186 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN January 25, 1918. COKE OVEN DEVELOPMENTS IN 1917. The remarkable impetus given to the construction of coke ovens and by-product plants generally during 1917 is indicated by the long lists of orders to which the manufacturers can point at the present moment. Only an incomplete record is possible, because in some instances the pressure of business prevents a full com- pilation, and also because a deal of the work is still in hand, and will be included in the 1918 total. The tables given below illustrate the activity which prevails in constructional work, especially in coke ovens. It will observed that Messrs. Simon-Carves Limited, of Man- chester, have had a busy year, and the Coppee Company (Great Britain) Limited, Kingsway, London, as well as the Coke Oven Construction Company Limited, have been fully occupied. Important work has also been carried out by the successors to the Otto Coke Oven Company Limited, Leeds, the Simplex Coke Oven and Engineering Company Limited, Sheffield, and British Coke Oyens Limited, London, some of whose operations are mentioned below. Hoppers Coke Oven and By-Products Company Limited, Sheffield, have executed a number of large ex- tensions in addition to new installations, and work of an allied character can be mentioned in the case of Messrs. M. Coulson and Company Limited, Spennymoor; Bryan Donkin and Company Limited, Chesterfield; Messrs. Head, Wrightson and Company Limited, Stockton-on- Tees ; Messrs. R. and J. Dempster Limited, Man- chester ; and Messrs. Blair, Campbell and McLean, Glasgow. In the subjoined tables the figures relating to ovens frequently denote extensions of existing plant of the same kind constructed by the same makers. Simon-Carves Limited, Manchester. Coke Ovens. Name of undertaking. No. of ovens. Remarks. Barnsley Main Colliery 17 With additional gas Co. Ltd. (vertical) cooling, scrubbing & Bearpark Coal & Coke 15 exhauster plant. Extension. Co. Ltd., Durham (horizontal) Bengal Iron and Steel 34 With extension of by- Co. Ltd., Kulti (vertical) product plant. Cargo Fleet Iron Co., 5 New design for blast- Middlesbrough (vertical) furnace or producer J. and J. Charles worth 30 gas. With recovery plant. Ltd. (horizontal) Samuel Fox and Co. 60 With recovery plant Ltd., Sheffield (vertical) and power plant. Manvers Main Colliery, 22 With additional gas- W ath-on-Dearne (horizontal) cooling and scrubbing Middleton Estate and 12 plant.. With gas cooling Colliery Co., near Leeds New Monckton Col- (vertical) plant. 14 With additional gas- lieries Limited, near (horizontal) cooling plant. Barnsley Nortli - Eastern Steel 60 With direct recovery Co. Ltd. (vertical) plant and benzol Partington Steel and 152 plant. Extension, with com- Iron Co., Irlam (vertical) plete equipment for Pease & Partners Ltd. 25 recovery of tar, am- monia and benzol. With additional gas- (vertical) cooling and scrubbing Skinner and Holford, 20 * plant. Sheffield Wharncliffe W o o d- 13 moor Colliery, near Barnsley Name of company. Washeries. No. of Washeries. Capacity per hour. Rossington Main Col- 1 75 tons liery Dominion Steel Cor- 1 150 „ poration Newton, Chambers & 2 50 „ Co. Ltd., Sheffield Lilleshall Co. Ltd 1 50 „ Barber, Walker & Co. 1 125 „ Ltd. Pease & Partners Ltd. 1 125 „ Bolsover Colliery Ltd. 1 100 „ Powell Duffryn Co. Ltd. 1 125 „ J. and J. Charlesworth 1 50 „ Ltd. New Silkstone & Haigh 1 100 „ Moor Collieries Penarroya Co., Spain... 1 80 „ Coppge Company (Great Britain) Limited, London. Ovens. Name of company. No. of ovens. Remarks. The Wankie Colliery 44 Repeat order. Co. Ltd., Rhodesia The Wankie Colliery 56 Repeat order (in hand). Co. Ltd., Rhodesia Also coal - handling plant. Baldwins Ltd., Port 120 Talbot Baldwins Ltd., Cwm- 84 Rebuilding. avon Baldwins Ltd., Lan dore 80 Rebuilding. The Redbourn Hill Iron 88 and Coal Co. Ltd., Frodingham The Hardwick Colliery 25 Repeat order. Co. Ltd., Heath Lancaster’s Steam Coal 5 Repeat order. Collieries Ltd., Cwmtillery North’s Navigation Col- 500 Repeat order (in hand). lieries (1889) Ltd., Tondu Washeries. Name of company. No. of washeries. Capacity per hour. The Digby Colliery Co. — 112 tons. Ltd., Nottingham Baldwins Ltd., Port Repeat 120 „ Talbot order The Redbourn Hill Iron — 80 „ and Coal Co. Ltd. The Hardwick Colliery Repeat 20 „ Co. Ltd. order Benzol and Additional By-froduct Plants. The Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company Limited, Bargoed. Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Limited, Cwmbran. Lancaster’s Steam Coal Collieries Limited, Abertillery. The Barnsley Smokeless Fuel Company Limited, Barnsley. The Societa Chimica Lombada (A. F. Bianchi and Company), Italy. The Welsh Navigation Steam Coal Company Limited, Cardiff (repeat order). Coke Oven Construction Company Limited, Sheffield (Semet-Solvay System). Ovens. No. of ovens. Name of company. Hoyland Silk stone Col- liery Beighton Colliery (Shef- field Coal Co. Ltd.) Brymbo Steel Co. Ltd., North Wales Thorncliffe Ironworks (Newton, Chambers and Co. Ltd.) Newcastle Iron and Steel Works, N.S.W. (Broken Hill Proprie- tary Co.) Otto Coke Oven Remarks. The largest capacity yet built in this country — with coal washery, power plant and benzol plant. Extensions, making 66. 8 5 Company Ovens. No. of ovens. 10 Name of company. Blackwell Colliery Co. Ltd., Blackwell Earl Fitzwilliam Col- lieries Wm. Whitwell & Co. Ltd., Stockton-on- Tees Cochrane’s NewBrance- peth Colliery Co. Dur- ham North-Eastern Steel Co. Ltd., Middlesbrough 37 Extension, making 66. 37 With benzol recovery plant. 66 Making 132, recovery plant. with Limited, Leeds. Remarks. Extension. 20 Extension. 15 Extension. Turbo gas exhauster for 95 Otto ovens Simplex Coke Oven and — Crud e benzol plant and patent naphthalene scrubbers Engineering Company Limited, Sheffield. Ovens. Name of company. No. of ovens. Lambton and Hetton Collieries Ltd., co. Durham 35 & 50 H. Stobart & Co. Ltd., Ferryhill Remarks. With coal chargin _ coke di scharging plant, by-product plant, sulphate plant, water-cooling plant, &c. With coal charging and levelling plant, coke discharging and loading plant, by- product plant, &c. British Coke Ovens Limited, London, Ovens. Name of company. No. of ovens. Wm. Dixon Ltd., Gias- 25 gow Koppers’ Coke Oven and By-products Ovens. Name of company. No. of ovens. Yorkshire Coking and Chemical Co. North Bitchburn Coal Co. Ltd. Tinsley Park Colliery... Remarks. Company, Sheffield. Remarks. Second battery; a coal washery. Extension. 60 also 10 15 Extension. To the foregoing list could be added a great deal of allied work. The Koppers’ Coke Oven and Bye-Product Company Limited, for instance, have been busy on a number of other large installations, which, however, will not be completed for some time. The washery completed for the Yorkshire Coking and Chemical Company Limited, was originally purchased from the Humboldt Engineering Company Limited, of Cologne, but owing to the outbreak of war the delivery of the material was never effected. The details were thereupon worked out here with a view to the parts being manufactured in this country. The washery has now been in operation for a considerable period, and has given eminently satisfactory results. THE AMERICAN COAL TRADE. Advices by cable state that the public quietly accepted the five days’ suspension of non-essential industries (terminating on January 23rd), in order that fuel may be conserved and traffic congestion relieved. It is believed that the “fireless Mondays” for the next ten weeks will be accepted in the same spirit. The estimated saving of fuel is 30,000,000 tons. President Wilson has issued a statement upholding the drastic coal order, and declaring that he had every confidence that the end fully justifies the means. Reports sent to the Fuel Aministration show that there is a progressive improvement in coal transporta- tion throughout the congested eastern part of the country, coal for domestic uses and bunker coal reach- ing Atlantic ports in a satisfactory volume. The actual operation of Mr. Garfield’s Conservation Order, which temporarily closed thousands of manufacturing concerns, was far less distressing than was anticipated. Arrangements have been made at Washington for emergency shipments of coal to relieve the scarcity in Canada. The position this week completely alters the market outlook, as reported by mail. The Coal Age for December 22 dwells upon railroad congestion, slow transport, insistent demand and impossible delivery. Priority orders have caused a general muddle. In order to accumulate a stock some of the industrial plants arranged to close for a week or two. Great anxiety has been expressed in Boston. Receipts at Hampton Roads diminished in conse- quence of delays in loading. Philadelphia reports state that there is no free coal in the market, except that sold for smithing purposes. The demand for this coal becomes greater each week. While it is difficult to place orders, the prices range from 4-50 dols. to 5-50 dols. per net ton at the mines. Baltimore experi- enced a real coal famine, which stopped large indus- tries for a time and left hundreds of homes and institutions without fuel. In New York it is expected that the increase of 135 dols. per net ton granted by the Fuel Administrator to the price of coal for bunkering or for export to foreign countries will have a beneficial effect upon local conditions. The anthracite output was hindered by severe weather, and consignments received from the mines have been generally light. Heavy sales of culm are being made in Philadelphia, and some shippers profess to believe that a permanent market has now been created for this material. The average prices for steam sizes as sold by the independent dealers, are:—Buckwheat, 4-15 dols.; rice, 3-35 dols. ; barley, 2-35 dols.; and culm, 1-25 dols. There is no open coke market, as there are prac- tically no offerings, the limited production being applicable on contracts. The set prices for beehive coke remain at 6 dols. for furnace, 7 dols. for selected 72-hour foundry and 7-30 dols. for crushed, over 1-inch. The fuel administration is considering a proposition to allow a margin on coke sales made by brokers, to be added to the set price, and predictions are made that within a few days margins will be set at 5 per cent, on furnace coke and 7| per cent, on foundry, as maximum, this to apply also on resales or when the middleman guarantees the account. LAW INTELLIGENCE. HOUSE OF LORDS.—January 22. Before the Lord Chancellor and Lords Dunedin, Atkinson, Shaw, and Buckmaster. Pit Prop Contract. Oakbank Oil Company Limited v. Love and Stewart Limited.—In this case, the Oakbank Oil Company Limited appealed from an interlocutor by the First Division of the Court of Session, reversing the decision of Lord Dewar in an action in which the appellants sued Love and Stewart Limited, pit prop importers, Hope-street, Glasgow, for alleged breach of contract for the supply of pit props. The answer of the respondents was to the effect that no breach of contract occurred, inasmuch as at the time when they were said to be in breach of their contract they had taken advantage of a clause forming part of the contract which gave them the right to cancel it. The clause, which appeared in red ink upon all the letter paper of the respondents, read as follow : “ All offers over a period are subject to stoppages through strikes, lock-outs, etc., and the right to cancel is reserved in the event of any of the countries through which our supplies are drawn becoming engaged in war.” The appellants contended that the con- tract was completed by a written offer and acceptance which did not incorporate the red ink clause, and that a marginal notification at the side of a letter was, in the circumstances of the present case, insufficient in law to alter an express term of a written contract. Without calling on the respondents, their lordships dismissed the appeal. The Lord Chancellor said it seemed to him quite impos- sible to divorce the letter from the clause, which was printed in such a way as to call attention to it, and which purported to qualify the terms of the letter. It seemed to him quite clear that the red ink note did form part of the terms offered. Lords Dunedin, Atkinson, Shaw, and Buckmaster con- curred, and the appeal was dismissed, with costs. JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL. January 22. Present—Lords Parker of Waddington, Sumner, Parmoor, Wrenbury, and Sir A. Channell. Contraband Coal. Re the Dutch steamship “ Alwina.” — Lord Sumner delivered the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of the steamship “ Alwina,” belonging to the Holland Gulf Stoomvaart Maatschappij. The case for the Crown was that the “ Alwina,” when she left Newport on October 26, 1914, for Buenos Ayres, was carrying coal to the German fleet operating, in the South Atlantic, but that that intention was frustrated owing to the destruction of the German fleet off the Falkland Islands. On her return to this country with another cargo, the ship was seized at Falmouth. The Prize Court held that the vessel was carrying contraband, with false papers, but, on grounds of law, ordered release. Their lordships held that, as the “Alwina” never suc- ceeded in carrying contraband to the enemy, and never proceeded to any enemy port, she had the good fortune to fall outside the cases specified, and to escape condemnation. HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE. KING’S BENCH DI VISION.—January 23. Before Mr. Justice McCardie. Iron Ore Contract. Naylor, Benzon and Company Limited v. Kramische Industrie Gesellschaft.—The plaintiffs are an English com- pany, and the defendants are an Austrian corporation. The contract was for a sale by the plaintiffs to the defendants of 40,000 tons of ore at 16s. a ton c.i.f. Servola—a port adjacent to Trieste. The bargain provided that about 20,000 tons should be delivered during 1914, and about 20,000 tons during 1915. Shipments were to be made at regular intervals. Before August 10, 1914, the plaintiffs had duly delivered about 10,000 tons to the defendants. On the outbreak of war a balance of about 30,000 tons was therefore outstanding. His lordship said that a suspension clause raised the only difficulty, for otherwise the contract would have involved trading with the enemy. He held that the war between Great Britain and Austria was not contemplated in framing the clause, and he decided that the contract was dissolveci by the outbreak of war. An explosion occurred in two of the shafts of the Acadia Coal Company’s mine at Stellarton, Nova Scotia, on January 23. Eleven bodies have been recovered, and 78 men are still unaccounted for.