August 16, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

341

Tonnage has been in better supply at coal ports
this week. Fixtures in the freight market are very
few in number, and rates are well maintained.

The executive of the Miners’ Federation of Great
Britain has issued a manifesto concerning absenteeism.
A strong appeal is made to miners for the largest
possible output of coal.

A cablegram states that President Wilson declares
that coal shortage is the chief danger. He appeals
to the miners to save the nation suffering, and to
assure the continuance of war work.

The Select Committee on Transport Reform ha
appointed a sub-committee to visit Ireland. A train
ferry, with particular reference to mineral traffic, is
one of the proposals under consideration.

Mr. Lloyd George took the opportunity of his visit
to Newport on Saturday to make a strong appeal to
the South Wales miners—and to miners all over the
country—to put every ounce of energy into the pro-
duction of coal.

At the Scottish Mine Workers Conference, at
Edinburgh, Mr. R. Smillie, while affirming that out-
put had decreased owing to 400,000 miners entering
the Army, urged that every effort should be made to
improve the present production.

A special meeting of the Miners’ Federation of
Great Britain has been called for Wednesday and
the following days of next week at Southport to
consider the question of the output of coal and the
special appeal to miners to improve it. The Coal
Controller has promised to attend.

In his report for 1917 Mr. W. Walker, Acting
Chief Inspector of Mines, states that 1,021,340
persons were employed in and about the coal mines
in Great Britain and Ireland, an increase of 23,277
on the previous year. The mines operated decreased
from 2,847 to 2,814. The output of coal totalled
248,499,246 tons.

South Wales coalowners decided to place before
the Coal Controller their objections to the scheme of
joint committees, on which workmen would have
power to deal with questions of management and
mine equipment.

The Coal Controller has in preparation a supple-
mental fuel rationing order, dealing with the possible
utilisation on an extensive scale of the peat deposits
of the United Kingdom.

The autumn meeting of the Institute of Metals
will be held in Burlington House, Piccadilly,
London. The meeting will commence at 7.45 p.m.
on Tuesday, September 10, and 4 p.m. on the fol-
lowing day, concluding the same evening. It will
embrace three sessions.

The Ministry of Reconstruction will issue on the
21st instant the final report of the Coal Conservation
Committee, which was appointed to consider and
advise as to the improvements which can be effected—
(1) in the mining of coal, (2) in the using of coal,
and (3) as to the extension of coal supplies.

The autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel
Institute will be held at the Institution of Civil
Engineers, Great George-street, Westminster, on
September 12 and 13. A number of papers will be
submitted, and seven of them will be open for
discussion.

The Miners’ Federation of Great
The Miners’ Britain has, we are glad to note,
Leaders and taken up in earnest the problem of
Absenteeism, dealing with the serious evil of
avoidable absenteeism from work
by a comparatively large proportion of the men
engaged in mining coal. In the manifesto issued
at the end of last week by the president and
executive, the Federation explains—if any explana-
tion were needed after four years of war—the
necessity for supplying both ourselves and our
Allies, France and Italy, with that most vital sinew
of war—fuel. It also points out the value of coal as
a medium of exchange with neutral countries who
are able to send us, in return, foodstuffs and raw
materials, needed for the prosecution of the war, and
emphasises the desirability of preventing the
unnecessary suffering that would be caused to the
poorer classes in our own country by shortage of
fuel.

The executive committee of the Federation had
already, during the recent negotiations on wages,
given the Controller a pledge that they would do
their utmost to increase the coal output, and in the
present manifesto they explain how they propose to
carry out this undertaking. The method selected is
to appoint joint committees at all the collieries, to
enquire into the causes of irregular attendance at
work, and also into the reasons for any loss of
output that may occur, whether on that account or
any other, both of which points seem to be extremely
desirable to clear up in the national interest.

The serious results of avoidable absenteeism have
long been manifest. Thus, to go no farther back
than 1916, Mr. Finlay Gibson compiled for the
South Wales and Monmouthshire district, a series
of tables showing that, out of a maximum possible
attendances amounting to 15,200,869 in the second
half of that year, no less than 1,231,649, or 8T0
per cent., were lost through avoidable absenteeism.
Now, if we assume that the same conditions operated
during 1917, and apply these figures to the South
Wales coal output for that year—viz., slightly in
excess of 45 million tons—we find that they are

equivalent to a loss of nearly 2 million tons of coal*
Similarly if the parallel were extended to the whole
country, the loss of output, on a total of nearly
248| million tons, would be practically 20 million
tons, or closely approximating to the 22J million
tons by which the production for 1917 fell short of
the previous year. Of course, this calculation is
merely a rough estimate, but it is sufficiently near
to indicate the amount of fuel of which avoidable
absenteeism deprives the nation, and the great
desirability—to say the least—of getting rid of
the evil.

With regard to the causes of absenteeism, it is
generally admitted that, whilst the great bulk of the
miners are steady workers, certain of their number,
when they have earned enough to keep them going
for the rest of the week, elect to enjoy themselves
for the remainder of the time rather than to go on
working ; and some have even stated that they did
not wish to pay income tax and therefore avoided
earning sufficient to bring their income into the
taxable limit. That miners can earn a living by
working only part time seems to accord ill with the
argument constantly put forward in support of
applications for increased pay—viz., that the existing
scale is too low to provide the necessaries of life;
and the u cut off your nose to spite your face”
policy implied in the other instance referred to,
cannot invoke the sympathy of anyone possessed of
average intelligence, least of all in times like the
present when coal is absolutely needed, and any
miner who makes more money than he requires for
the moment can find a profitable and patriotic
investment for the surplus.

Turning now to the proposed appointment of
committees to deal with absenteeism, this is a step
in the right direction, which should bring the
employers and men into closer touch, and will be of
advantage not only in the immediate present, but
also in the future when the suggested Whitley
councils come into operation. As to how the slackers
can best be dealt with—apart from putting them into
the Army as men who have failed to comply with the
undertaking under which they have been relieved
from military service—the American miners have
shown how this can be effectually done. The presi-
dent of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, one of the
largest American coal producing concerns, recently
announced that “slacker” committees, made up of
miners bent on singling out those of their fellow
workmen who were taking time off without any legi-
timate excuse, are working at all the collieries, and
that large indicators, graduated like a thermometer,
have been set up to announce the daily output at
each pit, in comparison with its best record. On the
same indicator is placed the names of avoidable
absentees, with an estimate of what the output
would have been if they had all been at work. This
measure is stated to have been highly successful and
to have put every man on his mettle; and we do not
doubt that if the case could be put before our own
men in some equally forceful manner, they would get.
a better grasp of what their absenteeism means, and
prove themselves just as patriotic as their American
confreres. We have heard a good deal from the
representatives of the miners about their patriotism,
and indeed large numbers of the men themselves
have given ample proof of it by spending their
energies and lives at the front. But we would remind
those who are still in the pits that there is no such
thing as vicarious patriotism, and that the real thing
can only be expressed by deeds, not words ; that is
to say, by putting in as much time as they possibly
can, and doing their “ bit ” by keeping the home
fires burning, in order that the needs of the Forces
and the other fuel requirements can be adequately
met.

In conclusion, we cannot offer better advice than
that given by the Prime Minister to an audience of
Welsh miners last Saturday, in speaking of the
enemy—“ Sling coal at them! Hurl it in wagon
loads ! Every extra wagon load of coal means winning
victories which represent liberty, justice and peace
throughout the world.”

The series of special reports on the
Refractories. Mineral Resources of Great Britain,
in course of publication by the Geo-
logical Survey, has lately been extended to a sixth
volume, dealing with certain refractory materials,
such as ganister and silica-rock, sand for open-hearth
steel furnaces and dolomite. The subject is of the
highest importance, both to the metallurgical and
coal mining industries, and its interest is increased
by the fact that many colliery companies are in
possession of beds of rock suitable for the manufac-
ture of refractory bricks, and advantage has been
taken in some instances of the opportunity thus
afforded of adding a valuable subsidiary industry to
the business of coal mining. . The ganister or other
rock utilised for this purpose is more often worked
in open quarries at the out-crops. Of this nature,
for example, are the quarries worked by the Sneyd
Collieries Limited, near Burslem, where siliceous
sandstones, or crowstones, occur in the Pendleside
series of the lower carboniferous. Often, however,
ganister rock itself forms the seat or floor of a work-

* Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great
Britain, Vol. vi., 1918; price, 7s. 6d. net.

able coal seam, as is the case in the Wigan district,
where both the Lower Mountain Mine and the
Ganister Coal may have good ganister rock forming
part of the seat-earth.

The term ganister is used to describe rocks of
various qualities. Some beds, commonly known as
ganister, are of little use for making furnace bricks.
True ganister of the Sheffield type is practically an
almost pure silica rock, composed of minute sub-
angular quartz grains, closely bound together by a
cement of secondary silica. Its distinguishing
features are the fineness, angularity and uniform
size of the quartz particles, and the absence of any
appreciable quantity of mica, felspar or carbonates. It
is often impersistent in its occurence, graduating into
fireclay or into “ bastard ganister.” The quality of
the ganister must always be the determinative factor
in considering whether it is worth working for its
own sake; but occasionally inferior rock may be
worked if it is associated with a first class fireclay,
as, for example, is the case of some of the Cumber-
land coal mines. Immense quantities of siliceous
rocks occur in the millstone grit series on the
northern outcrop of the South Wales coal field, but
here again the particular type regarded as suitable
for the manufacture of silica bricks is somewhat
restricted. The most desirable kind of stone is a
fine-grained, hard, bluish-white quartzite, uniform
in grain and. free from such impurities as felspar.
Coarse-grained material is not suitable. There is
plenty of first-class material in this area, but its
exploitation is limited by considerations of transport.

There is much confusion in the nomenclature of
silica bricks. The types known respectively as
“ Dinas ” brick and “ ganister brick ” can scarcely be
separated by a hard and fast line. According to the
Survey memoir before usan silica brick” is made of
silica bonded by lime, while a “ganister brick” is
bonded by fireclay. What is known as “Dinas
brick” is a silica brick made in South Wales of
local materials, the typical Dinas rock of the Vale of
Neath being nearly pure silica, but containing about
five per cent, of calcareous matter and a small amount
of metallic oxide, either iron or copper. The peculiar
properties of Dinas brick led to the use of this term
as a market appellation generally. In Germany the
term Dinasstein was generally applied to a lime-bond
brick, but in certain districts a clay-bond brick was
made and described as German Dinas to distinguish
it from the English Dinas.

The manufacture of silica bricks in this country
has received a great impetus since the war, owing to
the impossibility of importing German goods. This
industry is a striking example of the manner in which
this country allowed German methods of competition
to prevail. Thus the coke ovens used in Great
Britain were largely of foreign make, and Con-
tinental makers were not satisfied with British fire-
bricks, although they were equal in refractoriness to
those of German origin. It is probable that there
was a real ground for this preference, for but little
attention had been given to the science of refractories
in this country, and refractory quality is not the
only point to be considered. In the words of Dr.
Searle, in his paper read before the Royal Society
of Arts, the German manufacturers possessed a sound
training in chemistry and engineering, and they were
better acquainted with the particular products
required for special purposes. So far as is known,
the raw materials available in Germany for the
manufacture of refractory bricks are neither so
extensive nor of such good quality as those which
we possess in this country. More attention has,
however, been turned since the war to the science of
refractories, and there is no longer any valid reason
for importing foreign bricks, either for coke ovens or
for metallurgical work.

The Geological Survey has undoubtedly done good
work in bringing to light our resources in raw
materials suitable for the refractory needs of our
industries. An immense amount of labour has been
involved in the preparation of this volume, and an
examination has1 been made of every mine and
quarry in which refractories are produced. Speci-
mens have been submitted to chemical and petro-
graphical examination both of the raw materials and
the finished products, and a vast amount of valuable
information has been secured. The present volume
is chiefly descriptive, and is devoted to an account of
the deposits now being worked in this country, but
we gather that a further volume will be issued,
dealing with- fireclays, moulding sands, etc., and
giving the details of the laboratory work which has
been carried out upon the whole series.

For this reason we shall defer any remarks upon
the interesting physical and chemical problems con-
cerned with this subject. The colliery owner, in the
meantime, will do well to study the information
which this volume affords. It will tell him much
about the kinds of material now being worked, and
the extent to which new developments may
promise success. The market is not by any means
limited to home requirements, for we find that
British makers of silica briek export their products
to France, Italy, India, Japan, South Africa and
Australia. The conditions that may be expected to
occur after the war lead to a reasonable expectation
that a wide extension of this industry may be antici-
pated in the future; and the present memoir is just
what was needed for the realisation of this develop -