then discharge about 1,600 gallons of water per minute. Four catch-beams are placed in the shaft, as a provision against breakage of the rods or making too long strokes. A steam crab-winch, with a pair of cylinders, 8 inches in diameter by 12 inches stroke, geared to lift a weight of 35 tons, is built in readiness for any repair to the pumps or pump-rods that may be necessary, but it has not as yet been required. Boilers. Steam is generated in 6 Lancashire steel boilers, 30 feet long by 8 feet in diameter, constructed for a working pressure of 120 pounds per square inch, but working at present 80 pounds. The boilers are fitted with mechanical stokers (4 Vicars and 1 Bennis) and the sixth boiler is being fitted with the Munro perfect-combustion appliance. The draught for the boiler-fires is produced by a Chandler single-inlet exhausting fan, 8 feet in diameter, running at 250 revolutions per minute, driven direct by an engine, with a cylinder 15 inches in diameter, and discharging the gases into a chimney, 30 feet high. A Green economizer, consisting of 360 tubes, is placed in the main flue, between the boilers and the fan. The feed-water is forced through the economizer into the boilers by a Pearn pump, with two cylinders, 8 inches in diameter by 8 inches stroke; and the temperature of the water is raised to 260° Fahr. before entering the boilers. The temperature of the flue-gases, on leaving the boilers, is about 600° Fahr., and, after passing the economizer, it is reduced to about 280° Fahr. Pithead. The pithead-scaffolding and screen-erections are built of wrought-iron girders, resting on cast-iron columns. The floor of the pithead is laid with cast-iron plates, and the whole building is enclosed with galvanized corrugated iron. For each of the three screens, there is a revolving tippler, worked by friction-gear from the screen-engine, with a backward movement to moderate the fall of the coal. In each screen, the coal-feeding or spreading plate, the screen proper, and the picking-table, are combined in one piece, the longest being 93 feet, and made of steel. The feeding-plate is 21 feet long by 5 feet wide, with a fall of 11⁄2 inches per foot; the screen, with perforations, is 15 feet long by 5 feet wide, with a fall of 3 inches per foot; the picking-table is 57 feet long by 4 feet wide, with a fall of 13 inches per foot; and the combination rests and vibrates on rockers. Each screen is actuated by a steam-engine, with a cylinder 8 inches in diameter by 12 inches stroke. The Luhrig coal-washing plant is capable of treating 500 tons of dross per day. The railway-sidings have a gradient of 1 in 80, on one of which there has just been fitted a wagon-controller, which permits of the coal-wagons, when they are loading at the screens, being moved and stopped as the trimmer requires, without the necessity of his descending to the railway to take out or put in the trig, the controller being operated by the trimmer at the wagon-top.* A steam-hoist is used for raising material from the surface to the pithead-level, with a cylinder 12 inches in diameter by 8 feet stroke. Electric Machinery.-The electric installation is driven by a Tangye girder steam-engine, with Tangye-Johnson automatic cut-off gear, with a cylinder, 14 inches in diameter by 28 inches stroke. A belt from the flywheel of the engine drives countershafting, from which three dynamos are driven by belting. One dynamo, with an output of 75 ampères at 400 volts, and 700 revolutions per minute, supplies current to the electromotor which drives the ventilating-fan at the Howgill day-mine, at a distance or 4,600 feet. It also supplies current to a motor which drives a three-throw pump, with rams, 6 inches in diameter by 9 inches stroke, placed at the side of the Douglas water; and when running at a speed of 50 revolutions per minute it discharges 120 gallons of water per minute to a reservoir, which supplies the boilers, etc. Another dynamo, with an output of 80 ampères at 250 volts, and 750 revolutions per minute, is used for lighting the works at the surface, and the pit-bottoms and underground stables. The third dynamo, of the same dimensions as the last, is used for lighting the workmen's houses at the village of Douglas Water, about 1 mile distant. * Trans. Inst. M.E., 1902, vol. xxiv., page 122. THE MINING INSTITUTE OF SCOTLAND. GENERAL MEETING, HELD AT DOUGLAS COLLIERY, AUGUST 16TH, 1902. MR. HENRY' AITKEN, PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. The minutes of the last General Meeting were read and confirmed. The following gentlemen were elected: MEMBERS Mr. JOHN BROWN, Kilmarnock. Mr. ADAM CHALMERS, Cultrigg Colliery, Fauldhouse. Mr. WILLIAM MCCREATH, 208, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. Mr. WILLIAM WILSON, Climpy Colliery, Forth, Lanark. Mr. ROBERT YOUNG, Bellfield Colliery, Coalburn. ASSOCIATE MEMBER Mr. THOMAS B. DUNN, 21, Bothwell Street, Glasgow. ASSOCIATE Mr. ROBERT CRAWFORD, Muirfield, Loanhead. STUDENT Mr. ROBERT LAWRENCE ANGUS, Lugar Iron-works, Cumnock. VOL. XXIV-1902-1903. 8 THE MINING INSTITUTE OF SCOTLAND. GENERAL MEETING, HELD IN DOWELL'S ROOMS, EDINBURGH, OCTOBER 11TH, 1902. MR. DAVID M. MOWAT, VICE-PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR. The minutes of the last General Meeting were read and confirmed. The following gentlemen were elected: MEMBERS Mr. ANDREW BARRIE, Southrigg Colliery, Armadale. Mr. ANDREW HENDERSON, Gartsherrie Colliery, Coatbridge. Mr. GEORGE MILLER, Jherria Post Office, District Manbhum, Bengal, India. Mr. FRANK B. SMITH, Calgary, North-West Territory, Canada. Mr. GEORGE FREDERICK TURNER, Clyde, Otago, New Zealand. Mr. JAMES WATSON, 91, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh. ASSOCIATE MEMBER Mr. ROBERT FORRESTER, 142, West Nile Street, Glasgow. DISCUSSION OF MR. JAMES BARROWMAN'S PAPER ON "WHAT IS THE LEAST POSSIBLE WASTE IN WORKING COAL." The CHAIRMAN (Mr. D. M. Mowat) remarked that Mr. Barrowman had introduced a most important subject, in view of the fact that the Royal Commission on Coal-supplies were including it in their investigations. Mr. JAMES BARROWMAN said that the difficulty of getting wayleaves, referred to by Mr. R. T. Moore,† was considered ten * Trans. Inst. M.E., 1902, vol. xxiii., pages 55 and 149. years ago by the Royal Commission on Mining Royalties, who obtained evidence upon it. The result of that enquiry was generally to the effect, that while in a few cases there might be difficulty in coal-masters obtaining wayleaves, when they desired them; on the whole it was not a public question, and was more a matter between proprietors than one affecting the coal-masters and the public. The circumstance that any mineral-proprietor should hold his minerals and prevent them from being worked until they were cut off, or drowned, or otherwise rendered unworkable, must be a very rare occurrence, and the refusal of a proprietor to give a wayleave through his lands for coal can, so soon as it becomes a question affecting the public prejudicially, be overcome by Act of Parliament. The Royal Commission on Mining Royalties suggested a simpler tribunal before which unreasonable landlords could be brought, and expressed the opinion that "if such a remedy were open to persons who conceived themselves to be aggrieved by the unreasonable refusal of facilities for the passage of minerals, difficulties would be readily arranged by private agreement, and that only in very rare instances, if ever, would it be necessary to have recourse to compulsory proceedings." On the motion of the Chairman, a hearty vote of thanks was given to Mr. James Barrowman for his valuable paper, and the discussion was closed. 66 DISCUSSION OF MR. JAMES BAIRD'S DESCRIPTION OF UNDERGROUND HAULAGE AT MOSSBLOWN COLLIERY, AYRSHIRE."* The CHAIRMAN (Mr. D. M. Mowat) said that the detail of haulage arrangements was one of the most important subjects that could be discussed, because success or failure depended on the efficient combination of the details of the haulage. They might have a grand scheme, and yet everything might go wrongly simply because the details had not been properly studied. He asked whether Mr. Baird had experienced any difficulty in placing a new rope on the horizontal wheels, for he had been told that difficulty had been experienced in adjusting the rope on a Clifton * Trans. Inst. M.E., 1902, vol. xxiii., page 155. |