The following notes record some of the features of interest seen by visitors to collieries, works, etc., which were, by kind permission of the owners, open for inspection during the course of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting on September 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th, 1902:—

Cambois colliery, owned by the Cowpen Coal Company, Limited, is situated on the sea-coast, 2¼ miles north of the town of Blyth.

There are two pits sunk on the royalty, 75 feet apart. The downcast and winding shaft, 15½ feet in diameter, contains pumps, steam-pipes and electric cables. The upcast and ventilating shaft, 14 feet in diameter, is used as a relief shaft, in case of an accident happening to the downcast shaft.

The Low Main seam is worked at a depth of 636 feet and the Yard seam at 435 feet; and the coal from the Yard seam is run down a drift, 1,560 feet in length with a gradient of 1 in 12, to the level of the Low Main seam.

The Low Main seam, with an average section of 5 feet, is worked by the bord-and-wall system, and the workings extend 8,000 feet under the North Sea.

The Yard seam, with an average section of 2 2/3 feet, is worked by the longwall system : all the coal is removed, and the engine-planes are made in packed roads.

The vertical condensing winding-engine, built about 1863, has a cylinder 65 1/8 inches in diameter and 7 feet stroke, with a rope-drum, 22 feet in diameter. Steam is supplied at a pressure of 20 pounds per square inch. The pulleys are 16 feet in diameter. Plough-steel ropes, 4½ inches in circumference, are used. The weight of the cages and ropes is counterbalanced by an iron-wire balance-rope of the same size as the winding-rope, attached to the bottom of the cages and running in a groove (without a wheel) in the bottom scaffold. Four tubs, each carrying 13 cwts. of coal, 2 tubs on a deck, are raised at a lift.

The haulage is on the main-and-tail rope system, worked by three Fowler semi-portable engines. Two of the hauling-engines have cylinders 14 inches in diameter, and the third has cylinders 12 inches in diameter, and all of 14 inches stroke, and geared 3 to 1. Steam is supplied at a pressure of 70 pounds per square inch. The steam is brought down the shaft by a range of wrought-iron pipes, 9 inches in diameter, secured by steel-channel collarings, every 15 feet, and fitted with three expansion-joints in the range. Thirty-eight tubs are run in a set in the Low Main seam, and 28 in the Yard seam. The haulage-ropes are made of improved steel, 2½ inches in circumference. The average distance hauled is about 6,000 feet from seven landings, the farthest being 8,700 feet, and the nearest 3,120 feet.

The ventilation of 150,000 cubic feet per minute at 1 inch of water-gauge is produced by means of a furnace, with a fire-grate area of 126 square feet, burning duff and refuse-coal.

The horizontal pumping-engine, placed at the bottom of the downcast shaft, has 2 cylinders each 22 inches in diameter, and 2 ram-pumps, 9 inches in diameter, all of 5 feet stroke, and is capable of dealing with 400 gallons of water per minute.

The heapstead is carried on cast-iron columns with rolled iron girders, and is covered and roofed with corrugated iron. The screening-plant is capable of dealing with 1,500 tons of coal per day. It comprises three jigging-screens and picking-belts, and one small coal-belt. Each screen is arranged so that, by altering a trap in the small-coal hopper, the small coal can be diverted on to the main picking-belts should unscreened coal be required. The picking-belts are 75 feet long and 4 feet wide, and travel at the rate of 75 feet per minute. The full tubs are conveyed from the weighing-table to the tipplers by creeper-chains, and after teaming are raised by steam-lifts, which in ascending turn a quarter revolution to the level necessary to enable the tubs to gravitate back to the shaft. The coal, from the tipplers, falls on to spreading belts rising 1 in 7½ to the jigger-screens. The whole of the screening-plant is driven by an horizontal engine, fitted with automatic expansion-gear, with a cylinder 12½ inches in diameter and 26 inches stroke.

Steam is generated in 7 Lancashire boilers, 28 feet long and 8 feet in diameter, working at a pressure of 100 pounds per square inch ; and 5 Lancashire boilers, 28 feet long and 7 feet in diameter at 45 pounds per square inch. All the boilers are fired with washed duff coal. The high-pressure steam is reduced to suit requirements by being passed through reducing valves.

The electric-power plant consists of a 40 units dynamo, driven by an horizontal engine, with a cylinder 13½ inches in diameter and 30 inches stroke, supplied with steam at a pressure of SO pounds per square inch. The current is conveyed to 6 pumps underground, situated at distances varying from 4,500 to 7,500 net from the generating-station. Each pump is driven by a 6 horsepower motor. The shaft-cables, with 19 wire's of No. 13 Birmingham wire-gauge, have a resistance of 4,000 megohms; and the underground cables range from 19 wires of No. 14 wire-gauge to 7 wires of No. 17 gauge, with a resistance of 2,000 megohms. The steam for this engine is generated in a locomotive type of boiler at the power-station. An Arons wattmeter is fixed in the engine-house on the main cable, in order that the output of the dynamo may be continuously recorded. This plant has been in continuous use for the last 8 years.

The under-clay and blue-shale, sent out of the mine, is manufactured into bricks by a machine with an output of 10,000 bricks a day. The machine is driven by an engine, similar to that driving the screening-plant, and takes its steam from the main boilers. The bricks are burnt in ordinary kilns, each holding 8,000 bricks.

About 300 tons of small coal per day can be treated in the coal-washing plant, which consists of an elevator with stamped-steel buckets, a Robinson washer, and two revolving duff-riddles, each 13 feet long and 4 feet in diameter, with a gauze of inch mesh, all driven with chain-drives by an engine of the same dimensions as that working the screening-plant. When nut coal is being made, the duff, taken from it, can be washed at the same time.

A private railway, 2 miles in length, connects the colliery with the Cowpen Coal Company, Limited's staithes on the river Blyth. There are two shipping-staithes, with two spouts each. The west staithe is 40 feet, and the east staithe 36 feet, above high-water mark, and there is a depth of 24 feet at low-water at each. The east staithe is fitted with an anti-breakage apparatus, which has received the approval of the Admiralty. It consists of a box, holding 2½ tons of coal, made in halves and hinged at the top, and slung to a crane. When full, the weight of the coal carries the box to the bottom of the hold of the ship ; there, the catch holding the halves together is released and the coal is deposited in the bottom the box then closes automatically and is drawn again into position for loading by means of counterbalance-weights on the crane. This operation is continued until a cone is formed, with its top level with the hatchway, the box is then housed and the loading continued in the ordinary manner. One of Messrs. Bordes four-masted sailing ships, taking 8,800 tons of coal to Valparaiso, was recently loaded with this apparatus.