980

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

November 12, 1915.

and of that alone. As long as some source of adequate
magnetisation is provided the several machines may be
driven as generators or operated as motors at will.
Consequently, increasing the excitation of one of two
alternators will not shift load to the other, and an
alternator may continue to carry its full load even if its
excitation is lost.

In 'the case of an over-excited alternating-current
generator at full load, as the excitation is supposed to
remain unaltered the outflow of magnetising power is
practically unaffected by the changes of load, by which
a generator becomes a motor. The transition stage
between motor and generator operation presents the
peculiarity that the machine, though neither a motor
nor a generator, still produces magnetising power. This
feature is of such importance that the machine when
so operating has a special name, being called a syn-
chronous condenser. The synchronous condenser can
be used to produce the magnetising power required for
operation of induction motors or induction generators,
or for the starting of unexcited synchronous motors, or
in fact for producing all or any part of the flow of
magnetisation required for a -transmission system. The
amount of magnetisation produced is under control,
depending on the amount of excitation. With decreased
excitation the flow of magnetising power eventually
ceases, whilst a further decrease reverses the flow.
An under-excited synchronous “ condenser ” may be
called <a synchronous reactor.

(To be continued.)

COMPRESSED AIR HAULAGE IN
SCOTLAND.

At the Bothwell Park Colliery, about eight miles from
Glasgow, -the system of haulage is direct rope and main
and tail rope, with compressed air as the motive power.
The colliery has two shafts, and owing to local conditions
the output of 1,000 to 1,100 tons per day of eight hours
is raised from the Alain coal level, which is at a depth
of 107 fms. The method of working is principally
longwall.

The air is compressed to 70 lb. per square inch at the
receiver by two engines, one of which is Walker’s latest

Fig. 1.—Line oe Face in Ell Coal Seam.

$1

Fig. 2.—Stoop-and-Room Workings in Splint
Coal Seam.

type, cross compound and condensing, with double-stage
air compressor. The other is of the coupled tandem
single-stage compression type. The compressed air is
conveyed down the pit in a line of cast iron pipes, 8 in.
in diameter. At the pit bottom two branches each 6 in.
in diameter, are taken off, one for each pit. There are
nearly six miles of pipes varying in diameter from 5 in.
down to 3 in., in use to convey the compressed air into
the workings. The 5 in. and 4 in. pipes have screwed-
up flanges with six bolts to each joint; the 3 in. pipes
have strong oval-shaped flanges with two bolts to each
joint.

In all, there are 21 haulage gears in the colliery, with
double cylinders, varying in diameter from 6 in. to
9-} in., and with drums varying in diameter from 20 in.
to 3 ft. 6 in. There are also 11 Tangye pumps, with air
cylinders varying in diameter from 4 in. to 12 in., and
with pump barrels from 3 in. to 6 in., the lengths of
stroke being in proportion. Working conditions compel
the adoption of a system of haulage which can work in
a small road, so that back brushing and repairing costs
may be kept within proper limits. The workings are
laid off in such a manner that mechanical haulage could
be applied right up to the face on slopes or heading
roads, leaving the men only the branch roads to draw.
It was decided where possible to apply conveyors on a
line of face to give an output of coal large enough to
justify the putting in of a separate haulage, the terminus

t2S'

w

Fig. 3.—Slopes in Ell Coal Seam.

wheel of which could be kept quite close to the bridge,
thereby dispensing with ponies and hand drawing
altogether.

In fig. 1 is shown a line of face 100 fms. long, in the
Ell coal seam, 4 ft. 9 in. to 5 ft. 3 in. thick, where the
hutches were taken by main and tail rope haulage along
the face. The output was limited to 90 tons per day,
and on that account the roof was hard to maintain.
To get over that difficulty 5 ft. of coal were taken out in
20 fms. lifts, along the face from the top end, and the
terminus wheel of the haulage gear was shifted down.
This open space was built and secured, leaving enough
room between the coal- face and the building for the
road to be laid up again. Then a further 5 ft. of coal
was taken out for an additional 20 fms., and so on,
until the full 100 fms. of face were covered, whereupon
the road was laid up to the top again, and the operation
repeated.

A section of stoop and room workings is shown in
fig. 2, where the haulage is kept close to the face of

Fig. 4—Secondary Haulage in Main
Coal Seam.

headings and dooks, thereby limiting hand drawing to
the shortest distance possible. The advantages of this
system over the old one are apparent :—(1) Its absolute
reliability; (2) less back brushing and repairing than
for ponies; (3) drawers limited to the length of the
branch roads, which are level; (4) no time lost in waiting
in lyes for hutches—the drawer can be employed at the
face until he hears the rake passing his platform; (5) the
output per worker increased with a corresponding reduc-
tion in ton rates; (6) the -third schedule of the Alines Act
of 1911 rendered inapplicable to the particular colliery
in question.

Two slopes in the Ell coal seam are shown in fig. 3,
2 ft. 4 in. thick, on which secondary haulage is worked
by one gear, with the terminus wheel in each case kept
close to the slope face, and extended as the slope
advances. The empty hutches are pulled up in rakes
of from 10 to 20. Fig. 4 shows a section of the Main
coal that was worked by secondary haulage, but the
cost of maintaining the slope and branch roads was so
high, owing to the Pyotshaw coal being worked first and
the cover thinning out, that it was decided to put in
a conveyor. This conveyor is composed of 24 automatic
tipping bogies, and is operated by a main and tail rope
haulage. It passed 140 tons in eight hours for many
months on end, enabling the terminus wheel of the out-
side haulage gear to be kept right up against the bridge
of conveyors, thus dispensing with the heavy cost of road
upkeep, the secondary haulage and hand drawing in
branch roads.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE.
COURT OF APPEAL.—-November 8.

Before the Master of the Rolls, Lords Justices Bankes
and Warrington.

A Question of Mining Royalties.

Don Coal and Iron Company Limited, Mr. J. P. Houfton,
and Mr. A. Sanders v. Bullcroft Main Collieries Limited
and Sir A. Markham.—Their lordships delivered their
reserved judgment on an appeal from a decision of Mr.
Justice Astbury in favour of the Don Coal and Iron Com-
pany Limited, of Carlton, Barnsley, Mr. John Plowright
Houfton, of Carr Bank, Mansfield, and Mr. Henry Archibald
Sanders, of Chesterfield, to determine certain questions
arising out of the purchase by the appellants of the right to
mine four seams of coal under the land of the lessors in
South Yorkshire.

Lord Justice Bankes, in delivering the judgment of the
Court, said that by an agreement dated March 4, 1908, the
defendants and Sir Arthur Markham purchased from the
plaintiff company the benefit of two agreements and a lease
by which the plaintiffs had acquired the right to work four
seams of coal underlying some six thqusand acres in South
Yorkshire. As part consideration, Sir Arthur Markham, by
clause 5 of the purchase agreement, undertook to pay the
plaintiff company a royalty of fd. per ton on the output
of the colliery or collieries, and the question for decision was
whether the construction placed upon the clause by the
learned judge in the Court below was the correct one, or a
further limitation placed upon the works beyond that put
upon them by the learned judge. The agreements and the
lease provided for the demise of four seams of coal, and
there was a further material provision as to the
sinking of shafts or pits. In regard to the latter
provision there were substantial differences of opinion.
What was known as the Hall lease conferred no right
to sink a shaft or pit on the Hall property, but
it gave wayleave right for -all coal gotten from the four
seams. The agreements contained provisions for sinking
shaft or pits, and as to wayleaves, and appellants con-
tended that the result of the combined operations of the lease
and the agreements was first a right to work all the demised
coal in the four named seams under either of the three pro-
perties mentioned; secondly, a right to bring any coal to
bank on all the properties; thirdly, a right to bring to bank
by means of shafts or pits sunk upon certain specified por-
tions of the properties all the coal agreed to be demised;
and fourthly, a right to bring to bank not only the coal
gotten from the four seams, but any coal from the same seams
wherever gotten. The material words in the purchase
agreement were “ output of the colliery or collieries,” and
it was obvious that the parties themselves had put a limita-
tion upon those words, and though the language was some-
what loose, he thought the expression must be construed as
equivalent to what was demised or agreed to be demised by
the lease and the two agreements. This was the view he
understood the learned judge took in the court below. The
appellants contended that a limitation must be imposed,
which would have the effect of limiting the royalties to
payment in the output of the demised coal. If the argu-
ment put forward in support of that contention was well
based, it was admitted that the result would be that royalty
would be payable on all demised coal wherever brought to
bank. The various arguments were not in his opinion con-
vincing. The great difficulty it landed the appellants in
was this, that whereas the agreement did limit the collieries
upon the output of which the royalty was to be computed,
the argument of the appellants left the question entirely at
large as to what those collieries were. There remained,
however, the consideration whether some limitation ought
not to be put upon the words “ output of the colliery or
collieries ” beyond the limitation imposed as to the site of
the shafts or pits. In his opinion there ought, for the parties
were in 1908 contracting with reference to the output
authorised by the lease. He thought the learned judge was
right in his conclusions. In the court below it had been
declared that royalty was payable “ on all coal from time
to time brought to the surface through the present shafts or
pits of the defendant company, or from -any other shaft or
pits which may hereafter be sunk to the coal comprised in
the lease and the two agreements.” That statement should,
in his opinion, be altered to read “ payable on all coal
which from time to time by virtue of the rights and powers
conferred by the lease and the two agreements is brought to
the surface through the present shafts or pits of the defen-
dant company, or through any shaft or pit which may
hereafter be sunk to the coal demised by the lease and the
agreements.” Subject to this, the appeal failed.

The Afaster of the Rolls and Lord Justice Warrington
concurred, and the appeal was accordingly dismissed.

SCOTTISH COURT OF SESSION.

OUTER HOUSE.—-November 5.

Before Lord Hunter.

Railway Rates for Minerals.

North British Railway Company v. the Niddrie and Benhar
Coal Company Limited.—Judgment was delivered in this
case, in which plaintiffs claimed J-533 6s. 7d. alleged to
be due in respect of the carriage of coal from the defenders'
collieries at Niddrie to South Leith, North Leith, and
Granton, for shipment. The pursuers stated that from 1913
the rate for the coal in railway company’s wagons was