coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

tendency to lose sight of certain other necessary
features of portable electric lamps. The first
consideration in the design of these lamps is to
have them safe so that they will not ignite gas
and so that they will not become extinguished
and leave a man in the dark, but while these
points are indispensable it is equally important
that the lamps shall be designed so that they
will be acceptable to the men who are to carry
them.
Portable electric lamps must be a compromise
between several more or less opposed requirements.
The fundamental considerations of
LAMP CAPAClTY
are the maximum allowable weight of battery,
the minimum allowable life of lamp bulbs. These
factors are all interdependent and must be properly
proportioned in order to produce an acceptable
net result. Other factors must also be kept
in mind. Bitter experience with gas explosions
led the early English miners to abandon the
comparatively brilliant light of the torch for the
feeble phosphorescence of fish scales and Ihe scarcely
less feeble scintillations of the steel mill. While
our modern, ventilated coal mines are probablymuch
less gassy than the unventilated mines of
the 13th century, nevertheless safety is just as
essential now as it was then, and it has proven
that miniature electric lamps can ignite gas if
broken under certain conditions obtainable in
practice. Therefore, portable electric lamps should
be provided with proper safeguards.
Acting upon the principle that the greatest
progress can be made by common efforts to the
same end the Bureau has attempted to further
the cause of the portable electric lamp by acting
as a sort of "go-between" for the miners and the
manufacturers in the work of preparing specifications
that will represent the kind of lamp that
will give the service required by the miners. I
wish here to acknowledge the great assistance
that the manufacturers have given to the Bureau,
and to state that they have at all times manifested
that spirit of co-operation without which progress
is impossible.
The Bureau would also like the co-operation of
this Institute in the matter of examining and
criticizing these specifications which will be sent
to any member interested.
The New Pittsburgh Coal Co., of Columbus, will
carry its own insurance under the Ohio compensation
law.
Contracts for supplying about 750.000 tons of
coal for the Italian state railways during 1914
have gone to Cardiff, Wales, and the price is to be
$3.89 to $4.01 per long ton f. o. b. Cardiff. The
coal is to be best Monmouthshire.
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 59
Coal miners and operators of Ohio have joined
in a request to Gov. Cox for legislative action for
the naming of a commission to investigate rate
making methods in the state, and particularly to
investigate the alleged discrimination on the part
of the railroads against Ohio operators in favor
of Pennsylvania and West Virginia operators.
The U. S. Circuit Court, of Appeals at Cincinnati
has affirmed the decision of the U. S. District
court at Toledo in fining the Hocking Valley railway
$42,000 for giving special concessions to the
Sunday Creek Co. in violation of the Elkins law.
The court also affirmed the decision assessing a
fine of $20,000 on the Sunday Creek Co.
J. Blair Kennedy, of Philadelphia, operating a
number of coal properties in Cambria county, Pa.,
was adjudged a voluntary bankrupt in the U. S.
District court at Philadelphia, Feb. 24. The liabilities
are placed at $603,032, and the assets at
$6,895. Edwin F. Hoffman has been named as
receiver for the bankrupt.
The National Trans-Continental Railway Co. of
Canada has just awarded a contract to Roberts &
Schaefer Co., of Chicago, for the building of six
large reinforced concrete locomotive coaling plants,
using the Holmen type coal bucket. The contract
price is approximately- $115,000.
The Noble-Williams Coal Co., Scranton, Pa., has
been placed in the hands of a receiver and W. G.
O'Malley, of Scranton, has been named receiver.
The action is an amicable one to conserve the
property of the company.
The fire in the mine of the Buck Ridge Coal Co.,
Shamokin, Pa., has been gotten under control by
drowning it out. The water will be left in the
mine for some little time to insure the complete
drowning out of the fire.
The new by-product coke plant of the Republic-
Iron & Steel Co. at Lansingville, O.. will be completed
and in operation by April 1, according to a
statement by President John A. Topping*.
The Producers Coke Co. is reported to have sold
to a Buffalo, N. Y., firm 90,000 tons of Connellsville
coke to be delivered 9,000 tons per month,
at a price of $2.10 ovens.
The Maynard Coal Co., Columbus, O., has announced
the abandonment of its No. 38 mine at
Cannellville, O.
The Harris Coal Co., Providence. Ky., has filed
a voluntary petition in bankruptcy.