Colliery Working and Management

Abstract

THREE hundred and forty years ago the learned German writer Agricola, enumerated, in the first book of his treatise, De re metallica, the various branches of knowledge that ought to be acquired by a mine manager. First he should be familiar with chemistry, geology, mineralogy and other branches of philosophy; secondly with medicine, that he may cope with the diseases and accidents to which miners are liable; thirdly with astronomy, that he may carry out scientific surveys; fourthly with geometry, that he may prepare underground plans and sections; next with arithmetic, that he may keep account of the mining costs; then with engineering, that he may construct machinery and buildings; also with drawing and colouring, that he may execute designs; and lastly with mining law, that he may avoid difficulties with others, and prevent his neighbours from taking advantage of him. Much more difficult are the problems with which the colliery managers of to-day have to deal. They have to extract coal from great depths, and to labour under stringent legislative enactments. In short, in the words of Mr. T. Forster Brown, the ideal colliery manager ought to be a scientific philosopher with a thoroughly practical knowledge of mining, of men, and of applied mechanics. The successful execution of the duties of a colliery manager implies the getting of the largest possible proportion of the workable coal in the best condition at the lowest possible cost, and with the greatest degree of safety to the miners. It is remarkable, therefore, that the methods of working the coal, and the arrangement and supervision of the labour employed, have received but slight consideration in the literature of coal-mining. This is due to the fact that Mr. H. W. Hughes' recently published text-book of coal-mining and the older treatises on the subject deal rather with mine engineering than with colliery working; and owing to the vast amount of matter to be dealt with, subjects relating to labour, wages, cost of working and systems of getting the coal, have to be crowded into one or two chapters. Mr. Bulman and Mr. Redmayne, who are both experienced colliery managers of great literary ability, are therefore to be congratulated on having-supplied an authoritative work dealing with a side of the subject which has hitherto received but scant treatment.

Colliery Working and Management.

By H. F. Bulman R. A. S. Redmayne. Pp. xvi + 330. (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1896.)