HomeMy WebLinkAboutExeter Times, 1912-5-30, Page 6IN ENGLAND'S DEEPEST PIT
.VISIT PAID TO. INRABITA.NT'S
OP THE UNDERWORLD..
Mixers Take Annual Rolida3' at
Seaside and ,Ponies Romp
On the Surface.
Quite recently I paid a visit to
the pit ponies, says a writer in. the
London Standard. 1' visited them
in the deepest pit in England, more
than a half -wile underground, and
found them happy indeed. They be-
longed to no trade union ; they de-
manded no minimum wage, content
with the full measure of oats al-
ready given them.
The pit I descended was one of
those, belonging to the Sneyd Col-
liery Company, Limited, at Bus-
lerti, a magnificently equipped oon-
'cern, which owes the beginning of
its present high efficiency to the late
Mr. William. Heath, himself once •a
working miner with a pick. He, did
not remain a working miner long.
He had more than a spark of that
industrial genius• which another
Buslem man, the famous Josiah
Wedgwood, applied so open-hand-
edlyto pottery, and who trans-
formed a rude industry into are-
fined art.
There are, 1800 miners employed
in the Sneyd pits, and as every one
of them would adinit, they work
under as perfect conditions as the
collier -can hope for, It is a model
nine, and these men awe the effi-
cient conditions under which they
work to the original enterprise of a
man who was once one of them-
selves. Relations between masters
and men could not be more cordial
or more free from. "tyranny." But,
of course, the 1800 went on atrike to
join the army of a million.
FORTY SECONDS' PLUNGE.
"We- go down 880 yards—that is,
ten yards over the half -mile," said
Mr. John Gregory, :the manager.
"That is, I believe, the deepest
shaft in England." I was divesting
myself of all matches and smoking
materials as he spoke. He handed
over a blue dungaree jacket and a
little round cap. "This cap," he
said, "was made for the head of a
king." I handled the cap most
reverently. "It was King Khama
of Bechuanaland," he, went on,
with a smile, "who went down, with
two of his elusky princes." But,
after all, a king is a. king, and the
fact that this one was coal -black
only helped in the picture.
Lamps were brought, and in a few
moments, accompanied by the
under -manager, I stood in the iron
cage over half a mile of black noth-
ingness. The wheel above turned,
and we dropped smoothly into the
black pit, the nage plunging down
with perfect steadiness between the
guides in the shaft. There was a
roaring and a drumming in the ears
as the speed and the air pressure
increased. "Swallow ?" said the
under -manager. I "swallowed,"
and the pressure on the ears disap-
peared.
Some forty seconds of steady
plunge, and we pulled up gently at
the bottom, with the sunlight half a
mile above us. But down there the
air was as fresh and cool as on the
pibbank. The bottom of. the Sneyd
pit is as comfortable and as spa-
ecious as Regent Street. Two great
roads branch away to left and right
and arched, smoothly bricked, and
with electric lights shining so
brightly. We turned down Regent
Street, S. W., and •swung along for
some hundreds of yards by the light
of electricity. Then the roof drop-
ped, pit -props took the place of
pits; and we had to stoop a little.
Ilifted the lamp, and the roof
shone black and hard under the yel-
low rays. We were walking through
a tunnel of polished ebony: the
famous Holly Lane, seam of house
coal.
COLLIERY STABLES.
A quarter of a, anile of walking
and we came to the pit ponies, each
one stabled in a warm, dry house
hewn out of the solid coal. There
are only some twenty-four ponies
down the Sneyd pits; electric haul-
• age has almost entirely displaced
them. But those are that •Ief are a
h t
positive delight to the eye of the
horse -lover. Dear old ladies still
think that pit ponies .are poor ema-
ciated beasts, half -blind, decrepit,
and ill-used. They ought to see the
fat, powerfullittle animals that
Iive happily half a mile under the
smoky potteries. Polo ponies could
not have more care lavished upon
them.
Their liquid eyes shone under the
rays of the lamps as they turned to
e regard the visitors. We found the
stablemen pottering about the wally
stables. He called each one by
name -=•Turpin, Bob, Billy, and
Sam -patting them proudly and
pointing out their various excel-
lences. Each: had some special
point. One hacl won a first prize at
a pit pony show; another was the
• most saga -clone pony that ever,
pulled a ;'.i:tuh, and' so on. With
their close -cropped b,r�•stly canes
they 'looked like the Tzorses of the
Elgin marble's.
Turpin,, aniron-grey veteran., wlset
has been ,srx years down the mine,
and Bob, were brought out to show
their paces up and down the road.
Trotting decorously along, their
lxeads---•enrrying the leather shield
rf
wlmioli takes the sho& when tliay
butt open doore in the mine—held
well down, not a am -etch was son
their glossy coats, and they would
have done credit to any doct'or's
gig. Then we left .the stableman
with his charges, going from stall to
stall -with his lamp, patting their fat
aides and taalking. to them, And as
we walked back to the pit -mouth his,
voice came startlingly clear along
the dark and deserted road: "Come
oven Turpin 1"
Once a year the ponies came to
the surface, At Stokes wakes the
miners all go to the seaside, and the
ponies have their "wakes" also.
That is thein week's holiday. They
are brought to the surface in boxes,
and once they have got over the
shock sof the sunlight they gambol
round the fields like mad things,
throwing up their heels in delight.
In a few minutes we arrived at
the bottom of the shaft again,
where a flew mei:, "by courtesy ,of
the union," were attending to the
cages. We 'stepped in, and the, tele-
phone bell rang. The winder who
sits up aloft in the engine -house,
the guardian angel for 1,800 men,
started his engines, and at the end
of the half -mile of steel rope whine
weighs ten tons, we were shot up
again to daylight. A 'rushing tor-
nado of wind beat downi presently
light appeared on the, sides of the
shaft, and with a gentle lilt, light
as the step of a dancing master, we
were at the surface again, level to
half an inch.
THIRTY MILES OF ROADS.
We came up at thirty miles an
hour. Often tlze speed is forty-five
or fifty. I saw the winder en-
throned in a capacious armchair,
his hands to his levers in a palatial
engine -house, where turbines whiz
round with a soothing hum. . The
reduced speed of ascent, I suggest,-
ed,
suggested, was perhaps due to the fact that
there was a timid visitor on board.
Oh, no, he said; in these slack
times there might be a little water
in the steam pipes, and he did not
want to blow a cylinder cover off !
The winder loves his engines just as
much as the stableman loves his
ponies, and thinks they are just as
"human."
• There are some thirty miles of
roads with rails -laid down in. the
Sneyd pits, not counting the nar-
rower workings of the mines. On a
good day no fewer than 2,200 tons
of coal are raised, which go to feed
the ovens and kilns above:that send
pottery to the wide ends .of the,
earth. Every tan of it is got under
the beet conditions that brains can
devise. Everything that man can
do is done to make coal -getting as
easy and safe as possible. And
when one considers the brains that
are used and the money thatis
spent from the gleaming engine -
house down•to the last yard of the
miles of workings, one realizes
vividly that there is a master's side
to these great industrial disputes,
as well as men's. The collier goes
down to get the coal, it is true, but
he is watched over every minute, by
all the aids to ease and safety that
science and money can bring. And
when we talk of the miner, do not
let us forget the mining engineer,
whose courage in the hour of trial
is as high as that ofthe miner,
which is saying a great deal.
DEEP WATERS.
Inhabiteld by Strange Fishes That
Never Coiue to the Surface.
It is not •easy to realize that there
are chasms in the sea as deep as the
Himalayas are high. In the Carib-
bean Sea south -of Cuba is a depres-
sion a hundred 'and fifty miles in
length that has a depth of more
than twelve' thousand feet. Still
farther south is a smaller cleft,
more than twenty thousand feet
deep. These lower waters are in-
habited by strange fishes that never
come to the surface. What must be
some of the conditions of their life
is conjectured by Mr. P. L. Lowe in
"A Naturalist on Desert Islands."
The creatures of . these nether-
most depths brood forever in the
appalling silence of uttermost
night; preying ofie upon another in
constant carnivorous strife; living
under a pressure that is almost
inconceivable, and in a temperature
so low that it actually seems to defy
the posi illtY
of organic life.
Every hour of their life, ever day,
every -year, is passed in the same
stagnation of hideous changeless-
ness, under circuoastanees of al-
most absolute uniformity. For them
there is no night; there are no sea-
sons; ns; there is no sun, no moon.
There are no changes from warmth
to cold, or from cold to warmth:
We cannot even conceive that there
is anything in the nature of sound.,
There is absolutely nothing to mark
the flight of time.
Perhaps it is not strictly correct
to speak of absolute darkness, since
many deep-sea fish are 'phosphores
cent, and are provided with the
most wonderful luminous contriv-
ances by ,which they are enabled
to project rays of a feeble light in
front of them, for the purpose of
groping their way about or eaptur-
ing pr=ey. But this light cannot
have much -carrying power, beyond
the.immediate vicinity of the fish it-
self.
The great, cold of the bottom wa-
Itesizef the oceanis best brought
home td 'thcse..Fwho have examined
the contents of *a haul of the trawl.
The bottom ooze is intensely cold;
and it is a strange ,sensation, whit
7
B
VRI
elves
Stamina.
It will benefit your
children or your
invalid.
�C•z=iz
your back Is broiling beneath a
tropical sun, to have your hand
nearly frozen from the stiff cold
mud or ooze- that you are compelled
to- handle while assorting the con-
tents of the trawl.
Tho pressure at a depth of eight
thousand six hundred and thirty-
four feet amounts to nearly . two
tons to th-e square inch. We. our,
selves, living at ordinary levels, are
subjected to a constant pressure'of
nearly fifteen pounds on every
square inch of our bodies. We can
calculate, but only feebly conceive,
what the pressure must be, at the
bottom of these Caribbean abysses.
Take again the question of light.
Photographic plates, let down be
neeth the surface' of Lake Geneva,
showed that at a, depth of five hun-
dred and ten feet the effect on the
plates was no more than that which
pc -sold be' produced on a dark,
moonless night: Similar results in
the 'Mediterranean, whose waters
are unusually clear, were reached
ata depth of twelve hundred feet;
so that we 'may conclude that in
general, at any depth. below this a
profound darkness exists. This
complete absence of sunlight at
once puts out of account the possi-
bility of plant life. And this all-
important factor in the economy of
all animal life, human or otherwise,
at once raises -the question, How do
deep-sea animals ultimately live?.
WENT DOWN MT. VESUVIUS
REACHED THE. BOTTOM OF
THE CRATER.
Two Italians Mahe an Extraordi-
nary Trip, Descending One
Thousand Feet. $
The London Chronicle's Milan
correspondent sends the following
despatch :
"Prof. Mallada, of the Royal Ob-
servatory at Mount Vesuvius, ac-
complished recently the extraordi-
nary feat of descending the depths
of the crater of the volcano.' Since
the- •awful eruption of six years ago,
numberless • .attempts have been
but. in vain, owing partly • to. the
penetrate the funnel of Vesuvius,
but in vain, owing peartly to the
precipitous nature of the slopes of
the interior, but principally be-
cause of the dense and deadly va-
pors of sulphur and chloric acid
gases. '
"The actual diameter of the cra-
ter is about 550 yards. Prof. Mal -
lade, accompanied by an able young
expert attache -d to the observatory,.
started at eight o'clock in the morn-
ing toward the Pompeii side, taking
a quantity off scientific instruments
for observation purposes, photogra-
phic cameras, a couple of -stout
ropes, one --850 •feet and the other
500 feet in length.
LOWERED BY ROPES.
"Using the• long rope for the first
part of the descent, they were low-
ered inside the volcano to adepth
of 380 feet, till they landed upon
huge crags of lava' overhanging an-
other horrid abyss 150 feet lower
down. After exploring this peril-
ous slope of 90 degrees, amid gigan-
tic masses of petrified lava, they
found the means to, fix the second
rope, 'whereby they were able to
reachfissure created
an enormous s
some years ago, when the volcano
was suddenly torn asunder. The
explorers discovered that this huge
fissure extends to- the very bottom
of the crater, which was finally
reached at a depth of. 1,000 feet.
There they remained a couple of
hours.
PHOTOS AND OBSERVATIONS.
"Prof. Mallada was able to. take
a number of instantazieou:s pictures
of avalanches and showers of red-
hot ashes, which were taking place
at the time in contiguous ,parts of
the crater.
"Despite the precautions' taken,
the explorers were at times almost
overcome by the suffocating gases.
They found the temperature vary-
ing from 90 to 98 degrees Fahren-
heit, Levelings were taken with .a
barometer on the floor of the cra-
ter. A valuable collection of min-
erels was also made, -consisting of
volcanic matter falling off from the.
side" walls' of the 'fennel, which, on
striking the bottom, raised clouds of
fine, chok rig cinder dust.
,. 'OOK. NINE HOURS,
""Cheexplorcrs planted a red flag
en the crater floor, as a memorial of
their trip, and then began the fa-
tiguing upward journey. Finally,
they reached the - surface, nearly
worn out, after two and a 'half
hours of continuous effort. ' The.
whole expedition lasted nine
hours," •
.R. BOOTU S WORK.
John R. Booth, the lumber and
paper king of Canada, recently
celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday
in Ottawa. All Hs life he has been
a hard worker and was never much
given to dress, style or titles.
When the editors. of "Who's Who
in Canada" asked him to state
what his favorite recreeiS•on was,
Mr. Booth replied, "work," and so
it appears in that publication. Not-
withstanding -that he is a million-
aire many times over, Mr. Booth
never stood on dignity or cere-
mony, In this respect he -differs
from a certain glib ex -alderman of
the Capital City who once managed
to squeeze into the Council, and
although he was never successful, in
being re-eletced, he was particular-
ly fond of referring to himself as
Ex -Alderman D—.
Now "Ex -Alderman" is a pecu-
liar designation in that you can
hang on to it until the day you die
if you feel disposed to make use of
,the prefix. The proud retainer of
the title, going to the telephone one
day, rang up Mr. Booth, who had
Mr. J. R. Booth.
some cattle to sell, for the former
civic functionary was a drover by
trade. In answer to the ring of the
instrument, he inquired, "Is that
you, Booth'?"
Receiving an answer in the
affirmative, he proclaimed, "This is
Ex -Alderman D— speaking. I
understand, Booth, you have some
fat cattle to sell. What is your
Brice for them?"
Mr. Booth told the inquirer, but
evidently the figure did not meet
his fancy.
"Too dear, Booth, we cannot deal
at the quotation you name," and
the speaker rang off.
A bystander ... remarked, "Don't
you think that Ottawa's leading
captain of industry might have
been styled Mr. Booth?"
"Oh, I don't know about that,"
observed the ex -alderman. "He is
entitled to no special distinction.
You see, he never occupied a seat
in the Council.",
.p"
SPAIN'S PREMIER TOREADOR..
Row Madrid Weleorned Return of
Bombita to the Ring.
Bombita, the darling of Spain,
has re-covered from the dangerous
wound he had... received in a bull
fight, and last Sunday all Madrid
went to the Plaza de Toros to wel-
come the greatest of all toreadors
to the scene of former triumphs,
writes a correspondent of the Lon-
don Standard. •
The sun was beating down on the
tiers of :seats opposite, me, where a
thousand fluttering fans looked
like brilliant butterflies. King Al-
fonso and the Quee-n were in the
rbox surrounded bythe flower
-
o aI suite t deet
of the Spanish aristocracy. All the
women wore the graceful mantilla
and the Queen had.red ros-es'irr her
hair.
Charmed as the people were to,
see the youthful King and Queen,
their chief thoughts were -for Bom-
bita, the dashing Bombita, who -se
photograph appears in dozens of
newspapers every week. He is 'as
daring and as expert -a toreador as
the men of the old school, but he is
not in ordinary, life the toreador
with e little pigtail; happier in the
cafe .than in the drawing -room.
The fabulous fees he receives for
his dangerous work permit of his
keeping a motor car and enables
him to dine in the most fashionable
restaurants. Ho is faultlessly
dressed by a London tailor, and
when Z met him the other night at
an evening party I took him to be
a diplomatist or a Spanish grandee.
In the arena Bombita was radiant
in rose color silk and gold lace, and.
be wore white silk stockings and
dainty shoes --a• charming costume
for a masquerade, but inappropri-
ate for the work of slaying ferocious
bulls. lint .Bornbita was superb.
He played with death like a child
with a toy.
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He knelt for a moment in the
sand as his second bull, snorting
with fury, rushed upon hint. • The
creature's horns seemed within an
inch of his body whensie rose, step-
ped aside with the grace of Nijin-
sky, and plunged his short sword
into the animal's neck.
The dexterity, the amazing dar-
ing of the man,filled the_ critical
audience with new wonder at the
prowess of their favorite. A great
shout went up. "The ear ! The
ear!" The toreadorr who has
pleased the public by his skill is ac-
corded the right to keep the ear. of
the bull he has killed as a trophy.
It is for the spectators to judge
whether lee deserves the supreme
reward.
On Sunday some were opposed to
the award and for at least two min-
utes it hung in the balance whether
Bombita would take home the
trophy and, as I suppose he does,
nail it to the. wall of his dining -
room. King Alfonso decided the
matter by joining in the popular
cry, and Bombita received his re-
ward. '
NEW FRENCH BATTLESHIPS.
British Models` Followed — England
to Store Oil Fuel.
French battleship designers ap-
pear • to be . following the general
lines of British'- constructors in
their 1912 building programme for
capital ships of the first class, ex-
cept that the tonnage of the French
ships will considerably exceed that
of the British ships of the Orion
class, the displacement of\which is
22,680 tons.
The . French are placing ten 13.4
inch guns on the new ships as a pri-
mary armament, mounted on five
twin gun turrets, all placed on the
centre line .after the Orion model.
These guns are of slightly less cali-
bre than the British. 13.5 inchers,
though the French ships . will be
larger by over 1,000 tons.
The new French ships will be 541
feet long and 88 feet 6 inches broad.
Their speed will be 20 knots. The
time for building and completing is
to be three -years, compared with
the two years of the British build-
ers.
The secondary armament will re-
main of the same calibre as in pre-
vious ships, that is, 5.5 inches, while
in future ships the .British will
carry six inch guns. The armor
will not be quite so extensive in
area, but will be thicker in parts
than in previous types. Turbine
engineswill be used.
The British Admiralty is •making
a considerable increase in oil fuel
storage. This was determined upon
when the coal strike was by no
means regarded as a certainty.
Still further extension has since
been decided upon.
At Portsmouth the,amount of ex-
penditure in providing storage has
been raised from $65,000 to $250,-
000; on the Humber from $210,000
to $600,000; at the Invergordon
from $40,000 to $220,000; on the
Medway -from $210,000 to $650,000.
A sun of $35,500 is to be spent to
provide new accommodation, for oil
fuel at Hambowline Dockyard;
$195,000 for new works at Hong-
kong and $66,500 at Pembroke.
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VALUE OF RED CLOVER.
For centuries red clover has con-
etituted one of the important fac-
tors in maintaining a.' permanent '
system of agriculture in the Old
World. In this country it has as-
sumed a more and more important .,
role • in conserving the natural re-
sources of the soil, thereby tending
to maintain the profitable yields of . 1
the staple agricultural ,products,
writes Mr. J. M. Westgate.
Red clover is utilized both as a
hay and as a pasture crop and often,
as a s ,xi n; ;op`e':
used'as a grecoer%iiianIture•eropis tosometimtos
plowed uncle!: if the ground is pe
in humus, Evenwhere it is cut for
hay and only the root and stubble
turned under, it has a marked in-
fluence in increasing the yields of
succeeding Drops. It makes an ideal
hay for cattle and in the clover sec-
tions should constitute from one-
half to two-thirds of the .roughage.
ration of milk cows. Sheep and
young stock of all kinds make ex-
cellent gains
x-cellent'gains on either the pasture
or the hay. In addition to its ase -
fulness as a food for animals it has, ,
a most important effect upon, ,the
land in maintaining the supply of
nitrogen in the soil. By means :of ,
the nitrogen -fixing organism on its
roots the red clover plant is able to
gather large quantities of nitrogen ,
from the air and leave it in the soil
in a form which can readily be util-
ized by growing crops. It not 'in-
frequently happens that the yield
of a grain crop can` be doubled by
tithe growing and plowing under of
a crop of=clover.
The most serious problem af pre
sent confronting the farmer in many
of the elover sections is the increas-
ing difficulty of successfully main- _
taining stands of clover upon the
farm.
With continuous cropping and
the conseciuent depletion of the soil
of humus and plant food the difficul-
ty of growing red clover is greatly
increased. This condition must be.
met and .solved, since the loss of
clover or its equivalent from the ro-
tation leads rapidly to a run-down
farm and unprofitable crop yields.
It should beemphasized, howev-
er, that the mere introduction of
red clover into the farm 'rotation
is not in itself a sufficient procedure
to maintain .indefinitely the pro-
ductivity of the farm. The clove
plant adds only the nitrates to •t
soil and removes large quantities.
of potash, phosphorus and lime
from the soil, especially when cut'';
for hay and the manure resulting'
therefrom is not returned to the
land. The increased supply of nit-
rogen may in fact stimulate the soil.
to increased yields temporarily,,,
only to leave it, after a few years;
in a condition worse than if no clo
ver had been grown.
It important that considerable
care be taken in choosing the seed
to be sown. If poor ` seed is hired
the expected crop may be a partial
or total failure.
Red clover seed may be poop and
undesirable fr�ena, several points . of
view. Such seel is constantly being
sold to farmers and should be re-
cognized and rejected. It may .be
poorly developed, many seeds being
shriveled and dull brown in, color.
Such seeds will not produce plants.
Often ied clover is adulterated by
the use of yellow trefoil, dead clo-
ver seed, cheap imported seed or'
weedy screenings. Eachof these
constituents , reduces the stand of
healthy plants and makes the pur-
chaser pay for what he does not
get, transportation included. He is
likely to get an undesired crop of
weeds, some of which may become
a decided menace to his locality.
Some of the weed seeds appearing
in red clover seed can be removed
by the farmer by the use of a wire -
cloth sieve containing twenty mesh-
es to the linear inch. Most of the
clover seeds of medium size are held
back by such a sieve andepracti-
•sally all the: smaller weed seeds
pass through. The true clover clod -
i
der, which is. a very noxious pest
in clover fields, is quite effectively
removed in this way . Most of the
seeds of the field dodder arealso
d
removed. , Seed of buckhorn, wild
carrot, wild chicory, thistles sand
' others of similar size, are mostly
held back by the sieve. .The 62ah1
'grained elover seed imported from
1 Europe largely passes through such
a sieve. An easy method of separ=
ating buckhorn seed from clover.
has `been devised, This method'
'consists of mixing with the seed
containing` the buckhorn thorough-
ly wetted :sawdust. . The buckhorn
seed bocoines 'sticky on being wet
and readily attaches itself• to the
sawdust. The entire: mass is then
immediately screened, when the
larger particles of sawdust, ' ,,:lith
the buckhorn attached, are readily
separated from the clover seed.
This work shotiild be done immedi-
ately before sowing the clover seed,
which, with the small particles of
sawdust that pass the screen,,. need ,
to be dried only sufficiently to, en-
able the seeding to take place teed-
ily.
.p
By the rules of the air, two air
craft meeting each,other must Steer
to the right;, and pass at least 110
yards apart.
Q