764

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

April 20, 1917.

these analyses, he was prepared to back the opinion of
his staff against all comers. If that pricker of Mr.
Tate’s would assist them, and help the deputies, Mr.
Tate would have done an exceedingly good day’s work
for the coal mining industry. Through Mr. Tate’s
kindness, he had been enabled to try that pricker in a
safety lamp in several percentages of gas; it fulfilled
all that Mr. Tate claimed for it, and should prove
exceedingly useful. As to the Davy lamp, Mr. Wilson
said, in conclusion, it was not a prescribed lamp, but
it was distinctly a proscribed lamp—whether disguised
in a tin or in any other form.

Col. Blackett said that a lot of little contrivances
such as that pricker reminded him of midges — they
flew around for a few sunny hours, and then they
vanished for ever. A few years ago he flattered him-
self that he had brought out a useful little contri-
vance, in the shape of an apparatus for shielding the
flame of a lamp from the sight so that the cap could
be readily seen. He brought it before the institute,
and it was approved in a kind-hearted sort of a way—
and then it vanished. It was based on the sound prin-
ciple that the hotter the flame the bigger would be
the cap. It obscured the flame in pretty much the
same way that the pitman had been in the habit of
obscuring it with his thumb.

After a little further discursive discussion, Mr. Tate
briefly replied.

Timber in Coal Mines.

A paper on “ Some Practical Notes on the Use of
Timber in Coal Mines ” (p. 761) was read by Mr.
±. C. Lee.

Discussion.

The Hon. Secretary (Mr. M. W. Parrington)
remarked that the paper, coming at such a time, was
worthy of very serious consideration and of discussion
at a future meeting. The conditions under which Mr.
Lee had written his paper were probably about aver-
age. There were, however, members interested in it,
some of whose collieries were shallow, whilst others
were deep, and conditioned entirely differently.

Col. Blackett said that at present systematic tim-
bering wanted very careful consideration on the part
of the Government, and he would put it to Mr. Wilson-
(H.M. inspector) earnestly to consider whether he
could not, at next meeting, give them some moral
views on that particular subject. The speaker was not
going to suggest that systematic timbering was wrong
—there was systematic timbering and systematic tim-
bering. The instances given by Mr. Lee belonged to
one set, but there were others which were not of the
same importance. It was one thing to put in row
after row of timber to control the fall of the roof and
to see that it behaved itself properly, but it was a
totally different thing to make men shove timber into
places where it was not required and where it would
never be any real use. They put timber in bord after
bord, headway after headway, according to law, when
their common sense told them that it was not neces-
sary for safety. In these days when timber was so
scarce, he thought it was worthy of every considera-
tion that, where systematic timbering was not actu-
ally conducive to the safety of the mine, the rules as
to the putting in of timber at intervals of so many
feet should be re-considered.

Mr. Lee was very cordially thanked for his paper,
and the discussion was adjourned.

A New Syphon.

Mr. S. F. Nicholson’s paper on “ The Horsley and
Nicholson Automatic Compound Syphon ” (p. 766)
was read.

Col. Blackett described the syphon as a most excel-
lent device, which would do what Mr. Nicholson
claimed for it. It was an appliance well worth
putting into pits.

After a very short discussion, the meeting ended.

Partnerships Dissolved.—The London Gazette announces
dissolution of the partnership of J. Burgess and G. Law,
trading as the Cleveland Forge Company, 50, Duke-street,
Birkenhead; of J. W. Bennett (who continues the busi-
ness) and E. G. Bennett, trading as B. and J. Bennett and
Company, carriers and coal merchants, West Cross,
Tenterden; and of H. G. S. White and W. Cash, trading
as White and Cash, engineers,. Mount-street, Walsall.

Wigan Mining College Summer Course. — It has been
decided to hold short summer courses of about 10 weeks’
duration in connection with the mining department of the
Wigan and District Mining and Technical College, and
particulars of these have been issued by Mr. S. C. Laws,
M.A., B.Sc., the principal of the college, a start .in this
direction having, in fact, been made during the present
week. In practical surveying, there will be a day course
meeting on Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., commencing
on Tuesday last (April 17), as well as an evening course on
Thursdays from 6 to 8.30 p.m., commencing on May 10,
the fee for the former being 10s. and for the latter 5s. ;
while in mining geology, a class will meet on Tuesday
evenings from 6 to 8.30, commencing on May 1, and 5s.
will be the fee. In addition, there are to be colliery fire-
men’s courses, and day classes for colliery firemen will
be held on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, commencing
on Thursday this week (April 19), while evening classes
are to be held on Monday evenings from 4.30 to 7 p.m.,
the initial evening class dating from Monday evening of
the present week (April 16), but the hour for this latter
class will, the principal announces, be altered if necessary
after the first meeting to suit the convenience of students.
At the conclusion of the courses for colliery firemen, an
examination will be held for colliery firemen’s certificates.

WAYLEAVES.*

By C. Vernier,

So long ago as 1905, when Mr. G. L. Addenbrooke
read a paper entitled “ The Value of Overhead Mains
for Electric Distribution in the United Kingdom,”
references were made to the difficulties which were
then being experienced, and which it was anticipated
must inevitably be experienced in a greater degree as
the use of overhead mains tended to become more
general. In this paper some particulars were also
given of the admirable legislative provisions afforded
for the erection of overhead and underground mains
on private property in Italy and Switzerland.

During the 12 years which have since elapsed, the
need for such facilities has become more and more
insistent. Electric power supply was then in its
infancy, and although between 1,000 and 2,000 route
miles of overhead electric mains have already been
erected under the difficult conditions at present obtain-
ing in this country, the time has come to consider
seriously whether the important services which public
suppliers of electrical power, light, and heat, must
continue to afford—and certainly in a greater measure
than ever before — to our industries, manufacturers,
railways, and the practically untouched field of agri-
culture, in the strenuous and difficult times which will
follow the present European conflict, do not call for
prompt legislative assistance in removing certain diffi-
culties that at present hamper their fullest develop-
ment.

The need for efficiency and economy will be so
seriously accentuated, both in regard to a more effi-
cient utilisation of our seriously depleted capital, and
also in regard to the conservation of our natural
resources, of which in this country coal is unquestion-
ably the most important, that there is every reason to
expect that electrical services which can so eminently
achieve both these objects will be sought for to an
unprecedented extent after the war.

It will be sufficient to state that on 20,000-volt mains
the saving .in capital cost which can be effected over
an equal length of route by the use of overhead wires
as against the use of underground cables is in the
neighbourhood of 50 per cent., excluding the cost of
way leaves in each case. At higher voltages it is yet
greater; while by using cross-country routes for under-
ground mains, instead of keeping strictly to public
roads, a saving in capital cost of 30 per cent, is not
uncommon on routes of several miles, and even more
on shorter lengths, as the result of shortened routes
and cheaper reinstatement of the ground. It must
further be borne in mind that although the Board of
Trade are willing to allow extra high-pressure over-
head lines on public roads, subject to strict require-
ments regarding public safety, practical considerations
usually render this, if not quite impracticable, at least
extremely undesirable, and therefore all such lines
must ordinarily be placed on private property. There
is, also, the probability that, in the near future, much
higher transmission pressure will be employed, and
this cannot in the present state of the art be satis-
factorily dealt with (if at all) by underground cables.

Consents.—In considering the clauses of the Electric
Lighting Acts, 1882, 1899, it is necessary to differen-
tiate between the various classes of undertakings, viz.,
statutory municipal and statutory company undertakers
and non-statutory undertakers. The above Acts
compel statutory undertakers to obtain the consent of
the local authority to the erection of overhead mains
everywhere outside their own premises. This consent
is obviously unnecessary in the case where a local
authority are themselves the undertakers, supplying
only within their own district, and such consent in the
case of a local authority would only be required in the
exceptional case of a municipal undertaking wishing
to erect overhead wires for giving a supply outside the
area scheduled in the Order and in the district of a
neighbouring local authority under powers conferred
by section 6 of the Electric Lighting Act, 1909.

For a statutory company undertaking, the con-
sent of the local authority is in every case essential,
and further, there can be no appeal from the decision
of a local authority in this matter, which may refuse
its consent without assigning any reason, or may
attach unreasonable and onerous conditions thereto,
or cause unreasonable and vexatious delays. There is
only one usual exception to this procedure, i.e., in the
case of the Power Acts, where an appeal to the Board
of Trade is allowed in the event of a consent by a
rural district council being unreasonably withheld.

The anomaly of the position will be better appre-
ciated when it is pointed out that any private indi-
vidual or company who cares to undertake the trans-
mission or distribution of electricity without statutory
powers—which can be and is commonly done, for
example, by colliery and quarry owners and others, as
there is no restriction placed upon it so long as elec-
tricity supply to consumers is not the chief business of
the undertaker — is perfectly free to erect overhead
wires over private land without the consent of the
local authority, and can quite well carry such wires
across public roads and footpaths, provided the local
authority are not the owners of the land on either side
of the road, and that care is taken not to contravene
any by-laws which the local authority may have
adopted, and further, in the absence of special by-
laws that the highway is not itself interfered with or
broken up, and that its ordinary use is not restricted
in any way.

Many local authorities have but the haziest idea of
why they stand possessed of the powers conferred in
the clauses of the Acts already quoted. Some, and

* Abstracted from a paper read before the Institution of
Electrical Engineers, Thursday, April 12, 1917.

fortunately a good proportion of these local authori-
ties, treat the matter as a mere formality to be com-
plied with by the undertaker, and consent readily;
others, as we have seen, in the absence of proper
enlightenment, usurp functions which properly belong
to the Board of Trade; while in other cases it is diffi-
cult to discern the existence of that public spirit which
one might look for in the representatives of an impor-
tant community.

It is essential that a right of appeal to the Board
of Trade should be allowed in all cases, and that while
the local authority should have the right to be heard,
it should have no absolute veto on such questions, and
that all powers of interference in technical questions,
such as design and questions of the public safety, with-
out a reference to the Board of Trade, should be abso-
lutely taken from them.

A time limit should further be determined, say, one
month, as in the case of works on public roads, during
which a local authority must either signify or refuse
its consent, failing which such consent will be deemed
to have been given, as the unreasonable delays which
are at present possible in some cases should not be
tolerated.

If there be any insuperable objection to extending
the right of appeal in the somewhat special case of
county boroughs, it should nevertheless be applied to
urban district councils, as well as to rural district
councils.

Many urban areas, at least in industrial districts,
partake of the character of rural districts in their
sparsity of population, and quite a large part of an
industrial county, and often just that part where over-
head wires are most needed, may comprise a number
of contiguous urban areas.

' Wayleaves.—Electricity supply, also gas and in some
cases water, undertakers are precluded by law from
laying their mains in private lands without special
consent, and this is only possible by a complete agree-
ment for an easement or wayleave with the owner and
occupier, and upon such terms and conditions as he or
they may in their entire discretion impose upon the
undertakers.

The above restrictions have been found to be a source
of serious inconvenience and unnecessary expense, and
a hampering obstacle in the development of electric
power supply on a large scale, and in the full achieve-
ment of the economies resulting therefrom.

Cases of absolute refusal to grant an easement or
wayleave have been fortunately of rare occurrence, but
it is otherwise with the imposition by land owners of
unnecessarily oppressive conditions, chiefly the exact-
ing of outrageously exorbitant rents, having regard to
the use which is made of the land and its value to the
owner, and with some exceptions in their exercise of
procrastination and utter indifference to industrial
needs in dealing with such matters. Quoting examples,
the author referred to the case of a colliery company
owning land in various parts of a district which
held up wayleaves in two places on overhead lines some
30 miles long, taking advantage of the opportunity
offered to negotiate favourable terms for a supply of
electricity to a colliery.

This sort of case, he said, was likely to become more
troublesome in future, as colliery owners have in recent
years adopted the policy of purchasing agricultural
land, in order to avoid heavy claims for compensation
for damage arising from subsidence from their work-
ings.

A frequent cause of prolonged delay is that one or
more owners, after the usual initial delay in replying,
which varies according to the individual, make objec-
tion to the route selected over their land. Negotia-
tions must then be re-opened with other owners, who
probably have already given their consent, to allow of
a diversion of the route on their estate, and in conse-
quence they not infrequently come to the conclusion
that the applicant does not know his own mind, which
is not usually conducive to a speedy settlement. If,
in addition, a local authority should call for a diver-
sion of the route when negotiations with land owners
are well advanced, it is readily perceived how delays
become cumulative.

Cost of Wayleaves.—Compensation for an easement
or wayleave is almost invariably given in the form of
an agreed annual rent, based either on a fixed sum per
pole or per yard of route, or an annual lump sum
payment to cover a particular stretch of route between
fixed points.

Rents have steadily risen during the past seven
years, and especially since the war began. This is
partly because land owners who at first treated way-
leave rents merely as a convenient addition to the
rents which they have already received for the ordi-
nary use of their land, have more and more come to
regard wayleave rents as quite a useful source of addi-
tional revenue, and especially since the war scale of
taxation came into force, have made the most of their
opportunities.

Moreover, as it is usually quite impossible to bring
the slightest pressure to bear in negotiations for way-
leaves, it has in unavoidable cases been necessary to
pay some recalcitrant land owner a heavier rent than
usual in order to complete wayleaves for a route, the
alternative possibly being a diversion of the route on
adjoining estates and many more months of delay, or
possibly heavy expenditure in circuiting his estate,
usually both. Other land owners have come to hear
of this rent, and have asked for the same terms.

If these charges may fairly be termed iniquitous in
the case of overhead lines, what should be said of the
same rents which are now frequently asked for way-
leaves for underground cables? Underground cables,
when once laid, generally require no further attention
for many years, and do not obstruct or interfere in
any way whatever with the ordinary use of the land;