December 20, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

1299

but for a low first cost, where that was to be regarded
as the prime consideration in a particular job, the
author’s contention could not stand.

Mr. James Black remarked that it ought to be
explained that Mr. Borland was discussing the rela-
tive merits of circular and rectangular shafts for
sinking through- thick beds of mud and sand.
Perhaps that was a specific and important point
Mr. Gibson had overlooked.

Mr. Gibson said that if the author meant that the
circular shaft was better for that type of sinking, and
in the circumstances described in the paper, then he
entirely withdrew his criticism.

Mr. Thomas Borland explained that what he had
written in the paper had a reference entirely to sink-
ing through thick beds of mud and sand. While he
said so much, he was quite prepared to meet Mr.
Gibson on his own argument, and to assert that
circular shafts were cheaper under any circumstances
than rectangular shafts. They were cheaper even in
ordinary times, when prices were at normal. In his
view a circular shaft was cheaper than a wood-lined
rectangular shaft if they went on the basis of calcu-
lation area for area and depth for depth. If one
took the output as a basis, and assuming that to be
500 tons per day, he asserted then that a circular
shaft could be sunk cheaper than a rectangular shaft
for the same output.

Mr. John Duncan, Motherwell (Wishaw Coal Com-
pany), remarked that, even leaving aside for the
moment the cost of wood—an important factor in
these days—he was prepared to say that wood could
not have stood the pressure that was required in this
instance. The method adopted was the one that w’as
really required, and Mr. Borland had shown that quite
clearly and forcibly in the paper. The author had
made reference to some boulders which caused the
shaft to deviate from the.vertical. Would he explain
a little more fully the method he adopted to bring it
back to the plumb again? He knew that Mr. Borland
had been most successful in this work, and he also
knew some colliery managers who rather prided them-
selves on their abilities who could not, if faced with
the same circumstances, have done nearly so well.

Mr. Alex. Hill (Cornsilloch) said he assumed the
mud and sand were of such a nature that the men
could stand in it while the operations were proceeding.
It would be interesting to know if Mr. Borland
thought the brickwork arrangement he had described
was to be preferred to a steel cylinder.

Mr. Thomas Borland, replying to the points raised
in the discussion, said that the question raised by
Mr. James Black emphasised the most important
lesson to be learned from the paper, that the appli-
cation of compressed air was sufficient in itself to
set the crib and the cylindrical brickwork in motion
when all other methods, including a top weight of
nearly 1,000 tons of iron, had failed. He therefore
strongly advised the application of compressed air
of a higher pressure than the statical pressure behind
the brickwork. So far as wood piles were concerned,
he might explain that they knew, before they
attempted to drive down the piles, that the soft clay
was quite near to the bottom of the crib. There was,
therefore, a reasonable chance of being able to drive
the piles down into the clay, and it was quite expected
that the clay would be tough enough to support the
bottom end of the piles, otherwise they would not
have attempted the piling experiment. Mr. Gibson’s
question resolved itself into a discussion as to which
was the cheapest form or shape of shaft. He under-
stood that Mr. Gibson did not dispute his conten-
tion that the circular shaft was the strongest, safest,
and the most efficient, but considered that the
rectangular wood-lined shaft was usually the cheapest.
Frankly, he (the author) was more favourably in-
clined towards the elliptical brick-lined shaft than any
other form, as he had found it the cheapest of all,
the circular a good second, and the square ranked
third; whilst the dearest of all, in his opinion, was
the rectangular shaft. For a pit producing 500 tons
per day—the diameter, say, being 13 ft.—the cost of
building a 9 in. (minimum) brickwork lining was
about £6 per fathom, whereas the cost of wood lining,
plus the labour, for a rectangular shaft with a similar
output was about £13 per fathom. Further, in ordi-
nary times the circular form of shaft could be sunk
for Is. 6d. per cubic yard less than a rectangular
shaft, whilst the cost of explosives in the circular
shaft would not be more than three-fourths of the
outlay involved in the rectangular shaft. Regarding
the quantities of explosives in the sinking of two
circular shafts, one 14 ft. diameter inside and the
other 16 ft. diameter inside, and both 120 fathoms
deep, this was 8,380 lb. of gelignite and 21,935 electric
detonators. By calculation it would be found that
each pound of gelignite cut 1*39 cubic yards of solid
strata. As against these figures he might set the cost
of a rectangular shaft, 64 fathoms deep, 10 ft. by
6 ft., in which 1,100 lb. of gelignite and 2,000 deto-
nators were used. By calculation it would be found
that each pound of gelignite cut 0 88 cubic yard of
solid strata, and this, too, in pre-war times, when
gelignite was at its maximum strength. These two
examples might be taken as typical, and he had
selected them from a list which he had at his disposal.
Of course there were disadvantages as well as ad-
vantages in the circular form of shaft, but the former
were trifling.

On the call of Mr. John Gibson a cordial vote of
thanks was passed to Mr. Borland for his paper.

How to Increase the Output of Coal.

Mr. John Gibson (Kilmarnock) read a paper on
“ How to Increase the Output of Coal ” (see Colliery
Guardian, December 13, 1918, p. 1243).

It was agreed to take up the discussion at next
meeting.

The Boilers (Returns) Order, 1918, and the Boilers (Cen-
tre!) Order, 1918, have been revoked.

NORTH OF ENGLAND INSTITUTE
OF MINING AND MECHANICAL
ENGINEERS.

In the absence of the president and vice-presidents,
Mr. C. C. Leach, member of council, presided over a
general meeting of members of the North of England
Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, held
in the Wood Memorial Hall, Coal Trade Offices, New-
castle-upon-Tyne, on Saturday, December 14.

The council reported that there had been no appli-
cations for the Daglish Travelling Fellowship for 1919.

New Members.

The following gentlemen were admitted into the
institute: Members—Capt. T. W. Adam, colliery
manager, 14, West Beach, Lytham; Mr. F. de la Cruz
y Diaz, mining engineer, Societe des Mines de Mala-
bau, Villardonnel, Aude, France; Mr. J. S. Hale,
mining chemist and engineer, Principe 4, Bilbao,
Spain; Mr. J. Nevin, mineral valuer, 25, Winckley-
square, Preston; and Mr. I. Sugimoto, colliery
manager, Yoshima Colliery, Iwaki-gun, Fukushima-
Ken, Japan. Associate member—Mr. C. Walter, 51,
Brunswick-avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Asso-
ciate—Mr. W. Grey, colliery draughtsman, Manor
House, Broomhill, Acklington, Northumberland.

Training of Students in Coal Mining.

Prof. F. W. Hardwick’s paper (Colliery Guardian,
December 6, 1918, p. 1187) on ‘'The Training of
Students in Coal Mining, with Special Reference to
the Scheme of the Engineering Training Organisa-
tion ” was discussed.

Mr. H. W. Halbaum (Cardiff) wrote that many of
the schemes brought before mining institutions from
time to time suffered from the defect that they aimed
particularly at the advancement of a class, and, more
particularly still, at the handicapping of another
class. The right man in the right place, under any
system of education, was a national asset of infinitely
greater value than the wrong man wherever placed
and however highly “trained.” The great desidera-
tum was to find the right man, to develop his natural
powers, at the nation’s cost, if necessary, and by
whatever system of education might be available. It
appeared to him that the average educationist was
concerned too much about polishing stones and too
little about digging for gems. Many of the educa-
tional schemes to which he had referred never
attempted to explain who or what the colliery manager
himself might be. The impression ultimately left on
the mind of the listener was that the ideal colliery
manager was a sort of Royal Institution and Encyclo-
paedia Britannica welded together or chemically com-
bined as a substance the like of which had never been
known since triassic times, if even then. The Atlanto-
saurus of the jurassic age was possible, no doubt, but
the ideal colliery manager was an absolute myth. If
they would visit the actual colliery manager at his
home, pit, or office, they would find that 50 per cent, of
his waking hours was employed in filling up forms, and
most of the remainder either in devising small econo-
mies at the pit or in consultations with officials and
in debates with miners’ delegates at his office. The
idea that he was a geologist, a chemist, a mechanical
engineer, an electrical engineer, a designer of turbine
pumps, and a seventh-stage mathematician all com-
bined as a compound radical ready to seize on any
other science that might come along, was a chimera
peculiar to the Home Office but scouted by sober,
practical men. The case of the mining engineer had
been handled similarly, not once but many times.
The theorist got his ideas of the mining engineer fiom
Home Office examination papers, whereas he would
have done infinitely better had he studied him at th?
pit and at the colliery office. Prof. Hardwick had
doubtless paid many visits to successful mining engi-
neers. Did he ever find them—to quote a few examina-
tion gems—studying “ the complementary colours of
blue and yellow” or engaged in “laboratory prac-
tice” or instructing their electricians as to how many
turns of wire should be wound on a particular core; or
did they “ enthuse” on permutations, factorial n, the
binomial theorem and the quadratic factors of x to
the ?ith power? If any of them were found so em-
ployed it would be because, for the moment, that one
was seeking recreation and amusement in these pur-
suits and not because such operations formed part of
his business as a mining engineer. Did any of them
ever complain of the difficulty he had in selecting a
suitable system of education, or, on the other hand,
did he, or did he not, confess that the biggest diffi-
culty of all was to find Men? The writer did not
undervalue education ;.but the need for a system which
selected a number of stones at random and polished
them all alike was not so apparent. It was high time
that some effort was made to prospect for the stores
of natural talent at present buried in obscurity and
to utilise them, at national cost if necessary, for the
national good. Most of our educational schemes
might be fitly described as “Bills for the Universal
Education of Mediocrities,” and that state of things
had recently led us perilously near to national disaster.

Prof. Wm. Garnett, of the London County Council
Education Office, wrote remarking that when he was
in Newcastle he had been very anxious to secure some
arrangement by which pupils could attend college
classes during part-time, devoting the rest of their
time to work at the mines, believing that such division
of time was best in the interests of the majority of
mining students; but he found that the interpretation
placed on the Mines Regulation Acts would not permit
such divided time to be counted. A shoeing smith or
a man employed entirely on a wagonway above ground,
though he might never have been down a shaft, was
held to be employed “in or about a mine,” but not
so a mining student who spent three days a week in
the mine and the other three days under a professor
in college. The Government at the time was prepared
to introduce a Bill to meet his wishes if he could give
an assurance that it would be unopposed; but, unfor-

tunately, the miners’ representatives, though entirely
in favour of his proposal, were pledged to raise other
questions if any measure dealing with coal mines were
introduced into the House of Commons, and those
questions were bound to be opposed. The difficulty
was surmounted later on, but not until he had left
Newcastle. In connection with coal mining, as with
other branches of engineering, there would always be
a difference of opinion on the question whether a boy
on leaving school should go at once to the technical
college for a continuing course of study, whether he
should proceed at once to the mine or engineering
works for a year or more before starting on his college
career, or whether he should combine practical and
theoretical instruction in some form of compromise
between the two. The difference of opinion continued
to exist because there was a difference in the mentality
of different pupils. Some boys had sufficient powers
of imagination to realise engineering problems which
were described in college lectures or in text books with
the vividness necessary to enable them to apprec’ate
their practical importance and the sufficiency of the
solutions which were presented to them. Boys of that
type could advantageously proceed directly from
schools to the technical college, and they would recog-
nise the relations between laboratory work on a small
scale and industrial work on a large scale, as well as
the bearing of pure science upon industry. They thus
gained the advantage of continuity in their educa-
tional work and dealt with the mathematical and
scientific problems presented to them in their col ege
course before they had forgotten their school work or
lost the habit of learning from books or oral teaching.
On the other hand, there were many boys to whom
books and oral teaching were mere words unless they
had had practical experience of the subjects treated.
To them, a lecture on the indicator diagram or on
some of the aspects of the problems of haulage or
winding would appear to have no more direct bearing
on their lives than the memory of the 36 exceptions to
the rule that Latin nouns ending in “is” were
feminine. Such boys were not incapable of becoming
engineers, but, to them, experience of the mine or
the works before proceeding to their college course was
indispensable. It necessitated some revision of school
work when the pupil entered college, and, perhaps, a
little time was wasted in recovering studious habits ;
but that was inevitable with pupils of that type of
mind. The break between school and college should
not generally exceed a year, unless provision were
made for the continuation of theoretical study under
supervision during the evenings, because the habit of
learning from books was easily lost at that stage of
life. Even in the case of a boy who could advanta-
geously proceed direct from school to the technical col-
lege, it was most important that some experience of
the mine or workshop should be acquired before the
end of, the college course, and, in that connection, the
combined system had proved to be of great value in
mechanical and electrical engineering. When at New-
castle, he had fhund that his most efficient students
were those who had spent some time in the works or
were dividing their time between the woiks and their
college course. He supposed that all parties were
agreed that a boy who was to become a mining engi-
neer should remain at school until he had reached the
standard of efficiency *of the first school examination
of the Board of Education at the age of 16 to 17, and
that his school course should include both mathematics
and physical science, together with English language
and literature and a modern language, as recom-
mended by Sir J. J. Thomson’s committee. Some
boys might advantageously remain at school for
another two years, until they had reached the standard
of the second school examination, and during that
time should study mathematics, mechanics, physics,
chemistry, and geology, in addition to a modern
language or two and English literature; but, presum-
ably, the majority of mining students for some time to
come would leave school at the stage of the first school
examination.

Mr. H. F. Bulman, of Acklington, wrote agreeing
with Prof. Hardwick’s proposal that the Institution
of Mining Engineers should issue an authoritative
statement with regard to the best training for mining
students. Such a statement, if well drawn up, would
be likely to increase the number of suitable men
entering the profession, and also improve their train-
ing. The problem seemed to be how the student could
acquire the largest possible amount of practical experi-
ence and useful scientific knowledge bearing on his
work in the shortest possible time. It should be recog-
nised that the work and the qualities of a resident
colliery manager were not the same as those of a con-
sulting mining engineer. Well-trained men were
essential in both capacities to the well-being of the
industry, but the training need not be the same.
Broadly speaking, practical training should pre-
dominate in the case of the colliery manager and scien-
tific training in the other. As to how the training
might be best co-ordinated, it was of the first impor-
tance that a student should be keenly interested in
his work. The average British boy was not naturally
fond of intellectual exertion, and, as a mining student,
was more likely to pursue his scientific studies to
advantage if he realised how they would help him in
his future work. If he knew enough of practical
mining to make him appreciate the value of scientific
training, he would derive more benefit from the latter.
That consideration pointed to the sandwich system, as
defined by the author, or some modification of it
being the best. As one of the great industries of the
country, coal mining should be able to draw, for its
personnel, on the best the country could supply. What
capable and energetic young men wanted was useful,
interesting, and remunerative occupation. Objec-
tions sometimes urged against the profession were that
there was not much prospect for a man unless he had
influential friends or relations to back him, that most
of the appointments were given to practical pit men,
and that scientific knowledge was not valued, and
found no reward. If scientific training were wanted,
it must be taken into consideration when appoint-