Report of the Departmental Committee on Humidity and Ventilation in Cotton Weaving Sheds : [with minutes of evidence and appendices].

  • Great Britain. Home Office. Committee on Humidity and Ventilation in Cotton Weaving Sheds.
Date:
1909
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee on Humidity and Ventilation in Cotton Weaving Sheds : [with minutes of evidence and appendices]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [23 January 1908. have not, on the ground that I consider that those are more strictly engineering questions. 187. Have you seen the second report of the Depart- mental Committee signed by Dr. Haldane and another gentleman ?—I have seen it. 188. Have you seen on page 6 the statement that air in which the reading by the wet bulb thermometer exceeds about 70° begins to cause serious inconveni- ence with ordinary clothing, and this ought not to be exceeded, in fact, in factories and workshops except under exceptional conditions /—I have seen that state- ment. 189. Do you agree with that statement?—I am unable to express an opinion from experience on that point. 190. (Mr. Cross.) Your observations with regard to the habits of weavers in Blackburn would apply to other operatives—card-room workers ?—I did not state that these were weavers: I do not know whether the operatives belonged to the weaving or other opera- tions. 191. The same weakness would apply to spinners and card-room workers ?—To all the cotton operatives. 192, (Mr. Higson.) Haye you any figures for com- parison between one section of mill workers and others?—I have as regards the mortality rate. I did not draw any detailed conclusion regarding spinners and card-room hands and so on, because the figures were not in my opinion sufficiently large to draw safe conclusions from. _ 103. You do name it in your report and summary ? ~u- Yes. 194. (Mr. Cross.) You have not, I understand, made any special study or special observation with regard to the hot period or warm period of the year in the mill with regard to the discomfort that attaches to workpeople ?—No. 195. It is only from your own personal experience as . far as coming out of a mill is concerned ?—That isso; and, as I said at the beginning, my evidence is mainly statistics plus a few other observations. 196. (Professor Lorrain Smith.) You know Dr. Wheatley’s evidence before the Committee ?—I remem- ber that. 197. He gives a table, the death-rate of cotton cperatives from 1889 to 1895 in Blackburn ?—Yes. 198. Do you remember that table?—I do. 199. Does the same criticism apply that you have made about these returns ?—Yes. 200. You do not think there are enough cases to base a conclusion upon?—I think any conclusion should be taken guardedly. 201. You see there is a very distinct difference here, say between weavers and spinners?—Yes, but the numbers are so vastly different between weavers and spinners. 202. Take the 1891 census; I notice that the weavers in Blackburn were over 10,000, and there were only 700 spinners ?—Yes. 203. I suppose that is the reason why you criticise those figures ?—-Practically speaking, those figures in Dr. Wheatley’s table from 1889 to 1895, regarding spinners, winders, warpers, card-room hands, tally with the figures that I have given in the three five- year periods. 204. Your criticism rather does away with the value of them?—No, not in this way: I wanted to say that in saying that there has been a marked diminu- tion in the death rate amongst weavers I do not think the same conclusion should be put on all-fours regard- ing spinners, etc., on account of the big difference in numbers employed; but there has been a distinct improvement in all sections. 205. But the comparison of the weavers in the total population of the Borough is quite sound ?—Yes. 206. One is 10,000, the other is 23,000?—Yes. 207. The other divisions of this table are relatively weak; I mean the basis is relatively weak ?—Yes, compared with the weavers. e 9 208. I suppose people as they grow older cease weaving sooner than in some other occupations in the mill? 209. (Mr. Higson.) As soon as they can. (Witness.) Some of them weave a long time. 210. (Mr. Roberts.) Some of them weave till they are over seventy. 211. (Mr. Cross.) With regard to the female weaver who has left work to stay at home, on the question of comparison of the’ death rate amongst weavers, a weaver left a mill, we will say, a dozen years prior to her death: would she be put down as a weaver or as a housewife ?—As a housewife. I think that is one of the weaknesses in the Registrar’s returns; but if a weaver leaves her work on account of sickness, and is away from work, say, for twelve months, and then dies, she is classed as a weaver; on the other hand, if a weaver leaves work, gets married, and practically gives up her occupation, even although she may die one or two years later, she is classed as a housewife. 212. (Professor Lorrain Smith.) It is stated that this working in hot humid sheds makes the workers liable to such diseases as rheumatism, bronchitis and pneumonia, phthisis even (of course we have your phthisis tables here), what is your opinion—are the workers in weaving sheds liable to phthisis as com- pared with workers in other occupations ?—No. 213. What about those other diseases which I have unduly liable to the other diseases, namely, bron- chitis, pneumonia, asthma, pleurisy. 214. What about rheumatism ?—As to rheumatism= I am unable to say, owing to the fact that rheumatism: itself is not a cause of death, as a rule, in the samc way as phthisis and pneumonia are. 215. You cannot get direct evidence?—I am unable-. to say anything regarding the great prevalence of” rheumatism. 216. You did not go into the sheds at all during the very hot weather we had in the summer before last ’—Yes. 217. What is your personal experience then—that was an exceptionally hot period about the end of July ?—That was the time to which I was referring just now when I did notice discomfort. 218. You said you noticed oppression beginning about the temperature of 70° dry bulb, but you would be a good bit beyond that at that period ?—Yes. 219. (Mr. Roberts.) It went up to over 80° ?—Yes. 220. From 80° to 90° ?—Between 80° and 90°. 221. (Professor Lorrain Smith.) Was there. any- recognisable effect of that hot spell on the health of the workers ?—There was not, as shown in the death returns. Whether that would have shown itself in. sickness returns, I am unable to say. Sickness re- turns, as I have stated in this additional statement, are extremely difficult to get. If they could be got I think they would be very valuable. 222. (Mr. Roberts.) But you have nothing during that period to lead you to suppose that the hot weather, under the humidified condition of the sheds, had any detrimental effect on the health?—No; and I believe the death rate for that year, that was 1906, was very low. : 223. (Mr. Shackleton.) In this table it is 16-4 per 1,000 of the living ?—It is 16-4 per 1,000 of the living, It has only been lower on one previous occasion in the history of Blackburn. 224. (Professor Lorrain Smith.) What proportion of the population is there working in one form or other in the weaving sheds?—I have given the figures here. In 1901 there were 38,551 cotton mill operatives em- ployed representing about 388 per cent. of the total population from the age of ten upwards; so that during that hot summer to which you referred there was nothing causing an increase in the death rate. 225. Have you any other occupations in Blackburn that involve working in hot humid rooms that can be compared with these weaving sheds?—I do not think so—not in the same way. The only one I B