September 3, 1915.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

477

TlTanted, Works for Dismantling, Plant

▼ V no longer required, boilers, tanks, machinery, &c., for prompt
cash.—Write to E. J. WEBSTER, 119, Bow-road, London, E.

J. W. BAIRD AND COMPANY,

PITWOOD IMPORTERS,
WEST HARTLEPOOL,

TBABLT CONTRACTS BNTBBBD INTO WITH COLMBBIBS.

OSBECK & COMPANY LIMITED,
PIT-TIMBER MERCHANTS,
NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

SUPPLY ALL KINDS OF COLLIERY TIMBER.

Telegrams—“ Osbecks, Newcastle-on-Tyne.”

*** For other Miscellaneous Advertisements see Last
White Page.

(MUnj Guardian

AND

Journal of tho Coal and Iron Trades.

Joint Editors—

J. V. ELSDEN, D.Sc. (Bond.), F.G.S.
HUBERT GREENWELL, F.S.S., Assoc.M.I.M.E.

LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1915.

At the conference held on the 2nd inst. at the
Home Office, which was attended by representatives
of coal owners and miners from all districts of the
country, and was presided over by Sir Richard
Redmayne, K.C.B., H.M. Chief Inspector of Mines,
there was considerable difference of opinion amongst
the representatives of the owners as to the desira-
bility of interfering with the Eight Hours Act, and
objection was also taken by the representatives of
the miners to any interference at the present time
in view of the efforts being made to secure greater
regularity of work and less absenteeism on the part
of the miners. Mr. Smillie, dhe president of the
Miners’ Federation, stated on behalf of the miners
that if their efforts to secure a better attendance at
work failed, the question could be considered at a
later date if it were found to be necessary. It was
decided to leave the matter in abeyance for the time
being.

The London coal trade for the past week has
responded somewhat to the colder weather, and the
house coal trade has improved. Very little free coal,
however, is offering. Steam, coals are firm, and coke
also has strengthened. All colliery prices are fully
maintained, but the official legal price is gaining
ground. In the seaborne market there is little
change. Vessels are coming forward with greater
regularity.

Acute scarcity of tonnage and a consequent leap
in freights, combined with licence difficulties, have
been responsible for much damage to coal business
during the past week. The prompt markets on
the Tyne and Wear are very dull owing to
these factors, buyers generally declining to transact in
the hope of obtaining more favourable terms later;
those buyers commanding prompt shipment are
able to secure at cheaper values. The moderate
character of the Lancashire market remains
unchanged. Trade in the Yorkshire markets has
been of a quiet nature, the London business being
comparatively small. Traffic delays are still a cause
of complaint, but the output has improved. General
dulness characterises the Derbyshire market, and
supplies are easily equal to the demand. The labour
situation of South Wales being so uncertain, it was
only natural that the Cardiff market should be dis-
turbed. Buyers refused to negotiate, and chartering
was reduced to a minimum. The Scottish coal trade
also experienced a slack period, and values show a
tendency to decline.

The autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute
will be opened on Thursday, the 23rd inst.

The strike which recently broke out in the Charleroi
coal field has now been settled.

It has been unofficially stated that exports of coal
to Sweden will be very much more restricted in the
future.

A circular has been issued by the Board of Trade
advising London merchants and householders to
accumulate stocks of coal for the approaching winter.

The special committee of the Glasgow Corporation
which is considering the question of domestic coal
prices, met yesterday (Thursday) and received
evidence from local merchants.

Parliamentary sanction is to be sought by the
Cardiff Railway Company to proceed with the scheme
for increasing the shipping accommodation at the
Cardiff docks.

Sir George Askwith has awarded the Scottish
miners an increase of 6| per cent, on the 1888
standard.

Mr. Asquith has refused the Northumberland
miners’ contention that they are entitled to an
advance of 11 per cent, in wages under the sliding-
scale system in addition to the war bonus. The
men’s leaders are requesting a meeting with the
owners on the matter.

Difficulties in South Yorkshire with regard to the
interpretation of the agreement establishing the
Conciliation Board, more particularly as to the
percentage advances to boys and day-wage men,
have now been overcome.

Happily the dispute in the South Wales area has
now been settled, but not before several thousands of
men had “ downed tools.” The owners have granted
the miners’ requests regarding the bonus turn to all
nightmen, and also made concessions with reference
to retrospective payment of advances.

A Board of Trade White Paper has been issued
showing that the coal production of the United
Kingdom during the half-year ended June 30 last
had declined by 12,448,000 tons as compared with
the corresponding period last year. The respective
figures were 127,826,000 tons and 125,369,000 tons.
The exports during the half-year totalled 23,595,000
tons, as against 26,068,000 tons in the first half of
1914.

As the result of an accident which occurred
yesterday at the Donisthorpe Pit, Burton-on-Trent,
caused by cages fouling each other when 150 yds.
down the shaft, one life was lost and 13 men and
boys were injured.

If there is one subject that is taboo

Oil V. Coal, it is the Navy’s fuel supply, but it is
divulging no great secret when we
say that the war, so far as it has gone, has given
rise to some surprising results in. this direction.
Considering that Galicia has been one of the cockpits
of the war, that the output from the Baku region
has been unattainable, and that chaos has ruled
throughout the war in Mexico, it is indeed wonderful
that this country has never been short of oil. Indeed,
we have seen the collapse of some of the low-
temperature distillation processes, although a naval
war might be said to be the event upon which their
promoters had gambled.

The credit for bringing about this situation has
been largely due to Mr. Churchill, who had the
foresight, even before the war cloud appeared on the
horizon, to accumulate large stocks of oil for naval
uses. At this juncture, as we have said, it is impos-
sible to do more than conjecture as to the results
obtained in actual warfare with oil as compared with
coal; oil is recognised as the staple diet of the
mosquito craft, which have so far had the lion’s
share of the mobile fighting to do. All we know is
that in the Falkland Islands expedition some of our
cruisers ran perilously short of fuel, the heroic
“ Kent” having to get her fightingspeed by burning
her wooden furniture. But, although the South
Wales Admiralty pits have not by any means been
put out of business by oil, it is a fair inference to
gather that the latter has proved itself invaluable for
naval purposes. Sir Marcus Samuel, at the recent
meeting of the “Shell” Company, said it was
inconceivable that after the war the Navy would ever
revert to the use of coal. He gave as his reason the
advantage obtained in the saving of life effected by
the elimination of stokers. On the other hand, some
of the incidents of the present war, in which the
advantages of heavy fire, have been fully proven,
show that the inflammability of oil is a danger
seriously to be reckoned with.

For this reason we turn with no little interest to
Dr. David T. Dayt’s report to the United States
Geological Survey on the production of petroleum in
1913. From the time that Admiral Metcalfe pub-
lished his memoir more than a dozen years ago, it
has been obvious that the American naval authorities,

to whom are available abundant supplies of oil fuel,
have always been apprehensive of the dangers
attendant upon the use of oil for naval purposes.
Nevertheless, this period of hesitancy seems to have
been passed, for the present policy of the United States
is to use oil exclusively as a fuel in all new battleships
and torpedo vessels, andin the fiscal year ended June 30,
1913, the Navy used something over 21,000,000 gals,
of fuel oil. The question of price, however, which
is a smaller consideration to a Government than to a
private consumer, has militated to some extent
against the increased use of oil. For this reason
it has been proposed to construct a State-owned
pipe-line from the mid-continental field to the Gulf
of Mexico for the purpose of supplying fuel for the
American Navy, and the Navy Department in 1914
carried out experiments with a view to making
naval specifications for fuel oil less strict in order to
get an oil at a cheaper price.

Dr. Day gives some interesting information relating
to the minimum flash points for fuel oils for naval use
as fixed in different countries. Some two years ago a
Navy Board recommended the reduction of the flash
point in the case of oil for the use of the United
States battleships, which, as in the British Navy,
had previously been limited to 175degs. Fahr. In
arriving at a reduction in the flash point to 150 degs.
Fahr., the Navy Board carried out some interesting
investigations bearing upon the viscosity of oils and
their pumping capacity. A highly viscous oil must
be heated in the bunkers in order to enable the
pumps to deliver it at the rate required for full-
speed steaming. But it would clearly be undesirable
to heat the oil to the point at which an inflammable
vapour is given off. Thus the problem to be deter-
mined was two-fold—viz., (1) the investigation of
the viscosity curves of oil at different temperatures,
and (2) the ignition temperature of the vapour at
these temperatures. It was found that practically
no dangerous amount of inflammable gas is given off
until the oil is heated to its flash point as determined
by the Abel or Pennsky-Martin test. Now few, if
any, of the fuel oils now on the market have so high a
viscosity as to require heating in bunkers above
105 degs. Fahr. Consequently a minimum flash
point of 150 degs. Fahr, appears to provide an
adequate factor of safety for any known oil. It. is
necessary, however, to provide against the use of an
oil having both a high viscosity and a comparatively
low flash point. It might in such a case be necessary
to heat the oil to a temperature dangerously near its
flash point to reduce its viscosity to the requisite
standard.

It is, therefore, recommended that the minimum
flash point shall not be lower than that temperature
at which the oil has a viscosity of 8 by the Engler
scale, water at 70 degs. Fahr, being the unit. This
critical viscosity is reached by many commercial oils
at temperatures far below the flash point; but some
comparatively low-flash oils, such as the Texas Com-
pany’s Mexican crude oil, with a flash point at
126 degs. Fahr., do not reach the critical viscosity
until a far higher temperature than 150 degs. Fahr,
is reached. The United States has been the first
country to reduce the minimum flash point for
naval fuel oil to so low a temperature as 150 degs.
Fahr. The flash point figures for other navies are
stated by Dr. Day to be 248 degs. Fahr, for Austria,
212 degs. Fahr, for Russia and Italy, 200 degs. Fahr,
for France, and 187 degs. Fahr, for Germany.

A large part of Dr. Day’s report deals with statistics
of production of fuel oil in the United States and
throughout the world. In this connection it is note-
worthy that the world’s total production of crude
petroleum for the year 1913 was 381,538,916 barrels
of 42 gallons. The steady increase of output year
by year goes far to confirm the conclusions of the
Royal Commission in their first interim report to the
effect that the oil resources of the world are amply
adequate to meet all naval requirements in this
country if suitable measures are taken to secure
supplies. The most obvious of these measures is
to accumulate stocks, and we know that the British
Admiralty has made full provision by this means
for some years ahead. Oil lends itself to storage
better than coal in every way, and it is fortunate
that this is the case, for the production of oil can