508

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN

September 6, 1918.

MEAN MAGNETIC DECLINATION at Kew Observatory, Richmond, in Degrees and Minutes, for each Two-hour Interval
in the Week August 25 to 31, 1918.

	Magnetic character.	Intervals—Hours G.M.T.												
		0h.-2h.  14° +	2h.-4h. 14° +	4h.-6h.  14° +	6h.-8h.  14° +	8h.-10h. 14° +	10h.-12h 14° +	12h.-14h. 14° +	14h.-16h. 14° +	16h.-18h.  14° +	18h.-20h.  14° +	20h.-22h. 14° +	22h.-24h.  14° +	Mean for day. 14° +
		Min.	Min.	Min.	Min.	Min.	Min.	Min.	Min.	Min.	Min.	Min.	Min. ’	Min.
Sun., Aug. 25	2	46*5*	49’0*	44’0	43’0	48’5	54’0	59’5	58'5	53'0	50'5	49’5	47'0	50’0
Mon., „	26	1	45’5	50’5	46’5	46’0	46’0	51’5	56’5	56'5	52’0	49'0	50’0	46'5	50’0
Tues., „	27	1	46*5	♦ 47’5	49’0	48’0	49’0	54’0	57’0	54'5	50’0	44'5	49'0	49'0	50’0
Wed., „	28	1	48*0	46’5	46’5	44’0	45’0	52’0	56’5	54’5	50’5	48’5	48'0	48’0	49’0
Thurs., ,,	29	1	50’0	48’0	46’5	44’5	45’5	52’5	56’0	54'0	50’0	48'5	47’5	48'5	49’0
Friday, „	30	0	48’5	48’0	45’5	43’0	44’0	50’0	55’0	53'0	49'5	48'5	47'5	46’0	48’0
Sat.,	„ 31	1	45’5	46’5	45’0	43’0	44’5	50’0	53'0	52'5	51’5	45'5	45'0	44’5	47'5
														Mean value for
Diurnal i n e-		lh. 2h.	3h.	4h.	5h.	6h.	7h.	8h.	9h. lOh.	llh. 12h.	13h. 14h.	15h. 16h.	17h. 18h.	19h. 20h.	21h. 22h.	23h. 24h.	month.
quality (i.e., Aug.1917		-1*5 -1’8	-1’7 -2’2	-3’6 -4’8	-5’4 -5’3	-3’6 -1’0	+ 3’0 +6’5	+ 8’5 +8’1	+ 6’0 +3'4	+ 0’8 -0’5	-0'7 -0'7	-0'8 -1’0	-1’0 -0’8	14° 58''3 Aug?17
departure from July 1918		-1-1 -1-3	-2’0 -2’7	-3’9 -5’2	—5’2 —4’7	-3’4 -1’1	+ 2’1 +4’9	+ 6’3 +6’5	+ 5'6 +4'2	+ 2’5 +1'2	+ 0'1 -0’4	-0’3 -0’5	-0’7 -0'9	14° 50' '4 July ’18
mean value for July 1917		—0’2 -0’4	-0’3 -1’2	—3’3 -5’2	—6’5 —6’7	-5’6 -3’0	+ 0’8 +4’6	+ 7’1 +7’9	+ 6'2 +3'9	+ 1'7	0’0	-0’4 -0'1	+ 0’2 +0'4	+ 0’3 -0’1	14° 59'’I July’17
day)														

The day is counted from Oh. (midnight) to 2i h. (milnight) G.M.T. Character “ 0” means a day wholly free from any but small disturbances. Character “ 1 ” means a day
part or all of which is moderately or considerably disturbed. Character <e 2” means a day part or all of which is highly disturbed.

The normal value for an hour is the mean declination for that hour in the month, derived from quiet days only, or from all days excluding those of character “2” On a day of
character “ 0” declination at any hour will usually be within about 3' of the normal. On a day of character “ 1 ” the departure from the normal will usually not exceed 5', but it may
occasionally be as much as 10', or even more. On a. day of character “ 2” the departure from the normal will seldom exceed 20', but departures of 30' or even on extreme occasions
of 1° or more may occur.

The above values were obtained from measurements made after “ smoothing ” the curves.

* Large disturbances during this interval.	Meteorological Office, September 4.

tained through the medium of the associations. The sub-
ject was fully discussed at a meeting of Scottish colliery
managers in Glasgow on Saturday. In the course of the
discussion the managers who represented the chief mining
centres in Scotland indicated their anxiety to expedite the
output. It was agreed, however, before definite action
was decided upon to ascertain the views of the Scottish
coal owners.

LABOUR AND WAGES.

South Wales and Monmouthshire.

Among the deputations attending the executive council
meeting of the South Wales Federation was one from
the Master Hauliers’ Association, a recently formed organi-
sation in this district. Their desire was that on transfer
of any of their members to the Federation these should
be excused payment of the entrance fee. The council
declined to agree to any such arrangement, and occasion
was taken to emphasise their opinion that all employees
at collieries should be members of one trade union alone.

The C03I Controller is being approached by the local
federation, which seeks his intervention in the minimum
wage dispute at Hirwain, and also in the safety lamp
question at Llanbradach. He will also have brought
before him the case of a clerk who is alleged to have been
discharged because he joined the Federation. The Con-
troller will further be asked to permit Mr. W. L. Cook,
now a member of his staff, to carry to final issue the
negotiations which he initiated at Oakdale before he took
up his position under Government.

A brief strike at the Navigation Colliery, Pontyclun,
where the men stopped work in protest against the
appointment of a particular man as fireman, has been
ended by the cancellation of the appointment.

Final ballot in the Ebbw Vale district for a sub-agent
of the miners has resulted in the election of Councillor
J. Griffiths by 2,255 votes against 2,023 for Councillor
George Davies, who has been temporarily serving in that
capacity. The successful candidate, in addition to his
membership of the District Council, serves on the Food
Committee, and is prominent in the Labour Council.

“ Samplers,” the men at Newport and Cardiff who crush
iron ore for the purpose of analysis, have applied to
the Committee on Production, desiring that the 30 per
cent, additional war bonus granted to other piece-workers
shall be extended to them.

It is stated that the increased war bonus awarded to
colliery staffs was “ not on the strength of any appeals
made, but as a result of an award by the Committee
on Production in the case of Pilsley Colliery Company,
Chesterfield, v. the National Union of Clerks,” and
that “ the award was bound to apply to the whole of
the coal fields.” This statement is made by the secretary
of the South Wales Colliery Clerks Guild.

Patent fuel workers in Swansea, to the number of
nearly 1,000, came out on strike during Tuesday, but
resumed work on Wednesday in accordance with the
advice of Aiderman Merrills, organiser of their trade
union. A recent advice of 12^ per cent, applied only to
men over 21 years of age, and it was desired that all
employees should participate; also that the increase should
be retrospective to April, when the demand for increase
was submitted. The recommendation of the organiser
was that work should be continued pending agreement
with the Ministry of Labour, and this was accepted.

At a meeting of the Rhondda district of miners, held
at Porth on Monday, Mr. D. Lloyd Davies, Maerdy
(Rhondda Fach) was elected chairman for the ensuing
year.

.At a meeting of craftsmen in the Amman Valley, the
eight hours question came under discussion, and a sugges-
tion was made that unless there was a speedy concession
the lodges in that district should tender notices, other
districts being called upon to act similarly. A resolution
was passed calling upon the Federation executive to get
a definite decision within a month before drastic action
was taken.

Cardiff tippers, whose strike so seriously damaged trade
a fortnight ago, have held a meeting whereat the
employers’ proposals were submitted, and it was agreed
to accept them. The questions at issue were as to release
of men for the Army, and also as to the minimum wage;
in the latter case certain increases were announced.

Mr. Finlay Gibson, secretary to the Coal Owners’ Asso-
ciation, draws attention to the fact that a scheme of joint
output committees has already been tried in South Wales
and has failed. He shows that in May 1916, at request
of the Government, a joint meeting of colliery owners’
representatives and also of the Miners’ Federation took
place in London to devise means of increasing the out-
put, and it was unanimously decided to appoint local
committees “ to devise and put into operation effective
machinery for securing the attendance of all workmen to
the fullest possible extent, and to enquire into circum-
stances of cases where men who presented themselves at
the mine were not provided with work.” In South Wales
a joint sub-committee of the Conciliation Board drew up

a scheme under which a joint committee was to be
appointed at each pit, to enquire into causes of individual
absence, to post at the pit-head each day the number of
absentees, and to report to the Conciliation Board upon
the working of the scheme. The whole project was, how-
ever, taken up by the miners only half-heartedly, and it
ultimately fell through.

Mr. W. Lewis, agent for the Rhymney Valley miners,
has advised the men to concur in the appointment of joint
output committees, and the district meeting passed a reso-
lution recommending the men to take action “ as soon as
they found the employers ready to co-operate.”

Mr. S. Watts, of Watts, Watts and Company, colliery
owners, South Wales, has made a gift of £10,000 to King
George’s Fund for sailors.

North of England.

The dispute in connection with putters’ wages at the
five collieries of the Bedlington Coal Company Limited,
has been settled, the final offer of the agent, Mr. R. J.
Weeks, having been accepted.

Representatives of the Durham miners have had a con-
ference in Newcastle with the county coal owners as to
the setting up of pithead committees, with a view to bring-
ing about an increase in coal output. Nothing definite
has been arranged, and until such an agreement is come
to, the absenteeism committees will continue to act under
the old rules.

The executive and wages committees of the Northumber-
land Miners’ Association have determined that the asso-
ciation delegates to the Trade Union Congress shall oppose
the proposal to be made by Mr. Havelock Wilson for
the formation of a new trade union Labour Party, from
which such bodies as the Independent Labour Party should
be excluded. Similarly, the delegates are to oppose the
proposal that colliery workers should refuse to produce
coal to be supplied at coaling stations to German steamers
after the war, and to boycott German trade. In short,
the delegates are to oppose any proposal that is a violation
of Free Trade.

In a letter to the Press, Mr. Robt. Nuttall, secretary
of the Northern Under-managers’ and Colliery Officials’
Mutual Aid Association, makes a series of suggestions with
a view to combating the probable coal shortage during
the ensuing winter. He urges that the Government should
stop its “ insane policy of ignoring, in coal output and
general mining questions, the 30,000 colliery officials in
■reat Britain. Your output efforts,” he said, “ are vain
without the master shifter and his men. There would be
little safety and fewer empties without the under-manager,
deputy and the overmen, and the machinery would fail
to act without the engineer and surface officials. Then
why keep experienced men on these vital questions away
from conferences? Is ignorance afraid of the light?”
He advises that the Government should hold a series of
meetings in advocacy of large outputs, putting the same
fervour into it as in the case of a General Election; owners,
agents, managers, miners and official leaders to be the
speakers, along with Government experienced mining
representatives. He suggests, among other things, that
full working time should be solicited, and a quarterly or
monthly bonus paid for this, thus destroying the idea
of larger outputs and more profits for owners only.

The putters at the Page Bank Colliery of Messrs. Bell
Brothers Limited struck work on Monday, demanding an
increase of 9d. per score tubs. The strike spread to the
hewers,' and the pit was laid idle.

The ballot for the position of agent of the Whitehaven
Miners’ Joint Lodge, declared on Friday, resulted as
follows : Evan H. Evans, 1,367; Albert Sumpton, 242;
majority, 1,125.

Scotland.

Intimation has been made that 4d. per day has been
awarded by the Coal Controller to the female workers
employed at Polton Colliery, Midlothian. The increase
is to take effect from June 4.

At Carriden Colliery, West Lothian, the manager ex-
plained to a deputation of the workmen the position as
to the amount of stone work compared with coal output.
He claimed that in the circumstances some more time
should be given to allow of further development before
changing from the present methods.

When the claims of the coke oven and by-product
workers were being considered by the Committee on Pro-
duction, the owners (Messrs. Wm. Baird and Company)
refused to admit that the washers and labourers should
be admitted to the award. The committee decided to give
special cognisance to this point in making their decision.

The Lothians board of the miners’ union disapproved of
the draft rules submitted by the doctors’ committee, and
agreed to formulate a claim that the rules be on the lines of
those in Lanarkshire.

A meeting of the executive committee of the Scottish
Colliery Clerks’ Association was held on Saturday in
Glasgow. The award of the arbiter in the recent claim
by the members for an advance in wages gave rise to a
good deal of criticism. It was decided that a special
meeting of all the members of the association should

be summoned at the earliest possible moment to consider
what further action should be taken.

A dispute is pending at Kelty. The miners employed
there have been asking the company to pay their wages
on Friday of each week. The company refused, and the
men intimated that unless their demand is met they will
cease work at an early date.

Iron, Steel and Engineering Trades.

On Wednesday of last week a deputation representing
over 3,000 men from all parts of Great Britain visited the
Ministry of Munitions in connection with a demand for
increased pay for blastfurnacemen, cokemen employed
about the blastfurnaces, and ore miners connected with
blastfurnaces.

MINE RESCUE APPARATUS RESEARCH
COMMITTEE.

In submitting their first report to the Advisory
Council to the Committee of the Privy Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research, the Mine Rescue
Apparatus Research Committee draw attention to
certain serious defects in existing mine rescue appara-
tus, and in the training of men with those appliances,
in order that the requisite steps may be taken without
delay to remedy them. They also indicate the lines
along which improvement in apparatus is desired, in
fixing standards of achievement, and, generally, in
preparing the ground for further progress in experi-
mental investigations.

So far attention has been directed solely to the so-
called two-hour types of breathing apparatus, leaving
other forms for future consideration; and it is intended
to make further reports when the necessary work is
completed.

For the purposes of making inquiry and inspecting
the apparatus and stations, the committee visited 24
rescue stations in various parts of the country; and
these, almost without exception, proved to be well
situated and excellently planned and furnished.

Whilst making somewhat drastic recommendations
in regard to the present-day apparatus, the committee
state that it must not be inferred that they do not
appreciate the excellent qualities of some of the types
and the valuable work done by those who have laboured
to bring them to their present stage. The defects are
mainly in matters of detail, and, if improved in the
way suggested in the report, the apparatus should be
capable of doing rescue and recovery work under the
most trying circumstances.

Much credit is due for the work which has been
carried out by Colonel W. C. Blackett and Mr. F. P.
Mills in connection with the liquid air apparatus used
at the rescue stations in Northumberland and Durham.
Their efforts have resulted in many improvements
being made in the apparatus, and it can now be used
for hard work, whereas in the form in which it was
originally supplied it was of no practical use for under-
ground purposes. It is hoped that one result of the
labours of the committee will be still further to increase
the efficiency of this type, and Colonel Blackett’s offeT
of co-operation in further experiment in this connec-
tion is highly appreciated, and has been accepted.

As regards oxygen apparatus, the main features of
the design of the pioneer inventor (Mr. Henry A.
Ficuss) are still represented in some of the apparatus
of to-day. Excellent work has also been done by Sir
W. E. Garforth, Prof. Sir John Cadman, Mr. R. H.
Davis (of Messrs. Siebe, Gorman and Company), Mr.
George Blake Walker (of Tankersley), and a number of
the superintendents at the rescue stations, and for
this work they deserve the thanks and appreciation of
all connected with mining.

After giving detailed descriptions and illustrations
of the Proto (or Fleuss), Draeger, Meco (Westfalia, or
Securitas), Weg, Aerolith, Aerophor, Tissot, Gibbs,
and Pneumatogen apparatus, the report puts forward
a number of recommendations, to which we shall
return in our next issue.

Examination for Mine Managers’ Certificates. — An
examination for first and second-class certificates of com-
petency as manager and under-manager of mines will be
held on November 26 at Edinburgh, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Sheffield, Wigan, Cardiff and Birmingham. An examina-
tion for certificates of qualification as surveyor of mines
will be held at the same places on November 27. Candi-
dates must, on or before October 5, send their names and
state the district in which they are employed, to the
secretary at the Home Office, Whitehall, London, S.W.,
from whom all particulars can be obtained.