1030

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

November 19, 1915.

could not suggest at the moment why there was a
steepening at that particular point, but it was certainly
contrary to the general expectation. On the other hand,
one must remember that it was very near to the great
Irwell Valley fault, which had a tremendous downthrow
to the east. As he had said before, it was not a dis-
qualification for that class of work that one was not
specially interested in any particular pit; the essential
thing was not to worry over minor details, but to keep
a balanced judgment, and take into account the impor-
tant things. It was inevitable there should be minor
irregularities. The number of faults shown on the map
was quite sufficient to account for a large amount of local
twisting of the strata. Probably not one fault in 10,
which were known to exist, was shown on the map,
because the minor faults of 10, 20, or 30 ft. were pur-
posely omitted. If the small faults were put in, they
always cancelled out in the end, and were of no real
genuine significance. The same thing applied to local
twists. The rocks were not arranged in the beautiful
geometrical curves they would like them to be; there
were all sorts of little ripples and folds which were
insignificant when viewed as a portion of the whole coal
field. The only way to get a clear idea of the real struc-
ture was to begin by picking out the big really essential
things, and, for the time being, to neglect the local
details. These could be added afterwards if it was
thought desirable.

Mr. Orchard, in the course, of a reference to the
borings at Croxteth Park, asked whether there was any
evidence that the thin seams found there could be
correlated -with the Mountain Mine.

Dr. Hickling replied that there was not. It was an
exceedingly interesting bit of work to investigate those
two borings, which were just 2J miles apart. Although
they were in the same rocks, it was a matter of the very
greatest difficulty to correlate them with one another.
Out of eight coal seams which occurred in them, only
three were found in both boreholes. The other five
were found in one borehole only. Another striking
feature was that the 2 ft. 3 in. seam in one boring was
represented by 9 in. in the other. In those circum-
stances it was obvious that any attempt to correlate them
with the seams in other parts of the lower coal measures
was merely conjuring—one could do what one liked with
them, and not the smallest reliance could be placed on
them. Taking the evidence altogether, it appeared
fairly probable that each of the boreholes penetrated
into the lower coal measures at about 400 ft. below the
Arley Mine, and that the denudation had swept away
the upper coal measures and 400 ft. of the lower coal
measures before the permian was deposited.

Mr. Orchard said he would like to hear something
further about the scheme mentioned by Sir Thomas
Holland for the surveying of the coal field, in connec-
tion with which they were given to understand a certain
amount of financial assistance would be required.

Dr. Hickling said most of the members would be
aware that a movement originated in Parliament, and
was referred to the Privy Council, suggesting that it was
in the highest degree desirable that, without delay, some-
thing should be done to put scientific investigation con-
nected with the industrial development of the country on
a much sounder basis than it had been in the past.
Everybody agreed that it had been greatly neglected. A
committee of the Privy Council was appointed to take
the matter up, and he understood they had approached
various people whom they had reason to think were in a
position to give advice. Among them was Sir Thomas
Holland, and one of the suggestions he made was that
some work might be done in the way of investigating
the structure of the Lancashire coal field, so as to facili-
tate the working of the existing mines. The bearing of
that would be more or less obvious to all mining men,
but perhaps he might illustrate it in this way. The
Lancashire coal field was disturbed by almost countless
faults, which were a great source of trouble in the actual
working of the coal, not only resulting in the coal being
lost, but causing great difficulty in recovering it again.
Those faults, if looked at broadly, fell into definite
systems. There was one very important series of north-
west and south-west faults, the climax of which was the
great Manchester and Wigan smashes; and there was a
whole series of minor faults all over the field which really
belonged to that one series. There was another series,
at right angles to that, and one or two subsidiary
systems. If those faults were properly studied, it would
certainly be possible to group them more accurately into
definite fault systems, and mining people would get a
much clearer conception of what was the general effect
of any particular system of faults. It should be pos-
sible, with a proper understanding of the coal field, to
predict pretty accurately what any particular fault was
going to do and where the coal would be found on the
other side of it. Then there was the far more important
national question of the possible extension of the coal
field. When they were told that one square mile of
coal field represented a national asset of .£5,000,000, it
was clear the problem was worth investigation. He
understood that Sir Thomas Holland wished the society
to take the matter up, and back up the recommendation
of the Privy Council that money be spent on investiga-
tions with those objects in view.

The Chairman, having expressed the hope that
members would impart to Dr. Hickling all the informa-
tion they possessed which would help to elucidate any
of the points he had dealt with, went on to say that
the matter was important not only to the mining com-
munity, but to the country as a whole. There was a

saying, “ First catch your hare before you cook it.” In
Lancashire they had to find the coal before they could
coke it, and if the Government were willing to subsidise
research work directed to that end the members of the
society should do all they possibly could to help the
movement.

The discussion was adjourned.

MIDLAND INSTITUTE OF MINING, CIVIL
AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS.

POWER FROM WASTE FUEL.

At a meeting of the institute held at Leeds on
Tuesday, 16th inst., the discussion related chiefly to Mr.
Mansfeldt Henry Mills’ paper on “ Gas Producers at
Collieries for Obtaining Power and By-Products from
Unsaleable Fuel,” read at the meeting of the Institu-
tion of Mining Engineers at Leeds on September 15,
and there were also some remarks on Mr. Sam Mayor’s
paper on “ Compressed Air for Coal Cutters,” which was
presented on the same occasion. The chair was
occupied by the President (Mr. C. C. Ellison).

The President reported that the subscriptions from
the institute to the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance
Fund being raised by the Institution of Mining Engi-
neers amounted to £297, including £100 granted by the
council. The list was still open.

He also called attention to a passage from Sir John
French’s recent despatch, which appeared on the notice
convening the meeting, and which was a tribute to the
splendid work carried out by the tunnelling companies
officered largely by mining engineers and manned by

9

1.	Coke ovens.

2.	Annular Cooler.

3.	Serpentine.

4.	Tubular cooler.

5.	Exhauster.

Ay
Storage //o/ates*.

Reference.

7.	Ammonia Scrubbers.

8.	Benzol scrubbers.

9.	Oil catcher.

10.	Purifiers.

11.	Gas holder.

Suggested Combination of Coke Oven and Gas
Producer Plant for use at Collieries.

6. Tar extracter.	12.	Governor.

A Gas producer.	B	Gas producer.

x Valves.	 >	Direction.



professional miners. This, said Mr. Ellison, must be
very gratifying to anybody connected with the mining
world.

The following new member was elected : Mr. Thomas
Hodson Brierley, formerly of Batley Colliery, now of the
Russian Anthracite Collieries, Doljanskaia, Don Cossack
Province, South Russia. Mr. Albert Victor Ford,
19, Regent-square, Doncaster, was elected an associate.

Power from Waste Fuel.

Mr. F. F. Mairet (Wharnclifie Silkstone) opened the
discussion on Mr. M. H. Mills’ paper. Mr. Mills was
unable to be present, as he was engaged on important
Government work in South Wales. Mr. Mairet, whose
remarks were illustrated by a diagram of a suggested
combination of coke oven and gas producer plant for use
at collieries, said Mr. Mills had gone very fully into the
question of gas producers, and had treated it exhaus-
tively from the practical and theoretical standpoint. He
divided producers into three classes—suction, pressure,
and pressure with recovery of by-products. When the
question was considered in connection with collieries, it
occurred to him (the speaker) that this list should be
supplemented by suction producer with recovery of
by-products. The output of gas available for boiler
firing or power generation varied greatly with most
batteries of coke ovens, rendering it impossible for this
gas to be used entirely unless great holder capacity was
provided for storing it. If a suction producer were
installed between the coke ovens and the exhausters,
and the gas produced were mixed with the coke oven
gas, the working of this could be adjusted to level up
the fluctuation in the supply of gas from the coke ovens,
and ensure a constant supply. The producer would, in
most cases, work satisfactorily on the suction from the
existing exhausters, but if any difficulty were anticipated
in this direction, a separate exhauster might be fitted in
parallel with the machine which handled the coke oven
gas. Producer and coke oven gas would mix and pass
through the existing by-product plant, thus obviating
the necessity of supplying the expensive recovery plant
in the producer outfit. There would be no risk of over-
loading the ammonia scrubbers, as the producer gas
would only be fed into the main when the supply of
coke oven gas was less than the maximum. No loss in
the recovery of benzol should occur if recovery were
effected on the counter-current principle. This counter-
current principle was a system in which the creosote oil
and gas flowed in opposite directions, the gas richest in
benzol meeting the oil richest in benzol during the first

stage of the recovery, and in the later stage the parti-
ally de-benzolised gas coming into contact with the
de-benzolised oil. By this means the gas was thoroughly
stripped of its benzol, and the oil left the plant in a
very rich state. The amount of producer gas passing
to the exhausters could be governed by a regulating
valve in connection with a storage holder, which should
be of ample capacity to allow of averaging the fluctua-
tions in the quality or calorific value of the gas. It was
a generally admitted fact that gas of 400 British thermal
units value and over was difficult to deal with in gas
engines, and these difficulties were scarcely met with in
gas of 250 to 300 British thermal units, so that fitting up
a producer would lower the calorific value to any
required extent, and would also render possible greater
variation in the value than would obtain with either
producer gas or coke oven gas in their undiluted state.
With engines governed on the gas alone, this would
occasion no inconvenience, and engines that were
governed on the air and gas generally had provision to
adapt the throttle to variable calorific values. One of
the principal difficulties encountered with producers was
the removal of the clinker, and he had seen this satis-
factorily dealt with at Prinz Regent Colliery, in Ger-
many, by working the producer like a blastfurnace. Air
was admitted at a pressure of 1| m. of water, from single
tuyere, and the clinker was made to run in the form of
slag by the addition of broken sandstone with the fuel.
He was unable to state the exact ratio of sandstone to
fuel, as the plant was then only in the experimental
stage, but he was informed that this varied with the
class of fuel gasified. The producers in question had
no firebars to burn out, and at the time of his visit had
run for five weeks without cleaning. He thought it
was quite possible to introduce producers as supple-
mentary to coke oven gas for power purposes without
installing a very expensive plant. It was a proposition
which promised large profits, inasmuch as it utilised a
waste product, produced more than twice as much

sulphate of ammonia as was obtained from coke oven
gas, rendered power gas more manageable by reducing
excessive calorific value, and ensured a constant supply
of gas when the output of coke oven gas must of
necessity fluctuate.

Mr. G. Blake Walker said they had had experience of
changes in connection with the plant at collieries,
especially during the last 15 years; 17 or 18 years
ago there was not a single block of by-product ovens
in South Yorkshire, but now they were at almost every
colliery. There were certainly no gas engines run
on coke oven gas in that district five years ago, and,
with the exception of Birchenwood, which was in North
Staffordshire, he was not aware that there were any
gas producers installed in connection with coke ovens
and gas engines in the district to-day. It seemed to
him that this showed somewhat of a lack of enterprise,
because they had large quantities of fuel which could
be gasified, which they were putting over their tips
every day. Their screen pickings, and a great deal of
stuff that came out of the pits and went straight to
the tip, were capable of producing a considerable amount
of power gas, and not only that, but sulphate of
ammonia, too. The amount of sulphate of ammonia
obtained from an up-to-date Mond plant on Derbyshire
coal had been 901b. to the ton. That necessitated a
very perfect plant, but, seeing that most of them did
not get much over 301b. of this valuable material to the
ton through their coke ovens, 60 per cent, to 65 per cent,
to be had out of waste material was not to be sneezed
at. He thought that the great thing was to ask them-
selves : ” Can we not reduce our colliery consumption
to nil—that is to say, get our power for nothing—and
not only that, but can we even make a profit on con-
suming coal for power purposes? ” The great stumbling
block with most of them was their existing plants.
These were not very well adapted to alteration so as
to do away to a large extent with their present power.
They were mostly using steam engines, and in some
cases exhaust steam turbines had been added, from
which very excellent results were obtained, as, for
instance, at Allerton By water, where they had the
advantage of unlimited condensation water. But he felt
sure that by degrees, as people grasped the idea that
if they wanted more power they could get it very
cheaply, the question of gas producers would come
more and more to the front. Some years ago he
enquired from the Mond Gas Power Company what an
installation of Mond producers at his place would cost,
and the lowest price was £17,000. That, of course,
included a lot of recovery plant, separate from the coke