October 11, 1918.

The colliery guardian.

767

ECONOMY OF BRIQUETTING SMALL
COAL.*

By J. A. Yeadon.

Before entering into the full consideration of this
important subject, and in the hope that it may be of
some assistance in the careful study of the same, it
will probably be as well to briefly mention two other
important topics which seem inseparably connected
with it, and the full recognition of which would
enable one more carefully to understand the merits
of the important subject dealt with. The subject
might therefore be defined under the following heads
or divisions: (1) The conservation of coals; (2) the
utilisation of waste materials; and (3) the economy
of briquetting small coal. By way of introduction
one would understand the term “coal” to include
bituminous, non-bituminous, and anthracite, and also
coke breeze. Never before in the history of our
country has the question of the conservation of coal
assumed or obtained the importance it now commands.
This importance has come to stay for some years, even
if the office of Controller of Coal Mines shall have
ceased to exist. For many years before the present
war commenced this subject has been intermittently
mentioned and written about, but only, as a rule, to
fall upon deaf ears, in the face of the abundant pro-
. digality of supply which hitherto we had been able
to fall back upon with which to fulfil the demands of
our various customers in this and other countries.
Our industrial wealth depends very largely on our
having an abundant supply of coal as its basis. This
country is rich in its ample possession of this mineral
within its own borders, and it is only our simple duty
to those who will come after us to see that we con-
serve this great asset by striving to secure the very
best results from every ton of coal brought to the
surface. In the second place, all branches of trades
and manufactures in this country are, or should be,
closely interested more or less in the question of the
utilisation of waste materials, which is bound to
increase in importance as each year goes on. There
is no use disguising the fact that, so far as fuel was
concerned, before the war we were one of the most
wasteful nations, if not the most wasteful nation, on
the face of the earth. We allowed, and are still
allowing, immense quantities of mined small coal to
remain down below in our pits as not worth bringing
up to the surface. At the present time, and in
different parts of the country, large quantities of
usable small coal are lying on the muck-heaps at our
collieries as comparatively useless and unsaleable.
While it lies there the small coal deteriorates in
quality or breaks into spontaneous combustion, and
thus becomes a nuisance and a danger to those in
the immediate vicinity. Then the small coke breeze
from our coke ovens and gas works has also been
allowed to accumulate in vast heaps as a useless
material or merely utilised for ballast on the railway
lines. Further, great heaps of “slimes”- from the
coal washers are still allowed to accumulate, every
ounce of which could be profitably utilised, given a
suitable process and machinery. Very much of this
waste might have been avoided in recent years had
more sympathetic interest and practical help been
forthcoming from our coal authorities towards those
who, knowing all those facts, were prepared and
ready to undertake special enterprises to meet and
successfully overcome the present abnormal and un-
precedented deficit in the nation’s coal supplies.

Economy of Briquetting Small Coal.

After forty years spent in the designing, construc-
tion and erection of briquette plants at home and
abroad, the author can confidently claim the follow-
ing advantages for coal briquettes when properly
made: (a) The calorific power of good quality bri-
quettes is higher than that of the coal from which
they are made. This has the authority of Prof.
Goss, and results from the addition of the pitch used
as the agglomerant; (b) briquettes thus produced are
unaffected by exposure to the weather, and suffer less
deterioration than the coal itself; (c) briquettes pro-
duced from small coal can be made suitable for any
purpose for which coal is ordinarily used for steam
raising or heating—the one exception for which they
are not suitable being for smelting in the blast fur-
naces ; (</) under normal conditions and with suitable
and the latest improved processes and machinery any
ordinary small coal can be converted into marketable
briquettes, leaving a satisfactory profit to the makers.
Good qualities of briquettes command the same price
per ton as large coal; and (e) in this country it is the
exception to find a colliery provided with a briquette
plant. On the other hand, before the war broke out
it was the exception to come across any leading Con-
tinental colliery company which was not provided
with a suitable briquette works. Briquetting has
been described as the method or process by which
small coal, mixed with a certain proportion of pitch
(or other suitable agglomerant) is converted into com-
pressed blocks of fuel. So far, pitch easily holds the
field as the most suitable for this purpose, having the
following important qualities : (1) It helps efficiency ;
(2) it adds no ash; and (3) the briquette so made is
weatherproof. A multitude of other agglomerants
have been tried—and failed. Various attempts have
also been made to dispense with any agglomerant at
all, but so far none of these has proved a commercial
success. At the present, time there are large accumu-
lations of pitch in this country simply waiting for a
suitable process to utilise it, and one of the best of
these processes is undoubtedly the manufacture of coal
briquettes. The briquettes produced in this country
are, generally speaking, of two forms or shapes—the
rectangular and the ovoid. Until very recent years
nearly the whole of the briquettes were made of the
rectangular form, this being found to be the most
advantageous for shipment. The best rectangular
briquettes are those which have been compressed from

* From paper read before the Mining Institute of Scot-
land on October 5, 1918.

Notes from the Coal Fields.

[Local Correspondence.]

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

Important Purchase of Colliery Property—More Patent
Fuel—Manager Fined at Blackwood—A Food Con-
ference—Commissions for Miner Soldiers—Question
of Small Coal.

A great transfer of coal and fuel trade property ip the
western area of the South Wales coal field, involving^also
interests in France, is reported. Mr. D. R. Llewellyh,* of
Aberdare, who already has heavy holdings, being con-
nected with Norths, the Celtic, Gwauncaegurwen, the
Imperial Navigation, Cwmaman, and the Bwllfa and
Merthyr Dare, is chiefly concerned. The acquisition is
made by him in association with Mr. Seymour Berry, so
well known in ‘ connection with Lord Rhondda’s colliery
deals. They have purchased for a sum said to be nearly
£2,000,000 sterling the properties of the Graigola Company
in the Swansea Valley and elsewhere. The mineral taking
is about 5,000 acres, employing 2,000 men, and the
collieries have an output of about 600,000 tons per annum.
In addition they have the patent fuel works on the dock
side at Swansea, 'said to be the largest in the country
• and well known to be thoroughly equipped with the latest
mechanism. Being situated at the docks side, the cost of
handling the fuel and loading is reduced to a minimum.
These works have an output of about 900,000 tons a year,
and their smaller fuel works at Clydach, near the collieries,
have an out-turn of about 45,000 tons.

The Graigola Company has also numerous depots in
different French ports, and the purchase includes the
property of the Societe Fran^ais Graigola Merthyr, by
whom the depots are owned; also fuel works at Dieppe and
the “ Boulet ” installation for the manufacture of ovoids
at Marans. This French company has also interests in the
Societe Petit Berdeux Graigola at Mortagne, where there
is a depot.. It is understood that the present directors
of the Graigola and Merthyr Company, Messrs. J. Mesnier
(of Paris), F. Cory Yeo, and F. A. Yeo, W. T. Farr and
S; L. Gregor will retire, and that Mr. D. R. Llewellyn
will become the new chairman of the undertaking. Another
director will be Mr. H. II. Merrett, of Cardiff (partner in
the sales agents firm of Messrs. James, Llewellyn and
Merrett), he taking the commercial management. This
sales agency already controls a shipment of nearly 3,000,000
tons of coal. Another name suggested as that of a director
is Mr. J. Emlyn Jones, ship owner, of Cardiff.

According to Exchange rumour, there is an intention to
develop largely the manufacture of patent fuel and to
secure in this way a larger utilisation of the great quan-
tity of small coal which is available in the district. In
carrying out this the fuel works at King’s Dock, Swansea,
will, it is said, .be extended so as ultimately to deal with
a daily quantity of approximately 5,000 tons of small coal,
and in addition the manufacture of patent fuel will also
be developed in France.

At Blackwood a case of considerable importance came
before the magistrates, the manager of the Nine Mile
Point Colliery being summoned for failing to have an
accurate report made of gas found in the colliery on four
days during June. There were also four summonses for
failing to see that the firemen properly inspected the mine,
and two summonses for failing to provide sufficient refuge
holes and for placing obstruction at the entrance of man-
holes on certain haulage roads. The prosecution had been
instituted by the Home Office. Evidence was given by two
colliery examiners, who stated they inspected certain
districts and found accumulation of gas which had not
been recorded in the report books of the firemen, and it
was stated that the gas measurements iriade by these
examiners were agreed to by the over-man, who also
inspected the district. Mr. Jenkins (H.M. inspector of'
mines) deposed that the firemen’s reports were not
full and accurate, and did not give the necessary infor-
mation. Similar evidence was given by Mr. Dyer
Lewis, chief inspector for the South Wales Division. In
cross-examinaiion, Mr. Lewis said he knew the men had
threatened to stop unless proceedings were "taken, and they
did stop; but he could not agree that if it had not been
for that threat proceedings would not have been taken.
In defence, three of the firemen deposed that their reports
upon the dates specified in the summonses were full and
accurate; and the manager, who said that he had a clean
record for 22 years, stated that the gas was diluted at
the point of issue, and that there was nothing more to ‘
be reported than what was contained in the firemen’s
reports. Upon summonses against the manager for not
ensuring examinations to be completed in the regulation
time of two hours, it was pointed out that this had taken
place under misapprehension, and in two cases as the result

both sides. This system was first introduced over
forty years ago by Messrs. Yeadon and Company,
Leeds, and has since been universally copied by the
leading makers of briquette machines.

The first briquette plant in Scotland working on
this system was erected 32 years ago for Messrs.
William Baird and Company Limited at their Lugar
Works. This example was soon followed by a number
of other leading firms in Scotland. At the present
time a briquette plant on this system is working at
the Polmaise Colliery, Stirling, with an output of
400 tons per day of ten hours, nearly the whole of
which production is for export. The rectangular
briquettes produced in Scotland' vary in weight from
3 lb. to 14 lb. each, the larger sizes being for marine
and locomotive consumption and the smaller ones for
domestic and manufacturing use. Briquettes intended
for general shipment should not contain more than
10 per cent, of ash in the coal used, and for the better
qualities 8 per cent, is the maximum. At the Cram-
lington Colliery there is a briquette plant producing
both rectangular and ovoid briquettes, and another
similar plant is now being erected for the Manor
Powis Coal Company, Stirling. The ovoid form of
briquette is evidently growing in favour in this
country. It. is specially suitable for house fires or
boiler consumption, and is a type that has evidently
come to stop. The great advantage of the ovoid
briquette is that the smallest sizes and the most •
inferior qualities of coal, even when containing as
much as 20 per cent, of ash, as also coke breeze from
the gas works, coke ovens, “slimes” from the coal
washers, and anthracite duff, could all be profitably
utilised in this manner. They allow free circulation
of air in the boiler furnaces, and form no clinkers
on the grate bars.

of accident. The Bench decided as to this matter that the
offence would be met with a caution for the breach of regu-
lation in this respect. Upon the four cases for failing to
have accurate report made of the gas, it was submitted
on behalf of the manager that, even if the firemen made
false reports, he was not liable unless he could be shown
to have connived, and the Bench, who withdrew to
consider their decision, dismissed these cases. With
regard to the charge of not providing holes in the haulage
roads, it was stated that these had been provided
since the examination, and the defence was that the man-
holes had been wiped out by falls, and others had been
interfered with by converting the road to mechanical
haulage. In regard to these cases a fine of 40s. was
imposed. The summonses for allowing obstruction to a
man-hole was withdrawn. Owing to his illness, the cases
against the under-manager were not gone into.

The Federation executive, ,at a meeting in Cardiff,
on Thursday, dealt with a communication from the
Ministry of Food, which suggested the calling of a miners’
conference on October 18, to be followed by an evening
meeting, where the food problem in South Wales will be
discussed, particularly with reference to prices and distri-
bution. The executive had decided to call upon the lodges
to send delegates to the conference—those within the
Cardiff district to send to Cardiff, and those west of the
Avon Valley to send to a conference in Swansea, which
will be held later on.

A remarkable number of men from the mining com-
munity in Wales have gained commissions in the Army.
In addition to Mr. Gill, who was badly injured, to whom
reference has previously been made, there is Lieut-Col.
G. Jones, a collier from Monmouthshire; Col. Cranston,
of Swansea, who started life in. the pit in the Rhondda;
Lieut. Gronow, who has the D.C.M., the D.S.O. and other
distinctions, once a Rhondda collier; and probably as many
as 20 more; Major Watts Morgan is among these.

In Barry Dock, on Friday, a small steamship was being
. loaded with coal. After about 400 tons had been put
aboard, the tipping of another 10-ton truck intensified
the “list” at which she lay, and before remedy could be
applied she turned turtle and sank.. The crew escaped.

The Electricity Committee of Newport Corporation de-
cided to forward intimation to the Local Government
Board, pointing out that, as colliers were not paid for
filling small coal, large quantities were left in the pits,
and that there was a great amount also on the colliery
banks. They suggest that efforts should be made to utilise
this class of fuel so as to add to available supplies.

A fireman at the Etna Colliery, Gilfach Goch, was sum-
moned at Forth for failing to inspect every part of his
district in the mine within two hours of the commence-
ment of work. It was stated that defendant reported
“ no gas,” but when a man proceeded to his work with
a naked light an accumulation of firedamp was discovered,
which became ignited, and the workman was injured. It
was stated that gas had not previously been discovered in
this colliery. Defendant was discharged on payment of
costs.

The order which the successors to the Otto Coke Oven
Company Limited, Museum-street, Manchester, have
received from the Great Western Colliery Company
Limited, Pontypridd, for an extension to the plant at the
Maritime Colliery includes the erection of 32 regenerative
ovens with additions to the by-product plant and the
building of a 600-ton coal bunker, which last will be
constructed in reinforced concrete.

Sir T. Hughes (chairman of the Welsh Insurance Com-
missioners) dealt on Saturday with the question whether
colliery firemen are or are not engaged in manual labour,
this question being raised in order to decide whether they
came under the provisions of the National Insurance Act.
An adjournment was granted with a view to effecting an
arrangement.

Next week Capt. Tallents will attend a conference of
miners in' Cardiff on behalf of the Ministry of Food, and
subsequently there will be a meeting whereat delegates
from other trade unions will be present. The difficulty
of adequate supply has been intensified in this district
by the distribution of inferior and even bad food.

The development of briquette-making is taking a new
direction by the utilisation of peat mixed with small coal,
and there is good prospect of the development of this
branch of business, a new market for small coal being thus
established. Briquettes already made in this form have
proved to be satisfactory.	v

The report concerning the acquisition of the Briton
Ferry Iron Works is now confirmed, and it is stated that
Messrs. Baldwin have taken over the property at a price •
of from £180,000 to £190,000. This is part of the great
extensions winch Messrs. Baldwin are already carrying out
in the district, and it will be remarked that some millions
sterling in expenditure mark the amount of investment
which the company have in contemplation. The steel
works and blast furnaces at Port Talbot, which with their
other departments run nearly a half-mile beside the Great
Western Railway, are supplemented by iron and steel
works near Swansea, tinplate works and coke ovens, and
with large colliery interests more to the east. Great de-
velopments are also contemplated on the sea-coast between
Port Talbot and Swansea. These, it is understood, entail
the construction of a new bridge over the Neath at Briton
Ferry. Messrs. Baldwin are also erecting sintering works
and thus establishing manufactures that hitherto have been
mainly carried on in Germany.

Glamorgan colliery workmen met on Sunday, also men
at Pontypridd, and another assembly at Ton Pentre, in
the Rhondda, to approve of an agreement which had been
entered into between the local labour organisations and the
Rhondda Valleys Property Owners’ and Ratepayers’ Asso-
ciation. This had relation to the increased rents agitation,
which has been current for some time past. Although
emergency law prevents increase of rent where houses are
under £26 a year, it permits of increase being levied to the
extent by which local rates have increased, and it is
in respect of this that agitation has been current, some
difficulty arising as to the claims made for a whole six
months’ increase in rates. The detail of the new agree-
men is an advantage to tenants, and with regard to another
point, where new tenants have had to pay “key money,”
—a premium for obtaining a house—the owners have ex-
pressed disapproval of the practice. The whole difficulty
has arisen from the shortage of houses and the urgent
demand in this as in other colliery areas. It is estimated
that about 40,000 new houses are required in South Wales.

The position which the coal owners take up with regard
to the eight hours day for men employed in the mechanical
departments is that this means actually a working day of
only 7 hours and 40 minutes, and although the men ex-
pressed an opinion that the new arrangement would not
reduce the output, they would not give a definite guarantee
that no reduction should take place. The owners contend
that if the proposal were adopted it would mean that an
additional number of men must be employed, and that .