1 87 1.] Metallurgy. 137 



One of the most effectual means of ultimately ameliorating the condition of 

 the miner will be found in the gradual substitution of mechanical power for 

 manual labour in underground work. It is therefore with much interest that 

 we watch the progress of coal-getting machines. Messrs. Winstanley and 

 Barker, of Manchester, have patented an improved mode of constructing 

 machinery for holing or cutting coal. In this apparatus, a greater or less 

 number of cutters or knives are securely fixed, by means of- wedges and 

 screws, to the circumference of a horizontal toothed wheel. Motion is 

 imparted by the action of a pair of oscillating cylinders, worked either by 

 compressed air or by steam : the piston-rods are connected to the crank-shaft, 

 at the lower end of which is keyed a toothed pinion gearing with the spur- 

 wheel or cutter. As the machine is slowly moved along the working face of 

 the coal — for example, by means of a crab in front — the knives cut into the 

 coal, and when the whole face has been holed, the cutting wheel may, by an 

 appropriate arrangement, be brought under the body of the apparatus so as to 

 facilitate the transit of the machine along the narrow passages of a colliery. 



Mr. Mark Fryar suggests the use of simple hand-worked machines for coal- 

 getting in the Indian collieries, where labour is cheap and complicated 

 machinery expensive. 



We are glad to hear that the hydraulic wedge, invented some time ago by 

 Mr. J. Grafton Jones, has lately been working with considerable success at the 

 Kiverton Park Collieries, near Sheffield. A hole having been drilled into the 

 coal by means of a special drilling apparatus, the hydraulic wedge is inserted : 

 by the action of a small screw-pump, a strong ram is powerfully forced against 

 the steel wedge, which is thus driven between the inclined faces of two steel 

 pressing blocks, and these by their lateral motion break the coal along its 

 plane of cleavage. The use of gunpowder in blasting coal, which so often 

 leads to disastrous results in fiery pits, is thus avoided. 



An improved safety-lamp has been patented by Messrs. Teale and Co., of 

 Manchester. The body is constructed on the principle of a sponge or portable 

 gas-lamp, and thus a light is obtained at once more brilliant and less expensive 

 than when oil is used. This sponge-lamp is screwed to the cage of an 

 ordinary Stephenson or Clanny, which carries upon the inside two horizontal 

 hinges working upwards : these allow, the body to be readily screwed on, but 

 on unscrewing the lamp they force a sliding tube over the wick, and thus ex- 

 tinguish the flame. The lamp is also furnished with a lock and stop, by which 

 the miner is prevented from disconnecting the reservoir from the cage. 



METALLURGY. 



From the " Mineral Statistics," recently issued for 1869, we learn that from 

 those minerals which are smelted the following quantities of metals have been 

 obtained — the quantities being coupled with their respective values : — 



Tons. 



Pig-iron 5>445>757 



Tin 



Copper 



Lead 



Zinc 



Silver ozs. 



Gold „ 



Other metals (estimated) 



Total value of metals produced in the United) r c c 

 Kingdom in 1869 .. j £ J 7fiS^7^7 



An attempt has been made by M. Le Brun-Virloy to smelt iron ores in 

 horizontal, inclined, or vertical furnaces, and yet to expose them to conditions 

 similar to those which obtain in the blast-furnace. The ore is reduced to 

 small fragments, which are mixed with such an amount of carbonaceous matter 

 as is needful to effect their reduction, and with the proper proportion of fluxing 



VOL. VIII. (O.S.) VOL. I. (N.S.) T 



Tons. 



£ 



445>757 



. 13,614,397 



9.760 



1,201,456 



8,291 



644,065 



73*259 



i>397'4i5 



4,500 



92,400 



831,891 



207,972 



18 . 



62 



— 



500,000 



