The inelasticity of the fibre is a disti_Dangerous trades

utility of the articles manufactured, and although the durability of

the fabric is great if kept dry, the colours are fugitive.

The first operation in the process of the manufacture of jute consists

in cutting the binding ropes of the bale, and opening out the hard,

compressed material. This is invariably done by hand, and immediately

afterwards the fibre, still in a compressed state, is passed through

between four heavy deeply-fluted rollers intersecting each other,

which open the material somewhat and facilitate its disentanglement,

before it is placed on the feeding table of the softener. During these

processes, while the fibre is in a dry condition, a considerable

quantity of dust is shaken out, much of it being of a gritty nature,

and consisting largely of fine particles of the sand or mud in which

the plant grows. The latter impurities adhere to the rooty portion

of the plant, but become dispersed when the fibre is shaken out and

disturbed. It is in this dust that tetanus spores have been found in

very considerable quantities.

Once placed on the softener, the fibre passes through a long series

of spirally fluted rollers, pressure being brought to bear on the top

row by means of springs. Hot water and oil are applied to the material

during the progress along the machine, care being taken to spread the

liquids evenly.

This moistening of the fibre is rendered necessary owing to its

inherent brittle nature. Although this application of oil and water is

to facilitate the subsequent manipulation of the material, it serves a

beneficial purpose in reducing to an enormous extent the quantity of

dust which would otherwise be diffused in carding and other processes.

As matters at present stand, the preparing operations in jute factories

are much more dusty than subsequent processes, but the particles thrown

off in carding, drawing, and rove-spinning are more of a light fluffy

nature, and prove less irritating to the respiratory organs than the

gritty dust evolved in handling the dry jute. After the material has

been effectively softened, and while in a slightly moist condition,

it is fed into the “breaker” card. Here, owing to the splitting and

combing action of the rapidly running card teeth, many rooty particles

and other impurities are removed, but the heavier matter falls below

the machines, from which it is taken away periodically, so that only

the lighter dust rises, and is breathed by the operators.

When delivered from the “breaker” it is passed over the “finisher”

card, but less dust if possible is evolved in the second carding. To

equalise the thickness of the jute sliver as it emerges from the cards,

and to lay the fibres parallel, the material is passed over drawing

frames, and, when delivered, is spun by roving machines into “rove,”

that is, thick loosely-twisted yarn. The twist given is just sufficient

to keep the fibre together during its treatment in the spinning frame,

before the actual twist is administered which completes it as finished

yarn.

The operations subsequent to carding evolve little dust relatively, but

owing to the excessive speed of spinning frame flyers, and the friction

on the yarn, very light fluffy particles are continually rising in

spinning rooms, so that the atmosphere becomes charged with extremely

fine portions of fibre. All horizontal surfaces, and the clothing and

hair of the workers in these departments, soon become coated with this

dust.

The yarn intended for weft is never dressed, but is wound or built up

into solid “cops” for insertion in the shuttle. It is so coiled in

the cop as to unwind regularly and easily when in the shuttle, but is

still of sufficient firmness to withstand handling without collapsing.

The warp yarn is wound into solid balls, or on large bobbins, and

thereafter arranged upon angular frames at each end of the dressing

machines.

The dressing, the basis of which consists mostly of flour, is contained

in troughs affixed to the machines, the yarn passing through the

liquid, and then round steam-heated cylinders to ensure its thorough

dryness before being wound on the weaving beam. As in the dressing

of linen yarn, considerable heat is constantly maintained in the

departments of factories apportioned for this purpose. The cylinders,

round which the damp yarn passes, radiate heat, and where the ceilings

of the rooms are low, or the cubic capacity restricted, much discomfort

is occasioned in summer, unless exhaust fans, or wide-opened windows,

are arranged for. The beams when filled are removed, and inserted in

the looms, the “dressed” or starched yarns constituting the warp of the

woven fabric.

The weaving of jute cloth calls for little comment or description, the

process being of the simplest character, except where figured carpets

are woven. This work is comparatively pleasant and clean. To give

finish to the cloth, calendering is necessary. The webs are passed

through ponderous machines, known as either calenders or mangles; hot

rollers and heavy pressure, combined with the dressing in the yarn,

effecting an evenness to the fabric, and, if necessary, a gloss to the

surface.

_Health Conditions._

The factories in Great Britain engaged in manufacturing jute are,

with few exceptions, rather superior. Many of them are on the shed

or one-floor system. They were built at a time when the industry was

extremely remunerative, and much capital was sunk in substantial and

well-designed premises. The shed construction with the saw-tooth roof

is advantageous from many standpoints, facilitating the maintenance of

an equable temperature, the free ingress of air through roof openings,

while providing an abundance of light throughout. The latter advantage

is important, when one considers the liability to accident which

constant attendance on, and manipulation of, intricate mechanisms

necessitate. Jute machinery is very similar to that utilised in the

manufacture of flax, the various machines (with the exception of

softeners and openers) differing only in small details, necessary owing

to the greater length and relative coarseness of the former fibre.

The liability to accidents is slightly greater in the manufacture

of jute than in any other textile industry, to judge by the annual

returns of casualties. This is partially due to the fact that the

older types of machines have been fitted with crude and ineffective

protections, to improve which requires much careful and systematic

supervision, and partially to the proportionately large number of

insignificant accidents, hitherto found unpreventable, occasioned by

the oscillating slays of looms, which, though slight in themselves,

are yet sufficiently serious to bring them just within the category of

reportable accidents.

By slight alterations in the construction of certain machines and

additions to the existing fencing of spinning, drawing frames and

cards, certain kinds of accidents have been completely stamped out.

Thus, since the insistence on travelling feed and delivery sheets

or webs for jute softeners, a type of accident always severe, and

often fatal, has entirely disappeared. Before these safeguards were

introduced the operatives were frequently entangled in the long

jute fibre in feeding or attending the delivery end of the machine,

and instantly drawn forward and mangled by the rapid-running fluted

rollers. As might be expected young persons are the commonest victims

of factory accidents, owing to their ignorance and indiscretion. A

careful note of all such casualties has revealed lurking dangers in

certain machines, and where these have been effectually protected,

accidents decrease in number and in seriousness. Since shuttle-guards

have become universal, the annual return of injuries from flying

shuttles has decreased to less than half the former figure. The

liability to tetanus of persons injured in jute manufactories makes the

adequate and effective protection of all dangerous mechanism, even to

the minutest details, of the utmost importance.

The dirtiest and most objectionable processes in the manufacture of

the material are undoubtedly those of preparing and spinning. The

remuneration of the operatives in these departments is considerably

less than that earned by the weavers. Thus a distinctly lower class

of employés engage in the former processes, the more self-respecting

taking up weaving as a means of livelihood.

Where the finer qualities of fibre are treated, the amount of dust

evolved is comparatively small, and the factories fairly clean; but

in the coarser varieties it becomes excessive, and the whole premises

assume a dirty and objectionable aspect.

It may be of interest to observe here that many women engaged in the

preparing and spinning operations of jute manufacture habitually snuff,

presumably to rid the nostrils of dust. The custom is rarely observed

among women outside Dundee.

The prevention of the dispersal of dust in carding and spinning is

extremely difficult, for it appears to rise, more or less, from the

fibre, wherever it is sufficiently disturbed, and from any number

of points, even in one room. Exhaust fans, however, when placed

immediately above the softening machines, and properly erected,

undoubtedly remove much of the fine gritty particles shaken out of the

raw material, and where a hood is arranged above the exact seat of dust

production, and communicates with a fan, there is little to complain of.

This particular dust from the raw material is most irritating to

breathe, and is presumably injurious, but fortunately few persons in

any one mill come in contact with it.

The ample cubic space of most carding departments greatly counteracts

the injurious effects of this ever-present dust; and indeed, in

establishments where very fine material is spun, it is scarcely

noticeable. The prevailing high temperature of spinning departments,

together with the crowded arrangement of the frames and the number of

workers congregated in a limited floor space, makes such rooms somewhat

disagreeable to work in, and the occupation is increasingly unpopular.

The friction of the numerous small bearings, and especially that

generated by the temper bands on the bobbins, raises the temperature to

30 or more degrees above that existing outside, and maintains it thus

even when the outer air has fairly free ingress. This over-heating of

the spinning room is a constant source of trouble, and is difficult

to regulate. A temperature of 80° is common in the coldest weather,

and persists at times, even when many windows are open. The provision

of exhaust fans in premises where high temperatures were hitherto

troublesome has, however, effected a distinct improvement. The

application of oil, already referred to, reduces the tendency of the

material to give off dust, but the subsequent operations disperse fine

particles of fibre throughout the workrooms. The oily jute gives to

the preparing departments a somewhat peculiar and rather offensive

odour, and where the atmosphere is abnormally heated, creates a feeling

of closeness.

During the month of March 1900, samples of air were taken from

three selected mills in Dundee, at various times, and in different

atmospheric conditions. Two of the selected establishments were

considered as typical of badly ventilated premises; the third, for

contrast, was one of the most modern and airy factories in the

city. Although the high winds which prevailed during the period

of testing may detract from the assumption that the figures are

really representative of the usual conditions, still after making

all allowances it must be presumed that they approximately indicate

the true condition of the inside atmospheres. Samples were procured

from two of the mills on a Sunday about mid-day, a period of about

twenty-four hours having elapsed since any workers had been in the

premises.

The windows in both cases were all closed, and, on the day in question,

a fresh cold wind prevailed.

The result showed a very pure atmosphere--3.1 and 3.3 volumes of CO_{2}

respectively per 10,000 volumes of air.

The following day, samples were secured in the two establishments and

from a third between 1 and 2 P.M. (the meal hour being from

2 to 3 P.M.), and again just before the factories stopped

running, namely, between 5 and 6 P.M.

The following table gives the results:--

+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+

| | No. of Samples. |

| +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

+--------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+

|Time |1.30 p.m.|1.40 p.m.|1.55 p.m.|5.15 p.m.|5.30 p.m.|5.50 p.m.|

|Total cubic contents| 462,840 | 100,383 | 83,856 | 462,840 | 100,383 | 83,856 |

| employed | 300 | 150 | 83 | 300 | 150 | 83 |

| head | 1542 | 669 | 1010 | 1542 | 669 | 1010 |

| Inside | 70° | 77° | 77° | 75° | 81.5° | 83° |

| Outside | 41° | 41° | 41° | 40° | 40° | 40° |

|No. of Factory | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 |

| air | 5.4 | 7.0 | 7.5 | 7.0 | 9.8 | 9.0 |

+--------------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+

Factory No. 1 was of modern construction and built on the one-floor

system. The relative purity of the sample is noticeable as compared

with Nos. 2 and 3, both old premises with low ceilings. There was no

artificial lighting in either case, consequently the carbonic acid

present must have been entirely due to respiration. Other examinations

of samples obtained from both spinning and weaving rooms show almost

similar results, except that the weaving sheds were purer, owing to

their ample cubic space, and the temperature, as is always the case,

considerably lower.

In the instance of factory No. 1, carding, spinning, and winding

were all proceeding under one roof, 300 persons being at work, as

will be seen from a reference to the table. Had gas as an illuminant

been burning for even a short time in any of the premises examined

the proportion of CO_{2} would presumably have been higher. This is

supported by the analysis of air in a dressmaker’s workroom, selected

at 8 P.M. There were ten persons at work, three large gas jets

burning (lit for two hours), and 259 cubic feet capacity per head.

An examination of the sample showed the proportion of CO_{2} to be

26.4 per 10,000 volumes of air: temperature inside 73°, outside 41°F.

Electric light is now the illuminant in almost all the jute factories

of any size, and a distinct improvement in the condition of the inside

atmospheres has resulted. Unquestionably the high temperatures of

spinning rooms are distinctly harmful, perhaps more so than is usually

imagined; in fact, the writer from close observation of operatives in

various parts of the country and in dissimilar industries, exposed

persistently to warm atmospheres, is of opinion that a general lowering

of the health (in certain instances marked) very frequently follows

such employment. The effects of constantly breathing warm air, quite

apart from the liability to chills which such atmospheres engender, are

worthy of closer study and scientific investigation. Certainly exposure

to great radiated heat, if the air is not particularly warm, does not

affect workmen in a similar manner.

As has been already remarked, the weaving of jute is apparently

a healthy occupation, judging from the general appearance of the

operatives. The wage of the weaver enables her to occupy a comfortable

home, and ensures a sufficiency of suitable food. The same may be said

of the sack-sewers, who, like the weavers, usually work in premises

kept at a reasonable temperature, and present a ruddy and robust

appearance.

With reference to the subject of tetanus, no more authoritative

statement can be submitted than that of H.M. Medical Inspector of

Factories, Dr T. Morison Legge, and his remarks are accordingly quoted

from the Annual Report of H.M. Chief Inspectors of Factories for the

year 1899:--

“When visiting Dundee in February, my attention was called by the

district inspector, Mr Wilson, to the fact that within the preceding

twelve months two fatal cases of tetanus had occurred in one jute

mill. It occurred to me that possibly the soil of the alluvial land in

which the jute was grown in Bengal might be rich in tetanus bacilli,

and the incidence of tetanus on jute workers in Dundee therefore be

attributable to spores brought over in the mud adhering to the jute

fibres.

“In April a woman climbed up upon the travelling feed-sheet of a

jute-softening machine while it was in motion. Her foot was caught

between the ingathering fluted iron rollers, and was severely crushed

and lacerated. Tetanus ensued on about the sixth day after the

accident, and proved fatal within twenty-four hours. A sample of dust

was collected from under the machine, and was submitted to Dr Andrewes

of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, for bacteriological examination. He

found tetanus bacilli undoubtedly present in the dust, probably in

considerable numbers, and stated that it was unusual to be able to

demonstrate tetanus bacilli in such numbers, and with such ease as he

had been able to do.

“The point having considerable scientific interest, as showing possibly

the same connection between tetanus and jute as is known to exist

between anthrax and wool-sorting, and further in emphasising the

necessity of careful fencing of machinery, I collected, eight months

later, four other samples of jute from factories in Dundee, and one

sample of Russian hemp dust to serve as a control. In three of the

samples of jute dust, Dr Andrewes reported that tetanus bacilli were

present, but that he could not demonstrate their presence in the sample

of hemp dust.

“One of the samples in which the bacilli were present was taken from

under the same machine where eight months previously the accident had

occurred. During the interval the original sample, which Dr Andrewes

had retained, appeared to have lost its virulence.

“At the end of December an accident occurred in a jute mill resulting

in severe injury to the wrist of a worker. Tetanus developed twenty-six

days later, and as has frequently been

noted in cases where the incubation period is prolonged more than three

weeks, did not prove fatal. Some dust was collected six weeks after the

accident from near the place where it occurred, and was examined with

negative results.

“Dr Andrewes’ experiments prove unquestionably that tetanus spores

must be present in incredible numbers in much of the dust in jute

mills. Fortunately, the disease cannot be brought about like anthrax by

inhalation, nor does it develop, as a rule, except as the result of a

mixed infection.

“In the ten years 1890–99, 11 fatal cases of traumatic tetanus have

been recorded in Dundee. Five of these were workers in jute mills. Of

the remaining six, one, aged six, was the son of a yarn-dresser, a

second, aged eight, the son of a mill overseer, and a third, aged one,

the daughter of a yard-beamer. The possibility of the tetanus in their

cases having been brought about by the dust in their parents’ clothing,

or in jute material worked at home, is not excluded. In the other three

cases there does not appear to have been any connection with jute.

“While not wishing to lay too much stress on the matter, seeing that

tetanus germs are to be found in almost every sample of garden mould,

I think the figures do show a special incidence of tetanus on jute

workers, and I attribute it, as I have said, to the soil in which the

jute is grown being particularly rich in the bacilli.

“In India, tetanus is much commoner than it is in this country, and I

am informed that one of the most prominent fears before the surgeon’s

mind in treating a severe lacerated wound is the possibility of tetanus

supervening. Inquiry is being made in India as to the incidence of

tetanus among jute workers there.”

Investigations reveal a predisposition among factory workers, and

particularly those employed in spinning and preparing rooms, to

develop respiratory troubles--broncho-pneumonia, chronic bronchitis,

and pulmonary emphysema, being the most prominent. There is also a

singularly large number of patients admitted to the local infirmary

suffering from lobar pneumonia. Rheumatism is an extremely common

ailment, and can be partially accounted for by the great variations of

temperature which operatives have frequently to withstand. Multiple

tuberculous lesions are frequently observed in the children of the

poorer operatives, and thus one finds from time to time young persons

at work, with portions of the hands amputated on account of scrofulous

or tuberculous diseases of the bones. Slight deafness is widespread

among

jute operatives, but other textile workers may be afflicted in a

similar degree. The excessive noise of jute-weaving looms, and the

persistent loud hum of spinning frames presumably account for much of

this. The looms, owing to their large size, and the weight and high

speed of the shuttles, are particularly noisy. The possibility of the

dust inducing the formation of an obstruction with the waxy secretion

of the ear is not excluded; indeed the fine light particles of fibre

readily accumulate in the external auditory canal.

A hoarseness or huskiness of voice is met with frequently, and is

especially marked in preparing and spinning operatives. Whether

this is due to overstraining of the voice, shouting above the noise

of the machinery, or to dust irritation of the vocal chords, has

never been clearly demonstrated. Anæmia in its commonest forms is a

frequent ailment among all the operatives, but doubtless careless and

injudicious feeding contributes to this condition of health.

An illness locally known as “mill fever” attacks about one-fourth of

the persons who commence labour in factories for the first time. The

symptoms make their appearance a few days after work is started, and

take the form of one or more of the following: headache, backache,

lassitude, thirst, and slight fever. The attack lasts about from three

to four days, and yields to antifebrile medicines followed by tonics.

It has been observed that the patients are usually young people, and

are frequently of weak constitution, or badly nourished.

In drawing definite conclusions as to the incidence of these

ailments in jute operatives, one is confronted by the difficulty of

differentiating between what is caused by the industry, and what is the

natural result of poor feeding and bad housing. No absolutely reliable

statistics have yet been compiled relating to the health conditions of

the workers; indeed there is much scope for further research in this

direction.

The low physical and social condition of a section of the operatives is

a marked feature of this industry. The class alluded to is generally

distinctly diminutive in appearance, being of light weight as well as

of short stature. For the most part they are employed in the relatively

disagreeable processes, namely, preparing and spinning, and, as before

mentioned, they earn smaller wages than weavers. It is needless to say

that most of this class are indifferently housed. At the census return

of 1891 there were 22,206 persons living in single-roomed houses in

Dundee, an

average of 2.6 per house. Of two-roomed houses there were 17,834,

containing 81,488 inmates, an average of 4.56 per house. Generally

speaking, the single-roomed abodes shelter the worst paid operatives.

These single rooms are at times badly crowded, and the sanitary

accommodation, if such exists at all, in spite of extensive

improvements effected in recent years, is often an open manure heap,

the tenants using pails for house refuse, etc.

Typhus fever is almost constantly prevalent in Dundee, 39 cases

occurring in 1899, with 5 deaths, and up to the 13th November 1900, 49

cases, 6 terminating fatally. These figures may indicate to a certain

extent the amount of destitution and overcrowding which exists.

The infantile death-rate is high, the figures for the last few years

being as follows:--For 1897, 194; 1898, 181; 1899, 169 per 1000 births.

The lamentable neglect of young infants leaves its impress on the

children who survive, many of them presenting a puny and delicate

appearance when applying for employment at twelve years of age.

The poverty or greed of the parents drives these children, the most

undersized and least able to withstand the injurious effects of a

factory life, to work at the earliest possible age, and the indoor life

discourages growth and development.

The reports of the inspectors of jute mills in East India show that

the industry is considered there to have no particularly deleterious

effects on health. The mills, however, are built with very high roofs,

and are largely open to the sky. The climate permits of this, and

accordingly the ventilation gives no trouble. Another fact has to be

borne in mind in comparing Indian operatives with those employed at

home. The former are migratory, only remaining a year or two at the

industry, and, presumably, insufficient time is given for any injurious

effects to betray themselves; whereas in Scotland, the bulk of a

lifetime is spent by a worker in a jute factory.

HARRY J. WILSON.

CHAPTER XLVII

LAUNDRY WORKERS

Thousands of women and girls are employed every week in the useful

office of cleansing and making fresh the garments stained in the

daily stress and toil of life, and the impression is probably a

correct one--though it is impossible to support it by statistics--that

“washing,” in the sense of laundry work, affords occupation to at least

as large a number of women as does any other industry in the country.

The industry embraces perhaps as wide a range of methods as any other

that could be mentioned. The disparity between that of the woman who

“takes in a little washing” and that of the huge “Sanitary Laundry”

owned by a Limited Company, and equipped with power-driven machinery

which yearly becomes more complicated, is indeed great. But the engine

wins, and it seems clear that before long the whole industry will

become one of organised factory-labour with some survivals of the other

system, just as in the textile trades a few rough wooden hand-looms

and picturesque spinning-wheels still linger in the more out-of-way

districts.

“To take in washing” has for so long appeared to be an occupation

mainly reserved as a resource for the woman bereft of her

“breadwinner,” or deprived by circumstances of other means of

livelihood, that many people still look on “laundry work” from this

point of view. It is perhaps difficult to realise that the radical

change which has everywhere transformed industrial conditions has

already affected this occupation also, and that for good or for

evil the washerwoman is passing under the influences which have

so profoundly modified the circumstances of her sister of the

spinning-wheel and the sewing needle. When the first washing machine

and ironing roller were applied to this occupation, alteration in the

conditions became as much a foregone conclusion as it did in the case

of the textile or the clothing manufactures, when the spinning frame,

the power loom, or the sewing machine appeared.

Meanwhile, few industries afford at the present time a more interesting

study. From a simple home occupation it is steadily being transformed

by the application of power-driven machinery and by the division of

labour into a highly organised factory industry, in which complicated

labour-saving contrivances of all kinds play a prominent part. The

tremendous impetus in the adoption of machinery, and the consequent

modification of the system of employment so striking in the large

laundries, is not greater than the less obvious but even more important

development in the same direction among small laundries. Indeed the

difference is rapidly becoming one of degree only. In the large

laundries may be found perhaps more machinery and a greater number

of the newest devices, but the fundamental change has affected all

alike. “At one time it was only in a few large steam laundries that

machinery was to be met with, now it is no uncommon thing to find a row

of houses in separate occupation, the back yard of each of which is

roofed in and packed with laundry machinery, all driven by an engine

installed at one end of the row. The old-fashioned ‘washerwoman’ is

fast disappearing, and is superseded by the enterprising young ‘laundry

proprietor,’ who, turning the tubs out of the back kitchen, fills their

place with ‘washing machines,’ and connecting them with a little gas

engine (tightly wedged into the dark broom cupboard under the stairs),

blossoms forth as the owner of ‘a factory laundry,’ ready to deal with

six times the amount of work that his predecessor could hope to cope

with, and to compete feverishly with scores of similarly equipped

rivals.”[148]

One result of this haphazard adaptation of old conditions to new

circumstances is an undesirable anomaly between the two. The small

unsuitable premises, never designed for house machinery, quiver and

shake under the unaccustomed strain; and the little rooms, “ventilated”

by windows only, are ill suited for operations which produce quantities

of steam and an abnormal temperature. Not seldom the ambitious

“proprietor” himself is lamentably ignorant of the capacities and

possibilities of the machinery of which he is the proud possessor.

“Since the guv’nor tied the old box-mangle up to the new engine,

she has taken to leapin’ back and forrards that alarmin’ and that

sudden-like, that it’s a wonder I’ve not been caught out sooner nor

I was.” The remark, which is recorded by the Factory Inspector who

investigated the resulting accident, epitomises quaintly the situation

in many a small laundry. Everywhere machinery is to be found, even in

the smallest hand laundry. The hand-turned washing machine stands among

the wash-tubs, and as soon as funds permit will be coupled up to a tiny

gas engine, which in time will give place to a larger one.

“Side by side with this development in the smaller laundries is to

be found the rapid multiplication of large laundry companies and

syndicates, certain of which own as many as a dozen or more fine

well-equipped steam laundries fitted up with the latest ingenious

inventions in labour-saving machinery, and organised into ‘departments’

in which the division of labour is at least as marked a feature as

it is in the majority of non-textile factories. In such places a

single shirt will pass through seven or eight different machines in

the process of ironing alone. In place of the elderly married woman

or widow, we find skilled engineers in charge of a shed full of

machinery still called familiarly the ‘wash-house,’ while scores of

girls and young women, from thirteen years upwards, tend the various

kinds of ironing machines, with exactly the same mechanical precision

and routine as in any other factory. Even in those departments where

machinery is not required, the labour is organised and regulated as in

an ordinary factory, the sorters have their staff of ‘markers,’ and the

‘dryers’ fill and empty with almost automatic regularity the series of

drying closets through which hot air is driven by propulsion fans. With

this advent of machinery and subdivision of labour, the whole character

of the industry has changed. It is becoming more and more evident that,

from the smallest to the largest laundry, the industry is passing--has

indeed in some respects already passed--out of the peculiar position

which it has hitherto occupied, and is taking its place alongside

ordinary trades.”[149]

The manufacture of laundry machinery, to which much energy and capital

is devoted, is every year increasing. New and ingenious inventions and

improvements constantly appear, many of which come from America, whence

a considerable amount of this machinery is imported. The adaptation to

laundry work of the “hydro-extractor,” a powerful drying machine much

used in bleaching and dye-works, has greatly expedited the laundry

process. This machine consists of a round perforated metal “cage”

or “basket,” which revolves at an enormous speed (500 to over 1500

revolutions a minute) inside an iron or steel case, in shape like a

huge round pot standing 2 or 3 feet high; the wet clothes are packed

into the “basket,” and during its rapid revolutions the water is

driven out of them by centrifugal force through the perforations into

the outer casing, on the same principle as water from a mop which is

trundled. As may be imagined, the terrific velocity and vibration of

such a machine is an element of danger, and in the event of a cast-iron

case bursting, the fragments are hurled with a force which will wreck

the room or shed in which it stands, and prove fatal to any bystander.

In the same way the “calender machine” has been adapted to laundry

work, and is now commonly found in quite small laundries; it consists

of huge steam or gas heated cylinders, varying from 4 to 8 or 9 feet

long, either revolving singly in a metal bed, as in the case of the

“decoudun,” or on each other, as in the case of the multiple-roller

calenders. The machine is tended by quite young girls from thirteen

years old and upwards, who stand in front to “feed” the edge of the

material into the “bite” of the rollers or over the “lip” of the

decoudun. The linen is gradually drawn in under the hot, revolving

rollers, which thus “iron” it smooth and glossy, a cloud of steam

arising as each damp article passes under the roller. Constant care is

required to so put the work under the machine that the hands are not

also drawn under; want of attention may be followed by an accident, and

even where care is exercised the fingers may be entangled in a string

or hole in the material and the hand thus drawn in. The heat given off

by these machines is sometimes very great; a temperature of over 90° F.

may be registered even in winter on the feeding-step in front of this

machine, at which little girls stand all day long.

It would be difficult to enumerate in detail all the various machines

and appliances now used in laundries; washing machines in endless and

bewildering variety, hydro-extractors, mangling and starching machines,

calenders, collar and cuff-ironers, shirt-bosom polishers, blouse

ironers, skirt ironers, body-linen ironers, curling machines (to give

the desired curl to collars), gophering-machines (which give the wave

to frills), electric or gas-heated irons and drying closets, through

which hot blasts are driven by mechanical “fans,” are some of the

contrivances which are in common use.

The change in the nature of the occupation is naturally accompanied

by a change in the conditions of work which now assimilate in all but

the degree of legislative regulation to those in ordinary factories

or workshops. As in other industries, the adoption of machinery

has resulted in a large increase in the employment of young and of

comparatively unskilled labour, for girls of fourteen or sixteen years

can tend machines, the operations of which, if accomplished by hand,

could only be undertaken by older or more skilled workers. Where only

one girl under eighteen years was employed eight or nine years ago, now

dozens are to be found as machine tenders.

In endeavouring to present as saliently as possible the most striking

feature of the present position of this trade, namely, its development

into a factory industry, and the strides with which it is ranging

itself alongside others in this respect, reference has been purposely

delayed to that section which, though relatively decreasing, is

still of course large, in which only hand labour is employed. Here

the interesting feature is the steady decrease in the size of the

average hand-laundry. Large hand-laundries are becoming rare, for,

unless they do a peculiar class of work, they cannot hope to compete

with similar or smaller-sized ones in which mechanical power is

employed. On the other hand, the very small hand-laundries, where

from one to five or six women are employed, still of course exist

in large numbers, and are for the most part carried on in little

dwelling-houses. The house-mother who endeavours to support her

family by tailoring, shirtmaking, boot-closing, knitting, artificial

flower-making, or by handwork of any kind carried on in her own living

rooms, may feel assured that, uncomfortable and wretched as her home

may in consequence become, it is and must be infinitely less wretched,

unhealthy, and disorganised than the home of the woman who in a small

town dwelling-house takes in washing as a means of livelihood. The

discomforts of the family “wash day” are extended to all the other

days in the week, and are increased tenfold. It is impossible to wash

without creating steam, which makes the air heavy and condenses on

ceilings, walls, and furniture, saturating them with a clammy moisture.

It is impossible to “dry” in smoky towns during the greater part of the

year except under cover, and the flapping wet material hung all day

and all night across the rooms, the passages, or the tiny backyard,

excludes air and light, even apart from the other objections. It is

impossible to iron without fire or stoves which raise the temperature,

until not only the tiny room but the whole house becomes oppressively

hot, and the “close” smell, always so noticeable in small town houses,

is seriously aggravated when piles of soiled linen are sorted and dealt

with.

Sometimes the washing is done in a basement room, to light or ventilate

which is practically impossible; and one has only to stand in such a

place where, with the best will in the world, proper drainage of the

sloppy floor is impossible, where the heat in summer and the damp in

winter are alike excessive, to realise vividly that of all industries

laundry work is perhaps the least suitable to the home. A common plan

in certain crowded parts of London, and one much favoured by foreign

immigrants, is to let in lodgings the single rooms on the floors above

the ground, and to carry on such a “laundry” below, with the help

of one or two other women. The steam, heat, and smell are sometimes

overpowering, while the work is continued till far into the night.

The effect of the occupation on the health of those engaged in it is

not very easy to gauge, because most of the diseases to which such

persons are rendered peculiarly liable by the nature of the occupation

are those which might be induced by many other causes. It is much to be

hoped that before long the registration of the occupation of women as

well as of men, in all hospitals and infirmaries, and in certificates

of death, will make the comparison of this with other industries

possible in this respect.

It is impossible that the heat and steam, the exhausting manual labour

(all of which is done standing), and above all the excessively long

hours of work in this ill-regulated industry, can fail to have a

marked effect on the health of the workers as a class. In 1893 and

1894, when inquiry as to these conditions preceded the passing of the

Act of 1895, the periods of work of women and young girls were found

to be excessively long--and they are still not only very long, but

extraordinarily irregular. The most immediately obvious effect on

health is to be found in the prevalence, among these workers, of ulcers

on the legs and varicose veins. It would perhaps be hardly credited by

any who are not intimately acquainted with them, to what extent these

poor women suffer in this respect. To stand at work all day is the lot

of many industrial workers, but in no other woman’s industry is this

form of suffering so serious. In certain well-defined laundry districts

in West London an inquiry at the Poor Law Infirmaries, to which, and

not to the Hospitals, the poor women suffering from this troublesome

and painful ailment most naturally resort, demonstrated the peculiar

liability of laundry workers in this respect.

The districts to which the following figures (taken from the Report of

the Chief Inspector of Factories) relate are those in which industrial

workers--although not perhaps _employed_ to the same extent as

laundry workers--_reside_ in greater numbers, and to the Poor Law

Infirmaries, to which they therefore gravitate to even greater extent.

_TABLE A._[150]

Wandsworth: Clapham Infirmary (including Battersea).

+----------------+----+------------+-----------++------------+-----------+

| | | Suffering | || Pulmonary | |

| 1899. | No.| from Ulcers|Proportion.||Consumption.|Proportion.|

| | | of Legs. | || | |

+----------------+----+------------+-----------++------------+-----------+

|Laundresses | 247| 36 | 1 in 6 || 21 | 1 in 11 |

|Women other than| | | || | |

| Laundresses |1171| 50 | 1 in 23 || 63 | 1 in 19 |

| | | | || | |

| 1900. | | | || | |

|Laundresses | 199| 27 | 1 in 7 || 18 | 1 in 11 |

|Women other than| | | || | |

| Laundresses |1127| 41 | 1 in 27 || 59 | 1 in 19 |

+----------------+----+------------+-----------++------------+-----------+

_TABLE B._

Isleworth Infirmary (includes Acton, Chiswick, Brentford).

+----------------+----+------------+-----------++------------+-----------+

| | | Suffering | || Pulmonary | |

| 1898. | No.| from Ulcers|Proportion.||Consumption.|Proportion.|

| | | of Legs. | || | |

+----------------+----+------------+-----------++------------+-----------+

|Laundresses | 58| 9 | 1 in 6 || 6 | 1 in 10 |

|Women other than| | | || | |

| Laundresses | 179| 7 | 1 in 25 || 7 | 1 in 25 |

| | | | || | |

| 1899. | | | || | |

|Laundresses | 79| 13 | 1 in 6 || 9 | 1 in 9 |

|Women other than| | | || | |

| Laundresses | 218| 7 | 1 in 31 || 11 | 1 in 20 |

+----------------+----+------------+-----------++------------+-----------+

The transference of most of the work in laundries from comparatively

elderly women to quite young girls, who are thus at an immature age

brought under conditions which no thoughtful or educated person will

deny are in every respect trying, is an aspect of the subject to which

it is important to direct attention; seventy, seventy-two, seventy-six

hours a week, exclusive of meal times, are not uncommonly worked by

girls of fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen years of age, and although these

long hours are nominally illegal, it is practically impossible to

give general effect to the law. This work is not the light and often

pleasant occupation of sewing or folding. It is not done sitting down.

From morning to night these young girls are constantly standing, they

are generally tending machines, the majority of which are specially

heated, and they work in an atmosphere in which steam, which is nearly

always present, makes the high temperature far more oppressive than

would be the case if the air were not thus artificially saturated to

an excessive degree with moisture. Steam rises from the calenders and

various machines. It is given off also by the damp clothes, which in

many laundries, even large ones, hang drying or airing overhead or on

“horses” in the room. The conditions in this respect are often at least

as trying as in any spinning-mill, and the hours, during which the

girls are exposed to them, very much longer.

Ironers suffer from headaches and sore eyes, which result from

constantly bending over the gas-heated irons in general use. The fumes

from the tiny gas-jets--unless these and the air supply to each iron

are very carefully regulated--are disagreeably noticeable on entering

the room, and sometimes even the laundry, and are of course worst of

all just above the iron so heated. It is to be remembered that the

material handled is not new or in the first instance clean, and unless

sufficient care is taken to keep the “sorting” room in laundries in

proper condition, the result is sure to be insanitary.

In small hand and “factory” laundries, a practice is to be found which

cannot be too severely deprecated, of employing as a “drying-room”

for the washed linen the same little room in which the foul linen is

sorted on its arrival. The room has a stove in the middle of it, and

the washed linen is hung on lines drawn across it, and, with door and

window closely shut, is left all day and often all night till dry.

It may be taken as an axiom that when on entering the premises the

peculiar “close” smell is noticeable, there the conditions are bad. Of

all the disagreeable smells that are to be found, the heavy odour of an

ill-ventilated laundry or wash-house is one of the worst; “it seems to

cling to one’s lips till one tastes it,” was the expression used by one

who frequently visits laundries. To this discomfort the “sorters” are

peculiarly exposed. As Miss Squire says: “It is hardly perhaps realised

how great are the demands that this branch of laundry-work makes upon

the physical and mental powers of the workers, usually young women of

good education, and the constant standing, the unpleasant, if not the

insanitary nature of the work for the first part of the week during the

“sorting” process, and the great care and attention required during the

latter part, when collecting, checking, and packing separately each

customer’s linen.” “I visited,” says Miss Anderson, “one hand laundry

in London where a packer and sorter had been driven into a hospital

with sores on her legs from long standing; every day in the week she

had been working from 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. with indefinite meal-times, and

on Sundays the whole morning, giving out parcels to customers. This

girl eventually left the hospital on crutches, and at that time I found

her successor in a fair way to losing her health also.”[151]

The reply of the women themselves, when questioned on the subject, is

nearly always the same, and its reiteration is impressive: “I don’t

know that it’s anything particular as carries us off; but we are just

wore out in no time.” “There’s nothing like this life for wearing you

out.” “We’re old women at forty.” “It’s a harder life than any, is a

laundry; it wears you out very soon.” “For one strong one that’ll stand

it, there’s a many and many fair wore out by it before they’ve lived

half a life.”

It would be interesting to test the accuracy of this general impression

which is shared by many medical and philanthropic persons who are

interested in laundry-workers, if figures were available on which to

base a calculation of the “expectation of life” among these women.

“Worn out while still young,” is the expression constantly used by

those whose professional work brings them into contact with these women

when speaking of the effect of the occupation on health.

It is frequently asserted that laundry women as a class are intemperate

and rougher than most industrial workers. That they are peculiarly

irregular in their habits it is impossible to deny; and that the long

hours, the discomfort and exhaustion due to constant standing in wet

and heat, discourage the entrance into the trade of a better class

of worker is certain. This latter cause, however, will operate less

and less strongly as the environment improves. They may at present

be characterised as a hard-working, impulsive, short-tempered body of

women, the control of whom, under the existing irregular conditions

which have been thoughtlessly and unnecessarily encouraged, is not to

be lightly undertaken by a man without a fair amount of physical and

moral courage. The prevalence of the drink habit among many of them,

of which so much is said, is not difficult to account for: the heat

of an atmosphere often laden with particles of soda, ammonia, and

other chemicals, has a remarkably thirst-inducing effect; the work is

for the most part exhausting, even apart from the conditions, and the

pernicious habit of quenching the thirst, and stimulating an overtired

physical condition, with beer. The ten minutes or quarter-hour “lunch”

of “beer” is common, and the “beerman,” who goes his rounds at 10 A.M.

and 6 or 7 P.M. to all the laundries, delivering his cans of beer

from the nearest public house, is an institution which is, I believe,

unknown in any other trade. Imagine the amazement of the master of a

mill or weaving factory if his employés were to stop in a body for a

quarter of an hour twice a day between meals to drink beer! Yet in many

laundries the beer is kept on the premises for the purpose, and it

is certain that as long as time thus wasted (to put it on the lowest

grounds) can be made up by each separate woman “working it out” at

the end of the day, irregular dawdling and intemperate habits will be

encouraged. On the other hand, a woman who is expected on Thursdays or

Fridays to be in the laundry from 8 or 8.30 in the morning till 9 or 10

or 11 at night, may claim with some show of reason that only by some

kind of spur can she keep her overtired body from flagging.

None deplore this discreditable and unsatisfactory practice more than

the better and more progressive among the laundry employers, but the

abolition of it rests practically with them.

Little has been said about the legal regulation of hours of work. Were

the conditions in this trade to be raised by the exercise of modern

ingenuity and wise organisation--above all, by whole-hearted adoption

of effectual means of counteracting the very trying conditions, which

it is best frankly to own are otherwise an essential accompaniment of

the work--there is no reason why it should not rank as one of the best

of the non-textile industries.

LUCY A. E. DEANE.

CHAPTER XLVIII

FISH-CURING AND FRUIT-PRESERVING

It would probably seem to the casual observer that of all industries

in which women are employed, none are less likely to cause injury to

health than those connected with fish. Visions arise of the fisherman’s

wife, who from the minute the fishing-boat grates on the beach relieves

her husband of all labour, taking the burden of the active work and the

sole responsibility for all connected with the fish and the nets; of

the Newhaven fishwife, so familiar in the streets of Edinburgh, as she

trudges from door to door bearing with apparent ease the enormous creel

of fish, and her almost equally surprising burden of petticoats, and

of everything one has heard or read of the fisher lass. These visions

and traditions would seem to justify the view that whatever there may

be in her life that is hard, and for which the dweller in towns might

be found unfit, the woman who has from her infancy been accustomed to

an outdoor life and to constant exposure to wind and weather, will, in

this work, have fitness and endurance which it would be difficult to

overtax.

Yet it is not inappropriate to give some space to this industry in

a book on Occupation Diseases, and in order to arrive at the reason

for its inclusion, it is necessary to look at the history of the

development of the fish-curing industry and the conditions of work.

Far away in remote districts of Scotland and Ireland, there may still

be found surviving the hand industry of wool-carding and spinning,

carried on often by the crofter’s or shepherd’s wife as she sits,

singing no doubt appropriate songs, on the hillside or at her peat

fire, but in nothing can this be compared with the great wool-spinning

industry of the Yorkshire mills. Similarly in the fish-curing trade,

the work of the women who concern themselves only with the catch of

one small fishing-boat is totally different from that of those who are

centred round a fish market, who go from port to port, and to whom the

trawler, the drifter, the steam liner, and a huge fleet of sail boats,

bring in daily tons of fish.

In a country with such a coastline as ours, with its shores washed

by many seas, it follows as a matter of course that all parts of the

United Kingdom are industrially interested in fishing, but in Scotland

chiefly it is a staple industry; and the Scots, in some parts of the

country, might be called a nation of fisher folk, so large a proportion

of the population depend, if not for their entire living, at least for

the chief part of it, on the harvest of the sea. The figures given in

the last published report of the Scotch Fishery Board show that almost

90,000 Scots were employed in connection with the various branches

of the sea fisheries, of whom probably at least a fourth are women,

constantly or intermittently engaged in fish-curing.

The industry, leaving out of account the packing of fish for sale

fresh, which is done from the market, not the workshop, may be divided

roughly into two varieties, the one dealing with herring, the other

with haddocks, cod, and other white-fleshed fish. It is with the former

I wish to deal chiefly here, although the latter has also a record of

injury caused by overwork and bad conditions.

There does not appear to be reason to fear that the demand both at

home and abroad for Scotch-cured herrings will diminish. The industry,

while fluctuating yearly, both locally and generally, grows as a

whole in extent, and is largely in the hands of Scotch workers,

even in the ports in England in which it is carried on. There is a

huge trade to foreign ports in cured or pickled herrings, for which

there is apparently an unlimited demand in Russia and Germany; and

an immense quantity are exported also to the Mediterranean ports.

The women employed (if we consider, as the English curer does, that

Northumberland is part of Scotland as far as the fishing industry is

concerned) are practically all Scotch. They are engaged by the curer

for the season as long as that lasts in one port, or may be engaged

for a longer period, or indeed for the whole “herring” year by the

same curer. At any rate, they find little difficulty in securing

engagements, and, in May and June, we find them very far north:

Stornoway and Thurso being the centres of the industry. In July, there

is a move eastwards on the part of the herring, and consequently of

the herring curers, and for two months Shetland, Wick, Fraserburgh,

and Peterhead are the chief headquarters. Later, the same women may

be found doing the same work on the Yorkshire and the Lincolnshire

coasts, and in October they move to Lowestoft and Yarmouth, where their

season probably ends about Christmas time. A certain number also may be

found in Hull, kippering herrings in the early part of the year, before

making their way home north for a sight of friends and home, before

beginning the work of a new season.

The chief causes of injury to health in the industry are two: (1) long

and irregular hours of work; (2) exposure. Uncertainty of supply,

both of fish and of wind, are of course important factors in the

trade; and, so far, little enterprise has been shown in overcoming the

resulting difficulties by adopting even such methods as are known to a

careful housekeeper, of keeping the fish, which undoubtedly, when left

unprotected and piled in heaps, soon begin to deteriorate. The curer’s

object is to have the fish dealt with as soon as possible after they

are landed, both to prevent deterioration and in order to be ready for

the next supply. Hence the long hours, the night work, the absence of

regular hours or of intervals sufficient for meals.

The method of housing the workers adds to the discomforts occasioned

by the methods of work. In Scotland it is customary for the curer to

utilise for this purpose the sheds used in winter as stores, handing

them over unfurnished, save for grates and rough boards put together

to form bedsteads, in the proportion of one bedstead for one crew. The

workers bring their own furniture, bedding, and cooking utensils, and

live as they work, in crews of three; generally six, nine, or twelve in

a room according to its size. It is not surprising that the frying-pan

and the tea-pot fill a large place in their domestic arrangements,

and that their diet is as a rule as expensive as it is indigestible.

If they are not so housed, the probability is that their lodging is a

long way from their workplace, too far to admit of them returning for

meals, and they take these in the wet and unwholesome atmosphere of the

fish-house.

The second drawback to this work is the exposure. In early summer in

Lewis (where the absence of any real darkness makes it easy to continue

work all through the night), with the rain falling softly probably, as

is its custom in the west, but none the less effectively; later on in

the east, exposed to the scorching mid-day heat; and still later on,

on the Norfolk coast in frost, wind, and rain, working far into the

night, by the light of flaring torches, such is the yearly experience

of the herring curer. The reason given for the present conditions in

each place is that the season is short, a month or two out of the year

only. True, the season is short for the town, but it is long for the

worker, living a nomadic life for eight to ten months out of twelve,

either in barracks or in lodgings, too often enduring the maximum of

discomfort both in and out of her working hours. Since the work, unlike

most of an outdoor nature, can be carried on in bad as in good weather,

it is reasonable to expect that some covering should be provided, so

that the worker shall not be wetted through and through, and compelled

to stand in mud as she works. Should the occupation be ever transformed

from an outdoor to an indoor industry, there would necessarily be a

loss of those picturesque sights with which many of us have become

familiar, but there would be a distinct gain in improved health to the

workers, for the unsatisfactory health of many of the women is the

direct result of the conditions under which their work is carried on.

Rheumatism, bronchitis, and the pulmonary troubles, from which so many

of them suffer, are consequent upon exposure to inclement weather,

but the derangements of the digestive organs and the tendency for the

workers to contract, often too in a severe form, epidemic diseases with

which they are brought into contact, are the result of their generally

lowered physical condition, due to their unhealthy mode of living.

The very ground they stand on is often a menace to health, for in the

absence of proper paving and drainage, the earth becomes impregnated

with decaying organic matter, which “smells to heaven,” and creates a

constantly foul atmosphere not completely counteracted by the open-air

surroundings. The long spell of work, the irregular and hastily cooked

and eaten meals, and overcrowded rooms, all tend to lower vitality and

render the system an easy prey to disease. No one will deny that an

allowance of 250 cubic feet of space for each person, in a room which

serves as a living room, as well as bedroom, for six to twelve persons,

is too small, yet a smaller allowance of space is frequently found.

I have spoken of the workers at the pickling or gutting and packing

process, leaving out of account the numbers employed in kippering,

who, while also nomadic, yet work on different terms as regards wages,

etc. Each worker is engaged separately, not as part of a crew, and as

a rule she has to find her own lodgings. The nature of the employment

obliges the kipperer to work in a covered place, but she, equally

with the “gutter” working outside, is injuriously influenced by the

imperfect sanitary conditions dependent upon unpaved or badly-paved

floors that cannot be _cleansed_ by simply being flushed with

water. Only properly constructed floors with good means of drainage

are of value here, and these are seldom seen. Ventilation and daylight

are acknowledged to be desirable to maintain health, but the little

kippering shop is too frequently without them. As a set-off against the

unhealthiness of the trade, it is urged that the season is short, but

if we take the interests of the workers into account, the season, as I

have shown, is not short, and there can be no justice in depriving the

woman who works in a trade which requires her to be in several places

in a year, of those privileges to which she would be entitled were she

working in one which permitted her to live always at home.

Among the minor ills from which the herring curer suffers, are the

severe cuts which it is impossible to avoid, and which are rendered

exceedingly painful by the constant use of salt, necessary in her work.

This often causes sores which take a long time to heal. Cases of mild

forms of blood poisoning are not infrequent, caused chiefly by the

sting of the jelly-fish, which is often found with its tentacles wound

round the herring.

In considering this question, it must be remembered that this branch

of the industry is not one in which young girls work. I am of opinion

that not more than 3 per cent. are under eighteen years of age. Were

it otherwise, there would undoubtedly be a much darker picture to draw

of ill-health, for the adult is able to withstand more than the young

undeveloped girl, and the evil effects are not so rapidly apparent.

The subject is one on which anything more than general statements are

difficult to make, for only a little of the injury is discoverable at

any one of the curing stations. When ill-health overtakes her, the

thought of the worker turns to home, and it is to the little fishing

villages, and among the crofters of the north, that one must go to

learn the full record of the fisher woman’s life. It is impossible to

doubt that the fish-curing industry has much to answer for, possessing

as it does, in addition to the unfavourable surroundings of insanitary

districts, evils peculiar to itself. The history of many a worker is

one of steady deterioration of health during the time of her employment

in this industry.

In the other branches of the trade, such as the curing and smoking of

haddocks, cod, ling, etc., and the preserving and tinning of fish, the

workers are drawn much more generally from the immediate locality. It

is in these that young labour is found, especially and increasingly

in the processes in which the hours and conditions are not regulated

by law, the period of employment at times abnormally long, and the

conditions of the workplaces far from satisfactory. Trying as these are

to every one, it is to the young and undeveloped workers that they most

often cause lasting injury. The employment of children, too, out of

school hours and during school holidays, in these laborious processes,

is not to their physical advantage.

The hopeful feature is that the evils are avoidable. The exemptions

from Public Health and Factory and Workshop Acts, which the fish-curer

has been allowed, have not been for the benefit either of the worker

or the consumer. With definite enactment and administration, with

regulated hours and sanitary workplaces, impetus would be given, I

believe, to better regulation of the industry itself, and there being

nothing necessarily unhealthy in the work, we should gradually find our

fisher population becoming what with their ancestry and industry they

ought to be--worthy successors of those who, in the annals of history,

have never been found wanting in strength and endurance.

_The Preserving of Fruit._

The preserving of fruit has only of recent years become an industry of

any importance. The costliness of sugar made jam formerly a luxury for

which the demand was small, and the great bulk of it used was made not

in the factory or workshop, but in the domestic kitchen. Few housewives

would, in those past days, admit the use of bought jam; now its

reduced price has brought it within the reach of all who are without

the appliances or knowledge to make it, or space in which to store

it. The industry is carried on in all varieties of workplaces, from

the large country factory in a fruit-growing district, to the little

dingy workshop in a crowded city street, and largely by women and young

girls. Jam-making is not an intricate process, whether made outright

in the fruit season, or only partially, to be completed as required

during the remainder of the year; it is simple and easily carried on,

for the most part, by unskilled workers. Still the work is not light,

and although there are many appliances which help to render it less

hard and exhausting, these are not in general use, and the workers are

exposed, as a rule, to danger both to health and limb. Burns and scalds

from the boiling mixture, and injury from falls on slippery floors, may

not be wholly unavoidable in this trade; but the risk from them can

be reduced greatly by using proper means of pouring and conveying jam,

and by limiting the amount which a worker shall be allowed or expected

to carry. One cannot but view with concern the increasing number of

youthful workers now employed, especially during the summer months,

when, owing to a relaxation of the Factory Act, the industry is largely

outside the sphere of legislative control. Long hours, too, go, as is

often the case, hand in hand with bad conditions.

In quite a number of industries among which jam-making may be included,

wetness really forms the chief menace to health. In the textile

industry the danger from this cause has been so much recognised, that

by means of the Cotton Cloth Act and by Special Rules, provision is

made for the health of the workers where they are exposed to moisture.

In the law relating to steam laundries, the removal of steam is

specially provided for. In jam manufacture, there is of necessity the

production of moisture. Where the means for removing it are effective,

little discomfort or injury may result, but unfortunately in the rapid

development of the industry, buildings unsuitable for the purpose have

often been chosen; disused factories, intended primarily for quite

other purposes, and not easily adaptable to their present use. In

these, consequently, the work is done at a risk to health.

When you enter the boiling-room of one of these factories, you are

often conscious only of steam, steam which cannot be seen through,

which envelopes you, wetting and chilling at the same time. As you

penetrate it you find that there are workers there, young girls often,

thinly clad, thin and pale, and as you stand and talk to them, the

condensed steam drops down on you and them from the roof, so that

you are not surprised that the thin cotton dresses they wear are

saturated, and even their hair is dripping wet. In the resigned manner

characteristic of this class of worker, they admit that it is “a bit

steamy,” possibly assuring you at the same time in husky voices, which

go far to belie their words, that it has never done them any harm.

Under foot there is again wetness, partly due to the steam, partly to

the water, hot and cold, which must be used with some lavishness, and

which in factories, not constructed with a special view to such an

industry as this, lodges in pools, lies between the flags and bricks of

the floor in crevices, to which much of the refuse of the factory finds

its way. There it lies decomposing, affecting injuriously the health

of the workers, and hastening the deterioration of the fresh fruit.

Jam-making is classed as a season trade, and although employment for

the permanent workers is usually continuous throughout the year, it is

in the summer months that there is the greatest pressure, and large

numbers of casual workers are employed. To meet this pressure, the

usual limits set by the Factory Acts have been relaxed, and long spells

of work, with shortened meal-times, are further elements in rendering

the worker less efficient and more liable to contract disease. The

effects of these conditions are not seen at once, they are gradual and

insidious in their action, but it is only the constitution much above

the average which can withstand them. The prevalence of bronchitis

and other chest diseases, and of rheumatism and lumbago of a chronic

character, although often not of a specially severe type, is due to

causes which are, or should be, preventable.

The two industries, fish-curing and fruit-preserving, have many points

in common, notably that in both: (1) the material dealt with is of a

perishable nature, liable to deterioration; (2) the pressure of work

is not continuous throughout the year; (3) the industry is not fully

controlled by the Factory Acts. To the effects from these causes all

that renders these trades at present dangerous or injurious to health

may be attributed. If the economic value of the health of the worker is

recognised, it will not be impossible to secure conditions which, being

primarily intended for her benefit, shall incidentally tend also to the

improvement of the industries.

_Note._--This chapter was written before the Factory Bill of 1901

passed into law. It should, owing to the provisions of that Bill, be

possible in future for H.M. Inspectors to exercise some control over

some of the conditions relating to health in these trades.

MARY M. PATERSON.

CHAPTER XLIX

WOMEN’S LABOUR IN TINPLATE WORKS

Tinplates, the material of which canisters, tin boxes, etc., are made,

are plates of iron or of steel, which have been dipped in baths of

molten tin; the tin unites by this process with the iron or steel,

and coats it completely. The secret of tinning plates was brought

into England from Saxony at the end of the seventeenth century, and

the first works were opened at Pontypool. South Wales still retains

the chief part of this trade; a few tinplate works are to be found

on the banks of the Severn and in the Midlands, but the majority are

in Monmouthshire, Glamorgan, and Carmarthen. In these counties great

tinplate works, either singly or in groups, or in a long line at

intervals of a mile or so down the still beautiful valleys, are to be

seen and heard, pouring out volumes of smoke from tall chimneys, and

sending up the ceaseless clang and roll of resounding metal--literally

ceaseless, for the work goes on night and day, with shifts of men and

boys. More unlikely places in which to find women and girls than these

iron and steel works where tinplates are made it would be difficult to

imagine, yet there are hundreds of them in those of South Wales, and a

few in some of the works in England. Before the Factory Acts restricted

their hours of labour, women and girls worked all night through in

tinplate works with the men and boys, and such employment seems to

have lingered long in these out-of-the-way places, for the older women

remember the night alarm of the inspector’s visit and the rush from the

works out into the darkness, and the quiet stealing home so as not to

be caught. Now, boys working in a night-shift take the place of women

and girls in the continuous processes. The actual manufacture of the

tinplate as distinct from the manufacture of the material is divided

into two distinct departments: (1) The preparation of the iron or steel

into plates of the required size and thickness, or rather thinness, and

the smoothing and cleaning of their surfaces; (2) the tinning of the

plates and their subsequent cleaning, polishing, and packing up.

The first set pf processes is carried on in the mills, the second in

the tinhouses; the chief part of the work is done by men and boys, but

in both the mills and the tinhouses women and girls find occupation.

Their labour falls into five main divisions; in some tinhouses there

are also found others subsidiary to these five:--

(1) _Opening._--Separating the plates which have in the process of

rolling been almost welded together.

(2) _Washing._--Cleansing the plates in water.

(3) _Pickling._--Lading and unlading the cradle with plates for

the pickler (a man) to immerse in dilute sulphuric acid.

(4) _Rubbing or Dusting._--Rubbing the tinned plates with bran,

meal, or mineral powder to remove grease and polish the surface.

(5) _Counting and Packing._--Ordinary warehouse processes.

The first three of these processes are carried on in the mills,

the last two in the tinhouses and warehouses. Different as are the

conditions of occupation in the various processes, all the employés

are subject alike to certain conditions: in all departments there is

exposure to the weather, the works being more or less open on all

sides; everywhere there is noise which in the mills is deafening,

danger to life and limb from locomotives and trucks in motion, from

red-hot metal, from sharp-edged plates, and scraps strewn about, so

that the whole works appears one vast rubbish heap; in all departments

alike the lifting and carrying of heavy loads are part of the ordinary

work. There is also the association of men and women, lads and

girls, working together in these great open works where supervision

is impossible, and where, unfortunately, proper provision for

women’s convenience, often even for elementary decency, is too often

conspicuous by its absence.

In the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories for 1888, Mr

Whymper gives a graphic description of tinplate works and the various

processes of manufacture, only touching upon the part taken by women

and girls, and time seems to have made little or no change in either

works or processes.

A few remarks must now be made on the special conditions of each of the

processes in which women are employed.

1. _Opening._--Mr Whymper has well described this process as follows:

“Holding the plate upright on a stand of the proper height, her right

hand fitted with the much-needed guard, she first breaks down the

plate’s upper edges with a sort of knife, and starts asunder the tops

of the layers which the rolling-mill has pressed together temporarily

into one piece. Then having thus got something to take hold of, she

wrenches them asunder in their whole lengths, one after another, and

lays them flat before her. These at last are the required black plates,

the result of so much and such varied labour.” Strength and skill are

required for this work; there is some danger of overstrain in lifting

the heavy plates, but an opener is more at liberty to suit her load to

her strength than are the women and girls in the other departments.

The sharp edges of the plates inflict nasty cuts upon the hands in

spite of the guards worn, and serious accidents have occurred by women

stumbling and falling against the upright plates; one young woman

had her arm cut open from wrist to elbow in this way. Fine particles

of steel and iron fly off in the forcing open of the layers, and it

is surprising that injuries to the eyes are not more frequent. Some

doctors well acquainted with these works consider that much injury is

caused to the men by inhaling these particles of metal present in the

air of the mills, and that the women are more injuriously affected than

they themselves know, chest diseases in later life resulting from this

cause. The openers are a somewhat superior class to the other women in

tinplate works, from whom they hold themselves aloof: their hours, too,

are much shorter than those of the others, usually from 9 A.M. to 2

P.M., and they come and go as they like.

2. _Washers._--These women wash the metal plates in large tanks

of water; they carry loads of these heavy, sharp-edged plates, and

immerse them in the tanks, the displaced water splashes over the edge

of the tank upon the washer, and falls upon the floor. With sleeves

rolled up above the elbow, bending over the tank, the woman raises

the plates again, and carries them to stack at a little distance, the

water pouring from her load down her dress and into her boots. As the

same process is repeated again and again the whole day long, it is not

surprising that her clothes are saturated even through the sacking

tied on as an apron. Nothing more unsuitable for the occupation than

the dress of the washer could well be imagined--several thin articles

of clothing hanging wet upon her, the dress and petticoat long enough

to draggle in the pools of water on the broken flagged or slushy mud

floor, and flapping heavily against her ankles, and upon her feet men’s

boots filled with water oozing through the eyelet-holes. Rheumatism,

colds, and chills are regarded as inseparable, at any rate in winter,

from the work of washing tinplates, and other ills consequent upon

this wet condition are complained of. Yet the wearing of a waterproof

apron (which should be provided by the employer), and of short skirts,

woollen under-garments, and clogs, would prevent nearly all the

discomfort and risk to health now endured by all these women. The

provision of properly paved and drained floors, such as the Factory

Acts require in all laundries, might reasonably be looked for from the

occupiers of tinplate works, and were mechanical means employed, as in

the bottle-washing departments in aerated water works for, lowering

into the tanks and raising from them the articles to be washed, the

work would be less unsuitable for women than it is at present.

3. _Pickling._--The roughest and dirtiest, and perhaps the most

unhealthy occupation for women in the works is that of the “picklers’

assistants.” These girls work in gangs under the man who has the

contract for cleaning the plates in dilute sulphuric acid. Their work

is to lade and unlade the cradles in which the plates placed in racks

are lowered by the pickler into the steaming tanks of acid. Backwards

and forwards the girls move with armfuls of plates, carrying each time

weights of thirty pounds and upwards, first filling the racks and then

removing from them the wet plates fresh from the tanks. The clothing of

the girls becomes saturated like that of the washers. It is not only

their health that suffers; the girls are “soaked through to the skin”

as they say, not with plain water, but with the “pickle,” which rapidly

destroys both their upper and under garments, and also the leather of

their boots and clogs.

The strength of the solution of sulphuric acid used in different works

varies considerably according to the class of plate manufactured, and

consequently the degree of discomfort and ill-health to those exposed

to its fumes varies also. The peculiar smell of the acid pervades the

entire works, and is encountered sometimes at some distance from them.

In the pickling department itself it is very strong; here the huge

tanks of pickle emit volumes of steam, which only under very favourable

conditions of weather and exceptional structural arrangements rises

and escapes from the building; usually it hangs about the workers,

or blows in clouds across the open shed, irritating throat and eyes.

Where the solution used is a strong one, the workers suffer much from

running of the eyes, dryness of the throat, and smarting of lips and

face, from what they describe as a “stifled feeling,” and from nausea

and giddiness; the teeth become black, and the hair is said by the

workers to fall out. When the strongest solution is used, the girls tie

handkerchiefs across their mouths and cover the hair completely. But

in most cases a weaker solution is employed, and very little complaint

of ill-health is made; the workers believe that the pickle gives them

an appetite and keeps off infectious illness. In Switzerland, by a

decree of 1898, pregnant women are forbidden to work where there is any

emanation of sulphuric acid, lifting heavy weights, or violent shocks,

conditions which are combined in the pickling department of tinplate

works.

The only special health provision of the Factory Acts at present

applied to tinplate works is the order of the Secretary of State,

dated December 1882, prohibiting meals being taken in departments

“where metal is dipped in acid solution.” This excludes women and young

persons from the pickling department during meal hours, but as no other

place is provided where meals can be eaten under shelter by those whose

homes are at a far distance, this rule is frequently disregarded.

4. _Tin-houses._--Large numbers of quite young girls, young

persons from thirteen to eighteen years of age, are employed in this

work, which is that of rubbing the tinned plates with bran, meal, or

fine mineral dust to remove all grease and polish the surfaces of

the plates. This process is largely done by hand, but machines have

superseded hand-rubbing in some works. Where they are in use, girls

are still employed to tend the machines, but fewer are required than

when all the work is done by hand. The girls work in the tinhouses

standing, whether at the tables heaped with bran or at the machines, at

right angles to the tinning stacks where the tinman and his assistants

are working. The plates are passed on hot from the tinning-pot to the

girls, who push them backwards and forwards through the heaped “bran”

before them; or if this first process has been done by the machine,

the girls pass the plates through the power-driven sheepskin rollers.

In either case the fine dust rises into the face of the worker, covers

her hair and dress, and diffuses through the air of the tinhouse, which

frequently is filled as with a fog with this light, floating dust.

This being inhaled, produces more or less injurious effects, according

to the nature of the dust and the susceptibilities of the individual.

In some works the irritation to the throat is so great as to make

speech almost impossible, and complaints of cough and “stuffing up” of

the chest are numerous, while in others, whatever may be the ultimate

result on the lungs, no discomfort, after once the worker has become

used to the conditions, seems to be felt.

A most objectionable feature of the employment of young girls in the

tinhouse is the carrying of heavy loads. As this is not essential to

the work, and could be done by boy or man with a specially constructed

truck or trolly, it is greatly to be deplored. The plates which have

been rubbed accumulate upon the table, and must be removed to the

warehouse to be weighed and packed, and so at frequent intervals the

girl, with both her hands (protected by sheepskin gloves), grasps her

pile of plates, and supporting them upon her hip, staggers along to

the warehouse. To prevent constant journeys and secure more time for

wage-earning (for the “rubbers” are paid so much for a box of plates),

the girls carry as much at a time as they possibly can, carrying loads

men hesitate to lift. These loads, carried by slight girls of thirteen

or fourteen, weighed from 40 to 111 lbs. Injuries known, and unknown,

are done by this unnecessary use of young girls as “beasts of burden.”

ROSE E. SQUIRE.

CHAPTER L

WOMEN’S LABOUR IN AERATED WATER WORKS

In the year 1896 the Dangerous Trades Committee appointed by the Home

Office reported on the manufacture and bottling of aerated waters. As

a result of this report this industry was scheduled as a dangerous

trade, and Special Rules were imposed. The danger--for minimising

which regulations have been framed--in this manufacture is not, as

is the case with the majority of those to which Special Rules are

applied, a danger to health, but to life and limb. The danger is

the risk of cuts, more or less severe, from the glass fragments of

bursting bottles filled under pressure. The number of such accidents is

enormous, inflicting every degree of injury from a skin graze to a cut

artery, or the loss of an eye. The number of accidents reportable to

the Home Office has been greatly reduced by the wearing of faceguards

and gauntlets prescribed by the Special Rules, but it is still very

large. Four classes of workers are specially mentioned in the Special

Rules as requiring protection by wearing guards--these are bottlers,

wirers, sighters, and labellers. The first of these four are exposed

to most danger; the bottles frequently burst while in the machine, or

more often while being removed from it, but if suitable faceguards

and gauntlets are worn no serious injury results. Unless the bottling

machines are, in accordance with the Special Rules, carefully fenced

off, the danger is very great to all persons in the room; the broken

glass, sent by the explosion with enormous force to a considerable

distance, has been known to rebound with terrible effect from an

object struck in its course, and to hit persons who seemed quite

safe. Women and girls are largely employed as bottlers in London,

Birmingham, and a few other large towns, but elsewhere this work is

done almost exclusively by men; boys are generally employed outside

London and Birmingham as wirers, sighters, and labellers, in place

of girls. Wiring has disappeared from most aerated water works, the

patent stoppers having taken the place of corks in all but a few kinds

of aerated waters. Sighters, those who examine the filled bottles to

detect specks by holding them up to the light, wirers (where these

are employed), and labellers, are the classes of workers who most

frequently discard the prescribed guards, or wear them under protest

as interfering with their work. The sighters complain that the wire

mesh of masks or goggles prevents their seeing the specks in the water;

wirers and labellers find that the knitted woollen mittens, which

are the kind of gauntlet commonly supplied, impede the movements of

the hands; in the one case the handles of the pliers used to twist

the wire catch in the worsted, and in the other the mitten becomes

stiff and hard with the paste with which the labels are smeared. A

satisfactory gauntlet has yet to be invented; the conditions required

are that they should be of a material impenetrable to flying glass,

soft and pliable, close-fitting, of a size and shape to keep in place

over the palm of the hand and up above the elbow; these have not yet

been found combined. Objection on the part of the women and girls to

wearing faceguards is only met with where the guard supplied to them is

unsuitable. The faceguards for girls should be of a smaller size and

lighter make than those for men, sufficiently bowed out not to press

upon the nose, and long enough to cover the whole chin, throat, and

neck; they must be clean, and must be provided with buckle and strap,

or some other means of keeping them firmly in position on the head.

A mask that presses against the face, or weighs heavily on the head,

or shifts from side to side with every movement, or of which the wire

mesh is clogged with rust and dirt, is sure to be thrown aside whenever

supervision is relaxed.

Another class of workers employed in aerated water factories who are

mentioned in the Special Rules as needing to be protected from the

danger of bursting bottles are the washers. These women, although

handling the empty, not the filled bottles, generally work in the

bottling rooms, and unless the bottling machines are well guarded, do

meet occasionally with serious accidents, such as the loss of an eye,

or an arm cut open. But this is a risk quite apart from the nature of

their employment, to which it is most unreasonable that washers should

be exposed. A far more serious risk, a risk to health, is incidental to

their work; it is that of being constantly wet. No special rules are

imposed to protect them from such injury to health arising from their

employment, as is the case in wet spinning factories, where women are

exposed by their occupation to being constantly wetted. In wet spinning

factories the occupier must, unless splashboards are provided, supply

to all the workers waterproof overalls or aprons, and floors must be

kept in a sound condition, so as to prevent retention or accumulation

of water. The bottle-washers stand in great need of protection of

the kind specified in these rules. They stand at large tanks full of

water, in which the bottles, returned empty by customers, are washed

before being refilled for sale. From the point of view of the public

health, the history of the water used for this purpose would be of

interest--its source, the frequency with which it is changed, and the

steps taken to cleanse the tanks. The appearance of the water in the

tanks is not, as a rule, attractive, and the notices to washers to

reject bottles smelling of paraffin suggest strange uses to which the

bottles may be put by customers before they are returned empty. But

it is the wetness and coldness of the water, and not its purity or

impurity, which affect the washer. Bending over the tank to lower into

it or raise from it the bottles being washed, she is very early in the

day wet to the skin; the water splashes up from the tank and drips

from the wet bottles, and it is no wonder that the usual description

given by the washers of their condition is, “We are sopped through

to the skin soon after we begin in the morning until we get home at

night.” As a consequence, rheumatism, colds, coughs, aches and pains,

are the bottle-washers’ constant complaints, and not infrequently one

and another of them is laid up for some weeks with more serious results

of their wet condition. The wearing of a waterproof apron seems such

a simple means of protecting the clothing from getting wet that it is

surprising how seldom it is adopted, but such aprons are too expensive

for the washers to provide for themselves, and in the few cases where

the occupier has supplied them, a small sum has been deducted weekly

from the wearer’s wages until the article has been paid for. Usually

the only kind of protection is a number of old sacks tied on as an

apron; these are better than nothing, but they soon get saturated. In

the larger aerated water works the bottle-washing tanks are fitted with

automatic means of lowering the bottles into the water and raising

them again, and with revolving brushes to cleanse the inside. This

labour-saving apparatus also reduces the amount of wetting to which the

washer is exposed, and if a splash-board is fitted to the tank, as has

been done in a few cases, the women need scarcely get wet at all. Where

there is no mechanical contrivance to aid the washer, a splash-board is

impracticable, as she must bend low over the tank to reach deep down

into it. Grids and boards to stand upon are usually provided, but even

where the women have these to stand upon it is of importance that the

floor should be properly paved and drained, and kept in good condition.

Where this is not done the feet are constantly wet in moving backwards

and forwards across the pools of water standing in the broken, uneven

floor. Clogs should always be worn in aerated water works, and are in

most large factories provided by the employers at the expense of the

workers, who pay 3d. or 4d. a week towards them. It would be well if

occupiers were to supply all such necessary articles as part of the

equipment of the works.

ROSE E. SQUIRE.

CHAPTER LI

FLAX AND LINEN

_Historical, Manufacturing, Hygienic, and Medical._

The manufacture of linen cloth from flax was well known to the ancient

Egyptians and other Eastern nations. Reference to linen frequently

occurs in the Celtic literature of Ireland. The native Irish usually

dyed their linen garments of a yellow or saffron colour. The revival

of the industry in the North of Ireland is attributed to the French

Huguenots who left France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

in 1685. Several of these refugees settled in Belfast, Lurgan, and

Lisburn. One name stands out prominently amongst these people, viz.,

Louis Crommelin.

Crommelin published, in 1705, a short sketch of the Irish linen trade.

It may be more or less interesting to give a few extracts from it,

thus:--

“The people are entirely ignorant of the mysteries relating to

the manufacture ... the flax being managed by women altogether

ignorant as to their choice of the seed or soil, for which

reason their flax is too short, and unfit for making good

yarn; they do not know when or how to pull their flax, whereby

their seed degenerates, and their flax wants strength and

substance.... They have no judgment when or how to water or

grass their flax, so as to give it a natural colour; and what

is yet worse than all, they constantly dry their flax by the

fire, which makes it impossible to bleach cloth made of their

yarns; for let all the skill and judgment in the world be used

to bleach cloth made of different sorts of flax, you can never

bring it to a good colour; for till such time as it is woven

and bleached, the best artist in nature cannot discover the

mischief.... They also use, in cleaning their flax, things

which they call “breaks,” which I can in no way approve of....

They spin their long and short flax athwart, which is extremely

preposterous, as the flax cannot be spun fine, so the linen is

cottony.... The wheels used in spinning are turned by the foot,

and have two cords, one going round the wheel and the whirl of

the spindle, and the other going round the wheel and the whirl

of the spool, which overtwists the thread. Their manner of

reeling yarn is one of the greatest grievances, as many honest,

industrious men are undone by the deceitful methods now used

by the crafty and unfair people in this particular; as, for

instance, there is no standard for the measure of reels, and

everybody uses such reels as they think fit, for which reason

a stranger to the market is imposed upon to his ruin. The cuts

and hanks are reeled by several threads, through laziness or

wickedness, to the utter ruin of the poor dealers who buy yarn,

and think they have good and marketable goods for their money,

but find that the whole hank ravels together, and becomes

entirely unserviceable, or at the best so troublesome to wind

that it is as eligible to lose it as it is to spend so much

time and pains to wind it. They ought to mark each cut, or six

score threads, as they reel them, and not afterwards, as they

now do, which they might do without difficulty. They do likewise

intermix, in one and the same hank, yarn of several degrees of

fineness, which is a cheat intolerable to buyers.... The looms

generally employed in this kingdom for the making of all sorts

of linen cloth (excepting diaper and damask) are looms properly

disposed, and invented for the making of woollen cloth (save

only that they changed the gear, and wrought promiscuously linen

and woollen therein). Therefore, it is impossible to use one and

the same loom to both material with good success.... The reels

are uneven and too thick ... and they make a stuff, of water

and meal, without judgment, wherewith they stiffen their warps;

and the cloth is made too thin and sleazy, and woven where the

weather affects it....”

In 1710 a bleach green, on an improved plan, was established at

Lisburn, and a Board of Trustees of the Linen and Hempen Manufacture of

Ireland was formed by Act of Parliament in 1711.

North of Ireland farmers purchase their flax seed from local merchants,

and it is usually either Dutch or Russian. The farmers never save any

of their own flax seed, owing to the local custom of “steeping” the

flax, as soon as it is “pulled,” in ponds of water for a certain length

of time; it is subsequently removed, spread out in a field to dry, then

gathered into bundles, stacked, and eventually taken to the scutch

mill. Here it is run through rollers so as to remove the outer coat or

bark. The farmer next takes his flax to market, which is visited by

the flax buyers from the various spinning mills, and after purchase

conveyed to the store, examined and sorted, so as to be used for

different kinds of yarn. An analysis of Irish flax fibre made by the

late Professor Hodges, M.D., of the Queen’s College, Belfast, gave--

_In 100 parts of Ash._

Potash 20.32

Soda 2.70

Chloride of sodium 9.27

Lime 19.88

Magnesia 4.05

Oxide of iron 2.83

Sulphuric acid 7.13

Carbonic acid 10.72

Phosphoric acid 10.24

Silica 12.80

-----

99.94

=====

The presence of silica causes linen cloth always to feel cool; moreover

it contains no moisture, thus differing from cotton.

In the “roughing shop” the “rougher” examines a “strick” of flax;

giving it a quick pull with his right hand, then, swinging his arm, he

leaves the disengaged portion of the fibre on his bench. This is called

“piecing,” and its object is to have all the flax as near as possible

of the same length. After having obtained a sufficient quantity, he

takes up a piece of flax, throws it out behind his shoulder, and draws

the same through his “heckle” pins, which are attached to a bench in

front of the operator. The next process is running the flax through

heckling machines of different kinds, but they are all more or less

made on the same principle. These machines are attended to by boys,

five or six to each machine. Some mills employ “half-timers”; in other

mills the lads are over fourteen years of age, but they are all under

the control of a “machine master.” In this department the flax is

separated into stricks, fastened by means of screws into a clamp called

a “holder,” which runs along the upper part of the machine, on vertical

fixed combs. Accidents to the machine boys have been frequent, owing to

their attempting to remove a “holder” too soon, or in consequence of

wearing a loose shirt sleeve, they get caught, and have their hand or

forearm pulled in against the pins. The lads in this room were formerly

obliged, by the factory authorities, to wear respirators. These were of

simple construction, for they were composed of two pieces of flannel

sewed together and fastened by a tape. The boys generally suspended

them over their chin or neck instead. The respirators were not at all

suitable; they did not cover the nose, they became damp with saliva,

foul and malodorous. In frosty weather they irritated the lips. The use

of respirators has since been abandoned.

The part of the flax taken off by the pins of the machines is known

as “tow.” The pins are kept clean by a brush and doffer arrangement

connected with the machine. The boys in a machine room are classified

into tow-boys, sweepers, oilers, parcel lads, piecers-out, and cutter

boys. The last-mentioned attend to the flax-cutting machine, by which

the ends of a strick of flax are cut off by the revolving grooved

wheels.

The next stage or process in the manufacture is that of “dressing and

sorting,” which is performed by hand. The men employed are called

hecklers. In the preparing room, flax is made into _sliver_ by

being sorted out on the spread-board by a girl, and then drawn through

pins and rollers to produce a ribbon-like band, which is finally

deposited in sliver cans. When a bell connected with the drawing

frame rings, it is the signal for the girl to break off the sliver.

Occasionally the sliver breaks short in its passage, and it is the duty

of the attendant then to stop her machine and to put up the end, as

it is called. Sometimes her hands are injured by doing this while the

machine is in motion. The roving frame is the last machine in use in

the preparing department, and has flyers and spindles. The sliver, on

coming from the boss rollers, goes into the flyer, a small tube of iron

like an inverted V, fixed to the top of a spindle that revolves, and

passes through its eye on to a bobbin, revolving on the spindle. This

gives a twist to the sliver now called by the name of rove.

All small fibres, etc., of the flax that are taken off during the

heckling processes are called tow. This is put through a somewhat

different preparation, but eventually it becomes tow sliver and tow

yarn. The tow from flax scutching mills is also run through a breaker

card, which is a machine consisting of a cylinder of iron 4 or 5 feet

in diameter, that turns at a rapid rate of speed, and is covered by

a quantity of iron pins of varying size. To it the tow is brought by

means of feed sheets, and removed from the cards by a doffer knife.

The rove is spun into yarn in the spinning-room. A recent writer

remarks that--

“The process is nearly entirely mechanical, brass rollers,

fluted and revolving, taking the place of the primitive rock,

and manipulation between the fingers, as practised by the

spinning-wheel. The fact of spinning as it is now, being

mechanical, cannot be better illustrated than by mentioning

that as much yarn can now be spun under the supervision of

_one_ woman called a spinner, as could be turned off 400

spinning-wheels by 400 women in the older time.”

The spinning frame has been much improved of late years. The spindles

have a velocity of 1000 revolutions or more per minute; the yarn as

it goes through the eye of the flyer attached to the end of each

spindle is thus properly twisted before it is wound on to a bobbin that

revolves on a spindle immediately beneath the flyer. There are “wet”

and “dry” spinning. In the former, the yarn goes through a trough of

hot water (heated by steam pipes) situated on the top of the spinning

frame. When the yarn is being twisted round the bobbins, a quantity of

spray is thrown off that wets the clothes of the spinners and doffers,

who are obliged to wear waterproof aprons and chest protectors. The

workers, however, prefer coarse sacking, which they maintain soaks up

the spray, and prevents the water running down over their petticoats,

making the lower parts of the body more or less wet. The floor of the

spinning room is frequently tiled, and is always covered with more or

less water. The atmosphere of the room from this cause and steam jets

is thoroughly saturated with moisture. When the bobbins have received

enough yarn, the doffing mistress stops the spinning frame, and by the

assistance of her doffers--boys and girls, usually “half-timers”--the

full bobbins are rapidly removed and replaced by others. The

temperature of the spinning-room is usually at least 70° F.

The measuring of yarn into hanks is called “reeling.” Some of the

reeling machines, always tended by women, are moved by steam-power,

others by hand. When the reel is full, the hanks of yarn are taken to

the drying-room, and finally to the bundling department, where they are

put up in bunches.

Before being woven into linen cloth, some yarn is bleached, but whether

bleached or in the brown state it is taken from the mill to the

factory, first going to the winders, who put the yarn on spools. These

are then carried to the warpers, who transfer it on to the loom beams.

It is dressed or sized and is ready for weaving. The stiffening or

dressing applied by the tenters to the yarn before weaving is made from

Irish Carragheen Moss, which is very mucilaginous but free from starch,

and to it flour and tallow are added. The temperature of the room in

which this process is conducted is high, generally from 90° to 125° F.,

so as to dry the yarn as quickly as possible.

At the bleach green, the brown linen is first boiled in water and lye,

next put out on grass; after this it receives another boiling to remove

any remaining chemicals, dried, and taken to the beetling engines to be

beetled. Subsequently it is lapped into parcels, and is then ready for

the market.

Belfast is the centre of the linen trade. My father, Dr C. D. Purdon,

formerly Certifying Factory Surgeon for Belfast and the surrounding

district, wrote several pamphlets on the flax and linen industries.

Many of his suggestions have been adopted. In 1873 he published a

pamphlet, “On the Mortality of Flax Mill Workers,” etc., accompanied by

tables showing the mortality of different classes. In the compilation

of his statistics he had the assistance of the late Dr Newett,

Dispensary Medical Officer and subsequently Certifying Surgeon of

Ligoneill. W. D. Cramp, Esq., at that time H.M. Inspector of Factories

for Belfast and the North of Ireland, likewise gave valuable assistance.

“It will be perceived,” he says, “that the flax manufacturing

operatives suffer far more from phthisis than the other two

classes, nearly three-fifths of those that die annually being

taken off by diseases of the respiratory organs, while in the

other two classes (artisan and mercantile) the average amounts

to about two-fifths. In carrying our investigations into the

fatality of the different branches of the manufacture, we will

see that the death-rate amongst those employed in the preparing

rooms is exceedingly high, and that few of those employed

in these rooms live beyond sixty years. The next class that

suffers from the same diseases is the ‘hecklers,’ and the rate

of mortality among the spinners and weavers is also high. The

reason that the ‘machine boys’ appear to suffer so little is

that when they become ‘poucey,’ _i.e._ asthmatic, caused

by flax dust, numbers of them leave the mills on account of

suffering from chest affections, and go to other trades, where

they may linger on, or die from phthisis. This fatality I

consider arises from four different causes: 1st, commencing to

work when too young; 2nd, the unhealthiness of the employment;

3rd, neglect of sanitary laws; 4th, insufficient and impure

diet. A fifth might be added--namely, insufficient clothing for

the young.”

My own observations lead me to think that the machine boys are the

hardest worked of any employés in the mill. They seldom have a minute’s

rest, for they are either charging the holder with flax, or taking it

out. Although fans have been introduced into the machine room, the

atmosphere is still laden with more or less dust. I have long had

the opinion that no boy under at least thirteen years of age should

be employed in this department. Many of the machine boys work in the

brickfields during summer, so as to be in the open air. Although

the half-time doffers in the spinning-room do not suffer from the

inhalation of dust, they are exposed to an unnatural heat and humid

atmosphere for several hours daily, whereby they become liable to

bronchial irritation, especially during cold and frosty weather. The

weavers are often similarly affected.

The late Mr Baker, M.R.C.S. Eng., H.M. Chief Inspector of Factories in

the year 1874, introduced a respirator which for a time was worn by

hecklers in some of the mills, as they derived much benefit from it.

Many of the men, however, would not wear it, as it prevented them from

expectorating when chewing tobacco. Some of the owners have introduced

a new system of ventilating into the hecklers’ shop, whereby all dust

is carried away at once from the bench by fans.

The hecklers and roughers suffer from dryness of the throat, which

is one of the first symptoms of “mechanical bronchitis.” This

is generally followed by cough and dyspnœa, and is occasionally

accompanied by vomiting. In order to relieve these distressing symptoms

the men often drink whisky. During cold weather, easterly winds or

frost, their breathing is worse. Some of the older men are not able

to follow their occupation during the winter months. The late Dr C.

D. Purdon, in the pamphlet already referred to, makes the following

remarks:--

“The consumption of stimulants is also producing sad havoc....

If I may single out a class that injure themselves more than

any other, I would mention the ‘hecklers,’ for when they begin

to suffer from the effects of dust, they commence to drink, and

go on using alcoholic stimulants till at last they die from the

effects of drink, or hasten the advance of chest affections by

its inordinate consumption.”

At the time this was written, a child under the Factory Act, if ten

years of age, could be employed for six hours each day, independent of

school attendance of three hours daily, and was obliged each alternate

fortnight to commence work at six o’clock in the morning, often

travelling bare-footed one or two miles before arriving at the mill. At

present no child in Ireland can work as a “half-timer” unless he or she

be eleven years of age,[152] and the time of commencing work is in flax

mills generally 6.30 A.M. In towns most of the workers live

close to the mills.

The “half-time” children who are employed as doffers in the

spinning-room do not suffer so much from dust as from the heat and

steam from the hot water, through which the flax is passed, also from

their clothes becoming wet in spite of the use of overalls. Hygienic

rules are ignored in the home. The workers sleep in small overcrowded

rooms. Nor is the food of the mill workers as nutritious as it ought to

be. Tea and white bread, potato-bread or oaten-meal bread, form their

principal food, to which is occasionally added bacon or salt fish. “Tea

dyspepsia” is common. The children of the millworkers are, I think,

rather degenerating than improving in physical development.

The diseases from which flax millworkers chiefly suffer are those

incidental to the preparing and spinning processes. To quote from Dr C.

D. Purdon’s pamphlet:--

“In the former (preparing) the lungs chiefly suffer from the

constant inhaling of the ‘pouce.’ The irritating quality of

the dust is felt on the throat, which soon becomes dry. This

irritation creeps to the lungs, which soon manifests its

presence by the worker being attacked each morning with a

paroxysm of coughing. The dyspnœa is often very severe. Those

employed in the roughing and sorting, heckling and preparing of

flax suffer from this affection, and in the majority of cases

die from phthisis.”

The carders who are employed attending to the carding machines inhale a

great deal of vegetable dust. Some physicians maintain that vegetable

dust is more irritating to the lungs than mineral. These workers as a

matter of precaution wrap round their mouth and nose a lump of tow,

which makes a kind of respirator. The introduction of fans--Blackman’s,

Davidson’s, and others--has effected an improvement in clearing away

the dust of the atmosphere of the carding and machine rooms. A few

steam jets in these departments would help still further to allay the

dust and purify the atmosphere.

The late Dr Hamilton, Certifying Surgeon for Cookstown, stated that

in the scutch mills of Antrim, Down, and Tyrone the workers were very

prone to ophthalmia, phthisis, and asthma, all due to dust.

The late Dr Arlidge (_Diseases of Occupation_, page 255) has

remarked:--

“Organic dusts--some vegetable, others mineral--are encountered

in the textile manufactures, and include cotton, flax, hemp,

silk, wool, and hair. These in a general point of view are

obstructive dusts, nevertheless they are not devoid of irritant

properties, and differ greatly among themselves in the latter

respect. They further exemplify the fact, that besides

mechanical form and action, dust operates by inherent qualities;

for dust of linen and hemp develops far more serious symptoms.

The degree of dyspnœa varies extremely, and is influenced both

by individual peculiarities and also by the properties of the

dust. Writers generally concur in the belief that a tonic spasm

is set up in the bronchial muscles by the irritation and the

reflex action just spoken of, and that in co-operating therewith

there is turgescence of the mucous membrane of the bronchi,

which interposes a mechanical impediment to the free admission

and egress of air to and from the air-cells. This hypothesis is

sanctioned by the repeated strong efforts made to inspire and

expire.”

The workers employed in the spinning-room are sometimes in summer

attacked by vertigo and faintness due to excessive heat; also owing

to their long standing, especially when bare-footed, on a wet floor,

they are liable to varicose veins, and œdema of ankles followed

often by an outbreak of eczema. It may be worth while to say that I

have occasionally noticed eczema rimosum on the hands of spinners,

especially the right hand. A great many of the workers wear a kind

of half leather glove on that hand. Heat and moisture may cause

the disease. Dr Glibert, of the _Ministère de l’Industrie et du

Travail_ at Brussels, has been good enough to send me some

photographs showing slight superficial ulceration of skin of palm

of hand and fingers in flax spinners.[153] I cannot say that I have

ever noticed this in our Belfast workers, either during the 32 years

I attended as Physician to the Belfast Skin Hospital, or the 19

years that I have been Certifying Factory Surgeon. Constipation is

also common. Enlarged glands are frequent, and the women are of pale

complexion.

The doffers, especially if young, are frequently, when first employed

in the mills, attacked by “mill fever” a few days after commencing

work. The symptoms are nausea and vomiting, followed by pain in the

head, thirst, and heat of skin. These continue for three or four days,

when the affection subsides. No treatment is required or sought.

The cause assigned for its origin is the smell of the oil, along

with the heat and vapour of the rooms. Irish flax is said to be less

irritating to doffers than either Dutch or Belgian. Egyptian flax,

which is occasionally met with, and which has been steeped in a special

preparing fluid, gives off in the process of heckling more or less

ammonia; this causes irritation of the mucous membrane of the nostrils.

A peculiar eruption also attacks doffers, and which is evidently due to

a combination of flax-water and oil. The uncovered parts of the body,

as forearms, arms, and face, are the parts attacked by this cutaneous

eruption. It never attacks adults, only the doffers. It is a papular

rash in the first stage, and is shotty to the touch, like smallpox. The

papules become larger, and often contain a central plug of sebum. It is

a _folliculitis_. Some kinds of flax, such as Russian, cause more

of the eruption than others.

Various trades are known to cause particular kinds of callosities due

to pressure and constant friction; thus hecklers have frequently a

thickened or callous condition of the skin of the index finger of the

right hand due to pulling the flax out of the “pins.”

Another disease, now rare, owing to the spinners wearing boots or

shoes instead of going bare-footed from home to mill and back in all

weathers, is onychia, or inflammation of the nail of the great toe.

Cases of this were very common at the Belfast Royal Hospital thirty

years ago. The late Sir William MacCormac, Bart., then one of the

surgeons to the hospital, investigated the origin of the disease and

introduced the local treatment by nitrate of lead. It seemed to be due

to the action of the hot and contaminated water lying on the floor of

the spinning-room, containing flax-water, and probably verdigris, or

other matter from the brass in the machinery, some of which, finding

its way under the nail, or from some slight injury to the part, caused

the painful affection known as onychia.

During late years many improvements have been made in the mills and

factories as regards ventilation, by the introduction of fans, so

that there is now little more to suggest. During the 19 years that I

have been Certifying Factory Surgeon for the city of Belfast, I have

always found our merchants and employers of labour ready to adopt any

_reasonable_ suggestion towards improvement of the health of their

workers. The recommendations I would make are:--

1. That no “half-timers” be employed in machine shops; all to be

over, at least, thirteen years of age.

2. That no “half-timers,” who according to the certifying

surgeon appear weakly or not well-developed for their age, be

allowed to work in the morning set, especially during the winter

months.

3. That only the strong and well-developed who are from twelve

to thirteen be kept in the morning set, and before being so

placed, reported by the surgeon as fit for such work.

4. The wearing of a good respirator to cover nose as well as

mouth is necessary in the carding and heckling rooms, and should

be made compulsory.

5. An inspection of the “young persons” and “children” by the

certifying surgeon, say every three months, to see what the

effect of the work is upon the constitution of those employed.

If there are signs of suffering they should cease work.

6. That those mills and factories which have not as yet opened a

dining-room for use of their workers, do so.

7. That in such departments as the carding and machine rooms,

where dust is prevalent, a few steam jets be allowed so as to

make the atmosphere moist and allay the dust.

8. That each room in the mill should have connected therewith a

small closet heated by steam-pipes, in which workers can deposit

part of their clothing, shawls, boots, etc., so that if the day

is wet these will be dry for them on going home for meals or

leaving work.

9. In conclusion, I quote the following from my father’s

pamphlet already mentioned:

“Another subject bearing on the social state of the workers is

the employment of mothers in mills and factories. Now, in order

to lessen as much as possible the number of deaths that occur

amongst children, each mother ought not to be allowed to resume

work for at least two months after the birth of her child, and

then should be obliged, when going to work each day, to bring

her child to a public _crèche_.... The _crèche_

ought to be visited weekly by the certifying surgeon who is to

inspect each child.... The _crèche_ to be under Government

inspection.”

I am glad to say that, owing to the efforts of Lady Henderson, two

_crèches_ have been opened in Belfast.

HENRY S. PURDON.

CHAPTER LII

MANUFACTURE OF COTTON

Although the manufacture of cotton goods is or has been carried on

under conditions to some extent injurious to health, yet there is no

definite disease which can be traced to these conditions. There is no

disease produced which corresponds to wool-sorters’ disease in woollen

manufacture, or the various forms of tuberculosis of the lungs in

trades where dust composed of sharp, hard particles is inhaled. If

it were not for the fact that moisture has for trade purposes been

artificially introduced into the atmosphere of weaving-sheds, it is

doubtful whether the health condition of cotton factories would have

received any special attention beyond that devoted to factories and

workshops in general. This addition of moisture was carried on in

a reckless and unscientific manner, and in consequence Government

investigations were made which resulted in special legislation.

Artificial humidity is the condition which has attracted most

attention, but it is not by any means the only important factor

influencing the health conditions of cotton operatives. It is mainly in

weaving-sheds that artificial humidity is used, and this article will

be principally devoted to the health conditions of weaving. It will,

however, be well, for the sake of the few remarks which will be made

with regard to other branches of the cotton industry, to describe very

briefly the different processes which the raw material undergoes before

it is finally turned out as cotton cloth.

Raw cotton, as it is received in bales, is naturally somewhat impure.

The processes that it undergoes before it is made into yarn are

somewhat complicated when considered in detail, but they consist

roughly of cleansing, combing, and twisting.

Most of the dirt in the raw material is separated in the

“blowing-room.” The cotton is drawn by means of a current of air

through the blowing machine. The heavier impurities fall out during

the process, and the cleaned cotton is formed into a more or less

even layer or lap. It is then taken to the card-room, where it is

“carded”--a process which combs the fibres so that they are laid

parallel, and still further cleans the cotton. Before being delivered

to the actual spinning machinery, the cotton passes through other

preparatory machines, known as slubbing and roving frames, where it

is drawn out and slightly twisted. The cotton “roving,” as it is then

termed, is taken to the spinning-room, to be finally attenuated and

twisted into the required form of yarn. There are different types

of spinning machines, known as mules, throstles, and ring frames.

The attendants on the mules are, as a rule, men, and they have a

considerable amount of physical exertion in following the movements of

the carriage, which is constantly moving backwards and forwards. In

ring spinning, on the other hand, women are almost invariably employed.

After the yarn has been spun it is wound on to bobbins by “winders,”

and from the bobbins on to beams by “warpers.” The warp is then sized

and prepared for the looms by “reachers” and “drawers.” The cotton is

then ready for the process with which we are mainly concerned, viz.,

weaving.

The health conditions of these various departments of the cotton

industry prior to weaving will be dismissed very briefly. The

workpeople in all of them have an ample air-space, rising in mule

spinning up to about 10,000 cubic feet per head. In the blowing-room

there is a moderate amount of dust, consisting almost entirely of

cotton fibre, but at the same time there is a plentiful supply of fresh

air. The principal feature with regard to the air of the card-room is

the amount of dust. This at times is sufficient to cause a distinct

cloudiness of the atmosphere. This dust is certainly serious, and needs

special treatment.

Spinning, unlike weaving, is carried on in a many-storied building.

The light and fresh air for a spinning-room has consequently to be

obtained entirely from the sides. For several reasons very little fresh

air is provided. By excluding the outside air, the room can generally

be kept at a good spinning temperature simply by the friction of the

machinery, and at the same time particles of soot are prevented from

entering and damaging the yarn. The result is, that notwithstanding

the enormous air-space per head in a spinning-room, the atmosphere

is frequently by no means pure, and it is often excessively hot. The

temperature is commonly above 90° F., and occasionally above 100° F.

As no moisture is, as a rule, added, the air becomes very dry. The

artificial moistening of the air of spinning-mills is gaining ground,

and there can be little doubt that up to a certain point it will

be beneficial to the workpeople. The conditions could also be much

improved by the provision of suitable means of ventilation. On account

of the large amount of cubic space per head, and the marked difference

in the temperature inside the spinning-room and outside, it is possible

that natural ventilation would be sufficient to accomplish all that is

necessary. In order, however, to obtain a high degree of purity and to

thoroughly control the air currents, artificial ventilation must be

employed.

The winders and warpers are subjected to no special conditions. They

have somewhat less air-space than most other operatives, and there is

usually no mechanical ventilation. They are not, however, subjected to

great heat or moisture.

Weaving, the industry which will principally be dealt with, is carried

on almost entirely in one-storied buildings. In choosing the site of a

weaving-shed it is usually borne in mind that dampness conduces to good

weaving. Most weaving-sheds are situated in somewhat damp positions,

and the floor of the sheds being formed simply of flags laid directly

on the earth, dampness is not prevented from rising from the ground.

The walls are without windows, and where openings are provided for

ventilation, they are usually closed. All the light and most of the

fresh air have to gain admittance through the roof, which is formed by

a series of bays, usually running from east to west of the shed. The

south side of the bay is formed of slate, and the north side of glass,

so that little direct sunlight is admitted to the shed. The height of a

shed varies considerably, but an average height is about 11 feet to the

gutters, and about 15 feet to the top of the bays, and the span of the

bays is about 10 feet. There is a small space along the gutters left

open to allow the escape of water which condenses on the glass. The

roof therefore of a weaving-shed, and usually two or more of the walls,

are exposed to outside influences, and fresh air can, if desired, be

admitted through them.

The prominent factors which enter into the health conditions of a

weaving-shed are:--

(1) Impurity of the atmosphere from: (_a_) respiration; (_b_)

combustion of gas; (_c_) dust; (_d_) emanations from the soil

and the sanitary conveniences.

(2) Excessive humidity.

(3) High temperature in summer.

(4) Want of cleanliness.

Although it seems always to have been recognised that a moist

atmosphere was advantageous to weaving, yet the introduction of

moisture systematically is a growth of comparatively recent years. In

the year 1872 Dr Buchanan made a report on certain sizing processes

used in the cotton manufacture at Todmorden, and their influence upon

health. He described how the practice of sizing had grown and altered

much in character owing to the scarcity of cotton during the American

Civil War. Ten years later, Dr Bridges and Mr Osborn, H.M. Inspector

of Factories, made a report to the Government on “The effects of heavy

sizing in cotton weaving upon the health of the operatives employed.”

This inquiry was instituted in consequence of a representation by the

Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress in 1882. The

views of the memorialists with regard to the dangers from the infusion

of steam are clearly set forth in the following quotation:--“Your

memorialists desire to draw your attention to a practice that has

of late years become very common, especially in the making of goods

known as T-cloths and Indian shirtings. We allude to over-sizing of

cotton yarns, out of which arises another evil, especially in dry

weather, viz., the infusion of steam into the weaving-sheds in order

to soften the stiff, over-sized threads. Your memorialists desire to

point out that an addition of about 20 per cent. of size, more or less,

in accordance with the class of goods being made, is required for

manufacturing purposes; but of late years a practice of adding from

50 to more than 200 per cent. of an admixture of various ingredients,

which serve no other purpose than to give a fictitious weight and

appearance to the cloth, has become very common. Your memorialists

complain that the extraordinary addition to the yarn of the admixture

already described, gives off in the process of weaving deleterious

effluvia, dust, and flocculent matter, which is inhaled by the weavers,

to the injury of their health.... The manufacturers of this kind of

cloth in infusing steam into their weaving-sheds have two objects in

view, viz., (1) to enable more of the admixture to be woven into the

cloth; (2) to soften the stiff, over-sized threads, and thus render

them soft and pliable, and less subject to breakages. Your memorialists

complain that the clothes of the persons, chiefly women and children,

who are employed in those sheds, are so damped by the warm moisture

given off by the steam, that, after going out into the open air,

coughs, colds, and the whole train of lung diseases are contracted; and

rheumatism and many other bodily afflictions which tend to enervate

and break up the system at a premature age, follow. Dyspepsia is

unhappily very often brought on, particularly in the cases of women and

children. Your memorialists therefore earnestly pray that Her Majesty’s

Government will adopt some means which in their wisdom may appear best

by which the health of the weavers, 80 per cent. of whom are females

and young persons, may be preserved.”

Dr Bridges and Mr Osborn found, that although the scarcity of cotton

had been completely removed in the years following the American War,

yet heavily-sized goods were still manufactured, and in fact that the

amount of size used had increased very considerably. The importance of

sizing on the health of the operatives is due to two facts: (1) heavy

sizing requires a very moist atmosphere; (2) the size contributes

considerably to the dust of the shed.

The practice of infusing steam appears to have continued to grow, and

in the year 1888 the Health Committee of the Blackburn Corporation

instituted a public inquiry on account of a very strong report, made

in the year 1887 by the Medical Officer of Health (Dr Stephenson). The

Committee came to the following conclusion: “That ventilation in the

mills is very ineffectually and inefficiently attended to, particularly

in winter; that heavy steaming had been practised in Blackburn, and

that the adverse conditions under which the weavers had worked (at

any rate during the winter months) had had a material influence upon

the undoubtedly high death-rate of the borough: that the statements

contained in the last annual report made by Dr Stephenson, as the

Medical Officer of Health, are, in the main, true, and have been

supported by the evidence; and that heavy or excessive steaming in

mills is injurious to the health of those who work in them, but that

steaming, if lightly performed, with proper attention to ventilation,

is not injurious.”

As a result of these reports, and of further agitation on the part of

the operatives, the Cotton Cloth Factories Act, 1889, was passed. By

this Act manufacturers were required to maintain two hygrometers in

each weaving-shed, and were prohibited from exceeding certain limits of

moisture. These limits are shown in the schedule below.

_1889 Act._ _SCHEDULE A._

Maximum Limits of Humidity of the Atmosphere at given

Temperatures.

The inelasticity of the fibre is a distinct drawback, affecting the