November 8, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

971

NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE INSTITUTE
OF MINING AND MECHANICAL
ENGINEERS.

The 46th annual meeting of the North Staffordshire
institute of Mining Engineers was held on Monday
evening at the Mining School, Stoke-on-Trent, Mr.
John Gregory, retiring president, occupying the* chair
at the outset.

The following gentlemen, having been previously
nominated, were elected: —

Members : Mr. C. Laing-Martin, the Seebpur Coal
Company, Pretoria Colliery, India; Mr. A. Lester,
Goldenhill, Stoke-on-Trent; Mr. G. A. Sellers, Ape-
dale, Newcastle, Staffs. Associate member : Mr. G. C.
Bourne, Fenton Collieries, Stoke-on-Trent. Students :
Mr. J. L. Ransom, Highley, near Bridgnorth; Mr. C.
Newton, Fenton Collieries, Stoke-on-Trent.

Report and Accounts.

Mr. T. Yates (hon. sec.) presented the statement of
accounts and report, which stated that the member-
ship at July 31, 1918, was : Hon. members, 3 ; ordinary
members, 94; associate members, 18; associates, 25;
students, 17; subscribing members (local colliery com-
panies), 7; total, 164; an increase of six. The credit
balance on current account at July 31 last was
£180 8s. Id., including £51 6s. transferred from capital
account. The balance at July 31, 1917, was £155
Is. 7d., but this included £40 9s. then due to the
Institution of Mining Engineers for calls. The build-
ing fund account now stood at £684 9s. 6d., and the
balance sheet showed net assets of £934 10s. Id.
Owing to the war, meetings had been restricted to
those necessary for the conduct of business. The insti-
tute deeply regretted the death of Messrs. F. W.
Llewelyn and P. Edwards, and also of Capt. A. L.
Mann, killed in action. The institute congratulated
Prof. Sir John Cadman upon the honour of knight-
hood recently conferred upon him, and also Major
P. H. Wain, who had been awarded the Military
Cross. The report was adopted.

Election of Officers.

The ballot for the election of officers resulted as
follows: President, Prof. Sir John Cadman, K.C.M.G.,
D.Sc.; vice-presidents, Messrs. W. Statham, W. Saint,
and J. R. L. Allott; hon. treasurer, Mr. A. Hassam;
secretary, Mr. A. J. B. Atkinson; hon. sec., Mr. T.
Yates; council, Messrs. F. E. Buckley, H. J. Crofts,
N. R. H. MacGowan, R. C. MacGowan, A. Marshall,
T. T. Mawson, R. A. Passmore, W. G. Salt, W. Teil-
wright, T. Yates, S. Barber, and E. P. Turner.

On the motion of Mr. G. P. Hyslop, seconded by
Mr. W. Saint, and supported by Sir John Cadman,
Mr. Gregory was very heartily thanked for his ser-
vices as president during the past four years, the fact
being emphasised that he had maintained the institute
in a flourishing condition during the trying war
period.

President’s Address.

Prof. Sir John Cadman, who was heartily welcomed
to the chair of the institute, cordially thanked the
members for his election. At the present moment, he
said, there was no body of men to whom the nation and
Allies were more anxiously looking for assistance than
those engaged in the coal mining industry, and though
the institute must inevitably mark time for a season,
his ambition was that it might be his happy lot to be
acting as their president when peace came. To occupy
the chair of the North Staffordshire Institute of
Mining Engineers, an institute of which his father
was one of the original members, and who in 1898
was himself president—an institute, moreover, in
which he might almost say he had been cradled—was
to him more than one of life’s ordinary pleasures. It
brought back to him recollections that would remain
with him so long as memory lasted.

Proceeding to refer to the grave situatioh with
which the coal mining industry is confronted, and
some of the problems which the industry is destined
to face in the future, he said that at the present
moment there was a world-shortage of coal, a shortage
which must of necessity affect very seriously the
achievement of the plans of our fighting services, and
which might possibly even delay the attainment of
victory, besides complicating the difficult negotiations
consequent upon the cessation of hostilities. It did
not seem to be sufficiently recognised what this shortage
of coal meant to the Allied cause. To ensure supremacy
on the field of battle, and to guarantee the results of
victory so dearly won, the civil, military, and naval
organisations of the Allied nations must be main-
tained in a state of efficiency superior to those of the
enemy. The power necessary to move the great Allied
machine must be maintained at its very maximum;
civilians engaged in national work must be warmed
and fed; troops must be transported and properly and
efficiently cared for : and the million and one details
on which the successful operations of a nation at war
so largely depend must be carried out at all costs
with maximum speed and efficiency. In this colossal
task the provision of adequate supplies of coal and
fuel was of greater importance than the supply of
any other commodity of war; and although peace
seemed within reach we could not afford to run any
risks, and our greatest effort was never more neces-
sary than to-day.

It was too late now, nor could it serve any useful
purpose, to denounce or protest against the circum-
stances that had been instrumental in creating the
present difficulty. Furthermore, it was clear that if
men had not gone from the mines a very perilous mili-
tary position might have been created. We were
now face to face with a critical situation which had
to be remedied, and mining engineers and leaders of
the mining industry had to put their shoulders to the
wheel to find a remedy and avert a disaster. It was
incumbent upon them to lead and stimulate those
employed under them, and to battle against odds which
appeared almost insurmountable. It was they, as
officers in the civilian “ firing line ” at home, who

had to lead the country to victory; and victory was
being and would be secured in the coal mines of Eng-
land just as effectively as on the battlefields.

Never before these awful days had we understood
what selfishness really means. Prussian greed and
cupidity had brought home to every one of us in some
way or other the horror of this terrible war; and he
felt it his duty as their president to utter a word of
warning, and remind them that we had in this country
another struggle before us so long as industry was
sacrificing output in confronting problems of wages,
absenteeism, profiteering, and all those misfortunes—
nay, vices—of war, which must, if not arrested in
time, inevitably lead a nation to destruction. He
was one of those who believed that British democracy
was capable of, and prepared to make, endless self-
sacrifice when appealed to properly and intelligently ;
and he knew of no body of leaders of industry or
working men who were more equal to, or better fitted
to meet, any and every emergency than those engaged
in mining—especially those who were working in the
coal fields of North Staffordshire. One had only to
be present ata mine after a colliery explosion to realise
what grit and determination existed in all ranks of
the mining industry and to learn that in an emergency
such a word as “selfishness’’ was unknown in the
mining vocabulary.

He would remind them that we were faced with
an emergency to-day greater than any that had ever
confronted us. He need not enlarge upon it, for
they knew the position far better than he could tell
them. It was our duty to ask ourselves the question :
“ How is this state of affairs to be met?” The real
remedy could only be found by lifting the barrage
and laying bare the truth—that coal was as vital and
as essential a war commodity as men and rifles, well
nigh as precious; in fact, coal might almost be looked
upon as equivalent to human flesh and blood. By pro-
viding an abundance of coal we could hurry forward
the victory and save the lives of thousands of those
splendid men who were fighting for us, and we could
permanently fix the fruits of victory which had been
so dearly won. From the mine manager to the pony
driver the country required an almost superhuman
effort this winter if the war was to be brought to a
complete and satisfactory conclusion, and not drawn
out with ever-increasing loss of human life. It was
the duty of every man connected with a coal mine
to-day to do his level best to increase the output, and
strive his hardest to maintain that increase, however
great his personal sacrifice might be.

With regard to one or two of the problems which the
future, and the not far distant future, would have to
solve, a good deal of attention was being paid at
the present time to the subject of reconstruction, as
well as to the necessity of a complete reorganisation of
our methods of conservation of coal; so it would not
be out of place to refer briefly to the direction in
which this problem was developing. It might be
stated very simply that the main objects which must
be aimed at were these:

1.	To secure the greatest quantity of coal from a
given seam with the minimum expenditure of labour
and capital; and

2.	To ensure that the maximum energy and value
should be extracted from every ton of coal produced.

There were at present two bodies which were giving
their time and attention to these important questions,
and some excellent preliminary work had already been
done. These two bodies, to which the country was
already very much indebted, were the Coal Conserva-
tion Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction and
the Department of Fuel Research, working under the
Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research.

The former body, the Coal Conservation Committee,
had indicated in its final report (which ought to be
carefully studied by everyone connected with mining
or the allied industries) the general lines upon which
development should proceed, while the Department of
Fuel Research, under the guidance of its director,
Sir George Beilby, had established a very definite
policy of research, which, if carried out vigorously,
could not fail to lay the foundation of a much more
scientific and enlightened use of fuels.

The Coal Conservation Committee had directed its
attention especially to the following matters: —

Firstly, improvements in mining methods to prevent
loss of coal and to minimise cost of production ;

Secondly, improvements in methods of using coal for
power, light, and heat, and the recovery of by-pro-
ducts ; and

Thirdly, the steps to be taken in order to secure the
development and extension of existing coal fields.

At present there were no fewer than a dozen Govern-
ment departments and sub-departments which were
connected with mining in one way or another, and the
Conservation Committee had suggested that a Ministry
of Mines should be created which should co-ordinate
these different departments and the mining interests
of the whole country.

The committee recommended also that the coal
consumed in collieries should be specially considered in
conjunction with the problem in the use of coal for
power purposes, and that coal at present left under-
ground should be utilised by the stimulation of out-
lets for this class of fuel. They advise also that seams
of abnormal thickness should receive special investiga-
tion, to prevent the great wastage which the present
method of working involved. It was suggested that
more systematic methods should be introduced when
pillar work was used; that barriers should be left only
for economic purposes, and not according to the
caprice* of legal fanatics; and that central drainage
schemes should be introduced in order to pump the
water more efficiently from recognised coal basins.

They further advocated that the more enlightened
methods • of coal working in vogue in certain of our
collieries should be introduced into all collieries
throughout the country, and that the important pro-
blem of relative order of working seams of coal should
be governed by principles which would entail the
minimum permanent loss of coal.

The committee also strongly advised the establish-
ment of machinery whereby fractious surface owners
might be prevented from harassing the scientific and
economic development of mineral fields, and that facili-
ties should be introduced to enable the working of coal
mines to be carried on without exorbitant charges
being levied for royalties and wayleaves.

They also insisted that the following principle
should be recognised as one on which the success and
welfare of workmen as well as employers depend—that
it was only by increasing production per head of
persons employed that the British trade position
could be maintained.

The use of labour-saving devices of various kinds
was also strongly advocated, while other recommenda-
tions were that a general policy should be followed of
increasing as much as possible the technical education
of all those employed in the industry; that the expen-
diture of local authorities, which had tended to
increase the cost of production in the industries of the
country should be confined within the limits of strict
economy; and, lastly,"that settlements of disputes
should be handled by machinery which would prevent
the possibility of strikes and lock-outs.

These were some of the principal recommendations
of the committee to which he had referred. The same
body had also been giving its attention to the question
of improvements in methods of using coal, and in this
direction they had further recommendations to make.
The more important ones he would indicate very
briefly. They strongly advised that a more economic
distribution of power should be devised in Great
Britain, and that the present inefficient system
whereby 600 districts were supplied by electric power
should be curtailed to something like 16 areas only.
They considered it essential also that large super-
power plants should be established capable of supply-
ing through comprehensive distributive systems the
needs of the community at the lowest possible price,
and that machinery should be established whereby
these great plants would be able to feed all the indus-
trial centres of the country. It was estimated that
the introduction of such a scheme would result in an
annual saving of 55,000,000 tons of coal at present
employed in the manufacturing industries.

The committee further considered it necessary that
attention should be given to the more efficient treat-
ment of coal with a view to utilising more effectively
those which were at present consumed in a raw state,
making use of products which were at present unsale-
able, and extracting essential materials, such as motor
spirit, fuel oils, and materials that were used for the
preparation of explosives, dyes, and drugs. They also
very strongly advocated that the gas and coke indus-
tries should be specially considered, with a view to
their general development in relation to existing
operations and those traversed by the reorganisation
of the power, light, and heat systems which would
follow the development proposed.

Another important matter to which attention had
been given was the question as to what steps were to
be taken to secure the development and extension of
existing coalfields. It was very well known that there
were large areas overspread by geological formations
newer than coal measures, of which the character of
the underlying palaeozoic rocks was wholly unknown;
and it was recommended that comprehensive surveys
should be undertaken and boreholes should be put
down to test the value of these areas.

The Fuel Research Department had laid down a
definite policy for a most thorough and systematic
examination of all classes of fuels, and they had
reported their intention of investigating the treat-
ment of fuels with a view to the extraction of economic
commodities, which, when carried to a successful
issue, could only result in stimulating coal mining
activity in this country.

With this brief summary of the main lines on which
this great problem was being opened up, he commended
the reports of the Coal Conservation Committee and
of the Fuel Research Board to all who had the interest
of coal mining at heart.. The work that these bodies
had done already indicated that the policy was being
prepared from which would surely emerge conditions
and developments which should add very greatly to
the prosperity of the whole mining industry.

All these problems had from time to time been the
subject of individual enquiry, and the institute had
played no small part in the attempt which had been
made to focus investigation on some part or other of
the development of the great mining industry. We
were now being forced to consider problems from a
very different point of view, and the scientific work
which the institute in future would be called upon to
perform was—to use a military metaphor—“ as an
army working under the single and supreme com-
mand.” A plan would be laid down which would be
in the interests of the nation as a whole, and they
would be called up to fill in a corner which would
assist in developing the 11 Imperial picture.” They
had got to watch and see that individual enterprise
was not stifled, but directed or unconsciously led to
support the Union Jack. Never again must the
results of British effort be thrown to the German
machine to mould into weapons for our destruction.
From the coal of Britain the wealth of this Empire
was still largely to be draw’n, and on the work of such
institutions as theirs much must inevitably depend.

Votes of Thanks.

Mr. E. B. Wain, in proposing a vote of thanks to
Sir John Cadman, said when the full history of the
war came to be written it would be shown that Sir
John had taken a very active and a very important
part in helping us to win it.

Mr. G. P. Hyslop seconded the proposition, which
was supported by Mr. J. R. L. Allott, and unani-
mously accorded.

The hon. treasurer and the hon. secretary were also
thanked for their services, Mr. Yates in the latter
office being specially thanked for undertaking Mr.
Atkinson’s secretarial work while he is on war service.

Capt. Lawrence Clive was thanked for the gift of
a collection of old safety lamps.