August 13, 1915. THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN. 321 Mr. Stephen Walsh here mentioned that in the Ghorley district they had a 6-hours’ Saturday, for which they were paid three-quarters of a day, the hours being from 6 to 12. In South-east Lancashire, mainly in the Leigh and Tyldesley districts, they had a 7-hours’ day, from 6 to 1, all the labour that was paid by the day receiving a full day’s wages. On the Cheshire side there were a few collieries with a 7-hours’ day, but the bulk of the county had an 8-hours’ day for Saturday, from 6 to 2 o’clock. Witness thought if the work was more concentrated, and the more difficult districts stopped, and by putting more shifts on to the districts remaining, they might get the same quan- tity, or a larger quantity of coal, with fewer hands. That was being done to some, extent. But on the other hand, he was afraid in Lancashire stopping the districts would mean that it would be very difficult to re-open them, because of the large number of faults in the mines. In St. Helens they had to stop some of the districts because they had not the men. He, did remember one case where men taken from one pit went to another. It was one of Lord Crawford’s pits. That was settled upon before the war began, owing to the age of the pit and stratigraphical difficulties which made the pit a very serious losing concern. They might obtain some benefit by having two shifts in place of one, with shorter lengths of haulage road. He was not very hopeful, but it might affect it a little. As to the suspension of the Eight Hours Act, in accord- ance with section 4, in some collieries advantage might be taken of it, but it certainly would not do for all of them. Advantage could be taken of it, not so much by the colliers working as by allowing the haulage hands to stay, say, an hour longer when necessary, and also those men engaged in "keeping the roads right. There was no physical drawback to it. It was a question' whether the men would do it or not. At one or two places they would do it, but at other places the manager said it would make no difference whatever from a mining point of view, even if the men were agreeable. Considering everything, he thought most hope lay in the direction of absenteeism and the recovery of that margin. The absenteeism was always greatest on the Saturday. Mr. Stephen Walsh said the custom was really a 5-day week, but the Lancashire miner had never said to the employer : “ If you want me to work six days I will refuse.” He had said, “I will come or stay away.” As a matter of fact, tbcy stayed away. Fig. 1.—Mining Telephone Closed. | ; Fig. 2.—Mining Telephone Open. Witness thought he would be quite safe in saying that they were working more days a week, now than they were before the war. He thought local committees ought to co-operate with that Committee. They would get better results by appealing, to the men’s patriotism than by putting up a black list. Witness thought the closing of the public houses on the Sunday, and possibly the Saturday, would be advan- tageous during the period of the war, provided it did not result in getting barrels of beer into the house, because that might have more disastrous consequences. (To be continued.) United States Imports and Exports of Coal.—The follow- ing is a comparative statement of coal imports and exports of the United States for May 1914-15, and for the 11 months ending April 1914-15, in long tons :— May. Imports :—From 1914. 1915. Eleven months. 1915 33,919 .,036,285 77,490 160,947 2,248 1914. 10.684.. . 938,182... 83.851.. . 230,081... 3,613... United Kingdom ... 551 .. 957... Canada ........... 55,410... 77,213... Japan ................ 410 .. 4,510 .. Australia and Tas- mania ............. 3,136... 6,040... Other countries ... 183... 420... Total .......... 59,690... 89,140... 1,256,411... 1,310,889 Exports:— Anthracite : Canada .............469,411... 412,479... 3,469,616... 3,269,000 Uruguay ............ — ... —•. ... 84... — Other countries ... 6,042... 10;215... 56,119... 60,552 Total .............475,483... 422,694... 3,525,849... 3,329,552 Bituminous : Italy ................. — ... 285,027... — ... 1,245,260 Canada ................705,562 .. 589,512 .10,678,541... 7,551,864 Panama ................ 22,150... 34,321... 336,617... 295,664 Mexico ................ 20,951 30,247... 280,526... 369,166 Cuba .................. 82,851... 107,650... 1,048,379... 990,222 West Indies............ 50,824 .. 34,471... 532,108... 413,486 Argentina.............. 11,078... 108,730... 129,432... 406,058 Brazil................. 16,391... 65,183... 229,059... 404.780 Uruguay ............... 11,581... It,401... 56,252... 91,671 Other countries .......162,425... 134,735... 1,228,486 .. 711,414 Total............ 1,083,813. ..1,404,277.. .14,519,400. .12,479,585 Bunker coal..............674,805. 647,918... 7,124,527... 6,334,773 NEW FLAMEPROOF AND WATERTIGHT MAGNETO MINING TELEPHONE. The need of an efficient means of signalling between the various parts of a mine or colliery has been felt since the earliest days, and from time to time many systems have been devised. Naturally, the advantages of a complete telephone system were appreciated years ago by responsible mining officials, and for those positions where inflammable gas . is unlikely to accumulate tele- phone instruments have been designed to give satis- factory results. For use, however, in “ fiery mines,” specially designed- instruments are necessary on account of the liability of inflammable mine gas being exploded by an electric spark, should any sparking occur. The idea at first was to make the case of the instrument “ gas- and watertight ” by employing packing between the joints, but this has not been found altogether satis- factory for the following reasons :—If the packing becomes defective (and it is difficult to maintain a per- fect gastight joint) inflammable gas may diffuse into the instrument ease, and by means of a spark ignite, causing an explosion; as a result of this a part of the packing may be blown out or else the case shattered. In either case the flame reaches the outside gas, and a terrible disaster may be brought about. Experiments and research have, however, brought out the fact that the products of an internal explosion cannot start an external explosion if they are below a certain critical temperature, so that if when an internal explosion occurs provision is made for the escape of the gaseous products in such a manner that they are effec- tive! v cooled, the problem is solved. The General Electric Company Limited has given its attention, to such problems, and after a long period of most rigorous testing in actual practice, has put on the market a flameproof and watertight telephone known as the G.E.C. magneto mining telephone, K 8098 (1915 type). This instrument is strong, and well finished. The case is of east iron, the joint between the ease and the lid being made by machined flanges 1 in. wide. When the lid is bolted to the ease the joint is both watertight and flameproof, i.e., any escaping hot gases are so thoroughly cooled in passing between the flanges that they cannot possibly ignite an explosive mixture outside the case, even in the unlikely event of an internal explo- sion. The entire equipment is manufactured by the Peel-Conner Telephone Works Limited, of Salford, England. The internal unoccupied space is kept down to a minimum, so as to limit the amount of explosive gas which might accumulate. The telephone equipment comprises the following :— (1) A four-magnet tropical type generator, with the armature wound to a resistance of 300 ohms, and fitted ■with a very strong handle working through a flameproof and watertight gland; (2) a polarised bell movement wound with enamelled insulated copper wire to a resist- ance of 1,600 ohms, and fitted with two 3 in. bell gongs, protected by an iron cover; (3) long-distance speaking solid back transmitter, fitted in an iron chamber on the front of the lid, the diaphragm of which is protected from wilful damage by a fine-meshed brass gauze; (4) induction coil wound with enamelled insulated copper wire, resistance of primary circuit 1 ohm, secondary circuit 25 ohms; (5) a double pole “ Bell ” receiver wound to a resistance of 120 ohms is fitted inside the instrument, the diaphragm end being fitted with a cam arranged so as to revolve when the listening tube i which is placed on the left-hand side of the instrument) is lifted to the ear. The cam is fixed on to the receiver, and revolves with it, thereby pressing together a bank of springs which control the primary and secondary cir- cuits. The gland through which the tube passes is flameproof and watertight. (6) Two No. 2 G.E.C. dry cells are fitted on the inside of the lid by means of a metal band. Attached to the bottom of the cast iron case is a chamber which contains strong and well-designed line terminals. Four lugs fitted on the inside and back of the instrument are provided for fixing. RETAIL COAL PRICES. We continue in this and following issues a digest of the evidence given by witnesses heard before the Com- mittee appointed by the Board of Trade to enquire into the causes of the present rise in the retail price of coal sold for domestic use. Warwickshire and the London Trade. Mr. W. G. Phillips, managing director of the Ansley Hall Colliery, in Warwickshire, and vice-chairman of the Warwickshire Coal Owners’ Association, gave evidence on March 13. He said the annual output, roughly, of Warwick- shire was about five million tons, and their own output was about 200,000 tons. Something like 45 per cent, to 50 per cent, of the output of Warwickshire could be classified as house coals. The output of coal in Warwickshire had been very seriously affected by the war, principally owing to the shortage of men, due to enlistment, and to an appreciable extent by the congestion of railway traffic, causing a shortage of trucks, the output having been reduced thereby from 15 per cent, to in many cases as much as 25 per cent. In their own case the .reduction of output was about 20 per cent. Continuing, witness said : A considerable proportion of the output of the county is sold by contract. These contracts generally are made about the beginning of July of each year, and they are therefore not affected by the present much higher market rates. The pit prices, of what free coal remains, have been advanced, but not to any appreciable effect on the average beyond the increased cost of production. Free coal has gone up something like 30 per cent. The best quality coal has gone up something like 16s. a ton to some- thing about 20s. a ton at the pit. Summer prices for best coal would be about 14s. to 14s. 6d. The contracts are made in July as a rule, and they finish on June 30. The contract prices which were existing at the beginning of July last year were 6d., and, in some, cases, 8d. per ton less than they were the year before. The quantity that is contracted for by each colliery varies very considerably. It depends very largely on the opinion of the owner of the colliery and on the quality of the coal that he is producing. From 30 to 70 per cent, of coal is contracted for. I do not think it is in any case less than 30 per cent. We have a great many qualities of coal which you would call house coal, and some of that house coal has been diverted from its usual channels by the pressure of manufacturing concerns. The price of best coal varies according to the places where we sell it. As regards contracts, the price remains constant whatever the cost, and no sales are made under sliding-scale con- tracts, which are not known in Warwickshire. Some coal merchants prefer the price eased in the summer time, because the selling price is not so great in the summer, and it equalises the position. As regards existing contracts, witness said that generally they had given notice to take 20 per cent, off the contract, and the remainder had been very honourably delivered right away through the county. Taken on the average, there was Knot more than 40 per cent, of free coal. They were entitled to reduce contract quantities by their agreement, viz. :—“ In the event of any strike, lock-out, accident, or any other reasonable and sufficient cause occasioning a partial or entire stoppage of work, the supplies during such times may be accordingly proportionate or entirely suspended as the case may be, and such undelivered quantity may be cancelled.” The merchants and purchasers as a rule accepted that. In fact, he did not recall a case of anyone taking objection. The contract was not a stereotyped one. It varied in different collieries, but it represented generally the terms and conditions of contract. Asked how they settled their free-coal prices, witness said : We have an agent. I should say it is the rule in Warwickshire. We do not dispose of the output of our colliery to any particular agent. We all have representatives on the London market as well as in the country, and according to the conditions of the market and subject to the supervision of the colliery, our agent deals with the coal at the best price he can get. It is pretty well known that a fairly small percentage of supply either one way or the other is sufficient to depress or inflate prices in any commodity, and the collieries soon respond to shortness of supply in the market, which means keen competition for what you have to sell. Latterly we have suffered a great deal from railway congestion. Traffic sometimes may be stopped only for a day or two, and sometimes for a week, and we have had wagons standing in our own sidings—we have a fairly large contract with a large institution in London—labelled for over three weeks, and they could not get away. These reports begin about the beginning of December, and on December 18 there were eight or nine stations on the London and South-Western line that we were asked not to load for, because they could not take the traffic out beyond Willesden, which is the controlling station for that line for the London .and North-Western Railway. Trucks that got as far as Willesden would not be brought on as far as London. Asked as to the date at which they determined to restrict contract deliveries, witness said they were not unanimous about it, as they had no association. Personally, he rather fancied he was late in doing it, but his notices went out about the middle of January. Witness explained : The Warwickshire Coal Owners’ Association, as an association, do not go into prices at all. Their functions are to deal with Questions of wages, etc. We have no association in Warwickshire to deal with prices at all. We act individually. We have a common knowledge as to the policy adopted as to contract deliveries from what we casually happen to pick up, but we do not meet for con- sultation. Returning to the question of railway congestion, Mr. Phillips said : My experience is the experience of the whole of my neighbours. We discussed this matter when I was asked by the Mining Association to respond to the request of your secretary. I called the association together and discussed this matter. It was my experience, and the experience of the whole of my neighbours, that congestion is submitting us to a loss of time. I have in my mind a considerable colliery that has lost from 1} to two days a week owing to the want of wagons. The sidings have been congested, and full of loaded trucks labelled to go out, but they have not been taken by the railway company. You may take lit that the wagons are not earning more than one-third to one-half their usual earnings. That means to say, that they are not coming back to the colliery for the purpose of taking coal away. Those, are our own wagons. We turn to the railways in these difficulties and ask them for wagons, and in some cases under ordinary circumstances have got a fair supply of railway companies’ wagons. Then there are a number of customers who run wagons of their