Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/272

 250 the same quantity in one day from a single pit. It is in winding rather than in coal-cutting that the chief advances have been made in the application of machinery to mines. Coal-cutting machines are not used to any large extent. The moving of machines from one seam to another, and the supply of motive power, raise ditliculties that cannot always be overcome. Apart from this, a coal-cutting machine is useful not so much for increasing the quantity produced as for cutting the coal so as to be more merchantahle than coal picked by the miner.

The average number of hours the hewers are at the face, and the average number of hours the winding machinery is in motion, in the leading coal districts, are as follows:—

It will be noticed from this table that in the three first-mentioned districts, where the miners work the shortest hours and yet hew the largest amount per man, the winding machinery and the methods of bringing coal to the surface are superior to those found in other districts. In the northern counties and in Staffordshire the coal can be brought to the surface in a shorter time than it takes to hew it; in the other districts it requires a longer time. The distance of the face from the surface is not sufficient to explain these differences, as appears from an examination of the returns issued by the Miners' Federation. One is forced to conclude that the appliances and methods used for hauling coal in many coal-fields are open to improvement.

A third force that cannot be overlooked is the power possessed by the mines at present open of increasing their production. The mineral statistics for 1890 show that in 1889 nearly seven million more tons of coal were raised than in the year previous. Doubtless some part of this increase is due to the re-opening of