was not strong enough to carry it all off, as could be seen by the
deposits on top of the hood and on the wall. This dust may, how-
ever, have come from the unprotected chute in the floor, down which
the mixture was sent to the fritting room below. In only one case
was there a hood over this opening.

In the other factories not even these precautions are taken. In two
of them the ingredients of the glaze are simply thrown on the floor
and there the men mix them by working them back and fortli with
hoes and shovels, as dangerous a method as could well be conceived.
In three others the ingredients of the enamel are slioveled into closed
mixers and the mixture is dumped either into a truck or through a
hole in the floor.

The rooms with the fritting furnaces, if they are separate, could
be fairly free from dust, but they are usually dusty because of care-
less handling of the dry mixture which comes from the mixing room
and goes into the fritting ovens- Grinding the dry frit is a very
dusty process in one of these factories, and the evil is added to by the
whirling belts of the machinery, which keeps the dust stirred up all
the time. Walls, furnaces, and men were white with enamel in this
place, and, in addition to the other sources of dust,. one man was
shoveling enamel into a truck from a pile on the floor. Even the
stairway leading up from this room was white with dust. In two
other places conditions would have been fair had it not been for
leakage from the mills. One plant had a really clean mill room;
the remaining three were dusty because the powder was handled
carelessly at the chutes coming down from the mixing room or at the
sifters or at the final discharge from the mill. The enamel is usually
kept in closed receptacles until it is needed, for no dust must fall
on it.

In all these processes there is a great deal of unnecessary dust pro-
duction. Thus, in the mixing department there is no reason why the
lead should be handled as carelessly as it often is. A properly pro-
tected chute from the storage bins to the mixing room, a hood with
a good draft over the bins in the mixing room, and a closed mixer
would lessen the dangers to the men working there. The mill rooms
could be made fairly safe if all the precautions observed in any one
of the plants were observed in all. This would mean that the ma-
terial from the mixing room should be dropped inta-3 dust-proof

igitized by LjOOQIC



LEAD POISONING IN POTTEBIES, TILE WORKS, ETC. 35

receptacle containing a truck, which truck could then, after the dust
had settled, be wheeled out to the fritting oven. The fritting should
be carried on in a separate room, because there is no reason why the
man here should be exposed to the dust from other rooms. The
covers of the mills and sifters should be dust-proof and should never
be left open. In one factory a mill was found open and discharging
dust, a quite unnecessary source of danger. The finished enamel
should be dropped into trucks with covers and transported in these
to the enameling rooms. In a number of factories the helpers simply
shovel the enamel into pails or into open trucks. The walls, ceilings,
and floors of the mill rooms and mixing rooms should be of such ma-
terial as to permit flushing with water. There should be no dry
sweeping or dusting in any of these rooms. The slushers who are
not handling dust should work in a room quite separate from the
enamelers.

ENAliELINa.

Enameling is usually carried on in large rooms, well built, with
brick or cement floors, high ceilings, ventilated both from the sides
and from the roof, and two factories have in addition hoods with ex-
hausts over each furnace. It is the exception to find small, ill- venti-
lated enameling rooms. One factory has most of its work done on
the two top floors, with ventilation on four sides. The bathtubs,
sinks, basins, etc., which are to be covered with enamel come from the
sand-blasting department to the slushers, whose duty it is to paint,
them over with the ^' slush" or "ground" coat. If the room in
which this is done is separated from the enameling room, as it is in
one plant, the work is perfectly harmless, but generally the slushers
worit at one end of the enameling room or in a room opening di-
rectly into it and full of enamel dust. After the ware has had this
preliminary coat it is handed over to the enameler and his helper,
who put it into the furnace till it is ifed-hot. Then it is brought
out and placed on a turntable in front of the furnace door. The
helper turns the ware at different angles, while the enameler shakes
the powdered glaze over it. He uses for this purpose a small or
large dredge, according to the size of the ware. The largest are too
heavy to carry and are suspended from the ceiling by a chain. These
large dredges and some of the smaller ones are worked by compressed
air or by electricity, a rod inside dri\ing back and forth and shaking
out the powder, but often the enameler hastens the dredging by
striking the handle of the dredge with a ring placed around it, or
with a rod. The men say that they feel the shocks of the driving rod
in the dredge, and that this makes the use of the larger dredges, with
their strong driving rods, very tiring.

The process of lienting and enameling must be repeated several
times, the ware being returned to the furnace after each coat and
then brought out for another coat. Large ware must rei|iain several

igitized by LjOOQIC



36 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OP LABOR.

minutes in the furnace, and in this interval the men can go over to
the windows to cool off or sit down and rest. Small-ware work is
more nearly continuous, and it is a question among the men which
is the dustier and more strenuous work. On the one hand, small
ware does not take so much enamel nor so much strength to handle,
but, on the other hand, there are many more pieces to be done.

In putting on the first coat the enameler can stand at a distance
from the ware, at about 4 feet from the small ware and 7 or 8 feet
from large ware, but the last coat must be put on with great care, so
that no uneven places shall remain, and for this the man must come
much closer, as close, indeed, as the heat will allow him to. He often
uses a wooden mask with eye pieces and a projecting handle which
he places between liis teeth, and this makes it possible for him to get
closer to the hot ware. His helper is not quite so close to the dredge
as he is, but there is not much difference. After the ware is done it
is gone over by a specially skilled enameler, who looks for the defec-
tive spots, and these men may sometimes be seen dusting enamel by
hand over imperfectly covered ware.

DANGERS INVOLVED IN THE WORK.

In the enamel room the one thing that places a limit upon the
accmnulation of dust is the fear that it may blow down or be shaken
down from the ceiling or beams and spoil the hot ware. The one
.factory that has its enameling room on the upper floor has to get rid
of the accumulated enamel every week, because the vibration of the
building would shake it down. Other places are not cleaned so often.
This work is done by a laborer from the mill or by an enameler's
helper ; rarely does an enameler take the job. It is excessively dusty
work, for the dust is blown down from ceilings and walls by com-
pressed air and swept up from the floor. One manager has the men
use a hose to flood the wallfe, ceiling, and floor, and he insists that
there is no reason why this method should not be used everywhere.
Another manager, to whom the question was referred, said that water
could be used just as well but the men preferred the dry way. The
only man interviewed who had ever done this work was a Slavic
enameler, and he was fully convinced as to its danger. He had
agreed to do the work on Sunday to earn some extra money, but he
found that the dust sickened him so that he loathed his food for sev-
eral days after and he was obliged to stop because he was losing
strength.

It is the task of the enamelers and their helpers to scrape up the
enamel that falls on the floor from the dredges, because this is clean
and can be used again. The best arrangement for catching it is a
pit or shallow depression in the floor, lined with zinc, which makes
shoveling easy. When this is not provided, a sheet of metal is placed
tmder the ware to catch the powder.

Digitized by VjOOQ IC



LEAD POISONING IN POTTERIES, TILE WORKS, ETC. 37

WOKKEES IK lEON SANITAKY WABE FACTOEIES.

MILL HANDS.

Compounding enamel is skilled work and must be done by a trained
man, who, if he does not actually handle the materials himself, at
least superintends the work. The formula is always a trade secret,
jealously guarded, which fact sometimes works to the benefit of the
men employed, as, for example, in one plant where the laborers who
do the mixing are shifted frequently to outside work and other men
taken in their places for fear they might learn to know the compo-
sition of the enamel. These laborers are always unskilled men, work-
ing at the rate of wage which obtains in that place for unskilled
labor. In the South they are Negroes ; in the North, Slavs. Some of
them know that they are working with poisonous stuff, because they
have seen men who were affected by it, but others are quite ignorant of
the risks of the work. One American workman was visited during a
severe attack of acute lead poisoning. He had been employed for
only four weeks in a mill room with a leaking mill. He had not
known that the millwork was dangerous, though he had known
enamelers to become poisoned. The mill hands may, if they choose,
leave the plant at lunch time. They usually wear old clothes or
overalls, but some work in their undershirts and wear the same shirts
home. They are not a steady class of workmen, but change very
often, some, according to their own account, quitting because the
work makes them sick. It was hard to get information from them
because so few of them understood English. Forty-five who were
questioned had worked from 3 weeks to 10 years in the mill rooms,
but only 16 more than 1 year ; 29 had worked less than 1 year.

ENAMELERS.

The enamelers are skilled workmen, earning very good wages.
It was said that with steady work a man might make $1,000 a year,
but slack times, breakdowns, or poor materials bring down his earn-
ings until $2 or $2.50 per day throughout the year is considered a
very good average. It is always piecework, and the man's earnings
depend on the supply of work. In Louisville and Chattanooga the
enamelers are all American ; in Salem, New Brighton, and 2Jelienople
they are Americans and Slavs ; in Sheboygan they are Germans, Kus-
sians, and Austrians; in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Monaca, and Trenton
they are practically all Slavs, this term including Russians, Poles,
Bohemians, Slovaks, and Croatians. Many of the homes of these
people were visited, and showed evidences of comfort and a high
standard of living. Indeed, it was only in the lodging houses of
some recent immigrants that there seemed to be overcrowding and
poverty. Those who could speak English and German were found to

Digitized by VjOOQIC



38 BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF UkBOR.

be intelligent men, quite able to describe their daily work and its
effect on their health. The enamelers are usually grown men, but in
two plants the majority looked very young, between 18 and 22 years,
apparently.

According to some of the employers and most of the foremen these
men are heavy drinkers, but nothing was found in the course of the
inquiry to show that there is an unusual degree of intemperance
among them. On discussing instances of lead poisoning the men
would tell whether such and such a case was a heavy drinker or not,
and no attempt was made to gloss over the facts. But the heavy
drinkers do not seem to be numerous among the Americans, nor un-
usually so among the Slavs, according to priests and visitors for
charitable associations and Slavic physicians.

It is undoubtedly true that some men begin to drink more heavily
when they feel the first symptoms of lead poisoning, because the
peculiarly disagreeable, sweetish taste so characteristic of this
malady yields to bitter beer more than it does to tea or coffee or
milk. This gives the men the idea that the beer "cuts the lead and
carries it off," and they sometimes maintain this with entire sincerity
and say they advise the new men to drink beer as a preventive.
Later on, when appetite is gone and there is a loathing for solid
food, the men bring their lunches home untasted, and depend on
beer. Several of the men's wives noticed this symptom before their
husbands had begun to realize that they were victims of lead poison-
ing. Here there is, of course, a vicious circle, as was pointed out by
Pieraccini,^ the lead poisoning increasing the man's desire for alco-
hol and making him more susceptible to its ravages, and the alcohcd
in turn making him more susceptible to the effect of the lead. These
men are skilled workmen and their wages permit them to live well,
so that they are unwilling to leave the trade, yet their working life is
short. Two hundred and fifty men averaged only six years in the
trade.

The work of the enamelers' helpers is practically the same as that
of the enamelers so far as danger to health is concerned. These
helpers are of two kinds, men who are learning the trade and who
eventually become enamelers, and boys and unskilled foreigners or
Negroes, who are not steady but come and go all the time. Some-
times they quit because the lead affects their health, sometimes be-
cause they can not stand the heat. In two factories the enamelers
said that they did not even have time to learn their helpers' names
before they were gone. It is rare to see young boys employed as
helpers ; only one factory had them in any number. Nothing definite
can be said as to the home surroundings and mode of life of these

' I>es n^\ roses profosslonellcs. Proceedings of the International Congress for Industrial
Hygiene, Brussels, 1910.

Digitized by VjOOQ IC



LEAD POISONING IN POTTERIES, TILE WOBKS, ETC. 39

hdpers. If they are young Americans learning the trade they may
be well fed and cared for, or they may come from very poor families.
If they are Slavs or Negroes they live as is usual for such people
when they are earning a low wage. Helpers are paid, according to
their own statement, from 75. cents to $1.50 at first; later on they
earn from $2 to $2.50. Sometimes they earn a day wage with the
addition of a small percentage calculated on the earnings of the
enameler. In other factories the helper does piecework, his rate of
pay being 70 per cent of that of the enameler.

KUia^B, AND DISTEIBTTTION OP EKFLOYEES.

The following is the force employed in the 10 iron sanitary-ware
factories included in this study :

Einamelers 000

Mm hands 112

Total 1,012

SAHITAHY COHDinONS IN EHAKELINO WOEKS.

There is no law except in Illinois which requires in establishments
using dry lead enamel any precautions for the care of the men other
than those required in a box factory, for instance, or a tailor shop.
The men in the mixing rooms, mill rooms, and enameling rooms have
no place to hang their street clothes away from the lead dust, and
no place to keep or eat their lunch. Several times the wives of these
men spoke of finding white dust in their husbands' lunch boxes. The
millmen may go out into the yard or go home for lunch, but the
enamelers are doing piecework and lose money if they stop work to
eat. Moreover, the furnaces are running continuously, and the men
are not expected to let them run at a loss to the factory. The mana-
gers who were interviewed said that the men were supposed to work
steadily during the six or eight hours of their shift, except for the
necessary pauses while the ware was heating. Consequently these
men either eat no lunch at all — many say that the heat or the enamel
destroys their appetite and they do not care for lunch — or they take
Sr bite now and then while the tubs are heating. Frequently during
the course of this inspection a man would be seen opening his lunch
box and taking out some food, then putting it down anywhere (there
is no dust-free place), and going off to his work, coming back in a
few minutes for the rest of it. Of course, washing the hands and
face before lunch is out of the question here ; there is no time for it.
In some factories the drinking water stands in open pails in tlie
enameling rooms.

If the reader will turn back to the description of the processes used
in enameling iron sanitary ware (pp. 33-36) , he will see that tliis is

Digitized by VjOOQIC



40 BULLETIN OF THE BUKEAU OF LABOR.

above all things a dusty trade and that the enamelers and their helpers
are for at least two-thirds of their working time breathing in soluble,
poisonous lead compounds. One must, however, visit the factories
personally to realize how much of this dust there is. In one of the
cleaner enameling rooms the furnaces, which were built out into the
room, were covered with a deposit of more than 2 inches of the finer
enamel dust, which had been carried up by the drafts of air toward
the ceiling, and these 2 inches did not represent a long accumulation,
for the stuff is carefully gathered up every two months. In every
plant visited walls, ceilings, and windows were white with dust, and
in spite of ventilators in the rooms, hoods, and open windows, the air
is always cloudy when work is going on. Indeed, the enamel powder,
consisting, as it does, of ground glass, is not light, and an upward
draft carries off only a small part of it, while side drafts simply
blow it to and fro. It would seem that a strong down suction would
be the only sort of dust removal at all effective.

The men who handle small ware do not have to make great physical
efforts to get their ware in and out of the furnaces, but handling the
bathtubs requires all the men's strength, even with the help of the
mechanical appliances found now in all factories. The excessive heat
is exhausting, especially in summer, and more so to the men who are
on large ware than to those on small ware. The men's wives speak of
their husbands coming home weak and exhausted on warm days, and
soaking wet. In some factories the hours are shortened in summer,
and four shifts are employed instead of three in order to spare the
men and increase the output, for there is often an increased demand
for this kind of ware during the building season, but in other fac-
tories the long shift comes during the summer time and the short
shift is introduced when work is slack.

The elements of heat and fatigue bid fair to grow worse in this
trade rather than better, because of the introduction of double fur-
naces in place of the single furnaces. These furnaces are kept at a
somewhat lower temperature, so that the enamel does not fuse quite
so quickly, and one man can tend both, for while he is dredging
enamel on one piece of ware the other is heating, and by the time the
first is ready to go into the furnace the second is ready to come out.
This makes his work practically continuous. There are no intervals
here for strolling to the windows for a breath of air or sitting down
to rest. Even when the hours are shortened from eight to six the
man on the double furnace finds his work more exhausting than it
was on the single furnace. It is said that the adoption of these
double furnaces will probably be general.

When the men leave work they have not got rid of the lead dust.
Shower baths are practically unknown. One manager is planning to
install them and exhibited the architect's blue prints of a very good

Digitized by VjOOQ IC



LEAD POISONING IN POTTERIES, TILE WORKS, ETC. 41

" comfort house." Another factory takes pride in its shower baths,
but the neglected appearance they presented was explained by the
men who were interviewed and who said that the baths were badly
placed and always out of repair. These were intelligent American
workmen^ accustomed to bathing at home. All were obliged to carry
soap and towels to the factory, which furnished nothing but cold
water. So far as soap and towels are concerned this is true of all
10 factories, but in some of them the men can get hot water.

Xo working clothes or caps are provided. The men usually make
a complete change when they leave work, but this is not always true.
Some of the foreign workmen are said to wear their shirts home, if
not their trousers. In one plant which was visited on a very cold day
the helpers, boys between 14 and 16 years of age, were wearing good,
new sweaters while working, and there can be no doubt that these
same sweaters would be worn in the street and at home.

Even more important than provision for cleanliness is the preven-
tion of dust, for no amount of scrupulous washing will save a man
who is obliged to breathe in lead dust. In this respect the 10 fac-
tories do differ somewhat, because foremen have different standards,
and while some are slovenly, others are naturally lovers of cleanliness.
One of the 10 factories was beautifully clean, partly because it was
very new. The others were of different degrees of dustiness, and in
some dust seemed to be so much a part of the place that no effort at
all was made to keep it down. Yet a great deal could be done to
control the dust without altering the present method of manufacture.

LEAD POISONING IN POTTERIES.
SOTTBCES OF XHFOEHATION.

In attempting to find out how many cases of lead poisoning have
occurred during a given period of time among the workpeople in
these industries, one meets with many difficulties. There was no
regular medical examination of employees in any factory and no
registration of cases of industrial plumbism at the time of this inves-
tigation except in Illinois and Wisconsin, where the law had not
been in force long enough to give results of value.^ The records of
the trade-unions are of great assistance, but in this inquiry they
helped only in the case of the dippers and kiln men in white-ware
potteries; the other trades are all unorganized. There was, there-
fore, no single trustworthy source of information as to lead poison-
ing in these occupations, and all that could be done was to interview
everyone who had any information on the subject, and then sift
the evidence and arrive at an approximate statement of the truth.
Strict accuracy is not claimed for the following figures, either as to

^ These laws were enacted In May and June, 1011. Similar laws were enacted In 1911
in California, Connecticut, Michigan, and New York ; in 1012 in New Jersey and
Maryland. ^ t

Digitized by VjOOQ IC



42 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.

the numbers emploj^ed or the numbers poisoned, except in the case
of the potters belonging to the National Brotherhood of Operative
Potters, but it is certain that the figures understate the actual facts.

There were four methods used in collecting the cases of lead poison-
ing on our lists. The first, which yielded the largest number of
cases, was to interview the physicians in the town where the plant
was situated. Sometimes the information obtained would be too
vague for use. A great many doctors can not give the names of their
patients, especially when the latter are Slavs with names unfamiliar
and hard to sf>ell. If a physician could make only a general state-
ment, such as " I have seen many cases in the past two years, most
of them foreigners," he only strengthened the general impression as
to lead poisoning in that plant; he did not add one case to our list.
But if he said, " I saw four Slovaks last year suffering from lead
colic," and if later on four Slovaks were found who said that they
had been to this doctor, these men were entered on the lists of cases
accredited to the factory in question, even if the doctor could not
remember their names.

In some cases the doctor could remember the house in which tlie
man lived or the fact that he had gone into another kind of work or
had left the town, from which information it was possible to make
sure that he was not one of the cases already listed. Fortunately
there are some physicians who speak the languages of their foreign
patients and who can give their names and full particulars about
them, but usually it is much easier to get information about the
Americans tlian about the foreigners. For instance, in one small
town in which there is a sanitary-ware establishment employing both
Americans and Slavs, 10 cases of lead poisoning were reported by the
doctors from among the American workmen, and probably these were