September 27, 1918.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

651

being made which showed that the steam coal of Illa-
w’arra, although higher in ash and in fixed carbon than
the bituminous coal of Newcastle, produced a harder
coke, cellular and better adapted to withstand the
pressures in large furnaces, whilst its ash content was
not materially higher than in coke from Newcastle.
To make one ton of Newcastle coke quite two tons
of coal are used, while from 26 to 27 cwt. of Southern
coal are only required.

Mount Lyell began the erection of ovens at Port
Kembla, and soon after the Broken Hill Proprietary
erected a larger plant at South Bulli; South Clifton
Colliery erected a plant of beehive ovens, and other
smelting and private companies have erected large
batteries of ovens near the other collieries. The saving
in the cost of coke to the Broken Hill company must
have been very considerable. It was early found that
rectangular ovens that dealt with larger charges saved
time and expense in charging, and enabled the coke
to be pushed out by electrical or hydraulic pushes or
rams, gave better results than beehive ovens.

Careful consideration was given to the adoption of
bye-product ovens, but the proposal was abandoned as
unpayable with southern coal on account of the low yield
of tar and ammonium sulphate in the lean coals, the

SHAFT. 18 FEET tN DIAMETER

SHAFT SURFACE.

2886

HAWKESBURV

SANDSTONE.

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NARRABEEN X

BED.

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V2278

23361

Horizontal Scale

Ver tical Scale o «. a
t- £ E V

Fig. 8.—Longitudinal* Section of Main

East Heading at Sydney Harbour Colliery, Balmain.

great cost of importing (in part due to the excessive
tariff) and erecting by-product plant from Europe, and
the additional cost of sending the products to Europe.
A modification of the Welsh or Thomas oven gained
favour. The first battery was erected with side and
bottom flues measuring 21 ft. by 4 ft. by 5J ft. Smelt-
ing companies erected ovens measuring 30 ft. by 2 ft.
9 in. by 6 ft., with horizontal side and bottom flues.
Other companies adopted larger ovens 30 ft. by 6 ft.
8 in. by 6J ft. and 30 ft. by 8 ft. by 5| ft., some with
vertical flues and some without. All the batteries use
small coal crushed fine. Eight companies have up to
the present erected 602 ovens. With the exception of
the beehive plant, all the others use hydraulic, electric,
or steam pushes and levellers. Qiae employs a
Buchanan compressoz' and charging box, in which the
duff is pushed into the oven, and two quench the
coke by sprayers. In the majority of the plants a
portion of the waste gases is used to raise steam for
use on the coke plant or for the generating plants
at the mines.

The numerous difficult conditions imposed by wages
boards have much increased the already high cost of
laboui' at the ovens. The excessive overtime imposed
for work done between noon on Saturday and Monday
morning has necessitated alterations of the usual prac-
tice of working ovens continuously, and charges are
now adjusted so as to avoid Saturday afternoon or
Sunday drawing. It has been found most suitable
to burn for 72 hours. The higher temperature re-
quired for 24 hours’ burning necessitates the use of
a higher quality of firebrick than has yet been made
in Australia, the cost of which from Europe would
be prohibitive.

The output of the wider coke ovens is nearly double
that of the narrower ovens, which, owing to labour
restrictions, cannot obtain the advantages in the
arrangement of flues that they possess. The coke can
be quenched in the wider ovens, and this avoids the
dust and heat that mainly appeals to non-technical
tribunals and largely contributes to the increased cost
of laboui' and other hampering conditions. With the
exception of one battery, the various ovens are charged
through three or four openings from large canisters
mechanically moved above the ovens that discharge
their contents. The doors are raised and lowered by
hydraulic power. In the year 1892 Newcastle produced
12,262 tons and the southern district 5,595 tons of
coke; in 1914 Newcastle produced 28,264 and the
Southern district 276,536 tons, which in 1915 was
increased to 333,619.

Household Coal.—A recent issue of the official Board
of Trade Journal contains the following : The latest
figures in possession of the Coal Controller regarding,
the stocks of house coal in certain parts of the country
make it clear that supplies in hand are dangerously low,
and that the utmost economy in the use of coal, coke,
gas and electric light is necessary in every household in
the kingdom. So far as London is concerned, there were
on August 31 182,000 tons of coal in stock. How short
this is of actual requirements may be gathered from the
fact that early in March at the end of last winter there
were in stock 341,000 tons. In Birmingham the stock
on March 2 of 5,563 tons had fallen to 2,086 tons by the
end of August, and in Liverpool the stock on March 2
of 9,573 tons had declined to 2,368 tons on August 31.
This time last year most of the private cellars in this
country were stocked with coal. This year, unfortunately,
there is every reason to believe that a large proportion
still remain to be filled.

MINE RESCUE APPARATUS RESEARCH
COMMITTEE: FIRST REPORT.*

RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING RESCUE
APPARATUS.

(Continued from page 601.J

__	Training of Rescue Brigades.

The aim should be to make a training gallery re-
semble the roadway of a mine aftez' an explosion; neat-
ness and regularity are therefore out of place and
undesirable. The gallery at Wath-on-Dearne is excel-
lent in this respect. The floor, which consists of
broken shale, is made very irregular; zones of displaced
and disturbed timber are realistically arranged; the
walls are of brick, and the air of the gallery can be
made hot as well as irrespirable. There is also an
excellent underground training gallery of this descrip-
tion at Chesterfield. The plant adopted at Wakefield
Station of providing a dark underground practice
ground extending under a large part of the premises,
in addition to the usual gallery, is worthy of imitation.

Organisation of Rescue Training.—Some mines are
so situated that attachment to a central rescue station
is impracticable; others lie within reach of a central
station but are unconnected with it, either because
the owners are not members of the Coal Masters’ Asso-
ciation controlling the station, or because the owners
consider that pecuniary or other advantages accrue by
dealing with rescue training themselves. Cases of
unattached mines at which rescue instruction is of
a high standard form a minority. Instructing bri-
gades, practising trained men and maintaining appa-
ratus are specialised operations which can be conducted
more efficiently at a central station than at individual
mines. Unattached mines within range of a central

station are a source of weakness and possibly of
danger, for if a serious disaster befell the mine, the
station could not refuse its assistance; it would then
be required to co-operate with men whose efficiency
would be an unknown quantity and whose apparatus
may differ from the station equipment. If a central
station is in existence, no coal mine within the ten
miles radius should be permitted to remain unattached
to it. The inclusion of non-members’ collieries within
the system of service of an association rescue station
need present no special difficulty. Some stations have
already made the arrangement, a higher rate of sub-
scription being generally charged.

The Choice of Systems.—Opinion among instructors
and others is divided upon the question as to whethei’
the resident brigade system is to be preferred to the
system of non-resident brigades. As a matter of fact,
that question hardly admits of a general answer, foi'
it is considerably influenced by the size of the station’s
district and the character of the mines in that district.
There is no doubt that, when the district is large, the
permanent brigade system gives the station staff less
work, since the number of men drawn from the mines
for training is then small. Indeed, in a few of the
most populous districts, to train under the older non-
resident system would involve such continual heavy
work at the station that the teaching staff would have
to be much increased to cope with it, and the weai'
and tear on apparatus would be correspondingly
heavier. A resident brigade becomes more familiar
with the apparatus than does a colliery brigade. This
is owing, not to any difference in the original course
of training, but to the infrequency of the practices
of the colliery brigade after its training is completed.

Medical and Physical Examinations.—At present
the only test of suitability for a would-be brigade
membei' is that he shall be examined by a doctor who
certifies as to his condition. It is suggested that,
in addition to that examination, the applicant should
undergo a physical test and satisfy the instructoi’ of
his physical ability before the course of training com-
mences. The chief technical officer at a rescue station
should have power under General Regulations of re-
jecting any person whom he considers physically,
mentally or temperamentally unsuitable for a place
in a rescue team, even though the person should possess
a medical certificate to the effect that he is organically
sound. He should also have power to discharge from
a team a trained man should age, illness or accident
make the trained man unfit to continue as a brigade
member; and it would be a safeguard if every member
of a rescue team or corps were medically examined once
a year. In some districts the medical examinations
are made by local doctors, while in others an inde-
pendent doctoi’ undertakes all such examinations at
the station itself. The latter plan affords a juster
and more uniform standard and centralises the respon-
sibility. Moreover, it facilitates co-operation between
the medical man and the instructor, and that is
entirely desirable.

Age Limits.—Twenty-three years (an age for which
the Coal Mines Act itself provides certain precedents)
might be accepted as the lowest for an acting member
of a rescue brigade or corps. There is no objection
to a youngei' man receiving training if physically fit,
provided that he is not enrolled as a brigade membei’
until 23. No man over 45 years of age should be
accepted for training in a brigade or corps, nor should
an ordinary member remain in the brigade after he

* See Colliery Guardian, September 6, 1918.

reaches 50 years. Mine officials, however, and espe-
cially such officials as under-managers and oversmen
serving as captains, should, if active and physically fit,
be allowed to remain members of brigades even though
over 50, owing to their great value as leaders. It is,
in fact, not advisable to lay down a hard-and-fast rule
for the retirement of captains; it is better to leave
each case to be judged on its merits.

Quarterly Practices.—Several instructors remarked
upon the need, in their opinion, of holding the prac-
tices of the trained men drawn from the mines more
often than quarterly. There is no necessity to advo-
cate any change in the regulations on this point.
Neither General Regulation 140 (d) (ii) nor the
Scheme of Training and Practice under the amended
General Regulations of May 1914 make any hard-and-
fast requirement for quarterly practices; they state
that there shall be at least one practice every quarter
with breathing apparatus.

Underground Practices.—By the present regula-
tions at least two of the four practices to be under-
taken in any year as a minimum by a trained colliery
brigade must take place at the mine. In some areas
this rule is conscientiously followed; in others no
practices are carried out at the mines. Many persons
are still of the opinion that work in a gallery is a
severer test on the apparatus than work in the mine,
and they express a preference for gallery practices
on that ground. It cannot be too frequently insisted
that, from the standpoint of respiratory exertion,
walking along a flat road, and especially climbing an
incline, is much more severe than the kind of labour
usually performed in the restricted space of a station
gallery, and therefore a more stringent test of the
capability of the apparatus and its wearer. An appa-
ratus may behave satisfactorily in a gallery but break
down in the pit. Underground practices are essential,
and the rule which relates to them should be strictly
observed.

It should be made compulsory for resident corps to
undergo at least six underground practices with
breathing apparatus per year; these practices should
as far as possible take place at different mines, and
on each of these occasions the corps should be accom-
panied by trained men connected with the mine, who
also should wear breathing apparatus. To facilitate
these practices it should be permissible for the in-
structor to divide a corps into two or three squads,
should he desire, and for the squads to take under-
ground drill on different days. The purpose of these
drills at the mines is to make the members aware of
the behavioui' of the apparatus under conditions (e.g.,
climbing inclines) which involve hard respiratory exer-
tion, to accustom them to travelling underground roads
of all kinds with apparatus, to familiarise them with
at least some part of the workings in their area, and
to bring them into frequent contact with the trained
men of the mines. Arrangements should be made
that one-half of the practices of the trained men
employed at the mines take place underground.

Resident Brigade System.—The resident brigade
system has not yet been put to the proof of actual
service in first magnitude accidents. It is therefore
impossible to say how it will compare with the oldei’
system in such a case. Experience at the Norton Hill
and Podmore Hall collieries, however, makes it certain
that recovery after a large scale explosion may call for
the services of rescue brigades without pause for a
protracted period, and, having regard to the brevity
of a shift with breathing apparatus, the doubt arises
as to whether the resident brigade system would in
these circumstances provide a sufficiency of reserve
teams. Evidently it would be necessary to fall back
upon squads formed from trained men drawn from
othei’ mines, and such an eventuality should, we think,
be borne in mind during the training and subsequent
practising of these men. We suggest that, except
where the number at a mine be sufficient to form in
themselves an efficient brigade) the trained men be
grouped together, so far as is practicable, into definite
brigades, each of not less than five members, who train
and practise together. A brigade so constituted would
be vastly more reliable at a time of stress than one
built up, on the spur of the moment, of men who
may be strangers to each other.

The Staffing of Central Stations.—A central station
at which the instructor is without a single assistant
must on occasion be left without an attendant. Two
competent persons should be the minimum number
employed at even the smallest central station. By
the term “ competent person ” is understood an officer
capable of taking full charge of the station, conversant
with the use and adjustment of the appliances, able
to give instruction in the subjects prescribed in
training men in rescue work, and qualified to drive
the motor car at the station. These persons should
either reside at or adjoining the station, or have their
houses in telephonic communication therewith.

Mr. Stevenson’s Scheme of Station Organisation.—
Mr. David Stevenson, of Cowdenbeath Rescue Station,
submitted to the Committee a scheme of organisation
which possesses several advantages. He proposes that
there shall be a permanent corps attached to the
station, and that the members shall live at the station
or in its vicinity. In place, however, of having the
corps continuously employed at the station, Mr.
Stevenson considers that the men should be engaged
at one or more of the neighbouring mines. They
would then be kept in daily touch with practical
mining and in hard physical condition.

Regulations should be drafted to allow of this system
being adopted should it be preferred to either of the
present systems. The regulations might require, inter
alia, that—(a) The central corps (apart from the
station officers) should consist of not less than fifteen
men; (6) these men should be distributed equally over
the three working shifts; (c) they should not be em-
ployed at mines distant more than two miles froin
the rescue station; (d) the central corps should live
at the station or in its vicinity, and their houses (if
apart from the station) should be connected to the
station by telephones or electric alarms; (e) after