Excursion Meeting Of Students,

Bearpark Colliery, May 1st, 1901.

About 40 students and associates visited Bearpark colliery.

Bearpark colliery is situated in the valley of the Browney, and the Busty coal-seam is being worked at a depth of 396 feet. ln the centre of the valley, the Coal-measures have been denuded, and the valley filled up with diluvial and alluvial deposits to a depth of about 150 feet, under which the seam is being worked. The coal is carried by means of travelling scrapers, over screens with bars of various widths, on to picking-belts; and this arrangement deals with the varying conditions of the coal (either wet or dry, small or round) better than shaking-screens, which clog and cause vibration of the heapsteads, The coal after having been cleaned is passed through Carr disintegrators and reduced to small for coking purposes. A separate shaft has been sunk for the purpose of carrying the workmen into and out of the mine, at which the coals front the Hutton seam are drawn.

The coke-yard comprises two double rows of beehive coke-ovens (which are loaded by small locomotive engines), and a battery of 50 Simon-Carves retort-ovens, and the tar, pitch, ammonia and naphtha are recovered.

Steam is produced from boilers heated by the waste-gases from the coke-ovens, and the exhaust-steam from the principal engines is conveyed to a central condensing-plant worked by an independent engine.