THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

AND

JOURNAL OF THE COAL AND IRON TRADES.

______________________________________

Vol. CXI.

________________________________________________________________________________________

North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.

Mr. T. Y. Greener presided over the usual bi-monthly
meeting of the members of the North of England
Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, held on
Saturday afternoon last, in the Wood Memorial Hall,
Goal Trade Offices, Westgate-road, Nowcastle-upon-
Tyne.

The following gentlemen were admitted into the
institute : — Members : Mr. Yasukuma Alatsubayashi,
colliery manager, Daimyokoji, Karatsumachi, Sagaken,
Japan; and Mr. John Clark. Templeton, mechanical
engineer, the Maikop Pipeline and Transport Company
Limited, Apsheronskaya, near Maikop, Kuban District,
South -Russia. Associates : Air. Henry Bayfield, fore-
overman, 41, Westcott-road, Tyne Dock; . Air. John
Clement, colliery surveyor and assistant overman, 35,
Station-road, Nostell, near Wakefield; Air. Christopher
Devenport, fore-overman, 112, Talbot-roiad, South
Shields; and Mr. Geo. Loudon, colliery under-manager,
1,. Office Buildings, ITarton Colliery, South Shields.

The Secretary (Air. J. H. Alerivale) reported that the .
council had changed the date of the June meeting to
June 3, instead of June 10. Air. Jas. Wilson and Air.
John Rivers had each presented the institute with a
safety lamp towards the collection to replace -that
destroyed by the .Brussels Exhibition fire.

Prof. W. Al. Thornton’s paper, on .“ A New Battery
Signalling Bell ” was open for further discussion, but
there was no fresh comment.

A Portable Electric Lamp.

Air. Hiram H. Hirsch contributed a paper on “ The
Hirsch Portable Electric Lamp” (given on p. 327), and
was thanked for his contribution to the institute’s
Transactions.

The Logic of Trams.

Air. John Gibson contributed a paper on “ The Logic
of Trams ” (given on next page), for which he received
the thanks of the institute, on the motion of Air. Simon
Tate, seconded by Air. AIerivale, both of whom com-
mented on the considerable value of the paper.

Air. Wm. Kilpatrick (Larkhill) wrote stating that the
paper.gave: the mining engineer “ furiously to think.”
The commendable feature of the paper, in reference to
the advocacy of the standardisation of trams, lay in-the
author’s, insistence that considerable economy might be
effected if the more essential fittings used in the con-
struction of trams could be more uniformly standardised
so that, under many seemingly varying conditions, these
might be more easily duplicated. There was, however,
a danger that the author had left too little room for
natural and individual predilection. For examplej the
writer would never allow the size of the tram to govern
the size of the side road, and; if he were asked to give
standard dimensions for a tram, he would never
no matter what its capacity was intended to be, construct
it so that it would stand more dhan. 40 in. above the
rail; - The'principle that would guide him in. that matter
‘ would be the economising of the. energy required to load
the tram. From that point of view, alone, he would
endeavour to keep the tram as low as was practicable,
so that he might even make the minimum height less
than'2 ft. above the rail. Moreover, if he were set. to
win two seams, one 7 ft. thick and the other 2 ft. thick,
through the same shaft and, presumably, from the same
bottom level, he would not introduce two different
standard trams. The complication such an introduction
would involve, both in the pit bottom and on. the surface
tracks, to say nothing of cages, tipplers, etc.,, would be'
to him a sufficient deterrent. The amount of work
which Mr. Gibson assumed he might legitimately antici-
pate as being available from a healthy man, namely,
0-24 horse-power, seemed somewhat heavy, especially
. when they reflected that a Clydesdale horse was only
credited with being capable of performing about two-
thirds of one standard horse-power. He Mid not think
it would be wise to expect three men to be equal, even
under the best of conditions, to a Clydesdale horse in

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1916.

the matter of sheer hauling. He was not much in favour
of Government regulations directing the track he should
lay, or how he should lay it. There was one point in
connection with the laying of these tracks that seemed
too often to escape notice. He referred to the tilting-up
of curves—-especially' in horse haulage roads. It was
sometimes painful to notice how persistently .the outside
.of a curve was tilted up without 'considering at all
whether the tram had. got to be hauled round that
particular curve or passed round by gravity. Hence, k
frequently happened that no effort was made to keep
the resultant of what might be twro almost opposing
forces under which the tram was being conducted leading
between the rails, with the troubles of losses consequent
on many unnecessary derailments. To suggest .to many
mining officials that, under certain conditions, the inside
of a curve should be tilted up was, strange as it might
‘seem,.to invite»their ridicule.

Modern American Coal Mining Methods.

Air. Samuel Dean’s paper was further discussed.
(This paper was summarised, with a report of the initial
discussion, in the Colliery Guardian of October 15 last,
pp. 776-8, and a further instalment of thie discussion
was given in the issue of. December 17, pp. 1233-4.)

Air. Simon Tate (Trimdon Grange) remarked that Air.
Dean had given, as the principal reason for the higher
outputs in the United States, the use of large capacity
mine cars. It appeared to him (Mr. Tate) that the
benefit of using large cars was cumulative, for, every
time that the car, full or empty, was moved, a propor-
tionate gain accrued. He was strongly of the opinion
that the North of England tubs were often too small,
and that, in many cases, larger.tubs, following somewhat
along American ideas, would be advantageous. If the
American car carrying four tons was compared with the
English tub carrying 10 cwt., it would be found that,
for the same load of four tons, the following result would
be obtained :—

One American Car.

lb.

'Weight of one empty oar ______...........__ 3,000

Load of four tons carried _______.............. 8,960

______

Total weight, of one loaded car ______ 11,960
Eight English Tubs.

Weight of eight empty tubs (6 cwt. each)... 5,376
Load of 10 cwt. per tub .....__........__ 8,960

Total weight of eight loaded tubs .... 14,336

That was equal to 20 per cent, less weight to draw on
the full tub, and 79 per cent, on the empty tub, and
each time the 4-ton car was in service it was eight times
as effective as one 10-cwt. tub. In Northumberland and
Durham, the weight of coal carried in a tub was not
quite as 2 to 1; in fact, .sometimes it was as.low as 1|
to 1, with very small tubs. In' America, it was 3. to 1
with, the big tubs, which was 50 per cent, better than
British ordinary practice. In the case of. a train of 20
of these Tubs (equal. to a train of -160. of the' small
British tubs), the.power required.to haul the train would
probably not be more than half .that required to haul
the train of small tubs. When, however, Air. . Dean
said that the large increase in the output per person
employed in American mines was principally due to the
adoption of tubs carrying four tons of coal, he (Mr.
Tate) was somewhat sceptical. He could realise that
in thick seams or in longwall working, where conveyors
were in use under suitable conditions as to the inclina-
tion of the seam, etc., such tubs could favourably be
used; but he could not imagine such manifold results
as did Air. Dean. After all, it was practically a ques-
tion of getting a hewer’s or a filler’s work out, and, if
he was supplied with an unlimited number of 10-cwt.
tubs, it was equal or better than being supplied with a
full quantity of 4-ton tubs. In British seams, and under
British conditions, one could never hope to approach
tubs of a capacity of four tons. He thought if he had

No. 2877.

to lay out a new pit, he would certainly endeavour to
adopt, to some extent, the American idea of having a
considerably larger tub than was generally used in
Britain. He . had no doubt that a tub built on the
American principle, to carry 15 or 20 cwt., with loose
wheels and roller bearings, would be as light and as
easy to move as the existing ordinary tubs, and would
travel in less height, and, therefore, would save making
height. .He need hardly say that the larger size , of
American car could not readily be adopted at the old
collieries; in fact, a circular shaft 22 ft. in diameter
would be needed in order to get room for two cages
sufficiently large for some of the cars. Such a change
might possibly be effected in some of the shallow pits,
but in deep pits it would be too great an undertaking.

Regarding the use of the coal-cutting machines, the
passing of the Alinimum AVage Act had been the. death
knell to strenuous coal hewing, the great majority of coal
hewers preferring to have the minimum standard wage
on. easy terms to having a moderately good wage for
which they had to work laboriously ; and, in future, it
would be necessary for the coal getting to be made easy
work either by'altering the method or the system of
work, or by installing machinery to do the strenuous
part of .the coal hewer’s duty. American mining
engineers seemed to be far ahead', of us in machine
mining. Air. Dean had stated that one electrically
driven Arcwall machine had cut, in one shift of 10 hours,
20 rooms, each 20 ft. wide, with a depth of holing of
7 ft. This was equal to an area of Sllsq. yds. and,
with a seam, say,. 3 ft. thick, one machine would yield
about 220 to 250 tons of coal. It seemed more like a
fairy tale than honest coal mining, -and yet the state-,
ment was further verified by the number of fillers
allotted to each machine. .Surely, with such facts before
them, it was time that British mining engineers altered
their ways and methods. The North of England was
the home of bord-and-pillar working, which system
seemed particularly adapted to the American method
with machines and, in “ whole-mine ” working, it would
be quite safe in many cases to use electricity, whereas,,
in longwall working, in the same seam, electricity would
be risky. Owing to the war, it might be many years
before the full complement of men returned to the mine;
and, as it was of the utmost importance to obtain as
large an output of coal as possible, it was a duty to
introduce machinery wherever possible, and—especially
for such laborious work as coak hewing in hard seams.
He (the speaker) had recently installed some compressed
air pick machines and power drills, and found that, by
their use, he could materially increase the output per
man; but,, owing to the obstructive tactics of the work-
men, the benefit in costs which he ought to have obtained
had been greatly discounted.

If the restrictions at present imposed on the use of
electricity in British mining could be altered so as to
give.better facilities for its use wherever safe, that would,
doubtless, greatly facilitate the coal output and dp more
material good than 50 per cent, of the recent enactments
which had been placed On the Statute book; and, in
some measure,, it would, make up for the loss of output
which had'resulted, and would continue to result after
the war, owing to the large.number: of men having joined
the Forces. The American legislators evidently did not
wish to hamper their mining industry with all sorts of
mischievous and grandmotherly legislation such as had
been recommended in this country. If politicians would
only be content to confine their 'attention to sanitary
measures and the proper distribution of sanitary pails,
etc., instead of meddling with all sorts of technical
subjects, it would be better for the coal trade and the
country generally.

He was . afraid that the disability that existed in
Northumberland and Durham to compete with America
in the output per man was almost beyond the powers of
the mining engineer to overcome, as the physical condi-
tions of these coal fields were unfavourable, and it was
not uncommon in the west of Durham county to work