side quadrant is 37 feet 2 inches long and 11 feet 11 inches high, fitted with two steel gudgeons over pumps; that on the north is 34 feet 10 inches long and 11 feet 11 inches high, with one steel gudgeon. The plates and angles are of Staffordshire quality, capable of bearing a tensile strain of 20 tons per square inch; bolts and rivets are of best scrap iron, and the shafting and gudgeons of best hammered Siemens-Martin mild steel. The plummer block for the shafts are of cast iron, and have a bearing 12 inches by 17 inches long. There are four bed-plates 13 feet long, of cast iron, and of box pattern, 1 foot 4 inches deep by 1 foot 8 inches thick, stiffened by webs; they are secured to concrete foundations by means of four 3-inch holding-down bolts, forged from best scrap iron. The stroke of the quadrants at the spear end can be varied from 6 to 10 feet. They are balanced by cast iron weights, about 2 tons 5 cwts, each, it being arranged to easily remove or add a weight.

Connecting rods to pump crank are 25 feet in length, and are of the same steel as that of shafting and gudgeons.

The spear rod ends are 17 feet in total length, of forged scrap iron, with gun. metal brasses, and wrought iron keys. The sneck key is made bigger in the centre, so that in case of a break it will not fall out. Instead of the rod end being made in one piece, it is made in two halves, so that if a breakage occurs one side can be renewed without taking the whole piece off. The top spear is plated on the four sides.

The spears are of best pitch pine, 29 feet long and 9 inches square, connected by spear plates, 15 feet long, 7 inches broad, 14 inches thick in the centre and tapered to ths of an inch. The bolts are 1 inches square, specially made of best scrap iron, placed 14 inches from centre to centre. Clink bolts, inch, round iron, are put in the opposite way, and the same distance apart. Upon each lift are two kepwings of wood, bolted to spears, which in case of a fall are caught by buntons.

Pumps.-The shaft is 12 feet diameter. There are in it at present four bucket lifts, two 14-inch setts (see Fig. 2, Plate XLII.), worked by the engine beforementioned; one 24-inch sett worked off north quadrant of new engine, and one 19-inch sett worked by south quadrant. Room is left to put in a second 24-inch sett, to be worked off spare gudgeon of south quadrant. The 14-inch setts, with 4 foot stroke, are only worked when the big engine is standing.

The 24-inch setts with 8 feet stroke and the 19-inch with 10 feet stroke raise together 277 gallons per stroke. They usually run 7 strokes, giving a feeder of 1,939 gallons per minute. They can run up to 12 per minute, or over 3,300 gallons, and with the 14-inch setts going at the same time, 20 strokes per minute, giving 1,000 gallons, gives a total delivery of 4,300 gallons. If an additional 24-inch sett be found necessary, 1,800 gallons extra could be raised, bringing capability up to 6,100 gallons per minute.

In the midst of these four pumps all coal and stone is drawn.

The height of lift to the Six-Quarter Seam where water is delivered is 28 fathoms. The water-level being through old workings, very much broken up, is laid with iron

pipes 2 feet diameter, wedged with wood, and if there should be a stoppage the water can be turned into another level in the Yard Seam.

When the feeders were first met with, a rain-gauge was established to see if the rainfall had any influence on the amount of the feeder; but there appears to be practically no relation between the rainfall and the feeder, and no doubt some deep-seated feeder coming from a considerable distance is being pumped. Most of it comes from the post in the bottom of sump. On January 20th, 1889, the temperature of the river water was taken and found to be 66 degs. Fahr., immediately afterwards it was taken down the pit where there was then a considerable feeder, and with the same thermometer was found to be 44 degs. Fahr., a difference of 22 degs.

The pump trees are in 10-feet lengths, of cast iron, inch in thickness, with ordinary spigot and faucet joints, an iron ring wrapped with flannel soaked in Stockholm tar being used to make the joint. All air joints, or those below the bucket, are made with lead weezes wrapped with tarred flannel.

The working barrels are of metal, 14 inches thick, neatly bored out. This is preferred, in this case, owing to the hard nature of the coal, which if it got in would soon flute the barrel.

The buckets and clacks are of ordinary construction, graithed with leather; they are double-keyed, sneck and driving keys; they have both steel fall plates, § inch thick, of soft steel, which are found to last three times as long as iron ones. The bucket sword is double hooped, and the clack bow is left on to avoid damage to the clack piece in case of a dropped bucket or broken spear, or in case it may have to be drawn up through pumps. The wind-bores are placed on the bottom, except that of the 24-inch sett. This sett if carried straight down the pit would have come exactly in the middle of the pit eye; to avoid this, after much discussion it was decided to put in a breeches piece with two legs, 15 inches diameter, as shown in Fig. 3. The snore pieces are on baulks, as when put in it was impossible, owing to a large feeder of water, to get down to bottom of sump. It was a matter for consideration whether two clacks, one in each branch, or one clack in the main pumps, which would have a long suction, should be put in; the latter plan was decided on, as the former would have needed a lot of the shaft to be taken out to get at the clacks; as it was, the shaft was much enlarged to get the legs in. The length of suction is 30 feet, a large amount, but no difficulty has been found in pumping, the sett being quite solid. It will be seen from Fig. 3 that the bend of the legs is very square, no doubt a rounder bend would have been better, but owing to having the hanging-on as high as possible the square form was adopted.

Governor.-The Napier cat governor is employed, and found to answer admirably (Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7). In this governor two hollow discs, B and C, fitted with appropriate blades are placed face to face in a casing which is filled with water. One of these discs is driven by the engine by belt pulley E and spindle D, and the other oscillates and works the throttle valve.

The water in the revolving disc is thrown outward, forward, and sideways into the oscillating disc. The blades in the latter disc deflect the currents from an outward and forward direction into an inward and backward direction, and send the water back into the revolving disc.

This reversing of the motion of the water by the blades of the oscillating disc gives it a great tendency to revolve in the same direction as the other disc. This tendency is resisted by a chain, H, attached to a pulley on the disc till the strain on that chain is sufficient to lift a balance weight, K, which keeps the throttle valve open. When that strain is exceeded it shuts the throttle, and when it falls short the weight opens it. L M, Fig. 4, shows the lever connection to the throttle valve, and N steam pipe with valve.

Though this may look in some respects like a centrifugal governor, in this case a comparatively small velocity of disc is required to get up a much greater power than with any centrifugal arrangement, and the power developed is very remarkable when compared with the smallness of the discs and their velocities, whilst a sudden increase of velocity produces an almost instantaneous action on the throttle. So that the whole work may suddenly be taken off, with hardly a perceptible effect on the engine. On one occasion, with 14-inch setts, the ball of the governor was seen to fall, the engine stopped, and then went quietly on; a man being sent down the shaft found a spear of one of the setts broken.

Almost the only wearing part is the spindle of the revolving disc, and there is no strain on it. The governor rope is made of strands of hide.

1 Lancashire boiler 30 feet by 7 feet 6 inches, double-flued.

The coal consumption being more than it should be, owing to the engines, which were made to pump 5,000 gallons of water per minute, having to pump at the present time about 2,000 gallons, it has been suggested, in order to reduce the power of the engines and boilers to the work likely to be required of them for some time: 1st. That liners should be put inside the high pressure cylinders, reducing the diameter from 19 to 17 inches, and that new pistons should be provided of the latter diameter; so that should there be at any time a great influx of water the liners could be withdrawn and the present pistons put in again, and the engine, if required, worked up to its full power. 2nd. That one engine should be used alone. This has been tried with a lessened consumption of 2.8 lbs. per I.H.P. but it is thought better to work two engines, except in case of need, owing to too much strain being put on one side. Water Wheels.-The water from the pit not being suitable for boilers, and the river water eminently so, the feeder after leaving the adit is utilized to drive two water wheels, which pump from the river Tyne, a vertical height of 181 feet, through 500 yards of pipes. They are both over-shot wheels, the first one put in being 10 feet diameter and 2 feet wide; the second one 10 feet diameter and 4 feet wide; the centre arms and shrouding are of cast iron, the buckets and sole-plates of steel, and the shaft of wrought iron, 7 feet long and 4 inches diameter. The smaller wheel works one double-acting cast iron pump, 5 inches diameter and 18 inches stroke; the larger one works two single-acting pumps, 8 inches diameter and 17 inches stroke, the pumps being placed opposite each other on a cast iron bed. They are driven off one crank pin fixed in a cast iron disc.

The feeder of water obtained from the large wheel working 12 strokes per minute is 78 gallons; the small one is only used whilst the other is standing.

It may be mentioned that a small water wheel, 4 feet diameter, is used underground for driving a small Schiele fan which ventilates an exploring heading 520 yards long.

In conclusion, it may be said, that nearly everything about engines, quadrants, etc., is kept in duplicate, for as there is practically no standage (the flatsheets being drowned in about six hours after stoppage of pumps), any accident is a very serious matter; but during the five years the new arrangement has been at work, there has been only one short stop, and then by working one quadrant and the two 14-inch setts the feeder was kept under till the necessary repairs were made.

The PRESIDENT said this paper was a very valuable one, and was now open for discussion. He would like to ask, so that they might be quite clear as to the comparisons drawn, what was the quality of coals used where the consumption was given?

Mr. J. K. GUTHRIE, in reply, said that the fuel used was half small and half unscreened. One boiler only was used in the experiments. Of course they had several boilers which were applied to other purposes as well, and they could only make short tests upon one boiler. The boiler used was of the Lancashire type, 30 feet long and 7 feet 6 inches diameter, with two tubes each 3 feet diameter.

The PRESIDENT said that the result of about 3.2 lbs. per horse-power was not so good as that obtained with Cornish engines, or other engines of a similar type. He noticed that bucket and not plunger pumps were used, probably in consequence of the standage being small. The engines used by the Lambeth and Chelsea Water Company were compound condensing engines, and he did not see any reason why Mr. Guthrie had not obtained a result equal to those of the water companies, a consumption of about 1·90 lbs. of coal per effective horse-power, and 160 lbs. per indicated horse-power. The difference-whether the coals were valuable or not— meant an important economy and an important difference in the wear and tear of boilers. It would be interesting to know whether the strata, which yielded the feeder, outcropped into the present or ancient Tyne bed, and whether such extraordinary feeders at that depth were traceable to water coming from the Tyne itself. He thought it was a matter of opinion as to whether the best type of engine had been adopted for dealing with such large quantities of water. He referred to Mr. J. B. Simpson's paper.* Considering the circumstances of this case, he inclined to the opinion that the double engines and L-legs, affording the opportunity of a perfect balance of the lifts, and, in the event of increased feeders, of a much higher speed, would, upon comparison, be found preferable to the Cornish engine.

Mr. A. L. STEAVENSON said the writer appeared to disparage the work done, but 3 lbs. per horse-power, with small coal, and under the conditions of a colliery, was a fairly good result. They could not expect such good results at a colliery as at a waterworks. It would be interesting if the writer could tell them how the quantity of water, multiplied by the vertical height it was raised, corresponded with the indicated horse-power. The pumping of water was a subject of the greatest interest to him personally, for he had recently been consulted, and requested to suggest the most suitable mode of pumping at least 3,000 gallons of water per minute, to a vertical height of 600 feet.

Mr. G. B. FORSTER said that the full duty might not be realized because the engine was said by the writer to be working at about 50 per cent. of its power. It was rather unfortunate that there was so little standage for the water, otherwise much better results might have been obtained at the full power of the engine. The

North of England Transactions Vol. xix., page 206, for the fullest comparisons of the duties of various types.