April 19, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

805

North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.

In the absence of the President (Mr. John Simpson)
through indisposition, Mr. Mark Ford, vice-president,
occupied the chair at last Saturday afternoon’s meeting
of the members of the North of England Institute of
Mining and Mechanical' Engineers, held in the lecture
theatre of the Wood Memorial Hall, Westgate-road,
N e wcastle-upon-Tyne.

Losses by Death.

The Chairman moved that a vote of sympathy and
condolence should be sent to the relatives of Mr. Simon
Tate, whose death was a great loss to the institute. If
the members cast their minds back during the past two
or three years, they would find what a great deal the
institute owed to Mr. Tate. One remembered his paper
on the electrification of Trimdon Grange Colliery,another
paper on safety lamps, and his contribution to the
discussion on the intensive mining of thin seams. It
was not Mr. Tate’s fortune to become president of the
institute, but no doubt he would have attained to the
chair in time. His death was a great loss to the mining
community generally. He was an authority on colliery
explosions and was always ready to help in any case of
disaster. The speaker always found in him a genial
friend and one in whom he could confide and irom
whom he got advice of great value. Mr. Tate was
elected as a member of the institute in 1875, appointed
a member of the council in 1891 and elected as a vice-
president in 1917.

The Chairman said he believed the institute had
been harder hit during the last few months by the loss
of members through death than in any other similar
period of its history; He had also to propose* a vote of
sympathy and condolence with the relatives of Mr.
William Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong was elected as a
member in 1867, became a member of the council in
1875, a vice-president in 1897 and was elected president
for the term 1898-1900. He delivered a presidential
address and also read papers before the institute. He
was a man of wide experience and was one of the mining
experts of the district. A man of wide interests and
great ability, his genial character endeared him to a
host of friends. He was, perhaps, a generation in front
of the speaker’s time, but in the speaker’s little associa-
tion with him, the speaker was always struck by the
geniality of his manner and his willingness to help in
any case of difficulty brought before him.

•	Both motions were carried.

Motor Ambulances for the Front.

Mr. C. C. Leach said they all knew what the Bed
Cross was doing, but he thought that a good many of
them did not know very much of the work of Capt.
Dennis Bayley. Mr. Bayley was a coal owner who went
out as a private and took five of his own cars out to the
front to move the wounded. When the war started in
1914, there was nothing but horse ambulances for that
purpose. Afterwards, Mr. Bayley had charge of a
convoy of 100 motor ambulances. At the first Ypres
“ scrap ” he moved 60,000 wounded in a week. When
more money was wanted for such ambulance work he
approached the coal trade as an organised body. Since
then he had raised over half a million of money. The
institute two years ago gave him £200, and its members
subscribed over £500. This year Capt. Bayley required
money for the upkeep of the ambulances. The institute
had granted £160 and had sent out an appeal to its
members, which the speaker hoped would be liberally
and promptly responded to. There was no doubt that
lately there had been extra loss in connection with the
ambulances, in consequence of the German push, and
the speaker was sure that it only required that fact to
be brought to their notice to command all possible
support. Capt. Bayley had told him that Sir Frederick
Treves had been seeing what the ambulances were doing
in France, and had told him that every pound he had
collected had saved at least one life. Cheques could be
sent to the institute treasurer, Mr. Reginald Guthrie.

New Members.

The following gentlemen were admitted into the insti-
tute :—Members : Mr. C. S. Anderson, colliery manager,
Bilton Banks, Lesbury, Northumberland ; Mr. T. Bates,
mining engineer, West Wylam Terrace, Prudhoe, Oving-
ham, Northumberland ; Monsr. L. Mermod, ingenieur
civil des mines, a Segre, Maine-et-Loire, France; and Mr.
R. Worley, engineer, Rose House. Kellfield-road, Low
Fell, Gateshead. Associates: Mr. R. Adams, coal
miner, 3, Oswin-road, Forest Hall, Newcastle; Mr. C.
H. Benson, overman, 4, Rising Sun Cottages, Willing-
ton Quay, Northumberland; and Mr. W. L. Varty,
mine surveyor, Quay House, Scotswood, Northumberland’

The following papers were open for further discussion,
but none resulted :—“ The Flow of Water in Syphons,”
by Mr. Mark Halliday, B.Sc, ; Notes on the Uniflow
Engine,” by Mr. G. G. T. Poole ; and “ The Strength of
Pit Props,” by Mr. Fred. L. Booth.

Spontaneous Heating* in Coal Heaps.

Further discussion ensued on Mr. John Morison’s
paper on “ A System of Storing and Filling Small Coal,
with Remarks upon the Prevention of Spontaneous
Heating in Coal Heaps.” (Colliery Guardian, Feb. 15,
1918, p. 329.)

Prof. Henry Louis stated that the Canadian publi-
cation he had mentioned at the previous meeting was
one of a series of pamphlets on the investigation of the
coals of Canada by the Canadian Department of Mines
and was called “ The Weathering of Coal,”* by Dr. J. B.
Porter. Those interested in the subject would find it
full of very valuable information indeed. Curiously
enough, Dr. Porter came to almost the same conclusions
as did Mr. Morison. He said he had found some coals
fire if piled up as little as 4 ft., but ordinary coals were
safe if piled from 8 to 10 ft. deep. Like Mr. Morison,
he recommended ventilation and digging out in extreme
cases. Also, he used iron rods for the detection of
heating. When he found heating, however, he went

*	Canadian Department of Mines Report, No. 338;
Colliery Guardian, December|29, 1916, p. 1*269.

further than Mr. Morison, and drove in a pipe with a
thermometer attached. It was very interesting to see
how these two gentlemen, working on opposite sides of
the Atlantic with different coals, came to the same
conclusions.

Mr. T. V. Simpson remarked that Mr. Morison’s
paper was very helpful. He thought there was a critical
temperature. The speaker’s heap was far too much in
one bulk and not long enough. They split the heap
into three parts to minimise any losses if there was a
fire. He had observed the temperatures quite regularly
since last meeting, and had not got above 88 degs. He
noticed from a paper Mr. Cordner sent him the other
day that the author said that if he got above 120 degs.
temperature he had great trouble.

Mr. J. H. Anderson (Purfleet) wrote that for some
years his company had had coal stored. A great pro-
portion of it was small, and no doubt some of the later
heaps were partly composed of similar coal to that
which Mr. Morison had been storing. They had carried
out numerous experiments regarding height, width,
coned heaps, etc., allowing temperatures of piles to go
to certain readings and checking them from going
beyond those temperatures. In no instance had they
lost an ounce of coal through fire. Some of
Mr. Morison’s experiences supported the writer’s sug-
gestions regarding heating. With regard to trenching
and disturbing the top, in a printed leaflet issued by the
British Fire Prevention Committee suggestions of a
similar nature were made regarding storing coal, but
that was not sufficiently early for the treatment, which
ought to start the day the coal was tipped. The safety
of a pile of coal depended upon the care that was
exercised when the heap was at a low temperature.
That subject was rather too long to embrace in a dis-
cussion, therefore he would refer members to his paper
on “The Storage of Bituminous Coals, etc.,” Institute
of Marine Engineers, April 2, 1918. He looked with
envious eyes on Mr. Morison’s wagons and steam
cranes. His firm could not get plant for love or
money, and had had to fall back on some old railway
wagons used for ballasting railroads. However, they
added a few planks of wood to these, put false bottoms
in them and made them into self-tipping wagons, and
very efficient they were. They utilised the top of the
bank to put a road on, consequently the piles were
formed by gravity. He was rather surprised that Mr.
Morison had not done the same; there was no compari-
son with any other power known, and the ill-effects of
running over the coal with the load were more apparent
than real. Several heaps were deposited by one man
with the assistance of a lad—not counting the locomo-
tive men, who did not assist in wagon tipping. Most of
their coal was stored in large areas, levelling off the top.
A point that must also be considered, in addition to the
prevention of fire, was the value of the coal after it had
been stored. His experience proved that heating
would take place in coned heaps just as well as in large
areas. Certainly, it gave one confidence regarding a
fire if one could get near it at once, which would be the
case with coned heaps, but they must look at the great
difference of area exposed to all weathering effects. As
a matter of fact, he rather thought that most of the
heating that Mr. Morison had had so far was from the
deterioration of the surface coal, which got wet, the
pyritic shale being washed lower into the heap and there
oxidising. If Mr. Morison had waited a little longer
the heat would have been communicated to a demer
part of his heap and had set the whole heap in more
active oxidation. That was where the danger was—
provided there was no escape for that heat. His com-
pany had the same coal stored up to 16 ft.; he agreed
that that was too high, but it was an experimental point.
He supposed that they in the South had more experience
in grabbing coal. It sufficed to say that they could
discharge 5,000 in eight hours from a vessel afloat and
weigh it during discharge. That, of course, was with
specially arranged plant, contending with various
obstructions on the vessel. Grabbing from a heap
where there were no obstructions was a simple matter,
and its speed depended upon how many units could be
worked at a time. With a good steam crane a two-ton
lift ought to do 75 to 100 tons per hour, but, taking into
consideration the ground upon which the coal was
stored and the kind of coal stored, he suggested that a
ton grab would be more efficient, and certainly would
not grab up so much material other than coal. The
crane would, of course, be much lighter and faster than
a 7-ton crane. As to temperature rods, he preferred
pipes and thermometer readings. These readings were
recorded and compared with those previously taken. In
his opinion they were certainly more trustworthy than
those depending on a person’s sense of touch. When
each reading was taken the thermometer was allowed
to “soak” for three minutes at a fixed depth. If
necessary the readings were taken at every foot from
the surface. He should like to know Mr. Morison’s
opinion of the cause of heating. How could he tell a
dangerous heat by feeling? That latter sense would
vary with the temperature of the atmosphere. If one
put one’s hand into a basin of water at 90 degs. and
then into another of 80 degs., the latter would feel cold.
If one proceeded to put one’s hand into a third basin of
water at 70 degs. and afterwards into the basin at
80 degs. the latter would feel hot. Thus, they had the
same heat feeling first cold and then hot.

Mr. Morison said that heaps should not be formed
on marshy ground, but one could not always secure
the ground one would desire. All the writer’s coal was
deposited on marsh ground quite 10 ft. below high
water mark. The coolest portion of all the heaps was
at the bottom.

Mr. C. C. Leach said he did not agree with Mr.
Anderson’s remark as to running the wagons on top of
the heap. His company had had coal down from time
to time, and he had never once had any heating, except
when they ran the wagons on top of the heap and made
it about half as high again. When he was serving his
time, they used to make a heap about 19 ft. high, and
run the wagons over the top without causing any

trouble. In recent times they had had trouble, although
the heaps were no higher. He thought that was partly
due to the different class of coal now being worked.

Mr. F. C. Lee asked Mr. Morison whether there was
a difference in the storage of washed and unwashed coal.
His personal opinion was that the washed coal would be
more liable to spontaneous heating than unwashed coa],
on account of the absence of stone dust, etc., which,
mixed in the small coal, would always act as an
absorbent of the heat.

Replying on the discussion, Mr. Morison said he had
not had any great experience of storing washed coal,
although he had stored some. He should say that
washed coal was much less likely to fire than
unwashed. One of the reasons was that, as a rule, with
the system described in his paper, if the coal were
washed it would also be graded. It might be coal from
the size of peas to the size of large nuts, and would
not contain any dust, so that it would be less liable to
spontaneous combustion. Another reason would be that
one of the elements causing spontaneous combustion—
a not unimportant element—was the “ duff,” which
gradually washed down and formed an impermeable
layer, preventing the dissipation of the heat. The
president had asked whether he would consider that a
similar height should apply to unscreened coal as to
small. He thought it should, and that the unscreened
heap would be quite as liable to spontaneous combustion
as a heap of rough small, because it would contain the
same quality of coal, and would have all the elements of
“duff” in it, although, perhaps, not quite so much.
He would not like to risk a higher heap. In Scotland,
he had been in the habit of storing every winter large
quantities of unscreened coal, and they took no notice
of what height the heaps attained, because that coal,
even the small, was not liable to heating at all. As to
Mr. Anderson’s criticisms, that gentlemen neglected a
little the simple means of trenching the top and
scratching the sides of the heap, and did not attach
sufficient importance to them. It was really the crux
of the whole situation. Since the previous meeting,
he had had further experience with increased heaps, and
heaps that had got older, and there had been frequent
instances of heating in these heaps; but in no case had
the trenching and scratching failed to prove effective
immediately after being done. Some heaps—this had
occurred, he thought, before his paper was read—got
very dangerously heated, and were on the point of
firing, but trenching, without removing the coal—
simply throwing it out by the side of the trench—proved
absolutely effective. He would not go so far as
Mr. Anderson and say that the treatment of a pile of
coal should start the day it was tipped. The treatment
should start whenever the hand could feel that a rod
had become warmer than when it was put in. Any
temperature above the normal heat was critical, and
when a heap began to beat at all it was time to do
something. He did not attach a great deal of
importance to the method of storing the coals.
Mr. Anderson said he looked with envy on the
speaker’s plant, but as, later on, he referred to his own
system and said it was better, there was no need to be
envious. The speaker absolutely agreed with Mr. Leach
as to the disadvantage of running the wagons or even
treading on the heap by making footpaths over it. It
all promoted heating. He need hardly refer to Mr.
Anderson’s remarks upon the advantages of gravity.
He had found, on many occasions, that the advantage of
working wagons by gravity, especially on a moving
surface, was more apparent than real. The question of
cone-shaped heaps hardly arose. He thought it stood
to reason that one could risk a little more height at the
top of a cone-shaped heap than at the top of a big heap
spread over a large area with a level surface. There
was more ventilation to a coned heap, and one could
always get at a coned heap and separate it more easily.
He did not think that the deterioration of the surface
had anything to do with heating, nor did he suggest
that any of the heating was due to pyritic shale descend-
ing into the heap and oxidising there. There was no
doubt that if the heat had occurred at a certain level in
the heap, it would have gone downwards, and set the
whole surface heap into more active oxidation. He did
not depart from what he had said—namely, that the heat
was first felt 5 ft. or 6 ft. down. As to grabbing coal,
that was not really an important part of his paper,
except as a detail of the system that was introduced.
There was nothing new about grabbing coal,, and he
thought nothing could compare with a grab for lifting
coal simply and rapidly. He did not agree with Mr.
Anderson that a one-ton grab was better than a larger
one. There was no trouble in shifting a grab and a
crane to lift three or four tons at a lift. Again referring
to the point of temperature rods versus pipes, he thought
everyone would agree that, if it were possible to indicate
the danger by simply leaving a simple steel rod in the
heap and pulling it through a man’s hand, if that were
efficient it was much better than any system of a ther-
mometer. It would not do much good, if the heap
tended to fire, to have a diagram of the temperature on
various days. As to the storage on marshy ground, Ke
had no doubt that Mr. Anderson would find that the
coolest part of all the heaps was at the bottom, because
that bore out what the speaker found, viz., that the
heating began somewhere near the top of the heap and
that it was only when left alone that the heat spread to
the bottom. Probably, whether the ground was marshy
or not, the ground at the bottom would be the last to
show signs of heating. He brought the paper out
because he knew that the position in Northumberland
and Durham was somewhat acute with reference to
storing small coal. The insurance companies were
moving to such an extent that they were on the point
of refusing policies and everyone was finding the
difficulty. Therefore, he thought it was his duty to
give his neighbours all tbe information he had.

The Chairman expressed the indebtedness of the
mining community to Mr. Moiison for communicating
the results of his experience.

Mr. F. C. Lee, M.A. (Chin.), B.Sc., was to have read
a paper on “ Systems of Conveyor Face Working,” but
it was intimated that this had been deferred.

The meeting then ended.