1286 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN December 18, 1914. Some information as to the subsequent behaviour of the dams might, he thought, also be given. Mr. Dickinson replied that th^re was no change to report. Mr. Binns said that in 1874 or 1875 there was an inburst at a colliery in the same coalfield, and some time after they began to deal with it the water ceased. It was considered that a subterranean lake had been tapped, and had been drained off, and he wondered whether there was a ything of that sort at Netherseal. Mr. Dickinson said that with regard to the point raised by the president it was that peculiar and great increase in the leakage whi h made them so concerned. The only way he could account for it was that it was due to the newness and rawness of the work. In the light of 1 .ter knowledge they did not think that there was much danger in building the dams, but that was not their opinion at the time. Whether they had tapped a pond or not he could not say, hut he did not think so. MINING AND OTHER NOTES. Amongst the Friday evening lectures at the Royal Insti- tution of Great Britain, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, W., before Easter 1915, are the following: —January 22, “ Problems of Hydrogen and the Rare Gases ” (Prof. Sir James Dewar, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., M.R.I.) ; January 29, “Gaseous Explosions” (Dugald Clerk, D.Sc., F.R.S., M.Inst.C.E., M.R.I.) ; February 5, “Science and Industrial Problems ” (Prof. Arthur W. Crossley, D.Sc., F.R.S., For.Sec.C.S.). Two lectures on the geology of London will be delivered by Aubrey Strahan, M.A., Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S., director, Geological Survey of Great Britain, the dates being Thursdays, March 18 and 25. “Recent Researches on Atoms and Ions” form the subject of six lectures by Prof. Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., M.R.I., Professor of Natural Philosophy, Royal Institution, on Saturdays, February 20, 27, March 6, 13, 20, 27. In the Court of Appeal, on the 10th inst., the case of David Robert Evans, of Swansea, and the Main Colliery Company Limited, of Bristol, which was a motion by the defendants to amend an order of the Court of Appeal, was At the meeting of the Metropolitan Water Board, on Friday, it was reported that payment had been authorised, subject to the production of satisfactory vouchers and without prejudice, of an additional 2s. per ton to the Board’s coal contractors on coal conveyed by sea in respect of extra payments made by them for war risks. Mr. Stanley E. Hutson recently gave a very interesting description of the “Hutson-Ford reversible steam turbine” to the members of the Junior Institution of Engineers. In this turbine the steam enters through a kind of slide valve having an expanding nozzle passed through the blades on rotor, and leaves by means of a port at the opposite side of casing; the centre line of the steam and exhaust ports is a tangent to the rotor, so that the high velocity steam travels across the rotor in as near a straight line as possible. By means of a wheel the functions of the steam and exhaust ports can be reversed and the steam made to travel in the opposite direction. After the steam leaves the exhaust of the first stage it is conducted to a second stage rotor of greater area, and so on until the final exhaust is reached. A number of nozzles are in action at the same time. The rotor blading is composed of two alternate zig-zag forms, one form having steeper angles than the other, so that a succes_ IN5URST HERE Workings near FEET ENTRANCE TO LOWED SEAM WORKINGS Fig. 1 .— Plan of Inburst of Water at Netherseal Colliery, January. 1908, showing Position of Dams and Levels below Surface. RAMME RADIUS. 20 FEET 3-INCH CEMENT STONE ANO MOSTAR SECTION - GROUTED DAVIT* . BRICKWORK, 2 SAND, 1 CEMENT ORIGINAL DAM, 9 FEET G INCHES BRICKWORK IN PURE CEMENT - 3-INCH CEMENT .30^ MO. 1 HAULAGE DAMS 807 FEET Fig. 4.—No. 27 Dam BUILT IN HEADING RISING 1 IN 2 Fig. 2.-No. 17 Dam t- - - 9 FEET - CEMENT ANO SLATES ORIGINAL 0AM, 12 FEET 6 INCHES _ 3-IKCH GROUTING CAVITY NO ABUTMENTS. PURE CEMENT ABUTMENTS VERY GOOD BRIGKS SET IK PURE CEMENT SLATES RADIUS. 20 FEET 3-INCH WROUGHT-IRON AIR-PIPE ANO VALVE BRICKS AND PURE CEMENt 2-INCH CAVITY GROUTED WITH PURE CEMENT BRICKWORK. 2 SAND, I CEMENT Fig 5.—Ng. 34 Dam. MANHOLE I--10 FEET-- LEVEL RADIUS, 20 FEET MANHOLE BRICKWORK, 2 SAN®, 1 CEMENT ORIGINAL-DAM, 12 BEET 6 INCHES MUCK PACKING WIT® STONE WALLS PURE CEMENT DROPPERS FROM RMOF AT A GOOD GROUND PUDDLED CLAY GROUTED WITH CEMENT UNTIL IT SHOWED 12 FEET S INCHE< PURE CEMENT * WOULD ALLOW J CEMENT AND SLATES & MM1 The President thought that the paper was a most interesting one to think over, and discuss at a future meeting. Mr. Binns moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Dickinson, and Mr. Hepplewhite, in seconding, said that the late Mr. Stokes was always very nervous about these dams, but Mr. Dickinson could claim, as was said at foundation-stone ceremonies, that they had been “ well and truly laid,” and certainly he deserved great credit for the splendid work he did in making them. Mr. Dickinson, in replying to the vote of thanks, said that he had been prompted to write the paper because of the extraordinary difficulty he experienced in getting any information on the subject; and he thought that it might be serviceable to others if he related and placed on record his experience. Presiding over the second annual meeting of the Russo- Asiatic Corporation Limited, in London, on the 10th inst., Mr. P. B. Webster said that, regarding the Ekibastus coal field, Messrs. Forster Brown and Rees, the South Wales coal experts, have visited the property and reported thereon. The mine is already raising coal, and enough profit is anticipated from it next year to provide for debenture interest, and when the new plant is installed, for which Messrs. Forster Brown and Rees are preparing plans. Handsome profits are looked for, as fuel being very scarce and dear in the district a big market for the coal is assured. heard. The appeal to the Court was by the colliery company against a judgment of Mr. Justice Horridge delivered in South Wales in favour of the plaintiff, who sued the company for certain commissions on rates. The defence was that the agreement with the plaintiff as a colliery agent had come to an end, and therefore plaintiff’s right to commission had also come to an end. Mr. Justice Horridge gave judgment for plaintiff and refused a stay of execution. Defendants appealed and the Court set aside that judgment, and entered judgment for the defendants, giving certain directions as to the costs. The defendants had paid <£100 into Court, which they admitted was due to the plaintiff, and this plaintiff had taken out. The whole dispute was as to the balance, which had been paid over to plaintiL together with costs. Counsel now applied for an order for the repayment of the money in dispute and costs which they had agreed at £92 17s. lid., and for leave to issue execution on the judgment. Plaintiff did not oppose the application, and the Court made an order for the payment of the sum of money agreed. A serious explosion has occurred in a coal mine at Fukuoko, Japan. Eight hundred miners are stated to be entombed. Fukuoko is on the north-west coast of Kiushiu. Mr. A. J. Dorman presided last week over the meeting of Dorman, Long and Company, at Middlesbrough. Reviewing the company’s trade during the year, he said that Messrs. Bell Brothers Limited, at a cost of about £400,000, have built steel furnaces and rolling mills at their Clarence works, which they leased to the company. He also men- tioned the interest taken by the company in the Channel Collieries Trust Limited. Further investigations had showed the development of ironstone in Kent to be satis- factory, and the company had increased their interest in the Channel Company. Bolckow, Vaughan and Company have joined the enterprise, and their chairman, Sir Edward Johnson Ferguson, had taken a seat on the board. sion of alternating expanding and contracting channels are formed. These blades are pressed out in the form of a ring, and slipped on the rotor drum a row at the time. Being of a circular form they are of great strength, and have very little chance of becoming detached. The guide blades form, in conjunction with the working blades, a series of expanding nozzles, which increases the velocity of the steam after impinging on the working blades, the steam thus giving a succession of impulses to the rotor from the inlet to the exhaust. These guide blades are fixed to the rotor and revolve with it, so that the steam pressure on these, as well as that on the working blades, is transferred to the shaft. To reverse the direction of rotation a wheel is turned, which reverses the direction of the flow of steam through the blades. It is also possible, by means of a special form of shutter in the valves, to regulate the rate of expansion in the nozzles of any stage, to any desired extent, while the turbine is running. Immingham Coal Exports. — Returns for week ending December 11, show that the coal exported from Immingham totalled 9,935 tons foreign, and 1,380 tons coastwise, against 35,999 tons foreign and 3,530 tons coastwise for the corre- sponding period last year. Shipments :—Foreign : To Gefle, 1,745; Stocka, 2,248; Gothenburg, 1,813; Aarhus, 1,532; Havre, 761. Coastwise: To Portsmouth, 1,100; and Ramsgate, 280 tons. Grimsby Coal Exports. — Returns for the week ending December 11, show that the coal exported from Grimsby consisted of the following:—Foreign: To Aarhus, 1.191; Dieppe, 675; Esbjerg, 1.312: Gothenburg. 3.427; Malmo, 561: Randers, 549: and Ystad. 1.453 tons. Coastwise: To Ramsgate, 680 tons—a total of 9.168 tons*foreign and 680 tons coastwise, against 34,269 tons foreign and 530 tons coastwise for the corresponding period last year.