The ORDINARY MEETING of the Members was held on Tuesday, 12th January, 1904, in the Society's Rooms, 5, John Dalton Street, Manchester. Mr. JOHN ASHWORTH, Vice-President (in the absence of the President), in the Chair. NEW MEMBERS. The following gentlemen were balloted for and unanimously elected Ordinary Members of the Society :— Mr. HUBERT BRADSHAW, Yew Tree House, Stone- Mr. J. DICKSON, Westhoughton Colliery, Westhoughton, Mr. W. DIXON, Manager, Eccleston Hall Colliery, Mr. PETER HIGSON, 18, Booth Street, Manchester. "Coal Cutting by Electricity" The following Paper on was read by Mr. ALFRED J. TONGE: COAL-CUTTING BY ELECTRICITY. BY MR. ALFRED J. TONGE. I came very I hope you will not be disappointed at the meagreness of the few notes which I have strung together upon coalcutting, and which I beg leave to read to you. near to "special pleading" before the esteemed the Society to liberate me from this task. rested with him, and I can now appreciate the troubles of those who have been through the same conflict. I have been really loth to take this subject for two reasons: First, because of the valuable and complete papers that have lately been read before the Society, and Second, because of the wide field which it is possible to cover, and my inability to devote the close attention necessary to encompass it. I therefore only claim to supplement the papers on this subject already referred to. My experience in coal-cutting at the Hulton Collieries dates from June, 1899, when we installed our first cutter in the Half-Yard Mine. What exactly possessed us at that time I cannot now say. The scarcity of thin seam colliers and the desire to keep abreast of the times were the chief reasons for our looking into the question of coal-cutters. After visiting various collieries and seeing a few kinds of electric cutters at work, we choose a "Jeffrey" disc long-wall cutter as the most suitable of the electric machines for our purpose. We now have six electric cutters working day after day, and have others ready to be again put to work in other districts. TYPES OF CUTTERS. When I say that we have four types of cutters at thought that we have carried our collieries it may be experimentation too far. I do not find that we have suffered much from this. Each make of cutter we have tried has some special feature which suits the mine. At any rate this was the object in our choice each time. The characteristics of each cutter are known to most. The "Jeffrey" was our first choice because it seemed best at that time for thin seams-running on one rail, cutting on the floor level, being very compact, light, and low. It was put in the Half-Yard Seam. (The "Diamond" machines at that time were not driven by electricity). This machine we afterwards transferred to the 1 ft. 8 in. seam, and a second one was purchased. The next type of machine tried was the "Diamond" long-wall cutter. This we got for a thicker seam, a deeper undercut, and to cut above floor level. The "Diamond" was also put in a fourth seam, although by this time we had returned to a shallower cut, and to cutting on the floor level. The "Morgan-Gardner" chain machine was obtained chiefly for the purpose of dispensing with the use of rails in thin seams and its compactness. And lastly, a "Hurd" three-phase bar cutter and a "Diamond" three-phase disc cutter have been purchased to work at our New Pits. The choice of three-phase cutters is very limited, so we chose all the types. I am not able to say anything whatever of the threephase cutters as we have not yet tried them, so that any particulars given later refer only to continuous current machines. |
