Coal : the immediate future a psychologist's view / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
[1936?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Coal : the immediate future a psychologist's view / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    i936 COAL: THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE A Psychologist’s View By Charles S. Myers There are generally two ways of looking at any problem— from the narrow and from the broad point of view. When the supply of any commodity exceeds the demand for it, the obvious remedy from the narrow standpoint is to cut down production at all costs. From the same standpoint, when the supply of coal exceeds the demand, the obvious remedy is to work mines part-time or to close some of them down, thus throwing many miners out of work. This seems the cogent, logical and inevitable procedure, from the narrow point of view. But with the adoption of a broader standpoint, stress is laid on under-consumption rather than on over-production. And the question arises whether every inhabitant of the world has already enough coal, and whether costs of production and distribution can be so reduced that more would be purchased. In the case of coal, it is possible to introduce machinery at the coal face, so that coal is won in greater quantity and with greater economy by mechanical rather than by manual means ; in 1928 only 26 per cent, of the coal in this country was obtained by coal-cutting machines, whereas in 1934 this percentage had risen to 47. So, too, mechanical conveyers may be introduced to carry coal more efficiently and more economically from the coal face to the pit bottom : in 1928 only 12 per cent, of the coal in this country was being thus mechanically transported, whereas in 1934 this percentage had risen to 37. In 1928 the saleable coal in this country was being produced at a loss of 11 d. per ton; in 1934 this loss had been converted through these mechanical and various other changes into a profit of 5d. But by 1934 the total production of coal had dropped to 220*7 million tons from
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