July 23, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

171

financial year. The prospects of future business are
entirely dependant on the progress of the war, but it is
anticipated that a ready sale can be found for all the
coal supplied by the Syndicate, and the stocks in hand
are sufficient 10 prevent inconvenience to customers.
The profit on the year’s trading amounted to 13,068,810
ink. (11,473,371 mk.), of which 1,038,555 mk. (969,318 mk.)
go to pay interest on the original capita], 12,026,467 mk.
(9,906,429 mk.) in payment of dividend—85 pf. per ton
of participation—and remuneration of the board, and
3,788 mk. (597,623 mk.) to new account. It is also
proposed to increase the share of capital by 10 per cent,
of the original contribution, which will necessitate
15 pf. per ton, so that a cash payment of 70 pf. (60 pf.)
per ton will be distributed as dividend.

New Mining Properties.

.The Vereinigte Stahlwerkevan der ZypenandWissener
Eisenhiitten, Deutz and Wissen have acquired the right
to work for iron ore over an area of 100,901 square metres
in the community of Blickhauserhohe, Altenkirchen.

Rhine Shipping Traffic.

The late rains have swollen botji the Rhine and the
Neckar, and thus affected traffic conditions, especially
in the hill country of the Middle Rhine, the tugs
requiring assistance from the Bingerlock to Bingen.
On the other hand, the increased depth of water at
Caub has enabled large craft to pass up fully laden for
Strassburg and the Upper Rhine. Supplies have been
going forward in increased quantity, especially for
harbours above Mannheim. Most of the oncoming
consignments pass direct into consumption, but a small
surplus is available for stock. Up-river freights and
towage rates remain at their old level, with little
prospect of advance now the river is high. There is a
fair enquiry for medium craft for Holland and Belgium
at improved freights.

Coal and Iron Market in Upper Silesia.

D uring June the coal market showed practically no
change, the demand being continuously very active, and
the supply of all grades short. There was no possibility
of increasing the output of the individual pits; and
indeed there was, in some cases, a further decline,
owing to the continued call for men to join the colours.
On the other hand, traffic facilities were maintained, and
consequently nearly all the pit stocks have been cleared
out. Railway freights to East and West Prussia via
Stettin have been lowered, and large consignments have
been sent forward to stop the coal famine in those
districts. Gas coal continues very scarce, although the
pits are doing their best, and coking coals are also
insufficiently available, especially the better kinds, so
that inferior sorts have to be taken instead. The dry
weather has kept the Oder low, and reduced the water-
borne traffic to a minimum. The coke market has
shown increased activity, so that few of the cokeries
have any stocks worth speaking of, and prices are
advancing. All by-products are selling well and at
remunerative prices.

Business in the iron ore market has been brisker, on
the one hand, through the placing of new contracts,
and on the other in consequence of the increased
deliveries necessitated on old contracts by the fact
that the blast furnace stocks had run very low and need
replenishing. In new purchases, both of ore and slags,
considerably higher prices have had to be paid, a
circumstance which must react on the cost of producing
pig iron. The demand for this article is extremely
active, and cannot be fully satisfied, even by drawing
on the still existing stocks, and the increased prices
demanded are readily paid. Iron and steel products
have gone up all round, rolled iron, girders, fine and
heavy plate, gas pipes and boiler tubes. The ordinary
trade is poor, and exports are quiet, but this makes
little difference, the works having as much as they can
do to keep pace with war orders, in view of the
diminished working staffs. Women and girls have
been taken on, together with Poles from the invaded
districts. The comparatively small amount of export
business with southern countries is greatly hampered
by the delays in obtaining permits for passage through
Austria Hungary, but on the other hand direct
traffic through Roumania has been resumed at normal
rates, whereas, until recently, goods had to be sent
by devious routes and at about double the ordinary
charges. There has been little demand for girders, but
appreciable orders for railway superstructural material,
and that for making bolts, rivets, horseshoes, wagons
and locomotives. Makers for fine plate have been over-
whelmed with orders at good prices; and though the
situation is not so favourable in the case of heavy plate,
orders are coming in all the time, especially for ship-
building purposes. Steel founders are working full
time on making shells, so that orders for ordinary steel
castings are difficult to place, even at high rates. Pipe
makers have sufficient orders for war material in hand
to last them several months, but borehole casing is
quite stagnant. There is an ample supply of scrap,
especially core and plate scrap and turnings. A
company has recently been formed in Kattowitz to
obtain scrap iron from the invested districts of Poland,
which will ease the market and lower prices, the present
rates being:—Broken iron 65 mk., turnings 54 mk.,
melting iron 50 mk. per ton, delivered free.

German Output of Medium Steel in May.

The report of the German iron and steel manufac-
turers gives the total output of medium steel in the
Customs Union during May as 1,020,515 tons (1,012,334
tons in April), or 42,521 tons (42,181 tons) per working
day, 528,587 tons (524,205 tons) being basic Bessemer
steel, 12,641 tons (13,934 tons) Bessemer, 400,240 tons
(398,823 tons) basic open-hearth, 17,797 tons (16,714
tons) acid open-hearth, 36,008 tons (35,338 tons) basic
cast steel, 9,762 tons (8,595 tons) acid cast steel, 8,232
tons (7,793 tons) crucible steel, and 7,168 tons (6,882
jtons) electro steel. Rhenish Westphalia produced

580,603 tons (573,979 tons), Silesia 95,439 tons (88,687
tons), Siegerland and Hesse-Nassau 24,521 tons (23,710
tons), North, East and Mid Germany 44,937 tons
(44,475 tons), Saxony 17,123 tons (16,687 tons), South
Germany 9,239 tons (9,205 tons), Saar district and
Bavarian Rheinpfalz 77,880 tons (86,645 tons), Elsass-
Lothringen 91,230 tons (91,451 tons), and Luxemburg
79,543 tons (77,493 tons).

Increase in Wire and Galvanised Plate.

The German wire manufacturers, at a meeting in
Cologne on the 5th inst., decided to increase the price of
wire by 10 to 20 marks per ton, according to the
increased cost of production of the various grades, and
to allow sales to be made for delivery up to the end of
the year. Galvanised plate has been advanced 10 per
cent.

TRADE AND THE WAR.

Under the new rule which has come into force regarding
the bunkering of neutral vessels, steamers proceeding to
ports other than those of France or Archangel will only
be allowed sufficient bunker coals to take them to the first
port. Exceptions to this rule will be allowed in certain
cases, and owners and agents who desire exceptional
treatment must make application to the secretary of the
Board of Customs in London giving full details of the
prospective employment of the ship in question. The
authorities consider this restriction absolutely necessary,
and shippers are asked loyally to carry out the require-
ments.

M. Sembat, the French Minister of Public Works,
interviewed by a representative of the Matin with regard
to the coal supplies, said that the question at the moment
was not so much one of quantity as of price. The prices
;had been increased by the heavy orders given by Great
Britain, but haulage rates had also contributed largely to the
rise. The greater part of the output of the French mines
was being absorbed by the railways and the great
^engineering works engaged in turning out war munitions.
A committee had been appointed to advise the miners as to
the orders which should be given priority in the national
interests. All measures had been taken to meet the needs
of Paris, and the Government would see to it that the coal
prices did not become exorbitant.

The Secretary of the Admiralty has announced that
arrangements for the organisation of the Inventions Board
to be presided over by Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, to assist
the Admiralty in co-ordinating and encouraging scientific
effort in relation to the requirements of the naval service
have now been completed. It will comprise: (a) A
central committee, (b) A panel of consultants composed
of scientific experts, who will advise the main committee
on questions referred to them. The central committee
will consist of: Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, G.C.B., O.M.
(president). Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., F.R.S., awarded
Nobel prize for physics in 1906, a great authority on
electricity. Hon. Sir C. A. Parsons, K.C.B, F.R.S.,
president of the North-east Coast Institution of Engineers
and Shipbuilders ; has developed the steam turbine and
made it suitable for the generation of electricity and the
propulsion of warships and merchantmen. Mr. C. T. Beilby,
F.R.S., expert on fuel economy ; inventor, and scientific
director of many chemical works at home and abroad. The
consulting panel will comprise the following list, which will
be added to from time to time as necessary: Prof. H. B. Baker,
F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry, Imperial College of Science
and Technology, London, since 1912. Prof.W. G. Bragg, F.R.S.,
Cavendish Professor of Physics, Leeds University, since 1908.
Prof. H. C. H. Carpenter, head of Chemical and Metallurgical
Departments of the National Physical Laboratory at the
time of its foundation; Professor in the Royal School of
Mines, South Kensington. Sir William Crookes, O.M.,
F.R.S., the world-renowned chemist, who was 83 on Saturday.
Inventor of the Crookes tube. Mr. W. Duddell, F.R.S., Past
President of the Rontgen Society and Institute of Electrical
Engineers. Prof. Percy Frankland, F.R.S., Professor of
Chemistry and Dean of Faculty of Science at Birmingham
University. Prof. Bertram Hopkinson, F.R.S., Professor of
Mechanism and Applied Mechanics, Cambridge University.
Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., the famous scientist; President
of the British Association, 1913-14. Prof. W. J. Pope, F.R.S.,
Professor of Chemistry, Cambridge University ; has made
many important scientific discoveries. Sir Ernest Ruther-
ford, F.R.S., Director of Physic Laboratories, Manchester
University; an authority on the conduction of electricity
through gases, and radio-activity. Mr. G. Gerald Stoney,
F.R.S., consulting engineer; for 24 years associated with
Messrs. C. A. Parsons and Co. Prof, the Hon. R. J. Strutt,
F.R.S., a great authority on radium, etc.; Professor of
Physics, Imperial College of Science, South Kensington.
The Board is accommodated temporarily in the Whitehall
Rooms, Hotel Metropole, Whitehall-place, S.W., but at an
early date (which will be announced in due course) it will
be transferred to permanent offices at Victory House,
Cockspur-street, S.W. Communications should be addressed
to the Secretary, Board of Inventions and Research.

An advisory council has been appointed by Mr. Lloyd
George to assist him in settling any Labour questions which
may arise in reference to matters affecting munitions of
war. It includes :—Sir John Aird, Mr. Richard Burb'idge,
Mr. W. H. Cowan, M.P., Sir Evelyn De La Rue, Mr.
Alexander Duckham, Mr. A. H. Goldfinch, Mr. Albert
Illingworth, Mr. T. R. Johnson, Mr. Stephenson Kent, Sir
George Croydon Marks, M.P., Mr. Graham Spicer, Mr.
George Younger, M.P.

Rules for the Munitions Tribunals have been issued.
The tribunals are of two classes—local and general, and
each will consist of a chairman appointed by the Minister
of Munitions and assessors drawn from an employers’ panel
and a workmen’s panel. A genera] tribunal can deal with
all offences under the Act, but not with any matter to
which a local tribunal is competent to deal, unless such
matter is referred to it by the Minister of Munitions. A
local tribunal has jurisdiction to deal only with complaints
that any person has acted in contravention or has failed to
comply with regulations made applicable to the controlled
establishment in which he is either an employer or worker.
Complaints are to be made in writing to the chairman, or
other person appointed by him. If no sitting of a local
tribunal shall have previously been fixed, a special sitting
is to be called, notice to be given whenever practicable not

less than one week in advance. Notices to appear before
the tribunal may be sent by registered letter, evidence is to
be taken on oath. Fines may be deducted from wages.
No solicitor or counsel will be allowed to represent parties
before a tribunal. Any person on whom a fine of <£20 or
more has been imposed may appeal to Quarter Sessions.
All cases are to be tried in open court, and the chairman
must consult his assessors before giving his decision. The
question of costs shall be in the absolute discretion of the
chairman.

The annual conference of the Society of Chemical
Industry took place last week at Manchester. Prof. G. G.
Henderson presided, and in his address remarked that it
was disappointing that fuller opportunities of service to the
Government during the present crisis had not been given
to scientific men and bodies. It was regrettable on all
grounds that the scientific resources of the nation had not
been systematically utilised by the Government as they
might have been. It would not be a very difficult matter
to bring into close co-operation all the societies representa-
tive of all the branches of pure and applied science. It
would only be necessary to appoint some central body,
which would have the duty on the one hand of keeping in
intimate touch with the Admiralty, the War Office, and the
Ministry for Munitions, and on the other hand of referring
to the council of each society the questions with which it is
particularly fitted to deal. The Germans had with energy
and success developed on the industrial scale many
scientific discoveries, such, for instance, as the various
methods for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, whilst we
had done little or nothing in that direction. Even our
former supremacy in the manufacture of heavy chemicals
has been seriously attacked. The two main causes of our
lack of progress were, in his opinion, firstly, failure to
realise that “scientific research work, carried out in the
laboratory, is the soul of industrial prosperity ” — that
modern chemical industry must of necessity be based upon
research if it is to meet 'with success. In the second place,
there has not been in the past a sufficiently close and
intimate interchange of information and opinions between
manufacturers and professors of chemistry; in fact, most
unfortunately for both manufacturer and teacher, the
attitude has rather been one of mutual aloofness and
reserve. Very little of the research work done in our
chemical schools had any direct bearing on chemical
manufactures, and yet, from the educational point of view,
there was no reason why some at least of this army of young
research chemists should not be engaged in the attempt
to solve problems in applied, instead of in pure, chemistry.
Sir William Ramsay said the Royal Society had reorganised
itself for war purposes, and so had the Chemical Society.
With regard to the American scheme of fellowships, he
entirely approved of it. But points of view differed in
England from those in America. The idea of the English
employer was to keep the laboratory and the works in a
system of water-tight compartments. The chemist was not
trusted with the secrets of the works nor the engineer
allowed in the laboratory. Only the man responsible for
the whole of the production knew both sides. In the
American system the young man who showed aptitude was
taken on trial for a year, and if he showed himself worthy
was entirely trusted and learned his work thoroughly. Sir
William said he declared for the American system. The
English one had done more to kill the development of the
chemical industry than anything else.—Papers on “ Research
and Chemical Industry,” by Dr. M. O. Forster, and on
“ Research in Technology,” by Dr. C. C. Carpenter, were
read. The latter said that manufacturers should be able
to draw upon the sources of technological knowledge just in
the same manner as the chemist did from a scientific library.
—Prof. H. E. Armstrong, speaking on the development and
control of industry by public influences, dealt with the
necessity of the Royal Society organising all its forces, and
not acting through a few of its fellows.—In the course of a
paper on “ Chemical Engineering,” Dr. G. T. Beilby said
that in the modern organisation there was room for the
research chemist of high and wide attainments, for the
scientifically trained engineer, also of wide attainments, and
for a type of professionally trained man who was the
natural medium of interchange between these two
specialists. This intermediary was the chemical engineer.
The chemist thought and worked in terms of atoms and
molecules and the laws which governed their combination.
The engineer thought of matter in masses which could be
moulded to his will by the craftsman, or of mechanical or
electrical energy which could be generated, controlled, and
measured by machinery. The chemist was the master and
director of his own operations, which he could, for the most
part, carry out with his own hands. Referring to the
attention recently given to the use of cotton for high explo-
sive shells, Mr. W. F. Reid said there was no cotton used
in the manufacture of these shells. There might be the
merest trace of it, but the bulk of the material used for
charging high-explosive shells was obtained from coal
products. Coal products, continued Mr. Reid, were now
indispensable as materials for the manufacture of high-
explosive shells, and the production of coal was, therefore,
an extremely important element in the present war.

In a Blue Book just issued a return is given of pro-
ceedings during 1914 under the Prosecution of Offences
Acts. In this return 18 prosecutions under the Acts and
Proclamations} against trading with the enemy are reported.

The Board of Trade desire to inform merchants, manu-
facturers, and shippers that applications for permission to
export to allied countries goods of which the export is
prohibited by Proclamation will receive special considera-
tion if it can be clearly shown that the goods are destined
for the use directly or indirectly of the Allied Government
concerned or its military or naval forces. Such applications
must be made to the Secretary, Commission Internationale
de Ravitaillement, India House, Kings way, W.C. The
Commission will not recognise as evidence of the official
destination of the goods documents issued by provincial
military or naval officers, other local authorities, or Govern-
ment contractors in the country to which the goods are to
be exported, unless such documents are formally approved
in writing by the competent department of the Government
concerned. Applications for permission to export goods
which are ordered by firms or individuals in an allied
country for purely industrial purposes, and which are not
destined for the use of an allied government or its military
or naval forces should be made in the ordinary manner to
the Secretary, War Trade Department, 4, Central-buildings,
Westminster, S.W.