814

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

April 28, 1916.

before the war had enlisted, and the collieries were seriously
short-handed. Bailie Mackie, Leven, who represented the
military authorities, stated that the plea put forward by every-
one was that men could not be got. The chairman said that
out of 15,000 claims for the exemption of mines in Scotland
only three had been refused. He intimated that a list of
men who had entered the pits between August 14 last and
April 10 of tliis year would be handed to the military
representatives, in order that they might deal with them.

APPLICATION AND EARNING POWER
OF CHEMISTRY IN THE COAL
MINING INDUSTRY.*

By E. M. Chance.

During the last decade many conditions have been
encountered that have materially increased the cost of
the production of coal. As in most cases it has not
been practicable to increase the selling price of such coal
sufficiently to ensure the necessary margin of profit, the
mine management has been forced to avail itself of what
might be termed unusual means that costs might be
held at as low a figure as possible. The so-called
efficiency engineer has been called upon, costly power
plants have been built, and machinery has been installed
to replace manual labour wherever possible.

Another aid used recently to secure economies through
the more intelligent production of coal is the chemist.
As the coal industry, barring the production of by-pro-
duct coke, does not at once give evidence of its need of
the services of the chemist, the writer will endeavour to
point out a few of the services that this branch of the
staff has been able to render.

The preparation of coal in the past has been carried
on entirely upon an empirical basis, that is, the criterion
adopted has been an ocular inspection. Unfortunately,
the appearance of a coal, and especially of an anthracite,
has but little relation to its fuel value, and as long as
coal is purchased for the heat that can be obtained from
it by its combustion, the quantity of such heat that is
purchased must be one of the principal desiderata in
selecting or preparing a coal. Were coals purchased
for use as bric-a-brac, or for exhibition in museums, it
might be both wise and just to purchase them upon
their appearance. After four or five years of investiga-
tion, the fact has been established that coals of very
inferior appearance—and I now have special reference
to anthracite—might, and often did, possess heating and
burning properties superior to those possessed by bright
coals which 'in the past had commanded considerable
and uniform premiums in the market. This being the
case, the question arose as to whether the.trade could
be convinced of this fact. While at first some difficulty
was experienced in establishing the quality of such dull
coals, still it was found that the real obstacle to the
sale of these materials in the past had been the fact
that the coal producers’ own sales departments felt con-
vinced of the inferiority of this type of fuel, and when
complaints were registered they were given ready
credence. Upon convincing the sales department of the
quality of this type of fuel, but little difficulty was
experienced in securing a ready market for it, and it was
even found possible to secure premiums for certain of
these dull coals. It is readily understandable that the
only available means whereby a true appreciation of the
quality of a fuel can be arrived at, is by its chemical
analysis or by a service test. The cost and unreliability
of service tests have led to their-general abandonment,
hence the chemical examination of a fuel has been
found to be perhaps the most ready and practicable
method for determining its real position in the scale of
usable fuels. Now, when we consider that in the past
hundreds of thousands of tons of dull and unpromising-
looking coal have been gobbed, at a positive cost to the
coal producer, with the ever-present danger of gob-fires,
that many other hundreds of thousands of tons of this
material have been sent to the rock bank as refuse, and
that because of the similarity of the specific gravities of
the dull and bright coals, the difficulties and inefficiencies
of coal preparation have been enormously increased by
the attempted removal of this material, it will be seen
how enormously profitable the utilisation of this excel-
lent fuel has been. In order to give an adequate idea
of the relative worth of the dull and bright material
from the same veins, I will .quote the following average
analyses

Test number 	...	Dull coal. C-502	Bright  • coal.  ... C-502
Colour of ash 		Red	Red
Moisture, per cent		2-98	...	3’70
Volatile matter, per cent 		6-39	...	5-67
Fixed carbon, per cent		82-24	... 81*16
Ash, per cent		8-39	...	9-47
Sulphur, per cent		0’67	...	0-71
Heating value per pound coal as received, B.T.U. ... 		13,110	... 12,890
Heating value per pound dry coal in B.T.U			13,510	... 13,380
These analyses are in both cases the		average of

number of analyses of characteristic material of both
types, and are in no sense selected. In the past, this
dull material, test No. C-502, has been condemned as
bone. Thus, by a systematic chemical investigation of
the various steps in the preparation of coal, undiscovered
inefficiencies are revealed, and their correction is made
possible.

In the efficient operation of boiler plants, it is neces-
sary to secure as soft and non-corrosive a boiler water
as possible. While the most desirable method is to
secure a supply of water that is naturally soft, still, in
the mining industry, it is frequently necessary to use
water that is both incrusting and corrosive. To meet
these conditions, a host of so-called boiler compounds

* Transactions of the American Institute of Mining
Engineers.

has been foisted upon the unsuspecting mine manager.
While certain of these compounds are worthless, or of
little value, others have considerable merit in special
cases. Unfortunately, however, their use is indis-
criminately recommended by the vendor, and a boiler
compound that might prove efficient with waters of a
certain type will prove of little value under different
conditions. Moreover, the cost of these compounds is
out of all proportion to their merit, and a grave and
positive risk is run of doing the boilers infinite damage
by the indiscriminate use of such nostrums. I recall
at this moment the case of one new boiler house equip-
ment of several thousand horse-power capacity that was
so damaged by three months’ use of a highly recom-
mended water softener, even though the water in this
case was not very hard, that it required over a year and
a-half of patient and costly effort . to put the plant back
in a condition having the semblance of efficiency. Now
a competent chemist can readily recommend a treatment
for such boiler feed waters that will meet the require-
ments of the particular case in question both cheaply
and efficiently.

By reason of inadequate storage facilities at many
mines, a prolonged drought will occasionally require the
use of mine water as boiler feed. The writer recalls
one occasion when a large number of collieries of one
company were operated with such feed water, containing
in many cases as much as 10,000 parts per million of
free sulphuric acid, and 35,000 to 40,000 parts per
million total acidity. These plants were operated suc-
cessfully over a period of months with such feed water,
though, of course, many difficulties arose and much care
.was required, while the surrounding coal mining com-
panies, not possessing expert chemical assistance, were
in many cases required to cease operation.

The subject of lubrication is one that has in the past
been favoured by the so-called efficiency expert. It is,
therefore, with a sense of some diffidence that the writer
approaches this subject. As conditions governing
colliery lubrication are so very different from those
governing the lubrication of the mill or industrial plant,
it has been found that the lubrication secured by the
use of lubricants recommended by the vendor has in
the past been unsatisfactory and somewhat costly.
Some years ago the writer conducted numerous field
and laboratory tests in order to establish just which
lubricants would best meet coal mine conditions. After
these points had been well established, an effort was
made to go into the open market and, by specification,
purchase the material desired. While this plan was
successful, still it was found that almost continual test-
ing of the material supplied was required, as the bidders
purchased their materials in the open market and hence
there was little or no uniformity of supply. Those
bidders not purchasing oils in this way were in many
cases, refiners handling such a diversity of crudes that
practically the same complaints arose. It was found
that the independent refiners of Pennsylvania petroleum
produced the lubricants required, and since the materials
were produced by them, and their range of production
was rather limited, little difficulty was encountered in
securing uniform products from them. Moreover, by
concentrating the purchases for a number of coal pro-
ducers upon one refinery, it has been possible to secure
most advantageous prices, while at the same time the
quality of materials supplied is directed by the purchaser
and not by the vendor. In other words, the oil to meet
any special condition is purchased from the refiner with-
out consulting him as to its use. Hence there is little
or no probability of his attempting to substitute a
material that he may consider almost as suitable, as he
has no knowledge of the use to which the material in
question is to be put. It is an axiom that given a
maximum price that a purchaser will pay, the average
vendor will endeavour to supply the material that costs
him the least, but that will meet the condition in
question. In purchasing lubricants as indicated above,
this condition does not arise, as the oil for
the purpose in question is selected without con-
sidering its price, and, further, since, the vendor is not
consulted in the matter, the best oil that can possibly
be obtained for the particular purpose is secured. It
may seem that the cost of such a procedure would be
prohibitive, and this would be the case were these
materials purchased at the scale of prices that usually
obtains. By means of the co-operation mentioned above,
however, prices have been secured that are so advan-
tageous that the highest grade of product that it is
possible to secure, irrespective of price, is generally
purchased at a lower price than the product of mediocre
quality that was formerly used. In this way the actual
first cost of lubrication has been reduced from 30 to 50
per cent., while the actual efficiency, though less readily
determinable, of the lubrication secured has been greatly
increased.

The chemist has been found to be almost indispensable
where a mine fire is being extinguished by cutting off
its air supply, for the chemical analysis of the air from
the fire zone makes it possible to form an intelligent
opinion of the progress of the extinction and the air-
tightness of the dams or fire walls built to control the
fire.

Many more instances than those briefly touched upon
might be quoted, and those that have been quoted might
be developed in greater detail. Such a dissertation,
however, would be burdensome and would fall without
the purpose of these notes.

The Prime Minister, Earl Kitchener, and Mr. Bonar Law,
on Wednesday, attended a meeting of the Parliamentary
Committee of the Trades Union Congress, the executive of
the General Federation of Trades Unions, the executive of
the Labour Party, and the executives of the Miners’ Federa-
tion, the National Union of Railwaymen, the Transport
Workers’ Federation, and the Amalgamated Society of
Engineers. Mr. Arthur Henderson presided, and the pro-
ceedings were private.

QUICK SETTING DUMPY LEVEL,

By P. Wilson Brown.

In the construction of all classes of surveying instru-.
ments for use underground the greatest care should be
bestowed on the features of simplicity in setting up and
accuracy in use. In using a theodolite underground,
only one angle is read at each setting, and in using the
“ Dumpy ” level generally only one difference in alti-
tude is recorded at each setting, yet both those
instruments take some time to set up accurately. This
loss of time acts as an inducement to surveyors to be
less accurate than they should be. The operations
involved in underground levelling are perfectly simple
to one well up in the work, yet levelling a roadway
occupies a considerable time when an instrument of the
four-screw style is used.

A step in the direction of simplicity of adjustment and
accuracy in use was recently brought about by the intro-
duction of a quick-setting level for mining work, as
shown in the accompanying sketch. The instrument
proper consists of a ball and socket joint, to which is
fixed at right angles, by means of a swivel joint, a
carrying bar, having on either end two collars, one
hinged and the other loose, through which pass the
telescope bearing the usual striding level. At the loose
collar is provided a large mill-headed screw, by means
of which the instrument is adjusted. In the three- or
four-screw instruments, after they have been levelled

over all the screws it is often found that a slight adjust-
ment is still necessary, when directed on to the staff,
before a correct reading can be taken, and it is to obviate
this that the instrument illustrated was designed. In
setting up this level the operator should see that the
plate and telescope are parallel, a mark being provided
for that purpose on the slide a. Then, through the
medium of the ball and socket joint, he should bring
the instrument to a level position with the circular
level b; direct the instrument on to the staff, and
adjust correctly by means of large screw c. For subse-
quent readings off this one setting only large screw is
used for adjusting. It will readily be seen that only a
very short time is required to level this instrument, and
therein consists its advantage over three- or four-screw
instruments for underground work. In fact, it is an
ideal instrument for this work, where, in levelling,
generally only two sights or readings are taken at the
one setting. A four-screw level, correctly adjusted, is
more suitable for cases on the surface, where a large
number of readings are taken from one setting, because
that instrument must be level in all directions, but not
in underground levelling. This quick setting enables
the new level to be used in many .roadways when the
colliery is working; for the same reason, too, roads of a
much greater inclination can be gone over than is usual
with four-screw instruments. Finally, only one person
is needed to set up, as the operator can manage the
instrument with one hand, and hold the lamp in the
other.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.

CHANCERY DIVISION.—April 17.

Before Mr. Justice Astbury.

Turbine and Polluted River.

James, v. The Bedwellty U.D. Council.—In an action
for damages for pollution of the River Rhymney, in South
Wales, Mr. Morgan James, woollen manufacturer, of Maesy-
cwmmer, who sought damages, complained that crude sewage,
entering the river above his factory, had caused the turbine
that worked his machinery to become clogged and unwork-
able, and that, as a consequence, he had been obliged to
obtain his lighting and power from the South Wales Electric
Supply Company, which had necessitated considerable
expense. The Urban Council contended, in defence, that not
only was the plaintiff’s machinery defective, but that the
pollution was not entirely due to them, as other districts
also drained into the river. Coal washing was instanced as
a great cause of pollution.

Mr. J. F. Jupp, consulting engineer to the Bedwellty
Urban Council, and also engineer to the Western Valleys
Sewage Board and the Rhymney Valley Sewage Board, said
that 60 per cent, of the pollution of the river was from coal
dust, due to the extensive coal washing at the collieries
further up the river. He thought the condition of the turbine
was due not so much to sewage as to coal dust deposits. The
river was a very swift one, and it was not likely that sewage
could be carried such a distance as alleged without being
broken up.

Mr. G. R. Thompson, public analyst for Monmouthshire
and Carmarthenshire, said that samples submitted to him
showed that 85 per cent, of the solid matter consisted of coal
dust, 10 per cent, of earthy matter, and 5 per cent, of
insoluble matter due to sewage. In reply to his lordship,
Mr. Thompson admitted that it was highly polluted sewage
water, impregnated with coal dust.

His lordship decided that sewage had affected the working
of the plaintiff’s turbine, and awarded T150 and costs. Stay
of execution was refused.