At Hockley the cars have to pass from the Birmingham cable to the Handsworth cable, and vice versa. When a car travelling from Birmingham to Handsworth arrives at the Hockley pulleys, the gripper having been opened wide as described, and having got free of the Birmingham cable, the car is allowed to run on by its momentum until the gripper arrives in position for being closed upon the Handsworth cable, when the auxiliary lever is first raised to confine the cable within the working limits of the gripper, and the principal lever is then moved so as to cause the gripper to grip the cable and carry along with it the car. At each terminus a similar process is gone through, but the car has to be drawn back by hand or by horse-power so as to cross over from one track to the other.

The grippers are situated underneath an axle of the bogie frames, so as to be always free in the slot rail even when rounding curves, whereas the hand levers are well to the front of the driving platforms. Connections between the hand levers and the grippers are made by rods and bell cranks having sufficient freedom in their joints to permit of the necessary motion of the bogie frame in relation to the body of the car when rounding curves.

In constructing the roadway, of which the central slot is continuous from end to end of the tramway, some means had to be adopted to hold the sides of the slot in position. For this purpose bent yokes of steel of a T-section were used, having supplementary yokes riveted to them for strengthening purposes. The yokes are placed 4 feet apart, and descend into a continuous cavity of semi-oval section, formed of concrete underneath the roadway, within which cavity the cable and the grippers travel, the guide pulleys and carrying pulleys being mounted upon carriages, accessible from the street by means of removable iron covers.

The steel wire cable consists of six strands each of 19/15 steel wires laid around a hemp core. The breaking strength of the cable is 33 tons, or 95 tons per square inch of the cross section of the wire contained in it.

I am indebted to Messrs. Pritchard & Kincaid, the engineers of this tramway, for the loan of the excellent drawings which hang in the room, and for many of the particulars which I have placed before you.

ELECTRIC LIGHT FITTINGS, ETC.

Messrs. John Davis & Son, of Derby, exhibited their special electric light fittings for colliery use, electric miners' lamps, improved surveying instruments, etc.

APPARATUS FOR PREVENTION OF OVERWINDING.

The members then proceeded to the basement of the College, where an apparatus for the prevention of overwinding, etc., had been specially erected for their inspection.

SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE AND EAST WORCESTERSHIRE INSTITUTE OF MINING ENGINEERS.

HELD AT THE MASON COLLEGE, BIRMINGHAM, ON THURSDAY,

APRIL 2ND, 1891.

MR. JOHN WILLIAMSON, PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR.

The minutes of the annual meeting, held on March 2nd, 1891, were read, confirmed, and signed.

EXHIBIT OF OLD MINING IMPLEMENTS (PLATE XIV).

Mr. W. BEATTIE SCOTT exhibited some old mining implements, and in describing them said-It will probably strike you that they are somewhat antiquated. I have a few notes that were made by the son of the owner of the colliery where they were found which may interest you. I might first draw attention to the fact, which will be known to members of the Institute, that at Pelsall the coal lies at a very shallow depth indeed, and there still remains a portion of what was known as Pelsall Common, or Pelsall Heath, unenclosed, but there are portions which have been enclosed under the Enclosures Acts. I mention this to show what is the age of the workings in which these old implements have been found, for the hedges and the timber have all grown over the enclosed lands, and all signs of old shafts or workings of any kind have disappeared; but in the re-opening of this colliery, now called the Heath Colliery, is found the Four-yard coal, which, to bring it nearer home to the members, may be divided into two seams with which they are more familiar-the Deep and the Shallow. They run together at a line passing through one end of the Pelsall Hall Colliery. At a little more than 100 yards distance there are 11 yards of strata between the two seams. You can see the thin edge of the shales taking a wedge shape there, and this, of course, is not strange to members who are accustomed to underground work. But in the re-opening of this colliery by Messrs. Hough & Son they began to work the Deep coal, and their drivings were in the Deep coal. Frequently the Shallow seemed to have been worked in some modified form of pillar and stall, only leaving such portions as would be required as a support to the roof; and in driving the new roads in the Deep coal they would occasionally strike a gutter which had been cut from the Shallow workings into the top of the Deep coal. (There may be two reasons for the non-working of the Deep coal of this vein. After all it would seem that the water-line remained at the top of the Deep coal, and they were never able to lower

that water.) Then there has been a rush of Shallow coal "shutt" or "gob," and such an article as this has rushed down. (Fig. 1.) You will easily, perhaps, judge for what purpose it has been used. But you will notice that there are four holes which look as if they had been bored and bars put in for supporting the coal on this, and that this is nothing more than a sledge for drawing the coal to the bottom of the shaft; it was necessary to attach something to this to draw it, and you will recognise in this implement (Fig. 2) what is known as a "dog-hook," the handle is simply a branch as it has been cut from a tree, and the cross handle seems to be a bit of dressed oak. This "dog-hook," then, was used for the purpose of drawing the sledge. I find from the note by Mr. Hough, that frequently old shafts were found only 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, and some were square. To show the means they had of drawing water in those days: in the bottom of these shafts have been found old cheese boxes, into which the water was scooped and then raised to the surface. It is considered that the Shallow coal must have been in operation at least 200 years ago, and then only at the small depth of 12 yards. You have heard of wooden shovels ; here you have one before you. (Fig. 3.) I have a further note upon another discovery. (Fig. 4.) This bottle rushed into the Deep coal new drivings, and the owner makes these remarks, which I have no doubt will meet with the approval of the Institute. "There were two classes of men in those days as miners-total abstainers and beer drinkers, as one of the bottles was filled with water and the other with strong beer." Fig. 5 is evidently the handle of a winch, which formed the winding machinery of these early days. This type of winding capstan may still be seen at work along the outcrop of the seams of the Black Country. It struck me when I saw these implements that they might interest the members of the Institute, and I asked Mr. Hough's permission to have them sent over for your inspection. Since these implements were in use, mechanical engineering has made great advances.

The PRESIDENT, in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Scott, said the ancient mining tools which were before them enabled them to form some idea of the difficulties `that miners had to deal with in days gone by. They could form a very good idea of the number of tons of coal that could be got out of a pit at that time. He thought such relics were deserving of proper attention, and if they could be placed in some museum it would be a very good thing indeed. He had much pleasure in moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Scott for the instructive and interesting manner in which he had described the implements.

Mr. SOPWITH seconded the motion, and it was carried unanimously.

The vote was acknowledged by Mr. SCOTT, who hoped that the owners of the relics might be induced to present them to the Institute.

Mr. CLARKE said that a bottle, similar to the one exhibited by Mr. Scott, had been found at Brettell Lane. It was not exactly the same shape, probably being more modern; but there was also a small earthenware cup and a pipe found with the bottle, all in perfect order.

A paper upon "Colliery Explosions" was then read by Mr. W. FAIRLEY, F.G.S.

Transactions 1890-91.

To illustrate M W. Beattie-Scott's remarks on "An Exhibit of Old Mining Implements.