Jvne 28, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1299

accumulated when it stopped, but they did not visit
the mine on a Sunday afternoon and by inspection
satisfy themselves of the nature and extent of the
accumulations.

This evidence, apart from that of the firemen
(McChristie and Bowie) and the under-manager (Mr.
Banks) is clear proof that they were extremely lax
in the management of the mine, and discloses a dis-
regard of precautions obviously necessary for the safe
working of the mine. The provisions of section 32 (1)
(c) of the Coal Mines Act were at the time of the
accident, and for some time prior to it, contravened
by the owners and management by open lights being
allowed to be used. It is difficult to understand how,
in the circumstances disclosed by the enquiry, the use
of naked lights could have been allowed, and if safety
lamps had been in use, as they should have been, the
explosion, even with the defective ventilation which
existed, would not have occurred. It was suggested
at the enquiry that the accident was due to the de-
ceased fireman (Durney) failing to make an examina-
tion with a safety lamp before himself going up and
taking men up the mine with naked lights. There
was no direct evidence that he actually did this, as
Durney and the other men unfortunately succumbed
to their inquiries, but, even if he did, it is no excuse
for the failure to use safety lamps. A serious con-
travention of-clause 5 (u) of the Explosives Order,
which requires that no explosive other than a per-
mitted explosive shall be used in or taken for the
purpose of use into a seam in which inflammable gas
has been found in such quantity as to be indicative
of danger within the previous three months, was also,
in the inspector’s opinion, committed by the late
manager, Mr. D. Baillie, and Mr. Nelson, as, not-

Statement Showing Increase in Wages Since Augusl1 1914, up to the present, together with what will be the
Percentage of Increase after the present application is granted to the following typical workmen.

Grade.	Total daily wage rate in August 1914.	New standards created by 1915 Concilia- tion Board agreement.	Present daily I wage rate, including the war wage of Sept. 17/1917.	Increase in daily wage rate.	Percentage of increase.	| Percentage of increase after present application is granted.
Piecework colliers, timbennen, and repairers	4s. 7d. + 60 per cent. = 7s. 4d.	4s. 7d. + 50 per cent. = 6s. 101 d.  •	| 6s. 10|d. + 55 83 percent. 4- Is. 6d.  war wage = 12s. 2d.	4s. lOd.	66 per cent.	86 per cent.
Colliers* helpers, labourers, and ostlers	3s. 4d. + 60 per cent. = 5s. 4d.	3s. 4d. + 50 per cent. — 5s.	5s. + 55*83 per cent. + Is. 6d. war wage = 9s. 31d.	3s. Hid.	74 per cent.	102 per cent.
Hauliers	3s. lid. + 60per cent. = 6s. 3d.	3s. lid. + 50 per cent. = 5s. 101 d.	5s. 10|d. + 55*83 percent. + Is. 6d. war wage = 10s. 8d.	4s. 5d.	7 per cent.	95 per cent.

The standards taken are awarded by Lord St. Aldwyn under the Minimum Wage Act.

withstanding the frequency with which firedamp was
founS and the time it took to remove the accumu-
lations, non-permitted explosives — gunpowder and
gelignite, fired by ordinary fuse—were used in the
Major coal seam. The evidence of all the witnesses
who were questioned on this point is the same, and
the late manager, Mr. Baillie, the manager and the
under-manager, at the date of the explosion (Messrs.
Nelson and Banks) admitted the use of non-permitted
explosives and the method of firing the shots. Under
section 67 of the Coal Mines Act, the finding of 1|
per cent, of inflammable gas in a naked light mine
is deemed to be dangerous, but at this mine quan-
tities of gas greatly exceeding this were being regu-
larly found and were not even regarded as indicative
of danger.

Several other irregularities were also disclosed at
the enquiry: (1) On gas being discovered by the
firemen, General Regulation 51, which requires that
any place in which danger is found by the firemen
shall have its approaches fenced off so that it cannot
be inadvertently entered, and that the firemen shall
mark the place by a danger signal, was not complied
with. (2) Firemen’s reports were not kept for twdlve
months, as required by section 24 (1). Mr. Robert
Nelson was cited to produce the reports from the date
of the commencement of the stone mine to a week
after the accident. He, however, did not produce
those for the month of February, which he stated he
had not got. (3) The two firemen (McChristie and
Bowie) did not agree as to where the station, required
to be fixed by the manager under section 63 of the
Coal Mines Act, actually was. One said it was at
the pithead, and the other said it was at the bottom
of the shaft. (4) The fireman, on Sunday afternoons,
instead of making an inspection of the Major coal
seam and returning to the station before admitting
any workmen, as required by General Regulation 50,
took them in with him and left them at the bottom
of the stone mine. These irregularities show that
proper care was not exercised by the management
to enforce and see that the requirements of the Coal
Mines Act and Regulations were carried out.

Wigan and District Mining and Technical College.—
The Wigan and District Mining and Technical College
announces that an examination for candidates desiring to
qualify for colliery firemen, and for qualified firemen re-
quiring re-examination in accordance with section 15 of
the Coal Mines Act, 1911, will be held at the college on
Wednesday, July 10, 1918. Entrance forms, which may
be obtained from Mr. S. C. Laws, M.A., B.Sc., the prin-
cipal of the college, must be returned, duly completed,
not later than Thursday, July 4, 1918, and candidates,
in applying for entrance forms, should state for which
examination they require them. The fee for the quali-
fying examination is 7s. 6d., and that for re-examination
is 4s. Candidates will be informed before the day of
examination the hour at which they are required to attend.

MINERS* WAGES.

Mr. Thomas Richards, general secretary, on behalf
of the South Wales Miners’ Federation, has issued
the following reply to the recent statement by the
Monmouthshire and South Wales Coalowners’ Asso-
ciation:—

In that statement an attempt is made to prejudice
the application of the Miners’ Federation of Great
Britain for an increase in their wage rate of Is. 6d.
per day per man, and 9d. per day per boy.

On behalf of the South Wales Miners’ Federation,
which is part of the M.F.G.B., may we state that
this demand is based on the increased cost of living.
The question, therefore is: Does the cost of living
to-day, as compared with pre-war days, justify the
demand? In order to answer this question it is neces-
sary to ascertain—(1) What has been the increase
in the cost of living, comparing the present with
July 1914?	(2) Taking the same period for com-

parison, what has been the increase in the wage rate
in this coal field?

The answer to the first question may be found in
the statement issued by the coalowners. It says:
“ The Board of Trade Labour Gazette for the past
month gives an average percentage increase in the
level of food prices over those of July 1914 of 106
per cent.” One may add that any experienced work-
man’s wife who has the responsibility of budgeting
for the family will not consider this an exaggerated
statement. It may further be stated that the food
referred to in the Labour Gazette embraces all the
staple foodstuffs that find their way to the work-
man’s table. The answer to the second question is
given in the following tabulated statement: —

It will be seen that the average increase in the wage
rate as between the two dates mentioned is from 102
to 86 per cent. If an average is taken, it will be found
to be 94 per cent., or 12 per cent, less than the
“ average percentage increase in the level of food
prices over those of July 1914.”

The coalowners’ statement proceeds to point out in
modification of this difference that the workman does
not pay an increase in the price of fuel for his own
domestic use. This we do not seek to deny, but we
would point out that the custom for the heads of
households to have their house coal at reduced rates
as compared with market price is as old as the coal
field itself. The coalowners themselves, in the highest
flight of imagination, would not allege that the value
of this to the workmen generally is anything approach-
ing 12 per cent., which is the difference between the
“ average percentage increase in the level of food
prices,” comparing July 1914 with May 1918.

The coalowners’ statement then proceeds to becloud
the issue by referring to a question that has nothing
to do with the miners’ application, and it states that
“ high wages are invariably accompanied by low out-
puts, and even during the period of the war high wages
have been followed by diminished production.” We
have already shown that wages, tested by their pur-
chasing power, have not increased, but have rather
decreased during the period of the war.

May we further point out, without going into other
minor reasons, that the chief reason for the diminished
output is to be found in the fact that tens of
thousands of the most vigorous and virile among the
miners, impelled by a strong sense of patriotism, have
left the mines for the Army. Sir Guy Calthrop, the
Coal Controller, writing to Mr. Thomas Ashton, the
general secretary of the M.F.G.B., under date the
11th of this month, says : “ By the end of the month
some 400,000 miners will have answered their country’s
call during the present war, and many of them have
already made the supreme sacrifice.” Is not this a
reason for a diminution that may have taken place
in the output?

We submit that the application for an increase in
the wage rate is amply justified.

Sir Guy Calthrop, Coal Controller, met the executive
of the Miners’ Federation at the offices at Holborn,
on Tuesday af! noon, for the purpose of further con-
sidering the n Js application for an additional war
wage, but no agreement was reached, and the negotia-
tions between the parties remain open.

Gas Traction Experts.—The Gas Traction Committee
has, with Mr. Walter Long’s approval, appointed Mr.
G. J. Shave, of the London General Omnibus Company
Limited, and Mr. J. G. Clark, of the Gas Light and Coke
Company, to be additional members of the expert sub-
committee which is investigating the use of gas under
compression for traction purposes.

INSTITUTION OF MINING ENGINEERS.

(Continued from p. 1253.)

[Second Day.]

On Friday, June 14, the chair was occupied by
Mr. Wallace Thorneycroft, president.

Origin of Blackdamp.

The following paper was read by the author:
“The Origin of Blackdamp” (see Colliery Guardian,
June 21, 1918, p. 1245), by Mr. J. Ivon Graham,
chief chemist at the Doncaster Coalowners’ Research
Laboratory.

Discussion.

The President said they were very much indebted
to Mr. Graham for giving them another valuable
addition to the series of papers which had come from
Doncaster.

Prof. Percy Groom (Imperial College of Science
and Technology, South Kensington) stated in a
written communication that Mr. Ivon Graham and the
cited experiments made by Dr. Haldane drew atten-
tion to the very important fact that during decay
wood exhaled carbon dioxide. Since that gas was
produced in the respiration of the fungi that induced
decay, and the amount produced was proportional to
the quantities and rates of growth of the fungi
present, it followed that the aggregate amount of
carbon dioxide produced must be very considerable in
those shallow damp coal pits in which fungi could
be seen clothing the props and walls, hanging in
festoons from the roof timbers, and running over the
ground and sleepers. But wood-attacking fungi
might possibly be also dangerous to human life by
indirectly inducing the production of firedamp. Those
fungi which caused the disintegration of wood, in
such a manner as to produce cellulose, incidentally
prepared the way for the anaerobic bacteria which
attacked cellulose and produced hydrogen or methane,
as well as carbon dioxide and other bodies. The
occurrence of such bacteria in damp coal pits had not,
so far as he knew, been recorded, yet it appeared
to be probable. Those facts indicated that steps
should be taken to check the decay of pit timber,
not only in order to decrease the waste of wood and
labour, but also to diminish the risk to human life
caused by blackdamp and firedamp. It was to be
hoped that the investigations requisite before that
could be achieved in the most economic manner would
be initiated at the earliest possible date.

Heating of Lost Timber.

Dr. Haldane said he would like to add a word or
two on what Prof. Groom had stated. He thought
that Mr. Graham’s paper brought up the timber
question in a very definite form. Mr. Winmill had
made a calculation as to the amount of timber which
was probably consumed by oxidation in a pit of a fair
size; it ran into tons per day, simply melting away
into carbon dioxide and water. The magnitude of the
figures was very extraordinary. Prof. Groom’s com-
munication brought up the same point. Prof. Groom
alluded to the danger of firedamp being formed.
He did not think the professor had looked at the
appendix of the Report of the Royal Commission on
Metalliferous Mines, where there were a good many
data on the subject. In the haematite mines in Cumber-
land and Lancashire an enormous lot of timber went
in and was left. The haematite was worked commonly
by the shrinkage method, which left an enormous cap
of decaying timber on the top of the ore mass. That
mass of decaying timber was very interesting. First
of all, if one let air into it, and it was exposed in
the working of each successive layer, it oxidised like
anything, and one got the top part of those mine
workings extraordinarily hot within practically a few
feet of the surface. One got a temperature of about
90 or 100 degs., and one also got a great deal of
blackdamp formed by the oxidation of the timber.
If one let air into the timber there was no fire-
damp formed, but if it were buried in the mud and
left, it would in the natural course begin to give
off firedamp. If one looked at a place where there
was a buried piece of old timber one saw bubbles
of firedamp coming off. They had had some small
explosions of firedamp there which were recorded in
the report, and he thought occasionally there had
b^en a fatal accident. It was quite evident that that
firedamp came from the timber. He had made a good
many careful analyses of samples of that, and it was
always pure methane; it was never hydrogen. Prof.
Groom had referred to the possibility of hydrogen
being given off, because some of the fermentations did
produce hydrogen. Some produced methane and some
produced hydrogen, but it was always the methane
which got the upper hand in a mine when timber
was decaying. Still, it was not a source of danger
in an ordinary mine at all, but only where it happened
that one had a lot of old timber buried in the
haematite. One might get a good deal of timber
buried in a coal mine giving off an appreciable amount
of firedamp, but he did not think it would be a source
of serious danger. So far as his own observation
went, timber would stand for an enormous length of
time if it were kept wet normally—that was, if it
were not allowed to be wet and dry alternately, but
was kept constantly wet. He had watched timber,
for instance, in the old workings in Dolcoath, where
the timber of the old ladders was all slimy and nasty-
looking, but not rotten, though they had been there
perhaps for fifty years. The timber was intact be-
cause there was oxygen there; there had always been
a small air current through those workings. It was
very striking to see how that timber, which had been
constantly wet, had stood and had not decayed;
whereas, as was well known, timber which alternately
wetted and dried went very quickly. Beech logs
which had been taken out from below the foundations
at Winchester Cathedral (built about 600 years ago)
were found to be not in the least decayed. They
had been there exposed to the action of oxygen, and
no doubt of water, for 600 years. The wood seemed
to be perfect. At first it was very wet and water-