ON COAL-CUTTING xMACHINKRY. 



183 



machine ; and the following figures may be taken as representing a somewhat 

 favourable state of things for the latter. 



The seam is the " Middleton Main " or " Silkstone bed." The depth of 

 the mine is 160 yards, and the coal 4 feet thick ; there are two bands of shale, 

 with a thin layer of coal between them. 



The bottom portion is not always wholly merchantable ; but when it is so, 

 it yields one ton and a third of a ton per running yard. For the purpose, 

 however, of this comparison, I take 60 tons only per day (which would come 

 out of 45 yards of machine working). 



The Cost by Hand. 

 30 men cutting, filling, timbering, drilling, road- 



All cut 



on 



the end. 



laying, blasting, and all other needful wor'i 



ready in the corves for the" hurricr" at 4s. 5|rf. £ s. 



per ton 13 8 



9 



By Machine. 



machine man at 8s. 6d 



youth at 5s. Gd. ] , i . i x 



boy at 3s. 6^^. | (^'i^'^^ *« ^ "^«'^) 

 men cleaning and packing at 8s. 4c7. 

 6 men filling 10 tons each man, at 8^d. 



per ton 



3 men timbering at 6s. lOd. ........ 



3 men drilling and blowing down at 



6s. lOd 



g portion of cost of steam and air ex- 

 penses 



Maintenance at Id. per ton 



Eedemption of capital at 2d. per ton .... 



s. 

 8 

 5 

 3 

 5 



1 





 



d. 

 6 

 6 

 6 

 



3 



6 

 6 



1 14 



.5 



10 





 



8 13 9 



Difference, in money, in favour of the machine, or 



Is. 7d. per ton 4 15 



£13 8 9 



The two boys, it wUl be noticed, are taken as equal to one man ; and for 

 the purpose of another comparison, I wiU assume that by hand labour 

 thirty men will produce 60 tons per day, or two tons each, and that by 

 machine seventeen men will produce the same tonnage. The saving in 

 number, therefore, would be twelve men to every 60 tons, or upon a colliery 

 getting 4000 tons per week, the saving would be 132 men. 



I do not wish to press this point further than to say that the cost of 

 dwellings properly to domicile one half of this number would exceed the first 

 outlay of capital in furnishing a first-class colliery with first-class machinery 

 for cutting the coal ; and it must not be forgotten that the equipment of the 

 hand-cutters in tools forms a considerable item in the first cost of fitting up 

 a colliery. 



It has been generally supposed that our machines are not adapted for 

 *' pillar and stall work." 



That their locomotion " is not so easy as that of men," must of course be 



