the coal so
far produced has necessitated mixing it with a better
class coal, or making it into briquettes. The highly-
volatile character of the coal makes alterations of the
usual furnace necessary to enable this fuel to be used
for steam raising.

University of Sheffield: Mining Department. — The
matriculation examination for the degree in mining will be
held on September 10, 1917. For information apply to the
registrar before August 25. The mining diploma (day)
course commences on October 3. The certificate (Saturday
afternoon) course commences on September 22; and the
mining teachers’ course on September 29. The courses in
electricity applied to mining commence on September 22.

Russian Shale as Fuel. — In 1916 the Fuel Committee
investigated the shale deposits on the southern shore of
the Gulf of Finland, and though the work of the committee
is not yet finished, sufficient data are available to indicate
the possible industrial use of these shales. The deposits
are reported to cover an area of over 40 square versts, and
the reserves of shale to amount to at least 3,000 million
poods. Examination of the shale has shown that it is
quite good for domestic use; whilst from experiments in
the laboratory, in metallurgical works, and the Baltic
shipyard, it appears to be a satisfactory fuel for factory
boilers, if mechanical means are used for removing the ash.
Good results were obtained also in the use of the shale in
heating foundry furnaces, and for heating rotary cement
kilns. The Russian shales are allied to the Scottish shales
basis, compared with which they are found to be very
satisfactory. In the first place, the Russian deposits are
scarcely inferior in quantity to those of Scotland, and they
are easy and cheap to work owing to the softness of over-
burden. In point of composition, Russian shale is richer
in organic matter and liquid products of distillation; and it
(or the ash constituents) can also be used in cement
works, whereas Scottish shale is not suitable for the pur-
pose. The comparative analysis of Russian and Scottish
shale is given below. It is considered that, used directly
as fuel, the shale will be an advantageous support to
industry in the Petrograd-Reval region. As to products of
distillation, it will yield liquid fuel for the Fleet, railways,
etc., whilst other products of the distillation of Russian
shale may be used in various branches of industry, as is
the case with the corresponding products of Scotch shale.

Volatile substances 	  Non-volatile residue without ash  Ash constituent 		Scottish shale.  Per cent.  21’10  5-10  70-80	Russian shale.  Per cent. 		44‘65 		13-74 		41'60
Composition of ash.:—		
Silica 		55 60			47-04
Iron oxide 			12-23	8’48
Alumina	 		12-14			14-18
Lime...		1-15			27-37
Magnesia 	  .	traces	0-25
Sulphur 		0 94	1-08
Yield of oil products on dry dis-		
tillation 		10-12	1’4-16
Yield of ammonia, calculated as		
sulphate		1-14	Not yet known.

THE INSTITUTION OF MINING
ENGINEERS.

(Continued from page 1171.)

Acetylene Mine Lamps.

The President, in opening the discussion on Mr.
Maurice’s paper,* thought they were all agreed that
Mr. Maurice had given a very interesting paper on a
subject which, so far as he was aware, had not hitherto
been treated in any paper previously presented to the
institution. He had no doubt they all appreciated the
brilliant light given by the acetylene lamp, and, so far
as he could judge, there was no additional danger to
coal mines to be apprehended by the extension of its
use underground in open-light mines. He had had
what was called the cap lamp in his hand, and he was
afraid that one defect was that it was not anything
like so handy as the ordinary cap lamp used in Scot-
land, which gave a light inferior to that of the acety-
lene lamp, but was very much lighter in weight, and
would take a good deal of knocking out. The custom
of using it would die very hard, even if acetylene
lamps were introduced. He would like to get at the
cost of working one of those acetylene cap lamps, for,
say, 8J hours. He did not know whether there would
be any objection to using it in a safety lamp. He did
not see any safety lamp proper among the exhibits on
the table, but he rather thought there was one among
the illustrations. However, he had not caught any
particular reference to safety lamps working with
acetylene. He understood that Mr. Charles Bingham,
who was one of the authorities on acetylene, was pre-
sent ; and he might perhaps like to add something to
the discussion.

Mr. Charles Bingham (London) said the president
had asked for details of the cost of running those
lamps as compared with the cost of other illuminants.
He had the whole of the data, and he would be very
pleased to send the figures to the secretary, as he had
them relating to several countries. There was, how-
ever, something to be said even on the score of cost
in favour of the acetylene lamp. With regard to the
figures for the consumption of carbide in the Trans-
vaal in 1915, his office at Johannesburg had just sent
him an official statement, prepared by the Chamber
of Commerce there, showing that the consumption of
carbide in the gold mines of the Transvaal in 1914
was 4,986,000 lb.,rising to 5,603,0001b. in 1915, and in
the year ending December 31, 1916, it had risen to
6.596,000 lb. A short time ago the engineer of one of
the most prominent gold mining groups in the Trans-
vaal had rather astonished him by stating that the
cost of acetylene was less than half that of the candles
previously used. Of course, that was not of very great
value for mining in this country, but another remark
made by the engineer was more striking—namely, that
the advantage of the acetylene lamp in enabling the
miners to distinguish the various strata from one
another was so great that it was reckoned that the
acetylene light cost the company nothing, the extra
quantity of good gold-bearing rock, obtained by the
miners by means of the better light, more than cover-
ing the cost of the acetylene light itself. At the well-
known iron ore mines near Duluth, and also several
of the copper mines, he had found exactly the same
report as in the Transvaal—namely, that the increased
efficiency of the light and the ability to distinguish the
strata were of such great advantage that the miners
had been completely converted from the old-fashioned
lights’, and at that time absolutely refused to go back
to them at all. At the time when he was in the States
one saw nothing but the small cap lamps, which were
rather smaller than the one on the table, but evidently
the preference for those lamps was disappearing with
the ever-increasing demand for a much better light.
Mr. E. W. Bullard, who was a specialist in that parti-
cular branch, had written as follows in the American
Acetylene Journal for May: —

During the last three or four years there has been a trend
(especially in the south-west) towards the larger and
heavier lamps for the miner. It has always been the case
that the superintendent and boss has had a 5- to 6-hour
lamp, or even a 9-hour lamp, but the miner himself was
generally provided with a cap lamp which burned three to
four hours, and then the same had to be re-filled. You
will now find in visiting many of the larger camps through-
out the country that the mining companies have found it
more efficient to spend more money on their lamps, and
give the miner a 9-hour heavy steel lamp. There are good
reasons for this, and economy is generally the outcome
from doing away with the small cap lamps and installing
the larger lamps for the following reasons :—The large
9-hour lamp is made of pressed seamless steel or aluminium
and therefore will stand a great deal harder usage than
the small brass cap lamp. In the earlier days, the super-
intendent and boss, who did not have to give his lamp
the hard usage the miner did, used this heavy lamp, while
the miner used a light lamp, which was always being
knocked or broken by falling rock, etc. Now, in equipping
the miner with the large lamp, they give him a lamp that
will stand the hardest usage of underground work, and
even when hit by rocks, does not become seriously damaged
or lessened in efficiency. Thorough investigation has
determined the fact that the large steel lamp will out-
stand three to four of the small miner’s cap lamps. Bear-
ing this in mind, a little mental calculation will readily
show that the large lamp, which means a greater cost of
100 to 200 per cent, at the start, is really economical, as it
lasts so very much longer. The large lamp also gives a
stronger and better light. There is no fluctuation, and
the bright 20 to 25 candle-power light is a great improve-
ment over the earlier miner’s cap lamp in the way of
illuminating a stope or workings. This is in itself econo-
mical, as the better the light the miner has, the more
efficient work he can do. But, to my mind, the strongest
reason for the increased popularity of the large heavy steel
lamp is that this lamp will burn for a full shift without
re-charging.

The experience of the carbide industry had undoubt-
edly been that there was a general tendency towards
the adoption of a larger and larger light. A larger
light, of course, really cost less per unit of light given,

* See Colliery Guardian, June 15, 1917, p. 1123.

but the absolute cost was necessarily always heavier.
The better the light, the more it paid for itself,
through a very much larger amount of the material
which the miner set out to win being won; conse-
quently they had the state of affairs which prevailed
in so many industries, and which the careful manager
was, as a rule, very anxious to secure—that the dearer
the light, or the dearer the appliance, the better it
paid for itself.

The President invited the members to look at the
lamps which were exhibited on the table.

Prof. L. T. O’Shea said that, so far as the mining
industry was concerned, it was chiefly interested in
the question of the adaptation of the acetylene lamp
to the safety lamp. So far as he could see, Mr.
Maurice had not dealt with that point. It would be
of considerable interest to the mining community to
know how far success had been achieved in adapting
the acetylene to a safety lamp, because it had been
largely shown that, so far as miner’s nystagmus was
concerned, liability to that complaint depended on the
light with which a man worked. There was no doubt
that, in a properly constructed burner, the illumina-
tion given by the acetylene light was superior to any-
thing that could be got from an oil lamp or an electric
lamp. Another point on which more information
might have been given was the dangers which arose
from the use of acetylene. Everyone recognised that
acetylene was a poisonous gas, and it would have been
of some interest to have had some details as to the
effect of acetylene gas on the human system. Another
point on which he would like to ask the author’s
opinion was with regard to the explosive properties of
acetylene itself. Under certain conditions, acetylene
could be exploded like an ordinary explosive. One
could detonate acetylene gas with an ordinary mercury
fulminate detonator, and that was largely a question
of temperature. He would ask the author if he had
any information as to the temperature at which acety-
lene would detonate, and the dangers which might
arise from that property. If the acetylene lamp could
be adapted to the safety lamp, and overcome certain
dangers which seemed to him to arise from the use of
acetylene lamps, he thought they would to a large
extent solve the problem of better illumination in
mines for the ordinary worker. He had once had an
opportunity of seeing the acetylene lamp used in a
pit in Silesia, and he could testify to the great advan-
tage there was in using it. But those were candle
pits, and there was no doubt that for use in candle
pits the acetylene lamp would have very great
advantages.

Mr. William Maurice, in reply, said that probably
Mr. Bingham’s figures of costs would be very much
more satisfactory than his own, because Mr. Bingham
would be able to give costs as they had actually been
worked out at the mine, whereas the only costs which
he (Mr. Maurice) could give would be the cost worked
out on the consumption of carbide per lamp. There
was no doubt that the cost was very much lower than
one would suppose it to be, because the actual con-
sumption of carbide in those lamps was extremely
small. He had purposely omitted to deal with the
question of acetylene safety lamps in the paper,
because he thought it would rather take them off the
track, since the problem of acetylene safety lamps
opened up many points which were possibly contro-
versial ; whereas with regard to the application of
acetylene lamps for naked-light mines, so far as he
was aware, there was no opposition from any source
whatever. In fact, in most of the English naked-
light mines the miners bought their own lamps, and
it would be found that when one miner introduced an
acetylene lamp into his district, it was only a matter
of a few weeks before they became of general use.
There was no doubt it would be of very considerable
advantage for the members of the institution to discuss
the question of the acetylene safety lamp. There
were many points, some of which Prof. O’Shea had
raised, with regard, first, to the possible toxic effects
of acetylene, and, secondly, with regard to the possible
explosive effects, first of a mixture of acetylene with
air, and then as to what was likely to happen when a
small percentage of acetylene escaped into a mine air
which already contained a small percentage of CHr
One could not say anything very definite on the sub-
ject; there was still some research work to be done.
But considerable advantage would accrue from a free
discussion of the subject, so that when a satisfactory
acetylene lamp did appear, there would be no opposi-
tion merely on the ground that it was an . acetylene
lamp. As a matter of fact, acetylene safety lamps had
been known and used on the Continent for the last five
or six years in a number of fiery mines ; arid there were
at least half a dozen different makes which had passed
the various Continental safety lamp tests. That point
required emphasising in this country, because in 1913
he had proposed to submit an acetylene safety lamp
for test at the Eskmeals Station, and 'the reply he got
was, first, that there were no regulations in existence
which would admit of such a lamp being tested, and,
secondly, that it was an acetylene safety lamp, and
therefore could not be tested. At the very time when
that statement was made there were several hundreds,
or possibly a thousand, such lamps in use in Conti-
nental fiery mines. He had a few acetylene safety
lamps, including one very new one, and he would have
very much pleasure in bringing them to the notice of
the institution whenever it was agreeable to the mem-
bers. He could not say very much about the toxic
effects of acetylene, but it was very questionable
whether acetylene, in any volume which was reason-
ably likely to escape into a mine, possessed toxic
effects, because the mere smell of the gas became
intolerable before the danger point was reached, and
was therefore probably sufficient warning to get out
of the way. On the other hand, it was possible to
eliminate the smell in an extremely simple way, and,
at the same time, such toxic effects as would be likely
to appear. All that was necessary was to put a spoon-
ful of sugar into the water. With regard to the
explosive properties of acetylene, he could not say