876

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

October 29, 1915.

Mr. W. F. Clark, in proposing a vote of thanks to the
president, said that the paper was a most inter-
esting one, and they would all be glad to see the
chart Mr. Cockin was preparing.

Mr. L. Holland, in seconding the vote of thanks,
said he was very pleased to hear the explanation given
of the inundation of the Coppice Colliery.

The proposition was carried by acclamation.

Prof. W. S. Boulton said that he had been very much
interested in the paper. During the last year or so he
had been engaged in estimating the water possibilities
of the bunter pebble beds of the Midlands, but not from
the mining point of view. As all the mining men knew,
there was rather more water in those pebble beds than
from the mining point of view was wanted. But he
was examining them with the object of obtaining a public
water supply and for other purposes. Consequently, he
was interested to hear the subject discussed from Mr.
Cockin’s point of view. With regard to Mr. Cockin’s
suggestion that the pebble beds in the Cannock Chase
>rea might be subdivided or correlated by means of their
fossils, he personally could not hold out that hope; the
fossils in those pebble beds were almost all derived
fossils, and the pebbles containing them were distributed
in an extremely irregular manner. A few years ago he
had collected those fossils in the Birmingham district,
and had examined other similar collections, and it was
found that, although those fossils helped them to under-
stand the manner and place of origin of those pebble
beds, they did not in the least assist in correlating the
pebble beds in different parts of the area, or in sub-
dividing the pebble beds into the different zones. Much
more interesting from the speaker’s point of view was
the president’s remark about the importance of ascer-
taining the relative levels of the base of the water-
bearing strata, because this had a great bearing upon the
study of the pebble beds from the point of view of the
water supply. No doubt these beds rested upon a very
irregular surface of the coal measures. He was particu-
larly struck with the fact that the pebble beds were in
some places almost dry, whilst in others they contained
a very large volume of water. The water was not
really contained, as in many other water-bearing rocks,
pretty uniformly below the plane of saturation. In the
Cannock Chase area, where the beds were comparatively
thin, and often loose and incoherent, the water occurred
along very definite channels near the base of the pebble
beds, and he was hoping to be able to map out the
positions of those channels where the water was in extra
quantity, and moved at a much more rapid rate than
that at which the water usually moved in the water-
bearing rocks. He was hoping that the mining engi-
neer would in this way be able to anticipate where the
real danger points were likely to be, whilst, of course,
it would be of very considerable service in any plan for
utilising the water from the pebble beds for reservoir
purposes.

Mr. J. Brindley asked the president whether it was
to be understood from his paper that the Coppice Colliery
was still full of water, and that no attempt had been
made to get the water out.

Mr. N. Forrest wished to know whether he was right
in understanding the president to say that the washout
named consisted of pebble bed ground. If that were so,
should not that fact have given the management cause
for anxiety, seeing that the washout was found so
adjacent to the level of the coal.

The President, in reply to the various questions, said
that with regard to the derived fossils in the bunter
beds, he simply pointed out that in one or two places
on Cannock Chase the derived fossils were very much
more abundant than in other places. Therefore, it
struck him that the fossils might form some kind of
horizon in the bed which could be traced out. They
were certainly the places on the Chase where the fossils
were most abundant, and one or two places on the
Satnall Hills were so crowded with derived fossils of
the bunter beds that it looked to him as if they might
be traced further, and establish some horizon in the beds.
Referring to Prof. Boulton’s remarks on the channels of
water which appeared to occur in the beds, and the
statement that the beds were not full of water through-
out, but that the water seemed to run in channels, the
president said that that did rather seem to be the case.
His idea was that that was caused to a great extent by
faults which pounded up the water, and that the water
could not get away from those areas. Therefore, when
one tapped an area of that sort one got the water,
although in other places the water might have run away
through springs and wells. With regard to Mr.
Brindley’s question as to the state of the colliery at the
present time, he believed that the management had never
considered that the amount of coal left in the Coppice
Colliery would pay for pumping the water out. No
doubt that was so. If the water were pumped
out valuable information might be obtained by an
examination of the point where that unfortunate inunda-
tion occurred. From the coal-getting point of view, the
colliery could not possibly pay for the cost of unwatering
it. As to the washout, that was encountered 200 yds.
or more away, he thought the mere fact of their having
stripped the gravel beds at that point without getting
much water would tend rather to give the management
confidence that there would be no danger in approaching
it again. He thought that was really what was in the
minds of the management. But, as he hinted in his
paper, they perhaps did not realise that they were 150 ft.
or nearly 200 ft. further down, and that, therefore,
whatever water there was would have a very much
greater pressure. No doubt the sagging of the marl bed

helped to form that enormous reservoir, which was a
thing they had not thought of. One remarkable thing
about the marl beds was that they were very variable
on Cannock Chase, being in some places only 6 fit. and in
others 30 ft. thick. Whether these marl beds belonged
to the triassic system or to the carboniferous system
was rather difficult to ascertain, but they were very
variable, and that was another point which wanted
watching where they had been approached.

Mr. W. F. Clark said that with regard to the under-
ground channels referred to by Prof. Boulton, an experi-
ence of his own in sinking a few years ago in Gloucester-
shire in the new red sandstone might be of some
interest. They had one shaft put down, and did not get
much water. They had some water because the whole
of the rocks were like a sponge, and all contained water.
Then they sank a second shaft, and when they got down
about 40 to 50 yds. they came across a fissure which
ran down the whole of the depth of the new red sand-
stone, he believed about 80 yds. When they met that
fissure they must have been in one of those underground
channels, for they had abundance of water, and the flow
never stopped. The wells for miles round were drained.
He was inclined to wonder whether that was a case such
as Prof. Boulton had in his mind. When they stopped,
the water gradually returned into the wells. If they
had been fortunate enough not to have sunk into this
particular fissure, they might have avoided this rush of
water. There was no fault, the strata was quite level,
it was merely a fissure all the way down, and his belief
was that if they managed to sink the two shafts with-
out striking that fissure, they would have got nothing
more than the flow of water ordinarily experienced in
the district.

Prof. Boulton said that personally he was very much
obliged to Mr. Clark for his observations, but they did
not quite bear upon the point he (Prof. Boulton) was
trying to make. He was rather disinclined to go into
the matter, because it would take some time, and was
not strictly germane to the subject of the paper. (The
President : We should like to hear you.) His point
was that the water was not flowing along line of fissure,
nor was its position determined by faults. His view
was that in the Chase the distribution of the water
underground was determined largely by the irregular
surface features of the ground, and the shape of the
pebble bed base. The ground surface would in part
control the flow of the underground water, and he had
obtained some information which would enable him to
check that. The flow was not determined in general by
faults or by fissures, but by the surface features, com-
bined with the form of the buried surface of the coal
measures.

Dr. Cadman suggested that Prof. Boulton might give
them a paper on that subject.

The discussion was adjourned.

Oil Mining in Persia.

Prof. Cadman delivered a short address on “ Oil
Mining in Persia.” He gave an interesting account of
his visit to the Persian oil fields, and with the aid of
lantern views described some of the more striking
features of the region and its inhabitants, and the
method of prospecting and collecting the oil. The
matter is fully dealt with in the report of the Commis-
sion, of which Prof. Cadman was a member, but
additional interest was given to the subject by the
personal experiences and observations of the lecturer.

The President, in proposing a very hearty vote of
thanks to Prof. Cadman, said that the professor’s
extremely interesting lecture had thrown a great deal
of light upon a subject of great interest and importance.

The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation.

The ninety-seventh session of the Institution of Civil
Engineers will be opened on Tuesday, at 8 p.m., when
Mr. Alexander Ross, president, will deliver an address, and
will present awards made by the council for papers read
and discussed or otherwise dealt with during the past
session.

The exportation of pit props from Sweden has considerably
increased. The quantity exported during January to June,
1914, was only 193,229 cubic metres, as compared with
302,055 cubic metres for the same period of 1915. Some
little time ago the Swedish Paper-Makers’ Association
petitioned the Swedish Government to prohibit the expor-
tation of unworked spruce, as the enormous exportation of
pit props and pulp wood, which started at the outbreak of
war, threatened a shortage of pulp wood for the paper mills.
According to the Stockholms Da blad for October 7, the asso-
ciation has again approached the Government, but this time
with a demand for a prohibition of pinewood exportation.
In the petition to the Government the association points
out that recently another factor has arisen which makes
the appeal all the more urgent. The difficulty in obtaining
coal for several paper mills has forced manufacturers to use
wood fuel partly. It is increasingly difficult to obtain such
wood fuel now owing to the competition in buying pulp
wood and pit props for exportation. This exportation is
carried on largely via Norway. Before the war large
quantities of pulp wood were imported into Norway from
Russia, but Norwegian mills are now forced to obtain their
pulp wood from Sweden. The Norwegian mills send agents
to Sweden to buy large or small quantities of the available
wood, and if this continues the Swedish forests will be cleared
of pulp wood and wood available for fuel, so that the paper
mills in certain districts will have to close down for lack of
raw materials.

COAL MINING ORGANISATION
COMMITTEE.

DIGEST OF THE EVIDENCE.

(Continued from page 826.J

Mr. H. E. Mitton.

Mr. Henry Eustace Mitton, who was examined on
April 23, is mining engineer for the Butterley Coal Company
Limited, Derby, who own a large number of collieries in
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and have an output of over
2,000,000 tons per annum, composed of the following per-
centages of fuel :—Steam coal, 35 per cent.; gas coal, 10 per
cent.; house coal, 24 per cent.; and slacks and other fuels,
31 per cent. He said he spoke as the representative of the
Midland Coal Owners’ Association, and also the Nottingham-
shire and Erewash Valley Association and Leicestershire, and
the South Derbyshire Association, the total tonnage being
25| millions. From the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire
coal field the reduction in output due to men having enlisted
was from the companies who had given him their figures,
just over 9 per cent, of their output. In the case of the
Butterley Coal Company, the percentage of men who had left
amounted to 14-3 per cent., and a reduction in output for the
eight months ending on March 31 and commencing on the
outbreak of war of 7-8 per cent. They might have had more
men joining the collieries since the war started, but there
were very few men joining.

Mr. Mitton put in a statement, based on returns from
17 firms. It showed that the output of the various associa-
tions which he represented was :—Midland Counties Colliery
Owners’ Association, 16,046,503 tons; Notts and E.V.C.O.
Association, 4,350,798 tons; South Derbyshire Association,
1,241,108 tons; Leicestershire Association, 3,173,422 tons;
The 24,811,831 tons equal 73’66 per cent, of total output.
The reduction in output per annum was as follows :—(1) Of
the 17 companies making returns, equal to 9 per cent., or a
tonnage of 1,154,700; (2) estimated loss of output in the
Derby, Notts and Liecestershire collieries, based on the
above proportion, 3,032,760; (3) loss of output experienced
by the Butterley Company Limited (excluding one new
pit), equals 12’76 per cent., or a tonnage of 245,335.
Butterley Company’s collieries^ only :—(1)—(a) Number
enlisted to date, 879; (5) percentage of all employed, 12'31
per cent. ; (c) percentage of all over 16 years of age, 13’54
per cent. The number enlisted from the collieries in
Derbyshire and Notts, from whom returns have been
received, 10,584; percentage of all employed, 13’23 per cent.

Witness continued : When the war commenced, speaking
from my own experience, I found that during the
first few weeks there was a considerable disorganisation of
the working of the collieries, due to the difficulty of coal
traffic, and also to the large number of men leaving in
batches; so that when the men came to the pit in the morn-
ing, very often there were a number of men absent from the
different stalls, and there was great difficulty in getting the
stalls to work.

When the first rush of enlistment was over, in order to
cope with it, I reorganised the working of all the collieries.
I had a meeting of the managers, and we decided that we
should have to concentrate the workings; close down certain
districts, and bring men together so as to get the proper
complement of the men in each of the coal faces. In
Derbyshire we work on the system of stalls about 44 yds.
in length. In each stall there are usually two butty men,
and three or four men engaged in the filling and holing.
We shut down certain districts which we thought could be
best stopped at the moment, and brought the men from those
districts into the other districts, so as to get the men
together again, and get as much coal per person as formerly.
I find there is very little difference at our pits between the
tonnage per man per day at the coal face to-day and what
it was last year at this time. The concentration of the men
has really enabled us to maintain our output per man. If
we had not concentrated our men, we should have got a
less tonnage per man per shift. In many cases the men
in the stalls began to get so few that they could not work
the stalls properly. That concentration of the men in the
districts has been done universally in Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire. It was also discussed as to whether any
old collieries could be shut down, >and the men put into the
new collieries. All the suggestions for improving the output
had been thoroughly considered in Derbyshire, Nottingham-
shire, and Leicestershire, and there was nothing more to be
done in that direction in those counties.

Witness proceeded to the question of absenteeism. He
said : From the figures that have been returned from these
17 companies, I find that the average absenteeism per week
is 15’75 of the men employed underground; 6 per cent,
represents the average figure for the men who are unavoid-
ably absent, due to sickness and accident. The figures that
were returned by the 17 companies are extraordinarily remark-
able in the nearness of the various causes. In my own case.
I find that the men who were absent through sickness worked
out at 3-42 over this period, and the men who were off from
accident worked out at 2*87. At Messrs. Barber, Walker
and Company’s the figures of sickness work out for the same
three months at 3-11, and for accident at 2*71. We get it
simply by the men, when they return to work, reporting that
they have been sick, as we have no other way of determining
sickness. Then we have to consider the man who is absent
due to the illness of his family during the night, or some
cause of that description. Therefore we took the figure of
9 per cent, as being those absent. Taking the largest colliery
which is under my control, where we have over 2,200 men
employed, for the same three months, I find that on
Wednesday, which is the first day after mak^g-up day, the
percentage of absentees worked out at 4*11 per cent, more
than on Tuesdays, which is the making-up day, and that on
Saturdays, which is a half-day only worked at that pit, the
percentage of absentees worked out at 31’71 per cent, more
than on Tuesday, the making-up day. So that led me to the
conclusion that there was a large number of men absent, who.
if they could only be made to realise the position, would
probablv attend their work more regularly at the present
time. Then I took the 9 per cent., and I deducted 4 per
cent, from it. in order to arrive at a figure, which I thought
would probably be a fair one, to see whether we could get
our output increased by bringing pressure to bear on the
men at the present time, by way of improving the attend-
ance at work. I do not want to infer at all that these men
are idle through slackness: because I think myself there is in
Derbyshire rather a difference between the system of working
and the system in many other counties. There we have what
they call a " Paddy’s Mail,” that is, a workmen’s train. On
Saturday we only work four hours. I find that a very large
percentage of these absentees is on Saturday; and therefore