The trades of Sheffield as influencing life and health, more particularly file cutters and grinders : read before the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, October 5th, 1865 / by Dr. J.C. Hall.

  • John Charles Hall
Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The trades of Sheffield as influencing life and health, more particularly file cutters and grinders : read before the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, October 5th, 1865 / by Dr. J.C. Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    add to the burdens of the rate-payers by producing widowhood and orphanage, arising from preventive diseases, and preventible deaths. I say, do what the authorities may, their efforts will be far from suc- cessful if a nidus of morbific effluvia be permitted to remain in almost every part of the confined courts in which the houses of some of our artisans are placed, and who on opening their windows with the forlorn hope of purifying their small habitations with the breezes of summer, get instead a mixture of gases from dunghills, ashpits, and night-soil— or what is even worse, because more insidious, from earth which has become impregnated with organic matter imbibed long before, and which now, though comparatively clean and dry, emits a poisonous vapour. Manufactures of the Town of Sheffield. The Manufactures of Sheffield are Cutlery—Knives, Scissors, Razors, Files, Edge-Tools, Joiners’ Tools, Engineers’ Tools, ■Scythes, Sickles, Shears, Saws, Circular Saws, Steel, Railway Springs and* Rails, Buffers, Anvils, Vices, Steam Hammers, Boilers, Engines, Stove . Grates, Fenders, Fire Irons, Silver, Silver-plated, Britannia Metal Goods, 8fc'-, Sfc., 8fc. To which must be added the more recently introduced manufacture of Atmour Plates, Guns, and Steel Shot. Effects of the Sheffield Trades on Life and Health. In considering the effects of the Sheffield Trades on life and health, with a view of showing how their injurious effects may to a very considerable extent be removed, it will be quite impossible for me within reasonable limits to direct attention to all of them. Such for example as ivory and bone cutters, cutlers, hair-seating weavers, &c.# I shall therefore confine my remarks to the manufacture of files and to the Grinding Trades of Sheffield, with a passing allusion to the men employed in the Lead Works of this town, because they suffer from a disease arising from the same poisoning of the system as File Cutters. The Sheffield Lead Works. The Lead Works of Sheffield were established in 1758, and now employ about' 40 men and 20 women. Although as old as any works in England, no better precautions are taken to preserve the health of the workmen at any of the more modern establishments. Plenty of au and strict cleanliness are deemed of the utmost importance in pre- venting the attacks of lead poisoning. The latter is enforced as much as possible by the foreman and managers. A pint of ale is allowed daily, and in the event of sickness medical attendance is supplied and sick pay granted to the sufferers. I am indebted to my friend Wm. Baker, Esq., F.C.S., the chemical superintendent of these miffs, for the fact that the workmen who have to do with metalic lead only, suffer * Many years ago, Mr. Thackrah pointed out the effect of arts, trades, and pro- fessions on life and longevity. Stone] masons, quarrymen, cotton batters, miners, leather dressers, needle pointers, machine filers, hone scale cutters, ivory cutters and hair seating weavers, suffer more or less from the effects of dust. A singular affection is produced on the men who haft knives with cocoa wood and ebony; the dust from both of which woods causes in some instances constriction of the chest>—running from the eyes and nose, and symptoms which resemble those present in hay-asthma. It also produces when the skin is at all tender, a peculiar .kind of • erythema on the hands, face, and other parts of the body.