1222 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. June 6, 1913. to aid the men. This matter does not receive adequate attention. The duties required of many of the men differ from those to which habit has accustomed them, and the men should be instructed in the manner of carrying out their new duties, and in handling of labour- saving devices. The saving of labour is a direct interest rather of the employer than of the employed, and the men may therefore be indifferent towards new appliances, and may be disinclined to learn the use of new tools. Considerable pressure by the officials is often necessary to secure the proper use of apparatus designed to expedite the work. A box should be furnished with hammers, chisels, and a complete set of spanners for the nuts on the conveyors. The tool-box may also usefully contain spare bolts, nuts, and such details for the conveyor. Even the humble shovel will handsomely repay attention devoted to it. A shovel suitable for filling trams is quite unsuitable for- filling conveyors of less than half the height in the same seam ; for the latter service the shovel blade should be considerably larger and the handle shorter. For conveyor filling in thin seams a square-fronted shovel, with blade about 14 in. long by 12 in. wide, and with nearly straight handle about 2 ft. long, is a good tool. But in the thinnest seams, where limitation of height deprives the men of leverage from their bodies and where shovelling must be done by arm strength, the shovels should be smaller and should have shorter handles. At some collieries a two-pronged rake attached to a wooden handle about 3 ft. 6 in. long is used by the man at the discharging position to spread the coal in the trams. Fig. 10 illustrates a few forms of special props used at conveyor faces. D illustrates a method (recently C D E A B v Fig. 10. patented in this country) of reinforcing wooden props by steer wire wound spirally around the prop, the object being to allow the prop to bend without splitting. E is an ingenious method (also recently protected in this country) of reinforcing wooden props by enclosing them in steel tubes, which has been devised at Newbattle Colliery for breaker props at conveyor’ faces. The writer tested these props in an hydraulic press and obtained the following results : The limits of resistance of two larch props 8 in. diameter were respectively 50 tons and 60 tons, while the composite prop as described withstood 80 tons. Prop withdrawers are invaluable at conveyor faces, not only in the operation which names them, but in shifting the conveyor and dealing with any part too heavy to be dragged without mechanical aid. Where a heading is not driven in advance the use of flat steel sheets is frequent; the empties pass from the Fig. 11. rails to the sheets and are pushed broadside to the loading position ; before this can be done the full tram must be removed, and in the interval the conveyor must be stopped or spill the coal. The Klemp climbing turn-plate illustrated by fig. 11 is suggested as an improvement upon the plain flat sheet ; it is very largely used in Continental collieries. Fig. 12 shows a plat- form for edge-wheeled trams used in connection with the conveyor referred to in fig. 2L, and to its use is to be attributed the continuity in operation, notwith- standing that two conveyors deliver into the same road and that about 400 trams per shift are handled at the two loading positions within a few yards of each other Some means of communication from any part of the face to the loading station is necessary. Probably the simplest and safest device is a hammer bell mechanically operated by a wire laid along the face. Labour. In districts where machine working is general the men very much prefer to work at machine-cut faces, for the simple reason that they have learned they can earn higher wages for easier work, and it is often difficult to get men for the hand-worked seams. When the initial prejudice is overcome, and this takes time, the history with conveyors will be the same, although in manoeuvring for prices the men will adopt the tactics that are familiar Fig. 12. in relation to filling out to gate roads. In the introduc- tion both of coal-cutters and of conveyors the men have in fact gained a large share of the advantage. It is, how- ever, beyond question that mechanical appliances syste- matically managed have raised the tone of the men at the face ; the men are more alert, active and interested than at hand-worked faces. The time limits imposed by legislation render thorough organisation more than ever necessary to secure efficient application of labour in conjunction with mechanical appliances. It is important—especially in the initial stages of introduction of a conveyor—to avoid so far as possible changes in the personnel of the groups after they have become accustomed to their duties. At hand-worked faces three classes of labour are employed—miners, trammersandstonemen; these work in small and local, and to a considerable extent indepen- dent, groups; so that irregularity in the operations of one group does not materially and immediately affect the others. Where coal-cutters are introduced a new class, machinemen, is added, but general redistribution of labour does not follow. The joint application of coal-cutters and conveyors, however, introduces impor- tant changes in the labour conditions at the face, in respect of greater specialisation. It is to be noted that at conveyor faces less boy labour can be utilised. The output per filler is to a considerable extent a matter of local convention. Neglecting exceptionally high or low performances, the amount of coal filled per man per shift on to conveyors, under what may be termed normal conditions, varies between 8 tons and 12 tons. Payment for filling conveyors may be (a) by contract; (6) by tonnage rate, “ pooled ” and divided equally among the men, with small bonus to the leading man ; (c) per lineal yard for machine-cut coal; (