Report to the Local Government Board on proposed changes in hours and ages of employment in textile factories / by J.H. Bridges and T. Holmes.

  • John Henry Bridges
Date:
1873
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the Local Government Board on proposed changes in hours and ages of employment in textile factories / by J.H. Bridges and T. Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The results of a comparison of this table, on which, however, we lay less stress than we should have done had the number examined been greater, with Table D. (urban factory children), are as follows : Macclesfield hoys of 9 are inferior in height, weight, measurement of full chest, expansibility of chest; Macclesfield hoys of 10 are inferior in height, ^ „ „ „ weight; being in the measurements of the chest almost exactly similar. Macclesfield girls of 9 are slightly superior in height. inferior in weight. measurement of empty chest and of full chest, expansibility of chest. Macclesfield girls of 10 are inferior in height. 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 weight. 55 55 measurement of empty chest, full chest. Lace Manufacture. The machines for the manufacture of lace are worked exclusively by men. Owing to the irregularity of the demand and its dependence upon fashion, the ordinary restriction upon the moving power is modified, and the machine is allowed to run from 4 in the morning till 12 at night. This is done by two relays of workmen. The first comes at 4 and works till 9. His place is then taken by another,, who works till 1. The first then resumes his work till 6. The second continues till 12. The payment is by the piece, and the two who work at the same machine are paid as one man, no attempt being made to discriminate their share of the work done. No practical difficulty is experienced in this arrangement. A few women are employed in reeling cotton for the machines, and a few lads are engaged in filling the bobbins with thread, in replacing the empty bobbins by full ones, and in fitting them into their “ carriages.” The rooms in which the work is carried on are for the most part badly ventilated, and vary in temperature from 70° to 76°, the external temperature being at the time of our visit about 50°. The principal process in which women are employed, and the most objectionable, is the dressing of lace. The lace when returned from the bleach works is passed through a starching process, and is then stretched out on frames in long rooms and dried rapidly at a high temperature. In some cases the stiffening size is applied after it has been stretched on the frames, and here there are a still larger number of women employed in spreading out the size evenly with rollers, in striking out the excess of it with light rods, and in lightly brushing the material with large wooden brushes covered with flannel. The temperature in these rooms at the time of our visit was between 85° and 90°. But the employer told us that it not unfrequently rose to 110°, especially on dull days when the gas was lit, and when the material was of a kind that required rapid drying. In a few of these rooms the air was kept in constant motion by a large fan, the four vanes of which revolved round an axis parallel with the length of the room. But in most the air was stagnant and extremely oppressive. The number of women employed in these rooms is considerable. They work the usual factory hours. A large number of women are employed in warehouses at mending, finishing packing, &c. But the hours during which they work are short, not amounting to more than 52^- per week. All can sit, if they please, at this work; and, as compared with the ordinary factory worker, their position appeared enviable. III.—Opinions op Medical Practitioners. Another element for forming a judgment on the matters submitted to us, obviously, was to be found in the experience of medical practitioners, whose position brought them into contact with factory operatives, either as certifying surgeons, medical officers of hospitals and dispensaries in factory towns, or private practitioners.
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