298 THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN, August 9, 1918. THE FREIGHT MARKET. On the north-east coast shipments of coal on official account are so large, and loading turns so congested, as to leave very little room for chartering to unscheduled destinations. Only half a dozen fixtures have been recorded this week for other than Allied directions, and the whole of these are for Swedish ports at rates which, as a com- parison with last week’s fixtures would show, indicate some stiffening of the market on the week. The offerings of neutral tonnage for Scandinavian destinations are fairly good, but there is a marked dearth of shipping for any other direction. At South Wales, except for a fixture, done abroad, to Barcelona at 350s., the whole of the items reported are for Allied ports at scheduled figures. At the time of writing, the market in South Wales is virtually suspended owing to the holidays. Homewards, the River Plate continues to ease, the current quotation from lower ports to the United Kingdom being 210s., as against 215s. last week, whilst 240s. is still quoted for French Atlantic discharge. At the United States there is much business in progress on Government account, but little outside that. On net charter from New York to Liverpool the rate is 230s. There is a keen demand for tonnage at the Pacific ports, and full rates are on offer. The Far Eastern position is unaltered. Mediterranean and Bay ports are fairly active. The Spanish Mediterranean to two United Kingdom ports with general cargo has been done at 225s. Minerals from Bordeaux to Cardiff are listed at 18s., with Bayonne to Bristol Channel at 20s., whilst Huelva to Mersey with pyrites is quoted at 45s. Tyne to Gefle, 1,500, 215 kr.; Gothenburg, 2,100, 200 kr. 1,100, 1,200 and 2,500, 205 kr.; and Stockholm, 1,800, 215 kr. Cardiff to Barcelona, 3,300, 350s., fixed abroad; Caen, 800, 48s., neutral; and Havre, 1,000-1,100, 45s. 9d., neutral. Port Talbot to Chantenay, 2,500-2,600, 61s. 6d., neutral; St. Servan, 1,600-1,800, 43s. 6d., neutral; and Trouville, 400, 48s., neutral. Swansea to Calais, 650-700, 53s. 3d., neutral; Rouen, 1,100 and 1,500, 48s. 9d., neutral; Paimpol, 130, 80s., sail; St. Malo, 320 and 400-500, 45s., neutral; Havre, 800-900, 47s. 3d., neutral; 1,200, 45s. 9d., neutral; and Chantenay, 2,850, 61s. 6d., neutral. Later.—A 1,600 ton steamer has been fixed for Tyne loading to Stockholm at 225 kr., a rate which indicates a smart advance on recent business. COAL, IRON AND ENGINEERING COMPANIES. REPORTS AND DIVIDENDS. Fenwick .(Wm. France) and Company Limited.—The directors have declared an interim dividend on the ordinary share capital, as increased, of 4 per cent., free of tax. Graham's Navigation (Merthyr) Collieries.—For half- year ended June 30 directors have declared an interim dividend on ordinary shares at rate of 10 per cent, per annum, and on preference shares at rate of 6 per cent, per annum, both less tax. Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Limited.—The directors announce that at the annual meeting on 22nd instant they will recommend final dividends on the preference shares at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum, and on the ordinary shares at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum for the half- year ended June 30, together with a bonus of Is. per share on .the ordinary shares, all free of tax. Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Limited.—Year’s gross profit £69,593, as compared with £58,925. Dividend of 10 per cent., against 7| per cent.; forward £20,241, against £15,392. The directors have con- sidered the advisability of capitalising £100,000, part of the reserve fund, consisting of profits earned before July 1914, and they recommend that this should be done by issuing to holders of ordinary shares 10,000 , ordinary shares of £10 each. It is further proposed that the capital shall be increased to £750,000 by creating 35,000 additional ordinary shares of £10 each. National Boiler and General Insurance Company Limited.—Interim of 12s. per share, less tax, for half-year, payable September 2. Last year, dividend same. New Monckton Collieries Limited.—Final dividend of Is. per share on the ordinary, free of tax, making 10 per cent, for the year—the same as for 1916-17. Normanby Iron Works Company Limited.—The accounts for year to June 30 show a balance, including £2,044 brought in, of £12,958. To sinking fund, £2,000; further dividend on ordinary shares at rate of 5 per cent., making 10 per cent, for year; forward, £1,358. North Eastern Steel Company Limited.—The report for the year ended September 30, 1917, states that profit, after providing for estimated liabilities, is £88,464; £4,627 was brought in, making £93,091. Deducting debenture interest, directors’ fees £1,000, reserve account for redemption of second debentures, etc., £7,500, there is left £68,160. The directors recommend a dividend of 10 per cent., free of tax, to place to general reserve £20,000, and to carry forward £8,160. Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Company Limited.—Divi- dend of 1^ per cent. Roburite and Ammonal Company Limited.—After pro- viding for excess profits duty and a reserve fund for con- tingencies, the net profit in 1916 was £30,949, which, with £11,858 brought forward, makes £42,836. Tlofe preference dividend absorbed £5,135; dividend at 10 per cent, on ordinary shares paid July 1917, £7,834; reserve, £3,095. The directors recommend a further dividend of 10 per cent, on ordinary shares and a bonus of 5 per cent, on preference and ordinary shares, leaving £12,462 to be carried forward. They regret inability to submit accounts for 1917, but recommend a final dividend of 5 per cent, on the preference shares. Watson (John) Limited.—An interim dividend has been declared for the half-year to June 30 at the rate of 10 per cent per annum, less tax. A similar dividend was paid last year. NEW COMPANIES. Elms Colliery Company Limited.—Private company. Registered July 30. Objects indicated by title. Qualifi- cation of directors, £100. Subscribers (1 share) : J. D. Thomas and A. V. Malipant. Metal Manufacturers Limited. — Private company. Registered office: Thanet House, Strand, W.C. Registered July 27. Objects indicated by title. Nominal capital, £10,000 in 10,000 £1 shares. Subscribers (1 share): W. L. T. Arkwright and J. B. Kintore. Pircher (Thos.) and Sons Limited.—Private company. Registered office : 3, Lewin’s Mead, St. James, Bristol. Registered July 27, to carry on the business of iron founders, mechanical engineers, etc. Nominal capital, £3,000 in 3,000 shares of £1. Directors: J. Pitcher and P. A. J. Head. Qualification of directors, £50. Remunera- tion of directors, £200. Radnor Manufacturing Company Limited.—Private com- pany. Registered July 31, to carry on the business of iron, brass and metal founders, mechanical, mining, gas, sanitary, civil and water engineers, etc. Nominal capital, £2,000 in 2,000 ordinary shares of £1. Directors : F. J. Cornford and S. Brown Saunders. Remuneration of directors, £100. Scriven and Company (Leeds) Limited.—Private com- pany. Registered July 30, to carry on the business of engineers, machine tool makers,, iron, steel and brass founders, etc. Nominal capital, £100 in 100 ordinary shares of £1. Directors : J. W. Crosthwaite and G. D. Crosthwaite. This list of new companies is taken from the Daily Register, specially compiled by Messrs. Jordan and Sons Limited, company registration agents, Chancery-lane, E.C. CONTRACTS OPEN FOR COAL AND COKE. For Contracts Advertised in this issue received too late for inclusion in this column, see Leader and Last White pages. Abstracts of Contracts Open. King’s Lynn, August 15.—50 to 100 tons coke, for Guar- dians. Tenders to the clerk. Kinsale, August 14.—80 tons of coal. Forms from the clerk, Kinsale Union. Portsmouth, August 14.—2,500 tons steam coal, for Milton Hospital. Forms from the O.C., Army Service Corps, High-street, Portsmouth. Youghal, August 13.—300 tons (steam, lump, and house) for the Youghal Auxiliary Asylum Committee. Forms from the asylum. The date given is the latest upon which tenders can be received. OBITUARY. The death took place on Tuesday, in his 64th year, of Mr. J. Rees, divisional superintendent of the Swansea district, Great Western Railway. His close association with the coal trade arose from the very rapid development which has taken place in the region from Llanelly, past Swansea, eastward to Port Talbot, the many extensions to meet local colliery needs in this area, and also in the Swansea and Neath Valleys, having been carried out under his superintendence. Councillor D. Linton, sub-agent and secretary to the Blaina district of miners, a member of the Monmouth County Council and of the local military tribunal, died on Wednesday. Sir John Wilson, whose death is recorded, was the head of a company that has within the last 27 years secured a large part of the Fife coalfield. He was instrumental in taking over the fields of Saline, Sheardrum, Crosshill, and Glencraig. Mr. Henry Jepson, mining engineer, died suddenly at his residence, The Peth, Durham, last week, at the age of about 60 years. GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS. *** Any of the following publications may be obtained on application at this office at the price named post free. Forty-second Annual Report of His Majesty’s Inspectors of Explosives; being their Annual Report for the Year 1917, price 4d. (London: Published by His Majesty’s Stationery Office.) PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. ‘ The New Moon: A Romance of Reconstruction,” by Oliver Onions (London : Hodder and Stoughton, Warwick-square, E.C. 4), price 6s. net; “Coal and-its Scientific Uses,” by William A. Bone, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.S. (Longmans, Green and Company, 39, Paternoster- row, E.C. 4), price 21s. net; “The Beama Journal” (Vol. 4, No. 3), July 1918 (London: King’s House, Kingsway, W.C. 2), price Is. net; “Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers ” (Vol. 55, Part 3), July 1918 (London : Published at the Offices of the Institution, Albany Buildings, 39, Victoria-street, West- minster, S.W. 1), price 6s.; “ The Naturalist ” (No. 739), August 1918 (London: A. Brown and Sons Limited, 5, Farringdon-avenue, E.C. 4); New Zealand Department of Mines, Geological Branch : (Bulletin No. 19) “ The Geology of the Tuapeka District, Central Otago Division,” by P. Marshall, M.A., D.Sc., F.G.S.; Municipal Reference Library, City of New York: special report No. 2 : “ Teaching Citizenship via the Movies,” by Ina Clement. One of the first things which the new Reconstruction Committee set up in the West Riding will take in hand is to be the recovery of by-products from coal. New Ovens for Messrs. Newton, Chambers and Company Limited.—A new up-to-date battery of patent waste heat by-product ovens has been started at the Thorncliffe works of Messrs. Newton, Chambers and Company Limited. The plant, which has been under construction during the past two years, is of the Semet-Solvay type, and has been built by the Coke Oven Construction Company, of Sheffield. It consists of 37 12-ton ovens, with a Baum coal washing plant to deal with 500 tons of coal in ten hours, also a large coal storage bunker. There are five 30 ft. by 8^ ft. Lancashire boilers, by Messrs. Davy Bros. Lirriited, of Sheffield, which will be fired by the surplus gas from the ovens. The plant further comprises a 500 kw. high-pressure steam turbine by the British Thomson- Houston Company, which will generate alternating current at 3,300 volts for use in driving the compressors, rams, electric pumps and other machines in connection with the plant, and also supplying the necessary power required at the adjoining collieries for coal-cutting, pumping, etc. ABSTRACTS OF PATENT SPECIFICATIONS RECENTLY ACCEPTED. 113780. Apparatus for Separating Dust from Ores, Coal, Etc. R. Laudien, Ludwigsdorf, Kreis, Neurode, Prussia. —This invention relates to an improvement in the known dry grading or sizing apparatus for ores, coal and the like, which consists of a dust-separating chamber and a dust-receiving chamber directly surrounding the dust- separating chamber, a current of air produced in the in- terior of the apparatus circulating through both chambers. The invention has for its basis the discovery that the apparatus heretofore usually employed work with too small separating chambers and too feeble currents of air which, moreover, do not flow evenly. According to the invention, it is proposed to provide separating chambers of large transverse sections and to pass through the appa- ratus a powerful uniform current of air. The new arrange- ment presents the advantage that in the grading appa- ratus for the same external dimensions much larger quantities of material can be treated and freed from dust, which is essential with * materials that have to be dealt with in large quantities, such as ores and coal. At the same time the dust-separating action is much more powerful, and, finally, less granular material is carried away with the dust. The separating of the dust is thus simultaneously increased, improved,. and rendered more uniform, and, moreover, the separation is rendered much more definite by reason of the strong whirling of the air current. 114815. Rotary Pumps or Engines. Ludwigsbergs Werk- stads Aktiebolag, Rosenlundsgatan 29, Stockholm, Sweden. —This invention is a modification of that described in Specification No. 9327 of 1917, which relates to a rotary pump or engine provided with pistons sliding axially in a rotary drum and moved by an oblique disc or the like, which is guided by stationary curve-shaped pieces pro- vided with hydraulic means for sustaining or counteracting the pressure of the pistons on the said disc. According to the present invention, the pump, etc., is able to force the liquid in one direction as well as in the other, while the pressure of the pistons is counteracted, and the capacity of the pump can be altered. (Two claims.) 116523. Shaft) Well, or Tunnel Linings. C. Kearton, “ Hillside,” Upstreet, near Canterbury, and E. L. Hann, 6, Park-place, Cardiff.—This invention has reference to the linings of mine shafts, wells, tunnels and the like, and more particularly to that kind which consists of or com- prises connected steel or iron rings or cylinders having concrete or cement between them and the bore of the shaft, well, or the like, and a lining part or wall on the interior of same of cement or like concrete or brickwork or iron, the rings or cylinders being made up of a plurality of segmental plates secured to one another at their ends (or in some cases a single plate fastened at its ends) and to the ring above them; and the invention has primarily for its object to provide a lining which is water-tight and strong, and is in itself simple, and can be easily and quickly built or put in. (Two claims.) 116545. Aerial Ropeways. J. K. Hoyle, 74, Southwold Mansions, Maida Vale, London, W. 9.—According to this invention, portable aerial ropeways can be built to carry heavy loads over long spans on hilly and unsurveyed ground, with a wide selection in the choice of site for loading, angle and unloading terminals of a simple and symmetrical design of light individual weights and common interchangeable units for both line and terminal supports. Previous types of loading and unloading ter- minals consist of a large and heavy structure fitted with a large terminal sheave or sheaves for the return of the transporting rope, with a proportionately large horseshoe- shaped rail to permit of the carriers to clear the return sheave or sheaves. Further towers of variable height have been employed, made up of sections. The invention re- lates to a portable ropeway in which the travelling rope and shunt rails are supported by sectionally built up towers, in which the upper section is formed with a means of vertical adjustment in small increments through a large range in height, equal to one of the intermediate sections, with a suitable base section of large area. Further terminal transmission sheaves for the loading and unloading ends of the line are carried beyond the ends of the terminal frames to ground level, and the rope de- flected, when necessary, with small depression sheaves. The horseshoe or shunt rail is both smaller and lighter, and is supported by the interchangeable units of the line towers. It is customary to level the whole of the site for the loading and unloading terminals. In this portable design the expense and loss of time in transfer of position is unnecessary with the sectional towers. (Three claims.) 116653. Pit Props. The Butterley Company Limited, Butterley, Derby, and J. Bircumshaw, Chatwall House, East Kirkby.—This invention relates to the type of pit prop in which the main prop is of metal and carries a shorter prop of wood (hereinafter called a plug), so that the latter will be crushed or will otherwise perish first, the object of the present invention being to provide a simple and efficient form of such device in which the plug may be readily released and replaced. Amongst the ad- vantages arising from the use of this invention, the con- sumption of timber will be greatly reduced; less labour will be entailed in many ways; the cost will only be a fraction higher than an ordinary pit prop; the main props can be used many times; the props adapt themselves automatically to roof subsidence and act as a resisting cushion, instead of resisting rigidly roof subsidence, as in case of props made entirely of iron or steel, which are apt to break; therefore a better roof will result at the coal face because of the natural subsidence allowed, with consequent easier means of getting coal, etc. (Three claims.) 116660. Valve Apparatus for Rock Drills. G. H. T. Rayner, Grange Farm House, Carter Knowle-road, Abbey- dale, and P. Rayner, 38, Chantrey-road, Woodseats, Shef- field. The object of this invention is to lengthen the working life of certain parts of the valve apparatus for rock drilling machines and the like driven by compressed air or steam, and thereby to enable a reasonable degree of efficiency to be maintained, and also an increased duration of life of the wearing parts, and at a reduced cost for upkeep. It is well known in practice that the ends of port blocks against which the valve seats or beats become worn and damaged, thereby increasing the throw of the valve, and in some cases impairing its fluid tightness. According to this invention, the port blocks are constructed so as to be reversible, thereby increasing the life of those parts to double that of port blocks as ordinarily constructed. (Four claims.) 116676. Compounds for Increasing the Calorific Value of Coal. R. R. de la Devesa, Rue de Gerona No. 54, Barcelona, Spain.—The subject matter of this invention is a chemical industrial product, by means of which it is possible to increase the calorific power of all kinds of