1314

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

June 28, 1918.

THE FREIGHT MARKET.

On the north-east coast the coal trade is so fully occu-
pied in the discharge of orders on official and inland
accounts that the circumstances that neutral tonnage is
arriving in very small supply, thereby negativing the
possibility of outward fixtures that might otherwise be
made, leaves those connected with collieries unimpressed
and hardly interested. To the merchants and exporters,
of course, the present state of affairs is calamitous,
although it is recognised that, even if neutral tonnage were
to hand in much greater volume than is the case, charter-
ing would still be checked by the shortage of available
coal and the great congestion of prompt loading turns.
As a matter of fact, fixtures during the week have been
almost wholly confined to those for Scandinavian destina-
tions. Rates in that direction continue to rise, although
there has been no repetition of the sensational fixture
of a boat for Gothenburg at 207^ kr. This week’s fix-
tures for Gothenburg have ranged from 185 kr. to 190 kr.,
whilst Stockholm has twice been done at 210 kr., as against
207^ kr. last week; Halmstad at 190 kr., and Warberg
at 205 kr. The only other fixture reported is that of a 4,000
ton vessel for Gibraltar at 100s. Orders for most neutral
directions are numerous, but, owing to the difficulties
aforementioned, there has been nothing done, and rates
are nominal at the figures quoted in last week’s freight
article. At South Wales the position is rather variable,
so far as tonnage supplies are concerned. At Cardiff the
steamer position is fairly satisfactory; at Newport the
supply of tonnage is good, but at Swansea the shortage
is stated to be acute. Despite all difficulties, however,
the chartering market at South Wales has been much
brisker during the past week than for a considerable
period. Most of the business done has been for compara-
tively small boats for scheduled destinations, but there
have been a few other fixtures which are rather interest-
ing. Thus, Algiers from Cardiff has been arranged for
at 165s. for Allied tonnage, a 3,000-tonner for Gibraltar,
Cardiff loading, has been fixed at 100s., and a 2,200-ton
vessel from Newport to Aguilas has been engaged at 420s.
The enquiry on Allied account continues brisk, but orders
for neutrals are rather scarce. Late rates are well upheld.

Homewards, River Plate rates are steady at 25s. from
lower ports of the United Kingdom, and 25s. to French
Atlantic. Virginia coal freights are steady at 80s. to the
Plate, and 84s. to Brazil. The rates for grain tonnage at
the U.S.A, are very firm. At the Far East tonnage con-
tinues in good request at high prices. Mediterranean and
Bay ports continue to take up ore and phosphate vessels
at high rates.

Tyne to Gibraltar, 4,000, 100s.; Gothenburg, 1,800,
190 kr.; Halmstad, 1,800, 190 kr.; Stockholm, 2,250,
210 kr.; and Warberg, 1,400, 205 kr.

Tyne or Blyth to Gothenburg, 3,500, 185 kr.; and
Stockholm, 2.200, 210 kr.

Cardiff to Algiers, 5,200 and 5,400, 165s., Allied;
Chantenay, 1,500 and 1,800, 61s. 6d., neutral; Cherbourg,
600, 48s. 9d., neutral; Caen, 530 and 900, 48s., neutral;
1,100, 46s. 6d., neutral; Gibraltar, 3,000, 100s.; Honfleur,
350 and 400, 72s. 9d., sail; La Pallice, 1,500, 61s. 6d.,
neutral; Rouen, 1,200, 24s. 6d., Allied; 2,700 and 3,000,
47s. 9d., neutral; 1,300, 48s. 9d., neutral; 1,150 and 1,200,
48s. 9d., plus 5 per cent., patent fuel, neutral; St. Malo,
300, 45s., neutral; Trouville, 2,500, 45s. 6d., neutral; and
Treguier, 80, 80s., sail.

Port Talbot to Trouville, 700-800, 48s., neutral; and
Huelva, 3,000, 380s.

Penarth to Caen, 530, 48s., neutral.

Neath Abbey to Cork, 380-400, 19s., British.

Swansea to Rouen, 1,000, 1,100 and 2,000, 48s. 9d.,
neutral; Caen, 1,300, 46s. 6d., neutral; 800 and 900, 48s.,
neutral; Sables d’Olonne, 1,200, 61s. 6d., neutral; Perros,
130, 80s., sail; St. Brieux, 300, 33s. 6d., Allied; Charente,
2,200, 61s. 6d., neutral; Granville, 4002 48s., neutral;
Cherbourg, 130, 73s. 9d., neutral; Morlaix, option other
North French port, 200 and 250, 80s., sail.

Newport to Aguilas, 2,200, 420s., Spanish.

Wales to Charente, 1,800, 61s. 6d., neutral.

East Coast to North France (Dunkirk-Brest range), 450,
80s., sail, full options.

COAL, IRON AND ENGINEERING COMPANIES.
REPORTS AND DIVIDENDS.

Avery (W. and T.) Limited.—The directors recommend a
final dividend of 10 per cent, on ordinary shares for year
ended March 31, making 15 per cent, for year, against
12^ per cent.

Brightside Foundry and Engineering Company Limited.
—The report for the year ended June 30, 1917, states that
the operations of the year resulted in a profit of £18,465,
and £2,422 was brought in, making £20,886. The year’s
preference dividend leaves to be disposed of £18,636. Out
of this was declared a dividend of 10 per cent, and a
bonus of 5 per cent., free of tax, on 40,000 £1 ordinary
shares, there remaining £12,636. The directors reserve
for special depreciation and extensions £5,000, place to
reserve account £5,000, and carry forward £2,636. A cir-
cular contains proposals for capitalising undivided profits
and distributing them in an equivalent amount of fully
paid new shares among ordinary shareholders.

Cassel Coal.—Interim dividend of 5 per cent. (Is. per
share), payable to holders registered June 29.

Dinniiigton Main Coal Company Limited.—The directors
report a profit of £67,397, less depreciation £12,242; net
profit, £55,155 (against £59,937). The balance for disposal
is £46,074. The directors recommend a final dividend of
10 per cent., free of tax, place £5,000 to reserve for Fir-
beck shares, and carry £12,324 forward, compared with
£12,481 brought into the accounts. The final dividend a
year ago was 12^ per cent., making 20 per cent, for the
year.

Dominion Steel Corporation Limited.—The report for
the year ended March 31 last states that earnings, after
deducting all expenses, repairs, maintenance and business
profits tax for previous year, amounted to 11,030,112 dols.
From this there has been reserved for depreciation, sink-
ing funds, etc., 1,384,241 dols. Disbursements for bond
interest have been reduced from 1,230,203 dols. to 1,064,209
dols., and there was received for interest on surplus funds
374,076 dols. Quarterly dividends making 4^ per cent,
were paid on the common shares, total disbursements
in this connection being 1,444,396 dols. Net additions to
cost of properties were 2,435,073 dols., chief expenditures
being upon the property of the Dominion Iron and Steel
Company, and principally in respect to its mines at
Wabana, its coke ovens and blast furnaces. Current
and working assets, etc., increased 5,638,809 dols. Current
liabilities increased by 1,066,107 dols. Funded and mort-
gage debts decreased by 960,588 dols. Coal production
was 3,781,615 gross tons, against 4,279,772 gross tons.
The directors regret the further serious diminution in

the colliery output due to the Military Service Act. Iron
and steel production was : Pig iron, 332,231, against
346,926; steel ingots, 374,332, against 377,079; blooms and
billets for sale, 139,557, against 144,051; rails, 17,103,
against 17,495; wire rods for sale, 73,660, against 67,492;
bars, 1,542, against 5,259; wire, 27,165, against 35,142;
nails, 16,347, against 20,175.

King’s Norton Metal Company Limited.—The report
for the two years ended April 5, 1917, states that profit
was £137,457; £2,761 was brought forward, making
£140,218, out of which the directors have appropriated
£75,000 to reserve account, and paid dividends in June
1916 and February 1917 amounting to £27,950. Since the
date of the balance sheet the directors have paid a further
dividend at rate of 7 per cent, per annum on preference
shares and 15 per cent, per annum on ordinary shares,
leaving £4,568 to be carried forward. With regard to
1917-18, output has been very satisfactory both as to
quality and volume. No accounts are yet available, but
the directors recommend dividends at rate of 7 per cent,
on preference shares and 15 per cent, on ordinary shares.

Maltby Main Colliery Company Limited.—Gross profit,
£26,895; interest and depreciation, £22,771; net profit,
£4,123 (against £35,522). This, with £12,014 brought for-
ward, makes £16,138, which the directors recommend
should be carried forward. In order to liquidate loans
the capital has been increased to £700,000, and the 35,000
new shares of £1 thus created have been offered to the
shareholders at par.

Manor-Powis Coal Company Limited.—The report of
the Manor-Powis Coal Company for the year ended Feb-
ruary 28 states that, after writing off £2,495 for depre-
ciation, there remains a balance of £15,005. The directors
recommend a dividend of 5 per cent, per annum on the
ordinary shares for the year, less tax, and to carry forward
£10,715. The erection of the briquette plant is proceeding
satisfactorily, and by the autumn of this year the com-
pany should be in a position to market its production.

Stanton Ironworks Company Limited.—Dividend of
9 per cent, and bonus of 5 per cent., less tax, making 20
per cent, for year; £50,000 to reserve; £48,539 forward.

Vryheid (Natal) Railway Coal and Iron Company
Limited.—Dividend of 5 per cent, for year to January 31;
£20,000 to reserve; £28,563 forward.

NEW COMPANIES.

Centrifugal Air Blast Company Limited.—Private com-
pany. Registered June 17, to carry on the business of
founders, smiths, machinists, manufacturers and patentees
of furnaces, etc. Nominal capital £10,000, in 10,000 £1
shares. Qualification of directors, 100 shares for first di-
rector and 200 shares for others. Subscribers (1 share) :
F. S. Lewis and F. F. Hinckley.

Cocksheds Colliery Company Limited.—Private com-
pany. Registered June 15. Objects indicated by title.
Nominal capital £5,000, in 5,000 shares of £1. Director:
J. Parkes. Qualification of directors £100 shares. Sub-
scribers (1 share) : First director and T. Beach.

Richard Jones (Rolling Mills) Limited.—Private com-
pany. Registered June 18, to carry on the business of a
metal roller. Nominal capital, £25,000 in 25,000 ordinary
shares of £1. Directors: A. Harris, M. Jones, E. H.
Harris, and J. J. Baker. Subscribers (1 share): First,
second, third and fourth directors.

Roelant Engineering Company Limited.—Private com-
pany. Registered June 18, to carry on business as engi-
neers, contractors, exporters and importers of engineering
and building goods, etc. Nominal capital £5,000, in 5,000
£1 shares. Subscribers (1 share): I. Roelant and
W. Neuts.

This list of new companies is taken from the Daily
Register specially compiled by Messrs. Jordan and Sons
Limited, company registration agents, Chancery-lane, E.C.

Iron Industry and the Conditions of Peace. — Dr.
Reichert, director of the Association of German Iron and
Steel Manufacturers, lecturing on the future of the German
and Bavarian iron industry at the Munich Technical High
School, deduced from the importance of the German
iron industry (which feeds 1,700,000 workmen, with about
6,000,000 dependants, and already in 1913 paid far more
than 2,000 million marks in wages), together with the
limited productivity of native German ore deposits, the
lesson that Germany must make herself independent of
foreign raw material supplies so far as possible by in-
sisting on suitable guarantees in the treaties of peace.
The end in view, he considers, can be obtained only by
securing most-favoured-nation treatment in the exploita-
tion of overseas ore deposits, and by keeping the ore
deposits of Briey and Longwy, as well as those on the
frontier of Silesia and Poland, between Wilun and the
meeting of the three Empires.

Transport in North Staffordshire.—Commercial and in-
dustrial circles in North Staffordshire favour the recom-
mendation of the Board of Trade Committee dealing with
the iron and steel trades after the war that a local Court
of Enquiry should be appointed to enquire into the circum-
stances of the North Staffordshire Railway. The view
expressed is that the industries and community of North
Staffordshire, isolated as they are from the great trunk
lines of the country, are inadequately provided with trans-
port facilities, which can only be obtained by the merging
of the North Staffordshire Railway in one of the main
systems, preferably the London and North Western, which
already has running powers over the local lines. The
present high rates, it is contended, are a check to indus-
trial expansion, and the coal, iron, steel, and pottery
trades of the district are severely prejudiced in comparison
with industries in other parts of the country which have
the advantage of trunk railways.

Boiler Fuel Economics.—Kunst (^Elektrotechnik und
Maschinenbau) advises that coal be subjected to distilla-
tion whenever practicable before being burned below
boilers. There is direct dependence between temperature
of combustion, quantity of air supply, carbon dioxide
content, and temperature of flue gases. The higher the
CO2 content and the lower the temperature of flue gases,
the- more favourable the utilisation of the fuel. If
10,000 kg. of coal be burned under such conditions that
the CO2 content of the flue gases is 12 per cent, and the
temperature of the latter 200 degs. Cent., the same effect
is produced as by burning 33,400 kg. under such conditions
that the C02 content is 4 per cent, and the gas tempera-
ture 400 degs. Cent. Tables and charts in the original
paper co-relate such factors as calorific value, evaporation
factor, maximum CO2 content, initial temperatures and
over-all efficiencies. A mixture of one part of coke to two
parts of hard coal burns easily, and one part of coke
with three parts of brown coal briquettes is also a good
mixture. Intimate and uniform mixing is the chief re-
quirement. Grate, air supply and stoking arrangements
must all be modified if the coke is to be burned alone.

ABSTRACTS OF PATENT SPECIFICATIONS
RECENTLY ACCEPTED.

115452. Process for Obtaining a Distillate of Shale Free
from Sulphur. G. E. Heyl, King’s House, Kingsway,
London, W.C. 2.—This invention relates to an improved
process of the kind in which the presence of sulphur in
shale products is avoided by mixing salts with the shale
prior to distillation. Iron salts capable of forming sul-
phides by direct contact or when dissolved in either water
or oil act rapidly and effectively if the solutions and shale
are very finely ground together by suitable grinding
machinery, such as grinding rollers, for example. For
instance, by intermixing with the shale which is being
treated a proportion of ferrous or ferric chloride contain-
ing sufficient iron to unite with all the sulphur contained
in the shale and form sulphide therewith, thoroughly
grinding the mixture to a fine state of division and subse-
quently subjecting the mixture to destructive distillation,
the iron salts are brought into intimate contact with the
sulphur compounds in the shale, and practically all the
sulphur is retained by the said iron when the shale under-
goes destructive distillation.

115462. Pock Drills. J. H. Veasey, Apex Shaft
Quarters, New Kleinfontein, Benoni, Transvaal.—The
present invention relates to rock drills having automatic
feed arrangements of the kind in which forward move-
ment of the drill is controlled by water contained in a
cylinder fitted with a piston, a portion of which water is
exhausted at each full stroke to permit the drill to be
fed forward by forwardly acting fluid pressure. The in-
vention further relates to such drills in which arrangements
are made for cutting off the supply of actuating fluid for
the drill when it is retracted. An object of the invention
is to improve the arrangements for automatically return-
ing the drill when the drilling movement is completed, and
for controlling the feeding movements of the drill
manually. Another object is to improve the method of
automatically governing the actuating fluid for the drill.

115478. Portable Conveyors. H. N. Wood, Rainton
House, Fence Houses, Durham.—This invention comprises
improvements in and connected with portable conveyors
and like haulage or transport apparatus, the class of
apparatus particularly concerned being the chain or scraper
conveyors employed in coal mining. These conveyors are
required to be constructed as compactly as possible owing
to the confined spaces in which they are used, and the
transmission gears and bearings between the relatively high
speed motor and the low speed sprocket or drum must be
carefully enclosed and protected against the entry of dust
and flying particles. The object is to provide an apparatus
in which the over-all dimensions are reduced to a minimum,
and the parts of the mechanism are arranged and adapted
for operating with a high degree of efficiency, and in
rwhich the said mechanism is satisfactorily enclosed by
a casing which supports both running and thrust bear-
ings. A double reduction gear is employed between the
motor and the sprocket or drum, and the pinion driven
by the motor has a bearing in the hub of the second
big gear, so that the gears may be brought close together
and no space is lost, as will be hereinafter more par-
ticularly described. The first gear reduction is performed
by a helical pinion and gear, and in order to allow of
obtaining uniform pressure along the entire width of the
gear the pinion is free to move in the axial direction, owing
to the presence of a pin clutch or coupling between the
motor and the said pinion. The arrangement of gears
referred to permits of an advantageous disposition of the
motor spindle and the chain sprocket drive or drum in
axial alignment. The gears are enclosed by a casing in
which, in addition to the various running bearings,
arrangements are made for taking any thrust on the inter-
mediate and driven shafts. (Five claims.)

115480. Aerial Railways. R. F. Wells, 30, Whitehead’s-
grove, Chelsea, London, S.W.—Proposals have been made
to bring about what has been termed “guided flight”
for an aeroplane by guiding it along a rail or track, the
aeroplane being above the rail. The object of this in-
vention is to bring about guided flight of an aeroplane
(as distinct from other heavier-than-air machines) over
the kind of country which is so rough or obstructed that
in it the employment of a continuous support beneath
the path of the guided aeroplane is impracticable. The
invention is concerned only with the use of an aeroplane
whose wings are below the overhead wire. This invention
relates to aeroplanes in combination with aerial railways
intended particularly for the opening up of new countries
in which ordinary or even mono-rail railways having track
supports laid continuously upon the surface of the ground
are too costly to be commercially practicable, as also are
constructions involving the use of guide wires supple-
mental to the track proper, or apparatus below the track
level, and it is characterised by the combination with a
vehicle that is provided with lifting wings, and is freely
pendent so that it can swing laterally, of a continuous
track wire held high in air and also above the level of
the lifting wings by supports which are spaced at long
intervals in the length of the wire, and also are set to
one side or to opposite sides of the wire so as to leave a
clear way under it for the passage of such a vehicle hung
from the wire, and of its lifting wings.

115515. Miners' Safety Lamps. T. A. Jones, Strathyre,
Stocksfield-on-Tyne, Northumberland.—This invention re-
lates to miners’ flame safety lamps of the type having a
single glass and a single inner combustion tube, and in
which air is conveyed by a duct or ducts outside the glass
from within the bonnet to a point beneath the flame. The
object of the invention is to provide an improved con-
struction whereby an adequate supply of air for combus-
tion is admitted to the lamp below the burner in a safe
and efficient manner, so that more perfect combustion and
a large increase in lighting power are obtained; that the
efficiency of the lamp in testing for gas is improved ; that
the inlet gauzes are easily detachable for cleaning, and
are so arranged that they cannot be omitted in assembling
the lamp; that the heating of the base portion of the
lamp is materially reduced, and that the lamp is safe in
an explosive mixture. (Four claims.)

115545. Safety for Mines, Tunnels and Quarries.
G. Notarianni, 19, Spottiswoode-road, Edinburgh.—An air-
tight chamber consisting of a combination of tubes in
different pieces, that can be screwed together or in one
single piece of cast iron or any solid metal and a vessel
containing water, with an opening in said vessel for the
purpose of letting out the gas or smoke caused by the
burning fuse after it has passed through the water. Said
air-tight chamber and vessel could be any dimension, but
6 in. to 12 in. high and 6 in. to 12 in. long is quite suffi-
cient for the tubes, and the mentioned vessel about 2 in.
in diameter by 3 in. indepth. The vessel containing the
water could be made in any shape or form in such a° way
that the water inside could be preserved if necessary. The
whole concern of the invention consists of an airtight